Ubuntu and African Approaches to Prosperity

This publication is from UCL Institute for Global Prosperity

This paper explores the southern African philosophy of ubuntu, as a framing mechanism through which care, conflict and responsibility can be reassessed. An ubuntu approach to adversity understands the essence of humanity to lie in solidarity, shared responsibility and embedded relationality, cultivating an ever-more resilient, expansive worldview. It problematises the weaponised individualism currently dominating contemporary welfare strategies and justifying unfair resource management. Under the basic premise that ‘a person is a person through other persons,’ or that ‘my humanity is inherently bound up with yours,’ your deprivation thus becomes an issue that is fundamentally mine. Adopting this worldview in policy encourages scholars, policymakers and citizens to a) address the webs of relatedness that global communities are connected through in our respective areas of work, and b) engage more productively with innovative African value systems (Seehawer, 2018; de Sousa Santos, 2018). This philosophical stance can help us reevaluate the place of people in our understandings of growth and prosperity as we navigate the nuances of a fast-changing planet.

Links

• Read the report now.