ABSTRACT
Power or the way human beings relate to one another is a potent basis for understanding and reshaping discourses. Predominant conceptions derived from Western literature focus to a large extent on power as substance and domination. These notions combine with their greater adversarial realism and result in primarily argumentative models of public discourse. In this chapter I show that, while alternative conceptions of power also exist in Western literature, they do not necessitate a shift from material ways of thinking about power to immaterial and relational ones. Such notions, however, are found in the African moral theory of ubuntu, where power is seen as co-created force and freedom means entering into communal relations with others. This deeply harmonious ethic conceptualizes power as that which is between individuals and binds them together. It rests on the premise that human interests are not divergent but bound-up. Power in ubuntu expands the more it unites, bearing on the way in which relationships are conceived and communication is structured.
