UBUNTU-‘I am because we are!
I am happy to see you all read my blog again after quite a long break. Breaks are important to take as they refresh us and fill us with new energies and ideas. The day I left for my home town Hunza, Pakistan, I made a commitment with myself not to write on these vacation days; instead, I decided to observe things happening around. Say nothing, write nothing, and keep on observing.
I do not claim to be an expert in making observations but I would love to share my observations with you. I was wandering how to share these observations; it looked like a lengthy story, a blend of sweet and bitter experience difficult to put on paper with a proper flow.
Last day I happened to visit a close friend at the University of Punjab and he shared a story. It clicked me at the very same moment that this is the story explaining my observations. I am sharing that story in its original form. Try and understand the messages between the lines.
* – A very nice story from Africa ..
The motivation behind the Ubuntu culture in Africa …
An Anthropologist proposed a game to the African tribal children. He placed a basket of sweets near a tree, and made the children stand 100 meters away. Then announced that whoever reaches first would get all the sweets in the basket. When he said ‘ready steady go!’ …Do you know what these children did? They all held each other’s hands, ran together towards the tree, divided the sweets equally among themselves, ate the sweets and enjoyed it. When the Anthropologist asked them why they did so, they answered ‘Ubuntu’. Which meant -‘How can one be happy when the others are sad?
Ubuntu in their language means –
_’I am because we are!’_
What I have come to observe is, we have lost the UBUNTU perspective in our lives and cultures in every aspect. We all have started making others sad and hurting others intentionally or unintentionally for our own happiness. Hope we all bring UBUNTU back to our lives.