Pushing boundaries and limits has been an undercurrent of the Rev. Dr. Michael J. Fisher’s pastorship both inside and outside of the church.
Righteously refusing to be silenced and defiantly demanding a seat at the table, Nana Fannie Lou Hamer speaking and lobbying for justice at the Democratic National Convention in 1964, reaffirmed that to achieve a just and good society, we must “question America,” confront its contradictions and radically change and achieve this country in the interest of freedom, justice and equality and other shared goods for the peoples of this country and ultimately the world.
As we celebrate this year’s African Liberation Day (May 25), it is important to note that we are passing through a pivotal and powerful moment in African and human history. And the central sites for this time of radical turning are in Palestine, South Africa, in this country and on countless campuses and elsewhere around the world. And we as African peoples are linked to it in various ways as allies in struggle and as midwives and co-makers of a new unfolding history, not only for Palestine and the Palestinian people, but also for us and indeed, for the world.
As we move into May, the month of Nana Haji Malcolm’s coming into being, I would like to share some thoughts from this text in commemoration and celebration of his radically instructive and uplifting life and legacy.
As we witness and work and struggle to end the Israeli genocidal war against the Palestinian people, the century-old brutal intervention and occupation of Haiti, the U.S. and Europe complicity and culpability in these horrors, and the savage oppressions of various kinds across the globe, a critical look at history is morally, intellectually, and politically imperative.
In the midst of the current state of the world with all its faces and forces of genocide, injustice, evil and oppression, I reach back in the practice of sankofa to retrieve and bring forth the timeless ancient ethical wisdom of our honored ancestors. And I do this realizing the awesome unequal suffering of women and children in this month and moment of history and in honor of their defiant and radical refusal to be defeated, to be resigned in despair or to cease their resistance in opposition to oppression and in affirmation of their dignity, humanity and indispensable role
Emerging and emergent conversations about our future as a people conducted in the community and academy in the midst of ever evolving technology, AI and related ideas, apprehensions and aspirations bring to mind the dual focus on the lessons of our history and the ethical concerns for our humanity. As Nana Haji Malcolm taught, history is a vital resource and indeed an arsenal of knowledge for our struggle from which we can draw to protect and promote our humanity and conceive, fashion and forge a future in the cultural image and human interest of our people.
It is Haji Malcolm, Maulana (Master Teacher) and constant soldier, who taught not only the centrality and indispensability of knowing history, but also the urgent imperative to map out its meaning and course and make it consciously and conscientiously. Indeed, he said, “We must recapture our heritage (history) and our identity if we are to ever liberate ourselves from the bonds of white supremacy.”
When Nana Haji Malcolm X taught and stressed the foundational importance of the critical study of history, he was responding not only to the ongoing need for historical knowledge in all times and places, but also to the context of his times and the liberational role of history in the unfolding Black Freedom Movement.
In the midst of our rightful concern and support for the many oppressed and struggling peoples of the world, the people of Haiti must also remain at the center of our moral consideration in ongoing active and effective ways. This is said in full recognition and respect of the numerous sites of severe oppression and even genocidal campaigns against the different and vulnerable peoples of the world.
As the edges of the years meet and merge and this year becomes the next New Year, we are asked by our honored ancestors and obligated by the urgencies of our times to pause and ponder the critical questions and issues confronting us, all African peoples, and the world. And we are to do this with parallel questioning and consideration of who we are, what we are to do because of who we are, and how we are to do what we must do because of who we are.
In the sacred tradition of our ancestors, I write you again this letter in loving memory and reaffirmation of your enduring meaning to me and all of us, reaching beyond time and space to share and shape together this moment of specialness as a sign and mirror of the goodness of it.
Again, this year we wish for Africans everywhere throughout the world African community “Heri za Kwanzaa. Happy Kwanzaa.” And we bring and send greetings of celebration, solidarity and continued struggle for an inclusive and shared good in the world.
Kwanzaa is a time of celebration, remembrance, reflection and recommitment. It requires these practices throughout the holiday. But the last day of Kwanzaa is dedicated to deep reflection, meditation on the meaning and measure of being African and how this is understood and asserted for good in the world in essential, uplifting and transformative ways.
Surely in these times in which there is complicit silence and active support for the radical evil of genocide waged through war by Israel and aided by the U.S. against the Palestinian people in Gaza, we, as a people, must find ourselves firmly and rightly in the ranks of the international resistance to it.