Author: Institute of Current World AffairsTitle: ICWA Letters SubSaharan AfricaISSN: 1083-429X

Imprint: Hanover, NHMaterial Type: Serial

Language: EnglishFrequency: Monthly

Subjects: Europe/Russia; East Asia; South Asia;Mideast/North Africa; The Americas

Chosen on the basis of character, previous ex-perience and promise, Institute Fellows areyoung professionals funded to spend a mini-mum of two years carrying out self-designedprograms of study and writing outside theUnited States. The Fellows are required to re-port their findings and experiences from thefield once a month. They can write on anysubject, as formally or informally as theywish. The result is a unique form of report-ing, analysis and periodical assessment of in-ternational events and issues.

The Institute of Current World Affairs4 WEST WHEELOCK STREETHANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03755

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Nonprofit Org.U.S. Postage

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Permit 130

Ubuntu: The Virtue ofBeing Fully Human

BY SHARON F. GRIFFIN

DURBAN, South Africa October 1995

The walk from my grade school to the house in which mymother’s oldest sister fives takes less than 15 minutes. I consideredmyself a Big Girl when on occasion my parents allowed me, alongwith my brothers and cousins, to walk from St. Benedict’s to AuntSister’s house after school. If we had pennies, nickels or dimesamong us, we’d "sneak" by a corner store run by Uncle Jay andAunt Rose, who actually were not related to me. I say "sneak" be-cause we thought we were getting away with something, eatingTootsie Rolls, Squirrel Nuts, Blow Pops, Moon Pies, oatmeal cook-ies and other sweets before dinner. In actual fact, Uncle Jay andAunt Rose were "spies," "commissioned" by our parents to keepwatch over us as we made our way home.

Mr. Pouncy was a "spy," too. He was one of my father’s copfriends. When I reached my teen years, I liked to go with friendsto dance parties at the downtown convention center in my NorthCarolina hometown. By this time I thought I was grown, as teen-agers are apt to imagine. Inevitably, I’d run into Mr. Pouncy orsome other police friend of my father’s. It wasn’t until years laterthat I learned my father often phoned his friends in advance of theparties to find out if they were assigned to work there. If so, he’dtell them to keep an eye on us, his children.

Mr. Pouncy’s eyes were among many that watched over me inmy youth. There were also many hands, visible and invisible, thatguided me along the right path. It is by virtue of these and otherpeople that today I am able to pursue the fullness of life, to realizethe promise of being fully human.

Ubuntu is a word of Zulu/Sotho origin used to describe the phi-losophy that humans are human by virtue of other humans.Ubuntu/Botho actually means "the art of virtue of being human."It is a non-racial, non-sexist philosophy that implies a recognitionof interdependence. Unity, tolerance, compassion, generosity, re-spect, open communication, closeness, genuineness, empathy andsharing are the values and virtues that constitute ubuntu, or Afri-can humanism. It espouses communitarian ideas, with an empha-sis on social responsibility.

Ubuntu is considered an indigenous, purely African philosophyof life, imported from neither the East nor West. Ubuntu’s contem-porary meaning is traceable to Pan-Africanism and the works ofAfrican philosophers such as John S. Mbiti and L.S. Senghor’s Neg-ritude. Oscar Dhlomo, who served as Minister of Education and

Sharon F. Griffin is an ICWAfellow studying the language, culture andpolitics of the Zulu people of KwaZulu-Natal.

Culture in the former KwaZulu government as wellas secretary-general of the Inkatha Freedom Party,has described ubuntu as "something out of Africa. AllAfrican languages throughout the continent do havea word that defines the person (umuntu). Therefore, ifwe develop this philosophy of ubuntu and give it arespectable theoretical framework, we will, for achange, be developing and perfecting our own indig-enous product..." In its purest form, ubuntu is aboutcaring for your fellow brother and sister. The scriptu-ral adage goes, "Love your neighbor as yourself."And Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "an individualhas not started living until he can rise above the nar-row confines of his individual concerns to thebroader concerns of all humanity."

Zulu proverb: Ikhoth" eyikhothayo (It licks theone which licks it). Cattle may be seen standinglicking one another. The idea of reciprocity is il-lustrated. One helps the one who helps him.

I’ve read and heard a great deal about ubuntu dur-ing my time here. The philosophy is periodically dis-cussed on radio and television talk shows, and oftenis the subject of local press features. "Aristotle andUbuntu," "Adopting Ubuntu Provides the Answer toOld-Age Care," "The Enemy of SelL" "Ubuntu andFaith," and "Ubuntu and the Workforce" are just afew headlines that have topped newspaper stories.The Constitutional Court considered ubuntu whendeciding to strike down the death penalty here. In aSunday Times article in June, a headline read, "TheGallows Makes Way for Ubuntu." In his remarks,Judge Johann Kriegler quoted the constitution, whichurges that society move from "victimization toubuntu (humanness)." Judge Thole Madala also dis-cussed ubuntu, arguing that while a murderer mightnot have shown his or her victim mercy, societyshould not take its values from the murderer. In-stead, it should "impose" its ubuntu on him. (SundayTimes. June 11, 1995:23)

There’s even a book out titled, "Ubuntu TheSpirit of African Transformation Management,"which suggests that ubuntu could prove an effectivemanagement strategy, like the Japanese, German andAustralian models for management. Conceivably,managers could harness ubuntu for greater produc-tivity, author Lovemore Mbigi maintains.

A journalist friend, Khaba Mkhize, writes a twice-weekly column on the "Quest for Ubuntu" in the Na-

tal Witness, a daily based in Pietermaritzburg. Thelast time I saw Khaba we had lunch with Mazisi Ku-nene, who has written and lectured extensively onubuntu. Kunene is a professor in the Department ofZulu Language and Literature at the University ofNatal.

I’ve also learned about ubuntu from black SouthAfrican university students, who like to engage me inconversations about "self-indulgent, self-centeredWestern individualism" versus African humanism.Listening to some of their ideas about the "West,"I’m sometimes left with the impression that we’reseen as people without any sense of community.We’re born, raise ourselves, shun relationships withothers and live to satisfy our individual needs, with-out the slightest regard for the betterment of family,friends or society. It’s usually at this juncture in aconversation that I tell students about Uncle Jay,Aunt Rose, Mr. Pouncy and others.

Something Old, SomethingNew...Borrowed and Blue

There’s little worth arguing about when it comes toubuntu as a life philosophy although I do understandwhy Victor Bredenkamp, professor emeritus at theUniversity of Natal, wrote, "it is virtually impossibleto become fully human if one lives in an informalsquatter settlement, or if one cannot find employ-ment or if one is illiterate in a sophisticated society.’1However, he fails to understand that while circum-stances affect the way in which we live, circum-stances do not determine humanity. My mother oncelived on a school bus with her 12 brothers and sisters,along with the family cow. When her father, afarmer, sought employment at a local factory he wastold, "Mr. Hannon, we don’t even let niggers sweepour floors." While they lived in a sophisticated soci-

ety- a society that at the time legally denied themcertain rights they were fully human. ConsiderPresident Nelson Mandela. Apartheid affected hislife, not his humanity.

Umlom" udl" okushisayo, udl" okubandayo (Themouth eats the hot and the cold). Just as themouth will eat hot and cold food, so in life oneshould expect the bitter and the sweet.

While the concept of ubuntu embraces positive con-notations, it has been "resuscitated" through theyears to "justify all shades of ideologies and politicalpractices.’2 Apartheid ideology, for example, fed into

1. Bredenkamp, Victor. Aristotlle and Ubuntu" The Natal Witness, 1 July 1995:62. Mdluli, Praisley. "Ubuntu-botho: Inkatha’s People’s Education" Transformation 1987 (5).

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mine management practices that sought to replicatehierarchical relations within black ethnic groups byusing chiefs and indunas to control mine workersand, by extension, the interests of mine bosses. Thisstyle of ethnic managerial control, or colonial/apartheid management, proved a useful way to argueaway worker rights, namely the rights to better work-ing and living conditions as well as wages.

of the South African Communist Party, published"Schooling in the Context of Violence," in which hepredicted that Ubuntu-Botho was likely to produce "ahighly docile" and "easily controllable" Inkatha fol-lowing. Moreover, he maintained that the syllabusturned education into an instrument for propagatingthe ideas of Inkatha and narrow Zulu nationalism.

African intellectuals of yesteryear and now use theconcept of ubuntu to promote a universal brother-hood among black Africans, especially as a means ofcountering colonial exploitation and domination. Ex-cept, as one scholar put it, ubuntu "has been treatedas a transhistorical concept, whose meaning remainsthe same regardless of particular historicalconjunctures.’3

The former KwaZulu government reclaimed andreinterpreted the concept of ubuntu to suit its own pe-culiar political aims. In 1978, the KwaZulu govern-ment mandated that all schools falling within its ju-risdiction teach Ubuntu-Botho as a subject from thefirst year of school up to matriculation (high school).Ubuntu-Botho was the name of the syllabus intro-duced by Inkatha, and in all the books the first chap-ter was on Inkatha history, policies, strategies, organ-izational structure, philosophy and leadership.

While the stated aim of Ubuntu-Botho was to teachpupils good citizenship, a 1978 memorandum sent toprincipals, circuit inspectors and teachers in the Kwa-Zulu Department of Education and Culture statedotherwise:

"The syllabus is based on the aims and objectivesof the National Cultural Liberation Movement (Inka-tha) as found in the Constitution... In drawing upthis syllabus the committee was influenced by...theneed to develop in our youth the whole personwithin the ambit of Inkatha constitution... [and] thatmany adults seem to hold divergent views and be-liefs about Inkatha... These are passed to the youngand cloud the youths’ minds. It is thus hoped thatthis syllabus together with its guide will clear manydoubts and thus create unified ideas to match withthe goals of Inkatha."

Isikhundla nguzenzele (One prepares for oneselfa place). If one stays with strangers, he tries inevery way to please them. He tries to be usefulso that his presence is appreciated. It is whatone does which determines his relationshipwith other people. Everyone is the architect ofhis own fortune.

The Bottom Line

There’s no denying that ubuntu captures a philoso-phy, a world-view, that is unique to African socie-ties. Ubuntu is sitting on a public bus beside astranger who, after learning that you’re American,invites you home for Christmas. The invitation is ex-tended in June. The woman recalls that South Afri-cans attending universities in the U.S. lamented thatChristmas was their loneliest time there. "I don’twant you to be lonely," she says, before freely givingher name, address and telephone number. Generallyspeaking, the African view of life is characterized byparticipation and belonging to a group. Individualsbelong not only to huge families with fathers andmothers and brothers, but extended families andclans. Here in KwaZulu-Natal, often there is also aheadman or chief and a nation under a king. Add tothis mix the "living departed," believed to be in "therealm of the spirit."

Ukuph" ukuziphakela (Giving is to dish out foroneself). The emphasis of this proverb is onreciprocity of kindness. When one gives an-other, it is like dishing out for oneself becausewhen in need, the person who has been done akindness will reciprocate.

Inkatha defined the essence of ubuntu as ukuhloni-pha (respect), which embraced a number of custo-mary rules that governed relationships at differentlevels of society elder over younger people, par-ents over children, leaders over followers, men overwomen.

In 1991, Blade Nzimande, today vice-chairperson

Evidence of how ubuntu once permeated nearly allrelationships work and otherwise is well docu-mented. "The Moon is Dead! Give Us Our Money!"is a book that suggests black workers in nineteenthcentury Natal were guided by corporate values,structural practices and a work culture unique to Af-rican ethics and customs. Author Keletso Atkins,whose book is subtitled, "The Cultural Origins of an

3. Ibid.

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African Work Ethic, Natal South Africa, 1843-1900"defined ubuntu as hospitality.

Her research found that African workers in Dur-ban and Pietermaritzburg adhered firmly to an un-dismissable code of ethical conduct. (119) What ismore, she wrote that they brought sanctions to bearagainst anyone who infringed upon the moral norm.In other words, through direct and collective use oftheir power, these nineteenth-century black work-men extracted hospitality from the European inhabi-tants of the towns. (102)

West Street in the central business district of Dur-ban is crowded with street vendors selling every-thing from mealies (corn on the cob) and peaches tosandals and umbrellas. For most, this is their only in-come. Last year almost 1.6 million people, or 15.4 per-cent of all workers in South Africa, participated in theinformal sector. They accounted for 6.7 percent of theofficial estimate of the GDP, and purchases by blacksamounted to R5.2 billion. This compares favorablywith Pick ’n Pay’s R6.7 billion turnover for the finan-cial year which ended in February of this year. (Pick’n Pay is a national food chain.) 4

Atkins further wrote, and her words are worth cit-ing at length, that "One single cohesive idea seemedto underlie much of (worker’s) actions: the concept ofubuntu defined their moral culture, and provided in-violate rules about the proper treatment of fellow hu-man beings.

"These workers honored mutual obligation, and Ithink it was their deeply offended moral consciencethat first brought these people together to demand inone voice the right to extend back civility to friendsand relations who had come to town on official busi-ness, to shop or to visit loved ones working there.Out of these initial struggles, there emerged a recog-nition of their collective experience as workers, anawareness that they were part of a community of fel-lows sharing a unique set of problems, interests, andobjectives. The ability of these workmen to link tradi-tion with present realities in order to deal with con-

temporary problems imparted a sense of strength,continuity, and direction to their lives. Judged by anystandards this was an era of African worker power!(128)."

Current circumstances have transformed not onlytraditional Zulu customs but the meaning of ubuntu.Urbanization, changing lifestyles, economic indepen-dence, migration and fighting, political and other-wise, have altered the way people relate to one an-other. When industries pay starvation wages, whenpolitical parties discriminate against each other,when township gangs kill indiscriminately, it’s un-derstandable that a person in his interaction withother people has yet to evolve to that desirable stateof being human.

In his compact 123-page book management con-sultant Mbigi wrote in the introduction that "ubuntuis a metaphor that describes the significance of groupsolidarity, on survival issues, that are so central to thesurvival of African communities, who as a result ofpoverty and deprivation have to survive throughbrotherly group care and not individual self-reliance." He further stated that "Africa’s achieve-ments and genius do not lie in technology but in so-cial and spiritual spheres. If Africa is going to enterand win in the global economic arena, it will have todraw on its spiritual and social heritage." (P.4)

While Mbigi doesn’t dismiss Western and Easternmanagement approaches, he suggests a return to"our African roots," and a need "to harness the com-

munity spirit that lies dormant in our companies."That community spirit stems from the African tribalvillage community, which, according to Mbigi, func-tioned through "a process of grass-roots democracyin the form of open discussion forums on key issuesthat affect the village." In Zulu, these forums arecalled "indabas." In effect, Mbigi believes in joint deci-sion-making powers between management and laboron strategic matters such as production planning andinvestment decisions.5

Mbigi also wrote about "soothsayers" or, to usewhat he described as a Western equivalent, "changeagents." He made the case for involving "spiritualmediums" to create "a new spirit" in an organization.In Afrocentric religion, no idea or situation can betransformed into reality unless there is a totally trans-formed human being driving it, he wrote. If the hu-man beings have particular faults themselves, no op-erating system in the world can work. (P. 73).

Akulunyawo lungakhubekiyo (There is no footwhich does not stumble). There is no one whois infallible.

I don’t always agree with Mbigi’s particular use ofthe concept of ubuntu. It fails to contextualize certainrealities, namely that cheap labor is the foundation onwhich South Africa was built and stands. Moreover,

4. The University of South Africa’s Bureau for Market Research.5. Khoz, Vusi and Eddie Koch. "Spirits Strike at Labour Relations." Weekly Mail & Guardian. Jan. 27 to Feb. 2, 1995: 11.

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his notions of transformation ignore a worldwidetrend to down-size, reduce costs and retrench, nottoo mention moves toward performance-related pay,and a shift to less labor-intensive production.

Additionally, job security is tenuous in a rapidlychanging competitive and technological environ-ment. Last year 41,300 jobs were cut in South Africa.(Business Times, September 24, 1995) The South Afri-can Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union is bracingitself for job losses of more than 20,000 next yearfrom 12,000 this year. The clothing and textile sectorsaccount for 13.9 percent of overall manufacturingemployment nationwide and more than 27 percent ofemployment in KwaZulu-Natal. It’s feared that theclothing industry in KwaZulu-Natal could be redu-cedby as much as 50 percent next year, even if pro-ductivity improve and companies becomes globallycompetitive.

There’s also the grim reality that South Africa facessystemic inequality, a situation made worse by mil-lions of unskilled, illiterate workers crippled byBantu education. It has been estimated that onlyabout 10 percent of this year’s high school graduateswill secure jobs in the formal sector.

While Mbigi doesn’t focus on specifics he offersno suggestions on how to narrow the wage gap dra-matically between management and workers- hisideas capture the essence of the need for harmonybetween labor and management. The use of sooth-sayers (sangomas), for example, sounds dubious.However, consider this: The management of a coffeeplantation and a local chief agreed that the only wayto end a labor dispute was for workers to consult aherbalist after a driver died in a motor vehicle acci-dent. The 150-strong workforce went on strike anddemanded consultation with a sangoma to sniff outthe witches among them who caused the death.Eventually, two busloads of workers visited a san-goma in a mountain village near the Swaziland bor-der, and paid him R20,000 (about $5,500). The witchdetector sniffed out three supervisors believed tohave killed people so that their friends and relativescould get jobs. Management dismissed the supervis-ors after workers staged go-slows, demonstrationsand threats of industrial action.

Ithemba kalibulali (Hope does not kill). A personmay be very hopeful that something is going tohappen, but his hopes may not materialize. Onedoes not die because of that. If peopl.e died be-cause their hopes did not come true, then thenumber of deaths would be tremendous.

Ubuntu has (re)emerged as a management strategyfor three reasons, social scientist, poet and trade un-ion worker Ari Sitas believes. One, the concept pro-vides a way for black personnel in corporations to beempowered, he said. They find themselves in a posi-tion to tell white managers that they don’t know howto deal with black workers. Black managers canargue that they have distinct ways of understandingblacks, causing white managers to back-pedal. Sec-ondly, consultants are carving out a niche for them-selves with this concept. Thirdly, multiculturalism isfashionable management, not only here and in theU.S. but in other parts of the world. Of course somebelieve, myself included, in the possibility that corpo-rate managers see ubuntu as a way to tame a militantand highly politicized workforce.

The situation reminds me of multicultural consul-tants in the U.S. Hired to host high-priced work-shops, they instruct management on how to "em-brace" and "celebrate" diversity in the workplace. Ionce sat through three days of such training; ourswas a diverse bunch in terms of gender, race, ethnic-ity, creed, sexual orientation, position and title. How-ever, at the end of the session no new jobs werecreated, and working conditions remained un-changed. All that happened, maybe, was that thewell-educated, Mercedes-driving advertising execu-tive had a little more empathy for the near-illiteratemaintenance worker who emptied the trash can byhis desk.

Kuhlonishwana kabili (Respect is mutual). Whena person respects another, that respect shouldbe reciprocated.

Random Acts of Kindness

I once wrote a feature story for The San Diego Un-ion-Tribune about random acts of kindness. The news-paper solicited the stories of people on the receivingend of such random acts. I recall a story about acouple whose dinner bill was paid by a strangerseated at a nearby table. An elderly man who fellwhile taking a morning walk was picked up by acouple that took him to the hospital and stayed withhim until his release. Two movie goers forgot to turnoff the lights on their car. When they returned, theyfound a man waiting to recharge their battery. Hetold them, "I figured you’d need help."

The random-acts-of-kindness movement, if I maycall it that, was an attempt to encourage the philoso-phy that we are truly human in partnership with oth-ers ubuntu. No doubt the movement also intended

Institute of Current World Affairs 5

to counteract such things as random shootings, carhijackings, crime in general and other negatives thatserve to make people afraid to trust one another.

Columnist Khaba Mkhize tries to counter similarnegatives. Twice a week for the past year, he has ledreaders on a "Quest for Ubuntu," which is needed be-cause South Africa faces the daunting challenge of re-storing people’s humanity after decades of dehuman-izing policies. Moreover, the country is plagued withproblems of violence (Khaba and his son were the in-jured victims of a car hijacking this summer), and vi-olence undermines economic development.

Nearly every day I awaken to a news radio pro-gram on some aspect of economic growth in SouthAfrica. Depending on the economist interviewed,you might hear that economic growth hasn’t had thedesired impact on employment levels- a trend thatcould undermine economic, social and political sta-bility. Or, you might hear that the economy is thehealthiest it has been since the gold boom of the early1980s- a recovery supported by strong businessconfidence, a fairly stable political environment, the

return of foreign investors and record low inflation.

Neither interpretation matters much to the rotund,clean-shaven black man buffing the lobby of the floorof my immaculate apartment building. Usually, hestops his morning chores, monotonous as they are,long enough to open the door for me. "Morning," hesays. "Have a good day." How we treat one anotheris essential. In the final analysis, it determines ourcommon destiny as a society.

Inkom" ehambayo kayiqedi tshani(A beast that is

passing fishes no grass.) Cattle may bedriven from place to place, whilst beingdriven, and they may pick up some grass asthey go. However, because they do not stoplong, the amount of grass which they consumeis negligible. The same is true of strangers. Astranger is not likely to ruin anybody whotreats him well. His is there only for a shortwhile. So strangers should be treated withkindness and consideration.

BOTSWANA

ZIMBABWE

Gaborone 0Northern Transvaal

NAMIBIA

North-West

Eastern Transvaal

Northem Cape

Orange Free State

SOUTH ’RICA

KwaZulu/Natal

Westem Cape

Town

Eastern Cape

SOURCE:Nyembezi, C.L.S. Zulu Proverbs. 1954. Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter, 1990.

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Current Fellows & Their Activities

Hisham Ahmed. Born blind in the Palestinian Dheisheh Refugee Camp near Bethlehem, Hisham finishedhis A-levels with the fifth highest score out of 13,000 students throughout Israel. He received a B.A. in politi-cal science on a scholarship from Illinois State University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Cali-fornia in Santa Barbara. Back in East Jerusalem and still blind, Hisham plans to gather oral histories from abroad selection of Palestinians to produce a "Portrait of Palestine" at this crucial point in Middle Eastern his-tory. [MIDEAST/N. AFRICA]

Adam Albion. A former research associate at the Institute for EastWest Studies at Prague in the C.-’ech Re-public, Adam is spending two years studying and writing about Turkey’s regional role and growing impor-tance as an actor in the Balkans, the Middle East and the former Soviet bloc. A Harvard graduate (1988;History), Adam has completed the first year of a two-year M. Litt. degree in Russian/East European historyand languages at Oxford University. [EUROPE/RUSSIA]

Cynthia Caron. With a Masters degree in Forest Science from the Yale School of Forestry and Environ-ment, Cynthia is spending two years in South Asia as ICWA’s first John Miller Musser Memorial Forest & So-ciety Fellow. She is studying and writing about the impact of forest-preservation projects on the lives (andland-tenure) of indigenous peoples and local farmers who live on their fringes. Her fellowship includesstays in Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka. [SOUTH ASIA/Forest & Society]

William F. Foote. Formerly a financial analyst with Lehman Brothers’ Emerging Markets Group, Willy Footeis examining the economic substructure of Mexico and the impact of free-market reforms on Mexico’s peo-ple, society and politics. Willy holds a Bachelor’s degree from Yale University (history), a Master’s from theLondon School of Economics (Development Economics; Latin America) and studied Basque history in SanSebastian, Spain. He carried out intensive Spanish-language studies in Guatemala in 1990 and thenworked as a copy editor and Reporter for the Buenos Aires Herald from 1990 to 1992. [THE AMERICAS]

Sharon Griffin. A feature writer and contributing columnist on African affairs at the San Diego Union-Tribune, Sharon is spending two years in southern Africa studying Zulu and the KwaZulu kingdom andwriting about the role of nongovernmental organizations as fulfillment centers for national needs in devel-oping countries where governments are still feeling their way toward effective administration. She plansto travel and live in Namibia and Zimbabwe as well as South Africa. [sub-SAHARA]

Pramila Jayapal. Born in India, Pramila left when she was four and went through primary and secondaryeducation in Indonesia. She graduated from Georgetown University in 1986 and won an M.B.A. from theKellogg School of Management in Evanston, Illinois in 1990. She has worked as a corporate analyst forPaineWebber and an accounts manager for the world’s leading producer of cardiac defibrillators, but mostrecently managed a $7 million developing-country revolving-loan fund for the Program for AppropriateTechnology in Health (PATH) in Seattle. Pramila is spending two years in India tracing her roots and study-ing social issues involving religion, the status of women, population and AIDS. [SOUTH ASIA]

Cheng Li. An Assistant Professor of Government at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY, Cheng Li is studyingthe growth of technocracy and its impact on the economy of the southeastern coast of China. He began hisacademic life with a Medical Degree from Jing An Medical School in Shanghai, but then did graduate workin Asian Studies and Political Science in the United States, with an M.A. from Berkeley in 1987 and a Ph.D.from Princeton in 1992.[EAST ASIA]

Teresa C. Yates. A former member of the American Civil Liberties Union’s national task force on theworkplace, Teresa is spending two years in South Africa observing and reporting on the efforts of theMandela government to reform the national land-tenure system. A Vassar graduate with a juris doctorfrom the University of Cincinnati College of Law, Teresa had an internship at the Centre for Applied LegalStudies in Johannesburg in 1991 and 1992, studying the feasibility of including social and economicrights in the new South African constitution. While with the ACLU, she also conducted a Seminar onWomen in the Law at Fordham Law School in New York. [sub-SAHARA]

Institute of Current World Affairs 7

Author: Institute of Current World AffairsTitle: ICWA Letters SubSaharan AfricaISSN: 1083-429X

Imprint: Hanover, NHMaterial Type: Serial

Language: EnglishFrequency: MonthlySubjects: Europe/Russia; East Asia; South Asia;

Mideast/North Africa; The Americas

Chosen on the basis of character, previous ex-perience and promise, Institute Fellows areyoung professionals funded to spend a mini-mum of two years carrying out self-designedprograms of study and writing outside theUnited States. The Fellows are required to re-port their findings and experiences from thefield once a month. They can write on anysubject, as formally or informally as theywish. The result is a unique form of report-ing, analysis and periodical assessment of in-ternational events and issues.

The Institute of Current World Affairs4 WEST WHEELOCK STREETHANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03755

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

Nonprofit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDLebanon, NH 03766

Permit 130