Page 209 - A People Called Afrika

Ubuntu

a life world. We permeate each other; we are present in
each other. We influence and form each other’s personali-
ty. We exude feelings and actions, which help determine
the feeling tone of our home, our class at school, the other
person with whom we are talking. We are constantly offer-
ing good or not-so-good possibilities to some situation. The
need to think afresh about moral problems is ever present
and particularly great in a period of rapid economic and so-
cial change and rapid advance in knowledge of human nature.
Ubuntu is an instrument of peace. Therefore, to heal
the wounds of our unpalatable and painful history, and
the world, Ubuntu … is one of the best medicines to use
because it is the key to the creation of a better society.

Through Ubuntu we are weaving a cord of destiny – a destiny
that is beyond the reach of the spirit-forms, and should they
(spirit-forms) try to ascend to that destiny, they will break their
tiny toes. Once we reach that destiny, everybody, friends and
foes alike, will preach it to the world. This philosophy (Ubun-
tu) is not like a ship that can sink, but it is like a sea on which
many ships sail. It is not a dogma; but a set of attitudes to peace,
justice and equality. It is the light that illuminates the entire
world. We need to embrace Ubuntu in such a way that when
we see a woman, whether black or white, we say, “You are my
sister,” and when we see a man, whether rich or poor, whether
white or black, we say “You are my brother.” Once we achieve
this level, the night would be over and the day would have
begun to embark on our journey towards reaching our destiny.

We live in a time of cultural disarray and cultural decay: an
age filled with ruins and fragments of morality. Hence, our
intellectual landscapes are littered with allegorical tales of de-

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