A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

As this is an irreconcilable oxymoron, our question is: how to solve this
paradox about a construction that is not based on the legitimate power
of the nation states? It is not only a question of existence, but power
and knowledge are also involved. So this idea of enjoying the common
good requires the inclusion of the political dimension and criticism of
the relationships of domination, exclusion and marginality to which our
peoples have had to submit.
It is necessary to ponder the role that the social movements have played
– among others, those of the indigenous people, the black people, those
of African descent, the peasants, the women, the ecologists, the workers
– on such issues as the empowerment of collective rights, gender,
nature, the right to water, food sovereignty, the pluri-nation state, among
the other items that on the agenda of buen vivir.
For the people of African descent, the notion of ‘common goods’, ‘common
good’ or ‘buen vivir’ can be conveyed by the term ubuntu, an ethnic
ideological concept based on the loyalty of persons and their relations
with the rest of humanity. The word comes from the Zulu and Xhosa
languages and it is a traditional African concept.
Someone who has ubuntu is open and accessible to others and does
not feel threatened. Part of this self-confidence stems from the knowledge
that he or she belongs to a greater whole, and it is weakened when
others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed
(Tutu, 2008)?.
“No man is an island.” We are inter-connected with others, with nature,
with our ancestors, with all those to whom we must show generosity,
re ci procity and complementarity. What we do affects everyone. Thus
ubuntu extends to all humanity. It is a popular wisdom about life that supports
the changes that are also necessary to create a harmonious future
for a society that is economically and environmentally sustainable.
Nelson Mandela explains ubuntu by the metaphor of solidarity with a traveller
who stops in a village and the local people offer him food and water.
This is one aspect of ubuntu. Generosity does not impoverish, on the con-
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