About the author
Mgobe Ramose started his research career at Leuven University and he is now Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He has published ground works about Ubuntu Philosophy, the Nguni concept in which philosophy, ontology and ethics are thought together in a holistic approach to human-ness. He derives his views on reparations to be paid for crimes committed under colonialism from ubuntu conceptions of justice. In his view, the ubuntu African understanding of justice as balance and harmony demands the restoration of justice by reversing the dehumanizing consequences of colonial conquest and by eliminating racism.
Sources
- “To whom does the land belong?”: Mogobe Bernard Ramose talks to Derek Hook in Psychol. Soc. n.50 Durban 2016, ISSN 1015-6046, http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2309-8708/2016/n50a5
People were there before
“One of the points we discussed was the inspiration and the theory behind the slogan Izwe Lethu, “Our land”. It became very clear to me that there is a view of the history of this country, a certain perspective that many indigenous peoples conquered in the unjust wars of colonisation have, that the territory known as South Africa today, belongs to these peoples from time immemorial. The perception and understanding of this point was quite clear and explicit in the discussions we had with Sobukwe.”
“Because they must not feel isolated by us who appreciate and recognise their contribution, we thought it is better to make that concrete by visiting them so that they actually note, and know, that they are not alone, and that what they have been doing is not in vain. To add to that the other reason was that we were also not starting from a clean slate. There were other people before us in the struggle and so they have had certain experiences, and we would like to know their experiences, to even receive advice from them and that is why we went to go see him.”
We are not alone
“You see this welcoming, this openness to people, to say you are welcome, it actually confirmed us in our wish to say to him “you are not alone”. It was, however, more towards the reverse: he was never alone, he was actually saying to us, “you are not alone, I am with you”. He did not have to say the word: his whole disposition declared that we are together in this. Certain words need not have been said at all, his overall deportment was by itself a number of messages at the same time.”
Human-ness
What Pan Africanism aims to achieve is two things basically: One is the ascension of the right to be African. You need to assert the right to be African, and the right to be African in this context means the right to be human, because it is the humanity of the African that is called into question. The right to be African is thus also the right to be human. (…) It is precisely this visibility as human beings that make us embrace everyone else as another human being.