Annual Ubuntu Lecture | Fundo ya Ubuntu

“Ubuntu is anti-hegemonic”, Professor Kebede.

To be anti or counter-hegemonic means that this African philosophy directly challenges, resists, and offers an alternative to dominant Western, neoliberal, and individualistic power structures.

“Leaders who embody Ubuntu prioritise the welfare of their people, viewing leadership as a service to the community rather than a position of power”, Professor Kebede.

The 2025 lecture was delivered by Professor Wassie Kebede, Ethiopia.

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Transcript

Fundo ya Ubuntu Annual Ubuntu Lecture

Summary

The annual Ubuntu Lecture featured Professor Wassie Kabede, who shared his journey as a pioneering figure in social work education in Ethiopia and discussed challenges facing African social work programs. The professor explored decolonization in social work education and his involvement with international social work associations, including work with regional hubs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The lecture concluded with Professor Kebede delivering a presentation on Ubuntu, an African philosophy centered on community and shared humanity, its theoretical foundations, and applications to social development and leadership.

Ubuntu: Philosophy of Community Unity

Professor Wassie Kabedi delivered an annual lecture on Ubuntu, an African philosophy centered on community, unity, and shared humanity. The lecture covered Ubuntu’s theoretical foundations, its expression across different African cultures, key values including survival, solidarity, compassion, and respect, and its application to community unity, justice, leadership, and social development. The professor emphasized Ubuntu’s emphasis on collective responsibility over individual achievement and its potential to promote social harmony, sustainable development, and ethical leadership in both community and organizational contexts.

Interview

RM: Okay, we’ll get started now. “Enkwan dehna metu! እንኳን ደህና መጡ, welcome, welcome.

It is with great pleasure that I welcome Professor Wassie Kebede as our distinguished guest at the Fundo ya Ubuntu Annual Ubuntu Lecture.

Professor Kebede is an Ethiopian academic and pioneer in social work education, born in the northwestern province of Ethiopia, and the first PhD graduate in social work in the country. He has served as Dean of the School of Social Work at Addis Ababa University, held leadership roles in regional and international associations, including the IASSW and the ASSWA, and contributed to the development of programmes across several African countries.

Professor Kebede is a prolific scholar with over 30 publications, and he has been recognised for advancing professional education and critical reflection on the past, present, and future of social work on the African continent.

I am honoured to have you with us today. Now, I would want to ask you some questions before you deliver your lecture.

RM: My first question is on the inspiration. What inspired you to pursue social work at a time when the profession was still emerging formally in Ethiopia, and indeed in Africa as a whole?

Thank you very much.

WK: I was a graduate of sociology at bachelor’s degree level, and I was employed as a social worker, even if I was not a trained social worker. My colleagues from abroad who were working here in Ethiopia with me told me a little bit about social work, and I was really interested to study social work. Fortunately, when I had that great interest, Addis Ababa University launched a master’s programme in social work in 2004, so I was the first applicant and the first recruited to join the programme. So my inspiration was just from the professional engagement I had as an untrained social worker.

Yes. Thank you so much for that. Many people have taken that route, and that happened a lot, given that in Africa there were no social work programmes. So I’m glad to know that your motivation was really from your work as a social worker, even before you had a professional social work qualification.

RM: My second question is: How did your experience as the first PhD graduate in social work in Ethiopia shape your vision for the discipline’s growth nationally and continent-wide? I was excited to learn that you were the first PhD graduate in social work in Ethiopia, perhaps even on the continent.

WK: Not really on the continent, but in Ethiopia. I was the first PhD in social work.

RM: What year was that?

WK: That was in 2009. I joined the PhD programme in 2006, and I completed my study in three years, and I defended my dissertation in 2009, in December.

RM: Thank you for clarifying that.

WK: As the first PhD, it was inspiring in one part, but it was also confusing, because when you don’t have someone ahead of you, you have to think about so many things, how to be a leader in the profession. Thanks to colleagues from Africa and other parts of the world, they really guided me and mentored me on how to be a pioneer in social work in Ethiopia as the first PhD. And of course, I became also the first professor of social work in Ethiopia.

RM: Interesting. Thanks so much for telling us about your experience.

Now, my third question. In your view, what are the most significant barriers currently facing social work education in African universities?

WK: Generally speaking, with my limited experience in a few countries, and also my experience in Ethiopia, one of the major barriers in social work education is the absence of African-origin literature to teach social work, and also limited research products which our students can refer to about their own cultures and communities. We are highly reliant on Western theories, Western models, and principles. I think that is a major problem we have.

The second is that we do not have adequate academics who are really trained in Africa. We have very few who came from abroad with Western education. For these academics, to teach in Africa is really a challenge. Even within Africa, I remember when I was teaching in Eswatini, there is a serious cultural difference between Ethiopia in Eastern Africa and Southern Africa, and I had to take some time to adapt myself to that culture, let alone coming from abroad. So limited academics and limited African-based literature are really the two barriers in social work education in Africa.

Thank you so much for highlighting the challenges facing social work education in higher education institutions on the African continent.

RM: Others have said the answer to addressing all this to make social work relevant is to decolonise. What are your views in terms of decolonisation?

WK: When you say decolonising social work, it means bringing our own knowledge base, our own evidence, to social work education and practice, and making a balance between what we have from the West and what we have here. Social work education is highly colonised by Western thinking, because many of our theories and models are coming from the West. It does not mean that we should totally reject or ignore all theories available in social work. But we need to customise and bring the local culture, local thought, and philosophy, for example the famous philosophy of Ubuntu, which is across all African regions.

So when you say decolonising, I think it means influencing Western social thought by introducing our own knowledge base from Africa, which implies that African scholars should engage in research and knowledge production. That is how I understand decolonisation. It is not like the physical decolonisation of regions or people, but the thinking itself is already occupied by Western culture, which makes it very difficult to train our students and for graduates to practise in Africa, until we make sure that our decolonisation process is mature.

RM: Thank you so much for clarifying and sharing your ideas around decolonisation.

I would now want to ask you about your work with the International Association of Schools of Social Work, as well as the African Association of Schools of Social Work. What were the highlights of your work there, and what would you want your successors to focus on for the improvement of social work on the continent?

WK: I was a board member for the International Association of Schools of Social Work from 2011 to 2015. At the same time, I was Secretary for the Association of Schools of Social Work in Africa. Because I was the secretary for the African Association, I automatically became a board member in the international association.

During those days, the international association was trying to establish regional hubs so that social work education could be balanced in all regions, especially the Global South, which has limited access to social work knowledge. The association was trying to establish centres in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Based on that initiative, the African Association was encouraged to lead the process. Friends from Rwanda, South Africa, Nigeria, and other places were encouraged to establish the African centre as well.

My advice to my successors in the African Association is to work hard to advance social work education in all subregions of Africa. We know that social work is stronger in the southern region, such as South Africa and Zimbabwe, and to some extent in West Africa, such as Nigeria. We do not have much information about North Africa. To my knowledge, they were not even represented in the regional association until recently. There must be regional balance in terms of expanding social work education in Africa.

RM: Thank you very much for your insights.

Lecture

RM: Today you are delivering the Fundo ya Ubuntu Annual Ubuntu Lecture. I want to warmly welcome you by saying, Enkwan dehna metu! እንኳን ደህና መጡ and now give you the floor to deliver this much-anticipated lecture. Over to you.

WK: Thank you. Today I am going to speak on Ubuntu values of community, unity, justice, solidarity, compassion, integrity, and relationship-based leadership in social work development.

First, I would like to provide some background about Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is an African philosophy of respect. The term originated from the Nguni Bantu languages of Southern Africa. It is more than just a word; it is a philosophical concept that captures the essence of humanity and communalism. The Ubuntu philosophy encourages people to recognise their shared humanity and to see themselves as part of a larger whole, rather than as isolated individuals. As an ideal, Ubuntu means the opposite of being selfish and self-centred. Human individuality is a necessity, but not a sufficient condition for being a person.

The traditional African worldview of Ubuntu is based on the values of humaneness, caring, respect, compassion, and associated values ensuring a happy and qualitative human community life. Ubuntu is deeply rooted in African cosmology and worldview, which view the universe as an interconnected whole.

In this lecture, I will deal with Ubuntu philosophy and theory; Ubuntu across cultures; Ubuntu values; Ubuntu community unity and solidarity; Ubuntu and community justice; Ubuntu community cohesion, integrity, and relationship; Ubuntu leadership principles; and finally Ubuntu and social development.

To study the philosophy of Ubuntu, researchers must reject the intellectual imperialism that insists African philosophies are inferior, and escape the assumptions of moral neocolonialism that suggest Ubuntu offers nothing new or different. Ubuntu is an African ethical theory that captures the concept of morality in relationships. It has been defined as: I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am. Individuals exist as part of a greater whole, and their purpose is to sustain that greater whole.

Ubuntu is multicultural. It is manifested in the traditions, social rules, principles, and norms of various cultures in Africa. The language application and interpretation can vary across communities, reflecting the continent’s diversity.

The key values of Ubuntu include survival, solidarity, compassion, respect, and dignity. Survival is the ability to live and exist despite difficulties. Solidarity develops through the combined efforts of individuals in service of their community. Compassion is understanding the dilemmas of others and wanting to help them. Respect refers to unbiased regard for rights, values, beliefs, and property. Ubuntu integrates spirituality, interdependence, unity, teamwork, service to others, and harmony.

Ubuntu can be described as a community-based mindset in which the welfare of the group is greater than that of a single individual. Communalism at the core of Ubuntu implies that the interests of the individual are subordinate to that of the group.

Ubuntu sheds light on the importance of peacemaking through reciprocity, inclusivity, and a sense of shared destiny. It advances freedom, inclusion, equity, participation, and fairness. Central to Ubuntu is living in a socially just, truthful, and harmonious community.

A person with Ubuntu is welcoming, hospitable, warm, generous, and willing to share. Ubuntu fosters cooperation and collective well-being over individual competition.

Ubuntu leadership proposes that leaders belong to society and are obliged to act in ways that ensure social harmony. Leadership is viewed as service to the community rather than a position of power. Leaders are expected to act with integrity and prioritise the needs of the most vulnerable.

Finally, Ubuntu and social development. Ubuntu teaches that knowledge and skills should be shared for the benefit of everyone. It offers a framework for development that is respectful of human connection, equity, and collective action. Ubuntu focuses on inclusivity and responsibility to others and future generations. It can promote sustainable development through recognition that our existence is connected to past, present, and future generations.

In conclusion, Ubuntu is an African theory that captures morality in relationships between people, the environment, and spirituality. It takes different names in different cultures, but the principles are the same: relationship, support, and care for everyone in the community. Ubuntu teaches social justice, truthfulness, harmonious life, cooperation over competition, and participatory leadership.

Thank you very much for your attention.

RM: Thank you very much, Professor Wassie Kebede, for your lecture. We will share feedback when we receive it. I am happy to end the lecture now.

Thank you.