REHUMANISING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE THROUGH IGBO-AFRICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: PERSONHOOD, MORAL AGENCY, AND THE ETHICS OF DIGITAL GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The rapid spread of artificial intelligence technologies into African governance systems raises ethical questions that current frameworks are ill-equipped to answer. This article argues that dominant approaches to AI ethics, rooted largely in Western liberal individualism, cannot adequately account for the communitarian values and relational conception of personhood that characterise African philosophical traditions. Drawing on Igbo-African philosophical anthropology, and in particular the concept of mmadu, the study develops an alternative ethical framework for thinking about AI and digital governance in Nigeria. The Igbo understanding of personhood as a communal and relational achievement, rather than a fixed biological endowment, offers a productive basis for rethinking moral agency, accountability, and governance in the age of AI. A conceptual and analytical methodology is employed throughout. The findings indicate that grounding AI ethics in this tradition reorients digital governance in Nigeria towards relational values, cultural integrity, and collective accountability. The article contributes to the emerging scholarship on decolonial AI ethics and affirms the capacity of African philosophical traditions to engage substantively with the pressing questions of the digital age.