This book explores the argument to reconsider the idea of a university in light of the African ethic of ubuntu; literally, human dignity and interdependence. The book discusses, through the context of higher education discourse of philosophy and comparative education, how global universities have evolved into higher educational institutions concerned with knowledge (re)production for various end purposes that range from individual autonomy, to public accountability, to serving the interests of the economy and markets. The question can legitimately be asked: Is an ubuntu university different from an entrepreneurial university, thinking university, and ecological university? While these different understandings of a university accentuate both the epistemological and moral imperatives in relation to itself and the societies in which they manifest, it is through the ubuntu university that emotivism in the forms of dignity and humaneness will enhance a university’s capacity for autonomy, responsibility, and criticality. This book would be of academic interest to university educators and students in philosophy of education, comparative education, and cultural studies.

Ubuntu is premised on the ethical belief that an individual's humanity is fostered in a network of human relationships: I am because you are; we are because you are. The essays in this lively volume elevate the debate about ubuntu beyond the buzzword it has become, especially within South African religious and political contexts. The seasoned scholars and younger voices gathered here grapple with a range of challenges that ubuntu puts forward. They break down its history and analyze its intellectual surroundings in African philosophical traditions, European modernism, religious contexts, and human rights discourses. The discussion embraces questions about what it means to be human and to be a part of a community, giving attention to moments of loss and fragmentation in postcolonial modernity, to come to a more meaningful definition of belonging in a globalizing world. Taken together, these essays offer a rich understanding of ubuntu in all of its complexity and reflect on a value system rooted in the everyday practices of ordinary people in their daily encounters with churches, schools, and other social institutions.

This book examines African philosophy of education and the enactment of ubuntu justice through a massive open online course on Teaching for Change. The authors argue that such pedagogic encounters have the potential to stimulate just and democratic human relations: encounters that are critical, deliberate, reflective and compassionate could enable just and democratic human relations to flourish, thus inducing decolonisation and decoloniality. Exploring arguments for imaginative and tolerant pedagogic encounters that could help cultivate an African university where educators and students can engender morally and politically responsible pedagogical actions, the authors offer pathways for thinking more imaginatively about higher education in a globalised African context. This work will be of value for researchers and students of philosophy of education, higher education and democratic citizenship education.

This is a book about a many-sided man whose legacy is his unquenchable desire to spend himself for the well-being of others. Through a series of stories told by men and women about how Nelson Mandela touched their lives, the book shows what it is that has made him one of the greatest people of our time: the way he has managed to inspire people through ordinary human actions. Here in essence are some of the key qualities of great leadership. Most of the stories in this book are from ordinary men and women. A few came from newspapers, television and magazines. Whether they happened exactly as they are narrated is not important. What is true about these stories is that they are an attempt by people to describe the 'Madiba phenomenon'. They are a way in which people seek to treasure what Mandela has taught the world. Their significance lies in their ability to inspire those that share and listen to them.

Many have argued that ubuntu was a formative influence on the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), South Africa’s famous transitional justice mechanism. A Discourse on African Philosophy: A New Perspective on Ubuntu and Transitional Justice in South Africa challenges and contextualizes this view in a way that not only provides new findings and reflections on ubuntu and the TRC, but also contributes to the field of African philosophy. One of Christian B. N. Gade’s key findings, founded on qualitative interviews in South Africa, is that some former TRC commissioners and committee members question the importance of ubuntu in the TRC process. Another is that there are several differing and historically developing interpretations of ubuntu, some of which have evident political implications and reflect non-factual and creative uses of history. Thus ubuntu is not a shared cultural heritage, in the ethnophilosophical sense of a static property characterizing a group. In fact, throughout this book Gade argues that the ethnophilosophical approach to African philosophy as a static group property is highly problematic. Gade’s research presents an alternative collective discourse on African philosophy (“collective” in the sense that it does not focus on any single individual in particular) that takes differences, historical developments, and social contexts seriously. This book will be of interest to scholars in African philosophy, transitional justice, politics and cultural heritage, and law in South Africa.

This book brings together the uBuntu jurisprudence of South Africa, as well as the most cutting-edge critical essays about South African jurisprudence on uBuntu. Can indigenous values be rendered compatible with a modern legal system? This book raises some of the most pressing questions in cultural, political, and legal theory.

This book advances a re-imagined view of caring in higher education. The author proposes an argument of rhythmic caring, whereby teachers hold back or release their judgments in such a way that students’ judgments are influenced accordingly. In doing so, the author argues that rhythmic caring encourages students to become more willing and confident in articulating their understandings, judgments and opinions, rather than being prematurely judged and prevented from re-articulating themselves. Thus, rhythmic caring can engender a different understanding of higher education: one that is connected to the cultivation of values such as autonomy, justice, empathy, mutual respect and Ubuntu (human dignity and interdependence). This book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of caring within education, as well as Ubuntu caring through the African context.