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Move Towards an
African Center
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Most blacks here in
the “West” have decided that being “African” has little benefit. The fact that the worlds richest continent - home to the world’s oldest population – can be psychologically abandoned by so many of its most recent offspring is one of today’s most cruel ironies.
Though much of our richest history has been hidden and our strongest traditions disrupted, there is still a deep reservoir that remains on the continent and in the African diaspora. It is only waiting to be restored and, in fact, re-ignited by those who recognize that we are still in possession of the keys.
This chapter examines ideas on re-orienting our consciousness through exploration of historical tradition and present realities.
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Begin Planning Your Escape from the Company You Work for (or the Government). |
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Do you trust your company? Is your government job exercising your true potential? How much control do you have over your economic future?
Is there a powerful, global, African economic system that you can safely “plug in to”? If not, can one be built, and can you play a role in building it? Are wealth and power synonymous?
The first step to collective financial security starts with a determination of whether or not we need or should even concentrate on collective African security ( economic, physical, or otherwise) in the first place. Though we can always boast of certain individual financial achievements, do they really represent serious advancement for the group?
This chapter looks at the potential benefits of the re-deployment of African human resources into activities that help to ensure the material survival of the collective. We also examine African economic tradition for instructions on how to rebuild the social foundations of black economic cooperation. Can we find space for business that is good for you, as well as good for us??
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Reexamine the Source and Basis of Your Religious Beliefs
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The gift of African spirituality has been converted into the burden of white domination.
Who “flipped the script” and how did they do it? The first humans on earth, were also first to develop human spirituality and, of course, took it with them when populating the earth.
From south-central Africa, up the Nile and out to the world, Africans took with them all of the ingredients for human spiritual growth. One wonders why the simple logic of these developments is still a source of such great emotion and angst.
The long, sordid history of the misuse and abuse of a once great spirituality has left an odor so foul, and a record so horrendous and bloody, that its original beauty has been almost totally obscured.
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Control the Images Black Children are Exposed To (or How to Stop Creating Self-Doubting Black Adults)
If African people are ever to regain our confidence and power as adults, we must look critically at what goes into the minds of our children. Chapter One, Control the Images That Black Children are Exposed To (live link) first analyzes the innate, God-given intellectual potential of the black child.
It then goes in to look at the impact that the current audio/visual media may have on our consciousness, and how to eliminate, or at least, mitigate any negative effects.
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Obama: Black Emotion Clouds
Critical Analysis
I’m the first to admit: My heart is
with Barack Obama, and so is my vote.
But I must also admit that if the Mormons of
Brigham Young University hired a black football coach, my heart would also be
with him.
American-Africans have so long been deprived of any substantive
victories that we are emotionally vulnerable - read more
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Devalue/”Delegitimize”
Western Material Culture
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Is the Range Rover stretching your range? Is MasterCard your new master? Has Gucci gotcha?
At this point in our collective existence, African people must ask the question, “How did we get the point where our pride and prestige is now tied to consuming overpriced items produced by others, while so little of what we produce is consumed (or, at least, paid for) by others?”
Do others derive their prestige from the outward consumption of goods manufactured and distributed by industrialists of the black world? This chapter details how habits of conspicuous consumption are undermining our social, psychological and economic health.
Is the “Bling” killing us??
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Organize an Attack on the
Criminal/Judicial/Prison System
African people must take a painful, but sober look at the uses of the criminal justice system in neutralizing black organization and power. The American system of power has declared a low grade, on-going war on its black residents through mass incarceration and intimidation of our men (and increasingly, our women).
The broken families, women without viable mates, fatherless children, HIV/AIDS crisis, and the rest were all easily predictable effects of this nation’s criminal justice policies. It is almost impossible to find other countries in the world where the prison population even approximates that of the African male in the U.S.
This chapter attempts to understand the function these prisons play in an attempt to permanently solidify Euro/American dominance over the African in their midst. When seen in this light, we may be better positioned to respond.
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Learn to Enjoy Resistance
Who said the “beautiful struggle” was all pain and no pleasure? Few things are more pleasing to the African eye, ear and soul than the African aesthetic applied to our problems and struggles. And nothing is more pleasing than prevailing in the face of un-righteous resistance.
This chapter encourages us to develop a deeper appreciation for African culture and its connection to resistance. We will find that with the pain, there is great joy – often coming in the form of music, dance, literature, travel, civil unrest, and even a bittersweet humor. Don’t only suffer – enjoy!!
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