Sometime ago there was a post on FB of children sitting in a circle and
creating a another circle by touching their feet together with outstretched
legs. The story was about UBUNTU. UBUNTU is an African word that means human
kindness in a very progressive sense.
These children were told that candy was beneath a tree and the child who
got there first won all of the candy.
Instead of running off to the candy, the children reached for each other
and ran together holding hands for the candy.
They explained to the reporter that it is not kind for one to be happy
and the rest to be sad. UBUNTU is a word
that has woven itself deep within the African culture inclusive of its
socialistic politics. This deep equality
of UBUNTU brings people together on the same playground and motivates them to
work together for the good of the whole.
How do you practice UBUNTU in
your society and community, even if some are strangers or they look and act
differently than you? Desmond Tutu
writes in 1999, “A person with UBUNTU is open and available to others,
affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good,
based from 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.” The stranger next door is
your brother or your sister so practice UBUNTU toward him or her. Let UBUNTU exude from your heart everyday.
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