Ubuntu is a Nguni Bantu term that means “humanity.” It is sometimes translated as “ I am because we are” or “I am because you are” or humanity towards others. It is part of the Zulu phrase “Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabanto.”
In modern South Africa, it is a philosophical concept that is a guiding ideal. A quality that includes the essential human virtues of compassion and humanity.
Nelson Mandela in a preface to Richard Stengal’s Mandela Way: Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage (2009), encapsulated the many interpretations by calling Ubuntu an African concept that means “Profound sense that we are human only through the humanity of others; that if we are to accomplish anything in this world, it will in equal measure be due to the work and achievement of others.”