Ubuntu/Botho/Hunhu and Nonhuman Animals

Abstract

Among Native Americans, the view of the interconnectedness of all life, between the human and the nonhuman realms, on the one hand, and the human and the ancestral and spirit realms, on the other (Kwenda 1999: 10; Murove 2004; Murove 2009), finds expression in the Lakota phrase Mitakuye oyasin or the Cree concept of wahkohtowin (‘All is related’; ‘We are all related’), both of which refer to the self in relation, the self defined relationally. In Southern Africa, as I explained in Chapter 1 above, the relevant view would be that expressed by ubuntu (a Nguni language group term for common or shared humanity, or humanness; equivalent concepts are botho or hunhu) or ukama (a Shona concept that emphasises the interrelatedness of humans, the environment, God and the ancestors). The basic idea is that the individual and her well-being depend essentially on the community, understood here as a ‘web of relationships’ (Sitoto & More 2002: 55). Parallels can also be drawn between ubuntu and the ancient Egyptian idea of maat, which emphasises harmony, righteousness and the need to locate and understand oneself and one’s actions ‘in the context of the larger whole’, something that ‘has great significance for both social and environmental ethics’ (Karenga 204: 181).