Ubuntu, Reconciliation and Gender-Based Violence in South Africa

This chapter investigates whether the concept of Afro-communitarian (or Ubuntu) reconciliation can be applied to gender in South Africa. Is it the case that there is a need for reconciliation between the genders, given the amount of gender-based violence which is rife in the country? Or is the concept of reconciliation, which is usually applied to categories such as race, ethnic or religious groups, not the correct way of trying to overcome gender-based violence? The chapter will first argue for a particular interpretation of the term gender-based violence. An account of reconciliation according to an Afro-communitarian ethic will then be given, after which it will be argued that Ubuntu reconciliation can and ought to be applied to the issue of gender in South Africa. This is so since what is necessary to overcome gender-based violence is the transformation of gender roles and identities, and it is exactly the transformation of identities which is at stake in Ubuntu reconciliation. It will also be emphasized that in a country such as South Africa, any solution which is not intersectional and does not also address the legacy of trauma in the country due to colonialism and apartheid will be inadequate, since identities and persons are complex and comprise issues of gender, race, economics and ethnicity. This is another reason why Ubuntu reconciliation is important, since it would address all these facets of a person’s identity and does not focus on one aspect only.