Apt greeting for COVID times
Instead of G’day, Namaste, Kia Ora or Shalom, the Zulus of South Africa greet each other with the beautiful word, Sawubona.
Literally, sawubona means ‘I see you’. What a greeting for people who feel that they are invisible and ignored.
Digging deeper, sawubona means, ‘I see you, you are important to me and I value you.’ More than recognizing that the person is there, sawubona means ‘I see you with your virtues and flaws’. Instead of a superficial ‘Hi, how are you?’ sawubona means: “All my attention is on you. I see you and allow myself to discover your needs, to see your fears, to note your mistakes and accept them. I accept you for who you are.” Wouldn’t you like to be seen this way?
Sawubona came to worldwide attention in the 1990s when the Stanford Professor, Peter Senge wrote his book, ‘The Fifth Discipline’. This greeting symbolized for him the deep way that Zulus interact with each other. More recently, Roche Mamabolo, has uncovered the depths of this greeting in his TED Talk and popular blogger, Seth Godin, has highlighted the importance of this word for his readers.
Sawubona is a greeting for any time of the day. We can use this greeting for one person (sawubona) or people in a group (sanibonani). Sawubona is for normal and ordinary times. Sawubona is also an apt greeting for encountering people in extraordinary times. Sawubona is the right greeting for COVID times.
We need to see each other more. Sawubona.
Geoff Pound