May Australians fill their hearts with ubuntu

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Most days the overwhelm is immense, but child by child, we do all we can. I won’t read the social media comments this article provokes – my brittle soul is already burdened with fitful sleep filled by the cries of dying children, waking in the darkness to process if there is anything more that could have been done.

But while the shackles of Africa’s colonial past continue to bear the continent down, I hope that at least one Australian will try to understand the multifactorial causes behind crises such as this famine.

There is an old African concept – ubuntu – which simply translates as “human kindness”, but its scope really extends to (in the words of Liberian peace activist Leyman Gbowee) “I am what I am, because of who we all are”. We are one human race, more interconnected than we can even realise. While we may feel removed from this crisis in the safety of our island home, we are nonetheless part of a global community. May Australians fill their hearts with ubuntu, exude compassion and humanity in the face of this crisis, and show humanity to others.