Cleansing ourselves before we can change anything else
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 05:52PM
Sovereign Queen Califa of Ancient Black California
I was listening to an early morning talk program as I got dressed to come to the plantation this morning. The conversation centered around, a possible change in how crack cocaine dealers have been sentenced compared to those that sell powdered cocaine. Yet, the callers invariably shifted the subject to Black people being brought over on slave ships from Africa, how we need to form our own separate nation and reparations. I have always been interested in how Black people feel we need a separate state or nation when we can certainly choose to immigrate to nations, Black nations that already exist such as Liberia, Jamaica, The Bahamas or St. Kitts the way Randall Robinson, the founder of TransAfrica did in 2004. These nations are clearly autonomist and would greatly value any manpower and knowledge that we could supply. So why talk of creating a separate nation when they are here? Would this not assist in repairing our minds, bodies and spirits?
This brings me to reparations talk that came up during the program. I enjoyed a post on the Second Book of Asabagna blog by guest poster Brotha Pruitt entitled Reparations/Spiritual and Collective Action. He made some very excellent points concerning gaining reparations and shined a light on the idea of sovereignty, stating “ Blacks can undergo this task by holding a Plebiscite for Sovereignty…” a national vote among Black people in America. Sovereignty is a degree of knowledge many of us no little about. To regain one’s sovereignty demonstrates that we were a subjugated people, some forced into slavery from Africa but most subjugated after losing wars with the encroaching Europeans right here in the Americas. Sovereignty is a lofty but attainable notion. Yet, for me sovereignty begins with the self. We can talk of exercising sovereign rights, we can speak of reparations. However, we have work to do on ourselves, on our minds, on our children.
I believe we have to work on our minds because what we think will become what we say. What we say becomes what we do. In the post Brotha Pruitt kept referring to Black people as a separate people from himself. He would say “they need to address…” or “In order for them to do…” This alone speaks volumes about the mind set of one that is the Reparations Leader and Chairman Committee for African American Reparations (CAAR).
Apparently we are in need of personal cleansing, personal sovereignty, beginning with those that are working out front for “us.” To speak of Black people as “they” and “them” somehow removes the speaker/writer from “us.” What happened to African proverb I AM WE? Maybe I am being too harsh but, I often see and hear us talking about many lofty things yet many of us don’t take care of small personal improvements. I was recently having a conversation with a close friend of mine and she was explaining that there are ways we can exercise certain sovereign rights and how to demonstrate them. I agreed with her that, in fact, we can demonstrate these rights but I asked her has she started by pulling her credit report and could she understand her rights concerning her report? The answer was no!
We have issues that we can overcome. We have health problems we can overcome by simply thinking differently, eating differently. Dick Gregory says we are a nation of people that are sleep deprived and dehydrated. We can cure a lot of our physical ailments by simply drinking the right amount of water daily. Can we start reparations by making ourselves healthy? Why gain reparations and maintain poor health? Why create a separate nation and have no knowledge of the credit reporting system or how currency/money flows in the world or in the country you live now? These are the things affecting us now that we can do something about now.
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