Ubu-Ntu's Power to Shape Futures: A Journey of Praxis and Connection

Colonialism, while ubiquitous in reach and impact, wasn’t a totalising force. Decolonial futures have always been a fact of life for many. Posited as “alternatives”, decolonial praxis is juxtaposed with colonial sensibilities that are individualising, fragmenting, rigid, materialist and linear in character; the latter offers a different proposition.

Rooted in epistemologies of the land, decolonial futures are based on a regenerative ethos. This is evident in languages of indigenous people, and philosophies of being-be-coming and world-sense. This paper explores ubu-ntu (the onto-philosophy of the bantu-speaking people of Africa) as ontology, epistemology and axiology as a heralding and realisation of decolonial futures.

Ubu-ntu is the main reason why indigenous people survived the genocidal impulse of coloniality. While ubu-ntu is a southern African iteration of a humanising ethos, it shares foundational principles with other land-based philosophies. This paper explores possibilities offered by these epistemologies in relation to contemporary poly-crises.

The authors apply the ethos, philosophies and approaches of ubu-ntu epistemology in examination of contemporary social movements. We provide several case studies of formations grounded in what is often described as a “solidarity economy”. Some projects are rooted in decommodifying land and food sovereignty initiatives; others are organized as worker, owner and/or consumer cooperatives, timebanks, land trusts and other community-owned and run initiatives. This global movement is Described by different names this global movement seeks to reclaim ways of living, being and knowing that allowed peoples to survive and thrive historically.

Ubu-ntu is a living ethos deeply embedded in the commonsense of those who practice it. What vistas of theorization are possible when we tease out this deeply-embedded ethos of be-ing? How is ubu-ntu lived and purveyed in everyday life? To what extent does the solidarity economy movement exemplify ubu-ntu in practice and are they a “decolonizing” form of contemporary resistance?