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STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: RETHINKING UBUNTU AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN SOUTH AFRICA/COMPANHEIROS ESTRANHOS: REPENSANDO UBUNTU E DIREITOS HUMANOS NA ÁFRICA DO SUL

2016; Volume: 3; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.22409/rcj.v3i5.230

2359-5744

Anthony O Oyowe,

Political Philosophy and Ethics

Summar y: Can an African ubuntu m o r a l theory ground individual freedom and human rights? A l th ough variants of ubuntu moral theory answer in the n egat i ve, asserting that the duties individuals owe the collective are prior to ind i vidua l ri ghts (since African thought places more emphasis on the co ll ective) , Metz’s recent art i culation in th i s Journal of an African ubuntu moral theory promises to ground the liberal ideal of individual li ber t y . I pursue three distinct lines of argument i n establishing the claim that Metz’s project fails to convince – that individual freedom and rights cannot be successfully grounded in a mora l theory that already regards some extrinsic v a l u e (that is, communal harmony) as the most fu n da ment a l mora l value. Fir s t, I suggest that Metz’s attempt to g r ou n d human rights i n h i s ubuntu moral theory raises the problem of where the fundamental value lies in his theory. That is, in seeking to integrate two poten t i a ll y- conflicting and non-ins t r u ment al values in his theory, Metz substa nt ia ll y mod ifi es his origina l ubuntu ethical principle in such a way that the communitarian / ubuntu status of the t h e o r y i s undermined . Second, I argue that, even if Metz’s theory were sufficiently communitarian/ ubuntu -like, it c o u l d n o t possibly g r o u n d individual freedom as a non-ins t r u ment al value. Third, I argue that Metz employs a t e n den t i ous reading of the concept of human rights ; in particular, that h e erroneously construes ri g ht s as duties. Since this l ast argument rests on a subtle distinction between i n d i v i d u a l rights and duties, I try to suggest how the distinction can be made in spite of the fact that these concepts are strongly related. Although I do not directly address Metz’s treatment of specific human rights i ssues in South Africa, throughout I contend that these theoretical lapses cast enormous doubts on h i s overall project . Keywords: Human Rights; Ubuntu; South Africa.