‘Fratelli Tutti’ and ‘Ubuntu’ on Cosmological Friendship

Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli Tutti has a number of parallels with the African ethic of Ubuntu. Published in October 2020, the encyclical has drawn attention to the social consciousness on solidarity between different members of society based on social-interdependence. The African concept of Ubuntu largely refers to inter-connectedness within humanity and between its members, and asserts that “my humanity finds its fundamental definition through your humanity.” This definition of Ubuntu is founded on three fundamental values. First, that humanity is essentially designed to co-exist in a cosmological friendship; second, that the core values of humanity cannot only be realized through the recognition of the intrinsic pristine nature of the other person’s humanity; third, that humanity is designed to safeguard and realize the common good that binds it together.

The cosmological friendship within the concept of Ubuntu puts emphasis on relationships and mutual co-existence. In other words, one’s humanity is only fulfilled through a relationship with other closely connected human beings, as well as with those who are remotely connected.[1] This concept of relationship in a sense implies a cosmological friendship that grounds itself in a communal attitude working towards the development of the society. The consciousness that says “I cannot be happy alone” implies that the social fabric that makes society function efficiently is based on the consciousness of the existence of the other as an active agent of social happiness or a potential agent for progressive relationship building that defines the social fabric of the society. In other words, individualism, while possibly bringing success, does not sustain the communal health of society.

In his book No Future Without Forgiveness, Archbishop Desmond Tutu states: “We are different so that we can know our need of one another, for no one is ultimately self-sufficient. The completely self-sufficient person would be sub-human.”[2] In other words, human dignity is realized within the recognition of strengths and vulnerabilities of one another, and realization that success in life only comes through mutual interdependence. Prosperity is realized when there is a strong network of interconnected concerns for both the poor and the rich, young and the old, employed and unemployed, homeowners and homeless persons, displaced and settled communities, among others. Solidarity of joy is balanced by the solidarity of suffering.

The ideal of cosmological friendship projected by the Ubuntu concept reflects the tension between the existing reality and desired possibility. While most African societies are traditional in nature, meaning its members live in highly communal societies, there are a growing number of Africans living in urban areas. The rural-urban migration has been accelerating in the last 30 years. This means that cosmological friendship experienced in the homogenous rural settings tends to be strained in urban areas where individuals and families are mixed within heterogeneous societies. Nevertheless, urban communities have attempted to maintain the social solidarity by connecting strongly to the cultural values that build the bonds between families, communities, ethnic groups and society in general.

Ubuntu recognizes the intrinsic, pristine nature of the other person’s humanity, defined as “human dignity.” This draws one to transcend various levels of differences – ethnic, religious, clan-based, regional, religious, among others – and embrace the other person in a respectful and dignified manner. Human dignity is defined by the sacredness of life, and the various rites of passage, from birth to death, have to be performed in respect of human existence. While this dignity is individually recognized, it is communally realized.

The recognition of each other’s dignity is safeguarded by the various community norms that focus strongly on fair treatment of each person, ensuring that every stage in the course of life is conducted with dignity, whether at birth, marriage or death, and the value of the family is safeguarded not as an individualized nucleus, but a commonly shared responsibility of caring for the family nucleus as well as society in general. Hence, while children belong to the family nucleus, they are also seen as a communal asset that ought to be respected, protected and raised in a dignified and supportive manner. It is the responsibility of the extended family and community in general to come to the aid of a family that is struggling or facing economic challenges. This social solidarity further strengthens the bonds between different sectors of the community, given that the family is the foundation of social cohesion.

Ubuntu equally reflects the safeguarding of the common good by putting emphasis on the shared human destiny. Human life is a common asset, and all that sustains it is considered to be a common good, whether this involves family, environment, water resources, forestry, family heritage, cultural values and norms, or wildlife. The recognition of the inter-dependence of nature and human life is vital to the harmonious coexistence between the different species on the planet. The African ecology of life draws attention to the sacredness of human life, and that of plants, animals and nature in general. The attached value to these key attributes of common good is fundamental to the safeguarding of the spiritual life for an African person.

There are several elements of Ubuntu’s vision of the common good that are crucial for harmonious coexistence in society. Social leadership is recognized as the responsibility placed on identified individuals to ensure that common values are upheld, needs of both individual and group are met, and reciprocal accountability recognized by the leaders of the community. Leadership is thus seen as a service, a common good that focuses on holding the community together. This form of leadership could be inherited, achieved or bestowed upon any individual. The individual leader does not rule alone, but rather works within a consortium of representative council members. This approach to social leadership is important because it guards against the notion that social leadership is all about self-aggrandizement regardless of the needs of others.

Fratelli Tutti puts emphasis on a number of Ubuntu values such as: building solidarity, social friendship, global citizenship and fraternal economy that respects human dignity and advances integral human development. Pope Francis calls humanity to reflect on “a way of life marked by the flavor of the Gospel,”[3] integrating both human and Gospel values aimed at safeguarding human dignity and the common good. The world is currently rejecting the values of the human solidarity of Ubuntu and of Fratelli Tutti, as is seen in the rapidly spreading isolationist trends of individualism, bigotry, sectarianism, ethnicism, racism, religious extremism and marginalization of minorities. The papal encyclical advocates for a more communitarian attitude to social cohesion, which is closely related to the Ubuntu values of communitarian solidarity, founded on mutual concern for one another.

Ubuntu and current threats

The growing middle class in most African capital cities is rapidly adopting a capitalistic lifestyle that threatens Africa’s communitarian heritage, and embraces wholesale what Francis has persistently termed “globalized indifference” (FT 30), a false security based on individualism. In fact, in most of these cities the wealthy suburbs have developed a “culture of walls.” These are physical walls that keep out those perceived as “dangerous”: poor, robbers and thieves, and also social walls that make clear distinctions between the poor and the rich, politicians and citizens, the ruling class and the ruled class, the dominant and minority or marginalized ethnic groups, the employed and unemployed.

This dichotomized society runs parallel to the “economic progress” mentioned above, clearly indicating that there is a need to review the current structures of social organization in Africa. These economic structures deceptively create false comfort under a fragile foundation that can only be termed as a “time-bomb.” Francis deplores that many people feel “more alone than ever” (FT 12), with the world economic system confining the majority of the population to the status of manual workers, under the disguised criteria of “market freedom and efficiency” (FT 109), which transforms the common good into a private possession of a specific economic class.

Global inequality continues to rise while the number of billionaires has doubled in the last decade. The disturbing worldwide trend demonstrates that the “world’s 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60 percent of the planet’s population”[4] according to Oxfam’s 2020 World Inequality Report. In addition, the 22 richest men in the world have more wealth than all the women in Africa. In the United States, the top 1 percent of Americans own almost the same amount of wealth as the middle class. In fact, the richest Americans own about $35 trillion, according to 2019 figures, whereas the entire middle class had accumulated wealth of roughly $36.9 trillion.[5]

A good number of African countries are among the fastest growing world economies. In fact, Africa is “the world’s largest free trade area and with a 1.2 billion-person market”[6] it has become an attractive investment zone for most western nations. The projected GDP for 2020 was at an average of between 2-5 percent, with some countries projecting even higher growth of up to 7 percent. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has affected Africa’s economic growth, with the continent losing “between $37 and $79 billion in estimated output losses.”[7] Despite the economic growth, there are still 416 million Africans living in poverty, 640 million without access to electricity and 210 million trapped in fragile and conflict-affected countries, further diminishing their capabilities for economic advancement.[8]

The paradoxical reality of the disparities between economic growth in Africa and increased poverty in the continent is a clear reflection of the dysfunctionality of the imported democratic and economic systems that Francis strongly condemns. He states: “Some economic rules have proved effective for growth, but not for integral human development” (FT 21). He adds that while wealth has clearly increased, inequality has concurrently increased, and new forms of poverty have emerged, caused by persistent corruption that diverts public funds to private individuals. It is important that any economic system takes into account the needs of the poor and marginalized, while considering the fact that a largely unemployed population is vulnerable to human trafficking, child abuse, recruitment into violent extremist groups, popular insurrection and disguised slavery in the form of inadequate pay. Pope Francis, in Fratelli Tutti, strongly condemns these forms of modern day slavery that treat vulnerable persons as objects “…whether by coercion, or deception, or by physical or psychological duress” (FT 24).

A call to global solidarity and Ubuntu communitarianism

Pope Francis regrets that politics has led to so much polarization that any political “victory consists in eliminating one’s opponents” (FT 16), dominating the other and paying no attention to the common good that should bind society together. The examples above on the struggle of Africa demonstrate that competitive politics has been manipulated by the rich and powerful, perverting democratic practices to political tools for the advancement of power, control and accumulation of wealth. Pope Francis appeals for politics that are “built upon respect for law and frank dialogue between individuals” (FT 196), initiating bridges across the different social-political divides of the society within a communitarian framework.

In his post-synodal exhortation following the Second African Synod, Pope Benedict XVI spoke strongly against disguised economic systems that pretend to operate for the benefit of the poor. These systems, instead, tend to aggravate the situation of the poor while maximizing the profits of the few.[9] Hence, Pope Benedict made a strong appeal to the Church in Africa that it “must speak out against the unjust order that prevents the peoples of Africa from consolidating their economies” (AM 79). There is therefore a call to shift from the manner in which Africa continues to manage its own economy.

Ubuntu communitarianism finds a strong partner in Fratelli Tutti, with its warning that the world is fast losing the sense that we are a global community, echoing Francis’ call in Laudato Si’, where he reiterated that the world is our common home. The pope states that the Covid-19 experience has shown the world that “we are a global community, all in the same boat” (FT 32), experiencing each other’s problems.

Africa has often been characterized as a communitarian society where shared socio-cultural values enhance social cohesion, and bind the people together. While the Ubuntu communitarian attitude and social solidarity are still strongly appreciated in Africa, there have been a lot of social pressures that have threatened the sense of shared communal values. These have largely been due to growing urbanization, increased capitalism and reduced communitarian economic resources that hitherto sustained economic support for those most in need.

The diminished communitarianism has created a sense of “loneliness, fear and insecurity” (cf. FT 28), trapping, especially the youth, into “a false communitarian mystique” that generates “bonds of dependency and fealty” under the control of the propagators of violence. A good number of youth in Africa have been used by politicians to fan violence against political opponents or rival ethnic groups, leading to loss of lives and destruction of property. Electoral violence has become common in most election cycles.[10]

Currently, there are five areas of active conflict in Africa: Central African Republic, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and most recently Ethiopia. Ethnicization of politics and politicization of ethnic identities have rendered the continent vulnerable to conflicts. The conflicts have propagated violence that has led to social, ethnic, political and religious divisions.[11] These situations have threatened the African Ubuntu theological wisdom that underlines the interlocking and intertwined nature of human life – my humanity is defined by your humanity, and vice versa. In other words, a human person is only human through another human person. This calls attention to respect for human dignity and appreciation for a broader sense of fraternity.

Ubuntu and reconciliation

Conflicts and protracted situations of insecurity and violence tend to create fragile states and weaken government capacity to sustain peace. At the same time governments have been responsible for provoking violent conflicts or allowing situations to develop where violence occurs, or there is excessive use of force by security agents, human rights abuses, suppression of democratic rights and  election rigging. In Sub-Saharan Africa currently there are active conflicts and vulnerable populations in the Central Africa Republic (CAR), South Sudan, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan, Burkina Faso, Niger, Somalia and Ethiopia among others.

To address conflicts and divisions such as those in Africa, Pope Francis proposes a courageous review of past crimes and injustices with a long-term view of reconciling divided communities. In fact, in chapter seven of his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Francis uses very blunt language to describe what the reconciliation process should entail. The pope calls for a bold encounter with the reality of hate and revenge, tying mediation and dialogue to sincere acknowledgement of past wrongs, seeking to forgive without necessarily forgetting the wrongs, but openness to reconciliation in order to build a new future together. He calls on previously fierce enemies “to speak from the stark and clear truth” while learning to cultivate “a penitential memory” open to exploring a new future together (FT 226).

This echoes Pope Benedict’s post-synodal exhortation mentioned above, where he reiterates that reconciliation can only be achieved from encounter with “a truth capable of transcending human standards of measure” (AM 135). Hence, according to Ubuntu philosophy, processes of reconciliation come with the restoration of the other, and “in the process of being restored, you must also be restored because we are only human together.”[12]

In Fratelli Tutti, reflecting on the Good Samaritan, Pope Francis develops an elaborate reflection on who indeed is the neighbor, and draws attention to the fast moving life that often creates no time for social friendships. As a result, there tends to be a predetermined distinction of who deserves to be the neighbor, and who ought to be automatically disqualified and termed a minority group, immigrant or migrant, a refugee or trafficked person. The decline of communitarian concern witnessed in the African urban societies today is founded on “local narcissism” (FT 146), which reflects the global virus of a restrictive solidarity, which is not only selective but to a large extent discriminatory. The concept of “neighbor” is reduced to persons in close circles of relationships. Francis calls for a broader conceptualization of “neighbor” to include persons most in need. Hence, the parable of the good Samaritan calls back humanity to a kind of love that “shatters the chains that keep us isolated and separate” (FT 62).

There have been several attempts in Africa to address past wrongs through transitional justice processes.[13] These have either taken a justice approach that seeks to prosecute the crimes or a reconciliation approach that aims at reconciling individuals and communities in conflict. Truth commissions in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, among others, have focused on bringing the victims and perpetrators of violence together in search for truth.[14] These commissions to some extent have attempted to address historical injustices, despite diverse contextual limitations. One of the major limitations has been the lack of political will to pursue the reconciliation agenda, reducing transitional justice processes to political theatrics meant to calm emotional expectations.

Africa needs to reinvent a governance system that is broadly inclusive and geared toward economic emancipation, creating more jobs and skills, especially for the majority youth population, holding those in power accountable, respecting human dignity and safeguarding the common good. Fratelli Tutti therefore makes a strong appeal, based on the need to form “social friendship” advanced by a fraternal economy that goes beyond individualistic attitudes sustained by restrictive solidarity. Social friendship is founded on “social love” as the encyclical insists, making it possible to move toward achieving “a civilization of love” beyond the walls of separation and discrimination (cf. FT 183).

Conclusion

Pope Francis’ Fratelli Tutti demonstrates that human solidarity is key to the survival of humanity, and that there cannot be sustainable peace nor ecological sustainability without cosmologic friendship. It is critically important, according to Ubuntu philosophy, that society strives toward creating consciousness around the interdependent nature of our global society, and that the future of global health will very much depend on inclusion of the poor and marginalized, the despised races around the world, poor countries, marginalized social, religious and political groups, as well as the youth who are most vulnerable to manipulation to engage in violence and all manner of destructive lifestyles. Hence, Fratelli Tutti and Ubuntu have one similar call: global friendship, solidarity and interdependence for a more sustainable society.

DOI: La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 6, no. 6 art. 11, 0621: 10.32009/22072446.0621.11

[1] Cf. M. Battle, Reconciliation: The Ubuntu theology of Desmond Tutu, Cleveland, Ohio, Pilgrim, 1997, 39-43.

[2] D. Tutu, No Future Without Reconciliation, London, Ryder, 2000.[page ?]

[3] Francis, Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, October 3, 2020, No. 1. Henceforth indicated by FT.

[4] Cf. Oxfam, World’s billionaires have more wealth that 4.6 billion people, in www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/worlds-billionaires-have-more-wealth-46-billion-people

[5] Cf. J. Kelly, “The 1% Owns Almost As Much Wealth As The Middle Class: Will The Rich Keep Getting Richer?”, in Forbes (www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2019/11/12/the-1-owns-almost-as-much-wealth-as-the-middle-class-will-the-rich-keep-getting-richer/?sh=2564a0794323 ) November 12, 2019.

[6] World Bank, “The World Bank in Africa”, January 16, 2021: cf. www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/overview

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Benedict XVI, Post-synodal exhortation Africae Munus, November 19, 2011, No. 79. Henceforth indicated by AM.

[10] Cf. N. N. Elekwa – I. Eme Okechukwu, “Post-election Violence in Africa: A Comparative Case of Kenya and Zimbabwe”, in The Indian Journal of Political Science 72 (2011/3) 833-844.

[11] Cf. E. O. Opongo, “Insecurity & Violence and Impact on Human Security,” in M. Becka – F. Wilfred – M. Babic (eds), Human Security. London, SCM, 2018.

[12] M. P. Sebola, “Refugees and Immigrants in Africa: Where is an African Ubuntu?”, in Africa’s Public Service Delivery and Performance Review 7 (2019/1) 5.

[13] Cf. Y. Selim – T. Murithi, “Transitional Justice and Development: Partners for Sustainable Peace in Africa?”, in Journal of Peacebuilding & Development 6 (2011/2) 58-72.

[14] Cf. E. O. Opongo, Transitional Justice in Post-Conflict Societies in Africa, Nairobi, Paulines Publications Africa, 2016.