International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach delivered a powerful speech during the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
He said, “Now we are part of an event that unites the world in peace. In our Olympic world, there is no “global south” or “global north.”
“We all respect the same rules and each other. In our Olympic world, we all belong. In a world torn apart by wars and conflicts, it is thanks to this solidarity that we can all come together tonight, uniting the athletes from the territories of all 206 National Olympic Committees and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team. Let us celebrate this Olympic spirit of living life in peace, as the one and only humankind, united in all our diversity.”
In our world of differences, those differences pale into relative insignificance when viewed against the gentle but oh-so-powerful love of God.
In one of our most widely used mother tongues in Zimbabwe, isiNdebele, I greet you: San’bonani! If I were greeting one of you individually, I would use the singular form of address, which is Sawubona! That word means, “I see you,” and using Sawubona as a form of greeting underlines the importance in our African cultures of recognising the worth and dignity of each person.
As it has been said, to greet another with the phrase “Sawubona” means “I see the whole of you — your experiences, your passions, your pain, your strengths and weaknesses, and your future. You are valuable to me.”
One of South Africa’s wisest Chief Rabbis, who worked with Nelson Mandela to lead his community into democracy, said: “We can celebrate our common heritage and live in dignity with our differences.”
