CHAPTER 6: PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS
6.2.6 Learning through Ubuntu
The women participants of the Inhlanyelo Fund also learnt that a better life is possible through living a life of ubuntu, which is a relevant feature of experiential learning. When women are learning and sharing experiences together, they are also recognizing that they can cooperate in different ways outside of the training or classroom setting, including in the businesses or enterprises. In this section, the majority of the women participants upheld the philosophy of ubuntu in their dealings with others although a few indicated that they did not see ubuntu in other people. Thoko said in referring to ubuntu that it means:
One must be able to live in harmony with other people, have trust and humanness (Primary Data, 2020).
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Most of the participants’ responses indicate that they had the spirit of ubuntu from interaction with other human beings. In addition, the common understanding of community members is taking care and supporting each other as members of one family (Tutu, 2004).
According to Alice:
Yes, because my neighbours are able to buy chickens from me on credit. Although some of them end up not paying me, but at least I have tried to show the community members that I am who I am today because of them. Some members of the
community would ask for financial assistance from me and because I have the money, I would lend them (Primary Data, 2020).
Sonto’s story summarizes the whole idea of ubuntu, as she observed that when it was absent there was a lack of compassion:
Here in my story is that people when you are poor, they disregard you as a human being and that what you can do because you don’t have money. Forgetting that you can bring solution where they don’t see eye to eye in their discussion. They also forget that lisondvo liyagicika [literally, 'the wheel turns' - you are what you are today and tomorrow you can be a better person] and they would need your assistance, forgetting what they have done to you. For example, my family members when there is a family meeting or gatherings, they would tell us just before the gathering because they think we cannot contribute anything because we are poor. They forgot that even if you do not have resources that do not mean you do not have a mind or hands that you can use to contribute enhance the event. Every individual has his or her own capabilities that can be a contribution besides material things. We do need each other’s ideas because as human being we need each other. There is a saying that says umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, meaning that without us [immediate family] there would be no event and because our contribution can make the event better (Primary Data, 2020).
Ubuntu emphasises a community-centred form of living and sharing (Tutu, 2004). This can be seen amongst the women participants through their membership in various stokvel groups.
The killing of a participant's piglets, on the other hand, suggests the opposite; although it is possible that the motivation was an individual one, in that she married an elderly man who
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had divorced his wife, because she mentioned that her in-laws and children of the ex-wife were dissatisfied with her marriage.
Sonto stated that the business she was running was because she was living in harmony with other people. She saw other women selling handicraft and making money through it, and she observed closely how they were doing it. She then copied them and started her own business.
She then noticed that she needed other people in order to improve her life. She also observed that she could not improve her life in isolation. As observed by Jarvis (2006), human beings learn within their real-life situations. Living with others could also be part of the lifelong learning of adults which is central to Jarvis model.
Ngabisa observed:
So, what usually happens is that in order to help me generate more money to pay back the loan, I joined a stokvel [saving scheme] whereby each member contributed a certain amount each week. Where this week a member of the stokvel would get the money, the following week another member of the scheme and the cycle would repeat itself until every member of the society had gotten that week’s savings. In this way, you are able to budget how to pay back the fund as you would be aware that a certain week is your turn to receive the money. … I remember at a certain point in time, I wanted to give up and go back home especially when days would go without making any sales. I also learnt the importance of saving. If it wasn’t for the fact that I joined a stokvel group where we saved money, I don’t think I would be able to buy electricity especially because there are times that it would go out in the middle of the night.
Saving proved important especially since we are faced with the current pandemic (Primary Data, 2020).
This communal living and sharing, further enhances shared experiences, cultures, values, knowledge systems, social interaction. Within these confines, learning can take place.
However, it is a different story with Lindiwe as she revealed how community members had no spirit of ubuntu because they killed eight of her pigs which led to the downfall of her business.
I woke up in the morning and I found eight of my pigs decapitated and the heads were missing. I tried to explain my situation and what had befallen me to the fund but they were not interested in what I had to say. Instead they were adamant about getting paid
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regardless of the challenge I had been faced with and I learnt not to trust people and bought dogs (Primary Data, 2020).
In spite of Lindiwe’s experience, in most cases, the community leadership promoted a sense of respect, tolerance, and loyalty, among other values, which they used as criteria to select fund beneficiaries during the application process. This was used as a tool to determine whether or not one would be able to repay the loan. The findings reveal that ubuntu
emphasises clear dimensions and roots within the social structure, which fully acknowledges that every person is a social being who can understand his relatedness in the company of and interaction with other human beings (Cowley, 1991).