Kunjufu wrote:
Quote:
BreadFruit you hit the nail on the head with your last post analysis....I can tell that even before i became self aware, and gained knowledge of my true history, that i felt uncomfortable with my slave name.. it didn't fit and didn't suit my personality...plus i felt that it made me feel weak and appear weak in the eye of Europeans.. Which is principally why I threw it away..it didn't belong to me and did not speak to my personality or culture.
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I hear that Brother.
Ifour political environmenthas not changed, if the oppression of the African has been continuous and is documented in history, then the African should de-construct, dismantle those sameconstant, persistentstructures, whether economic (reliance on non African means of production), political (thepuppet useof Africans who have the same interests as those who still oppress Africans en mass), or psychological( ideas that stop or hinder resistance to the ideology thatsees Africans as lesser than or the insignificant other); the sameinsidiouspsychological component of our lives that reactionaries constantly state is not important or has little effect on our lives and destinies.
It's a great contradiction to admit to the negative psychological/physical effects of name, language and cultural destruction as something that harmed our ancestors, yet today, while still living in environments that still seeAfricans as lesser than (institutionalized racist states),we, name ourselves after Europeans, but refuse to look at that samepsychological/culturalelement that weakened our ancestors.
This brother put it this way, over 40 years ago, but many still don't get..................
Who are you?
You dont know. Dont tell me Negro, thats nothing.
What were you before the white man named you a Negro?
And where were you?
And what did you have?
What was yours?
What language did you speak then?
What was your name?
It couldnt have been Smith or Jones or Bunch?? or Powell.
That wasn't your name. They don't have those kind of names where you and I came from.
No. What was your name? And why don't you now know what your name was then?
Where did it go?
Where did you lose it?
Who took it?
And how did he take it?
What tongue did you speak? How did the man take your tongue?
Where is your history? How did the man wipe out your history?
How did the man, what did the man do to make you as dumb as you are right now?
Malcolm X