The power of “we”

Today, volunteers are gathering at Johannesburg's Wanderers Stadium to pack 5,000 food hampers for vulnerable households.

The initiative marks the beginning of Nelson Mandela International Day, observed annually on 18 July, when people around the world are encouraged to dedicate 67 minutes to serving their communities, one for each year Mandela devoted to public service and the struggle against apartheid.

Sixty-seven minutes will not solve poverty. That is precisely the point.

Mandela Day rests on a simple proposition: responsibility does not begin only when governments legislate, institutions reform or budgets are approved. It begins when individuals recognise that their own wellbeing is inseparable from that of others.

Nelson Mandela understood this better than most.

He spent 27 years in prison for opposing apartheid, South Africa's system of legally enforced racial segregation. When he was released in 1990, many feared the country would descend into retribution. Instead, he chose reconciliation. Four years later, South Africa held its first democratic elections, demonstrating that institutions are strongest not when they erase history, but when they find the courage to move beyond it.

Behind that choice lay an idea far older than modern politics.

Ubuntu.

Often translated as "I am because we are," the phrase has become familiar around the world. Yet its deeper meaning is frequently overlooked. Ubuntu is not simply an appeal to kindness. It is a philosophy of interdependence. It suggests that individual success cannot be separated from the wellbeing of the community.

It is also far from unique.

Across cultures and centuries, thinkers have reached remarkably similar conclusions. Aristotle described human beings as social by nature. Khalil Gibran reflected throughout The Prophet on the relationship between the individual and the whole, arguing that fulfilment is found not in isolation but in connection. Different civilisations have often arrived at the same insight through different languages.

In many ways, Ubuntu is also a theory of institutions.

This presents an interesting contrast with the modern world.

Universities rank students. Researchers count citations. Businesses measure individual performance. Governments evaluate productivity.

We have become exceptionally good at measuring personal achievement.

The challenge is that the problems shaping this century refuse to be solved individually.

Climate change is not only environmental science. Artificial intelligence is not only computer science. Public health is not only medicine. Food security is not only agriculture.

Every defining challenge now sits at the intersection of disciplines.

That reality is quietly transforming higher education.

The universities making the greatest impact are increasingly those that encourage engineers to work alongside philosophers, business students alongside environmental scientists, designers alongside physicians, educators alongside data scientists. Their graduates are learning not simply to master a discipline, but to collaborate across them.

In that sense, interdisciplinary education is more than an academic trend. It is an institutional expression of Ubuntu.

Progress depends not only on what each individual knows, but on what becomes possible when different forms of knowledge meet.

History reminds us that universities were founded on precisely this idea.

The word universitas did not originally describe a campus or a collection of buildings. In medieval Europe, it referred to a community of scholars united by a common purpose. Knowledge was understood not as an individual possession but as something created collectively through debate, disagreement and shared inquiry.

Perhaps we have become better at measuring the parts than the whole.

The timing feels significant.

The world is now home to more than 250 million students enrolled in higher education. More than 70% of scientific publications are now internationally co-authored, reflecting a steady shift towards collaboration across institutions, countries and disciplines. The most significant discoveries increasingly emerge where different perspectives intersect.

Knowledge has never been more connected. Yet many of the systems used to reward it remain remarkably individual. There is nothing inherently wrong with recognising individual excellence.

Progress has always depended on people willing to challenge accepted wisdom, imagine something better and pursue it relentlessly. Universities should celebrate exceptional scholars. Businesses should reward outstanding performance. Merit matters.

But excellence rarely emerges in isolation.

Every discovery has mentors behind it. Every entrepreneur depends on teams.

Every breakthrough increasingly relies on people trained to think beyond the boundaries of a single discipline.

The institutions that endure are those that create the conditions for these encounters to happen again and again.

Recognition belongs to the individual. Achievement, more often than we admit, belongs to the village.

Mandela understood that instinctively.

His greatest achievement was not simply leading South Africa through political transition. It was helping build institutions capable of carrying that transition forward long after his presidency ended.

That distinction matters.

The defining challenges of this century, from artificial intelligence and climate resilience to demographic change and global health, cannot be solved by individuals acting alone. They demand cooperation across disciplines, sectors and generations.

Perhaps that is why Mandela Day asks for only 67 minutes.

Large problems often leave people feeling powerless. Small acts remind us that institutions are built in increments.

Cultures emerge from repeated behaviours. Communities are strengthened one decision at a time.

The food hampers packed in Johannesburg today will eventually be distributed.

The ceremonies will end. The headlines will move on.

Ideas tend to travel more slowly. They also tend to last longer.

Perhaps that is the enduring lesson of Ubuntu.

The strongest institutions recognise talent in all its forms.

Their greatest achievement is creating the conditions in which talented individuals accomplish more together than any could alone.