Ubuntu

 

Ubuntu 

 

 Ubuntu is a humanistic Philosophy focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. It is a process for earning respect by first giving it, and to gain empowerment by empowering others. It encourages people to applaud rather than resent those who succeed. It disapproves of anti-social, disgraceful, inhuman and criminal behaviour, and encourages social justice for all.


My perception of ubuntu originates in South Africa where I was born and raised in the Zulu way where we believe your neighbor's child is your own, his/her success is your success too and this is the same concept throughout Southern Africa. With the modernisation of society and the fast pace at which our world is changing we have lost our way, we talk more than we listen and we want to take more than we want to give. In order to eradicate suffering, evil and greed we need to stop feeding each other the nonsense of capitalist and socialist definitions, open our eyes and minds and let our hearts breathe a little so we can feel more than we think. 

In my view part of the problem originates form the fact that countries are run like businesses and with the same competitive and survival of the fittest mentality and that trickles down to all aspects of our lives. I want to change peoples mentality for the better. I think it would be better if countries were to be run like well disciplined households (family) because until people start feeling that they are equal or for that matter feel like they are treated equal, we can just forget about ever having comfort, good, benevolence and a loved filled world.

This system of programming people to think that success means you have to achieve beyond or be better than others is poor folly and it is destructive. Many a great thinkers have grasped this concept of ubuntu and embraced it even Dr Martin Luther King once said "All I'm saying is simply this: that all mankind is tied together; all life is interrelated, and we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. " We have lost our way, greed has poisoned us, hate has become a norm and we have even forgotten what the word HELP means, nowadays the word help is associated with laziness and being useless. 

We need to restore our values and remember what it means to be a human, as they say in Malawi "when you are on your own you are as good as an animal of the wild; when there are two of you, you form a community." In this modern age the spirit of ubuntu/humanity seems to have become a forgotten virtue, we need to bring it back.