I am because of you

I’m afraid the most exciting thing going on in my life right now is the essay I’m writing on African Indigenous Knowledge and Conflict Resolution. Basically the just of the issue is that outsiders (the UN etc.) have been trying to ‘solve’ conflicts in Africa for decades and with very little success. As a result a renewed interest is forming around African solutions to African conflicts. Of course there are the usual dry academic debates about what terms like ‘traditional’ and ‘indigenous’ mean… but I won’t bore you with the theory. Instead let me share some points of interest….

Ubuntu - This African philosophy exists across many African cultures and can basically be summed up in the phrase “I am because of you.”

Or as Desmond Tutu puts it: “Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality - Ubuntu - you are known for your generosity. . . . A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.

So what does Ubuntu have to do with conflict resolutions? Well there is a lot of variety across communities and cultures, but basically Ubuntu –esque conflict resolution would involve the whole community affected and aim at restoring harmony. For example, someone who had broken a societal rule (who Westerns would call a criminal) may have to confess in front of the community or appointed elders, pay reparation and/or go through a symbolic ceremony and then be forgiven by whom he/she had offended. The aim would be to restore the perpetrator to the community as opposed to isolating him/her. The best example of putting Ubuntu into practice on a large scale is the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Another aspect of African conflict resolution models that struck me is that the whole community takes responsibility for the conflict. As one of the essays I’m reading states, “The African model accepts responsibility for the conflict. The mad person (who Westerners would call the criminal) is taken over, reintegrated into the traditional milieu, brought back into the social fold; he lives together with others. His statements are understood, experienced, accepted. Where necessary, purification rituals are performed. The Western mode leaves the mad person on his own. He is accused, subjected to treatment.” For example, former child soldiers in Northern Uganda are reintegrated through symbolic cleansing, songs and rituals and then welcomed back into their communities.

Of course all this sounds very ideal, but it is also realistic. African approaches see conflict as a necessary component of societies and therefore restitution as an on going process. It’s not like everyone lives in the Ubuntu ideal – it just another approach to solving conflict with its own strengths and weaknesses. Still I like it, especially compared to the punitive approaches of the West.

Perhaps I’ll have deeper insights the deeper I get into this essay. In the meantime …. Be Because We Are : )