Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu…

“The preservation of one’s own culture is such a natural thing. It is a matter of respecting oneself and one’s own family and nation. It is a way of saying to your own people, as the Zulus do, “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu.” That is, “I am who I am because of you.” Having said that, no person wishes to be walled off from the world, to be forced to live in a ghetto. So we all have a natural inclination to share our cultures, which by no means dilutes them–or at least it shouldn’t. The history of the world, at least in peacetime, is a history of mutual enrichment through an exchange of cultural riches. So preservation and exchange can and should go hand in hand. They always have, except when crass commercialism gets in the way, cheapening things for everyone. I think we can be vigilant against that, though.” – Youssou N’Dour gave an interview Transformative Power to the SGI Quarterly on the theme of  “music as a force for peace.”