An African ethics of migration : Ubuntu applied to the Zimbabwe - South Africa border

Abstract

The key question in this philosophical research is, “What does Ubuntu entail for the way an African state such as South Africa as well as other major institutions, media houses, banks, etc., should respond to foreigners seeking to escape poverty by entering its borders and for the way the immigrants, but also others, including everyday South African citizens, may best act as a consequence of South Africa’s response?” In this study, “ubuntu” is understood as a moral theory that is grounded on certain kinds of relationships within a political state, a notion that draws attention to how such interaction should aim to promote the livelihood of all with human dignity. Owing to my interest in the innate worth of persons as foundational to morality, I compare the ubuntu ethos against Kantian ethics, an ethos with a firm account of dignity. In my answer to the above research question, I justify substantial migration of poverty-stricken Zimbabweans, my chief example. Moreover, I suggest that the South African government ought to discharge a duty of honouring the right to thriving or development towards the needy Zimbabwean migrants, individuals with a dignity, while also naming them in respectful ways. Further, I defend the plausibility of humility as the foundation of migrants’ duties to the South African government and its citizens. The originality of the project emanates in part from the topics it addresses in normative ethics, particularly, regarding the duties of migrants to their host country and the challenge of naming/identifying the migrants. Additionally, the novelty of the project is in its method of applying extant principles of an ubuntu ethos to a topic they have not been applied to systematically before.