The Spirit of Ubuntu
This is a story that has been shared online in various sites. The version below seems to be the most complete one. I am sharing this story as my very first blog because it is the perfect way for me to introduce you to a key African concept I will be exploring with you moving forward.
In some comments I read over the net, I saw that while many people praised the outcome, others had doubt about whether the story was real or just another fictional story created to make people feel good. Whether it is a “real” story or not, it accurately represents what many children who grew up in Africa have been taught about life. We value togetherness and collaboration and actively practice it. We believe in sharing with one another. It is true that modern life and “globalisation” has affected our traditional teachings and the way Africans live their lives today, but our foundational values are still true and their practice is still alive in many places.
This story is about true collaboration. This is the mindset I want you to understand, and to consider in your own life. Enjoy the story. I welcome your comments.
At the Festival of Peace, in Florianopolis, South Brazil, the journalist and philosopher Lia Diskin related a beautiful and touching story of a tribe in Africa she called Ubuntu.
She explained how an anthropologist had been studying the habits and customs of this tribe, and when he finished his work, had to wait for transportation that would take him to the airport to return home. He’d always been surrounded by the children of the tribe, so to help pass the time before he left, he proposed a game for the children to play.
He’d bought lots of candy and sweets in the city, so he put everything in a basket with a beautiful ribbon attached. He placed it under a solitary tree, and then he called the kids together. He drew a line on the ground and explained that they should wait behind the line for his signal. And that when he said “Go!” they should rush over to the basket, and the first to arrive there would win all the candies.
When he said “Go!” they all unexpectedly held each other’s hands and ran off towards the tree as a group. Once there, they simply shared the candy with each other and happily ate it.
The anthropologist was very surprised. He asked them why they had all gone together, especially if the first one to arrive at the tree could have won everything in the basket – all the sweets.
A young girl simply replied: “How can one of us be happy if all the others are sad?”
The anthropologist was dumbfounded! For months and months he’d been studying the tribe, yet it was only now that he really understood their true essence…
“Africans have a thing called ubuntu. It is about the essence of being human, it is part of the gift that Africa will give the world. It embraces hospitality, caring about others, being willing to go the extra mile for the sake of another. We believe that a person is a person through other persons, that my humanity is caught up, bound up, inextricably, with yours. When I dehumanize you, I inexorably dehumanize myself. The solitary human being is a contradiction in terms. Therefore you seek to work for the common good because your humanity comes into its own in community, in belonging.” — Archbishop Desmond Tutu
NOTE: Ubuntu (oo-boon-too, n.) means, “I am because we are.” Ubuntu is a Zulu or Xhosa word, and a traditional African concept. It’s a term for humaneness, for caring, sharing and being in harmony with all of creation, the theme of our newly arrived Age of Aquarius. (Kind of makes you think, doesn’t it?)
Source: “This is the Age of Ubuntu” from harisingh.com. While the veracity of this story is unknown, the term itself is quite real.
Can you imagine living your own life with this mindset? Can you imagine everyone else around you having the same mindset? If that were the case, is there anything that we could NOT accomplish together? Some food for thoughts… I welcome your comments.
Until next time… STAY CONNECTED.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” ~ African Proverb
Jacky A. Yenga
Coming from the actual african country where this word originated (South Africa) I can tell you that Ubuntu is very high in the people’s belief system. For example, if you have a car, you HAVE TO lock it to avoid other people letting you “share” it with them. Same goes for everything in your house, if you don’t buy the best security possible you will “share” everything you own with other people. I can continue, but you get the point.
Ubuntu in South Africa is an idiology used to excuse crime, to praise stupidity (or at least a lack of capitalism) and to ultimately bend justice into the morphed picture it has today.
You are right in stating that Ubuntu (loosely) means I am happy beacause others are happy, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that it extends into the terrain of “I suffer, so others should suffer with me”
Good point, and fair enough!
haha yeah i much prefer america where you are shot when you were in the vicinity of a crime.
and def nobody in america EVER tries to steal things, bc they don’t have ubuntu. what kind of fresh hell did you crawl out of my dude
It’s just a proposal of a right idea, in my opinion, towards which the world needs to move.
And, btw, in my opinion, it’s not about the existing system/s
Please excuse “Tiny Ford” – he knows nothing about Ubuntu, and certainly his views do not represent what the majority of peace loving South Africans believe. Ubuntu IS a very beautiful and fundamental humane philosophy, which has much to teach the world. Attributing crime to ubuntu, is disingenous and ridiculous, at best. And quite possibly, simply racist.
Thanks Jonny.
“.. but it shouldn’t be forgotten that it extends into the terrain of ‘I suffer, so others should suffer with me'”
But why we don’t say “I’m sad because others are sad.”
I think in this context “I” is the result of “we”
And doesn’t mean the one who suffer has right to ask the others for helping but that one will not be ignored from the others too.
Ubuntu extends to other languages such as Ndebeles from Zimbabwe and it has nothing to do with crime. In the true spirit of ubuntu, there would be equal division of resources, where everyone has a fair chance and equal access to opportunities. On the contrary, in South Africa, the apartheid/ colonizer/slave master descendants drive the economy leaving the native people in poverty. So let’s not butcher and misinterpret ubuntu without examining the root of crime and history, which broke and bastardized the concepts of ubuntu.
Thank you so much for such an excellent clarification Sima!
I loved the story, whether true or not. These days when people tend to be selfish, this can go a long way to instil value of sharing and caring in kids.
Imagine the kind of world we’d have if the spirit of Unbuntu was the dominant paradigm. It can happen, but only if enough people see it and claim it as their personal responsibility. The choice is ours. The time is now.
I so agree with your words! Thank you for your wise comment.
This beautiful story reveals two entirely different modes of being. On the one hand, there is the western and American mode of being which is predominantly ego-driven as can be seen from the way the anthropologist sets up the game: winner-takes-all. For someone to win, there must be losers. On the other hand, the way the children respond to the win-lose game shows an African philosophy rooted in the spirit of collaboration. It is rather unfortunate and tragic that the dehumanizing winner-takes-all mode of being has been imposed on the rest of the world as a result of military, economic, and cultural imperialism.
Great comment Anas. Thank you!
I admire the story to the stage of googling it to get the full highlight, that showed that they people of Zulu have their own philosophers that generated this thought among the younger generation, a form of perception was build, but I may not agree with the story to be real, because of many things I may not like to start expanding…
Wow, i wish people all over the world will see things the its been seen in the story, the world would have been a better place. Tha reminds me of the musketeers, All for one and One for all.
Nice piece.
It is the positive side of humanity, called caring, loving, helping supporting one another. We are so floaded with negativity and real life death murder stealing cheating that we stop seeing the the good among humans.
In July 2017 I got to such a frustrated state of Mind seeing all the bad news in SA so I started a FB page called POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS IN SA to show the good side as well. Currently we have over 10500 members and climbing steadily. Members are in over 80 countries already. It is a controlled page where only Admin can add real life stories and no negativity is allowed. Only constructive responses.
After reading this article I am going to stay today a new page to articulate the Ubuntu consept. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing, and thank you for what you do to contribute to the creation of a more positive world. Africa truly has a beautiful culture that is healing for the human soul, and that beauty is available to anyone who seeks it. I wish you all the best with Positive Relationships in SA!
Hi Jacky.
Africa is the place to be whether the west likes it or not. Ubuntu will simply cause Cain not to kill Abel again.
Hahaha! Interesting comment Kolle.
It hurts me to see the world being so demanding on us and we forget about being there for each other in love and unity.
The little children really have a lesson to teach us.
You know, I have learnt something about this children… and that is
their spirit of forgiveness to the extent that they forget you have beaten them awhile ago and willing to be your friend the next moment they practice forgiveness to the later.
Ubuntu with love
Well said my friend.
The idea of Ubuntu makes sense and is interesting..Realistic probably not in our world etc but ok. I only have one difficulty in this story its just another colonial cliche of the missionary who comes and shares his sweets with the poor children of africa(by the way south africa is a country and there are no facts that say the whole of africa uses the concept of ubuntu). Lets just stop using these beautiful stories about a specific country and put the whole of africa in one bag(not all villages in south africa are poor etc…if u feel my flow). This is just another hippy movement spreading the word of ubuntu but what exactly are you doing to make changes etc…Preaching doesn’t help or living in a little bubble in a village of wisdom to block out all the bad of the world.Act and you will see very small changes around you..
Hello Django,
Thank you for your contribution. Since you took the time to share your point of view about this story, I thought it was only fair that I address some of the points you mentioned. First of all, the fact that something might be cliche doesn’t mean it isn’t true! Yes, South Africa is a country and I know this since I am from Cameroon myself, and I know how to differentiate one country from another in my continent. Yes, the concept of Ubuntu is found in OTHER COUNTRIES IN AFRICA, we just do not call it Ubuntu everywhere. It so happens that Ubuntu as a term was made popular in the rest of the world because of the process South Africa undertook after apartheid, but the concept itself has existed for centuries in many countries. Nobody said that all villages in South Africa are poor! Where did you see that here? As for your last remark, hopefully you too are doing what you preach, i.e. acting to make small changes. It’s always far too easy to criticize those spreading a message. Yes, I am making changes not only in my own village but in Vancouver where I live with the education I provide and other specific actions I take in my work and in my life. I am not preaching, but rather, (hopefully!) I am inspiring people to look at the world differently and realize that we are all rich and poor in different ways. The wisdom of Africa has a lot to offer to the rest of the world, it is pertinent in today’s reality and I strongly believe in it, and I do what I do based on that belief. What are you doing to make those small changes?
The same spirit is destroying properties and lives of Nigerians in South Africa?
What do you think, Nkoro? I’m sure you already have the answer to your own question.
It’s a nice story but obviously a fabrication.
Alain DeWitt: Why do you say “obviously”? Do you know about African traditions?
Hello Jacky,
I am originally from Zimbabwe but have lived in Helsinki, Finland for 28years.
I have recently founded an NGO Ubuntu-Fin. We are in the process of launching and designing a website and would very much like to use the photo with the kids sitting in a circle with their feet touching. We understand copyright laws and are kindly requesting for the use of the photo on our website. If we can use it could we have the the name of the photographer, the date and the exact location the photo was taken.
Hi Julia,
I apologize for the delay. I took the picture from a friend’s page a long time ago, but I can’t remember who! Maybe if you search google with a description of the picture, you might find the original version. It seems like a long shot but it does work. Good luck!
I was born and raised in South Africa (although I’ve been living abroad for many years). I can say with absolute certainty that Ubuntu is a real thing. And a very important part of all of us who come from that part of the world. And something that I have taken with me wherever I go. And something I take great pride in telling other people about. Because I believe that the world could use a bit more Ubuntu right now. Whether you agree with the philosophy or not, it’s ultimately rooted in our humanity and a belief that I am only because we are. And I think we can all agree that the world would be a better place if we all focussed a little bit more on the collective and remember to be kind to one another. Call it Ubuntu or call it by any other name. But just f*cking do it.
Thanks Annie.
In Cameroon my country, we have a similar tradition with different names depending on the tribe we are from. The world could indeed use a big dose of this right now…
Thank you very much for the invitation :). Best wishes.
PS: How are you? I am from France 🙂
Thanks Mark. Best wishes to you too.