Post on 01-Mar-2023
THE LOCUS OF UBUNTU WITHIN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN AFRICA
By Mfuniselwa J. Bhengu (PhD)
Founder and Director: Africa Institute of Ntu-ology An Author, Independent Scholar and Self-Publisher
Introduction
This paper seeks to locate the nexus between Ubuntu and the
Christian church, and differences between the two. In doing
this I will start by looking at the historical evolution of
the Christian Church, and the origin and meanings of Ubuntu,
then develop constitutive rules of both concepts. The outcome
will be a recommendation for a fusion of Ubuntu values with
the Christian Church values.
The Rise of Ancient Christianity
During the entire antiquity, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East
were more advanced in science, technology, philosophical
thought, and literature, than Europe, particularly Western
Europe. The anomaly of the Roman Empire is that its head, the
city of Rome, was, on its own, backward, but was ruling over
vast colonies in Africa and the Middle East which were more
developed than Rome herself.
The struggle against Roman despotism, against slavery and
impoverishment, in Africa and the Middle East, took, among
others, religious forms, giving rise to many religious sects
seeking and preaching salvation from existing misery,
oppression, cruelty, and torment. Christianity was one of
these religious sects, which emerged originally as a reform
movement within Judaism. There was intense struggle and
competition among these sects. It was amidst this intense
struggle that the followers of “Christ” were cast out and
banned from preaching in Jewish temples, and the leaders left
the Temple and took the path of converting Gentiles (Enslin et
al 1938; Morton et al, 1956; Parkes, 1969).
It was from these origins in Africa and the Middle East, that
the new religion of “Christians” came into Europe.
Christianity was brought into Europe by Africans and the
Middle Easterners. The noted Oxford historian, Hugh Trevor-
Roper, wrote: “Like so much in the Roman Empire, their model
is not Italian, not even European, but eastern…We naturally
think of the Empire founded by Augustus as the Roman Empire.
It was Roman arms which conquered it; the Caesars, who founded
its institutions, were Roman; and Rome was its capital. But in
fact Rome was not its natural centre of gravity. The wealth
which sustained it came largely from Asia and Africa. Africa
supplied the city of Rome with two-thirds of its corn. It was
the conquest of Egypt which enabled Augustus to establish the
Empire. The great school of technology, the great library of
learning were in Alexandria. The great westerners –Tertullian,
Apuleius, Augustine- came from Africa” (Trevor-Roper, 1965).
The Early Fathers of the Church, who established Latin prose as the
language of the Catholic Church, were Africans.
Dawson (1950) tells us that: “…it was through monasticism that
religion exercised a direct formative influence on the whole
cultural development of these centuries.” The Monastic
Movement, which resulted in the founding of monasteries all
over Europe, originated in Africa.
The Monastic Movement was the cell out of which emerged the
new Western Culture which became dominant between the fall of
the Roman Empire and the end of the Middle Ages: “It was born
in the African desert as a protest against the whole tradition
of the classical culture of the Greek and the Roman world. It
stood for the absolute renunciation of everything the ancient
world had prized –not only pleasure and wealth and honour, but
family life and citizenship and society. The fame and
influence of the new movement reached their height at the very
moment when Rome was falling a victim to the barbarians. It
was in that generation that leaders of Roman society made
their pilgrimages to the Egyptian and Syrian deserts and
initiated a literary propaganda in favour of the new movement
which had enormous success throughout the Latin West and the
Byzantine East” (Dawson, 1950).
What is also a marked feature of Christianity, what is
decisive in its orientation and philosophy, is its
individualism: as opposed to collectivist tribal/kinship-based
communities, where safety, protection, and nourishment were
for the entire family or community, salvation in Christianity
is for the individual. It targeted the single individuals who
had been splattered and thrown helpless and lost on the floor,
grounds, valleys and streets, as the Shell of the egg holding
the human community cracked and broke, throwing its contents
scattered hither and thither. Even when believers, as a
multitude, are gathered together in a hall, or under a tree,
or inside a large tent, the message is still to the single
individual, who, in turn, responds as an individual, and makes
a commitment to the Savior, or to God, as an individual.
Christianity arose amidst the disintegration of the human
community; its struggle and aim was not to restore the human
community; it struggled and aimed at picking up, comforting,
nourishing, and saving, the broken pieces of the community
(Weber, 1964).
The Triumph of Christianity in Africa.
As stated above, Christianity did not originate in Europe;
that the earliest Christian communities were in the Middle
East and in Africa, and that, in fact, it was Africans and
Middle Easterners who brought Christianity to Europe. The key
Early Fathers of the Church were all Africans; and the
Monastic Movement, which played the most crucial part in
spreading Christianity in the West, was of African origin.
The Middle East and a large part of North Africa were part of
the Roman Empire; these regions were very advanced
economically, technologically, scientifically, and culturally,
compared to the city of Rome and to the European regions of
the Empire. Christianity in the Middle East and North Africa
was one of the religions that emerged as a by-product of the
liberation struggle of these regions against Roman domination
and colonialism. The most vibrant Christian community during
the days of the Roman Empire was in North Africa, in Egypt and
Tunisia (Frend, 1952; Augustine of Hippo, 1967; Brown, 1971).
Indeed, North Africa, particularly Alexandria, remained for
centuries the site of the most daring, incisive, original
thinking in Christianity and Judaism.
It was the rise and triumph of Islam, in the 7th-8th centuries,
A. D., which wiped Christianity and Judaism off the map of
North Africa. Christianity then became confined to Europe.
With European colonialism over Africa, Christianity was then
re-introduced into Africa by Europeans. Christianity now
appears as a European religion ---Alas! It was Christianity
that came to Africa heavily laden with, and shaped by,
European racism and poison against Africa, African culture,
and African people.
What is it that enabled Christianity to strike root and
triumph in South Africa?
First, we must be clear about the fact that African
communities and societies in what is now South Africa had
their own philosophy of life, within which were contained
their religious beliefs and practices. Almost all these
communities/societies were still organized around
Tribal/Family ties. The State was still at an elementary stage
of development; this elementary State structure was still a
mere extension of the tribal/family principle which regulated
relations and the structure of the Community. The political
head did not yet have the power and authority to over-rule, or
cancel out, the Gentile/Tribal/Family principle.
Medicine in pre-industrial societies was part and parcel of
the religious beliefs of society. Medicine, religion, and
political power in pre-industrial society were interrelated
components of one package. That is the reason, then, that
Europeans were not content with only conquering and destroying
the African State; they had to simultaneously begin a vicious
war to destroy African religion, and, most viciously still, to
destroy African medicine. African medicine was declared to be
Witchcraft, and one of the first acts of legislation
prohibited, made criminal, the practice of `Witchcraft’.
African medicine and African religion were the twin pillars of
the African State. European power over Africans could not be
secure without the simultaneous destruction of the African
State, African medicine, and African religion.
What was the major historical event which prepared the ground
for the entrance and triumph of Christianity in South Africa?
The major historical force was the conquest of the African
kingdoms by Europe as an imperialist and colonizing force.
What we are talking about here is the loss of independence,
dignity, and self-rule, by the African people within those
kingdoms. Independence, dignity, and self-rule are the most
important components of the feeling of well-being in a
community/society, the loss of which is soon followed by the
loss of control over the land, livestock, rivers, forests and
other economic resources.
When members of a community/society lose their independence,
their self-rule, and their dignity, they become stripped
naked, spiritually, psychologically and mentally. It is here
that the full truth of “You cannot live by bread alone” is
revealed.
Independence, self-rule, and dignity, the pillars of which are
the Elders within the family and community, the age-grade
system, the traditional political system, and the monarchic
leader of the State (Ubukhosi), which contained, protected,
nourished, and enriched, the members of the community, much as
the shell of the egg contains, protects, nourishes, and
enriches the contents of the egg.
The conquest of the African kingdoms by European governments,
the conquest of African kingdoms within what now is South
Africa, had the impact of a major, piercing trauma in the
psyche and mind of African people –and trauma it was indeed,
in the psychiatric sense, and remains trauma, indeed, up to
our time. This was the case particularly in those regions,
such as KwaZulu, where the State had reached a high level of
development and crystallization.
The Breaking down of the Shell
The Shell holding African people together, spiritually,
mentally, socially, economically, politically, and culturally,
was broken and shattered by European conquest. This had the
force comparable in its impact on the psyche and mind to the
shattering of the mind and psyche of ancient Romans by the
invasion of the Barbarians.
The mind and psyche of many African people were stripped of
all sense of spiritual security and comfort, their world was
turned upside down, the world they occupied seemed very
disjointed, seemed very doubtful as a real home for them. Much
as it happened to ancient Romans, a longing arose within these
Africans for another and better world.
Still, Christianity did not conquer all of Africa, and not all
of South Africa. A large part of Africa was conquered by
Islam. A large segment of the African population still follows
and practices traditional African religion. Here in South
Africa, Christianity is still not followed and practiced by
the majority of African people. There is still the distinction
of “Amakholwa” as a distinct segment of the population of the
country, coexisting with another segment which is not
Christian. (Vilakazi, 1965; also Vilakazi, Mthethwa, Mpanza,
Shembe, 1986)
Missionary enterprises in Zululand were intense but
conspicuous for its lack of success. The Africans living on
the mission stations were usually brought into the kingdom
from other communities by the missionaries who found it
extremely difficult to change the Zulus from their ways of
life” (Guy, 1982). It was the new elite of African society who
were immediately Christian, those who had gone through the
socialization and educational process in Christian Mission
schools inside the country as well as abroad.
If the truth be told, Christian missionaries were part of the
baggage that came into African society with European conquest.
If, originally, they did not carry arms and fire against
Africans, as soldiers in the battlefield, and the commanders
of the army, did, they were in homesteads as the wives of the
soldiers and commanders who did the killing and maiming of
Africans: the wives did not directly do the killing, they may
even have complained about the cruelty and sin committed, they
may even have bandaged, hidden, and comforted the wounded
Africans, as many wives did, but they bore a moral
responsibility for the crime. (DuBois, 1909; Majeke, 1952).
The White Colonial Christian Church
The situation of “dual power”, the colonial State, on one
side, and the Church, on the other, also existed in the
colonies, as it existed in Europe after the fall of the Roman
Empire. As an institution, the Christian Church was, indeed,
part of the baggage that came with European conquest and
colonialism. Christian missionaries were, indeed, members of
European Christian civilization. However, as colonialism
became consolidated, the position of the Christian clergy
became ambivalent. The clergy were divided.
Yet some individual Christian clergy opposed segregation,
waged a struggle against it, and some lost their lives in the
struggle. The clergy in the Middle Ages were divided between
the High clergy, on one hand, linked to the feudal powers, and
the lower clergy, on the other hand, linked to the oppressed
serfs below. Indeed, the lower clergy often played a
significant role in the leadership of the revolutionary
uprisings of the Middle Ages, almost all of which were rural
revolts.
It was the same in the colonies. While the Church, as an
organization, was largely conservative, there were individual
Christian clergy who indirectly or directly supported the
struggle against colonialism and racism. As in the case of
revolutionary priests in Latin America, who took up arms and
joined the revolutionary struggle, so there were individual
European Christian clergy who supported the revolutionary
struggle, and some who actually fought arms in hand. The
climax of this split of the Christian Church, of the Church
with two heads and two hearts, was the great debate within the
Church as an organization, which led to the decision of the
World Council of Churches to support the armed struggle in
South Africa (Brown, 1971)
Christianity had power behind it: the new White colonial state
was Christian; the new White-controlled economy was managed by
Christians; schools, high schools, tertiary institutions were
managed by Christians; the Judiciary and Police, who enforced
and protected the new social order, were Christian. The
African elite were Christian.
Christianity during and after colonial times did not transform
the entirety of African society; it did not change the “fibre”
of African society. It merely created the `modernized’ part of
South Africa. It changed official South Africa; it changed
urban South Africa; it changed the institutional
infrastructure of White-ruled South Africa, including those
institutions in the country managed by the African elite.
Christian civilization within South Africa is reminiscent of
classical civilization of antiquity –and the pattern remains
the same until the triumph of capitalist industrial society in
the 19th century. One historian has written: “One should always
remember that classical civilization was the civilization of a
fragile veneer: only one man in ten lived in a civilized town”
(Brown, 1971)
Up to 1994, the greater bulk of the African population,
remained rural, underdeveloped, poor, non-industrial,
`functionally illiterate,’ and non-Christian. That is the
reason that ordinary African people in rural South Africa say
that “Freedom has not arrived where we are.” This is similar
to the extent of Christianity in Europe before mass
industrialization in the 19th and 20th centuries. (Fichtenau,
Heinrich, 1964)
At the lower levels of African society, the conquered Africans
did respond to the disorientation, suffering, and racism
brought about by colonialism and capitalism; as splattered,
injured, individuals cast out by the shattered SHELL of
African society, they absorbed from the new Christian Gospel
what suited their needs, and proceeded to form Independent
African Churches, for example, Isonto lama Nazaretha (Shembe), the
ZCC, and Zionist Congregations. (Vilakazi, Absolom, Mthethwa,
Bongani, Mpanza, Mthembeni, Shembe; 1986)
Within the conventional Christian orbit, some of the
dispossessed, oppressed working people in urban areas fell in
the embrace of the Methodist and Baptist churches. This was
true also of Africans held in slavery in the US. Why? Deep
down, the human being is a collective being.
When Methodists and Baptists, in the USA, began their revivals
in the South, large numbers of Negroes were immediately
attracted to this type of religious worship. Why did the Negro
slaves respond so enthusiastically to the proselyting efforts
of the Methodists and Baptists?. The Baptist and Methodist
preachers, who lacked the education of the ministers of the
Anglican church, appealed to the poor and the ignorant and the
outcast. In the crowds that attended the revivals and camp
meetings there were numbers of Negroes who found in the fiery
message of salvation a hope and a prospect of escape from
their earthly woes. The slaves who had been torn from their
homeland and kinsmen and friends and whose cultural heritage
was lost, were isolated and broken men. In the emotionalism of
the camp meetings and revivals some social solidarity, even if
temporary, was achieved, and they were drawn into a union with
their fellow men (Frazier, E.F., 1966).
Split PersonalitiesThe racism of European colonialism and imperialism imposed
anomalous, self-crippling path. European culture and
Christianity put themselves in a sealed container. European
culture and Christianity in Africa refused to cross-pollinate
with African culture and African religion (my emphasis).
Apartheid has been in force in the sphere of culture and
religion from the very beginning of European colonialism and
imperialism in Africa, particularly in the English colonies.
This has seriously harmed European personalities as well as
African personalities. There has been no cross-pollination in
the making of the European personality. If racism had not
erected barriers within colonial society as well as in the
minds and emotions of Europeans and Africans, the European
personality would be a synthesis of African culture and
European culture, of European Christianity and African
religion. The European personality, deprived of this cross-
fertilization of influences and cultures, has been restricted
in its growth and development, has been impoverished. Deep
down in their psyches, Whites and Africans are still strangers
to one another.
The mere fact that Whites, in their overwhelming majority,
cannot speak and read African languages, is an index of their
impoverishment as personalities (Vilakazi, 2011).
When Africans went to school, they had to use Christian names;
the Christian community was separated from ordinary non-
Christian Africans. Here in KwaZulu, the late Albert Luthuli
was made a Chief of Amakholwa, i.e., of African Christian
converts. The African who joined the process of development
and modernization had to achieve the impossible, to `jump’ out
of and beyond his/her own shadow.
The human personality is a product of the past; yet the
African Christian had to jump out of and beyond that past. You
had to reject, to erase, the past inside your being, and
replace it with the Christian model. The African Christian who
went to excesses in implementing and adopting this model, the
African who went to excess in repressing the African past
within himself/herself, created a psychiatric problem parallel
to the excessive suppression of the sexual instinct in
Freudian psychoanalysis (Freud, Sigmund, 1965). Christianity,
in those African converts who went to excess in adopting the
Christian model, created the psychiatric condition of a split
personality. In the process of creating a new society and new
personalities, we still have to deal with this problem.
Europeans discovered that the African State did not stand
alone, that the pillars of this State are African religion and
African medicine. Therefore, waging a war against the African
state was not enough for European rule to be secure; they had
to wage an equally ruthless war against African religion and
African medicine.
The African State did not stand alone. Its pillars were
African medicine and African religion. Therefore, to destroy
and dismantle the African state, the European state and
civilization had to destroy, dismantle, and discredit African
religion and African medicine!
Masses of African people are being constantly warned to stay
away from African medicine!
Somé (1990) argues that this division informed imperialist
societies and these were reproduced in the text on the slave
trade from the 15th century up to today. Humans were to be
found in Western Europe; sub-humans in Africa, Asia and Latin
America. Later, the Enlightenment project refined these crude
ideas and replaced them with new concepts of liberty based on
property and property relations. Colonialism in Africa, Asia
and other parts of the Third World was justified on the basis
that Western societies were bringing civilisation to backward
peoples.
The worst, most dismaying, most painful, most ironic fact is
that many Independent Christian churches attended by ordinary
Africans warn in the most terrifying words that the followers
of these churches must not touch and use African medicine,
because African medicine is the work of the devil; and that
they must only pray and talk to Christ and God, and never talk
to their ancestors, because that is also the work of the
devil. Tens of thousands of African people have been so
traumatized in mind and spirit that they would rather die than
use African medicine, even if they can be cured; and they
would rather die than talk ritually to their ancestors. This
is what the self-hatred instilled in Africans by
European/Christian civilization has done to Africans.
The Ontological and Epistemological perspective of Ubuntu
Mbiti (1989) believes that from the ontology that Africans
have, we can articulate the philosophical systems of different
African peoples. We can arrive at the understanding, attitude
of mind, logic and perception beyond the manner in which
African people think, act or speak in different situations of
life.
An African ontology incorporates a dynamic interactive view of
being, in contrast to the static, isolationist view. This
means that a being is not thought to exist in itself or of
itself, but only has a meaningful existence in relation to its
interaction with other beings and things. Thus a thing is
known by the dynamic web of its relations with the external
world. Whether we speak of art, “religion”, conceptions of
space and time, ethics and morals or the conception of the
individual, this principle of unfailingly applies. African
religions include cosmology, science, art, psychology,
philosophy, etc., all integrated into a holistic system of
thought (my emphasis).
The traditional African view is that ethical concerns are
practical and experiential; they cannot be separated from the
lived experiences of the people in question. However, it is
important to begin with ontological assumptions, as they
underlie the ethical considerations to be discussed. A number
of these ontological assumptions have been discussed elsewhere
and only a few are noted here. These are hierarchies of
beings; God’s essence or life force; the principle of cosmic
unity; the principle of harmony, and the communal (relational)
nature of being.
Secondly, an act that seeks to narrow this African ontology
must be a very bad and taboo as it would seek to create
disequilibrium both on earth and in the universe. It would be
an act that seeks to destabilise and disturb the smooth
flowing life of both the community and individuals, thus
creating a disorder in the community. Creating a harmony in an
African setting is holistic act that integrates a lot of other
sectors and issues of the African village, as explained in the
concept of an African ontology above.
Chukwunyere (1998) cautions that it is crucial to have in mind
the basic ontological principle in African philosophy that
nothing exists of or by itself, but only in relation to other
things. This principle has the consequence that the African
worldview is dynamic as opposed to static in every area of
concern. Thus in the African worldview no person is
essentially good or evil in himself but only in terms of his
relation to others. In the area of moral responsibility it
means that this is a collective rather than individual affair,
whereby the individual’s actions have consequences for others
as well as him or herself.
To live a virtuous life, to cling to the truth and to conduct
harmonious relationships with oneself, one’s family and one’s
neighbours is to live in accordance with Ma’at (Ubuntu). Maat,
therefore, represents a principle or philosophy of living
rather than a static conception of the mind. Maat ensures that
cosmic and human justice is always done. Maat is an ancient
Egyptian word for Ubuntu
In the African weltanschuung (world-view), a person is not
basically an independent solitary entity. A person is human
precisely they are enveloped in in the community of other
human beings, in being caught up in the bundle of life.
Therefore, Ubuntu is a philosophy of tolerance and compassion.
It does not give up on people and it starts from the premise
that everybody has a potential to realise the promise of being
human. It embraces an element of forgiveness.
According to English Oxford Dictionary epistemology refers to
the theory or science of the method or grounds of knowledge.
To expand this definition, epistemology is the study of
theories about the nature and scope of knowledge, the
evaluation of the presupposition and bases of knowledge, and
the scrutiny of knowledge claims.
Magesa (1979) argues that man (in a collective sense) is the
product of his society. He belongs to his community. Within
this context African communities shape and direct their manner
of living in terms of what is or is not acceptable to them.
Human experience and responsibility are judged in light of
this goal, which does not change. From the dialectic between
the established goal and human responsibility to realise it
existentially and experimentally arises values and norms of
behaviour, what Africans would generally call “customs”, in
the most morally laden sense of the word. These customs help
the community and individuals within it to keep the goal of
life in sight, to strive toward it, and to have a basis with
which to deal with their shortcomings in this endeavour.
Coetzee et al (2002) add that, although epistemology is
universal, the ways of acquiring knowledge vary according to
the socio-cultural contexts within which knowledge claims are
formulated and articulated. From this, we can, then, talk of
an African articulation and formulation of knowledge. The
question whether or not there is an African epistemology
cannot be addressed without taking due cognizance of the
answer to the latter would imply a negative answer to the
former. Similarly, to assert the existence of an African
philosophy is to also to imply the existence of an African
epistemology, to the extent that an African epistemology is a
subset of African philosophy.
The traditional African belief, argues Mbiti (1989) is that
the Great One (UMvelingqangi) brought the divinities into
being. He therefore is the Maker and everything in heaven and
on earth owes their origin to Him alone. The belief is that
the universe is a composite of divine, spirit, human, animate
and inanimate elements, hierarchically perceived, but directly
related, and always interacting with each other. Some of these
elements are visible and some are invisible. They correspond
to the visible and invisible spheres of the universe: the
visible world being composed of creation, including humanity,
plants, animals and inanimate beings, and the invisible world
being the sphere of God, the ancestors, and the spirits.
An African does not have to look for God outside, above or
beyond his own creation. He sees and feels 'Ntu's finger and
presence and the indivisible unity between the Creator, man
and other created beings (nature). Hence we say: ‘I’m one with
the nature’. This concept, Creator-God, (Ntu) enables us to
trace and understand the origin of the philosophical concept
of Ubuntu, which is an element that is present in all human
beings. Therefore, u-ntu + umu-ntu = Ubu-ntu. The word muntu
simply means "God-Man", whose abstract noun is Ubuntu. God +
Man = Supreme Goodness (Ubuntu). This element, the Supreme
Goodness, is found within all members of the human race.
God, according to Mbiti (1989), is the great kings above all
kings and cannot be compared in majesty. He is above all
majesties and divinities. He dwells everywhere. Thus He is
omnipotent because He is able to do all things and nothing can
be done nor created apart from Him. He is behind all
achievements. He alone can speak and accomplish his words.
Therefore, there is no room for failure. He is Absolute, all
wise Omniscient, all seeing, and all Knowing. He knows all
things and so no secrets are hid from Him.
In the private and public life of the African religious rites,
beliefs, and rituals are considered an integral part of life.
Life then is never complete unless it is seen always in its
entirety. Religious beliefs are found in everyday life and no
distinction is made between the sacred and the secular. The
sacred and the secular are merged in the total persona for the
individual African. Life is not divided into compartments or
divisions. Thus there are no special times for worship, for
everyday and every hour is worship time.
There are no creeds written down because through the
traditions of the Elders all creeds and functions are carried
in the individual’s heart. Each individual by his very nature
and life style is a living creed from the time one rises until
one retires at night. An understanding of the basic nature of
the African religious tradition surely illuminates the meaning
of spirituality in contemporary Africa.
An African ontological life cannot be separated from his
spirituality and religion. The very word ‘spiritus’, the life-
giving force which stems from God, quickens the baptised
Christian and transforms the relationships he/she has with
his/her fellow human beings. There is nothing cerebral or
esoteric about spirituality.
The way humanity relates to the environment and the nature of
inter-personal relationships are also part of the spiritual
make-up of the African. Issues of moral behavioural patterns;
natural plagues and disasters; familial inter-connectedness;
domestic animals; fields and several rites directly linked to
particular events in the life of the individual and the
community, together belong to the African religio-cultural
substratum. Social and economic relations, especially in the
traditional society, continue incessantly to pervade the
spiritual realm of the African.
Religion and culture are inextricably intertwined. Most of the
religious rituals are appropriated into the cultural scheme of
things and the cultural domain shapes and influences the
religious philosophy and practices. It is in this context and
against that background that any attempt to dichotomise
African spirituality into the sacred and the secular; the
physical and the spiritual; the individual and the corporate,
results in gross distortion and mis-construal of its theology
and its praxis: I am because we are; and since we are, therefore, I am.
The depth of Ubuntu, argues Mbiti (1989), is indicated by the
African attachment to the concept of communalism, hence the
African popular saying: I’m because you are, and you are
because I’m or in my essential “being” I depend on the
essential “beingness” of the “Other”. This instils in Africans
an awareness of the other person who is my counterpart in
society. It creates a feeling that “being-for-others” appears
to be a necessary condition for “being-for-myself”. It instils
a feature of conscious togetherness; or an awareness of the
significance of the “other” in human existence.
The awareness and feeling of the internal and external
presence of the “Other” in one’s life generates great interest
and concern about one’s neighbour’s health, economic and
social welfare in the society. This is the kind of depth I
mean about this philosophy, which is less evident in European
settings.
‘Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’, meaning that each individual's
humanity is ideally expressed in relationships with others
and, in turn, individuality is truly expressed. Or a person
depends on other persons to be a person (this is a universal
Ubuntu maxim). Ubuntu is a set of relationships in which
people are able to recognise that their humanity is bound up
in the other's humanity. Central to this thesis is the fact
that life and thought appeal to society to move beyond racial
distinctions as determinative of human identity.
The beauty of Ubuntu is that instead of there being warring
factions, instead of being manipulative and self-seeking, that
a person who lives in Ubuntu is more willing to make excuses
for others and even discover new meaning in other persons.
Whatever happens to the individual happens to the whole group,
and whatever happens to the whole group happens to the
individual. The individual can only say: "I am because we are;
and since we are, therefore, I am". This is a cardinal point
in the understanding of the African view of man.
In other words, the whole kraal or family is responsible for
the misdeeds and debts of any one of its inmates, and a
principal is always responsible for the acts of his agents or
dependants. The result is that every man in the tribe is a
policeman, and is bound to report to his supervisor any act or
wrong which he may see being done, otherwise he incurs
responsibility in regard to the act.
The individual’s humanity is determined by his relationship
with others. Only in terms of other people does the individual
become conscious of his own being, his own duties, his
privileges and responsibilities towards himself and towards
other people. Underlying Ubuntu is a holism that is foreign to
dualistic Western thinking.
There is no distinction in African tradition between the
material and the spiritual. This is why the African notion of
goodness necessarily involves sharing. Ownership of material
things can never be exclusive (Moyo 2009; 57).
An African Perspective of Morality
Gyeke (1956) defines morality as a set of social rules and
norms intended to guide the conduct of people in a society.
The rules and norms emerge from – and are anchored in –
people’s beliefs about right and wrong conduct and good and
bad character. Morality is intrinsically social, arising out
of the relations between individuals; if there were no such a
thing as human society, there would be no such thing as
morality. And, because morality is essentially a social
phenomenon – for it can emerge only in a human society in
which there is an overriding concern for harmonious and
cooperative living- consideration for the interests of others
an, hence, a sense of duty to others, are intrinsic to the
meaning and practice of morality.
No sane society chooses to build its future on foreign
cultures, values, or systems. Every society is obliged to
search deep in its own history, culture, religion, and
morality in order to discover the values upon which its
development and liberation, its civilization, and its identity
should be based (Magesa, 1979 and Lumeya, 2007). To do
otherwise is nothing less than communal suicide (Davidson,
1978). The problems and solutions of today have to be
envisaged within a historical framework, an indigenous
historical framework, no matter what contribution an external
world has made.
Okere (1983) and Hallen (2002) contend that unsurprisingly, in
Western anthropology, a culture based on tradition is
frequently portrayed as one devoid of change or development
because it is also devoid of critical or reflective thinking.
Beliefs and practices inherited from the ‘ancestors’ are said
to be preserved unchanged in the present and then handed on to
the next generation with the understanding they will be
preserved and observed in a similar manner.
Philosophy in the African context, does not have to replicate
philosophy as defined and practised in Western culture, and
that the removal of Africans from their own self-history is a
problem with the continuous presentation of Africans as a
people with no philosophical history. There is usually a
marginalisation of the question of epistemology as history of
ideas, and intellectual debate in all fields of learning are
introduced with reference to European thought, without concern
or respect for Africans as a people who should be understood
within their own self-constructed status and identity and as
creators of their nations
However, it must be stated here that colonialism created a new
social and political order in sub-Saharan Africa. Urbanization
has given rise to mega-cities in different parts of the
continent. Most communities are no longer homogeneous. They
are heterogeneous and plural in virtually every aspect of
their life. A wedge has been driven between the sacred and the
secular aspects of life.
Every language and culture is sustained by deep and discrete
order. This philosophy, according to Mudimbe (1988), is a
silent domain which has been functioning for centuries,
perhaps in a sort of "frozen" dynamism".
Ubuntu as an African Philosophy
Kagame, Mulago, Tshiamalenga, Wiredu, Appiah, Crahay, Tempels,
and others, have been labelled as "ethno-philosophers", but
what is good is that they have formed a body of judgements
stemming from their analysis and interpretation of African
cultures and which can be summed up in three propositions:-
(1) a good application of classical philosophical grids
demonstrates beyond doubt that there is an African philosophy
which, as a deep system, underlies and sustains African
cultures and civilisations, (2) African philosophy is
fundamentally an ontology organised as a deployment of inter
acting but hierarchically ordered forces; and (3) human vital
unity appears to be the centre of the endless dialectic of
forces, which collectively determine their being in relation
to human existence.
According to Shutte (1996), reality is a force and the world a
process of interplay between forces, that humanity is part of
this universal field of force, that at bottom all force is
alive, spiritual rather than material that the individual's
life and fulfilment are only to be found in community with
others (a community that does not end at death). Morality is
the development of natural tendencies to fuller being and more
abundant life, and that all human life and world process is
directed and empowered by a transcendent origin of life and
force.
As far back as one may go into his past, from the Northern
Sudanese to the Southern Bantu, the African has always and
everywhere presented a concept of the world, which is
diametrically opposed to the traditional philosophy of Europe.
The latter is essentially static, objective, dichotomous; it
is, in fact, dualistic, in that it makes an absolute
distinction between body and soul, matter and spirit. It is
founded on separation and opposition, on analysis and
conflict. The African, on the other hand, conceives the world,
beyond the diversity of its forms, as a fundamental mobile yet
unique reality that seeks synthesis. This reality is being in
the ontological sense of the word, and it is life force. For
the African, matter in the sense the Europeans understand it,
is only a system of signs which translates the single reality
of the universe: being, which is spirit, which is life force.
Thus, the whole universe appears as an infinitely small, and
at the same time infinitely large.
Combining the African ideas, especially those of community, of
morality as the drive to fuller being, and God as the source
and goal of all force. Senghor develops a theory of the
tendency of all peoples to communicate, to merge and
eventually to become a universal community. This is what he
understands by African socialism; he calls it "the
civilisation of the universal”.
Prinsloo (1995) in his paper delivered during the proceedings
of the Colloquium held at University of South Africa, in
October 1995 said that apart from what African thinkers
themselves have to say about Ubuntu, the good and valuable in
human life, is concerned with visions of happiness and
fulfilment and ideas of how these might be realised.
The virtue of respect is explained by him as respect for the
aged, implying a view of personhood in terms of development.
An older person is more of a person than a younger one with
more to offer by way of personal influence and power. This
means that the elderly continue to play an important part in
society in contrast to the dominance of the youth in social
practices in the case of Western societies. Human relations
become interpersonal with emphasis on duties. Interpersonal
relations as being of substantial importance (Prinsloo, 1995).
Ubuntu thinkers formulate their views in terms of a person is
a person through other persons. This point of departure,
argues Prinsloo (1995), qualifies human dignity in terms of
which people are to be treated. Human dignity seems to be
related to morality, and morality and rationality are acquired
from community life and do not follow from, say, fixed
ideologies or universal categories. In this sense, argues
Prinsloo (1995), it follows that we can talk of "communitarian
morality and rationality".
Individualism is …that political and social philosophy that
places high value on the freedom of the individual and
generally stresses the self-directed, self-contained and
comparatively unrestrained individual or ego" (Prinsloo (1995:
115).
This implies "a value system, a theory of human nature, a
general attitude or temper of belief in certain political,
economic or social and religious arrangements. He describes
the value system as: ...all values are man-centred..., the
individual is an end in himself and is of supreme value,
society being only a means to individual ends; and all
individuals are in some sense morally equal, this quality
being expressed by the proposition that no one should ever be
treated solely as a means to the wellbeing of another person
(Prinsloo, 1995: 115)
Therefore, “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” is the profoundest
definition of a human being, the profoundest philosophy of a
human being, expressed in all languages of the entire universe
from the beginning of human history to eternity.
A human being is healthy as a human being when she/he has
healthy relations with other human beings. There are two
aspects to `health’ – (a) physical, and (b) spiritual/mental.
There are requirements for physical health, which ultimately
determine life or death; there are also requirements for
spiritual/mental health. The physical and the spiritual/mental
are interrelated (Erich, 1973)
Relations with other human beings exist within the context of
a community/society.
Relations within the community/society are the shell within
which the human being is contained, nourished, protected, and
enriched, much as the Shell of an egg contains, nourishes,
protects, and enriches the contents of the egg. Religious
forces, divine beings, are part of relations within the
community/society; religious forces, divine beings, add
sacredness to the Shell which contains, nourishes, protects,
and enriches the human beings therein.
The family/kinship group in early history, together with
religious/divine forces within the family/kinship group, were
the Shell that contained, nourished, protected, and enriched
the human beings therein. The localized divine forces, in the
lakes, rivers, seas, forests, mountains, hills, in huge rocks,
in the sky, in thunder and lightening, in rain and wind, in
the sun, stars, moon, and planets, played their roles in
interaction with the family/kinship divines.
As stated earlier, the emergence and crystallization of the
State in history resulted in the deification of the State, and
the leader of the State became a divine force (ancient Egypt,
China, Maya, Inca, Rome, Zulu, etc.). The State before
industrial society became a Shell holding the people together
not just physically but also spiritually/mentally.
Now and then, in historical periods, the Shell holding people
together cracks and breaks, and the contents within the egg
splatter out. This is not only physical violence and injury,
but also deep spiritual/mental violence and injury. When this
happens, there arises an economic/social crisis as well as a
religious crisis.
It is during these times that new religious movements, new
prophets, new saviors, new religions, emerge. Such was the
situation during the age of the fall of the Roman Empire, when
Christianity emerged and triumphed: “In that age religion was
the only power that remained unaffected by the collapse of
civilization, by the loss of faith in social institutions and
cultural traditions and by the loss of hope in life.” (Dawson,
1950)
Mbiti (1989) believes that from the ontology that Africans
have, we can articulate the philosophical systems of different
African peoples and arrive at the understanding, attitude of
mind, logic and perception beyond the manner in which African
people think, act or speak in different situations of life.
An African ontology incorporates a dynamic interactive view of
being, in contrast to the static, isolationist view. This
means that a being is not thought to exist in itself or of
itself, but only has a meaningful existence in relation to its
interaction with other beings and things. Thus a thing is
known by the dynamic web of its relations with the external
world. Whether we speak of art, “religion”, conceptions of
space and time, ethics and morals or the conception of the
individual, this principle of unfailingly applies. African
religions include cosmology, science, art, psychology,
philosophy, etc., all integrated into a holistic system of
thought.
The traditional African view is that ethical concerns are
practical and experiential; they cannot be separated from the
lived experiences of the people in question. However, it is
important to begin with ontological assumptions, as they
underlie the ethical considerations to be discussed. A number
of these ontological assumptions have been discussed elsewhere
and only a few are noted here. These are hierarchies of
beings; God’s essence or life force; the principle of cosmic
unity; the principle of harmony, and the communal (relational)
nature of being.
Secondly, an act that seeks to narrow this African ontology
must be a very bad and taboo as it would seek to create
disequilibrium both on earth and in the universe. It would be
an act that seeks to destabilise and disturb the smooth
flowing life of both the community and individuals, thus
creating a disorder in the community. Creating a harmony in an
African setting is holistic act that integrates a lot of other
sectors and issues of the African village, as explained in the
concept of an African ontology above.
Chukwunyere (1998) cautions that it is crucial to have in mind
the basic ontological principle in African philosophy that
nothing exists of or by itself, but only in relation to other
things. This principle has the consequence that the African
worldview is dynamic as opposed to static in every area of
concern. Thus in the African worldview no person is
essentially good or evil in himself but only in terms of his
relation to others. In the area of moral responsibility it
means that this is a collective rather than individual affair,
whereby the individual’s actions have consequences for others
as well as him or herself.
It is commonly believed that order and chaos are associated
with good and evil respectively. However, this is not always
the case. There exists a chaotic principle within human nature
that will, from time to time, assert its freedom and stray
from the person’s predestined path. This element of human
nature is not seen as being the essentially evil side of the
person. Rather, it is that which makes the person free to
choose between right and wrong and therefore become morally
responsible (Chukwunyere, 1998).
To live a virtuous life, to cling to the truth and to conduct
harmonious relationships with oneself, one’s family and one’s
neighbours is to live in accordance with Ma’at (Ubuntu). Maat,
therefore, represents a principle or philosophy of living
rather than a static conception of the mind. Maat ensures that
cosmic and human justice is always done.
In the African weltanschuung (world-view), a person is not
basically an independent solitary entity. A person is human
precisely they are enveloped in in the community of other
human beings, in being caught up in the bundle of life.
Therefore, Ubuntu is a philosophy of tolerance and compassion.
It does not give up on people and it starts from the premise
that everybody has a potential to realise the promise of being
human. It embraces an element of forgiveness.
According to English Oxford Dictionary epistemology refers to
the theory or science of the method or grounds of knowledge.
To expand this definition, epistemology is the study of
theories about the nature and scope of knowledge, the
evaluation of the presupposition and bases of knowledge, and
the scrutiny of knowledge claims.
Magesa (1979) argues that man (in a collective sense) is the
product of his society. He belongs to his community. Within
this context African communities shape and direct their manner
of living in terms of what is or is not acceptable to them.
Human experience and responsibility are judged in light of
this goal, which does not change. From the dialectic between
the established goal and human responsibility to realise it
existentially and experimentally arises values and norms of
behaviour, what Africans would generally call “customs”, in
the most morally laden sense of the word. These customs help
the community and individuals within it to keep the goal of
life in sight, to strive toward it, and to have a basis with
which to deal with their shortcomings in this endeavour.
Coetzee et al (2002) add that, although epistemology is
universal, the ways of acquiring knowledge vary according to
the socio-cultural contexts within which knowledge claims are
formulated and articulated. From this, we can, then, talk of
an African articulation and formulation of knowledge. The
question whether or not there is an African epistemology
cannot be addressed without taking due cognizance of the
answer to the latter would imply a negative answer to the
former. Similarly, to assert the existence of an African
philosophy is to also to imply the existence of an African
epistemology, to the extent that an African epistemology is a
subset of African philosophy.
The traditional African belief, argues Mbiti (1989) is that
the Great One brought the divinities into being. He therefore
is the Maker and everything in heaven and on earth owes their
origin to Him alone. The belief is that the universe is a
composite of divine, spirit, human, animate and inanimate
elements, hierarchically perceived, but directly related, and
always interacting with each other. Some of these elements are
visible and some are invisible. They correspond to the visible
and invisible spheres of the universe: the visible world being
composed of creation, including humanity, plants, animals and
inanimate beings, and the invisible world being the sphere of
God, the ancestors, and the spirits.
An African does not have to look for God outside, above or
beyond his own creation. He sees and feels 'Ntu's finger and
presence and the indivisible unity between the Creator, man
and other created beings (nature). Hence we say: ‘I’m one with
the nature’. This concept, Creator-God, (Ntu) enables us to
trace and understand the origin of the philosophical concept
of Ubuntu, which is an element that is present in all human
beings. Therefore, u-ntu + umu-ntu = Ubu-ntu. The word Muntu
simply means "God-Man", whose abstract noun is Ubuntu. God +
Man = Supreme Goodness (Ubuntu). This element, the Supreme
Goodness, is found within all members of the human race. The
difference is that it is more pronounced and highly actualised
in an African setting.
God, according to Mbiti (1989), is the great kings above all
kings and cannot be compared in majesty. He is above all
majesties and divinities. He dwells everywhere. Thus He is
omnipotent because He is able to do all things and nothing can
be done nor created apart from Him. He is behind all
achievements. He alone can speak and accomplish his words.
Therefore, there is no room for failure. He is Absolute, all
wise Omniscient, all seeing, and all Knowing. He knows all
things and so no secrets are hid from Him..
In the private and public life of the African religious rites,
beliefs, and rituals are considered an integral part of life.
Life then is never complete unless it is seen always in its
entirety. Religious beliefs are found in everyday life and no
distinction is made between the sacred and the secular. The
sacred and the secular are merged in the total persona for the
individual African. Life is not divided into compartments or
divisions. Thus there are no special times for worship, for
everyday and every hour is worship time.
There are no creeds written down because through the
traditions of the Elders all creeds and functions are carried
in the individual’s heart. Each individual by his very nature
and life style is a living creed from the time one rises until
one retires at night. An understanding of the basic nature of
the African religious tradition surely illuminates the meaning
of spirituality in contemporary Africa.
An African ontological life cannot be separated from his
spirituality and religion. The very word ‘spiritus’, the life-
giving force which stems from God, quickens the baptised
Christian and transforms the relationships he/she has with
his/her fellow human beings. There is nothing cerebral or
esoteric about spirituality.
The way humanity relates to the environment and the nature of
inter-personal relationships are also part of the spiritual
make-up of the African. Issues of moral behavioural patterns;
natural plagues and disasters; familial inter-connectedness;
domestic animals; fields and several rites directly linked to
particular events in the life of the individual and the
community, together belong to the African religio-cultural
substratum. Social and economic relations, especially in the
traditional society, continue incessantly to pervade the
spiritual realm of the African.
Religion and culture are inextricably intertwined. Most of the
religious rituals are appropriated into the cultural scheme of
things and the cultural domain shapes and influences the
religious philosophy and practices. It is in this context and
against that background that any attempt to dichotomise
African spirituality into the sacred and the secular; the
physical and the spiritual; the individual and the corporate,
results in gross distortion and mis-construal of its theology
and its praxis. I am because we are; and since we are,
therefore, I am.
The depth of Ubuntu, argues Mbiti (1989), is indicated by the
African attachment to the concept of communalism, hence the
African popular saying: I’m because you are, and you are
because I’m or in my essential “being” I depend on the
essential “beingness” of the “Other”. This instils in Africans
an awareness of the other person who is my counterpart in
society. It creates a feeling that “being-for-others” appears
to be a necessary condition for “being-for-myself”. It instils
a feature of conscious togetherness; or an awareness of the
significance of the “other” in human existence.
The awareness and feeling of the internal and external
presence of the “Other” in one’s life generates great interest
and concern about one’s neighbour’s health, economic and
social welfare in the society. This is the kind of depth I
mean about this philosophy, which is less evident in European
settings.
‘Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’, meaning that each individual's
humanity is ideally expressed in relationships with others
and, in turn, individuality is truly expressed. Or a person
depends on other persons to be a person. Ubuntu is the
environment of vulnerability, i.e. a set of relationships in
which people are able to recognise that their humanity is
bound up in the other's humanity. Central to this thesis is
the fact that life and thought appeal to society to move
beyond racial distinctions as determinative of human identity.
The beauty of Ubuntu is that instead of there being warring
factions, instead of being manipulative and self-seeking, that
a person who lives in Ubuntu is more willing to make excuses
for others and even discover new meaning in other persons.
Therefore, Ubuntu is an attribute that distinguishes humans
from mere animals.
Whatever happens to the individual happens to the whole group,
and whatever happens to the whole group happens to the
individual. The individual can only say: "I am because we are;
and since we are, therefore, I am". This is a cardinal point
in the understanding of the African view of man.
In other words, the whole kraal or family is responsible for
the misdeeds and debts of any one of its inmates, and a
principal is always responsible for the acts of his agents or
dependants. The result is that every man in the tribe is a
policeman, and is bound to report to his supervisor any act or
wrong which he may see being done, otherwise he incurs
responsibility in regard to the act.
The individual’s humanity is determined by his relationship
with others. Only in terms of other people does the individual
become conscious of his own being, his own duties, his
privileges and responsibilities towards himself and towards
other people. Underlying Ubuntu is a holism that is foreign to
dualistic Western thinking.
Gyeke (1956) defines morality as a set of social rules and
norms intended to guide the conduct of people in a society.
The rules and norms emerge from – and are anchored in –
people’s beliefs about right and wrong conduct and good and
bad character. Morality is intrinsically social, arising out
of the relations between individuals; if there were no such a
thing as human society, there would be no such thing as
morality. And, because morality is essentially a social
phenomenon – for it can emerge only in a human society in
which there is an overriding concern for harmonious and
cooperative living- consideration for the interests of others
an, hence, a sense of duty to others, are intrinsic to the
meaning and practice of morality.
Magesa (1979) and Lumeya (2007) forcefully argue that no sane
society chooses to build its future on foreign cultures,
values, or systems. Every society is obliged to search deep in
its own history, culture, religion, and morality in order to
discover the values upon which its development and liberation,
its civilization, and its identity should be based (Magesa,
1979 and Lumeya, 2007). To do otherwise is nothing less than
communal suicide (Davidson, 1978). The problems and solutions
of today have to be envisaged within a historical framework,
an indigenous historical framework, no matter what
contribution an external world has made.
Okere (1983) and Hallen (2002) contends that unsurprisingly,
in Western anthropology, a culture based on tradition is
frequently portrayed as one devoid of change or development
because it is also devoid of critical or reflective thinking.
Beliefs and practices inherited from the ‘ancestors’ are said
to be preserved unchanged in the present and then handed on to
the next generation with the understanding they will be
preserved and observed in a similar manner.
Amadiume (1997) contends that philosophy in the African
context, does not have to replicate philosophy as defined and
practised in Western culture, and that the removal of Africans
from their own self-history is a problem with the continuous
presentation of Africans as a people with no philosophical
history. There is usually a marginalisation of the question of
epistemology as history of ideas, and intellectual debate in
all fields of learning are introduced with reference to
European thought, without concern or respect for Africans as a
people who should be understood within their own self-
constructed status and identity and as creators of their
nations
However, it must be stated here that colonialism created a new
social and political order in sub-Saharan Africa. Urbanisation
has given rise to mega-cities in different parts of the
continent. Most communities are no longer homogeneous. They
are heterogeneous and plural in virtually every aspect of
their life. A wedge has been driven between the sacred and the
secular aspects of life.
Kagame's views may seem controversial, but they are deductions
of a truly impressive linguistic analysis. More than that
Kagame's work on African philosophy escapes other supported
generalisations from authors such as Tempels's. Kagame is very
prudent. He claims that every language and culture is
sustained by deep and discrete order. This philosophy,
according to Mudimbe (1988), is a silent domain which has been
functioning for centuries, perhaps in a sort of "frozen"
dynamism". However, one must thank our historical fathers of
the African cultures, the creators of our languages and the
first African humans.
Kagame, Mulago, Tshiamalenga, Wiredu, Appiah, Crahay, Tempels,
and others., have been labelled as "ethno-philosophers", but
what is good is that they have formed a body of judgements
stemming from their analysis and interpretation of African
cultures and which can be summed up in three propositions:-
(1) a good application of classical philosophical grids
demonstrates beyond doubt that there is an African philosophy
which, as a deep system, underlies and sustains African
cultures and civilisations, (2) African philosophy is
fundamentally an ontology organised as a deployment of inter
acting but hierarchically ordered forces; and (3) human vital
unity appears to be the centre of the endless dialectic of
forces, which collectively determine their being in relation
to human existence.
According to Shutte (1996), there are certain ideas that are
fundamental to traditional wisdom: that reality is a force and
the world a process of interplay between forces, that humanity
is part of this universal field of force, that at bottom all
force is alive, spiritual rather than material that the
individual's life and fulfilment are only to be found in
community with others (a community that does not end at
death), morality is the development of natural tendencies to
fuller being and more abundant life, and finally that all
human life and world process is directed and empowered by a
transcendent origin of life and force.
As far back as one may go into his past, from the Northern
Sudanese to the Southern Bantu, the African has always and
everywhere presented a concept of the world, which is
diametrically opposed to the traditional philosophy of Europe.
The latter is essentially static, objective, dichotomous; it
is, in fact, dualistic, in that it makes an absolute
distinction between body and soul, matter and spirit. It is
founded on separation and opposition, on analysis and
conflict. The African, on the other hand, conceives the world,
beyond the diversity of its forms, as a fundamental mobile yet
unique reality that seeks synthesis. This reality is being in
the ontological sense of the word, and it is life force. For
the African, matter in the sense the Europeans understand it,
is only a system of signs which translates the single reality
of the universe: being, which is spirit, which is life force.
Thus, the whole universe appears as an infinitely small, and
at the same time infinitely large.
Combining the African ideas, especially those of community, of
morality as the drive to fuller being, and God as the source
and goal of all force, Senghor develops a theory of the
tendency of all peoples to communicate, to merge and
eventually to become a universal community. This is what he
understands by African socialism; he calls it "the
civilisation of the universal”.
Prinsloo (1995) in his paper delivered during the proceedings
of the Colloquium held at University of South Africa, in
October 1995 said that apart from what African thinkers
themselves have to say about Ubuntu, the good and valuable in
human life, is concerned with visions of happiness and
fulfilment and ideas of how these might be realised.
The virtue of respect is explained by him as respect for the
aged, implying a view of personhood in terms of development.
An older person is more of a person than a younger one with
more to offer by way of personal influence and power. This
means that the elderly continue to play an important part in
society in contrast to the dominance of the youth in social
practices in the case of Western societies. Human relations
become interpersonal with emphasis on duties. Interpersonal
relations as being of substantial importance (Prinsloo, 1995).
Ubuntu thinkers formulate their views in terms of a person is
a person through other persons. This point of departure,
argues Prinsloo (1995), qualifies human dignity in terms of
which people are to be treated. Human dignity seems to be
related to morality, and morality and rationality are acquired
from community life and do not follow from, say, fixed
ideologies or universal categories. In this sense, argues
Prinsloo (1995), it follows that we can talk of "communitarian
morality and rationality".
Individualism is …that political and social philosophy that
places high value on the freedom of the individual and
generally stresses the self-directed, self-contained and
comparatively unrestrained individual or ego" (Prinsloo (1995:
115).
This implies, argues Prinsloo (1995) "a value system, a theory
of human nature, a general attitude or temper of belief in
certain political, economic or social and religious
arrangements. He describes the value system as: ...all values
are man-centred..., the individual is an end in himself and is
of supreme value, society being only a means to individual
ends; and all individuals are in some sense morally equal,
this quality being expressed by the proposition that no one
should ever be treated solely as a means to the wellbeing of
another person.
Conclusion
We are challenged to create a new wholesome society, which
means we should attempt to do and accomplish something unique
in the history of the last 3000 years, namely to allow Ubuntu
and African religion to be as much of a participant in
creating the new society as urban culture, urban creativity,
urban philosophy, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.
In the early history of Christianity, there was a lot of
cross-pollination between Christian thought and Pagan thought,
between Christian practices and Pagan practices. A lot of
thoughts and practices from Paganism were adopted by
Christianity.
Cross-pollination has been the rule in the development of all
human culture and of science, just as the cross-pollination of
genes has been the rule in the development of the Human
species.
This has seriously harmed European personalities as well as
African personalities. There has been no cross-pollination in
the making of the European personality. If racism had not
erected barriers within colonial society as well as in the
minds and emotions of Europeans and Africans, the European
personality would be a synthesis of African culture and
European culture, of European Christianity and African
religion. The European personality, deprived of this cross-
fertilization of influences and cultures, has been restricted
in its growth and development, has been impoverished. Deep
down in their psyches, Whites and Africans are still strangers
to one another.
What comes out clearly here is that there has never been a
cross-pollination of Ubuntu constitutive rules and those of
Christian Church, but there is a great deal of cross-
pollination between Ubuntu and the Independent African
Churches.
It is one’s belief that if Ubuntu is well fused and integrated
into Christian Church, perhaps a new and unique Christian
Church could begin to serve humanity to the fullest.
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