Abstract
Orientation: Ubuntu is often presented as an emic value system unique to sub-Saharan Africa, emphasising communalism and solidarity. It is typically contrasted with the individualism associated with the Anglo cultural cluster.
Research purpose: This study examines whether Ubuntu values are empirically more prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa than in Anglo cultures, testing assumptions about Ubuntu’s cultural distinctiveness.
Motivation for the study: Debates on post-colonial identity and decolonisation increasingly emphasise the need to recognise indigenous worldviews. However, claims about Ubuntu’s uniqueness are often untested. This study seeks to validate such claims using quantitative data.
Research approach/design and method: Using data from the 2025 World Values Survey, 19 items were selected as proxies for Ubuntu values. Responses from three sub-Saharan African countries were compared with those from three Anglo cluster countries through mean difference analysis.
Main findings: Ubuntu-aligned values were more prevalent in sub-Saharan countries in five cases, less prevalent in eight and showed no significant difference in six. Surprisingly, Anglo respondents endorsed more items consistent with Ubuntu values.
Practical/managerial implications: Findings challenge the uncritical use of Ubuntu in organisational and policy contexts as an authentically African leadership or value system. Ubuntu may represent one of several humane-oriented value systems that inform leadership.
Contribution/value-add: This study questions the assumption that Ubuntu is a unique and dominant framework in African societies. It provides a data-informed basis for evaluating cultural claims and contributes to more rigorous discussions about indigenous values in global comparative research.
Keywords: Ubuntu; sub-Saharan Africa; Anglo cluster; World Values Survey; emic values; cultural comparison.
Introduction
Ubuntu, an African philosophy emphasising communal relationships and shared humanity, posits that ‘I am human only because you are human’ (Tutu, 2000). This concept, strongly endorsed in sub-Saharan Africa (Gade, 2012), underscores the interdependence of individuals within a community, highlighting mutual respect and interconnectedness (Metz, 2011). In contrast, those individuals from an Anglo-Saxon cultural background, comprising mostly English-speaking countries, are characterised by individualism. Mainstream Anglo-Saxon culture prioritises personal goals and individual rights, viewing individuals as autonomous and self-reliant (House et al., 2004), while fostering competitiveness and a focus on personal achievement (Ashkanasy et al., 2001). A long tradition exists of comparing African and Western perspectives, typically through post-colonial analyses (Nkomo, 2011), Afrocentric versus Eurocentric frameworks (Akpan & Odohoedi, 2016), direct comparative studies (Molefe, 2024) and decolonisation scholarship (Getachew & Mantena, 2021), all of which implicitly engage with contrasts between African and Western worldviews. Recent discussions highlight a renewed appreciation for Ubuntu’s principles as uniquely African solutions provided for African challenges (Bhuda & Marumo, 2022; Molefe & Magam, 2019). However, sub-Saharan Africa’s colonial history, particularly under British rule, promoted Western ideologies as superior, marginalising indigenous philosophies like Ubuntu, despite these beliefs’ deep roots and influence (Nussbaum, 2003).
The question arises whether Ubuntu and its principles remain prevalent and influential in sub-Saharan Africa.
If Ubuntu is indeed emic to the region, steps should be taken to leverage its regionally rooted and beneficial principles, as emic systems are more likely to align with and effectively address local circumstances (Mazonde & Carmichael, 2020; Sadler & Fuller, 2020). The emic nature of Ubuntu will be examined in this study by comparing the values of individuals from sub-Saharan Africa with those from Anglo-Saxon backgrounds.
Ubuntu will be considered emic if values associated with the concept are more frequently endorsed by individuals from sub-Saharan Africa than by persons from the Anglo-Saxon world.
Literature review
Ubuntu is a Southern African philosophy emphasising communal relationships, interconnectedness and mutual respect. The term ‘Ubuntu’ is often encapsulated in the phrase, ‘I am because we are’, highlighting the belief that an individual’s humanity is inextricably linked to the community (Tshivhase, 2023). Core principles of Ubuntu include compassion, dignity and shared humanity, which serve as foundational values in many sub-Saharan African societies (Mutanga, 2023). In a comprehensive definition, Steyn and Msweli (2026, p. 10) describe Ubuntu as:
[O]riginating from the Nguni proverb ‘umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’, which translates to ‘a person is a person through other persons’, embodying an exemplary Southern African way of life or a philosophy, which places empathy, respect, community, generosity and harmony at the core of personal development as well as in structuring societal thinking.
As an emic construct, Ubuntu is deeply embedded within the cultural fabric of sub-Saharan Africa. It influences various aspects of life, including social norms, governance and ethical frameworks. The philosophy underscores the importance of collective well-being over individual gain, fostering a sense of community and social cohesion (Mutanga, 2023). Historically, Ubuntu has played a critical role in conflict resolution and restorative justice practices within African communities (Waghid, 2022).
The Anglo cultural cluster, encompassing countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, is predominantly characterised by individualism. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory identifies individualism versus collectivism as a key differentiator between cultures (Hofstede, 2001). In individualistic societies, personal achievements and autonomy are prioritised, whereas collectivist cultures, like those influenced by Ubuntu, emphasise group harmony and interdependence (Alqarni, 2022). These contrasting orientations manifest in various societal structures, including family dynamics, workplace relationships and governance systems.
The colonial history of sub-Saharan Africa has significantly impacted indigenous value systems. Colonial powers often imposed Western ideologies, undermining and marginalising local philosophies such as Ubuntu (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2023). In response, decolonisation efforts have sought to reclaim and revitalise indigenous knowledge systems, advocating for the integration of Ubuntu principles into contemporary African governance and education (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2023). This movement aims to address the lingering effects of colonialism and promote a more authentic representation of African identity and values.
Quantifying culturally embedded constructs like Ubuntu presents methodological challenges. The World Values Survey (WVS) offers a comprehensive dataset that can be utilised to identify proxies for Ubuntu-related values (World Values Survey Association, 2020). However, researchers must exercise caution in selecting appropriate indicators that accurately reflect the multifaceted nature of Ubuntu. Previous studies have employed various survey items to approximate constructs such as communalism and social cohesion, yet the validity of these proxies remains a subject of ongoing debate (Mutanga, 2023). Ensuring cultural sensitivity and contextual relevance is paramount in the empirical examination of Ubuntu values.
Research design
Cross-sectional quantitative data from the WVS seventh wave (Haerpfer et al., 2022) were analysed. Data from the eighth wave are incomplete, as data collection is still ongoing.
Respondents
From the 77 countries included in the 2025 WVS, six countries were identified to be included in the study. Responses originated from Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, representing sub-Saharan African countries, and from Australia, Great Britain and the United States, representing the Anglo cluster. The selection of countries was based on the availability of data in the WVS, taking into account that South Africa did not contribute data to the seventh wave (2017–2022) (WVS, 2025). The clustering of countries followed the groupings outlined in the GLOBE study (House et al., 2004).
Measurement
The WVS includes a wide range of variables organised under 14 thematic headings. For this study, only 19 items, identified as potential proxies for Ubuntu or Ubuntu-related values, were selected for analysis.
Table 1 presents the selected questions along with aspects of Ubuntu it could represent. The criteria for the inclusion of items were subjective. After several rounds of reading through the list of items in the WVS, items ‘which places empathy, respect, community, generosity, and harmony at the core of personal development as well as in structuring societal thinking’ (Steyn & Msweli, 2026) were included. The items used in the study include categorical, ordinal and continuous variables. Items with categorical and ordinal responses are bolded, as different analytical approaches were applied to these data types; accordingly, the results are reported in two separate tables. The final column indicates how each item relates to Ubuntu.
| TABLE 1: Selected World Values Survey items and their link with Ubuntu. |
A valid critique of the use of these proxies presented in Table 1 is their conflation of communal values with national, political, ideological or institutional attitudes. While some proxies may capture nationalism, cosmopolitanism or exclusionary tendencies rather than Ubuntu’s emphasis on inclusive community and shared humanity, they may nonetheless reflect Ubuntu-related values at a more abstract or societal level, extending beyond immediate community interactions. Despite these limitations, the selected proxies – though imperfect – represented the most appropriate available indicators of communal orientation within the constraints of the dataset.
The Ubuntu-related word appear in the text as follows: Community eight times, respect and generosity five times each, harmony four times and empathy once. This does not equate to a perfect representation of Ubuntu, as defined by Steyn and Msweli (2026), but it is still a reasonable representation.
Reliability and validity
The reliability and validity of the WVS data are not discussed in detail here, as it can be assumed given the Technical Report of World Values Survey Association (2020) and the wide use of the data: The dataset (Haerpfer et al., 2022) was cited in more than 500 articles. The wide use of the WVS database attests to the trust placed in the survey (see Koshy et al., 2023; Steyn, 2023; Van Bavel et al., 2022; Vo et al., 2022). However, this does not suggest that the survey is beyond critique. Several scholarly works have examined its limitations (see Alemán & Woods, 2016; Ndofirepi & Steyn, 2023; Steyn & Ndofirepi, 2022; Zanella, 2024).
Analyses
The data were analysed in two ways: For the continuous data, mean per cluster was calculated and the differences between the means were calculated, using Cohen’s d-values (d = Mean1–Mean2/[SD1 + SD2]/2) (Cohen, 1988), to determine if the group means differed on a practical level, thus real-world significance (Kirk, 1996).
The guideline followed for effect sizes was that d smaller than 0.2 was considered negligible, d between 0.2 and 0.5 indicated subtle but real differences, d between 0.5 and 0.8 was classified as moderate, and d larger than 0.8 represented large and practically significant differences (Cohen, 1988). It was decided to select the option that d-values smaller than 0.2 would be deemed insignificant.
With the categorical data, a different approach was followed. For the categorical data, responses were converted into percentages and compared across clusters. A difference of approximately 10 percentage points was interpreted as practically meaningful, reflecting an emphasis on substantive rather than statistical significance when comparing categorical outcomes, in line with recommendations to prioritise interpretable probability differences in applied social research (Agresti, 2018; Ferguson, 2009; Rosnow & Rosenthal, 1996).
The data were then interpreted and a narrative constructed, based on the results of the study, to explore the portrayal of Ubuntu as an African emic value system, in contrast to values typically associated with the Anglo cultural cluster. This narrative broadly addresses the extent to which Ubuntu can be considered uniquely African, and examines the degree to which elements of Ubuntu, which are both complex and multidimensional, are reflected distinctively in the lived values of people in sub-Saharan Africa.
Results
Sample size and demographics
Because of the extensive number of items included in the survey, the number of respondents per item varied. However, as shown in Table 2, the sample size for each country never fell below 1000, with at least 3000 respondents per regional cluster. The national samples were representative of their respective populations. While detailed reporting on individual countries is beyond the scope and word limit of this article, it can reasonably be assumed that the results are comparable across countries, given the standardised data collection protocols employed (World Values Survey Association, 2020).
| TABLE 2: Comparative statistics for categorical data from Anglo versus sub-Saharan African countries. |
Results pertaining to ordinal and categorical data
Table 2 presents the results of the categorical data. The numbers presented in the table are percentages, and, where indicated, sample size (N). Of particular interest is the last column, where the percentage difference between the mean of the Anglo cluster and the sub-Saharan Africa cluster is presented.
Mean differences of less than 10% were regarded as insignificant. The interpretation of these results takes place in the discussion section of the article.
Results pertaining to continuous data
Results presented in Table 3 relate to continues variables (e.g. Items 179 and 180) and ordinal variables (e.g. Items 34 and 40) presented as continues variables. The focus is on the last row, where mean differences between Anglo versus sub-Saharan Africa clusters are presented.
| TABLE 3: Comparative statistics for continues data from Anglo versus sub-Saharan African countries. |
Cohen d-values smaller than 0.2 were interpreted as insignificant. The results from this table will be presented in the discussion section of the article.
Discussion
The premise of this article was that Ubuntu values, as represented by selected items from the WVS, would reveal that Africans, at least more so than individuals from the Anglo-Saxon world, demonstrate alignment with Ubuntu principles. Table 4 presents the results from Table 2 and Table 3 alongside corresponding interpretations. The key question addressed is: Did Africans display more Ubuntu-aligned values than those from the Anglo cluster? The final column shows the results, while the penultimate column provides interpretations of these findings.
In Table 4, the outcomes from the hypothesis testing are presented. The table shows whether sub-Saharan Africa scored higher, lower or showed no significant difference compared to Anglo-Saxon countries on Ubuntu-related questions. An overall summary of the results shows that in five (5) instances, Ubuntu-aligned values were more prevalent in Africa; in eight (8) instances, they were less prevalent; and in five (5) instances, there were no significant differences. Returning to the elements of Ubuntu, empathy, respect, community, generosity and harmony (Steyn & Msweli, 2026), the results of Table 4 are discussed:
- Empathy: Empathy was measured with one question only. Empathy was less evident among African respondents, who were more unlikely to agree that their country offers better living conditions to people from poorer countries. This lower endorsement indicates that empathy towards outsiders or strangers may be limited, contrasting with Ubuntu’s ideal of compassionate inclusivity. This finding should be interpreted within the context that only a single item from the WVS was used to represent this concept. Moreover, this item constitutes a relatively distal proxy, relative far removed from the underlying construct it seeks to reflect.
- Respect: Sub-Saharan Africans showed a complex pattern regarding respect. They demonstrated greater respect for authority but reported lower tolerance and respect for other people. They tended to be more open to viewing certain instances of property theft as potentially justifiable. No significant differences were found regarding respect for individual human rights. These findings suggest that respect as a value may manifest uniquely in African contexts, emphasising authority but showing differences in other respects.
- Community: Community-related values varied widely. Africans showed stronger community orientation by prioritising locals over immigrants, trusting their neighbourhood and supporting income equalisation by the state. Conversely, they showed less confidence in government and expressed a lower level of disapproval towards tax evasion, suggesting a nuanced community ethic that values local and informal networks more than formal institutions.
- Generosity: Generosity indicators were mixed, with Africans showing less unselfishness and participation in donations or charitable organisations. However, they endorsed work as a duty towards society more strongly than their Anglo counterparts, reflecting a communal generosity. The inconsistent pattern suggests that generosity is expressed in specific social obligations rather than widespread voluntary acts.
- Harmony: There were no significant differences between sub-Saharan African and Anglo-Saxon respondents in valuing equality over freedom or progress towards a less impersonal and more humane society. However, Africans showed less endorsement of gender equality, indicating less harmony in that respect. Overall, harmony-related values showed a mixed pattern, with some elements consistent across regions and others less embraced in Africa.
Overall, the findings reflect an uneven endorsement of Ubuntu-related values in sub-Saharan Africa. While some aspects, such as community, generosity and respect for authority are strongly represented, the key indicators of empathy, personal respect and harmony are less frequently endorsed. This mixed pattern suggests that Ubuntu’s cultural presence may be uneven or contested, rather than uniformly dominant across the region.
Conclusion
In this study, the endorsement of Ubuntu-related values by individuals from sub-Saharan Africa was compared to those in an Anglo-Saxon cluster. Nineteen items from the WVS were used as proxies for Ubuntu. Data from over 3000 sub-Saharan Africans and more than 6000 individuals from Anglo-Saxon countries were analysed, with each cluster represented by three countries. Comparisons were made at the cluster level only.
The results indicate that Ubuntu-aligned values were more prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa in five instances, less prevalent in eight and showed no significant difference in five other countries. While respondents endorsed items that aligned with a general understanding of values such as community, generosity and respect for authority, other elements such as empathy, personal respect and harmony were less frequently endorsed by those living in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on these findings, Ubuntu may appear to be less prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa than in the Anglo-Saxon world. Using the Anglo-Saxon context as a reference point, this study revealed a mixed and inconsistent pattern of Ubuntu’s cultural presence in the region, suggesting that the concept may be contested and far from universally upheld.
Such a finding presents a theoretical and philosophical dilemma, as claiming that Western (Anglo-Saxon) societies exhibit a greater prevalence of Ubuntu than African societies directly contradict the foundational premises of the concept. Ubuntu is, by definition, culturally situated (Gade, 2012; Metz, 2011; Molefe & Magam, 2019) and cannot be treated as a universal construct endorsed in non-African contexts without substantial reinterpretation. This apparent tension can, however, be mitigated when considering the use of proxies and the associated measurement challenges, particularly where the underlying concepts are not measured directly. If Ubuntu is understood as a humane or relational orientation, it is plausible that such values may manifest in Anglo-Saxon contexts as well as within sub-Saharan Africa, albeit through different cultural expressions.
Recent research on leadership provides a useful parallel. Eva et al. (2024) demonstrated that widely used leadership measures share substantial common variance, with limited unique effects attributable to individual leadership styles, indicating considerable conceptual overlap (see also Anderson & Sun, 2017). Although leadership is not the primary focus of the present study, these findings highlight broader challenges in measuring closely related value-based constructs. Meta-analytic evidence further points to empirical redundancy among positive leadership constructs (Hoch et al., 2016), and additional findings show that when leadership styles are examined concurrently, many lose their unique predictive value (DeRue et al., 2011).
Viewed in this light, Ubuntu, as a value-based philosophy assessed through indirect proxies, may have been operationalised in a manner that captures a broader humane or relational orientation rather than a culturally specific enactment of Ubuntu per se.
Ubuntu’s core values like empathy, respect, generosity, community and harmony (Steyn & Msweli, 2026), were not consistently reflected, as interpreted in this study, in the attitudes or behaviours of the respondents. Instead of a cohesive ethical system, the data reveals selective adherence, internal contradictions and in some cases the absence of these ideals. Ubuntu seems to function more as a symbolic or aspirational identity marker than a coherent lived philosophy guiding everyday life. These findings challenge the uncritical acceptance of Ubuntu as Africa’s moral compass and underscore the need for a more nuanced and perhaps more critical examination of African value systems as they actually exist. However, as alluded to above, any assertion that Ubuntu is ‘less prevalent’ in Africa risks misrepresenting the philosophy, overextending the construct and producing misleading cross-cultural comparisons. It should be considered that the proxies measure a more universal general construct, rather than then the materialisation of that construct in a specific geographical region. It should be considered that the proxies may measure a more general, universal construct rather than the materialisation of that construct within a specific geographical region.
Limitations
The primary limitation of this study lies in the proxies used to represent Ubuntu (see Table 1). Some may question whether the selected variables are truly accurate reflections of Ubuntu principles. It would be reckless to claim that all were ideal proxies; however, most items could be reasonably identified as potential indicators. Some proxies, such as the reference to a humane society, align closely with core Ubuntu principles.
Another limitation concerns the WVS itself. While widely used, the instrument is not without flaws, and its validity has been questioned by various scholars. Nonetheless, given practical considerations and the lack of alternative freely available data, the use of the WVS data can be reasonably justified.
Future research
Ubuntu values were measured using items that served as proxies for the construct. Future researchers are encouraged to use instruments specifically developed to measure Ubuntu (see Molose, 2019; Steyn & Msweli, 2024; Terblanché-Greeff & Nel, 2023). Purpose-designed instruments may yield better results in cross-cultural settings; however, caution should be exercised to ensure that the constructs are replicable across cultures. Tests of measurement invariance are essential to confirm the validity of cross-cultural comparisons (Vandenberg & Lance, 2000).
There may also be a need to identify what exactly African leadership entails, without using Ubuntu as a reference. Some efforts have been made in this direction (see Grobler & Singh, 2018; Lerutla & Steyn, 2022, 2024), and researchers are encouraged to find the emic moral compass which is representative of an African value system as it exists in reality.
Acknowledgements
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
CRediT authorship contribution
Renier Steyn: Conceptualisation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Visualisation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing; Pumela Msweli: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing. All authors reviewed the article, contributed to the discussion of results, approved the final version for submission and publication, and take responsibility for the integrity of its findings.
Ethical considerations
No data were collected specifically for this research. The WVS data used are publicly available and are referenced throughout (Haerpfer et al., 2022). Use of the secondary data was approved by the University of South Africa’s Graduate School of Business Leadership Research Ethics Committee (Reference no. 2025_SBL_DBL_020_FA_5571).
Funding information
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Data availability
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. They do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. The authors are responsible for this article’s results, findings and content.
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