Concept Of Ubuntu Research Articles

The Concept of Ubuntu and Face in the Burundian Context: A Discourse Analysis of the Speech Acts of Requests and Apology

The Concept of Ubuntu and Face in the Burundian Context: A Discourse Analysis of the Speech Acts of Requests and Apology

Ubuntu-the Essence of Caring and Being: A Concept Analysis.

What is the South-African concept of caring? In Africa, the principle of Ubuntu introduces the concept of belonging and caring. The purpose of this concept analysis was thus to analyze the concept of Ubuntu. The 8 steps of a concept analysis by Walker and Avant were used.

Ubuntu and the concept of cosmopolitanism

Abstract Based on the ideas of two main representatives of the academic discourse on Ubuntu, Michael O. Eze and Mogobe B. Ramose, the paper shows how the concept of Ubuntu can contribute to transcending conventional concepts of cosmopolitanism. Referring to the concept of Ubuntu, Ramose and Eze criticize ‘Western’ concepts of cosmopolitanism because they always seem to start from binary oppositions (‘I’ and ‘other’), which must be reconciled. ‘Western’ cosmopolitanism continues to build on boundaries (nations, cultures, etc.) that constitute communities and exclude the ‘other’. Here the boundary remains a place of exclusion. Therefore, it is necessary to conceptualize categories such as ‘boundary’ and the ‘Other’ in a different way. Ubuntu as a concept where the human being is essentially a relational being (one who exists in and through relationships) seems to offer an alternative in the sense of a ‘critical’ (Mignolo, 2002a) or ‘emancipatory’ cosmopolitanism. (Pieterse, 2006; Ngcoya, 2015).

The Ubuntu concept, sexual behaviours and stigmatisation of persons living with HIV in Africa: A review article.

Stigma and discrimination and risky sexual behaviours have been major stumbling blocks to the efforts by implementers to mitigate the effects of HIV amongst communities in Africa. A key cultural resource, based on evolving South African cultural traditions, is the notion of Ubuntu, which is grounded in respect, ethics, humanity and the interconnectedness of beings. This concept can be a useful resource in upholding confidentiality, a central requirement in research ethics and the deliverance of health promotion interventions regarding HIV/AIDS. This article explored the applicability of the Ubuntu concept in enhancing safe sexual practices and positive attitudes towards persons living with HIV, with the view of achieving Zero new infections, Zero discrimination against persons living with HIV (PLHIV), and Zero AIDS-related deaths. A review of literature was undertaken. Electronic databases, academic journals and books from various sources were accessed. Several key search terms relating to the tenets of Ubuntu, stigma and discrimination towards PLHIV, and sexual behaviours were used. Only references deemed useful from relevant texts and journal articles were included. Going therefore by the Ubuntu tradition of basic respect and compassion for others, one will expect positive attitudes towards PLHIV. This review therefore advocates positive attitudes towards PLHIV. Also, according to the Ubuntu tradition that prescribes a rule of conduct and social ethics, one would expect the sexual behaviours of youths in Africa to be good. This review article also advocates safe sexual behaviours of adolescents in Africa. With this in mind, from a critical Ubuntu-centric philosophical perspective, this article breaks new ground by advocating the use of the Ubuntu concepts in enhancing safe sexual practices and positive attitudes towards PLHIV in Africa. This could in turn bring about safe sexual practices among youths, and curb the discrimination and stigmatization against PLHIV in Africa.

Ubuntu and South African Law: Its Juridical Transformative Impact

The paper examines the concept of ubuntu. It begins with a brief examination of the etymological origin, ontology and meaning of the concept. The writer then illustrates these by considering some South African maxims, cultural practices and traditions through which ubuntu finds expression and is concretised. He also examines how the South African courts, particularly the Constitutional Court, have begun to move away from the purely philosophical or theoretical exposition of the concept towards its juridical and transformative value—and implications—for the country’s constitutional jurisprudence. To demonstrate this shift, the writer reviews several ground-breaking instances in which the courts found occasion to infuse the country’s legal remedies with not only the relational ethos of ubuntu but also with its innate qualities of fairness, sympathy, justice, equity and empathy. The writer expresses the hope that the courts will, in the future, rely on ubuntu to resuscitate old remedies whose essence was in many ways consonant with ubuntu but were rendered obsolete for policy or ideological reasons under colonialism and apartheid. He is also optimistic that the courts will create a new set of remedies that will serve South Africa’s noble constitutional project well.

AFRICAN ANTHROPOLOGY AS A RESOURCE FOR RECONCILIATION: UBUNTU/BOTHO AS A RECONCILIATORY PARADIGM IN SOUTH AFRICA

This article explicates the concept of ubuntu / botho as a resource for social reconciliation, particularly in view of the South African context. The main tenets of ubuntu are discussed, as are some of its ethical implications. It is argued that ubuntu is an all-encompassing ethos underlying African social life. Though the aim of the article is to highlight positive aspects of ubuntu, some possible drawbacks of ubuntu are also mentioned. Ultimately, the purpose is to outline why it is justifiable to consider ubuntu as a reconciliatory paradigm.

<i>Ubuntu</i> as care: Deconstructing the gendered <i>Ubuntu</i>

In this article, I explore the concept of Ubuntu in a context of caregiving with the aim of deconstructing the gendering of caregiving in a context of pastoral care. Using a qualitative approach, this article draws from the empirical findings of primeval praxis of Ubuntu from a study conducted on the KwaZulu-Natal chapter of South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF) funded ‘Archaeology of Ubuntu’ project. Empirical findings were evaluated through African women theology. Findings of this article highlight that Ubuntu in a context of caregiving is not exclusively feminine because men also display strong tendencies of care in African traditional communities. This suggests that pastoral care in an African context should not be gendered because findings of the article confirm that the Zulu elders from KwaZulu-Natal generally linked Ubuntu to communal care where men and women partnered in extending caregiving to those in need.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Although the article is written from a socio-anthropological perspective, it integrates African traditional presumptions of gender and care ethics that are significant in extending pastoral care by reviewing literature from sociology, anthropology, gender, feminist studies, practical theology and systematic theology.

Towards a Collective-Values Framework of Ubuntu: Implications for Workplace Commitment

Objective: This research offers an extension of current research on commitment across cultures. It incorporates the concept of Ubuntu as an integrating model that can be paired up with other perspectives for directing employee workplace commitment. Research Design & Methods: A literature review entailing concepts related to cross-cultures and their relationship to Ubuntu and commitment was considered. The review spanning 50 years covered online-databases of global and African research. Findings: We argue here that the conceptualisation of Ubuntu is important in adapting currently accepted cultural frameworks as operationalised by individualism, collectivism and power distance dimensions for regional management application. Ubuntu collective values (compassion, survival, group solidarity, respect and dignity), which relate affirmatively with a sense of workplace collectivism, was identified as a unique element of cultural management philosophy for directing personal interactions, workplace commitment and performance management improvements. Implications & Recommendations: Ubuntu should be facilitated by managers as a motivational force that facilitates workplace commitment ensuring organisational team performance. The implications of Ubuntu in the context of extending existing theories of individualism-collectivism and power distance cannot be overstated. Contribution & Value Added: A model based on relationships between Ubuntu collective values and EWC, applicable with contextual managerial frameworks.

Organisational management culture and employers' health insurance offering strategies in the USA: an Ubuntu-based random utility modelling approach

This article takes an approach to explaining the behavioural manifestations of the decision making in US companies' offer of health insurance that is grounded not only on their cost minimising behaviour, but also in a humanness dimension based on the African concept of Ubuntu, and the Random Utility framework. The choice process is modelled as a tripartite decision making, using a nationally representative random sample of 1,061 US companies from the Dunn and Bradstreet Business data. The results show that the relationship between management culture and health plan offering strategy is dependent on other relevant covariates, which when left out, leads to the problem of omitted variables bias. However, when all variables are included exogenously in this relationship, it results in management culture not affecting significantly companies' scope of plan offering. When the exogeneity assumption is relaxed through recursively Bivariate Probit modelling, a highly significant management culture effect is observed, as companies with groups and formal committee management culture are seen to be 1.58 times less likely to choose a multiple plan strategy over a single plan strategy.

A postfoundational ubuntu accepts the unwelcomed (by way of ‘process’ transversality)

This examination of ubuntu is engaged in a conversation with the speculative philosophy of organism (‘process’) to acquire an extended tool by which to engage within its ontology the widest possible range of human interaction. The engagement by ubuntu’s relational doctrine of the speculative philosophical cosmology of A.N. Whitehead placed portions of the latter’s constructs at the service of ubuntu’s transversal capacity to examine and apply the deepest understanding of its own etymology. It has been a challenge to understand occasions of injustice and suffering which have manifested within the same African culture which has given to the world the language and concept of ubuntu. It has been commonplace to isolate the utopian relational ontology implicit in the aphorism from occasions of the worst of human nature. It was the premise of this study that an understanding of an ubuntu which excludes dystopian occasions has done a disservice to the breadth, depth and height of what is to be fully human – including occasions of suffering and anti-social behaviours.

Ubuntu and Defining Community in America: A 21st Century Viewpoint

AbstractThe Southern African concept of Ubuntu offers a promising framework for envisioning and promoting a level of interdependence and resilience that can help Americans overcome the divisive and hostile nature of public interactions in communities across the country.

The Practice of Ubuntu with regard to amaMfengu among amaXhosa as Depicted in S. E. K. Mqhayi's Ityala Lamawele

ABSTRACTThis article looks at how traditional amaXhosa extended Ubuntu to amaMfengu who arrived in their land as strangers and refugees during the 19th century. The article does this in the light of Mqhayi’s historical novel Ityala Lamawele, which illustrates the response of amaXhosa towards amaMfengu, who arrived in their land. More evidence of this response is sought from various historical sources. The manner in which the newcomers were embraced and integrated into amaXhosa forms the basis of this discourse. An explanation of the concept of Ubuntu is provided in this article. The article also provides a historical background of amaMfengu. Again, the article aims to contribute towards the promotion of African Renaissance and Pan-Africanism among the current and future generations.

Reflections on Judicial Views of uBuntu

Since S v Makwanyane, ubuntu has become an integral part of the constitutional values and principles that inform interpretation of the Bill of Rights and other areas of law. In particular, a restorative justice theme has become evident in the jurisprudence that encompasses customary law, eviction, defamation, and criminal law matters. This contribution explores the scope and content of ubuntu, as pronounced on by the judiciary in various cases, and demonstrates that its fundamental elements of respect, communalism, conciliation and inclusiveness enhance the constitutional interpretation landscape. Two major epochs are highlighted in the development of ubuntu, marked by the constitutional decisions in Makwanyane and PE Municipality respectively. The former carved the central avenue of development for ubuntu, while the latter marked the start of the thematic development of the concept in the direction of restorative justice. Furthermore, the article engages critically with the use of ubuntu, with criticisms levelled against the conceptualisation of ubuntu as a legal notion, ranging from its ambiguity to its redundancy, to perceptions of dichotomies, and issues of exclusion. The paper also questions the manner in which the courts have applied the legal concept of ubuntu uncritically, without reference to African sources to illustrate its meaning in different contexts, and without questioning its compatibility with the Bill of Rights. Finally, it attempts to reveal the connections between ubuntu and the values underlying the Bill of Rights.

Editorial

The last issue of 2013 consists of fourteen contributions dealing with a potpourri of topics. The first two articles are both by the same author. In the first one, André Louw addresses the recent, sometimes deplorable conduct of intellectual property (or IP) lawyers, and in the second one, André Louw explores the proper role and meaning of good faith (or bona fides) in contract law, and the approach of our courts to the application of this principle in individual cases involving claims of unfairness and the like. The third article, by Rufaro Mavunga, critically assesses the Minimum Age Convention 138 of 1973 and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention 182 of 1999. Nicholas Orago, in the fourth article, discusses socio-economic rights in Kenya and proposes that if the entrenched socio-economic rights are to achieve their transformative objectives, Kenyan courts must adopt a proportionality approach in the judicial adjudication of socio-economic rights disputes. The fifth article, by Oliver Fuo, explores and critically investigates the relevance and potential of integrated development planning in contributing towards the achievement of social justice in South Africa. Next, Michaela Young discusses the fate of informal fishers in the context of the Policy for the Small-Scale Fisheries Sector in South Africa. The second-last article, by Hermanus van der Merwe, provides a historical and teleological overview of the crime of direct and public incitement to commit genocide under international law, as well as the definitional elements thereof as interpreted and applied by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, before he continues to examine it in contemporary South African law. The last article, by Chuma Himonga, Max Taylor and Anne Pope, explores the scope and content of the ever elusive concept of ubuntu, as pronounced on by the judiciary in various cases, and demonstrates that its fundamental elements of respect, communalism, conciliation and inclusiveness enhance the constitutional interpretation landscape.
 

Broken bodies and present ghosts: <i>Ubuntu</i> and African women’s theology

In this article, the notion of broken bodies is explored in relation to the African body and the history of colonialism in South Africa. This exploration will be rooted in a retelling of the story of the woman, Saartjie Baartman. In this retelling, the product of colonialism comes to the fore in a haunting. Jacques Derrida’s use of the concept of Hauntology is employed to investigate the ethical demand the spectre makes of us. With the help of the African concept of ubuntu and African women’s theologies, we then seek to find healing and restoration for the broken bodies.

Becoming, belonging and sharing: Striving to live in the spirit of Ubuntu in Portugal

In this paper I examine the non-formal education programme of the Ubuntu Academy in Portugal, a non-profit organisation that aims to empower and train young adults with strong leadership potential. The participants, who come mostly from African immigrant communities and contexts of social exclusion, are trained to develop and implement social entrepreneur and outreach projects in their communities. I explore the Ubuntu Academy’s use of the Southern African communitarian philosophy of ubuntu and draw on ubuntu literature to argue that this specific education programme’s focus on the notions of humaneness and interdependence encapsulated in the concept of ubuntu has introduced a paradigm shift from an individualistic worldview prevalent in the West to a communitarian form of becoming, belonging and sharing. In this context, I consider the role of testimony and narrative in both promoting personal growth and developing a sense of interdependence and connectedness among people of diverse backgrounds and identities.

A Sensory Experiment into Languages as (R)evolution

How are we informed and transformed by tuning into our relationships to land, emotions, relations, and bodies within our academic pathways into languages? In this paper, we tell a story of our journey, as scholars, into how languages relate to land, historicity, bodies, and the ecosophical concept of ubuntu. Our discussion brings in the temporal and spatial multi-disciplinary lineage of languages, as an open space to re-envision, re-experience, and re-engage with our academic writing in new and ancient ways. We use multimodal layers of language ontology—from ecological, physical, historical, and intercultural perspectives—as a decolonizing, pedagogical process of (re)covering humanness. We use the particular example of academic writing and reading as a sensory experience to dive into languages as ontological ways of becoming human. And because we are academics (or failed magicians) we try to provide insights into theoretical and practical ways to transform this conversation into pedagogy.

Practicing Ubuntu Among International Students

This article uses the concept of Ubuntu to analyse the experience of international students studying in Australia with the ‘AuburnHub’ initiative of AuburnLife Baptist Church. The Hub was instituted to cater to international students’ need for community, hospitality and conversational English. We propose that ‘I am because we are’ is a valid way of understanding being. International students, dislocated from their previous networks, present an opportunity for churches to utilize the concept of Ubuntu to guide community-building initiatives as well as an opportunity to investigate the utility of this understanding of being. AuburnHub presents a model for a Western application of Ubuntu in a globalized context. ‘I am because we are’ helps us to welcome the fact that as we change the makeup of our ‘we’ through effective ministry we will also be changed ourselves.

Dialogic education as an approach to multiculturalism for social cohesion in Namibia

ABSTRACTThe paper explores approaches to cultural diversity and its relation to the concept of social cohesion in the context of a multicultural school community. It uses insights from an empirical research on multicultural education conducted in Namibia as context for a discussion on tools in educational practice that would support diversity while working towards a greater integration of a pluralistic society. Looking into the African concept of Ubuntu and the corresponding teachings of the philosophers of dialogue, this theoretical paper suggests dialogic learning as an approach to multiculturalism that can enhance tolerance among peoples and produce a society united through understanding.

Sports, Religion, and Disability Edited by Nick J. Watson and Andrew Parker. New York: Routledge, 2015. Pp. xviii + 238. Hardcover, $160.00.

The pioneering duo of Watson and Parker, at the forefront of the valuable and overlooked intersections of sports and religion, have again made a fine contribution to a burgeoning field. In their newest co-edited text, they journey into a specific (and sadly marginalized) demographic by exploring theological and religious implications for disabled sportspersons. Their work is as innovative as it is needed and serves as “a useful stimulus and ‘starting point’ for thinking critically” about the needs of disabled sportspersons and contributions they offer as faith-filled members of a global community striving to move from the periphery. The introduction provides a view into the still “exploratory” and interdisciplinary scope of disability-sport research within religious contexts. Chapter 1 primarily explores the empowering role of intellectually disabled athletes as counter-cultural catalysts to challenge the status of the sporting world as “cultural idol,” and to reorient sportspersons toward the originally benevolent intentions of sport. While Chapter 2 offers a spiritual appraisal of re-embodiment and “rebirth” for high-performance athletes who have become disabled, Chapters 3, 4, 7, and 9 aim to articulate a theology of disability-sport. Chapters 5 and 6 explore the experiential and methodological realms of the disabled athlete in terms of their rehabilitation and adjustment. Chapters 8 and 10–13 offer reflections, interpretations, and case studies of athletes with varying degrees of disability, including one that poignantly discusses AIDS-patient athletes in Zambia and the philosophical concept of ubuntu. An artfully, precisely assembled collection, this text will serve as a valuable resource for academics, practitioners, and/or disabled athletes alike.