Ubuntu Ontology and Its Philosophical Stakes

“Ramose on Ubuntu: 'Ubuntu is the foundation of African philosophy. It is the onto-logic of be-ing-becoming. Ubu is the universal and ever-present generative mode of existence; ntu is the specific form this becoming takes. A person is not a substance with properties but a node in a web of vital relations, constituted through and not prior to those relations.' [...] Mbiti: 'In traditional African thought, man is not an individual. He is corporate man, existing in and through his community.' [...] Hountondji: 'To call all African thought philosophy is to freeze African peoples in a mythical communal solidarity, denying them the individuality and critical capacity that real philosophy requires.' [...] Wiredu: 'Conceptual decolonization means critically examining what we have inherited, separating the universally valid from the culturally contingent, and engaging Western philosophy as an equal partner in a shared human project.' — Ramose, African Philosophy Through Ubuntu (1999); Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy (1969); Hountondji, African Philosophy: Myth and Reality (1976); Wiredu, Cultural Universals and Particulars (1996); IEP 'African Philosophy'”