THE DEVELOPMENTAL POWERS OF TRADITIONAL AFRICAN EDUCATION

The acquisition of knowledge is an endeavor which has been a part of African tradition since humanity developed the capacity for thought. This has led to the development of both informal and formal ways of acquiring the desired knowledge sought. Education at various stages of life facilitated the imparting of knowledge necessary for the development of the individual on various levels. This cultural norm was the rich heritage of many African societies going back into antiquity up to the pre-colonial age. It is thus sad to see the present depressing performance of African Americans, and specifically young African American men in the country’s school system. The low performance rate calls for a serious look at the way Africans in the United States are educated and compare it to how they were originally developed when they operated under their own cultural paradigm.

On Tuesday, November 9, 2010, CBS published on its web site an article titled, “Shocking School Achievement Gap for Black Males.” The author Bill Whitaker discussed the details of a new study showing that African American male students “languish at the bottom of every educational category.” Painful statistics were presented displaying the low performance of black males at multiple educational levels. When compared to that of white males, their aptitude level was depressing. It was stated that, "Researchers call these dismal numbers a call to action for scholars across the country to study this problem and come up with real solutions."

Surprisingly, one Chicago school seems to have found a way to get teenage African American males to excel in academics. In June of this year Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men had its first graduating class of 107 seniors get accepted to college. The school was opened as an experiment to cater to the scholastic needs of African American boys in Englewood, one of Chicago’s roughest neighborhoods. The students at the school predominantly come from economically disadvantaged households but have performed exceptionally well in this unique academic environment. “Urban Prep's mission is to provide a comprehensive, high-quality college preparatory education to young men that results in graduates succeeding in college.” The school has three campuses, Englewood, East Garfield Park and South Shore which were respectively opened in 2006, 2009 and 2010. Urban Prep’s success this year is reaffirmation that African people can rise again if the right circumstances are facilitated.

Sadly, there just aren’t enough Urban Prep’s all around the nation and it is still uncertain if it will stand the test of time. It is thus important to look at the deficiencies in the current education system by comparing it to that which existed in Africa before its many societies were interrupted. When we look at the education system of ancient Kemet, you will find that it is the foundation of western education. Within the walls of its many temples students were educated in areas such as “(1) Mystery Teachers of Heaven (Astronomy and astrology); (2) Mystery Teachers of All Lands (geography); (3) Mystery Teachers of the Depths (geology); (4) Mystery Teachers of the Secret Word (philosophy and theology); and (5) Mystery of Pharaoh and Mystery Teachers who examined words (law and communication).” In addition, the Kemites had simple and practical ways of calculating advance math problems without the use of a multiplication table. This method is known as Relational Mathematics and Jabari Osaze does a phenomenal job explaining the concept in his lecture titled, “Echoes of the Ancient Mind.” Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan also discusses this mathematical method in “Black Man of the Nile.”

Kemetic education was a system focused on wholistically developing and transforming the pupil into a God-like being. It was a combination of theory and practice which fostered progressive growth through successive stages. This education system had open admission for all students which meant that the king’s child and the pauper’s child were subject to the same rigorous training. Their education system truly left no child behind because they believed everyone was a reflection of the creator and thus all are destined to serve a higher purpose. Students began their formal education by training as scribes where from the outset they were exposed to copying serious text of the mdw ntr which detailed the nation’s great historical and spiritual tradition. Challenging and development of the mind was imperative for the Kemites. Dr. Na’im Akbar presents this information in a lecture titled, “Ancient Kemetic Science of the Mind.”

This tradition of human development for the benefit of the individual and the society prevailed throughout Kemetic history as well as other African nations up to the pre-colonial era. In “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa,” Walter Rodney states the following about Africa’s educational system, “The following features of indigenous African education can be considered outstanding: its close links with social life, both in a material and spiritual sense; its collective nature; its many-sidedness; and its progressive development in conformity with the successive stages of physical, emotional, and mental development of the child. There was no separation of education and productive activity or any division between manual and intellectual education. Altogether, through mainly informal means, pre-colonial African education matched the realities of pre colonial African society and produced well-rounded personalities to fit into that society.”

With all this information on the table, we can now see what important elements Africans in America are missing in the current education system. They are not being wholistically developed, not being given skills that benefit them or their communities and not being taught history and theology to which they can relate. In an interview with Listervelt Middleton, Dr. Asa G. Hilliard states, “If we always read the history of someone else, we will become psychologically imbalanced.” This is all a fall out of the destruction of black civilization and the historical amnesia from which the African population suffers. It is thus urgent that an education system be created that can provide the type of development to resurrect the excellence of African people. This is a responsibility which must be taken up by African people themselves because no one else will do it for them. It is dire that this is done to restore the balance of Ma’at to the world. An ancient Kemitic proverb states, “Social good is what brings peace to family and society.” An empowering education system is a social good that no civilization can live without if it hopes to achieve higher levels of development and greatness. Thank you for reading.

Sources:

Shocking School Achievement Gap for Black Males: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/09/eveningnews/main7038804.shtml

100 percent of school's first class college-bound: http://www.urbanprep.org/media/apArticle_June2010.pdf

Rodney, Walter, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa,” Howard University Press, 1982

Van Sertima, Ivan, “Egypt: Child of Africa,” Journal of African Civilizations, 1994

Ancient Kemet Science of The Mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToqxoWXLdBE

Free your mind, return to the source, African Origins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhenAPlY4Ek

AFRICAN POLITICAL TRADITION

Tuesday, November 2^nd was a huge election day for us living in the United States. Many political offices were up for reelection while others were open to elect new officials. Dependent on the political affiliation of the candidate elected meant that different groups of people would be affected in distinct ways. African Americans or more specifically, Africans in America played a vital role in this year’s election process. Many petitioned others to vote because they recognized the significance of the election. Such political activism and involvement is nothing new to African people and has always been a part of their tradition. This tradition has been forgotten by many Africans and needs to be remembered for the sake of their social, political and economical advancement in the world.

Now while many African people were heavily involved with the election process this year, there were many others who wanted nothing to do with it. Their reasons for being bystanders in this event were understandable and justifiable. For the many centuries that Africans have been in this country, they have been subjected to harsh circumstances due to the legislation of politicians. The United States constitution in its original form before the many subsequent amendments is testament to this reality. The legally enforced segregation, black codes and Jim Crow laws that prevailed post slavery is further evidence to this truth. The Three Strikes laws that became popular in many states in the 1990ies additionally support the aversion of many blacks to politics because they adversely affected the African community. However, it is the prevalence of racism throughout all chapters of American history and the lack of change after so many years of voting that is the biggest fuel for the avoidance of many blacks to politics. With so much historical information and memory available, it is easy to see why so many African people avoid the election process all together.

However, for an oppressed people trying to change their standing in the world, is this the correct course of action? If we take a look at other ethnic groups within the country, you will find they have no aversion to politics and have used the system to obtain what they want socially, economically and politically. The modern day Euro-American Jewish people are a good example of this. While not at a level comparable to African people, they have been subject to a holocaust and discrimination, yet they wield tremendous power in this country and have achieved a significant level of opulence despite being a very small minority in the United States. Why have they been able to achieve such things and not African people in the country?

While their Caucasian heritage plays a large role in this circumstance, they also recognize the importance of unity/kinship, knowing the law, understanding the political system and taking advantage of it for their own benefit. They also recognize that economics and politics are very closely related. As a result the financial power you wield can also be used as an implement to influence political decisions. The larger population of Africans in the U.S. fails to realize this reality. Your vote should come at a price, and a very high one that will lead to decisions from which your people can benefit. On election day I spent much time contemplating this issue, and via Facebook I observed arguments for and against getting involved with voting and America’s political system. I came to the conclusion that voting is one thing, but influencing political officials to do as the people desire is another thing. All tools available must be implemented to further the status of African people in the country and in the world.

If we now go back in time to quintessential Africa, you will find that political involvement by the people was a natural way of life. Political decision making and democracy was engrained in the culture of the many societies that existed, and that power flowed from the bottom upwards to the leaders. In “The Destruction of Black Civilization,” Chancellor Williams details how these societies were stratified into political groups according to age range for governance. Such organization meant everyone had to be involved in decisions that affected their immediate circumference and the nation on a whole. Dr. Williams gives an example of such decision making by relaying the experience of a European who visited an African nation and wanted to be granted access to tour the various regions of the land. He complained that he had to wait several weeks before the king would agree to meet with him while other Africans who arrived after he did, met with the leader immediately. What this European failed to realize is that, those other Africans were the king’s advisors who had to get the people’s approval to allow the explorer to tour the land. The king could not grant an outsider the right to tour the nation without the population’s consent. Such political involvement in all aspects of government is a tradition African people have forgotten and need to remember. In kingdoms such as ancient Kemet, kings were supposed to carry out the desires of the people. If they didn’t they would be removed. This holds true for modern society so political involvement is something that “must” be actively practiced because it is the common sense and African thing to do.

It is thus important to know history, one’s own and that of others, because those memories serve as learning tools that can be used for political action. I will close with the following excerpt from Ivan Van Sertima’s essay on “History as a Guide to Modern Political Action.” “We should drink deep from the well of our history but in a way that nourishes rather than simply titillates us, poisons us, or divide us. History is a critical complement to contemporary reality and it is particularly helpful to those who have lost their way in the world because the footprints of their past have vanished or been erased……….It should be a dynamic beam of light in daily motion across the sky of our minds. It should charge us not only with a surge of new pride but the electric energy of creative action.” Thank you for reading.

My Divine Reflection

Is infinite patience for Black men an irrational postulation? I have asked myself this question innumerable times whenever the epiphany of being in a degenerating relationship became impossible to neglect and/or justify. Recently, I had had an opportunity to thoroughly reflect on this question with keen depth and truthful introspection when I had almost diverged into the grips of victimization, despondency, and anger. Before my sudden and final realization that my relationship with my former love would never work, the power of these extraordinary emotions had invaded my being like a viral plague. The aggravation, despair, hurt, doubt and betrayal so many Women of African Descent (Black Women) experience, besieged my heart because this was not the first time that I have been mistreated and lied to by someone I’ve loved. The consistent and persistent battle for harmony, reciprocity and truth Black women seek, is voided, exploited, misinterpreted and manipulated by societies and mindsets cajoling us to forget that we were and still are the source, fortitude, intuitive third eye, the backbone of every civilization—and the intelligent civilizations, like that of Ancient Kemet (Egypt), honored and respected the Divine essence of Wombmen; men within these societies were so knowledgeable of the divine reflection and compliment of a Black Wombman, their powerful and magnificent colossi—Queen Tiye and Amenhotep III—was constructed to impart one of Ancient Kemet’s most profound teachings—Isosephile: Eye to Eye, Soul to Soul. Men chosen to serve as the Nsubit (King/Pharaoh), through a Matrilineal order, in Ancient Kemet, knew that aligning with the soul of the source from which all of life emanates is the key to his enlightenment and the substance of their infinite, holistic union.

Unfortunately, though I’d parted the Red Sea, unclothed my vulnerabilities, inhibitions, and fears, compromised clairvoyance for reigning self-doubt, and accepted callous words, accusations, and behaviors by my Black Man, the soul-shattering depletion and frazzled state of which I’d become was a clear sign that I had to let go. I felt that, in spite of all of the head-way my former love and I had apparently made, he still did not get it; he did not get me and the level of his immaturity, egotism, underdevelopment, and pride was too immense for me to withstand; I could not bare to sacrifice the Ma'at I unrelentingly cultivated in my life simply because, I thought, this brother showed promise. The voice of my Divine Ancestors, Neter, Neteru aided my realization that although I should always love and remember the phenomenal and magical moments I’d shared with this person, compromising who I am, my values is equivalent to the death of my soul.

Many of us are familiar with the science of Dr. Joy DeGruy's Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, The Willie Lynch Letter, Brainwashed, to name a few, but when does recognition of the heart-wrenching reality of the Black woman’s plight, our ability to surmount vast catastrophes, and our victory over stupendous tribulations acknowledged? When can the mechanisms of our resilience serve as the blueprint for Black Men? When will exclamations of the unparalleled affronts imposed on Black Men no longer function as a viable excuse for the behaviors they justify and are justified for them? Recently, a very wise elder who is a studious traveler, martial arts practitioner, initiate of Ancient Mysteries Systems, historian and researcher, proposed a thought. He brilliantly contended that everyone, within the cosmic scheme of things, has their turn. We African people attained self-actualization thousands if not millions of years ago, yet here we are. How we got here is significant. What we are doing to resurrect self is paramount?

Fortunately, my cognitive awareness of the pertinence of holistic metamorphosis enables me to recognize that we exist to be challenged. These existential experiences, whether we perceive them as catastrophic or exhilarating, construct the very fiber of our physical and esoteric beings and consequent manifestations.

Although African peoples are bombarded with an onslaught of negativity from nearly every societal compartment—personal, familial, political, social, and so forth—it is up to us, right here, right now, to choose to instigate or to eradicate the crises we have been subjected to and tend to perpetuate. Instead of harboring anger and resentment towards the men who have been grave disappointments, I am refining myself; I am cultivating the sacred and inherent prowess of my entire being; I am recognizing the reasons why I attract negativity and challenging myself to courageously move away from counterintuitive thoughts and actions; I am radiating love because I am constantly affirming my passion to learn, grow, develop, transcend and ascend as an enlightened being.

To conclude, I have no intention to denounce Black Men in spite of current and dire circumstances. To me, the connection and procreation between a Black Man and a Black Woman is the epitome of perfection. The vibration of a Black Man’s tone, the power of his touch and the gravitational magnetism of his soulful eyes, thoughts and mind, supersede common understanding. Black Women knows of his intrinsic capacity to be whole, so it is not that we are emotional whenever we see and experience discontinuity, as if we are merely having a carnal response; we, the progenitors of life manifestations, feel incomplete because the spirit our divine compliment is dim and lost in darkness.