Ubuntu (oo-boon-too, n.) is a Zulu or Xhosa word, and a traditional African concept. It means, “I am because we are.”

“Africans have a thing called ubuntu. It is about the essence of being human, it is part of the gift that Africa will give the world.

It embraces hospitality, caring about others, being willing to go the extra mile for the sake of another.

We believe that a person is a person through other persons, that my humanity is caught up, bound up, inextricably, with yours.

When I dehumanize you, I inexorably dehumanize myself.

The solitary human being is a contradiction in terms.

Therefore you seek to work for the common good because your humanity comes into its own in community, in belonging.”

— Archbishop Desmond Tutu