Harvesting New Generations: Afrocentric Rites of Passage

[RBG Street Scholar]

Harvesting New Generations: Afrocentric Rites of Passage

The much quoted and overused African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child" is predicated on the premise that healthy villages and communities exist. Contrary to this assumption, healthy villages and communities are the exception and not the rule. Thus, in America we do not suffer from a youth problem, we suffer from an adult problem. Youth do not develop in a vacuum, they develop in unhealthy villages and communities that we as adults are responsible for allowing to exist (Some, 1993). This dilemma is not limited to the poor in the inner city, but is found among all classes, wherever they live. Youth internalize the values and emulate the behavior of adults. The unraveling of wholeness of the individual and the degeneration of family and community life is a widespread problem. No where is this phenomenon more widespread and disproportionate than among African Americans...Read the Full Article


Source: The National Rites of Passage Institute