4,034 Abibisika (Black Gold) Points

Rank: Unranked Obibini

“To Be Afrikan or not To Be” (Nana Baffour, Asa Hilliard III) This is not a question. It is a statement of fact made by our brilliant Bakulu (“Ancestor”), who loved us. Either we claim our beingness as Afrikans or we cease to “be”. It is a question of consciousness and identity. Our existence as a people is at issue. To identify as Afrikan is to have an Afrikan Sovereign Consciousness. We cannot achieve Afrikan Sovereignty without a Vision of Afrikan Sovereignty. To be Sovereign is to rule (reign) over (sov) ourselves. To be sovereign is to be our own authority. It is to be Supreme. No one is above (superior to) us. In order for us to achieve Afrikan Sovereignty, we will have to see beyond (transcend) white power, and asian and arab power. We will have to be Visionaries. Garvey was a Visionary. He saw what we can no longer see, because we suffer from the disease of fear. We are plagued by a “leadership” that avoids confrontation, a “leadership” that moves backwards; a “leadership” that does not “lead”. Ironically, they do not go back far enough. The present so-called “Black leadership” is disconnected from the early 1920’s in which the Garvey Movement thrived and touched the hearts and minds of our people. That was a movement that talked about Afrikan Sovereignty, Afrikan Self-Governance.

KUJITIWALA – Afrikan Self-Governance

Let us not use kwanzaa time to perpetuate ourselves in a “holding pattern”. Let us not use it to “mark time”…’til what?

If the purpose of kwanzaa is to help us to be comfortable in this maafa, than it is simply an obstruction to our progress toward the reclamation of Afrikan Sovereignty.

Kwanzaa, in its simplistic form is valuable for our very young children who are constantly attacked by icons of white power. But we are not very young children. We must put away toys. We must push ourselves to grow. We must use this time to be critical and to prepare for self-governance. That means work, not comfort. We cannot be Sovereign and be lazy. We cannot be Sovereign and have someone control our resources. “Afrikan-american” is a contradiction in terms. It is an oxymoron.

“It comes to the individual, the Race, and the Nation, once in a life-time, to decide upon the course to be pursued…The hour has now struck for the individual Negro as well as the entire Race, to decide the course that will be pursued in the interest of our own liberty.” (Marcus Mosiah Garvey, c.1920)

Are we wavering in the confusion of “Afrikan-american” ambivalence?

Let us use Kwanzaa and beyond to take us to the next level. Let us use it to develop an Afrikan Sovereign Consciousness in ourselves, and to produce a new generation of Visionaries among our children.

Mama Marimba Ani