Where has the southern African spirit of 'Ubuntu' gone in light of the xenophobic attacks in South Africa? Or was it ever there in the first place?

On Sunday, 25 May 2005, Africa celebrated ‘Africa Day’ or as it is known in Zambia, ‘African Freedom Day’. However, when celebrating this marvellous continent in all its beauty, we should ask ourselves, as Africans, how far have we come to simply accept each other? How far have we come to practice the spirit of Ubuntu? (The spirit of Ubuntu is a southern African philosophy which focuses on peoples’ allegiances and relations with each other)

I have read countless articles where authors seem to shift the blame to the colonial powers that divided Africa at the Berlin Conference in 1884 – 1885. Yes, the colonial powers seemed to have created a divide between our people, based on race, tribes, etc. However, Europe has ‘left’ Africa a long time ago and yet we use those differences to advocate hatred and war among each other, as Africans.

Currently South Africa is seeing the result of our hatred to one another, as Africans. South African nationals are attacking people of foreign citizenship in South Africa, burning their houses and setting out to kill them. It is surprising to note that only citizens of foreign African countries are being attacked and the citizens of other continents, which are staying in South Africa, are left unharmed. The xenophobic attackers are stating that the African foreigners are committing crimes and taking employment from South African citizens. This is the reason for the attacks on all the foreign African citizens. Apart from the fact that they blatantly have no trust in the South African criminal justice system, they are also showing their hatred towards African foreigners. They are showing this hatred notwithstanding the fact that Ubuntu is an inherent southern African philosophy, which the South African government has countless times encouraged us to practice.

Although xenophobia cannot be compared to genocide, because the special intention, which is required to commit genocide, is lacking in xenophobia, the social circumstances are similar. Citizens from one country are attacking citizens from foreign countries, more particular foreign citizens from other African continents. The ultimate question remains, does Africa not learn from its previous and current mistakes? Robert Mugabe, who was an African hero, is also guilty of advocating xenophobic attacks against foreign farmers and farm workers from Malawi and other parts of Africa, who are living in Zimbabwe. Rwanda saw the bloody massacre of thousands of its citizens, for which the Hutu militia and the Rwandan government were responsible. Sudan is currently going through the same experience with the Janjaweed (a government backed militia) attacking all non-Muslim citizens of Sudan in the Darfur region.

Classification plays an important role in the attacks. Our roots and our ancestry define our being as Africans. However, when this classification allows us to ostracise one another, based on a certain classification, we should start comparing it to our sense for humanity… for Ubuntu. We should start comparing the importance of our tribe/ citizenship to that of having the African continent flourish with respect for human rights. This is a difficult decision to make, but if our tribe/ national classification is a reason to break us as Africans, then we should start to consider the importance thereof. If we cannot live in peace in our tribes, then we should start questioning the existence thereof. Kenya just recently gave testimony to where a political disagreement filtered into ethnic violence, with the Luo tribe violently attacking the members of the Kikuyu tribe. Rwanda abolished the Tutsi and Hutu ethnic classification after the 1994 genocide and today the country is on a successful route to have its citizens living in harmony and peace with each other.

I used Rwanda, Kenya and Sudan as examples of the consequences where the practice of Ubuntu was absent. In southern Africa this practice flourishes wonderfully in philosophy, but looking at the past atrocities in this region (Zimbabwe’s presidential and parliamentary elections and the xenophobic attacks in South Africa), I am of the opinion that Ubuntu is not present here, even though we are encouraged to practice it.