This article is a continuation and development of my article: African Forms of Social Harmony in the GHA collective monograph The ABC of Harmony ... 2012, [1, 156–157].

People have been striving for peace in their respective homes, countries, regions and the world. However, their efforts have been often deemed to failure because of missing the scientific understanding of the real target. Global Peace Science (GPS) has put forward the principle “peace from harmony of SPHERONS” for its comprehension in theory, intuition and practice. It is o­ne among a limited number of alternatives to the question of human survival in peace.

     The African philosophy of Ubuntu has revealed its capacity of building and maintaining peace and harmony. In our article, we attempt to unfold a summarized understanding of the concept and its relationships with harmony and also the interface of these two concepts in prompting global peace which is a sine qua non condition to the future human survival.

     Beyond self for humanness through Ubuntu. Originating from South Africa, Ubuntu was defined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu (2008) [29] as “the essence of being human”. No man can claim to be human by him/herself in isolation, but rather in interconnectedness with others. This is expressed by the Zulu saying “Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu”, which acknowledges that “a person is a person through other persons”. Thus, humans should participate to the creation of the humanity by feeling their interdependence and respecting particularities.

     Ubuntu life skills and guidelines as stated by Broodryk [30] comprise a range of principles as sameness, brotherhood, equality, mutuality, sympathy, tolerance, respect and lack of oppression. Moreover, Ubuntu involves people’s shared happiness, the sense of interdependent survival and the spirit of wealth sharing among the community. All in all, they contribute to shaping the ultimate value of humanness and a valued consideration of the other as an image of self.

     It is worth emphasizing that Ubuntu is a culture, a philosophy and a moral. In this respect, it is regarded as patterns and values of behavior between members of the community, which prompt them to live and act as prescribed by the Ubuntu knowledge. In addition, a community with Ubuntu has established it as its fundamental belief and ethics that guide their thinking and doing. As a moral quality, Ubuntu generates positive principles that bring about a suitable lifestyle and a certain identity to people.

     Ubuntu and Harmony as siblings. A tight relationship between Ubuntu and Harmony may be drawn down. Indeed, Ubuntu “favours the re-establishment of Harmony” in case of social dislocation. The room is hereby given to tolerance and empathy towards o­ne another. Therefore, Harmony is the result of the practice of Ubuntu as concluded Broodyk [30, 27] that “the outcomes of applying Ubuntu life coping skills is propagating harmony” in the community especially when recovering from crisis.

     Along the same line, Ubuntu is a cause of Harmony and the latter is a consequence as prescribed by classic conditionals ‘if you sow Ubuntu, you shall harvest Harmony’ or ‘if you want Harmony, practice Ubuntu’. The route towards harmony goes through Ubuntu, which ties the two concepts in a ‘cause-effect’ relationship o­n the o­ne hand.

On the other hand, harmony may be taken as “virtue” of Ubuntu in the sense that a man of “Ubuntu personality” is characterized by his “living in harmony” with others [30, 4). This lifestyle does not limit to human beings, but it extends to the natural environment as well as the supernatural world.

     Furthermore, conditions for harmony, namely “people, their diversity, unity and consent” adhere to principles of Ubuntu in the course of life. Their recognition is crucial in fighting against “disharmonious forces” like war and risk of wars, consumerism, individualism, oppression, and etc. Thus, Ubuntu and Harmony are set as the common denominator of global peace in general.

     Ubuntu and Harmony for Global Peace. Global peace should be effective if the humanity were acquainted with Ubuntu. Chaplin [31] called upon individuals and communities to take Ubuntu as both “the right and the responsibilities for each citizen in promoting individual and societal well-being”. This is not o­nly a matter of choice where everyone is free to “take it or leave it”, but also and especially it is a must that all people should endorse.

     Tellinger [32] reported President Barack Obama’s speech at Nelson Mandela’s memorial where the President praised Ubuntu as “the social structure and a simple way of life for our communities [..and..] a beautiful life of abundance for all – o­n all levels of human endeavour”. He further commended the Ubuntu Movement as a powerful tool to “liberate all of humanity from the devastating economic enslavement” which is the worst evil of the current century. Thus, Ubuntu is the freedom that people should live for so as to enjoy peace and harmony. The statement reinforces the earlier address by another U.S. Republican President Theodore Roosevelt (1903) who highlighted “the need for an Ubuntu philosophy” as “the economic and political principles that best serve the country” for sustainable peace in the world.

     In his reflection o­n “Ubuntu: a philosophy of the future”, Tim Miner Ounl [33] contrasted it with the “Individualism Western thought” while he was discussing the possible suitable way of survival for the future humanity. The conclusion was that individualism “is subordinated to the needs of the greater human community” whereas Ubuntu is “the greater good of the community”. Thus, Ubuntu is rather higher positioned to ensure the world survival than any other philosophy, and the sustainable future for Global peace is in the effectiveness of Ubuntu.

     The holistic aspect of Ubuntu makes it the most suitable way towards peace. Ubuntu caters for religions, spirituality, economic world, social order, individual matters, nations and business. The aim is to alleviate all barriers and thus to foster prosperous and harmonious religions, economic systems, collaboration between nations and individuals, as well as fair business. Chaplin [31] qualified this holistic aspect as “Ubuntu is an African word for a universal concept”. Therefore, global peace should be thought of in a holistic way, which gives an advantage to Ubuntu as its foremost promoter. Besides, the Ubuntu holism is connected with its globalism. From African roots, Ubuntu philosophy has got “global implications” as put forward by Miner Ounl [33]. In fact, “it ties each of us to the common good for all others in the world […] with its potential for a lasting and just peace in the world”. Thus, the movement should not be confined to Africa, while it has the potential of a worldwide significance.

      Murithi [34] explained the global implications of Ubuntu in terms of its lessons towards global peace. Four among the lessons are namely public participation in the peacemaking process, supporting victims and suffered in making peace, acknowledging guilt and granting forgiveness, and recognizing the essential unity and interdependence of the humanity. These lessons have been promoted by Ubuntu through empathy, cooperation and sharing of the common good. In that perspective, the world needs “Ubuntu forms of governance” and “Ubuntu economies” for global Peace [35; 36; 37; 38; 39].

     To recap, each society develops its home strategies and techniques for peacemaking, and communities learn from o­ne another. Thus, the African Ubuntu should inspire Africa and the rest of the world towards Global peace.

      Conclusion. Ubuntu is definitely an opportunity towards Global Peace and Harmony. It is the most powerful alternative to the current world crises as well as “a sine qua non condition for a just and sustainable world order” in all regions. It is in this framework that the Rights and Humanity Emergency Congress of February 2009 made “Ubuntu Declaration for a Just and Sustainable World Economy” (http://www.gentleaction.org/library/Ubuntu_Declaration.pdf) where they called upon leaders to take action towards the integrated world peace.

      As the world has got numerous hidden opportunities to cope with too complex challenges faced by the humanity, Ubuntu may help more to discover their practicalities of implementation. It may further establish and sustain global codes of conduct to be adopted by all human beings for the survival of the humanity. Therefore, Ubuntu is both “an economic argument” and “a moral imperative” to lead the humanity from global crisis towards global opportunities for all humans. In this sense, Ubuntu might prompt changes and best practices to the benefit of not o­nly individuals, but also and especially the humanity as a whole.

     The philosophy of Ubuntu creates the fertile soil and effective way o­n the African continent for the recognition and dissemination of Global Peace Science (GPS), especially the ideas of its universal SPHERONS as eternal actors of global peace from harmony worldwide. GPS explains the profound ideas of peace from harmony in the philosophy of Ubuntu through its intuition of SPHERONS. However, the question of the relationship and mutual supplementation of GPS and Ubuntu requires special detailed analysis.

       The article main content is expressed by the model of Tetranet harmonious thinking in the chain of concepts: 1.Harmony of African SPHERONS – 2.Harmony intuition in Ubuntu – 3.Ideas of peace and harmony in Ubuntu – 4.Spiritual preconditions of GPS in Africa

      Model-11. Intuition of peace from harmony in African philosophy of Ubuntu

Mr. Heli Habyarimana,

GHA Vice-President,

Assistant Lecturer, Sociolinguistics,

Rwandan Peace Activist, Shalom Educating for Peace-Rwanda,

Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Education of Kibungo (INATEK),

Address: Kigali, Rwanda; E-mail: haheli2001@yahoo.fr

Website: http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=361