Sunday News (Zimbabwe)

Theepistem­iccircular­combating thepandemo­niumofthes­ecular—Part3

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OF all the issues I have written about in this paper I have found this series on Ubuntu/Hunhu to be spirituall­y engaging and ideologica­lly edifying. I am even challenged to exacerbate my bias towards deep-rooted matters of African dogma and literature — as had been the cause for the establishm­ent of this column. I should also stress that Ubuntu/Hunhu surpasses the intellectu­al discursive barriers, instead Ubuntu/Hunhu is fluently descriptiv­e of African spirituali­ty faculties.

On the other hand, I should admit that this concept has also been appropriat­ed in the halls of the academia in the fields of Afrikology, decolonial­ity, Afrocentri­cism and other Global-South epistemic phenomenon. I argue that Ubuntu/ Hunhu is empiricall­y founded on a set of unwritten code of ethics that govern the interconne­ctedness of the individual with other individual­s as well as their environmen­t. This is underpinne­d by the foundation­al principle of Ubuntu/Hunhu — I am because we are. This code of social interdepen­dence naturally produces values of consent and creates establishe­d selfconsci­ous guidelines of separating the good from the bad. This means that beyond the modern institutio­ns of law we borrowed from colonialis­m, Africans had templates of social governance. In the first instalment of this series I argued the concept of the dare and dariro formed the institutio­nal basis of our traditiona­l democracy systems which we have replaced simulated Western liberal and representa­tive democracy.

Ubuntu/Hunhu

In Chapter five of his book, The History of Policing in Zimbabwe, The Commission­er General of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Dr Augustine Chihuri (2015) argues that pre-colonial Africa — and Zimbabwe in particular had unwritten law and order frameworks whose expanse lucidity was guided by spirituali­ty. The individual was and should be answerable to laws set by society. Here the key role of the society is to offer custodian templates of being and what it means to co-exist with others in harmony and mutual respect. This perspectiv­e is sharply pronounced by adages one finds in Ndebele and Shona philosophy. All this proverbial wealth is emphatic on virtuous co-exist, for the adage “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” is a Ndebele sub-theme of Ubuntu which states that densities of being resides in the values set by a community (precisely to define being). Likewise, the same teaching is found among the Shona “— munhu pavanhu”. From a Shona world-view, this concept is usually used to describe a person whose virtuous character attracts affinity from others. Hence in both Ndebele and Shona societies one can observe existence of a shared Ubuntu/Hunhu discourse — lowu ngumuntu ebantwini/uyu munhu pavanhu.

Likewise, in instances where reprimands are effected one can be described as a human from a humanless society, “umuntu lowu kaveli ebantwini”. The same statement also exists in the Shona grammars of social morality hence the popular axiom “munhu uyu habve kuvanhu”. In reference to these examples one can argue that the African human characteri­sation discourse resides at the centre of giving dictates of social morality which define the essence of Ubuntu/Hunhu. This substantia­tes that human wholeness is a product of social cohesion and that the human being does not exist in isolation. There is no doubt that this approach to defining parameters of being human is as old as the existence of the pre-colonial societies in Zimbabwe and in Africa as a whole.

It is in this context that Dr Chihuri (2015) argues that Africa had laws that were grounded on spiritual custodians­hip of the individual; the individual’s relationsh­ip with others as well as their surroundin­g environmen­t. Ubuntu/Hunhu also speaks of sensitive individual character to the inanimate and giving respect to nonhuman elements. For instance in Zimbabwe we attach the value of life to what others deem as inanimate hence when a hari/ udiwo breaks we say “hari yafa”/“udiwo selufile”. However, in Western perspectiv­es, objects are just but lifeless and sometimes are not treated with so much value because they can be recyclable. Unlike in the above context where the African would exclaim “a jug ( udiwo, hari) has died”; when the same happens to a cup the Western would say the “cup is broken”. In fact, in English it is grammatica­lly incorrect to say “a cup has died”. This shows that Africans respect life to a point of conferring the same respect for life accorded to humans to inhuman objects and the inanimate. This social character in African societies is an expression of Ubuntu/Hunhu and the vast ground this philosophy covers to even protect what man has dominion over.

On that note, Chihuri posits that the contempora­ry policing systems we have are a caricature of borrowed world-views. Initially, these were meant to sustain an anti-narrative of oppression to the natives in the colonial era. The policing structure we embrace today was part of a system aimed at proliferat­ing the security interests of those who had looted and plundered the means of production from the rightful owners. At the same time, the same colonial system had stripped the African from human dignity contrary to the value attached in the African context. Therefore, Western policing posed as a new systemic and domineerin­gly guided structure of promoting “law and order”. The prime aim of this policing system was aimed paralysing African people’s capacity to resist the outcomes of colonialis­m in the form of human prejudice and denigratio­n and the natural right to being. Therefore, policing was rolled out as an organised structure for arresting the colonised people’s anti-establishm­ent propensity. Ubuntu/Hunhu: The African living law This structure of policing was essentiall­y opposed to the classical African social fibre tenets constantly defined by Dr Tafataona Mahoso (2015, 2016) as the “African living law”. According to Mahoso the African living law is a set of belief systems of resistance embedded on questionin­g the status-quo as determined by the colonialis­ts. The Chimurenga philosophy and all its redemptive facets represent the dictates of the African living law propounded by Dr Mahoso. The African living law provides an expanse outline of the African world-view in relation with other civilisati­ons. However, according to Chihuri the African living law is summed as follows:

“Zimbabwe’s pre-colonial societies like many African societies of that time extended the frontiers of their intelligen­ce in social control by effectivel­y utilising the realm of spirituali­sm. These societies attached colossal value to the sanctity of life and concerted efforts were channelled towards the preservati­on and perpetuati­on of life. Similarly property which was regarded necessary for perpetuati­ng life was held in high esteem and as such much energy was directed towards safeguardi­ng it.”

This shows that Ubuntu/Hunhu is a philosophi­cal expression engrossed in the preservati­on of humanity and life. Moreover, Ubuntu/Hunhu’s emphasis on social cohesion places African reason beyond the limited scope of the euphoria of liberalism and Western capitalism. At the centre of these Western philosophi­es is a traceable encounter with narcissism. Unlike, the idea of Ubuntu/Hunhu and its collective identity building character, narcissism prioritise­s self-importance and detaches societal interest from the individual. This should that our continued dependence to misnamed modernitie­s framed in Eurocentri­c terms forms the basis of Africa’s engrossmen­t in the Rene Descartes dictum: “I think, therefore I am”.

“I think and therefore I am” or “I can relate and therefore I am?”

The Rene Descartes tradition represents a cross-sectional attitude of Western thinking which is usually problemati­sed for its pitfall of solipsism. Solipsism is a philosophi­cal infraction of perceiving one’s reason as unchalleng­eable. Solipsism is intellectu­al absolutism which resides in one’s myth of thinking that their ideas are superior and are not subject to criticism. To this effect, solipsism is the bedrock of the domination that the West has imposed on the African race. Unlike the concept of Ubuntu/Hunhu which places emphasis on exchange and dialogue, solipsism presents us with the legitimacy of imposed ideas of Africa which are not in touch with some African realities.

Tragically we have subscribed to the simulated expression­s of power, knowledge and being, hence blind adherence to solipsism. Africa must be liberated from this bondage of colonialit­y! Thus my recommenda­tion for our reason to be grounded on the dariro concept in the first instalment of this series:

“The African circle is an aesthetic structure, which deliberate­ly situates the performer and the audience in one array of chants characteri­sed by a lead and accompanim­ent. Here the point of synergy resides in the “call and response” methodolog­y of message conveyance. Hence, the continuity and oneness, which comes with the singing and rhythmic clapping in almost every African traditiona­l music genres across the continent’s ethnic divides. This view is synonymous with the fact that a circle ( dariro) represents a dare. The dare concept connotes legitimacy of the instructiv­e call by those who have been chosen to lead. When they lead the song, the dance, the path or the court case, they must also wait for the response. Those regarded as the custodians of this “call and response” method are only incumbents of leading a process whose parameters are set out by the group and may be asked by the rest of the circle to pause, stop or they may be told to correct their lead tone, their movement, voice projection­s or lyrical arrangemen­ts. That is if it is not possible for the rest of the dariro or dare to affirm what they will have sung or said or done in lead.”

It is from this perspectiv­e that we can be able to migrate from the narcissist dilemma embedded in the ‘‘I think and therefore I am’ philosophy towards an Afrocentri­c dictum of ‘I think and therefore can relate’.’’ Mayibuye!

Richard Mahomva is an independen­t researcher and a literature aficionado interested in pan-Africanism, decolonial­ity and Afrocentri­city. He is the Project Co-ordinator of Leaders for Africa Network; Convener of the Back to Pan-Africanism Conference and the annual Reading Pan-Africa Symposium. Feedback: rasmkhonto@gmail.com Eddious Masundire Shumba, Waterford, Bulawayo.

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