Sorry for going off topic but is "Cloth as metaphor" the best text on Adinkra symbols??
Sorry for going off topic but is "Cloth as metaphor" the best text on Adinkra symbols??
Yes.
Thanks. I've added it to my list of books to buy. Can you recommend any other books that deals with the ways of the Akan? I've currently got "Bu Me Be: Proverbs of the Akans" and "The pineapple child and other Tales from Ashanti". I've also ordered African spirituality: on becoming ancestors.
"To put it in a more exalted fashion, they [the kmtyw or ancient Egyptians] had a formula which appears in the tombs which reads: When you are fully developed, when you have achieved your full humanity, you are filled with three essences.
The first is Sia, exceptional comprehension—that is you see clearly, you understand, you perceive and comprehend clearly. The second is Hu—authoritative utterance; you speak articulately and thus, your speech has the force of a command and everything complies because the command is based on Maat (truth). Finally, you have Heka—the follow through. More properly it is extraordinary power. According to the Egyptologists Heka is magic. More properly it is extraordinary power which results from a clear mind and an articulate tongue; then you have extraordinary power to accomplish those things you desire in a very efficient manner."
-Jacob H. Carruthers, “Speaking about Kemetic Theology” in Intellectual Warfare
“We can not afford to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory through compromise with the enemy. Let us not confuse victory with a superficial arrangement that looks like victory but in reality is defeat like the replacement of colonization with neo-colonialism. Indeed, compromise has done our project more damage than hand-to-hand combat.”
-Jacob H. Carruthers, Kemet and Kush: Pillars of African-Centered Thought
"The ideal man is, thus, supposed to be the epitome of Maat. That is, he will demonstrate balance. He will be modest and reserved and yet firm and straight forth. He will not be arrogant. He will show respect for his elders, his superiors in status. He will love and honor his mother and his wife and children. He will be sober and moderate in all things. He will also enjoy life and be a gracious host to his friends, rather than a miser and spendthrift. He will work hard and seek comfort, but not become obsessed with material possessions. Above all, he will speak and do Right."
-Jacob H. Carruthers
“The significant point here is not that the 20th century Black revolutionaries studies the more relevant and recent revolutionary ideas because the 20th century was vastly different from the 18th century. The real point is that these present day freedom fighters are following the Toussaintian philosophy and they do not even do him the honor of a footnote. Dessalines would have accused them of toying with phantoms which whites dangle before their eyes. He would have warned them that they are conquering only be become slaves in a new slave system just as Rigaud, Francois, Biassou and Toussaint had done.”
-Jacob H. Carruthers, The Irritated Genie
“‘Intellectual maroons,’ according to Dr. Jehewty[*], are ‘Black thinkers’ who after analyzing the ‘core of the European worldview’ have 'declared their freedom' from European intellectual bondage ‘through their publicly stated thoughts’ (p. 52). Much like the Maroons of old who self-emancipated by escaping from European induced physical slavery, intellectual maroons self-emancipate by escaping from European induced psychological slavery. Physical slavery and mental (psychological) slavery are merely opposite sides of the same coin, which is the standard currency of aggressors, oppressors, and exploiters.”
-Uhuru Hotep, Intellectual Maroons
*Dr. Jacob H. Carruthers
"We cannot move our people by borrowing our foundations from other people."
-Jacob H. Carruthers, Aswan, 1987