Sawubona-a Zulu word that means -greetings, I see you. My name is Mbali, Zulu for the flower. I would like to begin by trying to explain the deep meaning of Ubuntu and what I hope this blog will offer. Ubuntu is a South African word that speaks to the very essence of being human. It is in its complexity quite simple and beautiful, here are some explanations from different sources I found interesting.
Wikepedia: Ubuntu, an ethic or humanist philosophy often summarised as humanity towards others.
Wikepedia: Ubuntu, an ethic or humanist philosophy often summarised as humanity towards others.
Buntu Mfenyana, a Johannesburg sociolinguist, says that to understand the full meaning of the word ubuntu one must first separate the prefix ubu -from the root -ntu.
"Ntu is an an ancestor who got human society going. He gave us our way of life as human beings. It is a communal way of life which says that society must be run for the sake of all. This requires cooperation, sharing and charity. There should be no widows or orphans left alone-they all belong to someone. If a man does not have a cow, then give him a cow to milk. There should be no ohlelekileyo or deprived person.
Ubu refers to the abstract. So ubuntu is the quality of being human. It is the quality, or the behaviuor, of ntu society, that is, sharing, charitableness, cooperation. It is this quality which distinguishes a human creature from an animal or a spirit. When you do something that is not humane then you are being like an animal.
Taken from Sash Magazine February 1986 p.2
Rev. Desmond Tutu is fond of quoting the word, he says:
It is to say "my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours. A person is a person through other persons. I am human because I belong. I partipate, I share. I am available, open and affirming of others. A person with Ubuntu does not feel threatened that others are able, are good, they are self assured knowing that they belong in a greater whole"
They suffer when others suffer and are humiliated when others are oppressed or treated unjustly.
Martin luther King said it another way, " In a sense all of life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be"
It is to say "my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours. A person is a person through other persons. I am human because I belong. I partipate, I share. I am available, open and affirming of others. A person with Ubuntu does not feel threatened that others are able, are good, they are self assured knowing that they belong in a greater whole"
They suffer when others suffer and are humiliated when others are oppressed or treated unjustly.
Martin luther King said it another way, " In a sense all of life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be"
When it was not popular or even encouraged among black South Africans Steve Biko took a stand for dignity, for humanity, for ubuntu . His struggle was for "humaness."
Today in a meeting I witnessed a group of people who gather together because their common purpose is the wellbeing of homeless young adults -humanity towards others. Ubuntu
This blog is dedicated to all children, brothers, sisters and elders who continue to live in dire poverty in South Africa long after apartheid is over. Who have survived and continue to survive in honor of the strength -fire, they have inherited from the ancestors who came before them, without whom we would not be here.
Hamba Kahle! (Zulu for -Go well)
Today in a meeting I witnessed a group of people who gather together because their common purpose is the wellbeing of homeless young adults -humanity towards others. Ubuntu
This blog is dedicated to all children, brothers, sisters and elders who continue to live in dire poverty in South Africa long after apartheid is over. Who have survived and continue to survive in honor of the strength -fire, they have inherited from the ancestors who came before them, without whom we would not be here.
Hamba Kahle! (Zulu for -Go well)
