Ubuntu, Disability Inclusion, and Sustainable Development: Breaking the Disability-Poverty Nexus in Africa

The correlation between disability and poverty remains a significant impediment to the realisation of sustainable development globally and, more significantly, in the context of African countries such as Zimbabwe. Fundamentally, this destructive relationship is rooted precisely in the pervasive exclusion of persons with disabilities from all mainstream social-cultural, economic and political spheres. Against this backdrop, this chapter wrestles with the implications of adopting and deploying the indigenous African philosophy of Ubuntu/Hunhu in breaking the disability-poverty nexus by promoting the full inclusion and effective participation of persons with disabilities across the broad spectrum of society. The eradication of both poverty in all its forms/dimensions and inequality stand as indispensable requirements for the realisation of sustainable development as espoused in SDG1 and SDG10, respectively. Thus, the chapter interrogates the relevance of Ubuntu in achieving these goals through advancing social justice, social cohesion, equality, inclusion and social integration, particularly for the constituency of persons with disabilities. Essentially, Ubuntu enunciates the importance of communal existence anchored in the transformative principles of reciprocity, respect, cohesion, inclusion, collectiveness and justice, aspects which are critical for sustainable development. Thus, the chapter draws insights from the Social Model of disability and Nancy Fraser’s theory of social justice to demonstrate how key elements of Ubuntu can positively transform the attitudinal landscape towards disability in Africa. In essence, the chapter advocates for the appropriation of Ubuntu in developing and promoting a social ideology of disability inclusion that strengthens Africa’s prospects for breaking the disability-poverty nexus in the quest for attaining sustainable development without leaving anyone behind.