UKAMA

The world interacts with itself. The sky, the spirits, the
earth, the physical world, the living, and the deceased all
act, interact, and react in consort. One works on the other
and one part cannot exist nor be explained without the other.
– The Trinity of Sin by Yusfu Turaki

The notion that everyone and everything is interconnected, interdependent and interrelated is echoed in religions and cultures across the world, no more succinctly than in the concept of Ukama.

This African philosophy or ethic of holism and relationality, stems from the Shona word, ukama, meaning relatedness – relatedness to the whole universe. The concept of ukama advocates that our relatedness cannot be simply reduced to our human belongingness, but rather that human wellbeing is inextricably bound with all that exists. Ukama expresses the idea of what is means to be a person in relation to other human beings and the universe; that humans, the spirit world and the biophysical world are all part of the same fabric, each needing the other to activate it. We are both dependent on, and interdependent with, one another and with the environment on which all humanity depends.

We are all part of a natural and social web of life that supports and sustains us. A sense of belonging and connectedness is a requirement to experience an overarching meaning in life. To belong implies experiencing relatedness and connections with people, society, and nature. Ubuntu, derived from the African principle: ‘umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’, which translates as ‘one is a person through others’, helps us to appreciate that to be human means to care for self, the other and nature—that the self is inextricably bound up in relations with the other and the biophysical world. When we acknowledge this common humanity and interconnectedness, the “I” and “me” becomes more “we” and “us”.

By the same token, identity, in the Māori culture, is based upon whakapapa, a set of relationships with the living and the departed, the individual and their environment. Whakapapa suggests that everything in the natural world shares a common ancestry. In acknowledging this interconnection, one becomes more aware of this interdependence, which in turn fosters an appreciation that our very survival is dependent upon nurturing relationships not only with one another, but with the world around us.

This concept is not dissimilar to the dynamic balance of the Taoist concepts of Yin and Yang, all living beings are dependent on the health and survival of the earth that we inhabit. Wellbeing is indicative of having a healthy relationship to yourself and your environment, particularly the cycles of nature within and without. Life reaches its ultimate meaning in the context of this relatedness and interdependence.

In the same way, interconnectedness is emphasised in Eastern religions such as Buddhism that claim that the boundaries between self and others, as well as self and environment, are blurred or even non-existent. Likewise, the basic ideals of Hinduism, is that we are all interconnected, we are all made of the same stuff, atman.

Human beings are inherently social creatures. For millions of years we have evolved to survive and thrive through our dependence on social groups. Whether extrovert, introvert or ambivert, our humanity depends on our relationships with others. We depend upon and need others in a number of ways as they too, depend on and need us.