Introduction

The culture, in myriads of ways that can be understood and analyzed, can only have its ultimate and summative element: the “other”. The idea, the ideology, the conception, the perspective, and everything that can be seen as convectional constituents to hold social relationships, will always end, in the ultimate, as the “other”. What is “the other”? An extension of ourselves or a different entity, by the fullest, and not by a psychological level, from us. How do African societies see the “other”? And, not less important, what are the true implications of globalization, which is assimilation and acculturation masked, within societies and relation with the “other” in African societies?

How can Culture be Conceptualized

Culture: among sociological and anthropological knowledge, it’s severally discussed the cultural concept and its practical manifestation in quotidian, and, most important, in relationships with the other. From many kinds of definitions that can be used to build about culture, it cannot ignore the reality that all cultural analysis has, as a base, the relationship that an individual has with the other because culture is basically conceptualized among this interaction of one with the other, of normalization and ruling of certain behaviours (visible or not) for the “well” functioning of a society, community. So, how is this other constituted?

Ubuntu and the “Other”

In African cultures, the question of “others” is replied,and explained in an African philosophical conception and knowledge: Ubuntu. Ubuntu, smooth and briefly, means humanity. On it, the idea of ‘Ni muntu ka bantu’ is linked, meaning that, in English, ‘I am human among humans’. There are people that say that it means: “Everything and all are one thing” or even, “I am not, we are”; all narratives are linked to Ubuntu, by some thinkers and African authors. As a word and idea, Ubuntu can end up as a key factor to know the “space” of the other in African societies.

The Entity “I” versus “Me” in African Societies 

In African societies, the “other” is not a different entity and distant from “I”, far from that. It is, on the contrary, an extension of “I” or “Me”, meaning that the I and the “other” have their own existence in one and “other’s” existence: the interdependence of beings for social relationships functioning. For instance, a Mozambican individual in South Africa, when he meets another Mozambican, they will behave as brothers, friends, and even share the same space, rooms, and plates. The same happens when two Africans meet themselves in other continents. This illustrates a lot in the way Africans address the “other’.

Conclusion

The “other”‘, in African societies, is not such a thing as different, unknown, unnoticed, or even strange: the “other” is brother. An elderly woman, doesn’t matter who is, will always be mother or, at least, auntie.

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