4.2. Literature Review of Debates on Ubuntu/Botho Culture and Development in Contemporary South Africa
4.2.1. Ubuntu or Botho Culture - What is it and what does it Entail?
The debate around the ubuntu/botho culture and value system and its potential future role in SA developed against the background of the post-colonial challenges as outlined by Gyeke(see chapter one). It was necessitated by the imminent collapse of the apartheid political system in the late 1980s as the liberation struggle intensified, the prospects of the creation of a democratic system, and the lifting of international economic and political sanctions that would see SA's re-entry into the global
community and markets. The debate gained even greater momentum in the post-1994 period following the collapse of the apartheid political system, the end of the 20 century and the beginning of the 21st century and its attendant problems and challenges. This is the period in which SA and most other African countries publicly declared the 21st century as the century for the renewal and advancement of the development of the African continent and for African countries become active, meaningful and competitive players on the international stage. In commitment to this declaration, the state president of the Republic of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, one of the key advocates of the idea of Africa's renewal as encapsulated in the concept of the African Renaissance, repeatedly emphasised this idea in his public addresses. Note, for instance, his reiteration of this commitment during his State of the Nation address on the 4th February 2000 in the National Assembly:
Specifically, he said:
"... we should devote the Year 2000 that is upon us, to do everything that needs to be done to ensure that by its end, we see our entire Continent at the ready to join in a powerful movement of the peoples of Africa for the realisation of Africa's century ... The Government is committed to this goal and will do everything it can to ensure that it is realised. We also call on all our people in their various formations to respond to our call...The Government pledges its full support both to Nelson Mandela and Sir Ketumile Masire of Botswana as they work with the governments and people of Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo to bring peace and democracy to these sister African countries".
Similarly, during his new year's message on the 31st December 2000, he said:
"As we began this year, we said that the year 2001 should, for us, mark the commencement of the African Century. There are others elsewhere in our common world who have also declared their own intention to claim the century we are about to begin as their own. But for us as South Africans the determination to make this an African Century means many things in terms of what we ourselves must do", (www.gov.eo.za )
Consistent with these statements were some of the bold initiatives taken by the African states aimed at the long term achievement of the goals of the advancement and development of Africa as well as strategic positioning of the continent in the era of increased globalisation. These included amongst others the formation of regional political and economic blocks such as the Southern African Development Community
(SADC), the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), and the conversion of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU) with a new mandate and renewed focus to confront and address the new challenges facing Africa.
In South Africa similar initiatives were taken at the national level, aimed at advancing the course of Africa's renewal and realise socio-economic development as well as global competitiveness were embarked upon.
Part of these initiatives was the launching of what came to be known as the South African Chapter on African Renaissance through a conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa at the Karos Indaba Hotel in 1998. The conference, attended and addressed predominantly by Africans from different parts of the continent, had as its main objectives to define who Africans are and where they are going in the global community as well as to formulate practical strategies and solutions for future action for the benefit of the African masses. It addressed the themes of culture and education, economic transformation, science and technology, transport and energy, moral renewal and African values, and media and telecommunications. Questions discussed included: Has Africa a history of scientific and technological culture? How does African culture impact on science and technology? How can Africa best harness and exploit its natural and indigenous resources and its human diversity for its own benefit? What is the place of African religious systems in a changing Africa? What prospects are there for traditional African values in developing Africa? And what is the place of African social values in a globalising world? (Makgoba et al, 1999) Subsequent to this national conference, with clear continental relevance, other similar ones were held in different regions of South Africa with regional focuses but aimed to contribute to the broader national and continental initiatives. In all these conferences, the subject of ubuntu culture and its potential developmental role for Africa in the fast globalising world was amongst those discussed.
It is against this background that a growing interest in and debates around the African indigenous culture and value system of ubuntu developed and grew. This interest and debate were sparked by claims that the ubuntu culture and value system has a key role to play in the socio-economic development of post-apartheid democratic South Africa. Those holding and advancing this view believe that the strength of the ubuntu culture, which would help to enhance this role, lies in its unique values and virtues.
The first serious intellectual attempt to define and explain the ubuntu culture, which brought to light those key defining, unique features and virtues, was made by Jordan K Ngubane in the 1960s and 1970s. As Lodge notes, for Ngubane (1975), ubuntu
"was a common foundation of all African cultures" and "a consciousness of belonging together" (Lodge, 2002: 231). According to Ngubane (1963), ubuntu or botho is a philosophy of life and the practice of being humane which gave content to life for African people long before the arrival of white settlers. He argues that this philosophy arose from the African supreme virtue or ethical code which attaches primacy to human personality as a sacred being. In terms of this ethical code or supreme virtue within the African philosophy of ubuntu or botho, human beings have a dual existence i.e. that in the physical world, this existence takes both the spiritual and physical forms, while at death, the physical form is discarded leaving only the spiritual form.
The latter form is what is known as idlozi (in isiZulu) or badimo in Sesotho or ancestors in English. Ngubane thus argues that, for Africans, for there to be a good life, it is essential that each individual is treated with reverence and consideration (Ngubane, 1963:75-77).
Its roots lie in the word Sudic or Nudic, with Su or Nu constituting the rootword of person in most Sub-Saharan African languages referring to primordial substance. The movements around the African continent, Ngubane argues, led to people in different geographical locations developing their own variants of Su or Nu such as "-nho, -ni, - no, -ntfu, -ntu, -so, -su, -tho, -thu and -tu, giving rise to person nouns such as: mutum (in Hausa language), nmadu (in Ibo language) eniya (in Yoruba language), muntfu in fSwazi language), motho (in Sotho language), umuntu (in Zulu), and umntu (in Xhosa)" (Ngubane, 1979: 63-64). In the Zulu language, Ngubane argues, derivatives from these variants include amongst other Isintu (meaning Humanity) and Ubuntu (meaning the art of being human), and hence that on this basis, there is talk about nu- or su- or ntu- oriented cultures which, put together, form the unity best referred to as African or Sudic or Nudic Civilisation (Ngubane, 1979: 65-66)
In the past decade and a half, and as part of ongoing debates around ubuntu/botho culture in SA, further attempts were made to define and describe this culture. While some referred to it as a "metaphor" (Mbigi and Maree, 1995), others described it as a
"process and philosophy" (Makhudu, 1993; Togni, 1996)), and yet others as a
"statement" (Dandala, 1996), a "collective consciousness" (Prinsloo, 1996), and a
"collective solidarity" (Laden, 1997). Notwithstanding these diverse accounts of what the ubuntu concept entails, there is however a wide consensus that its core defining values and virtues are respect, group solidarity, conformity, compassion, human dignity and humaneness, collective unity and solidarity, sharing, universal brotherhood, communalism, interdependence, and hospitality (Mdluli, 1987: 66-71;
Mbigi and Maree, 1995: 2; Kamwangamalu, 1999: 25-26). Not only are these definitions consistent with the one provided by Ngubane, but also with Vilakazi's, especially the emphasis on human centeredness of the ubuntu/botho culture.
According to Vilakazi:
"Ubuntu is humanism and the human being is the foremost priority in all conduct: the value, dignity, safety, welfare, health, beauty, love, and development of the human being, and respect for the human being, are to come first, and should be promoted to first rank before all other considerations, particularly, in our time, before economic, financial, and political factors are taken into consideration. That is the essence of humanism, is the essence of ubuntu/botho."
(Vilakazi, 1999 quoted in Broodryk, 2002: 24)
It is worth noting that, although these ubuntu values look numerous, they are all linked to one another and their meaningful influence on the society is dependent on that interlinkage. This interlink is clearly noticeable from the detailed discussions of its values and virtues such as the one provided by Kamwangamalu (1999) in which he pays particular attention to the virtues of communalism and interdependence.
Drawing from assertions that Africa is fundamentally "communocratic" (see Sekou Toure in Gyeke, 1987), in terms of which nobody is living for himself but for the community, Kamwangamalu argues that communalism is one of the core ubuntu virtues according to which the interest of the individual is subordinate to that of the group. Communalism, he argues, insists that the good of all determines the good of each or the welfare of each is dependent on the welfare of all (Kamwangamalu, 1999:
27). While communalism is the opposite of individualism, whereby these are associated with the western and African societies respectively, Kamwangamalu argues however that from the ubuntu perspective, communalism does not necessarily negate individualism. Rather, he argues with reference to Gyeke (1987:156),
"communalism is the recognition of the limited character of the possibilities of the individual, which limited possibilities whittle away the individual's self-sufficiency."
(Kamwangamalu, 1999: 29) This view is also shared by Togni (1996) in his argument that while ubuntu philosophy discourages individualism, it however accepts and encourages individual aspirations and achievements if they in some ways benefit the community and not just the individual. This, he argues, is premised on the view and understanding that the community is a social resource within which individuals achieve their goals (Tongi, 1996: 112).
This suggests that not only are both the individual and the community mutually dependent and reinforcing but also that the individual draws strength from the community. As Tongi asserts, the community is a social resource for individuals.
Closely linked to this virtue of communalism in ubuntu is that of interdependence, the essence of which "is that an individual owes his or existence to the existence of others". The idea that "I am because you are and you are because I am"
(Kamwangamalu, 1999: 29) or put differently that "a man can only be a man through others". In some of the African indigenous languages in South Africa, this cardinal belief in ubuntu is phrased as: "motho ke motho ka batho " (a Sotho version) and
"umuntu ngumuntu ngabanye " or "umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu " (a Zulu version).
This interpersonal emphasis and nature of ubuntu culture, it is argued, serves as a source of other key distinctive virtues of the culture of ubuntu such as patience, hospitality, loyalty, respect, conviviality, sociability, vitality, endurance, sympathy, obedience, and sharing (Kamwangamalu, 1999: 29, referencing Shutte, 1994;
Prinsloo, 1996; and Mbigi and Maree, 1995). Arising from this interpersonal nature is the virtue of compassion, which Teffo argues, "is manifest through people's desire to reach out of themselves, and in turn they find self-fulfilment and self- accomplishment" and "...is a feeling for the suffering of others. Promoting one to selflessly give help" (Teffo, 1999: 154-155).
Kamwangamalu's paper, which provides a sociolinguistic analysis of ubuntu, highlights another important dimension to the ubuntu culture as well as around this culture i.e. the importance and role of language in ubuntu culture. This view is informed by the theory which asserts that "culture is a socially learned, shared assemblage of practices, perceptions, attitudes, world view, value system and beliefs".
Hence that the ubuntu cultural values "are not innate but are acquired in society and
are transmitted from one generation to another by means of oral genres such as fables, proverbs, myths, riddles, and story-telling"( Kamwangamalu, 1999: 27 and 31).
Kamwangamalu thus argues that the acquisition, transmission and expression of the ubuntu values are achieved mainly through the use of language.
The importance of language as a medium through which cultural values such as ubuntu culture's are communicated and transmitted is best explained by Mogobo Nokaneng (1985), a Northern Sotho author, in his grammar textbook entitled Segageso (a Northern Sotho word for Our/My Language or Our/My Culture). In this book, Nokaneng, argues that maxims (known in Northern Sotho as direto/diema) form an integral part of African culture. Hence, they have a major influence on the lives of the African people since they are about the life of black people, the world in which they live, things with which they share in their existence on earth, things that they know, and those that they have seen and experienced. He argues that diema, as a true reflection on African's life and existence, constitute the words of ancestors and forefathers which is passed on to grandchildren and great-grandchildren in life. Hence diema have a dual significance to the society i.e. that they are about both the positive and constructive aspects of life and the negative and destructive aspects. According to Nokaneng (1985), on the positive and constructive side, diema could do the following:
• Advise and teach people about life experiences of forefathers, hence that they constitute a vital source of life as they originate from life experiences of previous generations from which the current generations can learn important lesson of life;
• Teach about respect;
• Strengthen families and extended family relationships;
• Teach people how to live peacefully with one another and/or good neighbourliness;
• Above all, place a strong emphasis on ubuntu.
On the negative and destructive side, according to Nokaneng (1985) they would be about the following:
• Bad habits and wrong doings;
• Criminal acts;
• Social problems;
• Bad influences or spitefulness.
Similarly, Kamwangamalu illustrates the positive function that language plays in the promotion of ubuntu-type values by citing the use of proverbs in some of the African Bantu languages such as Ciluba. Such proverbs, he argues, play a key role in the teaching and promotion of virtues communalism and interdependence. They include amongst others the following:
"Ngoma umwe katu udilapa mukuba" (This translates as: "One bell cannot ring on the belt",
"One finger cannot lift up a thing")
"Tshidima umwe tshiadia bangi" (literally, "Harvested by one, eaten by many")
"Muntu apa muntu apa ki mbowa" (literally, "A man here a man there means no fear") or ("we can achieve anything if we support one another")
"Bubedi bwa disu mbubedi bwa diulu" (literally, "The sickness of the eye is the sickness of
the nose") or (Your neighbour's problem is your problem) ( K a m w a n g a m a l u , 1999: 2 8 -
31).
In fact, and in support of Kamwangamalu and Nokaneng (1985)'s accounts, further evidence of language's importance and role in the promotion of these ubuntu values can be found in some of the Northern Sotho diema as outlined below:
"A tlala a e phsa madiba, a sutelela madibana" (This translates as "Old wells overflow but eventually dry up, giving way to the new fresh wells." It essentially provides a guidance on how young and old members of communities should relate - basically advising the adult or old members to work closely with the young, thus transmitting their wisdom and knowledge to them so that as they get older and become inactive, the young are adequately prepared and well equipped to run the show of life - including providing support to the old, just in the same way that they protected and supported them while they were still young)
"etetsa serathana pele, ka moso se tla go etetsa" (this expression also carries the same message and advice for the old)
"mpsa tse pedi ga di sitwe ke sebata" (literally, "Two dogs can't be overpowered by a predator e.g. a lion." The message it carries is that for any task to be made lighter, it is essential for people to put in a joint-effort and not work as individuals)
While the above examples demonstrate the significance of African languages in the promotion and upholding of the ubuntu values of communalism and interdependence, Kamwangamalu (1999) and Teffo (1999) also show that certain African language expressions serve to uphold other ubuntu values such as respect. As Teffo points out, the value of respect in ubuntu is expressed in different ways including both verbal and non-verbal forms of expressions. The verbal forms, for instance, include the different ways in which people use language to communicate amongst themselves. Making reference to isiXhosa, isiZulu and Sesotho languages, he argues, verbal forms involve
"a careful choice and use of words and expressions...." In Northern Sotho, for instance, the notion of respect for elders is encapsulated in certain speech markers such as the use of the prefix bo- which, although signify plural form, could be employed in the context of communication to express respect for a single person rather than necessarily indicating plurality. This way of communication could be used by a young person when addressing or talking to or about an elderly person such a father through the use of expression botate, or older sister bosesi, or even the chief bokgosi (Teffo, 1999: 159).
Other forms of language expression used within the context of ubuntu culture to promote and uphold the value of respect is shown by Kamwangamalu when he argues, with reference to Mthembu (1996), that "in Africa, communalism is a strong and binding network of relationships". One example that Kamwangamalu cites to illustrate this point is that of children being regarded as not only belonging to their immediate biological parents but also to each and every adult within the community, with the adults having mutual responsibility to supervise, guide and protect each and every child. Another example is that of the use of the terms sister by Africans not necessarily to refer to a female sibling but to any other female member of the community (Kamwangamalu, 1999: 28).