There is an ongoing argument in SA about the existence, or lack thereof, of ubuntu. To Bantu language speakers, ubuntu loosely translates to being human. It is understanding that you become a full spiritual human being in relation with other people.
Absent the other’s experience of us, and connection to us, we do not exist, or at least not as fully human. As Africans, we are socialised to prioritise our relational over our individual identity. Other people are both a gaze from which we are seen and a stage on which we act out our lives…
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