Ubuntu as Social Ethics

PDF
Published: Dec 31, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/cjp.33311
Keywords:
Ubuntu human values communitarianism individualism interconnectedness African ethics Western ethics
Solomon Eyesan
Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Nigeria
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9896-6801
Abstract

This paper explores the indigenous African philosophy of Ubuntu and its implications as both a worldview and social ethics. It argues that Ubuntu not only describes the African understanding of personhood, emphasizing connectedness, interdependency, and relatedness, but also prescribes a moral framework grounded in principles such as identity, solidarity, tolerance, justice, respect, compassion, and human dignity. By clarifying Ubuntu’s principles and differentiating it from related concepts such as community, communalism, communism, and communitarianism, the paper addresses the following key questions: What is Ubuntu? How does it differ from similar concepts? What values define Ubuntu? Can Ubuntu contribute meaningfully to global ethical discourses? This paper significantly dwells on the individual-community debate within the context of Ubuntu philosophy, arguing that Ubuntu philosophy offers a compelling ethical alternative in the face of the prevailing dominant social paradigm of exploitation, oppression, hatred, division, religious conflicts, terrorism, and intolerance at the local and international levels.

Article Details
  • Section
  • Articles
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (preferably in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
Author Biography
Solomon Eyesan, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Nigeria

Doctoral student, Department of Philosophy, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Anambra state, Nigeria

References
Agulanna, Christopher. “Community and Human Well-being in an African Culture.” Trames 14, no. 3 (2010): 282-298. doi: https://doi.org/10.3176/tr.2010.3.05.
Agulanna, Christopher. “Ezigbo Mmadu: An Exploration of the Igbo Concept of a Good Person.” The Journal of Pan African Studies 4, no. 5 (2011): 139-161.
Balogun, Babalola Joseph. “How Not to Understand Community: A Critical Engagement with R. Bellah.” Conatus – Journal of Philosophy 8, no. 1 (2023): 55-76. doi: https://doi.org/10.12681/cjp.25015.
Barcalow, Emmett. Moral Philosophy: Theory and Issues. Wadsworth, 1994.
Benhabib, Seyla. Situating the Self: Gender, Community and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics. Routledge, 1997.
Bujo, Benezet. African Theology in its Social Context. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1992.
Chachin, Isaias Ezekiel. Community, Justice, and Freedom: Liberalism, Communitarianism, and African Contributions to Political Ethics. Uppsala Universitet, 2008.
Chuwa, Leonard T. “Interpreting the Culture of Ubuntu: The Contribution of a Representative Indigenous African Ethics to Global Bioethics.” PhD diss., Duquesne University, 2012.
Cohen, Anthony P. The Symbolic Construction of Community. Tavistock, 1985.
Dukor, Maduabuchi. “Globalization and Social Change.” ESSENCE: Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 5 (2008): 16-48.
Ezebuiro, Anthony Udoka, Emeka Simon Ejim, and Innocent Anthony Uke. “Just War Determination through Human Acts Valuation: An Igbo-African Experience.” Conatus – Journal of Philosophy 8, no. 2 (2024): 195-215. doi: https://doi.org/10.12681/cjp.34712.
Kanu, Ikechukwu Anthony. “Igwebuike as an Igbo-African Relational Ethical Theory.” SIST Journal of Religion and Humanities 2, no. 1 (2022): 84-101.
Kymlicka, Will. “Communitarianism.” In Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Donald M. Borchert. Thomson Gale, 2006.
Louw, Dirk J. “The African Concept of Ubuntu and Restorative Justice.” In Handbook of Restorative Justice: A Global Perspective, edited by Dennis Sullivan and Larry Tifft, 161-171. Routledge, 2006.
Louw, Dirk J. “Ubuntu and the Challenges of Multiculturalism in Post Apartheid South Africa.” Quest: An African Journal of Philosophy 15 (2001): 15-36.
Lovemore, Mbigi, and Jenny Maree. Ubuntu: The Spirit of African Transformation Management. Knowledge Resources, 1995.
Macquarrie, John. Existentialism. Penguin, 1973.
Mbigi, Lovemore. Spirit of African Leadership. Knowres Publishing, 2005.
Mbiti, John S. African Religions and Philosophy. Heinemann, 1969.
Metz, Thaddeus. “Toward an African Moral Theory.” The Journal of Political Philosophy 15, no. 3 (2007): 321-341. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9760.2007.00280.x.
Metz, Thaddeus. “Ubuntu as a Moral Theory and Human Rights in South Africa.” Human Rights Law Journal 11, no 2. (2011): 532-559.
Mokgoro, Yvonne. “Ubuntu and the Law in South Africa.” Buffalo Human Rights Law Review 4 (1998): 15-23.
Munyaka, Mluleki, and Mokgethi Motlhabi. “Ubuntu and its Socio-Moral Significance.” In African Ethics: An Anthropology of Comparative and Applied Ethics, edited by Munyaradzi Felix Murove, 63-84 University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2009.
Murove, Munyaradzi Felix. “An African Commitment to Ecological Conservation: The Shona Concepts of Ukama and Ubuntu.” Mankind Quarterly 45, no 2 (2004): 198-209. doi: https://doi.org/10.46469/mq.2004.45.2.3.
Nussbaum, Barbara. “Ubuntu: Reflections of a South African on Our Common Humanity.” Reflections of the SoL Journal 4, no. 4 (2003): 21-26.
Ogochukwu Ujomudike, Philip. “Ubuntu Ethics.” In Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics, edited by Henk ten Have, 1-14. Springer, 2015.
Okolo, Chukwudum Barnabas. What Is to Be African? Essay on African Identity. Cecta, 1993.
Peonidis, Filimon. “Making Sense of Dignity: A Starting Point.” Conatus – Journal of Philosophy 5, no. 1 (2020): 85-100. doi. https://doi.org/10.12681/cjp.23604.
Ramose, Mogobe, B. African Philosophy through Ubuntu. Mond Books, 2005.
Regine, Birute. “Ubuntu: A Path to Cooperation.” Interbeing 3, no. 2 (2009): 17-22.
Richardson, Robert N. “Reflections on Reconciliation and Ubuntu.” In Persons in Community: African Ethics in Global Culture, edited by Ronald Nicolson, 19-25. University of Kwazulu-Natal Press, 2008.
Romney, Patricia. “The Art of Dialogue.” Animating Democracy 71, no. 1 (2005): 2-20.
Sahakian, William S. History of Philosophy. Barnes & Noble, 1968.
Taylor, Charles. Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Harvard University Press, 1989.
Teffo, Joe. The Concept of Ubuntu as a Cohesive Moral Value. Ubuntu School of Philosophy, 1994.
Tutu, Desmond. No Future without Forgiveness. Doubleday, 1999.
Ugwu, Anayochukwu Kingsley. “An Igbo Understanding of the Human Being: A Philosophical Approach.” Conatus – Journal of Philosophy 7, no. 1 (2022): 135-181. doi: https://doi.org/10.12681/cjp.25223.
Wood, David M., Gary K. Bertsch, and Robert P. Clark. Comparing Political Systems: Power and Policy in Three Worlds. Macmillan, 1991.