Is the story that illustrating the concept of an anthropologist and African children who refused to compete, is true?

In early August 2023, the story about the anthropologist and African children, who, as part of the experiment, preferred cooperation to rivalry, which was incredibly surprised by the scientist, on the Internet. We checked whether this story is confirmed by facts.

August 1-3 users Telegram, "VKontakte", YouTube, Facebook And others the sites were massively shared by the posts about the anthropologist (in some cases specifiedthat it was a British scientist), who had an experiment with children from an unnamed African tribe. He allegedly placed a wood basket under a tree and said that the first to get to the tree will receive the entire basket. However, contrary to expectations, the children did not compete, and together approached the basket and divided the fruits equally. When the anthropologist asked them why they did so, they replied: “Ubuntu. How can one of us be happy when the rest are unhappy? " At the end messages It is specified that the “Ubuntu” in the language of this tribe means “I am because we are.”

The concept of “Ubuntu” is characteristic in one word is characteristic of the cultures and languages ​​of the Bantu group. In the language braid It will sound like a "Ubunta", on Swahili - "Obunta", on Zulu - "Umuntu." This concept is an important part of humanistic African philosophy, it means humanity expressed through cooperation and help, through community with other people. In modern Uganda on the concept of Obuntu Bulamu Founded Programs that help adapt in society with disabilities. Preachers Ubuntu's ideas were activists of the fight against the apartheid regime, ex-president of South Africa Nelson Mandela and the archbishop of the South African Church of the Desmond Tutu. In 2006, it was after a meeting with Tutu about the meaning of the word “Ubuntu” in his speech Reasoned The 42nd US President Bill Clinton, which probably contributed to the popularity of the concept in the West. 

In English, the plot about the anthropologist and the concept of “Ubuntu” has been distributed since 2012 - in Blogs Popular motivational coaches, V others posts in social networks And Blogs and even in published in 2014 article Groups of scientists from Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. IN Russian -speaking Internet This story is also more than ten years, and it exists in two versions that differ in the form of transliteration of the word ubuntu. So, in one of the first Russian -language publications in 2012 Instead of “Ubuntu”, the consonant word “okunato” was used, and in this form a parable fell, in particular, in the Ukrainian one in 2015 textbook For the 4th grade “I am at SVITI” (“I am in the world”). However, neither the name of the anthropologist, nor the name of the tribe, in the language of which there is the concept of “Ubuntu” or “Obonato”, are not mentioned in the vast majority of sources in Russian or English.

Assuming that in the early versions of this plot the tribe or language should have been indicated, and limiting the date of the 2012 search, “verified” found two posts for Russian And English languages ​​in which the story of the concept of “Ubuntu” is connected with specific African tribes - a braid and Zulu. The link to a certain Havier Kanul in the English-speaking post suggests that the original should be sought in the Spanish and portugal-speaking segments of the network. 

Indeed, in Spanish this story It became popular a few months before the publication of translations into Russian and English. The spit's tribe is mentioned in all the “tested” of the Spanish -speaking publications of that time, and the first of them dates August 27, 2011. But the posts in Portugal are even more interesting, because they appeared No later than June of the same year, they mention the author who told the story - Argentinean journalist and culturalist Leah Diskin. 

Facebook users report that Diskin introduced this story in 2006 at the Mundial da PAZ festival in the Brazilian city of Florinopolis. In posts in the Portuguese language, the experiment is simply called the pranks of an anthropologist who had nothing to do before leaving, and instead of fruits, sweets purchased in the city appear. With a reference to Diskin in January 2011, this story fell into book Histórias Recontadas (“retold stories”) of the Brazilian business trainer Joao Gabassi. The author reports that, in turn, this story was retold by his friend Paul Tomchak. The posts of Brazilian users Facebook almost word for word repeat a fragment from the book of Gabassi. 

But, judging by the available data, the story of Diskin at the festival sounded differently. In 2008, she wrote for UNESCO book called Vamos Ubuntar? UM Convite Para Cultivar a PAZ ("We are Ubuntu? Invitation to develop the world"). The text indicates that Diskin borrowed this story from the work of the Spanish religious scholar and writer of the Catalan-Indian origin of Raymon Panikkar El Espiritu de la Politica (“On the Spirit of Politics”), and its brief retelling is given: “The cousin of one of the students of the paniccar went to teach in a small settlement in Africa as part of a program of the third world of the Kennedy administration. Being sensitive to issues of interventionism and wanting to avoid any arrogance, he was ready to conduct only physical education lessons. Once he took a box of sweets and invited his young students to take part in the race. He pointed to a tree, which was a little further than a hundred meters, and said: “You see this tree there? I will say:“ One, two, three, ”and you guys start running to him. The one who comes first will win sweets.” The students lined up in a row, but at the signal they held hands and ran together: they wanted to share the prize. Their happiness was in happiness for everyone at once. " 

"Verified" went with the book of a paniccar. Diskin quotes the text quite accurately, replacing only the epithets, but having lowered the important point - the author denotes the story as a bike: “Let me finish a joke, which, like any joke, speaks at once and about anything, and about everything.” 

On the pages of Vamos Ubuntar? Diskin also writes about the concept of Ubuntu at Zul and Spit. It can be assumed that she talked about Ubuntu in 2006 at the festival in Florinopolis. We do not know whether Paul Tomchak was present at the festival, but it was thanks to his retelling in the book of Joao Gabassi that the story received an almost final look - an anthropologist and the final phrase about Ubuntu appeared in it. The Spanish -speaking user unknown to us replaced sweets with the fruit basket, and in this form the text became as viral as possible and was translated into other languages.

As for the version with the word "okunato", in none of the described languages, Bantu was "verified" of this form to detect. Judging by the results of the search, this variation arose in Russian no later April 2012 and only then in one of translations I went to wandering On the Internet in other languages.

We also note that in recent years row Russian -speaking sources attributed conducting this alleged experiment to the Anglican missionary and ethnographer John Rosko (1861–1932). Rosko spent more than 25 years in Africa, studying one of the main ethnic groups Uganda, and wrote two large labor: The Baganda; An Account of Their Native Customs and Beliefs ("Baganda; the story of their customs and beliefs", 1911) and Twenty-Five Years in East Africa ("Twenty-Five Years in East Africa", 1921). The missionary really described in detail the life, rituals and customs of the tribe of Bagand, including some characteristic features of social behavior and principles that fit into the “philosophy of Ubuntu”. But in him publications An experiment with a fruit basket under a tree is not mentioned, just as the words ubuntu or obuntu are not found. Search in scientific databases did not allow to find a single mention of a luxury or other anthropologist in conjunction with a story about children and ubuntu. The fact that the name of the missionary is absent in the texts about Ubuntu in other languages, with a high probability suggests that Rosko, like Obonato, fell into this plot in Russian, and relatively recently. 

Thus, there is no evidence that a similar experiment has ever been conducted, and the original story was described by Raymon Panikkar in 1999 as a “joke with meaning”, and no anthropologist or experiment in its presentation is mentioned. The story acquired the final form by going through a series of translations to other languages ​​and additions from the interpreters. However, this parable is so vividly and figuratively expresses “Ubuntu philosophy” that it does not cease to be popular from year to year.

Photo on the cover: Kone Kassoum from the site Pixabay

Legend

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. The Bantu Philosophy of “Ubuntu” Focuses on the Power of Community
2. Hunhu/Ubuntu in the traditional thumbhht of southern Africa