Infusing Ubuntu Principles to Develop Well-functioning

Adolescents and Youth: A Plausible Solution for African Communities

Victoria Falls PSS Forum 2015

Love, Care and Protection. From Infancy to Adolescence

1-3 September 2015

Presenter: Ms Nontobeko Buthelezi; Ms Lindokuhle Makhonza

Contact: buthelezin@ukzn.ac.za

OutlineOutline

• Rationale

• Background

• Defining Ubuntu Humanism

• Key values and principles promoted by Ubuntu principles

• Images of youth in public spaces

• Adversities faced by adolescents and youth

• Images of adolescent and youth not entrenched in the Ubuntu principles

• Ways to foster Ubuntu principles in families and communities

• Conclusions

Rationale

• Experience of the presenter in the child and youth development module

• Research on vulnerable children and youth

• Negative images of youth in the public space

Background

• Human existence that is embedded in humane and meaningful values enhance endurance and psychological wellbeing for people faced with adversities.

• Africa has a deep heritage of philosophies and values that promote a sense of purpose.

• For example your child is my child or it takes a whole village to raise a child was a norm in the olden days

• It seems that some of the traditional African cultural values have been lost and distorted, yet these values can provide solutions for the challenges faced by the adolescents and youth in Africa.

• In as much as there is a call for renewal of Western culture in religion (Young, 2013) the African humanism is a must in contemporary Africa.

Defining Ubuntu Humanism

Ubuntu?

• Moral quality

• African humanism or worldview

• Way of life

• Sartre (2003) we” includes a plurality of subjective

• Dialogical self -recognise the other as an extension of the self

• Ramose (2006)epistemological paradigm; Broodryk (2002) comprehensive ancient African worldview

• Personhood (Masolo’s 2010) anchored in communal lives and embedded in in relation to the family (Brooks, 2002)

• Nussbaum (2003 ); Poovan, Du Toit and Engelbrecht (2006) explain that the central values of Ubuntu are survival, solidarity, compassion, reciprocity, respect and dignity, harmony, and humanity

Different aspects of Ubuntu

Morality• Justice • Fairness

Humane values

• Sharing • compassi

on

Personhood

• Relational

• Communal

UBUNTU

Virtues associated with Ubuntu humanism

Virtue associated with a good citizen (Barry Schwartz & Kenneth Sharpe, 2012)

• the love of truth,

• honesty,

• courage,

• fairness, and

• wisdom

According to Letseka (2013) makhabane (virtues)

• hard work,

• respect for persons,

• humility,

• perseverance,

• service to the nation, and

• patriotism

Key values and principles promoted by Ubuntu principles

• In this theoretical paper, it is argued that the adolescents and youth who are brought up in communal environments that prioritise Ubuntu as a philosophy and a way of life, provide a fertile ground to model care and love

• Ubuntu enhance better human relations, create a sense of belonging and can even improve the productivity amongst other factors.

• The Ubuntu principles can provide structure and guidance for the adolescents and youth and help them to strive despite difficulties.

• The inclusive nature of the Ubuntu values promote holistic development of human beings who define themselves in relation to other living and non-living organisms. Such a socially integrated view of self tends to support harmonious existence.

• The adolescents and youth that are aligned to Ubuntu principles define themselves by humane values, and not just by the labels and categories that amplify their adversities.

Key values and principles promoted by Ubuntu principles cont’d…

• Possession of attributes and dispositions that are anchored in communal

• Rooted identity which address identity problematic

• Multiplicity of selves through others and different layers

• Able to incorporate different emergent identities and recognise the role of the other in identity formation

• The self is perpetual forming and is relational

• Masolo (2010) the sense of belonging, or the realization and acceptance that the self is located in the midst of others; Dialogical self -recognise the other as an extension of the self

Disruptive factors on Ubuntu values and principles

• Colonization and apartheid disrupted this identity/ way of life.

• White superiority and black inadequacy entrenched.

• Families destabilized by urbanization and influx control laws.

• Absent fathers (besebenza eGoli etc).

• Acquired stereotypical behaviour; Subculture of violence

• Poverty

• High unemployment rate

• Media exposure, technology and role modelling

• Poor gender equality and respect

Images of adolescent and youth in public spaces

• Involvement in brutal criminal activities such as rape of early and children

• Failure to respond to challenges in a creative and innovative manner

• Lack of regard for rules and regulations

• Racist attitude

• Increasing number of the destitute and homelessness

• Prostitution as an alternative survival skills

• Xenophobic attacks

Images of adolescent and youth not entrenched in the Ubuntu principles

• Disconnect between self and the other; substance abuse (81 % on drugs)

• An Ubuntu perception of the other is never fixed or rigidly closed, but adjustable and open-ended

• Embrace collective not communal and relational values

• Failure to see oneself self in others;

• “Self first” thinking- individualism

• Unable to regulate own behaviour; low level of self-control

• Adopt a materialistic approach to life

Ways to foster Ubuntu principles in families and communities cont’d…

Rituals• Slaughtering of animals and burning of incense in the home to foster

protection and connection with the living and the living dead

• Declaration of lineage and belonging of the person in particular clan name when performing umsebenzi wokubika

• Reiteration of the persons clan names to affirm ones rootedness

• Instances where such rituals can be formed

• Celebration

• Cleansing after a transgression

• Integration

Ways to foster Ubuntu principles in families and communities contd…

Practices: Rite of passage • Acknowledging and recognising rite of passage- when boys and girls show

signs of ability to reproduce

• Demystify sex and address sexuality issues when celebrating coming of age

• Praise singing as means to remind the person of his origin (imvelaphi)

• Mother is responsible for the first collection of praise names (Nyembezi & Nxumalo, 1966)

• The significance of ukuyalwa (receiving advices)during the initiation period

• Attention accorded to the initiate is affirming and symbolic

Ways to foster Ubuntu principles in families and communities

Affirming and motivating idioms/proverbs• Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (I am because you are and you are

because I am)

• Asikho isilima esindlebende kwaso (no matter what the public thinks about you will always be cherished by your family)

• Izandla ziyagezana (one hand washes the other)

• Such sayings promote:

• Collaboration

• and active participation in social environments

Conclusions

Fostering Ubuntu and Families and communities• Families and communities that are responsive to the challenges faced by

adolescents and youth

• Enhance communal inter-connectedness by prioritising our common humanity and interdependence

• Child rearing practice that honour communal relationships

• Celebrate human achievement and acknowledge developmental milestones

• Separate the person from the action

• Perform rituals for each person irrespective of birth circumstances

• The self in relation to others and not just a collective

Conclusions cont’d…

• Embrace the multiplicity that has emerged but ensure its basis is Ubuntu; take what is of value from the past Sankofa style. 

• Caregivers working with the adolescents and youth should make an effort to re-engineer the Ubuntu principles in families and communities where values of Ubuntu have been lost.

• It also critical to create an awareness for the adolescents and youth on these values, and to facilitate a deeper understanding on how the Ubuntu principles contribute to the preservation of themselves and their communities.