Principles of Afro-communitarianism and Permissible Violence

This theoretical chapter engages with traditional just war theory to initiate a debate on the ethics of conducting war, rules of combat, and what to do in the aftermath of conflict. This is to compare these military ethics with Afro-communitarianism, with the latter commencing with coverage on communitarianism and principles of Ubuntu to harness an understanding on communal solidarity, goodwill, benevolence, sharing, caring, and forgiveness. The role of the community binds all humans together that cannot function without other humans and thus the community is of upmost importance. If peaceful relations are broken within a community, then dialogue should commence to form a resolution or settlement without the use of violence. However, this does not mean that Afro-communitarianism does not disregard violence because enmity-like violence may be needed to rebut violence with staged forms of sabotage, guerrilla warfare, terrorism, and open revolution, but the stages must be gradual and cease once a settlement has been reached. This is demonstrated with the context of rebutting the apartheid regime in South Africa and a range of anti-colonial movements fighting against European imperialism. This will comprise the motives and enmity-like violence from the belligerents, including liberation fronts, rebel militias, and insurgencies, involved.