African Ubuntu: The Spirit We Need in the Middle East

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African Ubuntu: The Spirit We Need in the Middle East

Posted By Emad Omar

October 4, 2007

A few years back, Susan Collin Marks, an international conflict transformation specialist from South Africa, wrote a great book, Watching the Wind, about the South African transition from apartheid to democracy. Its importance lies in the fact that it answers a question that has been on my mind for some time: How did the apartheid regime in South Africa end with relatively little bloodshed, when a doomsday scenario had always been predicted?

In her book, Susan explains how the spirit and culture of the South African people played an important role in making the peaceful transition possible. She describes the culture and spirit of Ubuntu, which in the Xhosa and Zulu languages means “people are people through other people.” As Archbishop Desmond Tutu says, in Ubuntu “my humanity is caught up inextricably in yours. When I dehumanize you, I inexorably dehumanize myself. The solitary human being is a contradiction in terms.”

Ubuntu expresses itself in hospitality, compassion, a desire to help others, and tolerance. Furthermore, it maintains open doors, welcomes everyone, and promotes inclusion. The culture of Ubuntu helped South Africans reconcile through a peace process that focused on ending apartheid rather than on revenge, and the South African tradition of storytelling from the heart set the stage for public forgiveness and a better future. This is a culture that cherishes actively listening to the narratives of others.

Reading about Ubuntu, I could see its similarity to Arab culture in how people see themselves through others and never hesitate to help. Today we desperately need to revive this Arab Ubuntu as we strive to shed the violence and futility that dominate the Middle East.

Ubuntu also entered the corporate and academic sectors in South Africa. In 1994, South African Airways restructured its organization to embrace Ubuntu and launched a marketing campaign to reflect its new policy of a caring airline. We, too, could integrate it into the management concepts that govern our institutions and enterprises.

Internationally, stories are told by individuals through art, music, and film. We listen, our humanity is touched, and we are encouraged to act. A case in point is the 2004 film “Hotel Rwanda”. Based on a true story, the film shows in horrible detail global inaction in the face of the 1994 massacre of a half-a-million Rwandans over a three-month period, not by weapons of mass destruction, but by machetes and guns.

According to a friend who worked there, Rwanda is a piece of heaven. Its Lake Victoria is among the most scenic in the world. Yet the film shows 40 thousand dead bodies fished out of that lake in the wake of those massacres. It shows how an individual’s identity can become a fatal flaw. Colonialism, intolerance, bigotry, the indifference of the international community and power struggles all contributed to producing this tragedy.

Music can also play a role in telling people’s stories, especially if prominent musicians are involved. A case in point is the American rock star Alecia Moore, known as “Pink”. In her song, Dear Mr. President, she raises the people’s voice by asking difficult questions on such pressing socio-economic and political issues as war, homelessness, and those with little economic opportunity. Although Alecia is most likely not aware of it, she is calling for the Ubuntu spirit when she sings, “Dear Mr. President, how do you sleep while the rest of us cry? How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?”

Some songs turn into a legacy with time. We Shall Overcome, by an unknown songwriter, became the anthem of the non-violent Civil Rights movement in the United States and later found its way to South Africa during its peaceful transition to democracy. In 1996, Diana Ross sang it in Budapest in a remarkable opera variation.

Today, more than at any other time, the world needs the spirit and culture of actively listening to the stories of others, seeing life through their eyes, sharing with them life’s journey and peacefully transforming difficulties into positive change. Translating this spirit into music, literature, and daily life helps reduce the effects of devastating wars and violent conflicts and provides the opportunity for peaceful solutions.

The televised bloody and violent images that invade our daily lives in the Middle East are terrifying and should come to an end. Perhaps the solution is in a book, a film, a song, a poem, or a play, that shares our stories. The people of Ubuntu would know best.

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