Ubuntu philosophy
In Xhosa, the latter term is used, but is often meant in a more philosophical sense to mean "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity".
While the nuances of these values and practices vary across different ethnic groups, they all point to one thing – an authentic individual human being is part of a larger and more significant relational, communal, societal, environmental and spiritual world[4]There are many different (and not always compatible) definitions of what Ubuntu is.
The resultant collaborative work within these spontaneous communities transcends the aesthetic and gives functional significance to the value of warmth.
Socialisation presupposes a community population with which individuals empathise and concomitantly, have a vested interest in its collective prosperity.
In fact, ubuntu induces an ideal of shared human subjectivity that promotes a community's good through an unconditional recognition and appreciation of individual uniqueness and difference.
[10] Audrey Tang has suggested that Ubuntu "implies that everyone has different skills and strengths; people are not isolated, and through mutual support they can help each other to complete themselves.
Other scholars such as Mboti (2015) argue that the normative definition of Ubuntu, notwithstanding its intuitive appeal, is still open to doubt.
He sees a philosophical trap in attempts to elevate harmony to a moral duty – a sort of categorical imperative – that Africans must simply uphold.
[15] The concept was popularised in terms of a "philosophy" or "world view" (as opposed to a quality attributed to an individual) beginning in the 1950s, notably in the writings of Jordan Kush Ngubane published in the African Drum magazine.
Hunhuism or Ubuntuism is presented as political ideology for the new Zimbabwe, as Southern Rhodesia attained independence from the United Kingdom.
The term appears in the Epilogue of the Interim Constitution of South Africa (1993): "there is a need for understanding but not for vengeance, a need for reparation but not for retaliation, a need for ubuntu but not for victimisation".
[16] In South Africa, it has come to be used as a contested[17] term for a kind of humanist philosophy, ethic, or ideology, also known as Ubuntuism propagated in the Africanisation (transition to majority rule) process of these countries during the 1980s and 1990s.
The third 'maxim' as a 'principle deeply embedded in traditional African political philosophy' says 'that the king owed his status, including all the powers associated with it, to the will of the people under him'.
]Nelson Mandela explained Ubuntu as follows:[22] A traveller through a country would stop at a village and he didn't have to ask for food or for water.
The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?Tim Jackson refers to Ubuntu as a philosophy that supports the changes he says are necessary to create a future that is economically and environmentally sustainable.
[23] Judge Colin Lamont expanded on the definition during his ruling on the hate speech trial of Julius Malema.
[24] At Nelson Mandela's memorial, United States President Barack Obama spoke about Ubuntu, saying, There is a word in South Africa – Ubuntu – a word that captures Mandela's greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that are invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us.
But we remember the gestures, large and small – introducing his jailers as honored guests at his inauguration; taking a pitch in a Springbok uniform; turning his family’s heartbreak into a call to confront HIV/AIDS – that revealed the depth of his empathy and his understanding.
[27] Msusa noted that in Africa "We say 'I am because we are', or in Chichewa kali kokha nkanyama, tili awiri ntiwanthu (when you are on your own you are as good as an animal of the wild; when there are two of you, you form a community)."
[27] Some notable Malawian uMunthu philosophers and intellectuals who have written about this worldview are Augustine Musopole, Gerard Chigona, Chiwoza Bandawe, Richard Tambulasi, Harvey Kwiyani and Happy Kayuni.
[28] In film, the English translation of the proverb lent its hand to forming the title of Madonna's 2008 documentary, I Am Because We Are, about Malawian orphans.
In June 2009, in her swearing-in remarks as US Department of State Special Representative for Global Partnerships, Global Partnership Initiative, Office of the Secretary of State, Elizabeth Frawley Bagley discussed ubuntu in the context of American foreign policy, stating: "In understanding the responsibilities that come with our interconnectedness, we realize that we must rely on each other to lift our World from where it is now to where we want it to be in our lifetime, while casting aside our worn out preconceptions, and our outdated modes of statecraft."
Our work no longer depends on the least common denominator; but rather, we will seek the highest possible multiplier effect for the results we can achieve together.
[30] Ubuntu education uses the family, community, society, environment and spirituality as sources of knowledge but also as teaching and learning media.
[32] Utilising the biopsychosocial and ecological system approaches, ubuntu is a philosophy that is applicable in clinical social work in mental health.
[37] Among the Shona people, for example, when a person dies, his or her property is shared amongst relatives and there are culturally approved ways of doing this.
African scholars have noted that while some elements of Ubuntu are liberating to women, others "marginalize and disempower" them, and "can be seen as engendering patriarchy".
[40] The underlying restorative justice value of power sharing is very much aligned with the Ubuntu philosophy which "sees" the other through their humanity.
[41] Former US president Bill Clinton used the term at the 2006 Labour Party conference in the UK to explain why society is important.
[43] The first episode of the 2020 Netflix docuseries The Playbook shows how Boston Celtic's coach, Glenn Anton "Doc" Rivers learned of the Ubuntu philosophy.
