UBUNTU in our eyes...

Zulu Word of the Day:

Ubuntu- (see below)

Ubuntu proved to be the overarching theme of our experience in South Africa. As a new concept, ubuntu resonated with each of us differently, and has become one of the many lasting parts of our attempt to build bridges in Durban. Below are our (separate) thoughts on ubuntu and what each of us understand it to mean...


Garey's thoughts, and some background info on UBUNTU

Ubuntu, is an ethic or humanist philosophy focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. The word has its origin in the Bantu languages of Southern Africa. Ubuntu is seen as a traditional African concept.

Attempting to offer a definition on the concept of Ubuntu Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1999) puts forth: 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.


Louw (1998) suggests that the concept of ubuntu defines the individual in terms of their several relationships with others. The Zulu maxim umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu ("a person is a person through other persons") in an African context, suggests that the person one is to become by behaving with humanity is an ancestor worthy of respect or veneration. Those who uphold the principle of ubuntu throughout their lives will, in death, achieve a unity with those still living.
Nelson Mandela describes Ubuntu using the following example: A traveller through a country would stop at a village and he didn't have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not address themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?
Although Ubuntu is a word, it is more its endemic humanity and connectedness where one begins to understand its meaning and significance.

Throughout my experience in South Africa I came to realize that Ubuntu was enmeshed in my very Being before I ever knew what the word, or concept, meant. It was during my short time there in 2000—on a study-abroad program—where I was embraced by several South Africans that peaked my current lifelong interest in South Africa. When I returned to South Africa in 2001 as a grad student the overwhelming connection to new friends and new families was something that was not to be taken lightly or for granted. When I would contact my family and friends in the U.S, they would ask what I liked about being in South Africa; I would simply respond “my interactions with people.” It was only after my first two years living in Durban that I began to expand on my simple response and tried to explain Ubuntu. The love, trust, care, respect, and support I gave and received never invoked profound thought but was a natural response relished.

I traveled quite a bit around Southern Africa during the five years I lived in South Africa. During those periods of travel I never once stayed in a hotel. I knew that letting my South African families or friends know that I was planning a trip they would contact someone they knew in the area or give me a number to contact when I arrived at my destination. I grew to never doubt that someone on the other end would be there to receive me and ensure that they “organized” my stay.

I knew my personal experience of Ubuntu was not something I could articulate well and was not even certain how it would play out beyond me. I was greatly humbled by Whitney, Alex, John, Prof. Scales and Prof. Webster experiences of Ubuntu. Below they share their experiences of “Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu.”


Dr. Webster's thoughts


Although this was my 4th trip to South Africa and I understood the meaning of Ubuntu on those previous occasions, the Building Bridges experience enhanced that understanding. Sharing a living space, meals and cultural exchanges with students, program staff and periodically local friends brought home the humanity aspect of Ubuntu. The ideal was manifested as our UKZN hosts and new friends became family, opening their homes and hearts to make us feel completely welcome. For me this family began with the woman who worked diligently to keep our living area comfortable to the Vice Chancellor of the University, who graciously shared her time and stories with us. In my experience Ubuntu is contagious and reciprical – we open up in response to the openness we experience.

John's thoughts...

Whenever one of my friends from South Africa wanted to explain Ubuntu to me, they would always use examples from real life. “That’s Ubuntu”, they would say. What I took from this was that Ubuntu was a lived philosophy, one not to be found in abstracted treatises, but in the actual relationships that are lived out in South Africa (and in other African countries). That being said, Ubuntu was the guiding principle of our entire trip. Whatever were our reasons for going there, ‘Ubuntu’ was the lesson that South Africans intended to impart on us. Instances that exemplified this principle abounded throughout our experience. I’ll talk about one.


I talked earlier about my stay in the Umlazi township. During this time, I hung out with guys who were about my age, some a little older. We did everything that young guys do on weekends in Umlazi; In fact, it wasn’t very different from hanging out with my friends at home in DC. We went by various guys’ houses, watched whatever was on TV, talked about any and everything, had some beers. This time of fellowship between men is deeply valued in Zulu culture. For instance, at one point as we sat over the house of a friend, Sakhile (a friend of my host, Mangoba) invited me to step outside and have a private chat. Towards the end of this chat, he explained that it is considered very disrespectful to seclude oneself from the rest of guys for a long time, as it is taken to mean that you do not value the company of your friends/family. As Mangoba humorously put it after explaining to me the Zulu habit of drinking from the same container, “We don’t hate each other”. And the closeness with which these men related to one another reflected just that; that not only did they ‘not hate’ one another, but they also unapologetically loved one another. Later, we went out to the shebeen (similar to a bar or tavern) and met some other guys, listened to some good house music, played some pool, had some more beers. All the while folks who I didn’t know, or had just met, would check in with me to see that I was okay, or to ask if they could do anything for me. They adopted me as a cousin, and even gave me a Zulu name, “Sbusiso”, which means blessing. When I talked, they were more attentive than I would have ever expected a person to be at a tavern. They listened intently, asked questions, noticed inconsistencies. I first thought that this only reflected a fascination with the foreign. But then I noticed that they talked to and interacted with each other just like this as well. Conversation, even in passing, was not merely a formality as it is so often in the states. I found that people really want to know about you, even when they ask “Howzit?” (Literally “How is it?”, similar to our “whats up”, “how are you?”). They are not expecting you to give a phoned-in, “fine. And you?” Then, the next morning after partying, I was wakened by Mangoba to go on a walk. I am normally disoriented in the morning (not a morning person), but I was even more confused because I did not understand where we were going, and further there was a sense of urgency in Mangoba’s stride that, upon waking up, I could not relate to. One by one, we visited each person that we hung out with the night before. Somewhere along the way, I realized that we were checking to see if everyone had gotten in safely. Most of the group did not own a cell phone, or a car, and what’s more, they lived sometimes 20 to 30 minutes away from one another (walking distance). So these long treks, as Mangoba would later explain, are embarked upon every morning after they hang out as an expression of the responsibility that they feel for one another. There was always what seemed to be a breath of relief once we had gotten to a friends house and found that they were perfectly fine. Just the same, I would immediately notice how pleased the guys were to see that I was okay. I reflected on the many morning-afters that my DC friends and I felt no need to reconnect even though, because we owned cell phones, it was easier for us to do so. It was not that our environment was not dangerous, because it was most of the times. We simply did not possess that sense of brotherly responsibility that would cause us to show the kind of concern for one another that was shown to me by guys I had just met in Umlazi. As Mangoba hiked purposefully onward, me following closely behind, to this or that friend’s house; as his friends enquired eagerly about the other friends he had previously visited; I learned about Ubuntu, without any of the guys ever so much as mentioning the word.

Alex's thoughts...

Upon arriving to Durban, I quickly learned that ubuntu was a concept that managed to become a part of every day life. It was difficult to understand. Ubuntu was first explained to me as “the idea that we are all connected” and that “I am, because you are.” This definition does not begin to explain how it manifests itself in everyday life. During our stay ubuntu was extended our way, by hosts and strangers, friends and acquaintances. Even as strangers, we learned how to extend ubuntu in the direction of others, and personally, I have carried that concept back across the Atlantic with me.

I believe the first time that I really started to understand ubuntu was during our first ride on the kombi. As we crammed into the backseat, the notion of personal space was dismantled. And as the newcomers to this mode of transportation, we seemed to be the only ones bothered by the compromise of space. Everyone else just kind of fell into place without a second thought. At our first stop, a woman and a young child awaited the kombi. In order to get herself situated, she passed her small child to a stranger sitting close to the door. Once she got comfortable, the man returned her child, who hadn’t flinched at all.

After the kombi made its way towards town, it was time to pay the driver. Each passenger gave their money to the next, and the payments made their way to the front, where a designated person counted it and returned the necessary change. Kombi passengers instilled their trust in one another throughout our stay. Though this is a small example of ubuntu, it jumped out to be early during our journey in KZN, and , though foreign to me, it seemed to just be another part of life in South Africa. Though this type of trust is accepted in smaller circles and subcultures, it is far from the norm in the US.

Ubuntu was exercised in larger ways as well. We were hosted by various individuals and families throughout many parts of KZN. In Zululand, Delani’s family opened the most intimate parts of their lives to us: their home, their stories, their food, and their love. In Umlazi, we had the chance to connect with people our age, and it became evident that ubuntu spans across generations. Nokulunga offered us countless learning opportunities, including visiting her own traditional healers, hanging out with her friends, attending her church service, and sharing very personal memories. We too attempted to practice ubuntu, and tried to be just as available as she, sharing our own experiences and offering the same amount of openness.

A broad concept like ubuntu can easily get caste aside as just a belief system, and its everyday significance can be forgotten. We were reminded every day of its significance when we were welcomed by our friends and hosts unconditionally. Trust, sacrifice, humility, good will… all of these pure qualities encompass what it means to practice ubuntu. To me, ubuntu is the manifestation of living in community in the truest sense, and into my own beliefs and thinking, I have adopted this South African way of life.

Whitney's thoughts...

The first time I was introduced to the word Ubuntu, it was the second morning in South Africa; we had been woken up to women in the dorm knocking on the door to use our shower. “Ubuntu!” said Garey, “what’s ours is theirs and what’s their’s in ours.” Simple. With that short and slightly annoying introduction I didn’t really think much of Ubuntu, I thought it was interesting but if it meant I didn’t have personal space then I was cautious to understand. The day I really felt inspired and gained a deeper understanding of Ubuntu was in the kombi. The four of us, Garey, John, Alex and I, were going into downtown with a friend and had to take a kombi to get there. Kombi’s squeeze a minimum of 12 people into a family-sized van, so the four of us squeezed into the back and watched as more and more people took a seat. Once the kombi was filled everyone knew to pass their money up to the front and in the very front, the passenger next to the driver counted the money and gave out change; this person did not know the driver, did not work for the kombi. And that’s how kombi’s work, everyone has a responsibility to look out for the other people; passing money back and forth and being trustworthy to everyone on broad. On that day I started to see Ubuntu as much more. I realized how beautiful the concept of caring for people, whether you know them or not, was. Once I saw how Ubuntu was more about being open to other people’s importance in your life, I started to appreciate it much more. When I think about Ubuntu now, I think about my commitment to the South Africans I met, I think about my openness (or my work to be more open) to others has changed. When I think about my responsibility to Ubuntu I think about the deep vow I’ve made within myself to see that this program continues. We started this program with the goal to really practice cross-cultural learning and a part of that is making sure South African students come to the US. What’s amazing about the word Ubuntu, is that it explains what cross-cultural experiences should really be. Ubuntu taught me to be open and accepting of the people who come in and out of my life because whether there is purpose to any relationship, every relationship is a reality. Ubuntu has dared me to embrace the way I move around the world, trying to connect with people in a way that makes respect, honesty, and authenticity center in my mind.