What We Can Learn from the South African Concept of Ubuntu
by Becca Tyvoll
When I recently arrived in South Africa at the end of January to join my husband for a few months while he is on a temporary deployment with his job for USAID, I wondered how I would spend my time - what I would learn and whom I would learn it from. One thing I knew almost the first day I arrived is that I wanted to learn more about the concept of Ubuntu.
In our current series for the Peace Catalyst Podcast called "Becoming the Beloved Community: Restoration and Healing in the Midst of Division," we talk with those who are involving themselves in the ministry of reconciliation - interrupting and challenging oppression, and holding firmly to a vision of justice, restoration, peace, and healing for all members of a community. In our first episode, with Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, he shares about the concept of Ubuntu which originates in South Africa.
The term has been given several definitions over the years and has different words and meanings in various African languages, like Zulu and Xhosa. In a basic translation it means, "I am because we are." This quote by the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu summarizes the larger philosophy of the term:
"Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality - Ubuntu - you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. "
In other words, we cannot exist without each other, and how we love each other contributes to the vision of Beloved Community that so many of us long to see realized in our world.
What exactly is that vision? I'm learning from one example of this concept being lived out and contributing to Beloved Community here in Pretoria/Tshwane, South Africa in the form of a counseling center that serves women, children, and men who are affected by family conflict, marital disputes, and gender-based violence. The Light From Many Lamps Counselling Centre was born from a vision that Saadia Gani, the founder, calls 'prophetic' in her Islamic faith tradition. She's been thinking of ways that she herself and other community members can come together to serve their fellow South African neighbors who are facing such conflicts and who are feeling trapped or overwhelmed by their situations. As a child, Saadia remembers her father reading the book Light From Many Lamps to her, and she thinks that perhaps he read this to her hoping that she may one day open a center of this sort using that very same name.
The center itself is situated within the Rasooli Centre, a cultural center and mosque that seeks to serve the community in multiple ways through opening up the space for yoga and karate classes, health coaching, community events, and now the counseling center.
Saadia Gani says, "Ubuntu is like clay...it is something alive, and it is ever-evolving to meet the needs of a particular community." She herself studied directly with Dr. Mogobe Ramose, who is considered to be the father of an authentic African philosophy based on ubuntu (see African Philosophy Through Ubuntu).
According to an article in the South African Journal of Philosophy about Professor Ramose's philosophical work, Ubuntu plays an important role in post-apartheid South Africa as a whole. The term was used in the interim Constitution in 1993 as a way to anchor the policy of reconciliation in pre-colonial African traditions and has since gained a prominent place in jurisprudence. However, some have highlighted the unfortunate reality that the term itself did not end up in the final version of the Constitution, which according to Saadia is to the detriment of those in South Africa who had hopes and expectations of certain changes post-apartheid, like equal distribution of wealth, access to food, water, shelter, healthcare, and other resources. In a recent report from the World Bank, South Africa is named as the most unequal country in the world, with 10% of the population holding more than 80% of the wealth. As an experienced lawyer and legal expert, Saadia is currently working on her dissertation that proposes the incorporation and implementation of Ubuntu within the legal system in South Africa so that issues like unequal distribution of wealth, corruption, and underdevelopment can be properly addressed.
Although the Constitution of South Africa clearly lays out the human rights afforded to all citizens post-apartheid, I've heard many comment on the ways that human rights are not being lived out or enacted.
During a panel discussion hosted by The Light From Many Lamps and The Pretoria Legacy Foundation on March 21, which is Human Rights Day in South Africa, the Honorable Justice Jody Kollapen and Commissioner Advocate Mohamed Shafie Ameermia emphasized the need to address these core issues affecting people's lives in South Africa as human rights. They established during the panel that these needs should absolutely be considered as human rights. My husband Justin Tyvoll and I were also included in this panel, and Justin made a similar connection between humanitarian needs being considered as human rights.
From my limited perspective as a foreigner, I see how Ubuntu could be a direct solution to this question of how human rights can be lived out in such contexts, ensuring that everyone's needs are met within a community. As Justice Kollapen put it, “We cannot rely on the governments to do this for us; we have to be the ones to enact human rights within our own communities. Many of you are already doing this without realizing it.” The Light From Many Lamps Counselling Centre is an example of this: through providing mental healthcare to community members, Saadia and her team are ensuring psychological rights for their fellow community members and ultimately embodying Ubuntu in a very tangible way.
The spirit of Ubuntu was present throughout the Human Rights Day panel discussion as well, as community members were given space to stand up and share concerns they have for rights in their own communities. One woman brought up the lack of access for those with hearing disabilities in medical care facilities; another person named the need for legality of Muslim marriages; and others commented on the need to educate youth not only about their rights, but also about their responsibilities to other people. This seems reminiscent of the basic Jesus Way concept of loving our neighbors as ourselves. At the end of the day, how are we loving our neighbors?
