Ubuntu and Intercultural Communication: Power, Inclusion and Exclusion

Abstract

This address critically examines two paradigms that historically characterised inter-racial relations in South Africa. The (mis)application of intercultural communication concepts during apartheid to manage labour relations is contrasted with the contemporary use of ubuntu, a purportedly unique African concept that promotes the communitarian idea of human interconnectedness. Both concepts are critiqued as forms of inclusion/exclusion. Power, usually absent from discussion of either practice, is here injected into the analysis. Some thoughts on crime as a uniquely Western paradigm are offered. The argument shows how language and intercultural communication concepts can fail in the academy when they are used to promote essentialist agendas, including the claim that crime is a Western paradigm. The paper concludes with some thoughts on cultural studies, drawing on the above context, as manifested in the 2015 Intercultural Communication Studies Conference organised by IAICS and CAFIC.

Keywords

Ubuntu / intercultural communication / intergroup relations / South Africa / power / crime

References

[1] Blankenberg, Ngaire. (1999). In search of a real freedom: Ubuntu and the media. Critical Arts, 13(2), 42-65.

[2] Bond, Michael H. (2015). Self—identification as a world citizen across nations, generations and genders: The importance of doing multi—cultural studies in communication. Presentation at the 21^st IAICS cum 11^th CAFIC conference, Hong Kong.

[3] Broodryk, Johann. (2007). Understanding South Africa — the uBuntu way of living. Pretoria: uBuntu School of Philosophy.

[4] Chasi, Colin. (2014). Africans value Ubuntu. Why marikana? Mimeo.

[5] Coplan, David. (2009). Innocent violence: Social exclusion, identity, and the press in an African democracy. Critical Arts, 23(1), 64-83.

[6] Cullinan, Kerry & Thom, Anso (Eds.). (2009). The virus, vitamins and vegetables: The South African HIV/AIDS mystery. Auckland Park, South Africa: Jacana Media.

[7] Du Plesis, Neeltje. (2011). Corporate social responsibility. In Tomaselli, K.G. & Chasi, C. (Eds.), Development and public health communication (pp. 274-288). Pearson: Cape Town.

[8] Du Preez, Hanneke. (1987). Intercultural communication in South African organisations. Communicatio, 13(1), 8-15.

[9] Ekpo, Denis. (2010). From negritude to post Africanism. Third Text, 24(2), 177-187.

[10] Fairclough, Norman. (1995). Media discourse. London: Edward Arnold.

[11] Fourie, Pieter J. (2007). Moral philosophy as the foundation of normative media theory: The case of African Ubuntuism. Communications, 32(1), 1-29.

[12] Gade, Christian B.N. (2012). What is Ubuntu? Different interpretations among South Africans of African descent. SA Journal of Philosophy, 31(3), 493-503.

[13] Gade, Christian B.N. (2011). The historical development of the written discourses on Ubuntu. South African Journal of Philosophy, 30(3), 303-329.

[14] Groenewald, Hennie. (1986). Kommunikasiereëls in interklturele kontaksituasies. Communicatio, 12(1), 50-58.

[15] Groenewald, Hennie J. (1988). Bomman, Elirea; Conradie, D.P. et al. Communication in South African society: A perspective on the future. In Marais, H.C. (Ed.) South Africa: Perspectives on the future (pp. 231-256). Pietermaritzburg: Owen Burgess.

[16] Hall, Edward. (1977). Beyond culture. New York: Doubleday.

[17] Hall, Stuart. (1981). Cultural studies and the centre: Some problematics and problems. In S. Hall; D. Hobson; A. Lowe & P. Willis (Eds.), Culture, media and language: working papers in cultural studies (pp. 1972-1979). London: Unwin Hyman.

[18] Hall, Stuart. (1996). Who needs identity? In Hall, Stuart & du Gay, Paul (Eds.), Questions of Identity. London: Sage.

[19] Harrison, Elizabeth; Pithouse—Morgan, Katleen; Connolly, Joan & Meyiwa, Thenjiwe. (2012). Learning from the first year of the Transformative Education/al Studies (TES) Project. Alternation, 19(2), 12-37.

[20] House, Juliane. (2015). Translation as communication across languages and cultures. London: Routledge.

[21] Kamwangamalu, Nkonko. (1999). Ubuntu in South Africa: A sociolinguistic perspective to a pan—African concept. Critical Arts, 13(2), 24-41.

[22] Louw, P. Eric. (1994). Shifting patterns of political discourse in the new South Africa. Communicatio, 21(1), 26-43.

[23] Louw, P. Eric & Tomaselli, Keyan G. (1991). Semiotics of Apartheid: The struggle for the sign. Semiotica: European Journal for Semiotic Studies, 3(1/2), 99-110.

[24] Lubombo, Musara. (2014). Towards an Ubuntu framework for mainstreaming participation of people living with HIV (PLHIV) in social change communication for HIV prevention in South Africa. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of KwaZulu—Natal.

[25] Luthuli, Tholumuzi B. (2007). Performance measurement as a public policy implementation tool in the South African public service. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Pretoria. URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2263/24280

[26] Manoa, Thabang M.P. (forthcoming). Critiquing Ubuntu and African Renaissance as strategies in the developmental agenda of the post millennium world: A case for Post—Africanism.

[27] Matsinhe, David M. (2011). Africa’s fear of itself. The ideology of ‘makwerekwere’ in South Africa. Third World Quarterly, 32(2), 295-313.

[28] Mbigi, Lovemore. (1997). Ubuntu: The African dream in management. Johannesburg: Knowledge Resources.

[29] Metz, Thaddeus. (2011). Ubuntu as a moral theory and human rights in SA. African Human Rights Law Journal, 11(2), 532-559.

[30] Mhiriphiri, Nhamo. (2010). From May shame to 2030 or there about: A tale of xenophobia, Zimbabwe and fictive identities. Critical Arts, 24(2), 284-297.

[31] Milton, Viola. (2011). Commercializing the HIV/AIDS crisis. Public service broadcasting, rainbowism and media advocacy. In K.G. Tomaselli & C. Chasi (Eds.), Development and public health communication. South Africa: Pearson.

[32] Naude, Piet. (2013). The arrogant misuse of Ubuntu. Retrieved 19^th May 2015, from http://www.mba.co.za/article.aspx?s=51&a=4835.

[33] Nicolaides, Angelo. (2014). Utilizing Ubuntu to inform Chief Executive Officer (CEO) thinking on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and CEB (Codes of Ethics in Business). Journal of Social Science, 41(1), 17-25.

[34] Ngcoya, Mvuselelo. (2009). Ubuntu, globalization, accommodation and contestation in South Africa. https://books.google.com.hk/books?id=UMePW6Ab8qQC&printsec=frontcover&hl=zh—TW#v=onepage&q&f=false

[35] O’Connell, Kieran. (forthcoming). Centre for Contemporary Cultural studies 50 years on. United Kingdom: Rowman and Littlefield.

[36] Onazi, Oche. (Ed.). (2014). African legal theory and contemporary problems. USA: Springer.

[37] Ovens, Michelle. (2003). A criminological approach to crime in South Africa. Acta Criminologica, 16(3), 67-80.

[38] Oyowe, Anthony O. (2013). Strange bedfellows: Rethinking ubuntu and human rights in South Africa. African Human Rights Law Journal, 13(1), 103-124.

[39] Piyawan, Charoensap. (2015, July). Dissecting Guangnam style through the lens of cultural studies. Paper presented at the 21^st IAICS cum 11^th CAFIC conference, Hong Kong.

[40] Saul, John & Gelb, Stephen. (1981). The crisis in South Africa: Class defence, class revolution. New York: Monthly Review Press.

[41] Shen, Weiwei. (2015, July). Hybridity and third space in Bharati Mkuherjee’s Jasmine. Paper presented at the 21^st IAICS cum 11^th CAFIC conference, Hong Kong.

[42] Sibanda, Bhekimpilo. (2009). The man in flames. Critical Arts, 23(1), 116-119.

[43] St. Clair, Robert N. (2015). The stratification of cultural networks. Intercultural Communication Studies, 24(1), 1-22.

[44] Swanson, Darlene. (2007). Ubuntu: An African contribution to (re)search for/with ‘humble togetherness’. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education, 2(2), 53-67.

[45] Tomaselli, Keyan G. (1999). Misappropriating discourses: Intercultural communication theory in South Africa, 1980—1995. Communal/Plural: Journal of Transnational and Crosscultural Studies, 7(2), 137-158. http://ccms.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/articles/Misappropriating_discourse.sflb.ashx

[46] Tomaselli, Keyan G. (1992). The role of the mass media in promoting intercultural communication in South Africa. Communicatio, 18(1), 60-68.

[47] Tomaselli, Keyan G.; Louw, P. Eric & Tomaselli, Ruth E. (1990). Communication, language and the crisis of hegemony in South Africa. In Thomas, S. & Evans, W.A. Communication and Culture IV (pp. 1-17). New Jersey: Ablex.

[48] Tu, Han. (2015, July). From The Good Wife to Hot Mom!: An analysis of American and Chinese motherhood on TV. Paper presented at the 21^st IAICS cum 11^th CAFIC conference, Hong Kong.

[49] Van Dijk, Teun A. (1991). Racism and the press. London: Routledge.

[50] Van Niekerk, Jason. (2013). Ubuntu and moral value. Unpublished Doctoral thesis. University of the Witwatersrand. Retrieved 29 May, 2015 from http://mobile.wiredspace.wits.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10539/13638/Ubuntu%20and%20Moral%20Value%20%20Final%20Draft%20including%20Corrections.pdf?sequence=2

[51] West, Andrew. (2006). Theorising South Africa’s corporate governance. Journal of Business Ethics, 68(1), 433-448.

[52] Volosinov, Valentin N. (1973). Marxism and the philosophy of language. Harvard: Harvard University Press.

[53] Wright, Handel K. (1998). Dare we de—centre Birmingham? Troubling the ‘origin’ and trajectories of cultural studies. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 1(1), 33-56.

[54] Zuma, Jacob. (2014). Zuma wanted charges dropped because corruption is a Western thing. Retrieved from http://www.news24.com/Archives/City—Press/Zuma—wanted—charges—dropped—because—corruption—is—a—Western—thing—20150429