One AIM

MAKING IT WORK

There is a well known Rastafari axiom that says “One Jah, One Aim, One Destiny”, JAH of course meaning God in its Judeo or Hebraic sense as derived from the tetra gram JHVH which Christians presently vocalise as Jehovah. While many theoretical and even physical battles have been fought over such definitions, it is important to return to common sense and finally close the chapters of needless bloodshed, especially among Afrikan people who call themselves believers, since there’s been too many families split ( e.g. Egypt/Nigeria ) over improper use of religion. For far too long, ever-since our being subjected to missionary zeal and many forms of bookings, we have continued to lose touch with the Divine reality within ourselves/each other and nature. As a result of this scattering, the Black family has experienced on-going spiritual and mental violence. While it appears as if it would take too much effort to reverse the situation, to regain our senses and begin Living instead of merely surviving, it is in fact a far simpler task than most people can dare to imagine. It is In We.

No one has to remind us that we are a highly gifted people, these gifts which we continue to waste in ball courts, churches, advertising (subvertising) and marketing companies and many institutions that only serve to create more money that we quickly invest back to our oppressors through consumerist behaviour, can be put to better use. The Time is Now

We have tried many other religious, some of us have even crossed the floors among so called Abrahamic faiths – becoming Muslims, African-Hebrew Israelites and Christians, some of the more daring among us have even chosen far eastern ‘belief’ systems or ways of life – such as Hare Krishna, Buddhism and even embraced the cerebral-spiritual disciplines of Scientology and even atheism.

All this points to the fact that there is a hunger, a real need for Transformation within all of us, we see that the status quo is not landing us where we really deserve to be as individuals and as a people.

It is equally true that some of our families swear by Jesus Christ and they are able to live very comfortable and contented lives, some may even say that they have found the Joy that cannot be compared to any other. The real question though is, have they ever been exposed to this ‘Any other’, has anyone shown them that one can be justifiably successful and prosperous through observance of an Afrikan or Indigenous Knowledge System?

This is not written to agitate the pious souls who love Jesus, Muhammad, Krishna, Gautama or any of the modern day messiahs whose aims are all good and fair, as they are here to transform the people’s behaviour and conform it to what they see as God’s Plan.

But what people must really open their eyes to is the how much this spiritual migration costs Mother Africa, the one who has given so much of Her-self to the Life maintenance of Mankind. We are not asking that everyone should be a student of history, although this would help a lot, but simply asking for an alternative and proper view of the way of things. The truth is Africans are suffering badly in the world, especially in the land of mankind’s birth and to anyone who loves Justice and Truth, this should be a wake up call.

It is not enough to deposit Bibles, Quran’s, alms and food parcels in impoverished territories, there is nothing in that method that has worked yet, instead we see people competing and killing each other over simple resources and in churches many unconverted souls battling it out for positions. The handfuls of people who are doing Gods will are also in similar trouble, they are doing almost everything without questioning, challenging or attempting to turn an unjust system around.Instead of being like the Jeremiah’s, Daniels, Isaiah’s and Yehoshua’s of this age, we find them opening political rallies, starting political parties, capitalist oriented businesses that compete with others within a vividly unjust system. This has to come to an end, and we cannot wait for Armageddon or pray away the situation, all systems based on lies must confess, repent and Look to Africa for the solutions of African problems, problems which Afrika had very little part in creating in the first place. But to be honest, we must first see what exactly it is that we did or did not do that brought us this far down. Consider this:

“There is no doubt that both, the Ancient Egyptians and Kushites, were the earliest Black African families; interlinked with them, today’s Oromos are the most conscious descendants of the most illustrious Khammitic nations. Among today’s Khammitic nations, one identifies the Berbers of Northern and Northwestern Africa (from the Northwestern confines of Egypt through Libya and Tunisia to Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania), the Egyptians, the Arabic speaking Sudanese, the Kushitic nations of Eastern Africa (Oromos, Afars, Sidamas, Kaffas, Shekachos, etc), the Somalis, and the Hausa and Fulani speaking peoples of Western and Central Africa. In respect to all cases of arabization (from Mauritania to Egypt and thence to Eritrea), one has to stress the point that the phenomenon was limited only at the linguistic level, as consequence of the gradual islamization of all these countries from the 7th until the 16th century; it has no ethnic and no cultural impact. To all those who may oppose the approach, based on considerations of the currently prevailing sociopolitical and cultural conditions, one has to remind that all this is result of Anglo-French colonialism, and has no historicity, no impact, and no value. It is the result of the diffusion of the perverse and disastrous theories of Pan-Arabism and Islamic Fundamentalism that were both systems produced by the colonialist Orientalist academia, and then projected among ignorant local students who thought opportune to continue with postgraduate and doctoral studies in French and English universities.

4. This is an important point; black as colour in general and black as skin colour was never considered as negative or inferior in the Antiquity. It all started with the rise of Christianity and the demonization of the black (either colour or skin colour). Islam rebuffed the concept, but this did not save the non-Muslim Africans from discriminatory attitude in Abbasid Baghdad. Within the context of the Ancient Egyptian religion, the black colour symbolized the all-inclusiveness and the supreme power. We have good reason to believe that these concepts were shared by the Kushitic – Meroitic Ethiopians, the ancestors of the modern Oromos. A comparative historico-religious examination of the fundamental concepts of Waaqeffannaa and those of the Ancient Egyptian religion would help tremendously in retracing the origin of the Oromo religion.

Waaqa and Ra

5. Waaqa seems to have in Oromo religion the same position as Atum in the Ancient Egyptian Heliopolitan system and Ra – Atum in the Ancient Egyptian Hermopolitan system. In other words, Waaqa seems to have retained the most original aspects of Khammitic / Kushitic monotheism. The rise of the Memphitic (around Ptah) and Theban (around Amun) polytheisms seems to have reduced the primordial Egyptian monotheism to great extent; however, there has always been a rivalry between monotheism and polytheism in Ancient Egypt, and the monotheistic current triggered in the middle of the 14th century BCE a radical ideology promoted and supported by several pharaohs before Akhenaten who simply institutionalized for the first time in the World History monotheism as state religion. Amenhotep III, Thutmoses IV, Amenhotep II, and Thutmoses III were all strong monotheists.

Only Christian European colonial racism and Jewish bias prevent modern scholars from saying publicly that the Solar Religion and Ideology of Akhenaten (also known as Atonism after the name of Akhenaten’s Unique God, Aten or Aton) was more complete and more explicit monotheism that the other two religious systems, and that entire verses of Ancient Egyptian hymns to Aten have been reproduced within the Psalms of Torah (Old Testament).

The polytheistic comeback plunged Egypt into strife and centuries long decay, but even after the departure of the Egyptian monotheists and the Hebrews under Moses, the Egyptian monotheism survived within temples and among priesthoods that resisted the expansion of the polytheism and the decomposition of the mythical semiotics.

The entire issue was transferred among the Kushitic Ethiopians in the South of Egypt, and later sources (mainly Greek) shed insightful into the religious divisions of Meroitic Ethiopia that may have been at the origin of the final collapse of Meroe. The priests and the court seem to have formed two opposite camps among the Meroitic Ethiopians, and following the defeat to the Axumite king Ezanas, the monotheistic part prevailed in exile.

6. The Oromo concept of Law and Order, set up by Waaqa and granted to the first men, reflects the Ancient Egyptian concept of Maat. To the Egyptian mind, Maat was the Law and Order that kept the entire universe in function. The concept was diffused among the Kushitic and Meroitic Ethiopians. The legislature stipulated by the Pharaoh in Egypt and the Qore (the title ‘King’ in Kushitic language) in Kush (Ethiopia) had to be a derivate and an emanation of the Maat Law and Order. Contradicting Maat would be viewed as a from of self-annihilation.”( From website Buzzle.com ‘Intelligent Life on The Web’ By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis )

This is not some superstitious mambo jumbo, it is not an attempt to diminish the good works done by the churches and mosques in spiritually grounding our people, it is not even aimed at causing a debate. My aim is to cause each reader/hearer of these words to ask themselves clear questions about the past-present and future of the Mother Land, keeping in mind how it relates the future of the entire universe, and with the answering of these questions, the One Aim, One JAH, One destiny so desired by the Movement of Haile Selassie I conscious people can be attained. But it is not just their destiny; it’s also Our Ancestors and our Creators too. We are three together as One, seen Iyah?

Here is the second offer, and this one will require individual effort which is more heroic and even much more disciplined. I am asking the Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Yoruba, Ibo, Hausa, Oromo, Amhara, Sudanese, Khoi San, Shangaan, Himba, Luo, BaKhongo …each and every sort of Black man and woman to Re-learn as I am also striving to do, The Essence of their Divinity, Ubunkulunkulu bobuntu bethu via this method: I am simply asking any person who like I, claims to have faith in the One True God to consider these words carefully and make their own judgment. We are after all – People of The Word and the word that was manifest

(made flesh) or became Natural rather than invisible/spiritual:

“Hymn of Ra

Words of Neb-Er-Tcher [Lord of the World] which It spoken after coming into Being:

“I am that which came into Being [Kheper] in the form of Creator”

“I became the Creator [Khepera] of what came into Being [Kheperu]”

“After My coming into Being, Many were Things which came into Being”

“Coming Forth from my Mouth” “Embrace My Shadow and Released Seed”

“Not existed Heaven, Not existed Earth”

“Not had been Created Things of Earth,

“And Creeping Things in that Place”

“I raised them Out of NU, from the State of Inactivity”

“Not found I a place to Stand Wherein”

I radiated My Words of Power with my Will”

“I laid a Foundation in the Law, and I made All Attributes”

“I was Alone, for not had I spit out the form of Shu” “Not had I Emitted Tefnut”

“Not Existed None who Worked with Me”

“I made a Foundation by Means of my Will”

“And there Came into Being the Multitude of Things”

“I became from God One, Gods Three” “That is from Out of Myself”

“My Name is Ausares” ***

We have read that it was St John who wrote that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the Word was God. It is now time for the ORIGINAL MAN to be known and to once again teach the world how to be civilised. If we don’t do it, no one else will and we shall forever remain slaves to things and to those who value things more than people and God. With these words, I say…AMEN!

Menzi Maseko ---

Liberation Time Mculo: The value of Knowing AfrikaFor All Intents and Pur...

Liberation Time Mculo:

Liberation God-Spell

Jesus Drives a Cloud Shaped Aston Martin: 17.05.11

When I was quite reluctantly watching the ANC’s election run-off campaign which was a sort of meet and greet and drill sort of occasion I was surprised by how many times I heard the words Jesus Christ linked with the words ‘vote for ANC’. O’ what a mighty show of power!

I wondered what Muslim, Hindu and members of other religions thought of this, especially those who are also confessed members of the leading party.

This Jesusification of the ruling party is not new; neither was it really that surprising come to think of it. Lately there have been many such preposterous statements made by leading members of the ANC and its Youth League to the effect that this party possesses the only key to Zion, or the kingdom of heaven which is of course ruled by the Son of God and no one else. They say this knowing that a lot of South Africans are confessed and indeed confused Christians and that they have nothing to lose even from traditionalists and people of other religions.

And everybody knows that the Muslims and the Hindu’s will only vote for anyone who will ensure that their businesses are running as smooth as usual while most of them exploit their de-unionised worker-slaves. They simply need to keep the status quo as tragic as it is.

While there are many who will disprove this man’s son-ship, that’s not the point; there are not a lot of people who truly believe that the ANC will ever lose the majority of South African peoples vote.

The mere sight of so many yellow t-shirted Black people chanting and waving ANC flags, while lighter skinned and richer blacks chill out at the suits in that FNB stadium, patiently listening to President Zuma’s ultra-slow recital, to the reverends insinuation that anyone who loves Jesus should vote ANC and to president Malema’s curious statements about Black parties and White parties, and his apparent Freudian slip about the two presidents of the republic, should surely cause all opposition parties to lower their own flags and say all is lost.

But at least they still call this a democracy and democracy means each one has the right to self-determination. But it also appears as if the other parties are not as determined as the ANC and its rival the DA, perhaps it’s all about the budget after all and not about the people.

But even with my limited political know how, I can clearly see that this democracy has been really hijacked by a bunch of uncouth propagandists who will lie, cheat and steal their way to victory by any means necessary, and yes, until Jesus comes.

And you best believe that their Jesus will ride in in a cloud coloured, Aston Martin made in China, but bought with South African tax payers’ pap-geld.

I am also reminded of my friend Jobe3030’s poem, “Jesus is coming and God bless his Afro.” Very prophetic indeed my friend -

Happy voting to everyone, but as for me - I’ll pass for now, maybe next time!!!

Here’s some food for thought:

“Citizenship itself has been replaced by consumption. Shopping has become our great collective activity, and consumerism has invaded and even usurped our civic life. People feel they no longer have the power to change their communities or their nation, only to make choices among products. Political participation has waned dramatically, just as the rituals of consumption have come to dominate more and more of our social life. Politics has become a spectator sport, as sports have become totally subjected to the power of money and advertising. We don’t participate in the debate over ideas, the formulation of public policy, and the construction of the social order. Instead we shop. Our consumer voting is merely among the endless goods and gadgets offered to us, and democracy has been reduced to the freedom to decide among forty brands of toothpaste. And even our political voting feels more like shopping for candidates, who have been packaged and sold by the same methods and people who bring us everything else.” – ( Jim Wallis – The Soul Of Politics – A Practical and Prophetic Vision for Change, 1994;p.140 )

No surprise that Archbishop Desmond Tutu called this book ‘A tremendous and timely book.’

MM

Liberation Time Mculo: From KMT to Kush

Liberation Time Mculo: From KMT to Kush

Each One Teach One

For All Intents and Purposes

I have read quite a bit. Even though I admit to have not delved into the Marxists, Leninist, Maoists and other famous and celebrated Socialist, Communist manifestos, my reading has been unbiased, general and sparse.

Without becoming schooled or conditioned by the accepted treatises of East European thought, philosophies and indeed guidance, I seem to have been irreversibly drawn to a lot more Afrocentric stories, enjoying a bit of the South American novel and culture due to certain similarities with familiar African world views.

For entertainment and creative value, I have touched upon the Locke’s, the Wordsworth’s, Milton’s, the classical Greeks and some other more modern Western writers, yet as much as I did find some value in them, the sensibility and sensitivity to Africa, its diaspora and the daily struggles and beauty naturally drew me homewards.

I fell in love with the unremitting polemics of Mazisi Kunene, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, the politics/socially relevant stories and essays of the Staffrider and African Writers Series writers and artists, the decolonisation rhetoric of Ngugi, the magical realism of Ben Okri, Kojo Laing, Octavia Butler’s sci-fi and parabolic fantasy, the incisive Pan-Africanism of Mongo Beti, Ayi Kwei Armah and many others at home and abroad.

In short, I have been shaped more by the philosophy of my people rather than by Dante, Plato, Aristotle or even the existential poetics of the Sartre’s or Foucault’s.

None of the American greats have ever moved me, neither Hemingway or Faulkner ever managed to move me quite like Lewis Nkosi, Zakes Mda or Wole Soyinka…

As I have said, I have read some of their works but their influence has not been as great aas the stories that surrounded me and were more immediate both in style, form and meaning.

Herein enters the question of cultural, technological and political activism; once one knows about what’s going on beneath the illusory skin of the world, it becomes an unjustifiable therefore irresponsible act to stay silenced.

In creative ways and even through daily conversations and public platforms, one becomes a source of illumination.

Just as I have expressed in one of my poems :

“Once I’ve seen the rays / how could I return to my sleeping ways…?”

But to become active is the simple part, the tests arise when one has to actively compete effectively for the attention of the masses. In the midst of oppositional narratives and changing habits, the reader who also writes has to work thrice as hard to gain the foreground wherein she can be heard and understood.

First there is the media, which thrives on selling sensationalism and leads the consumerist cult, and then there is religion which survives through the sacrificial blood of the peoples need or tendency to believe in something or even someone else’s abstract idea.

In all this, there is always, the accepted and also the unaccepted moral and value related actions.

There are those that fuel and feed the need for faith and religion, there are those that profit from our desires to be tickled, distracted and satisfied through our senses, on and on and on. And in the midst of all this, there are those few who know that there is a silent poison infiltrating the human being and that this poison feeds on general ignorance and in turn causes most of us to ignore ourselves, the environment and ultimately our purpose in life.

In all intents and purposes we are made to accept that we must assimilate, modernize

( spelled: Westernise) and speak good English while curbing our enthusiasm for our own cultures, traditions and codes that thrive on Balance between the creature and her Creator.

What does all this have to do with my reading and writing life?

Everything! In my youth and indeed even now, my grandmother, young brother and I are the only three people in the entire extended family who read books. My mother has a collection of about fifteen Christian and Self-Help books of which she reads about three chapters per year. There are many reasons for this, but for a reader and a writer, it means that these loved ones are simply apathetic and simply do not see the need to read.

Reading itself is also seen as a totally different thing to education. To most Black people a butchery and a tuck-shop is far more important than a library. A descent job is much better and preferable to the service of the community or to taking up the pen and writing as a journalist or an environmental activist. To most people these are still White peoples work, they are not jobs.

A couple of years ago, a friend and I developed a website called www.africansway.co.za in which we had student journalists and other contributors writing about anything that interested them as long as if fit the values which we felt were intrinsically African.

In that website I wrote essays about the invention and need for re-invention of African traditions, called for a review of our religious systems and how we can assist each other to find ways to Define our destiny.

None of these writings were inspired by Marxist or Communist thought, neither were they an attempt to cause people to become anarchists; instead I was inspired by what I saw as troubling prevalence of ignorance and poverty in my community. This ignorance in my opinion could only be dealt with through a holistic embrace of a purely syncretic African world view. I am not saying all people should read what I have read, I am simply asking people whether they are in power or not, to promote and become self Educated.

Dreaming Beyond Democracy

Alternative Title: Can Southern Africans Dream Again?

“Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most that has made it possible for evil to triumph.” – HIM Haile Selassie 1st

“This modern risk management paradigm held sway for decades. The whole intellectual edifice, however, collapsed in the summer of last year."

- Alan Greenspan, 2008

“Professors of economics who over the years have protected the neoclassical monopoly should be held responsible and accountable. Advocating a specific ideology in the name of science can hardly be defended.” - Peter Söderbaum [Mälardalen University, Sweden]

“Unless mainstream economics takes heed of these warnings and proves its relevance for the understanding of the most severe crisis of the capitalist system since the 1930s, then it will be doomed to irrelevance. My suggestion is that a world protest of academic, student and business economists be organised to drive home this point.”

- Geoffrey M. Hodgson [University of Hertfordshire, UK]

“The neoliberal indoctrination of young economics students in universities around the world all starts with one textbook - N. Gregory Mankiw’s Principles of Economics.”

– Toxic textbook.com

“The problem is in our internal maps, and rethinking these can require some vilification of outmoded views. But we must remember that we’re vilifying the value system of wealth discrimination – not the wealthy themselves. And as we broaden the potential to attain wealth, we should also change the mechanism by which much concentration of wealth arises, which is inheritance. Wealth should not be dispersed entirely, as communism attempted to do. Communism aimed for equality of outcome, when the more proper remedy is equality of opportunity. Communist theory did correctly identify property (wealth) as the source of the problem, but in seeking to eliminate private property altogether, it eliminated incentive. Without the engine of self-interest, the system foundered (failed).

The point is not to do away with wealth but to change the system design that gives illegitimate power to wealth – just as in the fight against sexism, the point was not to do away with men but to change the system that gave illegitimate power to men.”

– (P.100 – The Divine Right of Capital by Marjorie Kelly)

The above notable quotations are written in order show that a diverse number of people are tired of the old system of doing things and they are fully convinced that a real and revolutionary transformation has to happen sooner than later.

I have been reading Marjorie Kelly’s book which is sub-titled ‘Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy’ quite religiously in the past few weeks. There are basically two reasons for this, firstly I wanted to familiarize myself with certain economist terms in order to write my own essays, and secondly I just had to see how to voice my discontent with Capitalism.

David Slew Goliath, with a donkey jaw bone?

During my younger days I always thought that it would be fairly easy for me to become a billionaire or at least a multi-millionaire. I just never looked at money as a very difficult thing to acquire, as long as one got the right education and the basic drive to succeed, it didn’t seem that hard to just keep rising and rising above social circumstances.

Besides, I was motivated by other things which I have always rated as being far superior to that piece of paper. But the reality happened to be very different from the imagination.

As they say, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I am now half-educated, experienced yet penny-less and unemployed 33 year old who has to keep sending CV’s everywhere in order to earn a living and fulfill my dreams. I also seem to be incapable of finishing a proper business plan, even the one I did get to finish happened to get lost through my notoriously inglorious experiences. But the clock is ticking and I still have dreams to fulfill, some are realistic while others may be a bit far fetched, but I am still a believer.

I wish that I was writing this as someone who owns at least 2 motor vehicles, a home, a small farm just outside the city and also taking financial care of an extended family.

Only then would these writings truly appear like objective views from a taxpaying and responsible citizen of South Africa rather than as the ranting of a bitter and dissatisfied man, but then again, this is what free speech is for, right?

One always has a choice though, and that choice is one of the fundamental human rights, the right to self determination which is also inviolable.

I am also writing this in what I hope is the spirit of what the Kamau (the people of Ancient Egypt/Kamit) called Maat, which is the principle of Truth, Justice and Righteousness. In the back of my mind I am thinking that very few people will even find or make time to read these words, but I also have confidence that who ever does will find inspiration and begin or continue to strive to live a life of Love, a life that is governed by the principles of Maat.

This concept is explained in my other writings, but there are experts who have made it their vocation to deal with these ideas, words and principles, my primary wish is to put it to practice and also to show others that a better world is possible and that it does not require much money or fancy Western technological innovations.

Like most citizens of the Western world*, I too was raised on a large diet of Christian literature, ritual and symbolism, likewise, my life has followed that predictable trajectory ever since.

Yet there was something that happened to me when in my late teens I began reading some of the other literatures of the world, from the secular works in novels that were I came across or that were recommended at school.

While the first ever book I can recall reading was uMasihanbisane during the primary school days, the first real novel I ever read and really identified with was something I got from the Durban city library, I can’t remember its title but I recall that it dealt with a young girls coming of age in the war torn and strictly religious Middle East, I think it was Lebanon.

The story made an impression on me because of its many similarities to the township I then resided in. There was very little hope for the girls and boys there, just like the so called Middle East, the township was a place where human suffering and the many faces of poverty existed side by side with many signs of prestige and power; the rich neighbor – poor neighbor paradigm.

I was raised within a family that was relatively well off, we were not poor, we did not get everything we wanted, but having at least two parents meant that one received everything that was needed with much gratitude.

The same couldn’t be said of many of my neighbors, children who either had to deal with parents who were destroyed by alcoholism or plain old ignorance, and by ignorance I do not mean the lack of education, but the inability to imagine another possibility for ones self.

Imagination is a very important factor in the life of the township youth, not only does it allow one to rise above the pain of lacking a father or someone to look up to, but it also helps the mind to expand beyond the limitations set up by systematic structures.

While it did not only take imagination to topple the apartheid government, it did require the concerted efforts of armed struggle, consistent diplomatic and international lobbying and also the various works of imaginative artists to bring it into reality.

Although there is a lot of effort put into recognizing the work of pre-apartheid visual artists, musicians and other types of imaginers in South Africa, there still remains a lot of work to be done when it comes to giving them their proper place and creating platforms wherein they can pass on their knowledge to the younger generation.

But this paper is not just about artists or simply about books and how they can shape a young mind, the essential point is that Africa needs to find a way to look to itself without the spectacles of the European world.

This will sound backward to the liberal democrats, the rainbow nation dreamers who still don’t see the necessity of addressing the racial inequalities that haunt all our institutions from the banks, education, heritage, music industry, arts and even the religious community.

While SA is being celebrated as the archetype of constitutional democracies, there is a great poison going through our veins and it has a lot to do with our inability to see ourselves as Africans or Abantu in the fullest sense of the word.

But what does being Umuntu mean and what other form of government, education can we really have without referring to the European models?

These are some of the questions that I hope to answer through out the writings and works in this book. They say that if you wish to hide something from a Black person, simply put it into a book, but I aim to change that, it will not be an easy thing neither can I hope to achieve it single handedly. Ever-since our enslavement and colonialization, the strongest and most influential institution in the Black community has always been the spiritual business called the Church.

This institution is in actual fact far more than just an institution for us; it has provided a job and even a haven for many souls who were lost and needed something that would make them forget the constant physical and psychological struggles of the week.

The question is, has the church really helped to liberate the minds of Black people from the perils of mental slavery, has it helped to inform us about the true purpose of our lives, why we went through what we have gone through and how we can hope to totally overcome it without depending on our former tormentors?

The real answer is no.

There has been real violence committed against Black people and that violence still continues in our everyday reality. I am reminded here by the title and horrific story of Sello Duiker’s novel ‘The Quiet Violence Of Dreams’ which to my mind was an excellent reminder of the dark place that Black youth still find themselves in while our governments still assume the missionary position to the Missionaries of Democracy.Here’s what one of Africa’s most perceptive and innovative teachers – Ra U Nefer Amen - has to say about Democracy, which will be revisited later.

“Almost 2000 years ago Plato remarked, commenting about democracy, that the only virtue that the masses could express as a group was violence. The correctness of Plato’s observation is verified in the system of representative Democracy which states that the people lack the skills and knowledge required for exercising government and must therefore be represented by those who meet the requirements. Two things are fundamentally wrong with this. If you don’t really know how government and economics work, and don’t know much about history- in fact, real history, how can you intelligently choose the proper leadership. The other things that is wrong is the fact that the majority the of actions taken by the representatives (presidents, congressmen, senators, bureaucracies, etc.) are never discussed with the people prior to or after election.” *

TBC