The Black Commentator - The Hawk's Nest: The African World Family

In part I of this article, I sought to familiarize readers with general information about what I call the African World Family (AWF). In this article, however, the purpose is to provide steps that could possibly strengthen that family. It goes without saying that some of those ideas stem greatly from the thoughts, words, and deeds of some of the African (Black) world’s greatest messengers--the Honorable Marcus Garvey, the leader of the largest Black mass/global movement in modern times, and his wife Amy Jacque Garvey, along with world-renown historian and Alabama native John Henrik Clarke, among others.

As stated in the previous article, to strengthen the AWF, the African World Family must rightfully re-take what supremacists (white and yellow, etc. and their cronies) have wrongfully taken from it. That primarily includes:

1) a strong sense of family unity despite any geographical or political, linguistic or religious, economic or educational and/or skin color (light-skinned or dark-skinned, etc.), among other, differences that typically have been used to divide them in the past

2) a sharp meticulous mind that works first and foremost to help and uplift, not harm and degrade, all the world’s (1) billion plus African (Black) people as a whole

3) a formidably strong spirit that more often than not resists the tantalizing temptation to “sell out” or betray African people past or present

4) what the African American scholar-activist John Henrik Clarke calls “a piece of geography called Africa.”

Truly, there can only be a strong sense of family unity when there is a strong sense or clear definition of characteristics and duties of and for family members, individually and collectively. African (Black) Fathers must not only provide for and protect their families, they must be living, breathing, daily examples to their sons as to what a real man is and to their daughters as to what to look for in a man—someone who is respectful, responsible, and dependable. For their part, African (Black) Mothers must not only give birth to and raise the children, along with the African Father (at or away from home), they must also pass on the culture of her African ancestors to the children by songs, poems, books, and music, etc. Furthermore, African Mothers also must be living, breathing, daily examples to their daughters to convey to them what a real woman is and to send a crystal clear and tornado-strong message to her sons as to what to look for in a woman—someone who is respectful, responsible, and dependable.

When the African parents do their part, more often than not, the African children will follow their lead. They will be respectful, responsible, and dependable and will pass those, all-important values on to their children. Moreover, that could very well result in a cease fire in the so-called war between the sexes in the African World Family. All they both have, for better or worse, is each other. Or, as Dr. Clarke, once put it, “There is no honorable place for the black man outside of the black woman and for the black woman outside of the black man.” It is do-or-die-time for them to settle their often petty and yellow-and-white-supremacist-enemy-created differences regarding income and economics, education and other overall opportunities. Together, as they did as the world’s first and oldest people and those from whom all other people came, they can create all those things for their own good and that of generations to come.

If African people’s assuming such duties as those cannot fully cause a cease fire in the so-called battle between the sexes, then maybe, at least, it can bring about a much-needed, no-holds-barred, open discussion or dialogue between them but in private, meaning to the exclusion of their common foes (white and yellow supremacists) so that the two of them, African (Black) man and African (Black) woman can develop a better understanding of each other. If done honestly and correctly, then, hopefully, they will realize that they are both in the same rotten, rocking-and-reeling, racist boat of white and yellow supremacy that pits them deviously against each other but views both as enemies for elimination both literally and figuratively.

Standing somewhat in the shadows is an extremely important part of the African World Family. It is none other than the Elders. Their role is most pertinent. Generally, they possess long life and enduring wisdom and knowledge. As such, they have seen and heard and know and can share a lot of those things and their experiences as a whole. As such, they are invaluable when it comes to helping younger adults and children avoid the pitfalls into which they may fall and/or from which they may have already fallen and may still be suffering.

Yet, the African (Black) Elders must be just as quick to listen and to console as they are to speak and to scold. They must be respected not simply because of their age but, more importantly, because of their lifestyle—the way that they treat others. In short, they must earn respect from others and must give respect to others.

The African World Family is on the road to recovery when it does those things written above. But it has to go one step further. It must develop what Dr. John Henrik Clarke calls “the essential selfishness of survival.” That means that all of the African World Family’s (1) billion plus members are obligated to look out for each other (“[their] kith and kin”, as Clarke puts it) “first and foremost” (before anyone outside of the AWF). Remember: white and yellow supremacist have followed a strongly similar philosophy for centuries to the detriment (mass physical, mental, and spiritual destruction) of the world’s African people.

Piggyback-riding that idea is a need for the African World Family to develop a system of rewards and punishments for its members. Using an African-base, this would mean that the actions of any and all members of the African World Family would be judged on whether it exalted or endangered the whole community. If it endangered it, then the community (AWF) has a right to punish that person as it sees fit. If it does not but exalts the community, then the community has a right to reward that person as it sees fit. That was the way of the traditional African court system, as described by such scholars as Clarke and Dr. Chancellor Williams, among others.

I used African traditions to formulate what I call “The Three E Plan: Exaltation, Encouragement, and Expulsion”. Simply put:

1) people in the African World Family who consistently do constructive or positive things, big or small, in the community should be Exalted (rewarded)

2) those who try to do consistently constructive things, but who have a harder time at it should be Encouraged

3)those who consistently, defiantly, and even violently refuse to do anything but that which is destructive in and to the community must be Expelled from the community to fend for themselves among those white and yellow supremacists for whom they are consciously or subconsciously work to enslave, exploit, and/or exterminate any and all members of the African World Family.

The above paragraph is greatly important. Why is it so? It is so because for far too long the African World Family has put up with those persons and ideas that we should have put out—those that are destructive to the well-being of our people as a whole. It is now time for us to cut our losses and cut the bad seeds loose.

Those losses are further cut when the African World Family regains its sharp, meticulous mind. It does this by studying and researching, writing and reciting, and preserving and promoting our history world-wide. It does so by imitating the good of its ancestors and learning from but not imitating the bad. By so doing, it rightfully places scholarship above sportsmanship and academics above athletics.

Such a much-needed shift in thinking would help bring to a screeching halt the physical and mental prostitution of African (Black) girls/women who are taught that their success should be based solely on their beauty and not their brains. Such a shift would also help to end the physical and mental pimping of African (Black) boys/men who are taught that their success depends on their muscles and not their minds. The shift would bring about long-sought after mental and spiritual maturation for both sexes.

Spiritual maturation is something that the entire African World Family needs and cannot do without. I dare say that a change in spirit or mind, sometimes seen as one and the same in some circles, is of much greater importance than a change in name, clothes, or religion for African (Black) people. In fact, even though Africans (Blacks) were the first to develop the idea of religion and all the world’s major religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, just to name a few) have strong African roots or origins, what the African World Family truly needs more than anything else is more spirituality and less religiosity.

Spirituality shows someone that he or she is a brother or a sister. Religiosity just says it. Spirituality says, “If I have, you have, and if you have I have”. Religiosity just talks about the haves and the have-nots. “Religion,” religiosity’s base word, means “to bind”. “Spirit” or “spiritual”, spirituality’s base word, means “life”. Yet, whether members of the African World Family belong to a religion or not, each of them should make sure that the religions that affect and shape their lives, both directly and indirectly, are more spiritual than religious and work more in favor of and less against the African World Family as a whole.

Furthermore, members of the African World Family should become more familiar with each other. Each should keep an open mind and an open line of communication with as many of its (1) billion plus members as possible. That can be done either through:

1) actual personal contact

2) or the international mail

3) international phone system

4) the internet (for general information about members of what the Afro-Trinidadian scholar Dr. Tony Martin calls “scattered Africa” or, of course, the AWF, and where and under what conditions do they live)

5) email

Collectively, such activities would enable AWF members to learn and understand more about the positives and the negatives of each other’s geo-political, socio-economic, religious and educational plight, among other things, and how we can increase the positive aspects and decrease, if not totally eliminate, the negative ones. In short, collectively, we would be able to come up with and implement both short- and long-range plans to improve the plight of African people worldwide.

That goes double for the Africans in Americas who were born outside of Africa and the Africans born in Africa who now emigrate in great numbers to the United States. They both must understand that they are brothers and sisters, though long-lost ones, by centuries in many cases, with the same mother—Africa—and that any differences that exist are much smaller than the similarities. Furthermore, virtually all of the many advantages (economic and educational opportunities and even citizenship and voting, among other things) of the United States that African-born and other non-American-born (Caribbean and Afro-Latino brothers and sisters) Africans (Blacks) take full advantage of in this “the home of the brave and land of the free” were fully paid. They were paid by the oceans of blood, sweat, and tears that their long-lost brothers and sisters, who were shipped to and enslaved in this land, shed long ago. And they continue to be paid for daily when Blacks are denied the right to take advantage of them or are brutalized (physically, mentally, spiritually and/or financially) if they do. In short, let’s stop allowing others to pit us against each other and, instead, do what we must and should do and what they don’t want us to do—work with and not against each other.

Globally, Africans (Blacks) must understand and obey the age-old philosophy of “Lead, follow, or get out the way.” In other words, if there are those who are members of the African World Family by proxy but would rather not be, do not hinder those who rightfully choose to be. Such “wanna-bes” (wanna-be non-Africans/Blacks) should agree on that if nothing else. Yet, they are typically the first ones to grab all the fruits of someone else’s (the true and hard-working, salt-of-the-earth, everyday members of the African World Family) hard labor—economic, educational, and political opportunities, among others.

To the nay-sayers who are truly honest with themselves, the big picture of the African World Family does not look like the simply small parts that the blind men individually examining an elephant saw. In reality, the African World Family has the potential to become a powerful, African bull elephant. That is the geographical shape of Africa—an elephant’s face.

Yet, when the African World Family fully reclaims all of the above, including, of course, Africa, the world’s richest continent, then and only then will it be just like that giant, bull elephant. It will walk majestically throughout this jungle world, trampling all unjust opposition and building friendships that sustain the bridges of the body, the soul, and the mind.

Truly, this mammoth, bull elephant known as the African World Family, with its thunderous earth-quaking footsteps, will shake the world right-side up. Then, like a Miles Davis or Dizzy Gillispie trumpet, its ebony trunk will blare to the world the pleasant and much-needed and –sought after change.

Read Part 1

BC Columnist HAWK (J. D. Jackson) is a priest, poet, journalist, historian, and African-centered lecturer and a middle school teacher and part-time university history instructor. Click here to contact HAWK.