The Ubuntu Parenting: Kairos Consideration for the 21st Century Dynamics and Globalization

Abstract

Ubuntu is a well-defined principle and way of life in many African communities. Over the past decades, a significant amount of empirical and theoretical work has accumulated about the principle of Ubuntu. The principle has been tested and applied in many professions and faculties such as leadership, theology, sociology, education, and health. Ubuntu is also applicable in psychology around child development and parenting. Parenting is both an art and science of child nurturing. Admittedly, parenting facilitates and nurtures child development. Thus, parenting models continue to be reviewed and interrogated. This chapter has discussed how the decorations of Ubuntu can be applied in the parenting dynamics of the twenty- first century. In this chapter I have applied the experience of being African as the ground to explore the Ubuntu parenting founded on the African and ecological systems perspective. This experiential approach has been supported by the qualitative research method of reviewing and analyzing available literature about parenting and ubuntu.