Africa: Can the Philosophy of Ubuntu Help Provide a Way to Face Health Crises?

analysis

African communities, within South Africa and beyond, are diverse and complex, informed by different rules, values and beliefs. But public health emergencies demand that governments take decisive action which affect communities and individuals. In doing so, it's easy to override civil rights and liberties, and to suspend community consultations, engagement and shared governance in favour of quick decisions. This can have negative impacts as experience from the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa showed. For example, failure to sufficiently interact with communities regarding initial protocols designed to make burials "safer" resulted in locally offensive policies that made little headway in transforming practices.

In an article published earlier this year, we argued that it might be useful in public health to draw on local philosophies that value the exchange of benefits and sharing of responsibilities. In particular, we suggest using the philosophy of Ubuntu to promote the idea that public health is more important than individual wellbeing. Through its emphasis on humanity, compassion and social responsibility, Ubuntu ("I am because we are") has the potential to reduce conflicts between individual rights and public health, and might help governments gain community support for actions in emergencies.

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