On 24 October 2023, Professor James Ogude, the director of the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship at the Univeristy of Pretoria, delivered a keynote address at the 21st Corporate Responsibility Annual Conference. The conference was hosted by the Starvos Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre (SNFCC) in Athens, Greece. 

Professor Ogude's address was titled "Societal prosperity and natural environment: The Ubuntu philosophy", and he elaborated on the importance of Ubuntu for a world that wants to build a sustainable future to hand down to future generations. The full programme for the event is available here.

Through this philosophy, individuality must serve the interests of society and the whole, there must be responsibility for the actions of the individual, while the status of the individual extends to non-human beings as well. As Professor Ogude pointed out, individuality is a relatively recent concept that has “locked” humanity into a predatory relationship with the environment without considering the consequences.

Professor Ogude provided a few remarks on his address in the brief video clip below, and a more detailed overview of his address is avaliable on the conference website: