There's this story from Ghana about, you know, this young girl looking at her father who is peering into the past intensely.
And the girl says: 'Papa, you are always looking into the past. Why? And the father looks at her and says: 'My daughter, because the answers to the future always reside in the past.
And that's where knowledges that are banished in the past like Ubuntu become relevant.
The word Ubuntu comes from a south Nguni word or phrase that says, I am because you are, you are because we are.
In other words, you know, as human beings, there's a sense in which there is some connection and interdependence. We rely on each other.
Let me start by saying that Ubuntu is not a political programme. I also want to add that it is not, you know, a religious, you know, expression.
Ubuntu is about our social awareness, a consciousness of the others, a consciousness of the fact that we all have a responsibility to ourselves as human beings, especially the vulnerable among us.
But perhaps more importantly, we also have a responsibility to, you know, the world around us the totality of our environment.
Did you know that 30% of food crops in the world need cross pollination from bees, these tiny insects. So if you're going to destroy the bees, or the earth, you are ultimately destroying yourself.
So the principle of co-agency implies that we are co-creators. It relies on the recognition that we are interdependent in a balanced biodiversity. So it is that principle of co-agency that Ubuntu encourages.
