Musings Set For Liberating Minds

[Baba Ahmed]

"MUSINGS"

Greetings all in melinated lights' warmth!

I'm reading a book: Echo in Spirit: A Photographer's Journey. Chester Higgins, Jr. is in my opinion a keeper of our stories in pictures. From New Brockton, Alabama a small village he calls it. While going along in his one of his journies, I "hear" him relate a scene with his 19 year old son. Well, here u read parts of it:

"While we were in Ethiopia, my son Damani, in his locks blended in with the local population; his enthusiasm for this venerable African country warmed my heart. On a four day trip to the ancient sacred city of Lalibela, where in the twelfth century churches were hewn out of the surround mountains, I had a dream. In my dream, I saw two men, one older and one younger, facing each other against a backdrop of temples and pyramids The father was speaking as he anointed the head of his son.

"I became enamored of the possibility of enacting a ceremony with my son in Africa. For the next six days I privately wondered what words to use in such a ceremony. Gradually the words came to me. By the time we arrived in Cairo, I was ready. I told my son that there was ceremony that I wanted to perform with him in the tombs at Thebes. His eyes shone with anticipation. But I wondered if he would still be receptive after my next statement. In the dream, I remembered, the son was anointed with a dry substance. I took this to mean powder rather than oil. But what powder? I ruled out ground herbs and flowers, and finally settled on sand. Sand represents the Sahara, and sand also contains the remains of the ancient people of pharaonic Egypt. That made metaphysical sense to me, but in the real world, young adults---and almost anybody, for that matter---are disinclined to have sand poured on their hair.

"I will need sand to anoint yourd," I told my son.

"Sand?" he asked hesitantly. "How much?"....h decided to take some from the desert in the sadow of the pyramids in Cairo...when we reached Luxor, he collecteed more from around the remains of the Temple of Karnak---one of the largest, oldest stone temples in the world.

"The next afternoon we sailed across the Nile to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, a basin formed by towering mountains. From the heavenly perch of the ancient Egyptian deities, the valley resembles a huge bowl to which there is one narrow entrance, flanked by more tall peaks. The tombs of the pharaohs are hewn into the lower parts of the mountains that form the basin....

"In front of an enormous wall painting of Osiris, the deity of resurrection, my son and I faced each other. I poured the sand he had collected into the palm of my left hand, and with my right I anointed the top of his head with this sand. Looking into his eyes,I said: 'I, your father, anoint the crown of your head with the soil of Africa. This piece of earth is a symbol of the lives of your ancestors. It is a bonding of their lives to yours.Like your father, you too are African. We are Africans not because we were born in Africa, but because Africa was born in us.
"Look around you and behold us in our greatness. Greatness is an African possibility; you can make it yours. So here, in the company of those great ones who have waited patiently for your visit, you are loved, you are encouraged. Our faces shine toward yours. Go forward; may you live long, may you prosper and and health."

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My wife said I'd like this book and brought it home. She's right. Also I'm thinking on the threads here, at assatashakur.org, re Afrikan names, proper ceremonies and as I was reading this I thought: Yes! we are New Afrikans.... one of Chester Higgins, Jr's relatives was named: March Forth!!! English words, but ahhhhh! even I gleam meanings in Afrikan inspired spirits.

Hotepu and as my newest son says: Stay BlackNificient; and I say be Black in Blackness or tune into our melinated essences.


Kwame Baba Ahmed

[Baba Ahmed]

MUSINGS re Marriage & Afrikans in America

GREETINGS all!

A brutha & I were talk'n about marriage. I'd mentioned travelling through some wooded area in South Carolina years ago selling my wares. A long ways from NYC, outside a small town: Clio. At one house surrounded by tall pine and other trees, we sat on an old wooden porch, me ina rocking chair, with a few older sistas and racing back and forth lively children. I was a curiosity. I was a strange one, wearing a long flowing garment called in W. Afrika: grand booba. On my head was a matching coloring batik cap. Eventually, marriage became the topic. They wanted to know how and why I had two wives; one who had grown up around these folk - a blood relative. I explained it. I'm finding it hard to believe, as they had about me, that it was usual there for cousins to marry each other. But I listened. After telling my friend about it, he from the Savannah Georgia area said: oh yes! that happens frequently where I'm from. First, second, third cousins - didn't matter he said. Let that preface the following excerpt from Prof. John Henrik Clarke's notes* of a trip to West Afrika. Maybe there's a lesson in his words as we think about why we choose mates to marry.

"He talked about incest taboos. When the ancient African arrived at the concept that those of close blood should not marry, it became par of their traditional law. It dictates that one should not violate their mother, their sister, their cousin, their niece or any close relative. He talked of marriage, saying it has taken Western science many centuries to understand the implications of marriage between close blood relatives. Then he explained traditional African marriages. These marriages, he said, were made out of respect for one another, to unify two families, to unify two tribes or to unify two villages. These marriages were not based on the romantic 'I Love You,' which is a Western invention. And this attention, to the things that maintain and sustain a people, is why Africa was able to build enduring societies that last for thousands of years without a jail system or a welfare system. I was deep into silence when he finished. Then he said, 'John, we will have our dinner now.'"

*Dr. John Henrik Clarke: HIS LIFE, HIS WORDS, HIS WORKS, pgs.128-129.
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{Baba note: Do we think that we can do another SANKOFA trip, return and put these concepts into our preparations, considerations, & applications as we ponder MARRIAGE in these mean streets, hi-ways, & byways of Amerikkka? After we've studied'em, discussed, and put trust into our ancient/traditional customs? Our struggles do indeed continue, huh?}