Rethinking Ethical Feminism and Sexual Politics Through uBuntu

Transnational feminism, as both an ethical ideal and an actual struggle to form political alliances, raises some of the most difficult and burning issues of what it means to challenge profound Eurocentric biases that have often stood in the way of such a coalition. Transnational alliances, particularly when including sexual politics, demand of us that we open ourselves to rethinking some of our most cherished feminist ideas, such as freedom and equality, without of course giving up on those ideals. Sometimes, when the issues are so big, they can best be examined by looking at a specific case, and in this case an alternative non-Western (South African) ethic: uBuntu. The ethic of uBuntu raises questions about some Anglo-American assumptions about freedom, equality, and obligation. It is particularly challenging since it does not justify itself through an appeal to its indigenous roots, but instead through a claim to universality.Drucilla Cornell is professor of Political Science, Comparative Literature, and Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University, a professor extraordinaire at the University of Pretoria, and a visiting lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London. Furthermore she is the director of the uBuntu project in South Africa.