The meaning of sharing under marketised education: an Ubu-ntu perspective

Reading his-story (history), her-story and our story from the perspective of Mother Africa reduced from her original position of Mater Preciosa, (the cradle of humanity: a precious Mother), to a Mater Dolorosa (a mother of sorrows) through conquest in the unjust wars of Western colonialism, our argument is that education – the bearer of the Western epistemological paradigm – continues to be primarily in the service of protecting and promoting the enslavement of politically independent Africa. Our thesis is that this service ought to be terminated because it is unethical. There is no reason to suppose that unlike other empires before it, the dominant unholy trinity of economicide, epistemicide and religicide perpetrated against Africa is an eternal order of things under capitalism. We adopt the philosophy of ubu-ntu to elaborate on our thesis. We will focus specifically on the marketisation of education taking examples mainly from conqueror South Africa[1] and the Covid 19 pandemic. [1] The appellation, conqueror South Africa is historically legitimate and ethically justified

But the Man Does Not Throw Bones

From time immemorial some African peoples associated bodily and spiritual healing with their relationship with the living-dead and communication with them. The use of selected animal bones by a special healer was one of the means of communication with the living-dead in the process of determining the cause of illness and receiving advice on its cure. This practice endures in some parts of Africa today. Our cane spirit- addicted white boss incurred the wrath of his white colleagues in the South Africa of the seventies by submitting himself to medical examination by a Western-trained Bantu medical practitioner operating in a Bantustan. In defence of his decision our white boss declared: ‘But the man does not throw bones!’ By this he contrasted the bones to the stethoscope; the latter being the symbol and reality of the assumed superiority of Western medicine over African ways of healing based on African culture. At the same time he challenged the racism of his time by accepting that he could be examined by a Bantu medical doctor. The purpose of this essay is to examine the ensuing epistemological and cultural tension between the bones and the stethoscope, and argue that the tension is based on different and contending paradigms of healing, none of which has prior and unquestionable superiority over the other. This argument is reflected in part by the somewhat unconventional style of our presentation, that is, storytelling, as a way of challenging the contentious dogma that there is only one ‘science’

Thought and practice in African philosophy

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Psychology and Psychotherapy Redefined from the Viewpoint of the African Experience

This article argues for an African-conceived ‘psychology’ and ‘psycho-therapy’. The thesis to be defended is that the dominant Western paradigm in terms of the definitions and practices of psychology and psychotherapy in their current form is at variance with the African experience and culture. African indigenous ways of knowing and doing, including the treatment of illness, derive from a non-transferable but communicable experience giving rise to an independent epistemology. To be consistent with the African epistemological paradigm Africans have the right to adopt and use indigenous concepts that congruently capture and represent their ways of knowing and doing. This applies to the teaching of psychology and psychotherapy in South African universities. Their curricula should include the concept of moya, an indigenous African concept that is crucial to the understanding of psychology and psychotherapy from the African viewpoint. We adopt a critical conceptual approach to the elaboration of our thesis

“To whom does the land belong?”: Mogobe Bernard Ramose talks to Derek Hook

Mogobe Bernard Ramose is an extraordinus professor of philosophy at the University of South Africa’s department of Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology. Much of his theoretical work and writing has followed Sobukwe’s political thinking, certainly inasmuch as it foregrounds the Pan-Africanist Congress’s slogan “Izwe Lethu” (“Our land”) as a crucial point in contemporary debates about social and historical justice. This insistence on the sovereignty of the African people has proved foundational to Ramose’s philosophical and legal theorising. A focus of Ramose’s work is ubuntu, the Nguni concept in which philosophy, ontology and ethics are thought together in a holistic approach to human-ness. Ramose’s understanding of justice as balance and harmony demands the restoration of justice by reversing the dehumanizing consequences of colonial conquest and by eliminating racism. His work displays an unwavering commitment to questions of justice, politics, ethics, and truth. The fact that Pan-Africanist questions that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s are still relevant and pressing today, in 2016, demonstrates both the continued relevance of a figure like Sobukwe, and that outstanding questions of justice still pervade the contemporary South African social sphere. The importance of Ramose’s inclusion here in a consideration of the psychosocial discussion of Sobukwe’s legacy lies in his (Ramose’s) continued insistence on the role of justice, ethics and, crucially, the concrete issue of land dispossession in any elaboration of psychological or philosophical engagement with Black Consciousness or Pan-Africanist thinking. The attempt to confront, challenge and eradicate racism in the contemporary South African context means nothing, for Ramose and Sobukwe alike, if these issues are not absolutely prioritized

Learning inspired education

The meaning of experience, knowledge and truth in Africa1 is dominated by the successive refinement of the colonial conception of education. This dominant conception of education does in practice suppress and distort the African experience in general and, consequently constructs knowledge and truth at variance with the African experience. This condition necessitates the rethinking of education in Africa. The present essay is a contribution to this endeavor. It will emphasize the distinction between learning and education and argue for an appropriate educational paradigm suited to the African condition

Philosophical racism and ubuntu: In dialogue with Mogobe Ramose

This article discusses two complementary themes that play an important role in contemporary South African political philosophy: (1) the racist tradition in Western philosophy; and (2) the role of ubuntu in regaining an authentic African identity, which was systematically suppressed during the colonial past and apartheid. These are also leading themes in Mogobe Ramose’s African Philosophy Through Ubuntu. The first part concentrates on John Locke. It discusses the thesis that the reprehensible racism of many founders of liberal political philosophy has lethally infected liberal theory