African Ubuntu Humanness Ontology and Ecological Connection

INTRODUCTION

Ecology plays a very important role in social and spiritual life in different African cultural groups. This is even evident in African ontological understandings of the self, like ubuntu philosophy, where ecology is seen as an extension to the self. Different interactions and rituals done in nature are often seen as a way of seeking wholeness in one’s personhood. This article will discuss this bond that many different African cultures have with nature by first dealing with ubuntu philosophy. The word ubuntu is a South African Zulu language expression of African understanding of personhood or humanness, but different Sub-Saharan African cultures have the same or similar words to describe a similar phenomenon. The Xhosa, also indigenous to South Africa and the Kirundi from Rwanda also call it ubuntu, while the Sotho in South Africa call it botho. The Shona in Zimbabwe refer to it as hunhu and the Swahili call it utu, many other similar words, evoking the same or similar meaning exist throughout the continent. The link between the self and nature is an important one for groups like the Zulu, it not only encourages environmental protection and preservation but it is also important for the individual and community at large, who often return to nature, guided by rituals, to restore the self when one is depleted by health challenges, challenges linked to modern day life, and a violent colonial history and neocolonial struggles that seek to erase the African self. This article will unpack some of these rituals by reviewing how they are believed to restore the self while connecting to nature, the protection of which is of utmost importance for the maintenance of this bond and of African cultural religious practices as a whole. This bond is not without its challenges, the colonial theft of land and continued neocolonial land dispossession, especially in South Africa, means many indigenous groups do not have access to land to perform these rituals and also perform their duties in protecting the land as the custodians of it. Rising pollution also means it is not always safe to perform these rituals as exposure to the pollution can cause more harm than the intended good that the rituals are performed for. The recent revitalization of knowledge and belief in deities like Nomkhubulwane ends up playing an important role in addressing the ecological dispossession the Zulu experience at the hands of coloniality. She draws them back to nature and therefore back to a restored African self.

UBUNTU AND ECOLOGY

Ubuntu is an ancient Sub-Saharan African communally owned and shared ontological philosophy. The self has a moral obligation to the community, and this is the only way humanness can be achieved, through serving the community. ¹ By improving it, the individual improves themselves and comes closer to personhood. In turn, the community also has a moral role to play in nurturing and shaping the individual, through the same ubuntu ideals that promote respect, love, caring, and so on. Both John Bhengu ² and Nkonko Kamwangamalu ³ define Ubuntu as a communalism philosophy that shows the interdependence between individuals and their communities. Bhengu adds that people exist in a social cluster and cannot exist by themselves; even once the individual dies, they still live in the community in spirit as an ancestor (abaphansi). The concept of ubuntu is multifaceted and represents the core African ontology, which prioritizes respect for all people, cultures, ancestors, and the ecology. Ubuntu creates interlinkages between ritualistic healing, spirituality, and ecology or land, identity, and language. Ubuntu sees these and other elements of social life as existing in an interwoven web. ⁴ While these discussions must be understood in their “singular” sense, it is equally important to understand how these systems or ideals connect with each other.

For South African philosopher, Mogobe Ramose, ⁵ personhood in African thought is about “completeness” or “wholeness.” He argues that the community is given primacy in discussions on self. The individual can only come to know themselves and reach full personhood through engaging with their community. Ramose’s analysis is based on the main Zulu ubuntu tenet that says, umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, loosely translated to “I am because we are” or “I am because you are.” ⁶ Although there are similarities between ubuntu understanding across the continent, Ramose cautions homogenizing the African thought. ⁷ Instead Ramose focuses on the continuity of ubuntu, which suggests that this is not a stagnant philosophy, it has aspects that are ever-changing depending on history, context, or culture. Ubuntu as a continuous process requires one to rediscover their true essence while connecting with God, ecology, community, ancestor, and so on. ⁸ This rediscovery will look different for different contexts, especially given the colonial barriers that exist even today, where Africans cannot explore the ubuntu process because they have been displaced from their land for centuries and have minimal or no connection with their land and some aspects of their culture that work as knowledge to help them connect to land. ⁹

Mogobe Ramose suggests that external sources such as land and ecology are important interdependent elements of the self in ubuntu philosophy. The self is believed to be inextricably tied to God, ecology, culture, ancestors, and various elements of the social and spiritual world. This interconnection also forms an important part of African identity and the African philosophy of ubuntu. Ecology and land are believed to also be living or have beings or spirits within them. This explanation can also extend to understanding of how the ancestors also relate to the interconnection of the self, ecology, God, the community, and so on. ¹⁰ In Zulu cosmology, for example, some parts of ecology are associated with important spirits, ancestors, or Gods. For instance, Nomkhubulwane the fertility Goddess who is considered important for growing the community or family is also associated with rain, water, and even plantation. Nomkhubulwane is believed to be the daughter of Mvelinqangi, loosely translating to “the first to appear.” Mvelinqangi is the Zulu understanding of God. Nomkhubulwane is believed to bring growth and fertility to the land and women. ¹¹ The Zulu make sacrifices in her honor and call on her in times of drought, which affects plantation and food security. Even the understanding of ancestors is linked to ecology. One of the words for ancestor in Zulu is abaphansi, meaning “those who come from/reside in the land/ground.” This makes the soil and its connection to the ancestors very important. ¹² Soil and connecting with it is important in rituals, when young girls perform rituals for spiritual beings such as Nomkhubulwane. These rituals are sometimes performed in times of droughts, as an appeal to the fertility goddess to bring rain. The girls are believed to be the most favored by Nomkhubulwane, so they perform the ritual, with the community supporting them in other ways. The girls must connect with the ancestors first through the ground in a dance ritual called ukusina. Their bare feet beat the ground as they dance, this is considered a way of awakening the ancestors, who are vehicles to beings such as Nomkhubulwane. ¹³ It is important for the ground to be pure, natural, clean, and free of pollution when these and similar rituals take place in nature. The beating of the ground connects the young girls to their ancestors, who in turn connect them to Nomkhubulwane. These kinds of rituals are illustrations of how the important elements of ubuntu connect as one, either to restore ecology or connect to it, ancestors, Gods, and each other.

Zulu and Nguni understanding of the self is constructed in this way to bring people closer to African cosmology, while also ensuring harmony between people, culture, nature, and the spiritual realm. ¹⁴ People are less likely to pollute or destroy the land, sky, or water if they believe that their ancestors, who are important cultural, religious figures, and loved ones live in the land or soil. ¹⁵ They are less likely to destroy water or the sky if they believe God herself lives in these places, the same feminine God who is responsible for the existence of people. ¹⁶ To kill Nomkhubulwane or her habitat would be to kill the self and humanity as a whole. The world is slowly learning these lessons through witnessing climate change and environmental degradation and the devastating toll it has on human lives, but these are lessons that have always existed in the African thought and are so important that they were ingrained into something as important as ontological understandings of the self.

COLONIALITY AS DISRUPTION: A THREAT TO UBUNTU AND ECOLOGY

Although Ramose offers important theorizing on ubuntu, there are barriers to the creation of the interconnection that should exist within ubuntu. Colonialism turned indigenous people against each other through long and strategic efforts that, for example, painted Africans as inferior in different ways. This inferiority complex grew to hate of blackness, which was internalized by Africans and also expressed externally to others, thus disrupting the bond between the self and people. ¹⁷ In South Africa and many other African countries, belief in deities like Nomkhubulwane, or ancestors, was seen as witchcraft and was punishable by death, imprisonment, fines, and other forms of punishment and social alienation. This also included the performance of rituals. Many had to turn their backs on the rituals that not only connected them to nature and worked as conservation but they also connected them to the self and African understandings of being. ¹⁸ They also had to turn their backs on their ancestors who as mentioned were linked to ecology. Given the deep connection between African cosmology and nature, the disconnection between spirituality and people also meant disconnecting from the land and nature. Land dispossession and moments like the 1913 Native Land Act enforced by the British in South Africa also further alienated people from the land and therefore their sense of self. The year 1913 in South Africa saw the formalization and legalization of land theft after centuries of Indigenous people fighting the British and Dutch colonizers of their land after the first arrival of the Dutch in 1652. The Act led to the dispossession of land for indigenous groups. It created poverty and socioeconomic challenges still faced today by black South Africans and many people of color. The act only allowed indigenous groups to own 7% of the land in South Africa, and later it was adjusted to 13%. This moment formalized colonialism in South Africa, placing the land, political power, and economic wealth firmly under British rule.^19,20 The arrival of colonial settlers in the continent also ushered in capitalism, which was also marked by environmental exploitation. Ecological degradation and land dispossession still exist today as a colonial hangover. The main custodians of the land are alienated from it, and their ability to protect it is limited. Much of the knowledge they once had of the land and how to connect with it was erased through processes that saw their knowledge and culture as witchcraft and suppressed it. Today, many try in different ways to revitalize that knowledge as a way to connect to African cosmology and indeed ecology and to restore the colonized self.

CULTURAL RELIGIOUS RITUALS AND ECOLOGY

Rituals and other forms of African thought and practice are what many Africans use as a vehicle to connect to the interconnected; ecology, spirituality, community, and self. African rituals interact with ecology in different ways during this process of connecting and revitalization, depending on the culture or reason for the performance of the ritual. Rituals are performed for a number of different reasons, such as spiritual cleansings, to heal the physical body, to bring family or communities together, especially in times of conflict or hardship. ²¹ The rituals can be in the form of spiritual cleansings called ukugeza in Zulu. The literal meaning is to bath, and it refers to a purification process that is usually done in a natural body of water, a river, a waterfall, or at sea. Other rituals include the use of herbs in their most natural form, some are dried up, but there are little or no other forms of modifications unless it is mixing with other herbs, with water, or fire/heat. ²² Even though practices and approaches might differ, these kinds of rituals exist in different African contexts. The Adangme cultural area is located in Southeast Ghana, and the subgroups in the area include the Adãã, Nîgo, Gbugblã (Prampram), Shai, Krobo, Osu, and serval others. Similarly to the Zulu and other South African groups, groups in the Adangme area perform rituals out in nature. The Adangme groups specifically typically perform them at sea and for similar reasons to the Zulu and for sickness and other pluralistic cultural religious reasons.^23,24

CONCLUSION

These rituals bring whole communities together, as an entire ritual seldom only needs the participation of just one or two people. Rituals sometimes last days, so even in cases where a ritual is carried out in a more individualized or private nature, the process is often marked by some kind of celebration with the family and community to mark the moment and share in its pain or joy. The renewed exploration of rituals also brings Africans back to ecology and to ancient understandings of ecology which see different elements of nature as either part of us, our ancestors, our Gods, or important dimensions of our cultural knowledge. These kinds of views and paradigm shifts are not only important for Africans but they are also important for the world. There are many challenges that slow the reversal of climate change and environmental degradation. One of them is the view that the environment is external to us, a commodity to be used, and leveraged mainly for money. This means its exploitation and harm are either a secondary concern or nonissue. To see ecology as part of humanity is to save ecology and ourselves by extension because the rapid environmental degradation has shown that it will take down humanity with it.