what are the key points of Ubuntu (Humanity) particulary as it relates to poverty?

Question

How can the Ubuntu philosophical approach address the issue of poverty and how can the elements of Ubuntu be integrated into practices in everyday life in the contemporary?.

Answer 1

Peace. One thing about the African/Eastern Paradigm is that it isn't necessarily a philosophy or an intellectual pursuit but a lifestyle, state of being, or oneness. There's no separation or individualization between the various parts of Creation (Universe/Space, Various Plants, and Fauna, Animals, Insects, Various Bodies of Water, Human Beings, etc) but everything is a united function as an entire body simultaneously operating harmoniously for greater manifestations and elevations. You just "ARE". As in Western societies "I" and/or "Self" are the dominant paradigms in contrast to traditional African and Eastern thinking, the pronouns "We" and "Us" are at the forefront. Decisions weren't supposed to be based upon how a/the individual feels or at the detriment to fellow human beings, the environment, and the rest of creation. If WE were to see someone at a disadvantage, WE don't assist or just help you because it's the right thing to do, WE help and assist because it's what WE are supposed to do. Little nuances such as everybody eating as a community/family-style or the concept of the extended family not being seen as an extended family but as your literal brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers (it takes a village concept). I started with all this to lead into where the idea or essence of Ubuntu stems from.

"You are as strong as the weakest link" can partially sum up what constitutes Ubuntu. A traditional definition is: "A person is a person through other people", "I am because you are and because you are therefore I am" or the essence of being Human. To exist, live, and function, you can only learn and operate through other people. As with other African -Centered "Philosophies", it's not a noun but a verb. You implement it by just doing it. Doing such things as going to the soup kitchen or just personally cooking three meals and handing them out, would be Ubuntu. Or sponsoring a child/student (any age) or paying for some or all of a college student's books for a semester. It's not the magnitude just the action. Practices such as the Seven Principles of Maat, or the Nguzo Saba from Kwanzaa (Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba, Imani)

Truth be told it starts with first knowing who you are and your Divine Purpose. There was an adage that has been attributed to Greek Philosophers but originated from Egypt "The Body is the house of God, know thyself, and you are going to know the God". Who and why are you? You are just a piece of fruit, of the root of your family (Sankofa). Meditating (going within), Praying (with specific intention), and Fasting (with purpose) works (All principles associated with African and Eastern traditions, which falls in line with Ubuntu). Once you know whom you are you can heal, repair, and restore the "deficiency" with much more precision and potency. An educator eradicating poverty (or just being Human) would take on a whole different form than say a medical practitioner fulfilling their purpose.

Having a mentality (According to the Kybalion, everything starts in the mind first) that sees other "individuals" not as strangers but as children of the Universe/Cosmos/Great Omnipotent who have a divine right to live their life unhindered (as long as their lifestyle does cause and bring about disharmony to themselves or others) with free access to food, clothing, and shelter because being selfish or holding out was considered a blemish and taboo within the societies of the various ethnic groups and cultures on the African continent. If you do that and implement other African/Eastern rooted "Philosophies" or practices such as the Seven Principles of Maat, or the Nguzo Saba from Kwanzaa (Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba, Imani) in your daily lifestyle, you will be embodying Ubuntu in all aspects of your life.

But here are some questions you can investigate that can assist you(or whomever this is for) to know how to correctly come with a solution rooted in Ubuntu: Why is there poverty in the first place? Is there a lack of resources due to overpopulation and overcrowding? If so are we all to blame? Do some people get more blame than others? How much of the planet is truly inhabited anyway? Could this all be due to mindsets and mentalities (at the forefront) having an impoverished mentality, that is "I" and "Me" centered, instead of an "Us" and "WE"?

*Nice video of Archbishop Desmond Tutu explaining what Ubuntu is:"Who we are: Human uniqueness and the African spirit of Ubuntu. Desmond Tutu, Templeton Prize 2013"; Doc Rivers of the Boston Celtics explaining it:"Doc Rivers' Ubuntu Culture: 'I Am Because We Are"; Nelson Mandela's take on it: Youtube: "Ubuntu Philosophy Mandela"

**Though Kwanzaa is labeled a holiday that is predominately observed by the African-American/Black community across the globe, the real meaning behind the observance is to reconnect back to your divine roots (connecting back to whom The Creator desired for you to be) establishing a sense of pride and joy in reconnecting back to your roots/source. The principles followed stem from how the various cultures and communities (within the continent of Africa) governed their affairs with one another, the environment, and how they approached The Creator in day-day affairs. In which anybody can follow and adapt for themselves.

Answer 2

To be perfectly frank, I had never heard of this term before. But a quick search indicates that the core of Ubuntu is an emphasis on society or community over the individual and a recognition that the individual is not the fundamental unit of society, yet without any necessary reference to a presiding deity.

As such, this is an extremely general concept and, being unfamiliar with the literature, I don't know how thoroughly it has been developed as a philosophical concept, though it is rather nice that a line of Linux is named after it. A traditional African emphasis on language ties as the basis of a necessary reciprocity makes this neologism fitting.

Obviously, such a standpoint goes against the grain of modern Western Liberalism from Hobbes and Descartes through Kant and Smith, as well various strains of romanticism, subjective idealism, Nietzschean heroics, and existentialism, with their basis in the atomic individual or the active subject and will.

It would thus be closer to those philosophies that give priority to society, which might include Plato's ideal of the Polis and even the Greek norm of Xenia or hospitality. It would certainly align with moderns such as Rousseau, Hegel, and Marx. But arguably liberalism itself, in Smith or Rawls, say, places a higher value on "fair" social interactions than on maximizing the subject.

An emphasis on the social does not mean an emphasis on equality and hence covers a variety of stances towards poverty. While Plato or Hegel may prioritize the community over the individual, the community is viewed as an organic hierarchy which is perfectly compatible with poverty or at least a class structure with lower ranks. Obviously, the opposite is the case with Marx or someone like Habermas or ancient and modern communitarians.

Since Ubuntu, from my cursory glance, appears to be based in spontaneous practices, while poverty is, in my view, very much a structural issue there may be no clear relation, apart from the standard principles of charity inherent in most religions and philosophies, apart from outliers like DeSade and Ayn Rand.

As noted, I have no business answering on behalf of an ideal or norm unknown to me until ten seconds ago. But perhaps this provides some general context, and I will be curious to see if anyone knows of a developed literature under this term. It is revealing and intriguing that it comes to prominence as the name of an open source OS.

Answer 3

I get that there is great enthusiasm to use the term, but I think there is a risk of it coming to mean all things to all people, or being a kind of inverse projection of what we consider to be the failings of 'Western culture'. This is particularly because there isn't a book or body of literature defining it which has then been elaborated, which scholars can agree on and review. So let's look at what we can do.

This TedBlog article says "the first use of the term in print came in 1846 in the book 'I-Testamente Entsha' by HH Hare" (the link to that article doesn't connect to it). This article 'The Historical Development of the Written Discourses on Ubuntu' backs that up.

I would be inclined to picture it as a paradigmatic meta-ethic, and compare it to what I understand to be other examples. Filial piety and the suppression of destructive succession crisees in Confucuanism. The universalised individual of monotheism & Kant. And Graeber's picture of active suppression of inequality among hunter gatherers, that might be called the active 'state of nature' (contrasting with Rousseau's vision of it as passive), which he based on studies of the arrival of humans on Madagascar and cultural change around the border between essentially imperialist Mesoamerica and hunter-gatherer plains tribes of North America. What I see as really important is to understand that the paradigm is not properly regarded as reasoned into, but emergent and embodies and reflects a deeply rooted world view (Confucius is known through his texts which argue hus case, but I'd argue it was really the fall of the Qin & rise of the peasant emperor that founded the Han dynasty, that really put Confucianism at the centre of Chinese culture & thought).

The Zulu nation is very interesting, and of very high importance in Subsaharan black Afruca's narrative of itself. Shaka Zulu introduced key reforms, promotion on merit, and subserviance of spiritual leaders to the state, which allowed a truly functional state, which almost for the first time saw succesful resistance to slavers and slave raids by an entire community. The internal African slave trade preceding contact with Europe has been linked by John Reader, to the relatively unpredictable African climate & highly fluctuating food supply, as a way of managing suddenly unsustainable populations. The introduction of corn, a very productive crop but completely unresistent to drought, greatly increased the peak population outside of drought, driving the intensification of the internal slave trade - begun like debt slavery in the old world as better than starvation, & transferring people to places with food, turned into chattel slavery by Islamic & European raiders and traders. The huge wealth from the trade, & the environmental drivers, saw nearly all African leaders corrupted, and those who weren't themselves overthrown & enslaved. Until the Zulus. Huge population movements happened because of fear of slavery, and mistrust of rulers, and the Zulu state took on huge numbers of refugees, and became an identity beyobd being a state, based on resisting 'selling people down the river', literally. John Reader gives far more detail, especially on regional differences, but I wanted just a short picture of the special significance of the Zulu nation. Beyond practical impacts, & despite inevitably losing to European guns, the initial victory against the British, and the deep-rooting of a uniquely African experience of the need for solidarity, cannot be underestimated in impacting on black African psychology (Afrikaa Bambataa's Zulu Nation group and it's roll in the rise of hiphop culture, is a nice direct illustration).

Subsaharan African states have had a uniquely difficult time achieving peaceful democratic transitions, as illustrated by the Ibrahim leadership award struggling to find candidates. But that is changing. The birthrate in every region on Earth is now below replacement, except Subsaharan Africa. This has typically been percieved as a burden. But countries long past their own demographic transitions to majority over 25, have been propping up their economies with immigration - except Japan, which illustrates the future of a more closed-borders world. Victorian England, and modern China, and many other examples, show the huge economic impact a demographic transition can have. Subsaharan nations like South Afruca and Nigeria, already have significant economies, and over the next century are likely to become powerhouses exactly as established powers populations shrink, and lack if workers sees their economies stagnate. So the focus on leadership & transitions, is going to be a crucial barometer.

The original Zulu Nation had to be highly militaristic & centralised, traits which don't make for good transitions. But I'd suggest it represents an ethical transition, which needs to spread, and a revolution that needs to be finished. The rise of hiphop shows the huge power of African-rooted culture, and perhaps offers some more positive ideas - the pillars of hiphop are about empowerment of all people to shape urban environments (graffiti art), redirection of aggression into creativity and competition (breakdance), and of course MCing & turntabilism, commenting and reinterpreting music for block parties. The premise there, of inclusion, empowerment, and things for young people to get involved in, surely need carrying forward. The example of Nelson Mandela, who helped spread, champion, and I'd say define, the term ubuntu is absolutely of the highest importance.

I am a bit sceptical of how useful it is to say 'fix poverty with ubuntu', without the kind of context-setting above. Unfreezing the Zulu revolution of solidarity and meritocracy. Grassroots culture & activism like that hiphop was founded on. And the dignity and wisdom embodied by Mandela. I see these as crucial to understanding the paradigmatic metaethic behind ubuntu.

On addressing poverty, I really really recommend Joe Walston's tactics laid out on Mindscape. Africa will be the crucible in which we face humanitarian, biodiversity, and environmental challenges at their most intense. Supporting the precursors of the demographic transition there, is one of the most important issues anywhere in the world: morally, and for the future of all humans. So how the world acts towards Africa will truly be where we decide if, "I am because we are".