Decolonising Knowledge: CanUbuntuEthics Save Us from Coloniality?

Journal of Business Ethics · 2019 · Volume 159 · Issue 1

Abstract

This essay discusses whether an indigenous African ethic, as expressed inubuntu,may serve as an example of how to decolonise Western knowledge. In the first part, the key claims of decolonisation of knowledge are set out. The second part analyses three strategies to construct models of ‘African’ (business) ethics, namely transfer, translation and stating of a substantive rival model as contained inubuntuethics. After a critical appraisal of this substantive proposal, part three indicates the potential and limitation of the decolonisation project: possibilities lie in the (re)-contextualisation of knowledge, whereas limitations are related to constructing an alternative to what is known as ‘scientific’ knowledge. As far as the author knows, this is the first attempt to frame (business) ethics in terms of the epistemological search for ‘decolonised’ knowledge.

Keywords

Decolonisation, African ethics, Ubuntu ethics, Western ethics, Scientific knowledge

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