Keep it going

27th February 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor

Have you ever gotten “the look”? The one you get when somebody sees you doing something that makes no sense to them? I know I have.

In fact, I get it a lot.

I get it when somebody catches me picking up an item I dropped in a supermarket and when I return my shopping basket to the store after loading the items I bought into the car. I get it when I smile and say “Good morning” to one of the elders I cross paths with as I start off my day or when I hold a substantive conversation with a complete stranger while I am out and about. And I get that look of incredulity when I share a joke or funny story with a cashier, political candidate or someone in line at the bank.

But I get it most often when I have the audacity to be seen in public or at home picking up a nonfiction book about Black people, listening to speeches by some of the greatest minds Africa has produced or watching films and documentaries about the Black experience and/or white supremacy beyond the month of February.

And I get it.

It’s not something that a lot of people who look like us place a high enough premium on, so it makes it all the more curious to actually witness someone who sees self-discovery and the pursuit of African history as a reason to get up early in the morning and stay awake sometimes all night.

There’s a difference between studying Black history in an obligatory kind of way and actually doing it because you enjoy it and find it intellectually and spiritually stimulating and empowering.

I remember stealing a line from a movie about the Civil Rights Movement when a former college classmate asked me years ago if I was proud to be Black. “Proud,” I said, feigning exasperation. “I’m downright conceited.”

Despite what’s written and spoken in mainstream media every day of the year, I make it a point to find some small way to celebrate Black ingenuity, resilience, courage and strength every day. On good days, I try to celebrate these things all day.

Despite the things our Beloved Ancestors have accomplished, created and survived, there will always be someone or some entity that is motivated to undermine our heritage in order to build up their own.

Some will tell us that Black Africans didn’t design and build the pyramids of Ancient Kemet (Egypt) — according to them it was aliens. Or the Greeks, Romans and Arabs who later invaded and gentrified Egypt. It was and remains today important that anyone but Black Africans get credit for the building of the world’s greatest civilization, the one that mesmerized and inspired the Greeks, who are credited with being the cornerstone of Western civilization.

Apparently, the early Greeks themselves had no problem with giving the dark-skinned Africans that ruled and built Egypt for thousands of years the credit they so richly deserve.

Don’t take my word for it — pick up a book at the library and read about it for yourself. After he or she gets over the shock of someone actually showing up at the library without being required to do so by a teacher and seeing the hunger for knowledge in your eyes, your neighborhood or campus librarian would be ecstatic to assist you in finding something to whet your appetite for knowledge.

The same white supremacist forces that don’t want you to know that Egypt was built and ruled for thousands of years by Black Africans also don’t want you to know that Egypt is on the African continent and that long before Europeans began calling Africa the “Dark Continent,” it was known around the globe as the “Light of the World.”

Again, don’t take my word for it.

Pick up a book or browse an article by African-centered scholars like Molefi Kete Asante, Cheikh Anta Diop, Yosef ben-Jochanan, George G.M. James, Asa Hillard, Charles Finch or John Henrik Clark.

While you’re at it, pick up DVD copies of African-centered films like Hidden Colors 1-4 and Out of Darkness. And tune into PBS this week as it unveils a new documentary film series about Africa’s greatest civilizations.

A critical step in figuring out who you are and how great you can be is learning who you were and how great your Beloved Ancestors were.

Let’s get busy learning our true history. We owe that to ourselves and our Beloved Ancestors.

This article originally published in the February 27, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.