Ubuntu and Decolonisation

Decolonisation only achieved juridical, political sovereignty. The racialised imperial world economic structure that is marked by the trade and capital structures that are unfavourable to the economies of African countries was retained. The economies of post-colonial African countries that were unequally integrated into the global economy from the colonial era to the present as exporters of cheap primary products and importers of expensive manufactured products continue to be beleaguered by economic dependence, poverty and underdevelopment. I will utilise Ubuntu’s feta kgomo o tshware motho ethic (the survival and welfare of all human beings supersede the accumulation of wealth) and Ubuntu’s dkgomo tsa mafisa (mode of loaning cattle that will be returned without incurring interest) and matsema (cooperation by sharing labour voluntarily) practices to show how such a global economic structure can be reconfigured in such a way which can promote the prosperity of all human beings.