17 Abibisika (Black Gold) Points

Rank: Unranked Obibini

A Message From Mama Marimba Ani:

Hotep Afrikan Family. Another year has passed and most of our people are still observing the holy days of our enemies. While this pattern of ideological and cultural confusion is a symptom of our general maafa-pathology, the addiction of Afrikans in america to the euro-american celebration of their massacre of 100’s of indigenous people is especially upsetting considering our own suffering at their hands. Chattel-enslavement, being captive workers, prisoners of war, is one thing. Choosing to glorify the perpetrators of horrendous crimes against our Ancestors, long after the chains have been removed, is another. Yet there are actually black people relocating to Afrika, referring to themselves as “expats” and observing this thankstaking day of their former “(?) slave masters. At what point do we take responsibility for our own choices and begin to think as a sovereign people? We are ostensibly “free” to decide who we honor, when we “give thanks”, and to whom, and in what manner. Habits born of slave master’s conditioning must be broken, no matter how good the food tastes. Our observance of this yurugu sacred day is no small thing. There is a pernicious and intimate relationship between our continued imitative and obsequious behavior and the fact that as we feast, out Ancestral home is being colonized – again! There may be new players in the game. They may compete with each other. Their methods may vary slightly…But it’s the same game. It is the game that we will continue to lose, again and again. Until either we cease to exist as a people, or we learn the lesson of being “in charge of our own destiny” (Nana John Henrik Clarke), the lesson of nation-building, the lesson of sacrifice and discipline, until we understand what it will take to regain our power, what it will take to protect our children from peonage and/or enslavement. Until we learn these things, we will continue to lose. America excels at viciousness. The government is relentless in its exploitation and destruction of Afrikan people, and all those considered to be cultural and racial “others”. It always has been, whether its titular head is brown-faced and honey-tongued, or pale-faced and clownish. It’s the same game: Destroy Afrika, usurp her power, disconnect her people from each other. Did we think the worst was over? Do we think that they would not enslave us again? Baba Kamau Kambon says, “white people’s capacity for evil is in their future, not their past.” (The Last Book)
Thursday, November 22, 2018 should be a day of fasting and enjoying the privilege of an Afrikan Sovereign Consciousness. Let us use this time to “free ourselves of mental slavery” (Bob Marley). Let us use this time to come together and “think Afrikan,” for “none but ourselves can free our minds”. Let us use this time to plan and strategize about how to win the war. That is what “free” people do. They use “freedom” to work on being “sovereign,” and as Nana Baffour (Baba Asa Hilliard) has told us, “Without purpose, freedom hardly matters.” (Poem, “Freedom?”in the book, SBA)
Afrikan Sovereignty equals Afrikan power. Eating turkey doesn’t.
“Misgivings:” An Afrikan-centered, Indigenous-centered View
By Mama Marimba Ani
A group of European scavengers, many of whom had been imprisoned or homeless in England, arrived in New England in 1620. They first lived on Turtle Island. Half of them died within the first few months. Squanto, of the Pequot people, who had been enslaved by the Europeans and taken to England, spoke English and formed a “close” relationship with these “pitiful” migrants. He taught them how to grow corn and to fish, how to prepare certain foods, and other survival skills. The white people “saw Squanto as an instrument of their god to help his chosen people.” In other words, they used him. To them, he and his people were “heathens” and “savages”. The world view of the indigenous peoples, much like the Afrikan world view, taught them “to give freely to those who had nothing.” Squanto is said to have negotiated a false “treaty” between the nearby Wampanoag and the “pilgrims”. The leader of the Wampanoag Nation, Massasoit, donated food stores to the struggling colony of Europeans. In 1621, having survived a hard winter, due to the help of the Wampanoag, the Europeans celebrated, as was their custom to have “thanksgivings” to their god. No Wampanoag or members of any other indigenous nations were invited. And yet, they came and supplied most of the food. In return for helping them to survive, the “pilgrims” decimated the Wampanoag through disease, treachery and slaughter, in the years which followed. By 1637, as the Europeans were feeling successful, more powerful and in control of their newly conquered territory, an expedition was sent to Connecticut, near Groton. Over 700 Indigenous peoples (Pequot) were celebrating their yearly harvest (Annual Green Corn Festival), when they were taken by surprise by the white invaders. Their men were shot and clubbed to death, while their women and children were burned alive. Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, proclaimed a “day of thanksgiving,” saying that they should thank god for destroying the savages to make way for “a better growth.” (quoted in the work of Cotton Mather) What followed constitutes one of the most vicious records of continuing massacres of the indigenous people of this land now known as “America.” It became the custom of the whites to follow each massacre with a “thanksgiving.” Rewards would be given to those who returned with the skulls of indigenous peoples to encourage their slaughter. In 1863, it was decided to “celebrate” only one day of “thanksgiving,” proclaimed by Abraham Lincoln. At a later period, the 4th Thursday of November was chosen by the capitalists, to maximize the shopping days until christmas.
In 1970, at the 350th anniversary of the landing of the pilgrims, a leader of Indigenous peoples prepared a speech in which he told the true history of Plymouth, and berated the white people for robbing the graves of the Wampanoag. The officials of Massachusetts did not allow him to make the speech. Every year since then, Indigenous people of this land have looked upon the 4th Thursday of November as a day of mourning. (See Russell Means, Susan Bates, and Jaqueline Keeler, for more information.)
We, Afrikan people in america, are victims of the same process that resulted in the murder of millions of Indigenous people and the decimation of their Nations.
“america was built by stolen labor on stolen land!” (Bro. D)
That is the legacy of europeans in this land.