(ThyBlackMan.com) Slavery is not African history. Slavery interrupted African history. ~Mutabaruka
The idea of reclaiming the abominable n-word n**ga—a racist term—as opposed to reclaiming one’s [stolen] history is reprehensible and serves as evidence of low self-esteem, simple-mindedness—lacking mental capacity and subtlety. Yet surreal as it may be there are many within the black community drawn to the twisted notion of re-claiming the n-word with unbelievable zest and zeal, having no interest whatsoever in re-claiming their stolen history.
When any group of people disconnects itself and/or is disconnected from its own historical tradition it is at the mercy of other people. Reading about someone else history and none about your own makes you psychologically unbalanced, which explains the demeanor of those who embrace the n-word. You will become people who don’t belong anywhere; without self-knowledge you have no orientation; it’s like a person walking around with amnesia, no memory. People are easily manipulated when they have no culture, no true identity or love of self.
White America has never lost touch with their European values and principles. They know who they are and do not discount where their heritage lies, dating back to ancient Greece and Rome. Blacks on the other hand—too—have a very rich and cultivated heritage but in many cases refuse to acknowledge that their roots are African. By denouncing African roots one is unknowingly advocating the once force-fed acceptance of European traditions, slavery, and disorientation of the Black African-American. Because of this many black people remain non-self-aware, lost souls or ventriloquists for another’s plight. Consider the fact that other than the Black African-American no other race of people are inclined to abandon their culture in an attempt to adopt and integrate into a Eurocentric culture. It’s time for Black America to come out from underneath the 400 year old anesthesia they’ve been subjected to and recognize the abnormalities in their behavior.
Africa is the Cradle of Civilization and Black African-Americans owe it to themselves and the sacred memories of their ascendants to re-claim their rightful place in the chronicles of world history as opposed to re-claiming a mind control word that relegates them to an inferior status imposed upon them by a racist society. The flying of the Confederate flag pales in comparison to what the iniquitous, soul-destroying n-word signifies, but yet Black America will rise up against the flying of that flag in a New York second while simultaneously paying homage and allegiance to the racist n-word n**ga.
Black people are the only people on the face of this earth who have been detached and separated from their ancient history and culture. Black African-Americans acceptance of being defined as the n-word is not the mindset of a free people. Ironically, some Black Americans will reject the notion of being referred to as an African but will embrace the n-word without hesitation, failing to realize that it is their oppressor who turned them against their Motherland, and trained them to honor and love the n-word with ardent and adoring esteem.
The following named scholars, though have been subjected to ad hominem attacks, serve as links to recovering Black America’s stolen history (Dr. John Henrik Clarke, Dr. Chancellor Williams, Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop, Dr. Asa G. Hilliard and British Historian Basil Davidson) just to name a few. Their discoveries and findings about African history have never been disproven thus doing the 1980s as an alternative, rejecting incontrovertible evidence, they were all subjected to character assassination attacks in attempts to discredit, smear and dishonor them as legitimate sources of information. Rather than face the thought of black Africans having a history of their own racist naysayers fabricated exotic explanations resorting to ad hominem attacks on creditable black scholars in the process.
There did exist at one time mutual respect between black and white people, in fact there was no such thing as race, there was just simply people. Racism is a rather modern day sickness as one need to look no further than European art of the Renaissance which reflects an absence of racism, where black and white people take their place in the paintings with equal dignity.
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade is what initiated racism to legitimize the enslavement of black Africans. In order to justify chattel slavery there became a need to lie about the great Black Civilizations and its contributions to humankind; the LYING and cover up has never ceased. Much has been made of Africans selling Africans into slavery, but what is never mentioned is that prior to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade black and white people, Christian or Muslim were routinely enslaved. Europeans were enslaving Europeans, and Jews enslaving Jews. So the idea that Africans were enslaving other Africans was not an anomaly.
Moreover, significant slave trading by Arabs to black Africa had been going on since ancient times, the link between slavery and ethnicity (or, more popularly, ‘race’)—that is, between slavery and Blackness—was more or less non-existent—until, that is, it was forged by maritime Europeans in the form of chattel slavery.
The majority of the early slaves to the New World were actually white.
During the 16th – 18th century, Africans enslaved approximately 1.5 million white Europeans in the Barbary Slave Trade, roughly 700 Americans were held as slaves between 1785 and 1815. African Muslims raided up the coastlines of Europe, particularly the British Isles but even as far as Iceland, kidnapping and enslaving white European Christians. The men were galley slaves, and the women were sex slaves. Further statistics suggest that Istanbul’s additional slave import from the Black Sea may have totaled around 2.5 million from 1450 to 1700.
From 1641 to 1652, over 500,000 Irish were killed by the English and another 300,000 were sold as slaves. During the 1650s, over 100,000 Irish children between the ages of 10 and 14 were taken from their parents and sold as slaves in the West Indies, Virginia and New England. In this decade (1650 – 1659) an additional 52,000 Irish (mostly women and children) were sold to Barbados and Virginia. Another 30,000 Irish men and women were also transported and sold to the highest bidder. In 1656, 2000 Irish children were taken to Jamaica and sold as slaves to English settlers. Ireland’s population fell from about 1,500,000 to 600,000 in one single decade.
Black African-Americans must somehow [reclaim] their stolen history and identity; take charge of their lives and that of their children we can’t leave this to other people to do, they just are NOT going to do it. We must throw off this dependence on others to educate our children. Powerful people aren’t going to educate powerless people on HOW to think they educate you on WHAT to think.
We must explain to our children what racism [really] is, their very survival depends on having this knowledge as they will not learn about it through the American academia system. There are many facets of racism some of which is to make sure people have no memory, no collective memory that is true and real; they can have individual identity but not a “collective” one. Another example is to teach the people the so-called superiority of the oppressor over themselves, culturally, intellectually and every other way. Control the socialization process of the people which is done by the destruction of their past making them irrelevant in the pages of history.
With all of the available Black scholars and historians, it is unfathomable how we do not take the initiative to set the record straight regarding the true history of the Black civilization. Far too many Blacks, and whites for that matter, are left with the impression that the Black race have never contributed anything to civilization and that the legacy primarily is limited to enslavement and a jungle habitat. For Black African-Americans to allow themselves to be intimidated into thinking such falsehoods are true, serves as validation of paternalistic and enslaved minds lacking the desire to want to think for self. Such continued inertia assures an infinite span of mental enslavement for the Black race. Self-internalizing and perpetual use of the n-word serves as a psychological conduit for this type of bondage.
Staff Writer; H. Lewis Smith
This talented brother is the founder and president of UVCC, the United Voices for a Common Cause, Inc., http://www.theunitedvoices.com author of Bury that Sucka: A Scandalous Love Affair with the N-Word, and the recently released book Undressing the N-word: Revealing the Naked Truth, Lies, Deceit and Mind Games https://www.createspace.com/4655015
Also follow Mr. Smith on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/thescoop1.
