Towards Gender Justice in Africa: Interrogating Ubuntu for insights and practical application to Women’s Equality and Empowerment

Abstract

Gender injustice against women has persisted for a long time. This is manifested in discrimination, exploitation, and violence against women in different societies and in various situations, including periods of crisis, such as happened during COVID-19. The implications of this injustice transcend all aspects of development worldwide, a problem that needs to be addressed urgently. This chapter heeds the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, which advocates for major efforts to eliminate discrimination, exploitation, and violence against women. However, the efforts listed in the SDG represent a West-centric approach to providing global solutions to world problems, yet, violence against women continues unabated globally. In the spirit of decolonizing development, this chapter explores the question of whether and how Ubuntu, an indigenous African value-based worldview, may be applied to promote women’s equality and empowerment globally. Under guidance from Ubuntu philosophy, the authors of this chapter adopt a critical appreciative inquiry approach of Ubuntu to interrogate it for insights and identify creative ways in which it may be applied to meet global aspirations for justice, while evaluating its limitations. They argue that Ubuntu is crucial for effective global struggle for not just gender justice but for all forms of justice for equality, inclusion, and integration.