This article is about the South African ideology. For the Linux distribution, see Ubuntu Linux.

Ubuntu (IPA: ) is a South African ethic or ideology focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. The word comes from the Zulu and Xhosa languages. Ubuntu is seen as a traditional African concept.

A rough translation in English could be "humanity towards others." Another translation would be: "The belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity." [1].

A longer aim at a definition is this one: "A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed." Quote by Archbishop Desmond Tutu (according to [2]).

Ubuntu is seen as one of the founding principles of the new republic of South Africa and connected to the idea of an African Renaissance.

External links

• A definition of ubuntu
• Abstract of an article about the relation between ubuntu and the law by Y Mokgoro
• An assessment by Dirk J. Louw