Welcome to the Ubuntu Circle

The African continent has the fastest-growing youth population globally, with 70% under 30. The significance of this young generation is compounded by the daunting aspects of the present and future: climate change and its impacts, political and societal volatility, and increasing economic insecurity. In this context, what will happen in Africa will largely influence what happens with humankind in the next century. This presents African youth with the significant opportunity to catalyse a global transformation.

The Meaning of Ubuntu

Ubuntu, in isiXhosa (one of the 11 official languages of South Africa) loosely translated means “I am because we are”. This simple but profound word denotes that we are interconnected and intertwined with each other. In other words, “I am who I am because of the people around me”.

Purpose

This Circle creates a cross-generational community of changemakers across Africa, looking into how to reinvent our individual and collective futures – enveloped in the ethos of Ubuntu.

 

From our last session...

 Meet Fiston Muganda!

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 3 Steps to Storytelling Activism!

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What is Ubuntu?

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About us

This Circle is a community of practice. Co-founded by The Club of Rome and the LearningPlanet Alliance, it brings together a small working group of committed actors who are already active in local learning and sustainability led initiatives across the African continent to:

  • African challenges

    Address African challenges to accessing education from African contexts and cultures, reshaping solutions based in “modernization” and “development” models conceived within a colonial mindset;

  • Indigenous African Wisdom

    learn from indigenous African wisdom (Ubuntu, Ukama, Omenala, Iwa, Suban, Bumuntu and other concepts and practices) to nurture modern knowledge and reconcile it with how life works;

  • Create

    create the conditions for the emergence in African processes of inquiry and learning, opening many pathways towards place-based equitable human well-being within a healthy biosphere

  • African challenges

    Address African challenges to accessing education from African contexts and cultures, reshaping solutions based in “modernization” and “development” models conceived within a colonial mindset;

  • Indigenous African Wisdom

    learn from indigenous African wisdom (Ubuntu, Ukama, Omenala, Iwa, Suban, Bumuntu and other concepts and practices) to nurture modern knowledge and reconcile it with how life works;

  • Create

    create the conditions for the emergence in African processes of inquiry and learning, opening many pathways towards place-based equitable human well-being within a healthy biosphere

Our actions in this Ubuntu Learning Circle are to:

  • Break the digital divide

    Improve education access, breaking the ‘digital divide‘

  • Advocacy

    Advocate and empower Ubuntu-centred ways of learning, prioritising indigenous learning practices and cross-generational knowledge transfers

“Failure to be bold in our dreams & imagination is what has kept Africa where it is. Let’s be bold – the bolder the better!”

Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, Co-President of The Club of Rome, during the 2023 LearningPlanet Festival

What the Ubuntu members say

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Watch our LearningPlanet Festival 2023 session replay

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