Ubuntu = part of the Zulu phrase “ubuntu ngumuntu ngabantu,” I am, because you are
- “A person is a person through other persons” — Archbishop Desmond Tutu
At the apartheid museum, I learned about the principle of ubuntu in the fight against apartheid. Both ubuntu and apartheid are opposing ideologies; the former recognizes a responsibility we have to treating everyone with the dignity and love we deserve on the basis of what connects us, which is our humanity, while the latter sows seeds of division based on racial segregation and white supremacy.
When I learned about both the Defiance and Freedom Charter campaigns at the museum, I was thinking of ubuntu. Both campaigns encouraged non-racialism, and fostered partnerships between the ANC and many other South African liberation organizations, including the South African Indian Congress. Further, both campaigns were built on camaraderie of thought, not race. If you believed in a South Africa without apartheid, you were integrated into the movement. To be part of this movement, though, so much selflessness and forward-thinking was required. With rampant risk of violence and political imprisonment, so many leaders and activists in the fight against apartheid were not thinking about themselves, but about the collective they were fighting for. For this reason, many were willing to die for the movement that stood for a liberated South Africa. A person is a person through other people — so who would you be if you survived, but the movement did not?
During our tour of the constitutional court, the amazing and wonderful Lwando Xaso mentioned ubuntu. She said that ubuntu has become increasingly important in South African jurisprudence. Upon doing some research, I learned that ubuntu is also recognized as a constitutional value in South Africa. For instance, Lwando told us a story of the court deciding not to make a ruling in a case between a landlord and their tenants — instead, the court encouraged ‘meaningful engagement’ between the two through a conversation. I was struck by how the court actively promotes a partnership between the legal system and South African citizens — bringing itself eye-level with its constituents, using a “ribbon of light” as a window to be reminded of the people they are meant to serve, decorating its chamber with a flag made by South African women — it seemed to be designed with ubuntu in mind.
A couple of days ago, we went to the Rosebank Sunday Market, and I saw this sign:
I have so enjoyed being in this beautiful country where its citizens encourage this interconnectedness in each other, and I have even felt brought into the fold! The kindness of strangers, the willingness of people to share their stories with us, the hospitality we have been granted. I am reminded of a quote I read at the apartheid museum, in the Desmond Tutu exhibit:
“Africa has a gift for the world, the gift of saying that the individualism of the West is debilitating. The world is going to have to learn the fundamental lesson that we are made for harmony, for interdependence” — Archbishop Desmond Tutu
I am trying to challenge myself to integrate ubuntu into my own personal philosophy. Now, maybe if ubuntu were Jeanine’s leading ideology in Divergent…
Beautiful and thought-provoking reflection!!