tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/ubuntu-14947/articles
Ubuntu – The Conversation
2023-11-09T14:09:01Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216780
2023-11-09T14:09:01Z
2023-11-09T14:09:01Z
Ubuntu offers lessons in how to treat people with disabilities – a study of Bomvana rituals
<p>Research shows that people with disabilities have always been largely <a href="https://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/library/finkelstein-attitudes.pdf">excluded</a> and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352486275_Disability_in_Africa_A_CulturalReligious_Perspective">marginalised</a> in societies across the world.</p>
<p>Over time, the language used to describe disability has generally become more positive and inclusive. Many activists advocate for the use of “people/persons with disabilities” and not the “handicapped” or “disabled”. But this language remains negative for many Indigenous people around the world. To them the word “disability” is stigmatising because they <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---ifp_skills/documents/publication/wcms_396412.pdf">don’t have</a> such a term in their vocabulary. It’s also a misrepresentation of their traditional beliefs regarding impairments. </p>
<p>In traditional village life, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Xhosa">Xhosa</a> community of AmaBomvane in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa do not see disability in a person. Their rituals do not allow people to discriminate – their worldview is based on collectivism and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HED4h00xPPA">ubuntu</a>. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/B:SPED.0000024428.29295.03">Ubuntu</a> is an African philosophy that promotes the common good of society and includes humaneness; each person is an integral part of society. </p>
<p>In many other cultures persons with disabilities are seen to <a href="https://ieas-szeged.hu/downtherabbithole/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Lennard-J.-Davis-ed.-The-Disability-Studies-Reader-Routledge-2014.pdf">differ</a> from the “norm”. </p>
<p>For my <a href="https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/128429">PhD</a> in health sciences rehabilitation, I spent three years studying the experiences of people with disabilities when they underwent Xhosa rituals and traditions. I wanted to know how rituals contribute to health and wellbeing. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-the-philosophy-of-ubuntu-help-provide-a-way-to-face-health-crises-135997">Can the philosophy of ubuntu help provide a way to face health crises?</a>
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<p>I found that good health and wellbeing relies on rituals, which are the essence of life among the Bomvana people. And that good health is for everybody, including people with disabilities. They cannot be denied health, because everyone is equal. This offers lessons in the inclusion and participation of people with disabilities. </p>
<h2>The study</h2>
<p>For my study, 50 people were selected for interviews and focus groups from three rural villages – Gusi, Hobeni and Xhora in the district of Elliotdale – with the assistance of chiefs and community members. They included people over the age of 18 with disabilities (who were able to answer questions), indigenous knowledge holders (elders), caregivers and parents of persons with disabilities, traditional birth attendants, traditional healers, a traditional circumcision surgeon and a social worker.</p>
<p>The Bomvana people are associated with the red ochre they use to decorate their faces and the beautiful beaded red blankets worn when attending traditional functions. AmaBomvane have a strong <a href="https://scholar.sun.ac.za/items/4c2431c5-5387-4697-a626-8d8a781b4c3f">belief system</a> which strengthens cultural continuity, ensuring there will be no lack in leadership to perform rituals and traditions. Their participation in social organisation ensures that traditional knowledge, transmitted orally, is not lost as it moulds the character of the people. </p>
<p>My study focused on three rituals which mark important stages in a person’s life:</p>
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<li><p><a href="https://scholar.sun.ac.za/items/f8f6b1ca-c078-4fc3-a398-df59af186a5b">Efukwini</a> (behind the door), which provides a sacred space for giving birth in which the mother and infant remain separate from the rest of the household for 10 days to protect the child from evil forces. When the nursing mother is in seclusion, AmaXhosa believe that the child is connected to the ancestors for its protection and recognition as a member of the family, including all people with disabilities.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/83637195.pdf">Intonjane</a> (female initiation rite), marking a girl’s rite of passage to womanhood, performed between her first menstruation and her wedding. The ritual is done for all young women, regardless of whether they are disabled.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://vital.seals.ac.za:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository/vital:3271?site_name=GlobalView">Ulwaluko</a> (traditional male circumcision), in which boys learn about acquiring their identity and social responsibility as men. A person with disability belongs to the community and must not be excluded from this ritual. All boys must be taught to become men, regardless of disabilities.</p></li>
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<h2>The findings</h2>
<p>AmaBomvane treat people with disabilities with dignity and respect within the context of their rituals. If they didn’t, it’s believed, the rituals would be rejected by the ancestors and misfortune would arise. The Bomvana also believe illness can be prevented through performing rituals to the ancestors, who are seen as intermediaries between God and people. The rituals confer health, stability and resilience. </p>
<p>I found that rituals provide a safe space for people with disability by virtue of being inclusive. This encourages respect and compassion. </p>
<p>The Bomvana understanding of disability is also linked to spirituality and traditional knowledge systems. Disability is <a href="https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/128429">seen as</a> outside the body: </p>
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<p>Disability is like a blanket any other spirit is wearing. </p>
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<p>The Bomvana do not see disability as the real person, <a href="https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/128429">saying</a>: </p>
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<p>The soul is not disabled.</p>
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<p>There are, however, also <a href="https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/37695">negative attitudes</a> towards persons with disabilities in the broader Bomvana village society outside of the rituals. This, I believe, is a result of colonial influence and <a href="https://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/vee/v33n2/12.pdf">western thinking</a>. AmaBomvane told me, for example, that in the old days missionaries were against men going for circumcision. They did not understand the importance of the ritual to the Xhosa. If one is not circumcised, one remains a “boy” and is forbidden from participating in communal decisions and social events.</p>
<p>Talking about these negative attitudes, one traditional healer <a href="https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/128429">told me</a>:</p>
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<p>Their treatment is very bad in the community. At times they become projects of people they are living with. Their grant money is misused by their carers. </p>
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<p>The grant is given by the state to provide for the basic needs of persons with disabilities who are unable to work.</p>
<p>One caregiver <a href="https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/128429'">said</a>: </p>
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<p>They are not supported as they should be. For example, there are these children we are looking after, and when they go home for holidays, we buy them clothes, but when they come back, the clothes … have been taken by siblings that are not disabled.</p>
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<p>While in the villages the old values are still respected, I found indications that with changing times and fractured family units, the concept of ubuntu is under threat. </p>
<h2>What this means</h2>
<p>The AmaBomvane belief in ubuntu – social justice and fairness – could be a model for the inclusion of persons with disabilities and their rights. The Bomvana case could encourage others to embrace a spirituality that supports resilience and stability. It’s a humane way of viewing disability.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-archbishop-tutus-ubuntu-credo-teaches-the-world-about-justice-and-harmony-84730">What Archbishop Tutu's ubuntu credo teaches the world about justice and harmony</a>
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<p>This matters because ubuntu contains all the key aspects of South Africa’s constitutional <a href="https://dredf.org/legal-advocacy/international-disability-rights/international-laws/south-africa-constitution-bill-of-rights/">bill of rights</a> that teaches that “all are equal before the law”. In the view of the AmaBomvane and ubuntu, disability is not seen as a problem which needs to be fixed but rather a state of being that must be treated with humanity and equality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216780/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nomvo Dwadwa-Henda does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The philosophy of ubuntu means that good health is for everybody and disability is not regarded as a difference.
Nomvo Dwadwa-Henda, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Africa Centre for HIV/Aids Management, Stellenbosch University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209260
2023-07-19T10:23:21Z
2023-07-19T10:23:21Z
Lovemore Mbigi will be remembered for his teaching on ubuntu in business leadership
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538071/original/file-20230718-25-esmn4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lovemore Mbigi. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Knowledge Resources</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Professor Lovemore Mbigi, celebrated within the African management and psychology disciplines, <a href="https://www.herald.co.zw/eminent-zimbabwe-author-scholar-prof-mbigi-dies/">died</a> in Harare, Zimbabwe on 26 June 2023. He left a body of work that resonates on the continent. </p>
<p>Mbigi was over his career affiliated with several African and international universities. Notably, he contributed to the PhD programme at the National University of Science Technology in Zimbabwe. Academics have described him as an important African scholar whose work made an impact in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25074317.pdf">management education</a>.</p>
<p>In addition to his role in the academy, Mbigi was a consultant to business and an active contributor to how state-owned entities could be improved for better service delivery. His areas of expertise included strategy execution, transformation, <a href="https://kr.co.za/product/the-spirit-of-african-leadership/">leadership</a> and diversity management. </p>
<p>I came to know Mbigi and his work when I was an aspiring organisational behaviour scholar. I observed through my reading of the literature that a lot of emphasis was placed on what would be termed western psychology. The influence of this western psychology would permeate through to consulting practice. In seeking a place where I belonged within my discipline, the work of Mbigi was a light in a dark tunnel. I appreciated him throughout my career phases and transitions, and have recommended his work as useful reading for the masters and PhD students I’ve supervised.</p>
<h2>African concepts</h2>
<p>Mbigi’s work challenged the dominance of “<a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100630132850.htm">WEIRD</a>” – western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic – nations in knowledge production and dissemination. He reminded us as Africans that we should never leave behind that which was distinctively ours in favour of what could be termed modernity. </p>
<p>Mbigi brought <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-happens-when-you-put-african-philosophies-at-the-centre-of-learning-95465">African concepts and cultural practices</a> to the academic and consulting realm. For example he saw the <a href="https://rozenbergquarterly.com/prophecies-and-protests-a-vision-of-african-management-and-african-leadership-a-southern-african-perspective/">African philosophy of ubuntu</a> as a basis of effective human resources management. In ubuntu, the emphasis is on fostering a sense of togetherness and using this shared togetherness to achieve objectives. At the core the management of people in organisations needs to espouse these tenets of ubuntu in achieving a competitive advantage.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/education-in-zimbabwe-should-strive-for-inclusion-how-the-philosophy-of-ubuntu-can-help-204561">Education in Zimbabwe should strive for inclusion -- how the philosophy of ubuntu can help</a>
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<p>He also used concepts such as harambe from east Africa and nhimbe from southern Africa to inform talent management and organisational development practices. Both these “teamwork” practices in their contexts acknowledge the communal nature of African societies. Individual talent can be directed to solving community challenges through gathering together. Clear lines of authority exist around a goal but, importantly, there is a sense of togetherness in achieving this goal.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/african-philosophy-needs-to-blossom-being-exclusionary-wont-help-62720">African philosophy needs to blossom. Being exclusionary won't help</a>
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<p>Mbigi’s work has also been applied extensively to other fields of study, especially where people and the <a href="https://africasocialwork.net/lovemore-mbigi/">interaction of cultural systems</a> are at play. </p>
<h2>African management and leadership</h2>
<p>Mbigi’s first book on African management, co-authored with Jenny Maree, was <a href="https://kr.co.za/product/ubuntu-the-spirit-of-african-transformation-management/">Ubuntu: The Spirit of African Transformation Management</a>. In this work, value is placed on the role of African indigenous knowledge systems as cultural capital to assist managers within contemporary workplaces. Such knowledge systems, as viewed by <a href="https://en.unesco.org/links">Unesco</a>, place value on the understandings, skills and philosophies developed by societies with long histories of interaction with their natural surroundings. </p>
<p>For Mbigi, turning to indigenous knowledge systems offered a perspective that could help address challenges faced in organisations. Such perspectives become useful in acknowledging diversity and using it for good.</p>
<p>His book <a href="https://kr.co.za/product/the-spirit-of-african-leadership/">The Spirit of African Leadership</a> is an attempt to position the role of African leadership in the global arena, especially within modern management practice. Mbigi called for awareness of the reality that the African continent has a wealth of leadership knowledge. He emphasised that such leadership knowledge not only deserves equal attention globally: it has the potential to make a contribution universally, too.</p>
<p>Mbigi also wrote <a href="https://www.herald.co.zw/in-search-of-african-business-renaissance/">In Search of African Business Renaissance: An African Cultural Perspective</a>, and Ubuntu: The African Dream in Management. </p>
<p>When I was an undergraduate student I encountered and drew on Mbigi’s work in two classes: organisational development and consulting psychology. In these classes, there was a need for theory and practice to be linked and balanced. I was impressed by Mbigi’s <a href="https://econpapers.repec.org/bookchap/palpalchp/978-0-230-62752-9_5f19.htm">framing of cultural paradigms</a>, especially those prevalent in African societies. I learned I could use such African cultural paradigms to inform not just my worldview but as a possible solution to individual and organisational challenges.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/work-contracts-are-a-complex-web-of-social-and-cultural-dynamics-75074">Work contracts are a complex web of social and cultural dynamics</a>
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<p>Mbigi’s books on African leadership and ubuntu continue to be cited in scholarly outputs. His work in some cases is even seen as seminal and pioneering. It has featured in training and consulting practice and is an inspiration for African scholars and practitioners to make an impact in a “WEIRD” world. One of his students <a href="https://research.vu.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/42179854/complete+dissertation.pdf">described</a> him aptly as “generous, energetic and humorous”. These were attributes Mbigi used to get his message across not only as a teacher but also as a researcher and consultant in a serious world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209260/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Willie Tafadzwa Chinyamurindi receives funding from the National Heritage Council and the National Research Foundation.</span></em></p>
Lovemore Mbigi saw the African concept of ubuntu as a basis of effective human resources management.
Willie Tafadzwa Chinyamurindi, Professor, University of Fort Hare
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204561
2023-05-25T15:39:52Z
2023-05-25T15:39:52Z
Education in Zimbabwe should strive for inclusion – how the philosophy of ubuntu can help
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526221/original/file-20230515-15-1uqahj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Inclusive education is about far more than accommodating learners with disabilities, but teachers don't seem to know this.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wilfred Kajese/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The notion of <a href="https://www.unicef.org/education/inclusive-education#:%7E:text=Inclusive%20education%20means%20all%20children,speakers%20of%20minority%20languages%20too.">inclusive education</a> began to emerge during the 1950s and 1960s. At first it focused on integrating students with disabilities into mainstream classrooms, but it evolved over time. Now it’s about including <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13603116.2015.1095250">students with diverse backgrounds and abilities</a>, such as those with emotional or cognitive challenges whose disabilities are often “<a href="https://www.disabled-world.com/disability/types/invisible/">invisible</a>”.</p>
<p>Global <a href="https://www.un.org/en/ecosoc/docs/book2011/05_Dialogues%20at%20ECOSOC%202011_A_The%20Education%20for%20All%20Agenda.pdf">initiatives</a> <a href="https://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convention_accessible_pdf.pdf">emphasise</a> that integration is key to creating educational opportunities for all pupils and to combating stigma and discriminatory attitudes. </p>
<p>The problem is that the concept of inclusive education – and ideas about what it takes to make schools inclusive – was developed in the global north. It doesn’t take into account the fact that schools in countries with lower incomes and fewer resources can’t always afford the physical infrastructure to drive inclusion. </p>
<p>And teachers may not think of inclusive education as a priority when they’re contending with low salaries and waning motivation, teaching materials are lacking, physical structures are deteriorating, classrooms are overcrowded, and students are finding it difficult to pay school fees. In fact, they may not think about inclusive education at all.</p>
<p>I am a researcher focused on diversity and equity issues. I wanted <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13603116.2022.2048102">to understand</a> what in-service teachers and trainee teachers in Zimbabwe know about inclusive education.
Globally, <a href="https://www.hi.org/en/news/children-with-disabilities-still---excluded-from-school">about 50%</a> of children with disabilities in low- and middle- income countries are not in school. While there are no precise statistics for Zimbabwe, it is a low income country and, so, it is very likely that a large number of its disabled children are not in school. Anecdotally, some of the teachers I interviewed knew of children with disabilities who had left school because of problems with accessibility. </p>
<p>I also wanted to explore whether the southern African philosophy of unhu, also called <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274374017_The_African_Philosophy_of_Ubuntu_in_South_African_Education">ubuntu</a>, could contribute to an understanding of inclusive education and potentially inform the creation of alternative inclusive policies. Ubuntu is a concept that emphasises the importance of including everyone and building a strong community.</p>
<h2>Knowledge gaps</h2>
<p>As case studies, I selected two rural schools and two teacher training colleges that supplied these schools with teachers. The schools were in remote areas; many families ended up there after <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/jan/14/rhodes-must-fall-oxford-colonialism-zimbabwe-simukai-chigudu">losing their land during colonial times</a>. </p>
<p>I chose this region strategically for its history of displacement, which offered insights into the community’s adaptation mechanisms. I was able to explore the enduring effects of colonial displacement on the community’s present socio-economic conditions and their approach towards inclusive education.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-south-africa-needs-to-do-to-improve-education-for-disabled-children-163847">What South Africa needs to do to improve education for disabled children</a>
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<p>Both in-service and trainee teachers described numerous barriers to inclusive education.</p>
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<p>When we are taught about inclusive education, they only focus on students with visible disabilities - hearing impairments and visual impairments. As a result, we are rushed to understand some basic braille and sign language. Other complicated and invisible disabilities are never taught in that module. (Trainee teacher)</p>
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<p>And, while there was some discussion in training about students with visible disabilities, in reality they were not accommodated in schools. A primary school teacher told me:</p>
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<p>We have pit latrines here and only one modern toilet. We are not capable of enrolling students with severe disabilities.</p>
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<p>One student who was so severely disabled that she moved around by “crawling on the floor” dropped out in the third grade, the teacher said. </p>
<p>Even teachers who knew about and valued the ideals of inclusive education struggled to implement it in the face of daily realities. A secondary school teacher explained:</p>
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<p>Paying attention to each student is challenging. It drains me. I have a big class and the (Education) Ministry does not recognise my inclusive practice efforts but the academic achievements of students, so I move with those that are quick in grasping the subject. </p>
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<p>Overall it was clear that there’s a big gap in knowledge and training for both working and trainee teachers when it comes to inclusive education. </p>
<p>There was a real sense of powerlessness among the teachers. They can’t fix infrastructure – and shouldn’t have to, since this is not their job. This is where ubuntu/unhu comes in: I believe its tenets can be harnessed to help teachers think about what they <em>can</em> do.</p>
<h2>The role of ubuntu</h2>
<p>The unhu/ubuntu philosophy has already been applied elsewhere to encourage inclusive education. <a href="https://www.ugent.be/pp/orthopedagogiek/en/research/ongoingresarch/obuntubulamu.htm">Obuntu balumu</a> is a peer-to-peer support initiative in Uganda. It has been studied and <a href="https://doi.org/10.4102/ajod.v12i0.948">found to materially improve</a> the participation and inclusion of children with disabilities, including less visible ones.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-archbishop-tutus-ubuntu-credo-teaches-the-world-about-justice-and-harmony-84730">What Archbishop Tutu's ubuntu credo teaches the world about justice and harmony</a>
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<p>As the Obuntu bulamu project shows, underpinning learning with an ubuntu/unhu philosophy promotes positive cultural practices for inclusivity. At the same time it requires state actors to make decisions based on respect and solidarity. It also encourages innovative, contextual solutions for resource constraints and accessibility issues, such as parent training or home visits for students with disabilities. All of this drives inclusive education.</p>
<p>The teachers I interviewed recognised this and offered some ideas about how ubuntu could help them to promote inclusive education. A primary school teacher said:</p>
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<p>Ubuntu is about fostering community support, an element that aligns perfectly with our context. For instance, we could use our current understanding of inclusive education to create a concise, locally relevant handbook on the subject, and distribute it to students to share with their parents and guardians. This handbook would provide insights into disability and its implications. </p>
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<p>This teacher also suggested at-home tutoring and training other students to support those with disabilities as ways to embed ubuntu in their practice:</p>
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<p>Alternatively, we could make regular trips to nearby villages, providing a few hours of instruction to those unable to attend school during the week. By doing so, wouldn’t we be practising ubuntu?</p>
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<p>Adopting the unhu/ubuntu philosophy can help create a more inclusive and supportive educational environment for all students, going beyond western ideas and reflecting a more locally relevant understanding of inclusive education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204561/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oliver Mutanga receives funding from British Academy/ Leverhulme. </span></em></p>
Ubuntu is a concept that emphasises the importance of including everyone and building a strong community.
Oliver Mutanga, Assistant Professor, Nazarbayev University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204819
2023-05-15T17:17:22Z
2023-05-15T17:17:22Z
Justice Yvonne Mokgoro: South Africa’s trailblazing defender of justice, human dignity and the constitution
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525569/original/file-20230511-17-jo3h2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former South African constitutional court judge, Yvonne Mokgoro.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vathiswa Ruselo/Sowetan</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many great legal minds have made important contributions to the development of the law, justice and constitutionalism in South Africa. One figure who stands out as a particularly influential jurist of the era is retired judge <a href="https://www.concourt.org.za/index.php/judges/former-judges/11-former-judges/63-justice-yvonne-mokgoro">Yvonne Mokgoro</a>. She was among the first justices of the country’s new constitutional court, serving from 1994 to 2009.</p>
<p>Researchers at South Africa’s <a href="https://hsrc.ac.za/who-we-are/">Human Sciences Research Council</a> have <a href="https://repository.hsrc.ac.za/handle/20.500.11910/11726">aptly described</a> this remarkable jurist: </p>
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<p>As the first black African woman appointed to the Bench in 1994, she brought with her fresh scars of the oppressive system of apartheid that alienated and marginalised her as a black person and as a woman … As a member of the Constitutional Court Justice Mokgoro was active and engaged, with her most lasting contribution being her efforts to Africanise human rights through the dignification of the law and the operationalisation of ubuntu as a constitutional value.</p>
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<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/sobukwes-pan-africanist-dream-an-elusive-idea-that-refuses-to-die-52601">Robert Sobukwe</a>, a pan-Africanist leader and lawyer, greatly influenced her to break the glass ceiling for women who wished to become lawyers, and her dedication to fighting injustice. Remarkably, he represented her <a href="https://www.servantleader.co.za/yvonne">in 1970</a> after her arrest for protesting against the ill-treatment of a man by the apartheid police. </p>
<p>I would argue that just as the US celebrates the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/18/100306972/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-champion-of-gender-equality-dies-at-87">legal, cultural and feminist icon</a>” and human rights defender, South Africa can be proud to have the retired Justice Yvonne Mokgoro. She has dedicated her life to defending justice, equality and human rights for all.</p>
<h2>The early years and education</h2>
<p>She was born in 1950 in Galeshewe, near Kimberley in the Northern Cape, as the second child of working-class parents. She finished high school at the local St Boniface High School in 1970.</p>
<p>Her university education was mostly part time. She obtained an undergraduate (B Iuris) degree at the then University of Bophuthatswana, a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) two years later, and a Master of Laws (LLM) in 1987. She also studied at the University of Pennsylvania in the USA, where she earned a <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/recipient/justice-yvonne-mokgoro">second LLM degree in 1990</a>. </p>
<p>Mokgoro’s journey included working as a nursing assistant, a retail salesperson and a clerk in the department of justice of the erstwhile nominally independent <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Bophuthatswana">Bophuthatswana</a>. She was also a maintenance officer and public prosecutor in the then Mmabatho magistrate court. She later became an associate professor of law at the University of Bophuthatswana (now North West University) and <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/recipient/justice-yvonne-mokgoro">the University of the Western Cape</a>. </p>
<h2>Legacy</h2>
<p>Mokgoro has served South Africa and its justice system with distinction. Her influence on issues of protection of children and vulnerable communities, transformation of the legal profession and parity for female legal scholars and lawyers will linger for decades. Her commitment to access to justice and nation building is commendable. </p>
<p>Her judgments and some academic works, such as the 1998 journal paper <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/pelj/article/view/43567">Ubuntu and the Law in South Africa</a>, have become foundational texts for legal education in South Africa and beyond. </p>
<p>Her academic writing and judgments have aided the development of constitutionalism in South Africa.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-has-its-first-woman-deputy-chief-justice-heres-who-she-is-176896">South Africa has its first woman Deputy Chief Justice: here's who she is</a>
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<p>She is a strong advocate for the rule of law and respect for the principles enshrined in the country’s constitution. These include respect for human rights and dignity. She believes that all South Africans have a patriotic duty not to allow the constitution to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26633677_UBuntu_and_the_law_in_South_Africa">slide into disrepute</a>.</p>
<p>She is also an avid proponent of reconciliation and national cohesion. For instance, in her separate judgment <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/1995/3.html">in 1995)</a>, she eloquently argued for <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-archbishop-tutus-ubuntu-credo-teaches-the-world-about-justice-and-harmony-84730">ubuntu</a> (humanness) as the philosophy that should foreground interpretation of the constitution. She <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/1995/3.html">stated that</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Although South Africans have a history of deep divisions characterised by strife and conflict, one shared value and ideal that runs like a golden thread across cultural lines is the value of Ubuntu … While it envelops the key values of group solidarity, compassion, respect, human dignity, conformity to basic norms and collective unity, in its fundamental sense it denotes humanity and morality. Its spirit emphasises respect for human dignity, marking a shift from confrontation to conciliation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Also notable is that she advocated for reconsideration of the place of African jurisprudence in relation to South African law, the South African constitution and customary law. She <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/pelj/article/view/43567">has urged</a> the</p>
<blockquote>
<p>revival of African jurisprudence as part of the total or broader process of the African renaissance.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mokgoro’s parents greatly influenced her role in the constitutional court. She did not see her position as a judge as being about power. It was about her responsibility to the people of South Africa, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Life-Soul-Portraits-Women-Africa/dp/1770130438">ensuring justice for everyone and improving people’s lives</a>.</p>
<h2>Judgments</h2>
<p>Mokgoro’s advocacy for group solidarity and reconciliation is discernible in several of her judgments. </p>
<p>For instance, in <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2004/11.html">Khosa and Others v Minister of Social Development, Mahlaule and Another v Minister of Social Development (2004)</a> the constitutional court was faced with a challenge to the constitutionality of the <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/social-assistance-act">Social Assistance Act, 1992</a>. The act provided that only South African citizens qualified for social grants. </p>
<p>The challenge was brought by two indigent Mozambican citizens who were permanent residents in South Africa. Mokgoro upheld a decision of the high court to allow permanent residents to receive the grants. </p>
<p>She thus advanced the rights of immigrants and refugees in South Africa, and advocated for the protection of all children.</p>
<h2>Legal icon</h2>
<p>Mokgoro deserves to be celebrated as a selfless jurist who highlighted the centrality of the constitution and human rights in South Africa. She is an icon of the legal profession, a defender of the marginalised.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rule-of-law-in-south-africa-protects-even-those-who-scorn-it-175533">Rule of law in South Africa protects even those who scorn it</a>
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<p>She is also one of the judges who, alongside <a href="https://www.chr.up.ac.za/world-moot-previous-judges/95-moot-courts/world-moot-court/judges/1646-justice-albie-sachs">Justice Albie Sachs</a>, mainstreamed African jurisprudence through the use of ubuntu in some of her judgments.</p>
<p>Aspiring judges and law students would do well to know this remarkable woman’s powerful judgments, which make clear the principles of human dignity and justice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204819/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Omphemetse Sibanda does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Justice Mokgoro’s advocacy for group solidarity and reconciliation is discernible in several of her judgments.
Omphemetse Sibanda, Executive Dean and Full Professor, Faculty of Management and Law, University of Limpopo
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/198344
2023-02-08T13:15:59Z
2023-02-08T13:15:59Z
Few of South Africa’s chartered accountants are black: hearing their stories suggests what to fix
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506304/original/file-20230125-18-tcfz60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are ways to make the path to a chartered accountancy qualification less fraught for black candidates.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrey Popov/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Chartered accountants can be found in the upper echelons of organisations all over the world as CEOs, directors and senior managers. They are often responsible for an entity’s finances, managing and reporting how funds are sourced and used, and the tax implications. Others are auditors.</p>
<p>Becoming a chartered accountant (CA) is not easy. In South Africa one must complete both undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications, serve a minimum of three years of articles (a supervised practical learnership) and complete two professional exams. </p>
<p>There is also a big racial disparity in South Africa’s chartered accountancy realm: only 8,610 (17%) of the 51,152 <a href="https://www.saica.org.za/members/member-info/membership-statistics">registered CAs</a> are black. That’s in stark contrast to the country’s demographics; <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1116076/total-population-of-south-africa-by-population-group/">nearly 81%</a> of South Africans are black. </p>
<p>This gap is rooted in history. For most of apartheid’s white-minority rule from 1948 to 1994, black citizens were not allowed to become chartered accountants. The first black man <a href="https://www.saica.org.za/about/overview/our-history">qualified in 1976</a> and the first black woman <a href="https://www.accountancysa.org.za/cover-story-winning-women-nonkululeko-gobodo-casa/">in 1987</a>. Though the profession is now open to all, it’s clear that historical disparities persist. </p>
<p>Most of the scientific literature that examines the challenges faced by aspirant and qualified black CAs is presented through the lens of professional bodies, universities, training firms and scholarship funders. Very few studies directly engage the black aspirants to find out what their lived struggles are. </p>
<p>I wanted to fill this gap because when people can share their own lived experiences, as the scholar Cheryl McEwan <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0305707032000095009?">puts it</a>, “their agency and sense of belonging is restored”. </p>
<p>So, for <a href="https://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/29357">my PhD</a>, I interviewed 22 recently qualified black CAs. Their lived experiences brought to light the brutal nature of the challenges they were experiencing – and emphasised that while some of these could be attributed to apartheid’s legacy, others were a manifestation of the complex racial and class divisions in contemporary society. </p>
<p>My findings suggest some easy and practical interventions that can be applied in <a href="http://www.thedtic.gov.za/financial-and-non-financial-support/b-bbee/b-bbee-charters/">the government’s initiatives</a> to transform the profession. The same framework can be applied in higher education and workplace training to promote inclusive learning and training practices. For academics, it lays a foundation for an avenue of research that responds to the practical challenges experienced in the profession. </p>
<h2>No room for failure</h2>
<p>My interviewees all qualified between 2016 and 2022 at different universities across the country. Some had taken more than the average seven years to qualify; a few had temporarily dropped out of their university studies before returning and completing their degrees. </p>
<p>The aspirants spoke of how gaining access to universities accredited by the <a href="https://www.saica.co.za/">South African Institute of Chartered Accountants</a> was a logistical nightmare. Universities must be accredited for their degrees to be recognised by the institute.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/university-transformation-the-wrong-research-questions-are-being-asked-67339">University transformation: the wrong research questions are being asked</a>
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<p>Many of the students were based in townships and rural areas, while the accredited institutions are found in big cities like Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. Students had to leave the safety provided by their immediate families and communities. </p>
<p>Because accounting qualifications have high entrance requirements and the aspirants had the necessary aptitude, they got merit scholarships which covered the cost of their relocation. But the terms and conditions of those scholarships left no room for failure, irrespective of the reasons. </p>
<p>One of the interviewees described how and why she lost her funding:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In my third year, I lost my dad and {was} also not feeling well. So, I actually failed my third year. I was on <a href="https://www.saica.org.za/initiatives/thuthuka/apply-to-the-thuthuka-bursary-fund">Thuthuka</a> {a bursary fund} but obviously if you do fail, they do stop your tuition.</p>
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<p>She spent time in hospital and lost her funding. She later got a job, funded her part-time studies and eventually qualified.</p>
<h2>An unfamiliar setting</h2>
<p>University settings also presented some challenges.</p>
<p>Despite most students in a class being black, they felt displaced. Interviewees lamented the displays of cultural and language familiarity between white lecturers and white students in class. This reduced the black students to spectators of their tuition rather than active participants. One said:</p>
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<p>So sometimes I just think the system itself was just not for us … If I can put it that way.</p>
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<p>Another told me:</p>
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<p>… there is a lot of difference between me and a white person … because our education system doesn’t teach you how to learn. It teaches you how to remember. It’s all good and well, but now when you’re required to apply yourself, you don’t remember how to because you’ve never done it before.</p>
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<p>This comment was a reference to the country’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-south-africa-can-disrupt-its-deeply-rooted-educational-inequality-48531">extremely unequal schooling system</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-south-africa-can-disrupt-its-deeply-rooted-educational-inequality-48531">How South Africa can disrupt its deeply rooted educational inequality</a>
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<p>The kind of knowledge they brought into the system was not fit for purpose and the interviewees found themselves constantly challenged even though they were smart. One reflected:</p>
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<p>I think for me it was an exposure thing. That is why I would do poorly in those tests, or questions, or scenarios I had to solve. I found that for example, if a case study is based on the airline industry, you’re not exposed to that as a black person. So, it makes it difficult to then have that logic, even if something can be very straightforward because you haven’t been in that situation.</p>
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<p>So, although the aspirants had physically gained access to the qualification, there was constant confirmation that they operated on the periphery of it. </p>
<p>I was struck by how important the interviewees’ families were on these tough, sometimes lonely journeys. They consistently referenced their families as the strong pillars that helped them overcome adversity. </p>
<p>Academic research about accounting doesn’t often recognise the role of community in black people’s successful academic journeys. A better understanding of the role of community could help universities to respond appropriately to their students’ learning needs and should form the basis for free mental health support.</p>
<h2>Towards a new framework</h2>
<p>Based on my research, I propose a new framework that aims to narrow the gap between black students’ lived realities and the accounting qualification offered by universities.</p>
<p>For example, universities might adjust their admission requirement in a way that accounts for the inequity in basic education. They can also teach these students the language of business and collaborate with corporate organisations to aid students’ understanding of business practices in South Africa. </p>
<p>A more inclusive curriculum would also use examples that reflect the whole of society, allowing students from different backgrounds to engage with those examples.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198344/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sedzani Musundwa receives postdoctoral funding from BANKSETA. </span></em></p>
Smart, capable students struggled to navigate cultural and language norms in university accounting classrooms.
Sedzani Musundwa, Senior Lecturer in Financial Accounting, University of South Africa
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/198430
2023-02-01T12:36:54Z
2023-02-01T12:36:54Z
South Africa and Russia: President Cyril Ramaphosa’s foreign policy explained
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507115/original/file-20230130-6879-11w5zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa. </span> </figcaption></figure><p>January was a busy diplomatic month for South Africa. The country <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/russias-lavrov-visits-ally-south-africa-amid-western-rivalry-2023-01-23/">hosted</a> Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and US treasury secretary <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/us-treasury-secretary-yellen-meet-president-ramaphosa-south-africa-trip-2023-01-24/">Janet Yellen</a>. Josep Borrell, vice-president of the European Commission, was also <a href="https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/media-advisory-high-representative-josep-borrell-travels-south-africa-and-botswana_en">in town</a>.</p>
<p>The biggest talking point, though, has been Lavrov’s visit, which met with criticism in the west. Similarly, the South African-Russian-Chinese joint maritime exercise, <a href="https://www.defenceweb.co.za/sea/sea-sea/sandf-on-ex-mosi/">Operation Mosi</a>, scheduled for February off the South African Indian Ocean coast. Critics have slammed South Africa’s hosting of the war games in the light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-orders-military-operations-ukraine-demands-kyiv-forces-surrender-2022-02-24/">in February 2022</a>. </p>
<p>South Africa has been reticent to criticise Russia openly for invading Ukraine. The country <a href="https://theconversation.com/african-countries-showed-disunity-in-un-votes-on-russia-south-africas-role-was-pivotal-180799">abstained during each vote</a> criticising Russia at the United Nations. Some have read this as tacit support of Russia.</p>
<p>The visits and South Africa’s position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have put the spotlight on the country’s foreign policy.</p>
<p>I follow, study and have published extensively on South Africa’s foreign policy. In a recent publication, <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/south-african-foreign-policy-review-volume-4">Ramaphosa and a New Dawn for South African Foreign Policy</a>, my co-editors and I point out that South Africa’s voting pattern in these instances should be read in the context of its <a href="https://pmg.org.za/briefing/28596/">declared foreign policy</a> under the stewardship of President Cyril Ramaphosa. </p>
<p>Like his predecessors, Ramaphosa’s policy encompasses at least five principles:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>pan-Africanism </p></li>
<li><p>South-South solidarity </p></li>
<li><p>non-alignment </p></li>
<li><p>independence </p></li>
<li><p>progressive internationalism. The governing ANC <a href="https://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/anc-npc-discussion-document-on-foreign-policy">defines</a> this as</p></li>
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<p>an approach to global relations anchored in the pursuit of global solidarity, social justice, common development and human security, etc. </p>
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<h2>Evolution of South Africa’s foreign policy</h2>
<p>In the era of Nelson Mandela, the first president of democratic South Africa, the country, once a pariah state, returned to the international community. Under him, the country saw a significant increase in its <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/EJC88112">bilateral and multilateral relations</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/history-may-explain-south-africas-refusal-to-condemn-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-178657">History may explain South Africa's refusal to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine</a>
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<p>It enjoyed global goodwill and Mandela was recognised for his <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-russian-visit-says-about-south-africas-commitment-to-human-rights-in-the-world-188993">outspoken views</a> on international human rights abuses. His involvement in conflict resolution efforts in, for example, <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/07/22/mandela-indonesia-and-liberation-timor-leste.html">Timor Leste</a> (East Timor) and Africa also received <a href="https://www.un.org/en/exhibits/page/building-legacy-nelson-mandela">international acclaim</a>. The UN declared 18 July <a href="https://www.un.org/en/events/mandeladay/">Nelson Mandela International Day</a>. </p>
<p>Mandela’s tenure was followed by the aspirational era of President Thabo Mbeki’s <a href="https://journals.co.za/journal/aa.afren">African renaissance</a>. Mbeki’s foreign policy aspired to reposition Africa as a global force as well as to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330614094_Mbeki_on_African_Renaissance_a_vehicle_for_Africa_development">rekindle</a> pan-Africanism and African unity.</p>
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<img alt="A man wearing a suit and tie shakes hands with a woman wearing a dress." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507113/original/file-20230130-14-p18rp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507113/original/file-20230130-14-p18rp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507113/original/file-20230130-14-p18rp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507113/original/file-20230130-14-p18rp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507113/original/file-20230130-14-p18rp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507113/original/file-20230130-14-p18rp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507113/original/file-20230130-14-p18rp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, (left), with South African foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, in Pretoria on 23 January 23.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images</span></span>
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<p>His successor <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26976626#metadata_info_tab_contents">Jacob Zuma’s era</a> could be described as indigenisation of South Africa’s foreign policy, driven by the values of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-archbishop-tutus-ubuntu-credo-teaches-the-world-about-justice-and-harmony-84730">ubuntu</a> (humanness). In giving effect to ubuntu – equality, peace and cooperation – as a foreign policy principle, South Africa gravitated towards the global south, rather than just Africa. Yet the continent remained a focus of South Africa’s foreign policy.</p>
<h2>Ramaphosa’s foreign policy</h2>
<p>South Africa’s <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/south-african-foreign-policy-review-volume-4">foreign policy</a> under President Cyril Ramaphosa has shifted to a strong emphasis on economic diplomacy. This is joined by a commitment to <a href="https://www.anc1912.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/National-Policy-Conference-2017-International-Relations.pdf">“progressive internationalism”</a>.</p>
<p>Progressive internationalism formed the basis for South Africa’s vocal position on UN reform, global equity and ending the dominance of the global north. The global north could view this as challenging to its hegemonic power and dominance in the UN. </p>
<p>This has challenged South Africa’s declared foreign policy principles. It maintains strong economic and political relations with the global north. But it also maintains strong relations with the global south (including Cuba, Venezuela and Russia). For this, it has been <a href="https://gga.org/south-africas-foreign-policy-decisions-ambiguous-or-misunderstood/#:%7E:text=South%20Africa%20has%20been%20criticised,means%20deployment%20is%20more%20rapid">criticised</a> by the west.</p>
<p>South Africa’s quest for global status in line with its declared foreign policy principles continues under Ramaphosa. It has adopted several roles to achieve this: balancer, spoiler and good international citizenship. </p>
<p>As a balancer, it has attempted to rationalise its relations with both the north and south in accordance with the principles of non-alignment and independence. As a spoiler, it has failed to condemn, for example, China for its poor human rights record, claiming it is an internal Chinese matter. This could be read as an expression of its south-south solidarity with China. Its role as a good international citizen has made it an approachable international actor. It has promoted the rule of international law and upholding international norms. This speaks to its progressive internationalism principle.</p>
<h2>At home and abroad</h2>
<p>The Ramaphosa era set off in 2018 with less emphasis on foreign policy. But by the time the COVID pandemic broke out <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30211-7/fulltext">in December 2019</a>, his foreign policy really came to the fore as he led both the South African and African pandemic responses.</p>
<p>South Africa has been attempting to capitalise on the geostrategic changes in the balance of forces on the world stage. Blatant realpolitik has returned. During the past year, for example, the country has conducted joint multilateral military exercises with several states, most notably with France (<a href="https://www.defenceweb.co.za/featured/ex-oxide-2022-will-be-west-coast-based/">Operation Oxide</a>), a permanent member of the UN Security Council.</p>
<p>South Africa’s soft diplomacy has <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2020-09-22-jerusalemadancechallenge-south-africas-display-of-soft-power-amid-covid-19/">made some inroads</a> at UN agencies and through its cultural diplomacy. But this has not necessarily resulted in material gains – such as more leadership in multilateral organisations.</p>
<p>Moreover, its gravitation towards strong non-western military powers such as Russia, China and India has met with western disappointment. Its foreign policy position of solidarity, independence, non-alignment and <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/remarks-president-cyril-ramaphosa-south-african-heads-mission-conference-7-apr-2022-0000">progressive internationalism</a> has not translated into material foreign policy benefits either, such as increased foreign direct investment as envisaged by Ramaphosa’s <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/remarks-president-cyril-ramaphosa-south-african-heads-mission-conference-7-apr-2022-0000">economic diplomacy</a>.</p>
<p>Trade with states such as China, Turkey, Russia and India has <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2022/06/20/cyril-ramaphosa-brics-partnership-has-great-value-for-south-africa">increased</a>. But it is not enough as the country requires massive investment to update infrastructure and start new development projects in line with Ramaphosa’s vision of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-new-dawn-should-be-built-on-evidence-based-policy-118129">“new dawn” </a> for South Africa.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man and a woman smile for the camera while sitting. Miniature South African and America flags are on the table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507110/original/file-20230130-14-90njg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507110/original/file-20230130-14-90njg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507110/original/file-20230130-14-90njg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507110/original/file-20230130-14-90njg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507110/original/file-20230130-14-90njg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507110/original/file-20230130-14-90njg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507110/original/file-20230130-14-90njg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">South African finance minister, Enoch Godongwana, meets his American counterpart, Janet Yellen, in Pretoria on 26 January.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The post-pandemic international political economy has also adversely affected the country. This has been amplified by the <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bloomberg/news/2022-08-05-donor-fatigue-could-mean-starvation-for-900000-in-west-africa/">economic impact of the Ukraine crisis </a>. Massive Western financial commitments are <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2022/12/10/council-adopts-18-billion-assistance-to-ukraine/#:%7E:text=The%20Council%20reached%20agreement%20on,its%20possible%20adoption%20next%20week">directed towards Ukraine</a>. This leaves South Africa in a vulnerable economic position as it <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/DT.ODA.ODAT.CD?locations=ZA">needs foreign development assistance</a>.</p>
<h2>Looking forward</h2>
<p>As our South African Foreign Policy Review volume 4 has shown, Ramaphosa’s “new dawn” <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/south-african-foreign-policy-review-volume-4">has been deferred</a>. This as his party and government jump from crisis to crisis. This kind of instability often seeps into the diplomatic landscape. Investors are aware of the investment risks posed by <a href="https://www.statecapture.org.za/">state capture</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-power-crisis-five-essential-reads-187111">power</a> crises.</p>
<p>Globally, the age of soft power has somewhat waned since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. South Africa needs to be proactive – not only reactive – to emerging international geostrategic conditions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/russia-in-africa-can-it-offer-an-alternative-to-the-us-and-china-117764">Russia in Africa: can it offer an alternative to the US and China?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Besides its current leadership of the <a href="https://infobrics.org/">BRICS bloc</a> (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), the country needs to be bolder. It should, for example, campaign for a fourth term <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13533312.2022.2144250?journalCode=finp20">on the UN Security Council</a>, and for leadership in multilateral organisations. In these, it can actively achieve its foreign policy objectives in support of the country’s national interests.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198430/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo-Ansie van Wyk has taught at the Diplomatic Academy of the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation. </span></em></p>
South Africa’s foreign policy under Ramaphosa emphasises economic diplomacy and ‘progressive internationalism’, which promotes global equity and ending the dominance of the global north.
Jo-Ansie van Wyk, Professor in International Politics, University of South Africa
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/190076
2022-09-20T13:09:39Z
2022-09-20T13:09:39Z
African ubuntu can deepen how research is done
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485073/original/file-20220916-1645-ozj94f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New knowledge can sprout from different research approaches.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">boonchai wedmakawand/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many academic studies have been centred on Western theories and methodologies for a long time. This approach to research is broadly defined as “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0147176704000458">universalist</a>”. It assumes that “one-size-fits-all” and set norms can be applied across cultures. For example, Western ideas about identity revolve around the individual. That shapes how research is conducted: it focuses mainly on the individual and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1077800416657105?journalCode=qixa">emphasises analysis at the individual level</a>. Using Western approaches in non-Western contexts misses out on contextual issues such as power relations between an individual and their community.</p>
<p>But over the past few years there has been <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-019-04338-x">increasing</a> <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-020-04592-4">discussion</a> in research circles about the need to draw on – and apply – more diverse theories of knowledge and approaches in generating knowledge. </p>
<p>“Contextualised” methodologies have been offered as the alternative. This involves taking a region’s particular cultural, demographic, geographical and socio-economic realities into account when conducting research. There’s <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2631787719879705">a challenge</a> with this approach, too. It may mean that academic research is within the reach of a limited group of people and becomes disconnected from broader academic engagements.</p>
<p>In a recent paper, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-022-05220-z">we argue</a> that researchers’ decision along neatly divided lines – to choose either universalist or contextualised methodologies – is a false dilemma. We argue that, in researching non-Western contexts such as sub-Saharan Africa, researchers need to fuse conventional Western theories of knowledge and local theories of knowledge. This enables researchers to gain from the rigour associated with conventional methodologies while approaching research from a culturally sensitive philosophical basis. </p>
<p>In our paper, we focus on <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13645579.2018.1432404">ubuntu</a>. This South African concept embodies the collectivist way of life of many societies in sub-Saharan Africa. The value of ubuntu goes beyond human conduct. It also offers researchers a relational way of knowing that accommodates knowledge of the context that is being studied as well as participants’ values.</p>
<p>We argue that ubuntu can contribute to the way research is carried out, by complementing universalist methodologies. This approach is gaining ground in research circles. For instance, Canadian academics used it to conduct <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1744987115619207">health research</a> in Mozambique.</p>
<p>The complementary use of ubuntu helps to remove colonial or oppressive lenses from academics’ work. It offers a way for research participants’ values and realities to be recognised and means they are actively involved in creating knowledge about themselves and their contexts.</p>
<h2>Shaping research</h2>
<p>We identified four practical ways that a complementary use of ubuntu can positively shape how research is done. </p>
<p>The first centres on the research agenda. This should be community-based and community-centred. Researchers need to interrogate what their research aims to achieve, in whose interest do they conduct research, and who the research outcomes intend to serve. Bagele Chilisa, a professor of research methodologies, <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/indigenous-research-methodologies/book241776">points out</a> how efforts to address the AIDS pandemic in many sub-Saharan African societies failed because the research agenda, methodological and analytical tools were driven by donor agencies. Community-centred research allows participants to be equal partners in knowledge generation.</p>
<p>Then there’s access. Accessing the “field” (communities) must be done tactfully. In collectivist societies, a researcher should be aware that consent may go beyond the individual. This may mean seeking the permission (usually verbal) of the individual’s immediate family or community leader. Research may be targeting an individual but it may also be important to obtain consent from their family, for example. Doing so can secure the individual’s full participation: they are given indirect permission to draw examples of their experiences from their community.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-archbishop-tutus-ubuntu-credo-teaches-the-world-about-justice-and-harmony-84730">What Archbishop Tutu's ubuntu credo teaches the world about justice and harmony</a>
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<p>The third is power relations. Unequal power relations between the researcher and participants may not be completely eliminated by our complementary approach. But it is a valuable way to remind researchers that their work ought to hinge on ubuntu principles like respect and harmony. This can ensure that research is conducted in a less exploitative and more collaborative manner that values participants’ knowledge and knowledge systems.</p>
<p>Finally, context-sensitive methods are key. Researchers focusing on sub-Saharan Africa should explore and adopt alternative, culturally appropriate knowledge systems and methodologies. Knowledge in collectivistic societies is usually embodied in and transmitted through performative communication modes such as folklore, taboos, totems, and cosmological beliefs. These knowledge modes may not be easily accommodated by Western approaches. Using local knowledge and ways of knowing will expose research to criticism. This can enhance its value and significance. </p>
<h2>A complementary approach</h2>
<p>Our paper contends that there is no “either or” at play when considering how best to study non-Western contexts. The importance of decolonising research and research methodology does not negate the usefulness of conventional, Western methodologies. Rather, knowledge generation should be approached through the lens of the context under study.</p>
<p><em>Professor Smaranda Boroş and Professor Anita Bosch co-authored the research on which this article is based.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190076/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Obaa Akua Konadu-Osei receives funding from the German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD) for providing the scholarship for the doctoral programme on which this article is based.</span></em></p>
Researchers in sub-Saharan Africa ought to fuse conventional Western theories of knowledge and local theories of knowledge.
Obaa Akua Konadu-Osei, Ph.D. Student, Business Management & Administration, Stellenbosch University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/188993
2022-08-23T11:17:35Z
2022-08-23T11:17:35Z
What Russian visit says about South Africa’s commitment to human rights in the world
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480391/original/file-20220822-73022-52sowx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thandi Modise, South Africa's defence minister.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michal Fludra/NurPhoto via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s foreign policy is aimed at contributing to democracy, human rights and <a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/final-draft-white-paper-sa-foreign-policy.pdf">justice in the world</a>. Yet its conduct often suits autocrats and despots. This is why defence minister Thandi Modise’s recent attendance at the <a href="https://eng.mil.ru/en/mcis/index.htm">10th Moscow Conference on International Security</a> has sparked criticism. </p>
<p>The basic objectives of the conference are to share practical ideas and explore solutions on matters of global security. But Russian president Vladimir Putin’s swipe at the US and the <a href="https://www.nato.int/">North Atlantic Treaty Organisation</a> in his <a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/69166">welcoming address</a> revealed an ideological underpinning. He accused them of “creating aggressive military-political unions” to maintain western hegemony.</p>
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<p>Their hegemony means stagnation for the rest of the world and for the entire civilisation; it means obscurantism, cancellation of culture, and neoliberal totalitarianism.</p>
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<p>South Africa’s stance towards Russia <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-08-15-thandi-modise-at-russian-security-conference-shows-solidarity-with-occupiers-and-aggressors/">in recent months</a> has come under severe criticism. Pretoria initially supported calls for Russia to <a href="http://www.dirco.gov.za/docs/2022/ukra0224.htm">withdraw from Ukraine</a>, only to <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2022/08/02/how-do-global-south-politics-of-non-alignment-and-solidarity-explain-south-africas-position-on-ukraine/">retract</a> shortly thereafter. </p>
<p>Some critics object to the mere act of South Africa attending a military conference organised by <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-08-15-flying-circus-thandi-modises-shocking-trip-to-russian-security-conference/?fbclid=IwAR3ywPnPzFWaBO2uIpj1NGpYTWQJXX8dd9eNL3Ts79Ym95y_Qv2%203-dLG2-8">an aggressive, imperialist Russia</a>. </p>
<p>Some feel Pretoria is – as in the past – <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-08-15-flying-circus-thandi-modises-shocking-trip-to-russian-security-conference/?fbclid=IwAR3ywPnPzFWaBO2uIpj1NGpYTWQJXX8dd9eNL3Ts79Ym95y_Qv2%203-dLG2-8">flip-flopping</a> on its official commitment to promoting human rights globally.</p>
<p>Modise <a href="https://www.defenceweb.co.za/featured/thandi-modise-visits-russia-for-moscow-conference-on-international-security/?fbclid=IwAR2Ryqc22UKqKnqNMbtVTz13V1G0T66POwAYoIEvmT8WTNS9tX_9pdbqJAI">defended her participation</a> as part of “an international peace crusade”. She said:</p>
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<p>we will emerge from this conference stronger and more united in our determination to continue building a peaceful world. </p>
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<p>The question is whether South Africa is once again turning a blind eye – even giving legitimacy – to a great injustice, for political expediency. </p>
<p>The country’s official foreign policy is explicitly guided by <a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/final-draft-white-paper-sa-foreign-policy.pdf">ubuntu</a> (humanness) –</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the idea that we affirm our humanity when we affirm the humanity of others.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Inconsistency and ambiguity</h2>
<p>Since 1994 during the Mandela and Mbeki eras, the country has contributed to the reform of continental institutions. It has mediated for peace and stability, and promoted democracy in conflict-ridden countries. </p>
<p>For example, in 1995, former president Nelson Mandela issued a <a href="https://archive.nelsonmandela.org/index.php/za-com-mr-s-1576">hard-hitting statement</a> after the Nigerian government executed environmental activist and writer <a href="https://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/ken-saro-wiwa/">Ken Saro-Wiwa</a>. This underscored a foreign policy informed by human rights.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-foreign-policy-new-paper-sets-the-scene-but-falls-short-on-specifics-188253">South Africa's foreign policy: new paper sets the scene, but falls short on specifics</a>
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<p>In fact, South Africa’s contributions to the development of Africa’s foreign policy realm earned it the status of a <a href="https://issafrica.org/research/policy-brief/is-south-africa-a-norm-entrepreneur-in-africa">“norm entrepreneur”</a>. That means it set the norms for moral and principled international engagement and interventions on the continent.</p>
<p>But in the second term of the Mbeki era, foreign policy analysts posed serious questions about the country’s willingness to uphold the values of democracy and human rights in its foreign policy. The country has become less principled in its approach to world affairs. There have been <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10220461.2012.670381">inconsistencies and ambiguities</a>, specifically when it is expected to stand up for human rights. </p>
<p>An example was former president Thabo Mbeki’s <a href="https://www.saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/16-Dlamini.pdf">quiet diplomacy towards Zimbabwe</a> since 2000. His refusal to speak out against atrocities during the Robert Mugabe era in favour of fruitless secret meetings was one such example. For many observers this was puzzling, coming from the continent’s most celebrated democracy. It became a source of domestic concern, global scepticism and outspoken criticism.</p>
<p>Later, under Mbeki’s successor, Jacob Zuma, the Libya conundrum in 2011 stood out. South Africa, then <a href="http://www.dirco.gov.za/department/unsc/index.html">a non-permanent member</a> of the UN Security Council, voted for a <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2011/sc10200.doc.htm">ban</a> on all flights over Libya to protect civilians from attacks by the Libyan air force. </p>
<p>Yet, soon after it was the implemented, Pretoria <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10220461.2012.670381">backtracked</a>. It appealed to international role-players to respect the territorial integrity of Libya. This dented South Africa’s credibility.</p>
<p>The country had to be goaded into <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10220461.2012.670381">accepting a no-fly zone</a>, based on <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/about-responsibility-to-protect.shtml">The Responsibility to Protect principle</a>, to stop the Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi from bombing his own population from the air. </p>
<p>Another controversy was sparked when, in 2015, Zuma hosted the <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/25th-african-union-summit-7-15-jun">African Union summit in Johannesburg</a>. It was attended by then Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir, who had been declared a “wanted war criminal” by the International Criminal Court for <a href="https://hmh.org/library/research/genocide-in-darfur-guide/">genocide in Darfur</a>. Zuma’s government failed to arrest him <a href="https://theconversation.com/al-bashir-what-the-law-says-about-south-africas-duties-43498">despite a court order</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-foreign-policy-has-been-at-sixes-and-sevens-heres-why-70089">South Africa's foreign policy has been at sixes and sevens – here's why</a>
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<p>Zuma even accepted Al-Bashir’s invitation for him to visit Sudan. It was a clear indication that the Zuma government was willing to ignore gross <a href="https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2015-09-04-zuma-shows-disdain-for-human-rights-by-meeting-al-bashir-da/">human rights violations</a>.</p>
<p>Currently, the South African government is <a href="https://theconversation.com/african-countries-showed-disunity-in-un-votes-on-russia-south-africas-role-was-pivotal-180799">not prepared to condemn</a> Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.</p>
<h2>New hope for norm entrepreneurship</h2>
<p>The Mbeki and Zuma eras were characterised by an unwillingness to confront authoritarian regimes and human rights abuses. Be it in Sudan, Zimbabwe and Eswatini, or further afield in Myanmar, Syria, China and North Korea. </p>
<p>When Cyril Ramaphosa became president <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/5/22/south-africas-parliament-elects-cyril-ramaphosa-as-president">in 2018</a>, it was hoped he would restore South Africa’s status as a champion for peace and democracy globally. He came to office with good international relations credentials, having helped <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-african-president-cyril-ramaphosa-can-help-resolve-the-gaza-crisis-97871">craft the UN’s Responsibility to Protect principle</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, countries in the global south cannot be expected to automatically <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2022/08/02/how-do-global-south-politics-of-non-alignment-and-solidarity-explain-south-africas-position-on-ukraine/">fall in line with western expectations</a> on world issues.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-human-rights-should-guide-responses-to-the-global-pandemic-147225">Why human rights should guide responses to the global pandemic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But, South Africa’s refusal to condemn Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, and Modise’s visit to Moscow, make one thing clear once again. It is that South Africa’s foreign policy behaviour is not what was <a href="https://www.defenceweb.co.za/featured/thandi-modise-visits-russia-for-moscow-conference-on-international-security/?fbclid=IwAR2Ryqc22UKqKnqNMbtVTz13V1G0T66POwAYoIEvmT8WTNS9tX_9pd%20bqJAI">expected of the country</a> as an international and regional norm entrepreneur.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188993/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Theo Neethling receives funding from the National Research Foundation.</span></em></p>
South Africa’s foreign policy is supposed to be guided by the principle of ubuntu (humanness), so a visit to an aggressor is hard to explain.
Theo Neethling, Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Studies and Governance, University of the Free State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/183950
2022-05-27T15:55:12Z
2022-05-27T15:55:12Z
Spirit of Ntu: South African piano maestro Nduduzo Makhathini on his 10th album
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465557/original/file-20220526-12-m7uh63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nduduzo Makhathini's new offering is called In the Spirit of Ntu.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Oupa Bopape/Gallo Images via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://www.bluenote.com/artist/nduduzo-makhathini/">Nduduzo Makhathini</a> is a prolific South African pianist, improviser, healer, educator, scholar and storyteller. He possesses a gift that enables him to articulate a distinct and rich identity and genealogy. His sound signifies a deep rootedness in his ethnic identity in the Zulu culture, and an <a href="https://newint.org/immersive/2019/04/03/what-does-internationalism-actually-mean">internationalism</a> embodying it. <a href="https://store.bluenote.com/products/nduduzo-makhathini-in-the-spirit-of-ntu">In the Spirit of Ntu</a> is his tenth offering, and his second release under premier US jazz label Blue Note Records and the newly founded <a href="https://jazz.fm/blue-note-africa-launches-to-promote-african-jazz-artists/">Blue Note Africa</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>The philosophy of Ntu (stemming from the philosophy of <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/the-meaning-of-ubuntu-43307">ubuntu</a>) speaks to the merging of the physical and spiritual and so, in conversation with Makhathini, I have sought to understand how he continues to bridge the artistic, the cultural and the spiritual through song and narrative. My point of departure for our conversation was something he had said in a previous interview:</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want to try to get the piano to speak the language of my people, and by the language of my people I mean isiZulu … the melodic structures of the language … that filters into how my people sing … drawing parallels between the piano and some of the traditional music that we grew up listening to.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p><strong>Phuti Sepuru:</strong> How does In the Spirit of Ntu speak the language of your people?</p>
<p><strong>Nduduzo Makhathini:</strong> I’ve been struggling with this whole idea of what really counts as indigenous when everything has been diluted? Also, what counts as indigenous when so much has been taken away? Like the many years of erasure and the various moments of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-slavery-and-early-colonisation-south-africa">slave trade, settler coloniality</a>, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a>. Do we still really have something that is indigenous to a particular group of people? A sound that is not contaminated; a thought that is not contaminated? </p>
<p>So, that is how I arrived at Ntu. I borrow a particular sensibility from jazz music, but there are other histories that are pre the arrival of jazz that are useful for me to think about what counts as the sound of my people. Then I started thinking about separating between jazz and the jazziness. When I speak about jazz, it’s of course the transatlantic stories, but when I speak about the jazziness I’m speaking about syncopation, swing, improvisation. These are things that have always been there; they did not come with the arrival of jazz in South Africa in the 1930s.</p>
<p>I’m particularly attracted to (Rwandan poet and philosopher Alexis) <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexis-Kagame">Kagame</a>’s thinking about it. He speaks about the four categories: umuntu, which contains the spirit aspect – divinities, the ancestors; kintu; hantu is about time and space; and kuntu is about aesthetics and beauty. Given these categories, I realised that for these sounds to make sense, we need to start creating homes for them. For me, <a href="https://www.space.com/16042-cosmology.html">cosmology</a> is a pursuit – where are these sounds enunciating from? What are these homes? What do they look like? The sound of my people is also about conflict. It’s also about disparity – not being able to touch in concrete ways, the things that are important to us. It’s also about collective memory, the diasporas. In South Africa, particularly, the exile and inxile discourse and how jazz has always been emerging out of this moment of displacement.</p>
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<p><strong>Phuti Sepuru:</strong> In what way did the 2021 Durban <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-57996373">unrest and riots</a> serve as the ‘canvas’ for this work?</p>
<p><strong>Nduduzo Makhathini:</strong> I was meant to record in the US, and of course, I couldn’t get that organised. Then I asked Jaleel (Shaw), Nasheet Waits, and all these guys who were meant to be on the record if they were keen on coming to South Africa. Jaleel was like, ‘Bro, given these riots and burning, I don’t think so.’ So, these are the underpinning themes and events that were taking place and I started thinking that we always think about ‘76 (the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising">Soweto uprising</a>) to the ‘80s (<a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/apartheid-early-1980s">apartheid violence</a>), about (South African pianist <a href="https://abdullahibrahim.co.za/biography/">Abdullah Ibrahim</a>’s track) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-irE1AEH8Qg">Mannenberg</a> and how it locates that moment, but we always think of it as a backdrop – a soundtrack.</p>
<p>This album is emerging out of these burning fires. We’re burning because the system has always been a minute away from collapsing. And now, with the (COVID-19) pandemic, even the suggestions of <a href="https://sacoronavirus.co.za/2020/04/08/social-distancing/">social distancing</a> – how do people exercise social distancing if you’ve pushed them to extreme dysfunctionality in the townships? You started to see that all the regulations are for a particular people that live in a particular category – a class – but it’s not speaking to the majority. I’m one of those people that is in the unrepresented majority. The system failed artists dismally. Then I said, “I am with the people that are tired. I am part of those people that are tired. I’m going to play these sounds from these burning fires.” That’s how this album came about.</p>
<p>This is what I am doing with this album – I’m going to burn inside until my ancestors show up because this needs to change. I think about fire in a symbolic way.</p>
<p><strong>Phuti Sepuru:</strong> When listening to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj-juqNdsfo">Amathongo</a> on the new album, I was struck by the dissonant melody, reminiscent of amahubo (Zulu indigenous music), coupled with a sporadic, conversational approach in the piano. This is rooted in a trance-like combination of the bass groove, falling on distinct moments, against a fixed drum pulse. There are also evocative vocal chants that speak to traditional healing rituals. Please share more on this composition.</p>
<p><strong>Nduduzo Makhathini:</strong> I come from that culture and my grandmother used to sing a lot of amahubo. That memory is with me always. In this album, I sing more than I’ve ever done in any album and that’s what people are loving as well.</p>
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<p>Many years ago, I discovered (the book) <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/book/indaba-my-children-african-tribal-history-legends-customs-and-religious-beliefs/9780862417581">Indaba, My Children</a> and ubaba (Credo) <a href="https://theconversation.com/obituary-south-africas-towering-healer-prophet-and-artist-credo-mutwa-134986">Mutwa</a> speaks about the word ‘ithongo’ (dreamscape). He says something interesting because within the word ‘ithongo’, there is the word ‘ubuthongo’, which means deep sleep. But for us, it’s being ‘one with the star gods’. I love that. And it speaks about ‘iphupho’ – a dream. He says ‘uk’phupha’ is to float. So, there’s a sense in which all these things, for me, make sense of a cosmology that always sees the ancestral paradigm as really a paradigm that we’re inside of – in and out. And of course, using ritual as a connector to exist between the two. That’s really what the song is doing. The resistance of the bass line, versus all these crazy dissonant sounds… it’s living in the two worlds. </p>
<p><strong>Phuti Sepuru:</strong> Track six is called Re-Amathambo and features Swiss singer-songwriter <a href="https://www.annawidauer.at">Anna Widauer</a>. This track connects to the original, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTr5a93n4fw">Amathambo</a> (bones), found on your 2017 album, <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/15689053-Nduduzo-Makhathini-iKhambi">Ikhambi</a>. How did you approach the song?</p>
<p><strong>Nduduzo Makhathini:</strong> Re-Amathambo is ‘re’ – a reply, but also ‘re’ (we) in Sesotho. I’ve been interested in the Basotho cosmology.</p>
<p>When we were touring, I started telling Anna about this idea about my view to the piano as ritual technology or a space for divination. I was telling her about how I recorded that song Amathambo as a way of trying to divine the future and the things that will be happening. On the one hand there’s the idea of amathambo being in the physical realm while exploring something that’s intangible in another realm. That speaks about how as people in the universe we are constantly hearing and thinking about similar things, but from different contexts. </p>
<p>Anna seemed to have so much connection to this idea of revealing these things: what are these codes that help us enter a mode of revelation or a prophetic mode? It was a chant before: ‘Weh mathambo, oooh mathambo, hlanganani.’ The story was: there was a man that went to a healer and every time the healer threw the bones, they would go different ways, suggesting that his life was falling apart. The coming together of the bones that the healer was chanting would mean the coming together of his life. So, we brought in that story, and I wrote lyrics, and came out with what I think is a beautiful version of this song.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183950/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phuti Sepuru does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The jazz star says he wants his piano to speak in his isiZulu language, and that his music is born from spiritual concerns.
Phuti Sepuru, Lecturer in Jazz, University of Pretoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/169991
2021-10-18T14:16:29Z
2021-10-18T14:16:29Z
How South African editor Aggrey Klaaste put himself on the line with his contrarian idea
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426982/original/file-20211018-15-u4rmbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Aggrey Klaaste, right, used the Sowetan newspaper to drive his Nation-building campaign. He is seen here with John Mabatho, the newspaper's production manager.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Velasco © Arena Holdings</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1988, Aggrey Klaaste <a href="https://www.omt.org.za/history/some-omt-beneficiaries/aggrey-klaaste/">became the editor of Sowetan</a> and launched a project to intervene in the fraught political situation in South Africa. The Sowetan was the foremost daily newspaper for black South Africans, a successor to the Post and <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/black-wednesday-banning-19-black-consciousness-movement-organisations">The World</a>, both banned by the apartheid state. </p>
<p>It was a tumultuous time in South Africa, with state persecution and efforts to quell protest and opposition reaching their zenith. Amid ongoing protest against the apartheid state, the government had declared <a href="https://www.saha.org.za/ecc25/ecc_under_a_state_of_emergency.htm">two states of emergency</a>. In addition, political groups within the country were at war with one another. </p>
<p>Klaaste was distressed by what he saw happening in black communities, where residents faced state terror and political violence. As a result, he sought to rebuild local community organisations and to restore values such as good citizenship, self-help and neighbourly conduct. On taking up the editor’s mantle, he began outlining his “big idea” – <a href="https://www.joburg.org.za/play_/Pages/Play%20in%20Joburg/Joburg%20Vibe/links/people%20of%20the%20city/Links/Aggrey-Klaaste---still-building-the-nation.aspx">nation-building</a>. Its central idea was to unite black South Africans behind community improvement and engagement. He intended the newspaper to be a key driver of the project.</p>
<p>What Klaaste was doing was providing a forum for citizenship at a time when black South Africans were marginalised. </p>
<p>Klaaste immediately ran into strong headwinds – inside the newsroom and outside it.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/public-trust-in-the-media-is-at-a-new-low-a-radical-rethink-of-journalism-is-needed-155257">Public trust in the media is at a new low: a radical rethink of journalism is needed</a>
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<p>Most of the journalists who worked for him supported the <a href="https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-83">Black Consciousness Movement</a>. The movement brought together the country’s oppressed people to collectively fight against racial oppression. They strenuously opposed nation-building, as they saw it as collaborating with the apartheid system.</p>
<p>One of the arguments encountered was that it wasn’t the time to talk about nation-building. Apartheid needed to be torn down first. A former Sowetan journalist remembers:</p>
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<p>We actually confronted and fought Klaaste … saying, you know, ‘liberation now’ and good stuff later. But he said, ‘No, no, no – it’s got to go in parallel.’</p>
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<p>Outside the newsroom, the union coalitions and mass anti-apartheid movements were advocating civil disobedience to bring the country to its knees, a far cry from Klaaste’s nation-building.</p>
<p>Klaaste persisted. He began to explore nation-building in his weekly column, “On the Line”. But the concept of nation-building presented a challenge. It was a vague ideal that needed to be fleshed out. So, at first, he floated the concept without too many details.</p>
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<p>I am preparing the ground, laying the bed so to speak for the seed of an idea I hope to be planting in the not too long future. Frankly, the idea excites and exhilarates me as it appears to have breath-taking possibilities.</p>
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<h2>The birth of an idea</h2>
<p>Klaaste suggested that black South Africans were in a weak position, despite being in the majority, and that the weakness stemmed from a lack of unity, the lack of a “central idea” to motivate all the various movements. </p>
<p>Nation-building could be that idea.</p>
<p>His column inaugurated a conversation with his readers about nation-building. He also circulated them before publication to Sowetan journalists for critique. The idea began to evolve through these processes. His column became the philosophical heart of the nation-building campaign that Sowetan was establishing, the space where the idea was debated and developed.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-threats-to-media-freedom-come-from-unexpected-directions-148265">New threats to media freedom come from unexpected directions</a>
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<p>At first, Klaaste maintained an uncertain and questioning position, reporting on reactions to the idea. He shared the positive responses and the negative. He tended to answer criticism by stressing the need to rebuild community, to work for a future.</p>
<p>However, soon he and his colleague <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1990-07-09-9007070127-story.html">Sam Mabe</a> began engaging vigorously with opposing views. Klaaste was always respectful and constructive in his engagements. He felt strongly that people with differing political positions should talk to each other. He demonstrated such bridge-building through his writing.</p>
<p>One column explicitly modelled the “for and against” of his idea. In early 1989, he put his nation-building approach side by side with its main opposition, the “liberation first” position, writing the column as a discussion between two friends. His interlocutor is unnamed, but could have been any one of a number of Sowetan senior colleagues or anti-apartheid activists. He is described by Klaaste as “a dear friend of mine”, “who has in various courageous, responsible ways, showed me what it means to be committed to the struggle”.</p>
<p>Klaaste “hears” the friend’s argument in the column, honouring both the speaker and his position:</p>
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<p>He has convinced me in his quite persuasive way that if the decision for the total revolution is taken in his unselfish totally responsible way, you must be a fool not to agree with him … He has taught me that perhaps we are almost fated to pay the heaviest of prices for our mistakes…</p>
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<p>In response, Klaaste convinces his friend to let him give nation-building a shot.</p>
<p>The column described not so much an argument, but an ongoing process of dialogue, in which everyone’s point of view was heard.</p>
<p>Klaaste and Mabe also began fleshing out nation-building in relation to other philosophies. Early on, <em>ubuntu</em> (humanness) is introduced as a foundational concept. The southern African word is often used to encapsulate sub-Saharan moral ideals, expressed in the maxim</p>
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<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-archbishop-tutus-ubuntu-credo-teaches-the-world-about-justice-and-harmony-84730">a person is a person through other people</a>.</p>
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<p>Klaaste argued that nation-building was black South Africans taking moral leadership in creating a future for the entire country, based on the practice of <em>ubuntu</em>, which he connected to a range of black political leaders. Among them were <a href="https://theconversation.com/sobukwes-pan-africanist-dream-an-elusive-idea-that-refuses-to-die-52601">Robert Sobukwe</a>, founder of the Pan Africanist Congress, and Nelson Mandela.</p>
<p>Klaaste didn’t nail nation-building to any political flag, but as “the nation’s forum to sort out divisiveness”. He used the example of a family, in which each member has different political affiliations: </p>
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<p>I belong to an extended family … we have leanings towards a whole range of diverse and ideological planks. We never fight over this … Nation Building is about the formation of such filial links.</p>
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<p>Nation-building thus provided a broad church for the variety of politics in black communities. The campaign also explicitly drew on one aspect of Black Consciousness, active self-reliance, to argue that black communities must take charge of their own empowerment.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/journalism-makes-blunders-but-still-feeds-democracy-an-insiders-view-146364">Journalism makes blunders but still feeds democracy: an insider's view</a>
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<p>By 1989, a year into nation-building, the campaign was firmly established at the newspaper. In 1989, too, the apartheid government began talks with the ANC. These were to culminate in a democratic dispensation for South Africa.</p>
<p>This made nation-building highly relevant to the new era of creating inclusive citizenship.</p>
<p><em>This article is an edited extract from a chapter in the <a href="https://witspress.co.za/catalogue/public-intellectuals-in-south-africa/">book</a> Public Intellectuals in South Africa: Critical Voices from the Past, edited by Chris Broodryk and published by <a href="https://witspress.co.za/">Wits University Press</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169991/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lesley Cowling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Klaaste was distressed by what was happening in black communities, where residents faced state terror and political violence. He sought to restore values such as self-help and neighbourly conduct.
Lesley Cowling, Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/168947
2021-10-06T14:18:09Z
2021-10-06T14:18:09Z
Combating COVID-19 anti-vaxxers: lessons from political philosophy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424223/original/file-20211001-22-1otz9lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Challenging the scepticism and resistance in the public response to the COVID-19 vaccine is deeply important to the state of public health. This is a critical conversation because people are protesting the COVID-19 vaccines not just in South Africa, but globally too. </p>
<p>As a teacher of political philosophy, I think it’s important to dispel the notion that the call to vaccinate is an infringement on acceptable liberal freedoms. </p>
<p>Based on a significant number of years of studying, reading and teaching the works of the world’s most important philosophies, I am of the view that the anti-vaxxer position that being “forced to take the vaccine is an infringement on their liberal rights” is a misinformed stance. </p>
<p>Through a liberal lens that looks at <a href="https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/philosophy/two-concepts-freedom/content-section-3.3">positive freedom</a> versus <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberty-positive-negative/">negative freedom</a>, I want to show how taking the vaccine essentially creates positive (or nett) freedom. Anti-vaxxers against the COVID-19 vaccine may be considered selfish by demanding freedom in an absolute sense. Negative freedom supports the idea that there should be no restrictions or boundaries on any free activity. This can become incredibly problematic when it comes to public health.</p>
<p>For example, think of restricting where people can smoke. These are in place to ensure that the majority of people (non-smokers) are protected from the risks associated with passive smoke inhalation.</p>
<p>In a similar vein, anti-vaxxers should perhaps be reprimanded and regulated for not willingly taking the COVID-19 vaccine. The ethical focus is to promote universal immunisation and positive freedom for everyone in society.</p>
<p>The liberal philosophies that we might use to challenge the “anti-vaxxer’s freedom to choose” position are <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/BENITT">Jeremy Bentham’s (1789) Utilitarianism</a>, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mill-moral-political/">JS Mill’s (1859) Harm Principle</a> and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3877074">Isiah Berlin’s (1969) reflections on Positive Freedom</a>. </p>
<p>This trajectory of liberal thought over the last 200 years is pivotal to the development of the liberal democratic freedoms we experience today. Let’s unpack the theories a little more.</p>
<h2>What the philosophers have to say</h2>
<p>Let me start by addressing the philosophical dilemma of the anti-vaxxer’s “freedom to choose”.</p>
<p>The need to maintain individual freedoms is the most important mandate of the modern liberal state. </p>
<p>Today’s liberal democratic understanding of freedom (with acceptable restraint) was an idea first conceived over 200 years ago. In political philosophy, Jeremy Bentham’s (1789) Utilitarianism suggests that policies should be created to provide the greatest amount of felicity (or happiness) for the largest portion of society. </p>
<p>This forms the crux of the conversation surrounding COVID-19 vaccinations. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-immunisation-record-risks-being-dented-by-anti-vaccination-views-153549">South Africa's immunisation record risks being dented by anti-vaccination views</a>
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<p>Presently, it is understood that for the sake of public health and the “common good”, all citizens should take one of the certified COVID-19 vaccinations. The reason for this is that it will create a greater nett freedom for everyone in that given society. </p>
<p>The alternative is absolute and unrestrained freedom not to vaccinate, which puts pressure on our common freedoms and could prolong lockdown measures.</p>
<p>Continuing this theme on a positive application of freedom, J.S. Mill (1859) provides us with a sophisticated ethical proposition, the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/utilitas/article/john-stuart-mills-harm-principle-and-free-speech-expanding-the-notion-of-harm/F1D77D5D5F9A4B8AA3BAD4058A9708B4">Harm Principle</a>. This principle suggests simply that we should be free to pursue our individual will, as long as it does not cause harm to someone else. </p>
<p>Whereas it may be an indirect influence, this principle nestles neatly into the ethical position held by many laws and policies passed in liberal democratic societies.</p>
<p>Many countries, including South Africa, have used it in public smoking legislation for instance, by regulating smokers to confined areas in public so that they do not bring harm to non-smokers.</p>
<p>This leads us to ask the same questions about the freedom of movement of unvaccinated people in public. It is unquestionable that someone who refuses the COVID-19 vaccine could effectively bring harm to their broader community. The science is clear on this, crowded hospitals all over South Africa are reporting that almost all COVID-19 related hospitalisations are presently coming from the unvaccinated portion of society. This creates a further detriment to the implementation of positive freedom in society.</p>
<p><a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/berlin/">Isaiah Berlin</a>’s (1969) thoughts on positive freedom best diagnoses the dilemma of the anti-vaxxer, as it allows us to ponder their desire for the unrestrained “freedom to choose”. </p>
<p>Absolute and unrestrained freedom is also known by theorists as negative freedom. While negative freedom may sound enticing, it could be severely detrimental to society and communities if applied strictly. It is acceptable in a progressive society that we accept limitations on our freedom, so as not to infringe on the freedoms of others. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/compulsory-covid-19-vaccination-in-nigeria-why-its-illegal-and-a-bad-idea-167396">Compulsory COVID-19 vaccination in Nigeria? Why it's illegal, and a bad idea</a>
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<p>It is important then to convey that the verifiable science on vaccines should not be politicised further.</p>
<p>There is also a link to be made between the African communitarian philosophy of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-archbishop-tutus-ubuntu-credo-teaches-the-world-about-justice-and-harmony-84730">Ubuntu</a> (Humaneness) and positive freedom. Ubuntu remains somewhat of a clichéd call to civic nationalism and the fostering of a mutual help society in a fractured South Africa. </p>
<p>However, the isiZulu phrase, <em>Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu</em>, (I am, because we are) proves an important building block in society. “I am because we are” simply implies that: I am part of my community, where the good I do reflects back onto the society. This can be incredibly significant in the face of vaccine scepticism and anti-vaccination ideas. </p>
<p>South Africans in particular should heed the call of Ubuntu to mobilise toward vaccination, as it advocates for the “common good” and encourages communitarian benefits for broader society. This in turn promotes positive freedom.</p>
<h2>What it adds up to</h2>
<p>There are many debates to be had in an evolving society where freedom of speech and choice will take centre stage. But, in my view, the COVID-19 vaccination shouldn’t be one of them. Armed with ideas such as utilitarianism and the harm principle, the application of positive freedom might see many liberal democracies eventually prohibit the anti-vaxxer’s spread of misinformation and protests against vaccination.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-covid-19-vaccines-should-be-mandatory-in-south-africa-165682">Why COVID-19 vaccines should be mandatory in South Africa</a>
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<p>It is imperative that citizens are made to understand that this is a matter of public health, the science is verifiable, and that 99.9% of the global medical community backs the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. </p>
<p>Hence, getting vaccinated is for the “common good” of society and promotes the more desirable aspects of positive freedom.</p>
<h2>There is no time to delay</h2>
<p>South Africa is a tinderbox for COVID-19 outbreaks and potential virus mutation. Embracing positive freedom’s emphasis on utility and minimising harm, while emphasising the communitarian benefits of vaccinating, provides a clear imperative for action. </p>
<p>The country needs to vaccinate as quickly as possible so that its people can return to some semblance of normal life. A life where all can freely pursue their goals, remaining mindful that freedom without reasonable restraint will inevitably bring harm to others.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168947/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giovanni Poggi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Many countries, including South Africa, use regulations to control smoking in public so that they do not harm non-smokers. Likewise, getting vaccinated is for the common good of society.
Giovanni Poggi, Lecturer in Political Science, Nelson Mandela University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/146408
2021-06-17T15:10:07Z
2021-06-17T15:10:07Z
Kenneth Kaunda: the last giant of African nationalism and benign autocrat left a mixed legacy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358636/original/file-20200917-24-1xzswgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda at the inauguration of former South African president Thabo Mbeki in 2004.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/dr-kenneth-kaunda-former-president-zambia-born">Kenneth Kaunda</a>, the former president of Zambia, who has <a href="https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/former-president-kenneth-kaunda-passes-away-aged-97/">died in hospital in the capital, Lusaka</a>, at the age of 97, was the last of the giants of 20th century African nationalism. He was also one of the few to depart with his reputation still intact. But perhaps more than any of his contemporaries, the standing of the man who ruled over Zambia for 27 years is clouded with ambiguity.</p>
<p>The charismatic president who won accolades for bowing out peacefully after losing an election was also the authoritarian who introduced a one-party state. The pioneer of “African socialism” was the man who cut a supply-side deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The nationalist leader known for personal probity planned to give huge tracts of farmland to an Indian guru. The revolutionary who gave sanctuary to liberation movements was also a friend of US presidents.</p>
<p>I met him in 1989 when I helped organise a delegation of 120 white South African notables for a conference with the then-banned and exiled <a href="https://www.anc1912.org.za/brief-history-anc">African National Congress</a>, which was fighting for the liberation of black South Africans, in Lusaka. “KK”, as he was known, shed tears as he welcomed guests, who included the <a href="https://hsf.org.za/about/about-the-helen-suzman-foundation">liberal MP Helen Suzman</a>, known for her defiant opposition to the apartheid government.</p>
<p>By then, he’d been president for a quarter of a century and seemed a permanent fixture at the apex of southern African politics. And yet, as it turned out, he was on his final lap.</p>
<p>He exuded an image of the benign monarch, a much-loved father to his people, known for his endearing quirks – safari suits, waving white handkerchiefs, ballroom dancing, singing his own songs while cycling, and crying in public. And yet there was also a hard edge to the politics and persona of the man, whose powerful personality helped make Zambia a major player in Africa and the world for three decades.</p>
<h2>The early years</h2>
<p>Kenneth David Kaunda was born in Chinsali, Northern Zambia, on October 24 1924. Like so many of his generation of African liberation leaders, he came from a family of the mission-educated middle class. He was the baby among eight children. His father was a Presbyterian missionary-teacher and his mother was the first qualified African woman teacher in the country.</p>
<p>He followed his parents’ profession, first in Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia), where he became a head teacher before his 21st birthday. He also taught in then Tanganyika (Tanzania), where he became a lifelong admirer of future president Julius Nyerere, whose “Ujamaa” brand of African socialism he tried to follow.</p>
<p>After returning home, Kaunda campaigned against the British plan for a <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230270916_12">federation</a> of Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which would increase the powers of white settlers. He took up politics full-time, learning the ropes through working for the liberal Legislative Council member <a href="https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-33474">Sir Stewart Gore-Browne</a>. Soon after, as secretary general of the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress, he was jailed for two months with hard labour for distributing <a href="https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/zambians-campaign-independence-1944-1964">“subversive literature”</a>.</p>
<p>After his release he clashed with his organisation’s president, Harry Nkumbula, who took a more conciliatory approach to colonial rule. Kaunda led the breakaway Zambian African National Congress, which was promptly banned. He was <a href="https://biography.yourdictionary.com/kenneth-david-kaunda">jailed for nine months</a>, further boosting his status.</p>
<p>A new movement, the United National Independence Party <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3172067">(UNIP)</a>), chose Kaunda as its leader after his release. He travelled to America and <a href="https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/kenneth-kaunda-the-united-states-and-southern-africa/introduction-kenneth-kaunda-and-zambia-united-states-relations-before-1975">met Martin Luther King</a>. Inspired by King and Mahatma Gandhi, he launched the <a href="https://cdn.website-editor.net/74225855d7734800bb2b5c38f2c1cf16/files/uploaded/chachacha.pdf">“Cha-cha-cha” civil disobedience campaign</a>.</p>
<p>In 1962, encouraged by Kaunda’s moves to pacify the white settlers, the British acceded to self-rule, followed by full independence two years later. He emerged as the first Zambian president after <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/25/newsid_2658000/2658325.stm">UNIP won the election</a>.</p>
<h2>The challenges of independence</h2>
<p>One challenge for the newly independent Zambia related to the colonial education system. There were no universities and fewer than half a percent of pupils had completed primary school. Kaunda introduced a policy of free books and low fees. In 1966 he became the first chancellor of the new <a href="https://www.unza.zm/international/?p=history">University of Zambia</a>. Several other universities and tertiary education facilities followed.</p>
<p>Long after he was ousted as president, Kaunda continued to be warmly received in African capitals because of his role in allowing liberation movements to have bases in Lusaka. This came at considerable economic cost to his country, which also endured military raids from the South Africans and Rhodesians.</p>
<p>At the same time, he joined apartheid South Africa’s hard-line prime minister <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/balthazar-johannes-vorster">BJ Vorster</a> in mediating a failed bid for an internal settlement in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in 1975. He attempted the same in South West Africa (Namibia), which was then administered by South Africa. But <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/pieter-willem-botha">President PW Botha</a>, who succeeded Vorster after his death, showed no interest.</p>
<p>Kaunda helped lead the <a href="https://www.nti.org/learn/treaties-and-regimes/non-aligned-movement-nam/">Non-Aligned Movement</a>, which brought together states that did not align with either the Soviets or the Americans during the Cold War. He broke bread with anyone who showed an interest in Zambia, including Romania’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolae-Ceausescu">Nicolai Ceausescu</a> and Iraq’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/saddam-hussein-how-a-deadly-purge-of-opponents-set-up-his-ruthless-dictatorship-120748">Saddam Hussein</a>, while also cultivating successive American presidents (having more success with <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/james-carter/">Jimmy Carter</a> than <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/ronald-reagan/">Ronald Reagan</a>). He invited China to help build the <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/1983/0330/033064.html">Tazara Railway</a> and bought 16 MIG-21 fighter jets from the Soviet Union <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/1980/0205/020532.html">in 1980</a>.</p>
<h2>African humanism</h2>
<p>Kaunda’s economic policy was framed by his belief in what he called “African humanism” but also by necessity. He inherited an economy under foreign control and moved to remedy this. For example, the mines owned by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/British-South-Africa-Company">British South African Company</a> (founded by <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/cecil-john-rhodes">Cecil John Rhodes</a>) were acquired as a result of colonial conquest in 1890. Kaunda’s threats to nationalise without compensation prompted major concessions from BSAC.</p>
<p>He promoted a planned economy, leading to “development plans” that involved the state’s Industrial Development Corporation acquiring 51% equity in major foreign-owned companies. The policy was undermined by the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/mar/03/1970s-oil-price-shock">1973 spike in the oil price</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1973/02/04/archives/as-copper-goes-so-goes-zambia.html">fall in the price of copper</a>, which made up 95% of Zambia’s exports.</p>
<p>The consequent balance of payments crisis led to Zambia having the world’s second highest debt relative to GDP, <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/11985187.pdf">prompting IMF intervention</a>. Kaunda at first resisted but by 1989 was forced to bow to its demands. Parastatals were partially privatised, spending was slashed, food subsidies ended, prices rocketed and Kaunda’s support plummeted. </p>
<p>Like many anti-colonial leaders, he’d come to view multi-party democracy as a western concept that fomented conflict and tribalism. This view was encouraged by the 1964 uprising of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1964/08/13/archives/rhodesia-holds-leader-of-cult-kaunda-says-alice-lenshina-calls-for.html">Lumpa religious sect</a>. He banned all parties other than UNIP in 1968 and Zambia officially became a one-party state four years later.</p>
<p>His government became increasingly autocratic and intolerant of dissent, centred on his personality cult. But Kaunda will go down in history as a relatively benign autocrat who avoided the levels of repression and corruption of so many other one-party rulers.</p>
<p>Julius Nyerere, who retired in 1985, tried to persuade his friend to follow suit, but Kaunda pressed on. After surviving a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/01/world/failed-zambia-coup-weakens-leader.html">coup attempt in 1990</a> and following food riots, he reluctantly acceded to the demand for a multi-party election in 1991. </p>
<p>His popularity could not survive the chaos prompted by price rises and was not helped by the revelation that he’d planned to grant <a href="http://www.minet.org/TM-EX/Fall-91">more than a quarter of Zambia’s land</a> to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (who promised to create a “heaven on earth”). The trade union leader Frederick Chiluba won in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/02/world/zambian-voters-defeat-kaunda-sole-leader-since-independence.html">landslide victory in 1991</a>.</p>
<h2>The last years</h2>
<p>Kaunda <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4283286.stm">won kudos abroad</a> for what was considered to be his gracious response to electoral defeat, but the new government was less magnanimous. It placed him under house arrest after alleging a coup attempt; then <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/01/world/founder-of-zambia-is-declared-stateless-in-high-court-ruling.html">declared him stateless</a> when he planned to run in the 1996 election (on the grounds that his father was born in Malawi), which he successfully challenged in court. He survived an <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/shot-kaunda-claims-attempt-on-life-1.99800">assassination attempt in 1997</a>, getting grazed by a bullet. One of his sons, Wezi, was shot dead outside their home in 1999.</p>
<p>The 1986 AIDS death of another son, Masuzgo, inspired him to campaign around HIV issues far earlier than most, and he stepped this up over the next two decades. After Chiluba’s departure, he returned to favour and became a <a href="https://thenews-chronicle.com/a-life-that-defies-expectations-a-tribute-to-kenneth-kaunda-at-96/">roving ambassador for Zambia</a>. He reduced his public role following the <a href="https://www.lusakatimes.com/2012/09/19/mama-betty-kaunda-dies/">2012 death</a> of his wife of 66 years, Betty.</p>
<p>Kaunda will be remembered as a giant of 20th century African nationalism – a leader who, at great cost, gave refuge to revolutionary movements, a relatively benign autocrat who reluctantly introduced democracy to his country and an international diplomat who punched well above his weight in world affairs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146408/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gavin Evans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Kaunda will be remembered as a giant of 20th century African nationalism – a leader who gave refuge to revolutionary movements, a relatively benign autocrat and an international diplomat.
Gavin Evans, Lecturer, Culture and Media department, Birkbeck, University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/144212
2020-08-27T10:59:38Z
2020-08-27T10:59:38Z
Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi: a reappraisal of his fight against apartheid
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352164/original/file-20200811-13-1n07c84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Veteran South African politician Mangosuthu Buthelezi addressing parliament in 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s 20th century history is closely associated with the term <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/apartheid">apartheid</a>. The policy of strict racial segregation was the guiding principle of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Party-political-party-South-Africa">National Party</a>, which represented a predominantly Afrikaans-speaking white minority. The party was voted into government by white South Africans, the only citizens to have the franchise, in 1948. In 1994, the first democratic elections replaced the regime with a government <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/04597239308460952?journalCode=tssu20">based on popular vote</a>. </p>
<p>Since the 1950s, a system of “petty apartheid” which separated the physical day-to-day interaction of racially defined groups was complemented by a policy euphemistically called “separate development”. People were forcibly resettled to scattered reserves for indigenous African communities in ten ethnically defined <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/homelands">Bantustans or “homelands”</a>. These were KwaZulu, Transkei, Ciskei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, Gazankulu, KaNgwane, KwaNdebele, Lebowa and QwaQwa. </p>
<p>The Transkei (1976), Bophuthatswana (1977), Venda (1979) and Ciskei (1981) were finally declared “independent”. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/KwaZulu">KwaZulu</a>, designed as home to four million Zulu people, was granted “self-government” in December 1977. But Mangosuthu Buthelezi, head of the entity since 1976, steadfastly resisted any bogus independence. </p>
<p>Only <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/major-general-bantubonke-bantu-harrington-holomisa">Bantu Holomisa</a> followed a similar trajectory to Buthelezi. In 1988 he ousted the leader of the Transkei. He then turned self-government into an instrument against apartheid. In contrast to Buthelezi, Holomisa closely collaborated with the liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC). </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/mangosuthu-gatsha-buthelezi">Buthelezi</a> was the only one from the initial generation of Bantustan leaders who played a significant role in South Africa’s transition to democracy. His subsequent role as Minister of Home Affairs (1994-2004), Member of Parliament and leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party until 2019 testify to his political influence.</p>
<p>Two recent PhD theses provide new insights challenging the notion that Buthelezi could be reduced to a puppet of Pretoria’s minority regime and a sellout. Putting him in the league of some of the most notorious Bantustan leaders, such as the <a href="https://sahistory.org.za/people/kaiser-daliwonga-matanzima">Transkei’s Chief Kaiser Matanzima (1915-2003)</a> or Bophuthatswana’s <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/lucas-manyane-mangope">Lucas Mangope (1923-2018)</a>, would be wrong. </p>
<h2>Fighting the system from within</h2>
<p>Four years ago Adam Houldsworth <a href="http://scholar.ufs.ac.za:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11660/4047/HouldsworthA.pdf;jsessionid=B41C2C6F899271C77B98E5FF9FD35E82?sequence=1">presented a PhD thesis</a> on “Inkatha and the National Party, 1980-1989” at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. It explored in detail the engagement of Buthelezi with the National Party’s government politics in the 1980s. He shares instructive and intriguing archival material from inside the government and the National Party. It documents important domestic policy shifts, influenced by Buthelezi’s political manoeuvres. </p>
<p>Mounting pressure forced the apartheid regime in the 1980s to reformulate its strategy and to enter negotiations over a post-apartheid society. Investigating the politics of Buthelezi and Inkatha in this process recognises a neglected dimension. As Houldsworth argues, Buthelezi occupied a “distinctive and paradoxical position”, which “defies straightforward categorisation”.</p>
<p>Additional insights are now added by Aljoscha Tillmanns. His <a href="https://www.uni-due.de/graduiertenkolleg_1919/tillmanns_aljoscha.php">research</a> on “Inkatha during political turmoil” analysed the political action of Buthelezi, Inkatha and associated organisations during the same period. He <a href="https://www.roehrig-verlag.de/shop/item/9783861107545/development-for-liberation-von-aljoscha-tillmanns-gebundenes-buch">presented</a> a PhD thesis this year at the University of Duisburg-Essen on “Development for Liberation. MG Buthelezi’s and Inkatha’s initiatives towards a different South Africa, 1975-1994”.</p>
<p>Based on further archival material, Tillmanns’ focus provides more insights into the internal dynamics and power struggles in Inkatha. He explores the anchoring of cultural-regional Zulu identity as the (re-)invention of tradition for hegemonic purposes in day-to-day politics. For him too, the evidence suggests that Buthelezi’s policy made him anything but a vassal of the apartheid regime.</p>
<p>For both Houldsworth and Tillmanns, Buthelezi was in fundamental opposition to apartheid. This was despite the fact that he was less radical than the ANC. While willing to negotiate with the National Party, he was never prepared to sacrifice certain fundamental convictions. </p>
<p>Houldsworth quotes Gavin Relly, former chairman of Anglo American, from an interview in December 1994, as saying that Buthelezi’s refusal to comply with homeland independence made him</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the anvil on which apartheid was broken.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Reformism as pragmatic opportunism</h2>
<p>Both theses stress that much of the underlying notion in Buthelezi’s position resembles features of the conservative political philosophy of <a href="https://thegreatthinkers.org/burke/">Edmund Burke (1729-1797)</a>. His political ideology was guided by a belief in <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-modern-african-studies/article/consociationalism-in-south-africa-the-buthelezi-commission-and-beyond/B13976D6FA30234CBE5E5D3C7A33C7D6">consociationalism</a>. This could be seen as an attempt to engineer closer cooperation with liberal and conservative whites in a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/721987?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">“politics of compromise”</a>. </p>
<p>His political intentions found wide approval and remarkably uncritical support in influential West German liberal and conservative policy circles.</p>
<p>At the same time Buthelezi’s policy was to strengthen his role in competition with the ANC. His confidence and trust in the existing forms of state and economy estranged him from the liberation movement. He disagreed with its partly socialist connotations and the collaboration with the <a href="https://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/79140">Communist Party</a>. In his own version, the falling out in 1979 was also over the disagreement about <a href="https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/how-the-anc-and-inkatha-fell-out--mangosuthu-buthe">resorting to armed resistance</a>.</p>
<p>Buthelezi’s socio-political visions were rooted in a combination of tradition and modernity for the sake of development. For him, development was rooted in strengthening two notions. The first was of a (partly invented) <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/inkatha-and-its-use-of-the-zulu-past/14E0B3C8A767C4811A3A1AD974A1EA77">Zulu past</a>. The second was the notion of <a href="http://transformationjournal.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/426-379-1-PB.pdf">ubuntu</a> (humanness), which encapsulates the sub-Saharan moral ideals expressed with the maxim, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-archbishop-tutus-ubuntu-credo-teaches-the-world-about-justice-and-harmony-84730">“a person is a person through other persons”</a>.</p>
<p>At the same time, he demanded the release of Nelson Mandela throughout the 1980s as a precondition for negotiations over power sharing options. He believed that Mandela would be a moderating element in a negotiation process including the ANC.</p>
<p>As Houldsworth summarises:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Buthelezi sought to improve Inkatha’s prospects by advocating a long and multi-faceted negotiating process which would allow for the gradual moderation of African politics and the reconciliation of disparate black groups … Inkatha politics were to an extent shaped by considerations of expedience in its efforts to retain or gain influence in South African politics. (p. 210)</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Imprint</h2>
<p>To what extent Buthelezi and Inkatha were responsible for the dramatic escalation of political violence in the late 1980s remains a matter reserved for further discussion. But Tillmanns concludes with a sobering reminder:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The ugly side of history should not be forgotten. The change of the 1980s and the uncertainty that came along with it allowed violence in the fight for territory, but also for resources, to spread … Inkatha reacted to the increasing activities of the ANC alliance with countermeasures that led to a spiral of violence in which no side remained innocent. (p. 413)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Buthelezi (92) deserves better than being dismissed as a stooge. But he deserves little praise as an advocate for human rights and civil liberties. It seems to be fair to conclude that his own appetite for power was always stronger than his commitment to values. But no matter on which side of history he is placed, he will remain the only first generation leader of a Bantustan who left an imprint on South Africa’s way to democracy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144212/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber has been the external examiner to both the PhD theses presented. </span></em></p>
Mangosuthu Buthelezi deserves better than being dismissed as an apartheid stooge. But he deserves little praise as an advocate for human rights and civil liberties.
Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/135997
2020-04-28T15:12:34Z
2020-04-28T15:12:34Z
Can the philosophy of ubuntu help provide a way to face health crises?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329766/original/file-20200422-47841-e3kg06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A member of the South African National Defence Force hands out pamphlets informing township residents about COVID-19 in Johannesburg. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>African communities, within South Africa and beyond, are diverse and complex, informed by different rules, values and beliefs. But public health emergencies demand that governments take decisive action which affect communities and individuals. In doing so, it’s easy to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15265160500244942">override civil rights and liberties</a>, and to suspend community consultations, engagement and shared governance in favour of quick decisions. This can have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01459740.2019.1609472">negative impacts</a> as experience from the <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2016.0305">Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa</a> showed. For example, failure to sufficiently interact with communities regarding initial protocols designed to make burials “safer” resulted in locally offensive policies that made little headway in transforming practices.</p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10508422.2019.1583565">article published</a> earlier this year, we argued that it might be useful in public health to draw on local philosophies that value the exchange of benefits and sharing of responsibilities. In particular, we suggest using the philosophy of Ubuntu to promote the idea that public health is more important than individual wellbeing. Through its emphasis on humanity, compassion and social responsibility, Ubuntu (“I am because we are”) has the potential to reduce conflicts between individual rights and public health, and might help governments gain community support for actions in emergencies.</p>
<p>We grounded our article in the H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009, as experienced in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28753109">Malawi</a> and <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4058-5#auth-1">Ghana</a>. The article highlighted how Ubuntu and related notions of humanity might guide people’s thinking about how individuals are responsible for the welfare of the wider society during a health crisis, and vice versa. </p>
<h2>Lessons from the H1N1 pandemic</h2>
<p>During the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16549716.2017.1341225">2009 H1N1 pandemic in Malawi</a>, people were forcibly vaccinated with conflicting results. The vaccinations were delivered late, few cases of H1N1 had actually been reported and there was little community engagement prior to the programme. Furthermore people were forced to agree to a technology that might not benefit them personally, although it would benefit the community at large. People were unwilling to cooperate. With limited community support and contention about infection and prevention, only 10% of the population was vaccinated. </p>
<p>Our work on Ubuntu and related philosophies to support adherence to public health measures during pandemics in a way that is acceptable both to society and to individuals, emerged from the shortfall of this campaign, and the challenges of establishing community support. This did not happen in the case of Malawi. </p>
<p>To achieve this requires advanced preparations, such as having Ubuntu as a decision-making framework to guide policymakers. </p>
<p>Public health measures that limit people’s liberty, such as quarantine or restriction of movement, can create ethical problems. People may <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l4062.full">resist cooperating</a> if interventions are considered unfair and unacceptable. They may retaliate with violence against <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30570442">health workers</a> and police. The challenge is to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10508422.2016.1274993">balance individual and public health goals</a>.</p>
<p>Lockdowns and “social distancing” have been introduced in most countries to contain the spread of COVID-19. They have been reasonably well observed in much of the world. In South Africa, however, police brutality, violence and resistance were reported in the <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2020-03-31-police-use-sjamboks-and-rubber-bullets-to-enforce-hillbrow-lockdown/">first days</a> of the lockdown and have <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2020-04-16-lockdown-why-the-state-has-won-cases/">continued</a>. This reflects the militarised approach of the country’s police minister, <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/minister-bheki-cele-confirms-55-arrests-day-1-lockdown-curb-spread-coronavirus-covid-19-28">Bheki Cele</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This war we find ourselves in … is not a war against any citizen of this country, but is a war against a common enemy, the coronavirus. Whoever breaks the law and chooses to join the enemy against the citizens will face the full might of the law and police will decisively make sure that we defend the people of South Africa.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Military and police interventions may flatten the COVID-19 epidemiological curve. But the approach adopted may be unacceptable and still may have limited effect. It raises ethical concerns, tarnishes the reputation of law enforcement officers, and damages public trust in the police, military and health officials. In the longer term, lawmakers and law enforcers may do better to make legal systems worthy of respect than to try to instil fear of punishment. </p>
<p>People obey the law primarily because they respect legitimate authority. Accounts of enforced action to control <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/understanding-social-resistance-to-the-ebola-response-in-the-forest-region-of-the-republic-of-guinea-an-anthropological-perspective/79914D998AA67442119F1C45E274764E">Ebola</a> and <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4058-5">H1N1</a> suggest that a sense of emergency may override attention to other issues. These include communication with different groups of people, mitigation for economic fallout, massive unemployment, potential escalation of crime for survival, and the harsh effects of lockdown on the poorest people. </p>
<h2>Better decision-making in emergencies</h2>
<p>Social solidarity seems a useful way for governments to think about pro-poor policies and interventions. At the core of Ubuntu philosophy is the notion of collective solidarity. It means the self is perceived primarily in relation to others. The emphasis is on interdependence.</p>
<p>Ubuntu’s solution to social problems is to understand that people cannot survive by simply obeying laws created or imposed by the state. Its solution to social order rests upon individual acceptance of common community norms and goals.</p>
<p>Extending the concept of Ubuntu beyond sentimentality isn’t easy. Some may argue that it is too demanding on the individual and, in reality, does little to reconcile individual and community interests.</p>
<p>Ubuntu was used effectively by Nelson Mandela to encourage community cohesion, although notably not in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00020184.2017.1346347">response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic</a>. This contrasts with the use of ubuntu in state communication to mitigate the transmission of HIV in Uganda, as we described in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10508422.2019.1583565">our recent article</a>. </p>
<p>Further, in South Africa, despite its value in communicating leadership goals, its use to policy appears to have declined in recent years. To be sure, migration, shifting consumer values, trade and globalisation have had an impact on local value systems. “Traditional African” principles of what is right and wrong have been diluted by Western norms and practices, by neoliberalism and models of growth that centre on consumption. Now is perhaps the time to revisit our priorities and values, and to reconsider how government and communities might work together.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://wiser.wits.ac.za/system/files/documents/Metz%20--%20African%20Values%20Human%20Rights%20--%202011.pdf">debates</a> about what constitutes Ubuntu. But it does provide a language for people to use when taking action to prevent disasters, even if this involves practices such as lockdowns. Ubuntu asks simply that people regard others and do good. I am because we are.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135997/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ubuntu provides a language for people to participate in preventive action, even if this involves practices such as lockdowns.
Evanson Z Sambala, Research Fellow, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand
Lenore Manderson, Visiting Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies, Brown University, USA, and Distinguished Professor, Public Health and Medical Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand
Sara Cooper, Senior Scientist in Cochrane South Africa at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and Honorary researcher in the Division of Social & Behavioural Sciences in the School of Public Health, UCT, South African Medical Research Council
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/134986
2020-04-01T12:13:04Z
2020-04-01T12:13:04Z
Obituary: South Africa’s towering healer, prophet and artist Credo Mutwa
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323972/original/file-20200330-146683-3u49ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Vusamazulu. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Artwork © Sindiso Nyoni</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mkhulu <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/vusamazulu-credo-mutwa">VusamaZulu Credo Mutwa</a>’s name foretold the role that this towering South African healer, prophet and artist was to play. VusamaZulu can be translated as either ‘awaken the Zulu nation’ or ‘awaken the heavens’, aptly describing his life’s work: asserting the humanity of <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/defining-term-bantu">aBantu</a> – people of African descent – globally.</p>
<p>‘Mkhulu’ means ‘grandfather’ and in this I acknowledge Mkhulu VusamaZulu as well as the ancestors that walk with him as my elders. </p>
<p>uMkhulu passed away at the age of 98. He was born on 21 July 1921 in KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. After falling ill in his teenage years, he was initiated to become a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/sangoma">sangoma</a> or traditional healer. </p>
<p>The sangoma is a diviner and seer, using gifts of spiritual sight, mediation with the ancestors and knowledge of herbal medicine and ritual to diagnose and heal disease. Traditional healers are often ‘called’ to this path by their ancestors ‘<a href="http://scholar.ufs.ac.za:8080/bitstream/handle/11660/2171/MlisaL-RN.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">through dreams and other significant experiences</a>’ including illnesses and misfortune. </p>
<p>Following this intensive initiation process, uMkhulu embarked on <a href="http://credomutwa.com/credo-mutwa-biography/biography-01/">many journeys</a> through African countries, including Swaziland, Lesotho and Kenya. He wrote </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was not travelling for enjoyment, however, I was travelling for knowledge … I came into contact with men and women of countries that I had not known before … I found myself amongst men and women possessing knowledge that was already ancient when the man Jesus Christ was born. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323933/original/file-20200330-146671-1kgv2qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323933/original/file-20200330-146671-1kgv2qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323933/original/file-20200330-146671-1kgv2qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323933/original/file-20200330-146671-1kgv2qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323933/original/file-20200330-146671-1kgv2qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323933/original/file-20200330-146671-1kgv2qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323933/original/file-20200330-146671-1kgv2qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323933/original/file-20200330-146671-1kgv2qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Credo Mutwa in Soweto, 1997.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The pan-African nature of his training provided him with a vast <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4aXrxYWfxHbwbJCBThdMa07TQrQ8anOr">knowledge</a> of African folklore, mythology and culture which, he lamented, was dying. He became adamant that he needed not only to preserve it, but to educate South Africans about this heritage, which is not taught in schools. </p>
<h2>Prolific artist</h2>
<p>uMkhulu was astonishingly prolific despite his many years, working across mediums and forms as a teacher and healer. He was a storyteller of mythologies, the author of five books, the best-known being <em><a href="https://canongate.co.uk/books/236-indaba-my-children-african-tribal-history-legends-customs-and-religious-beliefs/">Indaba, My Children (1964)</a></em>. He wrote a play called <em>uNosilimela</em>, worked on a <a href="http://vusamazulu.com">graphic novel</a>, and created a <a href="http://credomutwa.com">website</a> and two living museums – <a href="https://www.sa-venues.com/things-to-do/gauteng/credo-mutwa-cultural-village/">KwaKhaya LeNdaba</a> in Soweto and <a href="http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=7&aid=1&dir=2010/January/Friday15/">Lotlamoreng</a> in Mahikeng. Here visitors can see some of his countless sculptures and artworks. </p>
<p>In many, there is a recurring figure of a woman, whom he called Ma in <em>Indaba, My Children</em>. This is the depiction of the goddess of creation, known to the Zulu people as <a href="http://paton.ukzn.ac.za/Collections/Nomkhubulwane.aspx">Nomkhubulwane</a>. He frequently exalted the spirit of women as life givers and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK13Yw9cXQQ">spoke</a> against the abuse of women. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323934/original/file-20200330-146705-16az95m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323934/original/file-20200330-146705-16az95m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323934/original/file-20200330-146705-16az95m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323934/original/file-20200330-146705-16az95m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323934/original/file-20200330-146705-16az95m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323934/original/file-20200330-146705-16az95m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323934/original/file-20200330-146705-16az95m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323934/original/file-20200330-146705-16az95m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Penguin Random House</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With no formal training, his art became an expression of his wish to share the oral tales and symbols of traditional African spirituality. </p>
<p>Through these various works, he allowed us to trace our roots, philosophy and <em>ubuntu bethu</em>; the humanity of aBantu. Ubuntu here refers to a specific humanity accessible only to aBantu; an assertion that foregrounds the African worldview. </p>
<p>At the time of his passing uMkhulu had received little financial gain from his writings as his royalties were owned by others, according to the <a href="https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/credo-mutwa-trust-opened/">Credo Mutwa Trust</a>.</p>
<p>This was not his only challenge. uMkhulu acknowledged that in his writing about African spirituality, he was risking being called a traitor by his people for sharing its secrets. </p>
<p>In 1976, students burnt down parts of his Soweto cultural village after he was misquoted on an Afrikaans radio station. It was burnt down again in 1980, his son murdered and wife raped, after being unjustly accused of working with white men under apartheid. </p>
<p>With his work easily exploited by conspiracy theorists, he was at times ridiculed as a false prophet. He was largely neglected as a cultural figure by the South African state. To maintain his safety, he retired to the small town of Kuruman in the North West province.</p>
<h2>Revered sanusi</h2>
<p>uMkhulu was a revered sanusi, loosely translated as ‘one who lifts us up’. Isanusi, according uMkhulu VVO Mkhize of <a href="https://umsamo.org.za/south-african-healers-association-soaha/">Umsamo Institute</a>, is a healer who reveals that which is hidden, such as mysteries erased by history, and who tells us about the future. </p>
<p>As he filled in some of the blanks in Bantu history, his predictions of significant global events garnered international interest.</p>
<p>Many were expressed through his <a href="https://www.artranked.com/topic/credo+mutwa">art</a>. His 1979 sculpture of King Khandakhulu discussing his sexually transmitted diseases with the gods is seen to pre-empt HIV and Aids. A 1979 painting is said to predict the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/September-11-attacks">September 11</a> attacks in the USA. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323937/original/file-20200330-146666-1n96wwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323937/original/file-20200330-146666-1n96wwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323937/original/file-20200330-146666-1n96wwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323937/original/file-20200330-146666-1n96wwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323937/original/file-20200330-146666-1n96wwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323937/original/file-20200330-146666-1n96wwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323937/original/file-20200330-146666-1n96wwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323937/original/file-20200330-146666-1n96wwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mutwa’s sculptures of King Khandakulu and the gods.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group/Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of his many <a href="https://www.power987.co.za/news/documentary-celebrating-human-rights-day-with-credo-vusamazulu-mutwa/">predictive utterances</a> – among them those related to the 1976 Soweto youth <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising">uprisings</a> and the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/marikana-massacre-16-august-2012">Marikana</a> massacre – were told to visitors or made in video recordings posted on the Credo Mutwa Foundation Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LifeandTimesofCredoMutwa/">page</a>. His prophecy was embedded in South Africa’s popular culture, especially through the <a href="https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/credo-warns-evil-is-upon-us--daily-sun">mass print media</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76h62Z8OqMI">YouTube</a>.</p>
<p>Taken together, his life’s work proposed that knowledge was not finite and that the soul was able to traverse different times and dimensions to bring knowledge of the past and of the future into the present.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JtRpdpeJJDc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A short documentary on Mutwa’s cultural village in Soweto.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>New ways of knowing</h2>
<p>uMkhulu broadened the view of Africans. In his work, we were exposed to a type of knowledge that had been <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227583160_Developmental_Psychology_as_Political_Psychology_in_Sub-Saharan_Africa_The_Challenge_of_Africanisation">oppressed</a>. He taught us that South Africans’ history did not begin in 1652, when <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/arrival-jan-van-riebeeck-cape-6-april-1652">Jan Van Riebeeck</a> hit our shores and the colonisation project <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-slavery-and-early-colonisation-south-africa">began</a>, but that we have a long legacy of philosophy and medicine, interrupted by this colonisation. </p>
<p>Through his work, he gave us the voice, the agency and the tools with which to fight against a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01459740.2015.1100612">single story</a>. One that placed the white man as the ideal and any other category of human as ‘other’ and <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/arena-attachments/1516556/69a8a25c597f33bf66af6cdf411d58c2.pdf">lesser</a>. We are now able to assert that the story is of multiple interpretations, dimensions and times.</p>
<p><em>Lala ngoxolo Khehla lethu</em> (rest in peace our old man); your prophecies are well heeded, and teachings continuously awaken <em>uBuntu bethu</em> (our humanity), <em>thina aBantu beThonga laseAfrika</em> (us children of the ancestor of Africa).</p>
<p><em>The portrait ‘Vusumazulu’ is by Sindiso Nyoni. See his work <a href="https://studioriot.com">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134986/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sinethemba Makanya receives funding from the Mellon Foundation and the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human and Community Development. I have previously received funding from Fulbright </span></em></p>
His life’s work was asserting the humanity and history of the Bantu people, while proposing that the soul was able to bring knowledge of the past and of the future into the present.
Sinethemba Makanya, Doctoral Fellow, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/131843
2020-02-19T13:10:21Z
2020-02-19T13:10:21Z
Contextual bias can play out in management studies in both North and South
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315499/original/file-20200214-11000-11lrurh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>African scholarship is woefully underrepresented in prestigious global academic journals based in the US or Europe. This is particularly true in the field of management, which studies managers and organisations. </p>
<p>As a result, global management knowledge hardly considers African contexts. But this knowledge affects the continent in terms of what is taught in classrooms and how managers make decisions.</p>
<p>So, you may think that we, as management scholars based in Africa (and other Southern contexts), appreciate invitations from elite journals. Here is an example of one such invitation that was distributed in 2016: “It is time <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/amj.2016.4002">to bring Africa in</a> to our mainstream research and theories.” </p>
<p>In part, we do appreciate invitations like this. But we are also vexed by their somewhat one-sided nature, when they insist that in order to participate in this Northern mainstream, we need to “learn [its] language and <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2012.4005">rules of the game</a>”.</p>
<p>Our unease connects with a growing body of scholarship that is critical of the Northern mainstream. These critics warn against the globalisation of management education and research as an expression of “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1350508406065851">epistemic colonialism</a>”. It is seen as imposing</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a discussion of Western managerial theories which may not apply in the <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/amle.2016.0086">African context</a> </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The critics also argue that we should rather focus on “<a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/amle.2016.0086">indigenous management practices</a>,” shaped by local values and practices. One example is the notion of Ubuntu in southern Africa, which emphasises the importance of “communal or harmonious <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-archbishop-tutus-ubuntu-credo-teaches-the-world-about-justice-and-harmony-84730">relationships</a>” with other people.</p>
<p>This is a worthwhile scholarly ambition. But we worry about taking such an inward focus too far and thereby creating isolated enclaves of scholarship.</p>
<p>We thus face two contrasting options: either we become a colony of the Northern mainstream or we retreat into a Southern “indigenous” enclave. But we resist both options, because they both may allow assumptions about context to give rise to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2631787719879705">systematic biases</a>. </p>
<h2>Biases of the Northern mainstream: erasing and imposing</h2>
<p>The Northern mainstream tends to trivialise Southern contexts, giving rise to what we call erasing and imposing biases. For example, strategy scholars have been writing about “institutional voids” in developing countries. This refers to the absence of institutions, such as property rights, that enable efficient business transactions. These authors summarise this as the</p>
<blockquote>
<p>absence in emerging markets of things we take for granted in our <a href="https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=37467">backyard in Boston</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is the erasing bias: a tendency to emphasise absences in Southern contexts relative to assumptions and concepts originating in and premised on Northern contexts. The notion of “institutional voids” thus erases what institutions actually do exist in Southern contexts.</p>
<p>Erasing creates a vacuum that is then filled through the imposing bias, using home assumptions “in our backyard in Boston” to falsely or superficially interpret Southern contexts. In the case of institutional voids, for instance, the erasing bias creates the empty space that is then filled by imposing analyses and prescriptions focused on formal, market-friendly institutions. These ignore indigenous values and practices, perpetuate an “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1350508406065851">instrumental rationality</a>,” and may further the exploitation of people and resources in the Global South. </p>
<h2>Southern biases: scapegoating and valourising</h2>
<p>In reaction to the biases of the Northern mainstream, Southern critics may too easily revert to the opposite. Scapegoating emphasises colonial history or external factors to explain Southern contexts at the expense of also considering other dimensions or causes. For instance Zimbabwe’s former president, Robert Mugabe, routinely blamed colonial history to explain his country’s misfortunes. This was at least in part to distract from the serious abuses by his government. </p>
<p>A second risk of systematic bias lies in Southern researchers valourising their contexts. For example, we agree that it is important to better understand the relevance of indigenous beliefs and values, such as Ubuntu, in management studies. But this should not be done uncritically. </p>
<p>Saying that an adherence to Ubuntu “considers kinship ties within the organisation <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/ame.2001.5229453">to be a plus</a>” is a welcome challenge to orthodox management theory. But it should not shy away from an analysis of how such emphasis on kinship ties may also be linked to negative impacts of <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/amp.2012.0033">tribalism and nepotism</a>. These impacts have worsened South Africa’s political and economic fortunes in the <a href="https://witspress.co.za/catalogue/shadow-state">last decade</a>.</p>
<h2>Opportunities for dialogue</h2>
<p>Recognising the systematic biases that arise due to our contextual assumptions creates important opportunities for challenging specific forms of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326196101_Contextual_Entrepreneurship_An_Interdisciplinary_Perspective">intellectual complacency</a>. </p>
<p>Yet there are constraints to scholars overcoming contextual biases by challenging each other. Such challenges can reinforce, rather than break down, the boundaries around scholarly communities.</p>
<p>Building on the work of Brazilian writer <a href="http://www.theeducationist.info/paulo-freires-pedagogy-oppressed-book-summary/">Paolo Freire</a> and others, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2631787719879705">we thus call</a> for better dialogue between scholars from different contexts. This should bring to the surface – and allow us to question – our contextual assumptions. It should also recognise the personal, sometimes painful, experiences associated with colonial legacies and ongoing exclusion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131843/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ralph Hamann receives funding from the University of Cape Town. He has previously received funding from the UCT African Climate and Development Institute and the National Research Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Xolisa Dhlamini was a recipient of the SASIE fellowship grant and a Bertha Scholarship. None of these institutions are related to the article submitted. I am a member of the IRF (Institute of Retirement Funds in South Africa) and a non-executive director at Just Share, an investment activism NGO. None of these institutions are related to the article submitted</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Farzad R. Khan, John Luiz, Kutlwano Ramaboa, and Warren Nilsson do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Academics face the choice of becoming a colony of the Northern mainstream or retreating into a Southern “indigenous” enclave. Both should be resisted.
Ralph Hamann, Professor, University of Cape Town
Farzad R. Khan, Associate Professor, Prince Mohammad Bin Salman College (MBSC) of Business & Entrepreneurship
John Luiz, Professor of International Business Strategy & Emerging Markets at Sussex University and University of Cape Town, University of Cape Town
Kutlwano Ramaboa, Senior Lecturer in Research Methodology, Director of International Relations, University of Cape Town
Warren Nilsson, Associate Professor of Social Innovation, University of Cape Town
Xolisa Dhlamini, Lecturer and PhD Candidate UCT Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/123613
2019-09-19T12:08:26Z
2019-09-19T12:08:26Z
Xenophobia puts South Africa’s moral authority in Africa at risk
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292949/original/file-20190918-187980-3pvu0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African civil society and private citizens march in protest against xenophobic violence in Johannesburg.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Yeshiel Panchia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-Africa/2019-09-16-watch-ramaphosa-booed-at-mugabes-funeral-in-zimbabwe/">heckled</a> during the recent funeral service of Zimbabwe’s erstwhile leader Robert Mugabe. It was easy to guess why. When he stood to speak, Ramaphosa apologised for weeks of violence in his country <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-a-new-narrative-could-tackle-anti-migrant-crisis-123145">targeted</a> at non-national Africans. </p>
<p>Immediately after this apology, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4en12UC9to">heckling turned into cheers</a>. His apology, a stroke of ingenuity, defused the tension. But it didn’t answer the key question that philosopher and political theorist <a href="https://www.nrf.ac.za/content/professor-achille-mbembe">Achille Mbembe</a> <a href="https://africasacountry.com/2015/04/achille-mbembe-writes-about-xenophobic-south-africa">once asked</a> in relation to xenophobic violence in South Africa:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When we say ‘South Africa’, is ‘Africa’ an idea or simply a geographical accident? </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Pan-Africanism</h2>
<p>To many, the answer appears pretty obvious: recent events that have seen people baying for the blood of “foreigners” makes the meaning of Africa in South Africa meaningless.</p>
<p>Importantly though, xenophobia is not a uniquely South African phenomenon. Nor is it simply a question of violence against non-national Africans. It is the consequences of the historical burden that colonialism has bequeathed the continent. This refers to colonially determined borders. </p>
<p>These borders separated African people into different nationalities. They were maintained after Africa’s independence. This spawned nationalisms. Xenophobia is the function of the contests of these nationalisms. As the British social scientist Michael Billig explains in his book, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Banal_Nationalism.html?id=Y5A7CgAAQBAJ">Banal Nationalism</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the triumph of a particular nationalism is seldom achieved without the defeat of alternative nationalisms and other ways of imagining peoplehood.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Xenophobia negates the spirit of <a href="https://theconversation.com/sobukwes-pan-africanist-dream-an-elusive-idea-that-refuses-to-die-52601">pan-Africanism</a>, especially its laudable ideal that Africans share a mutual bond regardless of their geographical location. </p>
<p>That xenophobic incidents are increasing in post-apartheid South Africa is unexpected. In its formative years as a democracy since 1994, the country had assumed the leadership of the <a href="http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/mbeki.html">African Renaissance cause</a>. It was championed by former South African President of Thabo Mbeki who advocated pan-African <a href="Http://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/file%20uploads%20/10.1.1.548.1968.pdf">“cohesion of economics, culture, growth and development”</a>. </p>
<p>Mbeki eloquently <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=eYmUDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT235&lpg=PT235&dq=atomistic+nation-state,+zero+sum+%5Btheir%5D+sovereignty,+and+%5Brecognise+their+interdependence&source=bl&ots=NM8GXUpN2L&sig=ACfU3U1cyA7bFXvt2F2rESQwT_svhMXmKQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjk-si44tfkAhXeSxUIHSo9BasQ6AEwAHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=atomistic%20nation-state%2C%20zero%20sum%20%5Btheir%5D%20sovereignty%2C%20and%20%5Brecognise%20their%20interdependence&f=false">stated</a> that, for African countries to assert their influence in global affairs, their governments should</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(forego their) “atomistic nation-state, zero sum sovereignty, and recognise their interdependence”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Why then do impulses of aggressive patriotism exist in the post-apartheid South Africa? Shouldn’t this pan-African disposition have foregrounded the term “Africa” in “South Africa” as an idea. Shouldn’t it even have shaped the country’s nation-building and state formation project?</p>
<h2>South Africanness and Afrophobia</h2>
<p>Xenophobia and pan-Africanism are antinomies. They have opposite implications on state formation and nation-building. </p>
<p>Xenophobia is a function of insularity – lack of interest in others’ culture, outside one’s own experience. South Africa’s insularity was facilitated by the fact that it was a pariah state for many years. The apartheid system’s strong border control played a role, too. The country internalised the intolerance of difference. This explains its social disorientation, suspicious of foreigners as <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/1133-mapping-the-%20nation">“unknown others”</a>. </p>
<p>In many instances, non-national Africans <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/files%20uploads%20/10.1.1.548.1968.pdf">are the primary target of this suspicion</a>. They are, therefore, more likely to be on the receiving end of xenophobic violence. </p>
<p>An appropriate term for this is afrophobia. This is the dehumanising of people of African descent, and in the diaspora, because of their physiques, colour of their skins and behaviours. </p>
<p>The post-apartheid project of nation-building is the by-product of the contradiction of insularity agitating for “South Africanness”, and the African Renaissance as an all-embracing crystallisation of the consciousness of the whole of Africa’s people.</p>
<p>A system of organising society in which individual rights and freedoms are protected, and the markets are left to their own devices, spawned insular nationhood. This trumps the pursuit of a common African identity. It is because of this that, as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-research-reveals-about-drivers-of-anti-immigrant-hate-crime-in-south-africa-123097">socio-economic grievances of the nationals</a> increase, largely because of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.co.za/economic-growth-first-quarter-of-2019-2019-6">economy’s poor performance</a>, nationalism morphs into jingoism. The non-nationals become scapegoats. </p>
<p>Often, the consequences of this, as laid bare in the streets of Gauteng province, are pernicious. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, because of this, South Africa’s moral authority, which it earned after it became a democracy by playing a prominent role in Africa, is at stake. Hence its government is at pains to accept that <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2019-09-10-government-details-anti-crime-plan">xenophobia exists</a>, and that it has been on the rise in the post-apartheid South Africa. </p>
<p>Of course, in some instances this phenomenon is opportunistically used to obscure the criminal activities of some non-national Africans in the country. But the suggestion by some in government that attacks on foreign nationals are sheer criminality rather than xenophobia is not cutting ice. </p>
<p>Some South Africans <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2019/09/10/10-of-12-xenophobia-victims-were-south-african-mapisa-nqakula">also became the victims</a> in <a href="https://theconversation.com/xenophobia-time-for-cool-heads-to-prevail-in-nigeria-and-south-africa-123053">retaliatory attacks</a>.</p>
<p>Coupled with calls that South Africa should be shunned, all these beget a cycle of internecine hostilities. These fracture economic, political and social relations. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, dissociation is not a solution. It’s a cop-out. If South Africa were to become a pariah state – again – whose interest would be served, and to what end? Wouldn’t it be those who, in the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/berlin-conference">Berlin Conference of 1884-1885</a>, negotiated the rules about the scramble for Africa? </p>
<p>Their borders that balkanised Africa continue to stoke interstate acrimony. The xenophobic flare-ups in South Africa should be understood as the cumulative effect of this <a href="http://ukznpress.bookslive.co.za/blog/2012/01/17/read-an-excerpt-from-adekeye-adebajos-the-curse-of-berlin/">historical burden</a>.</p>
<h2>What needs to happen</h2>
<p>Ramaphosa sent special envoys to the countries whose citizens were mostly affected by xenophobic violence – Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia – <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/ramaphosa-deploys-special-envoys-to-african-heads-of-state-over-tensions-in-south-africa-20190915">to mend relations</a>. This is a good diplomatic gesture.</p>
<p>However, this shouldn’t simply be a charm offensive, but instead a deliberate pursuit to give meaning to the term “Africa” in “South Africa”, which has waned after Mbeki’s presidency. South Africa should reclaim its leading role in Africa’s renaissance.</p>
<p>Re-imagining the future of Africa requires true commitment to pan-Africanism, anchored in the African philosophy of <em>ubuntu</em> (humanism), which <a href="https://www.ttbook.org/interview/i-am-because-we-are-african-philosophy-ubuntu">decrees</a> that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am because we are. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The pan-Africanism spirit shouldn’t be fostered only in the African leadership and diplomatic circles, and used for political expediency. It should be part of the psyche of society and become a lived daily experience.</p>
<p>Xenophobia is a function of attitude. It thus requires the intervention of social institutions, such as universities, to mainstream pan-Africanism as a philosophy in their curricula and teaching. </p>
<p>It is important to shape the characters of students, who are future leaders, to understand that human co-existence is not a function of nationality, but of humanity. This should be part of the decoloniality agenda in Africa.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123613/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mashupye Herbert Maserumule received funding from the National Research Foundation(NRF) for his postgraduate studies. He is the chief editor of the Journal of Public Administration and the former President of the South African Association of Public Administration and Management(SAAPAM). The Journal he edits belongs to this learned society. </span></em></p>
Xenophobia negates the spirit of pan-Africanism, especially its ideal that Africans share a mutual bond, regardless of their geographical location.
Mashupye Herbert Maserumule, Professor of Public Affairs, Tshwane University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/122964
2019-09-18T11:04:16Z
2019-09-18T11:04:16Z
Politician’s succession sparks democracy debate in South Africa
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291744/original/file-20190910-190002-135834g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C40%2C575%2C376&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi's replacement as leader of Inkatha Freedom Party after 44 marked the end of an era.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The year 2019 will go down as a momentous year for the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), the South African political party started by Prince <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/mangosuthu-gatsha-buthelezi">Mangosuthu Buthelezi</a> as a cultural movement in 1975. </p>
<p>At its birth, the IFP also sought to fill the political void created by the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/pac-formed">banning</a> of the country’s liberation movements, notably the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), by the apartheid government <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/african-national-congress-timeline-1960-1969">in 1960</a>. </p>
<p>Buthelezi adopted the black, green and gold colours of both the ANC and PAC, and recruited several ANC stalwarts into his fold. And after more than four decades in charge, in August 2019, Prince Buthelezi (90) <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/ifp-leader-mangosuthu-buthelezi-steps-down-after-44-years-20190824">eventually stepped down</a>. This marked the end of an era, a long journey which was at times characterised by turbulent moments.</p>
<p>Among its successes, the IFP under Buthelezi refused to accept nominal independence for Kwa-Zulu, in line with the apartheid government’s strategy of giving black people <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/inkatha-freedom-party-ifp">limited self-rule</a> in economically depressed <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/homelands">ethnic homelands</a>, denying them citizenship and political rights in the rest of the country. It once led the province of KwaZulu-Natal. On the negative side, it was implicated in <a href="https://theconversation.com/buthelezis-retirement-wont-end-ethnic-traditionalism-in-south-africa-102213">deadly political violence</a> ahead of the 1994 elections that ended apartheid. </p>
<p>It is irrefutable that, despite many challenges, Prince Buthelezi held the IFP together. He also ensured that the party bounced back time and again when commentators and political adversaries had written it off. </p>
<p>The IFP’s stronghold is <a href="http://www.ifp.org.za/kwazulu-natal-provincial-elective-conference/">KwaZulu-Natal</a>. Over the years, it has used Zulu identity as its rallying point. But is has also attracted support from other racial groups and other provinces. The party has <a href="https://www.pa.org.za/organisation/national-assembly/party/ifp/">14 MPs</a> in the 400-member <a href="https://www.parliament.gov.za/how-parliament-is-structured">National Assembly</a>. </p>
<p>As Prince Buthelezi signed off, it was the manner of the leadership transition that captured many people’s attention. Many thought that Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi – no relation to Prince Buthelezi – who was <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Another-Buthelezi-set-to-lead-IFP-20121217">elected as the party’s deputy president in 2012</a>, would be the shoo-in. However, the top brass in the IFP had other ideas. </p>
<p>Instead, it was unanimously agreed that Velenkosini Hlabisa, a 54-year-old former school principal, would be the right person to take over from Prince Buthelezi.</p>
<p>The party’s constitution provides that the nomination of national office bearers – including the president – must have approval right through from the branches to the top. But this was not done in the nomination of its new president. Instead, Hlabisa’s name was proposed by the party’s leadership.</p>
<p>This deviation from this constitutional imperative raises two questions. The first is why the IFP leadership followed this route. The second is how this sits with the country’s broader debate on democratic governance. </p>
<h2>Choice of replacement</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291921/original/file-20190911-190002-3uvsia.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291921/original/file-20190911-190002-3uvsia.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291921/original/file-20190911-190002-3uvsia.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291921/original/file-20190911-190002-3uvsia.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291921/original/file-20190911-190002-3uvsia.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291921/original/file-20190911-190002-3uvsia.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291921/original/file-20190911-190002-3uvsia.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">African News Agency(ANA)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The best way to answer the first question is to consider the political context in KwaZulu-Natal. Both the National Freedom Party (NFP), which<a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2011-01-28-inkatha-freedom-party-falls-apart-again-and-this-may-be-terminal/"> split from the IFP in 2011</a> under the leadership of Zanele ka Magwaza-Msibi, and the ANC – the oldest political party in Africa which was formed in 1912 – have been struggling to deal with <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/politics/2166411/its-time-to-take-the-gloves-off-mr-president/">leadership squabbles</a> triggered by succession politics. </p>
<p>Having watched mud-slinging <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/nfp-leader-disgusted-by-party-squabbles-1920238">in the NFP</a> and <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2019-06-16-anc-kzn-faction-plots-to-remove-president-ramaphosa/">ANC </a> – epitomised by public insults and accusations among politicians as well as factional politics which dominated the media, the IFP leadership resolved to do all in its power to avert a similar situation in its own party. This explains the decision to propose a successor’s name from the top.</p>
<p>The extent to which this decision was a wise move will become clear as time goes on. The fact that the IFP’s elective conference endorsed Hlabisa vindicates the leadership’s decision. However, it does not refute the fact that the decision was not in sync with the IFP’s constitution and was, therefore, undemocratic.</p>
<h2>The democracy debate</h2>
<p>This leads us to the second question on how this episode invokes the debate on democracy. Two points are worth considering. The first is that there is a clear distinction between liberal (Western) democracy and democracy as understood and practised by Africans during the pre-colonial era.</p>
<p>While liberal democracy touts simple majority as a determining factor for decision making, Africans believed in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23739547?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">consensus</a>. Consensus meant that discussions would take longer as attempts were being made to win over those of a contrasting view.</p>
<p>So, if the IFP’s leaders sat down to deliberate on how to avoid a power struggle within the party as Prince Buthelezi stepped down, they may have opted for consensus and not simple majority per se. But the fact that branches were not part of this process raises a question on whether consensus was carried out properly. Being mindful of the dictates of <a href="https://sk.sagepub.com/books/key-concepts-in-governance/n42.xml">representative democracy </a>, the leadership deemed it necessary to take a decision on behalf of the party’s general membership. This is part of the debate.</p>
<p>Another important point worth noting is that the word “democracy” has different meanings. One of them relates to executing the will of the people. The fact that the IFP’s elective conference, whose delegates carried the mandate from their constituencies, officially elected Hlabisa as the new leader means that democracy was not undermined.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291748/original/file-20190910-190007-122lsfz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291748/original/file-20190910-190007-122lsfz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291748/original/file-20190910-190007-122lsfz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291748/original/file-20190910-190007-122lsfz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291748/original/file-20190910-190007-122lsfz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291748/original/file-20190910-190007-122lsfz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291748/original/file-20190910-190007-122lsfz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What triggers interest is that other members of the leadership structure were elected through normal channels. Candidates were nominated and then voted into office. This was in line with the IFP’s Constitution.</p>
<p>Within this context, although Hlabisa’s name came from the leadership structure and not the branches, it could be argued that the IFP’s leadership reached consensus on its preferred candidate but still left it to the conference delegates to elect the new leader. </p>
<p>But this process would have to be explained for it to pass the litmus test of a democratic process. Without such an explanation, the impression created would be that the leadership of the IFP acted undemocratically.</p>
<h2>Action and democratic practice</h2>
<p>The IFP’s action has unwittingly sparked a debate on democracy. Given that the IFP is rooted in <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/elections2019-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-ifp-19859977">African customary practices</a>, consensus is an acceptable approach to democratic practice. But, such consensus needs to be inclusive of the party structures. The IFP’s Constitution embraces both liberal democratic practices and African customary practices.</p>
<p>It remains to be seen if other political parties will adopt this approach in future to avoid potential leadership squabbles. It will also be interesting to see if the IFP will follow the same approach when Hlabisa’s term of office ends in five years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122964/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bheki Mngomezulu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The IFP’s constitution provides that the nomination of national office bearers be approved by the branches. But this was not done in the nomination of its new president.
Bheki Mngomezulu, Professor of Political Science, University of the Western Cape
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/123145
2019-09-10T10:24:42Z
2019-09-10T10:24:42Z
South Africa: a new narrative could tackle anti-migrant crisis
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291508/original/file-20190909-109943-1ru3qzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"> Firefighters outside a burning building after violence and looting against foreign nationals in Pretoria, South Africa in 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Yeshiel Panchia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>African migrants have once again been <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-09-02-city-in-lockdown-as-looters-target-migrant-rich-areas-across-johannesburg-and-east-rand/">targeted</a> for looting, violence and displacement in South Africa. Not only are the events reminiscent of 2008, 2015 and 2017: the narratives explaining them and the measures suggested to deal with them are more or less the same.</p>
<p>In 2008, when public attention to attacks on African migrants became global for the first time, then president Thabo Mbeki declared that South Africans were <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/mbekis-xenophobia-denialism-flies-in-face-of-evidence-8874406">not xenophobic</a>. In 2015 his successor Jacob Zuma <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Zuma-denies-xenophobia-in-AU-discussion-20150614">echoed similar sentiments</a>. The explanation was that criminal elements were hiding behind xenophobia to disguise their actions. </p>
<p>Criminality, rather than xenophobia, was therefore their preferred description. Meanwhile civil society, opposition parties and other African governments insisted that the attacks on foreign nationals were xenophobic and needed to be called such. </p>
<p>We see in these debates a mad rush to impose a limit on what should be said, and what should not. This is done as a strategy to set the agenda. In this race to contain the phenomenon is a desire for <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02564718.2016.1235377">singularity</a> which has beset our societies. Criminality, xenophobia and Afrophobia appear in these narratives as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02500167.2016.1167751">incompatible</a>. The suggestion is that the problem has a single name and hence should subscribe to a single remedial framework. </p>
<h2>Same problem, same response</h2>
<p>Faced with the same problem, South Africa is turning to the familiar toolkit to explain and deal with a recurrent problem. A wave of looting and destruction of property by South African citizens is currently taking place in Johannesburg. Although it’s targeting foreign nationals, it is also claiming South African <a href="https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/xenophobic-attacks-death-toll-south-africans-killed-who/">victims</a>. </p>
<p>As of 9 September 2019, 12 people were confirmed dead and 639 had been arrested. The minister of police, the Gauteng province’s premier, the governing African National Congress (ANC) and former president Thabo Mbeki have condemned what they call criminality. Opposition parties, the Economic Freedom Fighters and the Democratic Alliance, are among the voices blaming xenophobia for the events. The debates are even more robust on social media sites where accusations and counter-accusations of criminality, xenophobia and Afrophobia are <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23saynotoxenophobicattacks">traded</a>.</p>
<p>These discourses are replicas of previous explanations of similar events in 2008, 2015, 2017 and, more recently, April 2019. Should this not be the time to try something else? Evaluating how we have defined the problem and redefining it anew, for instance, may be the start of a more fruitful search for answers. </p>
<p>Certainly, the answers are not to be found here and now. But pointing out the reasons why prevailing explanations fail is necessary. Solutions to a problem emanate from the way we describe the problem. </p>
<h2>Is it criminality?</h2>
<p>Those who blame the problem on criminality tend to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02500167.2016.1167751">underline the criminal actions</a> while downplaying the profile of victims. By making the victims invisible, authors of the criminality narrative create the impression that these acts could happen to anyone. To bolster this view, they point to South African citizens who have been caught up during the attacks.</p>
<p>For those who promote the criminality narrative, the problem is local. The criminal justice system is the answer to such a problem. By underlining criminal acts at the expense of the identities of intended targets of crime, African migrants’ experiences of marginality in South Africa are silenced.</p>
<p>Senior state officials go a step further by harbouring traces of xenophobia in their speeches. The victims of crime, whose profile the state is at pains to make insignificant, are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02500167.2016.1167751">projected as criminals</a>. Ministers, the police and traditional leaders are among those who speak of “criminal elements” targeting their victims on account of the latter’s criminal activities. This usually ends with an appeal to the said “criminal elements” not to take the law into their own hands, and the arrests of some perpetrators.</p>
<p>In the end, the criminality narrative pits one set of criminals against another. The burden of violence is placed on victims who should report crime and trust South Africa’s overwhelmed criminal justice system to come to the rescue, and on a few perpetrators who find themselves arrested and charged. </p>
<p>Because of South Africa’s high crime rate, these cases disappear in the pool of other crimes.</p>
<h2>Is it xenophobia or Afrophobia?</h2>
<p>Those who prefer to place the problem at the door of xenophobia, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01436597.2011.560470">Afrophobia</a> and self-hate place the profile of victims above the violent performances. The looting, maiming, killing and destruction of property are emptied of their criminal content. They are filled with the spectre of phobia. In this narrative lie accusations that <a href="https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4668">South Africans have lost ubuntu</a>, a notion deployed to erroneously construct Africans as irredeemably linked together.</p>
<p>Furthermore, South Africans are accused of regarding themselves as <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/south-atlantic-quarterly/article-abstract/103/4/607/3215/The-South-African-Ideology-The-Myth-of">exceptionally not of Africa</a>. Apartheid history is evoked to account for this <a href="https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/56982">pride, ignorance and attendant hatred for other Africans</a>. Last, but not least, South Africans are reminded that Africa <a href="https://journals.co.za/content/journal/10520/EJC-c13b7cdaa">supported</a> the struggle against apartheid at both cost and risk.</p>
<p>Going by this narrative, the problem is international and therefore cannot be left to South Africa’s criminal justice system. This explains why attacks targeting foreign nationals often invite reprisals from other African countries. By privileging the identities of intended targets of attacks at the expense of acts enacted upon them, adherents of this narrative downplay the history and politics surrounding South African citizens’ experiences of marginality. </p>
<p>This narrative does not account for the fact that attacks on African migrants, by ordinary South African citizens, do not happen every day. Surely if the expression of fear or hatred of something manifests through violent attacks, then the episodes of calm should prod us to look elsewhere for answers.</p>
<h2>Looking elsewhere</h2>
<p>The invitation to reevaluate our understanding of the problem does not render existing narratives irrelevant. What we must resist is the trap of singularity.<br>
What we call “criminality” or “xenophobia” claim victims from the same pool of vulnerable people and play out in the same neglected physical spaces. Government, police, immigration officials and ordinary South Africans contribute to the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-2435.00145">normalisation of criminal and xenophobic attitudes</a> among South African citizens and migrants. </p>
<p>In these spaces, “criminality” and “xenophobia” can and often do flip into “racism”, “tribalism”, “sexism”, and so on. They are responses to larger structural problems which engender and exploit socio-cultural differences for political and economic gain. Our interest is barely aroused by these everyday events because they are not constant and they have merged with our institutional, political and economic lives. </p>
<p>What is infrequent, and horrifies us, are the repeated appearances of “criminality” and “xenophobia” conjoined as one event. Then we revert to the usual debates and the attendant marches, speeches and petitions against violence. </p>
<p>The narrative needs to change from criminality or xenophobia or Afrophobia to the everyday, structural, conditions which make socio-cultural differences amenable to easy exploitation by those who wield power. It is possible that we do not have the proper name for our problems: this may be mitigating against solving them. </p>
<p>We need new conversations grounded in the everyday experiences of those who always find themselves perpetrators and/or victims of “xenophobic crimes”, away from the violent eruptions. This will allow our material responses to be informed by a more accurate awareness of what is going on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123145/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cuthbeth Tagwirei does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Faced with the same problem, South Africa is turning to the familiar toolkit to explain a recurrent problem.
Cuthbeth Tagwirei, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Wits Centre for Diversity Studies, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/121945
2019-08-26T14:16:07Z
2019-08-26T14:16:07Z
How a rural community hopes to retain spiritual life undermined by western ways
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288350/original/file-20190816-192254-13gl0no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C149%2C613%2C261&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lily Heisi/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around the world, the introduction of western ways of life has changed indigenous communities. This has often happened by decreasing or by limiting their access to the resources they need. It’s been deliberate as well as unintentional, often with negative results </p>
<p>AmaBomvane of the Eastern Cape in South Africa provide an example of the impact such disruption can have. The traditional spiritual beliefs of this community underpin their entire way of life, and when “modern” interventions disrupted their spiritual practices, they began to suffer harm.</p>
<p>AmaBomvane aren’t the only community to have been affected in this way. Many indigenous communities around the world experience globalisation as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1745-5871.2007.00443.x">a loss of spiritual connectedness</a>. They include the Cree of the Whapmagoostui in northeastern Canada, the Anishinaabe (Ojibwa), also in North America, the Mohawk community of Akwesasne, and various indigenous communities in Hawaii, Australia, <a href="http://www.umanitoba.ca/institutes/natural_resources/canadaresearchchair/Gwichin%20berry%20harvesting%20from%20northern%20Canada.pdf">the Pacific islands and New Zealand</a>.</p>
<p>For my PhD, <a href="http://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/105990">I studied</a> the understanding and practice of indigenous spirituality and its influence on well-being. I also explored the impact of the imposition of western, individualist values on Bomvanaland, a deeply rural area of Elliotdale, in the former Transkei region of South Africa. And I examined what enables the AmaBomvane to survive despite these challenges. </p>
<h2>AmaBomvane</h2>
<p>AmaBomvane’s beliefs traditionally inform their very existence. During my research I found that they understood spirituality to be about relationships. The main determinant of their community’s well-being was the management of strife in these relationships. </p>
<p>Their belief system is informed by <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/the-meaning-of-ubuntu-43307"><em>ubuntu</em></a> (humaness), a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-archbishop-tutus-ubuntu-credo-teaches-the-world-about-justice-and-harmony-84730">southern African ethic</a> grounded in the belief that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A person is a person through other persons.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To amaBomvane, relationships exist between three dimensions: humans (living and dead), nature and the divine. All three areas are in a complex balance.</p>
<p>As they explained their beliefs to me, it became clear that amaBomvane did not see physical death as an end to life. They believe in the continued presence of family members (ancestors). Their core values are kindness, empathy and support for the collective. A person’s humanity depends on how they treat other people.</p>
<p>This beneficence is extended to the land and animals as well. AmaBomvane believe that humans exist in a reciprocal relationship with all of nature. When people harm the earth and the animals, they harm themselves. There is no separation.</p>
<p>AmaBomvane grew various plants for food and for treating illnesses. They also grew grain for making a local brew, which was used in maintaining their relationship with their ancestors and with God. </p>
<p>Their animals supported them to achieve and maintain their relationship to the divine through sacrifices. They protected and cared for their animals, which in turn nourished them physically and spiritually.</p>
<p>The land, too, was cared for and responded in kind. The land received the bodies of people’s ancestors and carried their cattle enclosures, which remained very spiritual spaces. Land also yielded the crops used for food and for making the beer for ancestral veneration. </p>
<p>The ancestors are spirit beings who are believed to liaise between God and family members, relaying messages to support well-being or admonishment for wrongdoing and disobedience. This is at the centre of amaBomvane belief system. Ancestors are believed to provide protection, guidance, advice, good health, and even punishment. </p>
<p>To enjoy well-being and thrive, people must maintain this relationship with the divine, others and the world around them.</p>
<p>AmaBomvane sustain the relationship through a collective expression of their spirituality. This occurs through songs, dance and various familial and communal rites of passage. They hold ceremonies that strengthen their identity and support their connection to each dimension of the relationship.</p>
<p>All these activities contributed to cultural continuity, supporting their well-being.</p>
<p>But, this cultural continuity has been systematically disrupted – historically by the entrance of colonial powers and contemporarily by globalisation and urbanisation.</p>
<h2>Disrupted way of life</h2>
<p>AmaBomvane identified three distinct ways in which their socio-cultural and spiritual wellbeing was disrupted. These were western spirituality, healthcare and education introduced by the colonial powers into their context. Their indigenous spiritual knowledges were demonised and marginalised. Lands were seized, causing forced migration and disrupting their access to spiritual resources, connection to one another and shared identity. </p>
<p>These disruptions continue. The ongoing socio-cultural, political and globalised approaches to “bringing communities into the 21st century” – like the poor engagement and collaboration between traditional healers and western healthcare practitioners – continue to create problems for amaBomvane. They assert that currently, some developmental agencies and businesses have cordoned off land for private use within their villages. </p>
<p>AmaBomvane made it clear that the global development agenda had contributed to division because it sees people as individuals rather than primarily as members of a collective.</p>
<p>They also believed that although it seeks greater good, the way in which human rights have been introduced into their context without incorporating their own moral belief systems has been more detrimental than beneficial to their community. An example that they cited was that children had become disobedient towards their parents and elders, contributing to broken relationships.</p>
<p>And the disruption of their traditional way of life, coupled with the lack of alternative ways of making a living, had led many amaBomvane, especially young people, to seek opportunities elsewhere.</p>
<p>This had negatively affected the practice of their spirituality. Community members were confused about their spirituality, combining both indigenous and western spiritual practices. Youth migration had also robbed the area of the young people needed to farm the land. Alcohol and drug abuse among the youth had also brought new social problems.</p>
<h2>Shared humanity</h2>
<p>There is no easy answer to amaBomvane’s dilemma. But they have proposed a way forward. They argued that those coming into their spaces must seek collaboration, not domination. </p>
<p>This collaboration must be led and infused by their indigenous value system of <em>ubuntu</em>. The community assert that if people recognise their shared humanity, the outcomes would be beneficial to the well-being of all – human, land, animals, and the divine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121945/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Chioma Ohajunwa is a lecturer at the Centre for Rehabilitation Studies at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Stellenbosch.
Dr Chioma Ohajunwa received funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF) Grant Holder Linked Bursary for this study </span></em></p>
The Bomvana say the global development agenda has created division because it sees people as individuals rather than primarily as members of a collective.
Chioma Ohajunwa, Lecturer and researcher at the Centre for Rehabilitation Studies, Stellenbosch University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/95465
2018-05-02T14:15:47Z
2018-05-02T14:15:47Z
What happens when you put African philosophies at the centre of learning
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216483/original/file-20180426-175061-xpswpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bringing different philosophies together can empower students.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bruce Rolff/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What happens when <a href="https://theconversation.com/african-philosophy-of-education-a-powerful-arrow-in-universities-bow-62802">African philosophies</a> and practices are placed at the centre of learning? How can teachers and students on the continent use the concepts of <em>ubuntu</em> (human interdependence) and <em>ukama</em> (relationality) to come up with homegrown solutions for societal and educational concerns?</p>
<p>These were two of the questions we sought to answer when we set up a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), <a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/african-philosophy/2/">Teaching for Change</a>. It was run jointly by Stellenbosch University in South Africa and <a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/profiles/4014011">Future-Learn</a>, an initiative run by the Open University in the UK.</p>
<p>A MOOC is a course made available for free over the internet and can cater for thousands of people at once. More than 4000 people from around the world – most from the US, UK and a variety of African countries – took part in ours. </p>
<p>Indigenous forms of education, created and honed in African countries by African people, have historically been criticised as somehow inferior to forms from the Western world. But a shift is underway, as we found. Education systems around the world are increasingly recognising the value of local approaches to thinking, learning and being.</p>
<p>Here’s what we – and the participants – learned. These lessons could be valuable to anyone who wants to centre African philosophies in a MOOC or similar course.</p>
<h2>Applying African philosophies</h2>
<p>The renowned scholar Kwame Anthony Appiah <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/7806.html">has shown</a> that humans’ capacities to think, reason, disagree, speak, listen and be listened to are important in constructing and reconstructing understanding. </p>
<p>Constructing and reconstructing an African notion of education, then, depends on borrowing from, exchanging with other cultures, and initiating thought and action that are novel. At its heart it is about respecting others’ rights universally, and about people being <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15244113.2012.678041">reflective and open</a> about their own stories.</p>
<p>Here’s an example of how the philosophies of <em>ubuntu</em> and <em>ukama</em> were applied in the Teaching for Change MOOC. Not all 4000 students were registered at once; 2000 were registered at a time over two six-week periods that extended over two years. Throughout this between 250 and 300 students engaged online while others could be considered active “listeners”. </p>
<p>Students were encouraged to share their views or claims about knowledge, education, schooling, teaching and learning in their own contexts. Invariably, these views were in agreement or clashed with their classmates’. Practising <em>ubuntu</em> demanded that they then articulate their willingness to engage with one another in an atmosphere of openness without insulting or discrediting another’s point of view. </p>
<p>This encouraged people to remain dignified and respectful towards one another in any educational encounter. They were asked to listen attentively to different and even contending points of view. Afterwards, they were encouraged to offer points of view that clarified existing views. </p>
<p>Then, applying the theory of <em>ukama</em>, students were asked to see themselves in an ongoing and relational conversation with one another without prematurely judging another’s point of view as irrelevant. They considered others’ views without rushing to judgement. </p>
<p>Students found these approaches useful. They were taught to not only share their views and stories (and stories, of course, play a large role on a continent with a rich oral history), but to offer reasons for these views. </p>
<p>Learning to justify stories is an important part of African philosophy. Kwase Wiredu, N'Dri Assie-Lumumba and Kwame Gyekye are three notable theorists who consider storytelling in relation to justification through reasons being as significant to what it means to engage in education. A <a href="https://zelalemkibret.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/blackwell-companion-to-african-philosophy.pdf">famous text</a> on African philosophy edited by Wiredu provides textual evidence for the importance of storytelling in cultivating <em>ubuntu</em> and <em>ukama</em>. </p>
<p>Narrating stories or views in this setting followed a communal approach: one told a story, and another listened to it. Then the “story” was retold through engaging with others’ ideas and contributions. So students didn’t just internalise understandings of African education as if nothing should be questioned. Instead they made sense of one another’s stories and in this way developed more informed understandings of the stories being told. </p>
<p>Participants engaged collectively, drew on their own existing thoughts about African education and learned from others. This approach to learning is not in one direction as if teachers have the sole authority to give an account of reasons. Students also have a voice as they assume responsibility for their claims. Students’ voices are at the fulcrum of democratic education which is necessary for assisting them in critically reflecting on their own social, cultural and economic contexts. </p>
<h2>Thoughtful inquiry</h2>
<p>Our task as university teachers on this MOOC was to find the opportunity to connect students to real problems plaguing the African continent. Examples of such problems are military dictatorships, famine and hunger, food insecurity, and societal violence. They were given space to collectively find ways to address and perhaps even resolve these problems.</p>
<p>The students rose to the task, recognising the need for thoughtful inquiry if Africa’s many injustices are to be eradicated. They used the MOOC’s online discussion forums to express their ideas – and most clearly embraced the idea of an African approach to education. </p>
<p>This scholarly effort to bring about societal and transformative change through collaborative teaching and learning is bearing fruit. We have already been approached to run the MOOC again and are working on an amended version. And, thanks to the MOOC, we’ve now published a book called Rupturing African Philosophy on Teaching and Learning: Ubuntu Justice and Education with Palgrave-MacMillan in New York. It will appear in July 2018.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95465/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Education systems around the world are increasingly recognising the value of local approaches to thinking, learning and being.
Yusef Waghid, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy of Education, Stellenbosch University
Faiq Waghid, Educational technologist, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Zayd Waghid, Lecturer, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/93152
2018-03-22T15:26:46Z
2018-03-22T15:26:46Z
Why an African perspective on humanity shows that survivor’s guilt makes sense
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210253/original/file-20180314-113462-104n2gz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sometimes individuals who survive a tragedy, such as a tsunami, <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/03/10/national/survivors-speak-grief-guilt-life-tsunami/">report</a> feeling guilty that they lived while innocent people close to them perished. Similarly, I have had some black professionals in post-apartheid South Africa tell me they feel guilty for having left their townships or villages and “made it” while their former neighbours still live in poverty. </p>
<p>Is it appropriate to feel guilty in these circumstances? </p>
<p>I argue that while influential Western moral philosophies suggest that survivor’s guilt is irrational, the African philosophical tradition has the resources to make sense of why it can be a virtue. </p>
<p>Survivor’s guilt is – roughly speaking – experiencing the emotion of guilt despite not being guilty. More carefully, it is feeling bad about oneself for one’s associates having died (or undergone a serious harm), for not having died (been harmed) along with them, or for not having saved them, even though one did no wrong at all in contributing to their deaths (suffering). </p>
<p>Many survivors of large-scale tragedy for which they are not at all morally responsible report feeling guilty. Consider Jewish people who made it through the Holocaust, and soldiers who escaped war with their lives. It was also common among the Japanese who survived a tsunami, as <a href="http://www.nationmultimedia.com/life/Tsunami-of-guilt-30179002.html">recounted</a> by filmmaker Tatsuya Mori: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>On the day of the earthquake I was drinking beer with my friends in Roppongi. Thousands of people lost their lives, but I was drinking beer. I didn’t know what was happening at the time, but when I realised, I was ashamed. I felt guilty.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Should he have felt this way? </p>
<h2>Is survivor’s guilt unreasonable?</h2>
<p>The default view among contemporary Western moral philosophies is that survivor’s guilt is usually unreasonable.</p>
<p><a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/utilitarianism-history/">Utilitarianism</a>, one of the two dominant ethical approaches in the West, maintains that everything one does should be oriented towards making the future better for society. One has moral reason to feel bad if and only if doing so would be useful. So it would be natural for a utilitarian to say,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It will do no good to feel guilty merely for having survived; you should try to let it go.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The other influential Western ethic is <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-moral/#HumFor">Kantianism</a>, roughly the view that we need to treat people with respect by virtue of their capacity to make reasoned decisions. Where we misuse that capacity, say, by wrongfully putting others in harm’s way, then it would be appropriate to feel guilty or for others to censure us – that would be to treat ourselves and others as agents who are responsible for their actions. </p>
<p>However, when it comes to survivor’s guilt, most Kantians would say, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You did nothing wrong, and so have nothing to feel bad about. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As one contemporary Kantian <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=Wg3kOKtiO50C&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&dq=Strictly+speaking,+survivor+guilt+is+not+rational+guilt,+for+surviving+the+Holocaust,+or+surviving+battle%E2%80%A6.is+not+typically+because+a+person+has+deliberately+let+another+take+his+place+in+harm&source=bl&ots=31er-56CEJ&sig=Z-Nt6Qr-cU9LdvLMmOp_UdSNokc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-geWcrOvZAhWhCcAKHeU3CD4Q6AEIKDAB#v=onepage&q=Strictly%20speaking%2C%20survivor%20guilt%20is%20not%20rational%20guilt%2C%20for%20surviving%20the%20Holocaust%2C%20or%20surviving%20battle%E2%80%A6.is%20not%20typically%20because%20a%20person%20has%20deliberately%20let%20another%20take%20his%20place%20in%20harm&f=false">puts it</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Strictly speaking, survivor guilt is not rational guilt, for surviving the Holocaust, or surviving battle… is not typically because a person has deliberately let another take his place in harm. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>An expression of <em>Ubuntu</em></h2>
<p>We get a different, revealing view of survivor’s guilt if we take up the perspective of <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/the-meaning-of-ubuntu-43307"><em>Ubuntu</em></a>, a southern African ethic grounded on values salient among people who live in the region. As is well known, an Ubuntu ethic is often summed up by:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A person is a person through other persons. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Central to this maxim is the idea that one ought to become a real person, or to live in a genuinely human way, by prizing communal relationships with others – that is, by caring for their quality of life and sharing a way of life with them. The South African public intellectual <a href="http://africacenturyconference.co.za/prof-muxe-nkondo-long-profile/">G M Nkondo</a> <a href="https://philarchive.org/archive/METEIAv1">remarks</a> that adherents to an <em>Ubuntu</em> philosophy are inclined to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>express commitment to the good of the community in which their identities were formed, and a need to experience their lives as bound up in that of their community.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So, one is more of a person, the more one sympathises with other people, helps them live better lives, identifies with others, and participates with them on an interdependent basis. By many readings of <em>Ubuntu</em>, although everyone has a dignity, those with whom we have already communed in these ways are owed extra attention and devotion, hence the additional maxims of “family first” and “charity begins at home”.</p>
<p>Given this interpretation of <em>Ubuntu</em>, one could be more of a person upon feeling survivor’s guilt insofar as it is a manifestation of loyalty or solidarity. Survivor’s guilt characteristically arises when people with whom one has identified and lived with have died (or suffered); it does not normally arise when strangers in a distant part of the globe perish (or suffer). Survivor’s guilt is arguably an instance of good character, an emotional expression of a person being bound up with, and committed to, others in her community. </p>
<p>As I have put it elsewhere in a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/9781444367072">forthcoming contribution</a> to the <em>International Encyclopedia of Ethics</em> , survivor’s guilt is a way to experience negative feelings attuned to the bad condition of others with whom one shares a sense of self. It is also a way to judge that one has not exhibited the excellence of helping them, even if one violated no duty and hence did no wrong in respect of them. It is furthermore a way of acknowledging that one has not shared the same fate with them, while, in the <a href="https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/war-and-the-moral-logic-of-survivor-guilt/">words</a> of another scholar,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the anguish of guilt, its sheer pain, is a way of sharing some of the ill fate.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Survivor’s guilt could be disproportionately severe, but that is true of any negative emotion. Consider someone who were not disposed to feel survivor’s guilt at all. Might it be apt to say of such a person that he did not really feel a sense of togetherness with those who died or that he did not really care about them? If so, then <em>Ubuntu</em> helps explain not merely why survivor’s guilt is a recurrent feature of the human condition, but also why it should be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thaddeus Metz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Survivor’s guilt is arguably an instance of good character, an emotional expression.
Thaddeus Metz, Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy, University of Johannesburg
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/90882
2018-03-01T14:09:26Z
2018-03-01T14:09:26Z
Insights into commercial contracting from South Africa’s informal sector
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208464/original/file-20180301-152569-144j4ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Media Club/Flcker</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What happens when African societal norms meet modern commercial practice? From boardrooms in Sandton to the cultural mash-up and the <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/42043/1/Hull_Introduction_popular_economies_2012.pdf">“popular economy”</a> of a South African township, African business people of different ethnicities and world views are contracting on a daily basis. </p>
<p>Is there anything peculiarly “African” about this process, or are all business people the conventional profit-maximising individuals of <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/free-market-economy-definition-1146100">free market economic theory</a>? The answer here informs the related policy question as to whether South Africa needs to develop a dedicated indigenous law of contract. </p>
<p>It is often said that <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2016-12-22-00-the-age-of-humanism-is-ending/">humanist</a> values matter in the traditional African political economy, or that African communities run on a principle of <a href="http://www.puk.ac.za/opencms/export/PUK/html/fakulteite/regte/per/issues/98v1mokg.pdf">ubuntu (humanness/communal solidarity)</a>. Sometimes this is contrasted with the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjhr20">liberal individualism</a> of “Western” society. Is this valid? </p>
<p>At the end of 2017, we published an <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02587203.2017.1392430">article</a> in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjhr20">South African Journal on Human Rights</a> which laid out a new theory for the study of commercial contracting in South Africa. We set about moving the study of contracting from the centralised law of the state into the context of what happens in the popular economy – the space where the informal and formal sectors meet.</p>
<p>The formal and informal worlds shape each other, giving rise to an interesting intersection. We think that the South African popular economy is a good micro-context to study, since the “Western” norms said to characterise the central state’s law of contract play less of a role here.</p>
<p>Our findings are preliminary and rest on research done by social scientists. We’ve also included a measure of contract and economic theory. </p>
<p>Why should South African lawyers be interested? Our project is partly ideological. We believe that the study of indigenous business norms is a worthwhile exercise in any African country. Yet there’s no legal debate on the issue. African customary law courses do not address these more business-related points and commercial law courses do not speak to African customary norms. </p>
<p>The reason for this is that there are notional <a href="http://www.law.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/99/2018_LAW_handbook%20final_0.pdf">boundaries</a> between the two legal subjects. As legal historian <a href="http://assets.cambridge.org/97805217/91564/frontmatter/9780521791564_frontmatter.pdf">Martin Chanock</a> has shown, this is as a result of South African history, with past discriminatory rules about which law to apply in which situations shaping the development of both customary and common law. </p>
<p>We aim to change this trend. Here are our preliminary ideas.</p>
<h2>Indigenous cultural practices</h2>
<p>What legal norms regulate contemporary cultural practices such as the <a href="https://www.africanresponse.co.za/assets/press/2012StokvelHiddenEconomy.pdf">stokvel</a> (a common informal savings and credit association), the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228546451_The_Management_of_Risk_by_Burial_Societies_in_South_Africa">burial society</a> (a stokvel which helps save towards funeral expenses), the township <a href="https://dspace.nwu.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10394/8260/No_65%282012%29_Mashigo_P.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">loan-shark</a>, or other types of commercial activity which exist as an alternative to the formal sector banking, insurance and financial services industries? </p>
<p>The published literature of economic anthropologists working on the popular economy in South Africa throws up <a href="https://www.erikbaehre.nl/files/publications/erik_bahre_money_and_violence.pdf">recurring stories</a> about financial activity in this sector. Most speak to the role of community in contracting. </p>
<p>This makes perfect sense: contracting occurs in a social and economic context. Who hasn’t relied on a threat to another’s reputation (such as by gossip or via social media) to enforce performance? Even more simply, if there is no one else to provide your supply of goods or services, threatening never to do repeat business with you again can be an effective way of ensuring a response from you when you won’t pay me. </p>
<p>In short, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271815351_Nonlegal_Sanctions_in_Commercial_Relationships">social forces</a> shape contracts: the stronger the sense of community, the more effective these sanctions are likely to be. The result: A <a href="http://www.theactivistinvestor.com/The_Activist_Investor/Blog/Entries/2015/9/29_What_is_Private_Ordering.html">privately ordered</a> system of business behaviour, which exists without reference to the governing law of the state. The underlying adhesive: community.</p>
<p>In the absence of conventional forms of collateral, <a href="https://econrsa.org/system/files/publications/policy_papers/pp19.pdf">my contract partner’s knowledge of my financial standing and habits</a> will serve as a guarantor of payment. </p>
<p>While trust may not always be present, and altruistically putting another’s needs before one’s own may be difficult when money is tight and economic needs press, a <a href="http://science.jrank.org/pages/8772/Communitarianism-in-African-Thought-Gyekye-on-Moderate-Communitarianism.html">moderate sense of community</a> does indeed characterise contracting in this setting. This leaves room for private property and individual financial goals, but ensures that one prioritises communal relations when making economic decisions.</p>
<p>We have described these informal rules and regulations as adhering to the concept of ubuntu. Retired Constitutional Court judge, Yvonne Mokgoro, defines ubuntu using the African saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a human being is a human being through other human beings. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This means that a person’s individual existence and welfare are relative to that of her community. </p>
<h2>Context sensitive law</h2>
<p>How are we then to define ubuntu in a given contractual setting in South Africa? “With reference to context,” is our answer. The notion of community described above requires a certain type of social environment. We think that this environment is to be found in South Africa’s popular economy and the relevant empirical literature supports this view. But what about high value contracts between South Africa’s blue chip companies? </p>
<p>We believe that contract law should be context sensitive. This should include which business community’s norms are used in determining the outcome of a given commercial dispute. This is not to say that corporates aren’t African, but rather that the value of community may be different. And even in the informal sector, contracts must be honoured. Under the South African Constitution, common and customary law are presently separate parallel branches. Our research will inform future arguments about how these two branches may influence each other. </p>
<p>To guide the courts and the development of South African law, research into indigenous commercial contracting is required. This should in turn inform the discussion of how to make contracting in South Africa more African and how to transform the legal curricula in universities. </p>
<p>We will be testing our theories through our own empirical study in this ongoing project. We want to know what norms and procedures govern business relations in this sector where disputes almost never <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAECHC/2005/34.html">reach the courts</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90882/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Hutchison receives funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa (grant number 111748). Any opinion, finding and conclusion, or recommendation expressed in this material is that of the authors and the NRF does not accept any liability in this regard. . </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nkanyiso Sibanda does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
South African commercial law courses do not address the question of what norms and procedures govern business relations in indigenous African communities.
Andrew Hutchison, Associate Professor of Commercial Law, University of Cape Town
Nkanyiso Sibanda, LLD - Private Law, University of the Western Cape
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/85402
2017-10-19T18:55:49Z
2017-10-19T18:55:49Z
Archbishop Desmond Tutu: the essence of what it means to be human
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189399/original/file-20171009-6967-7wo152.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Archbishop Desmond Tutu celebrated his 86th birthday and the unveiling of an arch in his honour outside St George's Cathedral in Cape Town. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Mike Hutchings</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu celebrates his <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/archbishop-emeritus-mpilo-desmond-tutu">90th birthday</a>, it’s fitting to reflect on the moral values he has promoted and held dear throughout his life. It is his steadfast adherence to these values, his courage, activism and integrity that have set him apart from others in leadership in South Africa today.</p>
<p>The hallmark of his inspiring leadership philosophy is the unwavering consistency with which he has rejected abuses of power - both during apartheid as well as in <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/tutu-speaks-on-marikana-massacre-1366555">post-apartheid South Africa</a>. At the height of <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a>, he was pivotal in encouraging <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/03/world/tutu-urges-more-sanctions-against-south-africa.html">economic sanctions</a> against South Africa, which <a href="http://www.econ.yale.edu/growth_pdf/cdp796.pdf">contributed significantly</a> to the transfer of power to a majority government.</p>
<p>Archbishop Tutu’s fight for peace was relentless, earning him the prestigious <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1984/tutu-facts.html">Nobel Peace Prize in 1984</a> – a full decade before the new dispensation of a democratic South Africa. In his acceptance speech Tutu eloquently declared: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is no peace in South Africa. There is no peace because there is no justice… When there is injustice, invariably, peace becomes a casualty. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Consistency and authenticity</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/archbishop-emeritus-mpilo-desmond-tutu">Archbishop Tutu’s</a> role in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/tutu-and-his-role-truth-reconciliation-commission">(TRC) Hearings in 1995</a> reflected his authentic desire to help innocent victims of apartheid abuse and torture, and to start the healing process. As chair of the commission, he enunciated the role of forgiveness in healing. </p>
<p>More recently his principled stance <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2010-05-06-tutu-south-africa-has-lost-its-pride">against corruption</a> and abuse of power by a majority black government in South Africa has added credence to his authentic opposition to <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/human-rights-based-approach/sv3/news/archbishop_desmond_tutu_laureate_of_the_2012_unescobilbao_p-1/">oppression and exploitation</a> – by all and in all forms. Vices and virtues flourish equally in all cultures and socio-economic groups globally. South Africa has had a black majority government for the past 23 years, yet there is still no peace because injustice continues to <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2413-94672015000200037">reign supreme</a>.</p>
<p>The Archbishop has taught the world to embrace the concepts of “human invaluableness” and interdependence inherent in the phrase “Umuntu ngamuntu ngabantu” – we derive our humanity by virtue of being members of the human tribe. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189388/original/file-20171009-6950-bn7fhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189388/original/file-20171009-6950-bn7fhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189388/original/file-20171009-6950-bn7fhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189388/original/file-20171009-6950-bn7fhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189388/original/file-20171009-6950-bn7fhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189388/original/file-20171009-6950-bn7fhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189388/original/file-20171009-6950-bn7fhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former US President Barack Obama awards Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Shawn Thew</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given his passion for world peace, it’s unsurprising that Tutu has been a co-founder of <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/TenWays/story?id=3389067">The Elders </a> – an independent group of global leaders working together in support of peace and human rights. Although the idea was originally suggested by billionaire philanthropist Richard Branson and musician, Peter Gabriel, to Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and others ensured that the group was <a href="http://www.theelders.org/article/nelson-mandela-launches-elders">formally launched</a> in Johannesburg in 2007. Tutu served as chair from 2007 to 2013. Kofi Annan is the current chair, continuing to drive the global peace agenda of the group. </p>
<h2>Champion for global peace</h2>
<p>Tutu continues to add his voice to global crises where human rights violations are involved. Only recently, in response to the violent persecution of Myanmar’s 1.3m ethnic Rohingya Muslims by the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/persecution-muslims-myanmar-rise-170905120517048.html">country’s military</a>, he offered <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/an-open-letter-from-desmond-tutu-to-aung-san-su-kyi-11123972"> this leadership</a> advice to fellow Nobel laureate and Myanmar leader <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/05/asia/rise-and-fall-of-aung-san-suu-kyi/index.html">Aung San Suu Kyi</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the political price of your ascension to the highest office in Myanmar is silence, the price is surely too steep.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Archbishop’s global respect for human life is also reflected in his views on gender preferences and sexual orientation. Despite the views of the <a href="http://www.christianpost.com/news/conservative-anglican-leaders-ready-for-nuclear-option-as-church-of-england-softens-on-homosexuality-181472/">Anglican Church</a>, Tutu has promoted a non-judgmental approach to <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-23464694">same sex relationships</a> including that of his <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/topics/sexuality/article/2016/06/10/same-sex-marriage-mixed-blessing-desmond-tutus-daughter">own daughter</a>.</p>
<p>Over the past few years, Tutu has expressed views on the ethical dilemmas that arise at the end of a person’s life. Influenced in no small part by the last months of Mandela’s life, the Archbishop has spoken out in strong support of autonomous decision making in ending one’s life, including the option of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/archbishop-desmond-tutu-when-my-time-comes-i-want-the-option-of-an-assisted-death/2016/10/06/97c804f2-8a81-11e6-b24f-a7f89eb68887_story.html?utm_term=.9c60e6d165c8">assisted dying</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In refusing dying people the right to die with dignity, we fail to demonstrate the compassion that lies at the heart of Christian values.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A life well lived</h2>
<p>Tutu embraces everything noble in <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/virtue/">Aristotelian virtue ethics</a> and African philosophical systems. Aristotelian ethics would argue that a person who possesses character excellence knows what the right thing to do is, how to do it and when to do it. African philosophy <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=-FZyvjeab8AC&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37&dq=African+philosophy+and+humanism&source=bl&ots=nxMn2Si5P5&sig=fU5kTwCVxdXuUBl-uflIQZBIqvc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwib7PTPweXWAhVRFMAKHRzgCIIQ6AEIXjAJ#v=onepage&q=African%20philosophy%20and%20humanism&f=false">embraces humanism</a> and interdependence which typify Tutu. </p>
<p>The consistency and integrity he has displayed in all facets of his life, including his relationships with his children and grandchildren, has earned him the iconic stature, respect and admiration he so richly deserves. It’s not surprising that Mandela described him as <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2016-10-07-extraordinary-life-the-arch-desmond-tutu-in-conversation-with-satirist-deep-fried-man">“the voice of the voiceless”</a>. </p>
<p>But Tutu himself will be the first to acknowledge that he too has an Achilles heel like anybody else. As humans we all have our share of positive and negative traits – both creating challenges and opportunities in life that require balancing. Clearly, the Archbishop has been successful at achieving this delicate balance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85402/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keymanthri Moodley receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, USA</span></em></p>
Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu embraces everything noble in Aristotelian virtue ethics and African philosophical systems alike.
Keymanthri Moodley, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine and Director, The Centre for Medical Ethics & Law, Stellenbosch University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/85193
2017-10-05T14:51:41Z
2017-10-05T14:51:41Z
Tutu’s activism for justice shows how theology can be made real
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188779/original/file-20171004-32388-1icaddd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"> Archbishop Desmond Tutu 's deep spirituality drove him to fight for freedom and justice.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/archbishop-emeritus-mpilo-desmond-tutu">Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu</a> is internationally acclaimed for his life and work. </p>
<p>He has become best known for his work as General Secretary of the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/statement-by-the-general-secretary-of-south-african-council-of-churches%2C-desmond-tutu">South African Council of Churches</a>, a base from which he led the churches in the struggle against apartheid for which he was awarded the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1984/tutu-facts.html">Nobel Peace Prize</a> in 1984, and his role as <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/archbishop-tutu-retires-0">Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town</a> in which he continued that public role as a leading symbol of black liberation and the bane of white South Africa. </p>
<p>He is also known for his role as the chairperson of the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/tutu-and-his-role-truth-reconciliation-commission">Truth and Reconciliation Commission</a> in which he endeavoured to help heal the nation as its father confessor; and lastly in a regularly deferred retirement, as a respected <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/TenWays/story?id=3389067">global elder</a> in seeking to resolve both local and international conflicts.</p>
<p>Where does one even begin to start writing in appreciation of such a person and such a life? Fortunately, my task has been defined for me. I have been asked to write about his theology, an unusual request, but important nonetheless, given the fact that everything Tutu has said and done has been shaped, not by political insight and ambition, or by ecclesiastical interests, but by his faith in God, that is, by his theology.</p>
<h2>Spiritual leader</h2>
<p>Tutu is first and foremost, a spiritual leader, a man of deep prayer. But his deep spirituality is not and has never been the piety of a religious ghetto; exactly the opposite. </p>
<p>It was this that motivated his participation in seeking justice for the downtrodden and supporting the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/1960-1994-armed-struggle-and-popular-resistance">liberation struggle</a>. It was this that gave him the courage to confront political bullies, stand up to abuse even from within his own church, and lead protest marches in the face of overwhelming displays of state power.</p>
<p>Functionaries of the apartheid state as well as those of our current government who abuse their power, look decidedly tawdry alongside the Arch. They are no match for his moral authority, his spiritual depth, or his theological wisdom. Nor can they compete with his humility, humour or humanity.</p>
<p>Unless we begin at this point in acknowledging Tutu’s spirituality we will completely misunderstand who he is and the contribution he makes to the life of the world. Critics who label him a political priest, totally misunderstand him. Tutu is politically astute, but he has had no personal political ambitions, nor was or is he a member of any political party.</p>
<h2>Reconciliatory ministry</h2>
<p>His social engagement began as he daily celebrated the <a href="https://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/eucha1a.htm">Eucharist</a>, listening in the silence to discern what needed to be said and done in the public arena. He had learnt this from his earliest teachers, the <a href="https://books.google.com.ng/books?id=S6UYpCoGUkgC&pg=PA25&lpg=PA25&dq=Fathers+of+the+Community+of+the+Resurrection+in+Rosettenville&source=bl&ots=YrN70Xk0-4&sig=AtpDlGmPQfTRNDeyckq5YdTZoek&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiE2Mqe79bWAhUJsY8KHY7MCLIQ6AEILzAB#v=onepage&q=Fathers%20of%20the%20Community%20of%20the%20Resurrection%20in%20Rosettenville&f=false">Fathers of the Community of the Resurrection</a> in Rosettenville and <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/place/sophiatown">Sophiatown</a>, among them <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/father-trevor-huddleston">Trevor Huddleston</a>, whose scathing critique of apartheid, <a href="https://archive.org/details/naughtforyourcom001856mbp"><em>Naught for your Comfort</em>,</a> remains a classic.</p>
<p>It goes without saying that Tutu was well versed in the theological doctrines of Christian faith. In particular he had a profound understanding of the incarnational character of Christianity, the faith conviction that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>God was in Christ reconciling the world.</p>
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<p>Therefore, he stressed the incarnational and reconciling ministry of the church in the life of the world. He discerned the image of God imprinted on the face of all human beings, and believed that despite their sins, none was beyond redemption. Thus forgiveness and the inclusive embrace of the other are fundamental to human and social well-being.</p>
<p>His favourite theological theme was the <a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/transfiguration/">Transfiguration</a>, a symbol of hope and encouragement in times of darkest despair when the cross looms large and suffering becomes inevitable though potentially redemptive. Tutu drank deeply from the wells of the Hebrew prophets whose words inspired his own as he challenged evil, spoke truth to power and words of hope to the powerless. All the while, he was being drawn deeper into the mystery of God as he journeyed into the suffering of people and trying to find meaning in the darkest of times. On one occasion, in speaking about the untimely death of a young Christian leader, he cried out</p>
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<p><a href="https://kairossouthernafrica.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/2012-steve-de-gruchy-memorial-lecture-archbishop-emeritus-desmond-tutu/">God is God’s worst enemy!</a></p>
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<p>That is when theology becomes real – when the very word God becomes difficult to utter, when God is apparently absent. It is at the cross that faith is born. That is the faith of Desmond Tutu; the faith that enabled him to fight injustice and provide leadership in the struggle against oppression. That is Tutu’s theology, profoundly simple, yet simply profound.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John de Gruchy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Archbishop Desmond Tutu is first and foremost, a spiritual leader, a man of deep prayer. This motivated his participation in supporting South Africa’s liberation struggle.
John de Gruchy, Emeritus Professor of Christian Studies, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.