Ubuntu

A few months ago, the guys at church gave me a Kinyarwanda name, "Ubuntu", meaning grace or mercy in Kinyarwanda. They gave it to me because of my tattoo on my wrist that says, "Grace". Since I have changed my facebook name, I have come across quite a few meanings for the words and want to share them.


A friend recently posted this story:

Today I read a story about an anthropologist who proposed a game to the kids in an African tribe. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told the kids that who ever got there first won the sweet fruits. When he told them to run they all took each others hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said: UBUNTU, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?

UBUNTU in the Xhosa culture means: "I am because we are".

After doing a little wikipedia search on the word, I found something so timely to my heart that I just had to share with whoever will be reading this.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu offered a definition in a 1999 book:
"A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."
Tutu further explained Ubuntu in 2008:
"One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity."
I have been away from America for 8 months now and hit another realization of my heart and its changing. I want to build people up and not break them down. I don't want to make remarks that are in bad taste or aren't of the utmost integrity. I want to honor my God with everything I do and not just some things. I want Him to be glorified whether I am loving on babies or teaching marketing techniques to business women.

I want Ubuntu.

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