Civilisation is defined as the social process whereby societies achieve an advanced stage of development and organization.
This Eurocentric definition has hotly been challenged since it is hinged on technical advancement usually devoid of solid moral grounding.
When Europeans came into contact with other societies, they used their advanced technology to judge the conquered peoples whom they considered inferior.
Though there has never been a universally-accepted definition of civilisation the western designation of the word based of technological advancement is being largely dismissed.
Actually, sociologists have discovered that civilization or being civilized is not exclusively objective but subjective since it can be argued precisely when a group of people become civilised and how developed a civilisation is?
Someone may directly say civilization is a set of people or society scientifically and economically advanced, while someone else can consider being civilized as a body defined by a moral code, legal code to, then it’s subjective.
Africans usually defined what Europeans called civilisation using their own yardstick of morality and how a human being or society treated other human beings of societies.
Abstraction is a reason for things to be subjective, which is why these discussions can go on interminably.
Nowadays, civilisation as defined by western countries is being condemned not only for being Eurocentric but also for its racist connotations.
For example anthropology which usually targets ethnic groupings that are perceived to be ‘backward,’ ‘primitive’ or ‘simple’ is now coming under fierce attack.
If we use different yardsticks, all societies are can be deemed as civilised since the measures used to deduce this abstract word differs from one environment to another.
Being civilised is largely responsible for the “holier than thou” or ‘us and them’ theory that frowns upon the ‘otherness.’
For westerners, especially the missionaries and other explorers who ‘discovered’ other societies, civilisation was considered as belonging to an “advanced” culture in contrast to the primitive cultures.
The westerners thus characterised their civilisation by social hierarchy or urbanization, centralisation, developed communication forms, ideology of progress, taxation and politics. Long before the industrial revolution that led to the British Empire which greatly influenced the world in technology, science and politics there was the Roman Empire that also prided itself as being civilised.
However, evidence is surfacing that in terms of lifestyle, the Romans were no different if not worse from the conquered tribes whom they despised.
Though ancient Rome is credited with advanced ways of governance like collection of taxes, military skills, religion and law Romans were also known for primitive practices that shocked the people they looked down on.
These included collecting urine for cleaning clothes, cleaning their teeth.
The Roman public toilets were also dangerously disgusting since they were filled with parasites. In fact, Romans going to the bathroom would carry special combs designed to shave out lice.
When one entered a Roman toilet, there was a very real risk they would die not to talk of creatures living in the sewage crawling up to bite people while they did their business. Roman’s hedonism took excess to new levels since at their banquets they would eat until they couldn’t eat anymore—and then they would vomit so that they could keep eating.
In morality the westerners who ‘discovered’ us were wanting since they only used technology, religion and their way of life to boast of their advancement.
As Africans the equivalent of civilisation was how one related to others in “extroverted communities” that Africa how always been.
Termed as Ubuntu among the Zulus, a person was judged on how he related with other people since his humanity was interlinked with that of people around him.
In Africa traditional African, there was sincere warmth with which people treated both strangers and members of the community.
Thus the “Ubuntu” as political philosophy has aspects of socialism propagating the redistribution of wealth explaining why the first crop of African leaders readily embraced socialism rather than capitalism the latter that promotes individualism.
Some scholars have even argued that ubuntu is a communitarian philosophy that is widely differentiated from the Western notion of communitarian socialism.
Westerners who readily call Africa an uncivilised place need to reconsider their unjustifiable accusation.
They also need to come up with a more universal definition of civilisation.