Conceptualizing a Decolonial Embodied Methodology Grounded in Ubuntu Philosophy

• In Event: Building Kinship and Becoming Relatives: Ancestral Alignment Guiding Our Methodologies

Abstract

The philosophy of Ubuntu provides the ontological and epistemological grounding for my research. Ubuntu reflects an African Indigenous worldview that life is interconnected, holistic, and cyclical (Mabingo, 2023). Ubuntu, as a methodological anchor, challenges the dominance of Western paradigms and activates “decolonial agency in dance education research” (Mabingo, 2023, p. 197). “I am because we are, and because we are therefore I am" is the foundation of the Ubuntu philosophy (Mabingo, 2023, p. 196). This way of knowing is ideal for researching African dances because it brings to the forefront the holistic, humanistic, and community-based elements embedded in culturally rooted movement forms. Ubuntu sheds light on how the process of teaching and learning in African dance is “a socially negotiated experience, practice, and reality” (Mabingo, 2020, p. 37). From the Ubuntu perspective, the dancing body is framed as a bridge from the physical to the metaphysical worlds to connect to deeper levels of spirituality (Daniel, 2005). What follows is how Ubuntu philosophy guides my ethical commitments to reflexivity, relationality, and reciprocity.
Reflexivity requires me to pay attention to the imbalances of power that are embedded in research, particularly as they relate to the practice of African Indigenous dance forms within the context of a historically white institution. Although this study is not being conducted with people from the cultures from which these dance forms derived, African ethnic groups are still represented in this research through the dance forms. So, as a researcher, I must pay careful attention to the human beings behind these dance forms and disrupt research practices that may potentially appropriate, exoticize, or downplay African dances. I can only make these interventions if I am deeply aware of the ways that US-centric and Western cultures have shaped my ideas of African peoples. Particularly, I must examine how my Western and scholarly training might potentially influence the way I interpret and analyze the data and be mindful of the insidious ways that I could reproduce colonial and dominant ways of knowing (Mabingo, 2023). Relationality is critical to the Ubuntu paradigm as it ensures that I, as the researcher, am constantly thinking about and centering the humanity of participants (Mabingo, 2023). I aim to create relationality through taking dance classes alongside students who may potentially participate in my research. This will allow me to build a rapport and connection before I recruit them into my study. This process will allow me to create humanizing relationships with them through dance. Reciprocity is about embedding opportunities for collaboration and feedback throughout the study so that participants have a sense of agency and self-determination in the process. I must remind myself that this study does not just belong to me, it belongs to the communities that have made this study possible.

Author

• Truth Hunter, University of Connecticut