DECOLONISING AI ETHICS: RETHINKING MORAL FRAMEWORKS THROUGH IGBO COMMUNITARIAN THOUGHT

Abstract

This article questions the assumption that current frameworks of artificial intelligence ethics are universally applicable. Much of the dominant discourse in AI governance draws on Western liberal traditions that prioritise individual autonomy, procedural fairness, and abstract rights. While these principles are often presented as neutral, they reflect particular historical and cultural assumptions about the moral subject and the role of technology. The global application of such framework’s risks reproducing a form of ethical dominance that marginalises alternative moral traditions. Against this background, the article develops Igbo communitarian thought as a philosophical resource for rethinking AI ethics. Central to this account are the concepts of ndu (relational life), ọha (community as constitutive of personhood), and eze (authority grounded in communal trust). These ideas challenge individualist models by shifting attention toward relational well-being, collective responsibility, and community legitimacy. The argument proceeds by examining the limitations of existing AI ethics principles and exploring how a communitarian framework would reshape questions of governance, accountability, and fairness. It concludes that decolonising AI ethics requires more than inclusion within existing systems; it demands a rethinking of their philosophical foundations. What emerges is not a rejection of AI ethics as such, but a call to reconstruct it in ways that take seriously the plurality of moral traditions and the realities of the communities most affected by AI systems.