Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-76mfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-14T18:43:43.050Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ubuntu

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Munyaradzi Felix Murove
Munyaradzi Felix Murove*
Affiliation:
University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
*
Munyaradzi Felix Murove, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Mazisi, Kunene Rd, Durban 4041, South Africa. Email: murovem@ukzn.ac.za
Get access

Abstract

In this article I am arguing that the concept of Ubuntu which means humanness was articulated against a situation of the dehumanization that was meted to the Africans during the eras of slavery and colonialism. It is further argued that since Ubuntu implies character qualities such as compassion, kindness, courtesy and respect for other persons, the ethic of Ubuntu remains indispensable to the reconstruction of post-colonial African societies. Ubuntu is indispensable to the post-colonial African quest for an identity in the spheres such as the public sector and the business sector because Ubuntu is mostly valued as the ideal for human conduct in all spheres of life. Lastly, I have also argued that because of its relational worldview and individual ontology, Ubuntu connected with the concept of Ukama implies that human existence cannot be separated from the generality of existence.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Diogenes , Volume 59 , Issue 3-4: Africana Philosophy , November 2012 , pp. 36 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bourdillon, M (1976) The Shona Peoples. Gweru: Mambo Press.Google Scholar
Dale, D (1994) A Basic English-Shona Dictionary. Gweru: Mambo Press.Google Scholar
Davidson, B (1969) The Africans: An Entry to Cultural History. Ringwood: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Gelfand, M (1973) The Genuine Shona: Survival Values of an African Culture. Gweru: Mambo Press.Google Scholar
Gelfand, M (1981) Ukama: Reflections on Shona and Western Cultures in Zimbabwe. Gweru: Mambo Press.Google Scholar
Hobbes, T (1962) Leviathan: Or the Matter, Form and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil, ed. Oakeshott, M. London: Collier-Macmillan.Google Scholar
Huber, J (1984) Clusters of Grapes. Gweru: Mambo Press.Google Scholar
Hume, D (1978) A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. Nidditch, P. Oxford: Oxford UP.Google Scholar
Irele, A (1981) The African Experience in Literature and Ideology. London: Heineman.Google Scholar
Junod, P (1938) Bantu Heritage. Johannesburg: Hortors.Google Scholar
Kahari, G P (1982) ‘Realism and the Contemporary Shona Novel’, Zambezia, 10(2): 85–111.Google Scholar
Loomba, A (1998) Colonialism/Postcolonialism: The New Critical Idiom. London: SCM Press.Google Scholar
Mafunisa, J M (2008) ‘Ethics, African Societal Values and the Work-place’, in Nicolson, R (ed.) Persons in Community: African Ethics in a Global Culture, Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.Google Scholar
Mandeville, B (1924) The Fable of the Bees, v. 2, ed. Kaye, F B. Oxford: Oxford UP.Google Scholar
Maree, J, Mbigi, L (1995) Ubuntu: The Spirit of Transformation Management. Pretoria: Knowledge Resources.Google Scholar
Mazrui, A (1969) Violence and Thought: Essays on Social Tensions in Africa. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Mazrui, A (1994) ‘From Sun Worship to Time Worship: Towards a Solar Theory of History’, in Oruka, H O (ed.) Philosophy, Humanity and Ecology: Philosophy of Nature and Environmental Ethics, pp. 163–175. Nairobi: African Centre for Technology Studies.Google Scholar
Mudenge, S I G (1988) A Political History of Munhumutapa c. 1400–1902. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Munyaka, M, Motlhabi, M (2009) ‘Ubuntu and its Socio-Moral Significance’, in Murove, M F (ed.) African Ethics: An Anthology of Comparative and Applied Ethics, pp. 63–84. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.Google Scholar
Murove, M F (1999) ‘The Shona Concept of Ukama and the Process Philosophical Concept of Relatedness, with Special Reference to the Ethical Implications of Contemporary Neo-Liberal Economic Practices’, ma dissertation. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal.Google Scholar
Murove, M F (2005) ‘The Theory of Self-Interest in Modern Economic Discourse: A Critical Study in the Light of African Humanism and Process Philosophical Anthropology’, Doctoral dissertation. University of South Africa.Google Scholar
Murove, M F (2009) ‘An African Environmental Ethic Based on the Concepts of Ukama and Ubuntu’, in Murove, M F (ed.) African Ethics: An Anthology of Comparative and Applied Ethics, pp. 315–331. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.Google Scholar
Polanyi, K (1968) The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of our Time. New York: Rinehart & Co.Google Scholar
Prozesky, M H (2009) ‘Cinderella, Survivor and Saviour: African Ethics and the Quest for a Global Ethic’, in Murove, M F (ed.) African Ethics: An Anthology of Comparative and Applied Ethics, pp. 3–13. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.Google Scholar
Samkange, S, Samkange, M T (1980) Hunhuism or Ubuntuism: A Zimbabwean Indigenous Political Philosophy. Harare: The Graham Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Senghor, L S (1964) On African Socialism. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Theron, S (1995) Africa, Philosophy and the Western Tradition: An Essay in Self-Understanding. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Uzukwu, E E (1996) A Listening Church: Autonomy and Communion in African Churches. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.Google Scholar
van Binsbergen, W (2001) ‘Ubuntu and the Globalisation of Southern African Thought and Society’, Quest: An African Journal of Philosophy, 15(1/2): 53–89.Google Scholar