According to undoctored stories of traditional Africa, before everything started costing money, and wallets and titles became standards by which worth is measured, communities were founded on the guiding belief that every individual is pertinent, and everyone is because of people around you.
In those days, the Zulu saying in Brenda Fassie's "Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu" (a person is a person because of people) wasn't only a moral value, it was a way of life.
The other day I was watching a video done somewhere in the provinces of Mali, and the most evocative part of the narrative thrust of that film was seeing an entire community helping in the construction of a house for a young man who was about to get married. The house was mud, certainly not so desirable, but the intentions were.
Today, it feels like we are moving away from that spirit of reciprocal living to a divided and shifty entity of individuals who cannot be counted on for anything, unless there's something in it for them, and of users who can be biased, swayed, persuaded, and induced into doing anything for personal gains, and under the guise of acting in good faith; that saddens me.
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