6'1" tall statuesque African Queen. 37 year old divorced attorney, mother of 3 boys ages 18, 16, 13, and one girl age 11. Recently relocated to the beautiful island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands...and with the strength of the Most High and the spirit of my ancestors, eventually to Ghana, West Afrika....THE TYPE OF PEOPLE I LIKE TO ASSOCIATE WITH ARE THOSE WHO ARE; Afrikan conscious, family oriented, mannerable, respectful to the elders, women and children, Those who are about the liberation of our people. If you are not about the struggle of Afrikan people in the diaspora, or about building a strong Black nation, then its highly probable that you won't be someone i'm interested in knowing. MY IDEAL MEN???? Nat Turner, Toussaint L'overture, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Idi Amin Dada, Chaka Zulu, Kwame Nkrumah, Kahlid Muhammad, Hannibal and Ahmose I just to name a few....Black Nationalists, PanAfricanists, Revolutionists
Peace!________________________________________________________________________________
Our great African parents who are among us we humbly offer our
thanks for the many blessings you have given. We extend our love to
its ultimate state of being - For the suffering that you have
endured so that we may not suffer so. Mothers of our great African
nation Fathers of our African selves - We invoke you to further
lead and guide us to a higher understanding Of our true greatness -
And a more encompassing dedication of love for our African people.
Parents of all African children; Guide us toward a greater unity -
Guide us in a stronger African Value System and lead us into the
zenith of respect and love for our people, through education and
the "Family Communal Structure" We swear upon the heritage and
legacy that you have left us to uphold and sustain our rightful
status on this earth, and to continue the struggle for the total
mental and physical liberation of all African People. ADUPE ARIKU
BABA WA (Thank You, by the Spirit of Our Ancestors) Ase'
________________________________________________________________________________
Correcting Afrikan Concepts in America By Dr. Kwame Nantambu This
article seeks to unlock the door to Afrikan-Americans'
misconception, misuse and bastardization of vital Afrikan
concepts/terms. One : B.C.E. versus A.D. The general consensus is
that B.C.E. means Before Christ, Before the Coming Era and/or
Before the Christian Era, while A.D. means Anno Domini, that is,
"In the year of the Lord". However, in terms of European supremacy
and from an Afro-centric perspective, B.C.E. now means Before
Contamination of Afrika by Europeans, while A.D. means Age of
Domination, Destruction and Death of Afrikans by Europeans.
Guyanese erudite historian and anthropologist Dr. Ivan van Sertima
calls this age "the five hundred year curtain" of European global
dominance and control. Two: Ancestors versus Forefathers. Afrikan
ancestors built the pyramids and over 104 stone monuments in
ancient Kemet (Egypt) in B.C.E. They are the world's original,
powerful master thinkers and teachers. Afrikan ancestors invented
mathematics (including geometry, quadric equations and quadric
formulae, logarithms, "combinations of integers with an irrational
number and an infinite geometrical progression having many unique
properties"), theory of opposites, medicine, female make-up
procedure, paper, writing called Medu Neter, fire, backgammon,
wigs, world's first moral code of ethics by which to live,
architecture, cardinal points- North-South-East-West,
astronomy/astrology, world's original Zodiac signs, philosophy,
psychology, chemistry, physics, freemasonry, town and country
planning (including districts which they called Nomes), world's
first 365 and 1/4 day Stellar calendar, agronomy, domestication of
animals, mummification process, and built the world's first
university, the Temple of Waset (later called Luxor) in the XVIIIth
Dynasty, 1405-1370 B.C., among other things. They also invented the
concepts of a coffin (which they called Nb Ankh), a system of
governance (which they called a dynasty), beauty, library, mirror,
bed, folding chair, progressive tax collection system with the use
of a Nilometer and the mathematical measurement called Pi. Pi was
known as the "Golden Number." According to Cheikh Anta Diop in his
book titled, 'The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality'
(1974): " Universal knowledge runs from the Nile Valley toward the
rest of the world, in particular Greece, which served as an
intermediary. As a result, no thought, no ideology is foreign to
Africa which was the land of their birth." Afrikan ancestors'
history represents 99.9% of the history of Afrikan people on this
planet. They are the world's original people with original ideas.
On the other hand, Afrikan forefathers were stolen and brought
kicking and screaming, involuntarily by different European powers
from Afrika to the Diaspora (Caribbean, South America and American
South) in the A.D. era. They then picked cotton, coffee and cut
sugar cane as powerless slaves for powerful European slave masters
on plantations in the Diaspora. Their history represents only .01%
of the history of Afrikan people on this planet. In other words, in
B.C.E., Afrikans were powerful and Europeans were powerless; in
A.D., Afrikans are now powerless and Europeans are powerful. As
such, there should be no confusion between Afrikan ancestors and
Afrikan forefathers. These historical Afrikan concepts/terms are
neither comparable, substitutable nor interchangeable. They both
represent the totality of Afrikan history on this planet. Three:
Originality versus Nationality. Originality refers to our inherited
Afrikanness; it is a gift from Mother Afrika - "the cradle of
civilization." Nationality is an accident of birth as a direct
result of European enslavement or the European slave trade; it
represents an indictment from Father Europe. In other words, the
only reason why Afrikans here are Americans is because their
European slave ship landed and unloaded them on the plantations in
America. Their American nationality is a mere accident because if
their European slave ship had landed and unloaded them on
plantations in another country then they would have had a different
nationality today. In sum, Afrika is our Home, our Originality;
America is our Destination, our Nationality. Ergo, the descendents
of our Afrikan forefathers are Afrikan-Americans. The historical,
Eurocentric label "Afro-American" does not apply to them. Afrikan
forefathers were brought from the Continent of Afrika. In the
history of the world, there has never been a Continent named
"Afro." We are Afrikans first - originally, then we have been
transformed into being Americans, Trinbagonians, Jamaicans,
Brazilians, Cubans, etc. by accident. As the Afrocentric historian
Dr. Marimba Ani correctly admonishes: "You're not an Afrikan
because you're born in Afrika. You're an Afrikan because Afrika is
born in you. It's in your genes, your DNA, your entire biological
make-up. Whether you like it or not, that's the way it is. However,
if (Afrikan-Americans) were to embrace this truth with open arms
my, my, my what a wonderful thing (that would be)." Four:
Spirituality versus Religion. Spirituality represents a direct
connection/interrelatedness with nature, the cosmos, universe and
that spiritual god force, Amun-Ra ("the giver of life" or"
Sun-God") whose birthday was celebrated in ancient Kemet (Egypt) on
25 December in B.C.E. Spirituality means a way of life and being
24/7/365 and is predicated upon the seven principles of Goddess
Ma'at. This ancient Kemetic/Afrikan spiritual belief system
embodied the "42 Negative Confessions", "Admonitions of Ma'at"
and/or "Declarations of Innocence." It was a way of life that took
1,200 years and 50 generations to develop. In other words, in the
B.C. era, when some one dies, the soul/spirit of the deceased
confesses as follows: "I have not killed", "I have not committed
adultery", "I have not stolen" and so on, forty-two times. However,
the reverse is true in the case of religion. Religion represents
the deification of a people's cultural experiences, politics and
political control intent. Religion is all about power and control.
Hence, under the Christian/Roman Catholic religion, the Ten
Commandments exist to reflect its power and control modus operandi.
These religious Ten Commandments are just a derived, new and
improved version of the original, spiritual ancient Kemetic/Afrikan
"Negative Confessions." More specifically, since he was dealing
with illiterate, ignorant people/followers, Moses, the
Kemetic/Afrikan high priest, had to change the voluntary
confessions into commandments in order to control them. It must be
recalled that Moses was the high priest of the Kemetic Pharaoh
Akhenaten; ergo, Moses was well learned in the Negative
Confessions. All Moses did was to collapse 42 Confessions into 10
Commandments. And it was very easy for Moses to do so because at
that time, there were 10 categories of sins in ancient Kemet. As a
result, the spiritual confessions "I have not killed", "I have not
committed adultery" and "I have not stolen" automatically became
religions commandments as follows: "Thou shalt not kill", "Thou
shalt not commit adultery" and "Thou shalt not steal." In addition,
the concept of monotheism or belief in one God, was invented by
Pharaoh Akhenaten. This one God was called Atum. Thus, all Moses
did was to incorporate this ancient Kemetic spiritual belief system
as the first commandment in the Christian religion as follows:
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." It must be inserted here
that Amun-Ra (the "Sun God") in the spiritual belief system of
ancient Kemet is now known as and/or called the "Sun of God" in
religious Christianity. In B.C.E., he was Black; in A.D., he is
White. The fact of the matter is that it is total insanity to
associate spirituality with Christianity. Christianity is devoid of
any scintilla of spirituality. Roman Catholics are not a spiritual
people; they are a religious people "to D bone." Five: 15th Century
Afrikan Slave Trade versus European Slave Trade. The concept of the
Afrikan Slave Trade is ahistorical and Eurocentric, while the
European Slave trade is historical and Afrocentric. The Afrikan
Slave Trade not only implies that the idea of this exercise
started/originated with Afrikans but also that Afrika and Afrikans
benefited from the slave trade. Of course, history totally
disproves this. The fact of the matter is that the Portuguese were
the first Europeans to go into Afrika to get gold and slaves in
1441. However, this initial European genocidal onslaught was
illegal, unauthorized and unsanctioned. This most brutal, inhumane
onslaught or MAAFA ("great disaster") or what deceased Afrocentric
scholar, Dr. John Henrik Clarke calls "the greatest single crime in
the world" became legal, authorized and sanctioned on 8 January,
1455, when the European Christian Pope Nicholas V in his Papal Bull
titled "Romanus Pontifex" authorized the Portuguese "to subject to
servitude all infidel peoples." In other words, the Euro-Christian
Pope of the Roman Catholic Church legalized, authorized and
sanctioned the European Slave Trade and the enslavement of Afrikan
people in the name of God. Slave ships left European countries
(Britain, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Portugal)
and sailed with European captains in charge to Afrika to get
slaves. No slave ships left Afrika with Afrikan captains and slaves
on board and sailed to the Diaspora. Thus, Afrikans did not
start/originate this slavery experience although the "great men" of
Afrika (tribal chiefs, kings, nobles, subchiefs, headmen) colluded
with Europeans to sell their own people into slavery. Assassinated
Guyanese scholar/historian, Dr. Walter Rodney has proven that it
was Europe not Afrika who benefited from the slave trade. In his
magnum opus, 'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa' (1971), Dr. Rodney
states quite unequivocally as follows: "The European slave trade
and overseas trade in general had what are known as 'multiplier
effects' on Europe's development in a very positive sense. This
means that the benefits of foreign contacts extended to many areas
of European life not directly connected with foreign trade and the
whole society was better equipped for its own internal development.
The opposite was true of Africa not only in the crucial sphere of
technology but also with regard to the size and purpose of each
economy in Africa." (pp.108-109). The fact of the matter is that
Britain (who entered the slave trade in 1562) was the European
country that benefited the most from the slave trade because the
Industrial Revolution took place in Britain 1750-1850. The bottom
line then, is that "many Africans were taken by Arabs and were sold
to Arab buyers. This is known as the 'Arab Slave Trade'. Therefore,
let it be clear that when Europeans shipped Africans to European
buyers, it was the 'European Slave Trade' from Africa." (Rodney,
p.95).
