Reimagining Human Flourishing in South Africa

On 30 September 2026, North-West University's Vanderbijlpark Campus hosted a one-day colloquium, Reimagining Human Flourishing: Capabilities, Ubuntu and Decolonisation in South Africa. The event brought together three traditions of thought: the capability approach, the philosophy of Ubuntu, and decolonial scholarship. The aim was to ask how we understand progress and well-being in the South African context.

I opened the programme by arguing for locally grounded approaches rather than imported solutions. The keynote, by Prof Morgan Ndlovu of the University of Johannesburg, argued that knowledge is never neutral. It also argued that meaningful transformation means rethinking the knowledge systems behind our institutions, not only adjusting the institutions. Prof Bee Ngwenya moderated the panel discussions. Participants then worked in groups on gender, knowledge systems, collective flourishing, institutional transformation and communities of practice, and proposed directions for policy and joint research.

NWU News has published a full account of the discussions: Read the article here.