This should be horrifying to any sane human, but we live in a time of great insanity, and much of what ought to be criticized passes by unremarked in plain sight.<p>> Ubuntu asserts that society, not a transcendent being, gives human beings their humanity.<p>Let's be clear on what we're talking about here: <i>Your humanity.</i> Are you a human being, or aren't you? Are you a moral entity or not?<p>In the West, we say your humanity is intrinsically, unalienably situated in your person, bestowed upon you by a higher authority even than society itself. It may at times be recognized or unrecognized by the crooked timber of human institutions, but with or without them, it exists. You are a human being even if society doesn't want you to be, for whatever reason.<p>Compare and contrast with Ubuntu:<p>> According to Michael Onyebuchi Eze, the core of ubuntu can best be summarised as follows:<p>> <i>'A person is a person through other people'</i> strikes an affirmation of one’s humanity through recognition of an ‘other’ in his or her uniqueness and difference. It is a demand for a creative intersubjective formation in which the ‘other’ becomes a mirror (but only a mirror) for my subjectivity. This idealism suggests to us that <i>humanity is not embedded in my person solely as an individual; my humanity is co-substantively bestowed upon the other and me.</i><p>Again, cutting through the obstructive bafflegab:<p><i>'A person is a person through other people'</i><p><i>humanity is not embedded in my person solely as an individual</i><p>The examples given are even more grotesque.<p>> When someone behaves according to custom, a Sotho-speaking person would say “ke motho,” which means "he/she is a human."<p>> The aspect of this that would be exemplified by a tale told (often, in private quarters) in Nguni “kushone abantu ababili ne Shangaan,” in Sepedi “go tlhokofetje batho ba babedi le leShangane,” in English <i>(two people died and one Shangaan).</i> In each of these examples, humanity comes from conforming to or being part of the tribe.<p>In other words, three people died, but only one "human". Think deeply on the implications of that.<p>Growing beyond this kind of tribal denial of humanity has always been one of the proudest achievements of the West. It's a shame to see us sinking back into it, endorsing it, even celebrating it again. See this kind of literal dehumanization pass by without much notice at all.