“Ubuntu Works”, Episode #113
How do we find our way back to recognizing, to remembering our shared humanity?” It will take the efforts of many. It will take courage. It will take faith. It will take many approaches from many directions. Fortunately, all those ingredients are available. It is up to each of us to reach deep within ourselves for the courage and the faith, and to reach out for the tools and understandings of many approaches from many directions.
You’ll find many of those approaches in episodes of Co-creating Peace, including this one.
I know you will enjoy “Ubuntu Works”, Episode #113 of Co-creating Peace, a series about conscious communication & conflict transformation.
Joining me again is Eric Sirotkin, my guest in Episode #99 “The Lawyer as Peacemaker”, & Episode #108 “Truth & Reconciliation – a Path to Forgiveness”. With him is Raphael Masesa from Capetown South Africa. Together, they bring us understandings about a way of seeing and a way of being, known as ubuntu.
Highlights of our conversation include:
- Defining ubuntu
- Understanding how ubuntu manifests itself in everyday life
- Learning how ubuntu relates to indigenous law and peacemaking
- How active listening, dialogue (Episodes #93 & #94), Compassionate Listening (Episodes #95 & #96), and other ways of practicing deep listening and empathy can help build ubuntu in our lives.
Eric Sirotkin mixes his experience as a lawyer, film producer, author and peacemaker, to contribute to the movement from the age of separation toward the era of ubuntu. He helps people and countries navigate their conflicts in a way that enhances health and well-being. Eric contributed to the dialogue on the new Constitution in South Africa, was a UN-sponsored election observer at President Mandela’s election, and coordinated an International Monitoring Project of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It was through this experience that he learned about the wisdom of ubuntu and has integrated it into his work in North and South Korea and all areas of his life. Eric is the founder of The Ubuntuworks Project, which collaborates with organizations and individuals on research and strategies to move us locally and globally toward an era of ubuntu. To learn more about UbuntuWorks Project, visit: ubuntuworks.org. Donate to the UbuntuWorks Project here. To learn more about Eric and his work as an attorney, visit: ericsirotkin.com.
Raphael Chisubo Masesa was born and grew up in Zambia.
Raphael is a lecturer at the IIE Varsity College in Cape Town, South Africa. He teaches Indigenous law and Integrative law among others. Raphael’s passion for teaching indigenous law emanates essentially from who he is as a person. He belongs to a Ng’umbo tribe who speak dialects of Bemba (Bantu-speaking people in the Northern part of Zambia). He has a strong cultural and indigenous sense of oral tradition, storytelling, traditional music, poetry and praise on social and legal matters. Raphael has been teaching law at the University of the Western Cape and the IIE Varsity College for more than 15 years. He is a Board member of UbuntuWorks Project, which collaborates with organizations and individuals on research and strategies to move everyone locally and globally toward an era of ubuntu.
Learn more about Raphael Chisubo Masesa at: linkedin.com/in/chisubo
Special note: Beginning in April, Co-creating Peace will go to a twice-monthly schedule, airing on the 2nd & 4th weekends of each month. There are some exciting episodes coming up, rich with new guests, tools and understandings to help you co-create peace! I hope you will join me on the 2nd & 4th weekend of every month.