Ubuntu
By: Sanghamitra C. Mukherjee
Tags: Collaboration, Philosophy, Unity, Ubuntu, Community

I first came across the concept of Ubuntu during my preparations for the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) classes I was to travel to Ruaha, Tanzania to teach last summer. Ubuntu is a free open-source software widely used in Africa, one I would have to become familiar with myself prior to my trip. A quick Google search revealed to me that apart from being a Linux-based operating system, Ubuntu was actually a Zulu word meaning “I am, because you are”. The Ubuntu philosophy celebrates one humanity, accepts sharing or “humanity towards others” as a critical part of one’s own identity, and intricately ties in with the idea that one is incomplete without the other. I was hooked.

All travel plans were eventually shattered due to the coronavirus pandemic, but preparations continued once the official decision was made to run the program remotely, which in the end, worked very well. Although we missed out on a no doubt valuable in-country experience, the pandemic itself had had a great deal to teach us. Personally, I began to see Ubuntu in a new light, a philosophy that was clearly forgotten in many industrialized countries and yet crucial to the success of nations trying to contain a pernicious coronavirus that had spared no corner of the world, rich or poor. Experts emphasized over and over again that the success of measures to reduce both morbidity and mortality in such a health crisis would depend on each and every one of us; none of us could ignore our interconnectedness and interdependence any longer if we were to survive. In fact, the most effective vaccines would be useless if people did not continue to actively protect each other until everybody who needed one had got one. In other words, nothing but a firm belief in Ubuntu could save the day.

2020 also brought about a new consciousness on racial injustice, through the social unrest that followed the unjust murder of African American George Floyd, and the events that unfolded early in the pandemic, exposing the cracks and inequities that had already existed in healthcare systems globally even before the current crisis. The #BlackLivesMatter movement understandably regained the spotlight. Again, I began to question if we could ever begin to resolve our complex social issues without a complete change in philosophy in how we conduct our lives, do business, and lead others. A world that celebrates Ubuntu could be so much more united and thereby stronger when tackling perhaps even bigger challenges than the current pandemic that are yet to come such as climate change and the biodiversity crisis. After all, “partnerships for the goals” is a key UN SDG target (SDG 17) for good reason. Whether we are faced with bigger pandemics in the future (SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing) or need to tackle the Climate and Biodiversity crisis (SDG 13: Climate Action, SDG 14: Life Below Water, SDG 15: Life on Land), our interconnected oceans, lands and people mean that nothing short of a concerted effort across nations can have any impact at the scale and pace now needed to create change, and for that to work, we need a dissolution of socially-constructed racial and ideological boundaries and work towards a common goal. Indeed, I have never been more convinced that we must all be in this together, not just during this pandemic, but in every step that follows. The sooner we start to conduct ourselves from the “Ubuntu” space, the more resilient we can be as people, as a society, and as systems.