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Munyaradzi Felix Murove
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African Politics
and Ethics
Exploring New Dimensions

African Politics and Ethics
African Politics
and Ethics
Exploring New Dimensions
Religion, Philosophy, and Classics
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Scottsville, South Africa
ISBN 978-3-030-54184-2 ISBN 978-3-030-54185-9 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54185-9
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2020
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Acknowledgements
My greatest appreciation goes to my postgraduate student and research

assistant Miss Lulama Vuyiswa Dlamini, who was always available to get
whatever books and journals I needed from the library.
I also would like to thank my colleague Dr Noleen Loubser for proof-
reading the book. Her professional assistance in this regard has been
immense. Finally, I want to thank my niece, Tafadzwa Muzamai, who kept
on nagging me about the progress of the book!
v
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 African Ethics in a Nutshell 7
3 Ethical Politics in the Context of African Traditional

Religion 31
4 African Ethics and the Post-colonial Politics of Tradition 53
5 Politics of Tradition and African Identity 83
6 African Traditional Humanism and the Ethic of

Collectivism103
7 Regional Integration and the Ethic of Co-operation in

Post-colonial Africa115
8 Traditional African Resources for Ethical Leadership139
Index167
vii
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Why write about African politics and ethics? From colonialism to post-
colonialism, politics has remained the primary causal factor for all that has
gone wrong in our current post-colonial societies in sub-Saharan Africa.
Most of the social ills such as corruption, poverty, economic underdevel-
opment, poor governance and civil wars are prominent African problems
that have their genealogy in politics. From colonialism to post-colonialism,
the continent has been in a state of perennial crisis. For reasons that have
remained unknown, so little has been written on politics and ethics in
post-colonial Africa even though politics has been the number one factor
in the ruining of people’s lives. Whilst Africa has been described as rich in
terms of moral values, the political terrain remains characterized by moral
barrenness. Though scholars from various disciplines have proffered dif-
ferent solutions to Africa’s political problems, none of those solutions
seem to have worked. An academic once remarked that the problem of
Africa is that those who are in political power in Africa are usually unedu-
cated or poorly educated whist those who are educated do not have politi-
cal power. This remark is quite incisive because political power has been
the preserve of the poorly educated rather than the well-educated. But
again, this claim cannot be sustained because the educated political leaders
in Africa have behaved in a way that has caused untold human suffering.
The political field does not have a culture of professionalism because poli-
tics in the African context shares a lot of similarities with the culture of
urban gangsterism.
© The Author(s) 2020 1

M. F. Murove, African Politics and Ethics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54185-9_1
2 M. F. MUROVE
The absence of professionalism in politics has contributed to a general

common sentiment that ethics and politics is an oxymoron because one
cannot be ethical and simultaneously enjoying a successful political career.
In politics the ends justify the means because whatever tactic a politician
employs against his or her opponents is justified on the basis of the favour-
ability of the outcomes. The Germany politician, Otto von Bismarck is on
record for saying that ‘politics is the art of the possible’! This means that
within the political arena whatever is deemed possible can be used for the
furtherance of one’s political objectives. Alliances with one’s political foes
is usually acceptable in so far as that alliance can help in furthering one’s
political interests. I was once invited to give a talk on Ethics, Governance
and Leadership to a group of civil servants in a certain South African prov-
ince. After this talk, at lunch time I was approached by a very friendly guy
who introduced himself as a politician from the ruling party and a member
of parliament. He shook my hand and hugged me in appreciation of my
talk and later on told me that if only such workshops could be attended by
all politicians and civil servants, then society would be a far much better
place. However, he went on to advise me that the political context was
completely different because all those ideals about ethical leadership are
not seen in terms of changing the individual politician’s life, instead, the
political ideal would be to use ethics as a technique for scoring political
points against the opposition or the ruling party.
It seems that politicians do not have a sense of concern for the wellbe-
ing of the people they lead. It is no surprise that people are now accus-
tomed to utter the following epithets about politicians—‘what do you
expect from a politician?’, ‘don’t believe in what he says’, ‘politics is a dirty
game’ and ‘he is a career politician’. These epithets imply that politicians
are averse to ethics and most of the socially cherished virtues such as hon-
esty, truth-telling, magnanimity, empathy, just to mention but a few. All
the above epithets seem to suggest that politics has nothing to do with
ethics. In a context such as that of post-colonial Africa which is character-
ized predominantly by excruciating poverty, poor governance, poor cul-
ture of accountability and the continuous corruption, the need for ethics
in African politics cannot be overemphasized. As if that is not enough,
environmental degradation is currently exerting unprecedented pressure
on the human population as well as that of the natural life. In post-colonial
Africa, the exercise of political power has exacerbated the existence of the
above social ills because political power is being exercised in a way that
impoverishes and disempowers them such that on the final analysis they
1 INTRODUCTION 3
are physically and mentally incapacitated to deal effectually with their exis-
tential problems. The dominant organized religions such Islam and
Christianity have failed spectacularly to provide society with strong moral
leadership.
Because of political and economic crises that have besieged sub-Saharan
Africa, many people have fallen prey to the new form of power which is
being paraded by charismatic founders of new African Pentecostal
Christianity. Leaders of these new churches are currently inundated by fol-
lowers because of their claims to divine power of healing most of those
dreaded diseases that are currently incurable as well as their power to
bestow material prosperity to the economically wretched African majority.
These Pentecostal leaders have become extremely powerful and rich such
that their followers and politicians alike can do almost anything for them.
Sometimes these new African Pentecostal leaders have pronounced proph-
esies on the social media concerning the futures of African political leaders
and the fortunes of the nation. Though their prophecies have not always
materialized, their followers do believe in these prophesies unquestion-
ingly. A common motif in the prophetic messages of African Pentecostal
leaders is usually about the direct involvement of God in the political
affairs of the country, and that whatever is happening is part and parcel of
God’s grand plan. Pentecostal leaders are not so much concerned with
ethics or morality. Their main interest is power. In this regard, their char-
ismatic religious activities have not helped to bring about social, religious
and economic transformation. The mushrooming of Pentecostal churches
in Africa brings into focus the importance of ethics because some of these
religions are unethical religions.
African ethics as captured in traditional African humanism has been
integral to the political discourses of post-colonial nationalists such as
Kwame Nkrumah, Leopold Senghor, Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda
and Seko Toure. The writings of these fathers of African nationalism
exudes some passion for the inclusion of traditional African humanistic
values in their efforts towards the reconstruction of the post-colonial eco-
nomic and political life. In the light of the writings of these African nation-
alists, the popular claim that ethics and politics are incompatible cannot be
sustained with impunity. For example, though Nkrumah and Nyerere’s
were highly sensitized to the ethic of the common good, with ethically
good intentions they ended up impoverishing their societies. The colonial
experiences of subjugation and dehumanization sharpened their moral
imaginations in the reconstruction of their post-colonial societies. Politics
4 M. F. MUROVE
and ethics in the ethical genre of African traditional humanism remained

entangled. The post-apartheid ANC-led government spearheaded an ethi-
cal renewal programme which it called the Moral Regeneration Movement
whose objective was to nurture a culture of moral sensitivity in all spheres
of government and society at large. In African traditional societies, one
could hardly be a leader without some authentic commitment to the
shared moral values of the community.
Religion plays a vital role in the making of a people’s political outlook
because political power is usually presumed to have some divine origins. It
is for this reason that power is regarded as sacred. A political leader who
founds favour in the eyes of religious followers is most likely to enjoy a
long time of uninterrupted term in political office. In the Western world,
especially with the influence of the monotheistic Judeo-Christian religion
with its belief in an all-powerful God, a political culture of totalitarianism
and intolerance became popular, especially during the medieval ages of
European history. The connection between the culture of political totali-
tarianism and the belief in an all-powerful God can be discerned from the
early Christian doxology which said, ‘All glory, honour and power belong
to our God for ever and ever’. In the Old Testament the book of 1 Samuel
has a story which says that when the Israelites requested Samuel to appoint
a human king for them instead of Yahweh, it is said that after praying to
Yahweh about this request, Yahweh responded jealously as follows, “Listen
to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but
they have rejected me as their king” (1Sam. 8: v7). Evidently Yahweh was
not in favour of sharing his power with human beings. Not wanting to
share power with others is a practice well imbedded in the culture of politi-
cal totalitarianism.
Under a totalitarian political system, all the organs of the state or orga-
nizations are controlled by an ultimate authority that enjoys an unmiti-
gated monopoly of power. In the medieval history of Christianity, the
Church was totalitarian because it spread all its tentacles into all spheres of
social life. One finds that religious conceptions of God as impassable and
a Controlling Power have contributed enormously to an understanding of
God as an all-intrusive power in the lives of believers and everything that
exists. The human response to this awesome power is supposedly to come
in the form of complete submissiveness on the part of the believer. The
idea that human beings should only respond to this type of power through
submissiveness implies that it is the type of power which is imagined to be
exercised in an arbitrary manner—no one knows what God will do in the
1 INTRODUCTION 5
next moment of one’s existence. This type of Godly power estranges

humanity from God as a genuinely loving creator. In the book of the
prophet Isaiah 55: 8–9, it is said that, “For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts”. We can deduce from this verse that this
type of Godly power is a power which human beings should not even dare
fathom participating in its execution because it is exclusively God’s power
and belongs wholly to God as his or her divine prerogative.
Under a totalitarian political system, all the organs of the state or orga-
nization are controlled by an ultimate authority that enjoys the monopoly
of power. For example, the former totalitarian Malawian President,
Hastings Kamuzu Banda was known for his ruthless suppression of oppo-
sition to his rule to such an extent that he acted as if the whole country
was his personal property or inheritance. The popular political slogan of
his Malawian Congress Party was, “Zonse zimeni nza Kamuzu Banda
(Everything belongs to Kamuzu Banda)” (Tambulasi and Kayuni 2009:
429). Kamuzu Banda’s totalitarianism was not unique to him.
Decolonization in Africa was followed by a crop of African dictators who
turned their countries in their personal private property. Within such a
political context, citizens are usually treated in such a way that they are
meant to feel as if they are tenants or visitors in their own country. In other
words, it is an exercise of power which estranges the people who are sup-
posed to be served by it.
All over the world, Africa is known mainly as a continent that has been
mercilessly ravaged by unprecedented poverty. But the ironic part of
African poverty is that it is a continent that is endowed with enormous
natural resources such that if properly utilized African poverty can be a
thing of the past. Rampant corruption and lack of concern for the eco-
nomic development and ultimate wellbeing of the citizens remains a com-
mon story in African politics. A political talk about eradication of poverty
has become a common strategy for African politicians who aspire to get
into political offices. Whilst there have been talks about organizing African
states into economic regional units for the specific purpose of dealing with
poverty, the political will has remained dismal. A certain prominent scholar
in Africa has once said that ‘the African politicians remains the main curse
for Africa’!
This book is about the connection between African ethics and African
politics. My interest is to discuss what I see as the African traditional
6 M. F. MUROVE
ethical resources for African politics. With this aim in mind, the book will
unfold as follows: Besides this first chapter, which is an introductory chap-
ter to the book, the second chapter will introduce the reader to the main
characteristics of African ethics with the aim of mentally preparing him or
her to some of the African political issues and their relationship to African
ethics. The third chapter is a discussion of African traditional religion and
the influence it had on politics prior to the advent of colonialism. In the
fourth chapter I will look into the issue of the controversy of African tradi-
tions and politics and how African traditional values have been the basis of
the political behaviour in African societies. Are values of traditional societ-
ies applicable to our contemporary African political context? In the fifth
chapter I discuss the issue of the predominance that is usually given to
tradition as a prerequisite to an authentic African identity. The sixth chap-
ter looks critically into the ethical debate of African humanism and its
symbiotic relationship to the post-colonial socio-economic ethic of col-
lectivism as an attempt constructing a poverty alleviation policy. The sixth
chapter will go on to show how the post-colonial attempt at poverty alle-
viation has been integral African political efforts at pursuing regional inte-
gration through an ethic co-operation has been integral to post-colonial
political efforts aimed at overcoming the scourge of poverty. Finally, the
seventh chapter selects three leaders—Nkrumah, Nyerere and Mandela—
and discusses how African traditional values had shaped their visions of
ethical leadership.
Bibliography
Senghor, L.S. 1968. On African Socialism. London: Macmillan.
Tambulasi, R., and Kayuni, H. 2009. Ubuntu and Democratic Good Governance
in Malawi: A Case Study. In African Ethics: An Anthology of Comparative
and Applied Ethics, ed. M.F. Murove, 427–440. Scottsville: University of
KwaZulu-Natal Press.
CHAPTER 2
African Ethics in a Nutshell
Africa is immensely rich with moral values and ethical traditions, which to
a great extent have not been investigated adequately by scholars. What has
remained as the main preoccupation of academics in post-colonial Africa is
the usual tendency of thinking and writing predominantly about ethics in
terms of the Western ethical traditions such as utilitarianism and the
Kantian deontological ethics. This scholarly tendency has consequently
failed to take into account the contribution of African ethical traditions in
the day-to-day reflections of African socio-economic, political, psycho-
logical and religious realities. Sometimes an uncompromising commit-
ment to the hegemony of Western ethical values manifests itself through
condemnation of traditional African values as barbaric, pagan, animistic
and uncivilized. In most cases the condemnation and critique of African
ethics is usually done from a very superficial perspective masquerading as
genuine African scholarship. In this regard, the salient presumption is that
African ethics could only be authentic if it is commensurate with the
Western philosophical and religious ethical modes of thought. In the
scope of this chapter, my main aim is not to investigate the merits and
demerits of the above pessimistic scholarly outlook towards African ethics,
but to discuss the main characteristics of African ethics succinctly in a way
that will later on demonstrate to the reader how African ethics has been
theoretically integral to post-colonial political discourses. For conceptual
clarity purposes, I have divided this chapter into three themes that tend to
© The Author(s) 2020 7

M. F. Murove, African Politics and Ethics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54185-9_2
8 M. F. MUROVE
complement each other in African ethics. These themes are Ancestors,

Ubuntu (Humanness) and Relationality.
African Ethics as Ancestral Ethics

In African culture, tradition plays a prominent role in the day-to-day
ordering of social life. From a very tender age, a child is gradually intro-
duced to the traditions of the community or tribe. For example, in Zulu
the word traditions is Amasikho—a word which means traditional ritual
practices that must be observed as a way of recognizing the child’s stages
of growth as well as confirming her or his identity and the inevitable reality
of communal belongingness. Through these rituals, the child is ushered
into communion with her or his ancestors and the present community. In
those instances when amasikho are not performed for the child, it is usu-
ally the case that the child’s growth into adulthood will become problem-
atic because his or her relationship with the ancestors and a sense of
belongingness to the present community or family is usually deemed to be
none existent—hence such an existential predicament is regarded as an
identity problem.
The present community owes its existence to the past or the ancestors.
The relationship between the present community and the ancestors is
regarded as based on the principle of ontological interdependence. This
implies that the existence of the present community cannot be severed
from the existence of the ancestors. Whilst the present community exists
in the state of mortality, ancestors exist in the realm of immortality. There
is a strong belief among African people that human life is characterized
mainly by interdependency between mortality and immortality. Through
the observations of amasikho or traditions, ancestors remain related to
their progenitors to whom they come from time to time to celebrate life
with their families. Whilst ancestors are commonly known as protectors of
their progenitors against the vagaries of life, their protection is usually
premised on the person’s relationships with other people and the natural
environment as well as on whether their progenitors were observing the
traditions that have been bequeathed from the past. By virtue of existing
in the realm of immortality, ancestors have a far superior knowledge which
stretches from the past, present and the future. They know the lives of
their progenitors more than what their progenitors know of themselves.
Geoffrey Parrinder (1954: 58–59) alluded to the above insight when he
said that in the African traditional religion, “ancestors are believed to have
2 AFRICAN ETHICS IN A NUTSHELL 9
survived death and to be living in a spiritual world, but still taking a lively
interest in the affairs of their families”. In other words ancestors are inti-
mately connected to their families and are interested in the day-to-day
affairs of their families. Because of this intimate relationship between
ancestors and their families, Africans believe that their ancestors “are not
far away”, and hence “they are believed to be watching over their families
like a ‘cloud of witnesses’.” Whatever is the issue of concern within the
family such as “health and fertility” are considered to be of great interest
to the ancestors because “they are its elders and will also seek rebirth into
the same family”. Ancestors are supposed to be consulted when it comes
to issues of land, its fertility and the general material wellbeing of the fam-
ily. The consultation of ancestors on such issues is based on the belief that
they are still member of the family even though they have been buried into
the earth. What remained in the earth and decomposed in it was their
material bodies but their spirits survived death.
The African belief in ancestors is based on the idea that life is endless.
For this reason, the world of mortality is inextricably linked to the world
of immortality. Ancestors are regarded as those members of the commu-
nity who existed in the past and after transiting into the world of immor-
tality through a process of death, they live a life closely linked to that of
God. They are regarded as having departed physically but always being
present in spiritual form. Ancestors are concerned with what goes on in
the communities where they once lived during their lives of mortality
materially, morally and spiritually. It is mainly for this reason that ancestors
are thus regarded as custodians of the traditions of the community. In
Chap. 3 we shall see how this African belief in ancestors as custodians of
the traditions of the community has influenced African politics. However,
for now I want to pay special attention to the role of ancestors in African
ethics. Here it needs to be bore in mind that ancestors are regarded as the
custodians of moral values in traditional African societies because religious
beliefs are infused in all the spheres of existence. This is the point which
was well put by John Mbiti (1970: 2–3) when he said that African tradi-
tional religion in Africa permeates “all the departments of life” to the
extent that “there is no formal distinction between the sacred and the
secular, between the religious and the non-religious, between the spiritual
and the material areas of life”. It was one of the main theses of Mbiti that
the African universe was entirely a religious universe because religion per-
meates all spheres of life so that everything in life is interpreted from a
religious perspective. A person is understood primarily in religious terms
10 M. F. MUROVE
and the ethos of the individual’s belongingness to the community has its
origins in the African traditional religious outlook. As he puts it,
“Traditional religions are not primarily for the individual, but for his com-
munity of which he is part. …To be human is to belong to the whole
community, and to do so involves participating in the beliefs, ceremonies,
rituals and festivals of that community”. The religious beliefs and practices
helped to emphasize the idea of the individual’s belongingness to the
community. In African traditional religion, the secular and the sacred are
not compartmentalized as different realms of existence; rather, they are
understood as intertwined with each other and cannot be disentangled
from each other. An individual can participate in the ceremonies, rituals
and festivals of the community without necessarily professing some com-
mitment to a particular doctrine as a precondition to participation in these
religious activities of the community. This African traditional religious
outlook might be the reason why Africans have a general inclusive ethical
outlook.
Whilst in many African languages south of the Sahara there is no word
for religion as understood in Western philosophical and theological pat-
terns of thought, in African traditional patterns of thought what can be
regarded as religion is the relationship that exists between the living and
their ancestors, the land, the natural environment and God. Moral values
are what actually permeate all the spheres of existence. As I said previously,
ancestors are the guardians of these moral values and they are endowed
with the powers to approve or disprove in accordance with what they
would have perceived from their infinite wisdom to be the implications of
the actions of a particular individual or community to the common good
of the generality of existence. Taboos about land and the environment
constituted part of the narrative of ancestral origins. For example, accord-
ing to the oral religious narratives of the Shona and Ndebele people of
Zimbabwe, the God Mwari (a god who was believed to be a god of fertil-
ity and a creator) is believed to dwell at the Matopo Hills. In communion
with the ancestors Mwari would send rains. Because of their proximity to
Mwari, moral precepts from the ancestors are thus regarded as sacrosanct
by all members of the society—whether king or subject. Ancestors are
mostly revered because they are the ones that provide a link between the
world of mortality and immortality. For example, Mbiti called ancestors
‘the living-dead’ because of their ability to commune with both worlds of
the living and that of the ancestors. For this reason he maintained that the
ancestors “speak the language of the spirits and of God” who is
ontologically in close proximity to their immortal state of existence. These

spirits have remained in the memories of the living members of their fami-
lies. From time to time ancestors return to their families “and share meals”
in a symbolic manner. According to Mbiti, ancestors have a knowledge
and interest in the family affairs because they are “the guardians of family
affairs, traditions, ethics” and all the other day-to-day family mundane
activities (Mbiti 1970: 108). Here it can be deduced that ancestors and
their descendants are affectionately related to each other. Death does not
spell the end of existence; rather it’s a passage into another form of life.
The concept of ‘the living dead’ that is used by Mbiti to describe ancestors
drives home the idea that ancestors continue to exist in the realm of
immortality.
In African traditional religion death is not regarded as the end of life;
rather it is a graduation from the world of mortality into the world of
immortality. The world of immortality becomes connected with the world
of mortality because of the ancestors who are regarded as a bridge for
these two worlds.
The African traditional understanding of death is that those who die
continue to live in the realm of the spirit and interact with the living and
sometimes the spirits of the dead are considered as shadows, a term that
implies their continuous protection over their descendants who are still
alive (Janheinz 1958: 108). This also shows that the African conception of
ancestors is based on the idea that the dead are still alive and live a life
which is integral to the lives of those who are still living. Ancestors do
reincarnate into the lives of their descendants. This African understanding
of death reinforces the idea of continuous existence of ancestors because
death is regarded as a passage into reincarnation into the lives of those
who exist within the realm of mortality and the natural environment. In
traditional African culture, a child is usually seen as a continuation of the
life of the ancestor to the extent that the child is sometimes named after
his or her grandfather. But ancestors are not only understood as incarnat-
ing in their human families, they are also incarnated in nature—an idea
that was the bedrock of the African traditional ethos of environmental
conservation. Since ancestors are understood to reside also in nature, the
land and its natural resources are regarded as sacred to such an extent that
the king or chief understood his or her political responsibility in terms of
stewardship. The real rulers of the land are the ancestors who were the
founders of the land and its people.
12 M. F. MUROVE
What is going on in the world of mortality with regard to human rela-

tions, communal traditions and ethics is regarded as the primary concern
of the ancestors. Because of the ancestors, ethics in African traditional
categories of thought is not a social mechanism invented by human beings
in order to make social relations manageable in human societies. On the
contrary, ethics is connected with the idea of the teleological dimension of
human existence—namely, that our human actions at present have some
consequences that tend to supervene into the future existence. It is partly
for this reason that African scholars such as Bujo (2001: 56—57) would
characterize the relationship between the living and the ancestors in Africa
as based on anamnestic solidarity. Thus he writes, “African ethics is articu-
lated in the framework of anamnesis, which involves remembering one’s
ancestors. As a narrative community, fellowship here on earth renews the
existence of the community of the ancestors”. In the act of remembrance
which I have described as Amasikho, the community of the living demon-
strates the existence of a symbiotic relationship between themselves and
the ancestors who remain the pillars of the community. This act of remem-
brance “gives a new dynamism to the earthly fellowship” such that we can
say that “ethical behavior in Black African context always involves reestab-
lishing the presence of one’s ancestors”. Without remembrance, the rela-
tionship that exists between the living and their ancestors will be severed.
Through remembrance the community of the living is reminded of the
founding values of the present community or those values that brought
the present community into being. The act of remembrance of one’s
ancestors carries with it some moral obligations for the individual and the
community. Without remembrance people are most likely to forget the
mistakes or sins that were committed in the past. In the Shona language
there is a proverb which says, Ziva kwawakabva mudzimu weshiri uri
mudendere. This literally means, you must know where you came from
because the ancestor of a bird is in the nest. This proverb is usually uttered
as a reminder to a person who is hell-bent on forgetting the importance of
the past in the making of the present social existence. The above proverb
finds its equivalent in a Zulu proverb which says, Ungakhohlwa imvelaphi
yako ngoba indoda eqotho etkhotwa amadlozi—Don’t forget where you
came from or your roots because a good man is he who is licked by the
ancestors. The message that is imparted in such a proverb is that a good
person is someone who remembers where they came from. One cannot
know where one’s going if they have no idea of where they came from. As
an ethical tradition that is steeped in remembrance, sometimes this ethic
has been criticized on the grounds that it overemphasizes the past at the
expense of the present. This type of critique can be discerned from
Augustine Shuttte, who declared that, “If Africa is to play a part in the
worldwide ethical discussion, it cannot be content simply to rehearse its
ancient wisdom in the forms in which it was first formulated” (Shutte
2008: 16). One can easily infer that Shutte is alleging that the African ethi-
cal discourse does not have a relevant role to play in today’s modern world
because of the emphasis that is put on rehearsing ancient wisdom in the
way it was originally formulated. This is an over-exaggerated critique of
African ethics because it is a general human experience that there has never
been a wisdom or an ethical tradition that has remained so static such that
it could be rehearsed in such a way that it is reproduced in a form in which
it was formulated initially. A discourse on ancestors and African ethics does
not demonstrate an uncritical acceptance of traditions; rather it shows that
there is solidarity among the living and the ancestors. This solidarity serves
as a springboard for the narrative nature of African ethics.
In the light of the preceding discussion, we can deduce that because of
its original connection with ancestors, African ethics can be regarded as an
ethics of anamnestic solidarity between the living and their ancestors.
Through the process of remembrance, a relationship is established between
the living and the ancestors. What is remembered in this regard is those
acts of the ancestors which brought the current community into being.
The presumption here is that the present community was originally
brought into being through ancestral ethical rules. Whilst African ethics in
this regard can be regarded as ancestral ethics as stated previously, there is
also room for improvisation where those ethical traditions that were
received from the past are usually interpreted and reinterpreted in the light
of the present contextual experiences. For example, through the use of
proverbs, we are introduced into “…a world in which people, nature and
spiritual world move in step, where social organization, social control and
moral balance are maintained by clearly defined and subtle protocols of
law, custom and rituals articulated in artistic form and where language has
a powerful social purpose and value” (Furusa 1997: 93). The use of prov-
erbs in moral deliberations allows people to use their own intellectual
imagination on what could be the best ethical solution within a particular
given contextual problem. For this reason, anamnestic thinking does not
inhibit the individual from being ethically creative. The room for creative
thinking in African anamnestic ethical thinking was well observed by Bujo
when he said anamnestic thinking “…does not prevent African ethics from
14 M. F. MUROVE
being innovative. In the nonverbal communication, the community con-

ducts a non-verbal palaver which challenges the participants to reflect and
to adopt a critical position vis-à-vis the ancestral tradition” (Bujo 2001:
66). In a cultural tradition where there is no recourse to linear logical
reasoning about ethical issues, an ethical tradition that is based on reinter-
pretation of ethical issues in the light of new contemporary challenges
does give room for improvisation and creativity.
For Bujo, the African anamnestic ethical modes of thought does give
room to creativity because of the palaver element embedded into it—a
practice which does inhibit the tendency of coming up with logically tai-
lored reasons as ethical solutions. Such a practice often inhibits innovative
ways of doing and imagining about ethics. The African anamnestic palaver
model gives room to creativity because of the tradition of open-ended
ethical deliberation on the meaning of the received ethical traditions in the
light of the present challenges. For this reason Bujo critiqued the modern
African political practice of dictatorship on the grounds that it strayed
from the African anamnestic palaver ethical tradition. He writes, “The
anamnestic solidarity is concerned not only with infringements of human
rights in the present; it includes equally the injustices done to those who
lived in the past. This naturally also involves the guilt of the ancestors: soli-
darity requires that this be expiated by their descendants” (Bujo 2001: 66).
According to Bujo, the practice of political dictatorship which is so
rampant on the contemporary African political scene is an affirmation of
the failure by African politicians to take into account the innovativeness
inherent in African ethical traditions as inherited from the ancestors. The
idea of anamnestic solidarity implies that political concern on the violation
of human rights should not only be restricted to the present, but be
extended such as to include some of the injustices that were done by the
ancestors. Among the Shona people, the idea of anamnestic solidarity
between the present generation and its ancestors has been expressed in the
belief of the existence of Ngozi (an aggrieved spirit). An aggrieved spirit is
usually the spirit of someone who was murdered. Also, heinous act such as
stealing, rape and ill-treatment of one’s parents has been considered to
give rise to Ngozi in the future. Once a person died with a bitter heart, the
ancestors would not receive that person in their ranks; rather they would
insist that she or he should go back to the world of mortality and seek
redress for the injustice that was perpetrated against him or her. All mem-
bers who belong to the family of the perpetrator are regarded as collec-
tively responsible for the wrong that was done by their relative, and hence
they are liable for the propitiation of Ngozi. Since in African ethics the
individual’s existence is understood collectively, whatever the individual
does has some consequences for the collective. In the world of the ances-
tors, the individual’s existence is understood collectively. For this reason
what the individual does is to be accounted for by the whole community
(Murove 2016: 124; Gelfand 1981: 9; Samkange and Samkange 1980: 51).
Related to the concept of Ngozi is the belief that what has been wronged
or righted in the world of immortality will find its ultimate rectification in
the world of immortality. One is not only accountable to those who exist
in the present, but one’s actions at present do affect those who will exist
in the future. The futuristic aspect inherent in anamnestic solidarity implies
that one not only must be interested in pursuing the good in the present
but has to take into account the consequences of one’s actions to those
who will exist in the future. The main ethical issue that comes from anam-
nestic solidarity comes in the form of a question on the values which the
present generation nurturing for posterity. A harmonious existence in the
present has to be understood in terms of what actually transpired in the
past. This also implies that a situation of disharmony in the present is most
likely to see a situation of perennial social discontent in the future (Murove
2016: 157–158; Maier 1998: 52). People who are usually concerned with
their selfish interests as their main goal in life are most likely to lack any
sense of concern for the wellbeing of those who will exist in the future.
Most of our current problems as a human family can be traced to our
inherited fractured history characterized by a litany of wars, systematic
exploitation of the natural environment, greed and the marginalization of
the weaker members of our human societies. Anamnestic solidarity sum-
mons the human race to look back and learn from what has gone wrong
in the past if ever there is going to be a brighter future. The dominant
modern way of thinking prioritizes the pursuit of self-interest in politics
and economics and remains a threat to anamnestic solidarity.
Another important characteristic which is pivotal to African ethics is
humanism. In the preceding section we have seen that African ethics is
human-centred. Our discussion of ancestors was also based on the belief
in the immortality of a human spirit. Even those who have died continue
to participate in the family or communal affairs of their relatives. Ancestors
regard communal harmony as the main goal of social existence. Anamnestic
solidarity can only exist when there is communal harmony. The goal of
social existence in African traditional societies is to live in harmony with
fellow human beings. As we shall see in Chap. 4, the African post-colonial
16 M. F. MUROVE
political discourse was based on nationalistic attempts to reconstruct a new

post-colonial African society on the basis of the primal African under-
standing of a person. The colonial and apartheid political eras were based
on political policies that thrived on the dehumanisation of people. It is
partly for this reason that one finds that a theme that has dominated the
discourse of African politics and ethics is that of ubuntu.
Ubuntu (Humanness) in African Ethics

African ethics refers to the ethical values that are mostly cherished by
indigenous African peoples in south of the Sahara. In traditional African
societies, ethics supervenes in all spheres of human existence—religious,
economic, social and political. One moral attitude influences all these
spheres of existence. Discourses pertaining to all these spheres of human
existence are always replete with phrases about whether what has been
done by a particular individual is ethical or not. The religiosity of a reli-
gious leader is not judged on the basis of his or her piety to the deity, but
rather on the basis of his or her moral standing within the community
which is supposed to be demonstrated by what the Shona people of
Zimbabwe called Unhu or Ubuntu/Botho (Zulu/Sotho). This phrase
means humanness. Among the Nguni peoples of Southern Africa, there is
an adage about Ubuntu which says that Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu
(Zulu/Xhose/Ndebele/Swati). This adage means that a person is a per-
son because of other persons. As human beings we need others to realize
our full capabilities. This adage implies that as human beings our human-
ity is inseparable from the humanity of others. Some scholars, as we shall
see later on, have come to regard Ubuntu as the summation of African
ethics and philosophy (Ramose 1999; Ngubane 2015; Shutte 2001;
Dandala 2009; Praeg and Magadla 2014; Nussbaum 2009).
To be regarded as a person one must demonstrate a sense of care and
concern for the humanity of others in word and praxis. The meaning of
Ubuntu is multifaceted as we shall see in this section. First, some scholars
have emphasized the fact that Ubuntu implies that a human being is
regarded as a human being by virtue of his or her inherent sociality. For
instance, Nhlanhla Mkhize observed that, “To be a human being (ukuba
ngumuntu) is a social practice; it requires one to co-operate with others by
doing good, thereby promoting the balance that is thought to character-
ize the universe. It requires human beings to live in solidarity with fellow
human beings, their families, their communities…and the rest of the world
in which they find themselves” (Mkhize 2008: 40; also see Gelfand 1973:
57; Samkange and Samkange 1980; Coetzee and Roux 1998: 320; Shutte
2009: 93; Murove 2012). A person is recognized as a person on the basis
of his or her commitment to communal belongingness. Someone who
disregards the wellbeing of the community is hardly recognized as a real
person. It is the quality of social relationships which the individual enters
into with others which ultimately leads the community to refer to her or
him as someone who has Ubuntu. Mogobe Ramose maintained that
Ubuntu is about ‘doing’ instead of ‘being’. He writes, “Because motion is
the principle of be-ing for Ubuntu do-ing takes precedence over the do-er
without at the same time imputing either radical separation or irreconcil-
able opposition between the two” (Ramose 1999: 36). The gist of
Ramose’s observation is that Ubuntu is based on the idea that we are
recognized by others on the basis of what we do.
Relations that show the existence of Ubuntu in the individual are those
relations whereby someone demonstrates an attitude that shows that she
or he regards the humanity of others in a similar way that he or she regards
his or her own.
In Ubuntu it is self-evident that African ethics puts emphasis on com-
munity. In this regard, Ukuba ngumuntu means having a sense of concern
for the wellbeing of others within the community. As Desmond Tutu puts
it, “A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of oth-
ers, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she
has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she has a
proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in
a greater whole and is diminished when others are tortured or oppressed,
or treated as if they were less than who they are” (Tutu 1999: 31; also see
Dandala 2009: 261; Prozesky 2009; Bujo 2001: 67). It is within the com-
munal context that the individual’s humanness is recognized. One needs
the community for the realization of one’s own full potential socially and
psychologically. Mluleki Munyaka and Mokgethi Motlhabi propounded
the reality of individual communal belongingness well when they said that,
“It is in a human community that an individual is able to realize himself or
herself as a person. The personal growth of individuals happens in com-
munity. Only through the co-operation, influence and contribution of
others, can one understand and bring to fulfilment one’s own personality.
One is able to discover a sense of self-identity only in reference to the com-
munity in which one lives” (Munyaka and Motlhabi 2009: 70). It is an
18 M. F. MUROVE
indisputable truism that the community plays an indispensable role in the

overall ultimate wellbeing of the individual.
The community exists prior to the individual because the individual
subsists within the community. It is not individuals who came together to
form the community, but rather it is the community that forms or enabled
the existence of individuals. The idea that the individual subsists within
the community was eloquently put by John Mbiti when he said, “[T]he
individual does not and cannot exist alone except corporately. He owes his
existence to other people, including those of past generations and his con-
temporaries. He is simply part of the whole” (Mbiti 1970: 141). It is the
responsibility of the community to nurture and cultivate a sense of Ubuntu
individual in the lives of individuals because the individual depends on the
community for his or her ultimate wellbeing. The individual’s conscious-
ness as a person and his or her responsibilities to fellow human beings is
attained in relationships with others. The idea that the individual subsists
within the community is obviously at variance with the Western philo-
sophical notion of individual autonomy, which was strongly entrenched in
the Western philosophy of the Enlightenment era, especially the philoso-
phy of Rene Descartes. But here I would like to assert that it is not all
Western philosophers who have subscribed to the Western Enlightenment
philosophical doctrine of individual autonomous existence. For example,
the Anglo-American philosopher and Mathematician, Alfred North
Whitehead observed that, “The misconception which has haunted philo-
sophic literature throughout the centuries is the notion of ‘independent
existence’. There is no such mode of existence, every entity is only to be
understood in terms of the way it is interwoven with the rest of the
Universe” (Whitehead 1948: 64). The point that is being made by
Whitehead is that everything in the universe is related and interrelated
with everything else. Reality is so intertwined to such an extent that it
becomes an illusion to postulate the existence of entities that have some
autonomous existence from other entities within the generality of exis-
tence. This philosophical outlook affirms the main assumption of
Ubuntu—that we are human beings because of our relationality with other
human beings. It is this ontological relatedness which ultimately makes us
human and recognized by others as human beings.
However, there have been some critics of Ubuntu who have argued
that the emphasis which this ethic puts on individual dependence on the
community can easily undermine the ethical ideal of individual responsi-
bility. For example, Stephen Theron proffered a scathing critique of
Ubuntu in which he argued that “if a person is a person through other

persons then no one is a person. The closest thing to a person would seem
to be the tribe” (Theron 1995: 34). The presumption inherent in such a
critique is that persons should be seen as autonomous beings whose exis-
tence should not be seen primarily as relative to the existence of other
persons. What this critique implies is that persons are unique entities
whose ontology of personhood cannot be subsumed under the collective
‘we’. Theron went on to allege that when persons are subsumed under the
collective they lose their individual personalities and individual responsi-
bility. He avers, “As for ethe ethical implications, the proverb [Ubuntu]
simply side-steps the slow Western development of the idea of personal
responsibility, charted in the Bible and elsewhere, and now known to
Africans” (Theron 1995: 35). This is a typical example of a racialist and
condescending critique that arises from a superficial understanding of the
ontology of the individual in Ubuntu. In African ethics there is a recogni-
tion of individuals qua individuals. Individuals are expected to be respon-
sible for their actions as well as to take initiatives for the betterment of
their own lives. Ubuntu recognizes the existence of individuals because its
moral teachings are mainly addressed to the individual as a subject of deci-
sion making. For example, in Zulu there is a proverb which says, Musa
ukuqeda ubudlelwano manje ngoba kusasa uzofuna ukubuyela—do not dis-
rupt mutual relations at present because tomorrow you might want to
come back. It is clear that in such a proverb the individual is being advised
not to spoil present relations because in future she or he might require
those relations.
What African ethics does not condone is individualism or the doctrine
of atomic individualism where the individual is presumed to exist as a self-
enclosed entity who does not need others for his or her wellbeing. What is
right or wrong requires a communal context. Solidarity does not spell the
end of individual identity. Rather, solidarity implies a deliberate inten-
tional effort by the individual to empathize with others within the com-
munity. In this regard the individual remains an indispensable member
within the group. The individual is expected to express his or her own
moral convictions in a way that nourishes the general wellbeing of the
community. In other words, as individuals, our humanity is entangled with
the humanity of others regardless of our racial, cultural or religious affilia-
tions. The way one relates to other people determines his or her predispo-
sition to Ubuntu. Behaving in a way that promotes social or communal
harmony remains the main factor that is depicts a person as endowed with
20 M. F. MUROVE
a sense of Ubuntu. If living harmoniously with others is the determining

factor for Ubuntu, it is also possible that a person who is not an African
can have a sense of Ubuntu whilst an African might not have a sense of
Ubuntu if she or he does not exist harmoniously with others.
The ethical implications that have been deduced by many scholars with
specific reference to Ubuntu are as follows:
One should always act in a way that does not dehumanize other people.
The adage Umuntu ngomuntu ngabantu is mainly intended to drive home
the idea that one should thus always act in a way that maximizes the
humanity of others. Hence, failure to act humanely towards other people
is an outright expression of one’s lack of humanness or lack of Ubuntu.
This inevitably follows that someone who dehumanizes other people can-
not be considered to be a person (Murove 2012: 37). Here I should like
to concretize the above assertion with an example of Adolf Hitler and his
holocaust program against Jewish people during the Second World War.
We can deduce from such an example that anyone with conscience and a
sense of humanness can hardly regard Hitler as someone who was endowed
with any sense of humanness. In the Americas during the days of slavery,
slave masters acted in ways that failed to show the existence of humanness
in their behaviour towards their slaves. In Africa, the era of colonialism was
the utmost expression of dehumanization of the majority of the colonized
African people. Because of the behaviour of slave masters and colonialists
in Africa, the word person or umuntu could not be attributed to white
people. In this regard Didier Kaphagawani made an insightful observation
when he said among the Chewa people of Malawi, “it is said, Azungu
asiwanthu. In literal translation this statement means ‘Whites are not
human’, which would seem to indicate that the Chewa deny humanness to
whites” (Kaphagawani 1998: 171). In other words, Ubuntu carries with it
some moral implications which ultimately qualify someone to be consid-
ered as a person. The moral implications of Ubuntu are usually found in
what someone does with specific reference to his or her behaviour
towards others.
To act in a way that dehumanizes other people is to abstract oneself to
the reality of our common humanity as enshrined in the ethic of Ubuntu.
The realization that a person owes his or her humanness to the humanity
of others carries with it some strong ethical obligations on the part of the
individual. In traditional African culture one of those obligations is respect.
In African culture, respect for other people is a cardinal virtue of Ubuntu.
Children are taught from a very tender age to express a sense of respect
towards other people and that this respect will be reciprocated in the
future. The cultivation of the virtue of respect is actually intended to help
the individual in his or her future career. Even those in positions of high
authority such as kings and politicians are usually judged as endowed with
a sense of Ubuntu primarily on the basis of their ability to treat those they
lead with respect. On this point Munyaka and Motlhabi cannot be bet-
tered when they said that, “Ubuntu ethics can be termed anti-egoistic as
it discourages people from seeking their own good without regard for, or
to the detriment of, others and the community” (Munyaka and Motlhabi
2009: 71–72). In the light of the observation of these scholars, it can be
deduced that the virtue of respect in Ubuntu comes in the form of an all-
inclusive outlook to the wellbeing of everybody. One must recognize and
appreciate the reality of the multiplicity of our human modes of being in
the world.
Another implication of Ubuntu which has been observed by scholars is
that it is an ethic of relatedness and interrelatedness. In the ethic of Ubuntu,
a human being is regarded as originally a relational being. She or he is
related and interrelated with others. Thus the primacy of relatedness and
interrelated which is encapsulated in the ethic of Ubuntu was eloquently
articulated by Martin Prozesky (2009: 80) as the foundation of the reality
of our human relatedness and interrelatedness when he said “for every
individual there are countless other selves and even more non-human
objects which greatly affect every individual, so that reality is always, objec-
tively, more constituted by that preponderant externality than by its indi-
vidual subjects on their own”, therefore “any adequate account of human
existence must pay particularly careful attention to the drive to maximize
well-being in relation to the total context of human existence…”.
African Ethics and Relationality

That a human being is a relational being is one of the most emphasized
characteristics of Ubuntu. This characteristic is regarded as the main char-
acteristic of African humanism as we shall see in Chap. 5. As human beings,
as it is the case within the generality of existence our existence is related
and interrelated with the existence of others and even other none human
entities within the cosmos. The predominance of relatedness and interre-
latednesss among all that exists was thus expressed by Ali Mazrui as fol-
lows, “African civilisations were characterized by the following attributes:
no great distinction between the kingdom of God, the animal kingdom
22 M. F. MUROVE
and the human kingdom; the crocodile could be a god, no sharp divide
between the living and the dead” (Mazrui 1994: 175). The implication of
this observation is that the general African outlook towards life is origi-
nally holistic because everything is understood as intertwined with every-
thing else. It is the existential reality of relatedness and interrelatedness
which ultimately gives the real meaning of what it means to be human.
Among the Shona people of Zimbabwe the concept of relatedness and
interrelatedness finds its articulation in the concept of ukama—a word
which means relationality. However, in Shona, as in many other African
languages, the meaning of Ukama is not restricted to marital and blood
relations. For example, instead of addressing an early person as ‘madam’
or ‘sir’, within the categories of ukama such persons can be addressed as
mama (mother) or baba (father) in Shona, Zulu or Ndebele languages.
The presumption is that being human entails living in relationships, seeing
one another as relatives, or expressing relationality as an indispensable
existential actuality (See Dale 1994: 127; Bourdillon 1976: 34; Gelfand
1973: 136; Murove 2009: 316). Through ukama relationality among
human beings or umuntu is stretched to include God and the ancestors.
In African ethics, the present community has been brought into existence
by those who existed in the past. Those who have existed in the past have
contributed positively or negatively to the present existence. For this rea-
son many scholars have argued that an authentic perspective of African
ethics has to take into account the contributions of ancestors in the mak-
ing of the moral values of the present community. Another main charac-
teristic which we can extract from Ubuntu is the primacy of the community.
In the light of the preceding discussion, it is beyond doubt that African
ethics is a communitarian ethic. It is the community which forms the indi-
vidual and not individuals that form the community. From the Western
philosophical perspective, especially the Hobbesian contractarian theory
of society, it is individuals who enter into a covenant with Leviathan to
form the community with the tacit aim of averting a universal war of all
against all. The Hobbesian community is formed by individuals who see
the formation of the community as a shield against attacks on their self-
interests. The idea of community from this Hobbesian perspective became
an additive congregation of self-interested individuals. Ifeanyi Menkiti
(2001: 197) argued against this Hobbesian philosophical view of com-
munity when he said that this understanding of community is not just “an
ontological claim, but a methodological recommendation to the various
social or humanistic disciplines interested in the investigation of the
phenomenon of individuals in groups; hence the term ‘methodological

individualism’”. From the African communitarian ethical perspective, the
individual belongs to the collective to such an extent that individual affairs
are also communal affairs.
As human beings we collectively share certain characteristics which to a
greater extent can be regarded as instinctive in such a way that these shared
characteristics help us to recognize the other person as belonging to the
same community with us. In the previous section where I discussed the
Ubuntu, it became crystal clear that the African understanding of a person
was based on the presumption that a person subsists in a web of relation-
ships whereby she or he is conceptualized in terms of belongingness to the
community. In this regard a person does not exist for herself or himself as
a self-enclosed entity. To be a person implies being open to others and
being influenced by others. Since the relationship between the individual
and others is based on solidarity, this solidarity implies the individual is a
purposive agent who is endowed with the capability to influence others.
After making a comparative analysis between African and Western under-
standing of a person, Augustine Shutte (1993: 46–47) came to the con-
clusion that in Western philosophy, “the self is always envisaged as
something inside a person, or at least as kind of a container of mental
properties and powers.” Contrary to this Western view of a person, Shutte
said that, “In African thought [the self] is seen as outside, subsisting in
relationship to what is other… Self and the world are united and inter-
mingled in a web of reciprocal relations”. In other words, the African
understanding of the ‘self’ is based on the presumption that ‘the self’
subsists in reciprocal relationships whereby it influences others in as much
as it is influenced by others. As we have seen in the preceding section, the
relations in which the individual subsist include the ancestors, the com-
munity and the natural environment.
From an African communitarian perspective, the individual’s actions
are deemed ethical when they advance the interests of the community. It
is in promoting the interest of the community that the individual is only
able to come to the realization that she or he belongs to the community
or to the collective. The individual’s ‘I’ is an ‘I’ that subsists in the ‘we’
such that the individual’s ‘I’ cannot be autonomous at the expense of the
community. In this regard, it is the community that shares itself in the
making of the individual’s identity. From an African communitarian per-
spective, the idea of individual uniqueness which is commonly found in
Western philosophy and psychology is based on an illusion where the
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Fig. 174.—Development of wings in Caloptenus spretus: the upper row
gives a lateral view of the thoracic segments, and the lower row a
dorsal view of these segments; 1, second instar; 2, third instar; 3,
fourth instar; 4, fifth instar. (After Riley.) t, tegmen; w, wing.
Fig. 175.—Caloptenus spretus. North America. A, Newly hatched,

much magnified; B, adult, natural size. (After Riley.)
Riley and Packard have given an account[221] of some parts of the

post-embryonic development of the Rocky Mountain Locust, which
enables us to form a satisfactory conception of the stages of
development of the wings. Fig. 175, A, represents the first instar, the
young locust, just emerged from the egg and colourless. Fig. 174
shows some of the subsequent stages of development of the wings,
the upper line of figures giving a profile view of the thoracic
segments, and the lower line showing their dorsal aspects; 1 shows
the condition of the parts in the second instar, the chief difference
from the first instar being the development of colour; in the third
instar there is an evident slight development of the future alar
organs, exhibited chiefly in the outgrowth and lobing of the free
posterior angles of the meso- and metanota, as shown in Fig. 174, 2.
After the third moult there is a great difference; the instar then
disclosed—the fourth—has undergone a considerable change in the
position of the meso- and metathoraces, which are thrust forward
under the pronotum; this has become more enlarged and hood-like
(Fig. 174, 3); at the same time the wing-rudiments have become free
and detached, the metathoracic pair being the larger, and
overlapping the other pair. The fifth instar (Fig. 174, 4) differs but
little from the fourth, except in the larger size of the pronotum and
wing-rudiments. The sixth—shown in Fig. 175, B—is the perfect
Insect, with the alar organs free and large, the prothorax much
changed in form, the colour different. From the above it will be seen
that the chief changes occurred at the third and fifth ecdyses, after
each of which a considerable difference in the form of the Insect was
revealed. In the first three instars the sexes can scarcely be
distinguished, in the fourth they are quite distinct, and in the fifth
coupling is possible, though usually it does not occur till the final
stage is attained.
The discovery that Orthoptera change their colours in the course of

their development, and even after they have become adult, is
important, not only from a physiological point of view, but because it
throws some light on the questions as to the number of species and
the geographical distribution of the migratory locusts, as to which
there has existed a great confusion.
The Acridiidae are considered to be exclusively vegetable feeders,

each individual consuming a very large quantity of food. The mode in
which the female deposits her eggs has been described by Riley,
[222] and is now widely known, his figures having been frequently
reproduced. The female has no elongate ovipositor, but possesses
instead some hard gonapophyses suitable for digging purposes; with
these she excavates a hole in the ground, and then deposits the
eggs, together with a quantity of fluid, in the hole. She prefers hard
and compact soil to that which is loose, and when the operation is
completed but little trace is left of it. The fluid deposited with the eggs
hardens and forms a protection to them, corresponding to the more
definite capsules of the cursorial Orthoptera.
The details of the process of oviposition and of the escape of the

young from their imprisonment are of much interest. According to
Künckel d'Herculais[223] the young Stauronotus maroccanus
escapes from the capsule by putting into action an ampulla formed
by the membrane between the head and the thorax; this ampulla is
supposed to be dilated by fluid from the body cavity, and is
maintained in the swollen condition by the Insect accumulating air in
the crop beneath it. In order to dislodge the lid of the capsule, six or
seven of the young ones inside combine their efforts to push it off by
means of their ampullae. The ampulla subsequently serves as a sort
of reservoir, by the aid of which the Insect can diminish other parts of
the body, and after emergence from the capsule, penetrate cracks in
the earth so as to reach the surface. Immediately after doing this the
young Stauronotus moults, the skin it casts being called by Künckel
an amnios. The cervical ampulla reappears at subsequent moults,
and enables the Insect to burst its skin and emerge from it.
The process is apparently different in Caloptenus spretus, which,

according to Riley, ruptures the egg-shell and works its way out by
the action of the spines at the apex of the tibiae. This latter Insect
when it emerges moults a pellicle, which Riley considers to be part of
the embryonic membranes.
Riley states that a female of Caloptenus spretus makes several egg-

masses. Its period of ovipositing extends over about 62 days, the
number of egg-masses being four and the total number of eggs
deposited about 100. The French naturalists have recently observed
a similar fact in Algeria, and have ascertained that one of the
migratory locusts—Schistocerca peregrina—may make a deposit of
eggs at more than one of the places it may alight on during its
migration.
It has been ascertained that the eggs of Acridiidae are very nutritious
and afford sustenance to a number of Insects, some of which indeed
appear to find in them their sole means of subsistence. Beetles of
the family Cantharidae frequent the localities where the eggs are laid
and deposit their eggs in the egg-masses of the Orthoptera, which
may thus be entirely devoured. Two-winged flies of the family
Bombyliidae also avail themselves of these eggs for food, and a mite
is said to be very destructive to them in North America. Besides
being thus destroyed in enormous quantities by Insects, they are
eaten by various birds and by some mammals.
Most of the Insects called locusts in popular language are members

of the family Acridiidae, of which there are in different parts of the
world very many species, probably 2000 being already known. To
only a few of these can the term Locust be correctly applied. A locust
is a species of grasshopper that occasionally increases greatly in
number, and that moves about in swarms to seek fresh food. There
are many Orthoptera that occasionally greatly increase in numbers,
and that then extend their usual area more or less; and some
Acridiidae multiply locally to a great extent—very often for one or two
seasons only,—and are then called locusts. The true migratory
locusts are species that have gregarious habits strongly developed,
and that move over considerable distances in swarms. Of these
there are but few species, although we hear of their swarms in many
parts of the world.
The migratory locusts do much more damage than the endemic

species. In countries that are liable to their visitations they have a
great influence on the prosperity of the inhabitants, for they appear
suddenly on a spot in huge swarms, which, in the space of a few
hours, clear off all the vegetable food that can be eaten, leaving no
green thing for beast or man. It is difficult for those who have not
witnessed a serious invasion to realise the magnitude of the event.
Large swarms consist of an almost incalculable number of
individuals. A writer in Nature[224] states that a flight of locusts that
passed over the Red Sea in November 1889 was 2000 square miles
in extent, and he estimated its weight at 42,850 millions of tons, each
locust weighing 1⁄16 of an ounce. A second similar, perhaps even
larger, flight was seen passing in the same direction the next day.
That such an estimate may be no exaggeration is rendered probable
by other testimony. From official accounts of locusts in Cyprus we
find that in 1881,[225] up to the end of October, 1,600,000,000 egg-
cases had been that season collected and destroyed, each case
containing a considerable number of eggs. By the end of the season
the weight of the eggs collected and made away with amounted to
over 1300 tons, and, notwithstanding this, no less than
5,076,000,000 egg-cases were, it is believed, deposited in the island
in 1883.
When we realise the enormous number of individuals of which a

large swarm of locusts may consist we can see that famine is only a
too probable sequence, and that pestilence may follow—as it often
has done—from the decomposition of the bodies of the dead Insects.
This latter result is said to have occurred on some occasions from
locusts flying in a mass into the sea, and their dead bodies being
afterwards washed ashore.
Locust swarms do not visit the districts that are subject to their
invasions every year, but, as a rule, only after intervals of a
considerable number of years. It has been satisfactorily ascertained
that in both Algeria and North America large swarms occur usually
only at considerable intervals. In North America Riley thought[226]
the average period was about eleven years. In Algeria the first
invasion that occurred after the occupation of the country by the
French was in 1845, the second in 1864, the third in 1866, since
which 1874 and 1891 have been years of invasion. These breaks
seem at first strange, for it would be supposed that as locusts have
great powers of increase, when once they were established in any
spot in large numbers, there would be a constant production of
superfluous individuals which would have to migrate as regularly as
is the case with swarms of bees. The irregularity seems to depend
on three facts: viz. that the increase of locusts is kept in check by
parasitic Insects; that the eggs may remain more than one year in
the ground and yet hatch out when a favourable season occurs; and
that the migratory instinct is only effective when great numbers of
superfluous individuals are produced.
It is not known that the parasites have any power of remaining in

abeyance as the locust eggs may do; and the bird destroyers of the
locusts may greatly diminish in numbers during a year when the
Insects are not numerous; so that a disproportion of numbers
between the locusts and their destroyers may arise, and for a time
the locusts may increase rapidly, while the parasites are much
inferior to them in numbers. If there should come a year when very
few of the locusts hatch, then the next year there will be very few
parasites, and if there should then be a large hatching of locusts
from eggs that have remained in abeyance, the parasites will not be
present in sufficient quantity to keep the destructive Insects in check;
consequently the next year the increase in number of the locusts
may be so great as to give rise to a swarm.
It is well established that locusts of the migratory species exist in

countries without giving rise to swarms, or causing any serious
injuries; thus Pachytylus cinerascens—perhaps the most important
of the migratory locusts—is always present in various localities in
Belgium, and does not give rise to swarms. When migration of
locusts does occur it is attended by remarkable manifestations of
instinct. Although several generations may elapse without a
migration, it is believed that the locusts when they migrate do so in
the direction taken by predecessors. Their movements are to a large
extent dependent on the wind, and it is said that they make trial
flights to ascertain its direction. When on the wing probably very little
muscular effort is necessary. Their bodies contain elastic air sacs in
communication with the tracheae, and at the time of flight it may be
presumed that the body is comparatively empty, food being wanting,
and the internal organs of reproduction, which occupy a large space
when in activity, yet undeveloped, hence the sacs have full room for
expansion, as explained on p. 283. Thus the Insects exert but little
effort in their aerial movements, and are, it is believed, chiefly borne
by the wind. Should this become unfavourable it is said that they
alight and wait for a change.
The most obscure point in the natural history of the migratory locusts
appears to be their disappearance from a spot they have invaded. A
swarm will alight on a locality, deposit there a number of eggs, and
then move on. But after a lapse of a season or two there will be few
or none of the species present in the spot invaded. This appears to
be partly due to the young locusts dying for want of food after
hatching; but in other cases they again migrate after growth to the
land of their ancestors. The latter fact is most remarkable, but it has
been ascertained by the U.S. Entomological Commission that these
return swarms do occur.
Fig. 176.—Portions of body of Caloptenus spretus to show some of the

air-sacs. (Modified from Packard.) A, Dorsal aspect of anterior
parts; B, lateral aspect of posterior parts of body; a, enlargements
of tracheae in head; b, pair of large sacs in thorax; c, sacs on the
tracheal trunks of abdomen; s, spiracles.
In South Africa it would appear that the movements of the migratory

locusts are frequently made before the Insects have acquired their
wings. Mrs. Barber, in an account of "Locusts and Locust-Birds in
South Africa,"[227] has illustrated many points in the Natural History
of these Insects. The South African species manifests the gregarious
and migratory disposition when the individuals are quite young, so
that they travel in flocks on foot, and are called by the Dutch
"Voetgangers." After hatching, the various families of young
amalgamate, so that enormous numbers come together. Having
denuded the neighbourhood of all its food-supplies, they move off in
search of fresh crops and pastures new. They take advantage of
roads, and sometimes a good many miles will be traversed in a day;
they proceed by means of short leaps, rapidly repeated. When the
"Voetgangers" are thus returning northwards towards the lands in the
interior from which their progenitors departed, no obstacles can stay
their course. Forests or rivers may intervene, diverting them for a
while from their line of march, but they succeed ultimately in
continuing their journey to the interior.
The manner in which these wingless locusts occasionally cross

broad rivers is interesting, as it has some bearing on the difficult
question of the possibility of winged locusts crossing seas of
considerable width. Mrs. Barber refers to an instance that took place
on the Vaal River in the spring of the year 1871, shortly after the
discovery of the Diamond-fields. The country was at that time
swarming with young locusts; every blade of grass was cleared off
by them. One day a vast swarm of the "Voetgangers" made their
appearance on the banks of the Vaal River; they appeared to be in
search of a spot for crossing, which they could not find, the river
being somewhat swollen. For several days the locusts travelled up
the stream; in the course of doing this they paused for some time at
an abrupt bend in the river where a number of rocks were cropping
out, as if in doubt whether to attempt a passage at this place. They,
however, passed on, as if with the hope of finding a better ford; in
this apparently they were disappointed, for three days afterwards
they returned to the same bend of the river, and there plunged in
vast multitudes into the stream, where, assisted by a favourable
current and the sedges and water-plants which grew upon the
projecting rocks, they managed to effect a crossing, though great
numbers were drowned and carried away by the flooded river. Mrs.
Barber adds that "Voetgangers" have been known to attempt the
passage of the Orange River when it was several hundred yards in
breadth, pouring their vast swarms into the flooded stream
regardless of the consequences, until they became heaped upon
each other in large bodies. As the living mass in the water
accumulated, some portions of it were swept away by the strong
current from the bank to which they were clinging, and as the living
locusts tightly grasped each other and held together, they became
floating islands, the individuals continually hopping and creeping
over each other as they drifted away. Whether any of the locust-
islands succeeded in reaching the opposite bank is unknown;
probably some of them were drifted on land again. They are by no
means rapid swimmers; they do not perish easily in the water when
in masses, their habit of continually changing places and hopping
and creeping round and round upon each other being very
advantageous as a means of preservation. It is a common practice
for the young locusts to form a bridge over a moderately broad
stream by plunging indiscriminately into it and holding on to each
other, grappling like drowning men at sticks or straws, or, in fact,
anything that comes within their reach, and that will assist in floating
them; meanwhile those from behind are eagerly pushing forward
over the bodies of those that are already in the stream and hurrying
on to the front, until at length by this process they reach the opposite
bank of the river; thus a floating mass of living locusts is stretched
across the stream, forming a bridge over which the whole swarm
passes. In this manner few, comparatively speaking, are drowned,
because the same individuals do not remain in the water during the
whole of the time occupied by the swarm in crossing, the Insects
continually changing places with each other; those that are beneath
are endeavouring to reach the surface by climbing over others, whilst
those above them are, in their turn, being forced below. Locusts are
exceedingly tenacious of life, remaining under water for a
considerable time without injury. An apparently drowned locust will
revive beneath the warm rays of the sun, if by chance it reaches the
bank or is cast on shore. Mrs. Barber relates an interesting case
where the instinct of the "Voetgangers" was at fault, they plunging
into a river from a steep sandy bank, only to find another similar
sandy precipice on the other side. On this they could gain no footing,
and all perished in the stream, where they putrefied, and caused the
death of the fish, which floated likewise on the surface; so powerful
were the effluvia produced that no one was able to approach the
river.
Locusts are able to travel considerable distances, though how far is
quite uncertain. Accounts vary as to their moving by night. It has,
however, been recently proved that they do travel at night, but it is
not ascertained how long they can remain in the air without
descending. The ocean is undoubtedly a source of destruction to
many swarms; nevertheless, they traverse seas of considerable
width. They have been known to reach the Balearic Islands, and
Scudder gives[228] a well-authenticated case of the occurrence of a
swarm at sea. On the 2nd of November 1865 a ship on the voyage
from Bordeaux to Boston, when 1200 miles from the nearest land,
was invaded by a swarm of locusts, the air and the sails of the ship
being filled with them for two days. The species proved to be
Acridium (Schistocerca) peregrinum. This is an extraordinary case,
for locusts do not fly with rapidity, being, indeed, as we have
remarked, chiefly carried by the wind. Possibly some species may
occasionally rest on the water at night, proceeding somewhat after
the fashion of the "Voetgangers" when passing over rivers as
described by Mrs. Barber. In Sir Hans Sloane's history of Jamaica an
account of an occurrence of this kind is given on the authority of
Colonel Needham, who states that in 1649 locusts devastated the
island of Tenerife, that they were seen to come from Africa when the
wind was blowing thence, that they flew as far as they could, then
alighted on the water, one on the other, till they made a heap as big
as the greatest ship, and that the next day, being refreshed by the
sun, they took flight again and landed in clouds at Tenerife. De
Saussure says[229] that the great oceans are, as a rule, impassable
barriers, and that not a species of the tribe Oedipodides has passed
from the Old World to the New. It is, however, possible that Acridium
peregrinum, of the tribe Acridiides, may have originally been an
inhabitant of America, and have passed from thence to the Old
World.
Fig. 177.—European migratory locust, Pachytylus cinerascens ♀.
The species of Acridiidae that have been ascertained to be migratory

are not numerous.[230] The most abundant and widely distributed of
them is Pachytylus cinerascens (Fig. 177), which has invaded a
large part of the Eastern hemisphere, extending from the Atlantic
Ocean to China. It exists in numerous spots in the Oriental region
and the Asiatic Archipelago, and even in New Zealand. It is the
commoner of the locusts of Europe. Its congener, P. migratorius, is
much less widely distributed, its migrations being, according to de
Saussure, limited to Turkestan and Eastern Europe. A third species,
P. migratorioides, inhabits Eastern Africa, and a variety of it is the
"Yolala" or locust of Madagascar. Mr. Distant has informed the writer
that this migratory locust is found in South Africa. P. (Oedaleus)
marmoratus has almost as wide a distribution in the Eastern
hemisphere as P. cinerascens, except that it is more exclusively
tropical; it is thus excluded from New Zealand. P. (Oedaleus)
nigrofasciatus has a more northern distribution than its congener, but
has extended to Africa and the Asiatic Archipelago. This Insect is so
variable that the distinctions of its races from other species of the
same genus are not yet clear. All the above-mentioned locusts
belong to the tribe Oedipodides. Acridium peregrinum, now more
frequently called Schistocerca peregrina, belongs to the tribe
Acridiides. It is a large locust (Fig. 84), and has a wide distribution. It
is the chief species in North Africa, and is probably the locust of the
plagues of Egypt mentioned in the book of Exodus. It is also,
according to Cotes,[231] the chief locust of North-West India. In this
latter country Pachytylus cinerascens and some other species also
occur. With the exception of S. peregrina, the species of the genus
Schistocerca are confined to the New World. In North America
locusts are more usually called grasshoppers. Several species of the
genus Caloptenus are injurious in that country, but the chief
migratory species is C. spretus (Fig. 175). This genus belongs to
Acridiides. A large locust, Schistocerca americana, is also migratory
to a small extent in the United States. In South America other
species of Schistocerca are migratory; it is not known how many
there may be, and it is possible that one or more may prove to be the
S. peregrina of the Old World. A Chilian species, according to Mr. E.
C. Reed,[232] exhibits distinctions of colour similar to those that have
been observed in S. peregrina in Algeria.
Fig. 178.—Cephalocoema lineata, female, × ⅔. S. America. (After

Brunner.)
In Britain we are now exempt from the ravages of locusts, though

swarms are said to have visited England in 1693 and 1748.
Individuals of the migratory species are, however, still occasionally
met with in England and the south of Scotland. P. cinerascens has
been recorded from Kerry in Ireland, but erroneously, the Insect
found being Mecostethus grossus (Fig. 173). According to Miss
Ormerod,[233] large locusts are imported to this country in fodder in
considerable numbers, but are usually dead; living individuals are,
however, sometimes found among the others. In 1869 living
specimens of Schistocerca peregrina were found in various parts of
the country, having, in all probability, arrived here by crossing the
German Ocean. Pachytylus cinerascens has also, it is believed,
occurred here, the specimens that have been recorded at different
times under the name of P. migratorius being more probably the
former species.
Although the majority of the very large number of species included in
Acridiidae are recognised with ease from their family likeness as
belonging to the group, yet there are others that present an unusual
aspect. This is specially the case with the members of the small
tribes Tettigides, Proscopides, and Pneumorides, and with some of
the apterous forms of the Oedipodides. The tribe Proscopides (Fig.
178, Cephalocoema lineata, female) includes some of the most
curious of the Acridiidae. Breitenbach gives[234] a brief account of
the habits of certain species which he met with near Porto Alegre in
South America. On a stony hill there was some grass which, by
several months' exposure to the sun's rays, had become withered
and brown. Apparently no live thing was to seen on this hillock
except the ubiquitous ants, but after a while he noticed some
"lightning-like" movements, which he found were due to specimens
of Proscopia. The Insects exactly resemble the withered vegetation
amongst which they sit, and when alarmed seek safety with a
lengthy and most rapid leap. When attention was thus directed to
them he found the Insects were really abundant, and was often able
to secure fifty specimens on a single afternoon. These Insects bear a
great general resemblance to the Phasmides, but there is no
evidence at present to show that the two kinds of Insects live in
company, as is the case with so many of the Insects that resemble
one another in appearance. Although the linear form and the
elongation of the body are common to the stick-Insects and the
Proscopides, yet this structure is due to the growth of different parts
in the two families. In the Phasmidae the prothorax is small, the
mesothorax elongate, while in the Proscopides the reverse is the
case. The elongation of the head is very curious in these Insects; the
mouth is not thus brought any nearer to the front, but is placed on
the under side of the head, quite close to the thorax. The tribe
Tryxalides contains Insects (Fig. 165) that approach the Proscopides
in the form of the head and other characters. In most cases the
sexes of the Proscopides differ from one another so strongly that it is
difficult to recognise them as being of the same species. Usually
both sexes are entirely apterous, but the Chilian genus Astroma
exhibits a remarkable exception and an almost unique condition of
the alar organs, the mesonotum being in each sex entirely destitute
of such appendages, while the female has on the metanotum
rudiments of wings which are absent in the male.
Fig. 179.—Tettix bipunctatus. Britain. A, The Insect magnified; B, part

of the middle of the body; a, prolongation of pronotum; b, tegmen;
c, wing.
The tribe Tettigides is a very extensive group of small Acridiidae, in

which the pronotum extends backwards as a hood and covers the
body, the tegmina and wings being more or less modified. In our
British species (Fig. 179) this condition does not greatly modify the
appearance of the Insect, but in many exotic species (Fig. 180) the
hood assumes remarkable developments, so that the Insects have
no longer the appearance of Orthoptera. It would be impossible,
without the aid of many figures, to give an idea of the variety of forms
assumed by this prothoracic expansion. It is a repetition of what
occurs in the Order Hemiptera, where the prothoracic hoods of the
Membracides exhibit a similar, though even more extraordinary,
series of monstrous forms. So great is the general similarity of the
two groups that when the genus Xerophyllum (Fig. 180, A) was for
the first time described, it was treated by the describer as being a
bug instead of a grasshopper. This genus includes several species
from Africa. The curious Cladonotus (Fig. 180, B) is a native of
Ceylon, where it is said to live in sandy meadows, after the fashion
of our indigenous species of Tettix (Fig. 179). Very little is known as
to the habits of these curious Tettigides, but it has been ascertained
that some of the genus Scelimena are amphibious, and do not
hesitate to enter the water and swim about there; indeed it is said
that they prefer plants growing under water as food. This habit has
been observed both in Ceylon and the Himalayas. The species are
said to have the hind legs provided with dilated foliaceous
appendages useful for swimming.
Fig. 180.—Tettigides: A, Xerophyllum simile Fairm.; B, Cladonotus
humbertianus. (After Bolivar.)
Fig. 181.—A, Mastax (Erianthus) guttatus, male. Sumatra. (After

Westwood.) B, profile; C, front of head.
The tribe Mastacides includes thirty or forty species of Acridiidae

with short antennae and vertical head (Fig. 181, Mastax guttatus);
they are apparently all rare and little known, but are widely
distributed in the tropics of the Old and New Worlds. Nothing
whatever seems to be known of their habits or of their development.
The tribe Pneumorides includes a still smaller number of species of

very aberrant and remarkable grasshoppers, of large size, with short
antennae, and with the pronotum prolonged and hood-like; they are
peculiar to South Africa. Although amongst the most remarkable of
Insects, we are not able to give any information as to their habits. It
would appear from the form of their legs that they have but little
power of hopping. The species of which we figure the female (Fig.
182) is very remarkable from the difference in colour of the sexes.
The female is so extravagantly coloured that she has been said to
look as if "got up" for a fancy-dress ball. She is of a gay green, with
pearly white marks, each of which is surrounded by an edging of
magenta; the white marks are very numerous, especially on the
parts of the body not shown in our figure; the face has magenta
patches and a large number of tiny pearly-white tubercles, each of
which, when placed on a green part, is surrounded by a little ring of
mauve colour. Though the female is certainly one of the most
remarkably coloured of Insects, her consort is of a modest, almost
unadorned green colour, and is considerably different in form. He is,
however, provided with a musical apparatus, which it is possible may
be a means of pleasing his gorgeous but dumb spouse. It consists of
a series of ridges placed on each side of the inflated abdomen,
which, as we have previously (p. 200) remarked, has every
appearance of being inflated with the result of improving its
resonance.
Fig. 182.—Pneumora scutellaris, female. South Africa.
The Pyrgomorphides[235] is a small tribe of about 120 described

species, two of which are found in the south of Europe (Fig. 183,
Pyrgomorpha grylloides). The tribe includes a number of large and
curious Insects, among them the species of Phymateus and Petasia,
with peculiar excrescences on the pronotum and vivid colours on
some parts of the body or its appendages, which are apparently
common Insects in South Africa.
The tribe Tryxalides includes a great many species of grasshoppers.

In them the front of the head joins the upper part at an acute angle
(Figs. 165 and 173). This tribe and the Acridiides are the most
numerous in species of the family. To the latter belong most of the
migratory locusts of the New World (Fig. 175, Caloptenus spretus). A
Spanish species of this tribe, Euprepocnemis plorans, though
provided with well-developed wings, possesses the remarkable habit
of seeking shelter by jumping into the water and attaching itself
below the surface to the stems of plants.
Fig. 183.—Pyrgomorpha grylloides. South Europe. (After Fischer.)
Fig. 184.—Xiphocera (Hoplolopha) asina. S. Africa. (After de

Saussure.)
The tribe Pamphagides[236] includes some 200 species, found

chiefly in Africa and the arid regions near the Mediterranean Sea.
They are mostly apterous forms, and this circumstance has,
according to de Saussure, exercised a marked influence on the
geographical distribution of the species. Although the tribe consists
chiefly of apterous forms, several species possess well-developed
wings; sometimes this is the case of the male but not of the female.
Some of the species are highly modified for a desert life, and exhibit
a great variation in the colour of the individuals in conformity with the
tint of the soil they inhabit. Xiphocera asina (Fig. 184) is thought by
Péringuey to be the prey of the extraordinary South African tiger-
beetles of the genus Manticora.
We have already mentioned the tribe Oedipodides[237] as including

most of the species of migratory locusts of the Old World. Some
striking cases of variation in colour occur amongst the winged
Oedipodides. In certain species the hind wings may be either blue or
rosaceous in colour; it is thought that the latter is the tint natural in
the species, and that it is due to the mixture of a red pigment with the
pale blue colour of the wing; hence the blue-coloured wings are
analogous to cases of albinism. But the most remarkable fact is that
this colour difference is correlative with locality. Brunner von
Wattenwyl says[238] that the blue variety of Oe. variabilis occurs only
in a few localities in Europe—he mentions Vienna and Sarepta,—
and that where it occurs not a single red example can be met with.
Similar phenomena occur in other species in both Europe and North
America, and L. Bruner has suggested[239] that the phenomena in
the latter country are correlative with climatic conditions.
The group Eremobiens, a subdivision of Oedipodides, includes some

of the most interesting forms of Acridiidae. Its members have several
modes of stridulation. Cuculligera flexuosa and other of the winged
forms, according to Pantel,[240] produce sounds by the friction of the
middle tibia against the wing, both of these parts being specially
modified for the purpose in the male sex. The most peculiar
members of the Eremobiens are some very large Insects, modified
to an extraordinary extent for a sedentary life in deserts and arid
places. Trimen says[241] that a South African species, Trachypetra
bufo, which lives amongst stones, is so coloured that he had much
difficulty in detecting it, and that he noticed in certain spots, often
only a few square yards in extent, where the stones lying on the
ground were darker, lighter, or more mottled than usual, that the
individuals of the grasshopper were of a similar colour to the stones.
Fig. 185.—Methone anderssoni, female. S. Africa. a, Front of head; b,
posterior leg; c, d, front and hind feet. (c and d magnified, the
others natural size.)
The Insect referred to by Trimen is, we believe, the Batrachotettix

whiti of de Saussure. In this species the alar organs are completely
absent, and the pronotum forms a sort of hood that protects the base
of the hind body. Some of the desert Eremobiens vary so much that
the differences found among individuals of the same species are
said by Brunner and de Saussure to be so great as to affect even the
generic characters, and give rise to the idea of an "uncompleted
species-formation."
Fig. 186.—Portions of middle of the body and hind leg of Methone

anderssoni ♂ : a, femur; b, an inferior fold; c, rattling-plate; d,
striated surface; e, the adjoining sculpture; f, grooved portion of
tegmen. The part e is really, like d, a portion of the second
abdominal segment, not of the third, as might be supposed from
the figure.
Methone anderssoni, an inhabitant of the Karoo Desert of South

Africa, is one of the largest of the Acridiidae. A female of this species
is represented of the natural size in Fig. 185. This Insect is
remarkable on account of the complex organs for producing sound,
and for the great modification of the posterior legs (Fig. 185, b),
which do not possess locomotive functions, but serve as a portion of
the sound-producing apparatus, and as organs for protecting the
sides of the body. This Insect is said to be very efficient in making a
noise. The sexes differ considerably in their sound-producing
organs, a portion of which are present in the female as well as in the
male (Fig. 186). Connected with the first abdominal segment, but
extending backwards on the second, there is a peculiar swelling
bearing two or three strongly raised chitinous folds (Fig. 186, c).
When the leg is rotated these folds are struck by some peg-like
projections situate on the inner face of the base of the femur, and a
considerable noise is thus produced. The pegs cannot be seen in
our figure. This apparatus is equally well developed in female and
male. On the second abdominal segment, immediately behind the
creaking folds we have described, there is a prominent area, densely
and finely striated (Fig. 186, d): this is rubbed by some fine asperities
on the inner part of the femur near its base. Sound is produced by
this friction on the striated surface, the sculpture of which is abruptly
contrasted with that of the contiguous parts: these structures seem
to be somewhat better developed in the male than they are in the
female, and to be phonetic, at any rate in the former sex. The male
has the rudimentary tegmina (Fig. 186, f) much longer than they are
in the female (Fig. 185), and their prolonged part is deeply grooved,
so as to give rise to strong ridges, over which plays the edge of the
denticulate and serrate femur. There is nothing to correspond to this
in the female, and friction over the surface of this part of the male
produces a different and louder sound. There can be little doubt that
this is a phonetic structure peculiar to the male. It approximates in
situation to the sound-producing apparatus of the males of the
Stenobothri and other Acridiidae. Methone anderssoni has large

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African Politics and Ethics: Exploring

New Dimensions 1st ed. Edition

Munyaradzi Felix Murove

ISBN 978-3-030-54184-2 ISBN 978-3-030-54185-9 (eBook)

Cover illustration: Walter Bibikow / Getty Images

My greatest appreciation goes to my postgraduate student and research

2 African Ethics in a Nutshell 7

3 Ethical Politics in the Context of African Traditional

4 African Ethics and the Post-colonial Politics of Tradition 53

5 Politics of Tradition and African Identity 83

6 African Traditional Humanism and the Ethic of

7 Regional Integration and the Ethic of Co-operation in

8 Traditional African Resources for Ethical Leadership139

© The Author(s) 2020 1

The absence of professionalism in politics has contributed to a general

and ethics in the ethical genre of African traditional humanism remained

next moment of one’s existence. This type of Godly power estranges

African Ethics in a Nutshell

© The Author(s) 2020 7

complement each other in African ethics. These themes are Ancestors,

African Ethics as Ancestral Ethics

ontologically in close proximity to their immortal state of existence. These

What is going on in the world of mortality with regard to human rela-

being innovative. In the nonverbal communication, the community con-

political discourse was based on nationalistic attempts to reconstruct a new

Ubuntu (Humanness) in African Ethics

indisputable truism that the community plays an indispensable role in the

Ubuntu in which he argued that “if a person is a person through other

a sense of Ubuntu. If living harmoniously with others is the determining

African Ethics and Relationality

phenomenon of individuals in groups; hence the term ‘methodological

Fig. 175.—Caloptenus spretus. North America. A, Newly hatched,

Riley and Packard have given an account[221] of some parts of the

The discovery that Orthoptera change their colours in the course of

The Acridiidae are considered to be exclusively vegetable feeders,

The details of the process of oviposition and of the escape of the

The process is apparently different in Caloptenus spretus, which,

Riley states that a female of Caloptenus spretus makes several egg-

Most of the Insects called locusts in popular language are members

The migratory locusts do much more damage than the endemic

When we realise the enormous number of individuals of which a

It is not known that the parasites have any power of remaining in

It is well established that locusts of the migratory species exist in

Fig. 176.—Portions of body of Caloptenus spretus to show some of the

In South Africa it would appear that the movements of the migratory

The manner in which these wingless locusts occasionally cross

The species of Acridiidae that have been ascertained to be migratory

Fig. 178.—Cephalocoema lineata, female, × ⅔. S. America. (After

In Britain we are now exempt from the ravages of locusts, though

Fig. 179.—Tettix bipunctatus. Britain. A, The Insect magnified; B, part

The tribe Tettigides is a very extensive group of small Acridiidae, in

Fig. 181.—A, Mastax (Erianthus) guttatus, male. Sumatra. (After

The tribe Mastacides includes thirty or forty species of Acridiidae

The tribe Pneumorides includes a still smaller number of species of

Fig. 182.—Pneumora scutellaris, female. South Africa.

The Pyrgomorphides[235] is a small tribe of about 120 described

The tribe Tryxalides includes a great many species of grasshoppers.

Fig. 183.—Pyrgomorpha grylloides. South Europe. (After Fischer.)

Fig. 184.—Xiphocera (Hoplolopha) asina. S. Africa. (After de

The tribe Pamphagides[236] includes some 200 species, found

We have already mentioned the tribe Oedipodides[237] as including

The group Eremobiens, a subdivision of Oedipodides, includes some

The Insect referred to by Trimen is, we believe, the Batrachotettix

2 African Ethics in a Nutshell 7

3 Ethical Politics in the Context of African Traditional

4 African Ethics and the Post-colonial Politics of Tradition 53

5 Politics of Tradition and African Identity 83

6 African Traditional Humanism and the Ethic of

7 Regional Integration and the Ethic of Co-operation in

8 Traditional African Resources for Ethical Leadership139