Watu
is an indigenous Kiswahili word while Umati is a word loaned from Arabic. The
singular form is Mtu while the plural form is Watu. The famous
saying “I am because we are” which is synonymous to Ubuntu comes to
mind. This is in contrast to Ummah أمة which is an Arabic word meaning
"community" or more accurately, panislamism from which the word Umati
(crowd) is derived. In Malay, the derived word is Umat, having the same
meaning. The words for person/individual in Arabic are motley and unrelated to ‘ummah’
which indicates a clear difference in worldview.
Mtu
From
Proto-Bantu *mʊ̀ntʊ̀.
Noun
mtu (m-wa class, plural watu)
1.
person
(human being)
2.
someone
Derived
terms
1.
jitu
(“giant”)
2.
mtu
mzima (“adult, grown-up”)
3.
utu
(“humanity”)
Utu
Etymology
From
u- (“-ness”) + -tu (“person”).
Noun
utu
(u class, no plural)
1.
humanity,
human nature, ubuntu
Umati
Etymology
From
Arabic أُمَّة (ʔumma, “people”).
Noun
umati
(u class, no plural)
1.
crowd,
mob
Mobbing
Mobbing,
as a sociological term (human bullying behavior), means bullying of an
individual by a group, or bullying of a particular group by other groups. It
can occur in any context; from small groups/small spaces to large groups/large
spaces, from physical to virtual spaces and so forth. It is characterized by “ganging
up” to force an entity out of their ground through rumor, innuendo,
intimidation, humiliation, discrediting and isolation. It is malicious, non-sexual,
non-racial/racial; general harassment.
Janice
Harper (2013) explored animal behavior, organizational cultures, and historical
forms of group aggression, suggesting that mobbing is a form of group aggression
on a continuum of structural violence with genocide as the most extreme
form of mob aggression.
“It is upon Ethiopia in an especial
manner that the curse of slavery has fallen. At first, it bore but a share of
the burden; Britons and Scythians were the fellow-slaves of the Ethiopian; but
at last all the other nations of the earth seemed to conspire against the
Negro race, agreeing never to enslave each other, but to make the Blacks
the slaves of all alike. Thus, this race of human beings has been singled
out, whether owing to the accident of color, or to their peculiar fitness
for certain kinds of labour, for infamy or misfortune; and the abolition of the
practice of promiscuous slavery in the modern world, was purchased by the introduction
of a slavery confined entirely to Negroes.”
(Blake,
W.O. (1861). The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade; Ancient and Modern)
*The word Ethiopia/Ethiopian
was in the past used synonymously with Negroes/Blacks/Africans and has nothing
to do with the present country-state using that name which is only a descendant
of the Abyssinian kingdom with expanded territories.
The
quoted paragraph above is a classic case of mobbing, which still continues to
date. Three main points are gathered to elaborate on the mobbing behavior.
1. all
the other nations of the earth seemed to conspire against the Negro race
2. this
race of human beings has been singled out
3. introduction
of a slavery confined entirely to Negroes
The
above three points elaborate a classical historical form of group aggression.
The most prevalent form of mobbing on earth.
The
media is a crucial culturing agent for the spreading of mobbing ideology to
different nations. It identifies the subject of the mobbing and attacks them
relentlessly to recruit the other nations into the fold. Methods include
gossip, rumor, unfounded accusations, bastardizing-comedy, demonization. It
is intended to mark out and destroy the subject by humiliation, general
harassment, emotional abuse and terror tactics.
Vulnerability
to mobbing increases as a factor to differences/uniqueness. The aggressor rationalizes
the differences into envy, heresy, and politics. These can be utilized
exclusively, in combination or in transition.
1.
Envy breeds domination narrative
2.
Heresy breeds pariah narrative
3.
Politics
breeds intervention
narrative (this is the final stage = destroy entity/genocide)
References
Blake,
W.O. (1861). The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade; Ancient and Modern
Harper, Janice
(2013). Mobbed!: What to Do When They Really Are Out to Get You.
Mobbing:
Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace by Noa Davenport, Ruth D. Schwartz
and Gail Pursell Elliott.
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