Created in 2008, Ubuntu was envisioned to be a multi-dimensional residential experience. It was meant to redefine Duke’s social culture, providing an alternative to the dominant living groups. More than a purely social organization, Ubuntu took on the purpose of connecting students sharing deep and varied interests.

Ubuntu is a word used across the African continent to describe a feeling of togetherness. The widely accepted definition is put simply: “I am because we are.” Ubuntu celebrates human connectedness, and we believe our own community and vision reflect this ethos throughout. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has explored Ubuntu at length:

“A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good; for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes with knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they were less than who they are.”