African Communitarianism and Difference

There has been the recurrent suspicion that community, harmony, cohesion, and similar relational goods as understood in the African ethical tradition threaten to occlude difference. Often, it has been Western defenders of liberty who have raised the concern that these characteristically sub-Saharan values fail to account adequately for individuality, although some contemporary African thinkers have expressed the same concern. In this chapter, I provide a certain understanding of the sub-Saharan value of communal relationship and demonstrate that it entails a substantial allowance for difference. I aim to show that African thinkers need not appeal to, say, characteristically Euro-American values of authenticity or autonomy to make sense of why individuals should not be pressured to conform to a group’s norms regarding sex and gender. A key illustration involves homosexuality

Culture in sustainable infrastructure: the polycentric cultural framework model

The state of infrastructure and services is widely perceived as a measure of development and a major catalyst for growth in both developed and developing economies. However, financing, maintaining and replicating existing infrastructures in areas of need have been mostly ineffective. In view of the widespread failures and poor state of infrastructure and services, there is a need to review current delivery and procurement frameworks. Given that sustainable infrastructure is also an essential prerequisite for sustainable development, this paper presents a polycentric cultural framework for infrastructure and service delivery; a framework which emphasises the integration of infrastructure users, communities, public and private sectors throughout the process of conceptualisation to actual delivery of infrastructure, by taking the recipients’ culture, beliefs and values into account. The framework also emphasises the use of systemic referendum among stakeholders by way of the traditional consultative processes and the collaborative consensus paradigm to achieve an effective and sustainable delivery of infrastructure and services

Ethics and the law relating to post-birth rituals

Placental rituals and other birth-by rituals are common in various societies. They often include culturally determined behavioural sequences which operate as anxiety-releasing mechanisms. They also serve to offer a spiritual means of “control” over the future health and welfare of mother, child, and even the community. As long as such rituals do not cause harm, they should be respected for the role that they play and be left alone. This article discusses the ethical and legal considerations regarding post-birth rituals and their relevance to South Africa, with special reference to the South African Human Tissue Act