Relational Being as Icon or Communal Freedom: Southern Africa's Ubuntu
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Abstract
Beginning from the question “What is the self?†a range of applications of the African concept of ubuntu is shown to be an alternate model of person-in-relation to that of Western views. In its traditional form, ubuntu situated the individual person in a web of relations in which self and world were united and intermingled in reciprocal relations that accentuated the obligations and mutuality of being human. Appearing in South Africa’s 1993 interim Constitution, it lends gravity and concern for justice to all relations to which that document applies, with effects on national laws, programs, and responsibilities of governance. The genealogy, uses, and critiques of ubuntu are investigated, arriving at the conclusion that, as a traditional though reconstructed principle, it remains a viable force, provided its critics’ analyses are accounted for, and it is treated as a force for freedom rather than an icon of the inaccessible past.
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Keywords: ubuntu, relational being, community, individual, power, freedom, social cohesion,   reification, mystification, reconciliation
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Keywords: ubuntu, relational being, community, individual, power, freedom, social cohesion,   reification, mystification, reconciliation
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Samkange, Stanlake and Tommie Marie Samkange. 1980. Hunhuism or Ubuntuism: A Zimbabwe Indigenous Political Philosophy. Salisbury: Graham Publishing.
Senghor, Lèopold. 1963. Negritude and African Socialism.†In St. Anthony’s Papers No. 15, edited by K. Kirkwood. Oxford.
Shutte, Augustine. 2001. Ubuntu: An Ethic for a New South Africa. Pietermaritzburg, RSA: Cluster Publications.
Shutte, Augustine. 1995. Philosophy for Africa. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press.
Shutte, Augustine. 1993. Philosophy for Africa. Cape Town: UCT Press
Tutu, Desmond. 1999. No Future without Forgiveness. New York: Doubleday.
Van Binsbergen, Wim. 2001. “Ubuntu and the Globalization of Southern African Thought and Society. Quest, Vol. XV.
Apostel, Leo. 1981. African Philosophy: Myth or Reality? Ghent: Scientia.
Aristotle. 1908. The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle, Bk IX, Ch. 8. Translated by William David Ross. http: //www.sacred-texts.com/cla/ari/nico/index.htm
Azanian Peoples Organization (AZAPO) and Three other Respondents vs. The President of the Republic of South Africa, and Four other Respondents. Constitutional Court of South Africa. Heard on 30 May 1996, decided on 25 July 1996. Case CCT 17/96. Cited as AZAPO.
Baggini, Julian. 2016. “What Is the Self? It Depends.†From The Stone: A Forum for Contemporary Philosophers. In New York Times Opinionator. February, 8, 2016 (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/08/the-self-in-east-and-west/)
Biko, Steve. [1978] 2004. I Write What I Like. Johannesburg: Picador Africa.
Biko, Steve. 1972. “Interview with Steve Biko†Gail M. Gerhart. MNGXITAMA_Interviews.inddd 21.
Bjerk, Paul. 2015. Building a Peaceful Nation: Julius Nyerere and the Establishment of Sovereignty in Tanzania. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.
Boaventura, de Sousa Santos. 2002. Toward a New Legal Common Sense: Law, Globalization, and Emancipation. London: LexisNexis Butterworths.
Constitution for the Republic of South Africa, Act 200 of 1993 [Assented 25 January 1994; Commenced: 27 April 1994]: [especially] Epilogue after Section 251.
Journal of Sociology and Christianity Volume 6, Number 2 • Fall 2016
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996†[Assented: 16 December 1996], substituted by s. 1 (1) of the Citation of Constitutional Laws, 2005 (Act No. 5 of 2005).
Davenport, Rodney and Christopher Saunders. 2000. South Africa: A Modern History 5th ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
De Armond Curtin, Philip. 1985. “Africa: Toward Independence.†Encyclopaedia Britannica (13):92. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Gade, Christian B.N. 2011. “The Historical Development of the Written Discourses on Ubuntu.†Aarhus University, Denmark.
Gade, Christian B.N. 2012. “What is Ubuntu? Different Interpretations among South Africans of African Descent.†Aarhus University, Denmark.
Gergen, Kenneth J. 2009. Relational Being: Beyond Self and Community. New York: Oxford University Press.
Judgment of Constitutional Court of South Africa. Heard: 30 May 1996; Decided: 25 July 1996. Case CCT 17/96.
Kagame, Alexis. 1956. La philosophie bantu-rwandaise de l’tre. Bruxelles: Académie Royale des Sciences Coloniales.
Mandela, Nelson. 1994. Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Mbeki, Thabo. 2006. Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture. Retrieved May 27, 2016 (http//www.dirco.gov.za/docs/speech/2006/mbek0729.htm)
Mbiti, John S. [1969] 1970. African Religions and Philosophy. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
Menkiti, Ifeanyi A. 1979. “Person and Community in African Traditional Thought.†In African Philosophy, edited by R. A. Wright. Lewiston, New York: University Press of America.
Metz, Thaddeus. 2007. “Toward an African Moral Theory.†The Journal of Political Philosophy, 15(3):321-41.
Middleton, John F.M., et al. eds. 1985. “Africa: Races and Languages.†Encyclopaedia Britannica (13):62. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Mnyaka, Mluleki and Mokgethi Mothlabi. 2005. “The African Concept of Ubuntu/Botho and its Socio-Moral Significance.†Black Theology: An International Journal, July, 3 (2).
Ngubane, Jordan Kush. 1963. An African Explains Apartheid. London: Pall Mall Press.
Nkondo, Gessler Muxe. 2007. “Ubuntu as Public Policy in South Africa: A Conceptual Framework.†International Journal of African Renaissance Studies, 2(1).
Nyerere, Julius. 1962, “Ujamaa – The Basis of African Socialism.†In I Am Because We Are: Readings in Black Philosophy, edited by Fred Lee Hood (Mzee Lasana Okpara) and Jonathan Scott Lee. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Port Elizabeth Municipality vs. Various Occupiers, 2004 (12) BCLR 1268 (CC).
Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act, 1998. Republic of South Africa.
Ramose, Mogobe B. 1999. African Philosophy through Ubuntu. Harare: Mond Books.
Reconstruction and Development Programme: A Policy Framework 1994. O’Malley: The Heart of Hope.www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02039/04lv02103/05lv02 120/06lv02126.htm#
Ritzer, George, and Jeffrey Stepnisky. 2014. Sociological Theory 9th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Samkange, Stanlake and Tommie Marie Samkange. 1980. Hunhuism or Ubuntuism: A Zimbabwe Indigenous Political Philosophy. Salisbury: Graham Publishing.
Senghor, Lèopold. 1963. Negritude and African Socialism.†In St. Anthony’s Papers No. 15, edited by K. Kirkwood. Oxford.
Shutte, Augustine. 2001. Ubuntu: An Ethic for a New South Africa. Pietermaritzburg, RSA: Cluster Publications.
Shutte, Augustine. 1995. Philosophy for Africa. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press.
Shutte, Augustine. 1993. Philosophy for Africa. Cape Town: UCT Press
Tutu, Desmond. 1999. No Future without Forgiveness. New York: Doubleday.
Van Binsbergen, Wim. 2001. “Ubuntu and the Globalization of Southern African Thought and Society. Quest, Vol. XV.
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