Friday 20 November 2009

Today will be a longer piece by Michael Battle in order to further define Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is an African concept of personhood in which the identity of the self is understood to be formed interdependently through community. This is a difficult worldview for many Westerners who tend to understand self as over and against others - or as in competition with others. In a Western world-view, interdependence may be easily confused with codependence, a pathological condition in which people share a dependence on something that is not life-giving, such as alcohol or drugs. Ubuntu, however, is about symbiotic and cooperative relationships - neither the parasitic and destructive relationship of codependence nor the draining and alienating relationships of competition. Perhaps Desmond Tutu...but it best when he said:
"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."

I wanted to include the piece by Bishop Tutu because it shows that not everyone has this character of Ubuntu. It is a character that is treasured and pointed to within Africa. I would have to submit though, that it is a positive and wonderful community character, it must not be assumed to be universal. If it was, there would not be, like in the west, the senseless bloodshed and misery that goes along with so many people living together. I would argue that this notion of Ubuntu is a gift. It is one that we can nurture and one that must be nurtured communally - that merely fits with the definition of the word. Can we say that one country or continent knows more about this experience? Or must we remember that we are all saint-sinners who will quite easily reject such a creative and loving way to live together. It would be good to look at other concepts from other places that attempt to hold the same values as primary.

Connection: Without being connected, we lose a sense of who we are and who we can become. What makes us utterly human in the best way possible today!

Creating God, you knit us together as your beloved people. You continue to call us into relationship with one another and your love becomes the power that bridges the gaps between us. Continue to open our eyes to see the wealth of life that comes to everyone when we love one another and that love becomes the foundation of our life together. Amen.