Healing the Wounds of the Past : Ubuntu, Conflict Transformation and African Crime Writing

Literature has different functions. In addition to that of simple entertainment, literary works can help nations deal with difficult pasts, through tropes of memory and reconciliation. Much has been written on commitment and engagement in African literature, in general, and even in African crime fiction "thrillers may have come to stand in for what used to [be] seen as "political" or engaged fiction" (de Kock, 2015: 28). However, the place of African crime novels in conflict management and resolution has not really been analysed; it is in local, regional and continental conflict management and resolution remains a little probed value of African literature. Ubuntu, the South African notion of brotherhood and interconnectedness - a concept found in many African societies -, when exemplified in literary texts, can be used to enable conflict management and transformation, leading to more harmonious and peaceful societies. Therefore, with evidence provided by storylines and extracts from selected African crime novels, this brief exploratory paper uses the notion of Ubuntu as a philosophical anchor to deconstruct the often presented claim that crime fiction (novels that have crime and criminal acts as their primary concern) is not useful in conflict management and resolution.________________________________________