When did the Africans in the West of the sixties and seventies stop being African? This has been something I have writhed with —seeing, particularly supported by the media. We are called Black but there seems to be something in the air —that we tend to deny each other. Yes, we have many new and old “Cultures”, but —we are all one.
When I see Kendrick Lamar enacting us as “one” on an award show this year I sat up! And so there “are” pockets of Africans who go back to our several generations, still recognizing our relatives.
Yet, being an African through generational change is ‘seemingly’ complex. It is not that you wear an afro or a dashiki, that is some matter, yet —it is more of a mindset.
Why is there such a disconnect? Yes, I am have my theories, however there should not be a disconnect from all the African people who came from the motherland into the waters as prisoner slaves, those who voluntarily came, or as refugees, or those seeking a better way. Why do we deny each other? One thing I know is that there is no denying —the melanin.
Many of us do not call ourselves African and may never will. But if you are Black and from Brazil, the Americas, India, Caribbean, etc. —why be afraid of the word African? Although in this world in modern times it “seems” difficult for some to “claim” to be descendant of Africa, do not shy away from it. Although we may have adapted the ways of the Western hemisphere, our African DNA runs through us. “Claiming” is one of the steps to get away from a mental fragmentation and self-contradiction. I find that, we all have some sort of contradiction, however having a “great deal” of contradiction is unhealthy, stressful, and spiritually precarious.
If you are first-generation African, remember that the fourth and fifth Western generations are African as well. Separating yourself from your generational DNA is extremely dangerous. To downgrade your relatives is the up-most transgression. Don’t be biased and say, I do not like you because you are African, or Caribbean, or African American, or British Black, Black Latin, or Euro-Black with some strange accent. Learn about your distant cousins.
Keep this in mind; it is the saving seed-path across our continents.
Imagine the power of all of us Black —of “changed” cultures coming together as one. Imagine the power.
When I see Kendrick Lamar enacting us as “one” on an award show this year I sat up! And so there “are” pockets of Africans who go back to our several generations, still recognizing our relatives.
Yet, being an African through generational change is ‘seemingly’ complex. It is not that you wear an afro or a dashiki, that is some matter, yet —it is more of a mindset.
Why is there such a disconnect? Yes, I am have my theories, however there should not be a disconnect from all the African people who came from the motherland into the waters as prisoner slaves, those who voluntarily came, or as refugees, or those seeking a better way. Why do we deny each other? One thing I know is that there is no denying —the melanin.
Many of us do not call ourselves African and may never will. But if you are Black and from Brazil, the Americas, India, Caribbean, etc. —why be afraid of the word African? Although in this world in modern times it “seems” difficult for some to “claim” to be descendant of Africa, do not shy away from it. Although we may have adapted the ways of the Western hemisphere, our African DNA runs through us. “Claiming” is one of the steps to get away from a mental fragmentation and self-contradiction. I find that, we all have some sort of contradiction, however having a “great deal” of contradiction is unhealthy, stressful, and spiritually precarious.
If you are first-generation African, remember that the fourth and fifth Western generations are African as well. Separating yourself from your generational DNA is extremely dangerous. To downgrade your relatives is the up-most transgression. Don’t be biased and say, I do not like you because you are African, or Caribbean, or African American, or British Black, Black Latin, or Euro-Black with some strange accent. Learn about your distant cousins.
Keep this in mind; it is the saving seed-path across our continents.
Imagine the power of all of us Black —of “changed” cultures coming together as one. Imagine the power.