Ubuntu · Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu. A person is a person through other people. The Southern African answer to the Western question.

When you greet someone in Zulu, you do not say hello. You say Sawubona, "I see you." The reply is Yebo, sawubona, "Yes, I see you too." The conversation cannot begin until both parties have been witnessed. This is Ubuntu in one breath: I am because we are. The most powerful philosophical alternative to Western individualism still in active use anywhere in the world. It rebuilt South Africa after a