UBUNTU DIALOGUES
Rethinking Dialogue: Rethinking Museum
Ubuntu's Humanity:
Inhabiting the language of relationships of care
30 March 2021
Biography
Prof Jeanine Ntihirageza
Jeanine Ntihirageza received her PhD from the University of Chicago and, while on Fulbright, an MA from Southern Illinois University in Linguistics. Her research interests are in Linguistics, language teaching, refugee studies, genocide and human rights in Africa. Dr. Ntihirageza co-edited an anthology, Critical Perspectives on African Genocide: Memory, Silence, and Anti-Black Political Violence (2021). Her publication record includes refereed book chapters and journal articles. She is Professor and coordinator of TESOL at Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago; and the founding Director of the Center for Genocide and Human Rights Research in African and the Diaspora. From 2012 to 2019, she served as Department Chair. In 2018 and 2019, she was Principal Investigator on two grants NSA/Startalk and National Endowment for Humanities.
Title
Ubuntu, an Indigenous Leadership Approach for Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution: The Caring and Human Dynamics
ABSTRACT
For improved human relationships, justice, and respect for human rights, it is critical to retool leadership approaches to magnify the caring and human definitional elements. Most leadership models and styles presented in academic or other professional settings seem to perpetuate the same relational issues, perhaps taking a slightly different form for years and centuries. I propose to investigate an all-inclusive, humanistic, and bottom-up leadership approach, founded on ubuntu principles, that's essential to effective peacebuilding, successful conflict resolution, and prevention of senseless killings in Africa, in the US, and all over the world.
Biography
Chris Mokolatsie
Chris Mokolatsie has just completed a PhD in the Department of Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology at the University of South Africa (Unisa). He completed his Master's degree in Theology at the University of Natal, South Africa. His research interest is Theological Ethics, African Ethics and Indigenous African Religions. Originally from Lesotho, Chris currently lives in the UK and works in local government. He has also worked in different sectors in the UK and South Africa including non-profits, higher education and print media journalism where he was a reporter and Editor.
TITLE
Botho: The Essence of Character Formation in Sesotho Culture and a Critique of Afrocommunitarianism
ABSTRACT
This paper questions current botho discourse and the unchallenged privileged status of Afro-communitarian reading of botho as a concept and practice. This reading has hampered the discourse from unearthing other enriching ideas about botho such as that found in the moral tradition and language of Sesotho speaking culture. The paper broadens the scope of current discourse by introducing a less acknowledged yet attractive meaning of botho from the experience of Basotho people, in which (a) it denotes inculcation and habituation of makhabane (virtues) or admirable moral qualities of character because (b) botho cannot exist independently of the character of motho (person) who makes it a reality.
Dr. Richard Benda
Dr. Richard Benda is a political philosopher interested in the complex interactions between religious and political agency. His passion lies in understanding what holds societies and body politics together. He studied Law at the Independent University of Kigali, where he also taught Criminal and Constitutional Law. The limitations of 'the legal' as an interpretive framework of post-genocide Rwanda led Dr. Benda to undertake doctoral studies in Religious Philosophy and Political Life at the University of Manchester, UK (2008-2012). His research looked at the actions of committed and practicing religious faith in situations of extreme political violence. Dr. Benda teaches Contextual and Practical Theology at LKH Theological College and Durham University. His postdoctoral research explores different tropes of the aftermath of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, in particular (a) intergenerational narratives/dialogues on guilt, shame, transformation and accountability, (b) transitional temporalities, and (c) resistance and rescue as positive deviance.
Tuesday, 30 March 2021
09:00-11:00 am EST (15:00-17:00 South African time)
Click Here to register online
https://msu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__PXuweJgSg2XlUH88G-nrw?fbclid=IwAR3dxBIEE6uyfk1vyRBljZNkOqXI_uSMYfQxO--VRhla5eC_5BbkBJcKAF8
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Upenyu Majee/ Michigan State University
majeeupe@msu.edu
Marietjie.Oelofsen / Stellenbosch University
hmoelofsen@sun.ac.za
Ubuntu Dialogues is an exchange project between Michigan State University, in the United States and the Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
