Ubuntu / African Communal Ontology
"I am because we are" (umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu). Ubuntu holds that personhood is constituted by communal relations rather than individual substance. Reality is a dynamic web of vital forces connecting the living, the ancestors, and the yet-to-be-born. Being is fundamentally participatory: to exist is to be in relation.
I. Time
| Extent | Infinite |
| Ontological Status | Relational |
| Grain | Continuous |
| Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Traversability | Cyclical |
| Dimensionality | One |
| Direction | Multi-directional |
Time is relational and infinite — it is communal, flowing through the generations of the living, the dead, and the yet-to-be-born. Time is continuous, cyclical, and uni-directional within the individual lifespan but cyclic across generations as ancestors are reborn and remembered. The past is present through ancestral memory; the future is present through communal obligation.
II. Space
| Extent | Finite |
| Ontological Status | Relational |
| Curvature | Flat |
| Dimensionality | Three |
| Locality | Non-local |
Space is relational and finite — it is the communal territory in which relationships of mutual obligation and care are enacted. Space is flat, local, and three-dimensional as experienced, but its meaning is constituted by the web of social relationships that inhabit it. The village, the homestead, the gathering place have moral and spiritual significance beyond their physical dimensions.
III. Matter
| Extent | Finite |
| Ontological Status | Relational |
| Conservation | Conserved |
| Dimensionality | Three |
| Locality | Non-local |
Matter is relational and finite — it is the shared material basis of communal life: land, food, shelter, tools. Matter is conserved through communal stewardship and shared use. It is local because material resources are always situated in particular places and distributed through particular relationships. "I am because we are" (Ubuntu) means that material wellbeing is always communal, never individual.
IV. Observer
| Time Instance | Multiple |
| Space Instance | Single |
| Extent of Knowledge | Immediate |
| Retainment of Knowledge | Total |
| Physicality | Both |
| Agency | Active |
| Number | Plural |
V. Energy
Finite and substantival — vital force (Tempels' "force vitale") is real and fundamental; it is the animating power that flows through all beings and binds the community together. Conservation: Conserved — vital force is neither created nor destroyed but circulates among persons, ancestors, and nature; communal rituals maintain and direct its flow. Dispersibility: Reversible — when vital force is diminished through illness, social disruption, or moral failure, it can be restored through healing rituals, communal reconciliation, and renewed right relationship with ancestors.
VI. Information
Information is communal and relational — knowledge exists in the web of relationships ('I am because we are'). No individual possesses information in isolation. Information is relational because it is defined by communal bonds. It is conserved because communal knowledge is passed down through generations. It is continuous because the community's relational web is a living, seamless whole.