'A person is a person through other persons'

Ubuntu is a Southern African philosophical concept holding that individual identity and humanity are inseparable from community — often summarized as 'I am because we are'. Archbishop Desmond Tutu invoked it to explain South Africa's post-apartheid emphasis on reconciliation over pure retribution. It has since influenced restorative justice movements and leadership philosophy well beyond Africa.

— Desmond Tutu, Ubuntu philosophy — No Future Without Forgiveness, 1999
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