Ubuntu: Globalization, Accommodation, and Contestation In

UBUNTU: GLOBALIZATION, ACCOMMODATION, AND CONTESTATION IN

SOUTH AFRICA

Mvuselelo Ngcoya

Submitted to the

Faculty of the School oflntemational Service

of American University

in Partial Fulfillment of

the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

International Relati

Glenn Adler ~ (A) (9,trVlv-- Dean of the School of International Service

2009

American University

Washington, D.C. 20016

AMER!GAN UN!VERS!TY UBF~ARY UMI Number: 3357498

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Mvuselelo Ngcoya

2009

Following the end of constitutional apartheid, indigenous perspectives and practices have gained prominence in South Africa. This dissertation examines the promise of the indigenous philosophy of ubuntu and asks how and why this worldview has emerged as one of the most important keywords in the new postcolony. It outlines the role of ubuntu in the transition from apartheid and explores what it may reveal about the shifting power relations in the shadow of neoliberal globalization conditions.

While there is a growing body of literature on the philosophical aspects of ubuntu, there is a dearth of detailed empirical research that connects its multiple uses to the social, political, and economic relations in the country. In exploring the potential of ubuntu in shaping the future of a democratic South Africa, the dissertation brings to the fore the voices of community organizations and individual activists. A combination of qualitative methods was used; primarily ethnographic field research in Clermont, a township on the outskirts of Durban. In addition to participating in the activities of community groups, the research benefited from unstructured interviews of leaders and representatives of 23 community organizations and non-governmental organizations in the township.

Interviews of ubuntu-oriented international actors underscored a key point: the resurgence of ubuntu in South Africa is not an isolated local phenomenon and it has

ii significance for understanding similar global phenomena. The research findings reveal that despite decades of subjugation under colonial rule, indigenous knowledges and practices thrived and continue to be relevant in the new postcolony.

While it is important to pose the question, "What is ubuntu?" the dissertation follows a more sociological approach that asks: "Who speaks of ubuntu? And to what end?" To answer these questions, the study borrows conceptual tools from indigenous knowledge literature, globalization studies, and Karl Polanyi's notion of the double movement theorem. The sociological approach adopted here demonstrates that the resurgence of ubuntu does not represent mere postmodern articulations of identity politics

(or so-called "invented traditions"). Rather, it marks the production of new forms of consciousness and the expression of discontent with (post)modemity.

111 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In a skit on the late-night comedy show, MADtv, Keegan-Michael Key's character, Eugene Struthers is an ecstatic delivery man who accosts celebrities and urges them to take things to a "hole nother level". That phrase deftly captures how I felt about the contributions of my dissertation committee members. James Mittelman helped turn a dour graduate research paper into this final product. Not only did he introduce me to the works of Karl Polanyi, he was always enthusiastic and demonstrated great faith in my own work and meticulously commented on the chapters. He has been a solid pillar of support throughout the process -- his demand for intellectual rigor was only matched by his meticulous attention to detail, demonstrated by his extensive remarks on my footnotes. I am also grateful to members of my committee Peter M. Lewis and Glenn

Adler, both wonderful mentors whose tutelage has colored the fabric of this text.

I especially thank the individuals and representatives of organizations in Clermont who, in the spirit of ubuntu, took time from their busy schedules to share their knowledge and respond to my questions and requests during the time I spent in that township in

2005-2006. Officials at the Clermont local government offices provided excellent information and documents on the history of Clermont and useful statistics.

The dissertation journey is often marked by more grueling lows than highs. At the

School of International Service (SIS), the faculty and administration provided invaluable

IV support, particularly John Richardson and Steve Silvia (former and current

Director of Doctoral Studies respectively). Mary Barton (graduate advisor) often went out of her way to help me navigate the complex university bureaucracy. I owe special debt to

Naren Kumarakulasingam and Aparna Devare, exceptional fellow travelers who critically engaged my work and provided timely encouragement. Other SIS doctoral students gave insightful feedback to various drafts of this work. Naren Ramzi Nemo,

Jamie Frueh and members of my cohort, Dan Chong, Beth Dahl, Johnny Holloway, Ilana

Zamonski, and Lori Ellis were all very supportive.

This dissertation would not have seen the light of day without financial support from these organizations: the International Institute of Education (Fulbright fellowship), the School of International Services (Hurst Fellowship and Dissertation Fellowship), and the Office and Professional Employees International Union (Local 2 Education Fund). I also received generous support from Centre for Civil Society at the University of

KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). Like many doctoral students, I have had to work full-time during the course of my studies. I am grateful for the understanding and interest shown by my employers in my scholarly pursuits. Particularly, I thank my colleagues at the

Service Employees International Union, Africa Action, and the Center for Economic

Justice.

Many friends in Washington D.C. cheered me on. I'm particularly indebted to

Kabo Botlhole, Catherine Benedict, Maricela Donahue, Salil Joshi, and Basav Sen. Many

v young girls and boys in the DC Stoddert Soccer club provided me the stage to really let off steam as their soccer coach. I especially thank members of the Red Metros and their parents for their enormous support.

My close friend Justice Cele, his wife Ivy, and their children Lawrence and Vero, provided invaluable support and companionship when I stayed with them while doing fieldwork. In the process they saved me thousands of dollars in housing, food, and transportation expenses. All I can say is Ndosi! Throughout the two decades I have known him, Lindinkosi Mchunu has been a true brother and amazing companion.

Phakad' ongagugiyo!

I owe an incredible debt to various mentors in South Africa. At the University of

South Africa (UNISA), Phil Hugo saw brilliant sparks in what I thought were mere ashes of writing. I will always be grateful for his unflagging support and for opening so many doors for me. Kjell Olsen took an interest in me as a wild-eyed high school student and encouraged me to climb higher than I thought was possible. Esther Bornman, Alpheus

Mdlalose, Dorothy Newlands, Michael Ngubane, and Thembinkosi Radebe were inspirational guides at Domino Servite School.

I also want to thank Breanna F omi who came into my life as a bright ray of moonlight during a particularly dark period. I always envied her library and her ability to make brilliant observations with disturbing frequency.

vi Although my parents, Mephi MaDlamini Ngcoya and Tholizwe Ngcoya were not

"booked" (as my mother would say), they ignited and sustained a passion for learning in me from an early age. As I take pride in completing this dissertation, I am amazed by their intelligence and knowledge acquired with very minimal formal education. I cannot thank my siblings and their families for all their immense support throughout the years.

To Nkululeko, Thembile, Lindi, Thobi, Phindi, Thulile, Thandile, Anele, and Ronnie, I say Nime njalo!

Vll TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT...... ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...... viii

LIST OF TABLES ...... xii

Chapter

1. UBUNTU, INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND GLOBALIZATION ...... 1

2. TOWARD A SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO UBUNTU ...... 32

3. UBUNTU AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL...... 63

4. THE STATE OF UBUNTU: NATION BUILDING...... 106

5. UBUNTU AT THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL...... 147

6. UBUNTU AND THE SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVES ...... 187

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 209

Vlll LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ANC African National Congress

ARI African Renaissance Institute

ASP African Social Forum

AU African Union

BBC British Broadcasting Corporation

CBO community based organization

DA Democratic Alliance

DRC Democratic Republic of Congo

EASSy Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System

ECOSOC Economic and Social Council

FCDL Federation for Community Development Leaming

G8 Group of Eight

GCAP Global Call to Action against Poverty

GEAR Growth, Employment and Redistribution

GNPOC Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company

GNU Government of National Unity

IDB Inter-American Development Bank

ix IFC International Financial Corporation

IFP Inkatha Freedom Party

IKS Indigenous Knowledge Systems

ILO International Labor Organization

IMF International Monetary Fund

IR International Relations

ISPA International Society for the Perfonning Arts

KE NET Kenya Education Network

MAREN Malawi Research and Education Network

MDC Movement for Democratic Change

MDG Millennium Development Goals

MoRENet Mozambique Research and Education Network

MP Member of Parliament

NACIT National College ofinformation Technology

NATU Natal African Teachers Union

NGO Non-governmental Organization

OAU Organization of African Unity oc Organizing Committee

RCE Regional Center of Excellence

RDP Reconstruction and Development Program

REN Regional Education Networks

RSA Republic of South Africa

x RwEdNet Rwanda Education Network

SAA South African Airways

SABC South African Broadcasting Corporation

SACAR South African Chapter of the African Renaissance

SADC Southern African Development Community

SANE South African New Economics Network

SANGOCO South African National NGO Coalition

SANNC South African Native National Congress

SECC Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee

SIDA Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency

SUIN Sudanese Universities Information Network

TENET Tertiary Education Network of South Africa

TRC Truth and Reconciliation Commission

T-SA Transparency South Africa

TSM Transnational Social Movements

UDF United Democratic Front

UK United Kingdom

UN United Nations

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNIFEM United Nations Development Fund for Women

UNISA University of South Africa

UNU United Nations University xi WB World Bank

WSF World Social Forum

WSSD World Summit on Sustainable Development

WTO World Trade Organization

Xll LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

Table 1. Typology of ubuntu organizations ...... 88

Xlll CHAPTER 1

UBUNTU, INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND GLOBALIZATION

Colonial and settler interventions severely undermined indigenous knowledge and practices in South Africa. However, in the aftermath of the dismantling of constitutional apartheid, indigenous perspectives have gained prominence. Indeed, the indigenous ubuntu philosophy has emerged as one of the most popular keywords in the new postcolony. Ubuntu stresses the importance of community, solidarity, caring, and sharing.

This worldview advocates a profound sense of interdependence and emphasizes that our true human potential can only be realized in partnership with others. Receiving censure are rampant materialism and the illusion of the rugged sovereign individual. Instead, ubuntu presents respect, hospitality, reciprocity, connectedness, and interdependence as the ethical tools for creating a sustainable social order.

This introductory chapter briefly discusses the meanings of this worldview and its growing relevance in South Africa since 1994. This section and the remaining chapters emphasize that the primary concern of this dissertation is not the core philosophical meanings of ubuntu but the diverse interpretations and deployments of this worldview by different sectors of society and the state. Nonetheless, a brief look at what philosophers say about ubuntu is in order.

1 2

Ubuntu Meanings

According to Ramose (2001, 1), ubuntu is the fundamental ontological and epistemological category in the African thought of the Bantu-speaking people. 1 It is, therefore, not confined to the borders of South Africa. Kamwangamalu (1999, 24) demonstrates that ubuntu is a pan-African philosophy, found in many African languages with multiple phonological variants: umundu (in Kikuyi, Kenya), umuntu (in Kimeru,

Kenya), bumuntu (KiSukuma and KiHaya, Tanzania), vumuntu (shiTsonga and shiTswa,

Mozambique), and gimuntu (kiKongo and giKwese, the Democratic Republic of Congo).

Morphologically, the word ubuntu consists of the prefix ubu- (indicating a general state of being) and the stem -ntu, meaning person, or the nodal point at which being assumes concrete form, such that ubu- and -ntu are mutually founding in the sense that they are two aspects of being, an indivisible wholeness (Ramose 2001, 1). Augustine

Shutte (2001, 56) concurs and adds that ubuntu is "the whole-hearted identification of the self with the other, so that self-determination can only be achieved in dependence on the power of another." This is the same idea conveyed by Ngubane (1979, 64) when he says that in the ubuntu worldview, umuntu (the person) cannot "exist of himself (sic), by himself, for himself; he comes from a social cluster and exists in a social cluster ... "2

This mutual reinforcement of self and other is captured and encouraged by means of proverbs, idioms, and aphorisms in numerous African languages:3

1 Bantu refers to a group of diverse languages spoken by hundreds of ethnic groups in Sub Saharan Africa, stretching from Cameroon to Southern Africa. Distant ancestors of Bantu-speaking shared a common region of origin, mutually intelligible languages and dialects, and basic cultural ancestry. 2 I am indebted to Simon Mapadimeng for directing me to Ngubane's writing on ubuntu. 3 Kamanda cites the following Mende (Sierra Leone) idioms: Tooko yila ee kpaji (one hand can never clap); ngulu yila ee woo/a (one tree cannot form a forest); and, tooko yila ee tayekpe maawa (one 3

Sesotho (Lesotho and South Africa): Motho ke motho ka batho (a person is a person by other people).

IsiZulu (South Africa): Umuntu umuntu ngabantu (a person is a person through, or by means of, other people).

Xitsonga (Mozambique and South Africa): Rintiho rinwe a rinusi hove (one finger cannot pick up a grain).

Setswana (Botswana and South Africa): Moeng goroga reje ka wena (come guest, we feast through you).4

Sesotho (Lesotho and South Africa): A botho ba gago bo nne botho seshabeng

(let your welfare be the welfare of the nation). 5

Chichewa (Malawi): Mwana wa nzako ndi wako yemwe (someone's child is your child), and ali awiri ndi anthu ali ekha chinyama (those that are more than one are people and she/he who is alone is an animal). 6

As these aphorisms demonstrate, ubuntu denies the reduction of the human being to a singular self. Chapman (1998, 96) argues that in the ubuntu worldview, the dichotomy between the individual and society is rendered invalid - an individual's involvement in the community permits self-actualization as a human being. However,

hand cannot wash itself). Joseph Tamba Philip Kamanda, "I am Because We Are: Shaping a Transnational Community Among Sierra Leonean Transmigrants in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area," (PhD diss., Catholic University of America, 2004), 68.

4 Kabo Botlhole provided this translation. 5 Yvonne Mokgoro, "Ubuntu and the Law in South Africa" (paper presented at the First Colloquium on the Constitution and the Law, Potchefstroom, South Africa, October 31, 1997). 6 Richard Tambulasi and Happy Kayuni, "Can African Feet Divorce Western Shoes? The Case of Ubuntu and Democratic Good Governance in Malawi," Nordic Journal ofAfrican Studies 14, no. 2 (2005): 149. 4

other philosophers point out that in this perspective, the individual is not a supine self, acting mechanically at the beck and call of the communal structure; rather, community refers to an organic relationship among component individuals (Mkhize 1998, 9). This is what Shutte calls "the whole-hearted identification of the self with the other" which suggests that "the individual is dependent on the community not because he (sic) is in some way less than it or only a part of it but because he is identical with it" (Shutte 2001,

52, emphasis in original). Put differently, the relationship between the individual and the community is so intricate that the "community" is the "I" writ large and the "I" is the

"community" individualized (author unknown 1990, 13).

In other words, the individual and community are not in competition. Cornell and

Van Marie (2005, 196) put it well when they say,

What is at stake is the process of becoming a person or, more strongly put, how one is given the chance to become a person at all. The community is not something 'outside', some static entity that stands against individuals. The community is only as it is continuously brought into being by those who 'make it up' ... In a dynamic process the individual and community are always in the process of coming into being. Individuals become individuated through their engagement with others and their ability to live in line with their capability is at the heart of how ethical interactions are judged.

This interpretation of ubuntu has proved especially useful for a society charred and marred by a divisive apartheid ideology.

Ubuntu in Post-Apartheid South Africa

An unqualified search for ubuntu on the Internet yields over 92 million entries. 7

Government documents, 8 municipalities,9 university departments, 10 community

7 This is almost double the 47 million results from a Google search conducted in July 2006. This high number is undoubtedly due to a computer operating system called Ubuntu Linux (www.ubuntu.com). According to its developers, this system is based on the ubuntu philosophy and its goal is that software 5

organizations, corporations, and international declarations11 bear the name. Moreover, social movements and labor organizations use ubuntu in their campaigns. There are myriad community-based and ubuntu-oriented associations and other non-governmental organizations involved in education, health care, job training, the arts, and community organizing. More importantly for this dissertation, ubuntu has captured the interests of diverse audiences in South Africa and abroad.

Consider the following fragments:

As we know, many people have turned their backs from the important elements of ubuntu of humanism, compassion and solidarity which ensured that none among our peogle would go hungry when others live the life ofluxury. President Thabo Mbeki.

The government has a questionable value system, even as it valiantly faces the challenges of the legacies of apartheid. We go to the grassroots to educate and conscientize people to hold on to their ubuntu values. We focus on these values, not material possessions ... [The poor] need tools to

should be available free of charge to all people and languages. Still, a qualified search on Google excluding references to software, computers, Linux, and server still yields results in the hundreds of thousands. 8 See, among others, Department of Welfare and Population Development, Republic of South Africa, "White Paper on Social Welfare: Principles, Guidelines, Recommendations, Proposed Policies and Programs," 1997, www.polity.org.za/html/govdocs/white_papers/welfare.html?rebookmark=l (accessed January, 28 2007). 9 The coat of arms of the city of Port Elizabeth has the motto "Working Together for Ubuntu." The Ubuntu Municipality in the Northern Cape Province consists of five towns, Hutchinson, Loxton, Merriman, Richmond, and Victoria-West. 10 Among others, is the University of South Africa's (UNlSA) Ubuntu School of Philosophy. 11 Eleven of the world's foremost learning and scientific organizations signed the Ubuntu Declaration on September 1, 2002. It calls for the mainstreaming of sustainable development into school curricula at every level of education. The signatories include the United Nations University, UNESCO, International Association of Universities, Third World Academy of Science, African Academy of Science, and the Science Council of Asia. The activities of this group called the Ubuntu Alliance are discussed in more detail in chapter 5. 12 President Thabo Mbeki addressing the tenth official opening of the National House of Traditional Leaders in Pretoria, May 4, 2006. "Mbeki Calls for Return to Ubuntu," The Star, May 05, 2006, 3. 6

empower themselves and change their circumstances, not individually, but collectively. Nomiki Yekani, Youth Leader, Umtapo Center. 13

The Ubuntu Network says dissent from the current United Nations system is not only possible, but an ethical necessity ... We need a more just world order to improve the quality of life for all. Federico Mayor, chair ofthe Barcelona based UBUNTU World Forum ofCivil Society Networks. 14

These snippets underscore one of the key points of this study. While strictly particular, ubuntu is pregnant with seeds of universality. Although the themes underlined in the above quotes may appear provincial, they are also profoundly global. This embrace of ubuntu by diverse sectors of society and its deployment, real or rhetorical, raises innumerable conundrums, key among which is: Why have ubuntu and other indigenous knowledges gained prominence in post-apartheid South Africa?

In this study, answers to this question are sought in the context of the contradictory effects of South Africa's encounter with neoliberal economic globalization.

The research interrogates the understanding and deployment of indigenous knowledge in post-apartheid South Africa and explores the relationship among ubuntu, indigenous knowledge, and globalization. The key argument is that the emergence of indigenous knowledge represents efforts by different sectors of society to gain a degree of control over their livelihoods in a changing South Africa.

This dissertation will demonstrate that the values of indigenous African cultures, as they have in previous struggles against colonialism and oppression, continue to play a critical role in shaping post-apartheid South Africa. Like other indigenous value systems,

13 Nomiki Yekani, National Youth Programs Coordinator, Umtapo Center, interviewed by author, Durban, January 26, 2006. 14 "Reclaiming 'Our' UN - and Changing It," Inter Press Service, January 29, 2005, http://www.ipsnews.net/intema.asp?idnews=27241 (accessed February 29, 2007). 7

ubuntu provides a new idiom for voicing old and new concerns about the trajectory, not only of post-apartheid South Africa, but the world at large. This is the perspective that shaped the key research questions that guided this study.

Research Questions

Because of the diverse interpretations of ubuntu, this dissertation is less concerned with its philosophical meanings. Instead, the main purpose is to examine the various ways in which ubuntu is understood and deployed as a tool of moral struggle. Therefore, the questions that frame this dissertation are: a) To what anxieties, interests, and historical conditions does the idiom of ubuntu

speak? b) Who are the key actors and how have they employed ubuntu as a vehicle to

challenge and perhaps reflect the predominant power relationships? c) To what extent do ubuntu formulations generate new avenues for dissent or

accommodation and innovative organizational forms capable of responding to the

socio-economic challenges, especially in light of the debates around globalization?

To answer these questions, the study chronicles the revival of ubuntu and provides an account of its deployment by community organizations in South Africa, its use by the state, and how global organizations understand and apply it to their work. The rest of this chapter is structured in four parts. The next section presents the research methods that were utilized in the study. This is followed by an examination of the relationship between ubuntu and globalization. The penultimate section critically examines the position of indigenous knowledges in International Relations (IR), especially in light of on-going debates about the role and place of area studies in the post-Cold War era. A discussion of 8

the dissertation's significance to indigenous knowledge theories and globalization studies concludes the chapter.

Methods

All that is indigenous is not strictly local. On the other hand, not all indigenous

.knowledge is global in scope. However, there is a discernible web of connections between the expression of ubuntu at the local level and the activities of ubuntu-oriented organizations at the global level. A key difficulty in indigenous knowledge research, therefore, is keeping both the immediate and the distant in "site" during the conduct of the research. In order to fully appreciate these webs of connections, the study employs a combination of qualitative methods, primarily ethnographic research.

The strength of ethnographic research lies in the richness of the observations, feedback, and responses of informants and interviews together with our observations as researchers in the field. 15 This method is predicated upon attention to the everyday, an intimate knowledge of face-to-face communities and groups (Marcus 1995, 99). Thus it helps to develop a fine-tuned understanding of the complexity of people's lived experiences. More importantly, ethnography is the ''researcher's commitment to let herself be surprised, to be caught off-guard, and to be swept up by events that occur in the field as a result of which even the original directions of the inquiry may significantly change."16

15 Ruchira Ganguly-Scrase, "Paradoxes of Globalization, Liberalization, and Gender Equality: The Worldviews of the Lower Middle Class in West Bengal, India," Gender and Society 17, no. 4 (2003): 544. 16 Zsuzsa Gille, "Critical Ethnography in the Time of Globalization: Toward a New Concept of Site," Cultural Studies, Critical Methodologies 1, no. 3 (2001): 332. 9

In recent years, however, the idea of privileging locality in the ethnographic method has come under considerable duress - specifically, the usefulness of fieldwork in a single place in an era of globalization. 17 This is a valid charge given that, too often, ethnographers have treated the local as a bounded universe in miniature, cut off from its larger social, economic and political contexts (Hyatt 2002, 207). Murray Wax and

Rosalie Wax (1980, 29) hail the virtues of this isolation when they state: "We shall presuppose that there is a distinctive and bounded community of persons who are to be studied, and that in some sense this community is characterized by a common language and moral code."

Bracketing the wider context and questions of historical change is no longer tenable (if it ever was) in the context of globalization which renders porous the membrane that surrounds the local. Yet, the ethnographic method persists and thrives

''perhaps because there is no better way in which to render the injuries of globalization, be they encountered in the cities of post-colonial Africa or in the ghettos and gated cities that throng the urban centers of the United States" (Hyatt 2002, 211).

Where one begins is not to assert the primacy of a South African township (the local) against the generic orhomogenous global. To paraphrase Clifford Geertz (1973), ethnographers do not study townships, but they study in townships. The key question is, as Marcus (1995, 111) prods us: "What among locally probed subjects is iconic with or parallel to the identifiably similar or same phenomenon within the idioms and terms of another related site?" The charge here is to highlight the "complex and sometimes ironic"

17 Frederick Cooper and Aml Laura Stoler, eds., Tensions ofEmpire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). 10

processes through which "cultural forms are imposed, invented, reworked, and transformed" in a rapidly global arena (Gupta and Ferguson 1997, 5). One can posit, therefore, that these cultural processes should be viewed as intrinsically local and global.

Seeing the dimensions of ubuntu as global processes and, not mere results thereof, forces us to think more flexibly about the relationship between indigenous knowledge and globalization. To capture the intricacies of ubuntu in South Africa and its global dimensions, the project borrows insights from the extended case study method.

As outlined by Michael Burawoy (1991, 1998, and 2000), this method has a number of dimensions: situating the observer in the world of the participant; observing phenomena over time and space; stretching out from micro processes to macro forces, from the space-time rhythms of the site to the geographical and historical context of the field, and; building theory. Rather than being induced from the data, discovered de novo from the ground, this method broadens existing theory to accommodate observed lacunae or anomalies. This approach is attractive for a number of reasons.

The primary appeal of the extended case study method is that it is consonant with the rich tradition in indigenous knowledge studies of taking locality seriously. It is postulated on the premise that all knowledge is from somewhere. This view parallels the notion of standpoint epistemology that permeates much feminist scholarship. Sandra

Harding, one of the key proponents of this perspective, resolutely states that "knowledge claims are always socially situated" (1993, 54). This recognition is important in this study because the production of social meanings and values that accompany the most complex phenomena (such as the spread of neoliberal globalization and the production of indigenous knowledge) all take place in specific settings. However, as Hugh Raffles 11

(1999, 324) cautions, locality should not be confused with location: "It is rather a set of relations, an ongoing politics, a density in which places are discursively and imaginatively materialized and enacted through the practices of variously positioned people and political economies."

Not only does the extended case method take locality seriously, it overcomes the limitations of classic ethnographic studies by bringing the global and the local into a dialectical interplay. In other words, although it encourages research that is grounded in a specific setting, it simultaneously releases the meaning of fieldwork from house arrest, from being bound to a single place and time. The extended case study method proved useful in a number of ways in gaining a deeper understanding of the resurgence and importance of ubuntu in South Africa and its global significance. This method proved especially during fieldwork.

From November 2005 to March 2006, I carried out ethnographic field research in

Clermont, a township of about 45,000 people adjoining the city of Durban, South Africa.

However, this dissertation is not about Clermont. It does not seek to explore the political intricacies of the township. The township provides a useful site for exploring the meanings of ubuntu articulated by different members of society and how these views reveal the patterns of the power struggles that take place in the township and the country in general.

In addition to participating in the activities of community organizations, I conducted unstructured interviews of 39 people, representing 23 community organizations and non-governmental organizations in the township and Durban. The interviewees included organization directors, coordinators, financial supporters, and 12

service providers and recipients. The objective was to develop an understanding of the meanings they ascribe to ubuntu and the relevance of this worldview to their work. This was supplemented by unstructured interviews of 68 community members. Interviews with community members ranged from five minutes to fifteen minutes, and interviews with representatives organizations lasted from 30 minutes to an hour. Interviews of members of international organizations were conducted by telephone and email. Where possible, the research took advantage of physical documentary evidence and other

Internet sources.

During my field visits in Clermont, a few organizations made available copies of annual reports, grant proposals, brochures, newspaper clippings, and other internal documents. These documents primarily serve the function of triangulation to confirm what the interviewees had said and what members of the public think about the organization. The Clare Campbell Library was also an excellent source of books on early writings on ubuntu in South Africa.

To obtain a better sense of the ongoing politics in Clermont, I spent the early days of the field research (mostly mornings and evenings) at the Clermont Taxi Rank to gain an overall impression of the political, social, and economic situation in the township. The taxi rank occupies a unique space in most South African townships. It is more than just a node in the informal transportation system. Due to the large number of passengers who use minibus taxis, 18 in addition to being a transition point, the taxi rank is also a

18 According to South Africa's Department of Transport, the minibus taxi is the most commonly used form of transportation in South Africa, accounting for 63 percent of public transport daily work trips. See Key Results ofthe National Household Travel Survey, Republic of South Africa, Department of Transport, 2003, 16. For an overview of the taxi industry in South Africa, see Meshack M. Khosa, "Routes, 13

marketplace and a key public arena where politics and the most pressing issues are actively discussed. This process helped identify the organizations and individuals to interview and also generated several themes for unstructured interviews. Multiple trips in the local minibus taxis provided ample opportunity for listening to the conversations, conducting unstructured interviews, and familiarization with the current political and social dynamics in Clermont.

The choice of Clermont itself was also a strategic decision. Like most South

African townships, it was at the heart of the struggle against apartheid. The township continues to be a theatre of struggle, with many active community based organizations

(CBOs). Moreover, during the turbulent years when apartheid was dying and the new era was not yet born, I lived in Clermont from 1990 to 1994, for my home in Phatheni had turned into a cauldron of political violence. Familiarity with the history, politics, geography, and social life of Clermont was a great advantage during the research process.

Equally important is that most Clermont residents speak isiZulu, my first language. This greatly facilitated the research process. However, although this familiarity with Clermont brought clear advantages, the position as an insider was a double-edged sword.

For a returning "son of the soil" there were many hidden challenges, key among which was the temptation to take things for granted. A researcher in this situation has to constantly prod himself to ask for clarity even when he thinks he understands the meanings of responses to questions or the actions of those around him. Given the colonial origins of ethnography, and the attendant anthropological manipulation of "natives" for

Ranks, and Rebels: Feuding in the Taxi Revolution," Journal ofSouthern African Studies 18, no.I (1992) 232-251. 14

imperial purposes, it is not surprising that research methods courses in the United States hardly broach the challenges facing Africans studying their own societies. 19 Although like all ethnographers, the "native ethnographer" carries with her a personal history and a power position, she faces many unique challenges. Doing "home work" (i.e., conducting research in our own societies) provides many obstacles. For example, some organizations assumed, as a student at an American university, I had access to resources and I might be helpful to their fundraising, networking, and other means.

In spite of these practical problems, one had to find a way ofrelating indigenous knowledge, as understood in Clermont, to other places. This study employs a sociological approach to indigenous knowledge to demonstrate that the resurgence of ubuntu is a response to the social dislocations resulting from South Africa's political and economic transitions. This sociological approach combines insights from indigenous knowledge studies and Karl Polanyi' s double-movement thesis. The theoretical framework is developed further in the next chapter. It is ambitious to the degree that it suggests ways of analyzing the resuscitation of indigenous worldviews in the current era of globalization.

19 Jankie (2004) offers a thorough discussion of the hurdles and cultural stresses posed by insider/outsider positions while conducting research in a Botswana school. See Dudu Jankie, "'Tell Me Who You Are': Problematizing the Construction and Positionalities of 'Insider' /'Outsider' of a 'Native' Ethnographer in a Postcolonial Context," in Decolonizing Research in Cross-Cultural Contexts: Critical Personal Narratives, ed. Kagendo Mutua and Beth B. Swadener (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2004), 87-106. Although it addresses issues faced by Americans studying their own societies, a useful book is Donald A Messerschmidt, Anthropologists at Home in North America: Methods and Issues in the Study of One's Own Society (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981 ). Excellent pieces by so-called minority researchers include: Hussein Fahim, Indigenous Anthropology in Non-Western Countries (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1982); Edward Said, "Representing the Colonized: Anthropology's Interlocutors," Critical Inquiry 15 (1989): 205-225; Kirin Narayan, "How Native Is a 'Native' Anthropologist?" American Anthropologist 95, no. 3 (1993): 671-686; John Morton, "Anthropology at Home in Australia," The Australian Journal ofAnthropology IO, no. 3 (1999): 243-258; and Soraya Altorki and Camillia Fawzi El-Solh, eds. Arab Women in the Field: Studying Your Own Society (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1988). 15

The theoretical approach is premised on the argument that as the process of globalization tends to be more homogenizing, it has been accompanied by the resurgence of religious, cultural, and ethnic identities. Viewed in the context of globalization, ubuntu and other indigenous knowledge systems have a much broader significance. As Jean and

John Comaroff (1992, 17) warn, "Improperly contextualized, the stories of ordinary people stand in danger of remaining just that: stories. To be something more, these partial

'hidden histories' have to be situated in the wider worlds of power and the meaning that gave them life." Seen in this light, the revival of indigenous knowledges is not merely a local phenomenon. Instead, indigenous knowledge emerges from the crevices of history and has significance for understanding globalization. In short, an examination of the revival of this worldview enables us to explore a few fundamental issues in the nexus of culture and contemporary globalization: the place of non-Western intellectual traditions in the contemporary discourse on globalization; and the role of indigenous value systems in postcolonial political formulations. It is this harnessing of indigenous worldviews for accommodating, interrogating, and challenging globalization to which we now tum.

Ubuntu and Globalization

This study is anchored in understanding globalization not as a mere economic phenomenon, as some scholars seem to suggest (Ohmae 1996, Friedman 2000, and Hirst and Thompson 2000). Instead, the approach taken here concurs with Glenn Adler and

James Mittelman (2004, 193) that globalization is a set of historical processes that entail

"deep transformations in modes of economy, with market forces becoming ascendant; in politics, with the state not at all receding but subject to greater pressure from above and below; and in culture, with an erosion of certain ways of life, the formation of new hybrid 16

forms, and also the reassertion ofcultural dignity in varied contexts" (emphasis added).

In this dissertation, ubuntu is seen as part of this reassertion of dignity to counter the negative consequences of globalization.

In many ways, neoliberal globalization attempts to crystallize a specific set of values and transform it to a universal ethic. The consequences of its neoliberal economic project are value-laden. Contrary to many postmodernist accounts, far from eliminating master narratives, globalization actually reproduces them.2°Far from signifying the end of geography, it continues to carve the harshest frontiers: for example, between the rich and the poor, the tourist and the homeless, and the haves and the have-nots. As Robert W.

Cox (2000, 225) puts it, individualism and competitiveness are its basic assumptions regarding human conduct; and society, the real existence of which is moot, is just their by-product, an illusion created by market forces. However, the attempt to grind the human experience into the featureless uniformity finds resistance at many turns. Counter- narratives that are often silenced by the impositions of this (post) modernist tale continue to bubble beneath the surface. Although there are multiple interpretations of the ubuntu worldview, they all depart in fundamental ways from the dominant ideology ofneoliberal economic globalization. For instance, the hegemony of individualism and its attendan~ manifestations in consumerism and pursuit of individual material wealth are all put into question.

As research showed, the resurgence of ubuntu is concerned, to a substantial degree, with these foundational value concerns. Its promoters interrogate the basic tenets

20 This is one critical point raised by Negri and Hardt's notion of"Empire." See Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000). 17

of the world in the making, drawing attention to questions of social justice, recognition and respect of difference, and the structures of inequality that remain strong in South

Africa and the world today. Fundamentally then, ubuntu is viewed here as an attempt to protect the social fabric in the face of the social dislocation that accompanies the deep transformations associated with globalization. This is what Karl Polanyi called the double-movement. The next chapter expounds on this thesis.

In his celebrated study, The Great Transformation (1957), Polanyi explores the rise of the market and market ideology in nineteenth-century England. As this "self- regulating" market utopia expanded, it unleashed social dislocation. According to

Polanyi, the history of that century, therefore, was the consequence of what he calls a double movement: the extension of the market to all forms of life was met with a countermovement to protect society against its deleterious impact. The current era of globalization resembles the environment incisively analyzed by Polanyi.

In the case of South Africa, immediately after coming to power in 1994, the

African National Congress (ANC) government put full faith in the magic of a neoliberal macro-economic agenda, not only to address the legacy of apartheid, but also to ensure

South Africa's full entry into the global economy. As it were, the stream ofliberation flowed into the river of neoliberalism. Whatever exiguous returns have been made, the social costs of the government's neoliberal economic agenda have been exorbitant.21

21 According to the government agency Statistics South Africa, the average black household has become 15 percent poorer since 1994, while the average white household has seen its wealth grow by a staggering 19 percent. Not just relative but absolute poverty intensified, as the portion of households earning less than $90 of real income increased from 20 percent of the population in 1995 to 28 percent in 2000. Across the racial divide, the poorest half of all South Africans earned just 9. 7 percent of national income in 2000, down from 11.4 percent in 1995. The richest 20 percent earned 65 percent of all income and black South Africans have lost nearly two million jobs over the same period. In addition, in spite of 18

Chapter three discusses this in fuller detail. Briefly, the accompanying sacrifices "to get the economic fundamentals right" has structured South Africa toward the loss of crucial public services, continued dispossession of the majority, and a jobless economic growth that benefits only slices of the population.

However, as John McMurtry (2002, xxiv) eloquently argues, as the lock-step of globalization's value equations steer some segments of the world's population into economic cul-de-sacs, "an unseen sea-shift towards reconnection to life values and the life-ground grows in the crevices of globalization." Therefore, the crux of the argument is that the limited success of the South African government's neoliberal economic agenda has amplified calls for an economy not governed only by profit motives, but by ethical values. The revitalization of ubuntu represents this "sea-shift towards reconnection to life values." More significantly, this sea-shift has global dimensions.

As chapter five makes clear, the resurgence of ubuntu is not just a South Africa phenomenon; multiple international organizations and transnational bodies have adopted some ubuntu principles to anchor their efforts to change the global economic and social order. Equally important is that ubuntu is among a host of indigenous philosophies that have gained prominence the world over in the last few decades. Although this rejuvenation of indigenous knowledge is not a new phenomenon, the economic, social, and political milieu in which today's movements assert themselves is fundamentally distinct from times past.

growing poverty, the government raised water and electricity prices dramatically so that millions of people had their water and electricity cut off. Statistics South Africa, Republic of South Africa, "Earnings and Spending in South Africa: Selected Findings and Comparisons from the Income and Expenditure Surveys of October 1995 and October 2000," www.statssa.gov.za (accessed January 14, 2007). 19

Catherine Walsh (2002, 64) is correct, therefore, when she argues that the rise of indigenous identities takes on "new significance in the current climate of globalization and the attendant crisis and erosion of states, in the neoliberal projects and the transformation of capitalism into something is symbolic and cultural as well as economic." It is largely due to these dramatic transformations in the economic, cultural, and political arenas in the last quarter century that ubuntu and other alternative worldviews raise questions worthy of social scientific inquiry.

International Relations and Indigenous Knowledge

In the last few decades, tectonic political and economic changes have impugned the utility of some of IR' s most redoubtable theories and concepts and demanded unexampled introspection among the discipline's leading scholars. The next section considers two related changes that have had significant implications for the study of indigenous knowledge in IR. The first is the end of the Cold War which discharged salvos of assault on IR' s self-definition and pried open new avenues of inquiry. A related change is the growing recognition of the importance of globalization. The concomitant rise of Globalization Studies has triggered unsettling questions and demanded a rethinking of the working concepts of Area Studies such as 'place' and the import of comparative analysis.

New Approaches in International Relations

The unpredicted end of the Cold War laid bare fissures in some of the resolute theories of IR and helped scholars chart new paths and gave prominence to previously marginalized approaches in the field. More importantly, the door opened for the 20

consideration of 'the other' and her culture, promises and threats, accommodation and resistance. These new trends questioned the restrictive epistemological prejudices of IR and dislodged some of the discipline's bedrock categories. Thus, the exploration of subjects such as social movements (Smith and Johnston 2002), gender (Enloe 2004), race

(Persaud 2002), inequality (Ayoob 2002), and the environment (Wapner 1995) has flourished in IR in the post-Cold War era.

Thanks to post-positivist approaches in the field, we are forced to reflect far more deeply about questions of epistemology and methodology precisely because they show how discourses operate to create the conditions for knowledge claims (Smith 1997, 334).

Quite importantly for this dissertation, critical IR theorists (Calhoun 1995, Gills 2000,

Cox 1981 and 2002, and Mittelman 2004) have revealed the fragility of traditional IR's empiricist claims. They demonstrate that what passes for common sense in international theory is actually a by product of the power-knowledge relationship and pinpoint the power interests that lie behind IR precepts. 22 At the core of such critical approaches is the understanding that the construction of theory is never entirely value neutral. As Robert

W. Cox (1981, 128) aptly puts it, "Theory is never autonomous but is always for someone and for some purpose."

The major contributions of new thinking in IR notwithstanding, we are still grappling with the constrictions of an extremely American field. As a result, even as indigenous worldviews have demonstrably gained ascendance, the theoretical hardware

22 For an overview see, Andrew Linklater, "The Achievements of Critical Theory," in International Theory: Positivism and Beyond, eds. Steve Smith, Ken Booth and Marysia Zalewski (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 279-98, and; James H. Mittelman. "What Is Critical Globalization Studies?" International Studies Perspectives 5, no. 3 (2004): 219-230. 21

of IR has ensured that they remain barely audible. This yields credence to Stanley

Hoffman's charge, more than three decades ago, that IR is an American social science

(1977: 41 ).23 This U.S. parochialism has generally meant that IR has given the non-

Western world a cold shoulder - waging its own theoretical Cold War against the colonial and post-colonial worlds. This is a particularly forceful indictment ofIR's treatment of the African continent.

As one of the most influential IR scholars, Hans Morgenthau (1993, 369), harshly put it, Africa did not have a history before World War II; it was a 'politically empty space'. Samuel Huntington (1993, 25) is a little kinder, identifying the major civilizations of the world as "Western, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin

American, and possibly the African" (emphasis added). Small wonder, then, that an audit ofIR presents an unpleasant picture as far as the African continent is concerned.24

Indeed, a number of Africanist scholars dismiss the discipline's universalist pretensions and its "existing efforts to provide theoretical frameworks within which to conceptualize and analyze different, and particularly non-Western and post-colonial regions of the international system" (Brown 2006, 123). Kevin Dunn (2001, 2) starkly reminds us that

23 See, Ekkehart Krippendorff, "The Dominance of American Approaches in International Relations," Millennium: Journal ofInternational Studies 16, no. 2 (1987): 207-214, and Ole Waever, "The Sociology of a Not So International Discipline: American and European Developments in International Relations," International Organization 52, no. 4 (1998): 687-727. 24 Numerous Africanist scholars have excoriated mainstream IR for its poor treatment of Africa. Among others, see Kevin Dunn and Timothy M. Shaw, eds. Africa's Challenge to International Relations Theory (New York: Palgrave, 2001); Mohammed Ayoob, "Subaltern Realism: International Relations Theory Meets the Third World," in International Relations Theory and the Third World, ed. Stephanie G. Neuman (London: Macmillan, 1998); and Tandeka C. Nkiwane, "Africa and International Relations: Regional Lessons for a Global Discourse," International Political Science Review 22, no. 3 (2001): 279- 290. For a critique of these views, see William Brown, "Africa and International Relations: A Comment on IR Theory, Anarchy and Statehood," Review ofInternational Studies 32 (2006): 119-143. 22

Africa has long been absent in theorizing about world politics.25 He offers as an example, that syllabi for many graduate level IR courses give Africa incredible short shrift, or ignore it altogether. In some cases more attention is paid to Antarctica.

The pith of the argument here is that even as they have broken new ground, many of the new approaches in IR are still guided by a Eurocentric compass. The culture of the modern West imbues many perspectives in the field, presents itself as the tool for understanding the 'other', and brands alternative visions as primitive visions of the self.

Even a number of insurgent subdivisions of the field situate Western dominance at the core of analysis. Non-Western regions are not only peripheral and subordinate to Western dominance, they appear marginal and external to the theory itself. As Mustapha Pasha

(2005, 548) puts it, they are reactionaries to an order already in existence. Any suggestion that they are crucial and active participants in the creation of global order itself is deemed preposterous. For example, Chris Brown (1992, 13) is unapologetic when he states, in an introductory text to normative approaches in IR: "No alternative body of non-Western thought appears to come close to the level of sophistication exemplified by the authors considered in this book." This is not an isolated perspective.

In his review of Michael Doyle and G. John Ikenberry's edited volume, New

Thinking in International Relations Theory, Robert W. Cox (1998, 972) also laments this pervasive U.S. centrism in IR. He observes that, "Not only are the contributing authors all

Americans, teaching in American universities, but the frame of reference of discussion

25 On the other hand, Larry A. Swatuk argues quite persuasively, that Africa has never been marginal either in the modern world or in the study and practice of international relations. To the contrary, Africa has been central to the Western imaginary, and, in particular, to Western conceptions of 'self'. He argues that the 'dark continent' has formed one half of selfi'other and related binaries. See Larry A. Swatuk, "Modernity and 'International' Relations in Southern Africa," in Africa's Challenge to International Relations Theory, eds. Kevin C. Dunn and Timothy M. Shaw (New York: Palgrave, 2001), 164. 23

concerning IR theory is also specifically American." Mittelman (2005, 116) similarly reprimands David Held's cosmopolitanism for exclusively deriving its conceptual tools and 'unalloyed principles' from a Western political philosophy. He goes on to urge Held to proceed "from multiple observation points, drawing from different stations on the hierarchy of power and wealth, listening to the voices of the marginalized, and embodying lived practices" as ways to refocus a cosmopolitan lens.

It is not surprising, then, that the 'opening' of IR has either ignored contributions from outside of North America or, as Makinda charges, belatedly highlighted issues long identified by Africanists and other critics as key subjects in IR.26 For example, the jubilant announcement of the return of culture to IR theory (Lapid and Kratochwil 1997,

Katzenstein 1996, and Klotz 1999) is something many scholars such as Mazrui (1975), for example, have argued was always there. What is proposed here, then, is not just bootlegging Africa and its cargo into IR theory, but a serious engagement with perspectives and issues that are raised not only by African and Africanist scholars, but by socio-economic conditions on the continent. This is why the rise of Globalization Studies should not be seen as signaling the death of area-driven research.

Area Studies

Due to pressures coming from multiple quarters, Area Studies has been routinely characterized as ''under siege" (Katzenstein 2001, 789). Indictments against Area Studies generally follow two narratives. The first faults it for its origins - the international politics which led to its conception. A descendant of unequal power relations between the West

26 Samuel Makinda, "Reading and Writing International Relations," Australian Journal of International Relations 54, no 3 (2000): 399. 24

and the non-West, it has not transcended the restrictions of that relationship.27 The argument goes that Area Studies reached its expiration date with the end of the Cold

War's ideological contests. While the charge that Area Studies was in thrall to U.S. interests has merit, it is important to stress that Area Studies was not a one-dimensional weapon of imperialism. Between the cracks, it allowed for the creation of vast amounts of knowledge mobilized by critics to understand the dilemma of our world (Trouillot 2001,

129).

Another potent indictment is that globalization has rendered the hyperparochial tools of Area Studies archaic for understanding the complex realities of today's world.28

Because it signifies reconfiguration of space, it may appear that globalization has indeed declared area based research obsolete. This dissertation takes the exact opposite as a launching pad. Our understanding of the reconstitution of space is enhanced by conducting place-based (not place-bound) research. Although what Mallki (1995) termed the ~'national order of things" seems to succumb to the "global order of things," people still construct their identities and relations in specific places.29 Localities are precisely where globalization is articulated and its promises and contradictions negotiated.

This is not to say that geographic boundaries (continents, regions, states, and territories) reflect real patterns of economic, social, political and cultural differences, or what Martin and Wigen (1997, 2) aptly called the "myth of geographic concordance."

27 Biray Kolluoglu-Kirli, "From Orientalism to Area Studies," CR: The New Centennial Review 3, no. 3 (2003): 109. 28 Masao Miyoshi and Harry D. Harootunian, Leaming Places: The Afterlives ofArea Studies (Durham: Duke University Press, 2002). 29 Liisa Malkki, Purity and Exile: Violence, Memory, and National Consciousness among Hutu Refugees in Tanzania (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). 25

Indeed, the 'areas' in Area Studies are not isolated containers of bounded social relations.

Writing about India, Arjun Appadurai states that it is "not a reified social fact nor a crude nationalist reflect" but an optic from which to gauge the uneven effects of what has been termed globalization.30 A singular place does not capture all the complexities of globalization. All we have are mere approximations. As Parred (2003, 124) argues, "All contexts bear the imprint of other locations, of other histories, of other, often oppositional tendencies. Insularity is, perhaps now more than ever, difficult to attain." Thus, focusing on where globalization takes place is not a search for a totality of the narrative of globalization, it is "a way of displacing the story - showing where, as well as how, stories intersect and interweave, and with what consequences" (Pile, 2006, 306).

As chapter four demonstrates, the contemporary round of globalization does not mean that the state, for example, has become "unnatural - even dysfunctional," as

Kenichi Ohmae (1996, 16) tries to convince us. Instead, it entails rescaling, that is, the

"production of new configurations of territoriality on both sub- and supra-national geographies of scale" (Brenner 1999, 41). This means we should be attentive to the ways in which states and regions, while being undermined by supra-national organizations, continue to play a significant role as sites, conduits, and agents for or against globalization. While particular places produce distinct tunes, they also dance to political and economic rhythms from places distant in both time and place. Detailed, place-based research helps us make meaning of these fine local tunes and make them intelligible beyond their immediate contexts.

30 Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), 18. 26

Admittedly, plowing through the untilled field of indigenous knowledge and international relations raises multiple hurdles. That notwithstanding, this study will make significant contributions to the growing body of scholarly work on ubuntu and the literature on the intersections of indigenous knowledge and globalization.

Significance of Study

While this dissertation is about how ubuntu is reclaimed and deployed in different ways in a specific township in South Africa, it sets its sights more broadly in a number of ways. The volume of scholarly work on the philosophical aspects of ubuntu is reaching immense proportions. The published litt,'fature that grabbles with the significance of this worldview in South Africa has mainly been of a normative kind. There is a dearth of detailed empirical research that connects it to the social, political, and economic relations in South Africa and the world. As one of very few studies of ubuntu based on rigorous empirical research, this dissertation brings to the fore the voices of community members, community organizations, and individual activists. To be sure, a few scholars have undertaken interesting empirical research projects on ubuntu. After conducting interviews with 215 South African black children about their understanding of ubuntu, Bonn

"refutes the belief that the traditional ethics of ubuntu are disappearing with the changes taking place and the rise in urbanization."31 Mapadimeng (2004) also reached the same conclusion after interviewing workers about their views on ubuntu at Zincor, a zinc plant

31 Marta Bonn, "Children's Understanding of Ubuntu," Early Child Development and Care 177, no. 8 (2007): 863. 27

in Springs, Gauteng. 32 This dissertation seeks to add to these discussions of the potential of ubuntu in shaping the future of a democratic South Africa.

Additionally, this dissertation challenges the easy dichotomy between tradition and modernity to which some students of indigenous knowledge often subscribe. Quite a few ubuntu scholars (for example, Marx 2002 and Venter 2004) follow this track and confine the ubuntu worldview to the realm of traditional philosophy. This study argues quite the opposite. Contemporary expressions of ubuntu are very (post) modem.

Although deeply rooted in age-old traditions, indigenous idioms are not merely buried cultural shards, dusted off for use in times of desperation for political ends. Although indebted to the past, ubuntu is not seen as an imagined nirvana of an idyllic past. Instead, it speaks to the present: the frustrations of the unfulfilled promises of post-apartheid

South Africa, the perceived loss of culture and dignity, and meeting economic needs of the residents of Clermont residents. As respondents repeatedly stated, the familiar channels of expressing dissent against the apartheid state are no longer intact in post- apartheid South Africa. The multiple metaphors of ubuntu offer a haven for critical imagination.

Therefore, ubuntu should be seen as a mode of producing new forms of consciousness, of sharpening culturally familiar tools for new ends. Relegating ubuntu to tradition blinds one to its political potential to build "new modes of association, new

32 Simon Mapadimeng, "Workplace Culture, Participation and Work Performance in South Africa: Implications for the Role of Ubuntu/Botho Culture: A Case Study of Zincor," University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004. See also, Thembayona Manci, "The Response of African Religion to Poverty with Specific Reference to the Umzimkhulu Municipality'' (PhD diss., University of South Africa, 2005). 28

media of expression, new sorts of moral community, new politics" (Comaroff and

Comaroff 1999, 33). For this reason, this dissertation takes the world as an ongoing human construction; there is no traditional, indigenous, or natural state to which we can return. Longevity does not imply continuity. The lyrics may come from the past, but they are reworked to fit a new melody; thus the music is always new. Like other indigenous worldviews and practices, ubuntu is fluid, changing, and always reworked based on the immediate needs of individuals, groups and institutions within a given historical and situational context. We should resist the temptation to romanticize indigenous communities and their practices so as not to strip them of the complex manner in which they withstand or accommodate dominant practices. Furthermore, their experiences are not isolated.

In many parts of the world, indigenous communities are calling into question the epistemological assumptions of globalization. However, the question of the relationship between globalization and indigenous knowledge still remains a scabrous problem for students of indigenous knowledge. By linking ubuntu and indigenous knowledge to issues of globalization, we are better able to address analytic questions that continue to vex students of indigenous knowledge in general. In so doing, the study borrows from and adds to the efforts of critical scholars to expand epistemological plurality in IR.

This study, then, is about self-determination and the legitimization of indigenous knowledge. According to Friedrich Hayek, "Most of the millions of the developing world owe their existence to opportunities that advanced market societies have created for 29

them."33 Contra Friedrich Hayek, the dissertation explores the richness of expression and the complex imaginations that non-Western societies use to create opportunities for themselves. In spite of the mechanics of exclusion that accompany contemporary globalization, many "non-Western" societies are recreating alternative modes of appropriation, rejection and subversion. Ubuntu is placed in the center of these nascent alternative epistemological frames.

There is an urgent need, therefore, to research the "subaltern counterpublic spheres," as Nancy Fraser calls them, "in order to signal that there are parallel discursive arenas where members of subordinated social groups invent and circulate counter- discourses, which in turn permit them to formulate counter-hegemonic interpretations of their identities, interests, and needs" (1997, 81). The main point is that in the face of the present crises of accumulation and extreme poverty, indigenous ontologies and epistemologies have much to contribute to the creation of alternative conceptions of society. This is what Stewart-Harawira (2005, 103) calls "pedagogies of hope." This research falls firmly within the purview of this larger project to put these "disqualified" worldviews and imaginings at the center of research.

Conclusion

Since the resurgence of ubuntu is a relatively recent phenomenon, we need to take to heart R.B.J. Walker's warning that there is always a lurking "danger of imposing premature classification onto processes that have not yet run their course" (1988, 62).

That notwithstanding, there is enough material to identify some trends, however tentative.

33 Friedrich A Hayek, "The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism," in The Collected Works of F.A. Hayek, ed. W.W. Bartley (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), 130. 30

Colonialism and apartheid created fragmented worldviews, or what Leroy Little

Bear (2000, 84-85) calls "jagged worldviews." They flow back and forth between a pre- colonized, colonized, and post-colonized consciousness. Consequently, the people that were interviewed do not hold uniform views about ubuntu. Indeed, they demonstrated that ubuntu is a political field- the contested meanings of which are mobilized and manipulated by diverse forces. Post-apartheid South Africa is marked by a vigorous rivalry among philosophies, ideologies, discourses and meanings. This is what Hebdige

(1979, 17) has labeled "a struggle within signification." It is an intense duel for the expression ofworldviews and the attendant stocks of meanings which stretch from the highest echelons of power to the most prosaic areas of life. Current debates about the resurgence of ubuntu are more meaningful when placed in that context.

The structure of the dissertation reflects this struggle in a number of ways. As the case studies show, there are different kinds of sectors pursuing sometimes divergent interests, all in the name of ubuntu. At a general level, then, the 'weapons of the weak'

(Scott 1985) are not the sole possession of the weak. Some corporations use the kernels of this indigenous philosophy for further capitalist extraction, while some groups are inspired by ubuntu tenets to reject the neoliberal economic paradigm adopted by the government. Therefore, one can speak of multiple tensions rather than the mechanical equations globalization and anti-globalization. 34

34 See for example, Robert A. Rhoads, "Globalization and Resistance in the United States and Mexico: The Global Potemkin Village," Higher Education 45, no. 2 (2003): 223-250; Jagdish Bhagwati, "Coping with Antiglobalization: A Trilogy of Discontents," Foreign Affairs 81, no. 1 (2002): 2-7; and, David Held and Anthony McGrew, Globalization/Anti-Globalization (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002). 31

The next chapter discusses these tensions further and develops a conceptual framework for understanding the revival of ubuntu in post-apartheid South Africa. The approach scrutinizes the resurgence of ubuntu in the context of globalization and, perhaps more ambitiously, the hope is that it will offer ways of analyzing the extent to which indigenous worldviews are ascendant in the present era of globalization. The third chapter examines the embryonic ubuntu consciousness in Clermont. Here is presented a typology of ubuntu organizations and some of the key actors are identified. The government has also found ubuntu to be an effective mobilizing worldview. The fourth chapter dissects this use of ubuntu by the government for nation-building purposes. The final case study is presented in chapter 5 and explores the global dimensions of ubuntu.

This section interrogates the global relevance of this philosophy and explores the ways in which diverse international organizations have used it for their purposes. The conclusion discusses ubuntu vis-a-vis the search for alternatives to the prevailing ideologies of globalization. The chapter summarizes the research findings, pointing to some of the avenues opened by invocations of ubuntu. The final chapter also demonstrates how the research supports and challenges other studies and how it breaks new ground. CHAPTER2

TOWARD A SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO UBUNTU

As stated in the introductory chapter, the field research demonstrated that neither the facts nor the public opinions about the importance of ubuntu are in doubt. Debatable are the most useful theoretical approaches to relate the descriptive accounts to broader issues. Confronted with the ultimate challenge of social science research, viz. discerning patterns and knitting together seemingly disparate accounts, the research framework has to nana1 (borrow) conceptual tools from indigenous knowledge literature, globalization studies, and Karl Polanyi's notion of the double-movement.

The combination of Polanyian concepts and insights from indigenous knowledge is not a fortuitous coincidence. Polanyi's critical framework and intellectual disposition were highly informed by his study of so-called primitive societies. This is substantiated by his development of rich concepts such as reciprocity, redistribution, and substantive and formal economies. As Gerald Berthoud (1990, 173) persuasively argues, Polanyi's work would be better appreciated if scholars refrained from partitioning his work into two Polanyis: one a theoretician of primitive and archaic economies (as in Trade and

Market in Early Empires); the other, a radical critic of economic modernity (the author of

1 In Zulu culture, ukwenana is an important cultural form of exchange and it does not involve accumulation of interest. An item that changes hands in such a transaction is not a gift; the borrowing party engages in the exchange with the intention of returning the item at some stage. However, the giving party participates in the transaction sometimes knowing that there is little chance of reciprocation. 32 33

The Great Transformation). Appreciating the two Polanyis together reveals interesting points of convergence between his theorem and indigenous perspectives.

The remit of this chapter expounds on this and develops a conceptual framework for understanding the resurgence of ubuntu in South Africa. The goals of this framework are also more ambitious in that it goes beyond ubuntu and seeks to offer ways of analyzing the resuscitation of indigenous worldviews in the current era of globalization.

To that end, the next section discusses the challenges posed by indigenous knowledge to the assumptions and certainties of western social scientific inquiry. This is followed by a review of the literature on ubuntu within the ambit of indigenous knowledge studies.

Combining insights from this literature with Polanyi's double-movement thesis, the final section outlines the benefits of a more sociological approach to the study of indigenous knowledge.

Indigenous Ontologies and Social Transformation

As an academic corpus, the expansive literature on indigenous knowledge generally denotes a wide set of situated ontological and epistemological positions, strategies, beliefs, and practices associated with a defined territorial space for a considerably long period (Fernando 2003, 56). Scholars of indigenous studies generally hold that indigenous knowledge is produced in response to "shared human economic needs and cognitive processes" and that it is intimately moored to its context (Ellen 2000,

28). Additionally, it is often juxtaposed with "colonial-power-knowledge," as Michael

Doxtater calls it, namely, the self-appointed role of western knowledge to act as an intellectual fiduciary for all people (2003, 629). 34

It is in the context of the dominance of this "colonial-power-knowledge" that indigenous theorists are persistently probing the assumptions of western knowledge.

Many researchers specifically use indigenous knowledge precepts to query understandings of current globalization. Mak:ere Stewart-Harawira (2005, 19) puts it thus:

"In arguing that indigenous ontologies have an important place in theories of social transformation, it is the ethnocentrism of conservative and liberalist approaches to globalization that I wish to challenge." Yet, the "indigenous knowledge" designation generally tends to defy summary.

In this study, the term 'indigenous' is seen as a contentious term.36 By contentious is meant a carefully chosen collective term, strategically employed to challenge, disrupt, and make claims upon the hegemonic sway of the dominant worldview. Quite often, contentious terms have a long-lasting effect and generally resonate because they vigorously articulate what seems to be rather obvious and mundane. The opening statement of the Freedom Charter is a typical example: "South Africa belongs to all who live in it ... "37 This was a powerful and radical statement uttered in defiance of apartheid policies such as the Group Areas Act that restricted the movement of people within their own country. Another instance is the powerful declaration epitomized by the banner, "I

36 While the term "contentious" is somewhat consonant with the framework forwarded by Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow and Charles Tilly, its use here differs from them in that there is no presumption that contention necessarily depends on mobilization and the creation of means and capacities for collective interaction as they argue. Nor are contention and mobilization strictly associated with social movements' engagement with the state. See Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow and Charles Tilly, The Dynamics of Contention (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001 ). 37 Adopted by over 3,000 delegates at the Congress of the People in Kliptown (near Johannesburg) on June 26, 1955, the Freedom Charter is one of the most important documents to come out of the liberation struggle in South Africa. Coming only a few years after the Defiance Campaign, it forcefully articulated an alternative vision of the future of South Africa and put fundamental social transformation at the core of the agenda of the liberation movement. See "The Freedom Charter," http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/charter.html (accessed January 31, 2008). 35

am a Man!" that Memphis sanitation workers and their supporters wore on their backs during their famous strike led by Martin Luther King, Jr. in April 1968. The sanitation workers were mostly black men who demanded respect in the form of suitable compensation and union recognition.38 Similar demands for recognition of the dignity and humanity include Sojourner Truth's legendary "Aren't I a Woman?"

Indeed, Dismas Masolo (2003, 21) states that the term 'indigenous', like its counterparts (migrant, alien, settler), is used to define the origin of items or persons in relation to how their belonging to a place is to be temporarily characterized, especially in comparison to other contenders in claiming belonging. Writing about indigenous knowledge in South Africa, Pieter Van Hensbroek (2001, 5) designates the word

'indigenous' a battle cry: "The simple act of putting forward these African ideas [ubuntu and the African Renaissance] is an act of defining a counter-position to dominant

Western conceptions of development, of modernity, and of life as such."

Another designation that requires clarification is "tradition". The use of this term throughout this project deviates from conventional formulations which present it as the opposite of modernity. The "modernity vs. tradition" dichotomy not only overemphasizes modernity as the primary fabricator of identity formation, it also presents traditions as fossilized remnants of things primitive, backward, and deficient. In this view, tradition is seen as a foil to the modem - static, reactionary, never constructive. This dissertation

38 For a detailed account of the Memphis sanitation workers' strike, see Michael K. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2007) and Steve Estes, I Am a Mani Race, Manhood, and the Civil Rights Movement (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005). 36

recasts tradition as dynamic and complex, and often contradictory expressions of new relations. For example, Whyte (1990) states that for the Nyole people of eastern Uganda, cotton cash-cropping was seen as a traditional way of subsistence, an integral part of their cultural system, notwithstanding that cotton was introduced by British colonizers as late as World War I. Thus, tradition is not primarily of the things of long ago, as they were, nor does it exclusively refer to the heritage of pre-colonial times. Here, Whyte' s ( 1990,

308) perspective is persuasive: "In the eyes of the Nyole, tradition refers to habitus, the things which are [not were] done" (emphasis added). Therefore, as soon as we eschew defining tradition as resistance to modernity, the term becomes, as Phillips (2004, 7) trenchantly argues, "a means of raising essential questions about the ways in which we pass on the life of cultures - questions that necessarily include issues of authority as well as invention, practice as well as interpretation." Far from signifying vigorous opposition to change, tradition actually reveals social change, of which it is an integral part. This is the perspective adopted in this project.

In short, then, indigenous knowledge is not simply about enriching western science; its objective is to query the very underlying assumptions of this discourse.

Ladislaus Semali and Joe Kincheloe (1999, 45) offer a persuasive argument when they say: "Our notion of an indigenously-informed transformative science is not one that simply admits more peoples-red and yellow, black and white - into the country club of science but one that challenges the epistemological foundations of the ethno-knowledge known simply as science." This questioning of the certainties of western conceptions of

(post)modernity has meant that over the last few decades, "indigenous knowledge" has been transformed from a prosaic and sentimental category to a powerful action term for 37

group identity, political mobilization, transnational cooperation, and sometimes even revolutionary political activities. It is not surprising, therefore, that the renewal of ubuntu has many siblings elsewhere.

Ubuntu Parallels

The historical and ethnographic record is replete with redoubtable examples of the reawakening of indigenous knowledge and movements on a world scale. This awakening and the concomitant resistance, organized or otherwise, of indigenous people in Africa and elsewhere are not new phenomena. Yet, the economic, social, and political milieu in which today's movements assert themselves is fundamentally distinct from times past. It is also important to note, however, that the appeal of indigenous knowledge does not merely occur among the "fringe" societies of the world but in fact, it happens in western countries as well (Wallace 2004, xiii). Below is a brief discussion of the relevance of these indigenous movements in a few countries.

In New Zealand, the indigenous philosophical approach called Kaupapa Maori has been very influential in government policy in provincial education programs.

Kaupapa Maori developed as a challenge to a mainstream Piikehii (non-Maori) centered system that failed to address key needs of Maori. As such, it acts as a politicizing agent for a counter-hegemonic force to promote the conscientisation of Maori people, through a process of critiquing western definitions and constructions and asserting the validation of the Maori. 39

39 For more on Kaupapa Maori, see Graham Hingangaroa Smith, "The Development of Kaupapa Maori: Theory and Praxis" (PhD diss., University of Auckland, 1997); Linda T. Smith, Decolonizing Methodology (London: Zed Books, 1999); and Leonie Pihama, "Creating Methodological Space: A Literature Review of Kaupapa Maori Research," Canadian Journal ofNative Education 26, no. 1 (2002): 30-43. For a critique of Kaupapa Maori, see Elizabeth Rata, "Ethnic Ideologies in New Zealand 38

In Bolivia and Ecuador, indigenous communities have become more politically active and reconstructed ayllu (referred to as wachu in the Pisac region of Peru), an ancient concept of community based on territorial federation. It is characterized by rotating leadership, extensive consultation, with the goals of communal consensus and an equitable distribution ofresources (Korovkin 2001, 38).40 As Robert Albro (2005, 2) puts it, much of what is at issue in Bolivia today directly reflects an effort to reformulate from below the very terms of indigenous popular participation in the process of national political life. Similarly, Loring Abeyta (2005, 13) argues that indigenous traditions of mining ceremonies in Peru have proven indispensable for indigenous workers to address the continuing exploitation of their labor in the mining industries. She avers that their uniquely indigenous forms of collective engagement merit recognition for their historical and contemporary influence on political action among indigenous peoples in Peru and throughout the hemisphere.

Larissa Adler Lomnitz (2006) demonstrates that similar trends are taking place in

Mexico and Chile. She presents ethnographic material form the urban areas of both countries to show the adaptation in urban conditions, of certain features (such as confianza, or trust) commonly associated with "traditional" economies that have definite economic and political value.

Education: What's Wrong with Kaupapa Maori" (paper presented at the Teacher Education Forum of Aotearoa/New Zealand Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, July 5-7, 2004). 40 Additional literature on the ayllu includes: Robert Albro, "The Future of Culture and Rights for Bolivia's Indigenous Movements" (paper presented at the Carnegie Fellows' Conference, Washington, D.C., USA, June 11-13, 2005); Tanya Korovkin, "Reinventing the Communal Tradition: Indigenous Peoples, Civil Society, and Democratization in Andean Ecuador," Latin American Research Review 36, no. 3 (2001): 37-67; and Sarah Radcliffe, "Indigenous People and Political Transnationalism: Globalization from Below Meets Globalization from Above" (paper presented at the Transnational Communities Program seminar, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, February 28, 2002). 39

What is crucial, for the purposes of this dissertation, is that the reinvigoration of indigenous identities takes on new significance in the current climate of globalization. As

Walsh (2002, 64) argues, amidst of the projects of neoliberal globalization, the rise of indigenous movements puts on a garb that is symbolic, cultural as well as economic.

Similarly, Igoe (2006) argues that it was only in the 1990s that the Maasai in Tanzania began vigorously claiming their indigenous identity and actively cooperated with other

African indigenous movements. Igoe goes on to state that this "reflects the convergence of existing identity categories with shifting global structures of development and governance. Specifically, it reflects a combination of 'cultural distinctiveness' and effective strategies of extraversion in the context of economic and political liberalization."41

More examples throughout the world abound. The reemergence of ukama among the Shona in Zimbabwe,42 Swaraj and Swadeshi in India, and Zapatismo in Mexico are all further evidence that in spite of (or because of) the mechanisms of exclusion created by contemporary neoliberal globalization, "non-Western" societies are recreating alternative modes of engagement. The ideas associated with Confucianism in Southeast

Asia have arguably received more attention.

Ubuntu and Confucianism

Some scholars have drawn informative comparisons between current debates on ubuntu and discussions of Confucianism in parts of East Asia. In his call for intellectuals

41 Jim Igoe, "Becoming Indigenous Peoples: Difference, Inequality, and the Globalization of East African Identity Politics," African Affairs 105, no. 420 (April 2006): 400. 42 Like ubuntu, ukama emphasizes relatedness. See Munyaradzi Felix Muroye, "An African Commitment to Ecological Conservation: The Shona Concept of Ukama," Mankind Quarterly 45, no. 2 (2004): 195. 40

to "systematically identify, disaggregate and elaborate principles of ubuntu and infuse these into our policies," Mafolo argues that despite being penetrated by various philosophies and ideologies, "the Chinese managed to indigenize socialism such that the

Analects of Confucius have formed the basis of the Chinese belief system."43 On the other hand, Yum (2007, 18) is puzzled that ubuntu scholars have not given more attention to Confucianism, "given the fact that the cardinal principle of Confucianism is humanism and human relationships and that Confucianism has been the dominant philosophy in East Asia and well known all over the world."

Indeed, similarities abound. As Yum (2007, 19) points out, both concepts emphasize individuals being embedded within networks of relationships, and interdependence is extolled over independence. Mutual aid is treated as a natural by- product of proper human relationships. Furthermore, the ideographic Chinese character for jen (humanism), one of the four principles of Confucianism, "consists of the sign for person and the sign for two. Literally, then, it means the relationship formed between two people. But beyond this, it also means the warm human feelings between people, and humanism in general" (Yum 2007, 16). However, critics of Confucianism fault it for the following: individuals are seen primarily as subordinated members of groups, authority and paternalism are easily accepted, and a strong meritocratism that ensures rewards for those who contribute most.44

43 Titus Mafolo, "The Third Pillar of Our Transformation," Umrabulo 26 (August 2006), http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pubs/umrabulo/umrabulo26/art6.html (accessed January 28, 2008). 44 Witn van Oorschot, "On the Cultural Analysis of Social Policy," Working Paper, Centre for Comparative Welfare Studies, Aalborg University, Denmark. www.socsci.aau.dk/ccws/Workingpapers/2005-35-Cultural-analysis-Wim. pdf (accessed January 28, 2008). 41

More striking, however, are the comparisons pertaining to the deployment of these worldviews in the political and socio-economic spheres. Like ubuntu, the influence of Confucianism has waxed and waned through the ages. Regarding Confucianism in

South Korea, for example, Kwon writes that despite the ordeals of colonization, modernization, and extinction of certain cultures, Confucianism has continually influenced Koreans' way oflife in varying degrees since its introduction in 372 during the Koguryo Kingdom. 45 Although its formal institutions faded during certain periods of time, "beneath the surface a way of life, a system of beliefs, and a core for national resurgence could not be easily dislodged" (Rozman 2002, 14).

More specifically, having been rendered antiquated by scholars of Chinese history, Confucianism emerged as a central ideological concern especially in the 1980s.

What led to the resurgence of Confucianism in the 1980s was not merely its content, but

''the evaluation of that content with respect to the question of modernity" (Dirlik 1995,

236). Similar to the current resurgence of ubuntu, while this revival may be heir philosophically "to earlier discussions of Confucianism, its point of departure was this global situation ... The question of capitalism, its new situation and its contradictions, has also structured its discourse" (Dirlik 1995, 236).

A notable difference, however, is that while the seeds of resurgence of ubuntu are home-grown, the launching pad of the revival of Confucianism was located in the United

States and not in China. Dirlik (1995, 237) underscores that the origin of this revival was

45 Hee-jung Kwon, "Making a Confucian Country: Cultural Discourses and Representation of Confucian Tradition in South Korea." The Academy of Korean Studies, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. http://arts.monash.edu.au/korean/ksaa/conference/05heejungkwon.pdf (accessed January 29, 2008). 42

tied to the flourishing of the East Asian economies and in texts produced in the United

States linking the 'miracle economies' to their Confucian heritage.46 It provided culturalist explanations of the strong performances of these economies in the 1980s and

1990s. The argument was that Confucianism was the cultural generator of the historic economic success of the East Asian economies, achieved first by Japan and then Hong

Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea. Advocates of this thesis saw Confucianism functioning in the same way that the Protestant ethic supposedly did in Europe.

Admittedly, this insertion of culture into analyses of the 'miracle economies' served to buttress neoliberal arguments that privileged markets for the economic success of these countries.

The trumpeting of"Asian values" seemed viable for a while, especially in light of the staggering economic accomplishments of some East Asian countries. As a scaffold for development, the "Asian values" doctrine was understood as "the claim that, until prosperity is achieved, democracy remains an unaffordable luxury" (Thompson 2001,

155). However, following the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, critics of the "Asian values" thesis argued that the crisis severed the culturalist pillars that anchored the authoritarian tendencies of the region's Machiavellian rulers.

The financial crisis vitiated an already frail argument as the "Asian values" thesis was problematic in many ways. First, although it was vigorously promoted by many

46 Indeed, Deputy Prime Minister Goh Keng Swee of Singapore, undertook a trip to the United States in 1982 to solicit views from American scholars on how an effective course in Confucianism for 9th and 10th-graders might be set up. As the New York Times reported, four American professors responded to the Government's queries. They were Yu Ying-shi, professor of history at Yale University; Tong Te-kong, chairman of the Asian studies department at the City College of New York; Francis L .K. Hsu, director of the Center for Cultural Studies in Education at the University of San Francisco; and James Hsiung Chieh, professor of politics at New York University (Colin Campbell, "Singapore Plans to Revive Study of Confucianism," The New York Times, May 20, 1982). 43

governments in Asia, the idea of "Asian values" was a rather artificial construct. It assumed unanimity among geographically and culturally very diverse countries.47 As

Moody (1996, 168) argues, "There is a multiplicity of cultures in Asia and their values may differ as much among themselves as they do with any western value system."

Second, the idea of "Asian values" turned a blind eye on the internal critiques of these so- called values in the countries touted for such. Rozman (2002) emphasizes that even as they took some pride in their traditional roots, each of these East Asian nations had misgivings about its own brand of particularism: "the Japanese chafed under growing awareness of widening inequalities and the lagging quality oflife, especially in comparison to the West; South Koreans had pent-up demand for democratization; the

Chinese associated particularism with Communist party rule and its high level of corruption" (Rozman 2002, 22).

This highlights that Confucianism has had a longer and more complicated history with officialdom than ubuntu.48 To wit, ubuntu has not until now enjoyed institutional support comparable to that provided by the Chinese monarchy, at least until its fall in the early twentieth century. Furthermore, the political manipulation of Confucianism by militarists and politicians especially in the early 1920s contributed to the deterioration of

47 Kang (2003, 59) makes a similar point when he says, "Asia is empirically rich and, in many ways, different from the West. Focusing exclusively on Asia's differences, however, runs the risk of essentializing the region, resulting in the sort of orientalist analysis that most scholars have correctly avoided." 48 As scholars have historicized and contextualized it, there has been a proliferation of Confucianisms. In addition to Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, and Singaporean Confucianisms, Dirlik ( 1995, 251) lists 'social Confucianism', 'vulgar Confucianism', 'low Confucianism', 'mass Confucianism', and 'merchant house Confucianism', and 'imperial Confucianism'. 44

its reputation.49 Even after that period, governments and political elites often conveniently used Confucian values "to establish or maintain control of their people by creating new ideological orthodoxies, based on a contrived notion of a pan-Asian culture and value system" (Dupont 1996, 25). Political leaders often asserted links between filial piety and loyalty, emphasized the responsibility of the state to put the society in order, and capitalized on suspicions toward intermediate organizations between the state and kinship groups to question the legitimacy of potential rivals for power (Rozman 2002,

19).

Critics also point out that this "Asian values" doctrine of development led to the rejection of democracy as a surplus exotic indulgence. The argument held sway as long as authoritarian rule was matched by laudable economic results that lasted for about three decades. As the Economist stated in 1992, "Asian authoritarians argue from a position of economic and social success."50 Some scholars now dismiss this discourse as an elaborate fraud - an excuse for authoritarian governments to stay in power (Thompson 2000, 652) and a model of crony capitalism in development (Rozman 2002, 12).

These concerns notwithstanding, a key similarity between ubuntu and

Confucianism is that proponents of both worldviews offer a critique of the ethical and moral content of the current phase of globalization. This was one of the reasons cited by leading politicians in Singapore when they were calling for the resuscitation of

Confucianism in the 1980s. Disturbed by what he saw as "a falling away from certain ancient moral values that are thought to be capable of protecting this modem city-state,"

49 See, Joseph R. Levenson, Confucian China and Its Modern Fate: A Trilogy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968. so "Competitive Order," The Economist, February 15, 1992, 58-59. 45

Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore decided to revive the study of Confucianism.

He saw this philosophy as "especially pertinent in a society whose traditional values are being corroded but not replaced by a hedonistic or at least selfish modernity."51

In summary then, like some ubuntu advocates, promoters of Confucianism seek ways to harness the cultural resources proffered by different traditions. As Ong (2003) puts it, "By looking at and understanding the Confucian tradition, we may well arrive at ways to assuage our discontent with western modernity... [and find] ways in which

Confucianism may meaningfully act as a spiritual and ethical force and substantively contribute to a truly global ethic in the twenty-first century." This discontent with modernity Ong refers to is also pervasive in many studies of ubuntu. The next section examines some of the strengths of two perspectives, which have been labeled the ethnophilosophical and the ethnomanagement approaches.

Approaches to the Study of Ubuntu

A number of theoretical strands emerge from indigenous studies literature, all presented in this context of people's historic colonial and post-colonial relations with

European attempts at conquest. Although they often come from divergent angles, the dissertation's framework draws strength from numerous ontological and epistemological assumptions of indigenous scholarship. As stated in the first chapter, they undermine the certainties of modernist claims that privilege Eurocentric knowledge. Another key point to appreciate is the critical stance taken by many theorists; namely, interrogating the

51 Colin Campbell, "Singapore Plans to Revive Study of Confucianism," The New York Times, May 20, 1982. 46

ontological underpinnings of the terms upon which the current political and economic world order is predicated. Ubuntu scholars have followed some of these guiding threads of indigenous knowledge.

The Ethnophilosophical Approach

Some authors have employed tools from the ethnophilosophical approach to explore the relevance of ubuntu in South Africa today. Admittedly, there is still a raging debate in the discipline of African philosophy about the relevance of ethnophilosophy.

One of its earlier proponents, the Belgian missionary Placid Tempels argued in his seminal study, Bantu Philosophy (1945) that African philosophy consists of shared beliefs, values, categories, and assumptions that are implicit in the linguistic categories of

African cultures. As later proponents such as Okot p'Bitek (1997, 73) would argue, the reconstruction of African societies is impossible unless it is based on African thought. 52

These differences notwithstanding, a few themes emerge from this approach, key among which are Africa's historic relationship with Europe and the subsequent loss of old

African traditions that need to be renewed.

The recovery of ubuntu (and indigenous knowledge generally) is, of necessity, seen in opposition to western dominance. Thus, indigenous knowledge is viewed as "a handy tool that speaks to the dignity of African cultural values in a world known for its skepticism about Africa" (Masolo 2000, 152). Indigenous knowledge is then construed as

52 For more on ethnophilosophy, see Paulin J. Hountondji, African Philosophy: Myth and Reality (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996); and, Kwasi Wiredu, Philosophy and an African Culture (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1980). 47

a study of civilizational dynamics that pre-existed modernity and a tracing of the detrimental effects of encounters with European expansionism.

Following this tradition, Ivy Goduka (2000, 17) states that living within European cultural practices, "their racist thinking and practices make opportunities for an authentic identity as an indigenous, cultural and spiritual healer a daily struggle against the framework of European hegemony." For her, then, ubuntu is a pivotal component of a

"massive and serious cultural crusade" to try save some of the ''values of old Africa"

(Goduka 2000, 18).

This call for the return of old African values is also echoed by Malegapuru

Makgoba:

When we say "Mayibuye iAfrika (sic)" (let Africa return) we mean it and mean business. Democratic governments are representative of the will, values and aspirations of the majority and not the will and aspirations of a whingeing white male minority. While ubuntu will continue to influence our drive for reconciliation, let there be no doubt that sooner or later African dominance and the imitation of most that is African shall permeate all spheres of South African society (Mail and Guardian, 25 March 2005).

This clarion call for renewal is prevalent in many studies, especially those that focus on identity politics in South Africa and other philosophical texts. In a useful philosophical investigation of ubuntu and the African Renaissance, Leonhard Praeg

(2000, 108) states that ubuntu signifies a rebirth: "It is a return or remembrance of those values that may perhaps contribute to the formulation of a truly African identity."

Here, the question of authenticity is primary - going all the way back. As the field interviews revealed, this ethnophilosophical approach and the attendant quest for a return to Africa's age-old traditions is not just of academic interest. Origins, restoration, identity, and dignity were recurring themes among the izangoma (traditional healers) 48

interviewed at the Traditional Healers Conference in Pietermaritzburg in February 2006.

As one of them put it: "The Europeans are well entrenched in their ways, we also have no other way to live but to stick to our origins. We are resuscitating ceremonies and rituals that will help revive ubuntu. What brings us to ruin is that we don't know who we are anym.ore. "53

Thus, the ethnophilosophical approach is important because, contra postmodernist views of globalization, it emphasizes the "indigenous longue duree, the precolonial space and time that tends to be lost in postcolonial projections" (Clifford 2001, 480). Although globalization actively makes and remakes local cultures (and vice versa), this is always in relation to an enduring historical and spatial nexus. As following chapters will show, ubuntu does not rise phoenix-like from the ashes; its various understandings today have numerous historical precedents. However, by overemphasizing "old Africa" and the accompanying essentialist understanding thereof, the ethnophilosophical approach runs the risk of yoking ubuntu with the past, a past perfect.

Proponents of this school of thought tend to steadfastly relocate ubuntu in ancient history and commit what Joel W. Martin (2004, 62) aptly calls 'chronopolitics' - a chronopolitical discourse pins the 'native' down to the past and attaches authenticity to

"that which is marked as pre- or antimodem, primate and natural." As demonstrated below, ubuntu, like other indigenous knowledges, is constantly transformed and its meanings are always negotiated. Dismas Masolo (2003, 31) makes a valid point when he

53 Delisile Nsimbi, interview by author, February 2, 2006, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Translated by author. (Her words in isiZulu: "Abamhlophe basezindleleni zabo, nathi ayikho indlela esingaphila ngayo ngaphandle kokunamathela emvelweni yethu. Sivuselela imigubho nemikhuba yethu ezobuyisa ubuntu. Into esiqedayo ukuthi asisazazi ukuthi singobani.") 49

says "the indigenous does not mean unchanging fossilized beliefs good only for the historical space they occupy. Rather, because problems are defined by their sociohistorical contexts, today, for example, we confront and interrogate the overbearings of community as driven by demands for liberalism in manners we never openly did fifty years ago."

Like their predecessors during the decolonization period, proponents of the ethnophilosophical approach have sharpened our critical edge and provided a language to deal with the troubling colonialist underpinnings of (post)modernity. However, the major concern with this view is that having done away with the universal pretensions of

Eurocentric master narratives, it leaves us theoretically orphaned when it comes to analyzing the present. Moreover, it is inattentive to matters of a decidedly global nature.

Considering the shortcomings of the ethnophilosophical school of thought, some scholars have explored the usefulness of ubuntu in solving current problems. Specifically, they explore its unique qualities that can be harnessed towards managing business development and solving conflict.

The Ethnomanagement Approach

The second and prevalent trend in the study of ubuntu is what can be called the ethnomanagement school. This category clusters together a number of different perspectives. All share the perspective that indigenous concepts and practices have intrinsic incalculable value that can be harnessed towards, inter alia, the management of ecological diversity, business development, and conflict resolution. 50

The chief concern of the ecological strand of this school is the composition of indigenous knowledge and its ecological significance to the management of the natural world: systems of classification and how various societies cognize natural processes

(Brossius 1997, 52). This perspective is grounded on the argument that indigenous peoples possess incalculable ecological value, the key to the biological diversity of the earth on which all life depends (Durning 1992, 2). Since the extinction of biological diversity is intertwined with the destruction of cultural diversity, it is imperative to approach the process of revitalization and to see the earth through "native eyes" (Ausubel

1994, Brush 1993). With the stroke of a pen, the 'native' and nature become one. Within this nature and management coupling, indigenous knowledge simply becomes another tool in the manager's toolkit (Howitt and Suchet 2001, 559).

Although there is a dearth of scholarship on ubuntu and the management of natural resources, scholars also apply the same ecological management markings to the business environment in South Africa. A significant number of scholars, entrepreneurs, and managers comprises this category. 54 Although they embrace divergent views, what they hold in common is the charge that in organization studies, leadership theories have generally silenced the voice of the "indigenous other". This approach is consonant with the ethnophilosophical view and challenges the dominant Eurocentric perspectives in business management practices. It asserts that Africa's development efforts will be still born unless African endogenous management systems are adopted.

54 Stella M. Nkomo (2006) provides an excellent review of the different faculties in this school of thought. 51

It is from such a theoretical angle that Mzamo Mangaliso (2001, 32) states that

"incorporating ubuntu principles in management holds the promise of superior approaches to managing organizations. Organizations infused with humaneness, a pervasive spirit of caring and community, harmony and hospitality, respect and responsiveness will enjoy more sustainable competitive advantage." Likewise, Lovemore

Mbigi and Jenny Maree (1995, 17) emphatically argue that business organizations in

South Africa must draw on indigenous cultural practice in order to improve the management of companies and speed up the transformation process. In a similar vein,

Mfuniselwa Bhengu (1996, 32) postulates that if South African business organizations are going to be effective, they will need to develop a tradition of working together on survival and competitive issues. He goes on to claim that using the solidarity spirit of ubuntu, it is possible to allow teamwork to permeate the whole organization and thus build cooperative and efficient business strategies.

While clearly novel, one is left wondering whether this application of ubuntu in the business sector represents a major breakthrough. Or, is ubuntu simply subsumed under the dominant economic paradigm so that its value matters to the degree it contributes to further capital accumulation? The Maori scholar Graham Smith (2000,

216) warns of ''the commodification of indigenous knowledge" and argues that

"multinational corporate structures have little concern for indigenous cultures or interests; certainly indigenous claims to prior ownership of the land and sea resources are regarded as antagonistic to the position of the free-market economy."

Ubuntu scholars have also made significant contributions to the growing literature in conflict resolution that explores the role of indigenous justice systems in solving 52

modem conflicts (Nindorera 1998, Adeleke 2004, Endalew 2002, Masina 2000, and

Zartman 2000). Buoyed by the apparent success of the Truth and Reconciliation

Commission (TRC) in South Africa, a number of conflict resolution practitioners point to the integral role of ubuntu in the reconciliation process (Marks 2000, Masina 2000, and

Gobodo-Madikizela 2003). As Timothy Murithi (2006, 9) points out, this "culturally informed" ubuntu approach is based on peacemaking institutions that predated colonialism. Such indigenous institutions (for example, inkundla or lekgotla mediation forums) stress the importance of mediation through the principles of reciprocity and a sense of shared destiny among people. Thus, Michael Battle (1997 and 2000) argues that the success of the TRC in South Africa rested heavily on ubuntu's emphasis on restorative rather than retributive justice. He draws on what he terms "ubuntu theology" - a form of"relational spirituality that connotes the basic connectedness of all human beings - that helps transcend the violent mechanisms of denial and retaliation so common in Western cultures" (2000, 181 ).

While acknowledging the positive role of "a different kind ofjustice" in the TRC, other scholars call for further changes in the South African justice system altogether. Ann

Skelton (2002, 497), for example, suggests that the context of the political transition in

South Africa created fertile ground for extending the restorative justice principles of ubuntu to the legal system. She explores how the promotion of restorative justice can be applied as a fundamental principle of the juvenile justice system.

These approaches to ubuntu offer multiple promising tools for this research. In disturbing (post)modernity's canon, the ethnophilosophical approach questions the universal claims of western thought while simultaneous! y highlighting the problematic 53

nexus between modern social science and silencing. Furthermore, by stressing that indigenous knowledge is fundamentally local, both approaches help make visible previously suppressed forms of knowledge. However, the accompanying peril of both schools of thought is that indigenous knowledge may be seen as a functional necessity for the reproduction of peripheral economic relations and, as a result, prove inadequate to offer veritable solutions to the continued subjugation of the majority of South Africans.

Both perspectives are not attentive to the ways in which indigenous knowledge is often appropriated by the powerful to accomplish their ends.55 Finally, and more importantly, these two approaches are blind to the changing global political economy of which the regeneration of indigenous knowledge systems and specifically ubuntu are part.

Finding the conceptual tools of these two approaches quite useful but not sharp enough for the task at hand, this dissertation takes the revitalization of ubuntu as integral to a wider process of rapid and uneven economic and political transformations in South

Africa. The indigenous knowledge approaches discussed above are reinforced with

Polanyi's concept of embeddedness and his double movement thesis. This allows one to interrogate and contextualize the growing relevance of indigenous idioms, not just in

South Africa, but the world. This amalgamation has been christened a "sociological approach," to which we now tum.

Ubuntu: Toward a Sociological Approach

As stated in the previous chapter, the revitalization of ubuntu takes place in the context of multiple transitions in South Africa. It is within this setting that the revival of

55 For example, the corporate sector has found ubuntu very good for business. South African Airways (SAA) implemented what they call the 'ubuntu service philosophy' in 1994. 54

ubuntu and other indigenous practices should be understood. Failing to do so keeps us entangled in what can be called the convention-invention dilemma, i.e., viewing all things indigenous as mere conventional expressions of traditional cultures or as postmodern inventions of global capitalism. The yoking of ubuntu to primordial and timeless

"traditions" ignores the complex, contemporary expressions of ubuntu in relation to new situations. On the other hand, viewing indigenous claims as mere postmodern articulations of identity politics (or 'invented traditions', if you will) neglects the long histories of indigenous survival and resistance, transformative links with roots predating colonial conquest (Clifford 2001, 472).

This sociological approach, then, sidesteps the traps of the convention-invention dilemma by placing ubuntu in society ratherthan viewing indigenous knowledge as an independent, transcendent category. Kamwangamalu (1999, 27) seems to share this perspective when he argues that "ubuntu values are not innate but are rather acquired in society and are transmitted from one generation to another by means of oral genres such as fables, proverbs, myths, riddles, and storytelling" (emphasis added). Therefore, while it is important to ask, "What is ubuntu?" more important for a sociological approach is the ethical question, "Where does ubuntu speak from? And to what end?" In other words,

"What social anxieties is ubuntu an expression of?" Jean Comaroffs (1985, 169) injunction to locate African ''traditional" religious movements in society applies equally to ubuntu and other indigenous knowledges. She warns that efforts to understand them in isolated terms fail to "situate these movements within more encompassing social orders; indeed by regarding them as 'religious associations' or 'modes of explanation and control' it extends to them a literalist, ethnocentric theory of meaning with ignores their 55

embeddedness in total social and cultural systems" (Comaroff 1985, 170). This is what can be inferred from Polanyi (1957, 52) when he insists on the "reality of society."

Karl Polanyi's Double Movement

Karl Polanyi' s magnum opus The Great Transformation is increasingly receiving accolades as one of the most important books of the 20th century in the social sciences. In the last few years, Polanyi's incisive critique of the self-regulating market has enjoyed unprecedented attention as a canonical reference point in current debates about globalization (Inayatullah and Blaney 1999, Hettne 1997, and Mittelman 2000). The question is, can this middle-aged theory help to understand complex current phenomena?56

Although The Great Transformation critiques nineteenth-century England, it reads like a searing indictment of our time. Polanyi's study of this period is based on a conceptual error, what he calls 'the economistic fallacy' (1977, 49). This logical error mistook human economy in general for its market form and eulogized the market as a universal panacea. As a result, society was seen and run as "an adjunct of the market" with devastating consequences (1957, 47). The reform bills of the 1830s in England

(epitomized by Speenhamland) unleashed the market without restraint forcing workers to

56 During a presentation to scholars and activists in Durban in 2005, a colleague expressed concern about the use of a European language and conceptual framework to present a decidedly African epistemological matter. The response to this critique echoes the injunction of medieval philosopher Averroes (who is credited with reintroducing Aristotle to the West). Averroes calls for a separation between the 'instrument' and 'faith', that is, the instrument and subject matter. As he puts it, "One does not ask the instrument, e.g., the knife used in the ritual sacrifice whether or not it belonged to one of our fellow Muslim in order to make a judgment on the validity of the sacrifice. One asks of it only to be of suitable use" (Mignolo 2002, 949). 56

fend for themselves. The social consequences of this system of 'gross fictions' were profound and unsustainable. As Polanyi puts it: "In disposing of man's (sic) labor power the system would, incidentally, dispose of the physical, psychological and moral entity

'man' ... Robbed of the protective covering of cultural institutions, human beings would perish from the effects of social exposure ... " (1957, 73).

The devastating impact of this "stark utopia" set the stage for the mobilization of

society against the corrosive effects of markets. In England, workers countered the

dehumanization wrought by the market with the cooperative movement, trade unionism,

and Chartism. More importantly, to the benefit of this study, Polanyi then demonstrates how this effort to disembed the economy from social life engendered resistance, thus the

concept of the double-movement. Polanyi delivers the pith of his argument thus:

The outstanding discovery of recent historical and anthropological research is that man's (sic) economy, as a rule, is submerged in his social relationships. He does not act so as to safeguard his individual interests in the possession of material goods; he acts as to safeguard his social standing, his social claims, his social assets. He values material goods only in so far as they serve this end (1957, 53).

Polanyi aptly labeled this submersion of the economy in social relationships

"embeddedness." Although he mentions the term 'embeddedness' sparingly in The Great

Transformation - Bernard Barber (1995, 392) says "embeddedness" appears only twice

in this major work - it is a pivotal concept in his theory. Implicit in this concept is the

fluid mixing of social, economic, and cultural factors. According to Polanyi (1957, 34),

"the human economy then is embedded and enmeshed in institutions, economic and non-

economic. The inclusion of the non-economic is vital."

The enduring socio-cultural relevance of Polanyi's theorem of the double- movement is its implication that an irrepressible 'reciprocity' is sustained despite the 57

market system's extension of commodity logic (Burawoy 2003, 80). How does all this inform a study of the resurgence of indigenous knowledge? As the next chapters will show, the research in Clermont revealed that as the expanding powers of neoliberal economic globalization yield benefits for a small minority in South Africa, many individuals and organizations employ ubuntu to express their discomfiture.

Although openly declared resistance to neoliberal economic globalization has been sporadic in South Africa, the research revealed ample evidence of the mediating role of practices based on ubuntu principles. Under conditions of rapid transformation, many organizations are using ubuntu practices as buffers against the social dislocations accompanying South Africa's transformation. This is a tum to Polanyi's first market reaction, namely, spontaneous self-defense of society.

Polanyi's work is imbued with a deep respect for alternative views of the world, noting that other societies operate "on altogether different principles" (1957, xvii).

Indeed, this disposition resonates with the stance assumed by many scholars of indigenous knowledge that have been cited above. Polanyi was convinced that solid arguments could be advanced to contest the universal truth of the 'market mentality'. His focus on the value systems of non-market societies (such as ancient Greece, the Aztecs, the Mayas, the Berbers, and Dahomey) helped him uncover the workings of capitalism in nineteenth-century England and also the value systems of the dominant market ideology of our time. However, it is important to emphasize that Polanyi's framework is not backward looking. As Gerald Berthoud (1990, 178) cogently affirms: "This search for similarities and differences in various societies has nothing to do with a nostalgic quest for a lost paradise or with easy adoption of a romanticist anti-market mentality. On the 58

contrary, the aim is to explore the nature and limits of this particularly ill-defined notion of modernity, as a mode of thought."

Extending Polanyi

Polanyi persuasively demonstrated that economic orders do not fall from the sky as prefabricated laws of existence, but are intentionally decided in some way. However, a text born under different skies (to use Fanon's phrase) has its strength and limitations in guiding analysis of the revival of ubuntu in South Africa. Therefore, in this dissertation,

Polanyi is the needle, not the cloth. One takes to heart George Dalton's (1990, 166) point that Polanyi was very aware that his theory and concepts were not designed to have universal or general power to explain all real world economies, all historical time periods, and all topics studied. It behooves us, therefore, to follow Polanyi's lead and stretch and challenge his concepts, especially when dealing with the collision as well as collusion of indigenous worldviews and globalization.

Primarily, it is critical that we do not tum Polanyi's double movement into an inexorable law, as Michael Burawoy has warned (2003, 244). Markets do not inevitably generate an energetic countermovement. As the South African case shows, over a decade of a market-led transition and its deleterious aspects have not stimulated coordinated nation-wide social movements that have vigorously resisted the neoliberal economic order. 57 The same can be said about many parts of the developing world, where shock

57 This is not to minimize campaigns organized by groups such as, inter alia, the Anti Privatization Forum, the Landless Peoples Movement, and the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee (SECC). In an in-depth analysis of the SECC, Egan and Wafer demonstrate that it is "a highly complex and heterogeneous movement, containing moments of strong cohesion and survivalist solidarity, as well as a series of tensions and cleavages; small and imprecise in size, it manages to mobilize considerable public and media attention" (2004, 1). They further argue that the SECC's effort at collaborating with other 59

therapy has not produced wide-spread resistance against economic neoliberalism. That is why the approach adopted here questions the profit of steadfastly holding to simplistic binary designations. For example, Hall and Fenelon (2004, 153) argue that "the survival of indigenous peoples, their identities, and their cultures, constitutes strong anti-systemic resistance against global capitalism and against the deepening and the broadening of modem world-systemic or globalization processes." This is not an isolated position among scholars of indigenous knowledge. Numerous studies view the importance of indigenous practices only to the extent that they offer resistance to globalization

(Macharia 2003, Hall and Fenelon 2003, Solo 2004, and Mander and Tauli-Corpus 2006.)

We need to go beyond such mechanical oppositions. In examining the wave of global protests of the late 1990s in terms of Polanyi's double movement of economic transformation and social protection, Philip McMichael (2005, 588-589) suggests that, because counter-movements to globalization oppose both the modernist project and its market epistemology, they also transcend the Polanyian classical counter-movement. In other words, 'a protective movement is emerging', but not one that would simply regulate markets: instead it is "one that questions the epistemology of the market in the name of alternatives deriving from within and beyond the market system" (McMichael 2005,

588).

Therefore, this sociological approach extends Polanyi's theory (which primarily focused on the national arena in England) to cover the broader scope of the global environment. This is not easy, for Polanyi did not foresee the tenacity of the self-

organizations at the branch level, where issues are expressed far more in material immediacy, remains rather lukewarm (2004, 26). 60

regulated market system he excoriated. There are indications today of the resuscitation of national strategies of protection, but nothing quite to the scale of the early 20th century

(such as state regulation and planning). Instead one detects a tum to Polanyi's first market reaction, namely, spontaneous self-defense of society. However, this defense is of a "transnational character, linking together non-governmental organizations (NGOs), environmental movements, women's movements, labor networks-a veritable transnational public designed to protect constituencies against market devastation"

(Burawoy 2003, 244).

Finally, Polanyi' s concept of society has a tinge of innocence. As Michael

Burawoy (2003, 247-248) notes, Polanyi advances a solidaristic notion of society which he counterposes with the destructiveness of the market. As far as the resuscitation of ubuntu is concerned, the double movement is messy. As stated above, the economic imperatives of the corporate world are interested in the use of this indigenous philosophy for profit accumulation. Therefore, the sociological approach advanced here recognizes that the revitalization of indigenous knowledge and the creation of histories and identities from below are often unruly and contested processes. Seen from this perspective, then, the ascendance of indigenous worldviews and movements is not rejection of globalization as such, but intrinsic to the globalization trend itself. This is not to say that elements of such worldviews do not provide resistance to globalization, but to bring to light nuances of such resistance where it does occur.

What, then, is the payoff ofthis sociological approach? Much of the scholarship on ubuntu in South Africa has failed to be sensitive to its broader global significance.

Indeed, while patently the result oflocal conditions, ubuntu bears an undeniable family 61

resemblance to indigenous phenomena in distant places. The sociological lens, therefore, allows us to view ubuntu not as an isolated local phenomenon. Unlike other studies of ubuntu reviewed above, this dissertation is interested in both the local and global expressions of this worldview.

Using Polanyi's double-movement thesis and indigenous perspectives, a sociological perspective helps explain the contemporaneity of the intensification of indigenous practices in South Africa and elsewhere. By situating ubuntu in the context of

South Africa's social transformation, this approach allows us to see the rejuvenation of this worldview as an attempt, however limited, to decelerate the homogenizing tendencies of neoliberal economic globalization.

This position addresses Stella Nkomo's (2006, 13) valid lament that much writing on ubuntu is normative and prescriptive and lacks research depth. To ameliorate this shortcoming, this theoretical framework is informed by empirical research of the significance of ubuntu in a specific local setting (Clermont). The accrued benefit of this mode of analysis is that it situates the role of actors at the center of research.

From this sociological standpoint then, indigenous perspectives have a rich theory of domination but offer only suggestive directions to counterpoints. Polanyi gives us signposts to "an architecture of counterhegemony" (Burawoy 2003, 231 ). As argued in the introductory chapter, however, this terrain is uneven and we should not yield to temptations to romanticize it.

Furthermore, the framework developed here follows Polanyi's lead as he delineates the national responses to the self-regulating market from the local, then national, and finally to international levels. While the research was based in a single 62

township, the approach helped trace the articulations of ubuntu not only in the township, but at the national and international levels. In conclusion, by using Polanyi's notion of embeddedness and insights from indigenous scholarship, this conceptual framework forces us to place emphasis on locality. Yet, the local and global are not seen as two distinct entities, locking horns in a battle for dominance. This position echoes Dismas

Masolo (2003, 26) who warns that ''the call for an engaged and critical understanding of the local means that the local should not be mistaken for the unanimous. Rather, as it always was, it should be given room to be complex and diverse, dialogical, and inclusive."

If anything is clear from this study, it is that to a degree, the resuscitation of indigenous values and cultural practices constitutes an effort by community members to

"fashion an awareness of, and gain conceptual mastery over, a changing world"

(Comaroff and Comaroff 1992, 259). The sociological approach adopted here helps to capture the nuances of these efforts. CHAPTER3

UBUNTU AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL

Clermont is located approximately ten miles northwest of Durban, the largest city in the KwaZulu-Natal province. The township occupies about sixteen hundred acres in the undulating hills flanking the Umngeni River. Socially and economically, however, it mirrors conditions in townships as far afield as Khayelitsha (Cape Town), Thokoza

(Johannesburg), and even Rio de Janeiro's favelas. Like most South African townships,

Clermont has trouble occupying place on maps and road signs. On the N3 highway between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, for example, there is no road sign indicating the existence of and direction to Clermont. Yet, townships hold a unique place in the South

African politicalscape.2

Designed to be cornerstones of the apartheid government's segregation policies, townships slowly transformed into the fulcrum of the struggle against apartheid.3 With the exception of a few prominent national campaigns, the driving force of resistance to apartheid came from below, and the townships were the stage (Swilling 1987).

2 For an overview, see Mzwanele Mayekiso, Township Politics: Civic Struggles for a New South Africa (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1996) and Belinda Bozzoli, Theatres ofStruggle and the End of Apartheid (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2004). 3 Harry Bloom, describing life in the townships says, "A man in the location (township) goes about with the superintendent's signature all over his person. He becomes a piece of paper; his family becomes a cluster of papers, his house a number, his job a yellow form." Harry Bloom, Transvaal Episode (Cape Town: David Philip, 1981), 16. 63 64

Townships continue to be the country's political nerve endings and remain the most potent areas for detecting sociopolitical trends in post-apartheid South Africa. It is not surprising therefore, that research on townships has yielded impressive volumes of scholarly research (Wilson and Mafeje 1963, Jochelson 1990, Mayekiso 1996, Maharaj

1996, Bundy 2000, Seekings 2000, Bozzoli 2004, and Goodhew 2004.)

This chapter examines the understanding and deployment of ubuntu in Clermont.

It begins with a brief sketch of the history of Clermont and the context in which ubuntu has taken root in the township. This is followed by an overview of the evolution of the

ANC government's economic policy and its impact on socioeconomic conditions in the township. A discussion of politics in Clermont presents an overview of the social divisions that define political contestations in the township. The subsequent section presents a typology of ubuntu organizations and identifies the key actors at the forefront of creating awareness about ubuntu.

The History of Clennont

Clermont is one of very few townships where the apartheid government allowed black South Africans to have full ownership ofland with freehold titles (Gwala 1989,

508). It differs quite markedly from most South African townships in that it was established and flourished without the direct, centralized grip of the state. Writing about

Inanda, another freehold township in Durban, Heather Hughes (1987, 334) says that the long survival of such townships, as areas housing black people on privately-owned rather than state-controlled land, is due to a number of circumstances, among them the determination oflandowners and tenants alike to remain there. 65

Like Inanda, Clermont was founded in 1931 out of the aspirations of urban black

South Africans to establish a stable and dignified life. This quest for independence was heightened by the Native Urban Areas Act of 1923 which segregated urban residential areas and implemented harsh influx controls to limit access of blacks to the cities. Thus, the founding of Clermont took place in the context of a political consciousness that linked land ownership with independence. 60

This is how Maynard W. Swanson (1996, 275), one of the leading historians of

Clermont, chronicles the founding of the township:

People went there from the beginning to achieve independence and security in a place of their own. Responding to its opportunities and problems, they began to develop a viable community and local governance for themselves ... They sought to raise revenue, regulate their community, provide essential services, promote economic enterprises, and to deal with government authorities in a manner suited to the independent nature of Clermont. Eclipsed by the onset of central control, the spirit of independence and the consciousness of a distinctive character and status have nonetheless remained alive to the present day.

The inception of Clermont was fueled by efforts of African nationalist and labor leaders such as Pixley ka Seme, Langalibalele Dube, and Allison George Champion. In

1929, Pixley ka Seme used his column in the Jiang a LaseNatali newspaper to urge readers to support his company whose ambitious aim was to help Africans to "buy our country back" (Flikk:e 2004, 1249). When the Berlin Missionary Society expressed willingness to sell land in 1931, Champion helped form a syndicate named Clermont

Township (Pty) Ltd, as a means to have "advanced Natives buy freehold plots ofland"

60 In an exquisite account of the establishment ofSophiatown in the 1950s, David Goodhew (2004, xix) argues that the campaigns against forced removals and Bantu Education were rooted in what he calls "working class respectability" - an expectation that if one sought to be respectable in the way one lived, sought education and principles by which to live, respect from the authorities was forthcoming. 66

(Swanson 1996, 279). The syndicate included prominent partners including the first

President of the ANC, Dr. Langalibalele Dube.61 The company bought the land for approximately £10 an acre and about 250 families resided in the new township by 1935

(Swanson 1996, 282).

Throughout its history, Clermont has reflected numerous conflicts that were evident in much of the country. Its close proximity to white South Africa (it is only three miles from the formerly white areas of Pinetown and a stone's throw from New Germany and Westville) has been a source of great anxiety for whites. From its founding, "nearly every observer commented on malnutrition, alcohol abuse, bad water, lack of sanitation with a consequent health menace, and the security threat to surrounding (white) communities" (Swanson 1996, 286). On the other hand, Clermont also proved to be a nightmare for traditional Zulu authority structures. 62

When apartheid was adopted as official policy in 1948, the government

"legislated away the moral, economic, cultural, and social securities of welfare paternalism and failed at any point to replace them with a viable alternative" (Bozzoli

2004, 64). Instead, it sought to incorporate freehold townships into the ambit of

Bantustan governments. In the case of Clermont, incorporation entailed tinkering with

KwaZulu homeland boundaries to encompass African townships, wrenching control away from local authorities and giving it to the KwaZulu government authorities. Inkatha

61 Dr. Langalibalele Dube was President of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) from 1912 to 1917. The SANNC changed its name to the ANC in 1923. 62 ChiefMandlakayise Ngcobo, Chief of the amaQadi, was designated as chief of Clermont even though he did not reside in Clermont but lived across the Umngeni River. 67

was the ruling party in the homeland. 63 Led by Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, its support

base was drawn mostly from residents of rural areas in KwaZulu and sought to foray into

townships such as Clermont in order to expand its membership and sphere of influence.

Inkatha leaders saw an opportunity to bring directly under their control townships that

had been historically hostile to their organization. Clermont's residents vehemently

resisted this attempt.64 This took place in the context of the most volatile period in the

township's history.

The 1980s were a period of intense political conflict, with lines sharply drawn

between supporters of lnkatha and those affiliated with the United Democratic Front

(UDF). 65 The conflict engulfed almost all spheres of political life and was felt particularly

in the schools. A rolling school strike and boycott involving thousands of students started

in August 1985 to protest the assassination of Victoria Mxenge, a prominent lawyer and

activist. They were met with vicious police action. The township was turned into a

cauldron of political violence that claimed hundreds of lives. Although political violence

came to an end following the 1994 elections ushering in the Government of National

63 Jnkatha is a Zulu headband. It is also the name of a sacred coil symbolizing unity of the people. Named after this symbol, Inkatha was founded in the 1920s by King Solomon kaDinizulu, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi's uncle. It was conceived as a cultural movement to preserve Zulu heritage, and to mobilize political support for the king in a time of increasing social and economic turbulence. Following many years of organizational turmoil and eventual collapse, ChiefButhelezi revived lnkatha in 1975. In July 1990 it changed its name to lnkatha Freedom Party. 64 Matters reached a head in the 1985 local elections when lnkatha entered a candidate, Bhekizizwe Jamile, then KwaZulu Deputy Minister of the Interior for the Clermont Advisory Board elections. The board was a representative body elected by ratepayers and composed of mainly ANC affiliated members. Jamile was defeated by Vuka Tshabalala, whose wife was subsequently assassinated. Other board members had their houses bwnt down and their lives threatened. For more on violence in Clermont, see Msizi Hlophe's application for amnesty to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, http://www.doj.gov.za/trc/decisions/1997/970807_ hlope.htm (accessed February 11, 2007). 65 The UDF was an ANC affiliated movement formed in 1983 to co-ordinate protest against apartheid. 68

Unity (GNU), Clermont still faces manifold socio-economic problems. A number of observers (Saul 2001, Bond 2004, and Makgetla 2004) attribute this to the failure of the national government to take brave steps to address the legacies of apartheid.

South Africa's Abbreviated Revolution

When the ANC came to power in 1994, its main economic platform was the

Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP). Although highly idealistic, it identified major policy programs that needed to be implemented urgently and vigorously to rectify the pernicious legacies of apartheid. The pith of this document was summarized in the introduction of the government's RDP White Paper:

The RDP is an integrated, coherent socio-economic policy framework. It seeks to mobilize all our people and our country's resources toward the final eradication of the results of apartheid and the building of a democratic, non-racial, and non sexist future. It represents a vision for the fundamental transformation of South Africa ... The purpose of transformation is to create a people-centered society which measures progress by the extent to which it has succeeded in securing for each citizen liberty, prosperity, and happiness. 66

In 1996, however, the ANC made a radical turnabout. 67 The RDP was jettisoned in favor of a new economic agenda called Growth, Employment and Redistribution

(GEAR). This program was seen as South Africa's ticket into the global economy.

Departing from the RDP's focus on socio-economic needs, GEAR embraced neoliberal

66 Republic of South Africa, "White Paper on Reconstruction and Development: Government's Strategy for Fundamental Transformation," (Pretoria, 1994), 7. 67 For critical accounts of the ANC's economic U-turn, see Ian Taylor and Peter Vale, "South Africa's Transition Revisited: Globalization as Vision and Virtue," Global Society 14, no. 3 (2000): 399- 414; Paul Williams and Ian Taylor, "Neoliberalism and the Political Economy of the 'New' South Africa," New Political Economy 5, no.I (2000): 21-40; John Saul, "Cry for the Beloved Country: The Post Apartheid Denouement," Monthly Review 52, no. 8 (2001) ): 1-51; Richard Peet, "Ideology, Discourse, and the Geography of Hegemony: From Socialist to Neoliberal Development in Post-Apartheid South Africa," Antipode 34, no. I (2002): 54-84; Patrick Bond, "From Racial to Class Apartheid: South Africa's Frustrating Decade of Freedom," Monthly Review 55, no. 10 (2004): 45-59; Neva Seidman Makgetla, "The Post-Apartheid Economy," Review ofAfrican Political Economy 31, no. 100 (2004): 263-283; and Kevin R Cox, South Africa and the Long History of Globalization (London: Routledge, 2007). 69

economic principles and strategies, including privatization, free enterprise, free markets, and a lessened role for government in the economy. Where the RDP had promised "a better life for all,"68 GEAR initiated the privatization of utilities and placed emphasis on cost-recovery for the provision of services such as water and electricity. While the RDP had placed a high premium on reducing unemployment, GEAR called for more labor market flexibility. Regarding trade policy, the government has taken a complaisant position, trimming its tariffs to levels below World Trade Organization (WTO) targets. It has received accolades from the international institutions such the International Monetary

Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the WTO. Therefore, it has become common parlance for government officials to defend their policies in the name of globalization. The irony seemed to be lost on former President Frederik de Klerk when he said: "It is no longer possible to shop around and to pick and choose economic systems according to our ideological predilections. The only conceivable economic system 'rests on free markets, private ownership, and individual initiative."69 This faith in the market seems to be the central organizing template within which policy proposals can be readily classified (Vale

2002, 586).

This supposed loss of sovereignty granted the government a convenient alibi ''to shift the blame for domestically unpopular policies to faceless international forces"

(Marais 2001, 160). However, Padraig Carmody (2002, 43) overstates the case when he charges that the South African state is inhibited by a "'negative autonomy' from domestic social forces and embeddedness with transnational capital, which undermine the potential

68 This was the ANC's campaign slogan for the 1994 elections. 69 Glenn Adler and Jonny Steinberg, From Comrades to Citizens: The South African Civics Movement and the Transition to Democracy (London: MacMillan Press, 2000), 176. 70

for a national developmental project." It is fair to argue, as Pallo Jordan70 (1994, 2) has observed, that:

Virtually all the liberation movements that attained victory after 1947, including our own, have been forced to make compromises at the point of victory. National liberation has rarely come in the form that the movement sought. Consequently, the terrain on which the triumphant movement has to maneuver after victory is not necessarily all of its own choosing or making.

Nonetheless, the chief question, as Zine Magubane (2004, 658) pointedly asks, is

"whether the economic policies pursued by the ANC over the past decade are instances of tactical maneuvering and temporary retreat or indicators of a deeper, deliberate, and more permanent betrayal."71 A number of scholars insist it is the latter.

Patrick Bond (2000, 2002, and 2004) has excoriated the government's programmatic failure to address the most pressing social needs of the majority of South

African citizens. He cites the growing deficits "in the spheres of democracy and basic needs, particularly in relation to rural women, and in areas whose production basis should be easy to expand-rural water/sanitation and small-scale irrigation systems, electricity, public works-without debilitating importrequirements'' (Bond 2002, 44-45). Gelb

(1996, 16) argues that the adoption of GEAR was "reform from above" which was in favor of insulating policymakers from popular pressures. Grant Farred (2004, 595) goes even further and charges that '"post' -apartheid, the moment after that should be

70 An ANC stalwart, Pallo Jordan has been a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee since 1985 and has served as Minister of Arts and Culture since 2004. Prior to this, he was also Minister for Posts, Telecommunications, and Broadcasting (1994 to 1996) and Minister for Environmental Affairs and Tourism (1996 to 1999). 71 See the engaging debate that unfolded on the pages of the Monthly Review between John Saul and Jeremy Cronin: John Saul, "Cry for the Beloved Country: The Post-Apartheid Denouement," Monthly Review 52 no. 8 (2001); Jeremy Cronin, "Post-Apartheid South Africa: A Reply to John S. Saul," Monthly Review 54, no. 7 (2002); and John Saul, "Starting from Scratch? A Reply to Jeremy Cronin," Monthly Review 54, no. 7 (2002). 71

recognizably different from the moment of apartheid, but is not." On the other hand, in a piquant essay, Hein Marais (2001, 51) argues that the ANC did not "sell out" but merely showed its colors as a bourgeois party true to its origins among the black middle class.

Here we should pause and recognize that the narrative of the struggle against apartheid is still unfolding and will continue to arc into the future. Although this dissertation characterizes the transition in South Africa as an "abbreviated revolution,"72 this should not detract from the gains that have been made since 1994. Given short shrift by the government's critics are greater political stability, political freedom, and the recognition of indigenous knowledges and practices that have great import in the lives of ordinary South Africans. The Kenyan writer NgiigI wa Thiong'o puts it aptly when he says: "We have come a long way and we should not minimize the accomplishments of

Africans and the gains we have made. The decolonization of the mind is an ongoing process."73 Acknowledging and trumpeting these accomplishments are key components of the 'decolonization of the mind'.

Moreover, the ANC government is aware of the shortcomings of the country's neoliberal economic agenda. President Thabo Mbeki admitted in 2000 that although his government had been assured that the economic fundamentals were sound, international business had not reciprocated with increased investments in the South African economy.

As Mbeki saw it:

72 I do not want to fall into the trap of gainsaying the changes that ensued following the dismantling of the edifice of constitutional apartheid. This was a remarkable transformation by many measures. Indeed, the majority of South Africans transferred their consent to the new political arrangement. However, South Africa's inequitable socio-economic scaffold remains largely intact, notwithstanding the end of apartheid rule. 73 NgiigI wa Thiong'o, discussing his book, Wizard ofthe Crow, at TransAfrica Forum's Arthur R. Ashe, Jr. Foreign Policy Library's Writer's Corner, September 14, 2006, Howard University, Washington D.C. 72

We have developed a stable and effective financial and fiscal system. We have reduced tariffs to levels that are comparable to the advanced industrial countries. We have reformed agriculture to make it the least subsidized of all the major agricultural trading nations. We have restructured our public sector through privatization, strategic partners and regulation. We have an equitable and sophisticated system oflabor relations that is continually adjusting to new developments. We play an active role in all multilateral agencies in the world. Yet, the flow of investment into South Africa has not met our expectations while the levels of poverty and unemployment remain high. 74

The government's enthusiastic efforts to push for further integration into the global economy have not paid demonstrable dividends. The majority of the township's residents have felt the razor edge of the government's neoliberal economic policies. The grim social indicators that plague Clermont reflect these shortcomings.

Socio-Economic Conditions in Clermont

According to the 2001 Census, a staggering 31 percent of people between the ages of 15 and 65 in Clermont are unemployed and 17 percent are not economically active

(Statistics South Africa 2003). Employment figures reported by the government agency

Statistics South Africa in 2006 put the official national unemployment rate at about 25 per cent. 75 However, it does not require a sophisticated survey to recognize the prevalence of joblessness in the township. This is one of the first things a casual observer

74 President Thabo Mbeki, Address to the Commonwealth Club, World Affairs Council, and US/SA Business Council Conference, San Francisco, May 24, 2000. The text of the speech is available online at www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mbeki/2000/tm0524.html (accessed March 11, 2004). 75 The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed persons expressed as a percentage of the labor force. Statistics South Africa, "Labor Force Survey: March 2006." Pretoria, September 2006. http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P02 l 0/P02 l 0March2006.pdf (accessed March 17, 2007). A recent report of the Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africa states that unemployment rates are as high as 36 percent for the general population and an astonishing 52 percent for African females ("Report of the Committee oflnquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africa: Transforming the Present, Protecting the Future," Republic of South Africa, Department of Social Development (Pretoria, 2002), 19. 73

notices upon entering Clermont. It was quite striking to see the vast numbers of young people, in particular, who idle the day away at taxi ranks, shops, and 'bottle stores'

(liquor stores).

The potent combination of unemployment, poverty, and HIV/AIDS is cited as the key affliction facing the township. This is how a youth activist and Director of the

Clermont Resource Center, Nhlakanipho Gumede, summarized the socio-economic condition in the township:

Between 1985 and today, the population of Clermont has tripled due to political difficulties in the country. There are few resources and there is no multiplication of jobs. Poverty is the main problem, leading to AIDS, which also causes poverty in tum. All this is compounded by issues of slow delivery of services. An application for a pension grant, for example, should take about three months but it generally takes nine to twelve months. In the past five years, most people had taps in their houses. In 2004, new policies resulted in water cut-offs. People have had to steal water. Some people had electricity installed but cannot pay for it. What are we to do?76

The provision of decent housing is also well below demand. About 33 percent of the township's households (or 5, 842 out of 17, 789) are informal. Moreover, 44 percent claim household income ofless than R4, 800 (about $700) per annum.77 These somber figures reflect grave socio-economic conditions in much of the country. A committee commissioned by the Department of Social Development reports pervasive poverty and cites poverty rates as high as 55 percent in many townships.78 David Everatt (2003, 75)

76 Nhlakanipho Gwnede, interview by author, Clermont, January 12, 2006. 77 Statistics South Africa, "2001 Census: Clermont Demographic Data," http://capmon.durban.gov .za/reports/geographical/planunt2.asp?planning_ unit_id=S 5 (accessed September 10, 2006). 78 Department of Social Development, "Report of the Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africa: Transforming the Present, Protecting the Future," Republic of South Africa, Pretoria, 2002, 19. 74

states that about 10 percent of black South Africans are malnourished and at least 25 percent of children experience stunted growth.

The conditions are so dire in parts of the township that a member of the Clermont

Ratepayers Association lamented:

Since 1994 many changes have taken place, but I am not sure if it is for the best or the worst. A lot of people who were active here were pushed aside. We rejoiced when the exiled comrades came back and welcomed them. A lot of people lost their lives during the violence in Clermont. I have four bullet wounds myself and I was active in the ANC's electoral campaign. Yet, after the 1994 elections, councilors were elected and all our activities came to naught. Our energy was sapped. Service delivery is not up to the spot. Businesses are not performing well and the free enterprise system is highly problematic.79

This dissatisfaction with the social conditions in Clermont is emblematic of concerns in Durban's townships and among the black population in the country in general. The eThekwini Municipality (the local authority responsible for the city of

Durban and surrounding areas) conducts annual surveys to monitor the changes in the quality oflife of Durban's residents.80 Results indicate that the municipality's black residents have the lowest level of satisfaction with their quality of life. In fact, parity of life satisfaction between racial groups is as far apart in 2005 as it was in 1998 (O'Leary

2007, 357).

While these statistics underscore the impact of apartheid policies, they also reveal the economic policy failures of the ANC government. Nonetheless, this dissatisfaction with economic trends in the township has not been accompanied by any significant

79 A member of the Clermont Ratepayers Association, interview by author, Clermont, January 6, 2006. 80 According to O'Leary (2007, 358), the survey included structured questionnaire interviews administered in 14 300 dwellings between 1998 and 2005. The samples drawn each year were representative of the city's demographics and covered a wide range of housing types. 75

political uprisings in Clennont. The party has been very effective in managing grassroots subjectivities in an environment where popular demands are at loggerheads with the dynamics of globalization and the ruling party's economic policies. Indeed, unlike violent protests in the Kennedy Road settlement, for example, Clermont is much more subdued.81

To understand this, one has to explore the power dynamics that shape politics in the township.

Township Politics

Since 1994, the ANC government's grip on power in the township has been unmistakably strong and it has been largely successful in circumventing any significant popular uprisings. While its support at the grassroots level is not as staunch as it was on the eve of the first democratic elections, the party has been extremely effective in thwarting off protests over poor service delivery and other social needs. 82 This scenario is attributable to a few factors.

I). Absence ofstrong political opposition: The ANC has invariably won local elections in Clermont at a canter. Although the party's share of votes has decreased somewhat in recent elections, it has occupied an entrenched place in the township as the people's party. For example, in the by-elections of October 2002, it won 84.3 percent of

81 Protests over housing in the Kennedy Road informal settlement have often turned violent. In 2007, a demonstration "turned ugly when police dispersed a large crowd using water cannons, rubber bullets and baton charges." See, Carvin Goldstone, "Where is the RIO-billion?" Independent Online, September 29, 2007. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id= 1&click _id=3045&art _id=vn20070929085453605C90543 l (accessed October 22, 2008). 82 It remains to be seen whether the decision by disaffected members of the ANC to split from the party will have any major significance in KwaZulu-Natal where ANC President Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma enjoys great support. The leading dissidents (such as former Defense Minister Mosiuoa "Terror" Lekota) represent disaffected supporters of President Mbeki, who was ignominiously discharged from office by the ANC in September 2008, with less than a year of his term remaining. 76

the vote (compared to 87.4 percent in 2000). The Democratic Alliance (DA) made a foray into black municipal wards and established a party office in the township. The strategy has not fundamentally shaken township politics (the DA attracted only 70 votes or 1.4 percent in 2000 and 132 votes or 4.9 percent in 2002).83 The ANC's landslide victory in the 2006 national elections further confirmed the party's durable electoral dominance.

2). Disjointed grassroots political organizations: Field research did not reveal any fervent grassroots political organizations in the township. For example, participation by youth organizations in the political process seemed to have generally atrophied. The perimeters of one of the more active youth organizations, Ikusasa Lethu Youth

Foundation, only extended to job creation and life skills. Formed in 2001, the township's only active youth organization had a paltry 48 members who had paid their dues at the end of 2006. 84

3). Reliance on government grants and subsidies: The most active organizations were churches and CBOs that focus on the provision of basic needs. The ANC government has adopted various policy initiatives with the stated purpose of infusing social content and anti-poverty interventions in a macroeconomic policy framework. It has pumped large amounts of money in the form of subsidies and grants to local NGOs to provide needed social programs. These are funneled into community organizations as part of the government's umbrella programs that have expanded social safety nets to most vulnerable social groups. They include the government's tepid launch of the HIV treatment program (albeit following years of equivocation), the Basic Income Grant

83 "By-Elections Paint the True Picture," Business Day, October 4, 2002. 84 Bongani Gumede, coordinator oflkusasa Lethu, interview with author, Clermont, January 12, 2006. 77

(BIG) of 2002, child support grants, and other among others. (These are discussed in more detail in chapter 4).

4). Durable family connections: Quite a few propertied residents of Clermont have long-standing relationships with people in the higher echelons of national government. These personal connections define the nature of politics in the township.

Many Clermont residents pride themselves for their role in the struggle against apartheid.

In addition, there are numerous powerbrokers in politics and business who trace their roots to Clermont. They include former Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, KwaZulu-Natal Judge-President Vuka

Tshabalala, late United Democratic Front president Archie Gumede and prominent business leaders Diliza Mji and Nku Nyembezi-Heita, the chief executive officer of

ArcelorMittal South Africa, the country's steel maker.85 Nyembezi-Heita claims that her parents "still live in the same house where I grew up."86

5). History offreehold system: Townships are often portrayed as the abscess of apartheid policy where chaos and mayhem reign supreme. Observers go to great lengths describing the "squalid living conditions, lack of delivery, joblessness and other miseries that are the daily fare in ghetto life" in many South African townships. 87 They quote data confirming a great escape by the well-off from the townships to suburbs. For example, the Economist quotes a survey by the Unilever Institute that estimates that between the

85 Cyril Madlala, "Rift between Zuma, Ngcuka Upsets Their KwaZulu-Natal Supporters," Business Day, September 22, 2003. 86 Judy van der Walt, "Steel Giant's New Chief Thrives on Innovation," Sunday Independent, February 10, 2008. 87 Tom Nevin, "Spontaneous combustion or organized violence?" African Business 334 (July 2008), 72. 78

end of2005 and the beginning of2007 "about 50,000 people a month have moved out of townships into more affluent neighborhoods, where almost half of the 'black diamonds'88 now live, against 23% in 2005."89 As a result of this exodus, "buying power is believed to have fallen by about 15 percent in the townships but risen by more than that in the suburbs."90

These depictions often ignore the complexity of township life. While many affluent people have relocated from Clermont to Kloof and other former white suburbs, some of the township's elite either stayed or retained their properties in Clermont when they relocated.91 As a result, the old class divisions among landowners, tenants, hostel dwellers, and people who live in informal settlements remain as visible as ever.

Clermont's elite include business owners, physicians, lawyers, teachers, politicians, minibus taxi owners, nurses, etc. Discussions of ubuntu among these diverse groups reveals the tenacity of old class divisions that were defined by the township's freehold system.

Commenting on this issue, a resident said, "Clermont is lucky to have had a different history - the freehold system. It means we care about how this place is run. We should keep our identity and culture and we try to inculcate these values in those we work

88 This term is often used to describe South Africa's new black middle class. 89 "The Rise of the Buppies: The Economic and Political Consequences of the Black Middle Class," The Economist, November 1, 2007 (accessed October 22, 2008) http://www.economist.com/research/Backgrounders/displaystory.cfm?story _id= 10064458 90 "Hard to Sell to Black Diamonds," Fin24, Jun 12, 2007. (http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Articleld=212883laccessed0ctober22, 2008). 91 As John Simpson of the University of Cape Town argues, "Over 60 percent of the black diamonds who moved into the suburbs tell us that they go back to the townships quite regularly... " See, "The emergence of black diamonds," May 22, 2007. http://business.iafrica.com/transcripts/886992.htm (accessed October 22, 2008). 79

with."92 However, caring about how the place is run often translates into what can be called "polite politics" where many title-holders display a palpable hesitancy to criticize the national government. As one put it, "lfl speak with a politician, I don't criticize them,

I build them up.',93 Indeed, there was a detectable conservative bent among the well-off residents. Propertied groups seemed more concerned with issues of order and security.94

Thus they tended to see ubuntu as a corrective to crime, violence, and endangerment of property, while residents of informal settlements cite ubuntu to indict the government for poor service delivery, joblessness, and crime.

This "polite politics" was suspended, however, when ubuntu was discussed in relation to the local government and political relations in the township. As a youth organization leader put it, "The major problem is not Pretoria; local government is the foundation, it's near the people. lzimpande (roots) should be strong, but it's not the case.''95 Distance was a good alibi for the national government. Another interviewee said,

"The national government talks well and has put a lot of money into delivery, but the local government, the person at the help desk, is not helpful. Ward counselors have

92 Mrs. Nyembezi, co-founder and board member of Ezibambeleni Home for the Aged, interview with author, Clermont, January 24, 2006. 93 Mrs. Nyembezi, co-founder and board member ofEzibambeleni Home for the Aged, interview with author, Clermont, January 24, 2006. 94 Although crime is a general worry in South Africa, the concern with order and security is especially heightened in the more affluent suburbs. Pithouse (2007, 20) states that in the 2006 local government elections, the ANC built its winning campaigns in and the elite residential areas of Clare Estate and Reservoir Hills by promising to continue to evict shack dwellers from the suburbs. ANC councilors were celebrated in the local media for genuine increases in property prices and imagined decreases in risks of danger and contagion that followed evictions. Pithouse quotes a former Democratic Alliance (DA) saying that he was voting for the ANC because after the evictions, "There is now order and sense of calmness in the streets. The informal shacks have been demolished and the road is serving its original purpose [instead of informal residents playing soccer on the road]" (2007, 20). 95 Bongani Gumede, coordinator oflkusasa Lethu, interview with author, Clermont, January 12, 2006. 80

failed. Government should hire coordinators not counselors to attend to community needs in each region."96

6). Enduring social divisions: Concomitant with old class divisions is one of the most enduring social fault lines in the township, namely, between imisinsi91 (permanent residents) and abantu bangaphandle (outsiders). This is a distinction between residents who hold titles and people who moved to Clermont to work in the factories in New

Germany and Pinetown and lived in the KwaDabeka hostel or in the imijondolo (also called imikhukhu or shacks) in Clermont. Many so-called "outsiders" are people who fled political violence in other townships and some rural areas to take refuge in Clermont in the 1980s. This social distinction was quite prominent during interviews.

96 Mrs. Joyce Mchunu, Project Manager, Ekuzameni Crisis Center and Shelter for the Abused, interview with author, Clermont, January 5, 2006. 97 Zulu people often use the phrase umsinsi wokuzimilela (natural tree; not transplanted) to affirm their indigenousness. Umsinsi or Erythrina cajfra is a subtropical tree that grows in the northern regions of KwaZulu-Natal and the coastal areas of the Eastern Cape. 81

Asked about her views on ubuntu, a title-holder responded that the decline of ubuntu in the township was directly linked to the growth of imikhukhu which are the breeding grounds for burglary and other crimes in the township.98 Furthermore, she suggested that "outsiders" have come to dominate political and social life in Clermont.

As she put it, "Even some councilors are not from Clermont originally. Taxi associations, very few of them are from Clermont. This leads to conflict. It is difficult for an original resident of Clermont to gain access to the taxi business. Our own children do not get housing subsidies from the government; they go to abantu bangaphandle. We pay high rates and yet service delivery is very poor. There is a lack of jobs, no doubt but I can't understand why you would kill because you don't have a job. People are lazy today and they want to get money fast. In the old days people didn't work but they cared for each other."99

These divisions notwithstanding, some local organizations have displayed great determination to overcome the socio-economic hurdles of post-apartheid South Africa.

Bereft of sophisticated blueprints, community organizations draw from their wells of cultural knowledge and practices to improve the living conditions in the township.

Ubuntu has figured prominently in these efforts, as the rest of this chapter will show.

98 Defending his department's record on crime in the townships, Mr. Bheki Cele, Minister of Transport and Community Safety and Liaison in the KwaZulu-Natal government, said: "There has always been crime there ... There has always been rape in the African townships. Always. At no stage was there no rape in the African townships. At no stage was there no crime in the African townships, whether Soweto, whether KwaMashu, whether in L Section ... We even could not go to Clermont because sasisaba ulcugwazwa [we were terrified of being stabbed] because we grew up in the township scene. Everywhere. So I do not know where it comes from, this thing that this ungovemability came with this crime." See, Hon. Bheki Cele, Debates and Proceedings of the Third KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature, Second Session, Fourth Sitting, May 30, 2005. http://www.kznlegislature.gov.za/Portals/O/Hansards/2005NOL06-05.pdf (accessed August 28, 2008). 99 Interviewee, Ndunduma, Clermont, January 10, 2006. 82

It is precisely for the above reasons that this dissertation argues that ifthe struggle against apartheid was framed in race and class terms, the debates over the direction of a new South Africa are often expressed in cultural terms. This is not to say that the familiar filters of social division - class, ethnicity, gender, and race -- have been shredded, but to suggest that the terrain of contestation is increasingly cloaked in cultural garb. In order to reveal these old categories, one has to remove the cultural veils that cloak them. In an unprecedented manner, ubuntu and other indigenous terms have grown into potent and decisive instruments in shaping the political agenda of both the state and civil society in

South Africa.

The Meanings of Ubuntu at the Community Level

In a scorching critique of the ANC government's economic policies, John Saul

(2001, 32) argues that the deep, albeit uneven, capitalist development in South Africa has engendered a profound consumerist culture, especially in the sprawling urban areas. He states that this materialist ethos is "far more resonant than any presumed residue of the much-discussed traditional and collective-oriented spirit of ubuntu" (2001, 32). Contrary to Saul's assertion, research showed that although they held divergent views, the people interviewed actually identified ubuntu as the catalytic element in any meaningful social transformation of the individualist culture that Saul claims has permeated South African society. Subdued during the prolonged period of colonial and apartheid rule, ubuntu has provided guiding values and forms of engagement in times of alleged depoliticization in the country. 100

10°For more on the subject of depoliticization in South Africa, see, among others, Janet Cherry 2000, and Greg Ruiters, "Depoliticization and De-activation in the New South Africa: Local Services and 83

In an environment where the terms of political discourse are uncertain, conversations with Clermont residents about ubuntu enabled them to speak about the post-apartheid condition, as they put it, "ngamanye amazwi" (in other words). A significant number of the people interviewed expressed concerns about their unwillingness or inability to protest in the same manner that they did during the apartheid years. Some were critical of the government's policies but also said that it is hard to expect the government to change things for the better given the long history of oppression and dispossession. As one interviewee put it, "How do you toyitoyi101 against the very government that fought for your right to toyitoyi?" Yet, the interviewees criticized the consequences of both local and national government policy in fascinating ways.

One of the recurring themes that emerged from many definitions of ubuntu was the term ukuhlonipha or inhlonipho (respect). 102 When I visited my notes for analysis, I was initially surprised by the repeated use of this word. Ukuhloniphalinhlonipho usually suggests respect for authority and even subservience (the young to the old, women to men, and the ruled to the rulers). 103 However, while ukuhlonipha was used in this case to refer also to interpersonal relationships, there was a new meaning that accompanied its use. In many cases, people were demanding inhlonipho from those in places of power. As a young engineering student put it: "Abaholi nabadala kufanele bavume amaphutha

Political Identity" (paper presented at the "Africa - The Next Liberation Struggle" Conference, York University, October 15-16, 2004, http://www.arts.yorku.ca/ african_liberation/theme/theme_ index.html (accessed June 2, 2007.) 101 Jtoyitoyi is a protest dance that includes chanting and the stomping of feet that was very popular during the struggle against apartheid. 102 Hlonipha is a verb and ukuhlonipha/inhlonipho is a noun. 103 Recall Frantz Fanon's (1963, 135) charge that those in powerful positions proclaim that "the vocation of their people is to obey, to go on obeying and to be obedient until the end of time." 84

bangaqinisi amakhanda" (our leaders and older people need to learn to admit mistakes and not be hard headed.)

Beyond personal relationships, they also demand inhlonipho for the ideas, experiences, and contributions of everyone. In a useful account of the struggles of abahlali basemjondolo (shack dwellers) in the Kennedy Road settlement in Durban,

Richard Pithouse (2006, 34-35) notes that these activists say they seek inhlonipho for themselves and expect nothing less than respect from their government. He goes on to argue that they are not clamoring for mere delivery of proper housing: "They were demanding the right to co-determine their future. This means that questions about where houses are built, who is allocated a house, what counts as a 'house' and so on are firmly on the agenda" (2006, 35).

This reappropriation oflanguage is certainly neither novel nor unique to

Clermont. Christopher Hill (1975, 247) demonstrates that in English and French revolutions heretics often "turned the world upside down" and usurped the language of subservience to superiors and deployed it to affirm their break with the old order. For many respondents in the Clermont study, this break was marked by a strong commitment to cultural values. Mostly, they were affirming the validity of indigenous knowledge systems over the dominance of western culture. When defining ubuntu, for example, they often used the term uzwelo (sympathy, empathy or care) which they said was an integral part of African culture. This was often accompanied by strong critiques of individualism and westernization. Ndela Ntshangase's observation summarizes these sentiments quite well: 85

We are tormented by otokoloshe (familiar spirits) of westernization. They find very powerful and influential positions and fully occupy our televisions. The promotion of individualism is what has brought us to ruin. We are so bereft of any cultural and human worth that we follow the western practice of driving older people into these camps called old-age homes. This is something totally taboo in the ubuntu culture. 104

Another interviewee echoed this view: "The individualism of the white capitalist system says when you are well-fed, it is enough. The formal economy has no place for our values. Wealth is yours and yours alone; not for all of us. Formal employment has made it easy for ubuntu to dissipate."105

However, people did not blame this 'dissipation' on western culture alone.

Recalling the precepts of the Black Consciousness Movement, an activist noted:

It is all about attitude - that is the essence of ubuntu. It informs your general disposition towards life. Ubuntu is not just a word, it is not something that you can 'workshop' around; it is a way oflife. I get emotional when I see people pick and choose what aspects of our ubuntu culture they will focus on. They put frills on our culture as a substitute to the way we ought to live. The exorbitant ilobolo (dowry) fees people charge these days is a good example. They like that part of culture because it is economically profitable.106

Critics of the ubuntu value system often charge that it does not exist. As evidence, they cite, inter alia, engulfing poverty, soaring crime rates, domestic violence, and poor treatment of women in general. As a blogger put it, "I have looked to find ubuntu in action and come up empty-handed. From Kosi Bay to Port Nolloth. What you describe does not exist in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho,

Mozambique, Botswana, Sudan or Egypt (the only other African countries I've

104 Ndela Ntshangase, interview by author, Durban, January 26, 2006. 105 Nomagugu Ngobese, interview by author, Pietermaritzburg, February 2, 2006. 106 Fisani Mzimela, interview by author, Pinetown, December 1, 2005. 86

visited) ... " 107 He goes on to say that one of the key problems with this "anachronistic medieval myth" is that unless "it can be physically demonstrated as a cultural ethos, it has the same value as the tokoloshe ... To accept liars, cheats, tyrants, murderers, pedophiles, charlatans, rapists, frauds as they are and not as I would prefer them to be is plain bullshit ... "108

Due to such questions, the subject of the actual practice of ubuntu was a refrain in the interview questions. Asked how she reconciled the existence of so much violence, crime, and the lack of respect for life in the township, with the purported existence of ubuntu, an interviewee insisted that ''these calamities were not a suggestion of the absence of ubuntu, but they demand it necessary."109 In their responses to questions, many residents of Clermont suggested in one way or another that ubuntu lives next door to the fear of things unknown: witchcraft, globalization, westernization, etc. They referred to ubuntu as a grounding principle, the representation of a familiar and knowable landscape in light of the unknowable transformations taking place all around them.

At an organizational level, in response to the ambiguous profit of the neoliberal economic order in Clermont, civil society has restructured itself in multiple ways.

Ubuntu-oriented organizations also reflect this change, to a degree. Observers decry the demise of a vibrant civil society that accompanied the transition from apartheid to democracy (Seekings 2000, Cherry 2000). The argument goes that, instead of

107 Llewellyn Kriel, responding to a post by Dwnisani Magadlela, "Ubuntu: Myth or Antidote to Today's Socio-Political and Leadership Challenges," Sunday Times, January 9, 2008, http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/dwnisanimagadlela/2008/0l/09/ubuntu-myth-or-antidote-to today%E2%80%99s-socio-political-and-leadership-challenges (accessed October 22, 2008). 108 Ibid. 109 Bandile Gumbi, interview with author, Pinetown, December 29, 2005. 87

aggressively asserting themselves in the political process, civil society organizations atrophied or were marginalized and emasculated by the new government. But as Preben

Kaarsholm (2006, 83) persuasively argues,

The whole idea of a 'demise of or 'crisis for' civil society has paid insufficient attention to the importance of local cultural institutions as ingredients in 'really existing civil society' - as articulators of positions, identities, agendas and grievances, as well as providers within and between them of spaces for debate and contestation.

In order to make this legible, we need to look at political contestation in ways that are different from the usual registers which confine engagement to overt forms of resistance. As table 1, below, demonstrates, the revitalization of ubuntu in South Africa anchors various forms of engagement that accommodate, probe, or reject particular features of the country's political and economic directions. The next section outlines the types of ubuntu-conscious organizations that are active in Clermont.

The first is what we can call "survivalist organizations". They put ubuntu into practice by providing critical services such as HIVI AIDS education and traditional circuits of assistance such as savings schemes and burial societies. There is a proliferation of these informal, community-based networks and associations that enable poor and marginalized communities to survive the daily ravages of poverty. The second category can be called cultural revivalist organizations. They typically provide education about traditional practices and cultural self-respect. The third bloc interprets and deploys ubuntu values to confront government economic policies and promote self-reliance education campaigns. 88

Table 1. Typology of ubuntu organizations

Organization Type Tvves ofActivities Geof,!ravhic Scope "Survivalist" • Organize stokvels (saving • Local and provincial (humanitarian and schemes) focus. economic) • Encourage community • Raise money from own participation in self-help projects activities • Obtain some funding from • Arrange burial societies the government, local • Provide HIVI AIDS care and foundations and some training international organizations • Coordinate feeding schemes • Run self-help projects

Cultural Revivalist • Cultural festivals and rituals • Local, provincial, and • Ukuhlola (virginity testing) national campaigns • Mobilizations against • Raise own finances from political and cultural projects and receive some marginalization and funding from local "excessive westernization" foundations • Organize workshops on culture • Run self-reliance projects • Promote traditional art, music, etc. Socio-economic • Organize self-reliance • Local and national and Change projects collaborate with like- • Organize popular education minded organizations on workshops the African continent and • Establish satellite overseas. organizations and nodes in • Funded by local and schools throughout the international foundations country • Organize national conferences on education, peace, and economic change • Organize and participate in international conferences

Ubuntu as Survival

The inability or unwillingness of the government to chart a more socially progressive economic policy and the pressures of economic transformation have 89

engendered the proliferation of traditional survival circuits. Ubuntu plays a prominent role in the constitution and activities of these survivalist organizations. Most of these self- organized community groups provide basic services such as child care (Sibusisiwe

Center), HIV/AIDS training and care (Clermont Home-Based Care Project), caring for the elderly (Muthande Home for the Aged and Zibambeleni), feeding schemes (Clermont

Community Center), counseling (Ekuzameni Crisis Center), legal aid (Clermont

Resource Center), and youth empowerment (Ikusasa Lethu Youth Organization).

Mahilall' s findings confirm the important the role of ubuntu in motivating many volunteers to participate in home-based care programs for people affected by HIVI AIDS.

As she puts it, providers of home-based care "have strong Christian backgrounds steeped in African tradition. They believe that doing good to others will in tum bring good upon themselves and their offspring ... A strong sense of ubuntu (spirit of care and support) predominates" (2006, 84).

While many of the activities of these organizations are indeed "adaptative responses" (Kurtz 1973) to poverty among the urban poor, there is ample evidence of them talcing aggressive focus on economic empowerment. Katrina Greene (2002) writes about women's organizations in Khayelitsha (Cape Town) using traditional saving schemes to provide mechanisms for effective participation in the economy. Indeed, one of the key self-help institutions in Clermont is the stokvel (saving club ). 110 Khehla

Lukhele (1990, 1) defines astokvel as,

A type of credit union in which a group of people enter into an agreement to contribute a fixed amount of money to a common pool weekly, fortnightly, or

110 The stokvel is called by different names such as umgalelo (isiXhosa), mahodisana (seSotho), or isitokofela (isiZulu). 90

monthly. Depending on the rules governing a particular stokvel, this money or a portion of it maybe drawn by members either in rotation or in a time of need. This mutual financial assistance is the main purpose of stokvels, but they also have valuable social and entertainment functions.

The stokvel is one of many similar self-help practices throughout the African continent. Dei (2000, 268) lists numerous examples of such indigenous institutions on the continent: upatu (credit associations of the Chagga people of Tanzania), susu (among the

Akan of Ghana), esusu (practiced by the Yoruba of Nigeria and the Krio of Sierra Leone, and nnoboa (labor partnerships practiced by the Akan of Ghana). 111

Members often view the stokvel not only as a means of augmenting their finances, but also as social institutions that authenticated interdependent relationships (Greene

2002, 136). Even as they actively participate in the capitalist economy, members of stokvels adapt indigenous practices and values that reinforce bonds of mutual trust, reciprocity, and sharing. This is similar to what Karl Polanyi (1966, 33-34), following

Aristotle, referred to as householding which is appealing because it offers an escape from hierarchy and restores more egalitarian social relations.

We should take care, as Adam Habib (2005, 682-683) has cautioned, not to fall into the trap of celebrating these associations as signaling the reemergence of a vibrant civil society in South Africa. Indeed, they should be recognized for what they are:

"survivalist responses of poor and marginalized people who have had no alternative in the face of a retreating state that refuses to meet its socioeconomic obligations to its citizenry." On the other hand, we should also not reject such survivalist strategies as

111 The equivalent of nnoboa in South Africa is ilima (in isiZulu) or letsema (in seSotho). Ilima/letsema generally involves members of multiple families joining together to assist one family at a time to cultivate their land. 91

impediments to longer term change. Doing so undermines their potential to "feed directly in to an end goal of creating and struggling towards the type of society people wish to live in and be a part of' (Lumsden and Loftus 2003, 28). Indigenous survivalist circuits may be seen as part of what Polanyi called the active society - a society that is impelled by self-protection to organize against its own degradation.

It is important to note, however, that these practices and institutions are not exclusively byproducts of the post-apartheid era. Stokvels, for example, have existed in the country at least since the early twentieth-century. As Linda Thomas (1994, 52) notes, as apartheid systematically tore away at the black family and society, the ensuing displacement and alienation reinforced a dependence on communal survival strategies. In contemporary South Africa, community members are adapting their cultural practices to new opportunity structures in the post-apartheid period that require the fragmentation and recombination of existing cultural forms with new practices (Lumsden and Loftus 2003,

20). Thus, not all ubuntu organizations focus on material issues; some are preoccupied with revitalizing cultural practices and institutions that they deem essential to the country's socio-economic transformation.

Ubuntu as Cultural Revitalization

While members of survivalist ubuntu organizations are characterized by their loose networks, cultural revivalist organizations are distinguished by their attempts to coordinate their activities and establish stronger collaborations. Indeed, some of the richest and most original materials on ubuntu emanated from meetings with some of the key players who were crafting strategies for creating an effective ubuntu revitalization 92

movement in Durban. The core members of this group included three academics, an advisor in the office of the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, a novelist, a poet, a virginity specialist, isangoma (traditional healer), and two cultural educators. They all belonged to different organizations, united by their goal of reviving indigenous values systems and cultural practices. I learned more about the diverse meanings and practices of ubuntu in a three-hour meeting than the preceding year of Internet research.

Organizational differences notwithstanding, cultural revivalist groups share three broad aims: resuscitating and strengthening indigenous cultures, the production and practice of indigenous knowledge, the recognition of the positive role of indigenous knowledge in the long-term transformation of South African society. As ifrecalling

Polanyi' s concept of embeddedness (1957, 34), for these groups, the boundary between the socio-economic and the cultural realms is an illusion. Accordingly, a meaningful socio-economic change will not take place absent the recognition of indigenous knowledge and institutions previously ignored in the apartheid era.

They reject the deprivation thesis that emphasizes indigenous people's privation - their lack of wealth, health, land, and resources. Reversing this discourse, they castigate the government for its lack of a blueprint for dismantling the cultural and socio-economic apartheid infrastructure that continues to hinder South Africa's development. While a strong indigenous Africanist discourse permeates their outlook, there are vigorous debates about solutions to contemporary problems.

Practitioners of indigenous medicine and healing, for example, are at loggerheads about the issue of integrating indigenous medicine and western medicine. Some want the modernization of indigenous healing and are in favor of establishing indigenous clinics 93

and hospitals for HIV/AIDS patients (Xaba 2004, 223). Others vehemently reject the use of western medicine's yardsticks to assess the effectiveness of indigenous healing practices.

In February 2006, I attended a conference of traditional healers at Edendale

Hospital where issues of the role of traditional medicine were discussed. This was a gathering of about 80 izangoma (diviners), izinyanga (healers), and abathandazi112 from

Mshwati, Mpendle, Howick, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Richmond, Durban, and

Mkhambathini. An isangoma criticized her colleagues for being money-oriented. They deem it necessary to work together with western medicine, so they can get access to money, ignoring the excessive side effects of that relationship. According to her,

"lzangoma are confused because they have been undermined for so long. That old scenario has not been resolved. We are required to make referrals to western doctors.

Why are white doctors not required to make referrals to us to heal diseases that we know and understand?"113

Another bone of contention is how to deal with the scourge of HIVI AIDS. This matter has intensified debates among cultural revivalist organizations about issues of culture and modernity. Groups such as Sivuselela Amasiko and Nomkhubulwane Culture and Youth Development Organization focus primarily on virginity testing. Opponents charge that this position runs counter to the country's commitment to the protection of

112 Xaba (1999, 1) says "abathandazi function in that liminal space between izangoma and Christian religious healers or mediums. Their knowledge is informed by (and balances) both African and Christian epistemology and cosmology. Their methods of intervention range from prayer, using the name of Jesu (Jesus) or Mariya (Jesus' mother), to the use of blessed water and other objects as well as the use of indigenous medicines." 113 Delisile Nsimbi, interview with author, Pietermaritzburg, February 2, 2006. 94

human rights and ensuring gender equality.114 In a rejoinder, Nomagugu Ngobese, the founder ofNomkhubulwane, states that, to the contrary, the mission of her organization is the empowerment of women to fight against the prevalent violence against women in

South Africa. She argues that through indigenous festivals such as the uNomkhubulwane

Festival, Ngobese's organization puts women's issues at the forefront.

UNomkhubulwane is the goddess of rain, agricultural wealth, and fertility. 115 To celebrate the feast, virgins (who symbolize innocence and fertility) carry produce and ascend a mountain where they offer these as sacrifice to uNomkhubulwane. The festival is now in its twelfth year. Ngobese revived this age-old practice and invited thousands of young women to a rural KwaZulu-Natal region of eMpendle. She worked with 17 amakhosi (chiefs) to bring together hundreds of young girls to the event. In addition to teaching about cultural practices, the uNomkhubulwane organization conducts youth workshops focusing on life skills, music, dance, and other skills. Ngobese says this is all done to combat crime, the spread of HIVI AIDS, and to reduce the number of street children. Another important area where the resuscitation of ubuntu values is taking place is the arts.

Andries Walter Oliphant (2004, 18) puts it quite aptly when he says, "The arts once again, now under democratic conditions, are beginning to focus in a context where the state is either reluctant or unable to provide leadership." Many organizations and

114 Parliament considered a proposal to ban the tests in 2005, but the measure was defeated. Cecilia Ncube of the United Nations' women's rights agency UNIFEM in Johannesburg was quoted by the BBC as saying of virginity testing: "It's unacceptable. It's imposed on a girl but not a boy which is unfair ... and it stigmatizes. A man is expected to marry a virgin - if she is exposed then she will be an outcast in the community." Antony Kaminju, "South Africa's Virginity Testing," BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6677745.stm (accessed June 30, 2007.) 115 Compare withHainuwele (of the Wemale people ofCeram, Indonesia), Tonantzin (the Aztec Goddess of Sustenance), and Ceres (the Roman Goddess of Agriculture). 95

individuals are engaged in numerous arts programs that encourage and strengthen ubuntu initiatives in museum education, crafts, art exhibitions and other cultural presentations.

Exhibits have been set up in many places around Durban, other locales in South Africa, and abroad.

Hlengiwe Dube, the Director of the African Art Center in Durban, has played a key role using art as a vehicle for promoting ubuntu. She conducts numerous beadwork training workshops for thousands of women in Durban's townships. She says the main mission of her training is to make women proud of their cultures and production of art. 116

As she succinctly described it,

In my beadwork, older women share with younger girls the cultural meanings and symbols of our beads and patterns. They make them proud of their cultures and the production of their art. We bring out the originality of our work even though it is very modem. I work with thousands of women and before I conduct beadwork lessons I talk about ubuntu first because this is something important to me. I want to leave a mark about our customs. 117

This crafting of indigeneity, identity, and ubuntu is not unique to Dube's workshops, nor is it merely a South African phenomenon. Ann-Elise Lewallen recounts how Ainu indigenous women in Japan reincarnate cloth as an expression of their cultural vitality. She demonstrates how the "re-creation of traditional basketry, embroidery, and weaving has allowed Ainu women to realize an historical and cultural legacy connecting them to both political and symbolic capital flows" (2006, 32). In the same manner, while the Clermont women's beadwork might be practiced in what can be described as apolitical terms, it provides symbolic leverage and women, through their art, are able to

116 In line with her organization's goal of encouraging self-reliance and economic production, Dube says artists bring their work to her and they determine the price, not the African Art Center. The center adds 35 per cent to that price to cover overhead and operating expenses. 117 Hlengiwe Dube, interview by author, Durban, March 21, 2006. 96

craft themselves as active agents, whether symbolically, socially or discursively of a different society.

Furthermore, like many who are involved in the cultural revitalization of ubuntu,

Hlengiwe travels extensively in South Africa and globally to promote the values of ubuntu. She attended the Commonwealth Games in Australia in 2006 to "promote ubuntu and work with aboriginal peoples in Melbourne and Perth to share with them our cultures and to make connections."118 There she played a key role in establishing "Ubuntu-To

Make a Place," an exhibition staged in the Melbourne Museum. It was a collaborative project involving organizations from 14 countries in the global South to present their

"skills and materials, both as an expression of local identity and as a means of adding value to our work ... and being part of the discussion about the meaning of ubuntu and its relevance beyond South Africa."119 A fuller discussion of ubuntu and art in the global arena follows in chapter five.

There are many exhibits in the Durban area that focus on ubuntu as well.

Examples include an exhibition of women's art called "Sakha Ubuntu: Women's Day Art

Exhibition 2006." Sakha Ubuntu was organized to showcase the varied talents of young artists and crafters in the KwaZulu-Natal schools. Also in 2006, the 16th World Council of YMCAs and the Durban Art Gallery presented a cameo exhibition titled' Ubuntu -

Striving for Life and Peace'. This was also the conference theme of the YMCA's meeting in Durban in July 2006.

118 Hlengiwe Dube, interview by author, Durban, March 21, 2006. 119 The South Project, www.southproject.org (accessed August 26, 2006). 97

Another key departure from survivalist organizations is the critical role played by what can be called, following Antonio Gramsci, organic intellectuals. Similar to

Gramsci's organic intellectuals who would emancipate "good sense" from "common sense," intellectuals among organizations promoting ubuntu seek to release the potential of ubuntu and connect it to local, national, and pan-African issues.120 These ubuntu intellectuals help direct the ideas and aspirations of their compatriots. K.haba Mkhize, a former editor of the Natal Witness, 121 says the resuscitation of ubuntu has to happen in incremental steps. In collaboration with other ubuntu scholars, he is developing isithangamu sobuntu (ubuntu colloquium) where they discuss and develop ubuntu and other indigenous ideas. 122

The result of such meetings is that many of the activists have developed sophistication with using the media for their campaigns. For example, when she realized that local state-run television was ignoring her campaigns, Nomagugu Ngobese turned her attention to international media such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

In addition, they are involved in producing their own radio programs for community radio and strengthening their relationships with sympathetic producers of TV and radio stations that belong to the national broadcaster (the South African Broadcasting

Corporation or SABC). 123

12°For Antonio Gramsci, common sense entails the "diffuse, uncoordinated features of a general form of thought common to a particular period and a particular popular environment." But it contains a "healthy nucleus of good sense which deserves to be made more unitary and coherent" (1992, 328 and 330). 121 Now it is called The Witness. 122 Khaba Mkhize, interview by author, Pietermaritzburg, January 25, 2006. 123 An example of such radio programs is lzwi Labantu (Voice of the People) on Ukhozi FM which focuses on culture. 98

Ubuntu for Socio-economic Change

Some organizations employ the tenets of ubuntu to confront what they regard as deleterious socio-economic policies and use ubuntu in their self-reliance education campaigns. At the forefront is the Umtapo Center, which describes itself as "a liberatory education and development organization whose mission is to conscientize, empower, and mobilize people and communities to participate in the struggle for peace and justice. "124

Established in 1986, Umtapo envisions "an Africa that will be characterized by social and economic justice and values that are consistent with ubuntu."125

Umtapo's ubuntu-informed critique of the economic system in South Africa is embodied in this quote from one of the organization's officers:

You cannot have peace if you have a violent economic system that takes away your ubuntu. The chaos we are in is related to the capitalist system, wars for capital accumulation, and power for the benefit of a few. The poorest of the poor must know they are not poor because they are stupid. The current system does not recognize their knowledge as valid. They have been to the university oflife. Our job is to empower people to make informed decisions about their lives; for example, when it comes to elections, we ask: what are we voting for? Ubuntu is at the center of all this. People must feel that they are human; they are people.126

Appropriately then, "Free the Mind, Free the Land" is the organization's clarion call. What sets them apart from the organizations studied here is their carefully crafted organizational platform that consciously integrates ubuntu into their programs. Their holistic approach infuses the center's work with ubuntu, combined with radical ideas from the Black Consciousness Movement, and Freiran pedagogy. In 2005, Umtapo paid

124 Nomiki Yekani, National Youth Programs Coordinator, Umtapo Center, interview by author, Durban, January 26, 2006. 125 Umtapo Center, http://www.umtapo.co.za/about.htm (accessed July 8, 2007). 126 Arnn Naicker, Umtapo Center, interview by author, Durban, January 24, 2006. 99

tribute to the work of Paulo Freire by awarding him the Steve Biko International Peace

Award. His daughter, Fatima Freire Dowbor, received it on his behalf. This event also saw the launch of the Center's manual, "The Paulo Freire Handbook for Community

Workers."127

The emphasis on knowledge is central to members ofUmtapo who organize self- reliance workshops and people's schools. This is accompanied by a strong stress on the role of counterhegemonic educational work, primarily in schools and in different sectors of civil society. The educational component of their programs has extended to building partnerships with teacher unions to train their representatives, and also a partnership with the Centre for Peace Education at UNISA in a joint certificate course.

While Umtapo is a national organization with programs in all of South Africa's nine provinces, 128 what distinguishes it from other organizations is its pan-African and global orientation. They have come to the conclusion that the inequities crippling South

African society mirror those facing marginalized people in Africa and the rest of the world. Therefore, "a sustainable solution needs to address the root cause of the problem, which is planned and systemic economic exploitation of the majority for the benefit of a few." 129

To address these pan-African and global issues, the organization participates in numerous international initiatives. They hold Africa-related seminars and forums such as

127 Umtapo Center "Steve Biko International Peace Award," Peace Africa: A Newsletter ofthe Umtapo Center 9, no. 2 (November 2005), 1. 128 The nine provinces are Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, Northern Cape, and Western Cape. 129 David Macharia, "The Making of a Peace Activist: Peace and Anti-Racism Education - A Case Study." Peace Africa: A Newsletter ofthe Umtapo Center 9, no. 2 (November 2005), 15. 100

the Africa Regeneration Forum, which was initiated in 2002. The forum's goal is to bring

''together social activists and change agents to share and contribute to a growing continental response to economic and cultural globalization."130 They also participate in international networks where issues of indigenous education and economic justice are prominent. For example, the organization was instrumental in the establishment of the

Popular Education Network, the first of its kind devoted to integrating indigenous thought and practice in economic and social policies.

These networks and activities are a result of years of preparation and organizing.

As a recent study of contemporary social movements in South Africa concludes, organizations such as Umtapo are not simply the "spontaneous uprisings of the poor as they are sometimes romantically imagined, but are dependent to a large extent on a sufficient base of material and human resources, solidarity networks, and often the external interventions of prominent personalities operating from within well resourced institutions" (Ballard and others 2005, 622). Many of the people involved in Umtapo were firebrand anti-apartheid activists and draw from that experience to confront the complexities of the post-apartheid era. 131

Umtapo is not the only organization to use ubuntu as a platform of its critique of national economic policy. Their approach is similar to that articulated by the Claremont- based South African New Economics Network (SANE). SANE is a loose affiliation of individuals and organizations which are concerned about the social and ecological

130 "The Africa Regeneration Forum," Umtapo Center, www.umtapo.co.za (accessed July 8, 2007). 131 For example, the chair ofUmtapo's board, Professor Bennie Khoapa, was deeply involved in the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) in the 1970s and was a close ally of Stephen Bantu Biko. He was banned by the apartheid government and spent many years in exile in Canada and the U.S. 101

consequences of economics as it is conventionally taught and practiced. Through research, capacity building, and advocacy, SANE encourages dialogue on alternative economic theories and practices which are more purposefully designed to promote social equity and justice, community self-reliance and ecological sustainability.132

SANE has put forward the idea of a "New Economics" which favors an economic system organized "as if people mattered." As they put it, "Ubuntu is the real core of New

Economics ... It implies that if a political economy has the effect of excluding anyone, that aspect of it must be changed; and that if accumulation by some results in exclusion of others it must be stopped. Ubuntu is often used, in the neo-liberal dispensation, as a sentimental backward nod at African culture as it was but is no longer expected to be. For us, it is the essential underpinning of our values."133

Conclusion

At the beginning of the research, I was somewhat ambivalent or even skeptical of the contributions of survivalist ubuntu organizations to a fundamental social transformation in South Africa. As this project progressed, however, and the nuances of their work became clearer, the yardstick by which one measured their efforts became more questionable. Who says all organizations should strive for a "fundamental social transformation" of their township, let alone the whole country?

It was then that one began to appreciate the tangible contributions that many of these survivalist organizations were making to the recognition of ubuntu and indigenous

132 The South African New Economics Network, http://www.sane.org.za (accessed July 8, 2007). 133 "Annual Report 2005," the South African New Economics Network, http://www.sane.org.za/docs/annualreport2005.html (accessed July 8, 2007). 102

practices as valuable by legitimizing such knowledge and practices in their daily activities. More importantly, in the context of South Africa's harsh economic transitions, survivalist ubuntu organizations play a critical mediating role, cushioning the blows of social dislocations that accompany the country's economic transformations. A singular focus on narrow definitions of resistance in the assessment of social relations can cloud our view of change and how the act of survival alone also gnaws away at the taproots of power and oppression. This is one of the reasons ubuntu has become such an important keyword in post-apartheid South Africa.

There are several reasons why many CBOs have articulated the ubuntu worldview more assertively and incorporated it into their programs. The growing prominence of ubuntu could be attributed to at least two permissive structural factors. Most prominently, the end of constitutional apartheid in 1994 unchained many black South Africans from the ideological and material constraints of apartheid which had cast all things indigenous in negative terms. Because successive apartheid governments had exploited ethnic differences to support segregation policies, there was neither cultural nor political space for community organizations to trumpet distinct indigenous values.

Secondly, although poverty and inequality were direct results of unjust apartheid policies, the economic policies of the post-apartheid government did not fundamentally improve the lot of the poor in the townships. Therefore, there were pressing calls for an ethic of care that would ensure adequate living conditions for the majority of the population. There was a permissive environment to articulate alternative frameworks for the way forward. The weapons and slogans of the anti-apartheid struggle now rendered blunt, a substitute idiom was needed to define a new discourse. Therefore, many 103

individuals and organizations have turned to this ancient worldview to foreground indigenous critiques of contemporary political and economic status quo. In short, the end of apartheid and persistent poverty were the structural platforms that facilitated the adoption of ubuntu language by many organizations.

To these factors we can also add agential factors that pertain to the attitudes and actions of some individuals and organizations. Key among these is the strategic positioning of many CBOs in the township. Specifically, there were funding opportunities from government entities and other foundations for supporting organizations that provide care and other urgent social services to the needy. The use of ubuntu in funding appeals added legitimacy to some of these organization's profiles.

Secondly, the ubuntu value system seemed consonant with organizational objectives. The ubuntu language is easily understood by their members, constituencies, volunteers, and clients. Among the communities in which many of these organizations work, ubuntu precepts are held in high esteem and the ubuntu worldview is broadly perceived as the legitimate lingua franca of moral positions. The constant invocation of any claim "in the name of ubuntu" confirmed its resonance and applicability to many problems. This is not to say that CBOs in Clermont selectively used ubuntu simply out of convenience. Indeed, many people spoke eloquently about their strong beliefs and subscription to this value system. The point is to highlight the context in which the resurgence of this indigenous philosophy seemed to be taking place.

As indicated in the first chapter, it would be erroneous to argue that the organizations presented in this chapter are articulating a pre-colonial "traditional" discourse because their worldview, while drawing from the past, is strictly about the 104

present and the future. A band leader put it as aptly as only a band leader can: "Our tradition is a very modern tradition!"134 All indigenous knowledges, no matter how deeply held, have a historical point, are relational, conjunctural, and have contemporary significance. This is not to say they are ephemeral.

The distinctions among the three types of ubuntu organizations are useful for their heuristic value. In practice, the programs and perspectives of all these organizations reinforce each other. However, they are not unanimous. As the debates among cultural revivalist organizations demonstrate, there are many differences among these organizations. Nonetheless, the focus on indigenous rights and practices by all the groups discussed in this chapter has served as a way of reframing the public debate about development, casting the poor as active subjects and asserting that extreme poverty in

South Africa is an issue of economic and social injustice (interpreted as the denial of ubuntu) rather than individual failure. For organizations such as Umtapo, ubuntu has helped them reorient their political compass so that moral considerations structure their own work in empowering the poor.

Finally, it remains to be seen whether the accent placed by many of these community groups on ubuntu will translate into veritable policy change at the local and national levels. Although there is ample evidence that ubuntu resonates with a broad range of sectors, the most pressing question is whether grassroots organizations can employ ubuntu to mobilize a broader range of social movement actors. 135 As stated in the

134 The Honorable Joshua Olufemi, a juju band leader, quoted in Christopher A. Waterman, "'Our Tradition Is a Very Modem Tradition': Popular Music and the Construction of Pan-Yoruba Identity." Ethnomusicology 34, no. 3 (Fall 1990), 397. 135 With the exception of a few, the organizations observed are generally weak at mass mobilization. The refrain throughout this dissertation is that overt protest is not the sine qua non of 105

previous chapter, ubuntu is contested by many sectors of society. There is an urgent need for civil society groups to define the parameters of what an ubuntu world would look like from their perspective. The state seems to have a somewhat different view of the utility of ubuntu, especially in the in the process of nation building - the subject of the next chapter.

resistance. However, it would be hard to argue against the impact of the mobilization oflarge sectors of society to force a different direction in post-apartheid South Africa. CHAPTER4

THE STATE OF UBUNTU: NATION BUILDING

Introduction

The previous chapter examined the divergent understandings of ubuntu by community organizations. This indigenous worldview, however, is not solely the purview of the grassroots groups described; it is also used by the state, however, with a different accent. In what follows, the dissertation explores the relationship between ubuntu and nation building in post-apartheid South Africa. The chapter begins by discussing the historical dimensions of ubuntu, specifically examining the contested understandings of this worldview during the struggle against apartheid and its role in the transition to democracy. This section will also interrogate the emergence of ubuntu as an important site/metaphor for the articulation of new positions in the debates on nation building. This leads to an examination of President Mbeki's articulation of the African Renaissance and how it anchored his administration's foreign policy. Ubuntu is also credited with cementing the country's reconciliation processes. This chapter will also look at how this worldview glued together the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

As indicated below, however, these diverse interpretations of indigenous perspectives are not novel phenomena. During the struggle against apartheid, ubuntu was as contested then as it is today. 106 107

lfbuntu in Historical Perspective

In a highly provocative essay, Achille Mbembe (2006) states that more than a decade after apartheid ended, "a dangerous mix of populism, nativism and millenarian thinking is inviting South Africans to commit political suicide." He calls this the

'Nongqawuse syndrome', 136 which he defines as "a populist rhetoric and a millenarian form of politics which advocates, uses and legitimizes self-destruction, or national suicide, as a means of salvation."137 In an arresting rejoinder, Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2007, 44) warns against deriding the resurgence of the indigenist discourse in South Africa as simply the reemergence of "prophets, healers, and swindlers." Instead, he urges us to engage and historicize it as "rational political developments with deep roots in the anti- apartheid struggle dating back to the formation of ANC in 1912."

Although Mbembe identifies the popular ubuntu as part of his post-apartheid

Nongqawuse syndrome, it remained entrenched during successive apartheid governments, albeit at the family and community level. Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta

Menchu, referring to indigenous movements in Guatemala, put it well when she said,

"Although it is impossible in some places to lift our heads, because they will cut them,

136 Nongqawuse is the name of a teenage girl who is accused of triggering events that led to the mass suicide of the amaXhosa in the mid-1850s. Legend has it that she was approached by the spirits of dead warriors who enjoined her to persuade her people to destroy all their livestock and granaries. Doing so would cleanse the people of witchcraft after which thousands of herds of cattle would emerge from the ground and food would be plenty. On the other hand, an apocalyptic whirlwind would wipe off those who failed to follow the spirits' orders. Multitudes followed the injunction, however, when Nongqawuse's vision failed to materialize, thousands of people are said to have died of starvation and suicide. 137 Achille Mbembe, "South Africa's Second Coming: The Nongqawuse Syndrome," Open Democracy, (June 2006), http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy africa_democracy/southafrica_succession_3649.jsp (accessed September 6, 2007). 108

this does not mean that our heads do not exist."138 To appreciate the presence of ubuntu in the political discourse requires us to be alert to its multiple manifestations in the history of political movements in South Africa. For example, in an illuminating essay,

Buhlungu (2006, 35) cogently argues that labor unions in South Africa owed some aspects of their character to what remained of"traditional" African political culture.

In particular, Buhlungu cites the tradition of debate and consensual decision- making by members of the community gathering at an imbizo (lekgotla or conference).

The experiences gained in these indigenous structures in rural settings, Buhlungu argues, were part of the mosaic oflived experiences that gave birth to the democratic culture of unionism in the 1970s (2006, 45). Indeed, part of the reason why many unions took root relatively quickly in urban and mining hostels or compounds is that these structures were used as mobilizing forums for union activities. This indigenous awareness was present in formal political movements as well.

Indigenous consciousness and the radical tone of Africanism have deep roots in the history of the ANC (Meer 1971, 125). According to Meer, this sentiment was alive in the 1940s when the ANC Youth League sought to wrest control of the party from the older and more liberal cadre ofleaders. In the end, ideological confusion during the early nationalist struggle paved the way for the acceptance of political moderation. However, the indigenist perspective that Meer refers to continued to influence radical political thought in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. Indeed, it featured quite prominently in

Steve Bantu Biko's political philosophy.

138 Quoted by Anja Nygren, "Struggle over Meanings: Reconstruction oflndigenous Mythology, Cultural Identity, and Social Representation," Ethnohistory 45, no. 1 (Winter 1998): 33. 109

Biko's writing on the Black Consciousness Movement is replete with implicit references to ubuntu. During his trial in May 1976, he offered what he called African

communalism as an alternative to capitalism. Pressed to elaborate, he argued: "We are

Black communalist[ s] in approach or we are African socialists or we believe in sharing ...

[M]y relationship with my property is not so highly individualistic that it seeks to destroy

others. I use it to build others" (Biko 1979, 64).

Elsewhere, Biko ( 1978, 14) writes,

Ours is a true man-centered (sic) society whose sacred tradition is that of sharing. We must reject, as we have been doing, the individualistic cold approach to life that is the cornerstone of the Anglo-Boer culture. We must seek to restore to the black man (sic) the great importance we used to give to human relations, the high regard for people and their property and for life in general; to reduce the triumph of technology over man and the materialistic element that is slowly creeping into our society. We have set out on a quest for true humanity ... In time we shall be in a position to bestow upon South Africa the greatest gift possible---a more human face.

According to N gubane ( 1979, 105), it was this "quest for true humanity" that was

at the heart of the struggle against apartheid. As he put it, apartheid was an abhorrent system, "not only because it prescribes destiny for us and not only because it distorts our personality, but above all, because it does violence to the exalted terms in which we define the person." It is important to note, however, that there were diverse and often conflicting interpretations of this philosophy in the 1970s. This is well illustrated by the resistance to the efforts of Mangosuthu Buthelezi' s Inkatha movement to employ ubuntu for overt political ends.

In recounting its history, Inkatha (now called the Inkatha Freedom Party or IFP) states that the philosophy of ubuntu has historically played a crucial role in the struggle 110

against cultural domination, first by the British imperialists and later by the Afrikaners. 139

Furthermore, the IFP claims that ubuntu has consistently underpinned all of its political developments and strategies in the party's various evolutionary stages. 140

Indeed, the preamble to the organization's 1975 constitution says,

Accepting the fact that we have many things to copy from the Western economic, political, and educational patterns of development, and striving for the promotion of African patterns of thought and the achievement of African Humanism otherwise known in Nguni languages as ubuntu and in Sotho (sic) languages as botho (Du Toit 1983, 394).

To put this into practice, delegates at its first annual meeting in 1976 called for the alteration of the KwaZulu school curriculum to reflect the movement's principles and philosophy. Having received control over education in KwaZulu from the National Party government, Inkatha sought to visibly distance the provincial curriculum from the apartheid government's Bantu Education141 policies. The result was Ubuntu-Botho, a syllabus on African culture and value systems that was introduced in June 1979 as a non- examinable subject. It was drawn up by the Natal African Teachers Union (NATU), an

139 Inkatha Freedom Party, "Historical BackgroWld," http://www.ifp.org.za/History/history.htm (accessed August 1, 2006). 14°For a historical discussion of the role oflnkatha in the South African liberation struggle, see: Thomas G. Karls and Gail M. Gerhart "Buthelezi and Inkatha." In Nadir and Resurgence, vol. 5 of From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History ofAfrican Politics in South Africa, 1882-1990 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997), 251-278. 141 The Bantu Education Act (No. 47) of 1953 was designed to condition black students to their role as "hewers of wood and drawers of water." In the oft-quoted words of Hendrik F. Verwoerd, then Minister of Native Affairs, "There is no space for him [the "native"] in the European community above certain forms of labor. For this reason, it is of no avail for him to receive training which has its aim in the absorption of the European community, where he cannot be absorbed. Until now he has been subjected to a school system which drew him away from his commWlity and misled him by showing him the greener pastures of European society where he is not allowed to graze" (Peter Kallaway, Apartheid and Education: The Education ofBlack South Africans (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1984 ), 92. Also see, Simphiwe A. Hlatshwayo, Education and Independence: Education in South Africa, 1658-1988 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000), and Jonathan Hyslop, The Classroom Struggle: Policy and Resistance in South Africa, 1940-1990 (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1999). 111

Jnkatha affiliate, in conjunction with academics from the University of Zululand (Mdluli

1987, 61).

After a careful examination of the curriculum and accompanying textbooks,

Mdluli concludes that Ubuntu-Botho was a key part of the movement's strategy to intervene directly in the KwaZulu schools to use them as a vehicle for political recruitment and mobilization. lnkatha did not create the symbols and values used in the textbooks de novo, but it drew from traditions and values that were respected by many people in the province. This effort to politicize ubuntu, however, was resisted by teachers and students. Mdluli states that in his interviews with teachers in the Pietermaritzburg area in 1986, he found that the majority of teachers did not teach Ubuntu-Botho either because the students rejected it or the teachers resisted its interpretation to justify

Inkatha's political vision and practices (1987, 65).

These divergent views on ubuntu are important to recount in the light of current processes of re-imagining nationhood in South Africa. Ubuntu, in combination with terms such as 'the rainbow nation', 'simunye' (we are one), and the African Renaissance, provides ready avatars in the groundwork of post-apartheid identity creation. Yet, as we see from Inkatha's use of ubuntu for political mobilization, it is highly contested in discussions of nation building in contemporary South Africa.

Ideologies of Nation Building

Since Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere penned his treatise, "Ujamaa: The Basis of

African Socialism" in 1962, there has been a growing literature analyzing the ideological and epistemological import of indigenous value systems for the purposes of nation building in Africa. Indeed, there is a historical affinity between indigenous worldviews 112

and the production of national identities in post-colonial Africa. Mudimbe (1998, 164) has called this the "search for the epistemological foundation of an African discourse."

At the core was a reinterpretation of what was deemed universal in the context of the African experience and culture (Mkandawire 2005, 19). The primary function of this move was to deploy indigenous worldviews to design order and intelligibility out of the heterogeneous cloths of histories, cultures, and memories of diverse ethnic groups.

However, a few observers of post-apartheid South Africa warn against the use of indigenous worldviews and other autochthonous concepts in this manner and express skepticism over the idea of nation building altogether.

Borrowing from Frantz Fanon's potent censure of bourgeois anti-colonial nationalism, writers such as Lazarus (1999), Bond (2002), and Melber (2002) strongly condemn the "exhausted nationalism" (Bond 2002, 37) ofliberation movements for their concern with the consolidation of elite power rather than with reversing the ills of colonial rule and apartheid. The nationalist project, according to this post-nationalist view, is littered with political pitfalls, often resulting "in the violent intensification of already existing social divisions" (Lazarus 1999, 161). In the same vein, Enslin and

Horsthemke (2004, 548) conclude that "appeals to ubuntu often not only fail to resolve conflicts and problems but frequently even exacerbate these ... The attempt to parade it as distinct, unique and as curative is regressive and pernicious."

Fourie (2007) also questions the supposed distinctiveness of ubuntu as an African moral philosophy. He argues that ubuntuism (sic) as normative media theory should be seen as part of an intellectual quest to rediscover and re-establish idealized values of traditional African culture and communities and to apply it to contemporary phenomena. 113

He warns against the vulnerability of moral philosophy to political mischief and concludes that in light of the country's apartheid history "in which Christian nationalism was misused as a moral philosophy to mobilize a patriotic media in the service of volk

[nation] and vaderland [fatherland] ... ubuntuism may pose a threat to freedom of expression. " 142

Christoph Marx concurs and further argues that attempts to resurrect notions of an

African rebirth are blind to previous projects that "ended pathetically, from the fantasies of an 'African Personality'-which was nothing other than pure mysticism-to African

socialism and different variants of communitarism" (2002, 65). In this view, ubuntu is a mere figment of nativism and a discordant paean to a nostalgic past. He goes on to indict the post-apartheid government for mimicking Afrikaner nationalism. As he puts it, "The cultural nationalism of ubuntu reveals both a continuity with, and an adaptation of, the ideology of the former apartheid state by its former adversaries" (2002, 62). Van Kessel

(2001, 48) agrees and charges that ubuntu "serves as a mechanism of exclusion. It is something that Africans have, and that whites do not. It underpins a more exclusivist understanding of the African Renaissance, based on values shared by black South

Africans only."

The post-nationalist school's misgivings about the government's deployment of ubuntu are not without merit given the historical abuses of indigeneity by despots in

Africa and elsewhere. Indeed, in the name of nationalism, political organizations in

Africa have, to varying degrees, selectively resuscitated indigenous narratives to

142 Pieter J. Fourie, "Moral Philosophy as the Foundation of Normative Media Theory: The Case of African Ubuntuism," Communications 32, no. 1 (March 2007): 1. 114

consolidate their dominance over the state and society. The use of 'authenticite' (Mobutu,

Zaire), 'African humanism' (Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia), 'renouveau' (Paul Biya,

Cameroon) often masked the interests of the self-serving political class and facilitated the practices of authoritarian governance.

The post-nationalist school focuses on the material basis and elitist character of post-colonial nationalism. However, while claiming to draw its skepticism from history, ironically, this view tends to be ahistorical itself as it ignores the sedimentations, adaptations and changes that indigenous worldviews have undergone. The result is that

(Marx's argument is a good example of this) the post-nationalist school pigeonholes all indigenous worldviews, limiting them to conceptual and creative boundaries of singular nation states, and specifically their use by political leaders. Without an attempt to explore the diverse understandings of ubuntu at the grassroots level, the conclusions are rather predictable. To follow Benita Parry's critique (1996, 176), the effect of this argument "is to homogenize the varieties of nationalisms and to deny both originality and effectivity to its reverse-discourse."143

Neocosmos (2004, 14) also criticizes the state-centric views of nationalism. He says that if we understand identities as mediated by culture and not just imposed by the state, if culture is contradictory and able to provide alternative perspectives, then political identities cannot be interpreted as simple reflections of state perspectives. What post- nationalists such as Marx fail to acknowledge is that ubuntu is not simply a strategic slogan that appeals to those caught up in the business of government; it finds broad

143 A reverse-discourse, according to Pany, employs the same categories and the same vocabulary used by dominant discourse to pothole, subvert, undermine and decenter the same dominant discourse. 115

appeal in civil society. The previous chapter argued that indigenous idioms in South

Africa and elsewhere resonate with various segments of the public. Moreover, viewing ubuntu as simply a tool of the government obscures the diverse and often contradictory uses of this worldview by various government departments, as will be demonstrated below.

Skeptical of this post-nationalist argument, some Africanist scholars (Parry 1996,

Mkandawire 2005, Neocosmos 2005, and Johnson 2005) argue that while we should challenge nationalist leaders on their record, we need to take another look at the emancipatory aspects of the national project. They question post-nationalism's moral detachment and criticize it for promoting a more exclusionary and adversarial image of the nation (Mkandawire, 2005). They ask whether this critique of the post-apartheid state should be aimed at national liberation movements or towards jettisoning the idea of nation building altogether. Or, as Johnson (2005, 3) ponders, "Should we label all nationalist demands as reactionary? What do we make of the persistence of nationalist sentiments among the grassroots and the poor? Can it be explained as simply 'false consciousnesses' on their part?"

Furthermore, the post-nationalist school's conclusions have other implications.

First, as Johnson (2005, 7) lucidly demonstrates, the debate on nationalism in South

Africa has tended to be framed in simplistic terms ofleft versus right politics. In this debate the state is viewed as a conduit of global imperialism and pitted against social movements which are seen as burgeoning agents of change. Second, the resulting damage is that such a debate dismisses any progressive possibilities of nationalist politics. 116

Ironically, it is Frantz Fanon (whom post-nationalists quote at length) who saw ambers of progressive possibilities in the ashes of post-colonial nationalisms. He distinguished between bourgeois nationalism and an alternative form of national consciousness that had the potential for an anti-imperialist and emancipatory agenda. As he put it, "it is not nationalism in the narrow sense; on the contrary it is the only thing that will give us an international dimension ... [I]t is national liberation which leads the nation to play its part on the stage of history. It is at the heart of national consciousness that international consciousness lives and grows" (1963, 247-8).

Neocosmos (2004, 1) makes a valid point when he says, "Whatever the disastrous failures of the state in Africa it would be a mistake to throw out nationalism as such, along the lines advocated by recent 'postmodern' thinking." This is especially pertinent to debates surrounding the role of the state in the current era of globalization. As argued in the second chapter, globalization has witnessed the recovery of the continued legitimacy and relevance of indigenous civilizational practices that had been discredited earlier under conditions of Eurocentric modernity. In debates about globalization, one of the most ignored aspects is "the hearing acquired by these indigenous epistemologies, which serve as the basis for claims to alternative modernities" (Dirlik 2003, 116). Quite often, states play a crucial role on both sides of these claims.

The State. Ubuntu and Globalization

African states face a double-barreled challenge. On one hand they are pressured to accept globalization's requirements of uniformity while on the other, they have to trumpet the unique features of their economies so as to attract global business. The South

African state in particular, carries the extra burden of high expectation that demands the 117

erasure of the old apartheid order while creating new social and economic conditions at the same time. Thus, the transition is defined by multiple internal struggles over the kind of economic formulas to be followed while confronting both domestic and external assertive claims on the new postcolony. Some of these external pressures emanate from the processes of globalization.

Global markets, the recitative goes, debark nations of their distinctive characters, forcing them to redefine themselves in new ways. In a time when the state is generally viewed as simultaneously in crisis and critical for development, ubuntu has become a key component of the South African government's quest for self-definition. In order to grasp this redefinition, it is useful to briefly explore the changing role of the state in this globalization era. To do that, we again go back to Polanyi.

Although recent scholarship on Polanyi's "double-movement" thesis tends to focus on the countermoves of civil society to blunt the negative impact of free market policies, Polanyi (1957, 38) also assigned an essential role for the state in making the

"process of economic improvement. .. socially bearable." He painstakingly demonstrated how public authorities used ''protective legislation, restrictive associations, and other instruments of intervention" to temper the destructive effects of market economy (1957,

132). State regulation was crucial, not only through welfare legislation, but also tariffs and land laws that protected agrarian classes (Burawoy 2003, 240).

However, we should note that Polanyi emphasized that the impulse for social protection had no prescribed ideological direction. He lucidly explained that the urge for buffering society from the negative effects of the self-regulating market experienced so deeply within society could be mobilized by any number of political tendencies or 118

aspirants to social and political power. This could come in the form of "a political party of any stripe, a religious movement, a charismatic populist appealing to ethnic or caste identity, a warlord or a fascist" (Putzel 2002, 3). In short, then, in the globalization processes, the state is not a mere spectator. Those in the towers of power adjust and try to steer global flows in their favor.

This is not to suggest that "the state" is a monolithic entity. Diverse components of the state sometimes pull in different directions. Comaroff and Comaroff (2001, 631) share this view when they say that "the postcolonial nation-state- and here we write specifically from an Africanist perspective - is not, for all the tendency to speak of it in the singular, a definite article. It refers to a labile historical formation, a polythetic class of polities-in-motion" (emphasis in original). This is why Albert (1998, 77) argues that we should not reduce the question of the state's adaptation in reaction to globalization to one of "more" or "less" state. ·

Instead, we should focus on what he calls the "qualitative transformation of statehood" which is associated with the reconfiguration of governmental space, its appearance being less and less shaped by territorial lines (Albert 1998, 80). In fact, one can go further, and state that, "with globalization, some elements within the state gain power while others lose" (Mittelman 2002, 9-10). Mittelman counts the winners as the economic portfolios and administrative agencies dealing with the external realm while departments charged with responsibility for social policy are reduced in scope.

A typical example of these departmental differences within the South African government was the reaction to the recommendations of the Taylor Committee.

Commissioned by the government to look into a comprehensive system of social security 119

in South Africa, the Taylor Committee recommended, among other things, the introduction of a Basic Income Grant (BIG) in 2002. As the committee saw it, the primary purpose of the BIG would be to address the problem of destitution in South

Africa, due to high levels of unemployment. This would be a monthly grant ofRIOO

(about US$ l 5) per person for every South African citizen, regardless of age or income level (Meth 2004, 1). President Mbeki and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel vetoed this recommendation in 2003 while Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya expressed support. Stating his opposition to the grant, Manuel warned against a culture of dependency and that the cost would be prohibitive. 144

It is not surprising, therefore, that it is the government's social departments that have explicitly deployed ubuntu to promote their policy initiatives and programs. The

Department of Public Service and Administration states that ubuntu forms a key part of its vision to transform the new public service in the manner of its Batho Pele (people first) program. In their handbook for community development workers, the Department says,

The role oflocal government in development is important because it is the branch of government closest to the people ... Training is a key aspect in the transformation effort, but so too is the embedding of the traditional value system of ubuntu that places collective advancement above narrow individual interests.145

Similarly, the Department of Social Development's draft national policy framework for families focuses on "reclaiming ubuntu (the principle of caring for each other's well-being within an attitude of mutual support)" in order to transform the child

144 Editorial, "Social Responsibility," Cape Times, November 15, 2007. 145 Republic of South Africa, Department of Public Service and Administration, "A Handbook for Community Development Workers," (2007): 12, http://www.dpsa.gov.za/cdw/books/SDR_ vol_5 _no_2 _ 2006.pdf (accessed September 23, 2007). 120

and youth care system. The department's policy recommendations state that person should be viewed "within the context of, and connected to, the family and community."146

Therefore, despite its firm commitment to a staunch neoliberal economic agenda, the South African state has a large system of social programs that are designed to soften the impact of its macro-economic policies. In 2006, more than 11 million people were receiving social grants, 147 at an annual cost of R48 billion (about $7 billion), compared to

2.6 million beneficiaries and RlO billion in expenditures in 1994 (Ferguson 2007, 77). As of April 2007, about eight million children under the age of 14 were receiving a R200

(about $30) monthly grant to caregivers earning less than R800 ($115) per month. 148

According to Makino (2004, 1) the list of monthly grants includes payments for: old age

(R700), disability (R700), war veterans (R718), foster care (R500), care dependency (for disabled children under 18 years, R700), child support (a R150 grant for children under the age of 9 years), and additional aid (a R150 grant for recipients of old age, disability or war veterans grant who are unable to care for themselves).

In light of the levels of poverty afflicting the country, many of these programs offer extremely small amounts of assistance. For example, Van Niekerk (2003, 374) quotes critics who argue that the payments are "so paltry as to be ineffective in meeting

146 Republic of South Afiica, Department of Social Development, "Draft National Policy Framework for Families," (April 2001), http://www.socdev.gov.za/Documents/2001/April/fampol.doc (accessed September 23, 2007). 147 Vusi Madonsela, Director General, Department of Social Development, Foreword, "Annual Report for the Department of Social Development," (2006), http://www.socdev.gov.za/documents/2006/ar2006.pdf (accessed January 18, 2007). 148 "Social Grants: Dependency or Development?" UN Integrated Regional Ieformation Networks, November 29, 2007. 121

the basic needs of families and children or of giving African, Colored, and Indian women greater autonomy over their lives."

The Zulu proverbial saying, ukuluma uphozisa (biting while soothing), seems to be an apt description of this arrangement. The pursuit of economic policies that lead to social disruptions is accompanied by social programs that are designed to blunt their impact. Ferguson (2007, 76) concurs with this point when he says that "the neoliberal era is one in which humanitarian 'social payments' are necessary to the survival of millions of people in the many countries where economic collapse and state 'failure' have created widespread destitution" (emphasis added). He goes on to postulate that there is more, not less, of this sort of transnational welfarism under 'neoliberalism' than before.

In short, then, the government has found ubuntu to be first and foremost, a potent force for creating social cohesion in light of the pressures of global market forces. This is how President Mbeki framed it,

I believe that for us to ensure that things do not fall apart, we must, in the first instance, never allow that the market should be the principal determinant of the nature of our society. We should firmly oppose the "market fundamentalism" which George Soros has denounced as the force that has led society to lose its anchor. Instead, we must place at the centre of our daily activities the pursuit of the goals of social cohesion and human solidarity. We must, therefore, strive to integrate into the national consciousness the value system contained in the world outlook described as ubuntu. 149

Should we be concerned when an indigenous worldview becomes, to borrow the

Comaroffs' (2001, 627) phrase, "an urgent affair of the state"? Does it reveal anything about the camouflaged relations between the state and nation building in the era of globalization?

149 President Thabo Mbeki, Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture, University of Witwatersrand, July 29, 2006, http://www.sowetan.eo.za/PDFs/MANDELA%20LECTURE.pdf(accessed August 18, 2006). 122

Writing about this phenomenon in Ecuador, Walsh (2002, 81) warns that when governments trumpet the import of indigenous knowledge to economic development, it is merely a "smoke screen" for the state's own complicity in the economic crises that have accompanied neoliberal globalization?150 Instead of discounting the relevance of indigenous worldviews, Walsh holds that ''the state and the neoliberal project recognizes them, gives them space within geopolitics, and simultaneously incorporates them into a universal that has reinvented itself... [T]his dominant universal becomes part and parcel of the transnational neoliberal agenda and of the cultural logic of globalized capitalism"

(Walsh 2002, 80). As a result, far from achieving substantial transformation of the nation- state, Walsh (2002, 82) further argues that this recognition of indigenous knowledge actually limits the sphere of change; it merely represents new forms of universality advanced by the discourse and politics of neoliberal globalization.

Similarly, Zifok (1997) argues that that there is a multicultural logic embedded in today's global capitalism that incorporates difference while at the same time stripping it of substantial significance. From his perspective, global capitalism treats each local culture in the same manner ''the colonizer treats colonized people-as 'natives' whose mores are to be carefully studied and 'respected' all the while maintaining a Eurocentric distance" (1997, 44).

150 Walsh characterizes the actions of Ecuador's President Gustavo Noboa as such. Here, she is referring to a program initiated by the President to redistribute picks, shovels, and other basic agricultural tools to highland indigenous communities with the support of some indigenous institutions. She then argues that given that "the rate of rural poverty currently estimated by indigenous organizations to be at 95 percent, this particularized 'micro' project serves as a smoke screen for the real universal needs and realities as well as for the government's complicity and responsibility in the economic crisis" (Walsh 2002, 81). 123

While Walsh and Zizek offer important caveats to state appropriation of indigenous knowledge, it is questionable to assume that the articulation of indigeneity by state actors invariably contributes to the construction of state hegemony. This monolithic view of the state obscures the agency of actors within the state/hegemonic bloc and thus brushes off the possibility that this could also represent a counter-hegemonic strategy

(Park and Richards 2007, 1323). Agencies and actors within the state could potentially create pro-indigenous policies in an otherwise hostile context. Such a view does not deny that the state tends to be colonized by dominant interests, but insists that it is a tenuous constructing of shifting alliances, constantly reproduced and redefined (Park and

Richards 2007, 1323).

In the South African context, the state has attempted to deploy ubuntu for multiple purposes. Primarily, it has attempted to tum it into a vehicle of what Harbemas (1984,

1987) called 'communicative competence', viz. the ability to search for a consensus about the value of people and their co-existence, about the kind oflife that is worth living and the nature and content of symbolic forms that are best for expressing those values.

Habermas's theory of communicative action provides a normative model of society which demonstrates how the emancipatory power of language can be harnessed to oppose the negative effects of an over-reliance on instrumental rationality, enabling the development of forms of resistance to the pathological effects of the colonization of the lifeworld by highly differentiated, specialized subsystems (Habermas, 1984, 1987). It draws not only upon the realm of specialized, objective knowledge but also upon the realms of social norms and subjective experience. However, as is the case with many of 124

Harbemas' concepts, this assumes an ideal speech situation, and thus, the ultimate governing principle of such discourse is the force of the better argument.

Coplan (2001, 122) argues that in a society so multifariously carved up, a place with not one but many 'todays', ubuntu and the African Renaissance have become strategic tools, ''wherein the romance of the distant past, informed by an awareness of dispossession, leads to a militancy for change that privileges an African discourse." This is apparent in the manner in which state has combined ubuntu with the African

Renaissance to align its domestic and foreign policy positions.

The African Renaissance

Following numerous missteps in the teething years of the Mandela administration,

South African foreign policy began to pivot around the idea of an African Renaissance.

Then Deputy President Thabo Mbeki was its chief architect. 151 It should be emphasized, however, that Mbeki's version of the African Renaissance is only the latest addition to the granary of ideas on Pan-Africanism going back to the writings of, inter alia, Edward

Wilmot Blyden, Bandele Omoniyi, W.E.B Du Bois, Nnamdi Azikiwe, and Kwame

Nkrumah. Even in the South African context, the African Renaissance is not wholly new.

Expressions of African unity are often associated with a speech Mbeki gave at the launch of the new South African constitution in 1996. Entitled "I am an African", 152 the speech

151 Barrell (2000) argues that the idea of the African Renaissance has fascinated Mbeki since at least the 1970s. Then a middle-ranking ANC official in exile in Botswana, Mbeki was the crucial influence in persuading a group of pro-ANC activists working inside South Africa under very difficult conditions to hold what was called a Black Renaissance Convention in 1974. Howard Barrell, "Back to the Future: Renaissance and South African Domestic Policy," African Security Review 9, no. 2 (2000), www.iss.co.za/ASR/9No2/Barrell.html (accessed October 15, 2007). 152 Here, Mbeki was deploying what I called "contentious terms" in chapter two. In this case, Mbeki began his well-quoted speech by stating the obvious yet powerful, "I am an African." For a copy of the speech, see: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mbeki/1996/sp960508.html. 125

borrowed the opening line of Pixley kaSeme's award-winning speech at Columbia

University in 1906: "I am an African, and I set my pride in my race over and against a public opinion" (Seme 1906, 404).153

As the axle of foreign policy, the African Renaissance was cast as the country's

commitment to "the rebirth of a continent that has for far too long been the object of

exploitation and plunder."154 Five areas of engagement were suggested to underscore this new dedication: the encouragement of cultural exchange; the "emancipation of African

women from patriarchy"; the mobilization of youth; the broadening, deepening and

sustenance of democracy; and the initiation of sustainable economic development (Vale

and Maseko 1998, 273). Almost a decade since the idea was formally proposed, the

African Renaissance became the touchstone ofMbeki's foreign policy agenda. 155

The African Renaissance was not just rhetoric, some important policy

developments indeed ensued. It provided the rationale for South Africa's energetic role in

the reconfiguration of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Following years of

criticism of the OAU as a "dictators' club,"156 Mbeki was one of the main drivers to transform the OAU into the more proactive African Union (AU). In addition, South

Africa showed an unprecedented resolve to play an assertive role in conflict resolution

153 Pixley kaSeme was a founding member and first Treasurer-General of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), the predecessor to the ANC. 154 African National Congress, "Building on the Foundation for a Better Life: Strategy and Tactics of the African National Congress," Umrabulo: Draft Strategy and Tactics Document (1997): 29. 155 Thabo Mbeki, Africa: The Time Has Come: Selected Speeches (Cape Town: Tafelberg Publishers, 1998), 224-31. 156 Paul Reynolds, "African Union Replaces Dictators' Club," BBC News, July 8, 2002, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2115736.stm (accessed October 6, 2007). 126

initiatives in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Cote d'Ivoire, and Sudan, among others.

Institutionally, following Mbeki's "I am an African" speech, his office sponsored an African Renaissance conference in September 1998. It was at this conference that the seeds of the African Renaissance Institute (ARI) and the South African Chapter of the

African Renaissance (SACAR)157 were planted. According to its chairman, the mandate of the ARI is "to carry out and implement an aggressive African development agenda. It is truly and uniquely a 'hybrid' African institution in the sense that while it is mandated to work closely with governments and seek their support and cooperation, it is neither controlled by nor beholden to them" (Okumu 2002, 267). The institute was established to pursue the most effective way of mobilizing and networking Africa's human resources, intellectual wealth and enterprise. It draws from the experience of some 4,860 technical and professional fellows throughout Africa and the world. 158

Furthermore, the Department of Foreign Affairs promulgated the African

Renaissance and International Co-operation Fund Act (Act No 51 of 2000) in January

2001. 159 This act marked the first time the idea of the African Renaissance was

157 According to Maloka (2002) the SACAR is supposed to spearhead a social movement for the reawakening of the African continent in the 21st century. The AR1 will be a coordinating body of country based chapters of this movement. See, Eddy T. Maloka, "The South African 'African Renaissance' Debate: A Critique," Africa Institute of South Africa, www.polis.sciencespobordeaux.fr/vol8ns/arti I .html (accessed September 29, 2007). 158 Feature, Soka Gakkai International Quarterly Magazine, "The African Renaissance," January 2005, http://www.sgiquarterly.org/english/Features/quarterly/0501/feature5.htm (accessed September 21, 2007). 159 Republic of South Africa, Department of Foreign Affairs, "Establishment of the African Renaissance and International Co-Operation Fund," www.dfa.gov.za/foreign/Multilateral/profiles/arfund.htm (accessed October 9, 2007). 127

encapsulated in legislation. The African Renaissance Fund seeks to support the following areas:

• Co-operation between South Africa and other countries, particularly African

countries;

• The promotion of democracy, good governance;

• The prevention and resolution of conflict;

• Socio-economic development and integration;

• Humanitarian assistance; and

• Human resource development.

It is not easy to assess the impact of these initiatives and proposals. In an attempt to do so, Vale and Maseko (1998, 278) offer two interpretations ofMbeki's African

Renaissance. The first is what they call a globalist view which links South Africa's economic interest to Africa through the logic of globalization. The Africanist interpretation on the other hand, uses the African Renaissance to unlock a series of complex social constructions around African identity.

Using the globalist reading, some analysts have offered severe critiques of the

African Renaissance. They point out that while Mbeki's concept of the African

Renaissance was lodged in a distinctive compilation of Afrocentric histories, identities, and realities, the discourse was, at the same time, explicitly welcoming to white domestic and foreign capital (Marais 2001, 249). Sean Jacobs and Richard Colland echoe this view: "We suspect that [Mbeki] may well think that his interventions in global politics and his projection of an African Renaissance constitute revolution through evolution. If this analysis is correct, he is either naive or unable or unwilling to confront the basic 128

structural defects of the global economic system" (Dunton 2003, 559). Accordingly, a

few critics argue that it was no accident that Mbeki first used the term formally in a

speech in Virginia, USA and not on the African continent. Furthermore, it was in an

address to the Corporate Council on Africa's 1997 summit on entitled, "Attracting

Capital to Africa."

This leads Marais to conclude that the "the template of the African Renaissance

version popularized in South Africa remains that of a modulated, friendlier version of

globalized capitalism" (2001, 249). Testament to this is the unbridled enthusiasm with which South African capital embraced Mbeki's version of the African Renaissance. The

downside is that this corporate edition of the African Renaissance ironically undermines

its very goals as it leads to nervousness on the continent about South Africa's goals.

Some critics castigated Mbeki's "subimperialist" policies toward the continent and

excoriated his foreign policy for serving as a "proxy for the great powers in its own

extended periphery. " 160

Mbeki's African Renaissance also led to other controversies. A good example was the entanglement of the South African petroleum company Engen, one of the African

Renaissance 1998 conference corporate sponsors, in a boycott campaign because of

accusations of human rights abuses in Sudan (Dunton 2003, 569). Engen's parent company is Petronas (or Petroliam Nasional Berhad), a Malaysian government-owned gas and oil company. Engen got embroiled in the campaign because of its ties to Petronas

160 Patrick Bond, "South African Subimperialism," (paper presented at the "Toward an Africa without Borders" conference, Durban University of Technology, July 8, 2007), http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/bond%20sa%20subimperialism.pdf (accessed June 27, 2008). 129

which had operations in southern Sudan. Petronas owned 30 percent of the Greater Nile

Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), an oil consortium operating in the area. 161

Human Rights Watch raised concerns with Engen regarding civilian displacement from the Sudanese oilfields where Petronas had a presence. 162 The government was accused of conducting bombing raids on Sudanese villages, forcing them to flee from their homes, which paved the way for Petronas and other companies to begin operations in the area after it was cleared.163 This controversy seemed to contradict the South

African government's commitment to the promotion of good governance and human rights on the continent.

Furthermore, the idea that what is good for South Africa is good for Africa echoes a series of uncomfortable historical encounters between many African countries and

South Africa (Vale and Maseko 1998, 278). Indeed, Lazaraus (2004, 607) suggests that there are numerous reasons for Africans in the rest of the continent "to be suspicious, not to say afraid, of the motives underlying this initiative, which, in its political and economic aspects, effectively amounts to a call for the reimposition of the very structural

161 Indeed, in 2005, the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees voted to direct the College's Investment Office to avoid investments in six companies deemed to be directly complicit in what the U.S. Congress and Department of State have determined to be genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Although it did not hold stock in any of these companies, Dartmouth said it would avoid investing in both the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company and Petronas, among others. See, "Dartmouth College to Boycott Sudan Investments," http://www.dartmouth.edu/-news/releases/2005/1 l/14.html (accessed October 13, 2007). 162 Human Rights Watch. "Sudan, Oil, and Human Rights." Washington, D.C., 2003, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/sudanl 103/sudanprint.pdf (accessed October 13, 2007). 163 Irene Khan, Secretary-General, Amnesty International. Speech given at the Global Compact Summit, Shanghai, People's Republic of China, December 1, 2005, http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGPOL340142005?open&of=ENG-398 (accessed October 13, 2007). 130

adjustment programs and austerity packages that have contributed decisively to the contemporary crisis in Africa in the first place."

Seen from the globalist perspective, critics are right to point to the problematic neoliberal economic programs that are associated with the African Renaissance. But this is only half the story. Seen through the Africanist lens, however, the African Renaissance is not a fleeting singular mobilizing idiom. Van Hensbroek (2001, 6) persuasively argues that the African Renaissance, combined with ubuntu, represents ''the self-conscious

African player on this postmodemity playing field. In this field they are not simply present in a neutral way. They are positioned, and position themselves, relative to others, in particular relative to dominant ideas from the West." This much is clear when one examines the manner in which the government has positioned its policy on indigenous knowledge systems.

The government adopted the Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Policy in

November 2004 under the aegis of the Department of Science and Technology. The policy was designed to provide the framework for stimulating the contribution of indigenous knowledge to social and economic development. According to Mosibudi

Mangena, the Minister of Science and Technology, this initiative fell in the scope of the larger goal of government to affirm and promote "African cultural values in the face of globalization - a clear imperative given the need to promote a positive African identity."164 To make this goal a reality, the policy proposed the establishment of an IKS

164 Republic of South Africa, "Indigenous Knowledge Systems Policy" (presented at the 9th Session of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, Geneva, April 24-28, 2006.) 131

Fund to provide grants and other incentives to encourage greater participation of IKS practitioners in economic activities.

Despite widespread rhetoric about promoting indigenous knowledge, in reality, practice lags far behind these political pronouncements. For example, when it comes to the promotion of indigenous African languages, inadequate resources and the dominance of the English language continue to hamstring South Africa's constitutional commitment to the promotion of African languages (Mda 2004, 163). As Zeleza (2006, 22) concludes, the journey from political rhetoric to policy implementation "is often slowed, or even aborted, in the slippery quicksand of African histories and political economies."

There is another way in which the African Renaissance and ubuntu combine to represent what Vale and Maseko (1998, 276) call "a double-edged agreement" which commits the South African state to democratic concord with its own people, and binds

South Africa to the cause of peace and democracy in Africa and the world. Mbeki cited ubuntu and the African Renaissance as anchors of South Africa's tenure as a non- permanent member of the United Nations Security Council from 2006 to 2008. He said the country should continue on the path that gave the world community the confidence in

South Africa as an important player in world affairs.

According to Mbeki, what earned his government the UN's vote of confidence were the following factors:

Deep-seated respect for democracy, human rights, peace and stability, non racialism and non-sexism and commitments to the African renaissance .. .It is a national task to which we must respond in unity, inspired by the sentiment native 132

to all our people, encapsulated in the spirit of ubuntu, that with regard to all humanity, we are truly one another's brothers' and sisters' keepers. 165

Domestically, the government has also creatively used the African Renaissance and ubuntu in consensus building projects designed to weaken the hard currency of apartheid's ideological project that interpreted culture, politics, and economic interest through a color-coded lens. Perhaps the paragon of this quest for consensus was the establishment of the TRC.

Ubuntu and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

The roots of the TRC can be traced to the Promotion of National Unity and

Reconciliation Act, 34 of 1995 of the South African constitution. The act established a framework for investigating and drawing as "complete a picture as possible of the nature, causes, and extent of gross violations of human rights committed" from March 1960.166

Skelton (2002, 498) quotes Albi Sachs arguing that the role of the TRC was not aimed solely at gaining knowledge about what happened, but went further, to the point of acknowledging the cost in human terms.167 It involved an acceptance not only of what occurred but also of the emotional and social significance of what happened. Exactly how this was going to be carried out was unclear.

Faced with a paucity of applicable models, the Chairperson of the TRC

Archbishop Desmond Tutu drew from ubuntu values to guide and advise witnesses,

165 "Mbeki Says UN Success Depends on All Citizens," Mail and Guardian, October 20, 2006, http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=28732 l &area=/breaking_news/breaking_ news_ national/ (accessed February 8, 2007). 166 Republic of South Africa, "Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, 34of1995," http://www.info.gov.za/acts/1995/a34-95.pdf (accessed September 16, 2007). 167 Albie Sachs was appointed by President Mandela to serve as justice on the Constitutional Court of South Africa after the first democratic elections in 1994. 133

victims and perpetrators during the Commission hearings (Murithi 2006, 28). According to Tutu, unlike western notions ofjustice that tend to be retributive, the ubuntu system was "far more restorative - not so much to punish as to redress or restore a balance that has been knocked askew. The justice we hope for is restorative of the dignity of the people" (Minow 1998, 81.) Alex Boraine, who served as the Commission's Deputy

Chairperson, says the Commission was thus able to adhere to its core guiding principle which he describes as "essentially the holding in tension of the political realities of a country struggling through transition founded on negotiation and an ancient African philosophy which seeks for unity and reconciliation rather than revenge and punishment"

(2000, 423). According to Boraine (2000, 48), the ubuntu framework employed in the

TRC allowed it to accomplish many of its goals: giving back to victims their human rights, restoring moral order, recording the truth, granting amnesty to those who qualified, and creating a culture of human rights and respect for the rule oflaw.

The use of indigenous conceptions of reconciliation and justice by the TRC was not unique to South Africa. Wamba-dia-W amba (1985), for example, posits that communities throughout Africa have employed indigenous models of reconciliation for millennia. He explores the role of the palaver among the Bakongo to emphasize its relevance in conflict resolution today. While it can be interpreted in multiple ways, the palaver is primarily a healing process. Its chief goal is to re-anchor the community, to realign it with its founding values after a crisis. It requires and provides to "each community member the right to carry out, and the obligation to be subjected to, an integral critique of/by everyone without exception" (Wamba-dia-Wamba 1985, 9). In the

DRC there is a revitalization of the mbongi ("learning place" in the K.ikongo language). 134

In a country ''where political leaders' sense of ethical, moral, and political leadership has severely atrophied, most Congolese are eager for ways of re-rooting themselves so that, at the same time, they can be full participants in a process of re-orientation of self and of the larger community ... Mbongi has become an important tool for rebuilding community unity and empowering members to take action at a community level."168 In short, by integrating ubuntu into the TRC framework, members of the commission were following a well-trodden path in notions of reconciliation and justice in Africa.

The success of the TRC at reconciliation has been a subject of great debate since its founding. Henrard (2003, 49) says the truth and reconciliation process in itself has had an ambivalent impact on reconciliation due to the restricted scope of its mandate.

Specifically, she identifies reparations as one of the glaring issues overlooked by the

TRC. Reconciliation, from this perspective, "not only involves telling the truth about the past and forgiving but also requires reparation for material and other forms of deprivation and the restoration of a spirit of respect for human rights and democracy" (2003, 37).

Despite its many shortcomings the TRC was one of the most important institutions that cemented the path from apartheid to a new South Africa. It broke the code of silence among perpetrators and victims about gross human rights violations of the apartheid era. As Driver (2006, 3) argues, "even among its detractors, the TRC appears to be generally recognized as having had a dramatic impact on the popular psyche of South

Africans, and certainly both the literature written during and after the TRC and the extent

168 Ota Benga Alliance for Peace, Healing, and Dignity, "Building Community through the Mbongi," http://otabenga.org/node/7 (accessed July 19, 2007). 135

of public debate give evidence of the enormous emotional, cultural, and symbolic power of the TRC."

Furthermore, one of its enduring legacies was ushering in and legitimizing alternative justice models in the country. By using indigenous notions of justice, the TRC broke new ground. As (Villa-Vincencio 1999, 425) persuasively argues,

Alternative justice and mediation options, whether traditional or innovative, whether between labor and business, in community conflicts or in political disputes both past and present, are being currently revisited as a basis for creation a new South African culture of tolerance - and perhaps the beginning of a new justice system.

While the TRC is often viewed as the most dramatic use of ubuntu by the state for nation building, the government has deployed this value system in many other venues to accomplish the same goals. Specifically, the lessons of the TRC's use of ubuntu found great resonance in the arts.

The Art of Nation Building

According to Crampton, nation-building and ''the production of a new democratic, inclusive and diverse South African identity became an operational principle for museums and other cultural institutions in post-apartheid South Africa" (2003, 226).

Indeed, a White Paper from the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology states this goal explicitly:

Nation Building: Shall foster a sense of pride and knowledge in all aspects of South African culture, heritage and the arts. Shall further encourage mutual respect and tolerance and intercultural exchange between the various cultures and forms of art to facilitate the emergence of a shared cultural identity constituted by diversity. 169

169 Republic of South Africa, Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, "White Paper on Arts and Culture: All Our Legacies, Our Common Future," (Pretoria, 1996): 18, http://www.dac.gov.za/white_paper.htm (accessed September 18, 2007). 136

In line with this goal, the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology organized an imbizo (national conference) on ubuntu in 2006. The goal of the conference was to "deliberate on how ubuntu can become a reality in reconstructing our society. This is a national campaign to recall the principles and values of ubuntu as the heritage of the

African people."170 At the conclusion of the national conference, former President Nelson

Mandela was the first recipient of the National Heritage Council's Ubuntu Award.

Launched in 2006, the award is the Council's highest honor for "any global figure that lives the concept of ubuntu by putting people first. " 171 While the inaugural award was unanimously decided upon by members of the Council, it was announced that future nominations would involve public participation.

The government also played a pivotal role in promoting indigenous games in the

country. It sponsored the National Indigenous Games Research Project (2001 and 2002), a collaborative project among 11 tertiary institutions (Burnett and Hollander 2004, 9).

Researchers collected data in all nine provinces of South Africa about types of indigenous games, socio-cultural themes, and play behavior. This was part of an attempt to revive and promote indigenous games in the country.

The Department of Sport and Recreation stated that indigenous games ''provide a window for African values. Although there is cultural diversity in Africa, African people do share some general values and have faced some similar struggles in life. Global

170 "Events to Showcase Richness of SA Music," BuaNews, September 6, 2006, http://www.buanews.gov.za/view.php?ID=06090616451004&coll=buanew06 (accessed September 18, 2007). 171 The National Heritage Council, http://www.nhc.org.za/index.php?pid=224&ct=l (accessed September 22, 2007). 137

influences have a marked effect on the erosion and adaptation of the games. The games were neglected in historical and anthropological accounts of the indigenous people of

South Africa."172 The first National Indigenous Games event took place in Oudtshoom in

2004. Subsequent competitions took place in Polokwane (2005), Mpumalanga (2006) and

Mdantsane (2007). The government also played a key role in establishing a network of

Indigenous Games in the southern African region. It was also preparing to send participants to the World Indigenous Games in Montreal before the cancellation of that event. From the government's perspective, indigenous games represent more than just improving physical development and reinforcing indigenous value. The Department of

Sport and Recreation viewed them as part of the "government's global strategy of optimizing South Africa's cultural heritage and values thereby instilling a sense of pride in our cultural games."173

In addition to the promotion of indigenous values through the arts, there are other ways in which the government has used ubuntu as a mobilization tool for programs and policy initiatives:

To promote legislative measures in Parliament. For example, the Child Justice Bill

claims to promote ubuntu in the child justice system by: "a) fostering of children's

sense of dignity and worth, b) reinforcing children's respect for human rights and the

fundamental freedoms of others by holding children accountable for their actions and

172 Sport and Recreation South Africa, www.srsa.gov.za (accessed September 30, 2007). 173 Sport and Recreation South Africa, www.srsa.gov.za/PageMaster.asp?ID=l22 (accessed September 30, 2007). 138

safe-guarding the interests of victims and by means of a restorative response; and, c)

supporting reconciliation by means of a restorative justice response ... " 174

To form the basis of the base for Guidance curriculum of National Education policy.

For example, ubuntu is a key learning area for the KwaZulu-Natal Department of

Education's literacy program, beginning in the second grade.175

It is part of various White Papers and policy proposals of government departments.

Furthermore, the Constitutional Court has used ubuntu to support major decisions. In a 2004 decision, Port Elizabeth Municipality v Various Occupiers, the court had to decide whether the municipality had acted lawfully when it evicted residents from privately owned land in the municipality. 176 In a unanimous judgment against the eviction order, Justice Albie Sachs emphasized the importance of interpreting and applying the law in the light of historically created landlessness in South Africa. Referring to ubuntu,

Justice Sachs said,

The spirit of ubuntu, part of the deep cultural heritage of the majority of the population, suffuses the whole constitutional order. It combines individual rights with a communitarian philosophy. It is a unifying motif of the Bill of Rights, which is nothing if not a structured, institutionalized and operational declaration

174 The Child Justice Bill, Government of South Africa, published in Government Gazette No. 23728 of August 8, 2002. 175 KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education, "Grade 2 Books," http://www.kzneducation.gov.za/txtbk_ catalog/Grade2Books.htm (accessed July 7, 2007). 176 Reacting to a petition signed by 1600 people in the suburb of Lorraine, the Port Elizabeth Municipality sought an eviction order against 68 people living in shacks on privately owned land. Most of these people had resided on the land for periods of between two and eight years. They refused to move unless they were provided alternative land. The South Eastern Cape Local Division of the High Court supported the eviction order. The residents appealed all the way to the Constitutional Court, citing Section 26(3) of the South African constitution which provides that no one may be evicted from their home or have their home demolished without an order of court made after considering all the relevant circumstances. The Court ruled that although it was not under a constitutional duty in all cases to provide alternative accommodation, the Municipality's failure to take all reasonable steps to do so would generally be an important consideration in deciding what was just and equitable. The Court refused the application for leave to appeal with costs. 139

in our evolving new society of the need for human interdependence, respect and concem.177

In a similar case, the Johannesburg High Court dismissed an application by the

City of Johannesburg to evict 300 inner city residents. In his ruling, Judge Mohamed

Jajbhay noted the city's failure to provide alternative accommodation for impoverished residents it planned to evict. He also cited ubuntu when he said,

The right to work is one the most precious liberties that an individual possesses. An individual has as much right to work as the individual has to live, to be free and to own property. To work means to eat and consequently to live. This constitutes an encompassing view of humanity. The [City Council's] suggestion that the [residents] be relocated to an informal settlement flies in the face of the concept o f ... u bu ntu. 178

It deserves mention that the government's deployment of ubuntu is not always plain sailing. Its eager support of indigenous programs is often accompanied by controversy. In 2006, the Office of the Presidency and the Ministry of Arts and Culture had to defend its involvement with the founding of the Native Club. The promotion of ubuntu was at the heart of the founding of this club. Based at the Africa Institute of South

Africa, the Native Club describes itself as "a formal network of the South African intelligentsia, which seeks to offer a platform for public debates and contributes to the national discourse. Its members include Mbeki's political adviser, former cabinet ministers, leading academics, journalists, and corporate leaders. This network was initiated by the Africa Institute of South Africa in collaboration with the Ministry of Arts

177 Constitutional Court of South Africa, "Port Elizabeth Municipality v Various Occupiers, Case CCT53/03," October 1, 2004, www.constitutionalcourt.org.za (accessed October 13, 2007). 178 "Johannesburg Inner City Evictions Halted," SABC News, March 03, 2006, www.sabcnews.com/ south_africa/ general/O ,2172,123151,00 .html (accessed October 13, 2007). 140

and Culture, the Centre for Policy Studies, the Institute for Global Dialogue and the

African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (Accord) in May 2006. 179

Among others, the purpose of the Native Club is to show greater participation by all South Africans in the socio-economic, political and cultural spheres."180 According to its Chairman Titus Mafolo, the club will look "seriously into the elaboration and codifying of ubuntu as a belief system, which encompasses among others the values of

Batho-Pele (people first), self-empowerment as articulated in Vukuzenzele, 181 solidarity with the weak and the poor, selflessness, compassion, and collective work within an egalitarian society."182 The first Native Club Conference took place in Tshwane in May

2006 and was well attended. There was agreement on the necessity for research on ubuntu as a major intellectual concern in its contribution to reconciliation and reconstruction (Ndlovu-Gatsheni 2007, 50).

The club's patronage by the government has made opponents nervous about its implications for race relations. Moreover, its provocative name and goals have generated heated debates in Parliament, university campuses, and the media. Who is a native? Who is a member? For example, in a newspaper column, the Dean of Education at the

University of Pretoria, Jonathan Jansen (2006) described the founding of the Native Club as "morally offensive and politically divisive, drawing parallels with the Afrikaner

179 Sam Raditlhalo, "Who is Afraid of the Native Club?" Daily News, June 13, 2006, http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=l&click_id=l24&art_id=vn20060613102905316C274346 (accessed October 14, 2007). 180 The Native Club, www.nativeclub.org (accessed September 17, 2007). 181 Vukuzenzele is a social outreach program initiated by President Mbeki to encourage volunteerism and self-reliance. It focuses on government and civic in projects that operate without government funding. 182 Titus Mafolo, "The Third Pillar of Our Transformation," Umrabuo 26 (August 2006), http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pubs/umrabulo/umrabulo26/art6.html (accessed September 6, 2007). 141

Broederbond as nationalist initiatives connected to state power." After the publication of his opinion editorial, Jansen says he has never received so many emails and text messages about a newspaper column from all comers of the country. He concludes that the controversy generated by the Native Club demonstrates that ''just below the epidermis of our conciliatory politics lies a growing level of radicalized anger, resentment, alienation and fear among many South Africans."183

This vigorous debate about the Native Club emphasizes the tenuous nature of

South Africa's transition. The theme of 'unity in diversity' is sometimes stretched almost to breaking point by fears of the government imposing an Africanist hegemonic culture at the expense of Mandela's more inclusive idea of a "rainbow nation." To some, these fears are simply the stultifying effects of political correctness. This debate demonstrates that the processes of change in South Africa are increasingly defined in terms of broad claims that have moved beyond questions of resources and political space. It is a politics of recognition about new economic, cultural and often symbolic arrangements within a plurality of actors that obscure boundaries between civil society and institutions of government.

Ubuntu and State Cooptation

It would be naive to assume that the state's deft deployment of ubuntu signals a breakthrough to a new social order. As argued in the previous chapter, the government's preoccupation with 'economic correctness' suggests otherwise. By placing more emphasis on reconciliation than social and economic justice, it is apparent that the Mbeki

183 Jonathan D. Jansen, "The Natives are Restless," https://www.up.ac.za/dspace/bitstream/2263/510/l/Jansen+(2006)i.pdf (accessed September 6, 2007). 142

administration's version of ubuntu is different from popular conceptions ohhis worldview, as discussed in chapter three. Nonetheless, the special import of the government's use of ubuntu is that it forces us to question conventional oppositions (for example, the state on one side and indigenous issues on another). When governments tout indigenous idioms, are they, in the words of Walsh (2002, 81), erecting a "smoke screen" for their own complicity in the economic crises neoliberal economic globalization? Or are they simply using all the tools at their disposal to blunt the negative impacts of policies they deem unavoidable?

The key problem with the cooptation thesis is that it cedes authorship of indigeneity to the state. A state-centric view fails to acknowledge that indigenous knowledge is not simply a strategic slogan that appeals to those who are in the business of government. Furthermore, the view that this represents state cooptation of indigenous epistemologies is not attentive to the "demarginalization" process taking place in South

Africa.

The critique proffered by Smoth (2004, 54) that the state's use of ubuntu forecloses any possibility of challenging the predominant practice of (neo )liberal individualism is misplaced. Seen as "a tool of cultural self-assertion," the promise of ubuntu, the African Renaissance, and other indigenous worldviews lies not in essentialist state interpretations of African culture and heritage, but in the critical reappropriation of these indigenous claims to exorcise the country and the continent of the shadows of political, socio-economic, and cultural marginalization.

On the other hand, however, when critics castigate the government for its

'indigenous turn', they imbibe its dissonant and jagged efforts at indigenization with 143

undue sweeping enormity. In reality, there is no indigenous turn. 184 Put differently, there is no parsimonious and coherent state response to long-term clamor for indigenization in the country. The whole notion of a turn suggests a remarkable change of course. This chapter has argued that indigeneity has historically played an important role in South

African political discourse, albeit often implicitly. However, this is not to suggest that indigenous worldviews are merely belched up from cultural dinners of yonder; they are today's staple - an integral part of South Africa's complex political and cultural diet. The crucial point here is that the high premium the state has placed on ubuntu confirms the complex and fragile nature of South Africa's transition. It features a great deal of experimentation with both old and new arrangements.

It can be argued, therefore, that the state's selective use of ubuntu, the African

Renaissance, and other indigenous idioms emphasize that the South African transition is oft fought in the complex mills of cultural struggle. This echoes Gramsci's concept of the

''war of position". Distinguishing it from what he called the "war of movement," Gramsci

(1971) argued that the war of position took place at the cultural level and involved more

subtle forms of contestation that are strategically aimed at transforming common sense and consciousness. A successful counter-hegemonic struggle was built into practice through various cultural forms, counter institutions, organizations, and associations, on

184 Ramose makes a similar point when he argues that for the indigenous conquered peoples the transformation of South African society is a limited success because it has not led to the reversion to unencumbered sovereignty of people indigenous. See, Mogobe B. Ramose, "An African Perspective on Justice and Race," Polylog: Forum for Intercultural Philosophizing 2 (2001), http://www.polylog.org/them/2/fcs6-en.htm (accessed June 8, 2006). 144

the terrain of civil society (Cohen and Arato 1992, 640). Herein identity and self representation play a critical role.

The object of this chapter, though, is not to merely highlight the complex nature of the nation building processes in the new postcolony. It is to remark that these processes are unfolding amidst contradictory pressures of globalization. African states participate in globalization processes under conditions not of their own choosing.

The rules that govern contemporary global interactions present a two-pronged challenge to the South African state. On one hand, like most African states, it is pressured to succumb to the economic uniformity that accompanies globalization, while on the other, it has to highlight the country's unique economic features to attract global business. So, to carve a place for itself in the world, the South African government has found ubuntu and other indigenous idioms to be broad arms for what Cheru (2002, xv) calls a "guided embrace of globalization." It has used ubuntu and the African

Renaissance to win both external legitimacy and internal social cohesion while pursing the objectives of its nation building programs.

Conclusion

At a time when the state is generally viewed as simultaneously in retreat or crisis

(Strange 1996, Adar and Ajulu 2002, Ohmae 2005) and critical for development (Weiss

1998, Riain 2000, Polillo and Guillen 2005, Pamell 2005, Gainsborough 2007), ubuntu has become a key component of the South African government's quest for self-definition and nation building. This chapter has argued that contemporary global interactions combined with the pangs of political and economic transition have posed multiple challenges to the new postcolony. For a nation emerging from decades of conflict, one of 145

the key tasks for the new government was maintaining political cohesion and order.

Simultaneously, it had to deal with the pains of economic restructuring whether self inflicted (Bond 2000) or emanating from global economic pressures. The key argument made in this chapter is that since 1994, ubuntu has been a prominent feature of the government's attempt to deal with both challenges. In the first instance, the state creatively used ubuntu as the moral bedrock of the TRC, which helped ease the transition to a democratic order. In essence, ubuntu was a potent needle for knitting together the heterogeneous cloths of histories, cultures, and memories of South Africa's diverse ethnic groups. Key political players such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela used ubuntu to help the country deal with the crosscurrents of race, ethnicity, and political affiliation that were threatening to sink the country in the mid-1990s. In addition, the government has continually employed ubuntu and other indigenous idioms to navigate the contours of neoliberal economic globalization.

This ambidextrous use of indigenous idioms highlights another significant point, viz., when members of oppressed societies assume powerful positions, they do not suddenly turn their 'weapons of the weak' (Scott 1985) into ploughshares. Put differently, the so-called 'weapons of the weak' are not in the firm grasp of the dispossessed; they are always changing and, more importantly, always contested. To quote Clifford (2001, 477),

"There's a lot of middle ground; and crucial political and cultural positions are not firmly anchored on one side or the other but are contested and up for grabs." As Sibusiso

Ndebele, the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, cautions about the African Renaissance, however, "it has been emotional to intellectuals and intellectual to the masses" (quoted in

Coplan 2001, 121). Therefore, to take root, the government's interpretation of ubuntu has 146

to have concrete meaning at the grassroots level and be seen as shaping policies that effectively change people's lives for the better. CHAPTERS

UBUNTU AT THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL

There are no modem solutions to many of today's problems! This is Arturo

Escobar's forceful argument in his thesis on global coloniality and social movements. In light of persistent social displacements, ecological destruction, and the current order's inability to ensure a rudimentary level of well-being for the majority of the world's people, Escobar urges us to seek insights from "those subaltern knowledges and cultural practices worldwide that modernity itself shunned, suppressed, made invisible and disqualified" (2004, 210).

Indeed, indigenous epistemological positions have gained a notable place in global formulations of alternative understandings of the world. De Costa (2006, 671) suggests that the contemporary indigenous movement can be understood as the result of varied acts of imagining a new global moral order in which the diversity of indigenous experiences is playing a critical role. Dei (2000, 265) concurs and views "indigenous cultural knowledge of African peoples as a counter-hegemonic knowledge to the conventional discourse on African development."

Not surprisingly, then, a broad array of international organizations has increasingly borrowed insights form the ubuntu worldview to advance their causes. They

147 148

advocate a world order supported by what Hettne calls a "nonnative

185 architecture" - a view of the world that is grounded "on global values and norms, and the rule oflaw, monitored by a vigilant civil society, the result of which would be humane global governance" (Hettne 2004, 14).

The embrace of this indigenous worldview (whether rhetorically or substantively) by many international organizations and activists requires students of ubuntu to be responsive to the transnational expressions of this worldview. In the following sections, this chapter explores the numerous ways in which international civil society organizations, and sometimes intergovernmental organizations, have found in ubuntu a view from "elsewhere"186 to articulate alternative positions regarding elements of the global world order. As if echoing some of the people interviewed in Clermont, these organizations seek to speak ngamanye amazwi (in other words).

The gist of the chapter focuses on how and why such organizations embrace ubuntu for their work. They can be classified into three categories: social justice organizations, humanitarian associations, and Pan-A:fricanist networks. Humanitarian

185 Hettne' s idea of a "new normative architecture" builds on the work of the World Order Models Project (WOMP). As Falk (1978, 532) put it, WOMP was motivated by the desire "to encourage a social movement dedicated to the establishment of more humane politics throughout the world ... WOMP is working to create a more adequate framework of inquiry for individuals and groups situated in different parts of the world to consider prospects and proposals for drastic (as distinguished from marginal) adjustments to alarming conditions (e.g., poverty, arms spread) and trends (e.g., population, pollution, terms of trade)." For more on WOMP, see Saul H. Mendlovitz, On The Creation ofa Just World Order (New York: Free Press, 1974); Rajni Kothari, Footsteps into the Future: Diagnosis ofthe Present World and a Design for an Alternative (New York: Free Press, 1974 ); Richard Falk, A Study ofFuture Worlds (New York: Free Press, 1975); Richard Falk, "The World Order Models Project and its Critics: A Reply," International Organization 32 no. 2 (Spring 1978): 531-545. 186 I nana the concept of"elsewhere" from feminist scholars De Lauretis (1987) and Hegde (1998) who use it to critique the male narrative that permeates much theory. In this case, however, the concept is employed to situate indigenous epistemological positions vis-a-vis hegemonic views on globalization. To view globalization from 'elsewhere' does not necessarily refer to geographic locations, although that may be important, but it means interrogating globalization from unfamiliar and often marginalized epistemological angles. 149

organizations generally see ubuntu as furthering their mission of providing goods and services to impoverished people to improve basic living conditions. Social justice organizations on the other hand usually include membership-driven and constituency based organizations, advocacy groups, coalitions, think-tanks, and research organizations that frame their understanding of ubuntu in economic and social equity terms.

In this dissertation, a critical distinguishing element of social justice organizations is that they do not merely provide services to the impoverished but also seek and incorporate public advocacy strategies to foster wider and deeper social change. These distinctions only serve analytical purposes as the strategies and activities of these organizations quite often intersect, as we will discover below. Furthermore, the chapter also demonstrates that differences and similarities among these organizations, especially when compared to the Clermont organizations discussed in the third chapter, provide useful insight into the overall emergence of ubuntu and its meanings for the transition in

South Africa and understanding of globalization.

It would be remiss, however, to ignore the global context in which this is unfolding. In much of the literature on globalization, indigenous worldviews often emerge in reference to examinations of resistance to globalization. It is for that reason that the discussion of ubuntu in the global arena is preceded by a brief examination of the place of indigenous worldviews in debates about globalization and resistance.

Resistance to Globalization

Scholars of globalization studies have unveiled fertile theoretical ground on globalization and resistance. However, moving from the vast thickets of globalization to the finer trails of resistance is fraught with challenges. The burgeoning literature on 150

resistance to globalization provides useful mapping tools. One of the well-trodden paths is guided by the transnational social movements (TSM) perspective.

This approach is anchored on the idea that the unprecedented "acceleration of global integration processes has altered our conceptualization of the state and its capacity to influence both domestic and international processes" (Smith and Johnston 2002, I). In this view, globalization has ushered in an array of political institutions that create both opportunities and constraints for actors. Borrowing conceptual tools from conventional theories of social movements, the TSM approach places emphasis on the proliferation of transnational advocacy networks in the international arena (Keck and Sikkink 1998,

Tarrow 2005). The cornerstone of this view is that states have become porous containers so that politics, more than ever before, now transcends national borders (Kriesberg 1997).

The dramatic events of the protests against the WTO in Seattle in 1999 are often cited as evidence. For Smith (2002, 208), the 'Battle of Seattle' demonstrates how global-level politics affect a wide range oflocal and national actors. As a result, according to Smith, we must ask how global economic, political and social integration affect both mobilization and collective action.

Using variants of the TSM framework, some scholars (Harvey 2001, Harris 2002,

Olesen 2004, Stewart-Harawira 2005, Coombe 2005, and Kirsch 2007) view the resurgence of indigenous movements through the prism of resistance to globalization.

They focus on the international dimensions of seemingly local actions by indigenous actors such as the occupation of Quito's main cathedral in 1990 by indigenous

Ecuadorians to protest neoliberal adjustments required by international financial institutions. The Zapatista rebellion of 1994 in Mexico also firmly put issues of 151

indigenous peoples on the map. When indigenous peasants launched an uprising and briefly occupied several towns in Chiapas, Mexico's most impoverished state, they received support from a broad base of activists from around the world.

What made their plight resonate with other indigenous people and supporters across the globe was that they called into question the interpretative framework of the global order. They were able to translate ''their particular problems through a global framework that enabled them to establish links, physical and mediated, to a wide variety of movements and struggles around the globe" (Olesen 2004, 265). Harris agrees and further states that that the struggles of indigenous movements at the grassroots level against neoliberal globalization and in favor of basic human rights, have become a transnational concern in which domestic and foreign activists work together to influence public opinion (2002, 143) As a result, they now maintain international linkages with progressive political parties and progressive international NGOs.

Although not always explicitly stated, the underlying assumption of the TSM literature is that for resistance to matter, these movements have to exhibit organizational forms that include coalition formation, some degree of mobilization, and a repertoire of actions and resources. As Amoore and others explicitly put it, "to be successful, resistance to neoliberal globalization must be conducted in a more coordinated manner on local, national, regional and global levels. Economic restructuring is occurring on all levels; therefore resistance movements cannot defeat it by concentrating on one level alone" (2000, 25). Although writing from a different perspective, Wallerstein (1997, 100) seems to espouse this view when he argues that what is new in cultural resistance today is the result of the sociological invention of anti-systemic movements in the nineteenth 152

century, having the key idea that opposition must be organized if it is to succeed in transforming the world. He further states that, "Cultural resistance today is very often organized resistance, not spontaneous resistance or eternal resistance, but planned resistance" (1997, 100).

One of the key concerns with the TSM literature is the singular focus placed on indigenous groups that engage in recognized forms of interaction with officialdom such as protests, marches, organizational structures, lobbying, and other explicit political activities. In the same way that technologies of domination run the gamut from overt coercion to consent (Gramsci 1971 ), this study is predicated on the premise that there are degrees of resistance that extend across a broad spectrum. There is, at one end, organized protest and at the other "gestures of tacit refusal. .. that sullenly and silently contest the forms of an existing hegemony" (Comaroff and Comaroff 1991, 31 ).

Many of the ubuntu-oriented organizations presented below did not demonstrate many of these features identified in the TSM literature. Should this discount their activities and vibrant manifestations of political engagement? Pile and Keith (1997, 16) correctly reorient our sensors of political engagement when they say, "Tactics of resistance have multiple surfaces: some facing towards the map of power, others facing in another direction, towards intangible, invisible fears and hopes." It cannot be understood as a face-to-face opposition between the powerful and the weak. As Adler and Mittelman

(2004, 193) put it, resistance is not merely negation. It is more than opposition, evasions, challenges, or reactions. It is constituted by and constitutive of globalization. It involves new ideas, organizations and institutions, daily practices, and a plurality of dispersed, 153

local, and personal points of counter-power. Scott (1985 and 1990) makes a similar argument.

Scott chronicles the quotidian practices of rural Malaysians negotiating class relations and the interventions of state officials in the countryside. The core of his argument is that resistance need not necessarily be an openly declared contestation. He draws our attention to infrapolitics by which he means "a wide variety oflow-profile forms of resistance that dare not speak in their own name" (1990, 18). While these everyday forms of resistance are conducted singularly and collectively, they fall short of overt contestations. His examples include foot-dragging, squatting, gossip, and the development of dissident subcultures. Scott's framework burst open the conceptual walls of resistance and brought our attention to previously ignored forms of political engagement.

However, while appreciating this contribution, there is the danger of romanticizing mundane everyday activities, leaving the very contradictions of the everyday intact and pristine. Given the concern of many critical globalization scholars with "facilitating a politics of resistance among the globally disenfranchised'' (George

1994, 200), Scott's infrapolitics may well lead to, at best, celebrating all actions as resistance, and at worst, imagining shadows of resistance where none exists. This is one of the more disconcerting elements of Scott's formula. Abu-Lughod (1990) cautions against the tendency to "to romanticize resistance, to read all forms of resistance as signs of the ineffectiveness of systems of power and the resilience and creativity of the human spirit in its refusal to be dominated" (1990, 42). She goes on to say that by reading resistance in this way, we collapse distinctions between forms of resistance and foreclose 154

certain questions about the workings of power. Instead, she calls for a small shift in perspective, to use resistance as a diagnostic of power (Abu-Lughod's emphasis) to ask, not about the status of resistance itself, but about what the forms of resistance indicate

about the forms of power that they are up against (1990, 47).

Although he was writing within a strictly national setting, Polanyi's double- movement theorem provides useful conceptual tools for understanding the transnational relevance of indigenous knowledges in the era of globalization. It would be faulty to take

the double-movement thesis to represent a binary relationship between the forces of

globalization and forces of resistance. As chapter two argued, the double-movement has

supple theoretical muscles to accommodate multiple forms of political engagement. Its

key strength is that it represents a mutually constitutive moment of the complex processes

of globalization. Rather than focusing on binary oppositions, we can better explore the

constituent struggles unfolding in global processes to create new public spaces and new

forms of community. The representatives of international organizations that were interviewed invoke ubuntu tenets for such purposes.

The Meanings of Ubuntu at the International Level

The scholarly work conducted on ubuntu has focused on its meanings and

implications in the South African context. As the introductory chapter stated, this

dissertation adds value to this body of work by exploring and highlighting the international dimensions of this worldview. Given prevalent pessimism about Africa, 187 it

187 James Watson, a geneticist and Nobel Prize winner for his role in the discovery of the structure of DNA, was quoted in the Times of London as saying he is "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours- whereas all the testing says not really." He further stated that although he hoped that everyone was equal, he lamented that "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true." Helen Nugent, "Black 155

may be quite puzzling at first glance that these mostly European organizations would seriously employ an indigenous African worldview in debates about international policies. When one considers the wealth of such worldviews, however, the puzzle becomes the opposite, namely, why it has taken so long for indigenous perspectives to influence the disposition of Western organizations. The contention here is that ifthe word

'apartheid' was South Africa's key contribution to the international political lexicon, ubuntu is slowly emerging as its replacement. The following examples illuminate this point:

Exhibit A:

Asked whether it is possible to use his philosophy of humanism to resist the pressures for privatization and globalization, former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda responded:

Many of you will know the African word ubuntu - our philosophy of humanism. Simply stated it means "I am because we are." When I was in office, I built schools, health centers, and hospitals. I cannot see private companies investing in rural areas of Zambia in fundamental things, such as water and electricity. This must be done by the govemment. 188

Exhibit B:

The roots of this struggle reside on a serious national grievance: a grievance that is at the heart of our national politics. The MDC [Movement for Democratic Change] represents a rallying cry for the fulfillment of an uncompleted national agenda, a national assignment and a national revolution. We cherish a value system that bound us together to confront colonialism. Zimbabweans always

People 'Less Intelligent' Scientist Claims," Times, October 17, 2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/toVnews/uk/article2677098.ece (accessed December 10, 2007). 188 President Kaunda was addressing a roundtable discussion on the role of a head of state in implementing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The session was sponsored by the World Federation of United Nations Associations in March 2003. World Federation of United Nations Associations, "Implementing the MDGs: The Role of a Head of State," World Federation of United Nations Associations, www.wfuna.org/docUploads/MDGMeeting3.pdf (accessed November 11, 2007). 156

believed in, and even fought for, justice. We respect our dignity. The concept of hunhu hwe munhu or ubuntu, has guided our relations in our homes, in our communities and in our natural interactions with our neighbors from time immemorial. We long for liberty and personal advancement. We aspire for a society with equal opportunities. Our culture calls on us to support each other. We believe in stability and empathy. 189

Exhibit C:

The ASF [African Social Forum] Council and the OC [Organizing Committee of the World Social Forum] had from the very beginning acknowledged the political potency of the culture of resistance in Africa and the possibility of its use by social movements in their struggle for change. By invoking the spirit of ubuntu, the Culture Commission intended to showcase a strong African cultural presence and expression as a means of affirming the continent's identity in the mosaic that is the global resistance against neo-liberalism ... [Africa] displayed and dispelled all manner of subjugation by showcasing [the] grandeur of celebration, critique, alternatives, and cultural diversity through a visionary outlook that echoed the spirit of ubuntu and the undying spirit of Pan-Africanism that had in~ired successive generations of resistance against imperialist subjugation. 1 0

These quotations show that step by unsure step, some international actors and

organizations have drawn upon the ubuntu worldview to think and act differently about the world. Critics of neoliberal economic globalization generally call for alternatives to

the current global economic order. However, more often than not, this search for

alternatives takes place within the elasticity of the same western epistemological frames

that fail to acknowledge 'other' conceptions of human relations. This is why we need to

"think alternatively about alternatives" and affirm and celebrate the plurality of

definitions of what it means to be human and how this reconfigures our understanding of

189 This is an excerpt of an address by Morgan Tsvangirai, President of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) at the Save Zimbabwe Convention in Harare, Zimbabwe in July 2006. Morgan Tsvangirai, "Political Perspectives to the National Crisis," http://zimpundit.blogspot.com/2006/07/eddie cross-tsvangirais-speech-from.html (accessed November 9, 2007). 190 This is a quote from the draft final report of the Organizing Committee of World Social Forum (WSF), Nairobi, Kenya April 2007. WSF Draft Final Report, "People's Struggles, People's Alternatives," World Social Forum, Nairobi, April 2007, www.africansocialforum.org/english/fsm/Kenya2007/report.htm (accessed October 23, 2007). 157

human relations. 191 Indigenous perspectives have provided international activists with tools to "think alternatively about alternatives" to the global order.

Coombe (2005, 52) is right when she argues that the specific paradigms of

Western modernity and rationality have proved too narrow to encompass the aspirations for social justice expressed by the world's poor as they resist or accommodate certain aspects of capitalist development projects. Today's globalized condition, as Hettne (2004,

8) argues, demands a more advanced normative theory, taking a larger number of value systems of different civilizations into consideration. 192

The Ubuntu World Forum of Networks of Civil Society (Ubuntu Forum) seems to have taken a cue from Hettne's call for an intercivilizational dialogue. 193 It states that "as many voices as possible should unite to attain the necessary magnitude to be listened and to promote interaction favoring the presence of the 'human sense' in political, social, cultural and economic actions."194 Following is a discussion of the activities of this unique collaboration of international organizations that have employed the ubuntu worldview in their quest to restructure the procedures and institutions of global governance.

191 This is commensurate with Laclua and Mouffe's (1985, 101) argument that "the first condition of a radically democratic society is to accept the contingent and radically open character of all its values, and in that sense, to abandon the aspiration to a single foundation." 192 Scott has called this the search for the "ethos of agonistic respect for pluralizations of subaltern difference" (David Scott, Refashioning Futures: Criticism after Postcoloniality (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 82. 193 For more on intercivilizational dialogue, see, among others, the works of Ali Mazrui, Joseph A. Camilleri, Fred Dallmayr, Chandra Muzaffar, Muqtedar Khan, and Hans Kochler. Institutes and organizations devoted to this issue include, among others, the International Movement for a Just World, the Centre for Civilizational Dialogue (University of Malaya), Claude Pepper Center for lntercultural Dialogue (Florida State University), Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (Georgetown University), the Interreligious Engagement Project, and the World Council of Muslims for Interfaith Relations. 194 Federico Mayor Zaragoza, "On the Initial Appeal of Federico Mayor," Ubuntu World Forum of Networks of Civil Society, www.ubuntu.upc.edu (accessed November 11, 2007). 158

Social Justice Organizations and Ubuntu

While the role of ubuntu in conflict resolution has captured the interest of a few international NGOs, 195 there has been a quieter but very significant trend among some global social justice organizations to incorporate ubuntu language into their campaigns.

The Ubuntu Forum provides a good example of Polanyi's double-movement in operation.

Concerned about "the particular seriousness of current problems," this network was founded in 2001, with the ultimate aim of promoting,

the construction of a world that is more human, just, peaceful, diverse and sustainable, thus contributing to bring about a transition from a culture based on force and imposition towards a culture of peace, dialogue, justice, equity, and solidarity ... [and it seeks to be] a proactive voice for "placing the human being at the centre of all political, economic and social decision.196

In his first invitation to civil society leaders issued in 2000, Federico Mayor

Zaragoza197 said the objective was to create "a network of networks, an organization of organizations, where united yet diverse, these actors can jointly weave structures and forums of opinion aimed at promoting the principles and values which sustain democratic life" and therefore attain real human development "on a worldwide scale, in harmony with nature and cultural diversity."198 As such, its main objective is to unite efforts and to build bridges of dialogue amongst national and international organizations that are

195 See, for example, the Center for Conflict Resolution (University of Cape Town, South Africa), the African Center for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (Durban), Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation (Glencree, Ireland), the North American Institute for Conflict Resolution (Alberta, Canada), and Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Greensboro, NC). 196 "Vision and Mission," Ubuntu World Forum ofNetworks of Civil Society, www.ubuntu.upc.edu (accessed November 10, 2007). 197 Federico Mayor Zaragoza, the main catalyst for the founding of the Ubuntu Network, is a former Director General of UNESCO and President of the Foundation for a Culture of Peace (Madrid, Spain). 198 Federico Mayor Zaragoza, "On the Initial Appeal of Federico Mayor," Ubuntu World Forum of Networks of Civil Society, www.ubuntu.upc.edu (accessed November 11, 2007). 159

focused on promoting peace, development and human rights. For Josep Xercavins who

coordinates its secretariat, a comprehensive reform of the international is an urgent matter

in order to achieve more effectiveness in policy coordination and implementation.199

The influence of the ubuntu worldview is manifest not only in the network's

goals, but its own structure and decision-making processes. It brings together over 60

organizations ranging from the Advocacy for Women in Africa (Dar es Salaam,

Tanzania) to Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (Mumbai, India). While its Ad Hoc

Secretariat handles its professional management, the forum holds a general meeting every

one or two years. Decisions are taken by consensus whenever possible and otherwise by

simple majority of the participants.200

Some critics raised questions about the value of yet another international network

when the Ubuntu Network was formed. (The WSF had just been founded a few months

earlier). Delegates to its conference in 2002 agreed that the forum's role was

complementary to, not in competition with, other civil society organizations and social movements. They stated that with a strong emphasis on cultural rights, environmental protection, and non-militarism, the Ubuntu Forum's mission was "broader and more holistic than that of the WSF and other anti-globalization gatherings, which focus

199 "Global Civil Society Champion," UN Connections, the World Federation of United Nations Associations Newsletter no. 61, May 2006, http://www.wfuna.org/news/newsletter/unc61.cfm (accessed November 10, 2007). 200 "Vision and Mission," Ubuntu World Forum ofNetworks of Civil Society, www.ubuntu.upc.edu (accessed November 10, 2007). 160

primarily on international trade and investment institutions and agreements."201 Since then, it has issued numerous statements on diverse issues:

to "completely reject any kind of violence as a means of expression" at the Group of

Eight (08) meeting in Genoa 2001 202

denouncing the terrorist attack in the United States in September 2001

rejecting increased militarization of the Middle East in 2002

calling for the reform of the WTO

opposing the appointment of Paul Wolfowitz as President of the World Bank in 2005

advocating urgent action on the issue of global climate change

However, the Ubuntu Forum did not merely issue statements and resolutions. In collaboration with World Campaign for In-depth Reform of International Institutions and other organizations, in April 2007, it launched a campaign to establish a United Nations

Parliamentary Assembly. This initiative was endorsed by civil society activists from 89 countries, 3 78 members of parliament (MPs) from 70 countries, and former prime ministers.203 In support of the campaign, former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros

Boutros-Ghali stressed that "a parliamentary assembly at the United Nations has become an indispensable step to achieve democratic control of globalization. Complementary to

201 Martha Honey, "Networking Civil Society in Barcelona," Foreign Policy in Focus, March 11, 2002, http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2002/0203ubuntu_body.html (accessed November 11, 2006). 202 Ubuntu World Forum of Networks of Civil Society, www.ubuntu.upc.edu (accessed November 10, 2007). 203 "Who Supports the Campaign?" World Campaign for In-depth Reform of International Institutions, http://www.reformcampaign.net (accessed November 11, 2007). 161

international democracy among states, which no less has to be developed, it would foster

global democracy beyond states, giving the citizens a genuine voice in world affairs."204

At the urging of the Ubuntu Forum, in October 2007 the Pan-African Parliament also unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the establishment of a UN Parliamentary

Assembly. Kante El Hadj Diao, a member of the parliament said, "A growing number of decisions affecting African citizens are taken beyond the borders of their nation state and even of Africa itself. In times of increasing globalization these decisions cannot be left to government diplomats alone. The voice of the citizens has to be heard in the halls of the

United Nations and its agencies as well."205 In South Africa, the campaign has been endorsed by the South African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO) and Transparency

South Africa (T-SA).

Other activities of the Ubuntu Forum include organizing or participating in numerous international discussions and conferences. For example, at the WSF in Nairobi in 2007, the forum organized panels on new international institutions to fulfill African development goals. Participants included African civil society leaders and academics such as Samir Amin, Sara Longwe, Kumi Naidoo, and Aminata Traore. Furthermore, the forum is an active participant at the regular session of the NGO section of the UN's

Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The secretariat also participated in the

"International People's Forum vs. the IMF-WB," held in Batam to coincide with the

204 Andreas Bummel, "Why the UN Needs a Parliamentary Body," Mail and Guardian, October 25, 2007, http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx? articleid= 3230 l 9&area=/insight/insight_international/ (accessed November 11, 2007). 205 "Pan-African Parliament calls for UN Parliamentary Assembly," Open PR: Worldwide Public Relations, http://www.openpr.com/news/31259/Pan-African-Parliament-calls-for-UN-Parliamentary Assembly.html (accessed November 11, 2007). 162

annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF in Singapore in 2006. Moreover, as a member of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), the Ubuntu Forum was a key player in the "Stand Up Against Poverty" mobilizations that took place in October

2006.

The Ubuntu Forum is not the only international organization that deploys ubuntu in the discourse on globalization and social justice. It merits attention because it appears to be the most active. There are myriad other organizations that have utilized ubuntu insights to advance their programs. TransAfrica Forum, for example, began publishing a

quarterly journal called Ubuntu: The TransAfrica Forum Quarterly in 2007.

For this organization,

Ubuntu is an African philosophy that offers us an understanding of ourselves in relation with the world. According to ubuntu, there exists a common bond between us all, and it is through this bond, through our interaction with our fellow human beings, that we discover our own human qualities, that we affirm our humanity by acknowledging that of others ... In this light, TransAfrica Forum believes that part of the work we do is to help people understand our connections. It is this understanding that unifies our pursuits of social and economic justice and brings us to~ether as part of something greater for the good of our collective liberation. 20

TransAfrica's careful blend of ubuntu with economic and social justice issues pertaining to Africa and the African diaspora highlights the Pan-African import of the ubuntu worldview.

Ubuntu and Pan-Africanism

As a social justice organization, the Ubuntu Forum focuses primarily on development and the satisfaction of economic and social needs. Other international

206 "Building Pan-African Solidarity for the 21st Century," Ubuntu: The TransAfrica Forum Quarterly I, no. 1 (Fall 2007): 2. 163

organizations have placed more emphasis .on the cultural and Pan-African significance of

ubuntu, even as material conditions are important to them. While this Pan-Africanist

orientation is not new, its recent emergence in the context of debates surrounding

globalization has injected it with new relevance. Omara-Otunnu attributes this resurgence to the fact that "a critical contextual analysis of data from all regions of the world shows that, whether the issue is HIVI AIDS pandemic, exploding prison population, ravages of

poverty, lack of freedom, civil wars and strife, African people and people of African

descent suffer more disproportionately than any other group."207

Indeed, there is growing recognition that globalization is not an all-embracing unidirectional process. There are multiple countermovements that occur simultaneously that have an impact on globalization. Mentan (2003) sees Pan-Africanism as part of such

conscious and unpremeditated countermovements that assert their identity and impact on

global networks and interconnections.208 Zeleza (2007) agrees and states that

''progressive Pan-Africanism provides a countervailing ideology to the triumphant neoliberalism of the post-Cold War world, and offers alternative instrumental possibilities to mobilize all manner of capital-financial, social, cultural, and intellectual-for

socioeconomic development in Africa and the diaspora."

It is important to note, however, that neither Pan-Africanism as a movement nor

Pan-Africanist scholarship is homogeneous in orientation, objectives, or its conclusions.

207 Amii Omara-Otunnu, "Pan-Africanism this Century," Black Star News, August 16, 2007, http://www.blackstarnews.com/?c=122&a=3591 (accessed November 24, 2007). 208 Tatah Mentan, "Exiting the Whirlpool? Pan-Africanism Caught in the Crossfire ofldentity and Globalization" (paper presented at CODESRIA's 30th Anniversary Grand Finale Conference and Celebrations, Dakar 10-12, December, 2003), http://www.codesria.org/Links/conferences/anniversary dakar/mentan.pdf (accessed November 24, 2007). 164

Nantambu (1998), for example, argues that classic treatments of Pan-Africanism are

couched in "emotional and politico-cultural platitudes" (1998, 562). Instead of George

Padmore's "fraternal solidarity", Rupert Emerson's "spiritual affinity'', and Stokley

Carmichael's ''total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism'',

Nantambu calls for what he calls a "Pan-African-Nationalism" that underscores the

''unified struggle/resistance of African peoples against all forms of foreign aggression

and invasion, in the fight for nationhood/nation building" (1998, 569). Tracing the idea of

Pan-African nationalism to Pharaoh Aha's unification of the upper and lower Kemet in

circa 3200 B.C, Nantambu, having recognized this "true historical, functional, unifying,

and holistic representation of the struggle of African peoples" requires us to speak "in terms of Pan-African Nationalism (Afrocentric) and not Pan-Africanism (Eurocentric)"

(1998, 569).

Nantambu's objections notwithstanding, there is general agreement that Pan-

Africanism refers to "a political and cultural phenomenon" that stresses African unity,

solidarity, regeneration, and pride in the past (Esedebe 1994, 19).209 Zeleza (2007) goes

further and argues that Pan-Africanism is not backward looking. For him, in Pan-

Africanism, the past, the present, and the future are always interconnected; they are

intersected historical processes. As such, it remains a powerful force in the twenty-first

209 I am aware of the critiques of Pan-Africanism that pertain to the Eurocentric tendencies of some the progenitors of the Pan-Africanist movement. Edward Blyden (1832-1912) Thomas, for example, argued for the resettlement of American blacks as the best way of 'civilizing' Africa. For him, the role of the free slaves was that of "establishing and maintaining an independent nationalist, and of introducing the Gospel among untold millions of evangelized and barbarous men" (Blyden 1967, 19). Other debates relate to the failure of many Pan-Africanist scholars to interrogate the divergence of interests between continental Africans and the diaspora (Adekele 1998), the male bias of the movement's leadership and the concurrent phallocentric tones (Reid 1991) that permeated some of the Pan-Africanist rhetoric. I do not have room to explore these in detail here. 165

century both because its objectives are far from achieved and the new challenges facing

Africa and the diaspora require Pan-African responses (Zeleza 2007).

To confront these new obstacles, some international organizations have blended the ideals of Pan-Africanism with the insights of the ubuntu worldview. A prototypical

example was the founding of the Ubuntu Movement, a Pan-African organization for

cultural cooperation and development. The movement grew out of a consultation on the promotion of African arts and culture held in Johannesburg in August 1996.210 This network was conceived as a strategy to "forge linkages, enhance collaboration, and to develop partnerships among individuals and institutions committed to the production,

dissemination and consumption of African and African-inspired artistic and cultural

expression worldwide."211 Some of the key goals of the Ubuntu Movement were:

affirming and enriching the cultural identities of all African people, on the continent

and in the diaspora

promoting cultural exchanges within Africa and between Africa and the diaspora

developing and sustaining policies and investment in African cultural industries

advocating sound policies and investment in the development of cultural institutions

210 Over 50 people from Africa and the diaspora participated in multiple meetings in Stockholm, Lome, Chicago, and Harare to discuss the structure and goals of the movement. These issues were finalized in Johannesburg in 1996 at a meeting sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. There was also participation by UNESCO, the OAU, the Ford Foundation, the Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). (Christopher Till, former Executive Director of Ubuntu 2000, interview with author, January 18, 2006.) 211 "The Ubuntu Movement," Culture/ink Review 25, August 1998, http://www.culturelink.org/review/25/c125res.html (accessed November 24, 2007). 166

developing markets for African artistic and cultural expression on the continent and

overseas212

To make this a reality, members established Ubuntu 2000, a non-profit

organization responsible for coordinating the movement's activities. The centerpiece activity was to be the Ubuntu Festival and Exhibition of Arts and Culture.213 Its goal was to celebrate and promote excellence in African and African-derived cultural and artistic

creativity.214 Ubuntu 2000 convinced the city of Johannesburg to host this inaugural Pan-

African festival in 1999.

Chapter three highlighted differences in the interpretations of ubuntu by various

community groups in Clermont. In the international arena, there are also differences

about the import and application of ubuntu. So deep was this rift that it curtailed the

progress of Ubuntu 2000. The movement's lofty goals and well-laid plans notwithstanding, the festival did not take place and Ubuntu 2000 subsequently folded in

2004. According to Christopher Till, its former Executive Director, the whole plan fell

apart because ''we were ahead of our time as the city and country was in transition. It

proved too ambitions for that moment."215 He also cited the lack of movement by the

212 "The Ubuntu Movement," Culture/ink Review 25, August 1998, http://www.culturelink.org/review/25/c125res.html (accessed November 24, 2007). 213 According to Till, although ubuntu values are not unique to Africa, "it is recognized as symptomatic of African culture ... The concept of the celebration of humanity and culture should be used to bring these African cultures together: arts, fashion, food, etc." (Christopher Till, interview with author, January 18, 2006). 214 There had not been a similar event since Nigeria hosted FESTAC (or the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture) in 1977 to celebrate a global vision of black nationhood and citizenship. (Christopher Till, interview with author, January 18, 2006.) 215 Christopher Till, interview with author, January 18, 2006. 167

Johannesburg City Council and the minefield of differences within the city's new departments as key factors that torpedoed the initiative.

It is not surprising that when local initiatives hitchhike on global campaigns, or when international actions piggyback on specific local struggles, their objectives may be lost in translation, as Kirsch (2007, 313) has argued. In the case of the Ubuntu

Movement, key cracks emanated from tensions and clashes between Africans based on the continent and those in the diaspora.216 Nonetheless, the failure of Ubuntu 2000 did not discourage individual actors to pursue the movement's goals.217 Numerous programs and art exhibitions with a focus on ubuntu have been established in South Africa and the world. Examples include the following:

A group of publishers who were involved in Ubuntu 2000 have continued their quest

to improve their access to the Western market. Using the African Books Collective,

they continue to distribute books by Africans in Britain and the U.S. As one of the

publishers put it, their program offers ways of "enriching one's understanding of the

human condition [so as] to be a better human being. It's ubuntu, absolutely."218

In September 2007, in Nairobi, Kenya, Ubuntu Arts hosted the "Peace Drum", an

intensive two-week program of skills training, performances, and exhibitions.

According to organizers, it was inspired by the spirit of ubuntu and the indigenous

216 The Board of Directors of Ubuntu 2000 comprised of international people involved in the arts in Africa, the Caribbean, Britain, and the U.S. 217 Christopher Till has turned to local programs to resuscitate some of the projects such as the lkapa Visual Arts Program in Cape Town. 218 Donna Bryson, "African Publishers Reach Out to the West," Mail and Guardian, March 17, 2005, http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid= 199846&area=/breaking_news/breaking_ news_ africa (accessed December 12, 2007). 168

African motif of the drum. It brought together 'artist-peacebuilders', including

educators, development workers, community animators and cultural activists all from

the global south to "take greater leadership in intentionally and imaginatively

transforming ideologies of violence and ... dream and act jointly in producing

alternative cultural products and in shaping new narratives of 'justpeace' ."219

The Art and Ubuntu Trust curated an ubuntu exhibition entitled "In the Name of All

Humanity'' at the Gold of Africa Museum in Cape Town in 2006. The trust was

formed to gather knowledge and celebrate the ubuntu philosophy and work of Ernest

Mancoba (1904-2002) who has been described as one of the of South Africa's

greatest painters and sculptors but who also remains largely unknown.220 It organizes

educational programs such as workshops and lectures, and exhibits "the artwork of

Mancoba and other artists who are inspired by African aesthetic principles and

ubuntu."221

In 2007, the Ubuntu Institute for Young Social Entrepreneurs joined forced with

Africa Unite and the Desmond Tutu Peace Center to honor the legacy of Bob Marley.

The goal of this collaboration was instill African youth with value-based leadership

for reconciliation, transformation and peace in global communities. Organizers put

219 ''New Listings," Artthrob, August 5, 2007, http://www.artthrob.co.za/07aug/exchange.html (accessed November 28, 2007). 220 "About Ernest Mancoba," Art and Ubuntu Trust, http://www.artubuntu.org/index.html (accessed November 29, 2007). 221 Melvyn Minnaar, ''Forgotten Artist's Works Mark Our Common Humanity," Cape Times, August 1, 2006. 169

together a series of benefit concerts, symposiums, fund raisers and other events to

encourage peace, education and empowerment for youth in Africa. 222

In Art We Trust

Kofi Antubam (1922-1964), who was lauded as one of the chief artists of the

Nkrumah era in Ghana, urged African artists "to express the 'African Personality' in

order to "save the debasing conscience of mankind (sic) ... and revitalize a frustrating humanity."223 The burgeoning of ubuntu art exhibitions across the globe suggests that

Antubam's call still resonates with many Pan-Africanist organizations and artists.

In 2006, the South Project took advantage of the Commonwealth Games to stage

"Ubuntu -To Make a Place", an art exhibition that was part of this sports event's cultural

program in Melbourne, Australia. It offered visitors "an opportunity to develop a deeper

understanding of the cultures gathered in Melbourne for this event. .. [and] see thought-

provoking objects made with creativity and skill from materials local to the makers."224

The South Project is a network of organizations that was established to give expression to

what it means to live in the global south and thus "think global, make local" is one of its

core principles.225 The exhibition was part of the organization's agenda fostering south-

south cultural exchange. Accordingly, it has held international gatherings on southern

collaboration in Melbourne (Australia), Wellington (New Zealand) and Santiago (Chile).

222 See, Africa Unite's website at http://africa-unite.org/site/content/view/41/53/ (accessed February 16, 2008). 223 Quoted in Janet Hess, "Spectacular Nation: Nkrurnahist Art and Resistance Iconography in the Ghanaian Independence Era," African Arts 39, no. 1 (Spring 2006): 22. 224 Kevin Murray, Director, Craft Victoria, Melbourne, email to author, November 5, 2006. 225 "Ubuntu -To Make a Place," The South Project, www.southproject.org (accessed November 11, 2006). 170

A four-day gathering in Johannesburg in October 2007 was part of this southern circuit.

That event brought together artists, curators, and writers who participated in workshops, forums, and other activities that were "designed to stimulate dialogue, explore new and diverse formats of south-south dialogue."226 Themes included methods for sustainability in art practice, the extension of African ideas outside Africa, and the reflection of

collective identity by individual artists.227

The primacy of identity has been the focal point of numerous ubuntu exhibitions in South Africa and the world. Writing about what she calls the 'postutopian' phase in

South Africa, Taylor (1996, 97) identifies a new ethos emerging which is precipitating a philosophic and political shift that legitimates subjectivity. According to her, this newly awakened attention to issues of subjectivity and identity is in part produced through dialogue with international debate (1996, 98). Mzamane amplifies this point when he

says, "We are embarking on a journey of epic proportions to take back ownership of what belongs to us -our identity- and to reconstruct it in our own image."228

Echoing Mzamane's view, Carina Claassens, a South African artist based in

Amsterdam, set up an exhibition entitled "UbuntuArts" in Amsterdam in 2006. She says

she wanted to use the exhibition to emphatically state that, "I'm a human; I belong!

Ubuntu says you are a citizen of this world. Our South African art is an expression of

226 Program brochure of the South Project's Johannesburg conference, "South-South Imbizo," October 1-4, 2007, http://www.southproject.org/Johannesburg/JBurg_home2.htm (accessed November 25, 2007). 227 Program brochure of the South Project's Johannesburg conference, "South-South Imbizo," October 1-4, 2007, http://www.southproject.org/Johannesburg/JBurg_home2.htm (accessed November 25, 2007). 228 Mbulelo Mzamane, Melbourne 2004, program brochure of the South Project's Johannesburg meeting, http://www.southproject.org/www/Johannesburg/JBurgProgrammeFinal(lowres).pdf (accessed November 25, 2007). 171

strength and endurance. Ubuntu keeps me real and true to myself."229 The exhibition was meant to be a celebration oflocal South African artists and South African artists living in

Europe. It covered a broad range of areas including fine arts, films, documentaries, storytelling, and performance. Its goal was to promote budding South African artists and provide a network and resources for them to advance their works. Claassens conceived of

UbuntuArts as a biannual event that would use proceeds to support an organization that care for AIDS orphans in Johannesburg and another that distributes educational materials to disadvantaged girls in Cape Town. 23°Concern with providing care and resources to the impoverished is paramount to many humanitarian organizations that have adopted ubuntu since 1994.

Humanitarian Organizations and Ubuntu

Both multilateral agencies and private international humanitarian organizations have incorporated ubuntu since the end of apartheid. There are myriad reasons why this worldview appeals to international humanitarian organizations. A key factor for many of these entities is that ubuntu captures the essence of what they are already doing. For instance, at the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISP A) annual conference,

229 Carina Claassens, Director, UbuntuArts, Amsterdam, interview with author, July 13, 2007. 23°Carina Claassens, Director, UbuntuArts, Amsterdam, interview with author, July 13, 2007. 172

entitled 'Ubuntu: I am because We Are' in 2006,231 one of the participants concluded that "the ISPA found a new word (ubuntu) to explain best what it has always been, a community.'.232 In this way, this worldview legitimizes the organization's ongoing projects and injects a new moral dimension into its work. As we will see below, ubuntu helps them redefine their raison d'etre, reinterpret local contexts, and reconfigure relations with stakeholders.

Equally important is association with what is deemed a winning idea. "There is a place for all at the Rendezvous of Victory," as the Martiniquan poet and activist Aime

Cesaire famously proclaimed.233 Following what was seen as a 'miraculous' political transformation in South Africa and the elevated role that ubuntu was seen to have played, many international organizations found the worldview attractive. The key players in that transformation, Nobel Peace Prize laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former

President Nelson Mandela also amplified ubuntu's appeal with their global bullhorns.

Third, ubuntu emerged within the context of a tolerant global environment in which the contributions of indigenous peoples to the development of humanity were increasingly being recognized. For example, the UN's Declaration on the Rights of

231 The ISPA describes itself as "a not-for-profit international organization (founded 1949) of over 600 executives and directors of concert and performance halls, festivals, performing companies, and artist competitions; government cultural officials; artists' managers; and other interested parties with a professional involvement in the performing arts from more than 50 countries in every region of the world, and in every arts discipline." Its next international congress, entitled 'Ubuntu Revisited', will take place in Durban in June 2008. This meeting will "address the dynamic relationships of diverse creative forces come together ... [and] provide a kickoff point of departure and direction for the variety ofresponses from artists, arts administrators, tlle media and both local and international stakeholders on tlle subject of ubuntu." International Society for the Performing Arts, http://www.ispa.org (accessed November 24, 2007). 232 Susan Stockton, "Conference Breakout Discussion Summaries," Annual conference of tlle International Society for the Performing Arts, New York, June 2006, http://www.ispa.org/ny06/breakouts.php, (accessed June 30, 2007. 233 Quoted in Edward W. Said, "The Intellectuals and the War," Middle East Report 171 (July August 1991): 20. 173

Indigenous Peoples begins by "recognizing that respect for indigenous knowledge,

cultures and traditional practices contributes to sustainable and equitable development

and proper management of the environment" and affirms that "all peoples contribute to

the diversity and richness of civilizations and cultures, which constitute the common heritage ofhumankind."234 Following its overwhelming passage, UN Secretary-General

Ban Ki-moon pressed governments and civil society to ''urgently advance the work of

integrating the rights of indigenous peoples into international human rights and

development agendas, as well as policies and programs at all levels, so as to ensure that

the vision behind Declaration becomes a reality."235

Although this non-binding declaration was adopted in September 2007, it has

been debated since 1985. ECOSOC's Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection

of Human Rights established a Working Group on Indigenous Populations to report on

the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples in 1982; however, the

Working Group only began drafting the declaration in 1985. During the declaration's

long gestation period, numerous conferences and events elevated issues pertaining to

indigenous peoples.

For instance, the UN declared the year 1993 to be the year of indigenous peoples

and the years 1995-2004, the decade of the world's indigenous peoples. Other

international agencies such as the World Bank and the International Labor Organization

234 "Declaration on the Rights oflndigenous Peoples," United Nations General Assembly Resolution AIRES/61/295, September 13, 2007, http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/declaration.html (accessed November 30, 2007). 235 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,"Statement Attributable to the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General on the Adoption of the Declaration on the Rights oflndigenous Peoples," UN Permanent Forum oflndigenous Peoples, New York, September 13, 2007, http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/Declaration_ip _sg.doc (accessed November 30, 2007). 174

(ILO) also recognized the need to protect indigenous peoples and adopted policies and procedures for projects affecting them. In short, then, the UN's global conferences and events related to socio-economic and indigenous rights provided the space to incorporate indigenous issues and perspectives into global development.

Finally, in the context of international development aid's disappointing results, humanitarian organizations were amenable to experimenting with brand new ideas to improve results. Ubuntu seemed to equip some humanitarian organizations with new analytical tools. By adopting this worldview, they were able to redefine problems and mobilize constituents. Many of them argued that they do not merely provide aid, but see their work as empowering the impoverished, and increasing the participation of beneficiaries. At least this seemed to be the case with some associations that cater to the needs of minority ethnic communities in Europe.

Community workers and activists founded such an organization in Sheffield,

England. Named Ubuntu, it is a caucus affiliated with the Federation for Community

Development Learning (FCDL), a network for community development training with members throughout the United Kingdom (UK). It is "the only UK-wide network of individual Black and minority ethnic practitioners and activists, networks and groups who share an interest in promoting and delivering learning from Black perspectives on community development work and contributing to wider policy debates" (Henderson and

Glen 2006, 285). For members of this caucus, ubuntu "denotes the distinctive way in which Black people organize to enrich and grow each other, share benefits, experiences, 175

resources and foster a culture of mutual respect."236 They organize conferences and seminars on social justice, and provide other resources such as the Ubuntu Bulletin, a quarterly newsletter on Black perspectives in community development learning and training.

Another ubuntu organization that deals with issues of ethnic minorities in Europe is the Ubuntu Center in Geneva, formed in 1999 to provide services to Burundians living in Switzerland. In addition to providing space for meetings and the exchange of ideas, it

also conducts training on ubuntu values, computer literacy, and the history and culture of

Burundi. The center sees itself as a "museum of Burundi cultural documentation by providing space for permanent exhibition of cultural objects such as clothing, musical

instruments, and handicrafts."237 Therefore, it describes itself as "a cornerstone for reconciliation and national reconstruction by using ubuntu to help Burundians in

Switzerland deal with the traumas of the violence that afflicted Burundi in the 1990s."238

One of its publications is the Tuj-i-buntu, a journal of national reconciliation and conflict resolution.

International humanitarian organizations generally tend to use ubuntu to promote their own work. As we have seen, they see ubuntu as a fitting description of ongoing missions and programs. For others, however, their programs and activities are part of

236 Ubuntu, "People are People through Other People," Federation for Community Development Learning, http://www.fcdl.org.uk (accessed November 26, 2007). 237 Laurent Kavakure, "The Ubuntu Center and the Peace Process, Reconstruction and National Reconciliation," Burundi Day Celebrations, Almere, Netherlands, October 25, 2003, http://www.abarundi.org/partis/ubuntu _ 251003 _ compte_ rendu.html (accessed December 2, 2007). 238 Laurent Kavakure, "The Ubuntu Center and the Peace Process, Reconstruction and National Reconciliation," Burundi Day Celebrations, Almere, Netherlands, October 25, 2003, http://www.abarundi.org/partis/ubuntu_251003 _ compte_rendu.html (accessed December 2, 2007). 176

their proactive and conscious efforts to propel the tenets and values of ubuntu in their local surroundings and promote it in the global sphere. A typical example is the Ubuntu

Education Fund.

Founded in 1998 in Zwide Township, outside Port Elizabeth, the Ubuntu

Education Fund provides HIV support services and educational resources to vulnerable children and their families. For this organization, ubuntuis not merely a marketing gimmick, as one of its officials stressed: "Ubuntu runs through our programs as a theme.

Life skills classes include ubuntu in order to challenge abuse and other forms of violence."239Among their accomplishments in 2006, they cited providing life skills education classes in 22 schools (over 20,000 children), reaching thousands of young. people and adults with messages challenging gender norms and child abuse, and distributing over a million condoms throughout the community.24°Called mpilo-lwazi

(life-knowledge), these life skills classes are distinguished by their emphasis on the development of knowledge, attitudes, and values needed to make and act on the most appropriate and positive health-related decisions. In 2008, the Ubuntu Fund plans to open the Ubuntu Center, a $4 million multi-purpose community facility that will provide world class healthcare and education services.241

According to Jacob Lief, one of its Co-Presidents, this is part of the organization's goal of investing in under-resourced schools so as to "bridge the digital divide so that

239 Zonke Gcobani, Deputy President, Ubuntu Education Fund, Port Elizabeth, interview with author, November 28, 2007. 240 "2006 Annual Report," Ubuntu Education Fund, http://www.ubuntufund.org/PDF/2006Annua1Report.pdf (accessed November 28, 2007). 241 "2006 Annual Report," Ubuntu Education Fund, http://www.ubuntufund.org/PDF/2006Annua1Report.pdf (accessed November 28, 2007). 177

South Africa does not become a technological apartheid."242 Their technology and computer program has established 13 computer centers that serve 400 teachers in computer literacy education, and provide intensive technology training for children.243

The Ubuntu Education Fund defies some of the categories outlined here. It has been labeled it a humanitarian organization, but it sees itself as "a community-based grassroots organization, working from the aspirations of the people."244 Indeed it also does advocacy work as evidenced by its successful efforts to assist communities pressure the government to build schools. For instance, in 2003 they helped the people of the Joe

Slovo informal settlement persuade the local government to build the first formal school for the shantytown's 4,600 residents.245 Also, even though they provide services to residents of Zwide Township, their identification as an international organization is warranted because they have offices in New York and the UK. They acknowledge their international dimensions when they say "a growing international profile of Ubuntu's innovative approach to the challenges facing our communities has broadened our global reach. The spirit of ubuntu is catching on."246

This "spirit of ubuntu" seems to be resonating with multilateral organizations as well. With the leadership of the United Nations University (UNU), eleven of the world's

242 Jacob Lief, quoted in "Members Urged to Back Humanitarian Efforts," Market Wire, December 16, 2005. 243 "Sivulile Computer Initiative," Ubuntu Education Fund, www.ubuntufund.org (accessed December 1, 2007). 244 Zonke Gcobani, Deputy President, Ubuntu Education Fund, Port Elizabeth, interview with author, November 28, 2007. 245 Anne Sherwood, "A School, a Town, a Dream," USA Today, September 3, 2003. 246 "2006 Annual Report," Ubuntu Education Fund, http://www.ubuntufund.org/PDF/2006Annua1Report.pdf (accessed November 28, 2007). 178

leading educational and scientific organizations formed the Ubuntu Alliance at the World

Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in 2002.247 Members

signed the Ubuntu Declaration, whose main objective is "to integrate a sustainable

development focus into the curriculum at every level of education, starting in primary

schoo1. "248

The original signatories included: UNU, UNESCO, the International Association

of Universities, the Third World Academy of Sciences, the African Academy of Science, the Science Council of Asia, the International Council for Science, the World Federation

of Engineering Organizations, Copernicus-Campus, the Global Higher Education for

Sustainability Partnership, and the University Leaders for a Sustainable Future.

Announcing the declaration, Walter Erdelen of UNESCO identified three main areas on which signatories would focus: the need for a greater global emphasis on education; the

essential role of education in the continued and effective application of science and

technology; and the importance ofpartnerships.249

In 2007, this network was actively promoting cooperation and exchange through regional centers of excellence (RCEs) and integrated solutions for the education sector.

According to Hans von Ginkel, one of the leaders of this network, "the goal of the RCEs

is to better support the integration of sustainable development knowledge into curriculum

247 United Nations University, "Ubuntu Declaration," http://www.ias.unu.edu/sub_page.aspx?catID=l08&ddlID=304 (accessed December 8, 2006). 248 "UNU initiates campaign to put sustainable development in the world's classrooms," UNU Update, the newsletter of United Nations University, issue 20 (October 2002), http://update.unu.edu/archive/issue20_1.htm (accessed December 2, 2006). 249 UN Department of Public Information, "Press Conference on Ubuntu Declaration on Education," World Summit on Sustainable Development, September 1, 2002, http://www.un.org/events/wssd/presscon£'02090 I confl .htm (accessed December 3, 2006). 179

at all levels and better support knowledge transfer among educational bodies (formal and informal) around the theme of sustainable development."250

Another unique collaboration in the field of education is the Ubuntunet Alliance.

A network of Research and Education Networks (RENs)251 that represents groups of tertiary education institutions in six African countries, Ubuntunet was formed in 2006.252

It is an advocacy organization that acts as ''vehicle for changing the information landscape ... through lobbying and raising awareness at multiple levels: policy, government, and donor."253 Its key goal is to reduce the prohibitive cost of Internet connectivity for African universities.

In order to ensure that African research and education institutions have efficient

and affordable bandwidth, Ubuntunet decided to join the consortium of the Eastern

Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) fiber project. EASSy is an undersea fiber optic cable initiative that will link the countries of East Africa via a high bandwidth fiber optic cable system to the rest of the world, if completed. Approximately 6,000 miles long, the

EASSy cable would run from the continent's southern tip to the African horn, connecting

South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, and

250 Hans van Ginkel, "The Ubuntu Alliance: Mobilizing Knowledge for Sustainable Development," http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/pdfs/TEC-ENG-PDF/ENG-Ginkel%20van.pdf (accessed December 1, 2007). 251 RENs are national advocacy organizations that represent the interests of tertiary education institutions. For example, in Malawi, the Malawi Research and Education Network (MAREN) represents the University of Malawi and Mzuzu University. In 2007, two other institutions of higher learning, the National College oflnformation Technology (NACIT), a tertiary institution; and the Department of Agricultural Research, a research institution, were in the process of joining MAREN. See MAREN's website: http://www.malico.mw/maren/ (accessed December 3, 2007). 252 Members include: the Kenya Education Network (KENET), MAREN, the Mozambique Research and Education Network (MoRENet), the Rwanda Education Network (RwEdNet), the Sudanese Universities Information Network (SUIN), and the Tertiary Education Network (TENET, South Africa). 253 "About Ubuntunet Alliance," Ubuntunet Alliance, http://www.ubuntunet.net (accessed December 3, 2007). 180

Sudan. Another 13 adjoining countries will also be linked to the system.254 In 2006, disagreements among stakeholders threatened to scupper the initiative. 255 Completion of this project is expected to significantly reduce Internet costs by providing an alternative to the expensive satellite system currently in use.256 The Ubuntunet Alliance organizes workshops and conferences to keep members informed about such developments.

Ubuntu: Rhetoric or Reality?

Questions often arise about the sincerity of international organizations' deployment of the ubuntu worldview. 257 Indeed, many of the ubuntu organizations discussed above are not strictly indigenous groups, and they do not particularly conduct advocacy work on behalf of indigenous peoples. What makes these organizations unique is their choice of employing an indigenous term to frame their identity and activities.258

254 "About EASSY," Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System, www.eassy.org (accessed December 3, 2007). 255 Lloyd Gedye, "Not So EASSy," Mail and Guardian, March 19, 2006, http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=267024&area=/insight/insight_economy_ business (accessed December 3, 2007). 256 According to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), consumers along the East Coast of Africa pay some of the world's highest prices, typically between $200 and $300 a month for Internet access. As a result of the EASSy cable, prices for international connectivity will drop by two-thirds at the outset, and the number of subscribers will triple. (Press Release, "IFC and Other Development Finance Institutions Sign Loan Agreements to Support Landmark EASSy Cable Project and Provide Broadband Access for Millions of Africans," November 27, 2007, http://www.eassy.org/pressrelease.html (accessed December 3, 2007). 257 One of the people interviewed in Clermont said, "I resent hearing about ubuntu from whites: 'ubuntu this, ubuntu that' without understanding the full meaning of our culture. (Pisani Mzimela, interview with author, December 21, 2005.) Teffo (1999, 164) also charges that ubuntu has simply become "a theory of business co-operation" and as such it risks becoming a pie in the sky. 258 For instance, the adoption of ubuntu by the Ubuntu Forum was largely due to the persuasion of Fatma Alloo, a women's rights activist and journalist from Zanzibar, Tanzania. At the network's constituent meeting, she explained that ubuntu encompasses the concepts of caring, sharing, and being in harmony with all creation and promotes the ideal of cooperation among individuals, cultures, and nations. Martha Honey, "Networking Civil Society in Barcelona," Foreign Policy in Focus, March 11, 2002, http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2002/0203ubuntu_body.html (accessed November 11, 2006). 181

It can be contended that these international organizations follow a well-trodden path of simply using a popular idiom without appreciating the full scope of its meaning.

The coordinator of the Ubuntu Forum acknowledged the challenges of using ubuntu when he said,

While we use the word ubuntu for identification, it does not mean that we have complete insight into the full complexity and wealth that the word really entails. We focus a lot on the necessity to put the human being in the center. Our real and unique goal is to change the activities and policies of international bodies to improve the well-being of all humanity on earth. [We oppose] the nature of the global economy as it is right now.259

The pivotal point is that even when organizations use ubuntu for rhetorical effect, it would be myopic to reject that as meaningless. In the social movements literature, scholars such as McAdam (1996), Riles (2000), and Chong (2006) have lucidly showed that there are strategic implications to framing and naming issues in particular ways.

Language serves important tactical functions for organizations, whether it is to attract public attention, inspire action, or influence an organization's internal decision-making process.

Chapter three stated that indigenous idioms are powerful contentious terms that provide sharp tools in the quest to legitimate actors and lend credibility to their ideas.

Making use of such terms signifies a degree of acceptance of their fundamental commitments and a foreclosure of incompatible positions. Therefore, Chong (2006, 166) makes a persuasive point when he says, rather than asking, "Is it empty rhetoric?" a more useful question is, "What actors and actions does this rhetoric legitimate?" One would posit, then, that some international organizations use the language of ubuntu to legitimate

259 Iosep Xercavins, Coordinator of the Ubuntu Forum's Secretariat, email to author, April 1, 2006. 182

not only their own existence, but also importantly, to critique the shortcomings of the current global order by acknowledging the contributions of indigenous peoples in offering alternative understandings of human relations.

This is not to deny the shades of difference among international organizations that use ubuntu in their work. Riles (2000), for example, shows that quite often, the knowledge practices of many international humanitarian organizations depend on the same legal, and bureaucratic forms of documentation as the organizations they oppose.

The same critique can be offered of some humanitarian organizations that employ ubuntu primarily as a tool of moral persuasion, but hold decidedly Western understandings of the person and human relations.

In addition, there are organizational and operational differences. For example, one of the key areas in which ubuntu-oriented international organizations differ from their

South African counterparts relates to the use of technology. Unlike the groups whose members were interviewed in Clermont, global organizations tend to rely more on

Internet connectedness by using, among others, Web sites, blogs,260 online magazines and newsletters,261 and discussion lists. For example, in addition to its own Web site

(www.ubuntu.upc.edu), the Ubuntu Forum has two other active Web sites for its

260 Examples ofblogs include: I) the Ubuntu Platform, a blog by Ayoub Mzee, a journalist and host of Swahili Diaries on Ben Television in London. He started the blog "to create a platform and explore the complexity of interactions" and he for him ubuntu "means that individuals need other people to be fulfilled. And that is what this blog is all about." See, Ayoub Mzee, "Introduction: Ubuntu Platform," The Ubuntu Platform, entry posted September 20, 2007, http://ayoubmzee.blogspot.com/2007/l l/forward planning-notice-28th-october.htrnl (accessed December 6, 2007); 2) Ubuntu Psychology, a blog presenting articles on ubuntu and self-reliance. Ubuntu Pshychology, entry posted December 1, 2005, http://ubuntupsychology.blogspot.com/2005 _ 05 _ 0 l _ ubuntupsychology_archive.html (accessed December 6, 2007). 261 The Ubuntu Forum publishes the bi-monthly Ubuntu Newsletter in four languages. Ubuntu Newsletter, http://www.ubuntu.upc.edu!forumlopen_ news.php?lg=eng&news=Nl2 (accessed November 12, 2007). 183

campaigns: the World Campaign for In-Depth Reform of the System of International

Institutions (www.reformcampaign.net), and Civil Society TV (www.cs-tv.tv). The latter is perhaps one of the most unique technological attempts by civil society organizations to reach broad audiences. The Civil Society TV Web site is an audiovisual platform initiated by the Ubuntu Forum in conjunction with Inter Press Service, the UN Millennium

Campaign, the i2CAT Foundation, and Humania.262 It was set up to provide access to a broad audience the international mobilizations against poverty and it also covered the

World Social Forum 2007 in Nairobi.

Furthermore, possibly as a result of their access to resources, international organizations hold conferences more regularly, and thus seem to be much more

coordinated than ubuntu organizations in South Africa. The Ubuntu Forum, for example, organized or participated in over 20 international conferences in 2006 alone.263 The

organization's energetic engagement with issues of global governance underscores the important role that transnational civil society has continued to play in seeking solutions to

global problems. Given the social consequences implied in the processes of market-led

globalization, Hettne (2004, 6) states that "we should expect various political forces to

shape the future course of globalization [and] 'politicize' it (in the sense of democratic,

civil society control) ... in order to guarantee territorial control, cultural diversity, and

262 "2006 Annual Report," Ubuntu Forum, http://www.ubuntu.upc.edu/pdf/memo06_eng.pdf (accessed November 11, 2007). 263 The Ubuntu Forum's calendar of activities for 2006 included the following key meetings and conferences: the WSF in Bamako, Mali, meetings in three cities (Nairobi, Rome, and Parma) in preparation for the 2007 conference of the World Social Forum, the regular session of the NGO Section of ECOSOC,GCAP meeting in Beirut, a conference on incorporating human rights into international economic policies in Lusaka, Zambia, the annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF in Singapore, and the International Conference for the Reform of the System of International Institutions in Geneva, Switzerland. For more details see the organization's annual report: http://www.ubuntu.upc.edu/pdf/memo06_ eng.pdf (accessed Noveinber 11, 2007). 184

human security."264 Many ubuntu-oriented organizations are part of this global force that

seeks to reconfigure the course of globalization.

Conclusion

Ubuntu is generally heralded for the remarkable role it played in escorting South

Africa from apartheid to a relatively peaceful transition to a democratic society. It has

also been plugged into the narrative of globalization. The prominence of this worldview,

especially in relation to the provision of basic needs and social justice, is instructive in pointing to the intimacy between indigenous concepts and development- or, in Ake's

phrasing the need to "build on the indigenous" which he defined as "the necessary

condition for the self-reliant development to which there is now no alternative" (1993,

19). Indeed, indigenous worldviews have increasingly become prominent in debates

about international development in the last decade. The growing salience of ubuntu in

discussions of human development should be seen within that larger frame.

However, it bears emphasizing that while indigenous worldviews are often seen

as providing different perspectives to market-based thinking in international policy

making, this positioning takes place within a limiting global environment. Therefore,

when many organizations make claims in the name of indigenous worldviews, they are

not necessarily rejecting the international economic order in its entirety, but they

negotiate their place within it. Quite often, they call, not for the rejection of globalization,

but for forms of development that are sensitive to different values, places, and practices.

264 Hettne suggests that the emergence of these political forces to halt and modify the process of globalization represents the second part of a great transformation in Polanyi 's sense of the word. I interpret Polanyi differently on the point of expectation. Polanyi's careful examination of the English situation and his concern with the diverse outcomes in other countries emphasize Polanyi's skepticism for any inevitability about any society's reaction to the emergence of market-led reforms. 185

Ergo, we should critically examine the meanings, possibilities, and limitations of this indigenous turn in international relations in order to assess how indigenous worldviews hasten or arrest the course of neoliberal regimes of thought and practice in the present order.

The cases presented above lead to agreement with Nabudere's conclusion that the struggle for human development, and particularly Africa's development, is "about an epistemological revolution and struggle for knowledge production that satisfies the demands for cultural identity and human unity'' (emphasis in original).265 Nabudere goes on to argue that ubuntu is now being advanced as an integrative philosophy in this project for the search for an epistemological paradigm that recognizes difference and unity of humanity at the same time.266 Thus, the embrace of ubuntu by many international organizations and activists requires students of ubuntu to be responsive to the transnational expressions of this worldview. This chapter has attempted to do that. Much work still needs to be done to explore the numerous ways in which international civil society organizations and sometimes intergovernmental organizations have found indigenous epistemic positions useful in articulating alternative views about certain elements of the global world order. Indeed, like other indigenous worldviews, ubuntu has ignited sparks of imagination among global actors and organizations. It is too early to determine whether these sparks will change the way global decision makers perceive the

265 Dani W. Nabudere, "Imperialism, Knowledge Production and its Use in Africa," Global Security and Cooperation Quarterly 14 (Winter/Spring 2005): 12, www.ssrc.org/programmes/gsc/publications/quarterly 14/nabudere (accessed November 22, 2006). 266 Dani W. Nabudere, "Imperialism, Knowledge Production and its Use in Africa," Global Security and Cooperation Quarterly 14 (Winter/Spring 2005): 12, www.ssrc.org/programmes/gsc/publications/quarterly 14/nabudere (accessed November 22, 2006). 186

world. Only time will tell whether the energy generated by these international ubuntu oriented organizations will be more enduring. CHAPTER6

UBUNTU AND THE SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVES

In Fools and Other Stories, Njabulo Ndebele says, "Our literature ought to seek to move away from an easy preoccupation with demonstrating the obvious existence of oppression. It exists. The task is to explore how and why people survive under such harsh conditions.'..iNdebele's.petition lent a fillip to the research and imposed a different lens of viewing the findings. It is with this in mind that the dissertation concludes.

This study sought to examine why and how ubuntu emerged as one of the most important keywords in post-apartheid South Africa and explore its global significance. It deliberately bypassed the philosophical definitions of ubuntu and the attendant debates arising from diverse interpretations. Instead, the primary focus was the various ways in which ubuntu is understood and deployed by different actors. While its effects are more pronounced in South Africa, this phenomenon did not arise in a vacuum; ubuntu's global resonance led the research to plough for answers in the context of globalization.

Nietzsche (1989, 131) warns against "audacious generalization" and declaring a

"solemn air of finality" on processes that are still unfolding. This caveat notwithstanding, enough material was gathered to draw a few conclusions. Although the range of interpretations revealed some of the complications of post-apartheid discourse,

4 Njabulo Ndebele, Fools and Other Stories, (Johannesburg: Readers International, 1986), backpage. 187 188

Conversations with residents of Clermont and ubuntu-oriented organizations uncovered particular recurrent motifs. This final chapter highlights these themes. The next section contextualizes the emergence of ubuntu in South Africa. This is followed by a discussion of its relation to 'invented' traditions and an examination of the place of this worldview in South Africa's political discourse. The penultimate section focuses on the dissertation's theoretical implications, especially vis-a-vis African Studies. The concluding segment identifies the limitations of the study and suggests promising areas for future research.

Ubuntu and the Resurgence of Indigenous Knowledge

In answering the key questions, the findings reveal that despite decades of subjugation under colonial rule, indigenous knowledges and practices thrived and continue to be relevant in the new postcolony. The research carried out in the township of

Clermont, supplemented by interviews of ubuntu-oriented international actors, underscored another key point: the resurgence of ubuntu in South Africa is not an isolated local phenomenon and has significance for understanding similar global phenomena.

Chapter two explored the growing prominence of indigenous knowledge in other parts of the world: for example, the resurgence of the indigenous philosophical approach called

Kaupapa Maori in New Zealand, the reconstruction in Bolivia and Ecuador of ayllu

(referred to as wachu in the Pisac region of Peru), the reemergence of ukama among the

Shona in Zimbabwe, and the complicated revival of Confucianism in parts of East Asia.

At a general level, then, the research confirms what other observers (Fernando 2003,

Wilson 2004, and Stewart-Harawira 2005) have noted, namely, that one of the signature 189

features of the dawn of the 21st century has been ''the conscious and systematic efforts to recover indigenous knowledges" (Wilson 2004, 359).

Individuals and representatives of CBOs in Clermont validated this observation by forcefully articulating their concerns about the historical denigration and manipulation of indigenous African values. Dei argues that this phenomenon is taking place throughout the African continent. Local people are asking why "Euro-American values and norms are privileged in the development process without an acknowledgement of the value of indigenous African knowledge" (Dei 2000, 265). The people interviewed for this project generally subscribed to the view that if South Africa (and much of the developing world) is to chart an alternative path to development, the first step is to create new knowledge and norms about the current economic condition.

Therefore, the running leitmotif in this dissertation is that one of the most neglected aspects of the study of culture in globalization studies and IR in general is the wealth of indigenous epistemologies and their potential to help craft what Dirlik calls

"alternative modernities" (2006, 117). This resurgence of things indigenous marks the production of new forms of consciousness and the expression of discontent with

(post)modernity. To deal with the deformities of the current era, indigenous perspectives represent, in Comaroffian terms, a way of"retooling culturally familiar technologies as new means for new ends" (Comaroff and Comaroff 1992, xv-xvi). Yet, and this is crucial, this search for alternatives in indigenous worldviews is not a knee-jerk invention of "tradition" as some critics argue. 190

Against Inventionism

Francis Nyamnjoh (2004) and Mbembe (2006), among numerous critics, contend that ubuntu is a postcolonial utopia, an "invented"268 illusion crafted by African political elites in this age of globalization. In 1990, James A. Clifton introduced the term

"invented Indian"269 to criticize what he called the "cultural fictions" of Native

Americans. He defined cultural fictions as "fabrications of pseudo-events and relationships, counterfeits of the past and present that suit someone's or some group's purpose in their dealings with others" (1990, 3). According to this argument, such fabrications cement a special place for the Indian in modem North American moral orders and political systems. The ultimate aim of these fictions is to create "absolute political autarchy while perpetuating utter fiscal dependence" (1990, 5). Contrary to this view, the research showed that ubuntu is neither invented nor exclusively the tool of political elites.270 The framework allowed the researcher to cast the net into the historical record to examine articulations of this worldview during the struggle against apartheid.

The catch was a mixture of contestations.

268 This perspective follows Eric Hobsbawm's influential argument that many symbolic and ceremonial traditions that are often considered 'traditional' are, on the contrary, recent 'inventions' of modernity, deliberately constructed to serve particular ideological objectives. See, Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992). 269 This notion of "the invented Indian" has been excoriated by a number of critics. In her review of Clifton's book, Strong said it was "fundamentally an attack upon the authenticity and aspirations of contemporary Indian people" (1994, 1052). See, Pauline Turner Strong, "Review of The Invented Indian: Cultural Fict.ions and Government Policies by James A. Clifton." American Ethnologist 21, no. 4 (November 1994), 1052. Similarly, Green (1991) said Clifton's goal was "to achieve what can only be called a political purpose" (1065) and called the language "harsh and inflammatory" (1066). Michael D. Green, "Review of The Invented Indian: Cultural Fictions and Government Policies by James A. Clifton." The Journal ofAmerican History 78, no. 3 (December 1991 ), 1066. 27°For more on this notion of the invention of indigenous knowledge, see Lynn M. Swartley, "Inventing Indigenous Knowledge: Archaeology, Rural Development, and the Raised Field Rehabilitation Project in Bolivia," PhD diss., University of Pittsburgh, 2000. 191

It was surprising to discover how prominently ubuntu featured in Steve Biko's political philosophy. His writing on the Black Consciousness Movement is replete with references to ubuntu. He spoke, inter alia, of ''true humanity", "true man-centered (sic) society", and the "sacred tradition of sharing" (1978, 14 ). However, chapter four highlighted the diverse and often conflicting interpretations of this philosophy in the

1970s. Even as Biko was extolling the virtues of ubuntu, the Inkatha movement was simultaneously vigorous in its deployment of ubuntu for overt political ends. The fourth chapter also recounted the organization's systematic attempt to integrate ubuntu into strategies to reinvigorate its political campaigns in the urban areas. To that end, this cultural movement introduced a new school curriculum in 1979 called Ubuntu-Botho, a syllabus on African culture and indigenous value systems which it used as a vehicle for recruitment and mobilization. The strategy floundered because many teachers and students rejected Inkatha's narrow reading of ubuntu and viewed it as a justification for

Inkatha's own political vision (Mdluli 1987, 6).

These differences in the historical uses of ubuntu led to one of the dissertation's key conclusions: ubuntu and similar indigenous idioms are not merely "invented illusions" conjured up by political elites for their own purposes. Indeed, the Inkatha movement did not create the symbols and values used in the textbooks de novo, but drew from practices and values that were historically cherished and respected by many people in the province at the time. Similarly, Biko's trenchant critique of apartheid was based on his understanding of long-standing indigenous values. Although these historical uses of ubuntu sought to accomplish divergent political tasks, both Inkatha and Biko couched their expressions of ubuntu in the language of resistance to apartheid. 192

In the post-apartheid period, however, ubuntu serves multiple goals, inter alia: reconciliation, nation-building, community survival, resisting Westernization, and blunting the economic hardships associated with the country's socio-economic transition.

This dynamism of indigenous values harks back to Fanon's (1965, 63) analysis of the role of the veil in the struggle against French colonial rule:

There is thus a historic dynamism of the veil that is very concretely perceptible in the development of colonization in Algeria. In the beginning, the veil was a mechanism of resistance, but its value for the social group remained strong. The veil was worn because tradition demanded a rigid separation of the sexes, but also because the occupier was bent on unveiling Algeria. In a second phase, the mutation occurred in connection with the Revolution and under special circumstances. What had been used to block the psychological or political offensives of the occupier became a means, an instrument. The veil helped the Algerian woman to meet the new problems created by the struggle (emphasis in the original).

The results of the research, therefore, caution against the easy temptation of freezing ubuntu in history and equating contemporary expressions of indigeneity with nationalist indigenous idioms of yonder, or what Miller (2007, 13) calls "African socialist rhetorics of the 1970s" (such as harambee in Kenya and ujamaa in Tanzania).

Schweigman (2001, 113) does exactly that when he says, "As someone who was in

Tanzania during the time of ujamaa and today reads about ideas of African Renaissance and Ubuntu, I cannot refrain from giving ujamaa experiences a new thought." He concludes that ujamaa was not an African reality, but "a way of thinking imposed by the

President and government of Tanzania, in order to reach political and economic objectives" (2001, 121). The crucial point is that ubuntu scholars and students of indigenous knowledge should be vigilant against this preponderant state-centric view as it diminishes the complexity of indigenous values. 193

A New Idiom for a New Era

A society-centered approach shows that the elevated importance of this worldview in the new postcolony can be attributed to decidedly local factors. The intangible benefits of the end of constitutional apartheid in 1994 played a critical role.

The fall of the apartheid edifice unchained many South Africans from the ideological and mental constraints of apartheid which had cast all things indigenous in negative terms.

Moreover, the complexities of South Africa's political and economic transformation demanded new mobilization tools.

Therefore, this dissertation advances the argument that the limited success of the post-apartheid government policies to alleviate poverty and economic inequality heightened the need for articulating alternative frameworks for South Africa's development. The weapons and slogans of the anti-apartheid struggle now rendered blunt, ubuntu became a substitute idiom for mobilization. As one interviewee put it: "We know how to survive; we need a vision to go beyond mere survival. Fighting for a free

South Africa was a good organizing strategy. Today there is no point of contact to get everyone active and visionary. Ubuntu offers us at least the possibility of expressing another rallying cry."271

An emblematic example of this change is the translation of ubuntu values into practical environmental projects. Hoffman (2004) quotes Moki Cekisani,272 an environmentalist and anti-apartheid activist and founder of the Ubuntu Environmental

271 Bandile Gumbi, interview with author, Pinetown, December 29, 2005. 272 Cekisani was a member of the Pan African Congress (PAC) and Black People's Convention (BPC). He was detained and tortured by the police in 1977. The Port Elizabeth Herald gave him an award for his work on environmental conservation in 2007. 194

Project in Port Elizabeth. To "inculcate a sense of caring in the hearts of township people," he introduced clean-up campaigns and greening projects based on the slogan,

"One Shack, One Tree!" (Hoffman 2004, 205). This is a rehabilitation of the PAC's combative anti-apartheid slogan, "Orie Settler, One Bullet!"

By all indications, therefore, the data presented here suggest that there is indeed an expansion of space for rejecting the dominant values of the neoliberal economic agenda, even if short of overt resistance. Contrary to expectations, however, the research findings show that the core approach of many individuals and organizations in Clermont is not negation, but a positive, albeit problematic, engagement with the state and the market. Even as they excoriated market fundamentalism and the failure of the state to provide basic needs, there were no signs of any imminent delinking273 or avoiding the state and market altogether.

Rather than viewing ubuntu as offering merely a "safety valve" (Greene 2002) or

"shock absorbers" (Manci 2005) for the impoverished in South Africa's townships, it provides that and more. It creates a space for the articulation of an assertive critique of the socio-economic trajectory of post-apartheid South Africa. As stated in chapter three, ubuntu allows people to speak "ngamanye amazwi" (in other words) in their imagination of other worlds, as the people interviewed in Clermont often prefaced their responses to questions. It was as if they were saying "another word is possible!" thereby rephrasing

273 Samir Amin ( 1990) is the key proponent of the idea of de linking. For him, de linking is not synonymous with autarky; it refers to the subordination of external relations to the logic of internal development. Walden Bello (2004) has used this concept in conjunction with what he calls 'deglobalization' which requires reorienting the economies of the global South from production for export to production for the local market. 195

the mantra uttered by opponents of neoliberal globalization. However, this is not to

suggest that the meanings of the ubuntu worldview are uniform.

It bears emphasizing that the diversity of interpretation of ubuntu recounted in this dissertation defies the desire to freeze indigenous perspectives into hard and pristine

categories. Ubuntu is neither wholly oppositional nor totally subservient to the powerful.

Instead of the reassuring comfort of easy binary classifications, the task is to confront the multilayered and often contested interpretations of ubuntu and their consequences.

Nonetheless, this does not have to result in postmodernist indeterminacies and suspension of ethical judgment.

This supports Stam's (1995, 559) rejection of what he calls "a Derridean never never land of deferred signifiers and ethical paralysis." In a nation undergoing multiple transformations, it would be absurd to argue that business entities that use ubuntu solely

for marketing purposes and economic profit are as worthy of recognition as the Umtapo

Center for which ubuntu is the fulcrum of their education and empowerment programs

for impoverished communities.

Theoretical Implications

At the beginning of the research, I wanted to trace, in the words of an earlier draft research proposal, "the emergence of ubuntu as a counter-action to socially atomizing market-led globalization in South Africa." I still hold that analyzing indigenous knowledge in terms of resistance to globalization can be important and powerful. But if

one makes that the final stop, the diverse expressions of ubuntu and indigenous knowledge seem rather uniform. The examination of the articulation of ubuntu in 196

Clermont and elsewhere uncovered a dynamic worldview, appearing as simultaneously more and less than a critique of globalization.

To make sense of the resurgence of ubuntu in the post-apartheid era, the theoretical approach amalgamated precepts from indigenous knowledge studies with

Polanyi's double-movement thesis. Concepts from indigenous scholarship offered promising tools. In disturbing (post)modernity's canon, indigenous perspectives interrogate the universal claims of Western thought while simultaneously highlighting the problematic nexus between modem social science and the silencing of other modes of knowing. A strong commitment to the local brings to the fore previously suppressed forms of knowledge. Polanyi's double-movement theorem provided useful tools for placing the revitalization of ubuntu as integral to a wider process of rapid and uneven transformation in South Africa and the changing global political economy of which the regeneration of indigenous knowledge systems is part.

Polanyi criticizes the myth of the self-regulating market, which he ascribes to a conceptual error, what he calls 'the economistic fallacy' (1977, 49). This myth mistook the human economy in general for its market form and eulogized the market as a universal panacea. As a result, society was seen and run as "an adjunct of the market" with devastating consequences (1957, 47). The corrosive impact of this "stark utopia" set the stage for the mobilization of society against the adverse effects of markets. Polanyi then demonstrates how the disembedding of the economy from social life engendered resistance: thus the concept of the double-movement. Polanyi aptly labeled this attempted submersion of the economy in social relationships "embeddedness." The enduring socio cultural relevance of Polanyi's theorem of the double-movement is its implication that an 197

irrepressible 'reciprocity' is sustained despite the market system's extension of commodity logic (Burawoy 2003, 80).

As argued in chapter three, the resurgence of ubuntu in South Africa represents, to a degree, efforts to re-embed the economy in society. Although the country has not been overwhelmed by a vigorous nation-wide resistance to neoliberal economic globalization, the research revealed ample evidence of the mediating role of practices based on ubuntu principles. Under conditions of rapid transformation, many organizations are using ubuntu practices as buffers against the social dislocations accompanying South Africa's transformation. This is what Polanyi calls the spontaneous self-defense of society.

At a theoretical level, therefore, by marrying Polanyi's double-movement thesis with insights from indigenous knowledge studies, one can: 1) formulate a better understanding of the subjective, conditional, and divergent expressions of ubuntu, 2) bring about the recognition of the multivocal and dialectic dialogues around ubuntu, 3) develop a framework that can be extended to examining the meanings and social expressions of other indigenous worldviews. The theoretical coordinates delineated here require us to go beyond the usual mechanical oppositions. Hence, Polanyi's double movement should not be seen as a binary relationship between the forces of globalization and the reactionary forces of resistance. Viewing indigenous peoples only as the

"insurgent other" obscures the complexity of their struggles. As indicated, indigenous perspectives do not easily conform to neat theoretical formulations. This is not to deny the dignity and the struggles 'from below' - it is to underscore that we give indigenous perspectives respect not by romanticizing them, but by seriously interrogating the assumptions and tensions therein. Indeed, we should stand firm against the resilient 198

caricatures of indigenous values and cultures as resistant and ossified artifacts of an ancient era.

The profit of this sociological approach, then, is that it draws attention nearer to the voices of people on the ground - community organizations and activists at the forefront of promoting ubuntu values. A further advantage is its sensitivity to the global significance of the ubuntu worldview. As demonstrated in chapter five, while patently the result of local conditions, ubuntu bears an undeniable family resemblance to indigenous phenomena in distant places. The theoretical framework developed here makes it possible to examine both local and global articulations of indigenous phenomena.

Because the ubuntu-oriented organizations discussed in this dissertation challenge the current neoliberal economic agenda and its dominant faith in the market, they also transcend Polanyi's classical double movement. In other words, a protective membrane is developing, but not one that would simply be a buffer against negative consequences of the market. Instead, it is "one that questions the epistemology of the market in the name of alternatives deriving from within and beyond the market system" (McMichael 2005,

588). In addition, the findings suggest that Polanyi's formulation leans too far on the

Panglossian view of society and has a deficient appreciation of the disagreements and fractures within civil society. Burawoy (2003, 247-248) concurs with this view when he argues that Polanyi advances a solidaristic notion of society which he counterposes with the destructiveness of the market. As we have seen, the double movement is messy.

Therefore, the sociological approach advanced here recognizes that the revitalization of indigenous knowledge and the creation of histories and identities from below are often unruly and contested processes. It is through this sociological reading that the practical 199

and theoretical components of the contemporary phenomenon of ubuntu can be fully appreciated and understood.

Implications for African Studies

Besides a handful of syllabi and graduate courses on indigenous knowledge, there is a paucity of coherent systematic thought about the consequences and implications of ubuntu and other African value systems in African Studies. Africanist scholars need to take indigenous values and systems of thought more seriously, not merely as philosophical arguments, but as a potential anchor for economic and social development.

In part, this requires reclaiming and asserting indigenous knowledge as a valid category in African Studies. To date, indigenous knowledge and culture, its sibling, only make cameo positive appearances in African development discourses at best, or at worst, they are portrayed as badges of dishonor.274 As this dissertation has attempted to do, it is important to reverse the inherited lens of this gaze and focus on the distinctive aspects of indigenous knowledge and demonstrate how individuals, community organizations, and governments affirm the significance of indigenous knowledge in development.

Admittedly, pressing matters of political and economic development force many

Africanist scholars to keep their shoulder to the wheel, focusing their energies on resolving immediate local issues. The side effect is the failure to attend to long-term structural processes that generate those problems. It is not surprising, therefore, that the

274 This is largely a remnant of the modernist school of thought in development studies. Daniel Etormga-Manguelle (2000, 66), for example, asks whether Africa does not in reality need a "cultural adjustment program". For him, the failure of Sub-Saharan Africa's development is due to African culture, defined by its core deficiencies that include dominance of the community over the individual, the weight of irrationalism, a peculiar relation to the concept of time, fatalism, hierarchical organization, and indivisible power and authority. 200

promise of indigenous knowledge is often assessed in confined provincial or national terms. That is the boon and bane of the study of indigenous knowledge, namely, that it has a dismantling effect on the stubborn claim of the universalism of Western knowledge; yet indigenous matters tend to be isolated and filtered through lenses that are often strictly local.

African studies scholars would do well to take into account the role of these systems of thought in relation to transformations taking place at the global level. For example, in discussions of globalization, indigenous concepts are well-equipped to raise questions about the ethics of globalization: whose values are being promoted? Is the current global system sustainable? From the margins of the global system, and from an indigenist standpoint, Africanist scholars are, therefore, uniquely positioned "to retell and remake the story of globalization" (Zeleza 2007, 5).

Partly, this requires recognizing that it is in the sphere of ideas and values that the boundaries of the possible can be stretched. Or, as Bourdieu (2003, 66) put it, "the dominant order is not just economic, but intellectual-lying in the realm of beliefs.

That's why one must speak out: to restore a sense of utopian possibility, which it is one of neoliberalism's key victories to have killed off, or made to look antiquated." To counter this antiquation, Africanists have to acquire indigenous competence. This demands a readjustment of our theoretical rudders in at least two ways:

This first step is to vigorously engage indigenous organic intellectuals (Gramsci

1973) to realize or secure a new kind of subjectivity. 275 Giving respect to the wisdom

275 Khaba Mkhize's idea ofisithangamu (colloquim) was quite heartening. During an interview in January 2006, this ubuntu intellectual said he had organized a few izithangamu with a broad group of academics, journalists, activists and 'peasant intellectuals'. 201

of so-called ordinary people would be a good start. A number of Africanist scholars

have emphasized the role of"peasant intellectuals" (Odhiambo 2002) or

''uncertificated men and women" (Vilakazi 1999) as urgently needed "value carriers

who can discover for us common denominator values" (Ogot 1999, 320).

• The unruly nature of some of these indigenous practices and values suggests that

African studies scholars need to develop undisciplined scholarship and ways of

understanding that borrow conceptual tools from all disciplines. Away with the

disciplinary Bantustans! This call has implications for postcolonial theory as well.

Postcolonial scholarship has, to a degree, unhinged theoretical and conceptual cages and opened spaces for previously silenced voices, especially women and scholars from the global South. Indeed, postcolonial analysis has been especially influential on scholars from South Africa such as Anne McClintock, David Theo Goldberg, and Zine Magubane

(Magubane 2006, 70).276 Yet, when it comes to contemporary African issues, particularly indigenous phenomena, the postcolonial eye of the needle is just too small for the thread.

It is largely a problem of starting points.

First, for many postcolonial Africanist writers, the subject of comparison is Africa and the West.277 As Appiah (1992, 76) argues, we should not overstate the distance from

276 However, as Nkosi (1998) points out, postmodernist writing in South Africa has generally been the province of white, not black writers. He asks: "What possible readings of indigenous African-language literature can pass unmolested through the grid of current postmodernisms?" (Nkosi 1998, 84).

277 The heart of the critique ofpostcolonialist writing can be summarized thus: too often neither subject matter nor author resides in Africa. For example, in her critique ofMudimbe's book The Invention ofAfrica, Oyewumi (1997, 27) says the content "does not derive epistemologically from Africa and is heavily dependent on European thought ... It is clearly a Western heritage and explains why Ogun does not stand a chance against Zeius and why Africa remains merely an idea in the minds of many African scholars." 202

Lagos to London. Contrary to this view, Korang (2006, 448) persuasively argues that in their quest to "bring a presence africaine intelligibly into view in a world frame," postcolonial Africanists have overlooked the most pressing issue in African politics: the relationship of Africa to itself Focusing on indigenous value systems and their role in charting alternative paths to prevailing models of economic development, would be a good first step for postcolonial Africanist scholars to develop concepts and frameworks that are calibrated primarily to African concerns. In that way, postcolonial theorists would play a key part in developing "a platform for a broader African cosmopolitan project" which would not be an explanation of Africa to the world, but a project of self discovery (Sitas 2006, 374).

Second, partly because of its rejection of grand narratives, postcolonial theory offers little to knit together a workable agenda for moving the continent forward. Its preoccupation with deconstruction, combined with the accompanying ethical indeterminacy, offers few, if any, building blocks for Africa's engagement with the world that would be to the continent's benefit. From this perspective, postcolonial theory does little, theoretically or practically, to help Africans claim their place in reorienting the processes of globalization to their advantage. The beginning of indigenous wisdom is to vigorously assert its validity and vehemently reject universalist knowledge claims, postcolonialism included.

Phambili! (Going Forward)

An important question to consider is whether ubuntu is equipped to deal with the complexities of modem problems. A simple answer is that no singular body of knowledge is adequately armed to cope with all contemporary dilemmas, including 203

global wanning and other forms of environmental degradation, socio-economic inequality, pollution, pandemics, transnational crime, and terrorism. The promise of ubuntu and similar indigenous systems of thought lies in offering inclusive epistemological frames for reshaping society. Ubuntu is not (and should not be) a replacement of what other modes of thought (including Western science) have to offer.

Its benefit is helping to find "connections between the mental schema through which people conceive action and the material world which constrains both what people can do and how they think about what they can do" (Cox 1995, 33). This suggests a new vision that incorporates the perspectives and lived experiences of so-called ordinary Africans as well as the best aspects of Western science and technology.

Although much progress has been made in researching indigenous knowledge, there are still high obstacles. Activists and members of organizations with whom I interacted compete with the government and the corporate sector for definition of indigeneity and ownership of indigenous knowledge. Indeed, this is a global problem.

There is prevalent exploitation of indigenous peoples' ancient knowledge of plants, animals, and the environment by corporations and multilateral agencies. For example,

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) anthropologist Anne Deruyttere278 praises the

IDB's strategic framework that advocates "taking advantage of market niches that respond to increased demand for products and services such as eco- or ethnotourism, environmental services, arts, handicrafts, forest products, organic produce,

278 Anne Deruyttere has been the head of the IDB's Indigenous Peoples and Community Development Unit since its founding in 1994. According to the IDB, she "has overseen the drafting of strategies and technical papers, and the organization of seminars, designed to give visibility to the plight and aspirations of indigenous peoples in the Bank's work." ( Chasqui: A Publication of the Inter-American Development Bank Group 21, no. 3 (March 2004), 2). 204

ethnopharmacology, and other products and services based on ancestral knowledge"

(2004, 27). The commodification of indigenous knowledge is all too apparent.

So then, one of the impediments for indigenous activists and scholars is the agile manner in which capital appropriates critical terms coming from indigenous perspectives.279 Corporations simultaneously use and refuse indigenous worldviews. By this is meant the impulse of business interest to lay claim upon, and derive profit from, indigenous knowledge while denying indigenous communities any share thereof. 280

This phenomenon is well captured by the Zulu idiom, "ukuvuma ukuphika"

(affirmation is denial). Dei (2000, 276) alludes to this conundrum when he says: "Within

African contexts, there is a paradox and contradiction in the development process: on the one hand is the continuing transnational/corporate appropriation oflocal knowledge at the same time as Africa experiences a negation and erasure of its cultural forms of knowledge representation." These challenges notwithstanding, the opportunities for further research are expanding.

To extend the scope of ubuntu interpretations over space and time, it would be worthwhile to explore the understandings of ubuntu/botho among different ethnic groups in Africa. Similarly, digging deeper into the historical record to examine the

279 Kirsch (2007, 304) states that capital has "co-opted the discourse of sustainability to promote their contributions to economic development, the language of accountability and transparency is used by conservative organizations like the American Enterprise Institute to police NGOs and social responsibility is cited as a premise of corporate audit culture." 280 The case of the Hoodia cactus from the Kalahari Desert is a typical example. The San people discovered, kept and transmitted the knowledge of the plant's hunger suppressing abilities for centuries. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer claimed the intellectual property rights to develop an anti-obesity drug from the plant. Although the San will get some of the royalties, Tewolde Berhan Egziabher, of the Institute for Sustainable Development in Ethiopia, complained that pharmaceutical firms "are stealing the loaf and sharing the crumbs" ("Focus on Bio-Piracy in Africa," Science in Africa, September 2002, http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2002/september/biopiracy.htm (accessed January 15, 2007). 205

understanding of this worldview in pre-colonial South Africa and its multiple manifestations during the colonial era would enrich understanding of the impact of this worldview on South Africa's political and social development in different periods.

A related promising hunting ground would be comparative studies of the global expressions of popular indigenous worldviews, such as ubuntu, the Hawaiian indigenous worldview of ho 'ola (giving life), kaupapa Maori, pimatisiiwin, and mpambo.281 What needs probing are not merely the facts of their existence and their differences, but the impact of these indigenous systems of thought on the processes that shape interpersonal and political relationships. This would entail providing concrete examples of how these perspectives might remedy some of the problems presented by the current era of globalization.

Critics have argued that indigenous knowledge systems and traditions contain seeds of marginalization and disempowerment for certain groups, especially women and some ethnic or cultural minorities (Machila in Dei 2000, 267). Although the interstice of ubuntu and gender was not the focal point of the research, contrary to this perspective, the research indicated that women had very positive views of ubuntu.282 In fact, many of the organizations observed were headed by women. When it came to cultural matters and

281 For more on these indigenous worldviews see, inter alia, Yvonne Kaulukane Lefcourt, "Navigating Knowledge Between Two Landscapes: (Re)Envisioning Native Hawaiian Education Through Ho'ola," PhD diss. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005; Paul Wangoola, "Mpambo, the African Multiversity: A Philosophy to Rekindle the African Spirit." In Indigenous Knowledges in Global Contexts: Multiple Readings of Our World, edited by George J. Sefa Dei, Budd Hall, and Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg, 265-279. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000); and, Priscilla Settee, "Pimatisiwin: Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Our Time Has Come," PhD diss. University of Saskatchewan, 2007. 282 One of the leaders of the uNomkhubulwane festival discussed in chapter three sees the festival as a program of women empowerment. As she put it, "When people say that our culture oppresses women I refuse to accept it. Ubuntu is about our body parts. This is where a person loves themselves, their sexuality." (Nomagugu Ngobese, interview with author, Pietermaritzburg, February 2, 2006). 206

practices, some of them displayed superior understanding of indigenous practices such as

ukusoma (intercrural intercourse) and how women can use such practices to reclaim

control over their bodies.283 Other scholars have provided ample evidence to buttress the claim that indigenous practices quite often provide space for the empowerment of women. Davis (1996, 284) demonstrated that because of their sophisticated understanding of indigenous veterinary knowledge and practices, nomadic Aarib women

in Morocco played a sizable role in the daily care oflivestock, often had better veterinary knowledge than men, and exerted a negotiated power in resource-use decisions. In short, then, this dissertation buttresses this claim as observations indicated that there is arable

ground for further research in the area of ubuntu and gender. In addition, the results of this research have implications for activists.

A dialogue between ubuntu activists in South Africa and their global counterparts

is long over. Some interviewees were excited and surprised when we discussed the

existence of international organizations that employ ubuntu in their programs. Certain

critics would argue that this would present further opportunities for exploitation of

ubuntu by corporations and foreigners who do not have an adequate comprehension and

appreciation of the depth of its meanings.284 This is not a sufficient excuse for not

283 Denouncing the killing of a lesbian couple outside Soweto, a lesbian blogger said: "I was speaking with a friend the other day who was saying that she didn't want her sexuality to be tolerated, she wants it to be embraced. Me? As much as the color of my hair or the size of my shoe is not cause for comment or judgment, so I want my skin, my gender, my sexuality to be non-issues. I don't want to be tolerated. Nor do I want to be embraced. I want to be unflinchingly acknowledged as human. No more and no less. Ubuntu! A person is a person because of other people. I am because we are. There's nothing fancy about that." See, Amanda Atwood, "Nothing fancy about ubuntu," Kubatana: an online community of Zimbabwean activists, posted on July 19, 2007, http://kubatanablogs.net/kubatana/?p= 170 (accessed February 20, 2008). 284 Muthayan (2005, 287) expresses such misgivings when she says her concern is that encouraging academics "to go an exploit the indigenous knowledge of local communities may be a new form of colonization at the behest of the knowledge-based economy, driven by globalization as a neoliberal 207

engaging them. Such appropriation will continue unless activists and thinkers in South

Africa make it their business to initiate a dialogue with international organizations and participate in international fora on the significance of ubuntu in global affairs. After all, linkages are deeply entrenched in indigenous perspectives.285 Similarly, most members of the international organizations interviewed are not involved in collaborative efforts with other ubuntu-oriented organizations in their countries or in South Africa. The challenge is to bridge the divide and develop interaction where possible.

Finally, at the policy level, activists and scholars of indigenous knowledge in

South Africa need to define what an "indigenous turn" in policy-making would look like.

As a start, they should press for more and better government funding for research on indigenous knowledges. It is not a stretch to suggest that activists and scholars should press the government's research agencies to make indigenous knowledge a key component of all the programs they fund. Some agencies already make similar prerequisites regarding gender issues. For example, the framework of the NRF's Centers of Excellence requires that "gender relevance of all research undertaking should be made explicit."286 Better support would enhance the training of scholars and practitioners on indigenous knowledge, which in turn, would help record, document, and publicize useful indigenous practices and skills. The establishment of indigenous knowledge centers

force ... is resulting in hordes of conventional researchers, who have little understanding of or respect for indigenous protocols, descending upon local communities, thereby wittingly or unwittingly, completing the colonization project in the name of the new knowledge economy." 285 This idea of mutual interdependence, as Dei (2000, 279) argues, extends beyond the local community. It is not hard to strongly agree with him when he urges us to connect issues locally, nationally and internationally. 286 Centers of Excellence Framework, National Research Foundation, May 2003, http://www.nrf.ac.za/centres/ centres_ of_ excellence_ framework_ 2003. pdf (accessed January 29, 2006). 208

throughout the country (including in rural areas) would tap the vast intellectual resources

in many communities. It is also incumbent upon ubuntu activists and scholars to create

collaborative relationships with Africa-wide research centers, with a primary focus on

indigenous knowledges.

Conclusion

The material presented in this dissertation suggests that ubuntu resonates strongly

with a broad range of sectors. It is not the sole possession of political elites. However, in

light of the divergent interpretations of this worldview, grassroots groups need to outline

the parameters of an ubuntu world from their perspective. The most pressing question for

proponents of the worldview is whether they can employ ubuntu to mobilize a broader range of social movement actors. The goal of this study was to offer a more nuanced

examination of ubuntu attuned to the complexities, contradictions, and promises of this

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