It's been a difficult week for the world as Madiba takes his final walk to freedom. But we are all much better for his presence on Earth and that is clearly evident in all we have witnessed in the last four days here in Johannesburg. Beyond the constant radio tributes and commercial spots paying him homage, the city and all of South Africa seems to be stopping to give thanks, smile more genuinely at one another, and pay their respects by striving to live his lessons. Even at 7 am on a Sunday morning, his house in Houghton (not his museum house in the township of Soweto), was teeming with people grieving for our world's loss.
At school, my students and I read Chris van Wyk and Paddy Bouma's abridged children's story Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom while trying to figure out what the zulu word, UBUNTU meant. The word ubuntu is one that Mandela referred to often and literally translates to "human kindness." During Apartheid, ubuntu developed in to an ideology called Ubuntuism but became commonly used internationally once Mandela became president in 1994.
As a philosophy, ubuntu is something we should all achieve for. To look for the virtue, goodness, and kindness in one another's human nature. To that end, my students and I reflected on how WE could demonstrate ubuntu. According to them, it doesn't take much:
- "Be caring to people."
- "Hug a person when they're sad."
- "Say, 'Thank you!'"
- "Don't judge people."
- "Be principled even when it's hard to do the right thing."
For some more pictures of the way we see beauty through grief, check out my Flickr feed.
