AddThis
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
The South African concept of Ubuntu is a beautiful ideology that translates to "What is in me, is in you, what is in you, is in me". It is the opposite of decartes "I think therefore I am", and is a place to stand for humanity, for community and for the world. Ubutnu appears and reappears again and again, both in Africa and around the world. We heard the same thing in New Zealand amongst the Maori, I am therefore I belong. This idea that we exist in community, we exist in relation. Similar to the Buddhist idea of interbeing.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu defines Ubuntu as my humanness inextricably bound up in yours. "Such a person" he says, "Does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that they in a greater whole, and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they were less than who they are." He concludes, "What dehumanizes you, inexorably dehumanizes me. And what elevates you, elevates me."
go to top