AFRICAN AMERICAN - A TRIBE AND OF OUR OWN - A NATION WITHIN A NATION We Africans in the Americas have our own traditions, festivals and culture, we are a tribe of our own. our traditions were forged by necessity because we were forged by fire. After being betrayed by our neighbors and sold into slavery we found ourselves in a new land standing alongside other a diverse group of Africans from multiple tribes who spoke so many languages there was confusion. We could not all understand each others language but we knew one thing, we would survive. We forged bonds that have remained unbroken for five hundred years, we are the survivors who have faced the worst crime the world has ever witnessed, we survived the Maafa and now we are the strongest and wealthiest Africans on earth. All that have conspired against us have failed, we are the mighty nation within a nation. We are the backbone that has created the wealthiest nation on earth, when you see America all you are seeing is our shadow. Every invention everything that has propelled America forward, everything ever devised on these shores involved a African American. America is nothing but the shadow of the African American, there is no America without African Americans. We now desire to work collectively with our kindred peoples whom live in our motherland, we will forge these unions for all our sake, we will travel home and we will go the way we came, but this time we will not be chained in the bottom of a cargo ship. We are the captains of our own destiny now. The time has come for us to complete the circle, we have grown strong, we are in dire distress but we do not need anyone to come save us Africans. When we honor our customs, and when we perform our ceremonies, and when we listen to our ancestors, then we have everything we need to heal ourselves within ourselves. When the lights go out for good, our people will still be here. We have our ancient ways. We will remain. They outlawed our our language, outlawed our religion, took away our children, our holy leaders had to go underground for centuries. And yet we survived. We will forever resist the many instances of violence, maltreatment, and neglect inflicted upon us African peoples by the citizens of the United States. We are all in constant danger of losing ourselves, losing our African identities. It is a daily struggle for each and every one of us to remain fully African. And sometimes we loose the struggle, and then our men take out their feelings of worthlessness out on themselves. Then the men take those feelings of worthlessness on our women. Then our women take out their feelings of worthlessness on themselves, and then everyone of us takes out their feelings of worthlessness on the children. We must end this cycle. A breach has occurred in our collective soul, we must repair the breach. Everything in the U.S. is designed around money, this is not the spiritual land of our ancestors. So how do we as a people live in this mode of materialism? We live in the white mans houses, drive the white mans cars, work for the white mans currency, so how do we keep our traditional African culture if we do not own and control our own destiny? Our children talk of becoming rap stars or athletes, they want to escape this world with one lucky break. Too many of our children subscribe to those fantasies. Our childrens lives are now defined by extremes. In order to trans-send poverty, it follows that one must become extremely rich or extremely something. What has been lost is our dreams for our people, after all, a dream is a act of faith. The historical trauma inflicted upon our people has wounded us but we remain strong. We must resist the colonization of our culture and the forces of assimilation that want you to colonize our identity. We are African, we will remain African, we are the descendants of those whom were brought here by force, in chains, brutalized and humiliated, yet we remain strong. I have looked into and researched many pan-African movements however they all mistakenly are based on the assumption that Africans-in-the Americas will move to Africa and live under the Governments now ruling Africa which are left overs from the colonial system, nothing is further from the truth. The hard truth is African Americans really dont understand why they should claim Africa when they have never been there, dont know what its like to live there or even touch the soil, they do not see the benefits from claiming our motherland, therefore it is up to use to show them. There is much work to be done in Africa and it is going to take some convincing to get people to pitch in. We all know our ancestors were brought here against their will, this was possible not only because of the will of Europeans, there were also few dozen African kingdoms like the Ashanti and Dahomey who openly and admittedly assisted and benefited from our enslavement. So there is a needed reconciliation between us and the ones who betrayed our ancestors. Also there is the constant question of if Africans cared so much about us, their distant long lost people, why do Africans constantly speak ill of African Americans and convey a arrogant wall of judgement and criticism? Those answer can only come from our distant relatives back home in Africa. Yes we have suffered, and yet through all our suffering, hardship, starvation and oppression we have endured and become a mighty people.The thing people dont get is why nobody ever sheds a light of truth on the actions of Africans against Africans, in the eyes of many Africa is guilty of the worst crime of betrayal, there must be a reconciliation for we whom are living on the mother continent, and those of us whom are in the Americas because we are both in constant danger. I have seen and posted many recent request from the African Union for the diaspora to engage in building the economies of African, but this call falls on deaf ears, it is viewed by many as a thinly veiled request for financial assistance that lacks the warmth of a motherly hug, or the kiss and unconditional love of a mother who misses her children. Also there is a disconnect because we Africans in the Americas have fought and won our freedoms and produced much wealth for our selves, Africans appear weak, divided, and have been conquered over and over again, here in the distant shores of the Americas we have been isolated from the truth that while we suffered here, our distant relatives also suffered under the yoke of both European and Arab imperialism. African Americans are hardened warriors who have fought in several wars since the Civil War and find it appalling that Africa has so many people yet has suffered so much when attacked by so few. We know little about our motherlands colonial history. Africans in the Americas have been refined by our captivity and have come out the other side a powerful Nation of Africans and we are not going to surrender our right to self-determination and self-rule to anyone. No one is going to lead us but us we have not surrendered our fighting spirit to the Americans, and we are not going to put our lives or fortunes in the hands of African leaders that have done a horrible job of caring for their own people. Yet we must somehow answer the call of so many Africans who need our help. Africans in the Americas are the descendants of those whom were overcome and put into an form of oppression that no other people on earth has endured. Yet we still have done great things. We have developed a nation, we literally built America and have not been rewarded for our labor. America would not be as great if not for the minds and labors of African Americans. Even in the midst of slavery, Jim Crow Laws, killings, hangings, and lynchings, we have invented, created, founded, cultivated, and manufactured things that caused America to propel from level to level in technology, agriculture, food, and more. We dont speak a African language, practice, or even fully understand many African customs, yet we are African, threw and threw. We are unique, we are not just African we are in all honesty a tribe of our own. We may have to share America with our long time adversary, but we are perfectly capable of living in our own unique Africanized communities. The first thing we should do is have all of the street names in our communities changed to African names, doing this will reenforce a sense of connection to our Motherland. Our businesses and store names should also have African names to reflect our conscience effort to reconnect to our African cultures. We should each take the time to find a African name and have our legal name changed to reflect our African ancestry. Your spirit will tell you when you have found the right name, so be patient, it may take a week for some of you, for others it may take a year so dont rush. There is a African name waiting for you to take it home. We bore the pain for the right to be who we are today, We are shipwrecked in the Americas and many of us would like to go home, but when we do travel to our Motherland we will go under our own authority, and under our own flag, we will sail on our own ships and we will call these ships the African Star Liners. We are the tribe that will save Africa from her enemies, but first we must regain some of what was lost on the ocean we crossed. Africans in the Americas must change our individual and collective consciousness, we must Africanize our religions, education, communities, social system, names, holidays, calendar, rituals, language, hair, clothes, diet, and family structure. Most of all we must accept that while America may be home, but AFRICA IS OUR HOLY LAND.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 18:25:26 +0000
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