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| Desmond Tutu sheds more light on Ubuntu |
Carol offers the following for our thoughts and prayers as we prepare for our journey to Sierra Leone. From Cedric Mayson's Why Africa Matters (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books), 31-32.
"...there is no word in European languages for ubuntu. Western words like 'human-ness' are pressed into service to describe this fundamental relationship and acceptance of one another in the sacred-secular experience of Earthlings. 'It speaks of the essence of being human,' says Desmond Tutu.
Ubuntu means they are generous, hospitable, friendly, caring, and compassionate. They share what they have. It also means my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in theirs.
We belong in a bundle of life. We say 'a person is a person through other persons.' It is not 'I think therefore I am.' It says rather, 'I am human because I belong.' I participate, I share.
A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good....Harmony, friendliness, community are great goods. Social harmony is for us the greatest good."
Desmond Tutu quoted from No Future Without Forgiveness (London: Random House, 1999), 34.
Thanks Carol for sharing thoughts from a great African spokesperson.
Thanks again Carol for sharing these words. I love the depth of this Africa word...and he's right, we have no single word in our language that brings out so much feeling, love and caring.
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