Poverty, Ubuntu, and Sustainable Development

Academics and non-academics alike have found refuge in Ubuntu in their attempts to address global challenges. Even in the idea of societal inequality Ubuntu is revoked as a solution. Ubuntu has repeatedly been promoted as a concept having widely appealing traits that should not be limited to Africa although it originated there. As a result, it is not an exaggeration to say that in the background of that assumption, Ubuntu has the power to respond to global concerns such as violence, poverty, migration, xenophobia, and inequality. This chapter seeks to argue that the assumption Ubuntu has the capacity to address global challenges is counterintuitive to the fundamental understanding of what Ubuntu symbolizes. It aims to show that Ubuntu is not a unitary and interdependent notion as presented in the literature thus far, instead; it is an exclusionary notion. Therefore, it is a little difficult to think that Ubuntu can provide anything to address global concerns.