ubuntu

As you are all well aware of by now, South Africa has stolen my heart. Actually, it’s probably safe to say that South Africa has taken me hostage.

“A person is a person through others,” states a Zulu proverb and my personal favorite adage.
This maxim reflects the sub-Saharan Africa ideology of ubuntu. It is the belief in a collective bond of sharing that unites all humanity. It has been translated as “humanity towards others” or “I am because we are.”

“A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has 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,” South Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said.

As I am about to move to the country that was founded on such a principle, I ask myself what does it mean to become “human” through other people? How am I going to allow the people I come in contact with over the next seven months to shape who I become?

My new community will consist of Xhosa and Afrikaans speaking South Africans. I will be learning the languages, eating the food, attending their churches and building relationships. When I return to the States seven months later, it is my hope that I can be called a person with ubuntu.

Tutu wisely advises that true self-assurance comes from being a part of something bigger than ourselves. In our American society the individual is emphasized, but I believe life is meant to be lived in community.

So as we prepare to leave the APU community for the summer, the semester, or even for good, I encourage you to engage in a new community. Whether it’s a missions team, a study abroad program, or a new job, immerse yourself because who you become over the summer can be the result of something bigger than yourself.

Engage by learning the language or memorizing the mission statement. Find out the history of the organization, school or country you find yourself a part of. Get to know your coworker’s favorite childhood memory or their big dream. Whatever it is, take the time to engage.

I leave you with a question wonderfully posed by former South African President and civil rights pioneer Nelson Mandela. “Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to improve?”