Toward an ubuntu-centered approach to health communication theory and practice

ABSTRACT This article explores shared African philosophical values and cultural assumptions that could inform the continent's health communication campaigns and interventions. It reintroduces the overlooked and uniquely African concept of ubuntu, and invites further discussions of culture-centered perspectives on health communication theory, research, and practice. In ubuntu, the community is ontologically prior to an individual. The main assumptions of ubuntu center around values of inclusiveness, tolerance, transparency, and consensus-building, and can be translated from Zulu as “I am because we are”—in drastic contrast to Descartian/Western “I think therefore I am.” The article discusses theoretical and practical applications of ubuntu, suggesting scholars and practitioners reconsider health campaign approaches, specifically in Africa. More broadly, ubuntu can also be useful in Western settings, especially in contexts wherein the notion of community is heightened, even in individualistic societies. Focus on ubuntu crystallizes the potential of scholars and practitioners utilizing African perspectives to differentiate themselves from Western communication approaches and contribute unique viewpoints derived from the continent's cultural diversity. The article concludes with a call for the purposeful incorporation of ubuntu into health communication thinking.