Ubuntu’s Potential to Inform Anti-racism Practices and Policies in UK Higher Education

The Black Lives Matter movement foregrounded, once again, racism in education in myriad contexts and across the educational sectors. It brought into sharp relief the inappropriateness of many curricula for those who are not white and (largely) middle-class. In this chapter, I will draw on a range of experiences related to Ubuntu, from my first encounter with the philosophy to my work on projects related to it, to extrapolate ways in which Ubuntu, with its emphasis on unity and connection, may be able to speak to current, ongoing efforts to ‘decolonise’ the curriculum and higher education in the UK. I will explore how a critical consideration of the fundamental principles of Ubuntu might work alongside current decolonisation strategies to build ‘the anti-racist university through a dialogue grounded in dignity’ (Hall et al. in Teaching in Higher Education 26:902–919, 2021, 904) mindful that ‘Ubuntu attests to a respect for particularity, individuality and historicality, without which decolonization cannot be’ (Louw in Ubuntu: An African Assessment of the Religious Other, 1998, 3). Further, although exploring the potential for Ubuntu to free higher education curricula from ‘the fetters of Cartesian duality’ (Dennis in Decolonising the University, 2018, p. 200) may not be original, certainly not in contexts such as South Africa where it is often intrinsic to discussions, Ubuntu is rarely mentioned in related literature and discourse in the UK. Through an articulation of the relationship between racism and the continuing coloniality of UK higher education, I will engage in a critical exploration of how Ubuntu principles could be used judiciously to both underpin and strengthen decolonisation processes in UK higher education and be a constructive way forward in anti-racist endeavours.