Ubuntu: Curating the archive (Thinking Africa series) - Softcover

In South Africa, Ubuntu is the term for a kind of humanist philosophy, ethic, or ideology. This book contextualizes the discourse on Ubuntu within the wider historical framework of postcolonial attempts to rearticulate African humanism as a substantial philosophy and emancipatory ideology. As such, the emergence of Ubuntu as a postcolonial philosophy is posited as both a function of and a critical response to Western modernity. The central question addressed is: Was Ubuntu's emancipatory potential confined to and perhaps exhausted by South Africa's transition to democracy, or does the notion of a 'shared humanity' as theorized in Ubuntu discourse still have relevance for South Africans' urgent need to imagine the country's post-nationalist and post-neoliberal future? The contributions in the book address this question from the perspective of a wide range of disciplines, including political philosophy, African history, gender studies, philosophy of law, and cultural studies.

Leonhard Praeg is associate professor in the Department of Political and International Studies, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. Siphokazi Magadla is a lecturer in the Department of Political and International Studies, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.