Images of Ubuntu in the essays of S.E.K. Mqhayi in Umteteli Wabantu (1912–1939)

Abstract

S.E.K. Mqhayi contributed essays to Umteteli Wabantu, a newspaper that in fact was used as a podium to voice the opinion of black people. There is a golden thread of Ubuntu which permeates his themes, stronger in some than in others. His arguments surround the question of the nature, sustainability and significance of Ubuntu. This article should be viewed as an attempt to define and interpret the concept of Ubuntu in terms of its literary value within a socio-political context at the time of the publication of the essays, and also as an attempt to contextualise Ubuntu in terms of the present milieu.