Defining Afrocentricity

Whose Narrative is Being Told?

For many years, scholars across the fields of Social Science have honed in on the definition of blackness. There has been careful and strategic construction of the Eurocentric perception of the Black family. These ideas have been propagated in global media outlets and have shaped the understanding of the identity of Africans in America. Many use these ideas of blackness as a basis for determining the worth of black men and women within the larger society, as well as to justify the oppression of the black family as a whole. Have we really digressed into this lower version of ourselves or have we just become so docile in objecting to the White Supremacist view with our own definitions that we are contributing to our own death? I propose that both are problems which must be examined and solved and we can start by turning the television off.

Redefining Black Culture

Defining ourselves for ourselves is not just about the influences of the media but the relations amongst our community. We must acknowledge the truth in the misconceived notions of our culture, and expose the black man and woman for their role in their own oppression. This information is not meant to shame blackness but to focus on how we must uplift ourselves. Afrocentricity has been defined in many different ways but I believe the definition given to us by Molefi Asante to be quite comprehensive and simple. “Afrocentricity is a mode of thought and action which the centrality of African interests, values and perspectives predominate.”  Many question how this word, popularized and misused in its Eurocentric redefinition, could help raise positive racial regard for black people but when practiced correctly this idea has the possibility of reconstructing the black mind. Controlling the black mind has been the key to enslavement and has evolved into self enslavement which was outlined by Willie Lynch in 1712 to the crackers, the slave owners, in the colony of Virginia.

“I shall assure you that DISTRUST is stronger than TRUST and ENVY stronger than ADULATION, RESPECT or ADMIRATION. The Black slaves after receiving this indoctrination shall carry on and will become self-refueling and self generating for HUNDREDS of years, maybe THOUSANDS.”

And so we have! We have regenerated the negative aspects of our ancestry and become divided in our manner of thinking. The purpose of Afrocentricity is the unification of the Black mentality. It is a global movement of the social, spiritual and psychological uplift of the black man and woman. This idea is essential to rebuild the black family; to provide structure to counteract the White Imperialist ideology that has broken apart and divided our community. Before we can redefine ourselves and our culture it is imperative that we begin to critically reflect on the ways in which we barricade and imprison ourselves. We must acknowledge the ways in which we have oppressed each other, Black man and woman. Huh? I said we must acknowledge the ways in which we have become death to one another, how we have become chaos to one another, how we objectify one another. There have been problems of interaction between the black male and the black female because of our overinvestment in Eurocentrism.

There has been a shift in the past 3 years towards Afrocentric ideas but we have become too invested in the materialistic ideas and not concentrating on building political and economic structures. We have focused on the vague changes of our identity and have not invested in becoming life for one another. Robert Oppenheimer spoke in 1945 and he proposed that we as humans have become God, that we as humans have become death. We have gained the capacity to rain down death on this Earth like it has never occurred before, to kill at will and in our case to dispose of our brothers and sisters as if we are not aware of the Revolution. As if we are not aware of the White Imperialist government unifying to commit genocide on our youth. Before we can become life we must properly understand the ways in which we commit death, in which we perpetuate death: with our words, our actions, our minds, our souls and our very existence. We must be existentially reflective so that we may ascend past our lower selves and find the God within us, within each other.

Acknowledging Our Truth

We have become the countenance of Death! We have become the weapons by which our brothers and sisters shed blood. We have become hyper-masculinity we have become gangsterism and we have become the denigration of the Black woman, Black man. Huh? I said we have become the sleuth, we have become uncontrolled hormones and we have become apathy towards the Black woman, Black man. We have become reflections of our enslaved ancestors by which we allow our women to be unprotected, our children to be unruled, by which we allow apathy, pride and fear to rule our mentality in the name of individualistic survival. Black men, all black women are not the enemy! We are there to compliment your evolution into manhood, to study together, to struggle together, and to grow; but we will not shoulder the burden of your inadequacies and insecurities. You must transcend past the weakness that is your sexual nature, you must transcend past your anger, and you must discipline yourself! Take your place in the household of the Black Family and lead. Every 96 minutes a black male is killed by the police state in America, In 2013 Non-Hispanic black males comprised 37% of the full prison population. They are removing you as a factor in the black household, but YOU ARE HERE! As you are here it your duty to protect your women and children. Declare war on the malignancy that is threatening to remove you from your family, your future families and your ancestry. Attack the system with a downpour of economic and political autonomy; remove yourself from dependency on the system that oppresses you! You must organize with your brothers! You must organize with your sisters! You must be ready to fight!

We have become co-creators with Death! We have become the weapons by which our brothers and sisters are mentally enslaved. We have become the reproduction of self hatred, we have become insecurity and self loathing and we have become dishonorable, Black woman. We have become the denigration of our bodies, we have become unbalanced emotional and psychological energies, and we have become intolerance of the Black man, Black woman. We too have become reflections of our enslaved ancestors by which we abandon allegiance to our Black men, deprive our black children the knowledge of self, and allow our souls to be misled by greed, scorn and fear in the name of sacrificial survival. Black women, we have gained dependency on the white supremacist system to provide our resources. We look to the European for protection, for love and acceptance, for peace. We must let go of the superficial binds of this society and replenish our spiritual wealth so that we may educate our children, so that we may educate our men, so that we may become the countenance of life that will reconnect the between the black man and woman. We must be great wives, mothers, organizers, educators, physicians, and we must heal the wounds of ourselves, our children, and our men. We must be patient, forgiving, and loving. We must properly understand the denigration and blatant abuse the black man has endured at the hands of the system we climb into bed with, cuddling up to the killer of your husbands, fathers, uncles, sons and nephews. Declare war on the executioner of our people, committing genocide against us for over 500 years. Assist your brothers in their attack on the system.

Destiny by Haki Madhubuti

“Under volcanoes & timeless years within watch
and low tones. Around corners, in deep caves among
misunderstood and sometimes meaningless sounds.
Cut beggars, outlaw pimps & whores. Resurrect work.
Check your distance blue. Come earthrise men
deepblack and ready, come sunbaked women rootculture on the move.
Just do what you're supposed to do, what you say you gonta do
not the impossible, not the unimaginative,
not copy clothed as original and surely
not bitter songs in european melodies. Take hold
do the necessary, the possible, the correctly simple
talk of mission & interpret destiny
put land and selfhood on the minds of our people
do the expected, do what all people do
reverse destruction. Capture tomorrows”

The Collective Black Organism

This destruction of our culture was intentional: the enslavement, hangings, beatings, castrations, burning of bodies, implanting of diseases, poisoning of our food, political exclusion, economic deprivation, educational limitations, and murder. Murder of our spirituality, our collective mentality, our men, women and children, it was all intentional. The European oppressor is responsible for all of these misfortunes but we are responsible for rebuilding our communities. We are responsible for capturing tomorrow for ourselves. It is time to stop using the abuse we have endured, however legitimate, as an excuse for what we continue to do to each other. It is time we recreate our identity rooted in Afrocentric politics, familial structures, spirituality and education. We must recreate the positive attributes of our ancestral culture.

We have are passing through a very dark tunnel of self reflection but now we are at the end, we are now freeing ourselves and bonding ourselves in this collective struggle. I believe that the Black man is God and Light as the Black woman is God and Earth. Our job is to work interchangeably to survive, to protect our younger generations and to restore the memory of our ancestry. NOW is the time to unify and revolutionize. Reconstruct our minds, nourish our bodies, protect our souls and aggregate our resources. We will educate ourselves and be patient within our growth. We will gain discipline and structure. We are under strategic political and economic attack, we will defend ourselves! Now is not the time to be stagnant, intolerant, divided, and consumed with self loathing or ego. Now is the time to study, evolve and gain peace with one another; for we are weak alone but a mighty force together.

“Magic my man is you turning my body into a thousand smiles.

Black magic is your touch making me breathe.”- Sonia Sanchez

Do You Believe in Magic?

After we have acknowledged where we are stagnant the next step is to evolve. We can make a difference for our future generations and we can become life for one another. Black men and women have stopped loving one another; we have stopped trusting one another and in many ways we perpetuate death as we experience our existence in opposition to one another. There was a time when we were life for one another; where our struggles bonded us and made us fight harder against white supremacist culture. There was a time when we unified against oppressive forces instead of being complicit in our own deaths. We can and will unify again. Brothers and sisters it is time for us to exhibit that magic that Sister Sanchez talked about.

We exist in a political era where it has become normative to murder an entire race of people, men women, and children, while it is witnessed globally; no one doing anything to stop it. It is clear that it is time for us to begin our spiritual consummation with one another. There are many ways to touch and uplift one another. There are many ways that we can remove ourselves from our negative psychological conditioning and transcend into our higher selves. Let us begin by falling back in love with ourselves again, trusting one another again, respecting each other. Let us touch, kiss, smile and make love with each other again Let us revolutionize together. Let us shower each other with positive thoughts, emotions, and actions. We must become balanced again and then we can begin to build our Nation!

Divine blessings and revolution to us all, may our paths collide in the creation of our future.

Mo dupe, Ase.