RESHARED POST FROM JOHN KELLDEN

Part of the lesson of this story, I take it, is that “your” song isn’t yours alone, but belongs to the community. But of course the song is just a tool for tracking an individual’s identity over their lifetime. So part of the lesson is that your identity isn’t your own.

This lesson is so radically contrary to the existing order of things that it might make one uneasy to state it so explicitly, but better uneasiness than perpetuating the existing order.

John Kellden originally shared this post:

Our Future Society, part 51: Ubuntu

Your Unique Story, Your Song
When a woman of the African tribe knows she is pregnant, she goes to the jungle with other women, and together they pray and meditate until you get to “The song of the child”. When a child is born, the community gets together and they sing the child’s song. When the child begins his education, people get together and he sings his song. When they become an adult, they get together again and sing it. When it comes to your wedding, the person hears his song. Finally, when their soul is going from this world, family and friends are approaching and, like his birth, sing their song to accompany it in the “journey”.

In the Ubuntu tribe, there is another occasion when men sing the song. If at some point the person commits a crime or aberrant social act, they take him to the center of town and the people of the community form a circle around her. Then they sing “your song.” The tribe recognizes that the correction for antisocial behavior is not punishment, but is the love and memory of his true identity. When we recognize our own song, we have no desire or need to hurt anyone.

Your friends know “your song”. And sing when you forget it. Those who love you can not be fooled by mistakes you have committed, or dark images you show to others. They remember your beauty as you feel ugly, your value when you’re broke, your innocence when you feel guilty and your purpose when you’re confused.
— Tolba Phanem, African poet

via +Peter van der Werff