“Ubuntu” & “¿Dónde Estabas? Where Were You?”
Note: Continuing the Miami Institute’s forum on philosophy, José Cossa shares two poems— “uBuntu” and “¿Dónde Estabas? Where were you?”— one in dialogue with a Global Majority audience and the other specifically in dialogue with the Global North academe. As Cossa’s two poems and broader work underscore, knowledge is shared in various ways: through experience, poetry, monographs and journal articles, artistic expression and data collection. Cossa’s work furthermore calls us to reflect on the need for us Global Majority scholars to de-center English in our exchanges of knowledge, and in the process too, to focus on some central questions at the heart of knowledge production in philosophy and neighboring fields: How do we define ‘knowledge,’ and in what languages and mediums do we best communicate it?
uBuntu:
Minha Essência... My Philosophy... of Education!
By Zihlenga (a.k.a., José Cossa)
(Part 1)
How did we get this far?
Sa hlupheka because we somehow
Somehow we grew too big
We grew too far apart
Too big to accept the humility
The humbleness inherent in our nature
That nature of being human and humane
Sa hlupheka manje
Porque esquecemos a nossa natureza
Essa natureza humana
Se lebale uBuntu, uMutho, uMhunu...
Hi dzivalile le pswako a mhunu i mhunu ka vanu
Kodwa, I'll say it again...
Motho ke Motho ka batho
How did we get this far?
Sa hlupheka because we somehow
Somehow we grew too big
We grew too far apart
Too big to accept the humility
The humbleness inherent in our nature
That nature of being human and humane
We bought into an ideal of ownership of some sort of educational grandeur
We became in our minds
The owners of better knowledge
Rather than fellow searchers of wisdom
The owners of school systems and progress
Ignoring the very core of our uBuntu
Negating ourselves the joys of ujamaa, harambe, ni ku hlonipha
iS'khati si fikile
Chegou a hora
Yi tlasile a nkama
The time has come
To turn our political energy for revolutions
Into uBuntu revolutionary moya
umphefumulu wami longs for a return to the essência
Uma essência de viver, respirar, e celebrar uma liberdade de pensar
A freedom to think and be thought of as an intellectual in equitable terms
Because I bring to intelligentsia the intellect I inherited from my forerunners
The uBuntu of Patrice Lumumba, Amilcar Cabral, Eduardo Mondlane, the Queen of Sheba, Nefertiti, Josina and Samora Machel, Biko, Mandela, my great-grand father Maguiguane…
Kodwa… I bring to the global community of learners the ideals and practices I inherited
The ideals and practices of education “Ngugi, umongameli wam’, u ndi fundisele”
I urge you… like Simphiwe Dana urges in her song “Bantu Biko Street”
Nawe Mongameli
Xa ubon' abantu bakho
(Unqandwa yintoni ungaphilis' isizwe)
Wena Mongameli
Fundis' abantwana bethu
With this uBuntu wisdom in your soul,
When these children come to your classrooms
You will no longer wonder what you will teach them
As you will understand that teaching them is teaching whom you once perceived as yourself
But now know that such self is inexistent in a world perceived through uBuntu
Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu; yes, a person is only a person because of others, unto others, and through others
Without those children you are nonexistent
Without you these children are nonexistent
Wena mongameli, Fundis’ abantwana bethu!
Mwalimu, teach our children!
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(Part 2)
Qaphela! Njonga!
We are here to revive the vision
The vision of our living dead
The ancestral wisdom we abhorred in favor of the 'I', that individualistic and narcissistic self-absorption on an empty wisdom that thrives in sentiments of superior peoples, superior knowledges, superior languages, superior cognitions, even superior perceptions of the observable world...
We abandoned in the hinterlands of what we once termed the "third world", fertile lands of what we termed the "underdeveloped world", those fertile lands replete with ideas and inventive creativities we rendered unscientific and incapable
We continue to abandon in the mountains of what we now still call developing world, emerging economies, and some select frontier economies, albeit knowing that such descriptors are futile inventions to describe a lesser people
Asi hlanganeni, bafwethu!
Asi hlanganeni si be munye!
UBuntu is not just a word
An exotic word to enrich our already fancy African-infused academic vocabulary to tell ourselves that we, too, 'speak African' after all
UBuntu is not just a concept
A concept to glue North-South differentials
Ubuntu, uMotho, uMhunu
A mhunu y mhunu ka vanu
Motho ke Motho ka batho
Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu
Is the essence of our lives… the core of our existence
For us, Ubuntu is a calling
A calling to educate the child growing up in Africa... In the Americas ... In Asia. .. In Europe ... In Antarctica… In Oceania...
A calling to re-educate the adult
The adult whose mind is replete with misconceptions about what being educated is,
With misconceptions about what being erudite is,
With misconceptions about what being human is.
Wena mongameli, Fundis’ abantwana bethu!
Mwalimu, teach our children!
But teach our children that they are Bantu
Teach our children that they are people
Not some colonial miscategorization of the people of Southern Africa
But the essence of our being, we are Bantu!
Motho ke motho ka batho
uMuntu ngumuntu ngabantu
A person is a person unto others
Uma pessoa é pessoa diante os outros
Because when we teach abantwana bethu this truth
We are teaching ourselves this truth
If we internalize this value, abantwana bethu internalize this value
If we, Bantu, internalize this understanding of humanity… of uBuntu
Then our education will be transformational and humane
Then our education will be an uBuntu-infused education
Then our education will henceforth become humanness-centered.
¿Dónde Estabas? Where were you?
By José Cossa
¿Dónde estabas?
Cuando me llamaron inmigrante
Cuando me trataron como si fuese un criminal, ignorante, y bandido
Cuando vieron mis ceremonias religiosas y se negaron a participar
Cuando me forzaron a respetar y orar a sus dioses
Cuando construyeron muros para limitar a mi pueblo de libertad de movimiento
Cuando insultaron la sabiduría de mis ancestros y la llamaron primitiva
Cuando usaron mi cuerpo negro para avanzar narrativas falsas llamadas investigaciones científicas
Yo pregunto... ¿dónde estabas?
Where were you?
When they called me immigrant
When they treated me as if I am a criminal, ignorant, and gangster
When they watched my religious ceremonies and refused to participate
When they forced me to respect and pray to their gods
When they built walls to hinder my people from freedom of movement
When they insulted the wisdom of my ancestors and called it primitive
I ask… where were you?
Ahora escribes sobre colonialistas y colonialidad
Hablas de ser mi aliado y enseñas sobre resiliencia
Mientras mantienes posiciones de poder a costo nuestro
Mientras nos usan para ganar elecciones y para ascenso social
Mientras avanzan los proyectos de modernidad y cosmopolitanismo
Mientras me tratan como 'las gentes' y ‘los otros’ y no como igual
Now you write about colonialists and coloniality
You speak of being my allies and teach about resilience
While maintaining positions of power at our cost
While using us to win elections and for upward mobility
While advancing projects of modernity and cosmopolitanism
While treating me like ‘gentes’ and ‘other’ rather than an equal
¡Qué descarada esta gente!
¡Qué atrevido este populacho!
Qué falsos combatientes de paz e igualdad para los pueblos
Cómo podemos decir una cosa y hacer otra
Cómo podemos escribir una cosa e implementar otra
¿Cómo podemos pensar que somos creíbles?
¡Despertemos, hermanas!
¡Despertemos, hermanos!
What a shameless people!
What a daring populace!
What pretentious fighters of peace and equality among people
How can we decide one thing and do another
How can we write one thing and implement another
How can we think that we are credible?
Let us stay woke, sister!
Let us stay woke, brother!
Yo pregunto...
¿cuándo hablas de libertad para todos y usas solamente como referencia tus ancestros de filosofía e ideas, piensas que no noto tu contradicción? ¿Tus traiciones? ¿Tus intenciones de manipularme?
I ask...
When you speak of freedom for all and use as reference only your ancestors of philosophy and ideas, do you think that I do not notice your contradiction? Your betrayals? Your intentions to manipulate me?
¡No te acostumbres!
Don't get comfortable!
No nos conformamos a las apariencias
We do not conform to the appearances
No queremos participar en los proyetos de inclusión/
Esa inclusión informada por el proyecto de modernidad heredada de los colonialistas
We do not want to participate in the projects of inclusion
That inclusion informed by the modernity project inherited from colonialists
¡No te acostumbres!
Don’t get comfortable!
No queremos participar en los proyectos de desarrollo/
Ese desarrollo informado por teorías de desarrollo concebidas por los capitalistas, imperialistas, y comunistas
We do not want to participate in development projects
That development informed by development theories conceived by capitalists, imperialists, and communists
¡No tengas miedo!
Don’t be afraid!
Nuestras acciones van a honrar y respetar la diversidad entre humanos
Our actions will honor and respect diversity among humans
Vamos a continuar a construir un mundo donde reconocemos la importancia de las sabidurías ecológicas y humanas de los pueblos explorados e ignorados
We will continue to build a world in which we recognize the importance of the ecological and human wisdom of the explored and ignored peoples
Vamos a participar en uBuntu, respetando la dignidad humana sin tratamiento preferencial
We will participate in uBuntu, respecting human dignity without preferential treatment
¡No tengamos miedo!
Nos sentaremos juntos en porches ... regresaremos y recordaremos Kriss-Kross y hop-scotch
Mientras comparamos infancia y recuerdos
Mientras filosofamos sobre nuestros próximos proyectos
Mientras repensamos nuestras contribuciones académicas
Mientras re-conceptualizamos la expansión epistemológica y el respeto
Mientras desafiamos la colonialidad a través de una agenda para de-fronterizar, de-centralizar y de-periferizar el mundo
Let us not be afraid!
We’ll sit in porches together… we’ll go back and remember Kriss-Kross and hop-scotch
While comparing childhoods and memories
While philosophizing about our next projects
While re-thinking our academic contributions
While re-conceptualizing epistemological expansion and respect
While we challenge coloniality through an agenda to de-border, de-center, and de-peripherize the world
-José Cossa
José Cossa, Ph.D., is a Mozambican scholar, writer/author, researcher, poet, blogger, “twitterer,” podcaster, entrepreneur, and an Associate Professor in the College of Education at Pennsylvania State University. Cossa holds a Ph.D. in Cultural and Educational Policy Studies with a depth area in Comparative and International Education from Loyola University Chicago. He is the author of the book Power, Politics, and Higher Education: International Regimes, Local Governments, and Educational Autonomy (2008), the recipient of the 2012 Joyce Cain Award for Distinguished Research on People of African Descent, a Co-Founder of AI4Afrika, and a member of the MacArthur Foundation 100&Change Panel of Judges for two consecutive years (2018 Inaugural Challenge and 2019).
