ubuntu

Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language.
When we want to give high praise to someone
we say, "Yu u nobuntu"; "Hey, so-and-so has ubuntu."

Then you are generous, you are hospitable,
you are friendly and caring and compassionate.
You share what you have.

It is to say,
"My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up,
in what is yours." . . .
We say, "A person is a person through other persons." . . .
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....

To forgive is not just to be altruistic.
It is the best form of self-interest.
What dehumanizes you inexorably dehumanizes me.
[Forgiveness] gives people resilience,
enabling them to survive and emerge still human
despite all efforts to dehumanize them.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu,

UBunTu IS A LIvING, EvOLvInG MEMORIAL
OFFERED AS A TRIBuTE TO THE CHILDREN OF SOuTH AFRICA.

A MEMORIAL
IN HONOR OF THAT WHICH LIVES FOREVER.

IN celebration of the power of innocence
ALL IMAGES IN “THE UBunTu COLLECTION”
ARE OFFERED FREELY AS A GIFT
TO ENJOY, PASS ALONG, PLAY ALONG WITH,
CREATE WITH AND SHARE.

AN OPPORTunITY IS PROVIDED TO RESPOND
BY MAKING AN OFFERING OF YOuR CHOICE
TO THE NELSON MANDELA CHILDREN’S FuND
IN SOuTH AFRICA.

A BLESSING IS TO REMEMBER
MOMENTS OF JOY AND HAPPINESS
FOR THOSE WHO SuFFERED, WERE TORTuRED and DIED.

LET uS REMEMBER THEM
AS THEY REFLECTED THE BEAuTY OF THEIR LIFE.

May this living inter-active memorial
contribute towards a new understanding
where fear, hate and prejudice have no place…

where trust, love,
forgiveness and peace live.
here, now,
within the domain of the Heart,
within each and every human being.

Ubuntu
is seen as one of the founding principles
of the new republic of South Africa,
and is connected to the idea
of an african renaissance.

in the political sphere,
the concept of ubuntu is used to emphasise
the need for unity or consensus in decision-making,
as well as the need
for a suitably humanitarian ethic
to inform those decisions.

Ubuntu

The belief in a universal bond of sharing
that connects all humanity.

"Ubuntu [ubu ntu] n. S. African.
humanity or fellow feeling;
kindness

METANOIA
presents