What is African Communitarianism? Against Consensus as a regulative ideal

Eze, Michael Onyebuchi

doi:10.4314/sajpem.v27i4.31526

Cited by 133 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…If I am through the otherness and diversity of another (Eze 2008; Louw 1998), this does not deny feelings of ambivalence, pain or disgust (Livingston 2008) but locates them as part of the complexity and nuance of disability. It also calls into question the ascription of impairment as disability instead of diversity?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practices and discourses of ubuntu: Implications for an African model of disability?

Berghs

2017

African Journal of Disability

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BackgroundSouthern African scholars and activists working in disability studies have argued that ubuntu or unhu is a part of their world view.ObjectivesThinking seriously about ubuntu, as a shared collective humanness or social ethics, means to examine how Africans have framed a struggle for this shared humanity in terms of decolonisation and activism.MethodThree examples of applications of ubuntu are given, with two mainly linked to making explicit umaka. Firstly, ubuntu is linked to making visible the invisible inequalities for a common humanity in South Africa. Secondly, it becomes correlated to the expression of environmental justice in West and East African countries.ResultsAn African model of disability that encapsulates ubuntu is correlated to how Africans have illustrated a social ethics of a common humanity in their grassroots struggles against oppression and disablement in the 20th century. Ubuntu also locates disability politically within the wider environment and practices of sustainability which are now important to the post-2105 agenda, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the (UN) Sustainable Development Goals linked to climate change.ConclusionA different kind of political action linked to social justice seems to be evolving in line with ubuntu. This has implications for the future of disability studies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practices and discourses of ubuntu: Implications for an African model of disability?

Berghs

2017

African Journal of Disability

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“…Two narratives, relating to cultural aspects of Malawi and Swaziland life and evident within both the written assessed work and the focus group discussions, offer some explanatory insight. First, the significance of deeply held Christian beliefs and second the notion of Ubuntu, a distinctly southern African interpretation of humanism (Eze, 2008).…”

Section: Engagement and Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching critical reflection in Sub-Saharan Africa: business as usual?

Blackburn

Holden

Burrell

2014

Reflective Practice

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Reflective practice enjoys a prominent position in management education in the West. However, its 'export' raises questions about both positioning and effective delivery. This paper reports on exploratory research in relation to the teaching of reflective practice as part of a Masters management programme delivered in two sub-Saharan African countries. In relation to prevailing practice in the West, the research evidence is clear. Whilst challenging in terms of its teaching, the cultural context of the West does not preclude access to the essential ideas of reflexivity and an analysis of self. Drawing on data collected as part of the teaching of an MSc in Leadership and Change Management in Malawi and Swaziland, this paper reflects on the nature and extent of this challenge in a very different cultural context. Students from these two countries found the concept interesting but troublesome. Assessment of and questioning about practice revealed some success, but more often a high failure rate in achieving a level of criticality in reflection and a level of depth of self-analysis. The research speculates if a 'business as usual' teaching agenda in such cultural contexts in effect sidesteps the question of the appropriateness of an Anglo-American model of reflective practice.

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“…59 Buchanan, 60 furthermore, argues that with African communitarianism there is a quest for the adjustmentnot subordinationof individual interests to those of the community, and vice versa. This quest, it is further asserted, 61 is achieved through conversion of beliefs and dialogue based on reason, which enables a process leading to agreement regarding valid claims. 62 A social, rather than an individual starting point to ethical decision making is emphasized, 63 but without overlooking individual input.…”

Section: Delineating the Concept Of 'African Communitarianism'mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Look at Uganda's Early HIV Prevention Strategies Through a Moderate ‘African’ Communitarian Lens

Wathuta

2016

Developing World Bioethics

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This paper seeks to highlight the benefits of prioritizing moderate African communitarian principles as partly demonstrated in the HIV prevention strategies implemented in Uganda in the late 1980s. Pertinent lessons could be drawn so as to achieve the HIV prevention targets envisioned in the post-2015 development era. Communitarianism emphasizes the importance of communities as part of healthy human existence. Its core ethical values include the virtues of generosity, compassion, and solidarity. Persuasion through communication, consensus through dialogue, and the awareness and commitment to responsibilities towards other members of the community, are chief practices relied upon to achieve appropriate social behaviour. All these elements signify individual rootedness in communities and contribute to the healthy existence of its members. Communitarianism is usually classified as either authoritarian/radical or responsive/moderate, depending on the primacy given to either community interests or the individual will and rights. Moderate communitarianism recognizes the individual's capacity for moral reasoning, virtue and free choice. The ensuing form of society is deemed more ethical as it relies on education in the virtues, moral persuasion and informal social controls, without stifling individual identity, agency, and capacity for self-determination. If moderate African communitarianism, in particular, can to a certain extent be associated with the significant aspects of Uganda's HIV prevention strategies in the stated period, then its present-day relevance for HIV prevention and other public health interventions may be emphasized accordingly. This applies especially in view of the ongoing efforts to achieve a balance between individual and collective interests in bioethics.

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What is African Communitarianism? Against Consensus as a regulative ideal

Cited by 133 publications

References 3 publications

Practices and discourses of ubuntu: Implications for an African model of disability?

Practices and discourses of ubuntu: Implications for an African model of disability?

Teaching critical reflection in Sub-Saharan Africa: business as usual?

A Look at Uganda's Early HIV Prevention Strategies Through a Moderate ‘African’ Communitarian Lens

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