UBUNTU
This joyous ditty was composed by Tasmanian songwriter Ben McKinnon in 2008. Not only does McKinnon condense 1500 years of church history into four words, he manages to voice the essence of ubuntu, the Nguni Bantu word first brought into the English lexicon by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
In Tutu's words, "You can't exist as a human being in isolation. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We belong in a bundle of life. A person is a person through other persons."
Ubuntu translates literally as "human-ness", but Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee elaborated in what was to become a maxim: "I am what I am because of who we all are."
This is where love walks in, pain walks out and broken hearts turn into smiles.
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Sources:
No Future Without Forgiveness, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1999
Reconciliation: The ubuntu theology of Desmond Tutu, Michael Battle, Pilgrim Press, 2007
In Tutu's words, "You can't exist as a human being in isolation. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We belong in a bundle of life. A person is a person through other persons."
Ubuntu translates literally as "human-ness", but Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee elaborated in what was to become a maxim: "I am what I am because of who we all are."
This is where love walks in, pain walks out and broken hearts turn into smiles.
PREVIOUS // NEXT
Sources:
No Future Without Forgiveness, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1999
Reconciliation: The ubuntu theology of Desmond Tutu, Michael Battle, Pilgrim Press, 2007
