Habari Gani? Kujichagulia! which means Self Determination – To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.

Self-Determination is such a beautiful principle which speaks to the freedom that all individuals and people-groups should be able to rightly exercise. Though not always using the term, I have been writing about “kujichagulia” on this site for a long time.

In early 2008, I was blessed to be a part of the Park Heights Community “Dry Out” campaign that sought to expel liquor stores and predatory businesses from the 5100 block of Park Heights Avenue in Baltimore. It’s beyond shameful that there are 4 liquor stores in that one block! It’s also telling that in this overwhelmingly Black community; all of those liquor stores are owned by non-Black people. Under the leadership of Derrick Compton and with the support of others like now-councilman Brandon Scott, Al Watson, and Pastor Kevin Brooks; we put weekly pressure on these establishments to let them know they were being monitored for infractions and targeted for eventual expulsion.

In November 2009, I critiqued the Emerging Christian Movement in the spirit of self-determination, for its exclusion of non-white voices as it presented theological dynamics and features as if they created them while all the while People of Color of other Faith traditions and denominations have been practicing different “emerging” principles for generations.

I wrote about “kujichagulia” back in August 2010 when I proclaimed that “Black People Should Control The Baltimore City Public School System” on the grounds that Afrikan youth make up about 98% of the student population and the city is somewhere around 65% Afrikan. This notwithstanding, Black folks are regularly begging and pleading to have substantive say in the education of their own youth.

Self-determination pushed me back in April 2011 when I talked about the general “whiteness” of the Urban Farming/Healthy Food Movement and the need for people of color to be at the lead of the food revolution just as we are in most cases the ones suffering under the brunt of America’s food deserts.

And of course, my involvement in the struggle against Governor O’Malley’s plan to build a new youth jail in East Baltimore has been fueled by my firm belief that the Black Community should decide what institutions we want or don’t want in our community just like White people and Jewish people decide what will or won’t come in their communities. If White people don’t want a business or even a church to come into their community; chances are it won’t come. If Jewish people don’t want a business to come in their community; chances are it doesn’t come. Why should it be any different for Afrikan people? We don’t want O’Malley’s multi-million dollar youth jail and many of us have committed ourselves to organize, agitate, and protest – even if it means physically impeding the path of construction trucks – until O’Malley bends to our wishes.

This, my friends, is self-determination and in different ways it’s happening all over the world.

I pray that the flames of “Kujichagulia” burn even brighter in the new year for the Global Afrikan Family. As Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. reminded us – “No one can ride your back unless its bent.” No more hunched-backness in the Black community! May we stand up straight like righteous women and men and commit to “define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves” without timidity or apology.

Ashe.

So off the top let me say that yes – I am a follower of Christ and yes – I celebrate Kwanzaa. Some may see these affirmations as incompatible and polar opposites, however, there is no incongruity with me. I am thankful for Kwanzaa and truly appreciate the fact that the day after I join countless millions of Christians in celebrating the gift of new life in Christ; I can immediately keep the celebration going by observing the new life that is possible for the Afrikan community as we embrace sacred values.

Those sacred values in Kwanzaa are called the Nguzo Saba – the 7 principles – and today the principle that is uplifted is UMOJA which means UNITY. With this principle we are invited to “strive for and maintain unity between the family, community, nation, and race.”

In my estimation this is a beautiful way to start this sacred week of observance for the Afrikan community. And leading up to this day of UNITY, my mind was reflecting on Bro. Malcolm X and his speech entitled The Ballot of The Bullet – given in 1964. The whole speech is powerful to say the least, but the first few paragraphs and the closing paragraph are particularly important given today’s focus on UNITY.

Bro. Malcolm goes to great lengths in the opening of the speech to diminish divisions between himself and other Freedom Fighters who embraced different religious perspectives. By 1964, he understood that religion should NOT be a barrier that keeps the Black Community from working together. He shared his position that the Black community has a common fight and a common enemy. At the end of his talk that day, he pledged his support for any of the organizations or ministers (Christian or otherwise) on the rostrum who needed his support. Bro. Malcolm’s evolution in that way can inspire the Black Community today.

There are yet unhealthy levels of factionalism and outright division in the Afrikan community…there is even disconnect within factions that causes greater splintering. As I shared recently on a WEAA radio program; one of the tools of the MAAFA (or Afrikan Holocaust) was Disconnection. African people were forcibly disconnected from their names, their villages, their culture, their land, their religious beliefs, etc. My position is that if DISCONNECTION was the tool used to overpower us; then RECONNECTION and thereby UNITY will be the path that restores our collective strength.

I am excited to see the seeds of this in Baltimore. There is a rising generation of social justice activists and servants of the Afrikan Community that are expressing a greater readiness for strategic unity around shared goals. We are African Spiritualists, Muslims, Christians, Black Nationalists, Pan Africanists, and Integrationists. We don’t agree on every minor point or detail, however, we recognize that no one of us and no one of our organizations will be able to achieve some of the laudable goals that we cherish for the broader Afrikan community in the city.

We MUST work together. We MUST share resources. We MUST lend support to each others initiatives. We MUST begin to identify specific points that we will work together on in 2012. This does not mean that the distinct identities of any of our organizations must be erased. Rather, I believe that our greatest strength is in our varied gifts, organizational identities, and perspectives that when combined can produce lasting fruit.

I close this Umoja reflection by giving thanks for some of the Afrikan-centered groups that I know of that are serving Baltimore’s Afrikan community in remarkable ways. I give thanks for Everyone’s Place Bookstore & African Cultural Center, Solvivaz Nation/Reality Speaks Bookstore, Habesha, the Pan-Afrikan Liberation Movement and its various programs, ISA Academy, Nsoroma Academy, Ujima People’s Progress Party, the Marshall “Eddie” Conway Freedom School, and the many others that I don’t even know about (please add other Baltimore-based, Afrikan-centered organizations that you know of in the comments section)

May 2012 be a year of continued blessing to your organizations and I pray that we can lay the foundation for closer cooperation and functional unity for the benefit of our people. If there is anything that I can do to support you, your organizations, and/or initiatives that will benefit our community; please don’t hesitate to ask. I truly appreciate you all and look forward to strengthening the ties that bind us together.

Ashe.

FROM: Baltimore Solidarity with Palestine Facebook Event Page:

On November 15, 2011, young Palestinian activists are planning a bold new assertion of their human rights in the face of Israeli state-instituted segregation, and they are reaching out to American allies for support, especially in cities like Baltimore which know segregation and anti-segregation activism. On Tuesday, November 15, these Palestinian activists will attempt to board segregated local public buses headed to occupied East Jerusalem. Their act of civil disobedience is directly inspired by the Freedom Riders of the US Civil Rights Movement, and activists across the US are planning solidarity actions for the same day.

In Baltimore, there will be a demonstration at Penn Station during the evening rush hour, telling the story of the current Palestinian Freedom Rides through dramatic art and song. We will also explore the connections between the Palestinian and American struggles for human rights and against racism and exploitation. For example, the governments of both Israel and Baltimore City outsource large and unfair infrastructure projects to Veolia, a multinational corporation. In Palestine that looks like these bus lines which only serve Jewish-only settlements and solidify the settlements’ illegal land grabs. In Baltimore, Veolia’s projects are those like the Charm City Circulator, which serves only central, privileged neighborhoods, and heating and cooling systems for the highly subsidized, yet exclusive corporate projects of the Baltimore Development Corporation.

Tuesday’s action promises to be fun, educational, and a strong way for us to show our solidarity with these courageous and historic Freedom Rides.

Please mark your calendars and plan to join us on Tuesday, November 15th between 5:00 and 7:00pm.

Click here for more background on the Freedom Riders Protest in Palestine/Israel.

Jim Wallis, Founder of Sojourner Magazine

Jim Wallis writes a thought-provoking article about the “end” of the Iraq War entitled, It’s Finally Over – and it was Wrong.”

It made me think about the first time I was arrested for direct action and civil disobedience in protest of the military invasion and occupation of Iraq four years ago. The action was planned and promoted in large measure by the Sojourner’s community. I kept the cuffs that restrained me that cold night so that I can show my sons that sometimes living with convictions will cost you something.

But Wallis’ article on Iraq also pricked something else in me. It made me think of the ever-expanding U.S. military action now under President Obama. The same convictions that catapulted me to the White House in protest four years ago are the same ones that critique this president. Obama is not above critique and is NOT greater than the foundational spiritual tenets that I embrace as a follower of Jesus. Here is the comment that bubbled up from my soul onto Wallis’ website in response to his article:

Great article, Jim.

I marched with you and others during the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq in March 2007.

Reading how you rightly described the distortions and lies that justified war in Iraq under Bush made me think of the lies spewed to justify military action in Libya, Uganda, and other parts of the world under Obama.

I didn’t march in 2007 against a republican president. I marched because I embrace the ethic of the Prince of Peace and am co-laboring with others to experience the Beloved Community. With the American military empire spreading now under a democratic president; I believe it’s time for another gathering and mobilization of people of Faith.

To march when Bush calls for war and withhold from marching when Obama expands war across the world threatens our credibility as people whose “citizenship is in Heaven.” It’s easy to stand for conviction when it’ll be embraced and applauded (as it was under Bush). It takes a greater level of resolve to act on convictions when it won’t be popular and will cost us something.

The Church is in danger of losing its voice.

Time to Blow the Trumpet,

Pastor Heber Brown, III
Baltimore, MD

SOURCE: David Shankbone

If all goes as planned. Today – October, 4, 2011 – will be a day that is remembered and perhaps even recorded in the “People’s History of Baltimore City.”

For the past couple of years a committed group of activists have been challenging Maryland state plans to build a multi-million dollar youth jail in East Baltimore – in a community that is already saturated with prisons and jails. While initial activism around the issue was met with strong resistance from political and agency leaders; some of them are beginning to become more vocal opponents of the youth jail citing stats that reveal that crime among youth in Baltimore is decreasing (following a national trend related to crime in general) and fiscal restraints are forcing political power brokers to consider other options.

Last year, this month, community leaders and grassroots activists hosted Youth Justice Sunday which brought a crowd of a few hundred to the neighborhood and site of where the construction of the youth jail is planned in East Baltimore. Today, youth leaders are joined by nonprofit professionals and their allies to once again march and raise awareness about the community’s continued disagreement with this youth jail project – demanding instead that dedicated operating and capital monies be redirected to schools, recreation centers, jobs, and other critical services that residents desire.

Today also marks the start of #OccupyBaltimore – an outgrowth of the #OccupyWallStreet effort that’s been going on for two weeks now in New York. The New York effort – which is a logistically impressive and passionate protest – has gained much attention in people-owned media and communication media, but just recently began grabbing the attention of corporation-owned media after NY police officers pepper-sprayed female protesters. (Wouldn’t be surprised if someone in the #OccupyWallstreet camp knew that crying White females on television in America gets the national TV cameras there quick!)  The #OccupyWallStreet narrative continued to develop with what protestors call the “Battle of the Brooklyn Bridge.”

200 people show up for inaugural meeting of #OccupyBaltimore

#OccupyBaltimore, which was started by the actions of those inspired by the NY-action, organized rapidly – largely on social networking sites and google. Remarkably, approximately 200 people attended the first meeting of the group (Sunday at 9PM!), more than 400 people have joined the Google group, and nearly 1,000 people have said on Facebook that they will join the group as they will begin “occupying” (that word has heavy negative baggage, but I get it.) downtown Baltimore at the corner of Pratt and Light Street – in the heart of Baltimore’s corporate and tourist district. Interestingly enough, the Baltimore police have already begun “monitoring” and likely infiltrating #OccupyBaltimore according to the Baltimore Sun:

“Baltimore police were monitoring social media and news reports for updates on the Inner Harbor protest, said spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.”

Stay tuned for up to the minute details regarding Baltimore’s Day of Protest. We’ll have pictures, video, and livestream of protestors and reactions.

I spent the afternoon on a therapist’s couch yesterday exploring the hurts and the prospects of healing between Continental and Diasporan Africans. The meeting was called to begin preliminary discussions on how we might be able to work together on an event (or series of events) that would bring the two groups together in order to share our stories, foster understanding, and nurture unity on shared interests. Given that most of her clients are new African immigrants and most of my church is made up of Blacks born here; we see the potential to work together as – what one of my professors, Dr. Jacqueline Lewis, might call – “border people” to invite the groups to share space in sanctuary.

What started as a planning meeting seemed to evolve into a personal therapy session for me. Without external prompting, I began to share my stories and my pain as it relates to wrestling with identity. I spoke of going to study in Ghana for a brief period and while packing my suitcases, I filled one up with food and when asked why, I said, “I don’t know what those people eat over there.” It was just another outward manifestation of the stigmas related to Africa and Africans that I had internalized. “Those people,” as backward as they are – had to eat some crazy food and I wasn’t down for it.

I remember being in high school with my boys and us “cracking on” one another – the “sport” of humorously putting each other down. And if you really wanted to get a good joke in, you’d call somebody an “African booty scratcher” or throw their “blackness” at them in insult – “you’re so black you’re blurple!”

This didn’t come out of no where. At a young age, I was trained to think of Africa as backward and Africans as people I didn’t want to be. I remember watching movies like “The Air Up There” and listening to comedians like Godfrey [Warning: link has explicit language] paint mental portraits of Africa/Africans that I wanted nothing to do with.

But it wasn’t just about what I saw or heard, it was also about what I wasn’t exposed to. Africa and Africans were absent from my k-12 educational journey…even during “Black History Month.” I wasn’t tested on Africa, quizzed on contemporary African issues, encouraged to read African authors, or instructed on slavery and colonialism’s impact on the African world – so it must not be important to know. (And if something was slid into the curriculum it did not tend to shed a favorable light on Africa/Africans.)

And the stigmatization goes the other way as well. Before Africans even immigrate here, they are fed prejudicial information, stereotypes, and mental pictures that paint African Americans as lazy and irresponsible leaches in American society. Then they get here and are fed a fuller diet of information that props up those pictures which support the racist justifications related to the plight of African Americans. (soley internal reasons with no examination of external factors)

So both groups – Diasporan Africans and Continental Africans – internalize damning depictions of the other and then because we don’t often share safe space, we never afford each other the opportunity to re-calibrate and unlearn what we’ve learned so that we might be healed and grow personally and collectively. This dynamic plays out from corporate American, to the streets, to the college campuses.

Which is why I’m thankful for the work of Kobina Aidoo, a local filmmaker and policy analyst who created the documentary, The Neo African Americans. His efforts, which are highlighted in a thought-provoking article entitled “Black Like Us” by Kenneth Cooper [SOURCE: SPRING 2011 edition of The Crisis Magazine]; uncover the many layers that help build the chasm that exists between Africa-descended groups and highlights the similarities that are far too often overlooked.

The need to build bridges that were intentionally burned between Continental and Diasporan Africans has long been understood, however, it is encouraging to see my generational peers like Bro. Kobina, building and advancing the issue. I now understand that before we can engage the important issues of a Pan African cause (economic, political, etc.); we must deal with the question of identity and the issue of community first. The prospects of our achieving great things in partnership are slim if we don’t see ourselves in each other.