Ubuntu is an old South African word meaning ‘humanity’. I just completed my 7th year of Ubuntu retreats at the Buddhist Retreat Centre in Ixopo. The numbers of retreatants have steadily grown over the years. I felt priveliged to teach the old teachings of Ubuntu that was taught to me through my Xhosa sangoma apprenticeship. My Xhosa elders speak about ‘Ubuntu Ubunzulu’, the depth of humanity teachings. It starts with the individual person. We are all born human, however the elders say that we have to make a decision to become a human being. In the isiXhosa & isiZulu languages they speak about ‘umntu, ngumntu, ngabantu’. A person becomes a person through other people. As we listen to one another and engage with acts of kindness, consideration and empathy we feed our human family and ourselves.

Ubuntu is a circle of interconnectivity beginning with the human world and stretching into nature. The more harmonious and balanced the human world the more opportunity we have to help our non human families, animals and plants. The Ubuntu circle stretches upwards into the future with our current actions affecting the next generations, and it also stretches backwards in time to our ancestors. In South Africa we have many words for our ancestors, abazali bam (our parents), abantu badala (the old people) and one of my favourites, amathambo (bones, representing our bone people). There is an implicity responsibility to remember and honour our ancestors. As we do this we strengthen ‘isidima’ or dignity, facilitating a deeper sense of ‘Ubuntu’ and the interconnectivity of the human and non human lives on our planet.

I recorded a few of these teachings whilst leading the 3 day retreat in Ixopo at the Buddhist Retreat Centre. Please click the links below to access the youtube videos.