South African apartheid made the label Ubuntu replace the tainted term Bantu

Evidence

From a linguistic point of view, the literal translations from Bantu to Ubuntu concepts are just a turning over from one language to another. However, from a discursive point of view, these translations are much more than just a literal converting. The change in Ubuntu as a prevailing label demonstrates a process which is subject to change regarding the connection between discourse and context. There is an explicit interdiscursive relationship of Bantu compared with Ubuntu (Waal, 2011). Because of racial categorizing by the apartheid regime, the negative connotations of the notions of Bantu have been replaced by the concepts of Ubuntu in South Africa. Within the context of a more open South Africa, the discourse of Ubuntu reclaims humanism and a relational perception of being with oneself and others. Within the interpretive framework of Ubuntu, the debate between religionists and empiricists continues, but it is about Ubuntu as an invention of tradition. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 824

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim that Ubuntu is ‘an invention of tradition’ opens a line worth pursuing - whose tradition and invented when?