EDITORIAL
Backstage | Jimmy Dodd
Recently I connected with the Right Reverend Dennis Milanzi, bishop of Eastern Zambia. During our time together, he taught me a principle commonly known in African nations as “ubuntu”—often translated into English as “I am because you/we are. You in me and I in you.”
Ubuntu’s communal perspective stands in contrast to individualism, the counter to “me first” culture. Ubuntu is the pushback to isolationism. It fights against any philosophy that places one individual above others. Ubuntu finds good in individual uniqueness and difference, but always in the context of togetherness and community.
Ubuntu paints a picture of collective success as people work together, sacrificing for the common good. It means the interconnectedness and interdependence of humanity, and the acknowledgment of each person’s responsibility to one another and the world around them.
While the word may be new to some, it is more embedded in our culture than you might realize. For example:
• In the 1990s, ubuntu played a central role in the messages of Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu as they led South Africa out of apartheid.
• Ubuntu has been used by U.S. presidents and U.S.-based denominations to convey a message of unity in togetherness.
• The popular Ubuntu Community delivers software freely to everybody on the same terms.
• Between 2004 to 2013, the Boston Celtics would break every huddle by shouting “Ubuntu!” It was instilled in the team by Coach Doc Rivers who embraced the principle of “We are better together.”
Though the word and philosophy originated in Zulu and Xhosa cultures in South Africa, I would suggest that the principles of it are found throughout the Scriptures. Leviticus 19:18 says, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” Proverbs 19:17 talks about the need to be generous to the poor.
Ubuntu is the way of Jesus. In Luke 6:31 and Matthew 7:12, he teaches, “As you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” In Luke 15:8–9, Jesus commands us to rejoice with those who rejoice. He teaches to primarily seek not our own individual good but the good of the kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33). This is ubuntu.
The concept behind ubuntu is also central in the writings of the apostle Paul. He reminds us that we are an interconnected community (1 Cor 12:12–26). Philippians 2:3–5 reads, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 15:1 states, “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak.” In 1 Corinthians 10:24, Paul writes, “Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.”
The ultimate act of ubuntu is found in John 3:16, which tells us that God gave his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, because he loved the world. From forever past into the forever that lies ahead, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have lived an interconnected, ubuntu life.
May you live an ubuntu life.