In a famous scene from the mini-series Roots, the character Kunta Kinte is severely beaten because he refuses to accept the name Toby.
What was Kunta Kinte trying to protect ?
Without a sense of self, how is it possible to have a sense of self-worth?
The question at the heart of the dynamic between the so-called slave and the so-called master is a question of identity. The first priority of the so-called master is to convince the so-called slave of being inherently inferior. Holding a person in captivity will more often than not create wtihin him or her a feeling of inferiority. Referring to someone as a slave helps to reinforce this feeling. So doesn't it make sense that referring to someone's ancestors as slaves would also have a detrimental effect?
How long will it take for us to liberate the memory of our Ancestors from the label of slave that so many of them were forced to accept as they lived? When will they cease to be referred to as goods that were traded? How would they have us refer to them and to their experiences? What words will we use to tell our history to our descendants? Will we use the words that have been imposed upon us , or words that we have carefully chosen that reflect a sense of self-worth and human dignity? I hope that it will be the latter.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
A Living Essay...
I had to put the essay Liberation of a Legacy in blog form because it is not a finite or closed system. Although I state my points authoritatively, I don't consider them to be the universal truth. These are limited observations from a limited perspective.
The point of this blog is not to be right, the point is to foster a free exchange of ideas.
The point of this blog is not to be right, the point is to foster a free exchange of ideas.
If it is possible for a human being to become a slave in the absolute sense, ironically, I think it would be those who seek to enslave others that are most at risk. I could see how they could become "possessed "and truly made slaves to principalities, to forces such as greed, jealousy, lust for power, etc...
Liberation Of A Legacy
Should anyone ever be called a slave?
I understand that people have been enslaved by other people, but there is a vast difference between being a slave and being enslaved. There is a real difference between being a smoker and being a cigarette.
I will need a volunteer to fully illustrate my point....You. Yes. You there, eating oatmeal and scratching yourself, you'll do...
If you would be so kind, please follow the simple rules below:
1. Paint yourself green
2. Jump up and down
3.Go live in a lily pond (with your entire family)
4. Only eat flies
5. Only say "Ribbit"
If this list seems difficult, don't worry, there will be "assistants" to help you every step of the way. If you don't paint yourself green fast enough, you will be whipped. If you don't jump up and down often enough, you will be whipped. If you try to leave the lily pond, you will be beaten within an inch of your life, raped, and then whipped ( not necessarily in that order). If you try to eat something other than a fly, one or more members of your family will be moved to another lily pond (or sent to live in a pet shop).
Most importantly, should you dare to utter ANYTHING other than "Ribbit", your tongue will be cut out.
After the first week an assistant will ask you "Are you a frog?"
You will say "No."
You will then be immediately punished for breaking the 5th rule. Remember, from now on you are only allowed to say "Ribbit." Weeks will pass, then months.
After 365 days in the lily pond you will again be asked "Are you a frog?"
You will say "Ribbit."
The assistant will smile and agree " Yes...Good frog."
You will go on to live out the the rest of your life in the lily pond. Your descendants will continue to live there for 400 years....
Now I ask you, were you ever truly an amphibian? Are your children now, the descendants of frogs?
I assert that it is as impossible to make a human being a frog as it is to make one a slave.
All living beings are sovreign. I maintain that regardless of how brutally any group may have tried to dehumanize another, not once has any group ever achieved this misguided goal. No matter how many people call a man a slave, whether or not he was born into the circumstance of captivity, his fundamental humanity and sovreignty remain unchanged. He has always been a man even if he, himself, was forced to forget it .
A basic premise of both math and philosophy is that A=A. Identity is also defined as sameness, or an unchanging characteristic. How can the variable nature of circumstance define the constant of identity? If we look beyond the way we are percieved by others in society, beyond the way that we perceive ourselves, there is a far more enduring reality, one that is beyond words, and mere human perception.
Trees for example, existed before human beings called them trees. Even within our species we have countless languages with many different words and sounds describing the same thing. But the identity of a tree does not change because it is called an "arbol" in Spanish. After humans cease to call trees anything, these organisms will continue to exist in the vast universe with the same identity they have always had, one that has always been beyond verbal expression and unknown to humankind. A human-centric perspective tells us that because we name it, we know it. This perspective is tragically false.
The word slave is an outdated remnant of a collective delusion. The continued use of the term "slave" fails to acknowledge the humanity of the enslaved. The terms "slave owner" and "slave trade" are also entirely deluded. Obviously "trade" and "owner" are words to be used in regard to things and not people. These terms ,although still used at the "highest" levels of academia around the world, describe a widely accepted myth and not, by any means, a fact. That myth being that one human can actually own another.
The eyesight of all humanity cannot impair the vision of a single star. The whole world accepting something as fact is not enough to make it true, if it was, we would all live on a planet as flat as it was once believed to be by its inhabitants.
Those who kidnapped, raped,tortured and murdered so many for profit are often referred to as colonists, masters, traders, and owners. They did not have the power to withdraw and/or distribute the humanity of another being. By continuing to accept their subjective,ego-maniacal perception as unalterable fact, we also accept their self-proclaimed authority over our ancestors and over our ability to be a self-determined people in the present day.
Without an accurate depiction of their origin, future generations of Africans, like so many before them, will continue to be psychologically bound by a false and debilitating legacy. A legacy that inhibits the development of an empowered cultural identity and stifles the overall development of those who would rely on that culture to develop a healthy sense of self.
What is the difference between being enslaved and being a slave? Enslavement is a circumstance, an experience that can come to an end. The identity of "slave" perpetuates the circumstance of enslavement as it designates a being as inherently inferior and therefore indefinitely deserving of inferior treatment, both at the hands of oneself and at the hands of others.
The acceptance of an identity formulated by one's oppressor is spiritual suicide. Many who have taken a stand for freedom in the face of certain death did so because they would rather die than be defined by those who would dishonor them.
If we do not regard our ancestors as human beings, if we do not speak of them, in this time, with the basic respect commonly given to all humankind,the basic respect that so many of them were denied as they walked the Earth, then we and our descendants will continue to be held by chains that are as restricting as they are invisible.
To call someone a slave is to psychologically attack their humanity. We continue the attack when we continue to use the term to describe our fellow human beings, be they in the past, the present or the future.
************************
Acknowledgements: This work is dedicated to the characteristic of the universe Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance ( Zhen-Shan-Ren), to all my ancestors known to me and unknown to me , to all of my family and friends known to me and unknown to me, to my descendants known to me and unknown to me, to my father Jethro Walker, to my brother John, for allowing me the luxury of uninterrupted time and a place to write, to my fellow builders, Mom, James, Elizabeth, Sarah, Jessica (everyone and anyone else who engaged me in dialogue around this subject) ,to Femi for giving my internal dialogue momentum and to Ally for refusing to surrender.
I understand that people have been enslaved by other people, but there is a vast difference between being a slave and being enslaved. There is a real difference between being a smoker and being a cigarette.
I will need a volunteer to fully illustrate my point....You. Yes. You there, eating oatmeal and scratching yourself, you'll do...
If you would be so kind, please follow the simple rules below:
1. Paint yourself green
2. Jump up and down
3.Go live in a lily pond (with your entire family)
4. Only eat flies
5. Only say "Ribbit"
If this list seems difficult, don't worry, there will be "assistants" to help you every step of the way. If you don't paint yourself green fast enough, you will be whipped. If you don't jump up and down often enough, you will be whipped. If you try to leave the lily pond, you will be beaten within an inch of your life, raped, and then whipped ( not necessarily in that order). If you try to eat something other than a fly, one or more members of your family will be moved to another lily pond (or sent to live in a pet shop).
Most importantly, should you dare to utter ANYTHING other than "Ribbit", your tongue will be cut out.
After the first week an assistant will ask you "Are you a frog?"
You will say "No."
You will then be immediately punished for breaking the 5th rule. Remember, from now on you are only allowed to say "Ribbit." Weeks will pass, then months.
After 365 days in the lily pond you will again be asked "Are you a frog?"
You will say "Ribbit."
The assistant will smile and agree " Yes...Good frog."
You will go on to live out the the rest of your life in the lily pond. Your descendants will continue to live there for 400 years....
Now I ask you, were you ever truly an amphibian? Are your children now, the descendants of frogs?
I assert that it is as impossible to make a human being a frog as it is to make one a slave.
All living beings are sovreign. I maintain that regardless of how brutally any group may have tried to dehumanize another, not once has any group ever achieved this misguided goal. No matter how many people call a man a slave, whether or not he was born into the circumstance of captivity, his fundamental humanity and sovreignty remain unchanged. He has always been a man even if he, himself, was forced to forget it .
A basic premise of both math and philosophy is that A=A. Identity is also defined as sameness, or an unchanging characteristic. How can the variable nature of circumstance define the constant of identity? If we look beyond the way we are percieved by others in society, beyond the way that we perceive ourselves, there is a far more enduring reality, one that is beyond words, and mere human perception.
Trees for example, existed before human beings called them trees. Even within our species we have countless languages with many different words and sounds describing the same thing. But the identity of a tree does not change because it is called an "arbol" in Spanish. After humans cease to call trees anything, these organisms will continue to exist in the vast universe with the same identity they have always had, one that has always been beyond verbal expression and unknown to humankind. A human-centric perspective tells us that because we name it, we know it. This perspective is tragically false.
The word slave is an outdated remnant of a collective delusion. The continued use of the term "slave" fails to acknowledge the humanity of the enslaved. The terms "slave owner" and "slave trade" are also entirely deluded. Obviously "trade" and "owner" are words to be used in regard to things and not people. These terms ,although still used at the "highest" levels of academia around the world, describe a widely accepted myth and not, by any means, a fact. That myth being that one human can actually own another.
The eyesight of all humanity cannot impair the vision of a single star. The whole world accepting something as fact is not enough to make it true, if it was, we would all live on a planet as flat as it was once believed to be by its inhabitants.
Those who kidnapped, raped,tortured and murdered so many for profit are often referred to as colonists, masters, traders, and owners. They did not have the power to withdraw and/or distribute the humanity of another being. By continuing to accept their subjective,ego-maniacal perception as unalterable fact, we also accept their self-proclaimed authority over our ancestors and over our ability to be a self-determined people in the present day.
Without an accurate depiction of their origin, future generations of Africans, like so many before them, will continue to be psychologically bound by a false and debilitating legacy. A legacy that inhibits the development of an empowered cultural identity and stifles the overall development of those who would rely on that culture to develop a healthy sense of self.
What is the difference between being enslaved and being a slave? Enslavement is a circumstance, an experience that can come to an end. The identity of "slave" perpetuates the circumstance of enslavement as it designates a being as inherently inferior and therefore indefinitely deserving of inferior treatment, both at the hands of oneself and at the hands of others.
The acceptance of an identity formulated by one's oppressor is spiritual suicide. Many who have taken a stand for freedom in the face of certain death did so because they would rather die than be defined by those who would dishonor them.
If we do not regard our ancestors as human beings, if we do not speak of them, in this time, with the basic respect commonly given to all humankind,the basic respect that so many of them were denied as they walked the Earth, then we and our descendants will continue to be held by chains that are as restricting as they are invisible.
To call someone a slave is to psychologically attack their humanity. We continue the attack when we continue to use the term to describe our fellow human beings, be they in the past, the present or the future.
************************
Acknowledgements: This work is dedicated to the characteristic of the universe Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance ( Zhen-Shan-Ren), to all my ancestors known to me and unknown to me , to all of my family and friends known to me and unknown to me, to my descendants known to me and unknown to me, to my father Jethro Walker, to my brother John, for allowing me the luxury of uninterrupted time and a place to write, to my fellow builders, Mom, James, Elizabeth, Sarah, Jessica (everyone and anyone else who engaged me in dialogue around this subject) ,to Femi for giving my internal dialogue momentum and to Ally for refusing to surrender.
Why overthrow yourself?
One morning in the mid-90's I found myself in a Kinkos making hundreds of 8x11 copies with only two big words printed neatly on each page. "OVERTHROW YOURSELF" I proceeded to hang most of these impromptu posters across the campus of Morgan State University within the next few hours.
While the effect of my shared epiphany is about as unquantifiable as how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop, I continue to find inspiration in the words.
I see "OVERTHROW YOURSELF" as a rallying cry from myself to myself. A personal reminder to continually challenge my inner tyrant. A call to fearlessly question my current "self" and leave room for a more genuine "self" to emerge. It tells me to be prepared to be unprepared, to be ready to not have the answer, ready to learn, to grow and to change.
What does it say to you?
While the effect of my shared epiphany is about as unquantifiable as how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop, I continue to find inspiration in the words.
I see "OVERTHROW YOURSELF" as a rallying cry from myself to myself. A personal reminder to continually challenge my inner tyrant. A call to fearlessly question my current "self" and leave room for a more genuine "self" to emerge. It tells me to be prepared to be unprepared, to be ready to not have the answer, ready to learn, to grow and to change.
What does it say to you?
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