Unfolding Narratives of Ubuntu in Southern Africa

Julian Müller, John Eliastam, Sheila Trahar

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781351055802
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Ciencias sociales
• Subtopic: Estudios de desarrollo global

Ubuntu is the African idea of personhood: persons depend on other persons in order to be. This is summarised in the expression: umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, that is, a person is a person through persons.

This edited collection illustrates the power of fictionalised representation in reporting research conducted on Ubuntu in Southern Africa. The chapters insert the concept of Ubuntu within the broad intellectual debate of self and community, to demonstrate its intellectual and philosophical value and theoretical grounding in known practices emanating from the African continent, and indeed how it works to unsettle some of our received notions of the self.

Part I

Explanation

Introduction

The unfolding story

Ubuntu is the African idea of personhood: persons depend on other persons in order to be. This is summarised in the expression: umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, which means, a person is a person through persons. Or, in the words of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu (2000:35): “I am human because I belong” and “Social harmony is for us the summum bonum – the greatest good.”

At the end of a three-year research project “The meaning and value of Ubuntu in human and social development in Africa”, we find that, although we agree with Tutu that, for us, Ubuntu is indeed the summum bonum, we have also come to understand that it is far more than that. Research, in particular in the Humanities and the Social Sciences, tends to reveal further the complexities of the human condition and is rarely satisfied with nice, easy answers. This research project also travelled along a road from enthusiasm to scepticism and back. We began the journey with similar thoughts to Tutu, but we have also discovered that Ubuntu is not a fixed concept to be taken out of the past and polished for the current generation. Rather, it is a dynamic value that finds new embodiment in each new and unfolding context. The implication of such a dynamic understanding is that enthusiasm and scepticism are continuously and equally part of the journey. At times we have been enthusiastic and nostalgic. At other times we have been discouraged and deeply sceptical. Finally, fictionalisation emerged as a credible way of talking and writing about this beautiful but fluent concept. Through the sharing of stories that were intrinsic to the myriad research projects and subsequently developing them as fictionalised representations, we could find ways to formulate both our amazement and our confusion about Ubuntu in the current Southern African context.

Fictionalisation is a “device used by many narrative inquirers to communicate co-constructed narratives, or to bring to the awareness of readers complex situations that may be difficult to do otherwise” (Trahar & Yu, 2015:xvii). It can be a means to tell a story that is “based on ‘real’ events to produce a version of the ‘truth’ as she or he sees it” (Trahar & Yu, 2015:xviii). Its use as a literary device in Humanities and Social Science research – and, indeed, in research in other relevant disciplines is gaining acceptance – but it is relatively unknown in many contexts. It is used by the authors of this book because it offers a way of getting around the complex issue of rendering visibility to those who either have not given their permission to be visible or are unable to give their permission for various reasons. In cases where a researcher wants to tell a particular story that may trouble some people, fictionalisation can be a useful and powerful strategy. We also believe that in using this literary device, we can reach out to a broader readership, beyond Southern Africa and the international academic community.

The book is structured in two parts. Part I consists of this Introduction and Chapter 1. Our Introduction not only summarises the subsequent chapters, but also provides information about the research projects that gave rise to the fictionalised representations that follow. Chapter 1 explains the use of fictionalisation in research and specifically Ubuntu research. Readers who are less interested in the academic rationale for the use of fictionalisation and who are more interested in how Ubuntu functions currently in Southern Africa can begin their reading of the book with Part II. This part consists of stories which grew out of the different research projects and were all part of the larger Ubuntu project.

All of the contributors apart from Julian Müller and Sheila Trahar, who had different leading roles, have based their chapters on their doctoral, postdoctoral or Masters research associated with the project, “The meaning and value of Ubuntu in human and social development in Africa”. This was an interdisciplinary three-year (2015–2017) research project, initiated by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Pretoria. Researchers from the Faculties of Humanities, Law and Theology at the University of Pretoria were brought together to write a proposal, which was accepted and funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. The project’s aim was to insert the concept of Ubuntu within the broad intellectual debate of self and community, to demonstrate its intellectual and philosophical value and theoretical grounding in known practices emanating from the African continent, and indeed how it works to unsettle some of our perceived notions of the self. The project looks at Ubuntu from an array of viewpoints, illustrated by its applicability in different contexts and facets explored in the four research clusters of African literature, law, political science and theology.

This book focuses only on the research conducted by Julian Müller and his team, the theological cluster which was part of the larger interdisciplinary project. Sheila Trahar from the University of Bristol in the UK has been acting as a methodological consultant for this cluster. All of the researchers have used some form of narrative inquiry as their methodological approach and, in this edited collection, have used fictionalised representation to depict particular elements of their research. Each chapter is connected with the imagined fictionalised town of “Ubuntuville” and is based on the characters and circumstances introduced and described in Chapter 2, “Ubuntuville: the view from the cemetery”. All the names used to refer to characters in the stories are pseudonyms, unless stated otherwise.

The chapters

This Chapter 1 explains our use of fictionalisation as a literary practice in re-presenting research, in particular research that is conducted using some form of narrative inquiry. Those who use methodological approaches that fall under the broad umbrella of narrative research are, increasingly, using a range of art forms, both to conduct and to present accounts of their research. In this chapter, therefore, we provide a scholarly justification for the use of fictionalised re-presentation, explaining how, for us, it can assist in communicating to readers the ways in which experience and theory are entangled. As Editors, we consider it important that we foreground how we ourselves have come to use and value fictionalisation in our own research and in the re-presentation of it. In doing so, we strive to illustrate and affirm how it can be used for the legitimate and meaningful reporting of research. As we indicate elsewhere in this introduction, many of the participants in the different research projects undertaken found it difficult to define Ubuntu in ways that were clear and comprehensive, rather they shared stories that not only exemplified Ubuntu but also portrayed it in ways that were evocative, nuanced and, importantly, accessible. We believed that, in order to convey how Ubuntu is perceived and understood in Southern Africa, such stories needed to be retold to a much wider audience. We explained earlier how we came to decide upon using fictionalisation and in Chapter 1 we develop that argument, relating it closely to the Ubuntu project.

Chapter 2 functions as the hub around which all the other stories in the book have developed. Julian Müller found inspiration in Andrew Miller’s (2011) book Pure and with reference to that story wrote his own fictional story with the cemetery as the central metaphor. The story is about a place called Ubuntuville, an imagined town in South Africa with a cemetery situated between the township where the black people live and the “town” of the white people. The cemetery is in danger of being removed to another location because of a decision taken by the mayor of the town. As in Pure, an engineer has been summoned to a government office and assigned the task of finding a solution for the cemetery problem. The Pure story is situated in Paris in 1785 and engineer Jean Baptiste is sent to remove the cemetery because of a health threat. In this story the engineer, Joel, is sent to Ubuntuville with a similar assignment. Müller discovered many similarities between his task as leader of the theological cluster in the Ubuntu research project and the challenges faced by Jean Baptiste. The Ubuntuville story, however, takes on a life of its own and, although it was developed in accordance with Pure, it departs significantly from the original story in how the engineer handles his own unique set of challenges.

Joel, the engineer with a difficult assignment, finds himself confronted by many angry voices. People, whose lives are intertwined with the cemetery and for whom the cemetery is a symbol of both nostalgic dreams and practical values, are protesting against the decision. In this chapter, those people are introduced. The cemetery is the connection point between the living and the dead; between the past and the future. Similar to the concept of Ubuntu, the cemetery is rich with layer upon layer of meaning. The metaphor of the cemetery, a thread that runs throughout the book, thus opens up a variety of perspectives bringing the richness of Ubuntu to the fore.

All of the subsequent chapters are linked to this first story. Each person focused on specific aspects of Ubuntu in their research. Elements of their “data” have been re-told in fictional stories and all are in some way connected to “Ubuntuville, the view from the cemetery”.

Chapter 3 is called “Unseen” and is derived from Herman Holtzhausen’s research into the land issue in South Africa. Agricultural land ownership, tenure and access in South Africa have been determined, historically, along racial lines. Reactions to this untenable problem are becoming increasingly volatile. More than two decades into South Africa’s constitutional democracy, little has changed to empower the previously disadvantaged majority of South Africans in this regard. The resentment about this institutionalised discrimination, and poverty is growing in the wake of the government’s failures to address the situation in a meaningful way. For many black South Africans, the land issue remains a symbol of their dehumanisation by the previous racist government and its supporting voters. Holtzhausen is a sixth-generation landowner of a small-scale farming operation in the arid North West Province of South Africa. The research he conducted represents his efforts to search for ways of creating a more equal and just relationship with Joba, his Tswana co-worker, in terms of Joba’s access to and tenure of the land. In “Unseen”, Joba is the cemetery’s gardener and eloquent storyteller who, in conversation with Joel and with the pastor, Tshepo locates Ubuntuville historically and politically within the ongoing land issue. The title “Unseen” is used to describe Joba’s mother who was ‘unseen’ because of her physical appearance but it is also a powerful metaphor for the invisibility of those positioned as outsiders in Ubuntuville. The contested meanings of Ubuntu are articulated throughout the conversation between the three men: Joba, Tshepo and Joel. Joba’s recounting of a conversation between his mother and Tshepo allows Holtzhausen to tell the story of land appropriation vividly and evocatively. It is through this story that we come to understand elements of the importance of the cemetery in Ubuntuville.

“The quilting group: stitches from the soul” by Retha Kruidenier tells the story, in Chapter 4, of the lives of women living in the informal settlement in Ubuntuville. Kruideneier’s postdoctoral research was conducted in a similar community situated to the west of Pretoria. The aim of her study was to explore the existence of Ubuntu in such communities. Kruideiner’s research focused on the extent to which the core values of Ubuntu play a role in narratives of grief, recovery and healing for the severely traumatised women living in the settlement. Several of the women participate in a quilting group and stories are shared around the table as the women work. Kruideneier’s chapter recounts some of these stories. Central to it are the reflections of Florence, the female pastor. Florence is a foreigner from Zimbabwe. She is also the principal of the crèche and plays a leading role in the community. Stories that are told reflect the hardships that the women endure because of poverty, abuse and displacement. Ubuntu is demonstrated in the ways in which people are cared for in the informal settlement, in particular those from outside South Africa and who are more used to being victims of xenophobia. Kruidenier employs Tienie, the white pastor, to pose questions about the Christian values that he claims to hold; yet Tienie marginalises the unmarried Hilde because of her pregnancy and is critical of Florence for living with a man to whom she is not married. She uses the Sunshine Ladies, from a wealthy suburb in Ubuntuville, to illustrate the tensions that are felt between the community wanting/needing to accept their charity in funding the crèche and at the same time resenting their introduction of a “western programme” for it. This programme ignores the use of traditional African songs, stories of the ancestors and the teaching of the children about Ubuntu. In introducing these tensions, Kruideneier is thus foregrounding decoloniality, the notion of continuing colonialism in post-apartheid South Africa. The chapter ends, somewhat optimistically, with the wedding of Florence in which all characters in the community take part.

In Chapter 5 “Na ba nga bantu (they too are human)”, Trevor Ntlhola tackles the complex issue of distrust and bias resulting from the apartheid era. A former cabinet minister and other officials of the previous regime are participants in the research that Ntlhola is conducting for his doctorate. His interesting and complex relationship with a former minister of police forms the basis of this chapter as the story is now re-told to Joel, the engineer, within the context of Ubuntuville. Moschella’s (2008:8) view on the pastoral approach is followed:

… ethnography as a pastoral practice involves opening your eyes and ears to understand the ways in which people practice their faith … in a pastoral context, it involves recording your observations and reflections, analyzing them, and creating a narrative account of the people’s local and particular religious and cultural life.

In his chapter, Ntlhola focuses on his meeting with Gerard Botha, the former minister of police. Ntlhola articulates vividly his feelings at meeting this “mega-killer” and hearing apparent regrets for his vile acts during apartheid. His evocative account of the twisting and turning conversation with Botha reveals, somewhat surprisingly, the presence of Ubuntu in both men’s lives.

In Chapter 6, Wonke Buqa writes as if he were Kriel – a white, male Afrikaner. Kriel and his family are the first people to move into the developing multicultural community in Ubuntuville and Buqa’s chapter provides a moving insight into the complexities of this community through Kriel’s eyes. Buqa’s doctoral research was conducted in Olievenhoutbosch – one of the rare, urban townships in South Africa where almost all races, classes, socioeconomic and ethnic groupings as well as foreigners are to be found. The study traces the historical experiences of human settlements from colonialism, apartheid to post-apartheid to understand how meaning is constructed with regard to Ubuntu. Buqa used narrative inquiry as his methodological approach in his research and this enabled him to listen to the stories of people living in Olievenhoutbosch. Ubuntu, the African philosophy embracing Batho Pele (people first), was mentioned frequently by those involved in his study. In the same breath, they also referred to rainbow nation, peace, forgiveness and reconciliation in South Africa. Buqa concluded that Ubuntu has a crucial role to play in healing multiracial relations. The Olievenhoutbosch township is central to the multicultural community that Buqa describes in his chapter. He recalls, movingly, his relationship with Tshepo, the son of his parents’ black domestic worker and how through this relationship many of the iniquities of apartheid are revealed. Kriel is, at first, ostracised by his family and friends by choosing to live in the multicultural township but gradually they begin to visit him and to experience the warmth that he does. His developing friendship with Luvuyo provides a vehicle for them to develop insights into each other’s cultures and to appreciate that they are both African. Kriel’s surprising reunion with Tshepo, together with his relationship with an activist neighbour, leads to him and Joel gaining an understanding of Ubuntu as it is performed within the multicultural community.

John Eliastam’s “The Outsider” in Chapter 7 is based on his doctoral research, which investigated how meaning was being constructed with regard to foreign migrants living in South Africa’s townships and informal settlements in contexts of extreme poverty. South African communities have experienced levels of antipathy towards foreign migrants since the transition to democracy in ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright page
• Table of Contents
• Endorsement from Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu
• Notes on contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Map of Ubuntuville
• PART I Explanation
• PART II The story