Academic paper:Ubuntu and the globalisation of Southern African thought and society
Posted by sociolingo on April 26, 2008
Source: Shikanda.net
2002 Wim van Binsbergen
Abstract
Set against the background of the author’s personal intellectual and political itinerary, the argument explores the contents, the format and societal locus of the concept of ubuntu as propounded by academic philosophers, managers and politicians in Southern Africa today. The concept’s utopian and prophetic nature is recognised. This allows the author to see a considerable positive application for the concept at the centre of the globalised, urban societies of Southern Africa today. Ubuntu philosophy is argued to constitute not a straight-forward emic rendering of a pre-existing African philosophy available since times immemorial in the various languages belonging to the Bantu language family. Instead, ubuntu philosophy is a remote etic reconstruction, in an alien globalised format, of a set of implied ideas that do inform aspects of village and kin relations in many contexts in contemporary Southern Africa. The historical depth of these ideas is difficult to gauge. Their format differs greatly from the academic codifications of ubuntu. After highlighting the anatomy of reconciliation, the role of intellectuals, and the globalisation of Southern African society, the argument concludes with an examination of the potential dangers of ubuntu: mystifying real conflict, perpetuating resentment (as in the case of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission), and obscuring the excessive pursuit of individual gain.
