David W. Robinson-Morris's Articles on Lions Roar

The African philosophy of ubuntu teaches that we are human only through the humanity of others. Buddhists of African descent explore the synergy between ubuntu and the Buddhist teachings on interdependence. From the March 2022 issue of Lion's Roar. I am an African American person who was born and raised in Indianapolis. My mother was born in Arkansas and my father was born in Kentucky. Their parents were also born in the U.S. I never knew my ancestors from Africa, and in my family, we never spoke of them. My sense of self was completely westernized through an intergenerational imposition of American cultural identity. I was also sheltered and provincial growing up, so much so that I don’t remember ever meeting anyone from Africa. During my last year of college, I was consistently and soundly sleeping through my Black history class (of all classes!) until the professor (a white man) startled me by slamming his hand on the desk I had made my pillow. He told me I could no longer sleep in his class and I should see him in his office. I was embarrassed and ashamed. When I was in his office, he told me I needed to see the world, and recommended I go to Africa with Operation Crossroads Africa, a cross-cultural exchange program. I followed his advice and went to Zimbabwe. While in Zimbabwe, walking with Zimbabweans, I encountered people who greeted me with the traditional salutation in the Shona language: “Mhoro, wakaadii” (“Hello, how are you?”) and “Ndapora kana wapora” (“I am well if you are well”). It was a salutation, which meant, in essence, that their state of being was conditioned by my state of being. It was like a koan. My discursiveness was stopped; I was confused. Then I felt the joy that comes from feeling connected. I learned later that the expression comes from ubuntu, a philosophy that means “I am because you are” or “We are because of each other.” Ubuntu is found throughout many African countries especially, but not exclusively, Southern African countries. According to my former professor, Carolyn Akua McCrary, who teaches at Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, a historically Black institution, ubuntu is also a part of the African American mindset, even if we don’t always recognize it. What is the interconnection between African ubuntu and Buddhist interdependence? And in what other ways are the philosophies of ubuntu and Buddhism similar? In what follows, a Xhosa in South Africa, an Asian African in Europe, and two African American writers reflect on these questions. —Pamela Ayo Yetunde, Associate Editor I See You. Rehena Harilall shares a traditional Zulu greeting that helps her see others through the lens of compassion. When I was a child growing up in South Africa, I’d press my hands together at my heart—in the Hindu gesture of namaste—and bow as I offered the isiZulu language greeting sawubona (we/I see you), which is usually accompanied by the response sikhona (we/I am seen). I celebrate my Indian, South Asian, and African heritages, and my childhood was steeped in the ancient wisdom of Buddhism, Hinduism, and indigenous Zulu practices. Taught to be humble, to respect all sentient and nonsentient life, I easily bowed to the wisdom manifesting in all of creation. Sadly, I lost this connection when I absorbed the disparaging views held by the white dominant South African regime that the rituals of my ancestors were “backward,” “uncivilized,” and hindrances to material and professional “success.” It was not until returning to Buddhist practice as an adult, that I remembered and reconnected to this sacredness. May I always remain bowed in service, my every thought and action embodying ubuntu on my long walk home to liberation. Ubuntu is the ancient African wisdom that is akin to what Buddhists call codependent arising or interbeing. Much of our suffering is caused by denying interdependence. Adopting ubuntu philosophy is a way to cut through the illusion of separate selves and dualities. The exchange of greetings sawubona–sikhona expresses the philosophy of ubuntu. In responding “sikhona”—“we/I am seen”—we move beyond seeing ourselves just visually, as a separate self. We look through the lens of embodied compassion and see ourselves as we are—impermanent, made up of thoughts, feelings, and ancestrally transmitted traumas, all shaped by the collective context we are part of. In the sawubona–sikhona exchange, we see the rippling impact of our desires, volitions, and actions—the energy we create in the world—and acknowledge that we cannot be human alone. We are part of a shared humanity. As dharma teacher Ralph Steele puts it, I can “look deeply into the other until I see myself.” My humanness is even reflected in those I most vehemently disagree with—they too are painfully molded by ancestrally transmitted conditions. To react to this pain with the unskillful energies of anger and fear diminishes the positive collective energy we create together as a human species. We are bound up with each other. “I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be,” said Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. My understanding of Buddhist interdependence underpins my view of sawubona as an opportunity to bring into my awareness the relative or phenomenal you—acknowledging your story, your lineage, and your humanity—while also bringing into awareness the absolute you—your true nature, your embodiment of the endless stream of life, which is indestructible, formless, omnipresent, and eternal. I bow. Responding “sikhona,” I stand in the naked humility of a multifaceted earthling who is also a fractal drop of creation, a universal sign of love. I bow. May I always remain bowed in service, my every thought and action embodying ubuntu on my long walk home to liberation. May I walk in the majestic grace and loving wisdom of all my ancestors. It’s How We Survived. Ubuntu helped the African diaspora survive centuries of slavery and oppression, suggests David W. Robinson-Morris. The lifeblood of Africans—those on the continent and those whose ancestors were dispersed around the globe, not as people but as property—is anchored in a deep understanding of interdependence. For Africans, community is paramount for collective survival, but not at the expense of the individual. In my experience, ubuntu is a deep and embodied understanding that human beings are not born but formed in community and relationship with one another. Ubuntu is a Southern African philosophy that has been commonly translated as “I am; therefore, we are.” However, ubuntu can best be understood as an embodied practice that South African philosopher Michael Eze defines as, “A person is a person through other people.” Our humanity is a collective endeavor; we create each other and sustain one another. Both ubuntu and Buddhist interdependence are generous ontologies that provoke an awareness of the interwovenness of this web called life. Perhaps, it was ubuntu that allowed the dispersed and enslaved Africans—my ancestors—to survive the brutality of slavery and the loss of their homelands, mother tongues, and customs, while never questioning their humanity. All human life began on the continent of Mother Africa, so we—the people of the African diaspora—are the people of humanity’s birth. Understanding this confers upon us an embodied dignity in the face of the white supremacist ideology, which has run rampant over the globe. Our humanity can never be questioned. This embodied knowing and practice sustains many of us Black Americans to this day and guides our community living. Similar to ubuntu is the Buddhist concept of interbeing or interdependent co-arising—the understanding that nothing is separate, self-reliant, or self-contained. All phenomena arise within and from a network of mutuality, an ecosystem of being. There is no division between human and human, or human and nature, or human and spirit; all things are moving away from fragmentation to wholeness (or complete emptiness). Both ubuntu and Buddhist interdependence are generous ontologies that provoke an awareness of the interwovenness of this web called life and what it means to be a human being in relationship with all sentient beings. Thich Nhat Hanh explains that nothing can be free alone; all things inter-are. He writes: “We go beyond outward appearances or signs and come to ‘signlessness.’ At first, we think that members of our family are separate from one another, but afterwards we see that they contain each other. You are the way you are because I am the way I am.” In other words, I am because we are—ubuntu. According to African cosmology, humans are not only in relationship with each other; they are also in relationship with nature, the ancestors, and spirit. I believe that intertwining the philosophies of ubuntu and Buddhist interbeing intensifies one’s understanding of the interdependence of all things and beings, seen and unseen. The resonances between ubuntu and Buddhist interdependence are uncanny; however, a simple search of comparative religions or philosophical understandings yields a knowing that reverberates across cultures, continents, and chronological time. This knowing is always reaching and stretching toward wholeness—together. Ubuntu and interdependence bring to consciousness the knowing that we are multiplicities of one, a bundle of life, folding and unfolding on this plane while interwoven with the energy of an absent-present past, an absent-present future, and a very present-present. Together, these philoso-praxes teach us that my humanity and your humanity are tied up with one another, so tightly coupled that everything one does to others or the environment affects all of us. In this way, the idea of a separate self or individual action is a mere illusion—all things are interdependent and interconnected. Community is life, and humanity is a quality we owe each another. This Is How We Should Be. Yao Obiora Dibia on how children say the truest...

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