Tutu’s idea of ubuntu teaches world about harmony and justice
Life’s aim is to become real or genuine – a person is a person through other persons, he says
ARCHBISHOP Emeritus Bishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu’s 86th birthday tomorrow is a good occasion to reflect on his contributions to South African society and global thought. I do so as a philosopher and in the light of ubuntu, the word for humanness that is often used to encapsulate sub-Saharan moral ideals. An ubuntu ethic is often expressed with the maxim: “A person is a person through other persons.”
One idea that indigenous Africans often associate with this maxim is that your basic aim in life should be to become a real or genuine person. You should strive to realise your higher, human nature – to exhibit ubuntu.
How is one to do that? “Through other persons,” which is shorthand for prizing communal or harmonious relationships with them. For many southern African intellectuals, communion or harmony consists of identifying with and exhibiting solidarity towards others, enjoying a sense of togetherness, co-operating and helping people – out of sympathy and for their own sake.
He is well known for having invoked an ubuntu ethic to evaluate South African society, and take credit for having made the term familiar to politicians, activists and scholars globally. He criticised the National Party, which formalised apartheid, and its supporters for having prized discord, the opposite of harmony.
Apartheid not only prevented “races” from identifying with each other or exhibiting solidarity with one another. It went further by having one “race” subordinate and harm others. In Tutu’s words, apartheid made people “less human” for their failure to participate on an even-handed basis and to share power, wealth, land, opportunities and even themselves.
One of Tutu’s more striking, contested claims is apartheid damaged not only black people, but also whites. Although most white people became well off as a result, they did not become as morally good, or human, as they could have.
Tutu maintained that, by ubuntu, democratic South Africa was right to deal with apartheid-era political crimes by seeking reconciliation or restorative justice. If social harmony is for us the
(the highest good), then the primary aim when dealing with wrongdoing – as ones who hold African values – should be to establish harmonious relationships between wrongdoers and victims. From this perspective, punishment merely for the purpose of paying back wrongdoers, in the manner of an eye for an eye, is unjustified.
Tutu is often criticised for having advocated a kind of reconciliation that lets white beneficiaries of apartheid injustice off the hook. But this isn’t fair. Reconciliation for Tutu has not meant merely shaking hands after one party has exploited and denigrated another. It’s meant the wrongdoer, and those who benefited, should acknowledge the wrongdoing, and seek to repair the damage at real cost.
Tutu has remarked since the 1990s that: “Unless there is real material transformation in the lives of those who have been apartheid’s victims, we might just as well kiss reconciliation goodbye. It just won’t happen without some reparation.”
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission he chaired was aimed at helping South Africans come to terms with their past and laid the foundation for reconciliation. In the fifth volume of its Report, it was adamant about the need for redistribution that would improve the lives of black South Africans. And Tutu has continued to lament the failure of white communities to undertake sacrifices on their own, and to demand compensation from them, for instance, by calling for a “wealth” or “white” tax that would be used to uplift black communities.
Another criticism is that his interpretation of ubuntu has been distorted through the lens of Christianity. Although Tutu’s Christian beliefs have influenced his understanding of ubuntu, it’s also the case that this has influenced his Christian beliefs. Tutu’s background as an Archbishop of the Anglican Church does not necessarily render his construal of ubuntu utterly unAfrican or implausible.
In particular, Tutu has controversially continued to believe that forgiveness is essential for reconciliation, and it is reasonable to suspect that his Christian beliefs have influenced his understanding of what ubuntu requires, here.
I agree with critics who contend that reconciliation does not require forgiveness. But, might not Tutu have a point in thinking that forgiveness would be part of the best form of reconciliation, an ideal for which to strive?
Tutu’s ideas about humanness, harmony and reconciliation have been enormously influential throughout the world. There is one more idea I mention that has not been as influential, but merits attention. It’s his rejection of the notion that what is valuable about us as human beings is our autonomy, which is a characteristically Western idea. Instead: “We are different so we can know our need of one another, for no one is ultimately self-sufficient. The completely self-sufficient person would be sub-human.”
In short, what gives us a dignity is not our independence, but rather our interdependence, our ability to participate and share with one another, our vulnerability. This African and relational conception of human dignity has yet to influence many outside sub-Saharan Africa. I hope that this tribute might help in some way.