The mis(use) of Indigenous knowledge in International Relations: how ubuntu is used as a tool for peacebuilding in South Africa

This thesis explores whether and how the African concept of ubuntu is being used as a tool for peacebuilding at the national, local, and everyday levels in South Africa. Since the South African government mobilised it to inform the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) after apartheid in 1995, ubuntu has received increasing interest from both academics and practitioners as a way to provide a contextually specific approach to peacebuilding. Despite this, there is no empirical research looking at how people understand ubuntu in their everyday lives, whether and how it is being used for peacebuilding in practice, and the challenges and limitations of doing so.

This thesis fills this gap through in-depth document analysis, interviews and observations in South Africa. It provides new empirical research into how ubuntu is being used to encourage and foster relational peace at the local and everyday levels, and the challenges involved. It also outlines how ubuntu is susceptible to co-optation by the national government. Through this, I argue that existing literature has presented romanticised and over-simplified depictions of ubuntu’s potential as a peacebuilding tool. I link this to a wider trend in International Relations (IR) and Social Science research whereby Indigenous concepts are misused, mistranslated, and generalised as ready-made ‘alternatives’ to the Eurocentric discourse. To move beyond this, scholars must conduct grounded, collaborative research that engages with how these concepts are understood and used in practice, including the potential and limitations of their application.

The thesis contributes new empirical insight into the potentials and limitations of mobilising Indigenous knowledge for peace in post-conflict, post-colonial contexts, and highlights how Indigenous concepts are susceptible to romanticisation and co-optation in academic and political discourse. It will therefore be of use to scholars and practitioners interested in post-conflict local peacebuilding, and broader IR and Social Science research concerned with re/uncovering concepts from outside of the West.