RWO: Ubuntu

Jess writes:

It’s not just a funny sounding word! It is also the underlying philosophy of South African life. The most common definition of ‘Ubuntu’ is “I am because you are”. This may sound like one of those cryptic philosophies of age-old civilizations, but you can actually still see this practice – or rather, this feeling – among families, neighbors, close-knit communities, and sometimes, even in cross-cultural of cross-racial interactions. Since I will not attempt to provide an appropriate explication of the word, the philosophy, the feeling – I will, instead, provide an anecdote (told to me by a fellow PCV) that I believe captures the essence of Ubuntu most perfectly:

A mid-thirties white couple and their baby broke down outside a township and were forced to utilize the public transit system via the local taxi rank. This (that is, white people at a taxi rank), in case you have not heard it explained by us before, is extremely uncommon. And for the white South Africans of this country, it is often viewed as a virtual “don’t” on the list of transportation options. But apparently there was no other option. The wife carried her young child, no more than 6 months, who was crying incessantly throughout the taxi rank experience. (I would make the conjecture that this may have had something to do with the most certain level of unease that the baby’s mother was emanating at the time.) The taxis began to load and the couple, in line to board the over-cramped and steamy minivan, waited in line with the other passengers. The baby continued to howl. Finally, a large black woman – the type that has obviously had her fair share of babies and has cared for her fair share of others – tapped the young wife on the shoulder. They exchanged some words and gestures (as the black woman did not speak much English and the white woman spoke absolutely none of the local language), but it became apparent that the black woman was offering to hold the child. The mother, perhaps grasping at her last bit of emotional strength, eventually gave in. The stranger, taking the child in one arm, borrowed a towel (used here as a baby wrap) from another mother standing nearby, swung the child onto her enormous back, tied up the towel tight around her bossom, and stood virtually still… the baby quieted within seconds. The white woman was astounded, confused, almost frustrated and began stringing together all sorts of foreign English words to ask simply, “How?” The comforting woman – who I imagine to have had that familiar round face that shows far too many lines for a life not yet old – just replied with a smile. All that was needed, you see, was another woman, another mother, an ounce of assistance and commonality in the form of a gesture that said silently, “We may seem worlds apart from one another, but I know something that you may not, and I can help you.” To mean, that is Ubuntu.