Sense and Nonsense: Ubuntu

Opinion by Aysha Bagchi
April 30, 2010, 12:34 a.m.

Sense and Nonsense: UbuntuUbuntu: I am because you are. It is a South African concept based on the idea that no human being can exist in isolation. To have Ubuntu is to appreciate human interconnectedness, to share in each other’s pains and pleasures by virtue of belonging to a greater human family.

 

We see this concept in cultures the world over, even in the cyberworld – the free and open source software Ubuntu is named after it. Hinduism has the concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, envisioning the world as a global village. One of the dorms at Stanford, Ujamaa, is named after the Swahili word for familyhood, emphasizing that a person becomes a person through her people and community. John Donne, the Christian poet and minister, proclaimed in a sermon that “no man is an island” and that the death of any individual diminishes all members of mankind. Martin Luther King, Jr. once described the human condition as being caught in an “inescapable network of mutuality.”

 

This idea of interconnectedness can find its strongholds in spiritual and literary traditions around the world. But such talk is no longer reserved for moments when we are reading poetry or discussing faith. Today, it seems to have penetrated into the mainstream in a serious way. Leaders are increasingly speaking of how our existence is connected to the existence of others, justifying good works by the stake we all have in the welfare of our fellow beings.

 

For example, Bill Clinton often invokes the term Ubuntu in his speeches. He will reference how scientists sequenced the human genome during his presidency, showing that human genetic makeup is 99.9 percent the same. He uses this paradigm to discourage us from concentrating on our differences, arguing that they constitute just one tenth of one percent. Barack Obama made a similar point in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. He reminded us that we are all, as humans, “basically seeking the same things … [hoping] for the chance to live out our lives with some measure of happiness and fulfillment for ourselves and our families.” In this light, he urged for the “continued expansion of our moral imagination” and “an insistence that there’s something irreducible that we all share.”

 

It is interesting to consider how particular these messages are to our time. Bill Gates often talks about how he was not aware of the gross inequities in the world when he was our age, telling students that today we know more and therefore must do more. But when he speaks of knowledge, he is not really just talking about being informed that there are people born into suffering – surely he knew that when he was 20 years old. He is talking about possessing an awareness of our shared identity, a sense that the problems of people in another corner of the world or an inner-city ghetto are our problems. He is talking about the fact that many young people today connect their identity to the identity of all people.

 

The sense of urgency that accompanies this awareness is all around us. A huge number of students apply to Teach for America each year, wear FACE AIDS pins on their shirts and backpacks, participate in public service and speak with knowledge and passion about the world’s biggest problems. Individuals whose identity is rooted in a strong tradition of faith have long felt this urgency. But today the urgency is not restricted to any particular sect or holy day – many young people even resent the suggestion that we need to belong to a spiritual tradition in order to care.

 

The downside to all this energy is a feeling of helplessness among students. Despite how commonly students try to make a difference, there is so much doubt about whether we do make a difference, even whether we can. We listen to leaders tell us of the need to solve overwhelmingly big problems such as global warming, billions of people without enough to eat, high population growth that shows little signs of abating, so many millions dying from diseases that have been eradicated in the western world – and the list goes on. Much of what we do is barely a band-aid on these big problems.

 

On a service-learning trip over spring break, with a group that was a bit like a microcosm of Stanford students, many expressed feeling overwhelmed by the problems we face and our slight ability to affect them. One student sought to allay all these feelings when he gathered the group together on our last night with a message; he said that our worth is not determined by our particular accomplishments or grades, but rather by the feeling we have that there are problems to tackle and that we cannot stand idly by. This sense of urgency that exists among so many students, the fact that Ubuntu has become a powerful concept to us, is the most exciting and hopeful attribute of our generation. The biggest challenge has always been getting people to care – we have made serious inroads in tackling that one.

 

Aysha is feeling hopeful. Send her your comments at [email protected].

Login or create an account

Apply to The Daily’s High School Summer Program

Priority deadline is april 14

Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds