Abstract:
This article is reading ubuntu in the light of homelessness in the cities and towns of South
Africa. It suggests that ubuntu itself is homeless and displaced as a way of being human
together. Instead of the mediation of dignity and justice through an ubuntu-solidarity, street
homeless people and others living vulnerably and in precarious circumstances are violated
and excluded through a displacement of ubuntu-values. It also suggests a growing disconnect
between the philosophy of ubuntu and its actual embodiment in the local urban political
economy, local faith communities and local universities. Acknowledging the aspirational edge
of ubuntu, the article then concludes to envision going beyond mere abstractions in the said
spheres – the political economy, faith communities and local universities – in order to seek for
concrete expressions of ubuntu-solidarity, asserting and mediating respect, dignity and justice.
