Feature
Article
To
Be an African Teacher
By
Asa
G. Hilliard, III
Fuller
Callaway Professor, Atlanta University
...
Ptahhotep, instructs the ignorant in the knowledge and in the standards
of good speech.A man teaches
as he acts. ... The wise person feeds the soul with what endures, so that
it is happy with that person on earth. The wise is known by his good actions.The
heart of the wise matches his or her tongue and his or her lips are straight
when he or she speaks.The wise have
eyes that are made to see and ears that are made to hear what will profit
the offspring.The wise is a person
who acts with MAAT [truth, justice, order, balance, harmony, righteousness
and
reciprocity] and is free of falsehood and disorder.
- Ptahotep 2750 B.C.E.
(From
The
Teachings of Ptahhotep, the oldest book in the world, 4750 years ago,
an African book from KMT [“Egypt”]).
###
Many of
us do not know it, but African people have thousands of years of well-recorded
deep thought and educational excellence.Teaching
and the shaping of character is one of our great strengths.
In our
worldview, our children are seen as divine gifts of our creator.Our
children, their families, and the social and physical environment must
be nurtured together.They must be
nurtured in a way that is appropriate for a spiritual people, whose aim
is to “build for eternity.”
What a
pity that our communities have forgotten our “Jeles” and our “Jegnas,”
our great master teachers.What a
pity that we cannot readily recall the names of our greatest wise men and
women.What a pity that we have
come to be dependent on the conceptions and the leadership of others, some
of whom not only do not have our interests at heart, they may even be our
enemies.Some actually seek to control
us for their own benefit through the process of mis-education.
Henry
Berry of the Virginia House of Congress (during the antebellum period)
said this about African people:
We
have closed every avenue through which light may enter their minds. If
we could only extinguish the capacity to see the light, our work would
be complete.
So we
have two primary reasons for knowing our heritage in education and child
raising, or socialization.
1.We
have the best teaching and socialization practices ever developed anywhere
in the world.These practices are
still good for others and for us now.
2.The
primary tool of our oppression is mis-education by our oppressors.We
must regain control over the primary education and socialization of our
children.
Everywhere
on the African continent, from the time of the Pharoahs in Ancient KMT
(Egypt) to the modern era, great African civilizations in many river valleys,
from the Nile to the Niger and to the Cape, were the center of the most
sophisticated education and socialization systems ever developed on the
Earth.Some of these civilizations
developed in Africa long before other civilizations developed anywhere
else in the world.The vestiges of
these brilliant African creations can still be found in Africa and throughout
the African Diaspora (see Finch, 1998).
We must
consider our ancient traditions; traditions that made us respected teachers
all over the globe.Our people must
hold their heads high in all matters that pertain to teaching and learning.
African
traditional teachers were and are people of high character, who have deep
respect for ancestors and for community tradition.African
teachers accept the calling and the obligation to facilitate inter-generational
cultural transmission.African teachers
also strive for the highest standards of achievement in emerging science
and technology, areas that have always owed much to African scholarship.
Our genius
is a part of the foundation of the revolution in knowledge in physics,
mathematics, engineering and cyber-technology.Our
genius is present at the deepest levels of the arts and humanities.All
of this is in spite of overwhelming resistance to our learning by determined
oppressors.
Therefore,
for many African Teachers, tapping the genius and touching the spirit of
African children is not a mystery.Not
only can our children learn, they bring awesome intellects to the task.It
is a routine manifestation of the African teacher’s excellence to nurture
this genius.Along with teaching
content, teaching good character and social bonds are our historical and
contemporary strengths.
African
teachers, worldwide, share in a cultural deep structure, based upon an
African “world-view,” a shared way of looking at the world and the human
experience.This world-view channels
the focus of African teachers, providing them with appropriate patterns
for thought and practice.
While
it certainly is a practical necessity to get academic degrees and certification
from non-African institutions, such teacher training and legitimation is
really minimal preparation for African teachers.We
go far beyond these things to reach our traditional higher standards, whether
we work in public or in independent settings, whether we teach our own
children or also teach the children of others.
For the
African teacher, teaching is far more than a job or simply a way to make
a living.Students are not “clients”
or “customers.”Our students and
parents are our family.No sacrifice
is too great for that family, for its growth and enhancement.
What is
special about an African teacher?It
is the world-view and the practice that comes from our world-view,
even when it is a dim memory.
A teacher
of African ancestry who does not go beyond certification and degrees to
know or to embrace an African world-view is not an African!Cultural
excellence is the essence of and African teacher.In
all of our learning, we must acquire an understanding of ourselves and
our heritage.This does not mean
that we cannot learn from others.However,
we must be critical learners, rejecting anything that is anti-African.
African
teaching functions must be embedded in and must serve an African community.Traditionally,African
communities have been identified by a shared belief in several key elements.
It is these elements that are the foundation for African teachers.
1.The
belief that the cosmos is alive.
2.The
belief that spirituality is at the center of our being.
3.The
belief that human society is a living spiritual part of the cosmos, not
alien to it.
4.The
belief that our people have a divine purpose and destiny.
5.The
belief that each child is a “Living Sun,” a Devine gift of the creator.
6.The
belief that, properly socialized, our children will experience stages of
transformation, moving toward perfection, that is to be more like the creator
(“mi Re” or like Ra, in the KMT language, meaning to try to live like God).
7.Since
the deep guiding principle of “living like God” is to follow MAAT
(Truth, Justice, Righteousness, Order, Reciprocity, Harmony, Balance),
then African teachers focus the curriculum on the real and the
true,
on what was, what is, and on what can be, in keeping with divine principles.
8.African
teachers place a premium on bringing their students into a knowledge of
themselves and a knowledge of their communities.African
people place great value on WHO each person is, on WHO the community
is and the honored place that each member of the family occupies within
the community.
9.African
teachers respect mastery, and seek through apprenticeship to learn from
true masters, masters who are valued agents of the African
community, who are steeped in the deep thought and behavior of the community,
who exhibit an abiding unshakable primary loyalty to the community and
who are in constant communication with the wise elders of the community.
10.African
teachers recognize the genius and the divinity of each of our children,
speaking to and teaching to each child’s intellect, humanity, and
spirit.We
do not question a child’s possession of these things.In
touching the intellect, humanity and spirit within children, African teachers
recognize the centrality of relationships between teachers and students,
among students, and within the African community as a whole.
11.For
the African teacher, teaching is a calling, a constant journey towards
mastery, a scientific activity, a matter of community membership, an aspect
of a learning community, a process of “becoming a library,” a matter of
care and custody for our culture and traditions, a matter of a critical
viewing of the wider world, and a response to the imperative of MAAT.
12.The
African teacher is a parent, friend, guide, coach, healer, counselor,
model, storyteller, entertainer, artist, architect, builder, minister,
and
advocate to and for students.
A brief
sample of African socialization can be found in the work of K. Kia Kimbwandende
Bunseki Fu-Kiau and A.M. Lukondo-Wamba, master teachers and authors of
Kindezi:
The Congo Art of Babysitting (1988):
The
Kindezi can only be perceived and understood through the social context
of the community it serves as an art and a big social responsibility.It
is through the role that Kindizi plays in the community that one can appreciate
its importance in the dingo-dingo (process) of shaping African social patterns.The
quality and personality of the ndezi/babysitter, make by influence the
quality and personality of the child in the sadulu (school place) and the
community as well.Since it is the
ndezi with whom the child stays all day long, the future of the child will
greatly reflect the impact of Kindezi, the art of babysitting, not only
upon the child but upon the society itself.
The
contribution of Kindezi in Bantu societies in general, and the Kongo in
particular, cannot be under-estimated or denied.The
role it plays in all aspects of community life is so great that it merits
erection of a monument. (p. 20)
...Though
things are rapidly changing today in Africa, the Kindezi, in its substructure,
still remains as a skill and are to be learned by all young community members,
girls as well as boys, through an initiatic and practical process for,
as a Kongo proverb would say, Kindezi M’fuma mu kanda (The art of
babysitting is a baobab to the community), i.e., a string supporter of
community economic activities... Babysitting, sala sindezi, is not
instinctively acquired as some would assume or pretend.Dingo-dingo
diena it is a process by which one discovers the mystery of human growth
and reaches the total understanding of the psychology of the child.
By
babysitting, one learns the wonderful skill of being responsible for another
life and how to become a new “living pattern.”A
“living pattern” is a model through which cultural values are transmitted
from generation to generation.Through
Kindezi, Africans acquire this skill, a skill that has made the African
not only one of the most religious human beings on earth but, also, one
of the most humanistic.
African
parents, mothers in particular, have a great concern about their children’s
childhood because they are aware that Kimbuta kia muntu, bonso kimuntu,
ga mataba–“One’s leadership, like one’s personality, finds its roots
in the child-hood.”Earlier events
in the childhood life play an important role in adulthood.As
such, great attention is paid to whoever has a role to play in the life
of a child–the human being with the quickest copying mind.This
basic understanding that childhood is the foundation that determines the
quality of a society is the main reason that prompted African communities
to make Kindezi and art, or kinkete, to be learned by all
their members.Thus Kindezi
is required in societies that want to prepare their members to become not
only good fathers and mothers, but above all, people who care about life
and who understand, both humanely and spiritually, the highly unshakable
value of the human being that we all are. (p. 4-5)
Typically
the African teacher leads a social collective process, one where social
bonds are reinforced or created.In
this social process, the destinies of the students are connected to each
other, to their families, to their communities, to their ancestors, to
those who are yet to be born, to their environment, to their traditions,
to MAAT as a way of life, and to their creator.
From these
few thoughts, one can see that the popular use of the African proverb,
“It takes a whole village to raise a child,” is interpreted in a very trivial
way, and is taken out of context.Africans
who use the proverb understand it. It is a part of their world-view, their
value system, a world-view and value system that may not be shared by those
who quote Africans out of context.As
Fu-Kiau and Lukondo-Wamba show above, the proverb is really about raising
a village, not merely raising a child.It
is not a matter of welfare as it is understood in the West. It really takes
a whole village to raise itself, a village that values every member as
a “living sun,” a village to which the child belongs, a village where every
child is shown that he or she “will never be given away.”Clearly,
this is a different order of “child care.”This
is African teaching/socialization, and the incorporation of the child into
the community.
Africans
never take teaching lightly.It is
a sacred calling.The long night
of slavery, colonization, apartheid, and White supremacy ideology ruptured
the traditional bond between African teachers and their nurture, and even
their memories of that nurture.We
have been reduced in our expertise, lowered in our expectations, and limited
in our goals.We have even been
dehumanized and de-spiritualized.We
must return to the upward ways of our ancestors.We
have forgotten our aims, methods and content.
We must
not bring shame on ourselves and upon our descendants.We
must bring light to the world again.
Selected References and Bibliography
Ainsworth,
Mary (1967).Infancy in Uganda.
Infant Care and the growth of love. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press
Anderson,
J. D. (1988).The education of
Blacks in the south, 1860-1933. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press.
Callaway,
H. (1975).Indigenous education in
Yoruba society in G.N. Brown and M. Hiskett (Eds.).Conflict
and harmony in education in tropical Africa.Rutherford,
N. J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
Carruthers,
J. (1995).MDW NTR: Divine Speech,
a historical reflection of African Deep Thought from the time of the pharaohs
to the present.London: Karnak
House.
Erny,
Pierre. (1973).Childhood and
cosmos: the social psychology of the Black African child.New
York: New Perspectives.
Erny,
Pierre (1981).The child and his
environment in Black Africa: An essay on traditional education.New
York: Oxford University Press.
Finch,
Charles. (1998).Star of deep
beginnings: the genesis of African science and technology.Decatur,
Ga.: Khenti Inc.
Fu-Kiau,
K. Kia Bunseki and Lukondo-Wamba. (1988). Kindezi: The Congo art of
babysitting. New York: Vantage Press.
Geber,
M. (1958).The psychomotor development
of African children in the first year and the influence of maternal behavior.
Journal
of social psychology, 47, 185-195.
Hilliard,
Asa G. III. (1998).SBA: The reawakening
of the African mind. Gainesville, Florida: Makare Publishers.
Pearce,
Joseph Chilton. (1977).Magical
child: Rediscovering nature’s plan. New York: E.P. Dutton.
Webber,
T. L. (1978).Deep like the rivers:
Education in the slave quarter communities, 1831-1865. New York:W.W.
Norton
Wilson,
Amos (1991).Awakening the natural
genius of Black children.New
York:Afrikan World Infosystems
Woodson,
C.G. (1968).Miseducation of the
Negro. Washington, D.C.: Associated Publishers (first published in
1933)
Asa G. Hilliard, III
is the Fuller Callaway Professor at Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia.He
may be reached at subjr@mindspring.com.
///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\
To
Be African
BY Wade
W. Nobles, Ph.D.
Past President
of The Association of Black Psychologists
Oakland,
California
In
the critically acclaimed and equally critically flawed BBC documentary,
Africans
in America, this nation was informed that the first African child born
in America was named William Tucker. He was born in 1624. While attempting
to describe the events and evolution of chattel slavery in America, the
documentary tries to give the viewer a first hand account of this American
experience by taking excerpts from the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano.
The film shares Olaudah’s personal account of his enslavement and freedom
by introducing him as “a kidnapped African who becomes British and marries
a British wife.” In the actual writing of his autobiography, Olaudah completes
his saga by signing his book as “Olaudah, an enslaved African.”
This
brief commentary on the BBC documentary helps us to see several important
points. The first point, which is substantiated by the necessity to pass
the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, is
that each and every African American today, like Olaudah, is technically
only an American by the location of our birth and secondly by an act of
law which makes us citizens. Who or what is being located and whose citizenship
had to be ratified into law is the African. The second important observation
in the documentary is that, while the mythmakers want us to believe that
the Africans, along with our culture and spirit, somehow were mysteriously
transformed into something other than African, the authentic voice of Olaudah
recognizes that he remains an African, albeit “an enslaved African.”
The
essential issue to note, in this regard, is that neither time, circumstance,
conditions of cruelty and oppression, nor adopted legal status, change
us from being African. In effect, we are all William Tuckers. We are all
Olaudah Equianos. We are Africans whose birthplace locates us in America.
We are, in many respects, especially mentally, still enslaved Africans.
It has, in fact, been the African in us that has been the constant--although
disrespected,
unrecognized and most often misunderstood--aspect of our strength and humanity.
Hence, politically, economically, socially, historically and most of all
psychologically, it is important that we understand what it means “to be
African.”
To
be African.In the book, Souls
of Black Folks, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois made the classic and prophetic observation
that the problem for the twentieth century was the problem of the color
line. Dr. DuBois went on to identify the dual consciousness of the Negro
(sic), which consisted of two warring dark idols, one American and one
Negro [errata African] whose dogged strength alone keeps us from
being torn asunder. Dr. DuBois’s observation is fundamental in two distinct
ways. First, it directs our attention to the duality of our lived experience
that is simultaneously African and not African (i.e., American). Second,
it most importantly directs our attention to the African essence, whose
dogged strength keeps us from being torn asunder.
To
be African. As we enter the new millennium, it is paramount that we revisit
and recast Dr. Dubois’s prophetic observations. In returning to Dr. DuBois’s
observation we should now recognizethat
the problem in America was not simply a color line. The problem in America
from the colonial times to the present was and has been what to do with
the African. In America there has been and remains a deep psychological
fear of Black people (African people). A fear of pathological proportions
resulted in an almost complete obsession with the question, What shall
be done with the African?
The
historical and on-going answer to this seemingly perplexing question was
to “de-Africanize” the African. The objective was simply to make African
American people ashamed of being Black (and African) and ultimately to
convince us that our very humanity was connected to our declaration that
we were not African at all. It was, however, Black people’s response to
the experience of de-Africanization or dehumanization, that DuBois noted,
acknowledged and in a sense, celebrated as the dogged strength. This dogged
strength which refused to be torn asunder was, I would argue, our racial
instinct to refuse to be “de-Africanized.” In revisiting Dr. DuBois’s observation,
we must now claim the responsibility for seeing ourselves andthe
world as African people. We must speak our own special truths and claim
our own special meaning as human beings. Our meaning can no longer be in
reaction to second class citizenship, or to the racist illusions of White
people or to our own inner fear of being who we really are (i.e., African).
Finally,
in recasting DuBois’s edict, the task of the next Millennium for African
American people is to be authentically African and, in so doing,create
time, place and space on the stage of humanity’s future. Ours is to be
African by understanding the African spirit which keeps us from being torn
asunder. In fact, our fundamental task, as we enter the next millennium,
is to address the dual challenge of our existential problematic. By that
I mean we must simultaneously resist our de-Africanization (deculturalization)
while we retain our sense of Africanity (African spirit) in a non-African
or more correctly an anti-African environment.At
the most fundamental level of human existence, this essential problematic
translates to our urgent need to “heal the rupture” and “extend the splendor”
of our African spirit. “To be African” possesses the collective question
of how do we “heal our race” and, as healthy authentic human beings, become
the caretakers of the Black (human) family and the new world order for
the next millennium.
To
be African. While appearing awesome, if not audacious, this charge simply
means that we have a profound and deep responsibility to understand what
makes us human and what kind of geo-political, socio-cultural reality is
necessary to support and advance our human possibility, probability and
potential. Ours is not the small limited question of citizenship and civil
rights. “To be African” requires that we, as a people, address the expanded
and more fundamental question of our human authenticity. This is a critical
concern because worldwide White supremacy is not simply a system of segregation,
discrimination and disenfranchisement. Worldwide White supremacy was and
is the philosophical and ideological foundation for implementing the systematic
and systemic negation and nullification of the humanity of African people
throughout the world. This negation and nullification is the singular and
sole goal of the Maafa. The Maafa, as noted by Marimba Ani
(1994), is a Kiswahili word for “disaster.”For
many, it equates African enslavement with the Jewish holocaust. Such comparisons
are erroneous. The Maafa is a continual, constant, complete and
total system of human negation and nullification. Fundamentally, the Maafa
is the “denial of the validity of African people’s humanity,” accompanied
by a collective and ever-present total disregard and disrespect for African
and people of African ancestry’s “right to exist.” It gives license to
the continual perpetuation of a total systematic and organized process
of spiritual and physical destruction of African people both individually
and collectively. Hence, we cannot be lulled into believing that the oppression,
discrimination and dehumanization of African American people are past history
(ending with the passage of civil rights legislation). Our past in America
is prologue for the future unless we seize the authority and authorship
of the definition and meaning of our collective well-being. Our essential
humanity is at stake.
“We
be
African.” However, to be African in an anti-African society requires
that we seize control of all of the instruments that determine the lived
experience and quality of life of our people. As a campaign,
“To be
African” clarifies and refocuses our human imperative. Can we heal
the race? My answer is unequivocally, “Yes!”Not
only is the answer yes, but the expanded implication of the question
translates to the ultimate recognition that the real issue for us is “to
be African or not to be.” The psychological liberation of the African mind
and the worldwide development of African people (including African American
people) require that we take responsibility for defining, maintaining,
and controlling every institution that influences the agency of African
people.
While
I believe the destructive consequence of the current path is clear and
predictable (i.e., disease, pain, death, poverty, unemployment, miseducation,
dehumanization, etc.), I still invite the reader to open the question to
discussion, debate and critique. Can Black professional agencies, political
organizations, fraternal/sororal orders and religious institutions confront
and eradicate the systems of de-Africanization and de-spiritualization
of African people without addressing the question of “to be African?” Can
we create a society that maximizes the human possibility and potential
of our children without addressing what it means “to be African?” Can we
provide education, social services, economic development, health care,
political power and ultimately, even, our connection to the Divine without
understanding the Africaness which defines our essential humanity and well
being? I believe not.
We
as a people must take charge of the systems of socialization and education
for our people. As a collective effort toward a common destiny, we must
come together to create the programs and processes that will provide the
information, skills, beliefs and values that will guarantee the development
of our children and the permanent advancement of our people.
The
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., believed that while he personally may
not get to the Promised Land, his beloved Black people would be triumphant
and get to the “promised land.”The
Promised Land for the Beloved will be found in the recognition of our Africanity.
And while some of us, like Martin King, may not get there, we, as a people,
will get there and our eyes shall see the glory of the coming of the Lord.
We, African American people, can get to the mountaintop and we can build,
by our own wit and wisdom, a new world order where we can understand and
express what it means “to be African.” We can heal the rupture and extend
the splendor. This we must do for ourselves, our children and the ancestors.
We
can be African.
We
be African.
To
be African.
Reference
Ani,
M.(1994).Yurugu:An
African-centered critique of European cultural thought and behavior.Trenton,
NJ:Africa World Press.
Written: March 29, 1999,
Ghana, West Africa
///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\
The
Day of Remembrance:
Re-Memorying
Frederick Douglass
By
Taasogle
Daryl Rowe
Los Angeles,
CA
[Editor’s
Note:This article is based on an
e-mail message sent from the author to the ABPsi e-mail listserv on July
1, 2001.]
ABPsi Members:
In a few days it will again
be July 4th -- the day set aside to celebrate the birth of the
United States of America.I recently
revisited the words of Frederick Douglass, presented in 1852, regarding
the meaning of this “holiday” for persons of African descent What to
the Slave is the Fourth of July?Many
of you are familiar with this strong message. His words are powerful reminders
of the disparity that existed and still exists between persons of African
descent and those who fervently celebrate the memory that this day symbolizes.
I have attached excerpts
of this speech and references for how you can access the entire text of
the speech (online and in print).I
invite each of you to review the entire speech and to reflect on its relevance
to us, in this the first year of the new millennium.
My purpose for sending
this message is to offer alternative means for gathering on this “holiday.”My
suggestion is that instead of simply using this day to gather, commune
and enjoy the company of family and friends; we use this day to remember
-- as a “Day of Remembrance” -- the indomitable African spirit.We
must use this day to unashamedly and unapologetically remember all of our
known and unknown African ancestors, who dared to hope, dared to dream,
and dared to practice a belief in our absolute right to exist against the
legalized hypocrisy of racial injustice.
This “Day of Remembrance”
could still be celebratory; but focused on celebrating our stories, our
resolve, our fundamental pursuits of Truth, Justice, Reciprocity, Compassion,
Balance, Harmony, and Order.As more
and more effort is directed towards reparations, it is critical for us
to repair or restore the memories of our great efforts, the memories of
our purposed movement to fulfill our collective destinies.Through
such a re-definition we can take time to re-connect ourselves to our history
and thus contribute to our collective healing.Healing
involves the process of“re-memorying”
- reconstructing our stories (spirits, bodies, families and “psyches”)
from the fragments of memory, gossip, and news (history).Thus,
memory and storytelling are re-connective processes that help us live more
harmoniously with our self, family, community and the past.
I would suggest that we
refrain from all forms of “bar-b-que,” during this Day of Remembrance,
because the practice of “bar-b-quing” is associated with the unspeakable
legacy of lynching in this country, some of it occurring in concert with
4th of July “celebrations” (with 921 lynched from 1900 to 1910; 840 from
1910 to 1920, and almost 400 from 1920 to 1930).White
mobs burned, hanged, mutilated, drowned and/or dragged African-descent
people to death (see Allen, Als, Lewis & Litwack’s Without Sanctuary:
Lynching Photography in America, 2000, Sante Fe, NM: Twin Palms Publishers;
www.twinpalms.com, for fuller discussion).Therefore,
this day should be observed without the burning of flesh, in remembrance
of the thousands of African men, women and children who were horribly and
wantonly massacred.There are healthy
alternatives to grilling flesh; these are sacrifices we should be willing
to make.
Fireworks should similarly
be avoided as they serve as reminders of the brutality regularly forced
upon our blameless ancestors toiling from “can't see in the morning to
can't see at night” while saddled with myths of inferiority and laziness.The
brutality of the “rockets red glare” was regularly directed at our ancestors
- both known and unknown.
Lastly, I would suggest
that some form of ritual occur that would serve to mark the memory of our
experiences.Ritual is the measuring
stick by which people gauge their connections with their collective ancestral
reservoir. It grounds us, re-affirms our combined existence, aligns and
orders our individual and collective behavior, and verifies our reality
and resultant humanness.Ritual is
necessary and inevitable for life.Thus,
we might offer prayers, light candles, pour libations, read proverbs, or
develop other creative ways to remember the indomitable African spirit.
These comments are offered
to call us back to ourselves; to Reclaim the Unspeakable Thoughts Unspoken;
to determine that our stories warrant marking; warrant remembering and
that the task of remembering rests squarely on our shoulders.We
invite constructive input and refinement as we challenge each of you to
do your parts.Share this commentary
throughout your networks and let the “Day of Remembrance” commence.
In Struggle & Spirit,
Taasogle Daryl Rowe
taasogle@mediaone.net
///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\
Excerpts from What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
By
Frederick Douglass
Occasion:
July 5, 1852 meeting sponsored by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society,
Rochester Hall, Rochester, N.Y. To illustrate the full shame of slavery,
Douglass delivered a speech that took aim at the pieties of the nation
-- the cherished memories of its revolution, its principles of liberty,
and its moral and religious foundation. The Fourth of July, a day celebrating
freedom, was used by Douglass to remind his audience of liberty's unfinished
business.
This,
for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. It is the birthday
of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. ... It carries
your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and
to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day...
Fellow-citizens,
pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day?
What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence?
Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied
in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore,
called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to
confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting
from your independence to us? ...
I
say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included
within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only
reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you,
this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice,
liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared
by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has
brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine.
You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand
illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous
anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens,
to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?
…
Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs
mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character
and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th
of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions
of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting.
America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds
herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and
bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which
is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the
Constitution
and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to
call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command,
everything that serves to perpetuate slavery-the great sin and shame of
America! "I will not equivocate; I will not excuse;" I will use the severest
language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man,
whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder,
shall not confess to be right and just. ...
At
a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.
... For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle
shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation
must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy
of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must
be proclaimed and denounced.
What,
to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals
to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty
to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham;
your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling
vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations
of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality,
hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings,
with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast,
fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes
which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the
earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people
of these United States, at this very hour.Go
where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and
despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every
abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of
the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that,
for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without
a rival.
Full
text is available at the following website:
http://douglass.speech.nwu.edu/doug_a10.htm)
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General
Assembly Update
By
M. Renee
Robinson, Ph.D.
Chair General
Assembly, 2001-2003
As
we move into the new millennium, the ABPsi is challenged to respond to
the range of political and social issues that impact the quality of life
for Africans across the Diaspora. The ABPsi has a long history and demonstrated
commitment to enhance the health and well being for all African people.
We must accept our mandate to move beyond rhetoric and into action.To
that end, the General Assembly has been tasked by the Board of Directors
of the ABPsi to develop a process for the implementation of Board policies
that directly impact Africans globally.
By
way of background, each ABPsi chapter is encouraged to send one
representative to the General Assembly for
every 15 members in good standing.
You are a member in good standing when both your local and national dues
are paid.The working structure
of the General Assembly is facilitated through three clusters: Organizational
Maintenance, Advancing Knowledge, and
Defending our Community.Each
cluster is composed of individual committees that work throughout the year
on specific activities that are directly linked to Board policies. For
example, the Organizational Maintenance Cluster includes committees
on Chapter Development, Membership, Student Affairs and International Relations;
the Advancing Knowledge Cluster includes the African Psychology
Institute and the Professional Development Committee; and the Defending
our Community Cluster includes the Health, Testing, Legislative Education,
Social Action, and African American Family Preservation and Revitalization
Committees.
During
the upcoming annual meeting in Denver there are important activities hosted
by committees of the General Assembly.These
are open to members of the ABPsi.Please
check your registration information for exact time and location for these
events.
§The
Chapter Development Committee will host a Chapter Chairs’ Orientation.All
chapter chairs or their designee are invited to attend this important informational
session.The major objectives of
the orientation are to familiarize new chapter chairs to the operations
and procedures set forth in the ABPsi By Laws and to answer specific
questions that affect individual chapters at the local level.
§In
conjunction with Chapter Development, the Legislative Education Committee
will discuss the new guidelines under The Association of Black Psychologists’
Affiliation Agreement that makes clear and explicit the role and responsibility
of individual chapters to the national organization, as well as the role
and responsibility of national to the local chapter.Additionally,
the Legislative Education Committee will train all interested chapter chairs
in procedures to obtain non-profit status for their local chapter.Maintaining
non-profit status at the local level opens many opportunities for individual
chapters to take advantage of grants and other funding sources that are
only available to those in the non-profit sector.
In
addition to these excellent presentations by individual committees, the
General Assembly will meet on Sunday, July 29, 2001 from 1:00 pm until
5:00 pm and again on Sunday, August 5, 2001, from 10:00 am until 12:00
pm.Check
your registration information for the exact location for these sessions.Some
of the agenda items for the annual meeting will include the development
of specific actions directed toward the health and illness disparities
that affect African American families in communities throughout our nation.For
example, the incidence of HIV/AIDS among African American teens and women
are at staggering levels.The social
and behavioral antecedents of HIV and AIDS have profound consequences for
future health outcomes for the affected person, their family and our community
as a whole.Within the ABPsi we have
the tools and expertise to help others to develop the option to choose
health-promoting lifestyles that may help to reduce the incidence of life
threatening disease and illness, and to enhance our survival and that of
future generations.
We
recognize that during these times of limited resources and extreme changes
in our social world, that it is imperative that we pool our talents and
share our resources to help meet the needs of those in our community who
are in need of healing and redirection. To paraphrase an African proverb:
“When
spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.”I
invite you to join us on the General Assembly and become a change agent
as we work toward the healing and liberation of the African mind and spirit.
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