Ubuntu - Reflect my Humanity
While many of you may have come to know the word "Ubuntu" through the Linux based operating system it is worth getting to know its meaning which is deeply philosophical. Ubuntu is an ancient Bantu word and, like many ancient words, it is open to interpretation. Desmond Tutu describes it as:
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.
It is somewhat similar to the concept of Ātman in Hinduism though I understand Ubuntu as more humanist with lesser religious connotations. I personally liked what Chris Abani has to say about Ubuntu. In his talk at TED he said:
The only way for me to be Human is for you to reflect my Humanity back at me.
Simple, poetic and thoughtful. Reading Chris Abani, his sensitivity to human stories and the way he tells it, is reminiscent of reading Tagore. Abani, a Nigerian Heebo, is an English writer, poet and musician. His work is political in nature but very human in its telling. It mostly revolves around themes of lost and created identities and the absence of objectivity in human society. Graceland or his latest Song for Night are great books on American exported Pop Culture mixed with the reality of War, Greed and Corruption in conflict ravaged Africa.
I found two talks by Abani where I see that same template he applies of making you laugh through personal stories and then inserting some of the most horrific experiences he's been witness to. The sincerity of this telling and the sudden gear shifting makes him an amazing storyteller. I think there's a lot to learn from this style especially for political scriptwriters and authors. Rage shrouded in earnest humility without being overtly sentimental. It can be a fantastic storytelling tool when you feel your work is getting excessively polemical.
He ends his first talk with this poem by Lucille Clifton:
I offer to this ground, this Djinn
I imagine an Old Man crying here
Out of the sight of the Overseer
He pushes his tongue through a hole
Where his tooth would be
if he were whole.It aches in that space
Where his tooth would be
Where his land would be
His house, his wife, his son,
His beautiful daughter.He wipes sorrow from his face
And puts his thirsty finger
To his thirsty tongue
And tastes the salt.I call a name that could be his
This is for you Old Man
This Djinn, this salty Earth.
If you'd like to learn more about Chris Abani read up on his story as a Political Prisoner in Nigeria.
