Since the Sixties, we of Us have understood, engaged and embraced Blackness as a very serious and sacred way of being and becoming in the world, an African way, a unique and equally valid and valuable way of being human with all its rich and varied possibilities and worthy of the highest respect.
It is a beautiful memory and uplifting thought to realize our organization Us was conceived in the fiery and formative womb of the August 1965 Revolt of our people and emerges and comes into being in the aftermath of our people’s continuing efforts and struggles to end police brutality and violence, economic and other exploitation, and the White supremacy and systemic racism that produce, sanction and foster these and other forms of anti-Black and anti-other oppression.
This is tambiko, sacred words and water offered in remembrance and rightful honor of three Simba/Saidi of Us, three Lions of August and all-seasons soldiers: Nana Sebati Wasifu Tangulifu, Nana Omowale Tambuzi and Nana Robert Tambuzi.
As we celebrate and commemorate this month of revolution and resistance, we call Black August, we of necessity pay rightful and special homage to the people of Haiti who mark on August 14th their 231st anniversary of the Bwa Kayiman Liberation Gathering of men and women to plan their world historical struggle which would result in a victorious revolution that has deep and enduring meaning for the quest, concept and practice of freedom throughout world.
The year 1965 began on an ominous and unsettling note — the assassination and martyrdom of Nana Malcolm X, the Fire Prophet. Even in the white and winter cold of February, it was a sign of the coming fire. Indeed, it pointed toward the fiery fulfillment of prophecy, which Nana Malcolm, himself, had predicted.
Since the transforming struggles of the Sixties, it has been for us in the organization Us, both a reaffirmation of our commitment and a reenforcing reminder to begin our day with the centering thought and declaration: “it is a good day to struggle.”
Certainly, practicing the morality of remembrance, we cannot pass the month of July without paying rightful homage to our foremother, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, born July 10, 1875, laying down in peace and rising up in radiance May 18, 1955.
My interest in and embrace of Kiswahili as a pan-African language of choice raised questions of how best to communicate this choice and initiative to the African American community as well as the larger world African community. Important for me was, not only our learning of the language as a skill, but also and especially learning and embracing its communitarian views, values and practices. The task, then, was not only to provide language classes, but to create a cultural context and process by which there was an ongoing and expansive dialog with African culture, using Swahili as a
The rapid rise of the Swahili language to global reach and significance reflected in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designating July 7, 2022, as World Kiswahili Language Day brings with it a profound sense of elation and satisfaction of work well done to all those in Africa, the U.S. and around the world who worked hard to achieve this rightful recognition of it.
Nana Frantz Fanon (July 20,1925–December 6, 1961), noble ancestor and teacher of the righteous, radical and transformative word, believed in Africa’s capacity to repair, raise and renew itself, and in the African people’s will to unite and liberate themselves, bring into being a new world, woman and man, and start a new history of Africa and humankind.
It is good to sing and celebrate ourselves, to dance in honor of the divine spark and specialness within each of us, and to rejoice in the midst of the sacred music we together make in the many ways we love and struggle to do and share good in the world. But our celebrations must always be rooted in and reflective of our own agency, our own image and own interests.
This is a Father’s Day message for Black fathers, African fathers, made more urgent and needed by the constantly changing and ever challenging times in which we strive to live good lives, do our work well, and wage victorious struggles of smaller and larger kinds.
America is in crisis, having become a society against itself, moving from massacre to massacre seemingly with a mad hatter’s moral compass and a woefully insufficient moral commitment to clear a path to put the gun down as solution and salvation and stop the disabling and deadly violence against those different and vulnerable and even its chosen children.
On behalf of the African American Cultural Center (Us), we send greetings of solidarity and increased and continuing struggle to all African peoples throughout the world African community, and all oppressed, struggling and freedom-seeking peoples in the world on this African Liberation Day, May 25, in its 59th year of founding in Addis Abba 1963 by the Organization of African Unity.
If we are to rightfully remember Min. Malcolm, we must seriously grasp and practice what he so meticulously taught us about valuing our lives, our work and our struggle. Here I use grasp to mean take in hand and heart his legacy, study and understand it, and hold it firmly as a valuable heritage and framework for continuing forward.