In Zulu, ubuntu means something like ‘I am because you are’, or ‘we are because you are’.
Meeting the challenge: Tim Gee on the World Plenary
‘We know that if anyone is excluded on grounds of cost, we will not be a fully-gathered community.’
I began this year as an online participant at Southern Africa Yearly Meeting. Physically I was just south of Manchester in England. Mentally and spiritually, though, I was in South Africa.
I was taken aback by how connected I felt to the week’s proceedings. Perhaps it was because I was in a different place than usual. Perhaps it was because technology keeps improving. But there was also a certain power to the conversations, exploring the depths of meaning in the word ‘ubuntu’.
I had some prior familiarity with this word, especially thanks to Desmond Tutu, whose writings helped form and inform the socially-engaged Christianity I try to live by. But this event gave a profound and specifically-Quaker insight into how ubuntu is practised by Friends in Southern Africa.
In Zulu, ubuntu means something like ‘I am because you are’, or ‘we are because you are’. It’s a word that emphasises interdependence, mutuality and environmental protection. For Friends, there is a resonance with the belief in that of God in everyone, as well as with Jesus’ ‘Golden Rule’ – to love your neighbour as yourself. It goes much further though. In a panel on the theme, Quaker UN Office director Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge shared how ubuntu helps illuminate Quaker testimonies and values. Sophie Nsimbi pointed out ways Friends practise ubuntu through projects for peace and equality, and others spoke of work for a universal basic income and climate justice.
Later on, Duduzile Mtshazo, former Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) clerk, spoke about her first experience of Quakers, which also forms part of Living Adventurously (the book of faith and practice in Southern Africa): ‘The warm embrace of acceptance, just as I was, was moving and magnetic… I found my humanity and humanness through those Friends who saw that of God in me and affirmed that.’ Elsewhere in the book, ubuntu is described as being rooted in ‘the invisible circuit of connection between us all’.
All of this gives me hope. The understanding of ubuntu shared by Friends in Southern Africa aligns closely with what FWCC seeks to foster globally. The theme of World Quaker Day in 2023, and the next World Plenary Meeting in 2024, will be ‘Living the Spirit of Ubuntu: Responding with hope to God’s call to cherish creation and one-another’.
The planning team for the plenary is also trying to make decisions in a way that reflects ubuntu. It will be the first World Plenary to take place in-person and online, so will be more sustainable than previous events, with Quaker communities able to join digitally.
We know that if anyone is excluded on grounds of cost, we will not be a fully-gathered community. We’re preparing to subsidise more than half of the places, with a further fund to support participation online. This will require a significant amount of money but we go forward in faith that Friends who can will share.
Ubuntu is not just a word or an idea, but something profound we seek to live by, in God’s spirit. I look forward to learning more, and trying to live it as a community.
Tim is general secretary to FWCC. To donate to the plenary, visit www.fwcc.world/donate.
Comments
How can anyone imagine that an in-person global meeting is still possible, or remotely in the spirit of Ubuntu or God’s will, when the travel adds so much to the climate catastrophe.
By Priscilla Alderson on 18th July 2023 - 12:45
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