U B U N T U + PSYCHOLOGY

UBUNTUPSYCHOLOGY: EXPLORATION OF THE SOUL...

2012-01-19T23:17:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64RcnMpHhLs&feature=share

Quote POSTED BY Frederica-Azania Clare: KEVIN WASHINGTON, Ph.D. on "ZULU TRADITIONAL HEALING" and "AFRIKAN" UBUNTU PSYCHOLOGY

2011-07-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

"Within the Afrikan context, humanity is focused on one’s being in the world. A person is determined good (sane) or not good (insane) on the basis of one’s behaviors. If one’s behaviors is deemed to be communally beneficial then that person has good character or what the Yoruba of West Afrika call iwa pele. This idea is a manifestation of Ubuntu. For the Afrikan no discussion about the color of one’s skin was relevant to the idea of character, or this would only explain the esoteric aspect of being. The exoteric is that which is of great significance to the Afrikan minded thinker. How does one be in the world? What do they do that adds beauty to life? How do they enhance the existence of the community? These are the questions of relevancy that are posed towards a person with respect to the Afrikan Worldview." - Written by Dr. Kevin Washington. Quote POSTED BY Frederica-Azania Clare: Quoted from, WRITTEN BY, Kevin Washington, Ph.D. "ZULU TRADITIONAL HEALING", "AFRIKAN PSYCHOLOGY" & UBUNTU PSYCHOLOGY.
Dr. Kevin Washington and Ubuntu Psychology: "As a Fulbright-Hays scholar Kevin researched the impact of socializing institutions on the healing or restructuring of post-apartheid South Africa. Additionally, he researched traditional healing systems in South Africa and Ghana, West Africa. Kevin is developing therapy (healing) paradigms for working with ethnically and culturally diverse populations with an emphasis on African American families, relationships, and men. The major thrust of the paradigms is to ensure that methods of healing are consistent with the essence and desires of diverse populations. His African Centered therapeutic model (Ubuntu Psychology) has been implemented in the Prosocial Family Therapy Project that provided in-home family therapy. It is being utilized with his consultant relationships and with his psychotherapy clients."-University of Central Florida

Pax,
Azania

2011-02-10T06:25:00.000-08:00

From Dr. Sam Anderson www.blackeducator.org at Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence:

NOTE: The minute you see "race" discussed as both a biological and geographical phenomena, you should stop reading. BUT, as African American sociocultural analyst, Neely Fuller, says (I'm paraphrasing): "If you don't understand the centrality of race... all other things will confuse you." The idea of "race"- at its very inception -has been a creation of racists/"white" supremacists to justify their dominance, exploitation and elimination of a people. Of course, it would vary over time and between the racists competing to bumrush the world.

Now, we are approaching a United States that will be -in the next generation- comprised of mainly people of color... and the dominant Eurocentric racists need to -somehow- remain dominant. So, since they have the power to define/redefine national policies around "who is who," they create this messy contradictory categorization of people to their advantage: the "traditional" African American, Asian, White and Latino categories are atomized so as to directly economically and politically disempower neighborhoods and cities dominated by Blackfolk and Latinos. Suddenly, the mythical "one drop Black blood" gets reversed to the "one drop White/Asian/Native American/ Nation X blood" myth to create a whole slew of nonBlack/nonLatino categories that feed into the "race-don't-matter-till-we-say-so" syndrome.

The physical reality is that there is but one race: THE HUMAN RACE. But the political reality is dictating that RACISM is still the deciding factor in who will benefit the most from the wealth and resources of Humanity and Mother Earth-- SEA
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February 9, 2011

Counting by Race Can Throw Off Some Numbers
By SUSAN SAULNY

College student Michelle López-Mullins

Mixed America’s Family Trees
The United States is in the midst of a demographic shift. Driven by immigration and intermarriage, multiracial and multiethnic Americans — usually grouped together as “mixed-race” — are one of the country’s fastest growing demographic groups. Examine the mixed-race family trees submitted by readers and listen to them describe their families, then submit your own.
GO TO: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/family-trees.html?ref=us

The federal Department of Education would categorize Michelle López-Mullins — a university student who is of Peruvian, Chinese, Irish, Shawnee and Cherokee descent — as "Hispanic." But the National Center for Health Statistics, the government agency that tracks data on births and deaths, would pronounce her "Asian." And what does Ms. López-Mullins's birth certificate from the State of Maryland say? It doesn't mention her race.

Ms. López-Mullins, 20, usually marks "other" on surveys these days, but when she filled out a census form last year, she chose Asian, Hispanic, Native American and white.

The chameleon-like quality of Ms. López-Mullins's racial and ethnic identification might seem trivial except that statistics on ethnicity and race are used for many important purposes. These include assessing disparities in health, education, employment and housing, enforcing civil rights protections, and deciding who might qualify for special consideration as members of underrepresented minority groups.

But when it comes to keeping racial statistics, the nation is in transition, moving, often without uniformity, from the old "mark one box" limit to allowing citizens to check as many boxes as their backgrounds demand. Changes in how Americans are counted by race and ethnicity are meant to improve the precision with which the nation's growing diversity is gauged: the number of mixed-race Americans, for example, is rising rapidly, largely because of increases in immigration and intermarriage in the past two decades. (One in seven new marriages is now interracial or interethnic.)

In the process, however, a measurement problem has emerged. Despite the federal government's setting standards more than a decade ago, data on race and ethnicity are being collected and aggregated in an assortment of ways. The lack of uniformity is making comparison and analysis extremely difficult across fields and across time.

Under Department of Education requirements that take effect this year, for instance, any student like Ms. López-Mullins who acknowledges even partial Hispanic ethnicity will, regardless of race, be reported to federal officials only as Hispanic. And students of non-Hispanic mixed parentage who choose more than one race will be placed in a "two or more races" category, a catchall that detractors describe as inadequately detailed. A child of black and American Indian parents, for example, would be in the same category as, say, a child of white and Asian parents.

The new standards for kindergarten through 12th grades and higher education will probably increase the nationwide student population of Hispanics, and could erase some "black" students who will now be counted as Hispanic or as multiracial (in the "two or more races category"). And reclassifying large numbers of white Hispanic students as simply Hispanic has the potential to mask the difference between minority and white students' test scores, grades and graduation rates — the so-called achievement gap, a target of federal reform efforts that has plagued schools for decades.

"They're all lumped together — blacks, Asians and Latinos — and they all look the same from the data perspective," said Daniel J. Losen, a policy expert for the Civil Rights Projectat the University of California, Los Angeles, referring to the Department of Education aggregation. "But the reality is much different. There are different kinds of discrimination experienced by these subgroups."

"It's a big problem for researchers," Mr. Losen continued, "because it throws a monkey wrench in our efforts at accountability, student tracking and the study of trends."

Education officials say the changes will more accurately reflect how Americans see themselves. The standards were also devised to save schools time and money. If schools were to report on every possible racial and ethnic combination to the federal authorities, there would be dozens of possibilities. It is simply easier to call students "two or more races."

"Ultimately, the department's final requirements aim to strike the balance," said Russlynn H. Ali, the department's assistant secretary for civil rights, "between minimizing the burden for local education agencies while also ensuring the availability of high-quality racial and ethnic data."

But critics, including elected officials and the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights, a Washington group that monitors federal policy and practices, have called the move disturbing and want more transparency. While the policy was still in developmental stages, the commission urged the Department of Education to "evaluate alternative approaches, including those adopted by the U.S. Census" to track students' race.

In 2006, 62 members of Congress signed a letter to the education secretary at the time, Margaret Spellings, expressing "utmost concern" about the changes. And research by the Harvard Civil Rights Project in 2006 showed that the new method of race reporting would result in a significant reduction in the black student population nationally, producing data that it called "questionable and often meaningless."

That could affect responsibilities held by the Department of Education in areas including civil rights enforcement, program monitoring, and the identification and placement of students in special education. The numbers also affect areas like research and statistical analysis, and school and teacher accountability when it comes to student achievement and academic progress.

"We believe that these changes are not supported by good research," the Harvard report stated.

In the late 1990s, the Census Bureau abandoned the idea of a catchall "multiracial" classification in favor of letting people check more than one box, in part because many Americans did not understand what multiracial meant. And a federal task force had concluded that creating a multiracial category would "add to racial tensions and further fragmentation" of the population.

The N.A.A.C.P. had vowed "vigorous resistance" to the notion of a multiracial catchall, concerned that such an option would diminish minority numbers, particularly blacks, in government counts.

But Project RACE, for Reclassify All Children Equally, one of the largest and most vocal multiracial advocacy groups, and its president, Susan Graham, a white mother of biracial children, were among those who had pushed equally hard for a multiracial classification.

"It is simply ridiculous that multiracial children should have to have the sanction and approval of other minority groups in order to have their own identity," Ms. Graham testified before Congress in 1997.

The Census Bureau's solution may have added layers of complexity for demographers — creating 63 categories of possible racial combinations — but it laid to rest fears from civil rights advocates that adding a multiracial category would diminish the number of blacks, Asians or American Indians in official government counts, since multiracial people are counted in the ranks of all of the races they check. (This does not distort the total population of the United States because that number is based on how many people answer the census questionnaire, not on adding the totals from each racial column.)

Even the Census Bureau acknowledges that accurately counting the multiracial population is a challenge and says it continues to explore ways to do it better, said Nicholas A. Jones, chief of the racial statistics branch. Some people of mixed race were fickle about their racial identifications in early tests of the new, more expansive methods, changing their answers from interview to interview.

Moreover, because the census in 2000 began allowing respondents to mark as many races as they wanted, today's numbers are not directly comparable with those before 2000.

The National Center for Health Statistics collects vital statistics from the states to document the health of the population. When it comes to collecting birth certificate information, though, the center encounters a problem: 38 states and the District of Columbia report race data in the new and more expansive manner that allows for the recording of more than one race. But a dozen states do not, because they still use old data systems and outdated forms. As a result, the center cannot produce consistent national data for what it calls "medical and health purposes only."

To get around that problem, the center reclassifies mixed-race births using a complex algorithm. For example, a birth to a parent who marked white, Asian and Native American would be declared just one of those races, depending on a number of variables in a probability model, like sex, age of the mother and place of birth. (Birth data is reported, in most cases, by the race of the mother.)

States were supposed to begin moving to the new way of collecting data in 2003, but a lack of resources has proved a hurdle for many and forced the center for health statistics to come up with this solution, which officials call temporary.

"There are over four million births every year, so we can't possibly get back to the mother and see which race she would prefer," said Stephanie Ventura, chief of the reproductive statistics branch at the center. "We don't do that on birth or death certificates."

Speaking of the complexities of keeping track of people by race now that the multiracial population is growing, Jeffrey S. Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, said, "The issue is multiplied manifold if you start thinking about HR departments and private firms."

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission mandates that most companies provide an annual count of their workers by race, ethnicity and gender. (The E.E.O.C. strongly suggests that companies ask workers how they identity themselves, as opposed to making assumptions based on appearance.) In 2007, the E.E.O.C. added a "two or more races" category.

Today, federal education officials defend their changes as an improvement over the more limited choices of the past, when students were identified by only one race and Hispanics were often undercounted. They also say they are merely trying to abide by orders from the Office of Management and Budget — which sets standards on how federal agencies keep statistics — that all agencies try to collect data in a two-part question: the first focused on Hispanic ethnicity and the second on race, allowing the reporting of more than one.

"The department strongly believes that the new requirements will help educators and others better serve students who identify with more than one race and Hispanic/Latino students, which is the fastest growing population in our schools today," said Ms. Ali, the assistant education secretary. Further, she said, schools are required to retain the original, more detailed answers to racial survey questions that they collect but do not report to the federal authorities — in case discrimination complaints arise, for instance.

"If our goal is to gather better information," said Louie Gong, a former president of Mavin, a mixed-race advocacy group based in Seattle, "then you'd think we wouldn't begin by arbitrarily reallocating people to categories they didn't pick."

Many mixed-race Americans are wary of statistics on race. In a typical year, Ms. López-Mullins, the Peruvian-Chinese-Irish-Shawnee-Cherokee president of a multiracial student group at the University of Maryland, says she is asked to fill out forms for school, for extracurricular activities and standardized tests, for example, that follow no set standards in asking the questions or gathering the answers.

"It's always, 'How can these multiracial individuals best benefit us? What category can we put them in to fulfill something?' " she said. "I figure there's such a large margin of error with that kind of ridiculous accounting anyway, I'm totally against it."

For years, when asked her race, she checked everything that applied: Hispanic, Asian, white and Native American. And if she is now confronted with a blank space for her race, she might challenge the form with a question of her own: "What does this tell you?"

The Department of Education says that answer tells a lot, and that its new race reporting standards are a step forward, particularly since the department will get a more accurate count of Hispanics, the nation's largest minority.

"Balancing these goals is difficult," Ms. Ali said, "particularly in light of how personal this issue is for many people."

2011-01-31T10:06:00.001-08:00

Hello All,

A professor I know is co-editing a special issue of the Journal of
Negro Education and asked me to circulate the opportunity below.
Interested authors must submit an abstract no longer than 500 words by
e-mail to journalnegroed@gmail.com by February 4, 2011. Please direct
any inquiries to Dr. Chance Lewis, chance.lewis@tamu.edu or Dr.
Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz at sealeyruiz@tc.edu.

Peace and blessings,
Joe
----------------------------------------------------

Call for Papers

Teacher Education and the Black Community: Preparing Teachers to Teach
Black Students, Preparing Black Students to Become Teachers

The Journal of Negro Education (JNE) issues a Call for Papers for a
special issue to be published in summer 2011 to advance scholarship
focused on the current and potential role that teacher education plays
in advancing the Black community. Chance W. Lewis, Ph.D., Associate
Professor and Endowed Chair in Urban Education, Texas A&M University,
and Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Assistant Professor of English Education,
Teachers College, Columbia University will serve as guest co-editors.

This special issue will feature research articles that assess models
and pedagogy to effectively train teachers of all backgrounds to serve
diverse classrooms. In addition, this issue seeks articles that
explore strategies to increase the number and capacity of African
American teachers; particularly Black male teachers, who currently
represent less than 2% of America’s teaching force.

Manuscripts acceptable for this volume will address one or more of the
following:

· How can contemporary teacher education programs prepare
teachers of all races, genders, and socioeconomic backgrounds to
educate diverse classrooms?
· How can teacher education contribute to eliminating the
achievement and discipline gaps that exist between Black students and
students of other races?
· What is the efficacy of modern approaches to helping teacher
trainees understand diverse classrooms, such as the use of multimedia,
documentary film, service learning, and volunteering?
· What are effective strategies to diversify America’s
teaching force?
· What are the key considerations to teacher across gender in
the Black community? (i.e., female teachers teaching Black male
students, and male teachers teaching Black female students)
· What is the influence of federal- and state-level
educational policies on building teacher education programs to
accommodate Black students?
· What is the unique role of historically Black colleges and
universities in preparing and recruiting Black teachers?
· How do we combat institutional racism and culturally biased
assessments when training teachers to serve diverse classrooms and
increasing the number and capacity of African American teachers?

Final manuscripts will undergo a blind peer review. This special issue
will be distributed to a wide range of educators and advocates,
including teacher education programs, teachers, school administrators,
policymakers, activists and families. Therefore, invited authors are
encouraged to use graphs and charts, summaries in layperson language,
and numbered practical recommendations and policy implications.

For initial consideration, please submit an abstract no longer than
500 words by e-mail to journalnegroed@gmail.com by February 4, 2011.
All inquiries regarding submissions should be directed to one of the
guest co-editors, Dr. Chance Lewis, chance.lewis@tamu.edu or Dr.
Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz at sealeyruiz@tc.edu. Invited authors will need
to submit completed manuscripts by April 15, 2011.

For more than 76 years, The Journal of Negro Education has been the
leading purveyor of a wealth of scholarly research concerning Black
academia. The quarterly journal is operated under the auspices of the
Howard University (HU) School of Education (SOE). With world-wide
readership and subscribers, JNE has published distinguished scholars
that include Horace Mann Bond, Ralph J. Bunche, W. E. B. Du Bois, and
Kenneth B. Clark. The current Editor-in-Chief is Dr. Ivory A. Toldson
itoldson@howard.edu.

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2011-01-29T13:49:00.000-08:00

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UNITED AFRICAN MOVEMENT
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________

ALTON H. MADDOX, JR.
CHAIRMAN
TEL.: (718) 834-9034
FAX : (718) 884-8241
P.O. BOX 35
BRONX, NY 10471

Why Blacks Must Violate the Slave Code
By Alton H. Maddox, Jr.

My cousin, Darnell Brewster, made his transition on my father's birthday, January 17. There was a memorial service in Harlem on January 21 and a memorial service in Dayton, OH on January 24. Because of a snowstorm, no flights were available from Ohio to New York City on January 26.

I had two options: stay in a hotel in Cincinnati or fly to Atlanta. My sole consideration was a temporary workstation. This favored Atlanta. UAM practices the philosophy of Hon. Marcus Garvey which has been outlawed in the United States as beyond a morontocracy. Mr. Garvey was imprisoned and later given the boot. Thus, UAM's work is hard and dangerous.

His deportation from the United States to Jamaica was not personal. It was a signal to all Blacks to embrace a fake philosophy or else. Dr. W.E.B. DuBois became its chief adherent in the Negro community. He spied on Blacks and paved the way for a successful federal prosecution against Mr. Garvey.

Black people must learn to allow their history to work for them. Malcolm X said: "Of all the disciplines, history is best qualified to reward our research". History explains our plight in the United States and it is a condition precedent to critical thinking. The key is to connect the historical dots.

On August 17, 1988, a group of Blacks decided to form United African Movement and model it after Mr. Garvey's UNIA. This was a death warrant. History supports this conclusion. In October 1990, UAM decided to practice what it had preached. By this time, I had been disbarred while I had successfully represented Rev. Al Sharpton in a 67-count indictment.

The meeting in October 1990 was the final nail in UAM's coffins. By January 12, 1991, all high-profile activists had fled UAM. This was to be expected. No Blacks are going to violate the slave code. In contrast, whites are only exposed to the penal code and may be subject to prosecutorial discretion.

I have had to be responsible for UAM lock, stock and barrel. At best, I have had to co-sign every UAM activity. In many instances, I have had to pick up the tab. The latest big-ticket item is the Freedom Party. Censorship has been imposed on me for practicing the same philosophy as the "founding fathers". Two organizations were established sequentially in 1865 and 1909 to enforce fear and to embrace a fake philosophy.

Because no support system exists at UAM, I formed a UAM Transition Committee in July 2007 to bring about new leadership by August 17, 2008. My pro bono work and my sacrifices for the Hon. Marcus Garvey had taken its toll on my health. No one supported Mr. Garvey as UAM's spiritual mentor in good-faith. Mr. Garvey had big shoes.

This transition committee, consisting of Bro. John Anthony, Sis. Geneva Butts, Sis. Ollie McClean, Sis. Judy McNeil and Bro. John Smith had failed to act by January 2010. In the meantime, I had to be hospitalized en route to homegoing services for Dr. Asa Hilliard in August 2007.

I received no correspondence from anyone in UAM in Atlanta. The doctor had suggested that I take an extended rest but Mark and S.L. Green as the landlords of 16 Court Street in Brooklyn had a different view. Rent exceeded Three Thousand Dollars monthly.

This was a responsibility reserved exclusively for me as well as all office expenses. UAM has never had a war chest nor a reserve fund. A big bill was waiting for me in September 2007 coupled with medical expenses. The monthly expenses have continued for UAM at my expense.

No one has suggested that UAM should have a war chest nor a reserve fund. After Gov. Andrew Cuomo took the oath, he immediately solicited funds from the public to combat public sector unions; yet, I am supposed to fight white supremacy on all fronts by performing miracles. It shows that Blacks are not at war with anyone except Blacks who dare to oppose white supremacy.

Until the Greens were able to secure a judgement in a holdover proceeding, all rents were paid. They had refused to renew the lease because of my continued defense of Blacks. The Greens had only become the landlord in 2007. They were allies of Robert Abrams who is an enemy of the philosophies and opinions of Mr. Garvey. There was a zero rent balance in January 2010.

In June 2010, Rev. Al Sharpton dispatched Councilman Charles Barron to continue the war against Mr. Garvey. Councilman Barron's first act was to retain a white lawyer for the Freedom Party. His next step was to remove the black panther as the symbol of the Freedom Party. State law requires a symbol. The third step was to remove red, black and green as the colors of the Freedom Party and to replace them with black and white (racial integration).

I had hoped that UAM would have found new leadership and a working office space by now. Alternatively, I had hoped that this committee would have supplanted me temporarily with themselves. It seems logical that five heads are better than one. To be sure, five pockets are better than a person with no pockets and who has had no income for more than two decades.

For some time, I have been trying to get, at my expense, a quorum for a business meeting. Since this UAM meeting has to be conducted outside the presence of whites, it would be unlawful. Blacks constitute the only group that subscribes to the unnatural practice of white supremacists being paired with Blacks in order for Blacks to conduct it affairs.

A business meeting is necessary to determine the future of UAM. The critical question is to ascertain if Blacks collectively, are able and willing to sustain, in 2011, the philosophies and opinions of Mr. Garvey in a country that demands of Blacks to pursue racial integration rather than self-determination. On February 2, 2011 a vote on the date of the business meeting will be taken.

2010-08-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1523877&show=abstract

2010-06-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

Ubuntu: An African word (and proverb) meaning "I am human because you are human." Ubuntu psychology says, "Sharing ourselves and our gifts with others optimizes our collective and individual humanity. Even in the sharing and the giving, the individual or "other" group receives the gifts and the glories of humanity."

2010-06-04T16:55:00.001-07:00

http://books.google.com/books?

2010-06-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

Book Review: Onno van der Hart, Ellert R. S. Nijenhuis, & Kathy Steele, The Haunted Self: Structural Dissociation and the Treatment of Chronic Traumatization. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. 418 pp. Cloth: $49.95 (US), ISBN 0393704017
Etzel Cardeña
Transcultural Psychiatry. 2010; 47:191-193. [PDF]
Book Review: Richard F. Mollica, Healing Invisible Wounds: Paths to Hope and Recovery in a Violent World. New York: Harcourt, 2006. 277 pp. Paper: $19.95 (US), ISBN: 9780826516411; Cloth: $26.00 (US), ISBN: 0151010366
Boris Drozdek
Transcultural Psychiatry. 2010; 47:189-190. [PDF]
Book Review: Patrizia Brunori, Gianna Candolo, Maddalena Dona delle Rose, & Maria Chiara Risoldi. I Had a Mummy Too. War Traumas: A Psychoanalytic Experience in Bosnia-Herzegovina. London: Free Association Books, 2006. 209 pp. Paper: $34.95 (US), ISBN: 1853439738
Hanna Kienzler
Transcultural Psychiatry. 2010; 47:187-189. [PDF]

2010-05-29T14:27:00.001-07:00

Welcome to our May e-newsletter...

In this issue:

The Arab Journal of Psychiatry features major article on human givens psychotherapy
Canadian government interest in the Human Givens Charter

How one HG therapist triumphed over adversity and got to meet Archbishop Desmond Tutu

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Major article on HG in the Arab Journal of Psychiatry

The latest edition of The Arab Journal of Psychiatry (Vol. 21, No. 1, May 2010) features an extensive article on human givens psychotherapy. Written by the HGI's chairman, Dr Farouk Okhai, the article gives a wonderfully clear and useful overview of the approach and the benefits and new insights it brings to the field of psychotherapy.
As the abstract says: "There is a profusion of psychotherapy models, most of them formulated in the west, confusing both those seeking and those striving to give help. The human givens approach seeks to integrate the effective ingredients of all therapies using as its organising idea what human beings need in order to live healthy lives. As such it will have a universal appeal, in keeping with the increasing recognition that individuals and societies have much more in common than their relatively superficial cultural differences would indicate."
The article is well worth reading, click here to download a PDF version.

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Canadian MP's interest in the Human Givens Charter

A big thank you to everyone who forwarded the link to the new HG Charter website to people of influence that they knew. It is already causing a stir and has been picked up by civil servants and MPs in a number of countries.
In Canada, Carolyn Bennett MP was inspired after a presentation about the human givens by Aubrey Davis,
a supporter of our work, to read the Charter. She then shared it with thoughtful colleagues and has invited their comments as a
first step....
So, please don't stop sending the link around - www.humangivenscharter.com - ideas always take time to percolate!

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HG therapist meets Desmond Tutu through her work with the Forgiveness Project
In 1991 Sue Hanisch was caught up in an IRA bombing at Victoria Station, London, England. 40 people were injured that day and Sue lost her right leg and suffered severe permanent injuries to her left foot, as well as to her right hand.
"It was only nine years later", she says, "that I got any relief from the intense trauma following a session of human givens therapy which included the rewind technique. Previously I had received hours and hours of person-centred counselling which had only made matters worse. We would go over and over what had happened to me….we would try to normalise my belief system and try to reframe all my experiences….but still I felt even more hopeless about any permanent relief. Thankfully, in the technique used by the human givens approach, the traumatic memories from the bombing and all the negative body-image/self-worth issues were effectively de-traumatised and I was able to stand back at last and see the bigger picture of my life and its meaning."
Sue qualified herself as a human givens therapist and is now working hard with others who have suffered from often intensely traumatic experiences. For many years she has also been involved with The Forgiveness Project, an organisation which works at a local, national and international level to help build a future free of conflict and violence by healing the wounds of the past. By collecting and sharing people’s stories, and delivering outreach programmes, the project aims to encourage and empower people to explore the nature of forgiveness and alternatives to revenge.
"The human givens approach has helped me greatly and is very pertinent
to the work I do now. (I particularly remember Ivan Tyrrell saying on the Diploma course that 'None of us can choose the bed we are born into',
which has helped me to hear the other side to the story and not judge
others' actions, and Pat Williams saying 'We can either live in the past or
in the present, but not both at the same time'.)
"Studying the human givens approach gave me the opportunity to challenge many of my 'tyranical' and limited beliefs, my projections, my judgements about 'right' and 'wrong'. It also gave me the opportunity to look at blaming behaviour and victimhood behaviour, and provided the right conditions to get excited about my life again and get excited about making changes and taking lots of responsibility for my actions. A state which I now relish and my life now serves me very well, and has lead me in unbelievable directions and provided me with incredible opportunities, which were bigger and greater than any of my original dreams."
It was through her work with The Forgiveness Project that Sue recently met its patron, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He was in London on 12th May to give the inaugral lecture, 'Is violence ever justified?', of the Project's lecture series. (Featured in the above photo with Sue, who is standing just to Archbishop Tutu's left, is Mary K Blwett from Rwanda who lost 50 members of her family in the genocide there.)
"The Archbishop was a lovely man to meet, and very funny, but this hasn't been the only wonderful opportunity that has happened to me since I was injured all those years ago. Working within the Forgiveness Project I speak in prisons, travel and meet people from all cultures. Last year I was also invited to join The Sustainable Peace project in Northern Ireland, Southern Ireland and South Africa, during which time I travelled widely with 15 other people from both sides of the Irish conflict, many of whom had been released from The Maze (Long Kesh) as a result of the Good Friday Agreement.
"Exploring the idea of forgiveness is a huge ongoing task which gives me
so much scope to grow and learn from others as well as myself. Sharing my ideas regarding survivors' guilt has also been very important.... it's not often addressed ... and usually only by women."
Click here to read more of what Sue's been up to recently.
Read Sue's story in full on The Forgiveness Project's website.

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One last thought...

“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
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We hope you've enjoyed this latest newsletter. Please feel free to forward it to anyone you think would be interested to learn about the human givens approach.

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2010-05-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

On President Aristide's Ph.D. Dissertation by Adrianne Aron

President Aristide's doctoral dissertation, Umoya Wamagama [The Spirit of the Words] studies and elaborates the linguistic relationship between Kreyol and isiZulu, through a methodology that is comparative, descriptive, investigative, analytic, and exegetic. The thesis demonstrates that the African roots of Kreyol are very important for many reasons, not least of which is to help one understand the differences between the French and Haitians in their distinctive interpretations of liberte, egalite, fraternite, and tout moun se moun, in their respective revolutions.

In describing the relationship between isiZulu and Haitian Kreyol, Aristide points out that Ubuntu is the unifying psychological feature—an understanding of Self and Personal well-being as inextricably linked to Collective well-being: "a social love story rooted in brotherhood." In the African-based philosophy of Ubuntu, Ancestor is equated to life, and slavery to death. Ubuntu inspires a collective psychological empowerment, protecting linguistic values as well as Ancestral cultural/religious values. The protection of linguistic values is of special importance in a situation of diglossia, where two languages are spoken but one is considered superior to the other. Both isiZulu and Kreyol have been subjected to that condition.

The thesis contains a lengthy technical discussion of language and linguistics, including a discussion of the slave trade vis a vis its effects on language. To the process of Natural Selection and Artificial Selection, Aristide adds a third: Savage Selection, the violent process of choosing human beings for enslavement.

Before the slave trade began, colonialism in Congo, Zaire, and Angola had already brought about a fragmentation of people and dismemberment of language, with three separate colonial powers imposing their languages on people previously unified by the Kongo language. The slave traffic, lasting over 400 years, greatly escalated the violence to language, producing oppressed language, language attrition, language disorder, language loss, language pathology, aphasia, dysarthria, dysphonia, and source amnesia. Plantation owners mixed their slaves from as many different African cultures as possible, both to divide them politically and to force them to deal with each other in the language of the whites.

Aristide writes, "Thousands of years ago Africans, empowered by Ubuntu, fought for a better quality of life. For healthy-minded people of the twenty-first century, this struggle is still an historic challenge. Both isiZulu and Haitian Kreyol speaking people have demonstrated an exceptional ability to nurture themselves with words of hope, while at the same time work hard to improve the conditions of life…, express[ing] human values through their languages.." While Haitian Kreyol is genetically related to French, the thesis concludes, isiZulu and the Haitian Kreyol are related through an ancestral psychodynamic and theological paradigm rooted in Ubuntu.

By: Adrianne Aron, Haiti Action Committee

2010-05-29T08:37:00.001-07:00

Children's understanding of 'Ubuntu'
Author: Marta Bonna

"The concept of Ubuntu has recently received a lot of attention in spite of the fact that there is no consensus about its meaning. African scholars have strived to attain a common meaning and English translation, and while they agree that it is typically and solely African, the closest some have come up with is 'African humanism'. A South African saying is frequently used to illustrate the core tenet of the ethics of Ubuntu: 'unumtu ngumumntu ngabantu', which translated into English means: 'A person depends on others to be a person.' The principles underlying the way of life proposed by Ubuntu are transferred from generation to generation through fables, sayings, proverbs and by tradition through the socialization of children in which the whole community is involved. Bearing in mind that traditional values may become diluted or lost during times of change and urbanization..."

Affiliation: a University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

DOI: 10.1080/03004430701269291
Publication Frequency: 10 issues per year
Published in: Early Child Development and Care, Volume 177, Issue 8 December 2007 , pages 863 - 873
First Published: December 2007
Subject: Child Development;
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Abstract
The concept of Ubuntu has recently received a lot of attention in spite of the fact that there is no consensus about its meaning. African scholars have strived to attain a common meaning and English translation, and while they agree that it is typically and solely African, the closest some have come up with is 'African humanism'. A South African saying is frequently used to illustrate the core tenet of the ethics of Ubuntu: 'unumtu ngumumntu ngabantu', which translated into English means: 'A person depends on others to be a person.' The principles underlying the way of life proposed by Ubuntu are transferred from generation to generation through fables, sayings, proverbs and by tradition through the socialization of children in which the whole community is involved. Bearing in mind that traditional values may become diluted or lost during times of change and urbanization, 215 South African black children of two different age groups and from three geographical areas—rural, urban and semi-urban—were interviewed about their understanding of the concept of Ubuntu. A content analysis of their responses refutes the belief that the traditional ethics of Ubuntu are disappearing with the changes taking place and the rise in urbanization. While the replies of the children sometimes reflected the prominence of those facets of Ubuntu which might have had more significance in their specific milieu and age, perhaps denoting that the community selected views of Ubuntu which made more sense to them, from the results of this study, it can be said that Ubuntu is still alive and thriving as far as these children were concerned.
Keywords: Ubuntu; Children's understanding of; Traditional values and urbanization

2010-05-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

30/05/2008
"The worldwide food crisis makes establishing a system of global democratic governance all the more urgent

On the initiative of the World Forum of Civil Society Networks — UBUNTU, we the undersigned wish to express our deep concern and to voice our most forceful protest at having reached this long foreseen and extremely grave situation in such a critical affair as feeding the world's inhabitants. This situation clearly exposes the failure of our present economic system in financial, environmental, cultural and moral terms, the rules of the market having replaced the rule of universal values, and it exposes the condition of vulnerability of our International Organisations, brought about by the absence of support from the most powerful countries.

The background:

Back in July 2002, in an individual statement by Federico Mayor issued in the context of the UBUNTU Forum in the wake of the Second World Food Summit — one of many milestones on the way to the forthcoming FAO Conference on World Food Security scheduled for June 2008 — the following points were made, among others:
There is a situation that demands our attention. 24,000 human beings die from hunger every day, and the Second World Summit failed to establish the necessary measures for the eradication of this silent genocide. Developed countries did not show the political will needed in order to fight the causes. ... How many women, children, and elderly people will die for the decisions not taken?
4,800 million human beings suffer from hunger today. While the most powerful countries increase their investment in arms, military expenses and national security, this significant part of humanity is denied all the resources necessary for survival—including training, knowledge and appropriate technology.
While wealthy areas protect their agricultural production with enormous financial resources, poor countries are forced to liberalize their agricultural markets. The International Monetary Fund's adjustment policies and the liberalization of world commerce promoted by the World Trade Organization has resulted in the reduction of trade tariffs and subsidies to farmers in these countries, the claim being that the market should solve its own problems.
No nation is exempt from responsibility. It is inadmissible that the moral and political responsibilities of democratic governments be transferred to "the market". A worldwide code of conduct in terms of a legal and ethical framework from a duly reformed United Nations is, for all the above reasons, urgent and imperative.
What had been happening, and what has been happening since then?
The world population has gone on rising, though somewhat less sharply in recent years, and so the need for food is growing and will continue to grow. Most of the population increase is happening in the south, and that is where most of the demand is now and, therefore, so will be in the future. In this respect:
The strong economic growth experienced in some emerging countries has led to a natural and sudden increase in the demand for cereals, together with a rise in the consumption of meat, milk, eggs and other foodstuffs — a rise associated with greater development. This addition to the world demand for cereals means greater pressure on that market, which now clearly and urgently requires worldwide regulation.
The unmet rise in demand for food in the south will inevitably lead to more frustration and radicalisation, and prompt further waves of emigration.
In any case, the present-day food crisis signifies that the limits on exploiting some of the planet's resources are being encountered, and this serves to confirm the pressing need for radical change in our current unsustainable production and consumption patterns, chiefly in the north.
Almost all agriculturally useful land is already being used, and thus only a productivity boost based on "clean" and renewable technologies can make a contribution to increasing agricultural production locally and globally. And yet significant phenomena have arisen in connection with these aspects that are contributing to a worsening of the situation.
Over the last few decades, the forces of neoliberal globalisation, overseen by the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO, have been pressing southern countries to implement privatisation and deregulation policies for the markets — markets in which they have to compete on wholly unequal terms with the countries of the north (which, for their part, have maintained and are still maintaining their agricultural subsidies, including subsidies for exporting surplus produce); this has severely weakened agricultural systems in the south. On top of the losses in international agricultural exchanges, local subsistence agriculture has also been swept away by this onslaught. The result could not be worse: more local/global hunger. It is time to call the political world to account for having brought about such situations.
In connection with another world crisis — the energy crisis — major agricultural producer countries have increasingly been devoting land and non-food agricultural produce for the production of biofuels rather than food. We the undersigned believe that in matters of this kind Humanity should endow itself with global mechanisms for arbitration and decision-making over and above the mechanisms in the hands of individual States, since the policies concerned are extremely sensitive in terms of their likely planet-wide impact.
The prices of agricultural produce have risen spectacularly, especially over the last two years, and this has only worsened the situation. The main reasons behind these rises can be summarized as follows:
A worldwide energy crisis has emerged, particularly in oil, with very significant knock-on effects on food production and transportation costs. Moreover, for many years now the big oil companies have not just hushed up the effects of excessive consumption on the environment: they have also obstructed in many different ways the emergence of clean, renewable sources for producing energy. In any case, prices will go on rising for as long as agricultural relocation remains part of the globalisation process. The unsustainability of the current world agricultural model is clear.
As a collateral effect of the financial crisis, investors are being drawn to the stable agricultural markets, and are making profits through speculative trading in commodity futures: they can sell their holdings later on at higher prices, thanks to the increased demand. The result is more hunger in the world, through agricultural produce rising in price now and in the future. As with the financial crisis, worldwide political regulation to control the global markets is now clearly indispensable.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Faced with this bleak and complex scenario, with its many interrelated factors and uncertainties, we the undersigned believe that only the establishment of a system of Global Democratic Governance can put Humanity in a position to direct its destinies on this planet in a democratic, responsible way, and more specifically to meet its basic food requirements. In line with what we champion at the World Campaign for in-depth Reform of the System of International Institutions, this system must contribute to strengthening the United Nations by refounding the other financial, economic and commercial organizations within the UN, and providing them with the human and financial resources needed to meet the challenges we are now facing. Specifically:

The new system must have the capacity to implement global decisions in a truly democratic framework. The production and use of biofuels, the regulation of the various global markets and other such issues cannot go on being subject to decisions taken by individual states or — worse still — by the markets of the richest and most powerful countries.
It must give priority, through positive discrimination, to the interests of the poorest and neediest groups on the planet — which means the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Earth. This entails launching a new model, much more local in scale as well as much more sustainable in social, environmental and economic terms, and dealing first with the world's least developed countries in all matters relating to agricultural production and trade.
It must spring from an in-depth reform of our present-day International Organizations, on several fronts, including:
Putting an end to the ascendancy enjoyed by some international organizations (the ones controlled by the world's richest countries) over others. Thus, in the vital field of food, the policies of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO cannot continue to take precedence over those of the FAO.
Giving the relevant bodies of the United Nations — i.e. the FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Programme (mainly in those aspects less linked to emergencies) — the coordinating power, the framework of competencies and the human resources needed firstly to tackle the current emergency situations and secondly to implement the policies required in the medium and long term to deal with the underlying problems.
Accordingly, advantage must be taken of the fresh opportunity afforded by the Review of the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development to define and implement, in a just manner and without further delay, a system of financing for development that is transparent, predictable and sustainable, and that will enable the development objectives that Humanity desperately requires to be attained."

Federico Mayor

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Mario Soares

Susan George

Noam Chomsky

Desmond Tutu
Archbishop Emeritus

Wole Soyinca
Nobel Prize Laureate

Aminata Traoré
ASF - African Social Forum

Ramesh Singh
AAI - Action Aid International

Kumi Naidoo
Civicus - World Alliance For Citizen Participation

Chico Whitaker
Right Livelihood Award; Brazilian Commission Justice and Peace

Kailash Satyarthi
Global March Against Child Labour

Cândido Grzybowski
IBASE - Instituto Brasileiro de Análises Sociais e Econômicas

Roberto Savio
IPS - Inter Press Service

Alexander Likotal
Green Cross International

Tomas Magnusson
IPB - International Peace Bureau

Ricardo Díez Hochleitner
Honorary President Club of Rome

Gunnar Westberg
Past President International Physicians for the Prevention of Nulcear War

Herman Spanjaard
IPPNW -International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War

Sara Longwe
FEMNET - African Women's Development and Communication Network

Fatma Alloo
DAWN - Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era

Meja Vitalis
AFRODAD - African Forum and Network on Debt and Development

Janet Mbere
MWENGO - Mwelekeo wa NGO

Cherdsak Virapat
International Ocean Institute

Rajesh Tandon
PRIA - Participatory Research in Asia

Nadia Johnson
WEDO - Woman Environment Development Organitzation

Aldo Caliari
CoC - Center of Concern

Lois Barber
EarthAction

Paul Ortega
Pax Romana ICMICA/MIIC

Philo Morris
Medical Mission Sisters

Mohammed Fayek
Arab Organization For Human Rights

Ziad Abdel Samad
Executive Director - Arab NGO Network for Development

Mae-anne Llanza
APWLD - Asian Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development

Lau Kin Chi
CSD - China Social Services and Development Research Centre

Sean O Siochru
CRIS - Communication Rights in Information Society Campaign

Marino Busdachin
UNPO – Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation

Rómulo Torres
LATINDADD - Red Latinoamericana sobre Deuda, Desarrollo y Derechos

Ernesto Lamas
AMARC ALC - Asoc. Mundial Radios Comunitarias - América Latina Caribe

Carlos Tünnermann
ILAEDES – Instituto Latinoamericano de Educación para el Desarrollo

Luz Stella Velásquez
Red Latinoamericana de Estudios Ambientales Urbanos

Carlos Bedoya
Jubileo Perú

Martí Olivella
Alliance for Responsible, Plural and United World

Vicente García
CIVICUS - UN representative

Roberto Papini
Instituto Internazionale Jacques Maritain

Francine Mestrum
AEDH - Agence européenne pour la défense des droits de l'homme

Arcadi Oliveras
Justice and Peace Europe

Jorge Nieto
Centro Internacional para la Cultura Democrática

Markus Brun
FASTENOPFER

Antoni Giró
Rector UPC - Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

Richard A. Falk
Princeton University; California University

Hall Gardner
Professor American University of Paris

John Trent
Professor University of Ottawa

Josep Ferrer
Professor Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - UPC

Ferran Requejo
Professor Universitat Pompeu Fabra - UPF

Joan Domènec Ros Aragonés
Professor Universitat de Barcelona - UB

Josep Xercavins
UBUNTU Forum Ad Hoc Secretariat, professor UPC

Adhered to the statement
(If you want to adhere to this statement, please, click here)

Carles Cañellas - Cia. De Teatre Rocamora, Spain
Ana Carmona , Spain
Ana Florido Serrano, Spain
Mari Carmen Martínez - Particular, Spain
Carmen Marsá - Particular, Spain
Álvaro Pérez Cantalapiedra, Spain
Verònica Pérez Crespo - Entrepobles, Spain
Olga Rebato, Spain
Fernando Sainz, Spain
Ghers Zonensain - Noah's Ark - international Peace, Israel
Joan Pous Cañellas - La 3ª Edat Per Al 3er. Món, Spain
Cesar Augusto Jaico Carranza - Asociacion de Juristas Peruanos, Spain
Álvaro Morera - Periódico Digital El Guanche, Spain
Alvaro Morera - Periódico Digital El Guanche, Spain
Mercedes Abdola Tabraue, Spain
Robert Otu Uwem - African Youth Movement, Nigeria
Mariella Colonna - Orti & Giardini, Italy
José Roberto Gómez Gutierrez - Orden Solar Templaria, Colombia
José Moisés Martín Carretero - Acsur-las Segovias, Spain
Gladys Enciso - Abogada-voluntaria Socio Ambiental, Argentina
Jordi Escruela I Núñez - Coynsa-2000, Spain
Ramesh Man Tuladhar - Nepal Earth Society, Nepal
Jordi Armadans - Fundacio per la Pau / International Peace Bureau, Andorra
Cristina Valverde Molina - Gam Vallès, Spain
Pedro Moreno, Spain
David Alonso - Entreculturas-fe Y Alegría, Spain
Jose A. Moreno, United States
Arwen Bird, United States
Mª Del Mar Narbona , Spain
Pilar Quera Colomina - Alive , Spain
Manuel Zaguirre Cano - Unión Sindical Obrera, Spain
Bertha Elena Munguía Gil - C.a.s.d.e., A.c., Mexico
Mercè Busquet Bosch - Aturem La Guerra, Artesans Per A Pau, Spain
Jennifer Williams Ramos, Spain
Xavier Ortega Roig - Ccd-upc, Spain
Rosa López Torrijos, Spain
Sonia Gonzalez, Spain
Quim Pons I Estrada - Universitat Inter. De La Pau, Spain
Mar Maiques Díaz - Intermón Oxfam, Spain
Carles Enguix I Borràs, Spain
Gerardo Bartolomeo, Uruguay
Eduardo Agustin Cruz - Chilean-canadian Cultural Center, Canada
Nemesio Juan Rodríguez Mitchell - México Nación Multicultural , Mexico
Iroezi Von Ikechukwu - Centre For Peace And Rural Development, Nigeria
Ronaldo Retecheski - Bit Informatica, Brazil
Chris Baruti Likoyi - Recherches Et Documentation Juridiques Africaines, Belgium
Isabel Pastor López, Spain
Ababacar Diop - Jonction, Senegal
Angeles Sánchez Braojos - Acción Para El Desarrollo Y la Igualdad, Spain
Alfons Banda - Fundació Per La Pau (President), Spain
Mario José Gutiérrez Morales - Diversidad Sexual, Nicaragua
Fernando Redondo Benito - Centro Unesco Castilla - La Mancha, Spain
Carles Furriols I Solà - Fundació H. Dr Trueta, Andorra
Marie Chantal Schmitz, Belgium
Shanti Ranjan Behera - Martin Luther King Centre Democracy &Human Rights, India
Montse García Moya, Spain
Jaume Cendra Garreta - Upc, Spain
Emili Chalaux - Acció Dels Cristians Per L'abolició De La Tortura, Spain
Montserrat Munté - Acció Dels Cristians Per L'abolició De La Tortura, Spain
Cristina Font Viola - Oratge, Spain
Caterina Molina Compte - Universitat Ramon Llull, Spain
Carlos Martínez Carbonell , Spain
Ivan Capdevila - Amfivia Outdoor Events Management, Spain
Carles Enguix I Borràs, Spain
Josep Valls Ribas - Tercer Sector, Spain
Rosa Masip, Spain
Marta Freixa Boixader - Berga, Spain
Traore M'bemba - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Camara Nestor - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Camara Bachir - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Mamadouba Sylla - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Alhassane Maïga - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Amara Traoré - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Mariama Sylla - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Kadiatou Kollet Baldé - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Mamadou Guilavogui - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Gennadiy Ulyanich - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Saïdou Condé - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Traoré M'bemba - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Sylla Mamadou - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Maïga Alhassane - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Traoré A - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Alfons Olmo Boronat - Verdcel, Montserrat
Hendrik Siregar, Indonesia
Aram López Roca, Spain
Marta Torras, Spain
Jaime Lozada Alvarez - A.e.r., Ecuador
Pilar Remiro, Spain
Ntimpirqngeza Abdoul Mohamed - Ajvi Burundi, Burundi
Conxita González Díaz, Spain
Ana Molina Rubio - Universidad de Córdoba, Spain
Mireia Rubio Molín - Comitès Óscar Romero, Spain
Mathew Bangura - People United To Save Humanity, Sierra Leone
Xavier Bartolomé, Spain
Maria del Mar García Arellano, Spain
Mónica Cano, Spain
Ester Ollé Pérez, Spain
Jorge Eduardo Cañas López - Art-mirall.org, Spain
Paul Castro Coronel - Colectivo Juaréz, Mexico
Jordi Villanueva Palau, Spain
Leo Oroño, Argentina
Marco Berta - Mensa Del Povero S.antonio Da Padova, Italy
Frederica Azania Clare - Community Voices Heard-Harlem, United States

2010-05-09T16:48:00.000-07:00

The DISCUSSION:
"Restoring Umoya (Breath) To Enliven Dya (Essence): Untying Makolo (Knots) Of Dehumanization Through Ubuntu Psychology Kevin Washington, Ph.D., Marimba Ani, Ph. D., Cheryl Tawede Grills, Ph.D., Wade Ifabemi Nobles, Ph.D. The illumination of the divine spirit of Afrikan people can only be achieved through the implementation of a healing paradigm that is consistent with the African spirit. This presentation advances Ubuntu Psychology as the core of the healing paradigm that restores the divine essence within African people." -Association of Black Psychologists
2009 Convention.

IS THERE A DEBATE?

Pax,
Frederica-Azania Clare, M.A.
UBUNTUPSYCHOLOGIST

2010-05-05T11:13:00.001-07:00

http://radicalpsychology.org/vol4-1/holdstock_review.html

2010-05-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

"Short mission trips will allow women to build friendships
Home > Our World > News > Archive stories

Short mission trips will allow women to build friendships

A UMNS file photo by Jane Malone

Zimbabwean women work in the gardens at a Shalom Zone project in a suburb of Mutare.
Zimbabwean women work in the gardens at Isheanesu, the Shalom Zone project at Hilltop United Methodist Church in a high-density suburb of Mutare, Zimbabwe. The gardens feed church members and children in an after-school program. The Women's Division and Mission Volunteers office of the denomination's Board of Global Ministries are forming a partnership that will enable U.S. women to build friendships with women in countries such as Zimbabwe. A UMNS file photo by Dean Snyder. Photo number05-457. Accompanies UMNS #365, 6/24/05
June 24, 2005

By Kelly Martini*

NEW YORK (UMNS)—The Women’s Division and Mission Volunteers office of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries are forming a partnership that will enable U.S. women to build friendships on short mission trips in Zimbabwe, Uruguay, Cambodia, Sierra Leone and Cote D’Ivoire.

The goal of the program, called “Ubuntu eXplorers,” is to enable U.S. women to understand and share together the daily life, struggles, culture, challenges and opportunities of women from one of the countries. During the one- to two-week trips, members of United Methodist Women also will get a firsthand look at the programs and projects supported by their annual giving of about $20 million.

The program will begin in 2006 with an April visit to Zimbabwe. Trips to Uruguay in August and Cambodia in September will follow. In 2007, the Women’s Division and Mission Volunteers will host trips to Sierra Leone and Cote D’Ivoire.

“Ubuntu” is an African word and proverb meaning, “I am human because you are human.” According to Ubuntu psychology, “Sharing ourselves and our gifts with others optimizes our collective and individual humanity. Even in the sharing and the giving, the individual or ‘other’ group receives the gifts and the glories of humanity.”

Jeanie Blankenbaker, staff executive for Mission Volunteers, said the idea of “Ubuntu eXplorers” came as an answer to a prayer from Grace Musuka, coordinator of women’s work for the United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe.

A UMNS file photo by Dean Snyder

Women produce meals from this kitchen in Zimbabwe as part of a United Methodist program.

The women of Isheanesu in a high-density suburb of Mutare, Zimbabwe, produce meals from this kitchen and the adjacent bread-baking oven, in two Shalom Zone enterprises at Hilltop United Methodist Church. From left are: Trawde Mhlanga, Audrey Chivhumze and Caroline Chanderia. The Women's Division and Mission Volunteers office of the denomination's Board of Global Ministries are forming a partnership that will enable U.S. women to build friendships with women in countries such as Zimbabwe. A UMNS file photo by Jane Malone. Photo number 05-458. Accompanies UMNS #365, 6/24/05
“A couple of years ago, Grace asked me if it would be possible sometime for just women to come to Zimbabwe to worship with her women, to share in laughter and cry in sadness, to enjoy each others’ company in Christian love, as sisters of faith, letting the women in Zimbabwe know they were not alone,” she explained. “When we called Grace to ask if she’d still like us to come, she immediately said, ‘Can you come yesterday?’”

Karen Prudente, staff executive for international opportunities with the Women’s Division, said grass-roots women’s organizations, supported by United Methodist Women, will host the visitors.

“Participants will learn about the cultures of the area, travel, pray, sing, cry, teach, work, listen and tell stories, and engage as Christian sisters,” she added. “They will visit and have a mission experience at institutions such as schools, clinics, women’s training centers, hospitals, nurseries.”

The experiences will differ depending on the trip chosen. “Ubuntu eXplorers volunteers might teach at a workshop where local women exchange tips on Bible study and devotions, basic health and nutrition, artisan crafts, singing and liturgical dance,” Prudente said. Participants will share their experiences upon their return home.

Team leaders for the first three pilot programs have been selected, and team members of 10 to 12 women—with at least one member being a young adult—will be recruited.
Costs will be under $2,500, and team members will be asked to provide one suitcase of resource materials suggested by the host organization.

For more information and registration forms, go to http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/ or http://gbgm-umc.org/vim/ubuntu.htm. Interested women may also call Mission Volunteers at (212) 870-3825 or the Women’s Division at (212) 870-3911.

*Martini is the information officer for the Women’s Division.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

Suggested Articles:
Women’s Division letter takes up rights for detainees
United Methodist Women urged to fight torture
Bible women spread word through Asia Suggested Resources
United Methodist Women
Mission Volunteers"

2010-05-03T14:56:00.000-07:00

CONCEPT PAPER for CONFERNCE: URBAN HEALTH 2010 NYC CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Urban Social Environment and Health

Paper and Workshop Proposal

"Innovative Methods and Measurements: Ubuntupsychology"

THEMES:

Education and Health Linkages
Learned Interdependence: Freedom from Learned Helplessness at LESC/Diversity Works program in the Bronx, USA. &
Violence and Urban Security
The Alternatives to Violence Project with the Hutu and the Tutsi: Introducing EVA, Emotional Violence Alternatives, in Bujumbura, Burundi.

"The conference invites presentations of original studies, analyses, evaluations and best practices in a multitude of sectors: health services, violence and security, transportation and injuries, housing and infrastructure, urban planning, neighborhoods and the urban environment, reproductive and maternal child health, the social determinants of health, substance use and homeless populations, and still others.

By holding this conference in New York, NY, one of the leading cities in the world, we intend to foster international research and policy exchanges to collectively improve the understanding of the common health and social risks faced by urban residents and communities and to influence the development of effective public health interventions across the globe. Perspectives and lessons from different countries can be valuable to share, and New York City’s experience shows that North-South exchanges can lead to effective, inclusive, and comprehensive policies to improve urban health.

Therefore we encourage academics, professionals, members of non-profit organizations, policymakers, community members, and individuals from the private sector of diverse backgrounds and disciplines to submit an abstract for the conference."

Dear Eileen,
As co-author, given your expertise on BURUNDI, and I am sure, some Public Health experience related to my current population in the Bronx, (our population, if we work together with 15th Street Quaker Meeting in the Bronx as we did with fundraising, and online, in Burundi) will you help me pare it down with a Public Health perspective?

Awaiting your answer so that we can claim joint authorship.

Pax,
Azania
Frederica-Azania Clare
http://www.linkedin.com/in/Azania
" I would have been able to free more slaves if they only knew they
were slaves." -Harriet Tubman

2010-04-28T07:52:00.000-07:00

Frederica Azania Clare, M.A. online
WE ARE READY TO "BE THE HEALING..."

It seems llike forever, but this month Dr. Alexia, Cassilde, the new R.N. and I, Frederica-Azania Clare, M.A. Ubuntu-Psychologist have all been in touch. The disease is the Post Atrocity Syndromes of Terror (The P.A.S.T.) and the treatment is beyond the post-traumatic stress disorder-PTSD-treatment protocols.

We will address what we will call abc-trauma (African, Black, Caribbean) atrocities (Apartheid, Black, and Colonial)terrorisms. We will address their etiology & pathology; their treatment & recovery regimes.

We will establish new protocols for treatment, post-atrocity.

We call this, the treatment of the Post-Atrocity Syndromes of Terror, or treatment of the P.A.S.T.

These protocals describes what Blacks need to do to free themselves of the yoke of Whites' domination and terrorization where it exist historically and manifests in contemporary societies in Africa and the African diaspora, such as the U.S. and the Caribbean. We will explore the past six centuries for the answers to our pain.

Many contemporary Black theorists and Truth tellers of every human color, and time in recorded humanity, will be referenced for clinical guidance; including psychologists, psychiatrisits, philosophers and activist/revolutionaries from Denmark Vesey and Hariet Tubman to John Brown and Lucritia Mott, to Neely Fuller, to Albert Luthuli,Stephen Biko, Walter Rodney and Mumia Abu-Jamal and many more.

Let's follow in the footsteps of our brave and brilliant Dr. Joy DeGruy, and, "Be the Healing."

Let's treat PTSS-Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Let's do it worldwide: Now and Forever ... Let's heal the P.A.S.T.-Post Atrocity Syndromes of Terror.

"Be The Healing!"

2010-04-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

http://www.aas.cah.ucf.edu/staff.php?id=673

2010-04-21T13:06:00.001-07:00

His current scholarship looks addressing the psychological wounds of Persistent Enslavement Systemic Trauma (PEST) encountered by formerly enslaved Africans of the African Diaspora. This cultural trauma is being addresses through his construct of Ubuntu Psychology.
Kevin Washington (Mwata Kairi), Ph.D. Practicing Ubuntupsychology....?

2009-12-22T18:33:00.000-08:00

2009-12-22T18:17:00.000-08:00

2008-03-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

UBUNTU AND THE AUDACITY OF HOPE

"...Barack Obama is opposed to the hierarchies of the

whites over blacks and browns and uses his own life as
a metaphor for calling on citizens to come together to
save the planet earth. Obama has gone on record to
register his opposition to the structured existence
that places humans as atomized individuals without
responsibility to family or society. Atomized
individuals are open to manipulation by the media and
are open to the Hobbesian thinking that society must be
based on conflict and confrontation or 'war of every
man against every man.' This manipulation is one form
of psychological warfare against the citizens of the
United States...

The idea of change that echoes from the Obama campaign
has been calling for citizens to place themselves at
the center and to empower themselves, firstly with
their positive thinking, "Yes we can," and more
importantly by organizing to intervene in the political
process. In response to this call, a cross section of
the citizens of the United States from Iowa to
Nebraska, from Idaho to Georgia and from Washington to
Louisiana have come forward to seek the new ideas of
twenty first century change. In the process there are
new constituencies that have found their voice. This
has led to a level of spontaneity that one could see in
the much watched video- Yes we can.

Can the old media and the old ideas blunt the quantum
leap in the consciousness of the youth that is taking
place at the moment? This is the question that emerges
from the discourse of the political talking heads on
the same television stations that were enthusiastic
cheer leaders for the illegal war against the peoples
of Iraq.

These political commentators who were brought up to
reproduce the misinformation of the media that
tormented young people and led them into depression and
isolation cannot fully understand the call of the Obama
campaign to the youth that the change must begin in the
youth themselves and that that have to believe in their
capacity for change.

The political pundits of the mainstream media have been
in the main brought up within the context of the
hierarchies of Newtonian physics have been confounded
by the bottom up, responsive, plural and holistic
message of the Yes we can campaign.

These hierarchies have been at the base of the faulty
democratic traditions of the United States that did not
recognize native peoples as humans and rendered African
Americans as three fifths of a human being. The same
democratic tradition did not recognize women as
citizens. Obama is not calling for this deformed
reference to be the basis for change, he is exhorting
all classes and all ages to be part of the solution, by
drawing from a different tradition, the progressive
traditions that sought to enrich and enlarge the
meaning of democracy...

The unique experiences that Obama learnt when he was an
organizer on the South Side of Chicago taught him the
humility to listen to the ordinary person and it is
this methodical organizing like the repetition of self
similarity that one can discern in the organizational
skills of Obama. The political victories in Idaho,
Nebraska, the Virgin Islands and Missouri followed the
scaling pattern of Obama that built up a profile in
every district and in every part of the country so that
he could not be pigeon-holed. After the land slide
victory in South Carolina, Bill Clinton sought to
compare Obama to Jesse Jackson and to limit his appeal
to African Americans citizens. But the citizens of
Washington State, Missouri, Louisiana and Maine voted
with their heads and their hearts in response to new
organizing thrust that is making the quantum leap in US
politics a possibility. This leap has been reinforced
by the nested loops of new social networks wired
through the spaces of the information revolution.

After these victories the momentum began to build and
citizens in Virginia, Maryland and the District of
Columbia signaled that they were another link in the
chain of this momentous political intervention. Young
people have organized themselves into new formations
and have been energized by the promise that Obama would
want to move in a new direction. In the past forty
years the established parties benefited from the
demobilization of the youth and unlike most liberal
democratic states the numbers of citizens voting in the
USA has been consistently below the numbers of other
western democracies. Apathy and withdrawal from the
system have been the outcome of the absence of
realistic alternatives for the majority of the poor in
the United States. This absence of participation by the
youth has benefited the corporations and special
interests to the point where there had been no
incentive for the two parties to remove the
restrictions that deter young people from participating
in politics. The advent of Barack Obama is generating
the long sought after alternative, hence the
unprecedented turnout for the caucuses and primaries...

New experiences are being created in the midst of a new
kind of political campaign that builds on these
networks. The traditional media (newspapers, radio and
Television stations) and the campaign of the Clintons
have made clear statements about the organizational
experience of the team around Hilary Clinton (Madeline
Albright, Richard Holbrooke, Sandy Berger, Bill Clinton
etc). Yet, it is this same experience rooted in the
mechanistic hierarchies of Newtonian physics that is
becoming the albatross of the political campaign of
Hilary Clinton. Her experiences are very similar to the
leader of the Republican Party, John McCain. John
McCain is proud of his support for the wars against the
peoples of Iraq and the merchants of death. Hilary
Clinton has sought to demonstrate to the club of
militarists that she would oil the war machinery while
millions are without basic jobs.

Without fresh ideas when US citizens wanted a clean
break with the militarism that brought the quagmire and
fiasco in Iraq, Hilary Clinton could not understand
that she had to tell the people that she was wrong in
supporting the unjust war in Iraq. This is politics of
truth that is now needed in the society. But from the
position of Hilary Clinton on a possible military
strike against Iran and more importantly, her base in
the constituency of the financial speculators of New
York State exposed the fact that thought she is
campaigning to change conditions for women, she has not
broken with the militarists of the society. Decency
would require that Hilary Clinton rewrite her texts on
her responses to war and genocide during the Presidency
of Bill Clinton. In this campaign her character has
emerged especially in the case of the primary in
Florida. Hilary Clinton's willingness to claim a
victory in Florida when she had said she would not
brought out her true character to all peoples, black
and white, women and men...

The Obama campaign has been able to draw on the
organizational capacities of those who want to turn
truth into a political force so that the society can
turn from war to peace. This is the basic force behind
the momentum of Barrack Obama and his experiences of
Chicago has been able to translate this (peace thrust)
in order to build up the electoral profile, bringing
new teams in every part of the country and creating new
training spaces for the energetic to donate,
participate and learn the possibilities for change.
Yet, because of the limitations of the electoral system
that mitigates against direct participation of the
citizen beyond voting, it is urgent that those who have
understood the need for a new politics build new
organizations at new sites of politics.

This new urgency is especially the case in the peace
movement that has been unable to build on to the
aspirations of the masses of the people for justice.
Five years after the illegal occupation of Iraq, the
activists for peace yearn for new forms of expression
and hence there is a slow learning curve that
demonstrations without follow up will only frustrate
those who want new organizations. In 2003 at the start
of the war against the peoples of Iraq there were
millions of peoples on the streets.

Yet the established leadership of the peace movement
was not able to take the question of the illegal war to
the court of international opinion to that the
immorality of the war could be brought before the
International Criminal Court in The Hague...

Momentum means that when a person or object is moving,
regardless of what it is - the harder it is to stop
that person or object. When one consider "momentum" in
terms of politics, this means that if a presidential
candidate, such as Obama, sees and/or experiences a
gain and/or surge in his message of peace, hope and
change with millions singing, Yes we can, there could
be nothing, not even bullets that can intervene in this
momentum. This is the basis for a possible quantum leap
in US politics to bring a new mode of politics for the
21st Century.

Obama is not a revolutionary but he has been caught up
in a revolutionary moment in world history. The
electoral campaign of Obama is riding on a wave of
peace and change desired by ordinary Americans. There
are limitations to the electoral project insofar as the
task of restructuring US society is a gigantic one that
cannot be done overnight. Obama may not be the
solution, but is a small step in the direction of
making the break with the old binary conceptions that
dominated enlightenment thinking. It is the laws of
unintended consequences that will emanate from this
break that can lead to a new direction with the new
positive bottom up organizing for transformation to a
democratic society where all can live in peace.

A clear understanding of the nature of US politics and
limitation of the structures of the in-built
conservativsim of the system means that Barrack Obama
would only be trapped by this social system if those
who are being drawn into the audacity of hope do not
build their own political movement and political
organization. It is only a bottom up movement hat can
prevent Barack Obama from becoming a racial decoy for
the Wall Street forces. Self mobilization, self
organization and emancipatory ideas will create new
spaces so that the political space will be expanded
beyond the media, the lobbyists and the ritual spaces
of the White House, Congress and the Senate Chambers.
Safe and clean neighborhoods, children who are reared
to respect all human beings and a society that support
repair of the planet earth awaits these new self
organizing forces.

The campaign of Barack Obama is the story of hundreds
of thousands of ordinary people. These are the people
who are participating because they believe that
politics can mean something again. It is apt to
conclude with the words of Martin Luther King Jr.:

"Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture
the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes
hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty,
racism and militarism." "

* Horace Campbell is Professor of Political Science at
Syracuse University.

______________________________

_______________

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to people on the left that will help them to
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2005-11-10T08:23:00.000-08:00

City launches Moral
Regeneration Movement
WITH its eye on the SPIRIT OF UBUNTU Johannesburg is launching a Moral Regeneration Movement to restore moral fibre in society.

November 3, 2005
By Lucky Sindane

JOHANNESBURG is planning to launch a Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM) that will bring together different communities from different backgrounds to deal with their challenges and problems.

The movement will be launched on Saturday, 26 November at the Diepsloot taxi rank, in Diepsloot. It is an inclusive movement that will have its roots in communities, with support from the government.

Its objective is to revive the spirit of ubuntu, using all available resources and harnessing all initiatives in government, business, and civil society organisations and institutions to work towards restoring moral fibre in society.

"The MRM programme offers a unique opportunity for South Africans to re-define and re-affirm ourselves as moral beings and collectively formulate tangible, practical and workable strategies and programmes that will see us endorsing values compatible with the new democratic South Africa," says Loshini Govender, the deputy director in the Office of the Speaker.

Johannesburg Executive Mayor Councillor Amos Masondo, says, "The MRM programme is not an organisation. It is people coming together addressing burning issues in order to better people's lives."

However, there is a lack of participation from religious leaders.

Assertions are made that religious leaders are the only best gatekeepers of morality in our society, so they should be driving the movement, Govender believes.

But Masondo will meet religious leaders to provide political leadership on how best to ensure that all faiths are represented in the MRM.

"Together let us find solutions to moral decay by jointly developing a strategy and a programme of action," Masondo says.

The MRM programme seeks to promote the principles of good governance; to demonstrate a zero tolerance of any practice that impairs human dignity and the right to a decent life; and to profile all initiatives and good work made towards moral regeneration.

"The moral regeneration process ushered in by the government makes South Africa unique in the sense that it is an indigenous concept rather than an imposed one," Masondo says.

"Meetings will be held in all the regions to familiarise residents with the MRM and to give them the opportunity to discuss the means that will ensure their participation at the launch," Govender explains.

To ensure communities are part of the launch, the City will provide transport from all the regions to the venue.

"The strides made to strengthen the City's MRM have gained pace," Govender adds, saying this gave hope that most Joburgers will soon know of the movement.

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2005-10-13T12:25:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia Update...from Answers.com: What is UBUNTU?
http://www.answers.com/topic/ubuntu ... See you! Pax, SangomaAzania
http://www.answers.com/topic/ubuntu

2005-09-29T11:41:00.000-07:00

HUTU and TUTSI WOMEN ARE PEACEBUILDING IN BURUNDI, CENTRAL AFRICA:
Where YOU can help: http://www.nabuur.com/modules/villages_issues/index.php?villageid=141

2005-08-18T12:01:00.000-07:00

Hi!
Sorry I've been away. I'm back.
You are invited to contact me at ubuntu@usa.com.
Pax,
Azania

Here is a review of the basic philosophy of Ubuntu Psychology:

From The Essential Desmond Tutu

"The West has achieved a great deal through individual initiative and ingenuity and must be commended for these often spectacular achievements. But the cost may have been high. All this has permitted a culture of achievement and success to evolve, assiduously encouraging the rat-race mentality. The awful consquence is that persons tend then not to be valued in and for themselves with a worth that is intrinsic.

In Africa we have something called ubuntu in Nguni languages, or botho in Sotho, which is difficult to translate into English. It is the essence of being human. It speaks of the fact that my humanity is caught up and inextricably bound up in yours. I am human because I belong. It speaks about wholeness, it speaks about compassion. A person with ubuntu is welcoming, hospitable, warm and generous, willing to share. Such people are open and available to others, affirming of others, does [sic] not feel threatened that others are able and good, for they have a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that they belong in a greater whole and are diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they were less than who they are. It gives people resilience, enabling them to survive and emerge still human despite all efforts to dehumanise them. It means it is not a great good to be successful through being aggressively competitive, that our purpose is social and communal harmony and well-being."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2005-06-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

Here is some food for UBUNTU Thought:

African National Congress (The ANC) Reporting

AFRICA-YEAREND

DAKAR, Senegal 16 December 2004 Sapa-AP

2005: CRUNCH TIME FOR AFRICA'S PEACE DEALS

The coming year puts peace deals to the test in Africa's longest
and deadliest wars - as entrenched enemies from Sudan to Congo face
tension-raising deadlines to put recently made peace pledges into
practice.

As 2004 ended, two African nations stepped forward to show
laggards the way: Ghana and Niger, two nations ruled by military
strongmen and the AK-47 for decades, held elections with vigorous
turnouts and credible results.

In the West African nation of Ghana, jubilant citizens closed
the year dancing in the streets to celebrate a bloodless
presidential vote with a spectacular 83.2 percent turnout - with no
strongman commanding them to do so.

The war, peace, and politicking showed sub-Saharan Africa's
40-something republics still shaking off the outside influences -
colonial and Cold War - that had blocked peaceful democracy on much
of the continent for decades.

Perversely, the peace accords of 2004, 2003 and 2002 make 2005 a
year of enhanced risk as well as enhanced hope for much of Africa.

With the world's largest U.N. peace deployments on the ground to
quell major fighting, peace accords mandate 2005 elections in
several countries: Congo, Africa's third-largest nation, where a
1998-2002 civil war killed millions; neighboring Burundi, scene of
a linked conflict; Ivory Coast; and Liberia, finally freed of a
Cold War-created charismatic who fueled West Africa's wars for
nearly 15 years.

The risk is that combatants, faced with making good on their
grudging promises to share or yield power in elections, will opt to
return to full-scale fighting instead.

A 2004 peace accord mandates a different deadline for Sudan,
Africa's largest nation.

Under one north-south accord, Arab-dominated Khartoum must open
posts in its central government for rebels of the heavily Christian
south. The power-sharing was one object in a 21-year civil war.

The past year also saw separate, partial accords, in a newer and
now graver Sudanese civil war, in the western region of Darfur.

But there was no tension about whether the two sides in Darfur
would break the deals in 2005: they already did in 2004, repeatedly
violating cease-fire pledges with new attacks days or weeks within
signing pledges.

The year saw Darfur emerge as one of the biggest blights on the
world conscience, with Sudan accused of unleashing warplanes and
camel- and horse-mounted Arab tribal fighters against hundreds of
villages of non-Arab farmers.

The raids killed countless villagers and drove 1.8 million from
their homes. The United Nations was moved to call it the world's
greatest humanitarian disaster. The United States called it
genocide.

The last weeks of 2004 saw Sudan's government and Darfur rebels
in talks that were slated to hammer out a final peace deal, despite
heavy skepticism that either side planned to carry out their
pledges if international attention turned away.

U.N. investigators, meanwhile, closed 2004 probing whether the
genocide accusation was warranted, with a pronouncement expected in
the first weeks of 2005.

In southern Africa, parliamentary races in March mark Zimbabwe's
first major elections since 2002, when President Robert Mugabe won
re-election in a deeply flawed, widely disputed race.

Efforts continue in South Africa to get as many people as
possible on anti-retroviral drugs.

Africa's offshore oil boom, part of a worldwide scramble for
options to Middle East oil, stands to boom on in 2005- at a rate
that in 2004 catapulted people of one tiny, newly oil-rich African
backwater, Equatorial Guinea, to a percapita economic rank just two
spots behind prosperous Americans.

But again, only on paper. In practice, the majority of Africa's
oil-laden nations showed little sign of making good on promises to
share the wealth with their people.

@ ADDRESS BY MBEKI AT SALVOKOP

Issued by: Office of the Presidency

ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA, THABO MBEKI, AT
COMMEMORATION OF THE WEEK OF RECONCILIATION, FREEDOM PARK,
SALVOKOP, CITY OF TSHWANE, 16TH DECEMBER 2004.

Master of Ceremonies,

Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan,

Chairperson of the Freedom Park Board of Trustees, Getrude
Shope,

CEO of the Freedom Park Trust, Dr. Wally Serote,

Members of the Board of Trustees,

Ministers and Deputy Ministers,

Mayor of Tshwane, Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen:

We have gathered once more at this quiet place of contemplation
and remembrance - the Freedom Park - on this important day in our
national calendar, the Day of National Reconciliation, during the
year in which we celebrate a decade of freedom. It is indeed
fitting that we meet at this national shrine dedicated to our
heroes and heroines, whose seminal contribution to all of us is the
gift of freedom.

Commencing the journey of reconciliation in our country ten
years ago, President Mandela said during his inauguration as the
President of our Republic:

"The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to
bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is
upon us."

Two years later, as we adopted the Constitution of our Republic
in 1996 we declared in its Preamble that:

"(We) adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic
so as to -

* Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based
on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights;

* Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which
government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is
equally protected by law;

* Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the
potential of each person; and

* Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its
rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.

As part of our efforts to respond to the call by President
Mandela that the time had come for healing the wounds and bridging
the chasms that divide us, as well as honour the constitutional
injunction to "heal the divisions of the past...", among other
things we established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to
assist our country to unearth the truth about the many human rights
violations that happened as our people engaged in the bitter
struggle to free our country from apartheid, to forgive the
perpetrators and offer some reparation to those who had been
harmed.

The creation of this Freedom Park is in part a response to the
recommendations of the TRC, that we should retain the national
memory of our past and collectively honour those who fought and
sacrificed for our freedom.

When it has been built, it must be a tribute to the indomitable
human spirit displayed by millions of our people. It must be a
symbol of victory of peace over war, a celebration and
reaffirmation of our common humanity and human evolution, a shrine
that will constantly remind all future generations of their
obligation forever to avoid the depraved deeds that occurred in our
country because of human folly and greed.

In the past, this day, December 16, was observed as the Day of
the Covenant, celebrating the conflicts of the past, with their
results in terms of victors and the vanquished. Deliberately we
took the decision to keep December 16 as a public holiday, but
focused on reconciliation among those who had been enemies.

We sought to emphasise that among us there are no victors and
the vanquished, and that the triumph of a non-racial and non-sexist
democracy in our country constitutes an historic victory that
belongs to all of us, regardless of who fought on which side.

It was because we wanted to create the necessary space for all
our people, black and white, together to enjoy the fruits of this
common victory, together to use this victory as the base on which
to build a South Africa that belongs to all who live in it, that we
took the decision to respond to the conflicts of the past through
the TRC, rather than a process of retribution directed at settling
scores.

By this means we were making the pledge to ourselves that we
would not allow past hatreds and enmities to determine our future.
We were making the firm statement that while we will not forget the
past, nor abandon the task to address its legacy, we shall
nevertheless not allow ourselves to be imprisoned by that past.

To have done otherwise would have been to misuse the
possibilities presented by the present, by imposing historical
conflicts that cannot be undone, on a future we have the rare
possibility and obligation to define.

To have done otherwise would have been wilfully and recklessly
to surrender to the dictates of the ghosts of a past of whose
painful results we are painfully aware, of the extraordinary
opportunity we have, to be the architects of something new,
beautiful, noble and humane.

Firmly, we said - no to all that!

But there are others whose opinions we should respect, who have
thought that the forgiveness and the national reconciliation we
sought to achieve by engaging in the TRC processes was but an
exercise in delusion, a grossly misguided attempt to avoid what
would necessarily be an intense struggle between the new victors
and the newly vanquished, to exorcise the ghosts of the past.

One of these was the esteemed African thinker and writer, the
Nigerian, Wole Soyinka, Nobel laureate for literature. In his book
reflecting on the work the TRC and the philosophy that informed
this effort, entitled "The Burden of Memory, the Muse of
Forgiveness", he has written:

"But will the South African doctrine work, ultimately? Will
society be truly purified as a result of this open articulation of
what is known? For even while we speak of 'revelation', it is only
revelation in concrete particulars, the ascription of faces to
deeds, admission by individual personae of roles within known
criminalities, affirmation by the already identified of what they
formally denied. Nothing, in reality, is new. The difference is
that knowledge is being shared, collectively, and entered formally
into the archives of that nation.

"So, back to the question, this procedural articulation of the
known, will it truly heal society? Will it achieve the
reconciliation that is the goal of the initiators of this heroic
(TRC) process? For it is heroic - let that value be frankly
attributed. Even those of us who, conceding our unsaintliness,
distance ourselves from the Christian - or indeed Buddhist
-beatitudes, do acknowledge that forgiveness is a value that if far
more humanly exacting than vengeance. And so - will this
undertaking truly 'reconcile' the warring tribes of that (South
African) community? My inclination is very much toward a negative
prognosis."

Perhaps Wole Soyinka is right that ten years into our democracy,
we too must honestly ask ourselves the question - but will the
South African doctrine work, ultimately? Has it worked?

Has our society been truly purified as a result of the open
articulation of what we knew about our past, thus achieving what he
called "the ascription of faces to deeds, admission by individual
personae of roles within known criminalities, affirmation by the
already identified of what they formally denied"?

Is it true that, in reality, we have achieved nothing that is
new?

Has our undertaking truly to reconcile "the warring tribes of
(our) community" succeeded? Or should we repeat after Wole Soyinka
that our inclination too, is "very much toward a negative
prognosis"?

Put simply, has our effort to achieve national reconciliation
failed! Were we wrong to have thought that "the warring (black and
white) tribes of our community" could be reconciled on the basis
that we should not build their common future on the basis of
defining some as victors and others as the vanquished?

Wole Soyinka was right that if our process of national
reconciliation consisted only of the "revelation (of known misdeeds
of the past) in concrete particulars, (and) the ascription of faces
to deeds" of gross human rights violations, "this procedural
articulation of the known" would not have served truly to heal our
society.

But what serves truly to advance our society towards its
healing, towards bridging the chasms that divide us of which Nelson
Mandela spoke, is not merely what Soyinka called the "procedural
articulation of the known". That procedural articulation of the
known was a necessary part of the process of "healing the divisions
of the past", but not the alpha and the omega of our struggle for
national reconciliation.

The procedural articulation of the known through the TRC process
was but an element of a dream millions of our people share, to
create something that is new, beautiful, noble and humane. This is
a dream about building a new South Africa at peace with itself, a
new South Africa of reconciliation among "the warring tribes of
(our) community", a new South Africa that in its particular details
genuinely belongs to all who live in it, black and white.

41 years ago in 1963, on the occasion of the celebration of the
centenary of the Emancipation Proclamation that marked the end of
slavery in the United States, the great African American leader who
is our hero too, the Rev Martin Luther King Jr, spoke about his
dream for his people and his country, the United States of America.

With your permission, I would like to present to you some of
what he said, believing that his dream for his country and people
is the same dream we dream for our own country and people. He said:

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live
out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be
self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that
one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and
the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together
at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the
state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of
injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of
freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one
day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of
their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream
today.

"I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose
governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of
interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a
situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to
join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together
as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that
one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain
shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the
crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord
shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our
hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this
faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone
of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling
discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together,
to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for
freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."

As he began his historic address, Martin Luther King Jr said the
Emancipation Proclamation a hundred year before "came as a joyous
daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years
later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not
free."

Ten years into our own liberation, I am convinced we are
entitled to say something about our country that is different. I am
certain that we have every reason to contest Wole Soyinka's
"negative prognosis" about our country.

I have seen this with my own eyes that the sons and daughters of
those formerly oppressed and the sons and daughters of former
oppressors have been able to sit down together at a table of
brotherhood and sisterhood.

I have seen this with my own eyes that little black boys and
black girls have been able to join hands with little white boys and
white girls and walked together as sisters and brothers.

I know it as a fact that we have begun to transform the jangling
discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood and
sisterhood.

I know it as a fact that we have begun to work together, to pray
together, to struggle together, to stand up for freedom together,
knowing that the freedom we enjoy together is our only guarantee
that tomorrow the sun will continue to shine on all of us.

Because I have seen white South Africans and black South
Africans strive together to confront the legacy of a former "desert
state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression", to
use Martin Luther King's words, I know that we have begun the slow
and arduous task "to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of
hope."

Together we are witness to the ugly spectacle of humanity in
many parts of the world tearing itself apart in conflicts inspired
by racial, ethnic, religious and cultural identities.

We see violent and unnecessary deaths occur because many among
our own human species have found it too difficult to carry the
burden identified by Wole Soyinka, that forgiveness is a value that
if far more humanly exacting than vengeance.

Having seen all of this, surely all of us must agree that we
were right to choose the path of national reconciliation. Surely,
together we must say that our deeds have proved that Soyinka's
negative prognosis was wrong and that we were right to share the
dream that Martin Luther King Jr dreamt.

Standing in close proximity to the evolving story of a new
society in birth, it may be that we do not see what we have
achieved, that is the envy of all humanity. Because we know what we
must still do fully to restore the dignity of all our people, we
speak only of what we have as yet failed to achieve and therefore
beat our drums loudly to draw attention to the ugly remnants of the
legacy we inherited.

Speaking in celebration of the Centenary of the signing of the
Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln, Martin
Luther King Jr said "One hundred years later, the Negro lives in a
lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material
prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing
in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in
his own land."

A decade after bringing into force our own Emancipation
Proclamation, we can make the claim that no South African is today
an exile in his or her own land. We have all become South African
again, no longer citizens of Bantustans, no longer temporary
sojourners or surplus people, no longer victims of a philosophy and
practice that disrespected the self-evident truth that all people
are born equal.

But, as honesty demands, we admit this everyday that millions in
our country of freedom find themselves marooned in lonely islands
of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity,
languishing in the corners of South African society.

As long as this persists, so long must we agree with Martin
Luther King Jr that with regard to many of our people, democratic
South Africa has still not honoured its promissory note to provide
a better life for all, that democratic South Africa has given
millions of black people "a bad cheque which has come back marked
'insufficient funds' ".

We meet here on our Day of National Reconciliation to recommit
ourselves to the goals of national unity and reconciliation and a
common patriotism. We meet to restate the pledge that we will
continue to work together, black and white, inspired by a common
patriotism, to honour the promissory note delivered by the
democratic victory,

- to eradicate poverty in our country,

- to bridge the racial and gender divides created by our past,

- to translate reconciliation among ourselves into a shared
sense of common nationhood and a common effort to define the
content of our shared destiny,

- to sustain the miracle according to which we will realise our
dream that the seemingly impossible will happen, when one day every
valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low,
the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be
made straight, and our dear motherland will become what we are
striving to make of it.

We meet to commit ourselves to these objectives under the sad
circumstance that death has snatched from us an outstanding
compatriot, a creative spirit in our midst, a member of the Board
of Trustees of Freedom Park, an architect of the better future
towards which we strive, the outstanding architect Revel Fox.

I am privileged to extend to his family, friends and colleagues
in the important Freedom Park project the heartfelt condolences of
our Government, our people, as well as my own. Together we must
give the undertaking that we will do everything we can to help
realise his own vision of the South Africa of his dreams.

On this day, when we meet to dedicate ourselves to the twin
processes and objectives of national reconciliation and social
transformation, I am honoured to extend our Government's best
wishes to all our people as well as the season's message of peace,
prosperity, happiness and goodwill.

I am privileged to convey the same message to all our foreign
guests currently spending some time with us, including those who
are in our country to represent their governments, countries and
international institutions.

And let all of us pay particular care as we take to our roads,
to ensure that wherever we go, we Arrive Alive!

A Merry Christmas to everybody and a Happy New Year! Thank you!

2005-06-03T08:39:00.000-07:00

From: www.southafrica.info

BANKS DO IT!!!???

BUSINESS NEWS
Manuel calls for international ubuntu
Posted Fri, 03 Jun 2005

Appealing for an international "ubuntu", Finance Minister Trevor Manuel told the World Economic Forum that African countries should not be punished for skills deficits when poverty reduction was considered.

"Countries are required to provide detailed statistical analysis. Because you don't have the skills base in place, the only thing you can do is thumbsuck and hope that you're not caught out. It's wrong to ask that of good, honest, well-governed countries."

Manuel said there was a different approach, the African peer review mechanism, "a baring of the soul" where a country tells its peers to evaluate it against certain criteria, and suggest where improvement was required.

"Then you can deal with the deficits. Then you don't have to introduce new layers of conditionality. And if we can approach life like that, then I think we accept, we in South Africa talk about ubuntu, we accept the credentials, we accept the bona fides of our partners and we lay a basis for strong partnership," said Manuel on donor aid.

Manuel, who was speaking on debt relief, said too much of what was currently recorded as aid remained in the donor country under the guise of technical assistance.

He said this was a "fundamental problem" because it never reached recipient countries, while enriching professionals close to governments of donor countries.

"We want a different method of recording the aid. In the same way as we campaign for an extractive industries transparency initiative, we want a donor aid transparency initiative. Let's record the figures for what they are," Manuel said, to applause.

Earlier, Tanzania's President Benjamin Mkapa, distinguished between bilateral debt and the debts owed to international financial institutions.

While debt to the World Bank, for example, could be discussed, Mkapa felt that debt relief in the context of bilateral relations could help create an environment for the private sector to flourish.

This might mean improving legislation prohibiting the repatriation of profits, for instance.

"There is no doubt that some debt relief in Africa will enable countries to better the atmosphere, the environment, the climate, for investment and trade with the outside world."

Graham Mackay, chief executive of SABMiller, said his company did not specifically take into account a country's credit rating, and shun it if was a bad borrower.

"The effect on the evaluation of whether to invest by a company such as mine is pretty indirect."

Mackay said the company looked at the overall business and financial climate, with direct intervention by government and fiscal management two issues that would help determine investment.

Steve Booysen, Absa's chief executive, said when a country accepted debt relief, its credit rating by international ratings agencies could be downgraded.

"Investors worldwide use country ratings to determine their own risk appetite in making investments in a country."

Sapa

2005-05-07T17:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Colleagues:

Here is an interesting article on dialogue which I have found at NABUUR.com: http://www.nabuur.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=8

Let me show you how NABUUR exemplifies UBUNTU: http://faculty.ccp.cc.pa.us/FACULTY/jhoward/southafrica/ubuntu.html

And, here, is my explanation of NABUUR as an UBUNTU Organization, since the two (NABUUR and UBUNTU) are one-and-the-same; mean the same things; function in the same ways; and, can achieve similar enlightened altruistic goals.

I. WHAT IS NABUUR?

Economically under-developed communities around the world can help themselves with the help of NABUUR, a not-for-profit, or NGO, organization, based in the Netherlands, using the talents of volunteers, which carries out its work, mainly, online. Nabuur.com brings isolated communities into contact with people all over the globe who have every skill and resource imaginable among them; and, who want to make a contribution to the development of the socio-economically deprived areas of our world.
Through the use of the internet, NABUUR VILLAGE can facilitate bringing together large numbers of people in a large number of locations, all seeking the same objective, to alleviate suffering and foster sustainability and prosperity among disenfranchised peoples across the globe.
Nabuur participants are globally dispersed individuals; virtual neighbors to Nabuur’s "local" communities in need, brought together via the Internet:
· Nabuur neighbors to local villages know their way around the internet
· Nabuur neighbors can access influential contacts all over the world
· Nabuur neighbors have time, creativity, and expertise they wish to donate
The role of the Nabuur neighbor is largely that of an intermediary. The virtual neighbors of Nabuur bring the resources of the international community within the reach of the local (mostly rural and currently poor) communities they serve:
-2-

· Virtual Neighbors of Nabuur believe in the problem solving capability of local communities; and, local needs drive the process of their work.
· Virtual Neighbors of Nabuur search for, identify, and help select appropriate resources, worldwide, and organize the transfer of these resources to member villages.
· Virtual Neighbors of Nabuur believe that people are central to the Nabuur Village Project, not issues. Neighbors seek a healthy exchange relationship among the people, rewarding to both the Local Villages and villagers and their Virtual Neighbors through NABUUR.
Finally, there are Three Key Strategies that organize the NABUUR ENVIRONMENT:
· Nabuur is "person-to-person" accountable in its communications;
· Nabuur seeks to replace remoteness with vicinity, closing divides;
· Nabuur operates “elevated” by a tone-of-trust, which is reciprocal and genuine.
Each Nabuur Local Village and Nabuur Neighbor takes responsibility for making this working environment a reality. There will develop a respected emotional linkage and bond between both. This, too, is a goal of NABUUR, an UBUNTU Organization.

II. BY FICITICIOUS EXAMPLE, HOW DOES NABUUR WORK?

A rural town in Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa, called Mangangeni, located outside (roughly 40 to 45 km away) the Durban City metropolis, has a traditional Chief. The Chief has complained to the NABUUR Local Representative, whom he has come to trust, that there is too much “street crime” or “theft at gunpoint” particularly, robbing of taxi drivers and their passengers in the local town, and at village markets.
The Chief has asked the NABUUR Local Representative if he can suggest ways to bring down this new and staggering village crime rate. The NABUUR Village Representative first e-mails the problem, as the Chief describes it, to the NABUUR Village Facilitator for this village of Mangangeni. She is a woman who lives in the USA.

-3-

The NABUUR Village Facilitator for Mangangeni does some preliminary Internet research on crime in Kwa Zulu Natal and discovers that there are several “NGO” organizations devoted to ending violence in the Kwa Zulu Natal Province. She posts the problem and some of the sites she has identified on the NABUUR-Mangangeni Village website page, along with her own insights, and suggestions gathered from the research she has done, so that the Nabuur Village Neighbors get a good grasp of what is going on in Mangangeni Village around the crime issue, and, a feel for what they might be able to begin doing to help.
Now, for “digging the gully” between the “reservoir of knowledge” (NGO Organizations dedicated to ending violence, for example) and the people of the Village of Mangangeni: This is the work of NABUUR Village Neighbors, who have logged-on and made a commitment to work individually and together, helping the people of Mangangeni village with their most pressing problems. The Mangangeni “Virtual Neighbors” of the Nabuur project will do further research and bring their own experiences and varied resources to bear in finding which organizations in the Kwa Zulu Natal community, and internationally, can help the people of Mangangeni alleviate their "crime" problems. They will attempt to get these organizations together with the Chief and the People of Mangangeni, and then work further with the people on the problem, until crime abates in the area.
Many strategies will be relayed and developed by the people of Mangangeni through their NABUUR, Mangangeni Village website as the villagers continue to make their own inquiries and come up with additional suggestions, strategies, and solutions among themselves, and with their Nabuur Neighbors. One process that could be utilized in the Mangangeni community is exemplified by the "Dialogues," presented to you, at the beginning of this discussion of NABUUR; the "premiere" example, and perfect definition, of an “online” UBUNTU organization.

2005-04-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

AN EXCERPT FROM:

"A REFLECTION ON THE THEME IN AN AFRICAN CONTEXT"

by

Kobus Bezuidenhout, former Prison Chaplain, South Africa, member of the Steering Committee of the International Prison Chaplain's Association, and active in Restorative Justice Initiatives

The Value Placed on Community and Ubuntu:

"Restorative Justice is not a new concept and practice in Africa. By doing what is contrary to society's rules a person exposes him/herself to the multiple risks in life and to total rejection by the whole community because the general view among the traditional African is that a person finds his/her full identity only within its social structures. The person who breaks the law is a transgressor or a sinner. When a transgression or sin disturbs the harmonious interactions of people, a big gathering of the kinship group or whole community is then convened to find ways and means to acknowledge or remedy the situation. It includes: reconciliation; organising happy or sad events; purification; healing of some social diseases with the goal of rebuilding or re-establishing a new order; security and protection in the community. This gathering is called palaver [to compare with the family-group-conferencing].

Palaver is possible within the traditional worldview and life style called Ubuntu [humanness]. Ubuntu is a comprehensive ancient African worldview based on the values of intense humanness, caring, sharing, respect, compassion and associated values, ensuring a happy and qualitative community life in a spirit of family. Ubuntu determines and influences everything a person thinks, says and does. The communal live is the foundation of society. The strong communal solidarity and the sense of the group inhibit people to function outside social boundaries, rules, responsibilities and commitments.

"People [ubuntu] are people through other people" is a saying that reflects the essence of the traditional African community. Add further the Tsêma principle used in Mozambique. When soldiers return from a war they are cleansed in their communities of their impurity due to the killing of other human beings. Elsewhere in Africa purification of the offender takes place after release from prison. Purification of the clan or tribe also takes place due to the shame the criminal did to them and to prevent disasters or punishment from Above.

Throughout the ages, many roads crossed and joined the continental Ubuntu highway used by more than 2000 clans, tribes or ethnic groups with each its own language, history and culture. South of the Sahara Desert, the populations who use the highway consist of a mixture of highly westernised people, traditionalists, Christians, atheists, Muslims, Hindus, etc. All over Africa, people have been led to the point of despising their own native traditions and cultures and of regarding foreign ideas and cultures as the only way to human dignity. Today, a common belief is that the traditional Ubuntu culture of Africa should return and could even be of great assistance to the West in its combating of social decay, crime and its effects. Well, as Plinius said: "Ex Africa semper aliquid novi." (There is always something new in Africa.)

Looking at the aims and goals of traditional Ubuntu and Palaver with all it's content [transgression, judgement-dialogue, confession-pardon, punishment fine and celebration] bring forth real challenges for all the role players in restorative justice in an African context. Not that the whole society should be Ubuntu-fied…"

by

Kobus Bezuidenhout, former Prison Chaplain, South Africa, member of the Steering Committee of the International Prison Chaplain's Association, and active in Restorative Justice Initiatives

2005-03-14T13:35:00.000-08:00

The Virtual Global College
Human Resource Management
Ubuntu means to SAA what 'putting people first' meant to BA
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"Change The innovative leader expects it, fosters it, plans it, directs it, and uses it for competitive advantage."

Dr Susan Wolmarans is senior manager, human resources at SAA.
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The ubuntu service philosophy was implemented in 1994 as the driving force behind South African Airways' service.

At least we are proud to be South African! The philosophy has, however, created some confusion in the minds of especially the 'paler' part of our employees. What is this new philosophy? Does it mean that I need to sacrifice my own culture in favour of the predominantly African culture?

One can understand that in the face of the uncertainty created by affirmative action, people might be hesitant or cautious to embrace such an approach without reservation.

The South African society has been characterised by an 'us and them' divide that negates the common human needs of people, irrespective of their colour, creed or gender. Should you disagree with this statement, just administer the following 'test' to yourself and some of the people you regard as 'them' and compare notes:

would you like to be treated with dignity and unconditional respect and feel that others care about you?
do you have a need to be understood, supported and acknowledged by people?
would you rather work in a hostile, adversarial environment or do you prefer colleagues who are sensitive to each others' needs and cooperate, share and work together as a team?
is it important to you to feel appreciated, wanted and valuable, surrounded by people who are kind, gentle and considerate? would you prefer people to work together for the common good rather than towards their own (selfish) objectives?
do you prefer approaching your daily task as an unavoidable curse or would you rather view it as an exciting opportunity for personal growth where you are committed, involved and can innovate and change things that hamper harmonious work processes?
what is more desirable: suspicion and hidden agendas or trust, openness and transparency?
would you rather share some of your material possessions voluntarily or run the risk of being mugged, maimed or killed by hungry, angry mobs?
do you prefer to be involved and have a say in the way the company does business and treat people or just having to accept what happens and criticise afterwards?
should decisions be rationally justified or made in favour of people in positions of power?
if somebody achieves the highest honours, should he/she claim all the credit for him/herself or share the recognition with the team?
What then is ubuntu? Ubuntu is the main pillar of traditional African values which bonded people together in difficult times. It centres around love, gentleness, sharing and caring for each other. 'Humaneness' or being human 'in relation to other human beings' is synonymous with ubuntu. In the words of Prof. E D Prinsloo of the Department of Philosophy at UNISA ubuntu is "a refined way of dealing with others, listening, accommodating and respecting people ... to make civilised sense of human relations." It is sometimes easier to define a concept in terms of what it is not than in terms of what it is. Ubuntu does not support hierarchical, power based, autocratic company relations where the left hand is unaware of what the right hand is doing and dare not find out.

Neither is it the gravy train where everybody looks after himself and tries to get as much out of the system as possible for personal gain.

In order to try and define the concept further, let's look at a few classical questions.

Is ubuntu not just 'the flavour of the month?" Ubuntu is nothing new. Examples of how strongly people feel about ubuntu values are numerous.

The French Revolution was amongst those partly fuelled by the need for ubuntu. 'Freedom, equality and brotherhood' which inspired the revolutionaries, are at the core of the ubuntu philosophy.

The miracle of the South African elections in 1994 happened as a result of the fact that the two most prominent leaders, President Mandela and Vice president De Klerk, shared most of the ubuntu values, the latter's sacrificing his position of power for the common good was indeed a prime example of unselfishness, sharing and a live and let live attitude.

Is ubuntu restricted to indigenous black people? Urbanisation and the accumulation of wealth and material possessions have their advantages but unfortunately robbed South Africans to a large extent of their warmth, hospitality and genuine interest in each other as human beings.

The world-wide acclaimed 'country hospitality' ('boeregasvryheid') that is still cherished by visitors to South Africa, runs the risk of becoming extinct unless we revive it and capitalise on this uniquely South African quality.

By the same token we also need to restore the ubuntu that gave dignity to our indigenous African society.

Have you ever wondered why some of the people with the least material possessions are sometimes also the most cheerful? The answer is they have ubuntu.

Being part of the ubuntu culture means that you are never lonely, seldom experience selfdoubt and are guaranteed the unconditional support of an extended group of friends, no matter what happens to you.

Can ubuntu be meshed with our company values? Looking at the publicly stated SAA values of pride in performance, customer orientation, employee care, corporate citizenship, integrity, safety, innovation and teamwork, it is obvious that they can all be meshed with the ubuntu philosophy.

A spirit of sharing, love and kindness should eventually become part and parcel of our organisational ethos!

Will ubuntu force me to sacrifice my culture? Culture is localised being part of a particular group of people who have a clear set of rules about 'the way we do things around here.' The 'ingroup' may be very intolerant or critical towards the 'outgroup' resulting in insulting remarks such as "whites are not people" or "blacks destroy everything."

The beauty of ubuntu is that although it recognises the uniqueness of cultures, it spans cultures, binding people of different cultures with similar values. Although we may not always realise it, there is already a uniquely South Africa way of doing things which is continuously reinforced by our communication media.

Should we all consider adopting people centred ubuntu values, this indigenous culture can be further cemented.

Are Christian values and ubuntu reconcilable? Due to the fact that Christianity was often associated with paternalistic colonialism, many indigenous South African people rejected Christianity.

They associated Christianity with being robbed of their land, selfesteem and humanity. However, according to Joe Ndaba of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Zululand, "the unadulterated pure Word of God is nothing different to European or African humanism. It is the cultural interpretation that has clouded it."

Mr Ndaba is of the opinion that ubuntu is not peculiar to black people and that South African whites tend to underestimate the presence of ubuntu in themselves.

He regards ubuntu as "the sum total of all moral human values" and sees the mutual social responsibility concept also as part of European humanism. "The biggest challenge today is to contextualise ubuntu in a global village."

Is there any place for recognition and individual achievement in the ubuntu philosophy? Traditional African society always had heroes. The Kenyan athletes and traditional African kings and princes are prime examples of individual performance in an ubuntu context. The sovereignty of the king will, however, only stay intact as long as he practices ubuntu.

This means per implication that achievement is not at the expense of others. If a man becomes autocratic/ despotic, his supporters might move to another leader.

The current Miss South Africa represents modest ubuntu achievement in practice as she regards her achievement as an honour for the people she represents. "By appreciating the greatness in others, the person reflects the greatness in him/herself," according to Peter Raboroko of the ANC.

Individuality is not negated but should not take precedence over the common interest. (So much for company politics!)

Is ubuntu only a philosophy or a way of life?

Ubuntu is reflected in people's actions, in the way we treat others as well as in good deeds of neighbourliness. A true ubuntu practitioner wants less for him/herself and more for others.

This way of life is usually learned at home in the nucleus family or the primary group. One's values determine one's goals. Do unto others what you wish for yourself. If you value freedom, allow others their freedom.

What about setting limits and discipline? Consensus and reconciliation are highly valued but setting limits and retribution are also practised by ubuntu followers. People know in no uncertain terms what is acceptable and what is not.

The community decides how to punish transgressors. Due to the yearning for justice this punishment might in many instances be more severe than what for instance a manager would have considered.

Implementing ubuntu does therefore not mean lowering or disregarding standards. The only prerequisite is that the standards and punishment should be mutually agreed upon.

What are the implications of ubuntu for the way we manage in South Africa? Ubuntu is based on democratic principles of inclusivity, consultation and participative decision making taking control of your own destiny.

This, in turn, implies empowerment and the decentralisation of authority. The joint problem solving of communities is replicated in the work place, getting everybody involved in the identification of problems and the proposal of solutions.

'Learned helplessness' is replaced by the realisation that people at grassroots level can be masters of their own destiny. "Selfawareness and selfesteem improve as people's initiatives are rewarded with positive changes," says Prof. Frik de Beer of Unisa.

By practising ubuntu principles, people start to realise their interrelatedness (systems theory) and that 'unity' is in fact 'strength.' The company starts to function as a family, "sharing in the pleasures of profits and the disappointments of loss," Sydney Rantloane of the Consumer Council feels.

Alienation and exploitation are replaced by joint ownership and shared responsibility and become the key to higher productivity.

It is important to remember that traditional ubuntu communities share everything even life and death. Responsibilities were learned at a young age by being part of the family business, e.g. looking after livestock.

We need to be sensitive to the fact that rural people can be intimidated by an office environment reflecting cold, calculated, business success! We need to comfort people with the warmth and understanding of ubuntu, Mr Rantloane says.

What are the obstacles in the way of internalising ubuntu values? Our selfishness, rugged individualism and egoistic conceptions of our own greatness and importance may stand in the way of accepting ubuntu values.

In a competitive society where individual performance is rewarded, people see themselves as islands, finding it hard to give credit to the team. Our greed and materialism might be in conflict with principles such as team rewards and gain sharing where everybody gets an equal 'share in the pie.'

We have lately experienced a growing community consciousness in South Africa as a result of the raising of levels of unemployment and the RDP strategies. Maybe the statement that "poverty is the wealth of nations poverty is richness" is indeed true.

It might eventually bring about an equilibrium between traditional humanistic values and materialistic Western business values.

A positive spinoff could in the end also be a healthy balance between bottomline and people orientation in companies. Restoring this balance might prove to be the true contribution of ubuntu to current management practices.

How should we go about facilitating a common ubuntu business culture? It is essential to take an interest in other people's cultures in order to discover both the unique characteristics and common factors of different cultures. Jabu Sindane of the HSRC suggests the following 'medicine' for nation building which also applies to the business environment:

adopt a common, people centred value system,
incorporate 'them' in your 'we,'
portray all the subcultures in a positive way by making 16 December a 'rainbow culture' day of art, music and public debate,
get to know people at individual and family level by inviting each other to significant events stop saying "I don't think they will like it," and
appreciate people for their unique contributions and, in the process, restore their selfrespect and dignity.
In conclusion, we need to find a balance between traditional people centred values and hard-nosed Western business practices. Colonialism has undoubtedly caused a lot of suffering but, on the positive side, "colonialism has awoken Africa from her sleep," suggests Joe Ndaba.

Prof Prinsloo of Unisa adds: "We are looking for a new world spirit. People who entertain the same beliefs about human dignity should join hands to make the world a better place." The world views of Africans have made social coherence possible. It might create a new consciousness of our interdependence, living in a world with others.

Ubuntu could become an all encompassing philosophy for the 'rainbow people' of South Africa that the world might like to emulate! In the end it is "cooperation, sharing and charity that distinguishes human beings from animals," Prof Joe Telfoe of the University of the North suggests.

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Human Resource Management
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Originally published by: Richard Havenga & Associates in conjunction with The Institute of Administration and Commerce of Southern Africa, The Institute of Management Studies (Southern Africa), The Institute of Training Management (Southern Africa) and the Southern African Society for Training and Development.

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2005-03-11T08:25:00.000-08:00

FOUNDATIONS OF UBUNTU PSYCHOLOGY

Position paper:
Critical research issues inPsychology
For
The National Research Foundation’s
‘Shifting the boundaries ofknowledge – the role of social sciences, law and humanities’ project
July 2004

BY

Catriona Macleod

Department of Psychology
University of Fort Hare
P O Box 742
6East London5200
Tel: (043) 7047036Fax: (043) 7047107
E-mail: cmacleod@ufhel.ac.za

Position Paper:
Critical research issues in Psychology

ABSTRACT

"During Apartheid, Psychology was accused of being irrelevant, and of advertently orinadvertently bolstering Apartheid. Since 1994 much has changed in Psychology, but muchhas remained the same. In a situational analysis of research in Psychology over the last fiveyears (South African Journal of Psychology articles and PsycINFO abstracts under the keywords ‘South Africa’) it emerged that quantitative methods based on ‘hard’ science theoryas well as the traditional topics of assessment, psychotherapy/counselling, psychopathologyand stress continue to dominate psychological research. A minority of studies utilisetheoretical frameworks and tackle topics that illuminate the interweaving of the individualwith the socio-political context. An analysis of the location and participants of researchindicates that knowledge is being generated chiefly about urban, middle-class adults livingin the three wealthiest provinces, with university students being the most popular source ofparticipants. This is in contradistinction to the demographic realities of the country.Historically white universities continue to dominate the publishing scene, and collaborationtakes place chiefly with countries from the ‘developed’ world. A comparison of theseresults with the key issues raised in the Eastern Cape’s Provincial Growth and DevelopmentPlan shows that Psychology has long way to go before it can establish its ‘relevance’credentials. Future challenges for Psychology include:· theoretical development that brings insights from South Africa’s unique sociohistorical-political context into local and international theoretical debates· expanding traditional approaches, topics and participants to ones that speak to thesocio-political concerns of South Africa, and that represent South Africa’s demography; forging links with researchers in the rest of Africa and other developing countries."

2005-03-09T14:41:00.000-08:00

CRITICAL PSYCHOLOGY

INTERNATIONAL

www.criticalpsychology.com
Name of node:
UBUNTUPSYCHOLOGY.COM
www.ubuntupsychology.blogspot.com

Name of contact person, and contact details:

Frederica Azania Clare
5 Saint Mark's Place
New York, New York 10003
ubuntuguru@yahoo.com

Institution:

UBUNTUGROUP
Frederica Clare, M.A.
Suite #10
5 Saint Mark's Place
New York, New York 10003
ubuntu@usa.com

Research Interests :

The study and development of "URUGU" ... Book ... by Marimba Ani, Ph.D.
& UBUNTU PSYCHOLOGY (Frederica Azania Clare, M.A.)
as Psychological Disciplines; Ancient African and African Indigenous Psychologies; Maafa Studies, Sangoma Studies, www.afrprov.org:

Frances Cress Welsing, M,D, ("Isis Papers,") Neely Fuller, Bobby Wright, Ph.D("Psychopathic Racial Personality,") Amos Wilson, Ph.D ("Black on Black Crime") & "Genius of the Black Child" ("Unfinished Business," by Bell and Ntebeze, South Africa), Cobbs and Greer, "Black Rage" Franz Fanon, M.D, etc.

www.millionsforreparations.com,
The Greensboro Project
The reconciliation psychology of www.BrandonHamber.com,
Restorative Justice
The educational methods of www.facinghistory.org
and www.healingthroughremembering.org
Intentional Communities for Reconciliation

Political Prisoners: Nelson Mandela, Mumia Abu Jamal, El Hajj Malik Shabazz, et. al. On the Count radio program, with Eddie Ellis and Ayo Harrinton on WBAI, A Pacifica radio station.

The Alternatives to Violence Project and Quaker Activism for Peace; African Codes of Conduct. Distance Learning and Teaching, http://www.usdla.org/, Collaborative Learning http://www.collaborativelearning.blogspot.com/ and Teaching.

Current Research Projects:

Applying for study at UNISA, The University of South Africa, to study for the post-graduate degee in Organizational Psychology. I plan to write a doctoral dissertation on Ubuntu Organization and Organizations and study further for the the Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology, focusing on Critical Psychology/Ubuntu Psychology: Intersections and Interaction Effects.

Website name and URL:

http://www.ubuntupsychology.blogspot.com/ (http://www.ubuntupsychology.com/) ...under construction in 2005.

2005-03-09T11:09:00.000-08:00

Summary:
A study of worker co-operatives in Zululand, South Africa
Details or Sample:

Sample:

Ubuntu has emerged as the new catchword of recent years; it has been adopted by various organisations to depict their culture and spirit. Borrowed from the Zulu dictionary, Augustine Shutte explains that Ubuntu encapsulates the Ancient African axiom of umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, which translates into "a person is a person through other persons".

This dictum conveys the values of respect, compassion and humanity to others. Put in a nutshell, it is the idea of working together in order to progress.

The co-operatives in Zululand are the epitome of Ubuntu, for me. It was only after being educated about the nature of these enterprises that I was able to grasp the true essence of Ubuntu.I discovered that a co-operative is a group of people that unite, by pooling their skills and resources, to provide a service or manufacture a product, which is marketed. The surplus of the sales is divided amongst the members, providing many families with their only source of income. I was further informed that co-operatives are based on values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. Co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others, which are similar to the values of Ubuntu. The concept of co-operatives and the location of them are unknown to many; co-operatives have existed for years, but tend to keep a low profile. As a result, there are few studies and very little information on them, especially in South Africa.Clare O’Neill, a senior lecturer in Organisational Psychology at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, has initiated a project to address this issue by providing more information on co-operatives in Kwa-Zulu Natal. She aims to profile co-operative activity and evaluate its institutional structures while assessing the dynamics within these structures. The research will be used to identify factors affecting the success of co-operatives in the province. O’Neill will compare governance strategies and study the impact of the co-operatives on their communities.

2005-03-09T10:59:00.000-08:00

Aristide talks on ubuntu

INAUGURAL MONTHLY PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES OF THE CENTRE FOR AFRICAN RENAISSANCE

UNISA

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA

date: Wednesday January 26, 2005
Time: 15H30 FOR 16H00
venue: SUNNYSIDE CAMPUS: BUILDING 2 CONFERENCE HALL President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, democratically elected president of the Republic of Haiti - Lecture on the theme:

Psychology of Ubuntu: Promoting African Renaissance

President Aristide holds post graduate degrees in psychology, theology and philosophy. After studies in Israel and Canada he returned to Haiti where he taught in these fields. Fluent in several different languages, such as Italian, Spanish, French, Creole, with reasonable knowledge of IsiZulu. In 1991 he became Haiti’s first democratically elected president. After his re-election in 2000 he founded the country’s largest university campus. Education, literacy and health care remained priorities during his second administration. After the violent coup d’etat that struck the country in February of 2004, President Aristide has been living in South Africa where he is a Research Fellow at the University of South Africa.

Venue: University of South Africa, Sunnyside Campus
January 26, 2005
Presentation by
JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF UBUNTU
I thank you for being here this afternoon and commend Prof Gutto and the Centre for African Renaissance for organising this monthly lecture series. To promote African Renaissance we must engage in debate and reflection on issues of great importance like the psychology of ubuntu.
Our explanation of ubuntu is grounded within the framework of social psychology. This approach tends towards the nature and the causes of human social behaviour. In fact, social psychology tries to understand groups themselves as behaviour entities. Does ubuntu refer to some particular groups in our society? Can ubuntu help address issues like narcissistic behaviour, schizoid disorder, obsessive neurosis, pathological narcissism, and autistic cultures through social groups? What do we mean by psychology of ubuntu?
Ubuntu generates a psychological Self which is quite different from the Premium or the Self of social psychologist, Gordon Allport (1897-1967). Elaborating on human being’s motivations, Allport said that the Premium or the Self has seven functions which in some manner affect how we interact:
1- Self related to the sense of body2- Self-identity3- Self-esteem4- Self-extension5- Self-image6- Self related to rational coping7- Self related to appropriate striving
To that list, I will add another Self in relation with ubuntu: this is the collective Self. Embedded in a collective Self or a collective Ego, the psychodynamic of ubuntu goes straight to the community’s wellbeing. Self-interest and common interest are inextricably linked. Amathe nolimi. In others words, ubuntu generates a social love story rooted in brotherhood.
While archeologists journey through the 7 million-year-old landscape of the human past, social psychologists look for this collective Self’s dynamic through the behaviour of groups and evolution in or outside of Africa, the cradle of humankind.
The earliest human settlement in Asia dates soon after 2 million years ago, while the earliest settlement of temperate Europe itself took place about 800,000 years ago.
Here, in Africa, our ancestors shared a community life which empowered their villages to resist colonialism. By 400 BC it was said that North African granaries fed Rome’s masses for nine months out of the year, Egypt’s for four. Emerging as a State after 3100 BC, Egypt flourished through a remarkable civilisation. But it would fall to Roman rule in 30 BC. “The revelation of navigators from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, provides positive proof that Black Africa, which extended south of the desert zone of the Sahara, was still in full bloom, in all the splendor of harmonious and well-organized civilizations.”
What are the reasons behind colonialism? Obviously, ubuntu and colonialism oppose each other. Could it really be the case of “good people” coming to civilise “savage groups” as it is so often depicted?
As Cheikh Anta Diop notes: “It would be incorrect to say that civilization was born of racial mixture, for there is proof that it existed in Black lands well before any historical contact with Europeans. Ethnically homogeneous, the Negro people created all the elements of civilization by adapting to the favorable geographical conditions of their early homelands. From then on, their countries became magnets attracting the inhabitants of the ill-favored backward lands nearby, who try to move there to improve their existence.”
Worldwide, gold, oil and natural resources constitute a permanent pole of attraction. Groups that behave as colonialists possess a fertile psychological field for the growth of narcissistic tendencies. The colonialist mind reflects infatuation and obsession with one’s self to the exclusion of others. Self-interest is placed at the core of actions. So, violence, crime, genocide and all necessary means are used in the name of self-interest. Such pathological behavior, as a result, paves the way for anomic societies, disruptive socialisation processes, social exclusion, a sustainable development of schizoid cultures – instead of sustainable human development. The continued marginalisation of the world’s poor reflects new patterns of colonialism. Economic globalisation empowers those reinforcing the structures of exclusion. More and more rich but less and less sensitive to the human suffering, the neo-colonialists fall in love with their own neoliberal agenda. It is worse than the case of Narcissus, the handsome youth who, Greek mythology tells us, was condemned to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Unable to consummate his love, Narcissus pined away and was ultimately transformed into the flower that bears his name.
From the primary to the secondary level of narcissism, we reach a pathological level where all is exclusive and all-pervasive. The exaggerated self and the pathological super ego become so arrogant and violent that it leads necessarily to a dysfunctional society.
On the other hand, people motivated by ubuntu’s spirit try to extend the wealth of possibilities to all people.
Healthy-minded people understand that poverty generates suffering. Our determination to promote African Renaissance necessarily implies the eradication of poverty through equitable growth.
- We must build strong and deep forms of democratic governance at all levels of society in which poor people have political power too.
- Healthy-minded people understand that social justice and global solidarity must ensure that benefits are shared equitably.
- Eradicating poverty everywhere is more than a moral imperative - it is a practical possibility. That is the most important message of the Human Development Report of 1997. The world has the resources and the know-how to create a poverty-free world in less than a generation.
- Here is an historic challenge for healthy-minded people of this 21st century.
To move faster towards that goal, we need to scrutinise ubuntu during a unique historical period which I call: THE FIRST AFRICAN TSUNAMI. Ubuntu and the first African tsunami
From 1451 to 1870, hundreds of thousands of African bodies disappeared in the seas. These same seas that are as much as 500 million years old, seas that connect to oceans which cover three quarters of the Earth’s surface with depths estimated at 3,790 meters.
Last month we witnessed the sea rushing towards the Asian people. But in 1471, it was the opposite: the Africans rushed towards the sea and jumped in, preferring death to slavery. Of the 11 to 12 million Africans transported from the continent during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, two-thirds were male, perhaps 27% were children. They left Africa in groups that averaged close to 320 per ship. An estimated 13% died in transit. Eyewitness accounts of Africans of the trauma suffered by Africans upon their capture into slavery and during the middle passage at sea are a powerful testament of pain. Historian Verene Sheperd captures these voices.
- “Women, some with three, four or six children clinging to their arms, with the infants on their backs and such baggage as they could carry on their heads, running as fast as they could through prickly shrub.” Wrote one kidnapped slave.
- Another wrote: “One day when we had a smooth sea …two of my countrymen who were chained together preferring death to such a life of misery, somehow made through the nettings and jumped into the sea…many would very soon have done the same if they had not been prevented by the ship’s crew.”
- In the published account of a slave who survived the middle passage it was written: “I have known ships in which 750 slaves had been embarked (but) not more than 400 arrived alive.”
- “It was not a rare circumstance for the captain to order such poor slaves as were evidently dying to be thrown overboard during the night,” testified another surviving slave.
These are the voices of slaves.
Once on land the suffering intensified. Slave codes of the time allowed judges to sentence slaves to be burnt alive, broken on the wheel or to be dismembered. The crime of raising a hand against one of the children of the mistress was to have the slave’s hand cut off and to be hanged.
- Whipping, and the pouring of salt, pepper or hot ashes into the bleeding wounds, was common.
- Boiling wax, oil or sugar was poured over the naked body.
- Iron devices around hands and feet, wood blocks to be dragged behind, iron collars, and tin plate masks especially designed to prevent the slaves from eating sugar cane, were employed.
- Slaves were buried up to their necks and their faces smeared with sugar to be eaten by ants and flies.
- Others were burned or roasted alive.
The instructions that one slave master gave his plantation manager in 1775 reveal the barbarity to which women were subjected. For a live birth, the slave master ordered that the midwife be given 15 livres and the woman who delivered the baby, cloth. If the child died at birth both women were to be whipped and the one who lost the child placed in iron collars until she became pregnant again.
Incredible behaviour of the colonists! Incredible suffering of the slaves! Incredible as it may seem to the modern observers, these tortures appear not to have been isolated cases but rather, as is well witnessed, part and parcel of daily plantation life.
In the face of this trauma endured by the slaves how did they react? From a social psychological perspective, how could we describe their behaviour?
African descendants did not lose the collective self of ubuntu. They fought to protect life. Freedom was equated to life. Hence, the rallying call of the Haitian revolution: Freedom or death! As a result, Haiti, the daughter of Africa, became the Cradle of Liberty in 1804 when it emerged as the world’s first black independent republic.
Haiti drew from ubuntu and rich African traditions and knowledge systems to protect life, even in the physical disposition of their homes. The Haitian “lakou” mirrors the traditional Zulu kraal: we find almost the same geographic disposition of the houses linking different branches of the same family: father, mother, brothers, sisters, grandfathers, gogos, cousins. Food is shared among all. “Vwazinay se fanmiy.” Abamakelwane bami bafana nabazali bami.
The behaviour of African descendents reflects ubuntu or life through a culture of joy, happiness and goodness: the victims offer compassion, reconciliation to former masters, smile with a sincere heart and always cultivate a deep sense of warm hospitality. Generally the best is offered to national and international guests by the peasants – not because they are naïve, but simply because they are true descendants of Africa.
Here in South Africa, we are experiencing this same spirit of ubuntu. As researchers, we discovered it abroad, now, at the source. Throughout the African diaspora, no country can be as African as Haiti.
The behaviour of African descendents reflects ubuntu or life through a profound sense of respect – hlonipa – for people, whether alive or who have passed on to death. By that I mean the Ancestors. In Haiti when you knock on the door to someone’s house you say: Honour! And from inside the house, a voice will reply: Respect!
Both sides express this same hlonipa as a symphony. In the same way descendants of Africa and Africans hate to abandon their parents in old age homes. Some consider these homes as a “garage for old people.” They prefer to live together, even after death. In the countryside, it is customary for loved ones to be buried close to the house.
From the drops of coffee sprinkled to the ground and food offered to the spirits of the ancestors to Ukubuyisa, we find a clear demonstration of this communion, both in Haiti and in Africa. How can a dead person continue to protect or punish someone who is alive? The issue is complex. It is not a question which lends itself to a “true or false” answer. The response lies within the person who believes and how this belief can affect that person’s life. Ubuntu’s psychodynamic cannot deny the world of the amadlozi or amathongo.
According to Diop, “While the most distant ancestors are detached in some manner almost like a vapor to reach the heavens, the nearest ones, those who have just died and whose memory is not yet vague enough for them to be the forebears of an entire people, these closest ancestors are only family demi-gods.”
Ancestors, many generations back, still play an active role in the life of their descendants and are honoured at festivities, as it is believed that no good can be derived from an ancestor who has been forgotten.
An understanding of ubuntu’s amadlozi and any belief system require research; scientific research that must be objective. Scientific contributions from the West should not be accepted as dogma. But clearly, concepts of Western psychology can be applied to achieve a greater understanding of religious rituals, Ukubuyisa, meditative states, trances, group behaviours, etc… .
Psychologist Roland Fisher developed a cartography that explains the ecstatic-Self through the ERGOTROPIC –TROPHOTROPIC balance. In other words Fisher: “suggests that ecstatic and meditative states can be placed on a circular continuum representing varying states of subcortical arousal. Movement in one direction on the continuum reflects ERGOTROPIC AROUSAL, which is marked by increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system (which mobilizes the body during stress), greater frequency of saccadic or rapid scanning movements of the eyes, and diffuse cortical excitation.
" The other direction indicates TROPHOTROPIC AROUSAL, which is hypoarousal or reduced stimulation, and consists of increased parasympathetic discharges, decreased saccadic frequency, reduced cortical activity, and muscular relaxation. Increased ergotropic arousal is characteristic of creative, psychotic, and ecstatic state, whereas trophotropic arousal occurs in conjunction with various forms of meditation, including zazen and yoga."
It is obvious that such a cartography goes beyond ethnic groups or religions. “The schizophrenic is not necessarily a candidate for mystical ecstasy attaining the ecstatic Self – nor is the mystic necessarily a schizophrenic although both may be subject to hallucinations,” Roland Fisher noted.
Were the colonists subject to hallucinations when they declared the Negro “half-animal,” a piece of merchandise? No. It was clearly a cynical attempt to justify what cannot be justified: slavery.
Healthy-minded people, inspired by ubuntu, promote life and peace to the community: Haiti’s founding forefather Toussaint Louverture demonstrated this in the Constitution of 1801 in which he proclaimed life, freedom and peace for every human being. President Mbeki’s sacrifices to bring life and peace to Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and the entire continent through the implementation of the African Union’s vision, is another example.
Four weeks ago in the town of Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, how beautiful it was to discover men and women committed to protecting their community as peacekeepers! Inspired by ubuntu they moved from being peacemakers to peace keepers. Isn’t that great? Yes, it is! This behaviour at a local level reflects what we need in promoting African Renaissance. Despite the psychological consequences of the first African tsunami, despite the traumas suffered by victims of colonisation and the continuing suffering caused by neocolonialism, the spirit of ubuntu is still alive! Sisaphila! Siphile saga! Sisawadla amabele!
Ubuntu is at the root of African civilisation and offers a way towards a civilisation of peace.
As we well know, the earliest humans, the very first Homo sapiens, were “Negroids.” But the racist superego, unwilling to admit the possibility that there could be even a drop of negroid blood in his genealogy, never accepted Egyptians as both black and at the origin of civilisation.
We fully agree with Diop who wrote that: “Egyptians themselves – who should surely be better qualified than anyone to speak of their origin – recognize without ambiguity that their ancestors came from Nubia and the heart of Africa.”
In his remarkable book Black Athena, Prof Martin Bernal notes that with the intensification of racism in the 19th century, Egyptians were no longer seen as the cultural ancestors of Greece neither the father of philosophy.
Nevertheless, we know that embracing the spirit of ubuntu leads absolutely to the roots of an African civilisation that excludes any solipsistic attitude. As archetype of psychic harmony, balance and wholeness, the collective self of ubuntu opens ways towards a civilisation of peace, love and respect for every human being. There is neither a superiority or an inferiority complex.
“We are well aware of the various White invasions of Egypt during the historical period: Hyksos (Scythians), Libyans, Assyrians, Persians. None of these brought any new development in mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, medicine, philosophy, the arts, or political organization.” All the elements of Egyptian civilisation existed well before these invasions. We must spread this historical truth. Ubuntu requires both: truth about our collective history, and truth about the collective Self.
In addition to the seven functions of the Self, Allport articulated four traits or dispositions, by which he meant: “a generalized neuropsychic structure with the capacity to render many stimuli functionally equivalent, to initiate and guide consistent forms of adaptive and stylistic behavior.” Allport’s four traits are characterised as: common, central, secondary and cardinal.
Based on our observations, we can certainly classify ubuntu as a common trait of the African culture.
So whenever someone says: Homo homini lupus, we reply: Homo homini ubuntu.
While Descartes said: Cogito ergo sum. (I think, therefore I am), today we say: Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu.
That is why, in conclusion, you will allow me to pay a special tribute to Okhoko bami:
Okhoko bami bazalelwa lapha eAfrika..Mina, angizalelwanga lapha,Kodwa nginegazi laseAfrika emzimbeni wami.I-Afrika iyizwekazi elingumama wethu.Yebo! Okhoko bami bazalelwa lapha eAfrika.
Bathengwa njengezigqila batunyelwaEAmerika, naseHaiti...Lokhu kwaqala ngo-1451.Kwathenga phakathi kwezigidi eziyishumi nambili neziyishumi nanhlanu zezigqila.
Okhoko bami bayizigqila zaseAfrika.Ngiyaziqhenya ngaboNgoba balwela inkululeko.
Ngasikhathi sonke babeye bathi:INKULULEKO NOMA UKUFA.Ngasikhathi sonke babeye bale ukuba yizigqila.
Ngo-1804 i-Haiti yakululeka.I-Haiti yaba izwe lokuqala Labamnyama elizimele emhlabeni.Ababili kwabathathu ababeyizigqilaAbakhulula i-Haiti,Babezalelwe lapha eAfrika.
Lalela! Lalela! Kusemqoka lokho!Ngenxa yegazi labaseAfrika nabaseHaiti,Namanye amazwe athola inkululeko;Njenge United States, Venezuela, Colombia, Equador….
Sinomoya wobaba bethu baseAfrika Ezingqondweni zethu.Lomoya awuzange ufe Ngoba umgumoya wUbuntu,wEnkululeko nowothando lwenkululeko.
Lomoya awuzange ukhohlwe ekhaya:AKUDLOZI LINGAYI EKHAYA.UBUNTU BUSEKHAYA!
NGIYATHANDA OKHOKO BAMI.NGINEQHOLO NGABO.
Siyabonga!
This site was developed for Internet Explorer 5.5. and best viewed in 1024X768 date:

08/02/2005 time 00:31. page last updated

2005-03-01T14:46:00.000-08:00

DEFINE UBUNTU

A definition of UBUNTU:
"Embedded in a collective Self or a collective Ego, the psychodynamic of ubuntu goes straight to the community’s wellbeing. Self-interest and common interest are inextricably linked. Amathe nolimi. In others words, ubuntu generates a social love story rooted in brotherhood."
JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE - January, 2005, University of South Africa Lecture

What is is UBUNTU?
MAYBE A PICTURE WILL HELP: CLICK BELOW
http://faculty.ccp.cc.pa.us/FACULTY/jhoward/southafrica/ubuntu.html
DEFINITION AND PICTURE TAKEN FROM FROM WIKIPEDIA,
THE FREE ENCLCYOPEDIA!

THIS BLOGGER JOINS IN ASKING FOR YOUR HELP FOR WIKIPEDIA:
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MY EXPLORATION OF UBUNTU PSYCHOLOGY-TO-DATE:

Ubuntu : This article is about the South African ideology. Ubuntu is a South African ethic or ideology focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. The word comes from the Zulu and Xhosa languages. Ubuntu is seen as a traditional African concept. Ubuntu is pronounced "oo-BOON-too".
A rough translation in English could be "humanity towards others." Another translation would be: "The belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity." [1] (http://www.ubuntufund.org/overview.html).
A longer aim at a definition is this one: "A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed." Quote by Archbishop Desmond Tutu (according to [2]
MAYBE A PICTURE WILL HELP:
(http://faculty.ccp.cc.pa.us/FACULTY/jhoward/southafrica/ubuntu.html).
Ubuntu is seen as one of the founding principles of the new republic of South Africa and connected to the idea of an African Renaissance.
[edit]

See also
Ecofeminism
Social ecology
[edit]

External links
A definition of ubuntu (http://faculty.ccp.cc.pa.us/FACULTY/jhoward/southafrica/ubuntu.html)
Abstract of an article about the relation between ubuntu and the law by Y Mokgoro (http://www.puk.ac.za/law/per/documents/98v1mokg.htm)
An assessment by Dirk J. Louw (http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Afri/AfriLouw.htm)
Ubuntulinux (http://www.ubuntulinux.org/).
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu"
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2005-02-17T11:10:00.000-08:00

A FORM OF UBUNTU?

How five banks built a brand through

'co-opertition'
(A Form of Ubuntu)

Italicized phrases, and those within parenthesis - mine. -Frederica Azania Clare

When the banking industry committed in the Financial Sector Charter to make banking accessible to all South Africans, they realised that it would not be business as usual. Two years before the launch of the Mzansi Account, a dedicated group of bank employees across First National Bank, ABSA, Standard Bank, Nedbank and the Post Office, through Postbank, started working behind the scenes on, what is to date, a success story.
The banks adopted an approach referred to as 'co-opertition' - competitors working together to access a new market and to compete in that market for objectives beyond commercial interests. From a marketing perspective, it seemed an almost impossible task to get five competitors, each with a different marketing philosophy, to agree on a joint brand and marketing strategy. The marketing committee, one of a number of inter-bank committees, was given nine months to launch the product. In that period a brand strategy had to be developed, the marketing plan had to be finalised, agencies had to be selected and appointed and the campaigns had to be produced. None of the marketers were involved on a full-time basis and their collaborative Mzansi responsibilities were in addition to their 'day jobs'. Given the complexity of the project, it is clear that no single person or agency can claim a victory. The marketing committee soon realised that they needed the expertise of different specialised agencies to complement their marketing knowledge. The Mzansi launch succeeded because of the professionalism and drive of all the people and agencies involved. Developing the Mzansi brandThe first step was to develop a brand strategy. The challenge for the banks was to convince the target market that they were welcome and that the banks had suitable and affordable offerings for them. The banks all have strong brands to which the target market aspires, however the banks needed a 'mechanism' to help them to relate and interact with the target market. Under the guidance of Enterprise IG, the banks developed a brand strategy in order to:
Support and align to the brand architectures of the participating banks.
Ensure best use of the co-operative space to build awareness and educate the target market.
Ensure differentiation within the competitive space in order to leverage the existing equity of the banking brands.
Enable migration and limit cannibalisation of the existing products where possible.The robustness of the brand strategy was proven when the Minister of Finance objected to what appeared to be "collusion" amongst the banks and belated adjustments had to be made to the standardised offering. Despite these changes, the existing brand strategy needed no changes to comply with the requirement that the marketing of the product had to be competitive.After the brand strategy was agreed on, Enterprise IG developed the style and the visual language for the new brand. The Communication strategyThe challenge for the banks in developing a communication strategy was to bridge the gap between the existing perceptions and the aspirations of the target market and what the banks have to offer. Although the target market feels intimidated by the banks, they certainly do not want a 'poor man's bank'. The banks had to convince the market that they offered an account which was affordable and accessible but which offers all the benefits of being a customer of one of the big banks and Postbank. The banks realised that only a broad communication approach which included advocacy, PR, experiential marketing and advertising would enable the gap to be bridged. In conjunction with advertising agency, Inroads, and experiential marketing agency Exp Momentum, an elaborate and pro-active communication plan was developed. It was decided that a phased approach to the campaign would be the most effective. In the first phase before the launch, key stakeholders and interested parties were informed of the initiative. The aim was to ensure a soft landing for the initiative by explaining the initiative to organisations and individuals who influence public opinion. Prior to the launch, Fleishman-Hillard was commissioned to run the PR campaign. During this period a coordinated media strategy was used to ensure that the media had access to the right information. The success of these initiatives was evidenced at the nationwide launch events of the Mzansi Account on 25 October 2004. The events received substantial media attention and were well attended by representatives of civil society.In the third phase, awareness of the Mzansi Account was created through a broad advertising campaign using radio, television, outdoor and print. Radio, including community radio, was used to reach the broad target market and inform them of the benefits. The radio advertising was accompanied by editorial input through interviews. Television was used to create credibility in the target market and create awareness in the critical phase of the launch. Print was used to accompany the information provision through editorial. Outdoor, provided by Clear Channel, was used to reach the target market where they live and work. More than 350 billboards were used. Simultaneous to the advertising campaign, the Mzansi Account was taken to the target market by means of an outreach campaign. For six weeks, five teams in Mzansi-branded trucks toured the country. The teams visited 625 locations promoting the generic product through industrial theatre and by talking to local 'opinion makers'. The campaign aimed to educate and encourage trial and usage of the Mzansi Account. Defining the successCommentators have referred to the marketing efforts as a 'low-key marketing campaign'. Given the results, it could be said that the marketing campaign struck the right chord. The banks had to learn fast how to communicate with a market of which they had little understanding. They realised that only a broad and thorough approach would guarantee success. Instead of having an aggressive advertising campaign on mainstream radio and television, the banks chose to take the campaign to the target market. In this way they reached the target market in a myriad of ways in their daily lives, out of sight of many readers and writers of the financial and marketing press. The real success of the launch campaign came about when the marketing team realised they had to overcome the dilemmas of 'marketing by committee'. Good marketing requires courage. When a committee develops marketing it is easy to hide in the group, there is always safety in numbers! Initially the members of the team adopted the stance: 'As long as it does not harm my bank, I am okay!' However, when the advertising agency hit hurdles with the creative, the team realised that they had to collectively take responsibility if the campaign was to work.Another reason for the success is the way in which a relatively large number of advertising, PR and marketing professionals were able to work together. Everybody involved was enthused by what the banks were trying to achieve and the fact that the banks wanted to try innovative ways of reaching the market.Taking the Mzansi brand forwardOpening half a million bank accounts in just over three months is no small achievement and no coincidence. The banks have managed to develop the right product to address the needs of the unbanked, and built on what appears to be a powerful brand. Without proper marketing, 500 000 people would still believe that they are not welcome in the banking system. However, the banks realise that they will only be able to claim victory when a substantial number of the millions of unbanked have been brought into the formal financial system. The Mzansi brand has a role to play in reaching the unbanked, and there is still a lot to learn on how to manage this kind of brand. Nowhere in the world have commercial competitors established a brand to better service a particular market with the aim of aggressively competing with each other in client acquisition and servicing.
[16 Feb 15:30]

2005-01-27T11:16:00.000-08:00

Ubuntu:

a Cultural Method of Mental Health Promotion
Authors: Steve Edwards 1 Nomahlubi Makunga 2 Siphiwe Ngcobo 3 Mbaliyezwa Dhlomo 4

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion
Print ISSN: 1462-3730 Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Cover date: November 2004 Page(s): 17-22
Keywords
Ubuntu, mental health promotion, cultural
Abstract text
The context of this article is an indigenous knowledge system of health promotion. Visitors to South Africa have often remarked on a universal yet unique form of humanity they have experienced. Based on their shared experience as psychologists working together over many years in Zululand, the authors present a phenomenology of ubuntu as a deeply human, meaningful way of life and an original, cultural method of mental health promotion.
Author(s) affiliations
1. Psychology Department, University of Zululand2. Psychology Department, University of Zululand3. Psychology Department, University of Zululand4. Psychology Department, University of Zululand
Copyright © Clifford Beers Foundation 2005 all rights reserved

2005-01-25T13:46:00.000-08:00

DEFINITION:
THE STUDY
AND USE OF
UBUNTU IS
UBUNTU PSYCHOLOGY:
Ubuntu [ubu ntu] n. S. African. humanity or fellow feeling; kindness. [Nguni] From Word Reference.com
Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language. When we want to give high praise to someone we say, "Yu u nobuntu"; "Hey, so-and-so has ubuntu." Then you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, "My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours." . . . We say, "A person is a person through other persons." . . . A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed .... To forgive is not just to be altruistic. It is the best form of self-interest. What dehumanizes you inexorably dehumanizes me. [Forgiveness] gives people resilience, enabling them to survive and emerge still human despite all efforts to dehumanize them.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, from "No Future Without Forgiveness"
Return to Constitution, Ubuntu

2005-01-25T08:15:00.000-08:00

From
medicalnewstoday.com

(Another view of
UBUNTU PSYCHOLOGY)

"Researchers Define Who We Are When We Work Together
and Evolutionary Origins of the “Wait and See” Approach
21 Jan 2005"

"Whether it is barn-raising or crafting a business plan, humans are among the few creatures that are able to work well cooperatively. According to an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, our success at cooperation results from three distinct personality types.

"In any given group of people, you'll find three kinds of people:
Cooperators, Free Riders, and what we call Reciprocators.

Cooperators do the most work
and Free Riders do as little as possible,
but most of us are Reciprocators:

We hold back a bit to determine the chances of success before devoting our full energy to a project," said Robert Kurzban, an assistant professor in Penn's Department of Psychology.

"We found that these traits remained fairly stable among people, and you could reliably predict how a group might perform if you know the percentage of each type of person in that group."

Kurzban and Daniel Houser of George Mason University
present their findings this week in the Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers used a computer-based experiment to assess the range of cooperative behaviors among people. While they cannot offer a complete explanation of how these traits might have evolved, they point to reciprocity as an important motive in human societal behavior. According to Kurzban, it could also provide a simple lesson on the power of internal communications to managers and group leaders.

"Our findings show that the vast majority of people, about 63 percent, are Reciprocators, and in any group you are likely to have a substantial number of Reciprocators," Kurzban said. "The simplest way to make use of a Reciprocator potential is to keep everyone apprised with information about the successful contributions of others within the group. This way you show them that there is something to gain from their efforts."

More than 80 subjects participated in the experiment in which they were given 50 tokens that they could choose to keep or place in a group pool. Tokens placed in the group pool doubled in value and, at the end of the time period, were distributed equally among members. About 17 percent of the participants could be classified as Cooperators, taking the most risk almost immediately. Free Riders, who prefer not to cooperate, made up 20 percent.

"Overall, these personality traits remained strong through different games no matter which combinations of people were used.

Granted, if people are stuck working with a bunch of Free Riders, even the most highly cooperative among them will tend to take the 'wait-and-see' approach," Kurzban said.

Kurzban and Houser are now replicating their experiments to determine if distributions of cooperative types are similar across cultures. If those similarities are found, it might help clarify the origins of these distinct personality types.

The Russell Sage Foundation and the International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics provided support for this research."

Greg Lester - glester@pobox.upenn.edu
University of Pennsylvania

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2005-01-05T13:44:00.000-08:00

The SPIRIT of UBUNTU:

Alternatives to Violence - from

SOUTHERN CROSS BLOG:

Intervention programmes have become increasingly popular in organisations, employed to help resolve conflict among staff and students and bring about a new sprirt or cooperation. The Alternatives to Violence project is one of the groups helping to bring about transformation through workshops. MICHAIL RASSOOL examines this new trend and its chances of success.
Organisations and companies the world over have recognised the increasingly stressful and tense environment inhabited by their workers. Diverse personalities and frayed tempers often lead to regrettable incidents. Many of these can be avoided with intervention programmes which aim to resolve conflict and encourage cooperation and mutual respect.The Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) is one such intervention programme. The project runs workshops promoting a culture of peace, trust, mutual cooperation and resolving conflict in organisations around the country. Driven by Cape Town Christian Brother Jerome McCarthy, the programme operates on the premise that each person has the inherent capacity to transform him- or herself and society, to get in touch with their inner power to bring about this transformation, and consequently, to promote peace both within the organisation and outside of it.In South Africa, organisational transformation and reconciliation have taken on a special meaning, linked as it is to the country’s transformation over the last ten years. Local intervention programmes must take these broader complexities into account and factor them into their attempts to foster organisational unity.The ideas promoted by AVP fully correspond with the theology of ubuntu promoted by Anglican Archbishop-emeritus and former chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Desmond Tutu. This uniquely African concept means community and all that that implies.It is impossible to isolate individuals from the community or society. Interdependence and reciprocity, not independence and self-sufficiency, are essential ideas here.Archbishop Tutu emphasises that the "enlightened self-interest" that underscores the typical western mindset is a direct contradiction to ubuntu in the 1997 book Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu written by black American theologian Michael Battle."A self-sufficient human being is sub-human. I have gifts that you do not have, so consequently, I am unique–you have gifts that I do not have, so you are unique. God has made us so that we will need each other. We are made for a delicate network of interdependence," said Archbishop Tutu.The clash between these two worlds–western independence and African ubuntu and mutuality–is reflected in ethnic, racial, religious and economic conflicts over unequal distribution of power and resources. The effects of the fragmentation imposed by apartheid, for instance, can still be felt in virtually all spheres of engagement in South Africa, including the workplace.The legitimacy of violence has filtered through to almost all of society’s cultural spheres over time, and is supported by the media through, for example, violent cinema and television content, which informs mainstream cultural attitudes that are lived out in public life. Part of the Church’s role in modern times is to subvert these patterns, codes and mindsets, and foster a counter-culture of conciliation.The Church-based AVP programme, run jointly with the Johannesburg-based transformation-promoting organisation Phaphama Initiatives, attempts to embody these ideals in its workshops.Br McCarthy said it offers a new approach to groups taking part in the workshops, learning new skills that lead to fulfilling violence-free lives characterised by personal growth and change. The programme comprises basic and advanced workshops, the latter looking more deeply at violence, as well as one for training facilitators to make a difference in their organisations and communities."The core values of AVP recognise the worth of every individual and affirm the power of each person to use reason and co-operative skills in responding creatively in their interpersonal relationships."The advanced workshop, for instance, focuses on fear, anger, resentment, forgiveness, relationships, Aids and stress; only some of the tensions people deal with on an everyday basis.Training facilitators focuses on developing team building, leadership skills and methods, and group process skills; participants work in small groups, functioning as facilitators.The AVP programme has Quaker origins. It was first introduced to prisoners in the United States in 1975 before spreading to other spheres of life over the following few years.It then spread to other countries across the world including Canada, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. In 1994 the United Nations sent AVP facilitators to work with youth in refugee camps. In Nicaragua, the national police force receives AVP training as part of its efforts to defuse violence in the country.In South Africa the programme has been flourishing in Gauteng since 1995 and was recently implemented in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. Br McCarthy said he was "excited" about the difference the programme is making in organisations across the board. "It augurs well for the ongoing development of a culture of peace in South African society."He said that recent workshops held at schools such as Guguletu Comprehensive Secondary in Cape Town and Ahatuto High school in Orange Farm, Gauteng, involving around 400 students, had been an enormous success. The principals of the schools have testified to a difference that can be felt at the schools, and learners are being trained to run the programme themselves.In 1999, addressing youth in the Paul VI Auditorium in the Vatican, Pope John Paul referred to his encyclical Tertio millennio adveniente released on the eve of Holy year 2000, in which he called for a new dispensation for the new millennium, characterised by peace and the reign of Christ-centred values."Life is all the attitudes, words, behaviour and thoughts that involve us and make us see ourselves for what we are."
The Southern Cross, July 14-20, 2004
Copyright © 2003 The Southern Cross.
All rights reserved.

2004-11-26T17:11:00.000-08:00

WHAT IS UBUNTU PSYCHOLOGY?

A Paper for Sharing

By
Frederica Azania Clare

November, 2004

“Ubuntu psychology is human actualization. It is the optimization of our humanity through human interaction and intervention.” - Frederica Azania Clare

INTRODUCTION

Here are some definitions of UBUNTU PSYCHOLOGY found by the author. These definitions, quotes and images were selected by this author as answers to the question posed as the title of this paper: What is Ubuntu Psychology? The excerpts selected were not solicited from the authors/originators of the quotes that follow. Where known, however, the authors are cited, usually with references to more of their work which could be considered pertinent to the topic, and further explain or explore or define the concept of Ubuntu Psychology.

“The best image I have of this is from a film about Helen Keller. There is a scene where after countless frustrating failures, her tutor is once again working with her. She is patiently pressing the letters for the word “water” into the palm of her hand; she is helping her shape her mouth into the vocalization, and she is doing all this while putting Helen’s other hand under a stream of water coming out of a pump. Then there is this moment where Helen suddenly awakens. All the pieces come together. She practically explodes with joy and runs all over the house wanting to know the names of everything she touches. The tears, the laughter, and the joy are overwhelming. Surely, in this moment of awakening, Helen Keller acquired much more than a word. She gained a social world within which she could invite others to drink. The water itself was no less mysterious for having had this name attached to it, but Helen Keller was transformed forever. In the same way, those of us who use religious language are not trying to capture an infinite mystery in a word. We are not looking for definition; we’re looking for transformation. We use this language because we want to invite one another to drink. Once we have come to the fountain, we no longer need the words.” Quote from: Daniel O. Snyder, PhD., Pendle Hill Lecture, 2003 (1.)

-2-

This first quote is particularly important because it also defines the ubuntu village; “a social world within which she could invite others to drink.” The ubuntu village here is understood to be, not necessarily a physical place, but indeed a spiritual space (perhaps within us); into which we can invite others, to be themselves, because they are human; and because we recognize that since they are human, something about them is also “divine” and desirable.

I chose Dr. Snyder’s, as the first “found” definition of Ubuntu Psychology, moreover, because, as he gives his “definition,” the idea of human communication which transforms is introduced. His unintentional offering is key to our understanding of the concept of Ubuntu Psychology because the intention of ubuntu psychology is the transformation of people and situations, through the positive synergies of human interaction.

Ubuntu psychology is the essence of human efficacy, derived from, and applied to, the social nature of our humanity. Ubuntu Psychology transforms us, by definition: Ubuntu: An isiZulu word (and proverb) meaning “I am human because you are human.” Ubuntu Psychology says, “Sharing ourselves, our gifts, with others optimizes our collective, and individual, humanity; and, even in the sharing, the giving, the individual, or “other” group, receives the gifts, the glories, of humanity.

Ubuntu psychology is human efficacy, derived from, and applied to, the social nature of our humanity. There is no nature vs. nurture argument in the “Ubuntu School” of psychology. The Ubuntu School and Ubuntu Psychology state: "It is our optimal nature, as human beings (because we are designed to do so) to nurture one another!"

-3-

In conclusion to this introduction, the author asserts that ubuntu psychology is an ancient, (though still very efficacious) African ancestoral, and empirically “psychological,” socialization and intervention methodology. Ubuntu psychology is the acknowledgment and optimization of the human “social” condition. It is the acknowledgement of the other, as human -- no different than self; although, perhaps, possessing different innate and socialized gifts!

Further, for the purposes psychological research, the author asserts that the behaviors attendant to, or logically flowing from, a consideration of the concept of ubuntu psychology can be explored as necessary and sufficient conditions for the following:

1. Personality growth;
2. Successful social integration; and,
3. Socially desired change, sometimes called progress.

(1.) Snyder, Daniel, O, “Nonviolence and the Dynamics of Transformation”Pendle Hill – Swarthmore Forum Lecture, Lang Center, Swarthmore CollegeNovember 20, 2003 Daniel O. Snyder, Ph.D.danielosnyder@earthlink.net ©Daniel O. Snyder, November 20, 2003

2004-11-15T09:15:00.000-08:00

UBUNTU COMMUNITIES

The Virtual Global College
Human Resource Management

Ubuntu means
to SAA what 'putting people first' meant to BA

"Change: The innovative leader expects it, fosters it, plans it, directs it, and uses it for competitive advantage."

Dr Susan Wolmarans is senior manager, human resources at SAA.
The ubuntu service philosophy was implemented in 1994 as the driving force behind South African Airways' service.
At least we are proud to be South African! The philosophy has, however, created some confusion in the minds of especially the 'paler' part of our employees. What is this new philosophy? Does it mean that I need to sacrifice my own culture in favour of the predominantly African culture?
One can understand that in the face of the uncertainty created by affirmative action, people might be hesitant or cautious to embrace such an approach without reservation.
The South African society has been characterised by an 'us and them' divide that negates the common human needs of people, irrespective of their colour, creed or gender. Should you disagree with this statement, just administer the following 'test' to yourself and some of the people you regard as 'them' and compare notes:
would you like to be treated with dignity and unconditional respect and feel that others care about you?

do you have a need to be understood, supported and acknowledged by people?

would you rather work in a hostile, adversarial environment or do you prefer colleagues who are sensitive to each others' needs and cooperate, share and work together as a team?

is it important to you to feel appreciated, wanted and valuable, surrounded by people who are kind, gentle and considerate?

would you prefer people to work together for the common good rather than towards their own (selfish) objectives?

do you prefer approaching your daily task as an unavoidable curse or would you rather view it as an exciting opportunity for personal growth where you are committed, involved and can innovate and change things that hamper harmonious work processes?

what is more desirable: suspicion and hidden agendas or trust, openness and transparency?

would you rather share some of your material possessions voluntarily or run the risk of being mugged, maimed or killed by hungry, angry mobs?

do you prefer to be involved and have a say in the way the company does business and treat people or just having to accept what happens and criticise afterwards?

should decisions be rationally justified or made in favour of people in positions of power?

if somebody achieves the highest honours, should he/she claim all the credit for him/herself or share the recognition with the team?

What then is ubuntu?

Ubuntu is the main pillar of traditional African values which bonded people together in difficult times. It centres around love, gentleness, sharing and caring for each other. 'Humaneness' or being human 'in relation to other human beings' is synonymous with ubuntu.

In the words of Prof. E D Prinsloo of the Department of Philosophy at UNISA ubuntu is "a refined way of dealing with others, listening, accommodating and respecting people ... to make civilised sense of human relations." It is sometimes easier to define a concept in terms of what it is not than in terms of what it is. Ubuntu does not support hierarchical, power based, autocratic company relations where the left hand is unaware of what the right hand is doing and dare not find out. Neither is it the gravy train where everybody looks after himself and tries to get as much out of the system as possible for personal gain.

In order to try and define the concept further, let's look at a few classical questions.

Is ubuntu not just 'the flavour of the month?" Ubuntu is nothing new. Examples of how strongly people feel about ubuntu values are numerous.

The French Revolution was amongst those partly fuelled by the need for ubuntu. 'Freedom, equality and brotherhood' which inspired the revolutionaries, are at the core of the ubuntu philosophy.
The miracle of the South African elections in 1994 happened as a result of the fact that the two most prominent leaders, President Mandela and Vice president De Klerk, shared most of the ubuntu values, the latter's sacrificing his position of power for the common good was indeed a prime example of unselfishness, sharing and a live and let live attitude.

Is ubuntu restricted to indigenous black people? Urbanisation and the accumulation of wealth and material possessions have their advantages but unfortunately robbed South Africans to a large extent of their warmth, hospitality and genuine interest in each other as human beings.
The world-wide acclaimed 'country hospitality' ('boeregasvryheid') that is still cherished by visitors to South Africa, runs the risk of becoming extinct unless we revive it and capitalise on this uniquely South African quality. By the same token we also need to restore the ubuntu that gave dignity to our indigenous African society.

Have you ever wondered why some of the people with the least material possessions are sometimes also the most cheerful? The answer is they have ubuntu.
Being part of the ubuntu culture means that you are never lonely, seldom experience selfdoubt and are guaranteed the unconditional support of an extended group of friends, no matter what happens to you.

Can ubuntu be meshed with our company values? Looking at the publicly stated SAA values of pride in performance, customer orientation, employee care, corporate citizenship, integrity, safety, innovation and teamwork, it is obvious that they can all be meshed with the ubuntu philosophy.
A spirit of sharing, love and kindness should eventually become part and parcel of our organisational ethos!
Will ubuntu force me to sacrifice my culture? Culture is localised being part of a particular group of people who have a clear set of rules about 'the way we do things around here.' The 'ingroup' may be very intolerant or critical towards the 'outgroup' resulting in insulting remarks such as "whites are not people" or "blacks destroy everything."
The beauty of ubuntu is that although it recognises the uniqueness of cultures, it spans cultures, binding people of different cultures with similar values. Although we may not always realise it, there is already a uniquely South Africa way of doing things which is continuously reinforced by our communication media.
Should we all consider adopting people centred ubuntu values, this indigenous culture can be further cemented.
Are Christian values and ubuntu reconcilable? Due to the fact that Christianity was often associated with paternalistic colonialism, many indigenous South African people rejected Christianity.
They associated Christianity with being robbed of their land, selfesteem and humanity. However, according to Joe Ndaba of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Zululand, "the unadulterated pure Word of God is nothing different to European or African humanism. It is the cultural interpretation that has clouded it."
Mr Ndaba is of the opinion that ubuntu is not peculiar to black people and that South African whites tend to underestimate the presence of ubuntu in themselves.
He regards ubuntu as "the sum total of all moral human values" and sees the mutual social responsibility concept also as part of European humanism. "The biggest challenge today is to contextualise ubuntu in a global village."
Is there any place for recognition and individual achievement in the ubuntu philosophy? Traditional African society always had heroes. The Kenyan athletes and traditional African kings and princes are prime examples of individual performance in an ubuntu context. The sovereignty of the king will, however, only stay intact as long as he practices ubuntu.
This means per implication that achievement is not at the expense of others. If a man becomes autocratic/ despotic, his supporters might move to another leader.
The current Miss South Africa represents modest ubuntu achievement in practice as she regards her achievement as an honour for the people she represents. "By appreciating the greatness in others, the person reflects the greatness in him/herself," according to Peter Raboroko of the ANC.
Individuality is not negated but should not take precedence over the common interest. (So much for company politics!)
Is ubuntu only a philosophy or a way of life?
Ubuntu is reflected in people's actions, in the way we treat others as well as in good deeds of neighbourliness. A true ubuntu practitioner wants less for him/herself and more for others.
This way of life is usually learned at home in the nucleus family or the primary group. One's values determine one's goals. Do unto others what you wish for yourself. If you value freedom, allow others their freedom.
What about setting limits and discipline? Consensus and reconciliation are highly valued but setting limits and retribution are also practised by ubuntu followers. People know in no uncertain terms what is acceptable and what is not.
The community decides how to punish transgressors. Due to the yearning for justice this punishment might in many instances be more severe than what for instance a manager would have considered.
Implementing ubuntu does therefore not mean lowering or disregarding standards. The only prerequisite is that the standards and punishment should be mutually agreed upon.
What are the implications of ubuntu for the way we manage in South Africa? Ubuntu is based on democratic principles of inclusivity, consultation and participative decision making taking control of your own destiny.
This, in turn, implies empowerment and the decentralisation of authority. The joint problem solving of communities is replicated in the work place, getting everybody involved in the identification of problems and the proposal of solutions.
'Learned helplessness' is replaced by the realisation that people at grassroots level can be masters of their own destiny. "Selfawareness and selfesteem improve as people's initiatives are rewarded with positive changes," says Prof. Frik de Beer of Unisa.
By practising ubuntu principles, people start to realise their interrelatedness (systems theory) and that 'unity' is in fact 'strength.' The company starts to function as a family, "sharing in the pleasures of profits and the disappointments of loss," Sydney Rantloane of the Consumer Council feels.
Alienation and exploitation are replaced by joint ownership and shared responsibility and become the key to higher productivity.
It is important to remember that traditional ubuntu communities share everything even life and death. Responsibilities were learned at a young age by being part of the family business, e.g. looking after livestock.
We need to be sensitive to the fact that rural people can be intimidated by an office environment reflecting cold, calculated, business success! We need to comfort people with the warmth and understanding of ubuntu, Mr Rantloane says.
What are the obstacles in the way of internalising ubuntu values? Our selfishness, rugged individualism and egoistic conceptions of our own greatness and importance may stand in the way of accepting ubuntu values.
In a competitive society where individual performance is rewarded, people see themselves as islands, finding it hard to give credit to the team. Our greed and materialism might be in conflict with principles such as team rewards and gain sharing where everybody gets an equal 'share in the pie.'
We have lately experienced a growing community consciousness in South Africa as a result of the raising of levels of unemployment and the RDP strategies. Maybe the statement that "poverty is the wealth of nations poverty is richness" is indeed true.
It might eventually bring about an equilibrium between traditional humanistic values and materialistic Western business values.
A positive spinoff could in the end also be a healthy balance between bottomline and people orientation in companies. Restoring this balance might prove to be the true contribution of ubuntu to current management practices.
How should we go about facilitating a common ubuntu business culture? It is essential to take an interest in other people's cultures in order to discover both the unique characteristics and common factors of different cultures. Jabu Sindane of the HSRC suggests the following 'medicine' for nation building which also applies to the business environment:
adopt a common, people centred value system,
incorporate 'them' in your 'we,'
portray all the subcultures in a positive way by making 16 December a 'rainbow culture' day of art, music and public debate,
get to know people at individual and family level by inviting each other to significant events stop saying "I don't think they will like it," and
appreciate people for their unique contributions and, in the process, restore their selfrespect and dignity.
In conclusion, we need to find a balance between traditional people centred values and hard-nosed Western business practices. Colonialism has undoubtedly caused a lot of suffering but, on the positive side, "colonialism has awoken Africa from her sleep," suggests Joe Ndaba.
Prof Prinsloo of Unisa adds: "We are looking for a new world spirit. People who entertain the same beliefs about human dignity should join hands to make the world a better place." The world views of Africans have made social coherence possible. It might create a new consciousness of our interdependence, living in a world with others.
Ubuntu could become an all encompassing philosophy for the 'rainbow people' of South Africa that the world might like to emulate! In the end it is "cooperation, sharing and charity that distinguishes human beings from animals," Prof Joe Telfoe of the University of the North suggests.
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2004-11-05T13:29:00.000-08:00

Ubuntu

(ubuntu psychology)

"The West has achieved a great deal through individual initiative and ingenuity and must be commended for these often spectacular achievements. But the cost may have been high. All this has permitted a culture of achievement and success to evolve, assiduously encouraging the rat-race mentality. The awful consequence is that persons tend then not to be valued in and for themselves with a worth that is intrinsic.In Africa we have something called ubuntu in Nguni languages, or botho in Sotho, which is difficult to translate into English. It is the essence of being human. It speaks of the fact that my humanity is caught up and is inextricably bound up in yours. I am human because I belong. It speaks about wholeness, it speaks about compassion. A person with ubuntu is welcoming, hospitable, warm and generous, willing to share. Such people are open and available to others, affirming of others, does (sic) not feel threatened that others are able and good, for they have a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that they belong in a greater whole and are diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they were less than who they are. It gives people resilience, enabling them to survive and emerge still human despite all efforts to dehumanise them. It means it is not a great good to be successful through being aggressively competitive, that our purpose is social and communal harmony and well-being."

(This is an extract from the book The Essential DESMOND TUTU)

2004-11-04T14:49:00.000-08:00

THE UBUNTU PSYCHOLOGY BLOG

BORRROWS:

Ubuntu - The Wealth of Our Common Humanity

by Barbara Nussbaum on 16-Jul-04 4:09am This article is a brief introduction to the idea of the wealth of our commonhumanity. It is inspired by an Nguni word from South Africa, ubuntu. The article introduces a different way about thinking about how we create wealth and how we might share it.

UBUNTU
In aboriginal languages, there are no possessive pronouns.

SOCIETY : BARBARA NUSSBAUM

IN AFRICAN CULTURE, ubuntu is the capacity to express compassion, justice, reciprocity, dignity, harmony and humanity in the interests of building, maintaining and strengthening community. An Nguni word from South Africa, ubuntu speaks to our interconnectedness and the responsibility to each other that flows from our connection. It’s about mutual affirmation and communal responsiveness. It is about the self-being so rooted in the community, that your personal identity is defined by what you give to the community.
“I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am” is a good example of the ‘self-in-community’ foundation that gives rise to sayings in Zulu, such as umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu – “It is through others that one attains selfhood”.
Ubuntu is not a concept easily distilled into a methodological procedure. It is rather the bedrock of a specific lifestyle or culture that seeks to honour human relationships as primary in any social, communal or corporate activity. Ubuntu begins with simply knowing how to greet someone. Examples of Shona greetings (from Zimbabwe) in the morning and lunchtime would be:
“Mangwani, Marara sei?” (Good morning, did you sleep well?)“Ndarara, kana mararawo” (I slept well, if you slept well.)
“Maswera sei?” (How has your day been?)“Ndaswera, kana maswerawo?”(My day has been good if your day has been good.)
In other words, we are so connected that if you did not sleep well, or if you were not having a good day, how could I sleep well or have a good day? This kind of greeting would apply to a stranger one met on the road, as well as close family.
UBUNTU ALSO TRANSLATES into attitudes towards profit and wealth. In an ubuntu-based economy, the more communal person is prepared to give and share. The more she or he does, the more respected. Africans believe that the only wealth is that which is shared and rendered visible to the community. The criterion for respect in a world that embodies ubuntu values would be about how much wealth is shared with others and not how full one’s personal bank balance is.
Work in the African sense is not just a simple contractual relationship. The Nguni word for work is umsebenzi, which literally means ‘service’. Joining a company is seen as a commitment to a new community. Workplaces that embrace ubuntu ensure that every person is valued and included in decision making.
Compassion is a central part of ubuntu. Africans are known for ukwenana, an act of giving or sharing without expecting returns. Another practice called ukusisa is a ‘yin’, a form of investment that does not require collateral and also maintains the dignity of a poor person who has no assets.
According to the custom of ukusisa, those who have cattle or sheep give a cow or ewe to those who do not, to give the family an opportunity to acquire their own cattle and sheep over time. This is how newcomers in villages are helped. And this is how poorer communities and poorer countries could be helped.
African values have a great deal to contribute to world consciousness, but Africa is greatly misunderstood in the West. Our world must embrace a sense of interconnectedness as a global community if we are to survive. Perhaps ubuntu is a framework that could inform our thinking as we move into the 21st Century.•
This article was first published in Dr. Mark Albion's free monthly newsletter, Making a Life, Making a Living® http://www.makingalife.com/ in December 2002.
Reprinted in Ecademy withPermission from Resurgence Magazine; http://www.resurgence.org/ Issue 221 Nov/Dec 2003 (To see a beautiful photograph that was published with this article, go on line)
For a longer article, see

Barbara Nussbaum: Ubuntu: Reflections of a South African on the wealth of our Common Humanity (published in a book by Verna Allee and Dinesh Chandra – entitled “What isTrue Wealth and How do We Create It”, Indigo Press, 2003)
Barbara Nussbaum is the World Business Academy Liaison for Africa, www.worldbusiness.org

To contact the author, write to: barbara_nussbaum@hotmail.com.
.
[ <<>> ] [ Barbara Nussbaum's weblog ] [ G ] [ TB ] [ # ]

2004-11-04T13:50:00.000-08:00

South Africa Living Values and Ubuntu southafrica@livingvalues.net

Ubuntu is an African code of ethics, which embraces the hospitality, generosity and warmth that is so typically associated with the African people. Ubuntu, as an ideal, stands for the opposite to selfishness and intolerance. It promotes co-operation between individuals, cultures and nations and the principles of compassion, forgiveness and personal accountability. It is apparent that values-systems such as this, which exist or have existed in most cultures in the world, have served to reduce conflict, restore dignity and bring about reconciliation within families, between tribes and clans and even between nations.

Ubuntu is something very familiar and close to the heart of several LVE educators and has been receiving their detailed attention for the past few months. At a recent LVE planning meeting in South Africa it became clear that researching the knowledge and wisdom of Ubuntu and other values systems, integrating them into educational programmes, and exploring ways in which they can be applied and adapted to different situations, could provide valuable insights in finding solutions to many of the world’s social ills.

The South Africa LVE team began thinking of a 3 day conference to bring together practitioners of Ubuntu from different tribes in South Africa and Africa, as well as Living Values practitioners, to find a meeting place between the values of Ubuntu and the twelve values in LVE.
Anyone interested in this field is warmly invited to contact LVE's South Africa coordinator at southafrica@livingvalues.net

USA Building a Community of Learning at a Montessori Charter School usa@livingvalues.net
From Massachusetts, Anne Rarich filed this report:

"In the evening of 20th September 2001 parents and teachers at the Montessori Charter School in Newton, Massachusetts, serving 300 children, from 6 months to 12 years old, met to share a potluck dinner and discuss the importance of living values in shaping the lives of young people. Parents were given an overview of what their teachers would be doing over the next two days while the school was closed. There was a lot of support for the teachers and gratitude for the initiative. Everyone was most pleased at the parent turnout for this event and it was clear that the events of 11th September were weighing heavily on all.
Several key staff members had attended the LVE Peace Village Teacher Retreat in August and were consultants to the facilitators on what would be most useful to their colleagues at the school. The staff of this school were a demonstration of the rich diversity within the U.S.A. and there were at least 7 nationalities represented amongst them, many of whom had come from war-torn countries. Forty teachers and administrators attended the two-day training, which was facilitated by Ed Wondoloski, Liza Haddad and Anne Rarich.
Although a two-day agenda had been planned, there was a real need to take the listening exercises more seriously than ever before. As the use of the Emotional Landscape was introduced, people began to get in touch with negative feelings that had been bottled up inside for ten days. The facilitators acknowledged that feelings were not good or bad but just exist. Participants had been trying so hard to shelter children that they were surprised at the opportunity to get in touch with their own feelings and how raw they felt. There had been bomb threats made on the city of Boston and people were feeling exceptionally vulnerable. Throughout the first afternoon, the facilitators worked with the staff both to acknowledge what they had been experiencing and then look for what could emerge from the strengths of being part of this teaching community. As a result of the work done on the first day, teachers were more enthusiastic about returning on a Saturday, which is usually devoted to time with their families.
On Saturday, we resumed where we had left off the day before and introduced everyone to the Living Values books and had them plan activities in their work groups so that they could take their planning and implement it in their classrooms the following week.
Everyone felt that the time had been well spent and that they had learned some practical lessons both for themselves personally as well as for their classrooms. There was a renewed sense of how each staff member has a unique contribution to make and that it was valued. There was a heightened awareness of shared support for one another, not just those in the same age group but across the different work groups."

Nigeria Values: 1; Disobedience and Caning: 0 nigeria@livingvalues.net
Living Values has received a very warm welcome in Lagos where educators face a barrage of problems, violence and a lack of discipline are endemic, and caning is still practised. Living Values Education Coordinator for Nigeria, Nick Christianson, who is also a secondary school teacher, filed the following report after recent LVE trainings held in Primary, Secondary and International schools and a Sixth Form College in Lagos:
"A Living Values Educator Training was held at The Dominican School, Lagos, a Catholic Nursery/Primary School, from 15th to 19th October 2001 for 42 teaching staff, including the headmistress, and three non-teaching staff. The school, run by a Dominican nun, with mostly lay staff, enjoyed the three-day training. One teacher on sick leave, could not stay away from the training! One of the male staff confessed that he tried using one Living Values method but eventually had to cane a boy. Later he felt he got the message, that caning is not part of a values-based atmosphere!
"Following a training at the International School, University of Lagos, Senior Tutor Mr. Adebayo Olatunde Samuel reported: 'I had the very great experience of participating in a three day Living Values seminar at my school. I found the experience so elevating and efficacious that I recommended the training to a Sixth form college. I found that the training influenced my teaching method and attitude, improving my performance. I have found Living Values generally very useful in the classroom, and in particular, two methods that have been helpful have been (1) that of having the students make up the rules and regulations of the class conduct, and (2) using a quiet signal, namely holding my hand up and waving it slowly, to indicate that I want perfect silence.
The results:
My students find if difficult to be unruly in class because it has touched their conscience that they should not break the rules they themselves made. When I used the quiet signal, their tendency to start becoming noisy is greatly decreased and results in orderly conduct.'
"A Living Values Educator Training was held at Global International College, a private Sixth Form College in Lagos, from 29th to 31st October 2001 for 15 Teaching staff including the vice-principal and three Administrative staff. Many of the students at this sixth form college have been exposed to European and North American cultures and react against the more aggressive tone of Nigerian teachers with resentment. It's a challenge for these caring Nigerian teachers to look into "method" rather than authoritarian ways to motivate the students. The teachers, in the first day of training, drew up a sizeable list of objectives that they drew out of Living Values, as follows:
Behaviour
To attain a high level of behaviour, being willing to listen and accept correction and to accept the aim/objectives of the college (i.e. good exam results).
Students should adapt to the Nigerian way of teaching.
Students, who have imbibed foreign cultures and values, should be dealt with so that they don't feel intimidated.
Imparting of morals.
Relationships
Students to appreciate the teachers.
Students and teachers to respect each other's opinions.
Good relationships between teachers and students.
Get to the heart of the student - win their interest to learn.
Atmosphere
Students to learn without fear or intimidation.
Increase motivation in both teachers and students.
Learning skills
Achieve excellent exam results.
Students to be independent (i.e. to have initiative) in studying effectively.
Inculcate into students the courage to move ahead on their own.
Help students to concentrate.
Helping students to look ahead beyond their generation, i.e. a mature attitude towards the future.
Inculcate the quality of self-realisation, i.e. to realise their full potential.
Everyone felt that they gained a new insight into teaching as a result of the training, and felt they could immediately apply selected aspects of it. Their optimism is commendable bearing in mind that this is a sixth form college and does not allocate special time to extra curricular studies as would a secondary school.
"Following a training at a secondary school in early September 2001, teachers commented as follows:
'The seminar was a sort of eye opener to the possibility of applying the Living Values ethos with concrete results. I told our trainer that I wanted to experiment using Living Values with my own children at home. They are a bit disobedient and lazy with their chores. After applying what we learnt the first day, my twin daughters and their friend on holiday in my home are now more hardworking. I praised them. I saw them quickly going to do their chores with smiles. They each did their duties, co-operating with each other. I no more shout at them. I know I should talk to them with respect. This I did and they loved it. There is peace! My husband likes it and wants more of it! I introduced this programme to my family at the end of the training.'Mrs. Alade J. O.French Teacher
'The children were particularly excited on hearing that the cane would no more be used at home. I patiently explained all the values to them and how we should all work hard to make sure the Programme succeeded, especially as practising Christians. In the morning, we read the Bible and pointed out the values contained in the daily readings. We now pray about it, asking God for the grace to put it into practice. It is not easy, but I am determined to see it work. I have gained immensely from the Programme right from the very first day.'Mrs. V. P. EjehuVice Principal (Admin), Christian Studies Teacher
'I swung into action with what I had learnt. My children at home fight and quarrel a lot, probably as a result of their close ages, namely 9, 7 and 6. After yesterday's sessions, I sat them down and told them how important it is for them to dwell together in peace, harmony, unity and love. I taught my children not to be vindictive but to learn to be calm and show love.'Mrs. Foluke Adeniran (ISL)Teacher
'After the first day at the Living Values Training, unlike the tenseness with which I normally judge my nephews who live with me, I related to them calmly, even when I discovered the house chores were not in order. The two boys were surprised that I was not angry with them. After dinner, I took some time out to speak to them about the importance of education and values.'Mrs. F. M. OloladeBusiness Studies Teacher"

Vietnam Living Values reaches out, meeting people's needs vietnam@livingvalues.net
LVE's coordinator for Vietnam, Trish Summerfield, is one of Living Values e-News' most regular correspondents and she recently filed this update:
"In August 2001 we conducted a TTT for a group of teachers from Dien Tien Hoang High School in Hanoi and some psychologists. Following the training Dan and Khanh, two of the participants with a special place in their heart for LVE, offered to conduct trainings and co-ordinate LVE activities in Hanoi. Khanh, a psychologist and LVE trainer, will now conduct four LVE demonstration classes per month with the students at Dien Tien Hoang High School. The school will invite principals and teachers from schools in Hanoi to attend the classes to promote LVE and to give them a live demonstration of how LVE works in the classroom. The classes also aim to give the teachers at Dien Tien Hoang a greater understanding of the student-centred approach that LVE embraces and which is totally new to them. The National Television Station, VTV, recently filmed the demonstration classes and aired them on national television. They are also considering running a series of classes showing all twelve values.
For some time we have been planning to make a LVE documentary in Vietnamese to air on television and to use in promotion and training. Bill Bacon, a lovely Canadian, offered his time and equipment free of any charge. Bill has had a 40-year career as a producer of documentaries and received 3 Emmy awards and Oscar nominations, yet he said that filming the Living Values programme at the Dien Tien Hoang High School was by far the most special and valuable project of his career.
We held another two-day LVE with a group of 80 very enthusiastic and active high school teachers; parts of the training were televised on national news.
We then travelled to a province north of Hanoi for two days of training with a group of 45 doctors and nurses. The training is part of a project being conducted by Dr Kiet, a psychologist we have been working with. On the first day we presented LVE to the People's Committee, the Hospital Board of Directors and representatives from WHO. The province is rather isolated and so the material and approach was very new for them, yet they responded very positively and happily agreed to go ahead with a pilot project that would include LVE as part of their work to help reduce the high incidence of suicide and reduce domestic violence in the district.
In Ho Chi Minh City, at the end of October 2001, we held our first two-day training with the Communist Youth League. The participants were very enthusiastic and created a huge banner of all their experiences during the training. The Director of the Youth Cultural House (where the training was conducted) said that he felt before the training that participants all knew how to speak and through the training they had now learnt how to listen. We will hold another LVE training at the Youth Cultural House at the end of November. On the 24th and 25th November we held another training at the Youth Cultural House with the club coordinators and now the English club, which has 500 members, will hold monthly LVE classes with its members. The social work club, culture club and internet club will also begin using LVE.
We held a TTT with a group of 65 educators who now aim to visit the provinces and share Living Values with youth and educators there.
The main Director of the Thanh Da Drug Rehabilitation Centre in Ho Chi Minh City has very kindly offered to sponsor the distribution of the Vietnamese version of the Living Values Activities book for Young Adults to every drug rehabilitation centre in Vietnam, of which there are more than 200. He will also introduce LVE to the Vice-President of the City."

Laos Seminar generates interest in training laos@livingvalues.net
From Vietnam, Trish Summerfield sent us this report:
"In late August 2001, we visited Laos and held an afternoon seminar on Living Values for a group of educators and general public at a local hotel in Vientiane. Meetings were also held with the Ministry of Education, UNICEF and Save the Children Foundation. SCF is interested in having a LVE training for its group of youth volunteers so that they can train others during their education trips to the provinces. The Ministry is also very interested in the Programme."

China Thirteen Beijing schools start LVE! china@livingvalues.net
In late October 2001, a small Living Values team from Hong Kong visited Beijing. The Beijing Institute of Education (BIE) organized a morning visit on 25th October to a local primary school where a teacher who had taken part in the five-day seminar and TTT in August 2001, and already begun implementing LVE, was integrating Living Values within her art class. Both the Living Values team and the representatives of the BIE were pleased with the way that a values dimension was integrated into the class and impressed with the enthusiasm and support of the teacher and her Principal.
On the 26th October a whole-day reunion of participants in the August seminar and TTT was held at the BIE to share experiences and make future plans. Although it was a working day, the majority of participants were able to make arrangements to attend. Lecturers at the BIE said that they were themselves using aspects of the Programme and teachers from thirteen schools reported that they had already begun implementation of LVE, some as a separate class subject and others by integrating it within other subject areas:
Grouped into five working teams, participants then undertook a strategic planning process and developed action plans for the further implementation of Living Values in Beijing schools and for a regional values education conference to be held in 2002.
Back in Hong Kong, Dr Ramsey Koo and Dr CK Chan of the Hong Kong Institute of Education arranged a two-hour session on Living Values in November 2001 as part of their module on Teacher Effectiveness and Teacher Professionalization. The 50 or so in-service secondary school teachers who attended were introduced to LVE and also experienced a number of the activities, expressing appreciation for the LVE approach and methodology.

Egypt Success Stories egypt@livingvalues.net
Living Values has taken firm roots in Egypt and continues to yield good results, as can be seen from the following comments from teachers implementing LVE with students Ages 7-14:
“One child used to move about too much and had no ability to concentrate. I tried before to help remedy this through advice and through giving orders sometimes but it did not work. But when I gave him responsibilities in the class, he became a responsible and disciplined child. Another child used to get into a bad temper quickly and rejected everything, but with love and understanding he became polite and quieter.” Rasha Labib, Jesuit & Frere Association in El-Menia; age of students: 10-14
“Some children used to be aggressive but after some time of applying LVE they started feeling for other schoolmates and felt responsibility to protect weaker children instead of being aggressive. With the honesty activities, children started respecting others' property; less theft cases took place and, when they did, usually children came forward to admit that they were the ones who stole others' property.”Mamal Lotfi Mansour, Jesuit School in El-Menia; age of students: 7-11
“Children developed a sense of responsibility and respect towards their peers, even those who were less successful in their studies, and began helping them to succeed also.”Baher Adib Sami, Jesuit School in El-Menia; age of students: 12-13
“I had three girls in the class acting and thinking in exactly the same way. Through LVE activities of respect and responsibility, they learned the real meaning of friendship while being independent and now each has her own personality and mind. At the end of the year, each was respecting the others' opinions and thoughts and each became responsible for her ideas and decisions whilst remaining good friends with the others.”Irene Samir Naguih, Jesuit School in El-Menia; age of students: 10-12

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2004-05-11T14:19:00.000-07:00

UBUNTU: ITS ANTITHESIS:

www.ubuntu.org

We declare our continued condemnation of the unlawful and illegitimate war in Iraq, our alarm at the worsening conflict between Israel and Palestine, our radical opposition to the consolidation of the "preventive use of force"... Following the serious crisis created in the WTO as a result of the Cancun conference...

Going to war, any war, is always a step back. A failure for democracy, development and understanding: a defeat for the whole of humanity! The environmental and social tragedy of the Prestige proves, once again, that the current framework of international institutions is not capable of performing the functions that are so-needed in the current state of the world affairs.

Changes on the international scene continue to arouse enormous concern. We believe we reflect the feelings of ever more of the world's people when we declare: Public statement by Federico Mayor in the context of UBUNTU - World Forum of Civil Society Networks, 1 July 2002

Following the Second World Food Summit (Rome, 10-13 June) I would like to put forward the following urgent points:

The evolution of the international situation is marked by a constant increase in tensions, conflicts and heedlessness, while at the same time the mechanisms for resolving these problems are increasingly ineffective - perhaps because a clear and energetic political will is lacking. In response to Italian gynaecologist Severino Antinori’s announcement that he has cloned a human embryo:

The extreme situation being reached in the Middle East, particularly in the conflict between Israel and Palestine, leads us to declare: As one of the key results of its second plenary meeting, held in Barcelona, UBUNTU -the World Network of Civil Society Networks- makes an appeal for international solidarity and to world public opinion mobilisation through the following declaration:

Ever since the 11 September tragedy in the USA, which has been so widely covered by the media, we have been hoping for those responsible to be identified and brought to justice. We must also be aware of many other tragedies that receive no media coverage yet affect thousands of human beings: around 30,000 die from hunger every day. We are deeply concerned about the spiral of violence and the weakening and confusion surrounding the role of the international institutions... In view of the terrible events that occurred in the US on 11 September and in view of the grave situation they have brought the world to, the undersigned persons and organizations take into consideration the previous statements realized by some of us (*) and state...

In view of the situation which is developing in Genova and within the framework of the recently created UBUNTU – World Forum of Networks, I believe I can speak for most organizations and persons which participate in this initiative, as I state the following...
On the occasion of World Environment Day, we, the undersigned organisations and personalities, in view of the grave threats represented by the impacts of the current model of development, in a context of lack of global political will in the direction of reversing the current dynamics, declare that...

ubuntu: its antithesis

contunued...

2004-05-07T13:58:00.000-07:00

Post Traumatic Slavery Disorder

FROM OSIRIS GROUP WEBSITE
www.osirisgroup.org
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The Willie Lynch letter below is used here as a teaching prop to bridge the past to the present psychological development in order to understand how the psyche of African people was altered to support a system of slavery. The system of slavery was developed purely for the economic gain of slave owners and the letter demonstrates the method used to dominate the group.

You are being asked to view and reflect on these readings strictly from a perspective of healing and personal development. If you can imagine you were subjected to this process right now, would you be the same? What about your children? If they were born in this environment could they be capable of clear thinking? Would the self-image of your offspring be positive or negative? Would you have a love for self or your own kind? Now after reading the letter below and reflecting on its content, how would you start to heal the African psyche after these many years of physical and psychological violence?

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The Willie Lynch Letter

"Gentlemen. I greet you here on the bank of the James River in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twelve. First, I shall thank you, the gentlemen of the Colony of Virginia, for bringing me here. I am here to help you solve some of your problems with slaves. Your invitation reached me on my modest plantation in the West Indies, where I have experimented with some of the newest and still the oldest methods for control of slaves. Ancient Rome's would envy us if my program is implemented. As our boat sailed south on the James River, named for our illustrious King, whose version of the Bible we Cherish, I saw enough to know that your problem is not unique. While Rome used cords of wood as crosses for standing human bodies along its highways in great numbers, you are here using the tree and the rope on occasions. I caught the whiff of a dead slave hanging from a tree, a couple miles back. You are not only losing valuable stock by hangings, you are having uprisings, slaves are running away, your crops are sometimes left in the fields too long for maximum profit, You suffer occasional fires, your animals are killed. Gentlemen, you know what your problems are; I do not need to elaborate. I am not here to enumerate your problems, I am here to introduce you to a method of solving them. In my bag here, I have a fool proof method for controlling your black slave. I guarantee every one of you that if installed correctly it will control the slaves for at least 300 hundred years. My method is simple. Any member of your family or your overseer can use it. I have outlined a number of differences among the slaves; and I take these differences and make them bigger. I use fear, distrust and envy for control purposes. These methods have worked on my modest plantation in the West Indies and it will work throughout the South. Take this simple little list of differences and think about them. On top of my list is "age" but it's there only because it starts with an "A." The second is "color" or shade, there is intelligence, size, sex, sizes of plantations, status on plantations, attitude of owners, whether the slaves live in the valley, on a hill, east, west, north, south, have fine hair, course hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give you a outline of action, but before that, I shall assure you that distrust is stronger than trust and envy is stronger than adulation or admiration. The Black slaves after receiving this indoctrination shall carry on and will become self refueling and self generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands. Don't forget you must pitch the old black male vs. the young black male, and the young black male against the old black male. You must use the dark skin slaves vs. the light skin slaves, and the light skin slaves vs. the dark skin slaves. You must use the female vs. the male. And the male vs. the female. You must also have you white servants and over- seers distrust all Blacks. But it is necessary that your slaves trust and depend on us. They must love, respect and trust only us. Gentlemen, these kits are your keys to control. Use them. Have your wives and children use them, never miss an opportunity. If used intensely for one year, the slaves themselves will remain perpetually distrustful. Thank you gentlemen."

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Summary

As clinicians our primary question is how do we begin to culturally detox a psyche, which has been contaminated with messages of hate, lies, omission, commissions, false image, false writing etc over 300 years?

The Osiris Group cannot over-emphasize that the focus here is not to elevated the Willie Lynches of this period, but rather to help people completely understand the process of how the psyche of African people was reconfigured by this cultural poisoning. This legacy of self-hatred and self-destruction has been passed to each new generation of African-Americans over several hundred years. Once we understand the process of self-destruction, we can begin to construct a solution to reclaiming the psyche of these damage souls.

2004-05-06T15:45:00.000-07:00

PT SlaveryD

"About Post Traumatic Slavery Disorder"
BY Larry Higgenbottem, The Osiris Group

As one of the authors who wrote Post Traumatic Slavery Disorder, I want to take a moment to let you know why Sekou Mims M.Ed, MSW; Omar Reid, Psy.D and I got together to write this book. After much discussion about what was working and what wasn't working among the African-American youth and adults we were counseling, we were finding patterns of behavior that we concluded were consistent with an orientation in the institution of slavery. Our primary reason for writing this book was to begin the process of bringing about a psychological healing through discussion, training and teaching. The information was too vast to put into any other form of presentation, that could be shared with the public.

This book was designed to create a new lens for our peers, client's, educators and youth workers to assess and counsel self-destructive behaviors.

After several years of working with large groups of youth and adults at the Mattahunt Community Center, Roxbury Boys and Girls Club, Department of Social Services (DSS), Department of Youth Services (DYS), Roxbury Court Clinic, Dorchester Counseling Center, Roxbury Comprehensive Methadone Clinic, the Boston Public Schools and Youth Opportunities Boston; it became clear that traditional methods of assessing behavior were inaccurate.

Youth were being misdiagnosed and universally placed in Lab Clusters, Special Education Centers and Alternative Schools where they were being systematically stigmatized, medicated and put into DSS, DYS and other containment facilities where those additional interventions also did not work.

Upon close examination we found that a large percentage of inaccurate psychosocial assessments had taken place. Two different psychological developments had occurred and they were clashing when they came together.

On the one hand, abhorrent behavior being displayed by youth (and adults) was really inappropriate cultural and social grooming. We found that ill manners and other negative behaviors displayed by youth ( and adults) had a direct origin from the acculturation of the slavery process.

The negative symptomatology (combined symptoms of a disorder) that blacks display today has its origins in the institution of slavery-which was never addressed for remediation.

On the other hand inaccurate diagnosis were continually being formulated from clinicians who were socially groomed from a Euro-Affluent acculturation. Sigmund Freud never intended what we know today as psycho-therapy to be applied to the masses. Freud's methods were designed for affluent people who were socially and culturally groomed to inter-reflect with a cognitive awareness of moods and affect.

This inaccurate diagnosis also stemmed from the institution of slavery which promoted a sense of superiority of intellect when it came to the 'white' psyche.

We (academically educated clinicians, counselors, social workers, social psychiatrists, psychologists, etc. of all colors) were being asked to take a Euro-American, suburban, middle class, experience and superimpose it on an Afro-American experience.

We published Post Traumatic Slavery Disorder because we wanted to present our material as a curriculum to body of professionals who have been working in the trenches for years with our people: who know the traditional diagnosis are not working and, who need to have an alternative lens from which to diagnose current symptomatology. We believed then, as we do now that if the elder members of the Black Social Workers connected with our assertion then these social workers would understand that there has never been a period of mourning, grief, remorsefulness or regret for the physical and psychological violence on the psyche of African people; and that this unresolved psychological trauma is still enduring. There has never been an effort to start the psychological healing. We presented Post-Traumatic Slavery Disorder before five-hundred (500) Black Social Workers in attendance at the 2002, New Mexico symposium. This group of black professionals more than validated us, they encouraged us to take our message directly to the black community so that this process of healing could begin to take place. Since then, we have presented Post-Traumatic Slavery Disorder to smaller audiences at Simmons College; Roxbury Community College; The Roxbury Action Program. In addition, we have presented Post-Traumatic Slavery Disorder before local, national and international television and national talk radio.

As we begin to start the healing process we must confront and examine the conditioning we were subjected to in the past, which is still a part of our present psyche. The Willie lynch letter a remnant of the extreme disregard of the human sanctity of the mind, spirit and body used by slave owners. It is important to understand where the disintegration of the mind, body and spirit of African-People began in order start to reconstruct the psyche of an entire people. As difficult and offensive as the language in this letter may be, I use this letter not to incite emotions, right or wrong or even good verses evil, but simply to understand from a human development perspective the degeneration process the African psyche has undergone to arrive in its current condition. The Willie Lynch letter is an excellent tool to help clinicians and the black populous as a whole begin for the first time to understand the tremendous psychological violence the psyche of our people has been subjective to. More importantly I believe it is a blue print for understanding the conditioning we were and currently are subjected to which needs to be undone to bring us toward healing. Please refer to the Willie Lynch letter.

2004-04-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

Essential Ubuntu ... ( “ubuntu psychology" )

"The West has achieved a great deal through individual
initiative and ingenuity and must be commended for these
often spectacular achievements. But the cost may have been
high. All this has permitted a culture of achievement and
success to evolve, assiduously encouraging the rat-race
mentality. The awful consequence is that persons tend then
not to be valued in and for themselves with a worth that is
intrinsic.
In Africa we have something called ubuntu in Nguni
languages, or botho in Sotho, which is difficult to translate
into English. It is the essence of being human. It speaks of
the fact that my humanity is caught up and is inextricably
bound up in yours. I am human because I belong. It speaks
about wholeness, it speaks about compassion. A person with
ubuntu is welcoming, hospitable, warm and generous, willing to
share. Such people are open and available to others,
affirming of others, does (sic) not feel threatened that
others are able and good, for they have a proper self-
assurance that comes from knowing that they belong in a
greater whole and are diminished when others are humiliated
or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or
treated as if they were less than who they are. It gives
people resilience, enabling them to survive and emerge still
human despite all efforts to dehumanise them. It means it is
not a great good to be successful through being aggressively
competitive, that our purpose is social and communal harmony
and well-being."
(This is an extract from the book "The Essential DESMOND TUTU")