Abstract:
This article focuses on land allocation through invoking African values. It seeks to
provide a contrast to other rectifications of skewed colonial land distributions from
African values, and it also offers an alternative to the land distributive justice that
has tended to be premised on Western entitlement or rights-oriented thought. The
article proposes conceptualising land distribution specifically based on indigenous
African ethics of Unhu/ubuntu, a quintessential southern African ethic of being
humane and living communally. The humaneness and communitarian life are centred
on values such as relationality, cooperation, common good and equal distribution
of communal goods. Through articulating each value, and indicating its usefulness
in land distribution, the article hopes to provide an African account of distributive
justice in respect of land redistribution.
