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All You Need Is Ubuntu (Says Bill Clinton)
BBC ^ | 9-28-2006 | Sean Coughlan

Posted on 09/28/2006 1:44:07 PM PDT by blam

All you need is ubuntu

You and me, me and you, lots and lots, for us to do

By Sean Coughlan
BBC News Magazine

Bill Clinton told the Labour conference to get into ubuntu. Eh? Ubuntu. That was what Bill Clinton told the Labour party conference it needed to remember this week. "Society is important because of Ubuntu."

But what is it? Left-leaning sudoku? U2's latest album? Fish-friendly sushi?

No, it's a word describing an African worldview, which translates as "I am because you are," and which means that individuals need other people to be fulfilled.

The former president, husky-voiced and down-home with the delegates, gave it a folksy flavour, describing it in terms of needing to be around others to enjoy being ourselves.

"If we were the most beautiful, the most intelligent, the most wealthy, the most powerful person - and then found all of a sudden that we were alone on the planet, it wouldn't amount to a hill of beans," said Mr Clinton.

The word comes from the Bantu languages spoken in southern Africa - and is related to a Zulu concept - "umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu" - which means that a person is only a person through their relationship to others.

And it's entered the political lexicon through the political changes in South Africa.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in his book No Future Without Forgiveness, says: "Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language... It is to say, 'My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours.'"

Decline

In his definition, it means that there is a common bond between people - and when one person's circumstances improve, everyone gains and if one person is tortured or oppressed, everyone is diminished.

Ubuntu chic - thong name-checking Ubuntu open-source software

Mr Tutu's identification with ubuntu has given rise to the idea of "ubuntu theology" - where ethical responsibility comes with a shared identity. If someone is hungry, the ubuntu response is that we're all collectively responsible.

There is a spiritual as well as practical dimension to this - with ubuntu reflecting the idea that we're part of a long chain of human experience, connecting us to previous and future generations.

Ubuntu has also entered the language of development and fair trade - with campaigners using the word in aid projects for Africa in ways that suggest this will be an African solution for African problems.

Ironically, says Rob Cunningham, Christian Aid's programme manager for South Africa, just as the word is taking off in Western society the values it embodies are in decline in the land of its origin.

"In my conversations with partner organisations and the communities they work with, and among older people, there's a deep sense of loss of ubuntu," says Mr Cunningham. "To me, it means sitting down in a Zulu hut in KwaZulu-Natal sharing scarce food and a brew and a few stories."

There are ubuntu education funds, ubuntu tents at development conferences, ubuntu villages, an ubuntu university - and it's now the name of an open-source operating system.

Expect to hear more from ubuntu in the future.

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Add your comments on this story, using the form below.

Ubuntu is an excellent traditional as well as modern Africa worldview. The concept has a powerful meaning and potential to transform the world into one of better understanding and respect for every human being - it is about treating others as we would to be treated. It is about a sense of sharing, belong and togetherness including the fact that no human being is an island. Thanks Bill for the timely advice to Labour and the world. Dr. Kennedy Lweya, Haywards Heath

No man is an Island and a tree cannot make a forest so the saying goes in Bini, Edo state of Nigeria. I strongly agree with former President Clinton in the use of the word Ubuntu. Let us be our brothers' keeper. The fortunate should lend a helping hand to the unfortunate. Unity is strength. Omorodion Osula, Boston, USA

The essence and depth of 'ubuntu' as a concept lies in the age-long African philosophy and practice of communalism and shared objectives. You are your neighbours' keeper. With the emergence of 'western civilization' we are increasingly becoming individualistic and competitive. Capitalism and the philosophy of every person for himself is a challenge for ubuntu. We are all extricably linked and if you buy into the philosophy of ubuntu then I have your back and you have mine. I am because you are - togetherness is it. Lawrence Mba, Toronto, Canada

"Umuntu" is a concept that the west struggles to grasp. People in the West are so individualistic, whereas in Africa its all about community.In Africa you cannot seperate yourself from your community. For example, I am from Highfield, Harare Zimbabwe, and I grew up knowing about 95% of my neighbors, all the way up to six streets down. I am now a student in the USA and I hardly know the people that stay next door. Muchengetwa Bgoni, Missouri, USA

Ubuntu is at the heart of the South African truth and reconciliation process. The term Ubuntu, according to Tutu, has perhaps its equivalent in Western world: ¿I think therefore I am.¿ The Ubuntu version of this same concept would be translated as ¿I am human because I belong. I participate, I share.¿ Ubuntu embraces the worst in the other with the awareness that I would have done the same evil if I were in their shoes. It comes from the grim realisation that in as much as people are capable of doing good, there is always a danger of an evil force that works at various levels possessing people and making them do things that they would not normally do. Dawit Yehualashet, Ethiopian in Goshen, IN, USA

Wasn't it his wife who said, also from an African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child"? Maybe it all depends how you define Ubuntu! Anthony J. Ipie, La Paz

I prefer Thatcher's folksy speech. 'There is no such thing as society.' I wonder if Clinton referenced ubuntu to Hillary after his heavy dose of it whilst president. Dylan, London

Bill Clinton says get into Ubuntu, just a second I've CD with it on in my bag. Yup here it is "Ubuntu - linux for human beings". Bill Gates ain't going to like this. Simon Monday, Godalming


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: all; bill; bj; bjclinton; classwarfare; clinton; clintonistas; demogogue; impeachedrapist; linux; nationaldisgrace; need; perjury; slimewilly; socialist; staineddress; stainedovaloffice; staythere; suckmycigar; ubentone; ubuntu; upubuntu; upunku; whatdidbergersteal; whileclintonslept; you
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To: blam

Is that was is is?


41 posted on 09/28/2006 1:55:30 PM PDT by Unicorn (Too many wimps around.)
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To: blam

42 posted on 09/28/2006 1:55:43 PM PDT by maggief
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To: blam
O rly?
43 posted on 09/28/2006 1:55:46 PM PDT by evets (beer)
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To: My2Cents
... which translates as "I am because you are," ...

Old African term, or simply new age psychobabble?

Invented in the U.S. in this election cycle ... let's now have another round of Kumbaya m'Lud, Kumbaya ... Gag!

44 posted on 09/28/2006 1:56:06 PM PDT by Song of the South (Uncle Remus: You can't run away from trouble. There ain't no place that far.)
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To: blam
Wasn't Ubuntu the name of the black communications officer on the original Star Trek?
45 posted on 09/28/2006 1:56:09 PM PDT by Wallace T.
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To: blam
Download it FREE!
46 posted on 09/28/2006 1:56:20 PM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: blam
Ubuntu !!!

Flipped out on Fox Sunday Night...tried to revise facts that everyone else knows because he said he could have caught or killed bin Laden on several occasions...

Confirmation: Bill Clinton is a head case!!! Get out the straight jacket. Reel Bubba in... He's an embarrassment to the country.

47 posted on 09/28/2006 1:56:34 PM PDT by xtinct (I was the next door neighbor kid's imaginary friend.)
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To: blam

More evidence that Clintoon has snorted WAY too much cocaine...

BTW the Zulus were utterlu ruthless in killing and enslaving other non-Zulu Africans.

He. Must think people are really dumb.


48 posted on 09/28/2006 1:56:37 PM PDT by BenLurkin ("The entire remedy is with the people." - W. H. Harrison)
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To: evets

Holy moly


49 posted on 09/28/2006 1:56:48 PM PDT by Constitution Day (Please do not emanate into the penumbra.)
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To: blam

Those Africans are wise. I'm glad they've developed Ubuntu. Otherwise, there might be things like torture and genocide and slavery and civil war in Africa.

/Sarcasm


50 posted on 09/28/2006 1:57:11 PM PDT by Our man in washington
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To: maggief
Ubuntu!

51 posted on 09/28/2006 1:57:15 PM PDT by evets (beer)
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To: evets

52 posted on 09/28/2006 1:57:52 PM PDT by maggief
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To: blam

If Slick Willy is so enthralled by Afrocentric worldviews he should do EVERYONE a favor and move to a country governed by them.

Personally, I'll stick with the fruits and blessings of Western Civilization.


53 posted on 09/28/2006 1:57:56 PM PDT by somniferum (Annoy a liberal.. Work hard and be happy.)
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To: blam
He's still campaigning to be kofi's replacement at the UN I see.

Was this all part of the long term plan, orchestrated and put in place when he made the illegal trip to Moscow in the early 70's at the invitation and expense of the KGB?
54 posted on 09/28/2006 1:58:13 PM PDT by AmeriBrit (By a miracle we lived through 'Eight Clinton Years of Living Hell'....NO MORE CLINTON'S...EVER!)
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To: blam

"and which means that individuals need other people to be fulfilled."


I'll pass, this is just too easy =:).


55 posted on 09/28/2006 1:58:19 PM PDT by gc4nra ( this tag line protected by Kimber and the First Amendment (I voted for McClintock))
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To: evets

LOL...not ubuntu...disgusting.


56 posted on 09/28/2006 1:58:35 PM PDT by Txsleuth (,((((((((ISRAEL)))))) Pray for the release of the Israelis.)
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To: maggief

Not ubuntu, silly.


57 posted on 09/28/2006 1:59:22 PM PDT by Txsleuth (,((((((((ISRAEL)))))) Pray for the release of the Israelis.)
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To: blam
No, it's a word describing an African worldview, which translates as "I am because you are," and which means that individuals need other people to be fulfilled.

In the 'Toon's case it means, "which means that individuals Clintoon needs other people Any Female to be fulfilled"

58 posted on 09/28/2006 1:59:26 PM PDT by Fiddlstix (Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: Hegemony Cricket
Everybody do the Michigan Rag
Everybody likes the Michigan Rag
Every Mame and Jane and Ruth
From Weehawken to Duluth
Slide, ride, glide the Michigan
Stomp, romp, pomp the Michigan
Jump, clump, pump the Michigan Rag
That lovin' rag!



59 posted on 09/28/2006 1:59:42 PM PDT by Vision ("As a man thinks...so is he." Proverbs 23:7)
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To: My2Cents

A society based on codependency.


yeah, dependent on you to keep my machete sharp.....


60 posted on 09/28/2006 1:59:50 PM PDT by red devil 40
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