How Do You Kill Ubuntu? Film a Homeless Man Being Humiliated

Ubuntu Is Dead, And We Killed It With Laughter

On the 1st of September, South Africa welcomes spring with what many call a tradition: water fights, buckets poured, playful splashes that mark the season of new beginnings. Done among friends, it’s harmless. Done with strangers, it becomes reckless. But done to the vulnerable? It turns into cruelty.

Recently, a video surfaced online—a man, clearly homeless, drenched with a bucket of water by someone who thought it was entertainment. The man did not shout, did not curse, did not fight back. He simply walked away. And perhaps that silence was the loudest thing about the entire moment.

This is not just about Spring Day. It’s about Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is more than a word—it’s a philosophy, a way of life, a compass that reminds us: “I am because we are.” Yet in that video, and in the laughter that followed, Ubuntu was nowhere to be found. It wasn’t just water poured onto a man’s clothes. It was dignity being stripped away, humanity mocked in public view, and empathy discarded in exchange for a few likes and laughs.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth: we cannot blame only the man with the bucket. The bystanders drinking watched. The cameraman filmed. The online crowd laughed and shared. Everyone who participated in the cycle helped kill Ubuntu that day.

What’s worse is how easily we excuse it. “It’s just fun,” some say. But fun ends where another’s dignity begins. Friends can throw water at each other because they know there’s a change of clothes waiting at home. A homeless man doesn’t have that privilege. To target him was not fun. It was humiliation, plain and simple.

South Africa loves to speak of Ubuntu, but do we still live it? Over decades, it feels as if compassion has thinned, empathy has faded, and Ubuntu has been diluted into a slogan more than a practice. If what we saw in that video is any sign, then maybe Ubuntu is not just fading—it’s dying.

But here’s the thing: Ubuntu does not vanish on its own. We kill it, piece by piece, every time we laugh at pain, ignore injustice, or choose silence when dignity is under attack. And yet, the outrage this video stirred also tells me something else—that Ubuntu still breathes in those who refuse to normalize cruelty.

The question is: will we allow that breath to strengthen, or will we suffocate it with indifference?

Ubuntu isn’t dead yet. But if we keep laughing at suffering, we’ll be the ones who bury it.

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