Jordan Layton and Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw, Department of Music
As I near my host family’s neighborhood, the streets become constraining tunnels. Lining the curbs are wall after wall of concrete above my head, topped with razor wires, electric lines, or metal spikes. The only breaks to the walled monotony are tall, jail-like gates. Shutting the automatic gate behind me instills the intentional impression of exclusion from the outside. Privacy and security of walled homes is increasingly sought after, even in townships where resistance to apartheid once forged strong communal unity. Here, such walls are also signs of community rejection. Both anthropologists and politicians have noted a decline in sense of community and interdependence in South Africa. This decline is usually voiced as a decline in the traditional, humanistic, and highly-spiritual South African concept of ubuntu. My hosts admitted that they rarely speak to neighbors beyond an occasional passing greeting, but that their Catholic Church acts more as a community than does their actual geographic neighborhood. East London’s Immaculate Conception Catholic parish promotes this disappearing ubuntu, bringing people together into interactive sharing, even in opposition to arguments that Christianity is inherently individualistic.
Ubuntu a sense of community established through compassion, inclusion, solidarity, charity, and other such characteristics and actions. Interdependence and communalism are underlying themes, the antithesis being individualism. As promoted by Desmond Tutu, ubuntu emphasizes an individual’s worth but recognizes that choosing to act for the good of others is in the individual’s best interest. People in East London summarized ubuntu in two ways. First, it means “bringing people together.” Second, means “sharing,” implying a level of interaction. Ubuntu is a spiritual matter. All definitions imply it to be a spiritual foundation; thus, as South Africa is considered a “Christian country,” I expected Christianity should ideally reflect and transmit such values, especially through musical interaction. Western influence, on the other hand, has been blamed for an increase in individualism.
So can ubuntu really be promoted in Christianity, a Western institution, which some say actually increases individualism? Many argue, in fact, that Christianity increases individualism. The erroneous foundation of such arguments, however, lies in the common claim that Christianity is wholly individualistic while denominations differ drastically in social and doctrinal emphases. So, am I saying non-individualistic ubuntu should be somehow manifested in individualistic Christianity? No, for that is completely contradictory; what is seen, on the contrary, is that because the parish promotes and reflects ubuntu, assumptions of Christian individualism are incorrect. Actually, literature arguing the communal, non-individualistic nature of Christianity is sparse, and tends to take either a historical approach or one of explaining Church policy. Furthermore, there has been no consideration of the communal nature of Christianity considering the highly spiritual, yet highly communal, concept of ubuntu.
The first communal definition of ubuntu is “bringing people together.” The parish is influenced and reflects the Vatican II-inspired decree from the sixties that worship be kept within the bounds of Church structure, in unity and sameness wherever possible. We find, contrary to definitions of individualism, an emphasis on group membership over individual rights, collective control over individual autonomy, and group conformity over individual uniqueness. Immaculate Conception’s sermons, in fact, are consistently focused on unity, love, community, and “being one.” “You cannot break a collection of wood,” the priest teaches, “It is only when you begin to take one stick of wood… that [you are] able to break each stick.” Emphasis on ubuntu values rests largely upon a foundation of the Trinity—equal, interdependent, and charitable. Praying and singing hymns (“praying twice,” as commonly defined) also reflect this aspect of ubuntu. One member says, “Prayer in the church is supposed to be one praying for the rest, not everyone praying for themselves at the same time. If you want to pray for you, go home to your closet, but not at the church. That is for people coming together.” Another says, “You know, we pray together. We believe that it’s better to worship together than to worship in private.” His wife says, “If you chose to be a Catholic, then…,” and the husband finishes, “…then you must be part of the community, and the community of worship, and the communalism of the church. The Catholic Church doesn’t allow for a lot of individualism. You can’t be a Catholic and not go to church. Yeah, well, I pray at home, I worship at home—it’s not going to be acceptable. The Catholic Church does not allow for that kind of individualism.”
The second definition of ubuntu found in the parish is “sharing” and interaction. Pattillo-McCoy (1998) , writing about Black churches in America, says, “call-and-response interaction… [in part] invokes the collective orientation of Black Christianity” (768). Prayers and music in Immaculate Conception are not highly distinct from call-and-response structures inherent in traditional African music styles. Pattillo-McCoy further found that “practices such as holding hands during prayer, …singing, clapping, and swaying to music all enact… collective goals” (770). One of the most interactive moments in the Mass is holding hands and singing “Our Father,” then turning to one another and shaking each other’s hands, wishing peace to one another. In each Mass, I shook hands with, received smiles from, and looked into the eyes of blacks, Indians, coloureds, whites, rich, poor, people with walled houses and people from shacks.
Thus, at the Immaculate Conception Catholic parish, the communal emphasis in liturgy and sermons, coupled with additional extra-Mass ministries, creates communities characterized by a “coming together” into worship and an interactive “sharing.” Therefore, Immaculate Conception stands contrary to theories of Christian individualism by effectively promoting communal ubuntu values. But the communal nature of Christianity, as seen through the eyes of ubuntu, is not solely of theoretical importance. The consideration is one of practical importance to South Africa, as well, for communal values of ubuntu are feared to be declining, and divisions are rising not only regarding racial groups but also between individual neighbors. However, the strong interracial community forged at Immaculate Conception is an anomaly even within East London, and might act as a model for at least some further unification of post-apartheid South Africa. It stands as an exception to geographic, linguistic, economic, and cultural divisions. While apartheid built walls between races, walls are now being built even within neighborhoods. If these concrete walls cannot be taken down, it is good news that at least at Immaculate Conception these walls can be figuratively hopped for long enough to forge a diverse community and to retain the communal ideals of ubuntu.