CULTURE AS JUDGE OF INEQUALITY

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concepts have different understandings and expressions in different cultures. The culture and practices of a people inform the extent to which a concept has meaning in that society. In the men culture, like in many African cultures, the community is more important than the individual. The Ubuntu concept of ‘I am because we are’determines community organising. The individual is called upon to play a role in the community to keep it alive. The identity of the individual is rooted in the community. The community’s life is sacred, so religion and culture become a single practice. In this context, a concept like inequality finds its true meaning only in community organising. Unlike in Western societies where individual freedom and the capacity to choose is the foundation of understanding inequality, in Bafmeng, as in many other African cultures, community living is the basis for any profound understanding of inequality