Alternative Perspectives and Global Concernes (ap-gc.net)
By Dr. Mahmoud Masaeli
The 7th International Seminar
Africa’s Spiritual Response to Human Suffering: Nigeria and COVID-19
COVID-19 pandemic has paused the routine life, while generating deep concerns about the future of the communities in developing countries, especially their immediate living conditions. Imperative in the state of thought on the crisis, is the role that spirituality can play in the COVID-19 situation after the pandemic. Spiritual perspectives may turn the lives of people into a deeply engaged social practice. This seminar tends to discuss and explore perspectives from Nigeria embracing spiritual life and its tie to social responsibility in curing the process of human suffering. Nigeria, which is one of the largest, most populated, and richest African countries, being an emerging economy, is also suffering from a deep inequality and corruption. However, the country enjoys a wide variety of spiritual perspectives, which can be found, for example, in Igbo, Yoruba, Fula, Hausa, and other cultures.
- How to define a common ground for the response of spiritual perspectives in addressing the urgency of the COVID-19 condition?
- How does the spirituality of Africans affect human lives in times of hardship and crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic?
- Given the ethical appeal of African spirituality, and specifically the Igbo and Yoruba perceptions of life, could their spiritual tradition transform the perception of the meaning of life in the process of the country’s modernization?
- How can spiritual views comply with the imperatives of modern transformation in general?
- What specific messages could an ethics of spirituality share with the world?
This topic and exemplary questions raised will be discussed by our participants who are experts in Ethics, spirituality, politics, social activism, and politics. This seminar format webinar will be held via a zoom teleconference and will be broadcasted live on our social media channels. It will also be recorded for offline media.
We encourage our speakers to submit a short paper of 1500-2500 words to be published on the website of APGC. The collected paper will also be published in a public e-book by APGC.
Date: Friday, July 17th, 2020
Time: 13h00 East Canada and the US, 20h20 Central Europ, and 17h00 in Nigeria
Registration and Participation: Free of charge
The Panelists
Dr. Aderemi Oladele specialises in international development policy, Africa’s geopolitics, governance and public sector management. He works as a Senior Research Officer at the Permanent Delegation of Nigeria to UNESCO in Paris. His research interests are in Africa’s geopolitics and political economy; sustainable development; results culture in international development management; and the linkages between internationally development policy, national and local development.Aderemi is the Founder and Lead Analyst at 3psmars International, a nonprofitthink tank focused on capacity building and knowledge management for development effectiveness, with special focus on Africa.
Dr. Stanley Uche Anozie teaches at Indiana University Kokomo, Indiana. He is also an adjunct professor at University of Indianapolis, Indiana. In 2007, he was awarded a Master’s Scholarship from SSHRC and a Doctoral Fellowship from Ontario Graduate Scholarship (Canada) for 2011-2012. Anozie is Vice-President APGC (ap-gc.net). He has published extensively, among them is the 2020 Hans-Georg Gadamer and African Hermeneutic Philosophy. Anozie’s areas of research include Western Philosophy, African Philosophy and Religions, Africana Studies, Applied Ethics, Hermeneutics, Continental Philosophy, Hermeneutic of Political Belongingness, Social and Political Philosophy.
Dr. Ikechukwu Anthony Kanu is a Professor of African Religion and Cultural Studies. He is currently the Rector of Villanova Polytechnic, Imesi Ile, Osun State and a Visiting Professor to the University of Jos, Plateau State and the Augustinian Institute, Makurdi. He is a member of the Governing Council of Veritas University Abuja, Nigeria; the Global President of the World Cultural Studies Research Association (WCSRA) based in India and the President of the Association for the Promotion of African Studies (APAS). Kanu is the Editor-in-Chief of IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities (IAAJAH); Journal of African Studies and Sustainable Development (JASSD); Villanova Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and AMAMIHE: Journal of Applied Philosophy.
Dr. Mahmoud Masaeli is a Canadian Iranian political philosopher, ethicist, spiritualist, poet, and a global think tank leader. His area of research interest includes Global Ethics, Global Justice, Hermeneutics of Selfhood, Human Rights, Human Development, and universal spirituality. Mahmoud is the Founder and Executive Director of APGC (ap-gc.net). Mahmoud has published extensively in global ethics, global development, spirituality and ethics of globality. He also a visiting professor at Ottawa University. He will chair and speak in this seminar.
