by: Isabelle Masado

Sawubona is a Zulu greeting which means “I see you”. Encompassed in this simple sentence, is the belief that we are made from the divine so to say “I see you”, means to not only recognize the divine in someone, but to also remind them who they are. Essentially you’re saying to someone “In case we both forgot, you are made of the infinite power of the universe and should be treated as such”.

What’s more about Sawubona is, “I see you” is not just a declaration but also an introspective question. It requires that you the greeter ask yourself “how is this person doing?

What is their struggle? how do I have to live so that both of us may be free”? Sawubona requires constant self-examination, to ask ourselves if we are really treating others as the divine beings that they are, to ask if we are doing enough to remind them of their divine status. Sawubona reminds us that self-love, self-esteem, are really community responsibility. That we have to be each other’s Griots, which means to sing each other’s praises, to remind each other of who we are, to return each other to ourselves when we’ve drifted off into a mental land where one feels unworthy.