This article defends an alternative account of ubuntu and makes a novel proposition about African morality and ethics. In doing so, it refutes the normative account of ubuntu premised on the aphorism umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu. According to this “greatest harmony” account, Africans are harmonic collectivists and sharers, linked together by community-defining conveyor-belts of moral and ethical goodwill “gifts.” It is assumed that an African theory of right action produces harmony and reduces discord. I aver, however, that such a prima facie (...) interpretation, notwithstanding its intuitive appeal, is still open to some rather strong doubt. (shrink)

The legal nature of international law is uncertain, despite being the foundation of the international community. Its non-universality questions the cohesion and efficacy of the international community. The international community operates as an exclusive club, coalescing around certain shared values, like liberal democracy and free market economy. Sub-Saharan Africa is usually excluded from being an active part of the international community due to differing values; a shared understanding of community which conflicts with the shared values of the core of the (...) international community. Furthermore, their post-colonial nature deters African states from choosing their own path or adopting the norms of the ‘international community.’ A paradigmatic shift in research into sub-Saharan Africa and the international community is necessary to ensure a truly effective international community and wider observance of international law. (shrink)

There has been the recurrent suspicion that community, harmony, cohesion, and similar relational goods as understood in the African ethical tradition threaten to occlude difference. Often, it has been Western defenders of liberty who have raised the concern that these characteristically sub-Saharan values fail to account adequately for individuality, although some contemporary African thinkers have expressed the same concern. In this chapter, I provide a certain understanding of the sub-Saharan value of communal relationship and demonstrate that it entails a substantial (...) allowance for difference. I aim to show that African thinkers need not appeal to, say, characteristically Euro-American values of authenticity or autonomy to make sense of why individuals should not be pressured to conform to a group’s norms regarding sex and gender. A key illustration involves homosexuality. (shrink)