[Music]
there's this story from ghana
about
you know
this young girl looking at his father
who is peering into the into the past
intensely
and the girl says papa you are always
looking in the past why
and the father looks at her and say my
daughter
because
the answers
to the future
always reside
in the past
and that's where
knowledges that are banished in the past
like ubuntu become relevant
the word
ubuntu comes from a southern ghouni
word or phrase
that says i am because you are
you are because we are in other words
you know as
human beings there's a sense in which
there is some connection and
interdependence we rely on each other
let me start by saying that ubuntu is
not a political program i also want to
add that
is it is not you know a religious you
know
expression ubuntu is about our social
awareness a consciousness
of the others a consciousness of the
fact that
we all have a responsibility
to ourselves as human beings
especially the vulnerable among us but
perhaps more importantly we also have a
responsibility
to
you know the world around us the
totality of our environment
[Music]
did you know
that
30 percent of food crops
in the world
need
cross-pollination
from bees
these tiny insects so if you are going
to destroy the bees
for the earth you are ultimately
destroying yourself
so the principle of co-agency implies
that
we are co-creators
it relies on the recognition
that we are interdependent
in a balanced
biodiversity so it is that principle of
co-agency that ubuntu encourages
the awareness
that our interdependence
that personhood moves beyond the
relationship between humans and humans
but a relationship
between humans and non-humans precisely
because we are
implicated
in their lives and they are
implicated
in our lives
[Music]
even in the west which thrives on the
principle of individualism
there's a sense in which they agree
that they're fundamental basic human
rights that each one of us
owes
to the community i always like to make a
distinction between individuality and
individualism
individuality
gives you a sense of independence
and freedom
and
also a development of your own personal
character individualism
to the contrary is self-referential
it is about you me me me
all the times
and the ego always takes over in all
human societies the way
we temper the personal ego communities
moderate those by constantly reminding
you
that you are not living in isolation
you belong to a family
you belong to a broader community
you belong to a community of your peers
and you also belong to the world and you
have a responsibility for that world
[Music]
if you get
you know too implicated in your subject
then you end up sounding like a
missionary i don't want to sound like a
missionary you know what ubuntu has
taught me
you know in a very profound way
is to realize
that some of what we call
banished knowledges
or indigenous knowledge systems
that we have here in africa and in many
other parts of the world that
there is value
in some
of these knowledges
and that perhaps
if you we want to re-imagine the society
of the future
then
there's a sense in which
a value system like ubuntu
can teach us one
our mutuality
secondly our conviviality
as a people
[Music]
let me go back to our history in south
africa here
and you know the emergence or shall i
say re-emergence of ubuntu
was at a very very critical
moment
in the history of this country
we were moving from a repressive past
and into a democratic dispensation
the issue then
how do we
move the society forward
how do we reconstitute a new south
africa
and this was popularized by the
archbishop
um this one two two
he came up
he realized
that we can dig into our past
and find a value system
that can help us
to achieve redress
restorative justice
forgiveness
and also
healing
[Music]
among the african communities
you know around
you know
their important rituals but
death
you'll always find communities coming
together to support each other
just like a ritual of greeting
you know
it took me time to understand why people
insisted that they have to be greeted
when i was at the university of the
white waters run
every time i was taking a break from my
work i would go downstairs at the
cafeteria
to buy some food
and sometimes i was so intense
that i would not see the person that is
serving me i just go there and say
chicken pie
and she looks at me chicken pie
then should respond so born
basically forcing me to realize that i
am not
recognizing her so recognition
is fundamental
as mother teresa used to tell us
compassion
is useless
without action or application
ubuntu is about
the idea of acting
if you empathize
then go out
and share
with the vulnerable
with the weak among us
if you care
go out
and make sure
that our environment is not degraded it
is protected
make sure
that we have a responsibility
you know for
our our universe and for other people
there's a fascinating story
that i i got
you know from
you know a friend of mine that works in
the amazon
that
when the indigenous people in the amazon
when they go fishing and they catch
too much fish
they throw back sun
because
of the awareness
that the river
feeds them is a source it's a source of
life
[Music]
if you give me one word to summarize
what ubuntu means to you what would it
be
ultimately
interdependence
[Music]
you