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I first learned about ubuntu when working in South Africa after the elections of 1994 that brought democracy and the election of Nelson Mandela. In the interim Constitution and the subsequent statute establishing the historic Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it said “There shall be ubuntu rather than victimization.” At the first hearings of the Commission in East London, South Africa I met with the Chair of the Commission, Archbishop Desmond Tutu to record a statement to our monitors that were coming over for the TRC hearings and asked him to explain its meaning. A beautiful smile came over his face, as he said, “It has no exact translation in western languages. Ubuntu is the essence of being human,” he said. “We are only human through our relations with others. The solitary individual is a contradiction in terms. We are corporate. What I do to another I do to myself. That is ubuntu.” Read “Terrorist and Saints: The Wisdom of Ubuntu.” by Eric Sirotkin in Sentient Times April/May 2002.http://www.sentienttimes.com/02/Apr_May/terroristsT.htmlhttp://www.sentienttimes.com/02/Apr_May/terroristsT.htmlshapeimage_4_link_0

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