In Africa we grow up surrounded by others, who become an integral part of our existence. Nobody lives an isolated life. In all that we do the community to which we belong is considered or expected to be considered supreme. As somebody put it, “I am because we are.”
This is a philosophy called uMunthu or uBuntu. It is truly and authentically African but some of its aspects have universal applicability. I have argued in some of my past articles that anybody who has achieved anything great has done so assisted by others. The Chichewa adage, “tiwiri tiwiri n’tiwanthu, kali koha n’kanyama” (surrounded, your are somebody: isolated, you are vulnerable) holds true universally.
When Chris Blackwell met the Wailers in Jamaica, they were a unified unit, all the founding members having the same status. To use our terminology, they were practising uMunthu. Chris Blackwell, an Englishman, decided that the name of the band should be changed to “Bob Marley and the Wailers”. That was the beginning of confusion. Bunny Wailer left the group and started a solo career, and so did Peter Tosh shortly afterwards.
Even classical composers never worked alone. George Frederick Handel composed the amazing work, the Messiah, in 1741. This was after he had relocated from his home country, Germany, to England and had unsuccessfully attempted to write opera music. It was Charles Jennes who gave him the Biblical texts that he turned into the Messiah with great musical masterly.
Back home, we have our own global celebrity in the name of William Kamkwamba whose story about the construction of a windmill from scrap material has recently been turned into a film. Those who have read Kamkwamba’s book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, will have noticed that he never worked alone. His closest friends were Gilbert and Geoffrey and they were always with him, helping out in one way or another throughout the entire process of building a windmill.
The Liverpool Football Club slogan sums it up: You’ll never walk alone. Interaction is important and necessary for our development. Whereas in much of the West interaction with others may be limited to a few individuals that somebody gets along with, in Africa and Asia such interaction develops into communalism, which is an integral way of our life. Everything one does gets thrown back at the community. It is for this reason that in Africa, marriages are not regarded as affairs between two individuals but between two communities. In most Malawian communities, a marriage will be preceded by a chinkhoswe (engagement) ceremony, which brings together the two families. It is sad that these days chinkhoswe has lost its meaning and is taken to be the first leg of the wedding. As such it is open to the public and takes almost the same format as a wedding reception.
In the West weddings and funerals are private event s, which can only be attended strictly by invitation. In Africa these events are communal. Anybody from the community can – and indeed everybody is expected to – attend them. I am because we are, and so my existence is intricately woven into the fabric of the community. This is what has come to be known as uMunthu.
Steven Sharra, a staunch advocate of uMunthu, says that even the learning process can effectively happen within the context of uMunthu, and often does. The elderly people pass on their skills to the younger generation by a carefully executed apprenticeship program. If it were not so, cultural practices like gulewamkulu would have ceased long time ago. Despite the vehement condemnation of gule wamkulu by the missionaries and the colonial administrators, the practice has only grown from strength to strength. The tricks of the practice have been accurately passed on from generation to generation without any recourse to formal education. This is made possible by communal living.
Some commentators are pushing communalism to lofty heights. In his book titled The Communalist Manifesto, Professor Chinyamata Chipeta all Africans to reject Capitalism and Communism and instead embrace Communalism as an economic philosophy. Factors of production do not have to be owned by a few individuals or by Government but by communities whose members are bound together by communalism. Chipeta does not use the word uMunthu but all his references to communalism are those that define the uMunthu philosphy.
We have a great opportunity now to search within our African societies and redefine our existence by living out the tennets of philosophies like uMunthu. That way we shall become genuinely African, yes by appreciating and embracing something truly African. We shall then export the uMunthu philosophy to the rest of the world.
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