Editing Ubuntu philosophy (section)

== Applications ==

=== In diplomacy ===
In June 2009, in her swearing-in remarks as [[U.S. Department of State|US Department of State]] Special Representative for Global Partnerships, Global Partnership Initiative, Office of the Secretary of State, [[Elizabeth Frawley Bagley]] discussed ubuntu in the context of American [[foreign policy]], stating: "In understanding the responsibilities that come with our interconnectedness, we realize that we must rely on each other to lift our World from where it is now to where we want it to be in our lifetime, while casting aside our worn out preconceptions, and our outdated modes of statecraft." She then introduced the notion of "Ubuntu Diplomacy" with the following words:

{{Blockquote|In 21st-century diplomacy, the Department of State will be a convener, bringing people together from across regions and sectors to work together on issues of common interest. Our work no longer depends on the least common denominator; but rather, we will seek the highest possible multiplier effect for the results we can achieve together.

We will also act as a catalyst, with our Foreign Service Officers launching new projects in tandem with those NGOs, philanthropies, and corporations at the front lines of foreign affairs to discover untapped potential, inspire fresh ideas, and create new solutions.

And we will act as a collaborator, leading interagency coordination here in Washington and cross-sector collaboration in the field, with our Ambassadors working closely with our non-governmental partners to plan and implement projects for maximum impact and sustainability.

It takes a shared, global response to meet the shared, global challenges we face. This is the truth taught to us in an old South African principle, ubuntu, or 'A person is a person through other persons.' As Archbishop [[Desmond Tutu]] describes this perspective, ubuntu 'is not, "I think therefore I am." It says rather: "I am a human because I belong. I participate. I share.{{"'}} In essence, I am because you are.

We are truly all in this together, and we will only succeed by building mutually beneficial partnerships among civil society, the private sector, and the public sector, in order to empower the men and women executing our foreign policy to advance their work through partnerships.

The truth and reconciliation council believed in the philosophy of Ubuntu because they believed that Ubuntu was going to help to reform and reconnect the already broken country of South Africa.

This is Ubuntu Diplomacy: where all sectors belong as partners, where we all participate as stakeholders, and where we all succeed together, not incrementally but exponentially.<ref>U.S. Department of State. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090715073339/http://www.state.gov/s/partnerships/ubuntu/index.htm Ubuntu Diplomacy.]</ref>}}

=== In education ===
In education, Ubuntu has been used to guide and promote African education, and to decolonise it from Western educational philosophies.<ref name=HC>{{cite journal |last1=Hapanyengwi-Chemhuru |first1=Oswell |last2=Makuvaza |first2=Ngoni |title=Hunhu: In Search of an Indigenous Philosophy for the Zimbabwean Education System Practice without thought is blind: thought without practice is empty |journal=Journal of Indigenous Social Development |date=1 August 2014 |volume=3 |issue=1 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/32298369.pdf |language=en |issn=2164-9170}}</ref> Ubuntu education uses the family, community, society, environment and spirituality as sources of knowledge but also as teaching and learning media.<ref name="Mugubate">{{Cite journal |last1=Mugumbate |first1=Jacob Rugare |last2=Chereni |first2=Admire |date=2020-04-23 |title=Editorial: Now, the theory of Ubuntu has its space in social work |url=https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajsw/article/view/195112 |journal=African Journal of Social Work |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |issn=2409-5605}}</ref> The essence of education is family, community, societal and environmental well-being.<ref name=HC/> Ubuntu education is about learners becoming critical about their social conditions. Interaction, participation, recognition, respect and inclusion are important aspects of ubuntu education. Methods of teaching and learning include groups and community approaches. The objectives, content, methodology and outcomes of education are shaped by Ubuntu.

=== In social work, welfare and development ===
Applications in social work, welfare and development reference Afrocentric ways of providing a social safety-net to vulnerable members of society. Common elements include [[social collectivity | collectivity]]. The approach helps to "validate worldview and traditions suppressed by Western Eurocentric cultural hegemony".<ref name="Schiele">{{cite journal |last1 =Schiele |first1 =Jerome |title =An Afrocentric Perspective on Social Welfare Philosophy and Policy |journal =The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare |date =1 June 1997 |volume =24 |issue =2 |doi =10.15453/0191-5096.2414 |s2cid =142897928 |url =https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol24/iss2/3/ |issn =0191-5096|doi-access =free }}</ref> It opposes [[economic materialism | materialism]] and individualism. It looks at an individual person holistically. The social interventions performed by social workers, welfare workers and development workers should strengthen, not weaken families, communities, society, the environment and peoples' spirituality. These are the five pillars of ubuntu intervention: family, community, society, environment and spirituality.<ref name="Mugubate"/> Ubuntu is the current theme for the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development and represents the highest level of global messaging within the social-work profession for the years 2020–2030.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Mayaka|first1=Bernard|last2=Truell|first2=Rory|date=2021-07-20|title=Ubuntu and its potential impact on the international social work profession|journal=International Social Work|volume=64|issue=5|pages=649–662|doi=10.1177/00208728211022787|issn=0020-8728|doi-access=|s2cid=237433849 }}</ref> Utilising [[biopsychosocial]] and ecological system approaches, ubuntu is a philosophy that is applicable in clinical social work in mental health.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Chigangaidze|first=Robert K.|date=2021-07-04|title=Defending the African philosophy of ubuntu and its place in clinical social-work practice in mental health: The biopsychosocial and ecological systems perspectives |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/15332985.2021.1910894 |journal=Social Work in Mental Health |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=276–288 |doi=10.1080/15332985.2021.1910894 |s2cid=235172607 |issn=1533-2985|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== In research ===
Ubuntu can guide research objectives, ethics and methodology.<ref name=Seehawer>{{cite journal |last1=Seehawer |first1=Maren Kristin |title=Decolonising research in a Sub-Saharan African context: exploring Ubuntu as a foundation for research methodology, ethics and agenda |journal=International Journal of Social Research Methodology |date=4 July 2018 |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=453–466 |doi=10.1080/13645579.2018.1432404 |s2cid=149213225 |language=en |issn=1364-5579}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajsw/article/view/192200|title=Reframing social work research for Africa's consumers of research products: a guiding tool|first1=Jacob|last1=Mugumbate|first2=Edmoss|last2=Mtetwa|date=January 12, 2019|journal=African Journal of Social Work|volume=9|issue=2|pages=52–58}}</ref> Using ubuntu research approach provides researchers with an African oriented tool that decolonises research agenda and methodology.<ref name="Seehawer"/> The objectives of ubuntu research are to empower families, communities and society at large. In doing ubuntu research, the position of the researcher is important because it helps create research relationships. The agenda of the research belongs to the community, and true participation is highly valued. ''[[wikt:ujamaa#Swahili|Ujamaa]]'' is valued, it means pulling together or collaboration.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Muwanga-Zake |first1=J.W.F. |title=Building bridges across knowledge systems: Ubuntu and participative research paradigms in Bantu communities |journal=Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education |date=December 2009 |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=413–426 |doi=10.1080/01596300903237198|s2cid=144633541 }}</ref>

=== In moral philosophy ===
According to this philosophy, "actions are right roughly insofar as they are a matter of living harmoniously with others or honouring communal relationships", "One's ultimate goal should be to become a full person, a real self or a genuine human being". ''[[wikt:Ukama#Shona|Ukama]]'', i.e. relationships are important.<ref name=Metz>{{cite journal |last1=Metz |first1=Thaddeus |last2=Gaie |first2=Joseph B.R. |title=The African ethic of Ubuntu/Botho : implications for research on morality |journal=Journal of Moral Education |date=September 2010 |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=273–290 |doi=10.1080/03057240.2010.497609|s2cid=143660998 }}</ref> Among the Shona people, for example, when a person dies, his or her property is shared amongst relatives and there are culturally approved ways of doing this. The practice is called ''[[wikt:kugova#Shona|kugova]]''. Samkange (1980)'s maxim on morality says "If and when one is faced with a decisive choice between wealth and the preservation of the life of another human being, then one should opt for the preservation of life".

=== In politics and leadership ===
Samkange (1980) said no foreign political philosophy can be useful in a country more than the indigenous philosophies.<ref name=Samkange1980>Samkange, S., & T. M. Samkange (1980). Hunhuism or ubuntuism: A Zimbabwe Indigenous Political Philosophy. Salisbury [Harare]: Graham Publishing, {{ISBN|0-86921-015-7}}. 106pp. Paperback</ref> "Is there a philosophy or ideology indigenous to (a) country that can serve its people just as well, if not better than, foreign ideologies?", asked Samkange in the book ''Hunhuism or Ubuntuism''. His maxim for leadership is "The king owes his status, including all the powers associated with it, to the will of the people under him".<ref name=Samkange1980/>{{rp|7}}

=== In social justice, criminal justice and jurisprudence ===
Ubuntu justice has elements different from western societies: it values repairing relationships. Ubuntu justice emphasises these elements:<ref name=Metz/>
# Deterrence which can be done socially, physically, economically or spiritually
# Returning and Replacement – meaning bring back what has been stolen, replacing it or compensating. In Shona language this is called ''[[wikt:kudzora#Shona|kudzora]]'' and ''[[wikt:kuripa#Shona|kuripa]]''
# Apology, Forgiveness and Reconciliation (restoration of ''[[wikt:ukama#Shona|ukama]]'' or relations) after meeting the above
# Warnings and Punishments (retribution) from leaders and elders if the above have not been achieved or ignored
# Warnings and Punishments from spiritual beings if the above have not been met. In Shona culture, these are called ''[[wikt:jambwa#Shona|jambwa]]'' and ''[[wikt:ngozi#Shona|ngozi]]''

Families, and at times community are involved in the process of justice.

African scholars have noted that while some elements of Ubuntu are liberating to women, others "marginalize and disempower" them, and "can be seen as engendering [[patriarchy]]".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Manyonganise|first=Molly|date=2015|title=Oppressive and liberative: A Zimbabwean woman's reflections on ubuntu|journal=Verbum et Ecclesia|volume=36|issue=2|pages=1–7|doi=10.4102/VE.V36I2.1438|issn=2074-7705|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Ubuntu has also been associated with [[restorative justice.]] Some scholars have argued that restorative justice practices are embedded in the Ubuntu philosophy which shares similarities with their philosophy, values and practices.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arguments for Following a Restorative Approach to Act in the Best Interest of At-Risk Youth: An Interpretative Review – RJ4ALL PUBLICATIONS |url=https://www.rj4allpublications.com/product/arguments-for-following-a-restorative-approach/ |access-date=2024-10-09 |language=en-US}}</ref> Within the restorative justice context, ubuntu is understood as African humanism, a philosophy, an ethic, and as a worldview.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gade |first=Christian B.N. |date=January 2011 |title=The Historical Development of the Written Discourses on Ubuntu |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.4314/sajpem.v30i3.69578 |journal=South African Journal of Philosophy |language=en |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=303–329 |doi=10.4314/sajpem.v30i3.69578 |issn=0258-0136|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The underlying restorative justice value of power sharing is very much aligned with the Ubuntu philosophy which "sees" the other through their humanity.