Ubuntu Quotes Quotes

“Unity is not a myth. It's a progressive action.”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“Thanks to everyone who contributes to our society in a positive way. Whether recognised or not.”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“Black people, you must learn to love other black people again. The past made you to see each other as competitors and enemies. But I can assure you that today is a new day. It's now safe to love one another again. It's safe to protect each other once more, as you did when you were slaves. It is finally safe to embrace one another again. Let's move forward in unity.”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“We're promoting progressive thinking. New ways of doing things. A new world. In fact, we're breaking down the walls and barriers that we find between humans.”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“Black people, you must remember that you're not alone in the pursuit of equality.”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“My People, Black people,

My prayers are that you find concious ways to humanize your experiences. Let no man tell you how to heal, process, or grieve. Please seek safety and restoration within the community. You are loved. You are supported. You matter. Sending love to you today and always.”
― Kierra C.T. Banks

“Hate imprisons the light that we otherwise could be to our beloved.”
― Tiisetso Maloma, Introducing Ubuntu Stoicism: Gain Joy, Resilience, Productivity, and Defuse Anxiety

“So anger however called for, can never cook yam. You cannot eat the fruits of your anger.”
― Tiisetso Maloma, Introducing Ubuntu Stoicism: Gain Joy, Resilience, Productivity, and Defuse Anxiety

“Ubuntu means I am because we are. If I am to be better, we should be better. If I want you to be better, I should be better.”
― Tiisetso Maloma, Introducing Ubuntu Stoicism: Gain Joy, Resilience, Productivity, and Defuse Anxiety

“Ubuntu signals a sense of personal responsibility. The community benefits from the virtues of responsible individuals. They also serve as inspiration to others, particularly the younger generation.”
― Tiisetso Maloma, Introducing Ubuntu Stoicism: Gain Joy, Resilience, Productivity, and Defuse Anxiety

“Through Stoicism, I recognised the need to be the carrier of Ubuntu principles personally, i.e. act upon them.”
― Tiisetso Maloma, Introducing Ubuntu Stoicism: Gain Joy, Resilience, Productivity, and Defuse Anxiety

“Today, I was reminded that family life is never perfect, it is almost a touch of confusion and chaos wrapped into these amazingly brilliant moments that make you feel loved from the tip of your toes right up to the last strand of hair on your head. Yet, that isn’t what defines a family. It’s the strength of the bonds that help us to find our centeredness even when the situation presents itself as having no center.

In those cases, until you find your center, Peppermint Pull-Up cake is always recommended, as a type of a sugary meditation to seal the bonds between those you love, and to remind each other that the way back is always through the center of love. And it makes us realize the gift housed inside of the madness…when our bonds of family live up to the wisdom of an old African saying: “To get lost is to learn the way.”

The way always points home…toward the direction of our family’s heart. That point that can break, heal, and break again just to lead us to where peace resides.

The juncture called...family.”
― hlbalcomb

“At Hennie’s home in Worcester, in true South Africa style, we braaied choppies, Boerewors, chicken, and braaibroodtjies along with a few different types of salads and dessert, which included Peppermint Tart with vanilla ice-cream.

My day started when I learned that my hart se punt is an expression to reaffirm exactly how much we love something or someone. My day ended by learning that love is a measurement of how much our heart can hold. The type of love that makes you feel propvol because the area is completely filled up.

And that’s the type of love that helps us to understand expressions of love that we have never considered before since love gives us the confidence to understand that love can’t be contained into little bottles or containers of security. Love is an ever-flowing emotion much like a running river that inspires us as it sweeps across our lives, and it covers everything with its inspiration simply called my hart se punt.

A point that reminds us that we’re not that special, love is our universal gift.

A point that always pulls us toward our heart’s True North, even when can’t initially see the blessing that is hiding past the weight of the cross.

An anchor of truth that’s freeing, as it pulls us toward our life’s highest purpose to be made whole, not perfect, through love’s grace that is simply called...

Die Punt, The Point.”
― hlbalcomb

“In that moment, I felt sad just thinking about leaving South Africa, and the people that I had met along the way during my cross-country adventures. In such a short space of time, they had filled my heart like they say in Afrikaans, propvol, meaning to full capacity, or to the point that there’s no space left – propvol meaning that not even a small cap full of something could fit because the space is chockful and completely stuffed.

And that is exactly how my heart felt – propvol, stuffed with little South African remembrances and an endless string of little moments held together by the names of people, locations, or Afrikaans words or phrases combined with tasty meals enjoyed around dining room tables, outdoor living spaces, and confined places like the inside of the Land Rover while driving down the coastline of South Africa.

Propvol, and yet that wasn’t enough….”
― hlbalcomb

“And as my head hit the pillow that night, my prayer for my son remained simply that his last wish would finally be fulfilled…in some future moment through the same type of faith that allows a 600-year-old Quteniqua Yellowwood tree to grow from a single seed. His last wish being the chance of speaking to me about the one topic that his heart couldn’t find any rest while living on earth – that the true gift of that opportunity would truly come to fruition.

In the interim, I had to follow in the words of Khalil Gibran when he said that there should be spaces between our togetherness to love one another “…but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your soul.” Space between our togetherness to find a way on its own accord, outside of the scrutiny of my mothering protection.

That night, I went to bed with the reassuring, concluding words of Khalil Gibran “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters with seared scars.” Scars seared with the anointing warmth of love, a reminder of love’s miracle, and the hope that my loving son would find his peace even from beyond the grave since love makes whole the broken and crooked parts of every story, including stories already lived and wishes never fulfilled because they all stem from the same seeds… Inexhaustible Love.”
― hlbalcomb

“If the meaning of the mountain range overlooking the home’s peace is called the Quteniqua Mountains, which is rally made up of the Langeberg Range (northeast of Worcester) and the Tsitsikamma Mountains (east-west along The Garden Route), and if the collective name of the mountain range references the idea of honey, the honey that can be found at Amanda and Lena’s home starts with kindness, a type of kindness the touches the world’s core understanding of compassion.

“I want to give you a used copy of my favorite book that I think helps to explain what exactly I love about this area. Out of all of her books, this is probably one of the least favorite books based off readers’ choice, yet it is my favorite book because I think it truly understands the spirit of this area.” Amanda handed me the book.

“Da-lene Mat-thee,” I said. “Is that correct…”

Before I could finish, she had already answered my question. “Yes, the author that I had spoken about earlier today. Although she is an Afrikaans author, this book is in English. The Mulberry Forest. My favorite character is Silas Miggel, the headstrong Afrikaans man who didn’t want to have the Italian immigrants encroaching onto his part of the forest.”

She paused for a second before resuming, “Yet, he’s the one who came to their rescue when the government turned a blind eye on the hardships of the Italian immigrants. He’s the one who showed kindness toward them even when he didn’t feel that way in his heart. That’s what kindness is all about, making time for our follow neighbors because it’s the right thing to do, full stop. Silas is the embodiment of what I love about the people of this area. It is also what I love about my childhood home growing up in the shantytown. The same thread of tenacity can be found in both places. So, when you read about Silas, think of me because he represents the heart of both Knysna and the Storms River Valley. This area contains a lot of clones just like him, the heartbeat of why this area still stands today.”

That’s the kind of hope that lights up the sky. The Portuguese called the same mountain range Serra de Estrellla or Mountain of the Star…

If we want to change the world, we should follow in the Quteniqua Mountain’s success, and be a reminder that human benevolence is a star that lights up the sky of any galaxy, the birthplace of caring.

As we drove away, for a second, I thought I heard the quiet whispers from Dalene Matthee’s words when she wrote in Fiela’s Child: “If he had to wish, what would he wish for, he asked himself. What was there to wish for…a wish asked for the unattainable. The impossible.”

And that’s what makes this area so special, a space grounded in the impossibility held together through single acts of human kindness, the heart of the Garden Route’s greatest accomplishment.

A story for all times…simply called,
Hospitality, the Garden Route way…”
― hlbalcomb

“I was starting to learn that there’s a lot about the South African culture that follows the ceremony of a set rhythm. Love being the overarching ingredient – the flavor not openly mentioned yet fundamentally enjoyed -- from the freshly made homemade bread to how she had carefully chosen the right cut of biltong to accompany the flavor tones of the breakfast for the biltong sandwiches.

It was all part of the little details – little thumbprints of love – that goes into the essence of the South African culture that most South Africans are oblivious, too, yet that only makes it more powerful – profound in its value since it’s so deeply engraved into the subconsciousness of the country’s expression of hospitality.”
― hlbalcomb

“We followed him to a covered veranda. In America, we would call that a lemonade porch, however, in South Africa, they call it a stoep. A meeting place located outside the front of the home where friends and family can gather, and one can watch the rising or the setting of the sun in the cozy spot simply called a stoep.

The stoep projected a natural ambience of peace and harmony, as a light breeze filled the space with its woodsy fragrance of pine and other natural fragrances inspired by the area’s shrubbery. It almost felt like it was hypnotizing one into a deeper state of tranquility, a state of existence that celebrated the quiet pockets of solitude where a richer from of living is housed. It made one slouch a little more meaningfully and relax the muscles of your body a little more conscientiously, as you let go of one’s innate need to think – to think to the point of hyper focusing on the meaningless details of life, for example, the incessant need to make every moment in life count…

Yet, the stoep’s lesson of deeper living is simply the gift of becoming reacquainted with the joy of just being – open yet connected to now, without a higher purpose beyond that. Sometimes, the greatest gift that we can give ourselves is just to sit in the rawness of the moment without any outcome or intention in mind – except, to breathe in the life of the area around us.

That is where my afternoon’s lesson ended, knowing that a stoep is a space where quality of human connection is made with or without the presence of any audience because it’s that space that celebrates the stillness of nothing and yet everything simultaneously, or in the words of Rumi: “In order to understand the dance, one must be still. And in order to truly understand the stillness, one must dance.”

In South Africa that concept is lovingly called…Die Stoep, a space of possibility.”
― hlbalcomb

“My short time in Pretoria made me realize that it can best be described as that place where the brushstrokes of life blend the old with the new in a way that helps to create a story of a place that will forever be deeply tucked into the breathing spaces of my heart, as a place of fondness.

A reminder that even when the lessons doesn’t go according to plan, there are always chances to be like the statue of President Nelson Mandela, open arms – embracing the future and using the past, especially the most difficult chapters, to help to infuse new life through the wisdom gained by being like the middle part of the Union Buildings, a space of collaboration.

In the words of South African British poet William Polmer, “Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.” And when the connection is made, that place is simply called Pretoria. And if one should look a little deeper at the connection, you’ll understand that Pretoria is simply a word with a Latin origin, Praetor, that means Leader, a perfect place to house the Union Buildings, the place where our difference becomes one, and that knowledge becomes the spectrum of where the old and the new intersect, and we call that…

Pretoria…Leader within.”
― hlbalcomb

“Before my head hit the pillow that night, I thought of these concluding words by Desmond Tutu: “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” Hope is that last act of faith when we feel the least like being faithful. Hope is the connection shared between the memory of was and the freedom of giving it space to be – even if that means consciously letting go when we truly just want to hold on…hopeful that things will stay the same.

We’ll know that we have reached healing when we look back upon the experience, and we thank the experience through our sincere feelings of gratitude for helping us to become more courageous of heart. That’s usually when we realize that the only limitations of life are moments when we had a small mindset…or in the words of an old Zen saying: “We don’t find the answers. We lose the questions.”

Let the questions flow past the banks where the fever tree grows, as we scoop up waters of hope, and hold onto that until it trickles through our fingers and back into the source of all change, the river of hope. The same place that houses our deeper thinking and commitment toward higher living just like the strength of the fever trees, an embodiment of hope.

Bright green hope…the fever tree way.”
― hlbalcomb

“In my short time in South Africa of only a few days, I have learned two things about South Africans. First, they are collectors of little moments. They love to collect beautiful memories that they can treasured for a lifetime. Second, they are bookends people. First impressions and last impressions kind of people. They remind me of Dr. Maya Angelou’s words when she said that people will forget what you said, but that they will never forget how you made them feel.” I think she was describing South Africans – bookend people: Strong beginning and lasting endings…”
― hlbalcomb

“As we drove out of one of The Kruger National Park’s main gates, before I could think further, I added, “That was a lekker holiday!” If South Africa had taught me one thing, it is that South Africans who are natural collectors of little moments understand that the feelings of contentment should have a scale to measure where exactly a person is on the range of gratitude. And lekker is exactly that, one word to measure the depth of one’s connection to the feelings of life within one. In that moment, my scale of contentment was sky high, and by the way I had just pronounced that word, I had just made it clear to the world that I was starting to understand the value of one word to convey a complete thought of happiness through its shifting context of interpretation – the gift of acknowledgement of an instant spark of awareness within.

Lekker, simply stated -- a visceral connection to our understanding of the wealth of happiness residing in our heart by means of a single moment unfolding right now – in front of us. Lekker…enough said.”
― hlbalcomb

“Veld, that space within most South African hearts that mirrors the open expanse of land where the greatness of life resides in the vastness of grasslands captured in the imaginations of wanderers and adventurer seekers alike when we stop our overthinking and optimize our ability to enjoy life’s unscripted moments that are wide-open and usually – right in front of us.
Veld, a word for the miracle of newness and the appreciation for the life that is waiting to be lived, one grass blade at a time, and a lesson for humans in appreciating the fullness of life’s abundance when we slowdown the pace of our own world to absorb the miracles happening all around us – at any given moment.
Veld, although this word literally means an open expanse, that is what life around us is truly about – an open expanse of miracles just waiting on us for our sense to mature…
The magic of South Africa, a spell that will leave your heart as open as the veld and the expanse beyond that.
A lesson in feeling small…”
― hlbalcomb

“This endless pursuit—jumping from one promising thought to the next—is what has left us directionless again and again.”
― Tiisetso Maloma, Daily Grace & Ubuntu Stoicism: For Yourself and the World

“Meditation teaches us another way. Its purpose is not to collect thoughts but to stop being carried off by them. When even the “good” ideas appear, we practice letting them pass untouched. This is the first step toward steadiness. Any idea worth keeping will return.”
― Tiisetso Maloma, Daily Grace & Ubuntu Stoicism: For Yourself and the World