Love and Presents

Love

Love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love takes a while to find.
Love is passionate.
Love is sweet.
Love is free.
Love isn't that hard to see.
Love is in me.

Presents

Presents are gifts.
Presents are joy.
Presents are filled with love.
Presents, Presents, Presents
Come with a smile,
To receive... LOVE and JOY

~Mikiya Rasul

Two's Company

The Oak

I have a Oak Tree tall and old.
As wind howls the leaves and acorns swift through the wind as if they were mocking jays souring through the wind...

Last Breath

I have been shot
As I lay here
I start to rot
My body is needing
My eyes are closing
My breathing is slowing down
My heart stop
Tis my breath to it I breathes last

~Maygen

Who is the girl?

Who is the girl who is broken-hearted?
Who is the girl who cried?
Who is the girl who will be departed from love because her heart had died?
Who is the girl who refuse to open her heart for a man?
Why has her heart been abused and afraid to be broken again?
Why did it not work when the girl tried her best to forget him?
Why is it when the boy had left he took the girl's heart with him?
When will the girl find true love?
Why in her heart is there hate?
Why has her smile turned to a mug and love in her heart has been erased?
The girls heart is filled with pain and now it is easy to see....
That the girl whose days will always rain,
That sorrowful girl's name is ME

~Lennay McFadden

Loved One, Lost One

My hands are up, please don't shoot.
Robbed a store and got some loot?
All of this doesn't sound like me,
grabbed some stuff and gave him my money.
When I walked back home, the police followed me,
And said I stole it. Really?

So you told me to get on the ground, the sirens, guns, tazzers, and hounds.
These are the sounds of the police,
Yet they don't know
how much they hurt the black community.
They took and killed our loved one,
Yet when we stand
They simply say he pulled out a gun.

~Ciara Mathis

Love Making

There is Peace in Love

There is Strength in Commitment

As you journey through this love experience

Remember the times that make your heart burn with desires

Remember the times that are filled with indescribable pleasures

Remember the times that 'I Love You' was shared

Remember the times that carried you to and through in this commitment of LOVE....

For it shows the strength of your will in making

~There is peace in LOVE MAKING~

Sacred Wombman Spirit Prayer

Sacred Wombman in the making,
Sacred Womban REawakening,
Sacred Spirit, hold me near.
Protect me from all harm and fear
beneath the stones of life.
Direct my steps in the right way as I journey
through this vision.
Sacred Spirit,
surround me in your most absolute
perfect light.
Anoint me in your sacred purity, peace, and divine insight.
Bless me, truly bless me, as I share
this sacred life.
Teach me, Sacred Spirit, to be in tune with the Universe.
Teach me, how to heal
with the inner and outer elements of air, fire, water, and earth.

~Queen Afua~

The Beauty of a Woman

The beauty of a woman, isn't in the clothes she wears,
The figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.
The beauty of a woman, must be seen from in her eyes
Because that's the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.
The beauty of a woman, isn't in a facial mole,
but true beauty in a woman, is reflected by her soul.
It's the caring that she cares to give, the passion that she shows,
And the beauty of a woman, with passing years, only grows.
I wish you bright mornings and warm, sunny days,
Soft shade to cool you from sweltering rays,
Raindrops, a few, from some cloud floating by,
Rainbows thereafter to color your sky.
Rambling rivers and great shining seas,
Mountains and forests with towering trees,
Hillsides and valleys, all flower-festooned,
Nature that nurtures whomever's attuned.
A faithful companion who'll stay by your side,
Children to care for, to love and to guide,
Enough work to do with enough time for play
Then restful sleep at the close of the day.
Friends when you need them and when they need you,
Something to spend, just as much as will do
A heart full of laughter; perhaps a few tears,
A faith you can follow through all of your years.
Then, fearlessly facing your last setting sun,
As you contemplate all the deeds you have done,
Recalling a life that's been more than worthwhile,
Perhaps you will pause and give thanks with a smile.

~Maya Angelou~

It takes a Village

I am asked frequently asked why become a doula, birthing coach, or midwife; why work with mothers during such a sensitive time; why help raise children that aren't yours. Immediately, I recall a sharp memory of a conversation with my grandmother when I was a child. She asked me "How many children are you going to have?" I innocently replied "My stomach is going to be from here (pointing at my stomach) to the wall (pointing off to the wall across the room) of course she laughed and curiously asked "who gon' be the daddy"? I again innocently replied "We won't need one." Presently, I'm well aware that a partner, mate, or companion is highly needed before, during, and after birth. At that time, as I reflect on the conversation I feel I knew the importance of a sister being in the hands of another sister and how valuable that is to the entire family. A mother's care during this time is highlighted with peaceful moments when you have another woman beside you to guide you through such a spiritual moment as birthing (a rites of passage). As for raising children that aren't yours, I will now quote from the Kongo, Art of Babysitting regarding Community which represents family. Community: A never-ending process of growth, development, transformation and accountability. The well-being of the community depends on the health and wholeness, the successful maturation of the persons who constitute its membership (Father, Mother and Child). We the original models, teachers, representations, examples, figures, and so on... of working together; within a community, village, land, and so forth... must see how vital it is for all to be on one accord with the dynamics of Loving Self and Kind and working with the rest. Knowing thyself means embracing thyself as well and being comfortable in that image that is in the likeness of God and God's Essence.

Ase'

GOALdigger

In Au, she is positively charged with the warming Sun's energy
Aiming to purposely heal your mental conditions
Constantly digging for the root of your visions
Least reactive to your negative incisions
10 piece nuggets she holds and stands...
Passion
Beauty
Gratitude
Love
Giver of Life
Endurance
Resilience
Patience
Understanding
Knowledge of SELF
She is made of properties that remain
Even through the misty storms and strong winds
Desired to succeed and planning to achieve
A GOALdigger regenerates as an electrical conductor flowing in the wind
One or more directions with a powerful objective
She has been labeled Atomic for 79 reasons
So she pays no mind to the whispers from behind
For her debt has been paid and transcends time
GOALdigger of MIND

Point Taken

Abdul Kull Tafulaat Wa Bazum Bi Balmul El Kulumn
'Begin all prayers and thoughts by using the ALL'

Give Thankhs, Honor and Praises to the ancestors for this time in space to share their light among the stars.... Ashe'

The point of it all is truly vantage take a moment and add your perception
What do you see is the point of it all
Our future generations is a start
traveling highly favored distances to share their light and shine through the darkness
that comprehendth not.
Do you see your point in it all?
How needed you truly are.
We innerstand your converse with self.
The answers you receive with a limit of information, data, or knowledge is likely
Like WE far out to reach but stand tall and watch your legs grow, your mind expand and your soul glow.
Your spirit will dwell with the righteous of the land and transform to GOLD with every hand held GOAL on papyrus scrolls... it is written.
We have reached a point that says it all in the mind that is a-pparent or a guardian, who carries the light of the youth.
This mind must reflect the reasonable points of it all... the be Gan in, the Enclosed Garden of Eden, the fruit of your looms that are heir to your genetic throne.
The point of the final vantage is the Elder
that holds this life's journey in the Palm of their hands, in the sweat of their brow, in the content of their notions, and in the reasoning of their reality.
They are sent to view the points for us all to see the connection... !Point Taken!

May the ancestors of righteousness continue to walk with us and show us the points of ALL

Bes Regards,
Bennu Ankh Re

A Deeper Love Inside

Remember that the mirror can show you a reflection of what you are wearing. It can show you an image of your body that you will only mistakenly compare to the image of someone else's body. The mirror cannot show your soul. The fashion and styles and even your disguises will change many times. Your body will mature and age, retard. The mirror can show you your clothes, images, and body. It cannot reveal your intentions or your beliefs. The soul is eternal. Your beliefs are your guide. Your intent and actions are your judgments. Parents and ancestors surround you. They have passed on to the spirit world, where the great evil is powerless and can never go. While you are on Mother Earth, fight against all forms of evil. Never sell or surrender your Soul. It is the only thing that lasts forever.


Oshadagea Oronyatekha
(the fighting people, between villages)
A Deeper Love Inside
Sister Souljah

My Thoughts

They are the gas to the engine of my life,
They are what decides how I feel,
Where I go,
What I do,
They are the seeds in the garden of my mind,
They are what pushes me up or holds me down,
They are what decides if I succeed or fail,
They are what says if I'll walk or fly,
They are what makes up the world
around me that I see,
They are what makes me... ME, and no one can make them but me,
THEY are MY THOUGHTS

G.T. Pledger

The sacredness of a wombman's energy and its relation to healing...

Plants and Vegetables possess healing energies similar to stones and metals. Plants, herbs, and Vegetables are gifts from the earth that feed, heal, and transform our mind, body, spirit and soul. Let thy food be thy medicine is a wise and well known proverb that reminds us of the healing properties that nature has hidden with grace in our earthly yields. In comparison, stones are gifts from the earth as well when charged (given the proper energy through tones and cleansing). Stones and metals as well as our bodies are able to hold powerful vibrations and energy that repels negativity. According to a renowned elemental magic practitioner, stone wisdom, energy, and magic is as old as time. I have also found, in biblical times, documentation of stones being used and worn by priests to ward off evil (negative energy). Stones in unison with metals help us to achieve a certain level of transformation by giving their powers (their energies) and providing focal points for our own energies. Also, expanding our consciousness and unlocking our potential as human beings who are gifts from mother earth as well. As a wombman, a being with a womb, like the womb of the universe (the cosmos) it's dark, calm and reflective energy brings creativity. In time, a wombman begins to gather the wisdom and ability to give this same energy to others when charged with healing stones, metals, plants, vegetables, and herbs that has been gifted from mother earth herself.
~SahCreed Wombman

What Can Make me Whole Again?

What Can Make Me Whole Again?

When I'm broken into pieces what can make me whole again?

When my mind is scattered in disarray what can make me whole again?

When pulled, cut, belittled, stepped on, cast aside, cut out, forgotten about, and placed in a mental prison with a life sentence
What can make me whole again ?

When I myself have given up on myself and see no life in the generations of the future
What can make me whole again?

What has the power to make me the Born Black Man of Destiny I was intended to be, with love and intuition, smoothing the troubles of my mind and unlocking me to worlds of freedom and power; prosperity and passion for countless
generations to come

What may you ask can do all the above...
Nothing but the Power of the Black Woman directed with precision and intent in the mind of the Black Man she can make him whole again for she is the one who made him whole in the beginning

By G.T. Pledger
*Dedicated to the Mother Earths... The Earth Mothers that birth Life and creating worlds of Suns and Earths... Stars at Birth*

Dark Skin

Our Creater Knew
That You Could And Would
Carry Humanity's
Primary Pigmentation
Like A Chosen Nation

Not Fold Under Pressure
Or Sign Out Before Time
Nor Allow Unfavorable Word
To Make You Feel Less Divine
Born Into A World
Where Lies Have Eclipsed Your Complexion
Out The Of The Ground
The First HueMan Creation

You Are Living Revelation,
Divinity's Call
Your Swarthy Tone Crescendo's
To The Beginning Of It All

I Gaze In Wonder With Thoughts:
If I Could Have Held Beneath
The Weight Or Rain Of Dark Skin;
The Color Of Thundering Clouds
That Bring Needed Rain....?

Your Canvas Displays' Sun Drenched
Darkness As Shimmering Coals Upon Your Face;
And The Gleaming Silkiness Of Neptunite
Where Doses Of Melanin Allow Truth To Be Traced
From The Dark Brilliant Continent
Where Black Diamonds and Copper Ascent

God Knew You'd Embrace His Adorning Intent
And Sustain Under Hatred's Seething Strength.

You've Carried Forces That Empower The Voids....
You Are Dark Skinned Delicate And Gorgeously Poised.
While Many Of Us Make Negative Noise, I Declare
And Decree; Never Allow That To Destroy Your Clarity.

Nature Grows With You Robust
As Ripened Olives
Smooth And Stimulating As Coffee Beans
Dark Skin: A Historical Dichotomy And
Scientific Epitome.

Captivating Dark Skin
Like Jet-Black Obsidian
Worn Like A Jewel Of Nile
The Ceremonial Crown
Much Gratitude
To Each, Man, Woman, And Child.
Living Out This Dark Skin Gift
A Reminder For Humanity
That You Are The Color From
Which All Others Exist.

SoRadiantConcepts

We All Want the Same Thing

WE ALL WANT THE SAME THING
THAT'S WHY WE ARE TOGETHER AT THIS MOMENT IN TIME.
OUR CAUSE IS UNITED AND OUR REWARDS ARE DEFINITE.
WE WILL EXCEPT NOTHING LESS!
WE MUST BEGIN TO TELL OURSELVES WITH CONFIDENCE THAT I AM MAKING WHAT I WANT FROM LIFE HAPPEN FOR ME BY PLACING MYSELF IN THE DIRECT PATH OF THE THOUGHTS OF THE THINGS THAT I WANT FROM LIFE AND NOT THE THINGS I DO NOT FROM LIFE.
HAVING THAT PATH DIRECT AND FOCUSED CAUSES MY ACTIONS TO CONFORM TO THE IMAGE OF MY THOUGHTS WHICH WILL CREATE FOR ME THE "OPEN WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY" THAT PROPELS US IN THAT DIRECT PATH OF OUR FOCUSED THOUGHTS.
THIS FOCUS MUST BE PROTECTED AT ALL TIMES FROM THE FEARFUL PARTS OF US,
THAT WILL HINDER AND ATTEMPT TO DERAIL AND ELIMINATE YOUR ABILITY TO HARNESS ALL YOUR THOUGHTS ON YOUR DIRECT PATH. INSTEAD, WE MUST WITH GLADNESS GLARE INTO THE MIRROR OF FEAR IN THE EYES OF OUR SOULS AND WITH THE HEART OF A ANCIENT WARRIOR ATTACK FEAR UNTIL YOU HAVE SATISFIED YOUR OWN SOULS CONQUERING OF THOSE FEARS WITH THE PRINCIPLE SOURCE OF EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THE DEFEAT OF THOSE FEARS WHICH OUR LIFE!
AT SUCH POINT THE DIRECT PATH YOUR FOCUSING ON BRIGHTENS TO REAFFIRM THE DIRECT PATH!!
WE PUSH IN WITH HEAVY APPETITES FOR A DREAM REALIZED.
WE ALL WANT THE SAME THING
WE HAVE BANNED TOGETHER CAUSE WE KNOW THAT THE FIGHT OF FEAR HAS MANY VICTIMS WHOSE DIRECT PATH WAS NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO STAND THE PRESSURE OF FACING AND FIGHTING THOSE FEARS AND THOSE WHOSE FEAR HAS ENSLAVED AND CHAINED THERE THOUGHTS TO THERE LOWER LEVEL EXISTENCE. WE ALL WANT THE SAME THING SO WE HAVE CHOSEN TO STAND AND BE COUNTED IN THE COMPANY OF INDIVIDUALS THAT STAND SOUND AND FREE.
THAT MAINTAIN A GREAT DEAL OF CHARACTER IN THE FACE OF FEAR AND WON!!
OUR LIVES ARE TRANSFORMED WITH "THE GREAT WORK" ON OUR PART TO STAY TRUE TO THE PROCESS WITH THE FINISHED PRODUCT HELD FAITHFULLY IN OUR THOUGHTS FROM THE VERY BEGINNING, BENDING THE WORLD AROUND US WITH FORCE AND INTENT.
WE NOW HUMBLY TAKE HOLD OF THAT WHICH WE WANTED MOST, YES THE TASTE OF VICTORY (SWEET)!
ENTER IN FILLING THE APPETITES THAT HAS LONGED FOR THIS ARRIVAL. THE SWEET IS SWEET CAUSE OUR JOURNEY THAT WAS FILLED WITH SOUR GRAPES THAT WE MADE USE OF FOR FUEL NOT BECAUSE IT WAS GOOD TO US BUT THE THOUGHT OF WHAT WE WANTED (the sweet) WAS STRONGER WITH EMOTION AND INTENT TO MAKE SWEET SOMETHING BITTER AND FOR THAT WE ARE BETTER TO ALL THOSE WE COME INTO CONTACT WITH.
THE BRILLIANCE OF OUR HEARTS TRUE AND PURE WILL LEAP INTO THE HEART, MINDS, THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS OF OTHERS AND AT THAT MOMENT THEY TOO...... WILL ALL WANT THE SAME THING

GTP

Black August

"George Jackson was my hero. He set a standard for prisoners, political prisoners, for people. He showed the love, the strength, the revolutionary fervor that’s characteristic of any soldier for the people. He inspired prisoners, whom I later encountered, to put his ideas into practice. And so his spirit became a living thing.” – from the eulogy by Huey P. Newton, former Minister of Defense, Black Panther Party, at the Revolutionary Memorial Service for George Jackson, 1971

August, in both historic and contemporary African American history, is a month of meaning.
August – a month of injustice and divine justice, of repression and righteous rebellion, of individual and collective efforts to free the slaves and break the chains that bind us.

August saw slaves and the grandsons of slaves strike out for their God-given right to freedom, as well as the awesome price, the ultimate price always paid by those who would dare oppose the slave master’s will.

Like their spiritual grandfather, the blessed rebel Nat Turner, those who opposed Massa in this land of un-freedom met murder by the state: George and Jonathan Jackson, James McClain, William Christmas, Bobby Hutton, Steve Bartholomew, Robert Lawrence, Tommy Lewis, Sylvester Bell – all suffered the fate of Nat Turner, of the slave daring to fight the slave master for his freedom.
Mumia Abu Jamal


Rest in Peace and Love to our youth who has had their life, family and friends taken from them due to the injustice mind of the weak (wicked) and less fortunate spiritual beings
May the ancestors guide their minds, bodies, and souls (spirits) to Love, Truth, Peace, Freedom and Justice
Ase'

Rebirth of the Gods....

Wake up wake up Wake up
Someone has your birthrite...

In their hand with an empty cup
Fill it up i hear one say.
Frustrated and Confused
A voice repeats... with what???
All i see is miseducation;
Destruction in ever nation.
The wisest of the ignorant
Set the record straight
With OURstory and
The Sage continues

I am the FUTURE... Kindezi: The Kongo Art of Babysitting

Kindezi:  The Kongo Art of Babysitting an Introduction

By Marimba Ani

                In his ground-breaking work Self-Healing Power and Therapy, Dr. Fu-Kiau tells us that muntu (the human being), the “living sun,” is perceived as a “power”, “a phenomenon of perpetual veneration from conception to death” and beyond. Kindezi is about the process of how this “living sun” is nurtured once he/she has been brought into the physical world.  The task of caring for this sacred muntu is the most important responsibility in Afrikan civilization.

                Dr. Fu-Kiau intentionally translates Kindezi as the art of “babysitting” to shock us.  My immediate impression upon reading the subtitle of his book was to question him, respectfully pointing out what seemed to be a mistaken translation- a poor choice of an English term.  Dr. Fu-Kiau’s response was given in his characteristically soft, patient, and considerate manner, which forces one to hang on his every word, convinced that wisdom is about to be bestowed.  He explained that in European culture “babysitting” is thought to be an insignificant activity- a job for the least important people in our society.  We know that  “teenagers, “ who supposedly have nothing important to do, are given this task, and Afrikan women are imported from the Caribbean to care of European-American children as a testament to our alleged racial inferiority.  Yet, according to the authors of this book, Kindezi is the greatest honor that can be bestowed upon a person in Afrikan society.

Fu-Kiau is bringing home the point, in a sharply critical manner, that while childhood is devalued in European society, Afrikan civilization is child-centered.  This becomes clear as we understand human life in the context of spiritual community: a never-ending process of growth, development, transformation and accountability.  The well-being of the community depends on the health and wholeness, the successful maturation of the persons who constitute its membership.

Kindezi, then, is an art that is focused not only on the nurturing of the young within the society, but on growth of the ndezi (the caretaker, one who practices that art of Kindezi).  In other words, as one develops the skills of Kindezi, one develops oneself as well. The ndezi must help the muntu, the “living sun,” to “shine” with the power of a living sun.  Because this process is continuous, the highest Kindezi (experience of service to the community) rests with the elders.  Elders in Afrikan society are those who have become physically more frail, but who are spiritually stronger because they have grown further in personal development and have moved closer to the Ancestors, to the spiritual world and to the “Source of Life” itself (Kalunga). An “elder” is not just an “old person”, but is someone still “mentally and spiritually strong and wise enough to maintain the community united but, above all, to build the moral foundation of the community youth and of generations to come”

The Afrikan art and practice of Kindezi places great importance on the presence of “elders” in the community and their responsibility for the health and wholeness of the group.

By linking the elders to the youth of the society, the concept stress intergenerational continuity, meaningful communication, consistency of value formation and transmission, and mutual responsibility and accountability. This brings us to the contemporary relevance of this book. 

The greatest challenge that faces people of Afrikan descent displaced from our grounding in the Motherland is social fragmentation, disconnectedness and axiological or value confusion.  The spiritual strength of our enslaved Ancestors brought us through the brutal and inhumane disruption of the Maafa.  They did this by finding ways to raise their children and teach them values.  Indeed the only source of resistance available to us was the strength of our spirit- our “Soul-Force” (Leonard Barrett)- which we used to continually recreate community.  This sense of community was always a strong and powerful force on which Afrikan descendants have depended during the major historical periods of our saga in this forced Diaspora.  Since the 1960’s, however, which appeared on the surface to bring what many thought were political and economic gains, our cultural consciousness has deteriorated.  The importance of family has diminished in our minds, and the increased exposure to the destructive forces of American society has successfully eaten away at the fabric of our social institutions. 

Our youth, on whom we depend for the future development, vindication, and strength of our community, are stolen from us by an arsenal of intellectual and cultural poisons.  They are spiritually attacked from before birth with the weapons of an anti-Afrikan enivorment.  We lack tru “elders” because they themselves have not been taken through a process of cultural development.  Those “elders” that we do have are discarded and relegated to the garbage heaps of a capitalist society, which values only that which brings material gain.  Since babies are regarded as burdens that do not add anything materially to the group, they also become peripheral to significant endeavors. “Babysitting,” therefore, is one of the least valued tasks in our cluttered lives, and elders become “useless” embarrassments. We have imitated Euro-American decadence until we no longer recognize basic Afrikan values.  Kindezi provides an answer for a people in crisis, an antidote to chronic “cultural Misorientation” (Kambon).

Dr. Fu-Kiau and his co-author Psychologist Lukondo-Wamba bring us ancient wisdom from our Ancestral home in the form of Kindezi.  The necessity of a focus on the nurturing of young children and the value of our Elder-Teachers is a simple, but not simplistic, truth.  It is the process (dingo-dingo) through which “social patterns” are transferred to “ the community’s youngest members”

Kindezi is a critical ingredient of the anti-viral serum needed to combat our condition of “cultural AIDS”.  It is the basic process of Afrikan socialization. We are talking about the reconstruction of the family in its most fundamental and dynamic sense. 

Kindezi is about using the spiritual, mental, and cultural strength of our elders to contribute to the process of developing generations of culturally healthy youth, who grow to become powerful elders, who then in turn, produce culturally healthy youth, and so on for millennia to come.

While the system of Kindezi is an ancient one, it took on greater importance during the period in which the Bakongo people were fighting against the impending onslaught of European colonial domination.  Women had to be freed to fight alongside of their men, often leading the community in battle themselves.  The art of Kindezi allowed them to do without sacrificing the care and socialization of their children.  Fu-Kiau and Lukondo-Wamba go on to explain that Afrikan women have always been “farmers" spending long hours away from their children.  According to the authors, it was Kindezi that allowed Afrikan women to be “liberated” so that they could meaningfully contribute to the economic welfare of the family.  This, they claim, is where European women got their concept of “women’s lib” because such models were lacking in the patriarchy of their own cultural history.

In brief statement contained in these pages, Fu-Kiau and Lukondo-Wamba team up to present a surprisingly thorough description of the Afrikan socialization process.  The book focuses on the importance of Afrikan Youth.  Socially, elders teach and they give counsel, so they give children a sense of their history and explain to them the meaning of “the path of life” and their importance in the life of the community.  Economically, elders help to contribute to the well-being and vibrance of the community by performing the vital function of Kindezi.  In this way, they remain useful and reciprocally are taken care of with special attention to their physical and emotional well-being.  The authors draw attention to the profound depth of the Afrikan understanding of the human spirit, explaining that because elders in traditionally Afrikan society feel useful they are (or were before Afrikans began abandoning Afrikan ways) less likely to suffer from “psychosomatic” illness and unnecessary bio-physical deterioration.  Meanwhile, more and more Afrikan Elders in the Diaspora are suffering from Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, which totally debilitate them and cause them unwillingly to become a burdensome responsibility for the adult members of the family.  Our authentic culture is spiritual and therefore physical destruction. However, the authors have presented us with a model for contemporary cultural healing.

The practical value of this book is immense.  Fu-Kiau and Lukondo-Wamba explain Kindezi in terms of its social, economic, and political significance.  In this regard, this small book has great value in the development of an Afrikan-centered pedagogy.  The approach of teaching through song is discussed at some length, a method that has traditionally spoken to the spirit of Afrikan children, but is only now being acknowledged in European pedagogical theory.  The authors explain how language-the powerful energizing force of Afrika-becomes the effective and affective tool of pedagogy through the art of Kindezi.

The answer to Afrikan cultural reconstruction lies in Sankofa, the reclamation of those processes which become the threads our mended cultural quilt.  Kindezi is a most valuable primer for Afrikan-centered (re) socialization, the healing of the Afrikan Family, and Afrikan culturally reconstruction...

Wale’mbwa  lela  kale’ndi  bakula  ntoko  za  moyo  ngatu  za  buta  mu  zola  ko

“Whoever never babysat”, says a Kongo proverb, “will never understand the beauty of life nor that of parenting with love.”

Chillin'... Past Time

Sitting watching Wedding Crashers on a Friday night in Late December in the Year of 2013
Through the Comical outbursts from the scenes in this movie
I manage to start reflecting on the past memories that have completely redirected my energy
The memories that have brought me far and held me close to innerstanding
This world never fails me though as I'm interrupted by the friction of moor unwanted energy...

As sisters we have to start loving each other in a respectable way
Our words ought to be as soothing, uplifting and inspiring as humming birds
Pitches that stick in your thoughts carrying you with IT as IT travels through the winds
We are precious gems knee deep in this sh**
Fertilizing the earth we are made in...
Love and Light to each one of you
WE REIGNING!

-MoorReasoning

Live From Death Row... Mumia Abu Jamal

Once a Peabody Award-winning radio reporter, Mumia Abu-Jamal is now in a Pennsylvania prison awaiting his state-sanctioned execution. In 1982 he was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner after a trail many have criticized as profoundly biased.  LIVE FROM DEATH ROW is collection of his prison writings- an impassioned yet unflinching account of the brutalities and humiliations of prison life...

John Edgar Wideman introduces a clear and precise vision into the mind of Mumia Abu-Jamal that any reasonable being ought to solely agree with...
He doesn't split his world down the middle to conform to the divided world prison enforces.  He expresses the necessity of connection, relinquishing to no person or group the power to define him.  His destiny, his manhood, is not attached to some desperate, one-way urge to cross over to a region controlled or possessed by others. What he is, who he can become, results from his daily struggle to construct an identity wherever his circumstances place him... 
The power of his voice is rooted in his defiance of those determined to silence him.
The voices are always there, if we discipline ourselves to pick them out.  Listen to them, to ourselves, to the best we've managed to WRITE and SAY and DANCE and PAINT and SING. 
Africans [in America] culture, in spite of the weight, the assaults if has endured, may contain a key to our nation's survival, a key not found simply in the goal of material prosperity, but in the force of spirit, will, communal interdependence.

Mumia Abu-Jamal's voice can help us tear down walls-prison walls, the walls we hide behind to deny and refuse the burden of our history. 

Mumia points out that Thurgood Marshall, the first person of African descent appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, admitted, just hours after his resignation from the Court, that "I'm still not free."
In another essay, Mumia calls our attention to Nelson Mandela. Released after twenty-seven years in South Africa's jails as a hero, leader, and liberator of his people, universally acknowledged to be the most powerful man in his country, its best hope for peace, possibly its next president-still didn't possess the right to vote.  

Mumia Abu-Jamal's writing insists on these kinds of gut checks, reality checks.  He reminds us that to move clearly in the present, we must understand the burden of our past.

The following insert is for all brothers and sisters that have been strangled at the hands of prison systems...
For all of our youth that has been subjected to improper solutions for apparent problems...
For the families that have to endure the pain of losing a loved one to THE GAME...
Actin' like life's a ball game
March 1994
...The man, whom I'll call Rabbani, was tall, husky fifteen-year-old when he was arrested in southeastern Pennsylvania for armed robbery.  The prosecutor moved that he be judicially certified as an adult, and the Court agreed.  Tried as an adult, Rabbani was convicted of all charges and sentences to fifteen to thirty years in prison, for an alleged robbery with a CO2 air pistol...
For those critical years in the life of a male, from age fifteen to thirty, which mark the transition from boy to man, Rabbani was entombed in a juridical, psychic, temporal box branded with the false promise "corrections".  Like tens of thousands of his generation, his time in hell equipped him with no skills of value to either himself or his community.  He has been "corrected" in precisely the same way that hundreds of thousands of others have been, that is to say, warehoused in a vat that sears the very soul.
He has never held a woman as a mate or lover; he has never held a newborn in his palm, its heart athump with new life; he hasn't seen the sun rise, nor the moon glow, in almost fifteen years- for robbery, "armed" with a pellet gun, at fifteen years old.
When I hear easy, catchy, mindless slogans like "three strikes, you're out," I think of men like Rabbani who had one strike (if not one foul) and are, for all intents and purposes, already outside of any game worth playing.

The following insert is a Father's attempt and success (in my eyes) to show his daughter the LOVE he has for his people and HER while restricted, confide, and denied of LOVE and JUSTICE for himself...
The visit
November 1994
...Tiny, with a Minnie Mouse voice, this daughter of my spirit had finally made the long trek westward, into the bowels of this man-made hell, situated in the south-central Pennsylvania boondocks. She, like my other children, was just a baby when I was cast into hell, and because of her youth and sensitivity, she hadn't been brought along on family visits until now...
"Break it! Break it!" she screamed.  Her mother, recovering from her shock, bundled up Hamida in her arms, as sobs rocked them both. My eyes filled to the brim.  My nose clogged.
Her unspoken words echoed in my consciousness: "Why can't I hug him? Why can't we kiss? Why can't I sit in his lap? Why can't we touch? Why not?" I turned to recover. I put on a silly face, turned back, called her to me, and talked silly to her. "Girl, how can you breathe with all them boogies in your nose?"...
I reminded her of how she used to hug our cat until she almost strangled the poor animal, and Hamida's denials were developed into laughter... before long our visit came to an end.
Her smiled restored, she uttered a parting poem that we used to say over the phone: " I love you, I miss you, and when I see you, I'm gonna kiss you!"
Over five years have passed since that visit, but I remember it like it was an hour ago... They haunt me.