A lot of interesting comments and observations have appeared on Starbucks coffee cups over the last few years. The thoughts of painters, poets, coffee farmers, students, and ordinary “folk” have appeared on these comfortable portable billboards. Some of them were meaningful to me, some weren’t.
A while ago I got a cup with a new comment on it. It was a sunny Sunday morning, and we were in the neighborhood ‘Bucks buying our weekend brews before heading off to our plans for the day.
My grande extra hot non-fat (with whip) two-pump mocha told me:
"We will end poverty and stop HIV/AIDs within our generation when guided by African principles such as ubuntu that underscore our interconnectedness. With greater compassion for others, we would no longer accept hunger and disease as facts of life."*
I stopped in my tracks and I read it again.
Ubuntu is the name for a South African concept of shared humanity that asks us to define ourselves not so much by our own characteristics, but by our relationships with others. The word comes from the Zulu languages and can be translated as “I am because we are.” The Zulu phrase umuntu ngumuntu ngbantu tells us, “a person is a person through other persons.”
A while ago I got a cup with a new comment on it. It was a sunny Sunday morning, and we were in the neighborhood ‘Bucks buying our weekend brews before heading off to our plans for the day.
My grande extra hot non-fat (with whip) two-pump mocha told me:
"We will end poverty and stop HIV/AIDs within our generation when guided by African principles such as ubuntu that underscore our interconnectedness. With greater compassion for others, we would no longer accept hunger and disease as facts of life."*
I stopped in my tracks and I read it again.
Ubuntu is the name for a South African concept of shared humanity that asks us to define ourselves not so much by our own characteristics, but by our relationships with others. The word comes from the Zulu languages and can be translated as “I am because we are.” The Zulu phrase umuntu ngumuntu ngbantu tells us, “a person is a person through other persons.”
Paul of Tarsus has some poetic, vivid, beautiful things to say about the body of Christ and its comparison to the human body. He might see these comparisons in even sharper relief today with our modern knowledge of the body and its immune system. When tragedy befalls one part of the body, however distant, foreign, and unknown, we have two choices. We can cut off the infected part, or we can rush to its aid like white blood cells rush to serve different parts of the human body.
Only one of these choices, though, follows the spirit of ubuntu. Only one of these choices defines us a fully human. Only one allows us to walk in the ways of the lord.
To the people of Mhlosheni: umuntu ngumuntu ngbantu. The siSwati spoken in Swaziland is a close cousin of the Zulu language. I promise to learn how to pronounce this phrase soon.
* Cedza Dlamini, youth emissary for the UN Millenium Development Goals, founder of Ubuntu Institute for Young Social Entrepeneurs
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