Ubuntu is under siege: a reflection on the challenges of South Africa then and now

Abstract

Ubuntu is an African philosophy that has held together African communities for a millennium and its ethics ensures that law and order are maintained across different African communities. This philosophy ensured and still to a degree ensures that conflicts amongst tribal communities are resolved amicably. The poor, widows, and orphans have always existed in Africa. However, Ubuntu as a philosophy taught Africans how to treat others with dignity. Ubuntu taught Africans that their existence depends on one another. Having mentioned this, the African continent continues to experience a high level of corruption, ethnicity, xenophobia, and intolerance, especially for the LGBQI+ community. Hence, some scholars have concluded that Ubuntu is dead and no longer exists, paying more attention to high inter alia crime rates, corruption, xenophobia, ethnic wars, and homophobia. This research argues that despite the challenges Africa faces, Ubuntu still exists; however, it has and continues to be under siege due to the legacy of slavery, colonization and apartheid. The research argues that factors that destroy this African philosophy of Ubuntu are the socio-economic factors, which have cost Africans their way of life as they have to ‘swim or sink’ and, in the process, lose who they are as a people. The research is based on a desk research methodology. It concludes that due to the effects of colonialism and apartheid systems and the challenges that persist post-1994, the teachings of black consciousness the interventions of sectors such as education and religion can enforce the teachings that will enforce values of self-sufficiency. African patriotism, which this research argues can assist in keeping African values such as Ubuntu alive.