The Lessons of Ubuntu: How an African Philosophy Can Inspire Racial Healing in America

By Mark Mathabane

A roadmap to healing America’s wounds, bridging the racial divide, and diminishing our anger.

Mathabane touched the hearts of millions of people around the world with his powerful memoir, Kaffir Boy, about growing up under apartheid in South Africa and was praised by Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton. In his new book, The Lessons of Ubuntu: How an African Philosophy Can Inspire Racial Healing in America, Mathabane draws on his experiences with racism and racial healing in both Africa and America, where he has lived for the past thirty-seven years, to provide a timely and provocative approach to the search for solutions to America’s biggest and most intractable social problem: the divide between the races.

In his new book, Mathabane tells what each of us can do to become agents for racial healing and justice by learning how to practice the ten principles of Ubuntu, an African philosophy based on the concept of our shared humanity. The book’s chapters on obstacles correlate to chapters on Ubuntu principles:

The Teaching of Hatred vs. Empathy

Racial Classification vs. Compromise

Profiling vs. Learning

Mutual Distrust vs. Nonviolence

Black Bigotry vs. Change

Dehumanization vs. Fogiveness

The Church and White Supremacy vs. Restorative Justice

Lack of Empathy vs. Love

The Myth That Blacks and Whites Are Monolithic vs. Spirituality

Self-Segregation: American Apartheid vs. Hope

By practicing Ubuntu in our daily lives, we can learn that hatred is not innate, that even racists can change, and that diversity is America’s greatest strength and the key to ensuring our future.

Concerned by the violent protests on university campuses and city streets, and the killing of black men by the police, Mathabane challenges both blacks and whites to use the lessons of Ubuntu to overcome the stereotypes and mistaken beliefs that we have about each other so that we can connect as allies in the quest for racial justice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Release date: Jan 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781510712621

Mark Mathabane

Mark Mathabane is the author of Kaffir Boy, and his articles on race and education have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, People, and other major publications. He has also been featured on numerous radio and TV shows, including Oprah, NPR’s Fresh Air, CNN, NBC’s Today, and Charlie Rose. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his family.

Book preview

PART ONE

THE TEN OBSTACLES TO RACIAL HEALING

Chapter 1

The Teaching of Hatred

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

—Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

When I ask black youths raised in America’s inner cities how they formed their first impressions of white people and what led them to learn hatred, many answer: the police. In the wake of all the deaths of black men and women at the hands of the police, it’s no surprise. I have little doubt that had the killers of Michael Brown and Tamir Rice spoken the language of Ubuntu, which humanizes through empathy, instead of the language of confrontation, the tragedies that ensued, which were driven by fear of black youths as predators, might have been averted. The officers would have erred on the side assuming that Tamir’s gun was fake, and that Michael’s attitude was nothing but bluster, which is essential for survival in a

Reviews for The Lessons of Ubuntu

[mitchellray · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mark Mathabane gives the reader a vivid account of being a black man in South Africa and America. Unfortunately, the experiences are much the same in both countries. This latest book by Mathabane describes what needs to be done to bring racial healing between blacks and whites. The first part of the book describes ten obstacles to racial healing. The second half of the book outlines the ten principles of Ubuntu, an African philosophy emphasizing the bond connecting all humanity. Mathabane recognizes that racial biases are held by both blacks and whites. Racial healing and peace requires practicing empathy, compromise, learning, nonviolence, change, forgiveness, restorative justice, love, spirituality, and hope. Mathabane provides examples of each of these principles put into practice. He explains what the Ubuntu principles are but does not provide a how-to guide to their implementation. His book does provide the inspiration to take action on closing the racial divide.