In this essay, I am going to demonstrate that African man is neither Rousseauan man nor Lockean man rather Hobbesian man. To achieve this we must firstly establish what African man is not, thus Jean-Jacques Rousseau's theory which state that man is basically good will be examined and reference to the story of the setting sun and the rolling world will be made. John Locke's theory will be examined also. Finally will look at what African man is and this will be done by examining John Locke theory which says that man is basically evil. Reference to the story The crow, The ten shillings and personal encounters will be made as to clearly show that African man is basically evil.
Let us examine Rousseau's theory first, which state that man is basically…show more content… Locke argues that a man is basically tabula rasa. This can be interpreted as a man is neither good nor bad rather an opportunist animal who takes advantage of circumstances. A character of a man is not determined by what life throws at him/her rather on how he responds. What is interesting is that how you response depends on how you were raised, the information you received, circumstances and the environment around you, this includes your community, belief system and culture. I remember when I was still young I used to say to my mother: "I wish you were not my mother". I always feel like this after receiving slashes on my back because of my misconduct. What always surprised me was her respond she would smile and say "tough love! proverbs 23:13 do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die"(Biblica, 1978). I could not understand why the very same person who was so kind to me who even woke up early in the morning and prepare my lunch and gave me pocket money now she has become a monster. Thus it can be said she was just neutral, an opportunist person. When the opportunity for her to be bad comes through my misconduct she would gladly accept it with two hands and even when the opportunity for her to be good avail its self to her she would take it. Unfortunately, my mother is not African in fact in Africa there are many who ended up in street just because their mothers were too good to disciple