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Gender Equity, Ethics and Feminism: Assumptions of an African Ubuntu Oriented Society
Abstract
Feminism is a key transformative movement which impacts on women’s rights and has been an essential and important influencer on critical theory and, although, pursuing its very distinct agendas, has assimilated aspects from theories such as Marxism, Deconstruction and to an extent Postmodernism. What is especially interesting is its schema to comprehend the nature and contrivance of male oppression and the way in which the fairer-sex experiences this oppression. The experience of African women in an Ubuntu oriented society, such as South Africa, is particularly important to understand, since this is a suppressed discourse requiring greater analysis. By interpreting feminism and feminist ethics in African society in a way which allows it to view itself in new forms, the researcher seeks to provide an overview of feminism as well as the role of ethics in African culture. The present research, thus, serves to promote gnosis as well as deeper understanding of the philosophy of Ubuntu and will assist in determining where African women fit in the scheme of universal expression.
... However, in many cases mothers assume both roles concurrently. Patriarchy is still a dominant force within many black South African cultures (Nicolaides 2015). From a historical perspective, in traditional precolonial times, African women played a vital role in subsistence farming where they were appreciated as women and complemented men. ...
... From a historical perspective, in traditional precolonial times, African women played a vital role in subsistence farming where they were appreciated as women and complemented men. The subsequent enslavement of Africans along the east and west coasts of the continent, the destruction of traditional values by colonialism and alien missionary religions, apartheid, migration of males to the mines and other industries, and globalisation have all impacted on African family life and manifested in discriminatory attitudes towards women (Nicolaides 2015). In addition to playing a crucial role during pre-colonial times, women also participated in the struggle for liberation of Africa from colonialism (Nicolaides 2015). ...
... The subsequent enslavement of Africans along the east and west coasts of the continent, the destruction of traditional values by colonialism and alien missionary religions, apartheid, migration of males to the mines and other industries, and globalisation have all impacted on African family life and manifested in discriminatory attitudes towards women (Nicolaides 2015). In addition to playing a crucial role during pre-colonial times, women also participated in the struggle for liberation of Africa from colonialism (Nicolaides 2015). Although traditional patriarchal cultural beliefs, particularly within Zulu cultures, of male superiority and privilege continue to be felt, they are increasing being subject to change and contestation by women's economic mobility and the context of women's rights in South Africa's current rights-based constitutional democracy (Bhana, de Lange and Mitchell 2009). ...
While South African educational policy gives all persons the right to attend educational institutions irrespective of pregnancy or maternal status, it can be demanding to be both a student and a mother and to reconcile competing conceptions of what it means to be a “good student” and a “good mother”—particularly within African culture. The research adopted a feminist ethics of care perspective and gender role theory to explore the challenges that university-level mothers experience and the strategies they adopt to cope with their situations. The study was located within a qualitative research paradigm and involved semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 14 female undergraduate university students. Key findings were that the student mothers experienced financial, social and emotional challenges, but were able to cope with the support of family and friends. These findings have implications for the support and empowerment of student mothers to enable them to reconcile competing roles of student and mother.
... Clearly, these operations and the actions of illegal gold mining syndicate leaders contradict Ubuntu's values of care for the weak and vulnerable in the community and for the respect of human dignity (Nicolaides, 2015;. The arrested zama-zamas now face charges of rape, robbery, assault, possession of unlicensed firearms, and contravening the mineral acts in the Krugersdorp Magistrate courts. ...
The recent mass rape of eight women from a team shooting a music video on an unused gold mine dump near West Village, in Mogale City, in the West Rand District Municipality, of Gauteng Province, South Africa sparked a national outcry about Gender-based Violence (GBV) in the country. The men who gang-raped the women are called zama zamas (loosely translated ‘trying to attain luck’). The incident has raised two disturbing developments in the post-1994 South African context. First, statistics show that 1100 women were sexually violated in the first three months of 2022 in South Africa. The current president of the country, Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa, declared GBV a national pandemic in his Covid-19 pandemic speech. Second, it also reminded the nation about the trend of business enterprises placing profit at the expense of poor and vulnerable workers. The article focuses on the second development by applying two Ubuntu values and a Christocentric approach to compare gold mine companies and the zama zama enterprises in the region. It also concludes by proposing an alternative to the problem of illegal gold mining in the region.
... Discourses on Ubuntu also show that Ubuntu is critiqued for dehumanising women (Gabaitse, 2012: 66-69;Moloko-Phiri, 2015:185,219;Mzondi, 2015:132-251). Nicolaides (2015) states that Ubuntu has a schema to "…comprehend the nature and contrivance of male oppression and the way in which the fairer-sex experiences this oppression. The experience of African women in an Ubuntu oriented society, such as South Africa, is particularly important to understand, since this is a suppressed discourse requiring greater analysis." ...
Practical theology has evolved from emphasising pastoral ministry to addressing contemporary issues facing local churches so that they can bring about transformation within the communities in which they operate. In addition, efforts and proposals to support practical theology as interdisciplinary have progressed and are considered to be transformative. This article explores the Lekgotla and Magadi processes by leveraging the African Indigenous Knowledge System (AIKS), with the aim of presenting two Ubuntu-based research methods for practical theology to engage and contribute to the transformational agenda. It combines social constructivism and the Ubuntu worldview to propose the Lekgotla method and the Magadi methods.
... Shutte (2001) and Broodryk (2002) argue that Ubuntu should be exported to the rest of the world as Africa's gift to humanity. Nicolaides (2015) says that Ubuntu in a way controls the norms of conduct and criteria for achievement and is characterized by a strong sense of communal life, which articulates itself in a rather difficult set of linkages in social relationships. The same author argues that Ubuntu is important in all spheres of life (Nicolaides, 2014), including the workplace and public service (Nicolaides & Manyama, 2020). ...
The research examines the contributions of the African Indigenous Knowledge System and, more precisely, the African traditional philosophy of community or Ubuntu as a countermeasure against the challenges of child-rearing in a changing society. The research contends that Ubuntu has a sagacity from which the world can learn lessons to combat the challenges of child-rearing in a changing society. Challenges named above are mainly due to society becoming more modernized, and individualistic thereby neglecting African ways of child rearing. This is the case with urbanization whereby many people move to urban places for economic prospects. Another challenge is that of family decay worldwide, where there’s an increase in a number of single
parenting due to a number of factors. Some of those factors are due to the high divorce rate, the death of a partner etc. The author argues that Ubuntu can contribute to offering helpful solutions to the challenges under study. The research utilises the secondary research or desk research methodology. The results show that Ubuntu is a likely good countermeasure against the myriad of challenges in child-rearing worldwide. The research concludes that the utilisation of this African philosophy may be extremely valuable in contributing supportively to the many challenges of childrearing faced by people worldwide.
... The researcher observed that there are of course a range of many other positive behaviors via which the supporting of youth for at least a period within the church can result in positive behavioral changes Pharos Journal of Theology ISSN 2414-3324 online Volume 103 -(2022) Copyright: ©2022 Open Access/Author/s -Online @ http//: www.pharosjot.com that may well persist even beyond the teenage stage into adulthood. Nicolaides (2015) states that in an Ubuntu society such as South Africa, it is incumbent on young women to be cared for so that there can be some gender equity, especially given that many young women are sexually abused. They need to feel liberated to report such issues. ...
This paper sought to explore the perceptions of and the experiences of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) on teenage care in territories of the Port Elizabeth North Circuit. It is during adolescence that religious beliefs and values are anticipated to begin to assume the same meanings that they have in later life. The study, from which this paper is derived, was informed
by a qualitative approach using a case study design. The study also used interviews complemented by focus group discussions as data collection methods. The study comprised 22 participants who remained anonymous, that were selected through the use of a purposive sampling technique. This paper revealed the following thematic findings: Convictions on the lives
of teenagers, teenager’s habits that affect behavior, observation of teenagers’ aggressions. Furthermore, this paper employed a pastoral care approach as a theoretical or conceptual framework and made the following recommendations: There is need for the MCSA to have committees that will formulate structures for sustaining projects and give an account of finance
utilization as many teenagers drop out from school for financial reasons. The MCSA, Department of Social Development, NGOs and the Department of Health should work together to strategize on structuring the welfare of children in communities general. The MCSA should take into account
all the special conditions that are associated with child abuse. The Methodist should develop a teenage care policy and integrate it into its existing polices.
... This is a crucial exhortation that needs to be made to persecuted believers, urging Christians to bask in and embrace the sovereignty of God, especially in times of suffering, remembering that God determines their destiny and not their persecutors -whether the State, an extremist group, members of family, or even the wider community. Nicolaides (2010;2015) asserts we are the church, the creation of the Ekklesia by the incarnate logos of God created in a new and unique relationship as God's people that allows humanity to enter into the Covenant and to become part of the 'people of God' (Laos tou Theou) and are likely to be persecuted. and in this relationship gender equity, for one, is important to positively promote. ...
During the early centuries CE of the Church, it was characterized by trials, contempt of the faithful and persecutions. Christians who were unwilling to compromise their faith were martyred in the process in the most terrible ways. The rationale behind this study is to focus on Christian persecution, especially beginning from the biblical context; in order to examine what Christian persecution is all about and what it is not. This research thus briefly examines the issue of persecution in the early Church with specific attention to Acts 8:1-8. An exegetical and descriptive methodology is explored in this research. The contemporary state of Nigeria is reflected the early church. This research not only discusses the issue of persecution in the early church, but also analyzes and places it side by side with such happenings in the nation of Nigeria today. In view of this, the contemporary Christians in Nigeria do and may in future also benefit a great deal from the early Church’s experience.
... Instead of instruments guiding punitive policing, and militaristic and incarcerating actions, this ethic advocates in favour of restorative justice (Davies 2017). Nicolaides (2015) and Cornell and Van Marle (2015) argue that ubuntu is much more than an ethical philosophy; it includes an ontology, epistemology, axiology, a spatiality, and a socio-political call to action. The fourth principle of ubuntu feminism suggested above is a call to liberating, transgressive social action (Davies 2017). ...
Gendered human security as a focus for protracted violence against women in a society in transition calls for urgent attention, especially in South Africa. The author summarises some tenets of ubuntu feminism and juxtaposes them with state-centric and people-centric discourses of human security and their link to development, gendered well-being and interpersonal violence. Inadequate attention paid to human interdependency as seen through an ubuntu feminist lens is linked to poor responses in addressing interpersonal and gender violence. The argument is made that an individualised, human-rights based approach is inadequate as a frame to find sustainable solutions to intractable gendered human insecurity. Looking at human insecurity and violence against women in South Africa, this article offers three arguments in favour of ubuntu feminism for renewed efforts to analyse the issue and locate adequate responses.
... She asserts that care has to do with attentiveness to others, trust, responsiveness and responsibility and personal relationships that are mainly the focus of women. In agreement, Rachels and Rachels (2012:150-152) argue that women are far more empathetic and caring about close personal relationships because of the social roles they were socialised to fulfil through psychological conditioning, whereas men generally seem to have been socialised to care about shallow relationships (Nicolaides 2015). Such conceptualisation of care encourages some people to resist pastoral caregiving initiatives by males because of the assumption that it is a transgression to normal life. ...
In this article, I explore the concept of Ubuntu in a context of caregiving with the aim of deconstructing the gendering of caregiving in a context of pastoral care. Using a qualitative approach, this article draws from the empirical findings of primeval praxis of Ubuntu from a study conducted on the KwaZulu-Natal chapter of South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF) funded ‘Archaeology of Ubuntu’ project. Empirical findings were evaluated through African women theology. Findings of this article highlight that Ubuntu in a context of caregiving is not exclusively feminine because men also display strong tendencies of care in African traditional communities. This suggests that pastoral care in an African context should not be gendered because findings of the article confirm that the Zulu elders from KwaZulu-Natal generally linked Ubuntu to communal care where men and women partnered in extending caregiving to those in need.
Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Although the article is written from a socio-anthropological perspective, it integrates African traditional presumptions of gender and care ethics that are significant in extending pastoral care by reviewing literature from sociology, anthropology, gender, feminist studies, practical theology and systematic theology.
Transitioning education from a teacher-centred approach to student-centred learning through a transformative competency-based curriculum remains a challenge to many disciplines. An added consideration during such a transition is the interconnection between culture and curriculum. One such example in the nursing and widwifery discipline took place in the transformation of the curriculum in Lesotho in 2014. However, this link between culture and curriculum was not taken into consideration. Difficulty in parting with didactic lecturing resulted in curriculum drift in all except one nursing education institution, where the educators are mostly from other African countries. Literature highlights culture as a factor that could negatively influence curriculum transformation, which gave rise to the question: How does culture influence the implementation of curriculum transformation? A qualitative descriptive interpretative design was adopted, and data were collected by means of the Mmogo-Method™. This culture-sensitive projective technique was conducted in four phases - creation of context, construction, discussion, and debriefing. Seven purposively selected midwifery educators, from three different institutions, participated and the session was video recorded. Through a thematic data analysis of transcriptions and images, three main categories were identified: cultural conventions, the midwifery and nursing professions, and midwifery education. The sub-categories of each were influenced by social interactions. Emic interpretation revealed power to control as an emergent theme. Social interactions are a common thread in patriarchy and student-centred learning. However patriarchy as a factor of power to control is contrary to the underpinnings of student-centred learning, thus negatively influencing curriculum transformation. Insights into cultural influences could guide engagement of the educators in knowledge-construction towards culturally congruent, quality education to ultimately improve midwifery practice for positive health outcomes.
Resisting a single-axis framework and adopting intersectionality in gendered security research and practice ensures that more inclusive and holistic security, and thus sustainable peace, is achieved in post-conflict societies. Yet, the way in which intersectionality is used in research and policy-making determines different outcomes that either take us further away or closer to that goal. The aim of this study is to explore how gender intersects with other systems of oppression to create experiences of gendered (in)security in Rwandan communities. My research suggests that the failure to cultivate a thorough understanding of intersectionality in gender security practice results in gender-based violence (GBV), gender discrimination and gender hierarchies, all of which threaten the sustainability of peace in the post-conflict era.
The key objective of my study is to critically evaluate the value of analysing the inner workings of intersectionality for the Rwandan context, gendered security research and practice, and Women, Peace and Security (WPS) work. The inner workings of intersectionality refer to the modes, dynamics, contestations and strategies that surround the concept. I use three logics to explore the inner workings of intersectionality. These are the logics of domination, addition, and interdependence. The logics are used in combination to cultivate a holistic understanding of intersectionality. I use a deconstructive discourse analysis to reveal how the different logics, and indeed the inner workings themselves, are (re)produced and the effects that the logics have, and have had, on gendered security in Rwanda. My conceptual exploration of the inner workings of intersectionality draws from examples in colonial, post- colonial and post-genocide Rwanda. I use a multi-level analysis, focussing on the everyday experiences of marginalised women, whose social location lies at the intersection of multiple systems of oppression, while also paying attention to larger structural power differentials that are filtered through the global economy and global security. My study shows that there is a link between the utilisation of intersectionality according to the logics and gendered (in)security.
Rwanda is a useful case study for the analysis of intersectionality because the history of Hutu/Tutsi political violence lends itself to an intersectional analysis. In addition, despite Rwanda’s robust gender equality and gender security policy and legal frameworks, gendered
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insecurities, such as persistently high rates of GBV, continue to threaten the sustainability of peace in the post-genocide era. My analysis reveals how intersections have generated complex experiences of violence in Rwanda’s past; how the misappropriation of intersectional thinking can lead to the creation of gendered (in)security silences, which allows gender discrimination to thrive and threaten peace in the contemporary moment; and how positive intersections can be cultivated through community forums for generating positive peace and gender justice at a local level.
Ubuntu is an African philosophy that has held together African communities for a millennium and its ethics ensures that law and order are maintained across different African communities. This philosophy ensured and still to a degree ensures that conflicts amongst tribal communities are resolved amicably. The poor, widows, and orphans have always existed in Africa. However, Ubuntu as a philosophy taught Africans how to treat others with dignity. Ubuntu taught Africans that their existence depends on one another. Having mentioned this, the African continent continues to experience a high level of corruption, ethnicity, xenophobia, and intolerance, especially for the LGBQI+ community. Hence, some scholars have concluded that Ubuntu is dead and no longer exists, paying more attention to high inter alia crime rates, corruption, xenophobia, ethnic wars, and homophobia. This research argues that despite the challenges Africa faces, Ubuntu still exists; however, it has and continues to be under siege due to the legacy of slavery, colonization and apartheid. The research argues that factors that destroy this African philosophy of Ubuntu are the socio-economic factors, which have cost Africans their way of life as they have to ‘swim or sink’ and, in the process, lose who they are as a people. The research is based on a desk research methodology. It concludes that due to the effects of colonialism and apartheid systems and the challenges that persist post-1994, the teachings of black consciousness the interventions of sectors such as education and religion can enforce the teachings that will enforce values of self-sufficiency. African patriotism, which this research argues can assist in keeping African values such as Ubuntu alive.
Diasporic writings have a distinct position in the scenario of world literature. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an internationally
acclaimed poet, novelist and short-story writer who occupies a prominent place in diasporic writing. Oleander girl is a
fiction set in India and America. The theme of the novel is the search for the identity of the protagonist. This paper focuses
mainly on Korobi Roy's search for her father and thereby her identity. It also illustrates how Korobi was portrayed at the
beginning of the novel and how she is changed towards the end whether it is a good change or not. It explains what leads her to come out of all her problems. The strength of the relationship between all the characters of the novel as well as the love of the protagonist towards her family is given focus. The importance of love and how much the protagonist longed for that is vividly described. What are the changes she comes over after the journey and whether she overcomes the crucial situation in her life and whether her family accepts her with her new identity is discussed.
Traditionally resilience research has neglected understandings of what enables young people living in the global South, including South Africa, to develop well when their life circumstances are challenging. The fact that more recently resilience studies have begun to explain how context and culture outside of the global North shape processes of positive adjustment is, therefore, encouraging. However, studies which prioritise youth-voices and youth explanations of how context and culture shape resilience remain limited. As a result, promoting youth resilience in culturally and contextually sensitive and respectful ways remains a challenge. This challenge confounds the obligation of researchers and service providers, who work with young people challenged by disadvantaged contexts, such as South African townships, to develop evidence based interventions aimed at improving the wellbeing of young people. This chapter presents a strategy on how to design, implement, and monitor resilience-focused interventions with South African youth based on evidence-informed intervention practices stemming from the Pathways to Resilience Project (P2RP). In particular, this chapter foregrounds how cultural and contextual responsiveness is paramount to resilience-enabling interventions for marginalized youth from collectivistic cultures.
Listening and interpreting have the potential of either contributing to understanding, enlightenment, and mutual respect, or to misunderstanding, obfuscation, and disrespect. To demonstrate that what passes for listening and interpreting in many scholarly efforts to understand Africa falls in the latter category, I begin this paper by drawing on two definitive experiences. I am a mother of two boys, and from 1989 until 2002, I was a freelance interpreter/translator of Yorùbá. Listening and interpreting are central to both experiences. I turn first to the relationship between my children and myself. If I cannot listen to them, if I cannot interpret the deeper meanings of the thoughts, feelings, emotions they convey; if I cannot listen to the world and interpret it to them, I would have failed woefully. Listening, understanding, and interpreting are central to this relationship because, come hell or high water, my children are bent on communicating with me. Over the years, they have communicated regardless of time, place, and circumstance. As a mother, I must confess that while being committed to listening to my children, my capacity to do so is often sorely tested by what for them may be irrelevant pursuits;
In this essay, an attempt is made to re-present African Communitarianism as a discursive formation between the individual and community. It is a view which eschews the dominant position of many Africanist scholars on the primacy of the community over the individual in the ‘individual-community’ debate in contemporary Africanist discourse. The relationship between the individual and community is dialogical for the identity of the individual and the community is dependent on this constitutive formation. The individual is not prior to the community and neither is the community prior to the individual. Contemporaneity explains this dialogic relationship and to argue otherwise threatens the individual’s subjectivity to a vanishing point, or simply, to deny the individual a presence. On this Rajectory, the politics of common good within the African value system can neither be described nor represented through consensus or unanimity but through a realist perspectivism or a worldview not held in abstraction from living Raditions, cultures, and values that characterize the people(s) of sub-Saharan Africa.
The notion of postfeminism has become one of the most important in the lexicon of feminist cultural an alysis. Yet there is little agreement about what postfeminism is. This article argues that postfeminism is best understood as a distinctive sensibility, made up of a number of interrelated themes. These include the notion that femininity is a bodily property; the shift from objectification to subjectification; an emphasis upon self-surveillance, monitoring and self-discipline; a focus on individualism, choice and empowerment; the dominance of a makeover paradigm; and a resurgence of ideas about natural sexual difference. Each of these is explored in some detail, with examples from contemporary Anglo-American media. It is precisely the patterned articulation of these ideas that constitutes a postfeminist sensibility. The article concludes with a discussion of the connection between this sensibility and contemporary neoliberalism.
The concept of ubuntu, like many concepts, is not easily defined. Defining an African notion in a foreign language and from an abstract, as opposed to a concrete approach, defies the very essence of the African worldview and may also be particularly elusive. Therefore, I will not attempt to define the concept with precision - that task is unattainable. In one's own experience, it is one of those things that you know when you see it. Therefore, like many who have written on the subject, I will put forward some views that relate to the concept itself. However, I can never claim the last word. I intend to put forward some thought-provoking ideas on ubuntu and its relation to South African law in general, the South African Constitution, and customary law in particular, as a way to initiate debate for ubuntu-ism in a new jurisprudence for South Africa.
In examining the intellectual history in contemporary South Africa, Eze engages with the emergence of ubuntu as one discourse that has become a mirror and aftermath of South Africa s overall historical narrative. This book interrogates a triple socio-political representation of ubuntu as a displacement narrative for South Africa s colonial consciousness; as offering a new national imaginary through its inclusive consciousness, in which different, competing, and often antagonistic memories and histories are accommodated; and as offering a historicity in which the past is transformed as a symbol of hope for the present and the future. This book offers a model for African intellectual history indignant to polemics but constitutive of creative historicism and healthy humanism.
Explorations into the character, possibilities, and survival of feminism and sisterhood on a global scale have led me to revisit the evolution of feminism in the West, especially in the United States, since the 1960s and to examine the question of identity in structuring and destructuring alliances. The crisis in the feminist movement in the United States is a microcosm of the problems that militate against women forming alliances across continents. The troubled history of second-wave feminism in the United States chronicles the movement from the radicalism and sexual politics of the 1960s to the theorizing and feminist politics of the late 1970s and early 1980s to the narcissism and identity politics of the 1980s. A study of this evolution raises some epistemological and pedagogical questions: How do the ways in which we construct, teach, and disseminate knowledge of the Other undermine or promote alliances between women?
Questioning ‘the critical potential in popular culture’ is originally situated within marxistic research traditions and cultural studies. That is why this article asks whether this question can also be of value within late-capitalist, neo-liberal twenty-first century discourses? More specifically, we wonder if post feminism, located in a neo-liberal context and embedded in postmodern visual culture, is a possible site for critical resistance. Moreover, since post feminism is mainly discussed in the light of its ‘political’ potential in feminist tradition (e.g. Genz, 2006), it is relevant to take a closer look at its ‘critical’ potential. Does post feminism offer a critique on consumer culture, commodification and individualism as central values of a neo-liberal society and how are they articulated within popular televised discourses?
During the last fifteen years doctoral education in the US has received sporadic, yet considerable, public attention. Since the early 1990s organizations and stakeholders-those with a direct interest in the quality of doctoral education and concern about the production and employment of the next generation of highly educated scholars and professionals in the US labor market-have voiced criticism. The major criticisms include the under- and over-production of PhD recipients; a doctoral education that is mainly oriented to provide for the next generation of professors; the lack of training in professional skills needed for collaborations and working in organizations; the inadequate preparation for teaching in the different types of US higher education institutions; the long time-to-doctoral-degree in some fields, an overall low completion rate; and the lack of information about employment outside of the academy. These tumultuous years for doctoral education mirror previous eras in the evolution of doctoral education in the US, when graduate education had to respond to demands from national forces as well as to the internal demands and dynamics of their own universities. Thus the purpose and structure of US doctoral education today faces numerous challenges. These challenges include: managing the intricate link between doctoral education and the institutional research missions of the university; undergraduate education; the labor market; funding; accountability and governance; and most recently, pressures from the global economic market. In this paper I will provide an overview of the history of graduate education in the United States, the current structure of gradua-tion at most US universities, recent challenges and changes within doctoral education and national responses to those challenges and changes.
Feminism and 'The Schooling Scandal' brings together feminist contributions from two generations of educational researchers, evaluating and celebrating the field of gender and education. The focus throughout is on the years of compulsory schooling, examining key concepts in gender and education identified and developed by international thinkers in educational feminism. Topics covered include: social class, ethnicity and sexuality in relation to experiences in school; theories and methodologies for understanding gender; pedagogy and practice in education; and the direction of educational policy and the 'problem of boys'. Providing a comprehensive overview of contemporary research and theory emerging from 'second wave' feminism and assessing their impact on pupils and teachers in today's schools and classrooms, this book forms essential reading for anyone studying gender and education. © 2009 Christine Skelton and Becky Francis. All rights reserved.
In this article, I demonstrate that the term ‘ubuntu’ has frequently appeared in writing since at least 1846. I also analyse changes in how ubuntu has been defined in written sources in the period 1846 to 2011. The analysis shows that in written sources published prior to 1950, it appears that ubuntu is always defined as a human quality. At different stages during the second half of the 1900s, some authors began to define ubuntu more broadly: definitions included ubuntu as African humanism, a philosophy, an ethic, and as a worldview. Furthermore, my findings indicate that it was during the period from 1993 to 1995 that the Nguni proverb ‘umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’ (often translated as ‘a person is a person through other persons’) was used for the first time to describe what ubuntu is. Most authors today refer to the proverb when describing ubuntu, irrespective of whether they consider ubuntu to be a human quality, African humanism, a philosophy, an ethic, or a worldview.
In this article, I describe and systematize the different answers to the question 'What is ubuntu?' that I have been able to identify among South Africans of African descent (SAADs). I show that it is possible to distinguish between two clusters of answers. The answers of the first cluster all define ubuntu as a moral quality of a person, while the answers of the second cluster all define ubuntu as a phenomenon (for instance a philosophy, an ethic, African humanism, or, a worldview) according to which persons are interconnected. The concept of a person is of central importance to all the answers of both clusters, which means that to understand these answers, it is decisive to raise the question of who counts as a person according to SAADs. I show that some SAADs define all Homo sapiens as persons, whereas oth-ers hold the view that only some Homo sapiens count as persons: only those who are black, only those who have been incorporated into personhood, or only those who behave in a morally acceptable manner. 1 I want to thank all the people from South Africa who have informed me about their understanding of ubuntu. Furthermore, I want to direct special thanks to the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, the Khulumani Support Group, Prince Velekhaya Shange from the Zulu Royal House, and Bodil Sandegaard for helping me to set up interviews. Thanks also to Steen Wackerhausen, Morten Raffnsøe-Møller, Aase Rieck Sørensen, Augustine Shutte, Birgitte B.N. Gade, Lenore Messick, and an anonymous referee. Your guidance and comments have been truly appreciated.
The national university is a unique institution in post-colonial Africa. Regardless of the standard or volume of its output, the African university is the premier, deeply subversive symbol of the colonial-era "hewers of wood and drawers of water" actually writing, thinking and theorising for themselves. There is an increasing literature on African higher education, matched of late by increasing international and comparative interest. This builds on a small but durable body of work from Africans and others who have examined higher education on the continent since the ending of colonial rule. As feminists looking at these works, we ask, "Who has hewn the wood, drawn the water - and who is now being paid to think? Where are the lines of power and exclusion?" This article seeks to situate the study of gender and culture in the context of the African university. The areas of convergence in the literature on gender, organisational culture, organisational management, post-colonial political history and educational theory have, largely, been neither described or theorised. The subject of gender and institutional culture in African higher education remains largely unmapped - and a fruitful target of enquiry. Colonialism transmitted the traditional European distinctions between labour of the mind and labour of the body directly to Africa. The identification of men and masculinity with the labour of the mind and of women and femininity with that of the body, was also transmitted to Africa, along with the senates, the vice-chancellors, the graduation robes, the funny flat hats and the rituals of examination. To Africa was transmitted the idea that learning is a combative and aggressive process; that the worthy candidate is one who survives attackers and bests his foes, and that the experience of intellectual combat is intrinsic to intellectual life and production. Full professors are expected to make seminal contributions, and in return generally expect to be approached on bended knee. Universities are transnational institutions, and a
Book description:
Laughing with Medusa explores a series of interlinking questions, including: Does history's self-positioning as the successor of myth result in the exclusion of alternative narratives of the past? How does feminism exclude itself from certain historical discourses? Why has psychoanalysis placed myth at the centre of its explorations of the modern subject? Why are the Muses feminine? Do the categories of myth and politics intersect or are they mutually exclusive? Does feminism's recourse to myth offer a script of resistance or commit it to an ineffective utopianism? Covering a wide range of subject areas including poetry, philosophy, science, history, and psychoanalysis as well as classics, this book engages with these questions from a truly interdisciplinary perspective. It includes a specially commisssioned work of fiction, `Iphigeneia's Wedding', by the poet Elizabeth Cook.
Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment
- Ph Collins
The woman question: African and Western perspectives
- M P Eboh
The Nairobi women’s conference: Toward a global feminism? Feminist Studies
- N Catagay
- C Grown
- A Santiago
Religious ethics, HIV and AIDS and masculinities in Southern Africa
- E Chitando
Toward an adequate analysis of the position of women in society
- A M Imam
Feminist ethics: Projects, problems, prospects Feminist Ethics
- Am Jaggar
Ethics in the workplace and the power of culture: Is Ubuntu a curse or a blessing?
- E Katongole
Sexual violence, civil society and the new constitution
- H Moffett
Motherism: An Afro-Centric Alternative to Feminism
- Co Acholonu
Some reflections on separatism and power
- M Frye
Lesbian ethics: Toward new value
- S L Hoagland
Gender Concepts and Issues in Africa: Implications
- Ml Ogundipe
Visions: Third World Women’s Perspectives
- G Sen
- C Grown
A Biblical Theology of Women in Ministry
- Sj Grenz
- Dm Kjesbo
Radical Reassessment of Freudian Psychoanalysis. 2 Revised Edition
- J Mitchell
A Fundamental Practical Theology: Descriptive and Strategic Proposals
- Ds Browning
African societal values and the work place
- J M Mafunisa
Ubuntu and harmony: An African Approach to morality and ethics
- N Mkhize
South African women and the ties that bind
- J R Wilkinson
A Critical Dictionary of Education Concepts
- R Barrow
- G Milburn
Modern feminism in the light of Traditional concepts of femininity
- Fj Casewit