Outline: Early Afrikan Education

[Baba Ahmed]

Lets continue in the area of guidance. This will concern Early Education. Reason? To indicate that answers to our social problems live in our own Traditional cultures. Our locale and settings are different, generally. Yet if we examine closely it'll be clear where this society fails us and what we can do to re-claim, from the principles and some examples, our Historical greatnesses as a people; an Afrikan people. Again the primary source is Chancellor Williams' The Destruction of Black Civilization... Excerpted from Chapter VI, The African Constitution: Birth of a Democracy.

"Lineage...was the most powerful and effective force for unity and stability in early Africa, and this was so true that a state could be self-governed without the need for any one individual as ruler, chief or king. Evryone was a lawyer because just about everyone knew the Customary laws.

"The age-grade or age-set (also called 'class') was the specific organizational structure through which the society functioned.

"Classification was determined by the period in which one was born. All persons born in the same year, belonged in the same age-grade. Each grade covered a block of years: Age-grade one might include all children up to age twelve; grade two, from thirteen to eighteen; grade three, nineteen to twenty-eight; grade four, twenty-nine to forty; and grade five, forty and above. There was seniority within each grade according to age and intelligence. Intelligence and wisdom were supposed to match one's age and intelligence. Stated another way, the African philosophy that accorded so much deference to elders was based upon the assumption that, all other things being equal, those who were living in the world and experiencing life before others were born should know more than these others. This qualification is important because it was later applied in the election of chiefs and kings. Being heir to the throne was not enough. One had to meet other qualications or be passed over. Therefore, being older or the oldest in one's group did not command the usual respect if one was lazy, a troublemaker or a fool.

EARLY EDUCATION

"The interlocking responsibilities of the various grades accounted for the smooth functioning of the chiefless states. Each grade had its own social, economic and political role. The children's set covered the years of game and play. Around the ages of six and seven, however, general training and some little jobs began to be mingled with play. Primary education included storytelling, mental arithmetic, community songs and dances, learning the names of various birds and animals, the identification of poisonous snakes, local plants and trees, and how to run and climb swiftly when pursued by dangerous animals. Child training also included knowing and associating with members of one's age-grade as brothers and sisters, and to regard them as brothers and sisters until death and beyond. Little chores around the house became routine, such as gathering sticks of wood for fuel, bringing water, tending the cattle, feeding the chickens or, if a girl, looking after baby or younger ones, imitating mother at cooking and trying to learn how to sew and knit. The nearest thing to the boy's political role in childhood was when he carried his father's or uncle's stool to village council meetings and leistened to the interminable debates.

"The next grade above childhood was teenage through age eighteen. (These periods, of course, varied in different societies.) Now, both training and responsibilities were stepped-up. Play was either over or very much limited. Education and training became more complex and extensive. The youth's entire future depended upon their performance at this age level. He or she was marked for success or failure in this second age-set that began at age 13. The boy was now required to learn his extended family history and that of his society, the geography of the region, names of neighboring states and the nature of the relations with them, the handling of weapons, hunting as a skilled art, rapid calculation, clearing the bush for planting, the nature of soils and which kinds grew what best, military tactics, care and breeding of cattle, the division of labor between males and females, bartering tactics, rles of good manners at home and abroad, competitive sports. He was required to provide leadership examples for the childhood age group below and responsibilities to the age-group above.

"The apprenticeship system in which one became a skilled craftsman was one of the most important of the second level age-set activities. This is another reason why this age-grade was the most crucial of all. At its end one went through the initiation rites for the exalted level of manhood. The girls age-group differed from those of the boys. Introduction to womanhood roles, for example, was earlier. They had the same intellectual training as the boys: history, geography, rapid calculation, poetry, music and dance. The training in child care, housekeeping, gardening, cooking, marketing--social relations with particular stress on good manners, these were some of the essentials in the age-grade education and training of young people at this level. Housekeeping, mentioned above, does not reveal the importand kind of training that came under that heading, for its most important aim was 'how to be a successful wife'--an everlasting desirable wife. In many societies, this training by older women away from the community included the art of exciting sexual intercourse, position variations, cleanliness in the relationship and, in short, the do's and don't's in intimate relations. These early black societies were in many ways far in advance of the modern."

[Im The Truth]

This is great education in education. I always like the articles in this column Baba Ahmed they are always straight from Our scholars.

Uhuru!

[Baba Ahmed]

Asante sana Im The Truth!

Finally! someone appreciates that the voices of the true elders and honorable ancestors speak best!

I dig reading, typing and posting at various online forums. Stamps the info into my memory bank and kinda joins me with our revered ancestors and living elders.

Onareal this site is the most appreciative while recognizing such pieces value for us... no matter our different persuasions.

A pleasure hearing from u again.
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EDIT

I hope more of our members do not sleep on the very first paragraph that empasizes "LINEAGE." To me this implies, for us in this all out struggle, to tighten continuously our relations with our sistas. That'll create a "bedrock" to underpin all our efforts. One of the principal stages to reach and pass through in an Afrikan's life is marriage and is doubly beneficial when children are brought forth. Black chilren from the depths of Blackness: the Afrikan wombman!

[SoularFlarez]

Originally Posted by Baba Ahmed

I hope more of our members do not sleep on the very first paragraph that empasizes "LINEAGE." To me this implies, for us in this all out struggle, to tighten continuously our relations with our sistas. That'll create a "bedrock" to underpin all our efforts. One of the principal stages to reach and pass through in an Afrikan's life is marriage and is doubly beneficial when children are brought forth. Black chilren from the depths of Blackness: the Afrikan wombman!

yes sir !!!!! woman is the first teacher to tha babies they say...plus their memory is way betta then mine haha. ima have to send this 4 mah ppls to see...props on this !!



Isley Brothers : Caravan of Love :

[Baba Ahmed]

Slight bump's in order...

and ck today's entry from MENTACIDE at Baba Ahmed Speaks. Thanks