You gotta have faith
Today is the first day of 2012. It’s also the last day of Kwanzaa, a festival celebrated by African Americans as a commemoration of the first harvest in the motherland. The week long celebration is centered around the seven priniciples of African Heritage or Nguzo Saba. Interpreted from Swahili the are as follows: Umoja (Unity),
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics),
Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity)and of course Imani (Faith).
These principles are encouraged during this time within the black community to help strengthen black families, bring communities together and look forward to a better day. So it’s appropriate that it end as a new year begins. Black folks need this. New beginnings, new perspectives… hell, a chance! We lack unity, especially downtrodden African Americans, 27 percent of whom are impoverished and need a unified movement to improve their lives. There exists a self-determination but in many ways it seems to be misplaced, shadowed by dreams of grandeur. Many people, not just black people, are determined to live grand as encouraged by Diddy and Jay-Z, and stay determined and denied for a lifetime. Collective work and responsibility, now this one gets me. When I was young, I had heard black people never work together, I have seen the anti-thesis of that theory I’m glad to say. Black people have spearheaded movements, opened charter schools, mastered the march and the sit in, and taken responsibility for their neighborhoods. But…the scale of this collective work, in modern times, is small, too small in fact to claim to be responsible for any good in the ‘hood. Cooperative Economics, sharing the wealth. Let’s just say that’s been another dream deferred. Purpose, black people have one, we all do in fact. But the storied, painful and powerful history of African Americans is too massive to not be purposeful. Do too many of us squander their purpose, especially within the community, no doubt. It is truly the most prickly pill to swallow because I see, and have experienced the spirit of unworthiness, assigned by my people to others like them. Many of our urban educational institutions, colleges, businesses, lack the investment from the community, emotional, physical, and economic investment to realize their true purpose. Creativity, this one has been mastered by African Americans, despite the lack of credit. From rock and roll, to style and fashion, hip hop culture, even just surviving on less, takes a creative spirit. But it’s overshadowed by the more sensationalized, more disturbing media images of black folk being to desperate to be inspired, or inspiring… so that leaves us with faith.
Faith is a funny thing. Christians, like myself, read a bible that tells us, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, the smallest of seedlings, you can move mountains. Within the black community, mountainous journeys are as common as sweet potato pie at holiday gatherings. Because of the oft times torturous circumstances, insurmountable road blocks, and isolation that pits black folk against one another, its a hard thing to hold on to, let alone share. From my perspective, which is admittedly cloudy, I am troubled by the lack of faith within my people, and the limited of faith in them to be purposeful, united, determined, creative, economically cooperative, responsible and faithful. It’s troubling because even in affluent black communities, there exist a divide, stimulated by competition, and nurtured by an inferiority complex. True there are adversarial circumstances in all communities, but African Americans were taught throughout the history of this country that we are not as good as… so we can ill afford to be bested by the worst society has to offer. We have so much to overcome, from high unemployment, to catastrophic HIV rates, plummeting income, and increasing violence, we’ve gotta believe in each other to make these problems, even approachable. Bottom line we’ve gotta have faith.
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