Is the essence of Ubuntu only practiced by African people? Explain and give examples.
Answers
ESSENCE OF UBUNTU
“Africans have a thing called ubuntu. It is about the essence of being human, it is part of the gift that Africa will give the world. It embraces hospitality, caring about others, being willing to go the extra mile for the sake of another. We believe that a person is a person through other persons, that my humanity is caught up, bound up, inextricably, with yours. When I dehumanize you, I inexorably dehumanize myself. The solitary human being is a contradiction in terms. Therefore you seek to work for the common good because your humanity comes into its own in the community, in belonging.”
Ubuntu (oo-boon-too) is a concept, a philosophy, a way of living in Africa. An expression of love and respect for all humankind, and an understanding that we all need one another.
- In Angola, it is known as gimuntu, Tanzania (utu/obuntu/bumuntu), Uganda (obuntu), Zambia (umunthu/ubuntu) and Zimbabwe (Ubuntu, unhu or hunhu). It is also found in other Bantu countries not mentioned here.
- The concept of "I am because we are", sometimes translated as "humanity", also has equivalents in non-Bantu-speaking Africa: Burkina Faso (maaya), Cote d’Ivoire (maaya), Equatorial Guinea (maaya), Guinea (maaya), Gambia (maaya), Ghana (biako ye; Akan), Liberia (maaya), Mali (maaya (Bambara)/de ya), Sierra Leonne (maaya), Nigeria (iwa in Yoruba and agwa in Igbo). In addition, it is called boroterey in the Songhay languages and nite in the Wolof language.
- In Malawi, the same philosophy is called "uMunthu" in the local Chewa language. According to the Catholic Diocese of Zomba bishop Rt. Rev. Fr. Thomas Msusa, “The African worldview is about living as one family, belonging to God”. Msusa noted that in Africa “We say ‘I am because we are’, or in Chichewa kali kokha nkanyama, tili awiri ntiwanthu (when you are on your own you are as good as an animal of the wild; when there are two of you, you form a community).”
- At the 2002 UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), there was an Ubuntu Village exposition centre. Ubuntu was the theme of the 76th General Convention of the American Episcopal Church. The logo includes the text "I in You and You in Me".