Marimba Ani - To be Afrikan - Africentric Lecture 1

[IfasehunReincarnated]

To Be Afrikan

by Dr. Marimba Ani
February 26, 1999

All people, all over the world, throughout history have shared in common the fact that they belong to a culture of origin. That is a universal reality. Another equally important universal reality is that there are many, many different cultures in the world and each of them is unique.

The uniqueness of a culture is what gives specialness to its members. The members of a culture are bonded together by their shared culture, which gives them a sense of collective identity.

"We are an Afrikan people," simply reveals that there are values, traditions and a heritage that we share because we have a common origin. The cultural process is naturally a ongoing, which allows people to continuously affirm their connectedness through being linked to their origins.

However, the continuity of our cultural identity has been interrupted cruelly and unnaturally by the experience of slavery. We as a people are still suffering from this crime because we have not been allowed to find our way back to the sense of cultural identity and continuity which would transform us into a unified and whole people. We have not been able to function in the world with a collective consciousness that naturally imparts a strong sense of cultural roots.

The term "Maafa" (from the book, "Let The Circle Be Unbroken) is a kiswahili word for "disaster" that we are now using to reclaim our right to tell our own story. Maafa refers to the enslavement of our people and to the sustained attempt to dehumanize us. Because the Maafa has disconnected us from our cultural origins, we have remained vulnerable in a social order that does not reflect our cultural identity.

We are people of African ancestry living in denial of who we are. We have lost our strength as a people. We are losing our children to systems which miseducate them. Our families are disintegrating before our eyes. Our numbers are growing in the statistics of drug addiction and incarceration.

Responsible national Black organizations are seeking remedies to these problems, but we are not speaking with one voice. We need to work together as a family who supports its members and who is responsible for their welfare. We must use the most valuable asset that we have: That is the spirit of our people. It is that spirit that connects us to our Afrikan roots.

Slowly, we are awakening to the need to claim our cultural legacy. The term "Sankofa" from Akan tradition in Ghana, West Africa tells us to return to the Source so that we can go forward with strength and clarity. Culture is a powerful tool for inspiring human beings and bringing them together in a concerted "family" action.

Our cultural roots are the most ancient in the world. The spiritual concepts of our Ancestors gave birth to religious thought African people believe in the oneness of the African family through sacred time, which unites the past, the present and the future.

Our Ancestors live with us. They created the first civilizations thousands of years ago and they suffered the pain of the Maafa. And yet, they were able to endure the most disastrous and dehumanizing circumstances ever perpetrated against a group of people, only because of the power of the African spirit. They did not have the freedom to affirm their cultural heritage. We now have that choice. In the African view of life it is our responsibility to honor their name.

This is perhaps our moment of truth. We must come together as a family. We must do all that we can do to uplift our people. Otherwise, we are still denying who we are and bringing dishonor to our "family name;" to our Ancestors.

The answer to our social dilemma is the resocialization of our people into the cultural value-system that affirms our spiritual being. Our Ancestors are calling us "home", back to our cultural selves. We must begin the process of Sankofa.

Dr. Marimba Ani, an activist in the African Liberation Movement, worked as field-organizer for the Student Nonviolent Committee (SNCC) in Mississippi in the 60s. She has continued her activism through her scholarship.

She has created African-centered theoretical concepts that have assisted in the developing of an African Cultural Science. At this time, she is actively involved in retrieving philosophy and in the re-creation of ritual, so that they can be used for the transformation and healing of people of African descent

Currently, Dr. Ani teaches in the Black and Puerto Rican Studies Department of Hunter College in New York.

She is credited with writing the scholarly works "Let The Circle Be Unbroken" and "Yurugu: An African-centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior," as well as articles that have appeared in scholarly journals.

Copyright (c) 1999 Dr. Marimba Ani. All Rights Reserved.

[IfasehunReincarnated]

bumping this one.

[RecoveringAA]

Greetings,

I am Joanie, a Recovering Afrikan amerikkkan and Representative from the Voices in the Margins.


Thank you so much for this post. What does "bumping it" mean"? It sounds like it was to be scrapped..cause their was no response...I wonder why?

Anyway,....I'd like more......

Ready for Lecture 2.

Anyone else??

Thanks for allowing me to share.....

[OmoTutu]

I love this lecture, more please, part 2....etc

[Baba Ahmed]

Get her books; Yurugu may be hard to locate; if so, lemme kno. But check with:

www.afrikanDjeli.com

[RecoveringAA]

I Am Joanie a Recovering Afrikan amerikkkan and Representative from the Voices in the Margins.

Just for the record, I do have the book. I also had, at one time, an autographed copy of Let the Circle Go UnBroken....was the strangest thing...it seemed to have disappeared from my home (the year was 1999) prior to my husbands deciding he wanted to "drink" again. I was working on the PhD and both of us had decent paying jobs we enjoyed doing. seems there was something spiritually going on for us in 1999 (i've heard many stories of folkes lives "falling apart" that year)...like back in 1960's when Afrikans around the World, rose up, speaking as if with one voice and making great strides towards the recovering of who we are. i.e, many African nations gained their "independence", Afrikan amerikkkans gained fought for civil rights, bob marley brought it on for the Rastas...etc...

How bout other folks...what was the year 1999 like for you and yours? Care to Share?...(or maybe that's for another thread)

Nice Chattin with you again...
Peace In...and
Thanks for allowing me to share...

[Baba Ahmed]

U have the book: TO BE AFRIKAN?

[RecoveringAA]

I'm still Joanie......

I have the Book Yurugu.....

On one of my exams towards my PhD I attempted to integrate information while responding to the question. Needless to say, my "professors" were unimpressed with my linking theories and concepts Ani present with Family Therapy. I did not "pass" the exam because this was not information that they taught. I was told (by my black colleagues) that it was not possible to introduce this information at this stage in the PhD game. I needed to give them what they wanted period. I would have liked to have had editing help so as to give infomation in a way they could digest. if u like, i would like to forward a copy for your critique and possibly, aid in clarifying information cause i still plan to link and disseminate: here is a clip from that writing:

1. Conceptual Knowledge and Clinical Understanding
Clinical Model; Contextual Family Therapy.

“To hold a people in oppression you have to convince them first that they are supposed to be oppressed�
John Henrick Clarke (2003)

The theory and practice of family therapy evolved out of findings by medicine (Nagy) 1, physiology (McCullouch), psychology (Lewin), anthropology (Bateson & Mead), biology (Bertalanffy), mathematics (Weiner), and psychoanalysis (Freud). Engineering, Sociology, and Neuropsychology are also disciplines informing family therapy theories and practices according to Nichols & Schwartz (1984/1998). This “multidisciplinary cross-fertilization� (van Heusden & van den Eerenbeemt, 1987, p.) informant of human behavior appears to take into account the interconnectedness of all life forms. However, information has not been extrapolated from religious doctrines and spiritual principles in the European discourse. Furthermore, “. . .people have sought greater meaning, harmony, and connections in their lives� (Walsh, 2002) p. 4).
Anthropologist Marimba Ani (1997) addresses this “Despiritualization� (p xxvii) in her seminal work YURUGU. YURUGU she contends, “is responsible for disorder in the universe due to the noted absence of the creative force which unites all phenomena and is the source of all energy, motion, cause and effect- spirit� (p xxviii). The moral behaviors of those suffering from Despiritualization are described by Ani (1997) as “Rhetorical Ethic� (p. xxv). I believe it was this Rhetorical Ethic which supported the “Maafa- the great suffering of our [my] 1people at the hands of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere� (Ani, 1997, p. xxi).
One of the theories developed from the above mentioned multidisciplinary cross-fertilization of European thinking, Contextual therapy, based on its focus on Relational ethics, may provide an opportunity to promote healing within the community identity known as humanity.

They wanted me to talk ONLY about the concepts of family therapy which they taught and NOT to respond "critically" to the information.

Peace

[Jahness]

Greetings Everyone!

Great discussion, Baba Ahmed, Ricoveringaa, and IfasehunReincarnated. Dr. Marimba Ani has done great work on the topic of the resocialization of our people.

What I like about her work is the fact that she deals with the resocialization of the whole person, in the sense of body, mind, spirit and environment. All these aspect of a person has to be connected in a positive sense in order to create a balance in their life.

In my humble opinion this is what it will really take, for us as a people to first understand our plight in this oppressive world. Then we must make a conscious effort to help ourselves by resocializing ourselves with our history, culture, spirituality and ultimately having a hand in our liberation.

Keep the info coming. I think it's important for us to understand these things.

Thanks again for sharing!

One Love & Respect Always