The Daily Ubuntu FR

Echoes from here · The Seven Generations

Thinking of those not yet born.

A Haudenosaunee principle, handed down right next to Montréal, that resonates with Ubuntu.

The principle

Before deciding, ask: what will this leave to our great-great-grandchildren? That is the heart of a principle handed down by the Haudenosaunee, our neighbours. And it resonates strongly with Ubuntu.

Where it comes from
It is a Haudenosaunee principle, from the Six Nations Confederacy. It is rooted in the Great Law of Peace, which asks chiefs to always keep the coming generations in view, “even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground.” The words “seventh generation” come from oral teaching, passed down from generation to generation.
Close to home
Kahnawà:ke, Kanehsatà:ke and Akwesasne are Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) communities that belong to this Confederacy. Kahnawà:ke describes the Great Law and the Seventh Generation as the foundation of its beliefs.
The echo with Ubuntu
For the philosopher Mogobe Ramose, the Ubuntu community brings together the ancestors, the living and those yet to be born. Two distinct traditions, born on two continents, answer each other on one point: we are responsible for those who will come after us. An echo, not a common origin.

The voice

“The faces of coming generations are looking up at us from beneath the earth.”
Oren Lyons, Onondaga Faithkeeper, at the UN General Assembly, 1992

The question

What decision made today would you like your great-great-grandchildren to thank you for?

Sources
  1. Haudenosaunee Confederacy, “Values” (the value of the Seventh Generation). haudenosauneeconfederacy.com
  2. Great Law of Peace, English text by A. C. Parker (1916), article 28. web.pdx.edu
  3. Kahnawà:ke, “About” (the Great Law and the Seventh Generation). kahnawake.com
  4. Government of Quebec, profile of the Mohawk Nation (Kahnawake, Akwesasne, Kanesatake). quebec.ca
  5. Oren Lyons, address to the United Nations General Assembly, December 10, 1992. s2.smu.edu
  6. B. Maris, “Philosophical racism and ubuntu,” South African Journal of Philosophy, 2020 (Ramose: ancestors, the living and the unborn). pure.uva.nl