AT THE HEART OF HUMANITY

Sir,

When I first came to Eswatini, I was filled with awe and inspiration when watching people give and receive items with both hands.
Even when people give or receive with one hand, they do so by putting the other hand near the elbow or wrist. I quickly learned how to do this and it has now become second nature to me.

When I go back home, people wonder what I’m doing as it takes me a few days to unlearn the adopted tradition. A friend back home asked ‘why do you do it?
Surely the people in Eswatini know you are a foreigner and won’t expect you to copy them’?

Teaches

Eventually in reply I said: ‘‘Because it teaches me to stop and notice the person I am as well as the person I am giving to, or receiving from and because I think it’s important to continue with traditions that could benefit the world.’’

This simple gesture is about the need for us to see people as human, no matter their race or tribe or social status; to see that the world is very old, while man’s life is very brief; accepting life’s problems and its rewards; and enduring all things with composure. It made me conscious and woke me up to live with eyes open, the experiences of my time here on earth.

Humble

What was it that our forefathers and mothers tried to teach us by making us ‘humble’?  I think it’s because when we walk around unconscious of the world around us, we forget the eternal struggle between evil and good.
When I adopted this way of being, I thought about what I had done with my hands that day.

I had cleaned with them, put on my clothes and all manner of unspeakable things.
But the truly honourable act I did with my hands was to give and take. So for me, these seemingly small gestures show how to give and take in a figurative sense in relationships, with friendships, and in a literal sense, with people, the environment, in nature and with governments.

If we follow this, we become true souls and transcend violence, war and petty behaviour.
Those who have past on left us simple gestures to remember them by, and for our children to continue learning and improving humanity. It’s about loving and giving; teaching and sacrificing before you reach your final destination of becoming truly at one with the earth and everything that the earth offers.

Lukhozi

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