UBUNTU

Fatimah Anibaba

Ubuntu is a concept that encourages collectivism rather than individualism. A well suited illustration would be of the American Robin. A female robin builds a nest and lays eggs, sits on them for about fourteen days to provide warmth during which time she starves herself and only goes out to hunt for brief spells of time. When the eggs hatch, she cares for and feeds the young for thirteen more days after which she teaches them to fly and leaves them on their way. She gains nothing from them but her presence is paramount to their survival. She is alive only because of her mother’s selfless care and in turn her children have life only because of hers. Ubuntu states that I am because we are. You are because I am and I am only because you are.

Ubuntu is not as alien a concept as it may seem at first glance. Ubuntu is found in simple ways in everyday life. It is a parent’s unconditional love and care for a child. It is self-isolation when you know you’ve been exposed to the Corona Virus. It is giving back to the planet by planting trees we ourselves will never need.
Ubuntu is not only doing good for others but also refraining from actions beneficial to you alone at the detriment to others. As a trader it is not selling inferior merchandise at the price of the superior ones. As a politician, it is not dipping your fingers into the state’s purse. It is not violating the toddler you were asked to mind and doing a honest day’s work rather than engaging in the new trend of cyber fraud to get some quick cash.

Ubuntu also means going out of your way to make the world a better place for people. It is in the little things like offering a pregnant woman your seat in a bus and helping a blind man cross the road.

Imagine a world where everybody practices Ubuntu. Where we do not have to worry about thieves and murderers nor rapists and pedophiles. It would be an utopian paradise. A world lawless not because everyone is anarchial but because there would be no need for laws and punishment when everybody is compassionate.