Dr. Gnaka
Lagoke

Dr. Gnaka Lagoke is an Associate Professor of History and Chair of the Pan-Africana Studies Department at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

He is a global leader and advocate for Ubuntu philosophy, which emphasizes collective human dignity, solidarity and shared prosperity. He uses Ubuntu as a foundational epistemological framework for rethinking global governance and challenging Western-centric models of geopolitics, economics, international development and international law.

In the fields of international law and human rights, Dr. Lagoke advocates for an Ubuntu-based African jurisprudence. He promotes a new vision of Pan-Africanism and Africa’s integrated development, both rooted in Ubuntu philosophy. He also advocates for a broader application of Ubuntu to reparations. While recognizing its historic use by Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu to advance reconciliation and forgiveness in South Africa, Dr. Lagoke argues that Ubuntu should also serve as a radical ethical mandate for global reparations.

Through leadership roles—including serving as President of the Scientific Committee for the Ninth Pan-African Congress—Dr. Lagoke works to embed Ubuntu-centered paradigms into policy frameworks for African regional governance and international diplomacy.

At the Accra conferences on reparations in 2023 and 2026, and at the public diplomacy summit held in Addis Ababa at the end of July 2026, he engaged stakeholders on the significance of Ubuntu in discussions of Pan-Africanism, reparations and public diplomacy.