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People that know me know that I love words, and when I used the word “Sawubona” (Sawu Bona) in the about page of the blog, they knew I did it on purpose. It had meaning and probably had a good story behind it, so they asked for my explanation.

“Sawubona” is important to me, and it is at the very heart of my approach to life and how I strive to treat others and want them to treat me.

“Sawubona” literally means “We see you” in Zulu. It is a greeting like we might say “hello”, but it is much deeper than our western world casual greeting.  In the Zulu community, if you just walk past someone without greeting them properly, regardless of whether you know them or not, it is considered very offensive because what you are actually communicating to them is that they do not exist in your eyes, or that they don’t matter enough to bother greeting them.  So in the Zulu community, you can count on always being greeted.

The response “Yebo, sawubona” means  “We see you too”, “I am here” , “I am validated”, “I matter”.

We all matter; we need to “see” and dialog with each other! How can we share information and learn from each other or foster an environment for problem solving and idea generation (innovation) if we don’t “see” (show respect for) each other? We can’t!

Sawubona.

Youth worker and community leader, Orland Bishop explains the meaning of the Zulu greeting Sawubona (“We see you”) as an invitation to a deep witnessing and presence.  This greeting forms an agreement to affirm and investigate the mutual potential and obligation that is present in a given moment.  At its deepest level, Orland explains, this “seeing” is essential to human freedom.