Symphorien Ntibagirirwa
Ethique et Société

This editorial essay gives a framework within which articles published in this issue should be read understood. Against the background of Mahmoud Mamdani’s “African intellectual and identity: overcoming the political heritage of colonialism” and Albert Nolan’s “The Spiritual life of the intellectual”, it argues that the African intellectuals must come out of their intellectual ethnic kraal to embrace the itinerary of citizenship. As in the time of the struggle for independence 50 years back, they have the responsibility to help all their fellow citizens to build the edifice which will be inaugurated at the end of the next 50 years. This mind-shift has three major requirements with which the African intellectuals have to engage with, namely: 1) To define themselves as intellectuals, that is, as people who are in search of truth; 2) To develop the spiritual life of the intellectual, that is a kind of interiority that allows one to transcend egocentrism, individualism and sectarism so as to achieve the common good. It is question of becoming an “organic intellectual” who is open to the kind of change the society needs; 3) And finally, to develop the independence of the spirit, that is, the kind of distance that only truth can offer for anyone to break the barriers that separate people. The editorial concludes by a panoramic view of articles of publication.