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Ubuntu

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

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

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

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

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