THE HARMONY GAZE

Introduction I often wonder whether the invention of the mirror changed how we see ourselves and separated us from the interconnected world we belong to. Before mirrors, we could only glimpse our reflection in Nature, perhaps in a river or a pool of water. The mirror zooms out others and turns our gaze inward. It focuses attention on the individual face rather than the wider family of life. The mirror therefore shows the face, but it is kinship that reveals the family. This deeper recognition of family lies at the heart of my transcultural framework. It is grounded in the conviction that existence itself is relational rather than individual. It is expressed through the Tuko Sawa concept of equality by creation and through upendo bila sababu (love without reason), a form of love that precedes transaction, condition, or reward. This upendo is the recognition of the self in the other, not as mirror-like sameness, but as fellow inhabitants of our shared home, planet Earth. An Ontological...

The May 2026 Harmony Education reflections further cemented my systems-thinking educational approach as complementary to the transmission of knowledge and information whilst cultivating perception itself. My experimental approach emerges from growing concern over the diminishing critical thinking increasingly visible across generations. It seeks to train the human mind to widen its conceptual lens, recognise relationships and patterns, and consistently ask the foundational questions of what, why, who, where, when, and how. The winning contribution by Gertrude Mosanga Mabusi Paul from Dar es Salaam demonstrated precisely this capacity — the ability to perceive relational existence where many would see only opposition, fear, and the apparent brutality of the food chain. Gertrude’s reflection emerged from a cartoon image circulating online. In the image, a predator — either a cheetah or leopard — pursues an antelope. Both animals appear to be reciting lines from the Lord’s Prayer. The pre...

The article “FINDING STRENGTH IN OURSELVES TO SHAPE THE FUTURE” was originally published in mid-August 2025 in UPRIGHT THINKING , a column by Madaraka Nyerere in Arusha News , and is being shared here on Africa Day 2026. Over five years ago, I accepted an invitation – unclear at the time – to join a dialogue aimed at uniting like-minded individuals from diverse backgrounds to share their time and experience in shaping a more harmonious future for all. Last week, those individuals formally established the Tuko Sawa Society Tanzania (TSS), invited me to serve as their patron and convened in Butiama to present the posthumous title of “Professor of Harmony” to Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Tanzania’s founding president, honoring his lifelong commitment to human development. In the words of its founder, Dr Regina Kessy Wilkinson, members of TSS are “united by a shared vision to restore a harmonious worldview, promote mutual care and foster community leadership in the stewardship of ou...