Ubuntu Beyond Identities: Isintu as a Performative Turn of Ubuntu

Twenty-five years after the delivery of political democracy, the Edenic projects of nonracialism and the Rainbow Nation have failed because there was no fuller appreciation of what is meant by ubuntu. The version of ubuntu that was used and applied after 1994 should have focused first on re-empowering the Black social groups but instead, attempts were made through the defunct Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 1995 Rugby World Cup, 1996 Africa Cup of Nations, and 2010 FIFA World Cup. That understanding of ubuntu was a sanitised quick fix that could not undo centuries of dehumanisation, as characterised by apartheid. This book presents the true meaning of ubuntu, which has its roots in communitarian societies and their value systems, and redefines it within the premises of lived African experiences. As part of an international benchmark on the viability of local value systems aimed at a fulfilled citizenry, the book compares ubuntu to its counterparts of Jantelagen in Sweden and Confucianism in China. It emphasises that society is a lived space beyond the activities of monetary capital production and seeks to empower South Africans to become dignified, fulfilled citizens.