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Umntu ngumntu ngabantu – Uhlalutyo nzulu lwefilosofi yobuntu kuluncwadi lukaJ.J.R. Jolobe, uJ. Solilo noW.W. Gqoba

  • Authors: Benayo, Xolela
  • Date: 2025-04-02
  • Subjects: Ubuntu (Philosophy) , Afrocentrism , Ethnoscience , Oral tradition , Pan-Africanism , Education, Higher South Africa , Jolobe, James J R Criticism and interpretation , Solilo, John Criticism and interpretation , Gqoba, William Wellington Criticism and interpretation
  • Language: Xhosa
  • Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478489 , vital:78191 , DOI 10.21504/10962/478489
  • Description: Ubuntu njengefilosofi yamaAfrika egxile kwindlela yokuziphatha nokuphilisana kumzi oNtsundu kudala yaba yingxoxo kwiinkalo ezahlukileyo ezifana nezopolitiko, ezemfundo, ezolawulo ukubala nje ezimbalwa. Njengoko Ubuntu buyingxoxo ekhula mihla le, kubabhali abafana noW.W. Gqoba, uJ. Solilo kunye noJ.J.R. Jolobe lushokoxekile uncwadi oluphanda ngendlela aba babhali abathe babonakalisa ngayo Ubuntu bekwahlaba ikhwelo ngeendlela zokulondoloza Ubuntu kwiimbalo zabo. Le thisisi iza kushukuxa indlela abathe aba babhali bahlaba ngayo ikhwelo ekubonakaliseni Ubuntu nendlela obunokuthi Ubuntu busetyenziswe ngayo ukuqinisekisa ukuba umzi oNtsundu awubonwa njengalowo ungaphucukanga, ungenakho ukusebenzisa iingcamango zobuntu ukuwuphuhlisa. Uphando luza kugocagoca ezi ncwadi zilandelayo: Umyezo ngokubhalwe nguJ.J.R. Jolobe ; Ilitha (isihobe) ngokubhalwe nguJ.J.R. Jolobe ; Elundini loThukela (iprozi) ngokubhalwe nguJ.J.R. Jolobe ; Isizwe esinembali: Xhosa histories and poetry (1837-1888) ngokubhalwe nguW.W. Gqoba ; Umoya wembongi: Collected Poems (1922-1935) ngokubhalwe nguJ. Solilo Uphando lukhethe ezi ncwadi zikhankanywe apha ngentla kuba zona ziyibalisa ngokucacileyo imbali yamaAfrika. Ezi ncwadi zinembali etyebileyo nezithi zisebenze njengokubhebhetha indlela amakoloniyali athi ayibhala ngayo imbali yamaAfrika eyayijolise ukuwajongela phantsi. Kwakhona olu ncwadi lwabhalwa ngexesha apho kwakukho imingeni ekunikeni inkcazo evakalayo ngokuba kuthetha ukuthini ukuphucuka, nokuba amaAfrika ayezibandakanya njani ukulwa nokuphikisa ingcaciso yendlela yokuphila kwamaAfrika yempi yaseNtshona. Ezi mbalo kungaxoxwa ngelithi, zithi zibe zezo zinike ngcaciso yimbi ngomba wempucuko leyo ingenokoyanyaniswa neengcamangco zaseNtshona. Apha kwezi ncwadi kuza kuhlutywa indlela Ubuntu obuthe baphuhla baze baphinda badodobala ngayo phantsi kolawulo lwempi yaseNtshona. Ekwenzeni oko, umphandi akayibethisanga ngoyaba imbali yoMzantsi Afrika neAfrika nje ngokubanzi, imbali yobukoloniyali. Yile mbali yobukoloniyali ethe yabangela ukuba aba babhali bezi ncwadi eziza kuphicothwa luphando bayithathele kubo ezandleni indima yokuqinisekisa ukuba iingcamango nemimiselo yobuntu yileyo bathi babhale ngayo ngeenjongo zokwenza uluntu lungaphulukani nokuxabisa Ubuntu njengefilosofi. Uphando lubone kubalulekile ukuba lulandele iingcamango zeAfrocentricity nezo zomanyan lwamaAfrika (Pan Africanism) ekubhentsiseni obu buntu bubonakaliswa ngaba babhali. Uphando luchonge ezi thiyori zimbini, eyeAfrocentricity kwakunye neyomanyano lwamaAfrika (Pan Africanism) kuba zombini ezi thiyori zikhokelisa phambili ukuxatyiswa kwamaAfrika njengabantu ekukudala benazo iifilosofi ezijolise ekuphuhliseni umzi oNtsundu. Kubonakele kufanelekile ukuba iphulo lokuphanda ngendlela Ubuntu obubonakaliswe ngayo ngaba babhali lenziwe ukukhumbula imisebenzi emikhulu eyenziwe ngamaqhawe abantu abaNtsundu nabathe banegalelo elikhulu ekuphakanyisweni koncwadi lwemveli kwakunye nenkqubela phambili kwimfundo yabantu abangamaAfrika. Ngokuphandle uncwadi lwaba babhali lubonakele luyinxalenye yobomi babo. Kukwakufumaniseka ukuba babhale bandululwe zizinto ezithe azabaphatha kakuhle ebomini babo zaze ezo zinto zawuphazamisa umoya wabo nentlalo yabo bada baqonda ukuba mababhale, baphokoze oku kuphuphuma kweengcinga zabo ukuthuthuzela kwanokuphilisa abanye abantu abathe badibana neenzima ezinjalo zobomi. Phakathi kwezo meko singabala iimeko zopolitiko zeli lizwe ezithe zabuchaphazela ubomi babo, imeko yezemfundo ethe yabonakala inomkhethe, iinqobo zenkcubeko ekuthe kwaphawuleka ukuba zibethiswe ngoyaba ngabo basemagunyeni de zenza noluntu lungazithatheli ngqalelo. Ezi meko zazibonwa njengezo zingelolutho ekuphuhliseni ubomi boluntu nje ngokubanzi. Oku kunyhashwa kwamalungelo abantu kwakunye neemeko ezimbi abathubeleze kuzo zibe sisizekabani sokwenziwa kolu phando ngobuntu nokuvuselela izazela zoluntu. Ezi mbalo zihlalutyiweyo ziquka nogxekoncomo lwazo zenza kanye le nto ichazwe kuphando, ukudakanca indlela Ubuntu obungasetyenziswa ngayo ukuphuhlisa isizwe esiNtsundu. Ziimbalo ezi ezigqithisa umyalezo neembono zaba bahlali ngokulondolozwa kwenkcubeko igcinwe encwadini njengamabali anika umdla erhwebesha uthando loncwadi kwanobuzwe babafundi abaNtsundu ngokubanzi, ingakumbi abafundi abangamaXhosa kuba babhalele bona ikakhulu. Ngababhali aba ababhale ngesiXhosa esiphakamisa inkcubeko yabo. Okuphawulekayo ngokukodwa kuJolobe yinto yokuba kwinoveli yakhe ethi, Elundini loThukela (1959) ude wasebenzisa iilwimi ezimbini isiHlubi kunye nesiXhosa eziqulethe iinkcubeko zazo. Ukongeza, ekubhaleni ngolwimi lwabo lwenkobe, aba babhali balandela ikhondo nesikhokelo sabantu abafana noMqhayi, noWa Thiong’o abazimvo ngokulondolozwa kolwimi noncwadi zikwasetyenzisiwe ukubonakalisa ukubaluleka kweelwimi zamaAfrika kuncwadi. Ekuhlalutyeni ezi mbalo zikhethiweyo, umphandi ukhethe ukulandela indlela yophando eyikwalitheyithuvu ngokugxininisa kuhlalutyo lomxholo. Isizathu sokuba indlela enjalo ibe iyasetyenziswa kukuba idatha ehlalutyiweyo ivela kwidatha esele yapapashwa, iincwadi ukutsho. Le ndlela yindlela eya kuba sisikhokelo esiphambili somphandi ukuqinisekisa ukuba iinjongo zophando ziyafezekiswa. Uphando lufumanise ukuba aba babhali bakhethiweyo bathe ngokwenene banendima abayenzayo ukuqinisekisa ukuba iziseko zobuntu ziyalondolozwa. Oku kuqala kwimiba engenkcubeko apho kuxoxwe ngelithi, umntu oNtsundu kuyafuneka ukuba angayibethisi ngoyaba into yokuzingca ngobuni bakhe. Kananjalo njengababhali ababe bhala beqwalasela yonke imiba yentlalo, into engokuzilanda ngokobuzwe yinto ebonakala isembindini kwiimbalo zabo njengoko besenza ikhwelo ebantwini abaNtsundu ukuba baze bangayilibali imvelaphi yabo. Kumba wezemfundo ingakumbi uGqoba ubalula ukubaluleka kwemfundo yemveli. Kolu phando kufumaniseke ukuba kwiimbalo zabo ababhali bayilwela ngamandla into yokumanyaniswa kwemfundo yaseNtshona naleyo yemveli yamaAfrika. Oku ingasisakhelo sokuqinisekisa ukuba umntwana womgquba uyafikelela kwimfundo ekwaziyo ukuthetha ngeengxaki ezihlangabezana nabantu abaNtsundu gabalala. , Ubuntu as an African philosophy with its focus on issues of good behavior and welfare of black Africans has forever been an unending debate on various spheres of life: those of politics, education, and governance, to name a few. Even though it is a debate with new avenues daily, there is limited research on the works of W.W. Gqoba, J. Solilo, and J.J.R. Jolobe on how they have argued on ways in which the values of Ubuntu may be preserved. This study is therefore undertaken to investigate exactly how these writers maintained in their writings ways in which Ubuntu can be used to ensure black Africans are not seen as a society that is ‘backward’, a society that cannot use Ubuntu principles for development. The research will examine the following books: Umyezo (poems) by J.J.R. Jolobe ; Ilitha (poems) by J.J.R. Jolobe ; Elundini loThukela (prose) by J.J.R. Jolobe ; Isizwe esinembali: Xhosa histories and poetry (1837-1888) by W.W. Gqoba ; Umoya wembongi: Collected Poems (1922-1935) by J. Solilo. In short, it is argued in the study that the selected texts are fine literary products and that their narratives were created following African history. They form part of negating the negative element that has been created by the accounts of colonial masters, as such an account of history was meant to undermine Africans: rich literature and history. Moreover, they were written at a time when there were challenges associated with civilization: what was meant by it and how Africans related to the idea as per Western standards. These texts, it could be argued, present an alternative on this matter by removing Western thoughts on what really are the elements of cultural civilization. In an in-depth analysis of selected writers’ texts, it was important to examine the ways in which Ubuntu has developed and evolved over the years under the administration of Western powers. In the analysis, the researcher did not turn a blind eye to the colonial history of South Africa and that of Africa in general. In that history, an argument is as follows: the thoughts and values of Ubuntu as captured by these writers are to remind people to appreciate Ubuntu as a philisophy. In my analysis, it was important to use theories such as Afrocentricity and Pan-Africanism in understanding and decoding Ubuntu as depicted in the writings of the selected writers. In choosing these theories, it is due to their main argument emphasizing the value of being African and the fact that Africans have long had their philosophies meant for the betterment of the society. It seemed appropriate to investigate how Ubuntu, as shown by these writers, is recorded to act as a reminder of the great works done by Africans who contributed greatly to the promotion of African literature as well as progress in the education of African people. The literature of these writers should be seen as an integral part of their lives. It is also found that they wrote because of the ills that affected their lives and disturbed their spirit and well-being until they realized that they should write and express their thoughts to comfort and heal other people who have encountered such hardships in life. Among those are the political conditions of this country that have affected their lives, the educational situation that has been shown to be biased, and cultural things that have been noticed to be ignored by those in power as they made the public not pay attention to them. This is because they were seen as having little value in the development of human life in general. That is why this research on Ubuntu could be seen as an initiative aimed precisely at those ideas that can be 'revitalized’ by conscientious people. The analysis of literary texts includes criticism to address the main question in this research: how Ubuntu can be used to develop the Africans. This is the kind of literature that conveys the message and ideas on the preservation of culture as preserved in the books with interesting stories that appeal to the love of literature and the nationalism of Africans in general, especially Xhosa people because they wrote mainly for them. It is these writers who wrote in Xhosa that promote their culture. What is particularly remarkable about Jolobe is the fact that in his novel, Elundini loThukela (1959), he used two languages, isiHlubi and isiXhosa, which contain their own cultures. In addition, in writing in their mother tongue, these writers follow the path and guidance of people like Mqhayi and Wa Thiong'o, whose views on the preservation of language and literature have also been used to show the importance of African languages in literary analysis. In the analysis of these selected texts, I have opted to follow a qualitative research approach with a focus on content analysis. The reason behing such an approach is the fact that the data so analysed is from existing data, books. This approach is one that will be a key guide for the researcher to ensure that the aims of the study are achieved. In this research, it was found that these selected writers really have played to ensure that the fundamental values of Ubuntu are preserved. This starts with non-cultural issues: it has been argued that the Africans should not ignore the pride of their identity. Also, as writers who wrote considering all social issues, the issue of national identity is something that appears at the centre of their writings as they call upon Africans not to forget their origins. In terms of education, Gqoba especially mentions the importance of African traditional education. In this research, it has been found that in their writings, the writers are strongly advocating for the integration of Western education with that of African traditional education. This could be taken as framework to make sure that the African child has access to an education that addresses the problems faced by Africans at large. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Languages and Literatures, 2025
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  • Date Issued: 2025-04-02

The CODESRIA debate on academic and intellectual freedom in Africa: the role and responsibility of African intellectuals

  • Authors: Cabe, Loyiso
  • Date: 2023-10-13
  • Subjects: Codesria , Academic freedom , Social responsibility , Neoliberalism , Pan-Africanism , Colonization , Decolonization , Neocolonialism , Intellectuals Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/431463 , vital:72774
  • Description: According to Fagunwa (2011), intellectuals serve as the glue that binds societies together and serve as the foundation upon which new civilizations are created and dismantled. The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) of 1990 entrusted intellectuals with crucial transformative tasks (roles) and responsibilities in Africa. This study explores the transformational roles and responsibilities of African intellectuals in neo-liberal and neo-colonial Africa as well as how academic freedom must be understood by African academics in accordance with the present debate on academic freedom in South Africa, which was fueled by Nattrass (2020) paper. The primary premise of this study is that academic freedom in Africa today is viewed differently than it was during the CODESRIA meeting on academic freedom in 1990, and that this is because of African intellectuals not carrying out their roles and responsibilities in Africa. In CODESRIA 1990, academic freedom referred to an academic’s unrestricted, yet responsible, right to pursue their academic interests (CODESRIA 1990; Kampala Declaration 1990). African academics now understand academic freedom to be merely their own freedom, unrelated to their responsibility to use it ethically and professionally. Hence, for them, academic freedom entails the freedom to express oneself without restrictions or fear of criticism (Chachage, 2008; Nattrass, 2020b; Esso, and Long, 2020). Looking at this current misinterpretation of academic freedom, the 1990 CODESRIA meeting is a good reference point to the debate on academic freedom in Africa and role and responsibility of African intellectuals. This is because, it was where academic freedom and the role and responsibility of African intellectuals in Africa was professionally conceptualized. Thus, this study reviews the 1990 CODESRIA debate to understand the role and responsibility of African intellectuals. This study utilizes two theories, Social Constructivism Theory and the Social Responsibility Theory, to explain the position it has taken on the subject at hand. Thus, these theories provide an umbrella and a point of departure for understanding the context and dynamics of the ongoing conflict between academic freedom and social responsibility in South Africa's higher education institutions. , Thesis (MSocSci) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2023
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  • Date Issued: 2023-10-13

Institutional culture and internationalisation: a study of Black African academics’ experiences at Rhodes University

The knowledge commons, pan-Africanism, and epistemic inequality: a study of CODESRIA

  • Authors: Hoffmann, Nimi
  • Date: 2018
  • Subjects: Pan-Africanism , Codesria , Equality -- Africa , Social justice -- Africa , Feminist criticism -- Africa , Sex discrimination against women -- Africa , Postcolonialism -- Africa , Women intellectuals -- Africa , Academic freedom -- Africa , Africans -- Intellectual life
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60303 , vital:27764
  • Description: This study is about the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). Conceived in 1964 and formalised in 1973, CODESRIA is the longest-standing pan-African intellectual organisation on the continent. It was established with the primary objective of fostering greater collaboration between African scholars, and has acquired a reputation for challenging the marginalisation and fragmentation of African scholarship. However, there has been no systematic account of this important organisation. This study aims to cast light on this organisation and its intellectual contributions in the post-independence period. It examines CODESRIA as a knowledge commons - a community of scholars that creates, manages and shares intellectual goods outside of the state and the market. It asks: what factors have shaped CODESRIA as a pan-African knowledge commons in the context of epistemic inequality? As a way of answering this question, it examines three key debates: the different meanings of pan-Africanism in CODESRIA, CODESRIA’s defence of the academic project during structural adjustment, and African feminists’ struggles to change CODESRIA. These debates exemplify the ways in which different generations of African scholars in the post - independence period have sought to make sense of and respond to the problems of inequality - both outside of CODESRIA and within CODESRIA. This thesis approaches CODESRIA as a case study. It combines a document analysis with semi-structured interviews to construct and critique key intellectuals' understandings of the organisational design and practices of CODESRIA, the nature of its community and intellectual work. It supplements this with a descriptive analysis of CODESRIA’s bibliometric and administrative data. The study finds that CODESRIA has forged a distinctive form of pan-Africanism that offers a non-governmental and intellectual alternative to state-centric and bureaucratic forms of pan-Africanism. As a powerful counter-narrative to prevailing ideas of African intellectual inferiority, pan-Africanism has been an important motivational source for establishing and cohering CODESRIA’s community. Although its pan-African organisational form has been complicated by the enduring influence of colonial frameworks and limited by the the material and institutional weaknesses of African universities, it has nevertheless acted as a mode of collective enquiry for troubling and expanding the colonial conception of Africa. This study further finds that structural adjustment fundamentally reshaped the intellectual and material underpinnings of CODESRIA with complex and ambiguous results. In the short term, CODESRIA’s analysis of structural adjustment led to considerable intellectual and organisational innovation so that it grew in size and influence. In the long-run, however, structural adjustment eroded the public universities upon which CODESRIA relied. This eroded the mechanisms to maintain its intellectual vigour and democratic character, and increased CODESRIA’s dependency on donors. The study also finds that the struggles of feminist scholars to change unequal gender norms in CODESRIA have been a source of significant intellectual and organisational renewal. Contestations over gender inequality within CODESRIA have given rise to a distinctive form of African feminism, which emphasises the historicity of gender relations in ways that reject essentialist and teleological accounts of African societies. Feminist struggles have also given rise to new standards of scholastic excellence that mark a meaningful departure from the skewed standards introduced under colonial rule. Nevertheless, the persistent minoritisation of female scholars in CODESRIA has significantly limited their capacity to effect institutional change, such that the ghettoization of feminist scholarship and the hollowing out of feminist discourses on gender remains a constant threat. The central argument of this study is that inequality can motivate marginalised members to engage in the collective action required to create and reshape knowledge commons, but it can also constrain their collective action and threaten the long-term sustainability of the commons. The collective agency of marginalised individuals is therefore central to the flourishing of knowledge commons. Second, knowledge commons are intimately dependent on public goods, such as universities. Public goods are plausibly the source, and therefore the limit, of knowledge commons’ capacity to flourish over the long-term. As a consequence, it is likely that knowledge commons are complements to public goods provision, rather than substitutes. Rethinking the knowledge commons in terms of the predicaments of African intellectual communities, I contend, provides new ways of understanding the possibilities, constraints and contradictions of knowledge commons in an unequal world. This study contributes to the empirical literature on African intellectual communities. In particular, it provides critical knowledge on a scholarly community that has not only endured, but has managed to thrive in a context of profound economic and political instability. This provides an indication of the institutions, practices, and intellectual resources that are required to ensure that African knowledge systems flourish over the long-term. This study also makes a theoretical contribution to the literature on knowledge commons, which are largely theorised using examples from the global North. It shows how reconceptualising knowledge commons in terms of inequality opens up new lines of empirical investigation. Building on existing commons research, it develops a methodological framework for comparative research on southern knowledge commons, which may also be of use for investigating commons in general.
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  • Date Issued: 2018

The new Africans: a textual analysis of the construction of 'African-ness' in Chaz Maviyane-Davies' 1996 poster depictions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

  • Authors: Garman, Brian Donald
  • Date: 2013
  • Subjects: Human rights , Posters , African perspective , Stereotypes , Black men , Maviyane-Davies, Chaz -- Criticism and interpretation , Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- Posters -- Research , Ethnicity -- Research -- Africa , Human rights -- Africa , Pan-Africanism
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: vital:3413 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001844
  • Description: In 1996, Zimbabwean graphic designer Chaz Maviyane-Davies created a set of human rights posters which represent several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, from what he calls an “African perspective”. In this study I investigate how Maviyane-Davies has constructed ‘African-ness’ and probe what he refers to as the “alternative aesthetic” that he is trying to create. I use a visual social semiotic approach to examine the discourses he draws on to re-image and re-imagine Africa and Africans in a manner that contests the stereotypical representations found in political, news and economic discourses about Africa, paying particular attention to the ways he uses images of the body. My analysis of the posters shows how complex and difficult it can be to contest regimes of representation that work to fix racialised and derogatory meanings. In response to the pejorative stereotypes of the black body, Maviyane-Davies uses images of strong, healthy, and magnificent people (mostly men) to construct a more affirmative representation of Africa and Africans. Significantly, he draws on sports, touristic, traditional and hegemonic discourses of masculinity in an attempt to expand the complexity and range of possible representations of African-ness. In so doing he runs the risk of reproducing many of the stereotypes that sustain not only the racialised and gendered (masculinist) representations of Africa, but also a sentimentalisation and romanticisation of a place, a people and their traditions. Apart from women in prominent positions, other conspicuous absences from these images include white people and hegemonic references to Western modernity. I do not believe he is discarding whites and modernity as un-African, but is rejecting the naturalisation of whiteness as standing in for humanity, and particular icons of Western modernity as significations of ‘modernity’ itself
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  • Date Issued: 2013

SEK Mqhayi in the 21st Century: Mzantsi youth ideologies within the African renaissance paradigm for sustainable economic and political development

  • Authors: Saule, Ncedile
  • Subjects: Pan-Africanism , Mqhayi, S E K , f-sa
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Lectures
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/21011 , vital:29427
  • Description: I am advancing a celebratory synopsis of Mqhayi, uMzima, uBhomoyi kaCedume at a time when the South African contemporary society is attempting to restructure itself in order to regain lost values before it can successfully and rationally embrace values of other people. In my presentation, I have mindfully taken cognisance of the plight of the so called lost generation, especially among our youth, those who have become strangers in their own land – no language, only misguided and distorted cultural values, no self, distorted history - this of course because of indoctrinations of some psycho-socio-histori-cultural and political imperatives. Strangely enough these are some of the issues that SEK Mqhayi warns us about in his creative works and has made efforts for us to see, but unfortunately no one listened or saw anything. Now that we “have the truth but denied the truth and now that we have the light, but we sit in darkness, Shivering, benighted in the bright noon-day sun,” and now that we are all blind, I think, this evening is the right time to see.
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