Ubuntu
Putting ourselves back together
We don't have a single word in English to describe the essential quality of community we all lament having lost. Everyone says we have lost a sense of community, of belonging together. We talk about families breaking down and society fragmenting into an atomised collection of independent individuals driven by consumerism and personal interest. This is all very pesimistic.
The Tutu Foundation UK is far more optimistic however. We are calling from the roof tops that we belong together. We depend upon one another and we can rediscover that essense of shared humanity. No matter what our cultural or ethnic or religious background, there is far more that unites us as human beings than separates us. We have simply forgotten how to live and celebrate this simple truth.
The Tutu Foundation UK seeks to bring experience and learning from Southern Africa to the UK. The concept we fail to describe in one word in English exists in one word - Ubuntu - in Southern Africa. Archbishop Desmond Tutu explains what it means:
“Africans have this 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 able to go the extra mile for the sake of others. We believe that a person is a
person through another person, that my humanity is caught up, bound up, inextricably,
with yours. When I dehumanise you, I inexorably dehumanise myself. The solitary human
being is a contradiction in terms and therefore you seek to work for the common good
because your humanity comes into its own in belonging”.
— Desmond Tutu
Archbishop Emeritus
Through Ubuntu – and against all the odds - South Africa experienced the astounding transformation from a violent, oppressive apartheid regime to democracy without descending into vengeful chaos.
Ubuntu expresses a variety of values which cluster around the areas of relationships, attitudes and behaviours.
The words describing these values are disarmingly 'ordinary'. They are often what we expect of people and they always describe how we ourselves would like to be treated.
Relationships
Inter-dependency
My well being is connected with and tied up in the well being of all of us. By asserting my rights, I might be damaging someone else’s well being thereby diminishing us all. My responsibility is to seek the best for others and not only myself. I can assert my rights only when I am sure it won’t put others at a disadvantage or at risk of harm and when we will all be built up and enriched.
Community
We are all part of various and diverse communities defined in different ways. Geographical, interest based, cultural, ethnic, religious. Living in community requires of each person a realisation of our fundamental connectedness as created beings of the same God.
Belonging
The awareness of all being part of the same human family regardless of circumstance; culture, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social status. We all belong because we are all created and loved by the same God. We can be fully human only when we are living together in peace.
Behaviours
Kindness
We know when someone is being kind to us. The smile, the warmth of the expression. The body language. There is nothing as nice as someone being kind to us. When we are kind to another we sense the rightness of our action - the sense of doing the right thing generates a lifting of the soul. Kindness is a gift we are given to share with others. There is no other characteristic of being human that defines the very best of our humanness and connects so deeply with the image of God within each person.
Listening
To listen carefully and attentively is an active and dynamic exercise of reaching out to the other person. It confers dignity and respect to the one whose story we hear. Giving the time and energy to hearing another’s story is the firststep to getting into their shoes, seeing the world from their perspective, and thus recognising our shared humanity.
‘My enemy is the person whose story I have not heard.’ (Longfellow)Honesty
The truth sets us free. Being honest and telling the truth takes courage and is healing, bringing the possibility of release from a life-time of guilt. Hearing the truth can be very painful but also liberating, allowing the victim to move forward without fear. Without truth there can be no real reconciliation.
Attitudes
Dignity
As a created and precious child of God I have been conferred with a great sense of dignity but this can hard to hold onto when I am discriminated against, stigmatised, treated as an outcast and abused; when violence is used against me. My sense of dignity is restored when my uniqueness is recognised and valued by those around me.
Respect
Recognising that we all belong to a common humanity having been created by God, leads us to treat one another with respect. If we disrespect others, we disrespect God and ourselves. Encountering each other with respect celebrates each person’s uniqueness and ‘createdness’. Respecting a person takes account of their feelings, experiences, social situation, ethnic, religious, and sexual identity though they may be very different from my own.
Tolerance
Active rather than passive tolerance is demanded within the Ubuntu practice of Desmond Tutu. It is a tolerance that celebrates difference, recognising the validity in others circumstances and experiences though they may be quite different from my own. It recognises the uniqueness of each person and looks for the image of God in the other.
Embarking on transformative journeys in communities:
Making ubuntu a reality
An Ubuntu revolution
