Ubuntu, an inspiring motto
It is said that a historian, visiting a certain African tribe, sought to understand what the basic human values of that people were. To do so, he played a game with the children. He placed a basket of fruit under a tree and proposed a race. The child who managed to arrive first could keep all the fruit.
“I am who I am because we all are”
When the historian gave the starting signal, something unexpected happened. The children ran towards the tree all holding hands, arriving all at the same time and able to enjoy the prize equally.
Perplexed, the man asked:
— Why did you all run together, holding hands, if one of you could have won all the fruit?
The children promptly replied:
— Ubuntu! How could any of us be happy if all the others were sad?
Ubuntu is a Zulu and Xhosa term, languages spoken in Southern Africa, that expresses an inspiring concept: “I am who I am because we all are”. It means that the harmony of the group translates into individual well-being and that through cooperation happiness can be achieved. It is the expression of a recognition that, in essence, we depend on one another, and that without the other our existence becomes irrelevant.
