Hunhu/Ubuntu as a Social Media Marketing Strategy Ethic in Post-Covid19 Times

I. INTRODUCTION

This research argues for hunhu/ubuntu as an indispensable and proper moral strategy to view and assess social media marketing. Social media marketing, defined and characterized as a human profession, activity and/or creation, has no independent existence/being but has being/existence, knowledge and logic in hunhu/ubuntu. Remove hunhu/ubuntu and social media marketing ceases to be and it becomes an activity without direction, order or meaning. Hunhu/Ubuntu is argued as the ethical code or rule/norm that gives foundation, support and backing to social media marketing. Hunhu/Ubuntu is herein picked and the choice is firmly based on the moral philosophical defense and framework hunhu/ubuntu brings to the understanding of social media marketing. Hunhu/Ubuntu is arguably an indispensable and reliable moral principle that can influence and guide social media marketing towards meaningful success/benefit. Since relationality, interdependence, friendliness, communalism and personhood/humanness are all value-laden key concepts and make hunhu/ubuntu morally relevant and attractive. Hunhu/ubuntu is the quality life and genuine human life; good and happy life that social media marketing needs. The application is that hunhu/ubuntu can become the soul and essence that vitalizes, arranges and maintains, glues, cements and transforms social, media and marketing into one inseparable entity/reality; human media marketing. Furthermore, hunhu/ubuntu can restore, heal and forgive the heinous atrocities caused and inflicted on social media marketing by corona pandemic.

II. DEFINITION AND ANALYSIS OF CONCEPTS

In this section the following concepts are defined and analyzed: social, media, marketing and hunhu/ubuntu. The key concept is social desire since media and marketing manifestly depend on the same. Social entails our desire to communicate; media is how or manner through which we communicate; and marketing is what we communicate. Hunhu/Ubuntu is the moral principle that actualizes/realizes and governs communication in social media marketing. And thus without hunhu/ubuntu social is without communication/relationship and thus separated and isolated from its media and marketing and conversely without social, hunhu/ubuntu has nothing to monitor and thus it becomes useless and irrelevant. Aristotle confirms that all human beings are social by nature! The researcher agrees with the renowned thinker and further argues that this human social desire to communicate in media and marketing can only be actualized and fulfilled in and through hunhu/ubuntu (the human soul). Once totally imbued and assimilated in hunhu/ubuntu, social ceases to be but it becomes human media marketing. However, the researcher needs to focus on the concept of social desire.

Etymologically, the word social derives from the Latin word socii (allies). It is particularly derived from the Italian socii states, historical allies of the Roman Republic. Thus, originally the word social means companion, ally or associate (Wikipedia).

The word social implies seeking or enjoying the companionship of others; friendly, sociable, gregarious, relating to, connected with, or suited to fashionable society (Merrian-Webster). The most suitable and fitting description of the word social is "tending to form cooperative and interdependent relationships with others of one's kind. Social is a mere tendency or desire and thus exists not on its own but inheres in the other/subject and is common to all living things. It must be noted that it is not the social desire that tends toward but the agent. "Social organisms, including human beings, live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary/involuntary" (Wikipedia). Thus, social desire is a desire which is common to and exists in all beings/things. The social desire is not the real/actual communication/interaction itself but it provokes/triggers communication. Once the social desire is fulfilled, it ceases to be and it becomes what the agent morally intends.

In the view of Karl Marx:

Human beings are intrinsically, necessarily and by definition social beings who, beyond being "gregarious creatures", cannot survive and meet their needs other than through social cooperation and association. Their social characteristics are therefore to a large extent an objectively given fact, stamped on them from birth by socialization processes; and, in producing and reproducing their material life, people must necessarily enter into relations of production which are "independent of their will (Wikipedia).

Marx regarded social as human definition but this is not true and good. Social desire is part of human definition and not human definition per se. Social is external and physical (appearance) and hence not necessary but accidental and temporary. However, Marx was correct on the point that being social is a survival skill common to all things. Human beings do not need to think and will in order to be social; the desire is naturally, normally and abundantly available and given. But humans do not need only to survive or desire but they must live and thus social desire on its own is far from being adequate to constitute humanity. What defines humans is the human soul/heart and it is what is intrinsic and necessary about humans. Thus, Marx should know that social desire is not what is essential about humans and thus the socialization process is not adequate to make humans human. The social desire needs to be realized and actualized through the intellect and the heart (rationality). What it entails is that humans do not only socially survive but transcend and live at the level of rationality (understanding and willing).

It is clear that Marx was a Western thinker who believed in the separation of the mind and body. But our experiences tell us that the two are always inseparably together; there is nowhere on this Planet Earth where the body exists independent of its soul and vice-versa. Marx's conceptualization of the human social desire is quite misleading and hence cannot offer us any guide. We need the African philosophy of hunhu/ubuntu for a clearer understanding of the notion of human social desire.

However, in my researches I discovered that in the contemporary society:

Social often refers to the redistributive policies of the government which aim to apply resources in the public interest for example, social security. Policy concerns then include the problems of social exclusion and social cohesion. Here, "social" contrasts with private and to the distinction between the public and the private (or privatized) spheres, where ownership relations define access to resources and attention (Wikipedia).

My view is that what the quote gives is a Western contemporary society perspective and not African. Because in the quotation, social desire is thus regarded as an independent entity; a socially reliable tool or organ used by the government to cause and dispense redistributive justice and policies. The implication is that what is social is more important than rational justice, policy and/or unity. In other words, what is irrational (social desire), controls what is rational. The difficult questions are: Does social justice exist in reality? Is there justice in the world of animals, plants, birds and insects? The researcher's view is that justice is not found at the level of social but at the level of rationality (heart).

Thus, the concept of social justice or policy is a contradiction in terms and does not humanly mean anything! Since the two concepts, social and justice, are univocally incompatible; justice is the act of the human soul (rationality), while social belongs to the body/instinct (animality). Social goes together with instinct/desire and justice with human rationality and thus in the human world we have human/rational justice and social instinct/desire. Social desire does not control anything but itself can be controlled by rationality. Aristotle called social desire (matter) the indeterminate determinable meaning that social desire does not determine anything but itself can be determined into anything by an agent. And this is common sense, true and morally good!

The term media, which is the plural of medium, refers to the communication channels through which we disseminate news, music, movies, education, promotional messages and other data. It includes physical and online newspapers and magazines, television, radio, billboards, telephone, the internet and fax. And social media is a collective of online communication channels where communities interact, share content and collaborate (Market Business News). Thus, media are means through which social desire is manifestly expressed. Without human/ethics, the media remains mere social desire; unfulfilled. And it is thus mandatory that humans ought to socially interact in media marketing in an ethical way; in a good and loving manner. Media is not a rule on its own but a means/vehicle that essentially depends on a rule. Hunhu/Ubuntu is this good and loving norm/rule that governs and directs the media.

Marketing is conceptualized as an activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large (Felix, et. all, 2016:

118). There is no marketing existing on its own but it exists as a human activity and hence must be done ethically/humanly. Humans do marketing as marketers and thus must do marketing in a manner that reflects their hearts; in a good and loving manner. Concepts like clients, partners, customers and society entail human beings and humans ought to be treated humanely.

A marketing strategy refers to a business's overall game plan for reaching prospective consumers and turning them into customers of their products or services. Thus, a strategy is a moral substance that ties and knits collectively and harmoniously together marketers and customers and thus transforms/transforms them into one community (social media marketing). Hunhu/Ubuntu is this strategy since it is by nature attractively relational, good and love. Social media marketing is therefore the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service (Felix, et. all, 2016: 118). In hunhu/ubuntu social media marketing gets its name and being.

III. HUNHU/UBUNTU UNDERSTOOD IN RELATION TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

In this section the researcher is going to closely look at the nature and character of hunhu/ubuntu but with an inclination towards social media marketing. The intention is to morally demonstrate that hunhu/ubuntu is the better moral prism through which social media marketing can be morally viewed and supported. In other words, hunhu/ubuntu is the proper moral/ethical strategy that can give existence/being, knowledge and order to the social media marketing. Without hunhu/ubuntu social media marketing remains a mere desire; non-strategic, empty and without any content/meaning. The significant contributions of Tutu (1999), Samkange and Samkange (1980), Eze (2008) and Gade (2012) and others will offer the researcher with a guide. The South African Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1999: 24) describes hunhu/ubuntu as follows:

It is the essence of being human. It speaks of the fact that my humanity is caught up and is inextricably bound up in yours. I am human because I belong. It speaks about wholeness, it speaks about compassion. A person with Ubuntu is welcoming, hospitable, warm and generous, willing to share. Such people are open and available to others, willing to be vulnerable, affirming of others, do not feel threatened that others are able and good, for they have a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that they belong in a greater whole. They know that they are diminished when others are humiliated, diminished when others are oppressed, diminished when others are treated as if they were less than who they are. The quality of Ubuntu gives people resilience, enabling them to survive and emerge still human despite all efforts to dehumanize them.

Relying on Tutu's (1999) conceptualization, hunhu/ubuntu is all we need to satisfy and fulfill the social desire to do media marketing and there is arguably no other rule or principle. Hunhu/Ubuntu is the soul (life) and essence (being) and thus upon it the human social desire to do media marketing must essentially depend. The word essence entails that hunhu/ubuntu is the intrinsic, irresistible and underlying perjuring reality; that without which media marketing cease to exist. Hunhu/Ubuntu is that which is foundational, eternal, incorruptible and indestructible about human beings and their activities and processes (media marketing). The phrase "being human" means good since the word human comes from the word "humane" which means good (MacMillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners). Thus, hunhu/ubuntu is the ontological and axiological love and good that the activity of media marketing needs.

"I am human because I belong" is what defines and characterizes hunhu/ubuntu ethics. Upon this principle, entirely depends the complete and perfect realization, actualization and fulfillment of our human social desires. Hunhu/Ubuntu is thus morally rich and attractive. A person with hunhu/ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he/she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed. Media marketing needs such people who are hardworking, caring, loving and peaceful in order to achieve its objectives and goals. Hunhu/Ubuntu efficiently incorporates values of rational or human justice, righteousness, care, empathy for others and respect and these moral qualities can act as backbone and foundation to media marketing.

Mokgoro (2012: 363) defines and characterizes hunhu/ubuntu as follows:

Hunhu/Ubuntu metaphysically expresses itself in this Zulu proverb 'prescribing the significance of group solidarity on life issues so central to the life of communities. While it envelops the key values of group solidarity, compassion, respect, human dignity, conformity to the basic norms and collective unity, in its fundamental sense it connotes humanity and morality. Its spirit emphasizes respect for human dignity, marking a shift from confrontation to conciliation'.

Thus, through hunhu/ubuntu, social desire becomes perfectly and completely realized into human media marketing. The quote above seemingly supports the idea that media marketing needs hunhu/ubuntu in order to be human, good, loving, welcoming, wholeness and empathetic. Since it is the normal and natural duty and responsibility of hunhu/ubuntu to infuse, permeate, influence, radiate and inspire mediate marketing with its attributes of group solidarity, collective unity, human respect and dignity. In short, hunhu/ubuntu is all that media marketing needs: natural and normal competition, respect for human life, resilience and hard working. It is also important to note that hunhu/ubuntu abhors and forbids punishment and retaliation but advocates for forgiveness, healing and restoration.

However, Koenane and Olatunji's view of hunhu/ubuntu is the commonly accepted one:

Hunhu/Ubuntu is an ethical principle that asks individuals to become a certain sort of person/human being: to exhibit certain virtues, or relate communally/harmoniously by sharing a way of life with others (along the vertical and horizontal lines), and by caring for their quality of life; to enhance the relational capacity of others; to live a genuinely human life; and to value relationships of interdependence (2017: 257).

Thus, hunhu/ubuntu is the moral principle that harmoniously unites, interconnects, ties and knits individual parts into one collective substance/thing.Relationality, interdependence, friendliness, communalism and personhood/humanness are all morally, value-laden key concepts in hunhu/ubuntu philosophy. Hunhu/ubuntu is essentially about quality life and genuine human life; good and happy life.

Hunhuism or Ubuntuism: A Zimbabwe Indigenous Political Philosophy by Samkange and Samkange (1980) is the first book to be written on hunhu/ubuntu (Gade, 2012). In this book the Samkanges defined and characterized hunhu/ubuntu by explaining that: "the attention one human being gives to another: the kindness, courtesy, consideration and friendliness in the relationship between people; a code of behavior, an attitude to other people and life, is embodied in hunhu/ubuntu" (Samkange and Samkange 1980:39). From this definition and characterization we can derive the point that hunhu/ubuntu is a code of conduct, good and love that existentially directs people and their lives. Hunhu/ubuntu is a moral principle and from it profusely flows moral attributes and qualities of hunhu/ubuntu: Kindness, Courtesy, Sincerity, Courage and Friendliness. Hunhu/ubuntu, in practical terms, is itself a relationship of good and love between people and thus, upon hunhu/ubuntu, human social desire for relationship essentially depends and is fulfilled and realized.

Samkange and Samkange encourage and advocate for the moral realization of hunhu/ubuntu and through its realization, hunhu/ubuntu enduringly confirms and establishes its presence of love and good and gradually and effectively replaces human relationships grounded on misuse and wrong. The process of realization is difficult but it is possible. Thus, the concept of hunhu/ubuntu is very important and useful in understanding and re-interpreting the notion of social media marketing.

Furthermore, the Samkanges regarded hunhu/ubuntu as a political philosophy or ideology. Commenting about the place of hunhu/ubuntu in new Zimbabwe, they remarked thus:

This month (February 1980), Rhodesians are called upon to choose men and women of a political party that will lead them into a new era:... The question is: What political philosophy or ideology should inspire the new Zimbabweans in this new era? (1980: 39).

Samkange and Samkange (1980) realized the need for a philosophy or ideology that would guide and inspire, and that would give ultimate solutions to the political problems in new Zimbabwe. Similarly, we need a philosophy that should inspire, radiate and support our social media marketing. In line with the Samkange's, social activities should be permeated, inspired and radiated by hunhu/ubuntu and thus transformed into hunhu/ubuntu itself (good and love). It is typically hunhu/ubuntu for ethics and social desire to be thus integrated. Social desire without morality is mere power without direction; complete anarchy and destruction. Social desire is power, the more subtle nature within, which is, in fact, the motive power governing the external (Chumachawazungu, 2009: 89) and it is grander to conquer, control and integrate. Hunhu/Ubuntu controls and guides social desire and the two, hunhu/ubuntu and social desire are inseparable.

According to Eze (2008), the core of hunhu/ubuntu can best be summarized as follows: A person is a person through other people strikes an affirmation of one's humanity through recognition of an 'other' in his/her uniqueness and difference. Thus, hunhu/ubuntu is unity in diversity and not uniformity and thus there is no dictatorship but democracy in hunhu/ubuntu. Hunhu/Ubuntu is the unifying factor and springboard of all human social desires and through hunhu/ubuntu all social media marketing channels are properly and democratically identified and appreciated; given a unified purpose and direction.

Eze (2008) furthers argues thus:

This idealism suggests to us that humanity is not embedded in my person solely as an individual; my humanity co-substantively bestowed upon the other and me. Humanity is a quality we owe to each other. We create each other and need to sustain this otherness creation. And if we belong to each other, we participate in our creations: we are because you are, and since you are, definitely I am. The "I am" is not a rigid subject, but a dynamic self-constitution dependent on this otherness creation of relation and distance.

Eze wants to tell us that hunhu/ubuntu starts as a mere social idea and mere suggestion but naturally and normally develops and rises to the level of philosophy, human life. Hunhu/Ubuntu contains and is imminently present in its social desires (Franken in Arusha Declaration, 1969).

Eze argues hunhu/ubuntu as the humanity co-substantively bestowed upon the other and me; the quality we owe to each other. By equating hunhu/ubuntu to the notions of humanity, quality and creation, Eze implies that hunhu/ubuntu is a practical moral concept; an interdependent union of both social desire and itself (real and practical moral actualization). Hunhu/Ubuntu is the creative power and authority and through it humanity becomes parent to and hence responsible for each other. To create in Latin means to appoint and thus hunhu/ubuntu is a moral (love) appointment we confer to all things. Thus, in the hunhu/ubuntu context, social desire creation ceases to be but becomes a transcendental moral notion, human reality. In hunhu/ubuntu, human social desire is morally raised, elevated and transformed into a way of life or philosophy/reality.

IV. THE APPLICATION OF HUNHU/UBUNTU TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

This section focuses on the application of hunhu/ubuntu to social media marketing. Tempels (1969) intentionally made attempts to gain an intimate and thorough understanding of the Bantu people and their lived philosophy (hunhu/ubuntu). It is for this reason that the book Bantu Philosophy can essentially be seen as the structured portrayal of Tempels' comprehension of the indigenous Congolese, attained through his intimate relationship with them. Tempels (1969: 126) deeply and intimately got involved with the Congolese and in the intimate relationship he met Sister X. His rendezvous with Sister X brought about Tempels' realization of hunhu/ubuntu philosophy. He wrote thus:

Man/woman is created for the other, that man/woman came to realization, to real being man/woman, in encounter with the other. Man/woman, in order to be really man/woman, has to change, has to take the other into him/her, and has to give him/herself to the other. Only then does man/woman become truly man/woman (1969: 11).

According to Tempels, hunhu/ubuntu is not taught since it is natural, intrinsic and inherent in all humans (Gade, 2011) and thus hunhu/ubuntu reminds and encourages humans to be good and loving to each other in their media marketing transactions. It is through hunhu/ubuntu that humans realize that they are created for each other and realize that in encounters with each other (media marketing) they become true and good human beings. Media marketing, as a way through which humans encounter and interact with each other, must be naturally and inherently embedded in the concept of hunhu/ubuntu. In hunhu/ubuntu, media marketing is completely and perfectly accepted, acknowledged, realized, actualized, defined and lived. Humanity must know that hunhu/ubuntu in them, is both this social media marketing and its realization and this is what it means to be truly human. For this reason, the book, Bantu Philosophy, is not a mere attempt but the philosophical discourse of the system of thought underlying traditional, indigenous African existence, and thus the establishment of the accurate understanding of the African (Tempels, 1969: 11).

The most fundamental and basic concept in Bantu thought is, according to Tempels, vital force. The concept is important and makes hunhu/ubuntu relevant and applicable to human media marketing. Vital means hunhu/ubuntu or being and force means human nature, body or social desire (humunhu). The notions of vitality and force are recognized as being intimately, interdependently and essentially linked and a human being is essentially constituted by the substantial union of the soul (hunhu/ubuntu) and the body or desire (humunhu). In Africa, the notion of force (social desire) is fundamental since it plays a pivotal role. In support of his claims, Tempels argues that:

In Bantu philosophy force is the fundamental notion under which being is conceived. Force is a necessary element in being, and the concept of force is inseparable from the definition of being. Without the element of force being cannot be conceived (1969: 24).

Being is hunhu/ubuntu and force stands for social media marketing and the two are inseparable. In the thinking of Tempels, there is no force (social desire) apart from hunhu/ubuntu. Hunhu/ubuntu is always with its social desire (humunhu) and the two constitute one thing, human media marketing. In hunhu/ubuntu, social media marketing ceases to be but becomes human/real media marketing.

Thus, in the African philosophy of hunhu/ubuntu, social media marketing is a fundamental notion and has an ontological and epistemological function or role. Hunhu/Ubuntu and social media marketing are not separate, as commonly found in the Western speculative philosophy. Hunhu/Ubuntu) and social media marketing are substantially and interdependently one entity and through social media marketing, hunhu/ubuntu (being) is placed into existence (space and time) and is known and thus the two are inseparably and interdependently one. Without social media marketing hunhu/ubuntu is incomplete. And thus social media marketing is a necessary and inseparable element in hunhu/ubuntu. The Bantu understanding of being and force is more enriched and accurate and correct and thus applicable to the topic on hunhu/ubuntu and social media marketing. Reality is not either/or but both vital (soul) and force (social or body). The separation of the two means death or total destruction of the thing.

The application is that hunhu/ubuntu is the soul foundation to social media marketing and once substantially founded or influenced, social desire is transformed and elevated into human media marketing. It is clear in the above quote that social media marketing is an essential component of/in hunhu/ubuntu since through it hunhu/ubuntu is manifested, revealed and known. Thus, like Socrates, Tempels (1969) believed that in the African philosophy of hunhu/ubuntu, being necessarily implies doing (practicality) and hence being good without doing good, is falsity and pretence. Conversely, doing good without being intrinsically good is impossible and thus there is no media marketing without being human (hunhu/ubuntu) first. However, Tempels further argues that:

Bantu speak, act, live as if, for them, beings were forces. Force is not for them an adventitious, accidental reality. Force is even more than a necessary attribute of beings: Force is the nature of being, force is being (1969: 24).

The assertion that the Bantu speak, act and live as if, for them, beings were forces" demands careful and further interrogation so that it gets its correct interpretation. Because of misinterpretations and misunderstandings of this utterance, the Bantus have often been misunderstood and relegated and hence defined as irrational, emotional and non-logical (Makumba, 2007). In hunhu/ubuntu, social media marketing is treated as an essential property of hunhu/ubuntu but not its equal. Temple's emphasis is on the inseparable unity between hunhu/ubuntu and the social desire (media marketing).

The immateriality, primacy or supremacy of the human soul (hunhu/ubuntu) is not denied or relegated but is uncompromisingly better secured in the African philosophy of hunhu/ubuntu. For Tempels, although being (hunhu/ubuntu) is transcendental, it is most importantly immanent in its social desire (media marketing). Hunhu/ Ubuntu immanently and persistently radiates, permeates, inspires and thus infuses its transcendental attributes of love and good into its media marketing (Samkange and Samkange, 1980). And thus in hunhu/ubuntu, media marketing really becomes hunhu/ubuntu in motion; in real existence on this Planet Earth. There is no transcendence (hunhu/ubuntu) without immanence (media marketing) in the philosophy of hunhu/ubuntu.

It is not by chance or accident that human beings have their bodies (humunhu), but it is by nature and necessity. It is by necessity because there is no way human beings would exist on this Planet Earth except through their bodies (humunhu). Denying force, is denying part of our constitution, which is tantamount to absurdity or irrationality. The application is that in hunhu/ubuntu social media marketing is recognized as a command and necessity; something humans can exist or live without. It is an act of irrationality if humans deny or ignore social media marketing as an essential component of their being/existence. Hunhu/Ubuntu commands that social media marketing must be realized and lived by us humans.

According to the philosophy of hunhu/ubuntu, social media marketing is experienced as properly, essentially and interdependently possessed, integrated, assimilated and incorporated into our being. Being (hunhu/ubuntu) and force (social media marketing) are both experienced as directly, immediately and essentially one thing and hence beings are forces. By its own natural and intrinsic authority, law and command, being (hunhu/ubuntu) transmits, communicates, passes on and infuses its being, nature and attributes into its force, social media marketing. In turn, social media marketing naturally and inherently accepts, receives, assumes, takes up and exhibits the nature and attributes of its being (hunhu/ubuntu). Force, social media marketing becomes thus informed and transformed into being, human/real media marketing. Thus, social media marketing is the direct immanent presence of being (hunhu/ubuntu) in space and time.

Ramose (1999: 50) emphasizes on oneness and unity of vital force and he asserts thus:

Ubuntu is actually two words in one. Etymologically, ubuntu is made up of the prefix ubu- and the stem -ntu. The idea of ubu- evokes the concept of being in general and -ntu means oneness. Ubu- and -ntu are mutually founding in the sense that they are two aspects of being as oneness and an indivisible wholeness.

It therefore connotes that human existence is a complete package that cannot be understood in part in the African biosphere. Hunhu/Ubuntu is ontologically and epistemologically present in all things and there is no space and time without hunhu/ubuntu. Hunhu/Ubuntu is ontologically in itself and is intuitively/epistemologically known through itself. This means that hunhu/ubuntu is intrinsically equally present in all things and all things are known in and through hunhu/ubuntu. Hunhu/Ubuntu is an equally shared being among individuals and it glues and binds them essentially altogether in a relationship. The application is that hunhu/ubuntu is the being, knowledge, ethic and logic of media marketing and in the absence of hunhu/ubuntu, social media marketing becomes illusive and chaotic; without being and order. In hunhu/ubuntu individual parts, social desire, media and marketing are essentially and substantially bonded and integrated into human media marketing. Without hunhu/ubuntu social media marketing is scattered and lost, and thus without freedom, identity and dignity; without life.

Thus, in hunhu/ubuntu there is perfect harmony and stability of all things (Ramose, 1999). The difficult question is: How does hunhu/ubuntu account for error, failure and disorder in media marketing? It is a common sense fact that there is cheating, corruption, lies and falsity in social media marketing. And today social media marketing suffers serious and atrocious harm caused by covid19. What is the role of hunhu/ubuntu in the middle of such misuses/abuses and wrongs? Ramose is our immediate court of appeal and he argues thus:

Because motion is the principle of being, for ubuntu do-ing takes precedence over the doer at the same time imputing either radical separation or irreconcilable opposition between two. Two here speaks only to two aspects of one and the same reality (1999: 51).

From this quotation we understand that hunhu/ubuntu is real and not an ideal being and is in union with and responsible for all its motion/activities. What it implies is that hunhu/ubuntu and social media marketing are two aspects of one and the same reality and both constitute one thing, human media marketing. In hunhu/ubuntu, there is no social media marketing existing independently on its own, but social media marketing exists as a substantially incorporated and assimilated component or action of hunhu/ubuntu. Ramose thus understands social desire as hunhu/ubuntu (love and good) in motion, that is, in the process of becoming, integrating, absorbing and assimilating all things into itself. The interpretation of Ramose (1999) is that hunhu/ubuntu must radiate, permeate and inspire (Samkange and Samkange, 1988) social desire first before the doer (munhu/umuntu) does anything. In hunhu/ubuntu, social desire is properly integrated, assimilated and possessed with no error or mistake. In other words, at the level of hunhu/ubuntu there is total, complete and perfect integration and harmony of all things and there is no error, cheating and/or disharmony.

According to Ramose (1999) hunhu/ubuntu in motion or social desire takes precedence and presents itself to the doer and without it the doer does nothing. Social desire presents itself to the doer as capacity or ability to receive and/or exhibit good and bad. Presented with this choice, the doer (the moral agent) can decide either to act with hunhu/ubuntu (good action) or without hunhu/ubuntu (bad action). However, it is at the level of the doer/moral agent that Ramose (1999) sees hunhu/ubuntu as admitting logical separation.

Ramose (1999: 52) argues thus: "Without the speech of umuntu, ubu- is condemned to unbroken silence." Thus, without social desire (umuntu), being (ubu) is unknown and thus at the level of the doer, being and social desire appear separated. The separation is logical or ideal (in the mind) and not in reality. However, it is the duty of the doer to communicate, manifest and live a life of love and good (hunhu/ubuntu). In his/her actions the human agent should be guided by the principle of the ideal hunhu/ubuntu, since the moral agent is anchored in and indispensably directed towards hunhu/ubuntu (Ramose, 1999: 52).

Social desire is what Ramose (1999) refers to as "the being of an African in the universe." Social desire has no independent existence but substantially inheres in hunhu/ubuntu and hence a possession. Thus, the social desire presents itself to the doer with a choice between two alternatives: construction and destruction, positive and negative. However, at the level of hunhu/ubuntu, social desire is perfectly assimilated and absorbed without error, but the moral agent can make error. Social desire on its own does not make the moral agent good or bad because by nature desire is mere capacity and hence indeterminate. It is the doer who morally decides to act with or without hunhu/ubuntu. The doer can know the good which ought to be done but can willingly decide to do wrong. The moral agent is thus responsible for his/her good or bad actions in media marketing. The moral agent can decide to use and misuse social media marketing. The doer can decide or opt for disunity, bad, and/or dishonest in social media marketing.

Hence error, abuse, cheating and falsity and discord, in social media marketing, is the sole responsibility of the moral agent and not hunhu/ubuntu or social desire. The mere desire cannot be praised or blamed but the moral agent. The conclusion to this argument is that the moral agent can decide to act without the spirit of family unity or love. But a human being is not a principle to him or herself. Human beings should be guided by the principle of hunhu/ubuntu in order to be good and loving in all he/she does.

However, it is important to note that the separation is not radical or irreconcilable, but apparently accidental and temporary (Ramose, 1999). Thus, even though a human being willingly separates him/herself from hunhu/ubuntu, he/she remains connected to hunhu/ubuntu. Thanks to hunhu/ubuntu which is unchanging and unmoved! Thus, hunhu/ubuntu is not affected by human disorder and chaos. The question is why is the separation not radical and irreconcilable? Hunhu/Ubuntu is interdependently one, whole, indestructible and perfect, and thus, does not admit of any division or separation (Ramose, 1999). Separation then, although intuitively known from within, it is always without or extrinsic. It is the nature of social desire to break and separate and not hunhu/ubuntu (human person). Although the pain of error, abuse and chaos in media marketing is known internally by the heart, it remains external. Hence, the pain affects humans accidentally and temporarily. No pain or harm by nature lasts forever. Hunhu/Ubuntu discourages and forbids giving up on media marketing.

The claim is that the wounds of disorder, chaos and harm can be reconciled and healed in and through hunhu/ubuntu since according to Gade (2012) hunhu/ubuntu forgives, restores and heals. It is the nature of hunhu/ubuntu (love and good) thus to glue and cement broken social relationships. According to hunhu/ubuntu ethics, although we may fight and separate, we are never exempted or free from the intrinsic inner need to do media marketing or transactions; hunhu/ubuntu brings and knits us together. The researcher discovered that the absence of hunhu/ubuntu is the moral reason why there is error and disorder in social media marketing. Hunhu/Ubuntu heals the wounds of corruption and cheating and mends broken humanity, unites enemies and encourages growth and interdependence in human media marketing.

V. CONCLUDING REMARKS

The debate on hunhu/ubuntu and social media marketing was quite enriching, insightful and informative. The desire to socialize was common to all things. Human beings desire to form cooperative and interdependent relationships with others of one's kind. By nature no social desire existed independently. All desires subsisted in the other subject! Thus, social media marketing, as a desire, existed in hunhu/ubuntu. Hunhu/ubuntu and social media marketing were inseparably one reality and thus existed together as vital forces. Hunhu/Ubuntu vitalized and infused its being (love and good) into social media marketing. Social media marketing was the responsibility of humans. Hunhu/Ubuntu made people good and loving. Good and loving people made social media marketing good and loving. Social media marketing was the concrete manifestation of hunhu/ubuntu (good and love). It was the nature of hunhu/ubuntu (love and good) to forgive, heal, restore, glue and cement broken human social relationships and covid19 havocs.