ABSTRACT
The task of this study is to explore the nature of evil in Yoruba (African) traditional thought. The study argues that the philosophical problem of evil, which is one of the oldest metaphysical problems in Western philosophy, does not arise in traditional African thought. This is because African cosmological belief on the nature of evil and the various attributes of God is neither problematic nor contradictory with the reality of evil in the world. The study posits that for the traditional African, God does not possess the infinite attributes of omnipotence and omniscience, which led to the philosophical problem of evil in Western philosophy. The study finds out that the African God, who is both benevolent and malevolent, perceives the occurrences of evils in the world, as necessary conditions for the sustenance of order and operations of man in the universe. The study discovers that Africans consider evilness and goodness to be dialectical and not diametrically opposed to each other. The study concludes that while the traditional African conceptions of evil raise issues beyond the philosophical problem of evil, such conceptions have the advantages of providing some salient moral lessons for the contemporary world and answers to many puzzling human problems.
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KEYWORDS: African Metaphysics, Problem of Evil, Yoruba Cosmology
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