The Bantu philosophy of "ubuntu" focuses on the power of community

A boundary is the recognized demarcation between insiders (members) and outsiders. This boundary should be more about making the inside space safe for insiders than about keeping outsiders out. Where there’s a boundary, insiders feel more confident that they share values and that they understand one another better than outsiders.

We exist, not as wholly singular, autonomous beings, nor completely merged, but in a fluctuating space in between. This idea was expressed beautifully in Desmond Tutu’s explanation of the South African concept of Ubuntu. He said, “It is to say, my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours. We belong in a bundle of life. We say a per

This solidaristic imagination is born not of individualism, but of interdependence, what disability studies scholar Rosemarie Garland-Thomson calls inclusive world-building. “I am because we are, we are because I am,” goes the South African philosophy of ubuntu. This is more than “accommodating” people’s differences on the edges. It requires recogn