Crisis of ubuntu

Cetshwayo Mabhena

In the world of free and happy people, the power of any idea or philosophy should be measured by one standard: What does the idea or philosophy contribute to the life and the happiness of the multitudes, the people in their numbers. How much an idea and a philosophy contributes to greater good should be a measure of its stamina. The South African transition from apartheid to democracy, a supposed miracle, inserted into the dictionary of common sense Ubuntu as a powerful idea whose time had not only come but also a monumental contribution of the Bantu to humanity.

The proverb Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu was suddenly promoted from its humble status as a piece of wisdom to a philosophy. That the finished South African multitudes who had been pushed to the dirty toilet of history by years of apartheid could forgive their largely unrepentant victimisers was unthinkable. The victims of apartheid emerged with the philosophy of Ubuntu to forgive their unforgivable masters who through the mouth of Frederick de Klerk could insist inspite of the overwhelming evidence of apartheid atrocities and the suffocating social inequalities that, “my hands are clean.” It is the argument of the present column that Ubuntu has never been a philosophy but a clever proverb among many that unfortunately became usable by foxy politicians in calming the many poor for the benefit of the few rich and powerful players in the South African economy and polity. As a piece of wisdom that has been manipulated by politicians into a powerful philosophy, stretched beyond its limits, Ubuntu is in crisis, it has been emptied of its original content and loaded with poison that continues to consume the poor and peripherised people of South Africa.

The day God came down

It was actually Archbishop Desmond Tutu, toward the conclusion of the processes of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) who remarked that in South Africa, “we of many languages, of different cultures have become one, we are the rainbow people of God.” The South African Truth and Reconciliation process and the reconciliation, forgiveness and healing that it was imagined to have brought was credited to God himself, to Ubuntu and something that was called Madiba Magic, the messianic saintliness of the late Nelson Mandela, the terrorist who became a forgiving and legendary statesman. The Ubuntu of the African people brought the love of God down to South Africa and liberated the oppressed and their oppressors and by that, South Africa had become a beautiful rainbow nation of God.

In actuality, and sadly, the beneficiaries of Ubuntu were the unrepentant white supremacists who kept the economy and their social privilege that were stolen during the long years of apartheid. The many victims of apartheid gained political power, heroism and their Ubuntu and nothing more. As the current increases among the many poor and peripherised that Rhodes Must Fall everywhere in South Africa, it is becoming clear that Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu as marketed by Desmond Tutu was actually not the original Bantu wisdom, but it had become the Christian doctrine of turning the other cheek so that the enemy can strike again, the victims of apartheid were persuaded to forgive the settlers, forget about the economy and wait for the coming kingdom of God. Politically and religiously Ubuntu was used against the Bantu in South Africa. If ever Ubuntu came close to being a philosophy, it became a philosophy of surrender, a weapon of the weak and a toxic idea that reconciled the poor victims of apartheid to their poverty and their loss in the game of life.

On the Wisdom of the Bantu

In the native intellectualism of Credo Mutwa, presented in the classic Indaba my Children, the religion and the beliefs of the Bantu are discussed with rare revelation. In that authoritative exposition, Ubuntu is a member of an extended family of ideas and practices that belong to the archive and mental library of the Bantu of Africa. Ubuntu, the qualities of being human, is not isolated to forgiving enemies, turning the other cheek or co-habiting with greedy invaders and settlers. At many levels Ubuntu as wisdom and an idea that the Bantu valorised included many other forms of justice that included revenge, resistance and war itself. In the many logics of Ubuntu, it is presented as cowardice and not Ubuntu for a man to allow the theft of his land, rape of his mother, sister or wife. It is not Ubuntu to permit witchcraft and sorcery in its many forms including imperialism to thrive. The Bantu had a wider definition of witchcraft than we assume today, stealing, greedy expansionism, the violation of nature and the environment, in a way vampiric capitalism would fit the definition of witchcraft and sorcery. A proper Bantu with Ubuntu would rather die than allow poverty and misery to define him and his family. A Bantu mother with Ubuntu would not permit the erosion of Bantu culture, morals and values in her family and in larger society. For that reason, Ubuntu as mobilised in the TRC and fronted by Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a corruption and an offence against the Bantu as people, the black multitudes of Africa who are the recipients of the dark side of imperialism.

The Future of Ubuntu

As used in the TRC, Ubuntu became the self crucifixion of the Bantu, the turning of the spear to stab its owner. From the perspective of victorious white supremacists and elite black beneficiaries of fake reconciliation and imaginary healing a native with Ubuntu is a dancing native who is happy in his misery. Nelson Mandela has been saintified as an exemplary native who turned the other cheek after twenty seven years of incarceration. The native with Ubuntu is a long suffering object that does not ask questions. George Orwell was right that whenever a new saint is announced free thinking people should doubt the saintliness and question the agenda of the saint makers. The transmogrification of Nelson Mandela from a banned terrorist to a big native with magical Ubuntu was a deliberate ploy by managers of the world order to calm the unhappy natives of South Africa and Africa at large, while the dream of decolonisation in Africa remains a nightmare in progress.

Ubuntu must be recovered from those who have stolen and corrupted it, turned it to a weapon against the Bantu. Ubuntu as a wisdom, an organ within the body of knowledge of the Bantu should be restored to its place as an affirmation of life, a struggle for justice and liberation, and opposition to war, genocide, imperialism and sorcery in its various manifestations. As I write, the land of the miracle of Ubuntu, South Africa, is being punished economically, the rand is being squeezed and the economy suffocated for the sin of ever making dalliances with China, the enemy number one of the western world in the new Cold War. The world is increasingly becoming a dangerous place for smiling and dancing natives. Another miracle that is bigger than Ubuntu must take place, even if it means that we must give birth to our own ancestors, in order for complete decolonisation to take place.