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“We must be able to separate our thought from European thought, so as to visualize a future that is not dominated by Europe. This is demanded by an African-centered view because we are Africans and because the future towards which Europe LEADS us is genocidal.”
Marimba Ani
This reminds me of something the Great treasure Bayyinah Bello said. She talks about how it is imperative that we have a firm understanding of who we are because without this how do you kill the white man inside of you without mistakenly killing parts of yourself? Then I’m reminded of when I mistakenly kill parts of my selves in search of my selves so I came up with these warped understanding of who I was so I moved from being the n-word to being Black, Asiatic, Black Hebrew, Moorish (Black) Americana, black Indian you see the pattern, don’t you? People can only identify themselves through the eyes of white people so we constantly talk about our blackness. This tells us how we look but nothing about who we are. We can grow our hair like Rastafarians to look African, continuing the idea that African is about how I look. These concepts in and of themselves are not diametrically opposed because the African experience can have a multitude of expressions. But understanding facts without a proper framework on which to organize them can lead to disastrous results.
1 Comment-
Real talk. I also have an issue with language and genetics with my identity. You know that trying to identify with a particular tribe. Where I’m at now I think it’s not so much that we speak the same language or even an African language even though I think that it’s important. Swahili with all its inherent problems would be my choice. I literally would not take my time learning any other language unless I moved into a different community. That’s why I think it’s ludicrous for people to be studying and learning the ancient Egyptian language I mean it’s like the people that sit back and study Hebrew with a color-coded Bibles and think it makes them deeper or spiritual, but that’s another story. What I think is more important though is that we all have the same definitions, AKA world view. And this must include the understanding of who your enemy is because without that no language or definitions matter. I look at the African continent today you have many different languages but they still have the same white worldview definitions. When I started reading decolonizing the mind by Ngugi waThiongo book I got the distinct feeling he was leading people backward. Now even though I admire him for writing books in his native language, speaking his native language, mainly because I have no idea of mine. But let’s remember our lessons from being at the bottom of the slave ship having different languages and not being able to cooperate.
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