In today’s globalised world of ideas, there is a conspicuous absence of articulated contemporary African thought in the formulation of various global agenda for human flourishing. Africa’s usual emotive recourse to sterile ethno-philosophical positions on critical world issues has become even more impotent, if not self-destructive, in the face of 21st Century advances in philosophical thought, science, technology and globalisation.

Meanwhile, Africa’s post-colonial realities – which range from ethnic violence, xenophobia and illiteracy; to appalling governance, institutionalised corruption, rampant disease epidemics and deplorable economic emigration – essentially demand a radical conceptual and mind-set revolution.

Africa Institute for Human Dignity (AIHD) believes that the desirable value-laden human flourishing in Africa is not an entitlement, and neither is it automatic nor inevitable. AIHD, therefore, aims to constitute a synergistic network of distinguished scholars from all walks of life, who are focused on critically examining and articulating contemporary African thought on the dignity of the human person, human values and human flourishing - towards a true African renaissance.

Thus with AIHD’s realistic conceptual and mind-set revolution, Africa’s longingly bright future is truly in our hands. In the history of human civilisation – as Nelson Mandela and others testify – great ideas are what endures and are worth all the sacrifice. With its remarkable abundance of natural resources, Africa cannot afford to remain simply a passive consumer of ideas but must actively engage in their conception.