Ubuntu: The Power You Weren’t Taught

“I am because we are.”

This is not a quote. It is a philosophy. A way of life.

It is Ubuntu.

In a world obsessed with individualism, competition, and personal gain, the African principle of Ubuntu has quietly endured. Not as a relic of the past, but as a timeless truth, one that the Western world never taught, perhaps never wanted to teach.

How do you build community when you reward self-centeredness?

How do you heal the world when your systems incentivize hoarding, extraction, and domination?

How do you claim to lead the “free world” when your societies are more isolated, anxious, and divided than ever before?

The West taught the world to conquer.

Africa taught the world to connect.

Ubuntu is not just about kindness. It is about interdependence. It is about understanding that your humanity is bound up in mine. That no success is meaningful if it comes at the cost of others. That power, when it disconnects, destroys.

But why wasn’t Ubuntu ever on the syllabus?

You can get a degree in philosophy in elite European universities and never read a single African thinker.

You can learn about Aristotle and Descartes, but never about Mogobe Ramose, John Mbiti, or Kwasi Wiredu.

You can be taught the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Scientific Revolution, but not the African concepts of personhood, communal morality, or restorative justice.

Was it ignorance?

Or was it intentional?

Ubuntu is a threat to systems built on hierarchy.

Because it demands equality.

Because it challenges the myth of supremacy.

Because it says, “You are not more valuable than me—and I am not more valuable than you.”

That is a revolutionary idea.

A New World Must Be Built

We are entering a new era. The world is shifting. Systems are shaking. And the old philosophies that built those systems are showing cracks.

Now is the time to remember.

Now is the time to reclaim.

Now is the time to re-teach the world what they forgot or refused to learn.

Ubuntu is not just African.

It is humanity’s missing code.

It is what the future needs.

Because the future is not for the supreme.

The future is not for the arrogant.

The future is for those who remember their humanity.

The future is for those who see that justice is not revenge—it is restoration.

That power is not domination; it is service.

A Call to the World

Don’t just read about Ubuntu.

Practice it.

Share it.

Teach your children about it.

And to my fellow Africans, your wisdom is needed. Your philosophy is global. Don’t shrink it for anyone.

They taught us to look outside for answers.

But what if the answer has always been within?