"What I've come to learn is that the world is never saved in grand messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion, everyday acts of compassion. In South Africa they have a phrase called ubuntu. Ubuntu comes out of a philosophy that says, the only way for me to be human is for you to reflect my humanity back at me."
Chris Abani is a Nigerian author and poet known for novels such as Graceland and Song for Night. He is also an academic who has taught creative writing in the United States.