Ubuntu ungamntu ngabanye abantu

Xhosa proverb

"People are people through other people".

"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."

Desmond Tutu explaining Ubuntu in No Future Without Forgiveness; 1999

 
Copyright Project RENEW, 2001, 2002