“The Language You Cry In” …oral-aesthetic musings
“Everybody come… Everyone come together… / The grave is restless. The grave is not yet at peace…” (translation)
Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner, a pioneering African-American linguist, recognized the origin of these lines in a song he recorded in the 1930s on the south-east coast of America, sung in the Gullah dialect. Read More
Bantu Roadmaps… The Motown Connection
“You went to school to learn, girl Things you never, never knew before Li-i-ike “I-before-E-except-after-C” And why “2-plus-2-makes-4” Na… na… Now… I’m gonna teach you, All about love…” (J-5)
“A Reasonable African Future” ~ Guest Post written by Molefi Kete Asante, Ph.D.
Molefi Kete Asante, Ph.D. ~ Author
Over the past five hundred years or so Europe has been on a quest to destabilize and dis-establish the agency of African people. The assault has been frontal, sustained, and violent at physical and psychological levels using all dominative instruments of language, symbolism, and warfare. The consequences of this war on Africa have been profound, giving rise to doctrines of white supremacy and black inferiority, African servility, and the negation of African civilization. Read More
Bantu Roadmaps… Random Connections
Desmond Tutu
“Africans believe in something that is difficult to render in English. We call it UBUNTU… It means the essence of being human. You know when it is there and when it is absent. It speaks about humaneness, gentleness, hospitality, putting yourself out on behalf of others, being vulnerable. It embraces compassion and toughness. It recognizes that my humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” ~ Desmond Tutu Read More
Heru/Horus… Hero
When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land. ~ Kenya’s post-colonial Father: Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Prime Minister of Kenya (1963-64), President (1964-78), and author of “Facing Mount Kenya.” These words are sometimes attributed to South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Winner: Nobel Peace Prize, 1984; Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, 1986; Pacem in Terris Award, 1987; Sydney Peace Prize, 1999; Gandhi Peace Prize, 2005; and Presidential Medal of Freedom, 2009). Read More
“An African Renaissance is Possible.” Guest Blogpost written by Molefi Kete Asante, Ph.D.
Renaissance carries with it the idea of a rebirth. Over the past ten years this term has gained ascendancy in the rhetoric of Africans who seek to restore and reconstruct societies based on the classical traditions. It was the young Cheikh Anta Diop, still in his twenties, who asked in 1948 “When shall we be able to speak of an African Renaissance?” Read More
Malaika Mutere 