Leiden University Student Repository

Leeuwendal, Redmar (2025)

Towards African-Based AI: Developing an Ezumezu-inspired Deontic Logic for Automated Reasoning Tasks

Bachelor thesis | Afrikaanse talen en culturen (BA)

This thesis develops a deontic logic inspired by Ezumezu logic, an Igbo philosophical system, to better model ethical reasoning in African contexts. Standard Deontic Logic (SDL), common in AI, relies on binary truth values and universal norms that often misalign with African relational and context-sensitive ethics. Drawing on Jonathan Chimakonam’s framework, the thesis introduces a three-valued logic that incorporates arumaristics and ohakaristics, two dialogical inference methods. A case study from South Africa illustrates how this Ezumezu-inspired deontic logic (EDL) can handle norm conflict more effectively than SDL. The study contributes to the decolonisation of formal systems and supports more culturally grounded AI applications in Africa.

African epistemology

Deontic logic

Ezumezu logic

Decolonisation of knowledge

Automated decision-making

Author

Leeuwendal, Redmar

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

de Bruijn, M.E.

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en