Ubuntu (botho, human dignity) is a figure of speech that describes the importance of group solidarity on issues that were pivotal to the survival of the African communities, who as a consequence of poverty and deprivation have to survive through group care and not only individual reliance (Mbigi and Maree, 1995).
However, collective unity is not something new or peculiar to Africa.
Universally all marginalised communities in places like Harlem in New York, Brixton in the United Kingdom, subscribe to this concept of Ubuntu. It is a concept of brotherhood or sisterhood and collective unity for survival among the poor in every society. Ubuntu plays a significant role in our value system for it derives specifically from African mores: "I am human, because you are human" (Manifesto on Values, Education and Democracy, 2001:16).
In an article entitled "Finding the lost generation," Valerie Moller suggests "Social cohesion has disappeared. Great waves of social, political and economic upheaval have changed the moral landscape and often destroyed the network of ethical values and norms that provided social cohesion and control". This means that in order to resuscitate the concept of Ubuntu especially at the work place, we need to be united and strengthen our work relationship. It is also essential to inculcate the notion of work ethic and self esteem.
The concept of Ubuntu is crucial to nation building, for example, urban renewal in the ghetto or inner cities of the West as well as community development in rural and peri-urban situations in developing countries. It is universal because it can be applied to the challenge of empowering marginalised minorities.
The cardinal belief of Ubuntu is that a person can only be a person through the help of others, which means umntu ngumntu ngabanye abantu in Xhosa.
This fundamental concept stands for personhood and morality. The important values of Ubuntu are group solidarity, conformity, compassion, respect, human dignity and collective unity. All and sundry know that charity begins at home. Respect is reciprocal irrespective of race, ethnicity, class, age, and gender. Ubuntu requires one to respect others if one is to respect him or herself.
African people are collectively united by their religious experience. It is entrenched and pervasive in virtually all aspects of their lives on daily basis. That is why it is vital that conceptual frameworks of strategy and ideas must try and make reference to the African religious and cultural experiences if effective transfer and adaptation are to take place. It is imperative to translate all the essential ideas and practices from the foreign language into the relevant local languages.
The spirit of patriotism is also an important part of Ubuntu. That means there is a readiness to sacrifice for one's group, something, which is inculcated in the minds of the activists and nationalist movements. The spirit was a transformative force in the union movement and the mass democratic movement in this country. That is why Mbigi and Maree (1995:8) assert "South Africa owes the birth of its nation to the emancipating spirit of Ubuntu. It drives the national change process towards national liberation and majority rule, but not sufficiently to meet the challenges of reconstruction and development."
Mbigi and Maree (1995) suggest that we are faced with the challenge of building into the spirit of Ubuntu, "a new dimension of citizenship." He contends that, "This is the ability to live for one's country; the ability to take personal accountability and responsibility for improving one's situation." Perhaps this is the missing link and dimension of Ubuntu in post-independent Africa.
Our people's dignity has been denigrated by the indignity of Apartheid.
That implies that as a part of the healing process of reconciliation, organisations should help restore this dignity in the spirit of compassion and care which are the essential elements of Ubuntu.
According to Mbigi and Maree (1995:20) "The spirit in African religion is one's total being or soul. It represents our inner self and our total being. The spirit is who we really are. It is our values and our culture in terms of an organisation". This implies that the spirit of Ubuntu has endeavored to unite the religious community, and that is why we all have to adhere to the norms, customs and values in order to revive the concept of Ubuntu. People outside one's culture should respect one's religion.
For a meaningful worker for participation to occur, it is essential to harness the African communal spirit of grass-roots democracy based on respect and human dignity - Ubuntu - as well as the spirit of harmony and service. That is why Mbigi and Maree (1995) assert that "Continuous improvement teams (CITs), based on the natural working team and focusing on operational efficiency with the supervisor or team leader, should be formed.
This will necessitate weekly prosperity meetings (forums) to discuss progress towards targets. The aim is to stimulate bottom-up communication and empowerment giving access to information, knowledge, training and shop-floor democratic processes. This involves capacity building at grass-roots level. This emerging shop-floor democracy will empower the worker to contribute to wealth creation and to derive job satisfaction."
Racism is socially constructed and is not innate. The sociological implications of this are that human beings are socialised into racism, and grow up with acquired and racist stereotypes that are learnt from birth.
The fact that racism is a social construct means that if we exert efforts, all in sundry can eradicate or minimise racism to the acceptable and tolerable level, so as to consolidate the spirit of Ubuntu. "Equality might require us to put up with people who are different, non-sexism and non-racism might require us to rectify the inequities of the past" (Manifesto on Values, Education and Democracy, 2001:16). But Ubuntu emphasises the notion of mutual understanding and the active appreciation of the value of human difference. It requires us to know and understand others within a multicultural environment.
Tribalism on the other hand has no place in our fledging democracy, because instead of being a unifying factor, it causes cleavages. It further exacerbates division by creating favoritism and nepotism, something that is unacceptable in the African National Congress. We have to eradicate its deleterious effects. Multiculturalism teaches us to respect other cultures because we may not know what we can learn from other people whose views might be different from ours. That is why cultural diversity in a South African context teaches us to even learn other people's languages. For reconciliation to occur in this country, we have to put our differences aside in order to rebuild the nation. People should learn to be conciliatory.
The efforts of corporate cultural transformation in South Africa must encourage acceptance of our differences and the discovery of our similarities. The process must avoid emphasising differences, e.g. Zulus accept you one way and Xhosas another way. Mbigi and Maree (1995) contend that the process must emphasise similarities and the creation of a common survival agenda. This implies that the emancipating African concept of Ubuntu is imperative with its emphasis on human dignity, respect and collective unity. Mbigi and Maree (1995:98) further argue that Ubuntu could facilitate the development of an inclusive national and corporate vision based on compassion and tolerance as well as the will to survive in spite of the constraints of our history.
According to Mbigi and Maree (1995), the Afro centric view of rewards is based on Ubuntu. One works for additional reward so that one's fellow man or woman can enjoy the fruits of one's labour. Whatever one earns is for the collective good of the community. The American conception is that if each person concentrates on accomplishing his personal best and on attaining inner fulfillment, this automatically contributes to the team's greater good. Analogously, in the Afro centric view one thinks in terms of collective survival. Group loyalty is the key issue in building a team.
The essence of Ubuntu is collective shared experience and the collective solidarity.
1. This article was first published in Agenda Vol. 8. 1990
2. White women won the right to vote only in 1930. The Hertzog Bills which proposed the enfranchisement of white women also proposed to abolish the Cape African franchise. The majority of African leaders (male) rejected the connection being made between the enfranchisement of white women and the further disenfranchisement of Africans. However, a few supported the view that giving white women the vote would help to assuage white fears and proposed: "that the Government should enfranchise all European women as a safeguard against any possible swamping of Europeans by Natives, and then to extend the Cape Native Franchise to Natives of the Northern Provinces." (Karis and Carter, 1972: 184-87) Subsequent to the enfranchisement of white women, the view that African women were also fit to have the vote was expressed on a number of platforms
3. See Wells, 1982: 120-150. She provides a detailed account and assessment of the 1913 Anti-Pass campaign.
4. The SANNC did not adopt a constitution until 1919. A draft constitution prepared by Pixley ka Seme was circulated to various African organisations, Kings and Chiefs prior to consideration at the inaugural Conference of the SANNC on 8 January 1912 (Odendaal, 1984)
5. At the time a number of women would have fallen in this category, but there is no evidence that they were so recognised by the SANNC. Among these must be counted some of the Orange Free State leaders, as well as Charlotte Maxeka and Mrs. AV kinlock. Until fairly recently, there was a widespread belief within the ANC that Charlotte Maxeka had been elected to the National Executive Committee in 1912. Little is known about Mrs Kinnock, apart from a report that she was elected as Treasurer of the African Association, the organisation established in London as the precursor of the Pan African Movement. She did not attend the Pan African Congress in London as she had returned to South Africa, but there are no reports of her activities after this.
6. This was not the first representation organised by the women of the Free State. In October 1899 the 'Vrouwen van Houshouders der lokatie van Bloemfontein' presented an illuminated address to President Steyn. This framed address is kept at the Steyn Family farm, Onze Rust in Bloemfontein.
7. The Executive Committee included Chairwoman Catharina Simmons, Secretary Kathrina Louw, Members Jane Moroka, L. Mosaiks, Rachel Talka, Mietha Kotsi, Helen Louw. The last three were unable to sign and 'made their marks' on the Petition of the Orange Free State Native and Coloured Women to the Governer General in 1914.
8. Walshe (1970) gives two dates for the formation of the Bantu Women's League. He (1970:80) says "By the second half of 1913 this Free State unrest was widespread and led directly to the formation of the Bantu Women's League". Later referring to a meeting between Charlotte Maxeke and the Prime Minister in 1918, he described her as the 'President of the newly formed Bantu Women's League of South Africa' (p81). He has confused the Native and Coloured Women's Association with the Bantu Women's League.
9. Walker (1982:32) is incorrect in claiming that the League was affiliated to the ANC. In 1923, the ANC was still calling on the League to affiliate and Conference resolved that: it is in the best interests of the African people that all existing Bantu organisations such as Interdenominational Native Ministers Association, Native Teachers Association, Native Farmers Association, Workers Unions, Bantu Women's Leagues, Vigilance Committees and so forth, shall be affiliated with this Native National Association."
10. At Charlotte Maxeke's instigation, the ICU accepted the principle of equal pay for equal work. The full resolution read: "That the time has come to admit women in the Workers Union as full members, and that they are allowed to enjoy all privileges and receive the same rights as the male members, and there should be female representation to our Conference.
Further, that women workers receive equal pay, men and women, for the same work done, and that all members of the conference should do all they can to get women to join the Workers Union in the different towns" (Wells, 1982: 185). However, despite this commitment to equality, women were marginalised in the ICU (Bradford, 1987)
11. Unless otherwise indicated all quotations are from Minutes of the Annual Conference of the African National Congress, 1930-1945
12. Manuscript placed in Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library thanks to Dr. Bob Edgar.
13. Dr.Ralph Bunche attended the 1937 meetings of the AAC, the ANC and the African Women's Council. He expressed his concern at the level of influence of Europeans on African organisations: "They are now counselling extreme moderation among the natives so as not to inject the native issue into the coming election, and also so as not to offend the Afrikaners and thus make their task more difficult in Parliament...There is the same tendency in men's organisations to lean heavily on the advise of Europeans. I wonder to what extent this is a delicate effort to draw women away from the established African organisations, thus weakening them. Ma and Pa Jones have worked hand in glove on moderating and splitting tactics. (Bunche 1937:309&316)
14. Statement by Mrs C. Kune: There is a typograph error in text. Should read division in NCAW not AAC.
15. Further restrictions on women entering urban areas may have been the stim ulus. Under the Urban Areas Act 1937, women were required to obtain permission from magistrates in their home areas as well as from local urban authorities before coming into urban areas.
16. All quotes in this section are from "From Protest to Challenge", edited by T Karis and GM Carter, Volume 1, Page 304 - 310
17. Tim Couzens: "Discovering Seme", available at http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/people/seme.html
18. Benson, Mary: "The Struggle for a Birthright", IDAF, 1985, pp55
19. See Bunting, Brian: "Moses Kotane: South African Revolutionary", Mayibuye Books, UWC, 1998, pp 67 - 69
20. Tambo, OR: "Our Alliance is a Living Organism that has grown out of Struggle", Speech at 60th Anniversary of the SACP, London, July 30, 1981, published in Sechaba, September 1981, available at: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/or/or81-10.html
21. ANC: "Strategy and Tactics of the ANC", adopted by the 'Morogoro Conference' of the ANC, meeting at Morogoro, Tanzania, 25 April - 1 May 1969, available at http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/stratact.html
22. Marriage made in Heaven
23. Strategy and Tactics (1997)
24. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act, 200 of 1993.
25. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act, 108 of 1996.
26. It should be noted that parties nominate candidates by submitting national and provincial lists or, as the case may be, only provincial lists.
The effect of this is that the electorate do not choose amongst individual candidates, but amongst political parties that contest an election. Seats to individuals on the party lists are then allocated proportional to the number and percentage of votes received by the party.
27. The law (Municipal Structures Act of 1998) provides that if a ward councillor wants to leave their party, s/he will have to resign their seat and a by-election will be called.
28. Statement on Cabinet meeting, 14 March 2001 on www.gcis.gov.za/media/joel/cabinet/140301.htm
29. Govender is Director of the Centre for Community and Labour Studies (CCLS), an NGO based in KwaZulu Natal.
30. The writer is a member of the District Executive member of the SACP Amathole District and BEC member of ANC Quigney br anch, East London. The article is written his personal capacity.
31. The writer is the Head of Information Technology at NUM