Ubuntu: a multidisciplinary perspective to understanding and application

Ubuntu is evident in various stages of life. The understanding of Ubuntu changes based on the orator, the circumstances in which it is used and is felt in the embodied experience of this relational concept. In this chapter, the editors’ and some of the co-authors’ views weave together ‘ingubo efudumele’ [isiZulu for ‘warm blanket’], an analogy for the embodiment of a multidisciplinary perspective to the understanding and application of Ubuntu. This chapter offers an opportunity to correct the view that books are dangerous, as a myriad of African literature genres, whether fiction, non-fiction or philosophical, have over the decades demonstrated the notion of Ubuntu without advancing it as a scientific ideology. A critique is offered about the misuse and abuse of the word ‘Ubuntu’. This chapter further introduces the four themes captured in this book and concludes by illustrating a model that can be created from the acronymization of Ubuntu.