The Lessons of Ubuntu: How an African Philosophy Can Inspire Racial Healing in America

Excellent book, with a very positive focus and powerful message for these troubled times. It is an upcoming choice for our community book club, and I'm eager for our discussion of it.

In Mark Mathabane’s new book THE LESSONS OF UBUNTU: HOW AN AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY CAN INSPIRE RACIAL HEALING IN AMERICA, he first defines his term. Ubuntu is a Zulu word for our common humanity. We are all one family, regardless of our race or the color of our skin. Although the author’s thesis is neither new nor unique, it is heartening that his book is published at this particular troubling time in our history. Mr. Mathabane uses chiefly the lives and words of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King and his own life story throughout the book to expound on his thesis.In Part One the author names the ten obstacles to racial healing: the teaching of hatred, racial classification, profiling, mutual distrust, black bigotry, dehumanization, the church and white bigotry, lack of empathy, the myth that blacks and whites are monolithic, and self-segregation: American apartheid.In Part Two Mr. Mathabane lists the ten principles of Ubuntu: the keys to racial healing. They are empathy: listening instead of labeling, compromise: talking to the enemy, learning: the power of education, nonviolence: the key to social change, change: even racists can be transformed, forgiveness: the pathway to healing, restorative justice: saving the future, love: healing through agape, spirituality: the instrument of our common humanity and hope: rebirth of the American dream.Mr. Mathabane gives many examples showing that we are all family. We can forgive our enemy, we as races are not monolithic, etc., many from his own amazing life. Born in abject poverty in a shack in Alexandra, South Africa, he joined a gang that hated white people at the age of six, tried suicide at ten, but found a friend in a white tennis player from Germany, came to the United States on a tennis scholarship and married Gail, a Caucasian and fellow graduate student at Columbia University School of Journalism.Some of the many stories that moved me in this compelling book: John McCain said that if he had not forgiven his Vietnam captors, that he would still be a prisoner. The families of those church members that Dylann Roof killed in Charleston, South Carolina forgave him. Mathabane’s father who hated all white people had a change of heart after Habitat for Humanity went to Alexandra and built him a house after Millard Fuller, its founder, heard the author speak at Hilton Head. The great Nelson Mandela also chose not to hate during his long incarceration at Robben Island.Then there is the author’s love of books and education. He once risked his life to rescue books from a library that had been set on fire in the ghetto where he lived. He says that his passion for books grew after he taught himself to read at the age of eleven. He writes: “Though I was trapped inside an impoverished ghetto and living in a shack without running water or electricity, books gave me the freedom to explore the human condition in ways that transcended the ghetto, my race, South Africa and even space and time. Books equipped my imagination with the power to travel across oceans and centuries. . .” [My favorite poet Emily Dickinson said it this way: “There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away.”] Mr. Mathabane quotes Joseph Conrad with this extraordinary statement that a writer “speaks to the subtle but invincible conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts. . .” [It was worth reading this book for that one extended sentence alone.]Mr. Mathabane states that while millions of black Americans [and I might add white Americans too] believe that Donald Trump is a racist and hate him for it, that he is not one of them. He says that “One reason is that I try to avoid labeling and judging people I don’t know personally. He is not “apoplectic over Trump’s use of racism to win an election,” that the tactic is as American as “apple pie.” The author’s hope is that Trump will somehow appeal to both black and white Americans and unite the country by using the language of Ubuntu. A tall order in my opinion.My only complaint about this timely book—and certainly a small one—is that sometimes Mr. Mathabane get repetitious in telling his story that certainly needs to be told.

First, if you haven't read Kaffir Boy, the author's memoir, stop reading this review, get that book, and read it NOW. Buy this book too though to read after you read his memoir. Kaffir Boy is one of the BEST memoirs I have read from both a writing standpoint and for the compelling story itself. This book is a beautiful follow-up. It combines elements of memoir with a constructive argument for what we can do to change our divisive and divided world now. I knew nothing about Ubuntu. I love that Mathabane is able to share an African philosophy in which the general public is completely ignorant (count me in for one) and use it as a vehicle to deliver a resonating message of hope. The tenets or lessons are recognizable from other philosophies and positive psychology that many of us will be familiar with. But I think it's so important that he draws the connection to Ubuntu and African philosophy. It just goes to show again how common and universal we are as cultures around the world. Important also is the impetus for each of us to DO something. Each of the ten principles of racial headling is a call to action on an individual and societal level. You can sit down and read this whole book at once. I decided to pick up this book and read just one chapter at a time. Then go digest it and think about it and act on it. Come back to the next chapter later. This book would make a great book club read or book study for a church or school. It's meant to be discussed and acted upon. Very hopeful and positive book.

I'm not as mild about bigotry as the author, but I do appreciate the non-confrontational tone. Racial healing won't be achieved through anger--I get that.The message is such a positive one, starting with the title, which means "our shared humanity" in Zulu. We are all one humanity, sharing the planet. That is a message that we don't hear--or think about--nearly often enough. When was the last time you heard someone say that? Many never hear it in an entire lifetime. We need to hear it, say it, and try hard to feel it.I agree with the author that we need to have more empathy and get rid of stereotypes, including ones like racial categories that are outmoded now, a pseudoscience from the 19th century that only divides us. (I've read elsewhere that fingerprint types--there are four distinct ones for people throughout the world--are far more useful than "race" as a classification system. Our DNA is nearly identical from one part of the globe to the next.He takes great inspiration from two nonviolent icons--Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela. These are role models I appreciated being reminded of--and how they stayed with their values and beliefs--like the author himself--in the face of truly horrible oppression and violence. If they can do it.....The writing may be a bit wordy at times, but he makes the point and gives many examples and a lot to think about. Not many books of nonviolent philosophy get published these days. "The Lessons of Ubuntu" was a reminder of the importance of gentleness (a word not used here, but one I thought of as fitting in in a positive not negative way), forgiveness, education and rationality, empathy and, again, the idea we care about each other as one shared humanity. A welcome message in our troubled world.