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Why do we not speak of ubuntu for warriors?

17 May 2021 | Story Eugene Seegers | Photo Anja Aucamp

Prof Chasi_web read more — Prof Colin Chasi’s latest book, Ubuntu for Warriors, looks at lost and forgotten warrior traditions in Africa and how ubuntu relates to these.

It is not common for scholars to challenge foundational ideas of their epoch. But this is the case with the recently published book, Ubuntu for Warriors, from Africa World Press, which extends the boundaries of current thinking on the African moral philosophy of ‘ubuntu’. The author of this ground-breaking book is Prof Colin Chasi, Director of the Unit for Institutional Change and Social Justice at the University of the Free State (UFS).

Drawing on various biographical sources and interweaving these with conceptual arguments, Prof Chasi introduces the view that ubuntu is for warriors too. Interestingly, the book does not seek to ‘knock out’ existing African moral theories that focus on harmony, peace, and reconciliation. Rather, it recalls the lost and forgotten warrior traditions through which Africans have sought to advance just war and peace. To this end, the names of venerated Africans such as King Shaka, President Nelson Mandela, President Kenneth Kaunda, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, and Steve Bantu Biko are prominent.

The book’s reappraisal of the contributions to the warrior tradition of these Africans makes for engaging conversations about war, violence, warriors — and about the ubuntu of all of these. For Prof Nyasha Mboti, author of a forthcoming book introducing the need to study apartheid systematically, the main contribution of Prof Chasi’s book “is to rescue ubuntu from the one-dimensional philosophical straitjacket long imposed on it in normative readings”.

Prof Chasi's riveting book not only overturns commonly held epistemological premises of the philosophy of ubuntu. In view of this, Dr Winston Mano, Director of the Africa Media Centre at the University of Westminster, says it “goes further to uncover and position ubuntu as a resource for counterhegemonic struggles. It is a must-read not only for all those interested in taking African philosophy but also and especially for all those warriors involved in moving African epistemologies to the centre.”

News Archive

Research project gives insight into the world of the deaf

2005-11-30

Mr Akach in conversation (using sign language) with his assistant Ms Emily Matabane. Photo: Lacea Loader

UFS research project gives insight into the world of the deaf

The Sign Language Division of the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Department of Afro-Asiatic Studies and Language Practice and Sign Language has signed a bilateral research project with the universities of Ghent and Brussels to write a book on sign language.

“We want to compare the Belgium and South African sign languages with each other. The book will be about the deaf telling us about themselves and how they live. It will also focus on the use of story telling techniques and the grammar used by deaf people. We want to see if the hand forms and the grammatical markers and other linguistic features that deaf people from these two countries use are the same or not,” said Mr Philemon Akach, lecturer at the UFS Sign Language Division and coordinator of the research.

According to Mr Akach, the sign language community in South Africa, with about 600 000 deaf people who use South African Sign Language (SASL) as first language, is quite big. “Over and above the deaf people in South Africa, there are also the non-deaf who use SASL, like the children of deaf parents etc. This book can therefore be used to teach people about the deaf culture,” he added.

Another of Mr Akach’s achievements is his election as Vice-President of the newly established World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI). The association was established earlier this month during a conference in Worcester.

Mr Akach has been actively involved with sign language interpretation since 1986 and has been interpreting at the World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) since 1987. “My appointment as Vice-President of the WASLI is an emotional one. I have been involved with deaf people for so long and have been trying to create awareness and obtain recognition for sign language, especially in Africa,” said Mr Akach. WASLI is affiliated to the WFD.

According to Mr Akach there was no formal structure in the world to support sign language and sign language interpreters. “Now we have the backup of WASLI and we can convince governments in other African countries and across the world to support deaf people by supporting WASLI and therefore narrow the communication gap between the deaf and the hearing. My main aim as Vice-President is to endeavour for the recognition of sign language and spoken language interpreters as a profession by governments,” he said.

According to Mr Akach the formal training of interpreters is of vital importance. “Anybody who has a deaf person in his/her family and can communicate in sign language can claim that they are an interpreter. This is not true. It is tantamount to think that all mother tongue or first language speakers are interpreters. Likewise students who learn sign language up to whatever level and are fluent in signing, should still join an interpreter’s programme,” he said.

“Sign language interpreting is a profession and should be presented as an academic course alongside other spoken languages. The UFS has been taking the lead with sign language and spoken language interpretation and was the first university on the African continent to introduce sign language as an academic course,” he said.

“Although sign language has always been an unknown language to young people it has become quite popular in recent years. This year we had a total of 160 students at the Sign Language Section of the UFS and the numbers seem to increase steadily every year,” he said.

Mr Akach’s assistant, Ms Emily Matabane, is deaf and they communicate in sign language. Ms Matabane also handles the tutorials with students to give them hands-on experience on how to use sign language.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
30 November 2005

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