“Inkosi yinkosi ngabantu”: Understanding Governance from the Perspective of African Indigenous Knowledge and the Ethos of ubuntu/unhu

Long-term problems of governance have been a feature among many African nations for a long time without any apparent solutions, even in the near term. When African leadership systems are judged against their Western counterparts, the former are mostly found lagging behind on issues of democracy, political tolerance and basic human rights. In a number of cases, African cultures have been blamed for malgovernance or the prevalence of undemocratic tendencies among African leaders. This chapter argues that, far from such common perceptions, African culture is the basis for proper governance, as can be observed from Indigenous oral and written literature. The chapter interrogates the African Indigenous concept of ubuntu/unhu as a transformational ingredient for good governance and the basis of effective political participation by the local people at various stages of the political process. The study, which is largely based on desktop research, focuses mainly on Ndebele oral and written literature, with particular reference to the theory of ubuntu. Basing our political systems on African Indigenous knowledge systems, specifically on the prescriptions and proscriptions of ubuntu, would go a long way towards transforming them from the negative to the positive, thereby benefiting the lives of the general population.