Ubuntu and the human Herd

Today is the official launch of HERD. Feels funny after all this time. So am getting together with a few friends to celebrate the fact. Just as humans always gather to mark important moments together. And have always done.

It made me think of arguments about whether to call the book "Ubuntu" (my early fave) or not. Probably right not to (not just because of the Linux variant but also because Africa's issues are rather more important and serious than those I will ever have to deal with - as an old boss used to tell me, "it's only advertising, nobody died". The struggle for freedom in SA was very different and something I wouldn't want to tarnish).

But maybe the Ubuntu thought is relevant today after all.

Ubuntu is a Zulu/Xhosa word which expresses a view of humanity which is essentially mutual and interdependent (and not individualistic in the way we understand things).

The Xhosa proverb "Ubuntu ungamntu ngabanye abantu" roughly translates as "A person can only be a person with and through other people". It shapes so much of African life and makes our Anglo-Saxon attempts to isolate our selves from each other seem cold, unhelpful and unhealthy even.

Desmond Tutu puts it this way in No Future Without Forgiveness:
"My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up in yours. We
belong in a bundle of life. I am a human because I belong. A person
with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does
not feel threatened that others are able and good; for he or she
belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are
humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or
treated as if they were less than who they are."

So my excitement today is cause for excitement amongst all those I know and care for; my achievements also somehow theirs (and yours), also.

Because I belong.

Because we belong to each other.

Because it's often difficult to tell where you start and I end.

And that - whatever your therapist tells you - is a very good thing