Afrika Techno Policy

The turn to Ubuntu in AI ethics scholarship marks a critically important shift toward engaging African moral and politico-philosophical traditions in shaping technological futures. Often encapsulated through the phrase “a person is a person through other persons”, Ubuntu is frequently invoked to highlight ontological interdependency, communal responsibility, relational personhood, and the moral primacy of solidarity and care. It is often positioned as an alternative to individualism, with the potential to complement or “correct” Western liberal frameworks. But what does this invocation actually do? Is Ubuntu being used to transform how we think about ethical challenges in AI, or is the emerging discourse merely softening existing paradigms with a warmer cultural tone?   The emerging pattern A recurring pattern across the literature reveals a limited mode of Ubuntu engagement. It begins with a description of AI-related ethical concerns: dependency, bias, privacy, data coloni...