Please Pass The Ubuntu

I haven't uploaded my pictures from last weekend yet (I'll do it this weekend) but I discovered a new word I'd like to pass on: UBUNTU. A Bantu word pronounced oo-boon-too, Ubuntu is an African philosophy so wise that it, in my opinion, could solve all the social problems in the world if people practiced it. It is not unique; other philosophies as well as the Baha'i Faith promote the concept of ubuntu.

Ubuntu offers us an understanding of ourselves in relation to the world. According to ubuntu, there exists a common bond between us all and it is through this bond, through our interaction with our fellow human beings, that we discover our own human qualities. Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu in Zulu means that a person is a person through (other) persons. We affirm our humanity when we acknowledge that of others.

We need a word like this in the West. Actually we should just bring 'ubuntu' into our language like we do so easily with other new words. Harder will be bringing in the concept... and practicing it.

Nelson Mandela:


The South African Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu describes Ubuntu:  "It is the essence of being human. It speaks of the fact that my humanity is caught up and is inextricably bound up in yours. I am human because I belong. It speaks about wholeness, it speaks about compassion. A person with Ubuntu is welcoming, hospitable, warm and generous, willing to share. Such people are open and available to others, willing to be vulnerable, affirming of others, do not feel threatened that others are able and good, for they have a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that they belong in a greater whole. They know that they are diminished when others are humiliated, diminished when others are oppressed, diminished when others are treated as if they were less than who they are. The quality of Ubuntu gives people resilience, enabling them to survive and emerge still human despite all efforts to dehumanize them."

As I said above, I think this word needs to become part of the American vocabulary, and not as an operating system. Americans in their great pride and strength value the individual more than the group. This has led to our position as "the greatest nation on the planet" and will lead to our downfall as well. We can no longer behave as if we are not part of a larger group, as if we do not depend on others, as if we can do our own thing without consideration of the whole group to which we belong.