James Ogude
Prof. James Ogude is one of the world’s leading authorities on Ubuntu, the African philosophical tradition that emphasises the interconnectedness of people with their social and natural environment. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship at the University of Pretoria, where he served as Director until 2024. During this time, he led the landmark five-year Ubuntu Project, producing influential works that deepened global understanding of Ubuntu. He heads a pan-African research network and directs the African Observatory for Environmental Humanities, fostering dialogue between philosophy, culture and climate. His scholarship advances Ubuntu as a relational philosophy of personhood and a practical ethic for justice, reconciliation and sustainability. He is author and editor of more than a dozen books including Ubuntu and Personhood, Ubuntu and the Everyday and Ubuntu and the Reconstitution of Community.