What does it mean?
What does Ubuntu mean?
Ubuntu is Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu. A person is a person through other people. The Southern African answer to the Western question.
Where it comes from
Bantu peoples · Zulu · Xhosa · Nelson Mandela · Desmond Tutu · Mbigi Lovemore. The word lives in the long lineage of practice-oriented practice, but its specific shape is unmistakably Southern Africa — and that shape is part of the answer.
What the practice actually is
When you greet someone in Zulu, you do not say hello. You say Sawubona — "I see you." The reply is Yebo, sawubona — "Yes, I see you too." The conversation cannot begin until both parties have been witnessed. This is Ubuntu in one breath: I am because we are. The most powerful philosophical alternative to Western indivi…
If you want to go deeper
A short definition is a doorway, not a room. The full practice — the framework, the daily tools, the verses or maxims, the warnings, what to do today — lives in the concept hub below.