The Ubuntu principle — I am because we are — grounds a conception of justice that is fundamentally restorative: harm disrupts the community, and the goal of justice is the restoration of communal wholeness rather than the punishment of an individual. This means addressing the needs of those harmed, addressing the conditions that produced the harm, and reintegrating the person who caused harm rather than expelling them. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa drew explicitly on Ubuntu principles — imperfectly, controversially, and nevertheless more successfully than pure punitive approaches have managed.
Juana