The challenge of personal and universal rights when dealing with pregnancy due to rape in rural KwaZulu-Natal

Abstract

Ubuntu philosophy promotes communal humanness and shuns individuality. This paper debates the conflict that exists between personal and universal rights.  These rights are tested in a single case study of a rape survivor who while dealing with violent trauma is pregnant as a consequence thereof. The survivor loses her inalienable rights to be acknowledged and respected by her community as a result of her  pregnancy. Even though she respects the personhood of her unborn child she is  marginalised from the communal Ubuntu philosophy. The results reveal a dichotomy  that the protection of family honour is salient and sacred, but the traumatised victim is regarded as profane. The victim must heal her ‘wounds’ yet experience humiliation and  derogatory name-calling from both family and community members. The work of Leopold Senghor, an African philosopher is used as a lens through which this case is analysed.

Keywords: Ubuntu, rape, gender, women’s rights, personal rights