MARX’S ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE IGBO QUESTION OF HUMAN DIGNITY

Abstract

Man is a free conscious active being, who answers to his needs in order to realize himself in every situation he finds himself.  These needs are multi-faceted: spiritual, material, psychological, biological, social, etc. Karl Marx’s human excludes the spiritual need and pigeonholes man under materialism. The Igbo society seems to have a deeper understanding that open up to all the options without reserve.  Marx’s is an ideological school anticipating a re-creation of humanity that will subvert capitalism through a revolution while the Igbo is a lived experience for centuries and had a very developed form of democracy stemming from their balanced view of life.