“The relationship of a people to their history is the same as that of a mother to her child.” If this be true, then Afrikan of the United States are orphans; they are motherless children. Just today a Yoruba brother told me that there is not success in dwelling in the past, we will never have a bright future. He argued that teaching kids and other folk about oppression is not the key. What I was trying to convey to this brother was that inasmuch as the Afrikan world has suffered over this last 500 years, this suffering is only a fragment of our total existence. I was trying to get across the fact that before our holocaust, there was grandeur; when Europe was plunged into the period they called the dark ages, there, in Spain and inner West Afrika, we had our third golden age. But what does this mean to adults and our children? It means everything. You cannot oppress a historically conscious people; the tragedy is that we and our children have lost our memory.
We think of our history as a discussion about slavery and cotton fields and lynching and such. When they look a little further, they only think of nakedness and savagery in the jungle of Afrika. We need to teach our children the grandeur that existed behind the slavery curtain. Teach them about the Moors and what they did in Europe and the Mediterranean. Teach them how those Afrikans introduced science and engineering and masonry and universal education into Spain. Go across the Sahara into inner West Afrika and look at the Ghana, Mali, and Songhai. Teach them about how these black folk ruled nations; teach them how there was order and an unwritten moral and ethic code that governed these folk. Teach these babies the international and intercontinental reputation that these black sovereigns had. Demonstrate to the young ones that learning an intellectual stimulation was the norm in those days. Most importantly, teach that young man how the black woman was treated during the golden age. Turn him on to the fact that there was no such word as wife beating; the black women was honored and respected; she was equal to the men, not his inferior!!!
The essential message that we must get across is the fact that what we see and know now amongst our people is the result of our holocaust. We have been written out of history and made to believe that our actions today are who we are. These barbaric behaviors that we exhibit are not our natural propensities; this is a learned behavior. Our children must be taught about ancient Egypt (Kemet). It was the first civilization known to man. That civilization started in the south in Ethiopia not the Mediterranean as some would have us to believe. This is what Chancellor Williams was talking about in Chapter 2 of Destruction of Black Civilization entitled “Egypt: Ethiopia’s Oldest Daughter.” Let that black boy and girl know that his ancestors led the race into the arena marked civilization. When your son comes home with an F in math and says it’s too hard, you tell that damned fool that his people created mathematics!!!! You teach that baby his past, and then you will doubtless unlock his future. This will give them an unprecedented confidence in his or her ability. The black girl will no longer lay back and be passive and subservient to a man for she will know of the great Yaa Asantewaa and her battles against the British. In times of crisis, she can look to Queen Nzinga for guidance.
My major thrust here is that we must first become thirsty for knowledge of who we are. Once that is done, then we can teach our children who they once were and ultimately what they can be. We will look beyond the slavery curtain and see what we once were and be proud. To be sure, just by virtue of my studies of Afrika, no matter where I am or who I am with, I can be proud and cocky than a motherfuka!!! Just the other day I had a debate with my frat brothers about this same subject. This is why I can be around my many white friends – yeah I have them – and stand like a giant on the back of those who came before me. When they say, “Who is Oludumare, and why do you worship him and not Jesus,” I have enough cultural confidence to defend my spirituality as opposed to being a coward and letting them coax me into their way of life. I too have enough background knowledge of the origins of his beliefs and ultimately prove to him that his came from mine. Because of my history, I am strong. I respect all people, and like the great Ahmed Baba of Timbuktu, I keep god and science. Dear reader, dig up your past and learn from it. It is the blue print for the future. Without it, we are doomed. Teach your kids that they came from much more than slavery; teach them their greatness and watch them grow.
There is a reason that Afrikan history is not taught to our babies. That reason is that you will no longer have jails filled with brown folk like me; instead you will have libraries and lecture halls over crowed just like the ones at the University of Sankore in West Afrikan back in the day. Your children will be debating over Dubois and Booker T. or Martin Luther King and Ella Baker instead of Lil’Wayne and Jay Z. Those kids are our future, and we must protect them and it. All they and we need is our memory and confidence in our culture. Then no one will frown when I say my son’s name is Abiola Denzel Atanda or my daughter’s is Harlem Yaa Asantewaa because this will be the norm. They will no longer look to Europe and European lifestyles as the quintessence of humanity for they will look in their past and their mirror for that. This type of teach in will promote race pride and not race hate or race inferiority. Wouldn’t it be great to see no crime or violence? Teach them their past and see what happens.
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