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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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
Awwwwwww! Let's all just sit around the campfire and sing Khum-ba-freakin-ya. Then we'll make smores and have a bog ole group hug.
Macaca bigtime!
Good one but I think that one belongs to Pee Wee Herman
The thing that is funny is that those who embrace this concept are also those likely to embrace existentialism.
Clinton does strike me as the type of person who needs other people to reinforce his self-image. He would never consider himself objectively good - he could only define himself as good by making other people see him in that way.
Does he play Baseball? U Bunt U Score
Pray for W and Our Troops
What rubbish. The fact is, that individuals need to fulfill other people's needs. That's why you have to have a job to get money. You have to fulfill somebody else's need to get yours met. That's the essence of the free market dynamic. It's how we get along and make prosperity.
Why ANYBODY would hold up an African world view of anything as a model is beyond me. Seems to me that the African world view has pretty much kept the continent of Africa mired in poverty, violence and bondage.
Honest to God, Bill Clinton is just insufferable. Like he goes through life thinking "I am because you are," when in reality it's been well domonstrated for years that his own personal worldview is exactly the opposite.
"Hakuna Matata1"
"Think of others as greater than yourself."
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
"Greater love hath no man, than he give up his life for his brother."
Guess what direction and how far we need to go, to find these sentiments.
Ubuntu bukaki!
Is that what he called Monica ... only with a "c?"
LOL... I thought this was one of Pee Wee Herman's sayings.
All I need is U buns, too.
"Not surprised that these anti-americans cannot find American values and sayings to live by."
It's just more multicultural nonsense from this idiot.
LOL
America's first African-American president.
Ubuntu World Tour- next stop Khartoum!
Bill will persuade the Sudanese to trade in sharia for unbuntu. Or lose his head trying.
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