Ubuntu: the spirit of humanity

Dear Subscriber, This is an unusual post, not so much a piece of legal and political analysis as a reflection on the state of society and nation. I wrote this as a Facebook post yesterday, as a moment of reflection. A number of people have asked that I share it on the blog, for a wider audience beyond my circle of friends on Facebook. Most Zimbabweans will understand the context in which the message is written and shared and I need not repeat it.

Friends, countrymen and women, I did not wish to write on this matter but I have been moved to say a few words.

It is evident that our nation of Zimbabwe is an angry nation. Bitter and angry. And the causes of this exist in abundance. But, we cannot overcome our present challenges if we habour anger and bitterness to this degree. I write to urge that we must free ourselves of these burdens.

One of the reasons we have been horrified by the behaviour of some among us over the years is because we believe they have acted in less than humane ways. We feel that they have harassed, debased and even dehumanised us, our brothers and our sisters. Yet in all this, what we have yearned for is to be treated as human and to be recognised as such.

There is so much that defines us as humans. It is not just our ability to walk on two legs, because other animals can do that. It is not only our ability to talk because other animals can talk too, in their own ways. It is not simply that we can think, because we do not have a monopoly in that. In all the world’s struggles, against slavery, colonialism, racism, sexism, tribalism, and other indices of oppression, the core claim has always been that we are human, too. But all those who have prosecuted those struggles have not sought to achieve their objectives by demanding the dehumanisation of their tormentors and opponents. They have simply sought the recognition of a common humanity among peoples.

Said the great Zimbabwean liberation army commander, General Josiah Tongogara in an interview before independence:

“I’m dying to see a change in the system, that’s all. That’s all! I’d like to see the young people enjoying, together, black, white, enjoying together in a new Zimbabwe. That’s all!”.

Those were wise words from a man leading a war of liberation. General Tongo was keen to emphasise that he was not fighting the white race or that the white race was any less human than the black race. He was simply fighting for equality and equal opportunities. He did not wish to dehumanise the whites simply because the racist colonial regime treated blacks as lesser humans, no. It was a fight for a common humanity.

Ubuntu/Hunhu is the priceless wisdom of our ancestors. I am because you are – that is the essence of this ancient African philosophy of life and community. This is why when we say good morning to our neighbour, he does not respond by simply saying that he is well, but by saying he is well if we are well too. We ask in this greeting, about the welfare of our neighbour’s children and our neighbour in turn enquires into the welfare of our own children. It is the shared concern, the empathy, that unites us as human. It is all an acknowledgement of the fact that one’s humanity is inextricably connected to the recognition of another’s humanity. It is this bond that lays the first brick in building community.

But those of us who grew up with cattle understand that even animals have a sense of empathy, too. If our cattle encountered a spot where a cow was slaughtered, our cattle would gather, the bulls would bellow and the cows would moo. It was a sad spectacle, but it also taught us that even animals mourn, too; that they understood death and the pain of loss of one of their own, not because they knew the departed cow, but because it was a cow. I call it the wisdom of the cattle.

When a fellow human goes astray, and dehumanises another, we are horrified and disgusted by that behaviour. But we do not pray to be like them. We do not hope to be like them. Because when we do so, we are no better than those that we criticise for straying beyond the boundaries that define humanity. Rather, in doing so, we acknowledge our own debasement and equal those whose behaviour we abhor.

As a people, we are or must be better than that. We must not allow the burden of bitterness to define us and our conduct. The Germans have a word for it: Schadenfreude, the pleasure or satisfaction that one derives from another person’s misfortune. We are better than that, otherwise it’s a never-ending cycle of sadness and pain.

The great Nigerian wordsmith, Chinua Achebe reminds us in Things Fall Apart, of the beauty of community:

“A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.”

And he adds,

“We do not pray to have more money but to have more kinsmen. We are better than animals because we have kinsmen. An animal rubs its aching flank against a tree, a man asks his kinsman to scratch him”

I’m guided by the wisdom of the village, whose rocky, thorn-lined and meandering paths nurtured my moral compass. It is from there that I learnt that you might be my opponent, I might differ with you, but in times of trouble, when you are in need of a hand, I will stand by you. I will stand by you because that is what humans do. If you have treated me as a lesser human before, I will help you to understand what it means to be human. It is this wisdom, the wisdom of the village, that guides me.

God bless Zimbabwe. May God shift the burden of anger and bitterness from the shoulders of Zimbabwe. May we individually and collectively, friends and foes, re-capture the wisdom of our ancestors: Ubuntu/hunhu. To show what it means to be human is a great instrument for social change.

waMagaisa