Ubuntu: An African Reimagining of Community

The history of Modern philosophy, if we start it from about the time of Descartes, has a heck of a lot to do with individualism. Consider, if you will, Descartes himself. A huge part of his famous thought experiment is about assuming no one but himself exists. As the years go on, various Western thinkers embrace the individual, as Nietzsche and the other, later existentialists would go on to do. We get entire political schools of thought about the individual and their relation to politics. Rights theory is often more about what others shouldn’t do to you than your responsibility to them and yourself.

There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, but the Übermensch is alive and well in much of our understanding of where we should focus our philosophical efforts. It’s all about me.

But what if I told you that there are other ways of looking at things? What if I told you that a radical way of considering ourselves as part of a community is not as radical as you think, and has been embraced by multiple societies in the past and currently?

Be ready to have your idea of self blown apart in the best of ways as we talk about the traditional African concept of ubuntu.

Not Just for Coders: Ubuntu in Its Context

Look “ubuntu” up on a search engine and you’re just as likely to get the LINUX system as you are to get something much, much better (sorry, LINUX snobs). Imagine, if you will, a philosophy that deviates wholeheartedly from the Western tradition we are fed in our undergrad philosophy classes. 

Ubuntu is a longstanding African tradition that exists among many cultures on this continent, but is most famously known in more recent times as hailing from South Africa (not to dismiss the other peoples who value this tradition, of course). The word “ubuntu” loosely translates to “I am because we are.” But what does that mean?

Ubuntu is a community-focused way of living. Unlike Marxist socialism, however, ubuntu does not undermine the self for an overarching ideal of the state or a collective. Instead, the philosophy of ubuntu values the individual for their uniqueness, for their humanity, and accepts an individual in a greater community, considering how we can all contribute to share our humanity, resources, and strengths with everyone else.

In short, ubuntu is a philosophy that considers not only the individual, but also the individual’s relation to others. We have a shared humanity, and in our humanity we can and should come together to help and sustain each other. It is an incredible idea of humanity existing not necessarily in the individual, but in the collective, which honors the individual for their part in the collective.

During the movement for South Africa to wrest itself from the colonial yoke of apartheid, future leader Nelson Mandela and religious figure Archbishop Desmond Tutu would both come to reference this traditional phrase in an effort to make their case for a new way of governance, but also a new way of thinking about the colonizers in the wake of returning their country back to the people.

To consider a community in this way forces us to focus on the humanity of others, rather than their otherness. While looking at everyone is like looking at ourselves in a mirror, that does not mean they are us. Ubuntu’s uniqueness lies in this idea that we can see ourselves in others and others in ourselves, but we understand and appreciate the differences. 

Additionally, in understanding the uniqueness of each person, we do not consider certain skills or talents as more valuable than others. A person farming crops is just as much a human as a person writing blog posts, and so on.

This makes ubuntu its own philosophy, distinct from socialism, for instance. In socialism, we often think of the interests of the society as a whole trumping the interests of the individual. In ubuntu, this is not the case. Both are of equal importance, and taking care of one takes care of the other.

Kind of refreshing, after thinking about the volatility of internet culture, and the divisiveness of modern politics. 

A bust of Nelson Mandela in London, UK. Courtesy of Geograph UK and Wiki Commons.

A Brief Personal Note

I will not lie and say that I took African philosophy in undergrad and have embraced ubuntu for an age. I did in fact have an opportunity to take a class in African philosophy, but for some reason, I skipped it. I was young and not always smart.

I found out about ubuntu around the end of 2024, when I was working in the children’s department of a public library. I read a lot of children’s books so that I could keep up with trends and make good recommendations to kids and parents. One of the new books happened to be I Am You: A Book About Ubuntu by Refiloe Moahloli (previously published as We Are One). I couldn’t believe that a picture book could make me cry, but the concept of thinking about everyone as a collective, as a body, with the injuring of one part affecting the others really clung to me.

I sat with this thought for a while, and when I took the book to the mental health storytime program I ran for kids, I found myself wanting to learn more about ubuntu and its use as a philosophy. Unfortunately, it’s been difficult for me to get some good resources outside the mainstream for ubuntu and other African philosophies. 

So, if you should have any go-to references that you like to use when talking African philosophy, feel free to shoot them our way, as I will happily make more posts on philosophy outside the Western tradition. It’s important for learning something new and for sharing the uniqueness of those within our collective humanity. Ubuntu.