Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses what Ubuntu has offer to questions of sustainable development – or rather the survival of our shared planet – in Southern Africa and beyond and argues for an approach of dialogue and two-eyed seeing.

Paper long abstract:

Ubuntu, here understood as a lived philosophy of "humble togetherness" (Swanson, 2009) among Africa's Bantu people, recognises the interconnectedness of all parts of creation. It refers to humble togetherness of humans but extends beyond the anthropocentric in that humans as one part of nature are interconnected with all other parts of the universe. Thus, Ubuntu embraces caring relationships among humans (including the ancestral world) as well as among humans and other species, the surrounding environment and the universe. In short, Ubuntu's humble togetherness includes ecological togetherness (Murove, 2009). In this paper, we, four African and European academics and practitioners from the field of international politics and development, discuss Ubuntu and ecological togetherness. We focus on what Ubuntu has offer to questions of sustainable development – or rather the survival of our shared planet – in Southern Africa and beyond. After laying a philosophical foundation by accounting for Ubuntu’s vital force which is inherent in Ubuntu through the suffix -ntu, we focus on the role which Ubuntu (could have) played for the current sustainable development goals (SDGs). Moving to an even more practical level, we offer experience of opportunities and challenges of Ubuntu in the field of "sustainable development". Bringing these strands together, we argue for Ubuntu as a suitable paradigm to consider “sustainability”. We further argue for a two-eyed seeing approach in which indigenous knowledge systems as well as so-called Western knowledge enter into dialogue to develop strategies for more sustainable livelihoods.