As always people are people. People create traditions and customs. Depending on the nature and character of people, we will either seek to work with each other cultures or conquer them.
Currently the Afrikan is in the midst of modification. Unconsciously many of our people are seeking a return to our roots. Consciously many are awaking to the reality of our condition worldwide. Aside from the down to earth practical matters such as providing food, clothing shelter we need a complete analysis of our status worldwide. Specifically the Afrikan in the geopolitical location known as America must really analyze who we are and our political status.
Culture is much more than clothes, slang and tradition. It is a state of mind. A healthy culture invites self critical study and self development. A powerful culture encourages self determination not dependency. Culture builds, and culture protects. But builds and protects what?
In my view, culture builds nations. The traditions, the morals codified into law combined with a process for succession of leadership are some objectives of building a nation.
For the record:
Status according the Black’s Law Dictionary online is
-Total of a body’s legal capacity, liabilities, duties, standing and rights. 2. Hierarchy’s relative ranks. 3. Present state of affairs.
Political according to Wikipedia is.
- The practice and theory of influencing other people on a civic or individual level. More narrowly, it refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance — organized control over a human community, particularly a state. A variety of methods is employed in politics, which include promoting its own political views among people, negotiation with other political subjects, making laws, and exercising force, including warfare against adversaries. Politics is exercised on a wide range of social levels, from clans and tribes of traditional societies, through modern local governments, companies and institutions up to sovereign states, to international level.
A political system is a framework which defines acceptable political methods within a given society. History of political thought can be traced back to early antiquity, with seminal works such as Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Politics and opus of Confucius.
Now there are many other texts on politics from Afrikan culture far older than these, one only need find them.
Brothers and sisters please ask yourself: What are you holding on to by claiming to be American? Logically, if you view history through sane eyes it is apparent that those who founded this country and their children who benefit from our defeat view us either as a problem or as commercial property. Do we as a whole feel we are not capable of governing ourselves?
Rampant poverty, constant war, and imperialism disguised as progress coming from a foundation of savagery. This is the truth of our current condition. How is it that our people within a span of 400yrs have abandoned our birthright of sovereignty? Alas, lamenting our apparent lack of clarity will do nothing without a clear objective.
I propose simple modification; a slight shift in our thinking. Simply begin to see ourselves as a nation under siege.
Siege according to dictionary.com is
Noun
1.
the act or process of surrounding and attacking a fortified place in suh a way as to isolate it from help and supplies, for the purpose of lessening the resistance of the defenders and thereby making capture possible.
2.
Any prolonged or persistent effort to overcome resistance.
3.
A series of illnesses, troubles, or annoyances besetting a person or group: a siege of head colds.
4.
A prolonged period of trouble or annoyance.
I chose the online dictionary for a reason family. Understand these definitions are common knowledge. Look them up from many sources and correlate the variations. But let’s get back to us being under siege. Is that too big of a leap to make? I hope not.
Amos Wilson in Blueprint for Black Power expounds on the notion of a nation. “These White American trading/transnational/political powers are interconnected by a maze of rivers, roads, bridges…electronic communications networks… These networks form the nervous system of the nation.” He further explains “This sense of nation is not founded in the terrain or the infrastructure of other networks or systems. It is only founded in the minds of the members of self identified populace.” Let’s key in on the term self identified populace for a moment. From the beginning we had a unique culture and identity. However through an extensive program of manipulation and coercion we have been made to feel as though properly separating our selves from the very people who committed this act of savagery is somehow counter productive!
We are not speaking of armed rebellion. Although, to be clear, violence is an enviable fact; Power is a seductive force that men and women kill to hold on too. We simply need to reshape how we conduct the business of life among each other. Inclusion, integration, with a people who have historically benefited from our enslavement is foolish. However the control they exert over said infrastructure precipitates this. An old adage: “don’t bite the hand that feeds you” comes to mind. Yet if that same hand feeds you poison, what then?
At the core of control is ideology. If we continue to buy into this concept of “America for all”, instead of “war until liberation”, we will always be victims. The logic is simple. The racial pain caused by white supremacy runs deep. The system of perpetual poverty by continuing to give up self determination caused by joining wholesale to the USA’s imperialistic system is a recipe for genocide. Realize genocide need not be sudden. Time, strategy and tactics can be utilized in so many variations.
Seeking to change the landscape and fully buy into (literally) White America is akin to laying siege against a walled city. Better, is to wage a cultural guerilla war. Our weapons are already in place—infrastructure, our genius to innovate, and white people’s need to dominate others. “The same transportation-communication infrastructure systematically serves the white nation and which is a major source of its economic and political prowess is also available to the Afrikan American nation” –Amos Wilson, Blueprint for Black power.
And we are doing!
Yet without the ideology of Pan- Afrikanism we are only fighting half a war, if that. Culture builds, culture protects remember? Identifying with our global brothers and sisters will enable a mass metal prison break. Planning globally and acting locally will connect us back to ourselves.
Marcus Garvey asked us long ago,”Have you ever stopped to think that in the Christian doctrine of today is injected a propaganda that seems to humiliate you and me?” Indeed this question has a broader message. Have we truly stopped to think this country has in place a system designed to subjugate you and I? I know so.
The language in which we by and large speak, think, and write in are not our own. The ideals that we strive to emulate are not our own. The destiny that we collectively strive for is not our own. Indeed if we stop and ask ourselves---“Whose world are we building?” And really answer that question truthfully. The answer will shock and disgust you.
All is not lost however. In recognizing that the human needs of food, clothing shelter, language, laws, tradition, communication, transportation, and entertainment can be fulfilled by any and all with the technical knowledge we can again move toward a nation for us and by us. Material is not the problem. Skills are not the problem. Ideology and a willingness to implement are. Our sprits are vast, our memories long, but fear runs deep. Fear of what exactly?
Fear of failure, fear of death and fear of power. Think of an athlete who dominates the completion, then suffers a grievous injury. On the road to recovery the hardest battle is not the physical portion. It is the mental block that limits confidence. Doubt leads to a failure to give your all. The same can be said of the African here. Each time we rose up and fought we were crushed (ok crushed is a bit extreme but still…) Nat Turner, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and list of dead Jengas does go on and on. To be sure the work they did lives on, but still a loss is a loss. Half victories in the minds of a people living in a hostile environment are damaging. So yes, fear of failure and death are some things we must face.
Now, let us examine fear of power. Do we truly believe we have what it takes to govern ourselves sans the overriding presence of the European? Afrika for Afrikans indeed! I know we can, but do we have the will to do it? Power is seductive but the responsibility that comes with is heavy indeed.
Live on brothers and sisters. Think, act and BE powerful.
Peace.
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