Ubuntu Beyond Identities - Isintu as a Performative Turn of Ubuntu (Paperback)

Let us rewrite our history; A history that speaks of Africa as experienced by Africans. Let us rewrite our history that speaks of ubuntu traditions, isintu practices and umuntu/abantu as central pillars of society. Let us rewrite a narrative that speaks isintu sethu - setso sa rona, isintu - setso sa rona as a 'Set of Rules' for all practices in society. Twenty-five years after the delivery of political democracy, the Edenic projects of nonracialism and the Rainbow Nation have failed because there was no fuller appreciation of what is meant by ubuntu. Ubuntu consists of three integral parts: first, amasiko, which consists of traditions, norms and customs; isintu: rituals, performances and practices that help with the embodiment of ubuntu; and umuntu, the performer and practitioner of isintu and bearer of the ubuntu value system as a state of being and identity. The version of ubuntu that was used and applied immediately after 1994 for engendering nationbuilding should have initially been focused on rebuilding the Black social groups before there were attempts at rebuilding all races, through the defunct Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and forging social cohesion through short-term sporting codes such as the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Such an understanding of ubuntu, exemplified above, came across as sanitised and a quick fix that could not undo centuries of dehumanisation, as characterised by apartheid. By definition and practice, that is anathema to ubuntu since it depreciated the value systems and performances of isintu of the majority population and defiled the humanity of both the Black people and their white counterparts. Isintu ought to be regarded as a tool of inculcation of rules, norms and traditions that structure limits and help with the embodiment of ubuntu. This book regards it as well suited for solving the impasse currently witnessed in South Africa. It is only with the inclusion of the analysis and discussion of isintu that ubuntu may be understood and reveal its performative prowess in the production of identities and a variety of capitals meant to sustain the societies of sub-Saharan Africa. Needless to say, some aspects of ubuntu may well be suitable for export as representative of humanism or critical humanism. However, the system of ubuntu needs to be properly rationalised before it can be chopped down and paraded as a universal tool. The tendency of parading ubuntu as a universal tool of humanism has tended to weaken it along with individuals whose bodies and geographies are a locus for cultivation identities and diverse forms of capital that help enact and sustain local value systems. This book presents the true meaning of ubuntu, which has its roots in communitarian societies and their value systems. As part of an international benchmark on the viability of local value systems as a conceptual framework for performances of production aimed at a fulfilled citizenry, the book compares ubuntu to its counterpart value systems of Confucianism in China and Jantelagen in Sweden.