WEBVTT - Ubuntu ft. Andrew 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:08.879 Hello everyone, and welcome. It could happen here once again 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:13.960 hosted by myself Andrew along with the rest of the crew, 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:19.360 Mia and James. All Right, and today I want to 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:22.680 take a minute to talk about Ubuntu, and not the 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:29.920 Linux software, but the African philosophy. UBUNTUO is philosophical concepts 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:32.320 for those who don't know, derived from some of the 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:36.840 diverse and disposed indigenous traditions of the roughly three hundred 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:41.200 and sixty million Bands speaking peoples of Africa. Bantu, coming 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:43.840 from the Zulu wood for people, is a language family 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:47.400 spoken by approximately four hundred distinct ethnic groups and splinto 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:52.440 approximately four hundred forty six eighty distinct languages slash dialects, 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:54.840 born as a result of the great band to migrations 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.600 that it could in two major waves about three thousand 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:01.160 and two thousand years ago across Central, East and South Africa. 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:10.640 Contrary to the maxim I think therefore, I am Ubuntu, 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:15.720 roughly translated from the Guinibantu languages like Osa and Zulu, 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:22.400 means humanity and more specifically humanity towards others. I am 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:27.680 because you are. There are of course, various names to 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:30.600 the concept, from language to language and ethnic group to 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:36.520 ethnic group, including Boto, Muntu, Umundu, Batu, Utu, etc. But 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:42.240 Ubuntu is definitely the most prominent and internationally recognized. According 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:45.959 to the African Journal of Social Work, Buntu is a 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:50.080 collection of values and practices the people of Africa or 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:54.840 of African origin view as making people authentic human beings. Rather, 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.480 nuances of these values and practices vary across different ethnic groups, 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:01.880 they all point to one thing, an authentic individual human 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:08.160 being is part of a larger and more significant relational, communal, societal, environmental, 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:13.960 and spiritual world. This of course, is not unique to Africa. 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:17.840 What's any specific culture or any specific ethnic group. I 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:22.120 think we're finally sort of mirroring ideas in a variety 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:24.600 of contexts, because I think it really is something that's 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:29.760 fundamentally human. But I think it is good to look 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:35.320 at how these ideas have manifested in those more specific contexts. 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:41.160 I mean, in the oral literature of South Africa, with 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:44.919 pointersminning existence from as early as the mid nineteenth century. 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:50.240 The reported translations for the term have covered the field 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:55.800 of human nature, humanness, humanity, virtue, goodness, and kindness. And 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:58.200 so it's meant to be a sort of a parallel 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:03.120 to the abstract idea of humanity as a philosophy or 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:07.239 as a world view. A buntu really was popularized in 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:09.760 the beginning of the nineteen fifties, most of them be 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:12.960 in the writings of Jordan Kushan Gabani published in the 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:18.120 African Drum magazine. From then into the nineteen seventies, bunta 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:21.400 began to be used as a specific form of African 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:25.160 humanism because, of course, in that sixties and seventies period 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:29.120 you had a lot of afrocentric and pan African and 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:37.280 black power ideas coming to prominence around the world. This 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:41.640 is of course also coincided with the period of decolonization, 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:44.560 or rather formal political independence. It was taken place in 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:49.280 nineteen sixties, and this desire for these newly independent countries 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:55.600 to pursue Africanization, to sort of let go of some 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:59.560 of the symbolic aspects of colonial rule. Of course, that 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:03.520 process us has not really been completes and in many 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:09.480 ways the postcluonial status is equivalent to the clunial status. 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:14.400 But in some ways some leaders were trying to pursue 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:21.039 a sort of a new African specific humanism as a 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:24.520 philosophy for the bushoning countries at the time. It is 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:26.279 a part of the episode where we tell everyone to 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:30.920 read final again of course read Fano and reads is there. 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:34.800 But I found interested as that this this term ubuntu 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:40.200 is idea of Ubuntu particularly found it's It was specifically 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:45.480 picked up in Zimbabwe and in South Africa in a 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:51.920 very specific context where there was a transition to majority rule. 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:57.280 In nineteen eighty Ubuntu is m or hun whu is 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.919 um was presented as the political ideology you have newly 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:07.840 independent Zimbabwe. A guy named Stan lack ajwt sam Kange 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:14.040 published a treatise basically on who who is a more 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:18.359 Buntuism or zimbabwe indigenous political philosophy, and he was basically 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:24.840 trying to outline what the three major maxims that she 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:27.599 this philosophy should be. Of course, I would note that 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:34.520 his interpretation being a statesman is notably hierarchical, but for 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:36.880 the reasons I will go into a bit later, I 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:41.240 don't believe that makes the core of hunt necessarily hierarchical. 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:44.360 But the three maxims that he had in mind for 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:47.599 Buntuism or who who is Um was that to be 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:51.120 human is to affirm one's humanity by recognizing humanity of 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:55.560 others and on that basis establish in respectful human relations 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:59.000 with them. The second maxim means that if and when 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:01.400 one is faced with a site of choice between wealth 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.160 and the preservation of life of another human being, then 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:06.680 one should up for the preservation of life. And then 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:13.520 the third maxim says that the king owed his status, 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:16.120 including all the powers associated with it, to the will 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.600 of the people under him. As I think that's where 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:24.080 you get most prominently the sense of hierarchy that would 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:28.279 pervade sitting interpretations of UBUNTU, this idea of a sort 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:32.880 of a benevolent rulership, that these benevolent statesmen and kings 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:38.360 and prime ministers of presidents that they would they were 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:40.440 just exercising the will of the people. And of course 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:45.640 this is a mythology that is interpreting, reinterpreted across various 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:54.200 different regimes. In South Africa, in the nineteen nineties, Bunto 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.440 as a concept was used as sort of a guidance 0:06:57.200 --> 0:06:59.920 ideal for the transition from a part time to majority rule. 0:06:59.920 --> 0:07:04.600 I think around this time is when the international community 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:08.920 started to hear more about the term ubun two, particularly 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:11.760 as it appears in the epilogue of the Interim Constitution 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:15.280 of South Africa published nineteen ninety three. There's a need 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:18.440 for understanding, but not for vengeance, a need for reparation 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:21.560 but not for retaliation. I need for ubun two, but 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:27.920 not for victimization and coote. Of course, as we see 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:33.040 in South Africa today, that didn't play out very well. 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:39.600 The understanding has not reached that point, reparations has not 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:45.120 fully been achieved. And there's a I would say distinct 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:48.800 lack of ubun two. Yeah, they kind of brought in 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:53.800 Bank of America instead, which it didn't go great, all right, 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.560 yeah they do. It's very um, it's very big and 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:02.040 KNYA rewandered ubu munto I think. Um. But like you'll 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.920 see the phrase or that that were a lot around Rwanda, 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.440 and like if you go to the Kigali Genocybe Memorial Museum, 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:11.360 you'll see it a lot there, right, Like that is 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:16.560 a country that has with some authoritarian issues, like has 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:21.360 quite aside the differences which would previously allowed the genocide 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:24.720 to happen. I guess that's fair to say, yes, yes, 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:29.960 that's what the Tutsi and the hut yeah yeah, and 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:34.400 the Ti who often get missed out. Um. Yeah, but 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:39.080 they Yeah, that's actually, yeah, terrible terrible thing if if 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.160 people ever go to Rwanda, would highly recommend going to Rwanda. 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:45.880 Like the Kigali Genocyb Memoria Museum is an important thing too. 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:49.600 It's a very very well curated museum of like you said, 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:53.920 a terrible terrible thing that happened in South Africa the 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:59.240 transition to democracy and now Swindell's presidency nineteen eighty four. Um, 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:02.000 like I said, it really brought the term to more 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:07.440 well known outside the use And one of the people 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:12.240 who was a main, main proponent of that was Desmond Tutu, 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:15.920 who was the chairman of the South African Truth and 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:24.440 Reconciliation Commission and also a preacher. He sort of advocated 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:32.120 and Ubuntu theology that was really formative in the development 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:40.320 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He sort of moved 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:44.080 the idea of Untu from simply an African philosophy based 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:48.080 on African values and community and kinship to Christian values 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:52.800 and identity with the Creator God. It was a sort 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.120 of a strategy in an attempt to recover from the 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:59.880 pains and brokenness of apartheid. You know, Ankaran Ubuntu in 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:04.520 these into the Christian ideals of forgiveness and reconciliation as 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:16.160 gifts from God for peaceful communal coexistence. And I hopefully 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.719 not being tweet offensive when I say this to me, 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:24.520 that's a quintessential example of how Christian pacification hampers to 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:29.920 colonization efforts, because I've seen often that Christian notion of 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:34.559 forgiveness and reconciliation tuns the blame onto the victims for 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:38.000 not forgiven and expects a little to nothing from the 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:43.960 offender Excepaian and apology offense, not even any restitution or reparations. 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:48.080 And so for all the talk of Ubuntu, theological Ubuntu 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:53.440 and otherwise, situation South Africa is still very much whack. 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:57.880 And I think that that idea that oh wellsis is 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:00.959 in the past, it's over, get over it kind of 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:04.959 thing is problematic and it's so then it needs to 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:06.840 be resolved the things so that the colonization is going 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:21.320 to take place, right, So, putting aside the theological applications 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:26.199 so on problematic the logical applications. The ubuntuol view is 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:29.960 echoed in some senses worldwide, you know, social ecology when 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:34.599 review and mutually all these concepts point to our interconnectedness 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:38.640 as people and really point to the interconnectness that we 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:42.640 have as people that our systems I'm certainly not built 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:46.040 to support. We say that we see that in capitalism. 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:49.199 You know, capitalism doesn't embrace the interconnectness of all people. 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.440 It places us in opposition with another. It atomizes us, 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:56.880 it individualizes us. It alienates us from people, from ourselves 0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:59.520 and from others. So we must compete and stuff for 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:04.840 the stake us survival. Alienation of course in a capitalist context, 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:09.120 referring to our separation of our abilities from ourselves, making 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:11.280 us into mere tools for the use and benefit of 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:15.760 our bosses. I know. The workplace is definitely not something 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:18.200 that we have. Is that it is based on mutual 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:22.120 aid or wound too, you know, rather than working together, 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:26.240 working harmoniously, having access to means of production and sharing 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:32.240 in an equally place, in situation of a feud, of competition, 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:38.959 of struggling constantly and being squeezed and wrung out for 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:45.400 whatever our bosses going to get from us. Yeah, it's 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:48.360 when you said, like earlier, that one of the key 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:51.640 tenants was right, like recognizing humanity and other people affirmed 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:55.079 your own humanity. I might be paraphrasing there, but like 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:58.360 that's exactly what capitalism doesn't do. It just sees people 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:01.959 as like a tool to create more capital, to create 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:06.319 more more income. Like it doesn't recognize humanity. It sees 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:09.439 you as a means, not an ends, right exactly, And 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:12.640 I mean unlike in a communal system where your service 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:16.240 to others, you know, it's mutual, it's reciprocal, it's voluntary. 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:19.160 We find ourselves in a situation where we must give 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:21.800 away our labor, our time, and really our whole lives 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:27.559 just to survive. But that giving is not done out 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:30.360 to the goodness of our hearts or or as part 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:34.120 of a system, a sort of a network of support, 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:40.600 a safety nets or anything. It's just clawing towards survival, 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:44.520 you know, disconnected from the well being and the whole. Yeah, 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:49.760 very much. Everything around us has been you know, manufactured, 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:54.640 it's been transport, has been assembled and sold by other people, right, 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:59.800 people just like us, workers, just like us. Those people 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:02.360 have of lives just like ours. They have all the 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:06.640 same struggles that we do. But instead of relating to 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.240 these people, instead of freely sharing the fruit to our labor, 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:12.679 relating to the things that we have to buy, or 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:15.840 we don't see the work in people behind them. Yeah, 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:19.440 I think another aspect of it is that which I 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:22.240 find physically strange about. You know, the hundhu is m 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:29.640 aubuntuism that some Kange was trying to advocate, is that 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:35.160 I don't believe that Ubuntu or mutual lead, or any 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:37.880 of the principles that are bunto exposes is something that 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.640 the state is compatible with. Um. I don't think the 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.840 state is compatible with the acknowledgment of one's responsibility to 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.240 their fellow humans and the world around them. You know, 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:52.600 the state is built an exclusion on domination and deprivation 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:56.280 and the hierarchical division of the state generating the sort 0:14:56.320 --> 0:15:00.440 of inequality and decision making power and influencing O affairs. 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:07.920 It's about depriving certain people and elevating others, whereas Ubuntu 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:09.880 is supposed to be about the importance of the humanity 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:12.320 of both the individual in the community and about how 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:17.840 all people are connected in a way that is meant 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:22.240 to support and add to and contribute and clean and 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:27.760 service one another. If that makes sense. You don't like 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:31.360 the idea of this sort of community where everyone is 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:35.360 giving and sharing and taking, and everybody has something to 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:40.800 contribute to this human whole. I feel like there's something 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:45.680 that's lost when that whole is disrupted by certain people 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:49.960 being elevated to a status of having more power over others. 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:54.920 I mean, part of that humanity has to entail freedom 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:59.040 to self organized, freedom to associate, freedom to disassociate, decision 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.840 making power, autonomy, you know. Otherwise, what kind of humanity 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:06.360 is that? Really? How can people access their full humanity 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:09.720 in themselves if they're being deprived by others? On how 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:13.720 can those others who are depriving people have access their 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:16.640 full humanity when they're depriving others If you get what 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:19.720 I'm saying, Yeah, yeah, I think that's perfectly right. Yeah, 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:24.320 And I mean pretty much the same thing with the 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:26.840 system I mean with the capitalism, with the state, I 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:31.120 mean patriarchy, which also elevates some people above others and 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:35.880 denies those marginalized others full access the humanity. All of 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:40.600 us are restricted in some ways from understanding ourselves in 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:45.720 ourselves and through others by the ideology and system of patriarchy. 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:50.320 And of course the schools are out saying, but what 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:54.240 could be more incompatible with the Buntu than clue in theselve? 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:58.240 You know, doesn't simply deny the humanity of those that exploit, 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:03.080 it also strips the humanity the exploiters. I mean Assa 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:08.879 my referenced earlier wrote in Discourse and Clunism. Colonization works 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:12.960 to decivilize the colonizer, to brutalize him in the sense 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:14.879 of the in a true sense of the wood, to 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:21.600 degrade him and to awaken him to buried instincts, to covetousness, violence, race, hatred, 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.600 and more relativism. And we must show that each time 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:27.040 a head is cut off or an eye put out 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.960 in Vietnam and in France, they accept the fact, each 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:35.159 time a little girl is assaulted, and in France they 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:38.639 accept the fact each time a Madagascar is tortured, And 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:42.880 in France they accept the fact. Civilization acquires another deadweight, 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:46.960 a universal regression takes place, a gang green sets in, 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.000 a center of infection begins to spread. And that at 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:53.200 the end of all these treatise, treaties that have been violated, 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:56.280 while these lines that have been propagated, all these punitive 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:59.320 expeditions that have been tolerated, all these prisoners who have 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:02.320 been tied up, been interrogated, all these patriots who have 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:04.840 been tortured at the end of all the racial pride, 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:08.000 it has been encouraged, all the boastfulness that has been displayed, 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:11.159 A poison has been instilled into the veins of Europe, 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:18.760 and slowly, but surely, the continent proceeds towards savagery, powerful 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:27.840 words as usual from that great Yeah, that's very good. Yeah. So, 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:29.680 I mean, I think there's a lot of potential in 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:32.560 the interpretation of a bound too right, which is both 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:34.280 a flaw and a strength. And when I get into 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:38.440 the criticism a bit more, you'll see why. But regardless, 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:42.639 of course, there's value to be gleaned from diou understandings. 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:45.439 There's power in finding our roots to secure our future. 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:49.320 And whether in a partnership and affinity group, an organization, 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:53.399 a community, or beyond. This basic principle of recognizing the 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:56.440 authentic individual human being as part of a larger and 0:18:56.520 --> 0:19:00.760 more significant relational, communal society, of environmental and spiritual world 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:07.360 is vital process of social revolution, of confronting the powerful 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:12.480 through protests and occupations and reclamations and expropriations, in refusing 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:14.720 to cooperate with the powers to be through strikes and 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:18.159 boycotts and mutinies and other forms of interaction, and then 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:21.959 building new institutions like cooperatives and popular assemblies and libraries 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:26.399 and things. All of those things, all those aspects of 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:33.280 social revolution allow us to assert ourselves, to recognize the 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:38.320 mutual and ecater and connection of all people. You know, 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:42.440 a pot smith, the boon two is open and available 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:44.920 to others. It's afflaming to others. I feel threatened that 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:49.520 others are able and good. And so by recognizing with 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:51.320 the boon to, you know, recognize energy are part of 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:55.800 a greater whole. That whole is diminished when others are 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:59.600 humiliated or diminished when others are tortured or oppressed. And 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:03.960 so someone with a boon to, someone who recognizes the 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:07.280 interconnectness of all humanity is someone who has to be 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.520 engaged in some form of social revolution, who has to 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:13.320 be engaged in trying to free people, help people free 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:17.880 themselves so that they can engage in their own humanity, 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:22.560 and so add to your own humanity in turn. And 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:25.200 when it comes to the commons common ownership, you know, 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:28.879 the reversal of the enclosure movement socialization, but if you 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:34.040 want to call it, that is also something that ultimately 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:39.159 is about the bonds between people, about the distribution of 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:43.520 the means of production and of the fruits of all 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:46.080 of our labor, so that all can enjoy, so that 0:20:46.280 --> 0:21:01.800 all can have fested interest in our collective prosperity. When 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:07.639 it comes to you know, community work, you know, unto 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:13.280 is about this idea that we can work together, you know, 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:16.360 in growing our food and distributing when we need um. 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:21.720 This idea that being a mother or being a father, 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:25.359 being a parent, it's not just about being that to 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:28.760 your own biological children, but rather in recognizing that we 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:34.240 are all connected in that we it's it's like a 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:41.840 it's I can understanding that there should not be this 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:46.040 idea of all funds right, this idea that we're all 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:48.719 meant to look out for each other, that no person 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:53.159 is meant to be cut off from the sort of 0:21:53.359 --> 0:22:00.200 care that is necessary for carrying into fully realized So 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:03.360 I mean even in the realm of education, you see 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:06.840 potential applications if we're going to and recognizing that everyone 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:09.760 has different skills and strengths, that people are not isolated, 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:12.320 and that through mutual support they can help each other 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:19.399 to complete themselves. As Autry Tang argues, I mean, I 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:24.040 think there needs to be an education that recognizes the 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:30.399 importance of community, society, and environmental well being, one that 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:40.200 emphasizes the connection between all those things, one that involves interaction, participation, recognition, respect, 0:22:40.320 --> 0:22:48.680 and inclusion as core tenants of the learning process, of 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:53.120 students learning from facilitators and the facilitators learning from students, 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:56.240 of recognizing that we hold both positions, and that those 0:22:56.280 --> 0:22:59.720 positions are held from the moment we're born to the 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:03.760 moment one we eventually pass on as rich as the 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:07.200 potential of Unto. Maybe I don't want to put it 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:10.080 out as if it's some sort of like flawless and 0:23:10.280 --> 0:23:15.120 perfect philosophy, right, it's not above critique, it's not immune. 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:20.360 As I mentioned before, it's hierarchical interpretations and applications. It's 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:24.440 very much right for liberal sensibilities, as we've seen Departments 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:31.480 of State speaking of Untu diplomacy and Bunto foreign policy. 0:23:32.680 --> 0:23:37.520 And that's sort of thing. Some kanas idea that you know, 0:23:38.040 --> 0:23:39.720 part of a buontoo is that the king oways a 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:42.880 status including all the powers associate with it to wild 0:23:43.000 --> 0:23:47.399 people under him. I mean right now and for a 0:23:47.440 --> 0:23:51.119 while now, Boons has not had a single solid framework 0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:54.840 of what exactly entails, what it makes up, what it doesn't. 0:23:56.680 --> 0:24:00.480 There's still a lot of fuzziness and inconsists didn't see 0:24:01.040 --> 0:24:06.560 within different people's interpretations of the definition of untu. As 0:24:06.640 --> 0:24:12.200 one scholar in Yasham Booti has noted, there's an interpretation, 0:24:13.520 --> 0:24:16.359 so an interpretation of a buntu that sea is Africans 0:24:16.440 --> 0:24:20.280 has you know, naturally interdependence and harmony seeking. That humanity 0:24:20.440 --> 0:24:23.080 is given to a person buying through of the persons. 0:24:23.200 --> 0:24:28.040 But there's a sort of a trap in that because 0:24:29.680 --> 0:24:32.920 humanity is also pretty messy. The relationships between between people 0:24:33.400 --> 0:24:36.360 can also be very messy. It's not all sunshine and rainbows. 0:24:36.480 --> 0:24:41.280 You know, a broken relationship is as authentically human as 0:24:41.320 --> 0:24:45.880 a harmonious relationship. You know, a broken relationship can also 0:24:45.920 --> 0:24:50.840 be more ethical than a harmonious relationship. Booti points to, 0:24:51.080 --> 0:24:54.959 for example, the freedom that follows from a break from 0:24:55.000 --> 0:24:58.840 oppression that follows from a break from a relationship of 0:24:59.000 --> 0:25:04.320 domination to want of freedom. And of course this idea 0:25:04.400 --> 0:25:10.399 that harmonies relationships incapable of being oppressive is false. You know, 0:25:10.600 --> 0:25:15.600 a harmonia's relationship can be quite oppressive. In the Dynamics team, 0:25:15.680 --> 0:25:20.639 people that are hidden under that veal of Honkey Dory, 0:25:21.400 --> 0:25:25.400 you know. So, I mean there's a lot of there's 0:25:25.400 --> 0:25:29.000 a lot too Ubuntu, there's a lot of good to 0:25:29.119 --> 0:25:32.960 be cleaned, a lot of potential pitfalls to be avoided. 0:25:34.520 --> 0:25:37.000 So you know, take what's the value, leave what's not, 0:25:37.200 --> 0:25:41.000 Engage critically, what's your plans, and have a good day. 0:25:45.640 --> 0:25:48.000 It could Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media. 0:25:48.240 --> 0:25:50.879 For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 0:25:50.960 --> 0:25:53.159 cool Zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the 0:25:53.200 --> 0:25:56.600 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 0:25:57.200 --> 0:25:59.320 You can find sources for It could Happen Here, updated 0:25:59.400 --> 0:26:02.880 monthly at cool zone meta dot com slash sources. Thanks 0:26:02.920 --> 0:26:03.399 for listening.