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Could the Zulus Heal America's Polarization?
Introducing a unique strategy from the Zulus of South Africa.
Posted January 28, 2020
If someone were to ask you who you are, how would you answer?
Most of us, who are Americans or Europeans, would answer with our name, hometown, job, and any other information that helps to locate our unique spot on the socio-cultural grid.
When I describe who I am in enough detail, that description doesn’t fit anybody else.
But that is just one culture’s way of answering the question, “Who are you?” Other cultures answer the question very differently. Consider the answer given by members of the Zulu tribe in South Africa.
If you were to ask an individual Zulu, “Who are you?” they would respond with the word “ubuntu.” This is a word that translates, “I am because you are.” The Zulus have no concept of an individual in isolation. They define who they are through the community.
I witnessed this unique way of defining oneself several years ago when I was completing a study project in South Africa during the late 1990s. The Apartheid movement had only recently been ruled unconstitutional and disbanded. Apartheid was an institutionalized culture of white supremacy and segregation that dominated South Africa from 1948 until the 1990s. It was a cruel and unjust system that persecuted the black people in the country and denied them citizenship and the justice of due legal process.
Eventually, largely through the efforts of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Apartheid was ruled unconstitutional, and democracy was established.
Since the black population outnumbered the white population by ten to one in South Africa, the question on the minds of many whites was whether the black people would now use their newfound freedom to persecute them in revenge.
The result was quite different, and the reason was because of the concept of “ubuntu.”
Although the blacks hugely outnumbered the whites and could easily have avenged the past injustices they suffered, they chose the way of “ubuntu.” As several black South Africans explained to me, their history is extremely complex. Black people and white people are inextricably, uncomfortably bound together. Though there has been much sin and evil and oppression, black people need to work out the past in a spirit of peace and forgiveness. In a spirit of “ubuntu”: I am because you are.
During the time I was in South Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was beginning to formulate and assemble members for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It was designed to help people who had suffered great pain and evil to move forward in peace and forgiveness. It was the institutionalization of “ubuntu.” I was privileged to meet and talk to several members of the original Truth and Reconciliation Commission when I was in South Africa. They did amazing work!
The work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is now being carried on outside South Africa in the work of the current Restorative Justice Movement.
So, in today’s polarized America, we need to hear the uniting message of “ubuntu.” We are too often listening only to ourselves and the message of “our group.” In our current state of polarization, we are a house divided against itself, and as Abraham Lincoln warned us, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
We need to recognize that members of the other side are just as valid as we are, even though we may not agree with them, or even want to agree with them. And we need to learn to listen to them. There is something sacramental and holy about truly listening to someone else.
And as we listen to the people on the other side, we may find that we have some surprising areas of agreement. We may not all be as different as we think.
But it takes work. It takes commitment. It takes vision. It is always easier to destroy a country than it is to save it.
So, is it possible for this country and other similarly impacted countries to move beyond our polarization? The Zulus of South Africa have offered us a vision and a strategy.
“Ubuntu”: I am because you are.
Now, all we have to do is do it.
David Evans ©2020
