ubuntu

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a southern and central African philosophical concept typically summarised as I am because we are, expressing the understanding that personhood is constituted through relationships and mutual recognition rather than through individual autonomy; rooted in the Nguni Bantu languages, ubuntu (umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu in Zulu — a person is a person through other persons) has been applied to ethics, political philosophy, restorative justice, community organisation, and management theory; it was invoked by Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu in the context of post-apartheid reconciliation and has been adopted globally as a framework for thinking about human interdependence, collective responsibility, and the inadequacy of purely individualist approaches to social challenges