the Zulu maxim umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, that is, “a person is a person through other persons.” The essence of this African aphorism is the understanding that we are contingent beings. In our discussion of mission and race in Africa, we would like to posit the idea of an Ubuntu kenosis missiology as a response to the normative gaze engineered by the Enlightenment philosophy in its reification of White superiority as a universal norm.
