Ubuntu, Race, and Xenophobia

Race has played a significant role in African history. As part of historical events such as colonialism, slavery, and racism, race has been used as a reason for Western superiorism, and the oppression and exclusion of Africans in intellectual and social spaces. Africans have been seen as culturally immature, rationally incompetent, and intellectually passive. Through the examination of the concepts of Ubuntu and race, this chapter critically examines the applicability of Ubuntu to the discourse of race. Given the various values implicit in Ubuntu, I intend in this chapter to contribute to the discourse of Ubuntu by showing how Ubuntu can be applied to the discourse on race.