Ubuntu: Revisiting an Endangered African Philosophy in Quest of a Pan-Africanist Revolutionary Ideology

Temitope Fagunwa

doi:10.3390/genealogy3030045

Abstract

In the final analysis, Kwame Nkrumah advanced that pan-Africanism must be about the unity of African masses under socialist governments. However, the concept of pan-Africanism in recent times has been misconstrued in the most treacherous manner. On one hand, the concept has been reduced to a “dansiki-wearing” competition by a layer of cultural nationalists; and on the other hand, it has been reduced to a “Black capitalism” bourgeois agenda. In spite of the apparent failures of capitalism, bourgeois economists like Nigeria’s Tony Elumelu, have been peddling a purported refined capitalist system under the ambiance of “Africapitalism”, as a stimulant for economic growth and development in Africa. Under the pretense of a “pan-African” agenda, bourgeois economists have been touting this neoliberal agenda across the continent and beyond, for self-serving purposes. The danger this portends is the detachment of pan-Africanism from its socialist agenda. Indeed, existing works on African personality have showed the nexus between a pre-colonial communal relationship and socialism. The Sotho epistemology, Ubuntu, is undoubtedly a product of this ancient communal relationship. Ubuntu expresses the humanistic tendencies that are fast going into extinction in today’s individualistic society. Ultimately, the withering of Ubuntu is not unconnected to the dominance of capitalism. The economic system through alienation has not just distorted the relationship among humans, but also between humans and nature. This study thus argues that Ubuntu as a value system is a material product of pre-feudal African society; and that because of this trajectory, Ubuntu must be reassessed as a potential social force for resistance that can pave the way for the emergence of a scientific socialist African society. Ubuntu is not scientific socialism and vice-versa, but the value system if properly understood can lay the foundation towards the birth of the former.

Highlights

The failures of capitalism in Africa are very evident by virtue of the widening disparity between the rich and the poor
Ubuntu as a value system is a material product of pre-feudal African society; and that because of this trajectory, Ubuntu must be reassessed as a potential social force for resistance that can pave the way for the emergence of a scientific socialist African society
The practical alternate ideology for this contemporary moment is exclusively an economic ideology, and Ubuntu has a galvanizing role to play in this struggle if properly understood

Summary

Introduction

The failures of capitalism in Africa are very evident by virtue of the widening disparity between the rich and the poor. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana and a foremost African nationalist, had contended that to avert the consequences of capitalism, African countries through a collective pan-African agenda must embrace a social democratic, state-regulated, socialist alternative (Nkrumah 1965) This conclusion was echoed by Walter Rodney when he argued that “African development is possible only on the basis of a radical break with the international capitalist system” The renowned Nigerian thinker, Chinweizu, had accused Nkrumah of being opportunistic and fallacious in his claim that the unity of postcolonial African countries, under the banner of pan-Africanism, is only possible within the economic framework of scientific socialism Chinweizu in his submission had contended that Marxism and scientific socialism are alien and are imperialist imports into Africa, just like Christianity In the second and third parts, this study will examine the historical trajectory of pan-Africanism and relates the mission of pan-Africanism in the 21st century to scientific socialism through Ubuntu

Conceptualizing an African Epistemology

A Historical Trajectory of Pan-Africanism

Findings

Conclusions