I Am Because We Are — Part 2

Sub-Subsaharan African Ubuntu

When we survey various parts of the world we are confronted with images and cultures of violence. Societies appear to be tearing themselves apart and the attitudes and values in these societies seem to be based on an individualistic ontology that promotes self-interest, private accumulation and the competitive drive for power and resources. This ‘cultural logic’ promotes exclusion on a fundamental level and feeds a cycle of poverty, debt and economic marginalization. By extension, this logic also generates and regenerates the vicious cycles of perpetual violence that we are currently witnessing. Any effort to arrest these vicious cycles requires an intervention at the level of culture, with specific reference to how people perceive themselves and their responsibilities, in relation to others.

In my previous article I highlighted how some thinkers in the western cannon have tried to introduce the notion of collective consciousness with regards to our connection with each other as well as the environment. This ontological and ethical understanding, however, is neither radical nor new to some. The Sub-Saharan African philosophy of ‘ubuntu’ spans across many cultures and has existed for millennia. Roughly translated, ‘ubuntu’ means “I am because we are.” This ontological praxis is both descriptive and prescriptive in that it explains what constitutes one’s personhood as well as how one should then live. Archbishop Desmond Tutu states that “Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language. It speaks to the very essence of being human. When you want to give high praise to someone we say, “Yu, u Nobuntu”; he or she has Ubuntu. This means that they are generous, hospitable, friendly, caring and compassionate. They share what they have. It also means that my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in theirs. We belong in a bundle of life.” (Muruthi, 2006)

Barbara Nussbaum tells a story where she recalls being the only white person working in an NGO in Zimbabwe in the late 1980s: “Matanga, a colleague, and I disagreed about an issue and after discussing it for an hour or two, I said, ‘Matanga, can’t we agree to disagree?’ He said, ‘No, sisi (sister) Barbs, we have to sit and talk until we agree.’ I have never forgotten this conversation since it illustrates a value base that stresses cooperation, the desire for reconciliation and communication in the interests not only of harmony but a shared understanding.” (2003)

It is thus difficult to see why this ontological understanding has not infiltrated the western cannon more deeply. Nussbaum suggests 3 reasons:

· Firstly, much of the richness of Africa’s traditional culture is inaccessible since it is oral rather than written, lived rather than formally communicated in books or journals. It is difficult to learn about from a distance.

· Secondly, some African political leaders have chosen to betray many of the very philosophical and humanitarian principles on which African culture is based and the political failures in these African countries tend to tarnish the views of many Westerners.

· Thirdly, people in the West, for whatever reason, receive negative and limited information through the media — images of ethnic wars, dictatorships, famine and AIDS predominate, so the potential contribution of African values is often lost in these images.

Additionally, people in the East have their own version of connectedness. The world of the East, the analytical framework and spiritual world, is holistic, but somehow the living of life is more individualistic. Enlightened people who have cosmic consciousness or Unity consciousness realize that God is in all of us, and that nature and other human beings are part of us. This kind of consciousness can result in great selflessness, transcendence and pure action but often also results in detachment from the being in and doing for community. In the east, selfhood is not primarily achieved by what one does for others, but rather by what one achieves as an individual. Thus the Sub-Saharan African philosophy is unique in its understanding of collective consciousness as ontologically communal.

In the Philosophy of Ethics, ‘Ubuntu’ is also known as Afro-Communitarianism. Within the ethics of ‘Ubuntu’ one’s personhood is only granted by virtue of the culmination and respect for one’s relationship with their community — an understanding that one’s very essence is intertwined with and granted because of the other. This directly opposes Kant’s understanding of why an individual’s dignity is inherent; where Kant argued that every individual should be granted respect and personhood by virtue of their rationality, Ubuntu argues that an individual’s respect and personhood is only granted by virtue of their relation to others. Within Philosophy of the Mind “Ubuntu” can also be referred to as Harmonious Monism. Here the understanding of one’s ontology is extended to everything. I am because we are directly opposes Descarte’s understanding of personhood presupposing ontology. Rather “Ubuntu” argues that the community and environment ontologically presupposes the individual.

I conclude by quoting words of the old South African saying, “Your pain is my pain, my wealth is your wealth. Your salvation is my salvation”. (Nussbaum, 2003) As more of us begin to entertain the possibility that the roots of poverty are similar to the roots of terrorism, the challenge of radically altering the way financial markets operate and re-envisioning how wealth could be shared in a world that works for all becomes more and more real. Indeed, if it were possible to sprinkle ubuntu on the consciousness of humankind, we could look forward to a more just, equitable and sustainable future. And by potentially bringing about salvation for everybody, whether African or European, Muslim or American, we co-create our own safety and our own salvation.

Miruthi PhD, Timothy. 2006. Practical Peacemaking. Wisdom From Africa: Reflections on Ubuntu. Journal of Pan-African Studies.

Nussbaum, Barbara. 2003. African Culture & Ubuntu: Reflections of a South African in America. Perspectives.