Ubuntu
A woman I see often at the gym is an amazing woman of whom I am in awe. I know her only as a person I see at the gym and as a parent of, if I am correct, eight children. Yikes. Yet, she makes time for exercise and is always or seemingly always in a positive mood without communicating a Pollyanna unrealistic attitude. She just came up to me at Panera’s to say hello. It turns out she is also a writer. I told her about the writer’s circle and gave her my email and phone information so that she and I can share more. She said about our connection, “It is a God thing.” Indeed, whether we call it a God thing or a principle of the universe that we would be drawn to each other, there is a seeming synchronicity in our life journey. I gathered from what she has previously shared, she is also a very spiritual woman. I do experience her that way.
Earlier I had been listening to a Ted Talk by Boyd Varty. His talk is entitled: “What I learned from Nelson Mandela.” When Mr. Mandela got out of prison he came to live with Boyd’s family. Boyd was then nine years old. Later he would experience other very wise people who would teach him even more about the African concept of Ubuntu. Wikipedia defines ubntu as:
Ubuntu UBUNTU means "I am because of who we are" (/ʊˈbuːntʊ/ uu-boon-tuu; Zulu pronunciation: [ùɓúntʼú])[1][2] is a Nguni Bantu term roughly translating to "human kindness."[dubious – discuss] It is an idea from the Southern African region which means literally "human-ness", and is often translated as "humanity towards others", but is often used in a more philosophical sense to mean "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity."
In Southern Africa, it has come to be used as a term for a kind of humanist philosophy, ethic or ideology, also known as Ubuntuism or Hunhuism (the latter after the corresponding Shona term) propagated in the Africanisation (transition to majority rule) process of these countries during the 1980s and 1990s.
It was not only men like Nelson Mandela and other Africans who taught him about Ubuntu and animals such as the elephant but also his friend and teacher named Elvis who had “been born with very badly deformed back legs and pelvis” also taught him about Ubuntu. He would observe the other elephants helping Elvis. He says
“What Elvis and the herd taught me caused me to expand my definition of Ubuntu, and I believe that in the cathedral of the wild, we get to see the most beautiful parts of ourselves reflected back at us. And it is not only through other people that we get to experience our humanity but through all the creatures that live on this planet. If Africa has a gift to share, it's a gift of a more collective society. And while it's true that Ubuntu is an African idea, what I see is the essence of that value being invented here.”
Even though the word Ubuntu is new to me, the concept is not new. It is not, however, a concept I learned mainly from my European ancestors. It is a concept to which I was first introduced by my favorite aunt and uncle – Harold and Pleasie. Some readers will recognize their names from my previous mention of them. They were these amazing people who seemed to treat everyone, even children, as people deserving of love and respect. I spent a lot of time at their house and not once did I experience punishment. The emphasis was always on teaching and on WE. Aunt Pleasie was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian whose family had been part of the underground railroad. Later in the Tlingit community of Hoonah, I would again be introduced to another concept of community by my teachers - my mentors – David and Mamie. They said to my wife and me when we arrived on the island, “Your son (then 18 months or so) has no grandparents close. We will be his grandparents.” Then David said to me, a then 31-year-old man, “And you, I will teach to be a man.” David accurately assumed that at age 31 I could know nothing about being a man. Every day thereafter I would go sit with him while he carved (he was a wood carver who had pieces in London and DC museums) and told me stories illustrating what it means to be man and what it meant to be part of a WE.
Still later, as a counselor working for/with people with addictions, I would be introduced to the amazing 12-step WE recovery programs of AA, NA, and OA as well as other recovery programs which used the steps introduced by Bill W. and Dr. Bob.
It is interesting that in studying philosophy at the University of Maryland, I would be introduced to concepts such as Rene Descartes’s “I think therefore I am.” I recall many exciting opportunities to challenge my thinking about metaphysics, epistemology, and other areas of philosophy but I do not recall being introduced to any concepts even close to that of Ubuntu. Even later when I completed my master’s degree at Princeton Theological Seminary, I did not “hear” or experience a sense of the WE which I understood to be the basic component of the theology of the teachings attributed to Jesus.
Although many of we humans may give lip service to the interconnectedness of all of creation, it seems as if we continue to take great pride in being a group of individuals who may “help” each other but who are independent and self-sufficient. It is interesting to think of what changes in behavior might occur if we embraced the concept of WE. No longer would be wage war, have battles over immigration while simultaneously using “the other” for cheap labor, or deny health coverage to anyone. We would have to acknowledge that in waging war, we are committing suicide; in blanketing immigrants as undesirables, we would be denying our own citizenship; in denying universal health coverage, we would be denying health coverage to ourselves and our children. If there were no us and them we would all be a us or all be a them. There is no I; there is only a we. When Jesus said that when you harm the least of them you harm me; this is what he was saying. Many Africans knew this long before they ever heard of this Jesus fellow. Is it possible that we all knew this at one time?
Michael Burke in writing about Desmond Tutu, says in Church Publishing, Inc. 2009-Religion:
As defined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.
We have heard a version of this previously. We may need to hear it many more times in many different languages and versions before we can wash our blood of the contaminants which have invaded it – the contaminant of the I which denies the we. Perhaps!
Written February 3, 2016
A woman I see often at the gym is an amazing woman of whom I am in awe. I know her only as a person I see at the gym and as a parent of, if I am correct, eight children. Yikes. Yet, she makes time for exercise and is always or seemingly always in a positive mood without communicating a Pollyanna unrealistic attitude. She just came up to me at Panera’s to say hello. It turns out she is also a writer. I told her about the writer’s circle and gave her my email and phone information so that she and I can share more. She said about our connection, “It is a God thing.” Indeed, whether we call it a God thing or a principle of the universe that we would be drawn to each other, there is a seeming synchronicity in our life journey. I gathered from what she has previously shared, she is also a very spiritual woman. I do experience her that way.
Earlier I had been listening to a Ted Talk by Boyd Varty. His talk is entitled: “What I learned from Nelson Mandela.” When Mr. Mandela got out of prison he came to live with Boyd’s family. Boyd was then nine years old. Later he would experience other very wise people who would teach him even more about the African concept of Ubuntu. Wikipedia defines ubntu as:
Ubuntu UBUNTU means "I am because of who we are" (/ʊˈbuːntʊ/ uu-boon-tuu; Zulu pronunciation: [ùɓúntʼú])[1][2] is a Nguni Bantu term roughly translating to "human kindness."[dubious – discuss] It is an idea from the Southern African region which means literally "human-ness", and is often translated as "humanity towards others", but is often used in a more philosophical sense to mean "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity."
In Southern Africa, it has come to be used as a term for a kind of humanist philosophy, ethic or ideology, also known as Ubuntuism or Hunhuism (the latter after the corresponding Shona term) propagated in the Africanisation (transition to majority rule) process of these countries during the 1980s and 1990s.
It was not only men like Nelson Mandela and other Africans who taught him about Ubuntu and animals such as the elephant but also his friend and teacher named Elvis who had “been born with very badly deformed back legs and pelvis” also taught him about Ubuntu. He would observe the other elephants helping Elvis. He says
“What Elvis and the herd taught me caused me to expand my definition of Ubuntu, and I believe that in the cathedral of the wild, we get to see the most beautiful parts of ourselves reflected back at us. And it is not only through other people that we get to experience our humanity but through all the creatures that live on this planet. If Africa has a gift to share, it's a gift of a more collective society. And while it's true that Ubuntu is an African idea, what I see is the essence of that value being invented here.”
Even though the word Ubuntu is new to me, the concept is not new. It is not, however, a concept I learned mainly from my European ancestors. It is a concept to which I was first introduced by my favorite aunt and uncle – Harold and Pleasie. Some readers will recognize their names from my previous mention of them. They were these amazing people who seemed to treat everyone, even children, as people deserving of love and respect. I spent a lot of time at their house and not once did I experience punishment. The emphasis was always on teaching and on WE. Aunt Pleasie was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian whose family had been part of the underground railroad. Later in the Tlingit community of Hoonah, I would again be introduced to another concept of community by my teachers - my mentors – David and Mamie. They said to my wife and me when we arrived on the island, “Your son (then 18 months or so) has no grandparents close. We will be his grandparents.” Then David said to me, a then 31-year-old man, “And you, I will teach to be a man.” David accurately assumed that at age 31 I could know nothing about being a man. Every day thereafter I would go sit with him while he carved (he was a wood carver who had pieces in London and DC museums) and told me stories illustrating what it means to be man and what it meant to be part of a WE.
Still later, as a counselor working for/with people with addictions, I would be introduced to the amazing 12-step WE recovery programs of AA, NA, and OA as well as other recovery programs which used the steps introduced by Bill W. and Dr. Bob.
It is interesting that in studying philosophy at the University of Maryland, I would be introduced to concepts such as Rene Descartes’s “I think therefore I am.” I recall many exciting opportunities to challenge my thinking about metaphysics, epistemology, and other areas of philosophy but I do not recall being introduced to any concepts even close to that of Ubuntu. Even later when I completed my master’s degree at Princeton Theological Seminary, I did not “hear” or experience a sense of the WE which I understood to be the basic component of the theology of the teachings attributed to Jesus.
Although many of we humans may give lip service to the interconnectedness of all of creation, it seems as if we continue to take great pride in being a group of individuals who may “help” each other but who are independent and self-sufficient. It is interesting to think of what changes in behavior might occur if we embraced the concept of WE. No longer would be wage war, have battles over immigration while simultaneously using “the other” for cheap labor, or deny health coverage to anyone. We would have to acknowledge that in waging war, we are committing suicide; in blanketing immigrants as undesirables, we would be denying our own citizenship; in denying universal health coverage, we would be denying health coverage to ourselves and our children. If there were no us and them we would all be a us or all be a them. There is no I; there is only a we. When Jesus said that when you harm the least of them you harm me; this is what he was saying. Many Africans knew this long before they ever heard of this Jesus fellow. Is it possible that we all knew this at one time?
Michael Burke in writing about Desmond Tutu, says in Church Publishing, Inc. 2009-Religion:
As defined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.
We have heard a version of this previously. We may need to hear it many more times in many different languages and versions before we can wash our blood of the contaminants which have invaded it – the contaminant of the I which denies the we. Perhaps!
Written February 3, 2016
RSS Feed