When Rotary Came Home: How Ubuntu is Shaping a New Era of Service in Africa
By Rtn Sylvia Nankya
At the Rotary Foundation Dinner in Kampala, the soft hum of conversation faded the moment Past District Governor Tusu rose to speak. Newly appointed as a Trustee of The Rotary Foundation, he carried with him not just a title, but a perspective that seemed to anchor every Rotarian in the room: Rotary’s future, he said, lies in recognising that its values were never foreign to Africa. In fact, they were born here.
“Rotary didn’t come to Africa,” he told the audience. “It came home.” It was a bold statement, delivered with the calm certainty of someone who has lived long enough to see ideals evolve, cultures shift, and communities rediscover themselves. But as he expanded on the thought, the room understood exactly what he meant.
Ubuntu, the African philosophy that “I am because you are”, was the lens through which Tusu framed Rotary’s purpose. Long before Rotary clubs dotted the continent, long before service projects and global grants, African societies were bound by shared responsibility and collective belonging. Communities rose and fell together, guided by the belief that humanity is interconnected.
“Across our tribes, languages and geographies, we are one continental culture,” Tusu said. “Rotary mirrors what Africa has always been: a family bound by care, unity, and mutual uplift.”
In that moment, Rotary’s motto of Service Above Self didn’t feel imported or adopted; it felt instinctive, something that had always existed in the African bloodstream.
The world today, he noted, is more unstable than ever before. Conflicts are flaring across continents, inequalities are deepening, and communities are losing trust in each other. To this, he added, Rotary must not merely observe these crises, but intervene.
World understanding, goodwill, and peace, the three Rotarian pillars, aren’t abstract ideals. They are tools. And Africa, he argued, is uniquely positioned to wield them. Ubuntu teaches empathy. Rotary applies it. Ubuntu teaches unity. Rotary organises it. Ubuntu teaches responsibility. Rotary operationalises it. The synergy, he said, is Africa’s gift and Africa’s moment.
Tusu spoke passionately about the transformation he has witnessed in Rotaract Clubs: clubs that once relied on Rotary for support are now outpacing some Rotary clubs in project impact and Foundation giving. He framed this as more than progress; it is cultural continuity. Youth leading from the front, elders learning in return. “Reverse mentoring,” he called it, where the wisdom of age meets the clarity of fresh vision. It is, again, Ubuntu. Community teaching itself. Each member carries the other.
As the evening wore on, Tusu’s reflections took on a quiet, almost poetic rhythm. Rotary, he said, is not just a service organisation. It is a way of life, one that asks members to bring action, accountability, and compassion into their personal lives, businesses, and communities. And for Africa, he believes this way of life is not new. It is rediscovered. “We have forgotten who we are for too long,” he said softly. “Rotary came to remind us.”
Tusu closed with a conviction that felt both hopeful and urgent: if Africans fuse Rotary’s ideals with the cultural heartbeat of Ubuntu, they can reshape the continent’s future, and influence the world’s.
A reminder that Africans were Rotarians in spirit long before Rotary formally arrived. A reminder that compassion is not charity here, it is culture. And a reminder that Africa’s greatest contribution to Rotary may not be money or membership, but the moral clarity of Ubuntu itself.
As guests rose to applaud, one felt that Tusu had not simply addressed Rotarians. He had re-rooted them, grounding their modern mission in the ancient wisdom of a continent that has always known how to care.
The writer is the TRF Director of the Rotary Club of Kampala-Naalya