PRAISE SONG, Honoring Afrikan Warriors

[Baba Ahmed]

A PRAISE SONG CALLED "GRATITUDE" ON THIS EURO HOLIDAY,
Feb 2006, C.E. PRESIDENTS DAY
by MWALIMU K. Bomani BARUTI
from his book, MentaCide and other essays
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Gratitude

She who knows the path is she who travels it. - Zulu Proverb

"We speak in honor of those Afrikan warrior scholars who have consistently proven their worth. We speak in honor of those at whose feet we humbly sit and study so that we can learn how to be the warriors' warriors for our people. We speak in honor of those jenoch who know no Way other than that of their ancestors, who have done and continue to do all and more in their power to confront, battle and destroy any who would take the knowledge of the third eye from our children. We speak in honor of those who unhesitatingly fought, fight and will forever do battle for us, simply because we are their people, our children are their children, our spirit one. We speak in honor of those who have unerringly paved the way on the battlefield, who made a way when we could not see the way on the battlefild, who made a way when we could not see for our ignorance and near comatose submission, who stood alone when we were too afraid or ignorant to answer the war horn. This praise song is for those who, since consciousness, have not committed treason against their ancestors, who have consistently stayed on the revolutionary path of the deeply dedicated uncompromising warrior scholar, who honor our ancestors through what they say and do.

These warriors to whom we give glory are not only the ones whose names roll so easily off our tongues but also those mamas and babas who taught us never to put anything past Europeans because they had already done everything beyond human reason to us as they stood in line waiting to cash their meager checks from working in their tormentors' kitchens, offices and barracks. They are those who fed and washed us while teaching us family first, race first, truth first, who worked ten, twelve, twenty hours a day trying to get us that autogiography or ourstory book.

This praise is also for those who have thought, acted, spoken and donned attire as Afrikans first and consistently, regardless of the ridicule from our community and euros. These trailblazers, vanguards, tall men and women, refused to be anything but what they are. Sadly, now negroes, changing only when forced and even then only with the most superficial level of knowing, changing to diffuse the revolutionary quality of our ReAfrikanization so as not to offend enemies, receive credit for and enjoy the fruit of our warriors' hard labor.

This tribute is not for those who have "retired" from the revolution, who were ready for revolution at one time but only for that time, who were part of some self-serving, puss-filled, bloated memory of a revolution. It is not to be wasted on fair-weather warriors, intellectualizing crossover con-artists, amalgamation focused integrationists, new age negroes or any other hybrid Afropeans who, on bending knee, desperately fumble in search of any European's crotch to worship.

These words are only in appreciation of those who know use and our foes, who know we are not they, who never, ever quit on us. They are only to give thanks for those who refused to stop struggling in the face of abject, deadening fatigue or the easy enticement of smiling cooptations into yesterday's dreams of whiteness and bribes guaranteeing lifetimes of an exclusively individualized financial independence. Opportunism was never a possibility because embracing the opportunity to pass into whiteness is nothing less than treason.

Soldiers fight as long as the battle rages, as long as their people exist as a people, as a collective memory, as a willed vision. You Afrikans have never disappointed us. You have never stopped. So we honor you for your birth in the lineage of warriors the Ancestors deliberately sent onto these enslavers' ships and plantations so that there would be a force to lead Afrikan people in revolution against those who held us against our will. Hopelessness and resignation never surface in teh word or action of divine warriors. They never enter your imagination. You have always reflected the righteous rage of a spirit denied its full humanity. For this we freely give our love and respect. For this we humbly offer or gratitude.

[Baba Ahmed]

Ashay!

Somewhere its written that a red candle represents element of fire and carries energy viberation that enhances vision, connection with ancestors and dreams.
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Medase Ifasehun

[manifestdestiny]

Originally Posted by Baba Ahmed

Ashay!

Somewhere its written that a red candle represents element of fire and carries energy viberation that enhances vision, connection with ancestors and dreams.
=============================

Medase Ifasehun

Powerful statement...
What does Ashay mean

[Baba Ahmed]

Greetings manifestdestiny!

Lets first give credit to Mwalimu Bomani Baruti, who composed the "Praise Song."

I strongly suggest that u ask either AK, Asafo37 or Ifasehun about "Ashay." What u'll get from them will be more sound, complete and exact.

A very simple meaning I've heard and read is: so be it.


Kwame