A Discourse on African Philosophy: African Philosophy: Critical Perspectives and Global Dialogue

It has frequently been argued that ubuntu was a formative influence on the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), South Africa's famous transitional justice mechanism. This book challenges and contextualizes this view in a way that not only provides new findings and reflections on ubuntu and the TRC, but also contributes to the field of African philosophy. One of Christian B. N. Gade's key findings, founded on qualitative interviews in South Africa, is that some former TRC commissioners and committee members question the importance of ubuntu in the TRC process. Another is that there are several differing and historically developing interpretations of ubuntu, some of which have evident political implications and reflect non-factual and creative uses of history. Thus ubuntu is not a cultural heritage that is shared, in the ethnophilosophical sense of constituting a static property characterizing a group. In fact, throughout this book Gade argues that the ethnophilosophical approach to African philosophy as a static group property is highly problematic. Gade's research presents an alternative collective discourse on African philosophy ("collective" in the sense that it does not focus on any single individual in particular) which takes differences, historical developments, and social contexts seriously. This book will be of interest to scholars in African philosophy, transitional justice, politics and cultural heritage, and law in South Africa.