Ubuntu

In South Africa, Ubuntu is the term for a kind of humanist philosophy, ethic, or ideology. This book contextualizes the discourse on Ubuntu within the wider historical framework of postcolonial attempts to rearticulate African humanism as a substantial philosophy and emancipatory ideology. As such, the emergence of Ubuntu as a postcolonial philosophy is posited as both a function of and a critical response to Western modernity. The central question addressed is: Was Ubuntu's emancipatory potential confined to and perhaps exhausted by South Africa's transition to democracy, or does the notion of a 'shared humanity' as theorized in Ubuntu discourse still have relevance for South Africans' urgent need to imagine the country's post-nationalist and post-neoliberal future? The contributions in the book address this question from the perspective of a wide range of disciplines, including political philosophy, African history, gender studies, philosophy of law, and cultural studies.