If you grew up in dominantly black circumstances, like me, populated by oppressed Africans, especially in the townships or rural areas, then no doubt you will have heard many mythological stories about the inherent goodness and morality of blacks called “ubuntu”.
Perhaps we should make one thing clear about MY definition or understanding of the concept. Ubuntu is supposedly an intrinsic and uniquely African moral philosophy or characteristic that makes it easier for those who were born or brought up as blacks to distinguish between right and wrong or good from evil.
Also, we should distinguish between Abantu, who are black people to be contrasted with a separate and different group of Abelungu, who are white people.
Depending on who I am with and where I am, I have previously found myself putting up a spirited defence and philosophical rationalisation for the innate goodness of black people that is unblemished by the darkness of the soul of the human being.
Yet the development of goodness or conscience is not something that you are born with simply because you are black and were oppressed over many centuries. During the years of “the struggle”, blacks had convinced themselves that they could do no evil deed. They are good because of inherent “ubuntu”, that elusive goodness in black people.
But is it true that a person knows right or wrong because they are black? Are blacks good people with white hearts and pure souls who cannot commit sin? I am raising this because we have to throw this poor black self-defence out of the tub before it taints the morality of the new South Africa.
Black people need to acknowledge that they do have bad people among them, despite the fact that they have been the worst victims of colonialism and apartheid. Yes, black people can be bad, immoral people who act like they have no conscience — just like a white family that would pay their servant R1 500 per month while they rake in multimillions in pay and perks for simply being white.
Whether it is the granting of state tenders to pals; hijacking and killing a motorist because he is white; blocking opportunities for non-blacks because they are “the wrong race”; sexually abusing young school girls because you own a BMW; or the notion that blacks are entitled to be Number One, it soon becomes clear that black people need to work and train themselves on what constitutes good and ethical personal conduct.
It has nothing to do with the fact that once born black, you know good from bad, right from wrong.
We can grant that colonialism and apartheid have inflicted great damage on the black psyche. But this does not mean that black people are angels with an inherent goodness or consumed by an overwhelming spirit of “ubuntu”. Of course, this “ubuntu” thing does not mean that black people have more of a moral high ground than whites.
We must move to a time where black people ask themselves, especially among whites, whether it is true or false, indeed, that blacks inherently have ubuntu, and whether this makes them naturally good people.
It is common to hear some shallow-thinking but patriotic blacks shout at the top of their voices: “We have ubuntu and would never have created apartheid. In fact, we blacks are naturally good and moral people.” If you were to ask who is good between a black and a white person, a black person is likely to answer without thinking that it is the former. What does this mean? Blacks are good people simply because they are blacks who are born with ubuntu!
The Moral Regeneration Programme is a cornerstone of the government’s agenda not only to build a new nation but also to nurture a new spirit of identity and social cohesion. It does not matter that its founder, symbol and leader was ANC president Jacob Zuma. What we need to understand is that this government is grounded and guided by a vision of goodness, and high ethical and moral standards. You can hate the sin but not the black sinners in government.
You would think that a former black comrade who spent countless years in exile in the Soviet Union or Africa would know the difference between right and wrong; the unethical conduct in siphoning state contracts towards friends; the abuse of government resources to live a luxurious lifestyle. Of course, these good blacks who liberated us are supposed to be good people who stand for righteous goodness. But some of them are the ones who have compromised and corrupted the black sense of morality and goodness.
I am not going to be able to explain why blacks who were dehumanised under colonialism and apartheid think that is a good enough reason to make them good people. There are more than enough blacks who consider themselves good people with ubuntu simply because of their skin colour.
Yet we know that, just like the darkness of the soul, human goodness is a universal human quality that is not the prerogative of black people who suffered under colonialism and apartheid. Black people must begin to grapple with serious issues, especially in their own souls, to explain why the moral centre cannot hold and why evil in their communities has been unleashed upon their dreams for a better society.
Firstly, when given a chance, most blacks are likely to excuse black insensitivity and immoral acts when it is perpetrated by one of their own, for instance. There is this amazing ability to glorify a filthy rich black who does not plough back to his own community, and to see him or her as a role model. What justifies their obsession with material wealth and success is their skin colour, which is a good enough excuse not to do anything to address the legacy of apartheid.
On the other side, and this is the biggest problem, no whites — irrespective of their material condition — will be allowed not to do something good to improve the ugly situation of poverty and unemployment of a black person. This is a case of double standards, I think.
The problem with ubuntu — or the philosophy of the inherent goodness and moral uprightness of black people — is that it is a myth. Black people who think they are born good because of their skin colour are self-delusional. We cannot afford to have this type of thinking go on for a minute longer. Otherwise, this explains why a black multimillionaire will leave his parents to wallow in the squalor, dirt and sub-human condition of a township match-box house while he spends R1 000 on a bottle of whiskey or drives around in a car worth R1-million.
The problem with this black morality or standard of goodness is that it makes the leadership — especially so-called role models — suffer from myopia and illusions of inherent goodness.
Many black leaders in religion, business, academia and politics, for instance, think that they will be taken seriously — irrespective of their filthy rich status and wealth — simply because they are black. The blind emotional reasoning is: a rich black is a good black. They are fooling themselves by believing in this self-delusional goodness of black people determined by mere skin colour.
Of course, we have heard far too many leaders tell us that black people should look up to money and material success — and not moral conduct — as the yardstick for good and moral standards. Thus black success is material based.
In fact, blacks have been told that they must not be ashamed to be “filthy rich”. Some prominent spokespersons are on record as saying: “I did not struggle to be poor!” Nobody is saying: “I am good because of my moral standards.” Nobody is being reminded to plough back into their communities. This has resulted in black not only suffering reputation damage and losing the moral high ground, but also being murdered by their own sons for the type of car they drive.
Even an illiterate mineworker who has not set foot at Fort Hare University should know that being a good black has got nothing to do with being the first multibillionaire to be listed in Forbes magazine or to live in a R56-million home. The pursuit or worship of money and goodness has got absolutely nothing to do with each other.
So, why is it that black people in institutional leadership, especially those with huge salaries, think that they can perpetuate an evil economic system and not promote good ethical behaviour that sets an example? The black community is paying a very big price for this mistake of thinking that ubuntu is an inherent character trait of every black person. Being black does not give an automatic goodness status.
Think about it for a moment. Far too many blacks are keeping quiet in the face of spreading black evil simply because they have been misled to believe that ubuntu is an inherent black quality. They are in denial and rationalise black evil.
Is it fair to have different standards to measure goodness or moral conduct between black and whites? It is the answer to this question that will help us chart a new path together towards building a South Africa that is a home for all.
The blacks are eroding the moral fibre of a new nation before the end of the second decade of freedom. The greatest threat to this democracy and freedom is those black people who want to use relative standards for what is good for whites and blacks.
At some point in our development, we have to break with these double standards. We have been called upon by history to take a moral stand to say: “Enough and no more.” The goodness of a person has absolutely nothing to do with skin colour. There are many bad blacks as there are good whites.
So, go now and look at yourself in the mirror. Do you think a person is good or bad because of the colour of his or her skin? Who is a good man between Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk?
I am supposed to be black. Am I a good person for writing this?
Yo!
I am impressed. I am sorry for miss-judging you before.
This are some uncomfortable questions. One of the reasons that most “Black” people don’t question some of the activities of our morally challenged brothers is labeling, to be precise you get called a coconut, white boetie, etc.
@Nqina
Let me get this straight. Blacks will not speak out against other Blacks they know are acting wrongly because they are afraid of being called a coconut? So intimidation, fear of speaking up against what is wrong, fear of being non-racial is a major part of Black culture?
So where is this great uBuntu? Does it mean sticking up for your own race no matter what?
Yet Blacks expect whites to speak up against their own for things like the UOVS incident?
So which group behaves racially and is hypocritical?
Thank goodness for those honest ones like Sandile who risk bearing the coconut label fo calling a spade a spade. Its like Whites who speak up and brave the ‘racist’ label. ‘Racist’ and Coconut in this case are badges of honour.
Consulting Engineer
Unless you can invent a time machine and take
them back in time to show them what was
really happening,they wont believe a word
of what you’re saying.
@consulting engineer, it is pristine bullocks to say with authority that blacks won’t speak against same who’re acting wrongly, cos they fear of being called coconut. For starters, i doubt if you really know why some blacks are called coconuts. But then, with Ndum..Ndum.. going on about how the use of the word is relative, and in essence that i’m also coconut, i guess you’d be forgiven for throwing in your own intoxicated understanding of it.
I know quiet a number of blacks who would say point wrong when they see it, regardless of who the wrongdoer is. And i think it is safe to say, every other drivel you write – is essentially to drive the difficult point that blacks are hypocrits, equally racists, etc as you always do…and so is your side-kick, Cool down!
@ Cool Down
You’ve seemingly been on the yet to be invented time-machine! Perhaps you should share your secret…hehehe!!!
@Bonginkosi
Reread the article. As someone pointed out(I think Nic), you’re pretty much on the same page with Sandile!
@Some other folks who adore arguing about nothing…
Come on now, it is very clear the article does NOT imply in any way the Ubuntu dilemma Sandile is expressing applies to EVERY “black” person.
@Sandile
Thought provoking piece bro. Some hard to swallow facts in it for many Africans. Keep it up.
Just this past Monday I experienced a lot of what you describe above. A black man on duty who for some reason obscure to me, went about as though he was by virtue of being black, righteous and very humane compared to some white people he needed to serve at the Oliver Tambo Intl Airport!
I just hope you don’t just have gripe with money making Africans in general though.
In Truth I Trust
Sandile I acknowledge that you raise interesting points about “some” things that people think, but I wish you would pepper your rhetoric with a little less generalization and then making sensational statements. There are some people that need look in the mirror as you put it because they have ignorant thoughts like all black people can’t be racist or all whites are being oppressed right now, but perhaps you should also look in the mirror…no that’s not fair you should rexamine the things and people that you see around you because if the majority of the black people you know think like that, then it’s time to meet some new black people. Your overgeneralization is unfortunately impeding the social growth of people like consulting engineer who believes that you are vindicating his anger or on the other hand the growth of amengeo who seems to feel that past injustices are unforgivable and should be born by future generations. These two seem to be what is popularly known as Extremists, and your generalizations blanket statements are fostering extremist thoughts. Remember that your words will be read by the discerning thinker as well as the irrational hate monger (regardless of colour)
This article is spoiled by all these whites wanting to have a say in black affairs. BEE should be intenisfied all fronts (like give the army legal mandate to enforce BEE) so that an article meant for black consumption is answered by black people.
Oops! Very sorry Liansky for reading a national newspaper.
I mistakenly thought I am living in a democratic RSA.
You have an extremely warped sense of reality of 2008 and the crisis in RSA.
Read Drum if you do not want to read whitey comments.
I am so grateful to the black contributors to TL, each one, as they help me to understand my fellow citizens, irrespective whether I agree with every word or not. That is not the point of debate.
I was indoctrinated and brainwashed for 40 years and “debate” was forbidden- do not continue that evil.
I really appreciate this new insight.
Sandile – thank you for a valuable input into our attitudes and thinking.
Ubuntu is the nationalist myth warmed over. The recovery process of an abused people. Like the Germans in the 30′s, getting behind the idea of a bygone teutonic paradise – in which the glowing cheeked people harvested wheat shoulder to shoulder and heroes strode across the land – before intrinsically evil people warped their society.
White people committed atrocities because *power corrups*. It’s as simple as that. White people are no more evil than other people, they just became more powerful through a roll of the dice.
The oppressed victims were likewise no more virtuous. They simply showed their best side in resistance and crisis.
Both of our groups are standing around while the house burns, bitching at each other about who started it.
JPM
Good for you. If I had you would be my first,perhaps unwilling,passenger and drop you where you belong, in the stone age.
Liansky
You appear to be a fellow with some creativity, judging from your comment on enforcing BEE. Why don’t you use that creativity to create some wealth to empower blacks instead of relying on state sponsored thieving to buy that shining car.
@ Sandile and the alike confused crew,
I have heard a lot of black people refering to white people who have treated them with compassion, respect, dignity etc as “makgoa a a na le botho”.
Our elders have never lied to us like yours have to you that Ubunti is an “inherent” quality. We were taught to behave with Ubuntu which included sharing, supporting, loving and so forth. You are lying to many white people who do not know a thing about ubuntu as defined in our black communities. For heaven’s sake you are the spokes person for the ministry of arts & culture and you fail to explain Ubuntu.
Stay away from the concept of Ubuntu and enjoy you fat pay cheque. I am very embarassed by your glib and fascile utterances.
Ha o na botho.