Ubuntu

May we all learn to embrace the gift of Ubuntu that Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said is Africa's gift to the world.

“Africans have this thing called UBUNTU. It is about the essence of being human, it is part of the gift that Africa will give the world. It embraces hospitality, caring about others, being able to go the extra mile for the sake of others. We believe that a person is a person through another person, that my humanity is caught up, bound up, inextricably, with with yours. When I dehumanise you, I inexorably dehumanise myself. The solitary human being is a contradiction in terms and therefore you seek to work for the common good because your humanity comes into its own in belonging”.
~~Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"Ubuntu" (oo-boon-too) n. Zulu or Xhosa word, a traditional African belief.
 Ubuntu is a term for humaneness, for caring, sharing and being in harmony with all of creation.
“Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language. When we want to give high praise to someone we say, "Yu u nobuntu"; "Hey, so-and-so has ubuntu." Then you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. … We say, "A person is a person through other persons." … A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.” 
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, from No Future Without Forgiveness