This article describes experiences of an adult educator (Kofi Quan-Baffour) at the University of South Africa, 1995 to 2009, teaching tutorial classes to train teachers who, in turn, would offer adult literacy classes/sessions (in relation to adult basic education and training [ABET] policies initiated post-1994). The article aims to make a contribution to the literature on how literacy education can in practice activate a potential for the "humanization" of economic and social life. In the context of South Africa, we consider practices for nurturing a variant of humanism called Ubuntu. As co-authors, we use a narrative inquiry approach, drawing on exemplars that arose in dialogue, to report on our joint deliberations on the import of Kofi's attempts to keep an Ubuntu spirit alive in the various learning settings with the trainees. Our reflective exercise took place via "debriefing sessions" in 2012, where we focused on the offshoots of literacy education for Ubuntu-informed cooperative work in community business enterprises. We point to some cooperative enterprises (a restaurant, a farming enterprise, and a sewing business), which we suggest incorporate an Ubuntu-style approach to human relationships based on people recognizing (and living) their mutual connectedness. We concentrate on what it may mean to be involved in basic adult education processes geared toward generating an improvement in people's lives economically and socially. We argue that this co-constructed notion of Ubuntism in the context of adult education practices is relevant for other geographical contexts where practitioners hope to accomplish humanistic goals.