PRESION ABSOLUTA = PRESION BAROMETRICA + PRESION MANOMETRICA

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family system, one can deduct wider practice of individual communal relationship in terms of communalism.

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of the community. “It is the type of justice demanded this time by their natural fortunes, or social circumstances.”²¹ Justice-as-concern has its central target on the greater need. It is the urgency which the greater need has over average need that gives ethical relevance, and significance to concern. Justice-as-concern seems to punctuate virtually all West African communal existence, and its expressions seem to vary with the circumstances of need.

Justice-as-Co-existence

The concept of justice-as-co-existence is the basis of moral justice. For Okolo “the African is not just a being but a being-with, a being-with-others or as I said elsewhere the African self is defined in terms of “we-existence” just as much as “we” in “I-existence” through social interactions.”²² The net connections and interactions which define the social relations of self in African philosophy are seen rooted in their micro-dimension in the extended family system conceived by E.A. Rush and K.C. Anyanwu as one “in which everybody is linked with all other members, living or dead, through a complex network of spiritual relationships into a kind of mystical body.”²³ Justice-as-co-existence ontologically is beyond egoistic and utilitarian needs of self. For the African life is a co-participation, this is the very reason for characterizing justice-as-co-existence as a being-with.

Justice-as-Care

It is an integral part of moral justice; justice-as-care has both promotional and protective dimensions, of the integral justice-in-communalism. For Ekei “the ethical implication of this is that without such concerted efforts of the individual through co-existence, co-operations, and caring human life is likely to be highly precarious.”²⁴ Justice as care is an activity that tends to promote the human survival and flourishing in the communal setting, all for the good of the individuals and the community.

47 Justice-as-Acceptance

The concept “acceptance” as a positive disposition implies some degree of readiness voluntarily to act desirably. In traditional communal setting the “acceptance” of moral obligations is facilitated by a set of rituals which have come to be called “life crisis ritual” or

“rites of passage” Ekei further implies that ethical significance of this phenomenon is that “it is an act of the will to accept, as it is, to choose, to decide, or to consent. In its natural tendency, acceptance, like the will goes for its own choice. In other words, one tends to choose and to consent, to what will benefit oneself.”²⁵ Justice in African communalism has three basic dimensions, which includes personal, social and metaphysical dimensions.

Personal dimension of justice infers that self is always a basic human affirmation and therefore, a veritable foundation of a being-with. In Africa the essential focus of self is towards others, it could not have been possible if self has not first focused on itself for actualization of self at least slightly.

The social dimension of communal justice conceives the person not only as a lone being but a being-with-others. His existence is therefore, in terms of caring and concern for himself and for others. He is therefore, a being-with, as he is equally a social being. The expression of African being-with is a sense of acceptance, care, concern and sharing. “In other words, social dimension of communal justice implies an involvement with, and just a mere natural

“aggregation” of man (Aristotle), who may be in fact less committed to man as such.”²⁶ Here, the metaphysical expressions of justice lie essentially on the determination of valid relationships between man and God, ancestors and between man and other gods. The African traditional metaphysical expressions of justice falls under traditional religious practices, aimed at establishing a harmony, and a better bargain from the gods as well as from the ancestors, within the communal setting.

African communal justice for Ekei, incorporates two perspectives of justice: promotional and protective perspectives. There is therefore in the concept of justice, the positive and the

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negative perspectives. While the positive involves the promotional and prescribes what should be done in the attainment of justice, the negative involves the protective perspective and it proscribes what should not be done. The explication of the concepts identifies promotional perspective of African communal justice as those that promote co-existence, acceptance, care and concern within the communal setting, while the protective perspective considered as human ambivalence refers to the “evil” dimension of man‟s existence.