Community Building and Ubuntu

Osusu is the name of the rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCA) system in The Gambia. This chapter examines the Kangbeng-Kafoo women’s group through a series of qualitative interviews to understand their participation in Osusu. The women choose self-organized banking cooperatives because of their deep meaning of interconnectedness, and draw upon the philosophical ideas of Ubuntu (“I am because you are”) to help one another through mutual aid. The author ties the theories of Ubuntu and community economies together to understand how Gambian women find ways to bring societal life into making a living. The findings demonstrate that Osusu is a form of purposeful cooperation that Gambian women organize for a number of reasons. Some women join Osusu to start a new business, or to expand an existing business, or to meet family and community projects. The Gambian Osusu on its own cannot solve the structural barriers that Kangbeng-Kafoo women face, but that they are contributing through their own self-help and collective systems is indicative of what inclusive community economies can look like in The Gambia and elsewhere.