Ubuntu in Rooiboklaagte

"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.”  Tutu 

The front door being bricked in place and (below) the Mapusha women admiring their new studio.

Ubuntu is a an ethical concept of South Africa that was spoken of often in the early days of Mandela and now is the name of a new Linux-based computer operating system and a new soft drink. The concept is one that appeals greatly to my idealistic nature. The notion that when one is humiliated, all are humiliated, when one is oppressed all are oppressed sounds like both a deep spiritual principal and a gentle humanist philosophy. 

In the last few weeks I have had the opportunity to understand the essence of this practice in a visceral way. What I now see is that this is practiced daily in the studio of Mapusha. When little Zanile falls down, all of the women within sight will shake their heads with a worried frown and say, “Sorry, sorry, Zanile!” They are expressing their pain at her pain. It used to make me laugh when I would clumsily trip and Gertrude would say, “Sorry, sorry, Judy,” but I have come to appreciate the sense of connection this practice holds within it. 

Over the last month, as I came to the studio with my swollen arm either bandaged or in a sling I could feel all the women looking first at my arm when I entered the door. It was a collective “sorry, sorry” that hit me like a wave of warmth each day. 

Then, yesterday I had the unpleasant experience of an angry American expressing his low opinion of my project management skills loudly, publicly at the building site. The workers went on working, wheeling their full barrels of bricks to the base of the scaffolding, mixing cement and placing bricks up near the top of the walls but, again, I could feel the collective caring surrounding me. When I left the confrontation and walked over to stand with Desmond at the cement mixing pile, sure enough, he looked up at me with great concern in his eyes, shook his head slightly and said, Sorry, sorry Judy.” I glanced up at the women with the bricks and they, too with a slight shake of their heads communicated their support to me. 

I feel graced to understand more deeply the experience of Ubuntu here in Rooiboklaagte. It would seem to me that the gun slinging individualism so prized in the states would benefit from the teaching of this rural South African community. They know how to live together with a great sense of interconnectedness and a great deal of heart. 

At the building project it was time for a birthday celebration with Mapusha and the building crew! Gertrude’s 71st birthday and my 62nd were honored with cake, apple slices, cool drinks and, of course, a double dose of all singing “heppy berthdey to you.”

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