By Annalisa Nicastro
Ubuntu.
It happened again. I was blessed to meet people with whom I shared a common vision.
"In Africa there is a concept known as Ubuntu, the deep sense of being human only through the humanity of others; if we accomplish anything in the world it will be through the work and accomplishment of others," Nelson Mandela said in November 2008. Ubuntu is not only the term meaning "I am because you are" but it is an ethic of benevolence toward others, about loyalty and people's relationships with each other. It is a desire for peace. Another periphrasis is often associated with this word: Umuntungumuntungabantu, which in the Bantu languages of southern Africa can be translated as, "A person is a person through other people" or "I am because we are."
That is why we chose the word Together to introduce issue 1 of On/Off Magazine celebrating our lives with others, keeping all parts of us together, to be both on and off in an extraordinary contemporary world that offers new tools. In an increasingly interconnected world, the importance of being together cannot be underestimated. On/Off Magazine aims to be a guide of this philosophy, uniting tradition and modernity, past and future, in an ongoing dialogue.
Like a rhizome, we grow and expand through the connections we make, knowing that our strength lies in our ability to work together. It is through encounter, collaboration and sharing that we can reach new horizons and make the impossible possible. We are rhizomatic identities in constant movement because a rhizome, as nature teaches, does not begin and does not end, it develops horizontally without hierarchies, free to exist and to go where it believes best, growing out of proximity to and "infected" by others. In the rhizome, any point is connected to others through a multidirectional expansion that creates an interdependent reality.
We always remember the words of Nelson Mandela and the concept of Ubuntu: "I am because we are." In this spirit, we invite our readers to actively participate, share their stories, and build a better future together. Because in the end, it is only through the humanity of others that we can truly understand our own.
Alone we can really do very little; the real strength, which I would perhaps call courage, is to do these things together with others in the conviction that no one can get to the goal unless everyone else gets there as well.
Ubuntu.
Comments
Synergies create unstoppable forces, whether individuals, celestial bodies, animate or inanimate beings matters little, what matters is that a force arises that would never have existed without the interaction of a counterpart.
Chaos, universal laws, the microscopic and the macroscopic would not exist without the presence of at least two elements, the history of the world would not exist without the meeting collision of two particles.
It starts with two which then becomes four, then sixteen, then sixty-four, and so on in an increasingly branched and intertwined connection.
Alone there is no evolution, without interaction there is no exchange, alone there is no ubuntu.
Welcome On/Off Magazine, a place for meetings and connections, for sharing and free thinking.