Page 25 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 17

Health & Healing

cans also has to deal with the added
burden of imported religions that
have been adapted to justify slavery,
colonialism, and the superiority of
one race over others.
The ever attempted negation of
Ubuntu philosophy is an attempt
to thwart an African project of
self-discovery and African Renais-
sance. It is a strategy to thwart
African self-knowledge programme,
we do not delve into its meaning. and nature. I am talking here about with an aim to perpetuate colonial-
We have not been able to analyse human beings, not just only Afri- ity/modernity, which embraces the
and critique this maxim properly kans. logic of oppression and exploita-
and fully. The essence of Ubuntu/ Therefore, NTU, the creator tion.
Maat (Uqobo in my indigenous lan- goddess of divinity/spirituality
guage) will emerge and be realized is equivalent to Neith (an ancient Currently the knowledge we are
when scholars give it its unique and Egyptian version of Ubuntu, other- consuming simultaneously, as Afri-
multi-dimensional seriousness it de- wise, in present day and age, known cans, is a combination of both Af-
serves. The path to self-knowledge as MAAT). It is also equal to PO rican and European epistemologies,
is a challenge to all those who do (an egg of creation), which is both which leaves us all, including the
research on human personality. a Dogon and Maori equivalent of generations to come, confused and
Ubuntu, in reality, is a universal di- NTU. This on its own, represents half empty. We end up not consum-
vine law that is connected to cosmic an element of universality of NTU, ing properly what is ours, and not
order and nature. As a result it easily rather an exclusively African con- consuming properly what is foreign,
resonates with the IKS (Indigenous cept. and as such we do not fully know
Knowledge Systems) because IKS Ntu is the divine being. Humanity is any of the two combined episte-
is embedded in nature and cosmic One. Ntu is a divine spark. It is the mologies, hence we have become
order, for nature and cosmic order Word of God Ptah. It manifests it- neither fish nor foul.
are one, hence As above, So below. self to Higher Beings. The universe
This resonates with the ancestral is One. And humanity is one of its The principal challenge is to sift
spirits, who are connected to the integral parts. Ubuntu is the glue what is exogenous from what is
cosmic order, nature and human that holds humanity and the various indigenous, for if we do not do that,
beings, and to ignore this is to parts of the universe together (how an ‘other thought’ (which is African)
lose the significance of Ubuntu. does it do that?). The human per- is ever trapped in modernity/colo-
But more importantly, they are sonality (Ubuntu) is a spiritual and niality, which ever seeks to destroy
also connected to our indigenous material being. what is African/Third World.
knowledge systems. Therefore, they Modernity puts everything in one
are ubiquitous or omnipresent and Conclusion highway that is being patrolled and
omniscient. One of the duties of The racist claim that Ubuntu is guarded by gate-keepers, making
our ancestral spirits is to foster and primitive, archaic and non-universal sure that ‘other thoughts’ do not
promote Ubuntu within the living needs to be rejected with the con- cross the borders and contaminate
(those left behind), relatives and the tempt it deserves. This is one of the what is theirs. African indigenous
entire community, as God’s angels. ways to silence and relegate African knowledges, right now, do not cross
The living are deeply connected to epistemologies to barbarian and such borders, and as such, they are
the departed ones. primitive margins. ever relegated and museumized by
This broadened definition reveals the colonialist gate-keepers. The
the connection between the Cosmic Africa faces the challenges of rightful owners of such trapped
Order and nature, between human racism, sexism, patriarchy, tribalism, and diluted indigenous knowledges,
beings and the Cosmic nature, and and religious intolerance. These are Ubuntu included, as a consequence,
between human beings and nature. vices that create conflicts and negate lose their identity and pride in them-
In short, humans everywhere are an social cohesion, nation-building, selves.
integral part of the Cosmic Order and economic development. Afri-

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