Ubuntu and intercultural communication: power, inclusion and exclusion

Abstract: This address critically examines two paradigms that historically characterised inter-racial relations in South Africa. The (mis)application of intercultural communication concepts during apartheid to manage labour relations is contrasted with the contemporary use of ubuntu, a purportedly unique African concept that promotes the communitarian idea of human interconnectedness. Both concepts are critiqued as forms of inclusion/exclusion. Power, usually absent from discussion of either practice, is here injected into the analysis. Some thoughts on crime as a uniquely Western paradigm are offered. The argument shows how language and intercultural communication concepts can fail in the academy when they are used to promote essentialist agendas, including the claim that crime is a Western paradigm. The paper concludes with some thoughts on cultural studies, drawing on the above context, as manifested in the 2015 Intercultural Communication Studies Conference organised by IAICS and CAFIC