Ubuntu Worldview as a Condition of Possibility for National Unity

The spirit of Bandung can be summarized in the aspiration that the fate of Asian and African countries was neither to be determined by the Cold War divide, nor decided by the great metropolises of the world. Asia and Africa, 68 years later, have followed different paths. The Asian-African solidarity did not survive. The reason for this could be the fact that there was a difference between the Ubuntu solidarity and the many ideologies as well as influences that prevailed at the conference. This backdrop explains why the conference has not had a significant resonance in Africa, mainly in terms of national unity, which remains an aspiration. An examination of what was at play at Bandung indicates a few factors that could have made that aspiration achievable, even though such factors were either sidelined or overlooked. Using V. Y. Mudimbe and Kwasi Wiredu’s perspectives on African solidarity, this paper explores the different influences that carried the day at the conference. The aim is to show how the principle of solidarity derived from “Ubuntu” worldview as a condition of possibility for national unity was overlooked, yet it is the one needed for true nation-building. The conclusion of the paper demonstrates why the Bandung Conference, by inscribing itself in the line of global policy and international conferences underlying such policy, embraced the limitations that come from all globalizing attempts. Those attempts are bound to fail because of ignoring local values. Finally, the conclusion sketches the typically African values that happen to be, in reality, universal and, as such, might be the pillars of a battle against new forms of colonization hidden in global policies.