Ubuntu (; meaning in some Bantu languages, such as Zulu and Xhosa) describes a set of closely related Bantu African-origin value systems that emphasize the interconnectedness of individuals with their surrounding societal and physical worlds. "Ubuntu" is sometimes translated as "I am because we are". In Xhosa, the latter term is used, but is often meant in a more philosophical sense to mean "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity".
Different names in Africa
Although the most popular term referring to the philosophy today is "Ubuntu", the philosophy stretches back to the beginning of proto-Bantu language and has many other names in other African languages.
Angola (gimuntu); Botswana (muthu, batho); Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Gambia Liberia, Sierra Leonne and Mali (maaya); Burundi (ubuntu); Cameroon (bato); Congo (bantu); Democratic Republic of Congo (bomoto, kimuntu or bantu); Egypt (maat); Ethiopia (medemer, edir, kiree, mahiber, debo); Ghana (biako ye); Kenya (utu, munto, omundu or mondo); Malawi (umunthu); Mozambique (vumuntu); Namibia (omundu); Nigeria (mutunchi, iwa, agwa, omwayaonyamo); Rwanda (ubuntu); South Africa (ubuntu, ubundu or botho); South Sudan (nhiar-baai); Tanzania (utu, obuntu or bumuntu); Uganda (obuntu, obuntubulamu); Zambia (umunthu); and Zimbabwe (unhu, hunhu, ubuntu, ibuntu).
+"Humanity" in Bantu languagesCountries Language Word Angola, DRC, ROCKongokimuntu, gimuntuBotswanaSetswanabothoBurundi, RwandaKinyarwanda, KirundiubuntuCameroonSawabantubatoDRCKongo, Luba-Kasaibomoto, bantuKenyaKikuyuumunduKenyaEkegusiiobontoKenyaLuhyaomunduKenyaMerumuntoKenya, TanzaniaSwahiliutuMozambiqueMakuavumuntuNamibiaOtjiherero omunduNamibiaOshiwamboomuntuNamibiaRukwangali muntuSouth Africa, LesothoSesotho bothoSouth AfricaTshivendavhuthuSouth Africa, ZimbabweNdebele, Xhosa, ZuluubuntuUgandaLugandaobuuntuZambia, MalawiChewa and ChitumbukaumunthuZambiaTongaibuntuZimbabweShonaunhu, hunhu
Definitions
There are many different (and not always compatible) definitions of Ubuntu. Even with the various definitions, Ubuntu encompasses the interdependence of humans on one another and the acknowledgment of one's responsibility to their fellow humans and the world around them. It is a philosophy that supports collectivism over individualism.
The African Journal of Social Work (AJSW) defines Ubuntu as:
Ubuntu asserts that society gives human beings their humanity. An example is a Zulu-speaking person who when commanding to speak in Zulu would say "khuluma isintu", which means "speak the language of people". When someone behaves according to custom, a Sotho-speaking person would say "ke motho", which means "he/she is a human". The aspect of this that would be exemplified by a tale told (often in private quarters) in Nguni is "kushone abantu ababili ne Shangaan", in Sepedi "go tlhokofetje batho ba babedi le leShangane", in English (two people died and one Shangaan). In each of these examples, humanity comes from conforming to or being part of the tribe.
According to Michael Onyebuchi Eze, the core of Ubuntu can best be summarised as follows: A person is a person through people strikes an affirmation of one’s humanity through recognition of an "other" in his or her uniqueness and difference. It is a demand for a creative intersubjective formation in which the "other" becomes a mirror (but only a mirror) for my subjectivity. This idealism suggests to us that humanity is not embedded in my person solely as an individual; my humanity is 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, M. O. Intellectual History in Contemporary South Africa, pp. 190–191. An "extroverted communities" aspect is the most visible part of this ideology. There is sincere warmth with which people treat both strangers and members of the community. This overt display of warmth is not merely aesthetic but enables the formation of spontaneous communities. The resultant collaborative work within these spontaneous communities transcends the aesthetic and gives functional significance to the value of warmth. Warmth is not the sine qua non of community formation but guards against instrumentalist relationships. Unfortunately, sincere warmth may leave one vulnerable to those with ulterior motives.
"Ubuntu" as political philosophy encourages community equality, propagating the distribution of wealth. This socialisation is a vestige of agrarian peoples as a hedge against the crop failures of individuals. Socialisation presupposes a community population with which individuals empathise and, concomitantly, have a vested interest in its collective prosperity. Urbanisation and the aggregation of people into an abstract and bureaucratic state undermines this empathy. African intellectual historians like Michael Onyebuchi Eze have argued, however, that this idea of "collective responsibility" must not be understood as absolute in which the community's good is prior to the individual's good. On this view, ubuntu it is argued, is a communitarian philosophy that is widely differentiated from the Western notion of communitarian socialism. In fact, ubuntu induces an ideal of shared human subjectivity that promotes a community's good through an unconditional recognition and appreciation of individual uniqueness and difference. Audrey Tang has suggested that Ubuntu "implies that everyone has different skills and strengths; people are not isolated, and through mutual support they can help each other to complete themselves."
"Redemption" relates to how people deal with errant, deviant, and dissident members of the community. The belief is that man is born formless like a lump of clay. It is up to the community, as a whole, to use the fire of experience and the wheel of social control to mould him into a pot that may contribute to society. Any imperfections should be borne by the community and the community should always seek to redeem man. An example of this is the statement by the African National Congress (in South Africa) that it does not throw out its own but rather redeems.
Other scholars such as Mboti (2015) argue that the normative definition of Ubuntu, notwithstanding its intuitive appeal, is still open to doubt. The definition of Ubuntu, contends Mboti, has remained consistently and purposely fuzzy, inadequate and inconsistent. Mboti rejects the interpretation that Africans are "naturally" interdependent and harmony-seeking, and that humanity is given to a person by and through other persons. He sees a philosophical trap in attempts to elevate harmony to a moral duty – a sort of categorical imperative – that Africans must simply uphold. Mboti cautions against relying on intuitions in attempts to say what Ubuntu is or is not. He concludes that the phrase umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu references a messier, undisciplined relationship between persons, stating that: "First, there is value in regarding a broken relationship as being authentically human as much as a harmonious relationship. Second, a broken relationship can be as ethically desirable as a harmonious one. For instance, freedom follows from a break from oppression. Finally, harmonious relations can be as oppressive and false as disharmonious ones. For instance, the cowboy and his horse are in a harmonious relationship."
Ubuntu maxims or short statements
Ubuntu is often presented in short statements called maxims by Samkange (1980). Some of these are: Motho ke motho ka batho (Sotho/Tswana). A person is a person through people. Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (Zulu). A person is a person through people. Umntu ngumntu ngabantu (Xhosa). A person is a person through people. Munhu munhu nevanhu (Shona). A person through people. Ndiri nekuti tiri (Shona). I am because we are. Munhu i munhu hivanwani vanhu (Xitsonga). A person is a person through people. Muthu ndi muthu nga vhathu (Venda). A person is a person through people. Uuntu womuntu aantu (Oshindonga). A person is a person through others.
History of the concept in African written sources Ubuntu has been in existence in orature (oral literature) and in the culture of Bantu peoples. It appeared in South African written sources from as early as the mid-19th century. Reported translations covered the semantic field of "human nature, humanness, humanity; virtue, goodness, kindness". Grammatically, the word combines the root -ntʊ̀ "person, human being" with the class 14 ubu- prefix forming abstract nouns,see also Zulu noun classes on Wiktionary. so that the term is exactly parallel in formation to the abstract noun humanity.in the sense of an abstract quality. The sense "mankind" is taken by the class 7 collective noun isintu.
The concept was popularised in terms of a "philosophy" or "world view" (as opposed to a quality attributed to an individual) beginning in the 1950s, notably in the writings of Jordan Kush Ngubane published in the African Drum magazine. From the 1970s, the ubuntu began to be described as a specific kind of "African humanism". Based on the context of Africanisation propagated by the political thinkers in the 1960s period of decolonisation, ubuntu was used as a term for a specifically African (or Southern African) kind of humanism found in the context of the transition to majority rule in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
The first publication dedicated to ubuntu as a philosophical concept appeared in 1980, Hunhuism or Ubuntuism: A Zimbabwe Indigenous Political Philosophy (hunhu being the Shona equivalent of Nguni ubuntu) by Stanlake J. W. T. Samkange. Hunhuism or Ubuntuism is presented as political ideology for the new Zimbabwe, as Southern Rhodesia attained independence from the United Kingdom.
The concept was used in South Africa in the 1990s as a guiding ideal for the transition from apartheid to majority rule. The term appears in the Epilogue of the Interim Constitution of South Africa (1993): "there is a need for understanding but not for vengeance, a need for reparation but not for retaliation, a need for ubuntu but not for victimisation".
In South Africa, it has come to be used as a contested term for a kind of humanist philosophy, ethic, or ideology, also termed Ubuntuism propagated in the Africanisation (transition to majority rule) process of these countries during the 1980s and 1990s. New research has begun to question the exclusive "humanism" framing, and thus to suggest that ubuntu can have a "militaristic" angle – an ubuntu for warriors.
In Uganda the term is used in people's everyday language as a way to relate to one another and call for community. The term can also be used to criticize another's actions if one states that they have lost "Obuuntu" (their humanity). Ugandan feminist scholar Sylvia Tamale has also written a book titled Decolonization and Afro-Feminism, offering a holistic view of Ubuntu as a decolonial ethic rooted in African communal values, relational accountability, and feminist justice.Ohene-Nyako, Pamela (2021). Review of Sylvia Tamale's Decolonization and Afro-Feminism. International Review of Social History, 66(2). Cambridge University Press. Available online
Since the transition to democracy in South Africa with the Nelson Mandela presidency in 1994, the term has become more widely known outside of Southern Africa, notably popularised to English-language readers through the ubuntu theology of Desmond Tutu. Tutu was the chairman of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and many have argued that ubuntu was a formative influence on the TRC.
By country
Zimbabwe