FROM EMPIRES TO SLAVERY
TO FREEDOM :
NANA SPEAKS
OF SANKOFA
Nana
Kwabena Faheem Ashanti, Ph.D.
Odikrofohene
(Sub-King) of Mampong-Ashanti
Ghana,
West Africa
And
North
Carolina State University
Presented
At
October
18, 1997
Historic
Stagville Plantation
Durham,
North Carolina
I ask the elder of elderes for permission to
speak .
(
Great Creator who leans on no one )
Asase Yaa ( Earth Mother )
Nananom (Great Elder) Nsuo ( God of water )
Nananom Asase ( God of the earth )
Nananom Egya ( God of fire )
Nananom Mframe ( God of Air )
Nananom Abosomfo ( Lesser Gods )
Nananom Nsamanfo ( Great Ancestors )
( Great Water God ) ( Holy Water God )
Meko
kra Nyame ( I go first to the Creator )
Mema
wa aha ! ( Good afternoon )
A long life is a gift of God, I ask for a
long life for our Honored Elders here today. I ask for unity, healing, and
protection, for all of you who have attended this historic Adae Kesee
celebration. May the spirits of the Creator, the lessor Gods, and the Ancestors
clear all obstacles in your paths, and reward you a prosperous new year.
Whenever I make any statements that are
true, or should be true, you should say:
ZO ! ZO ! ZO !
I have a message to present to you. It's
about Akwasidae Kesee, what I believe it means to me, you, America, and
Africa. I feel humbled and honored that
you came to be with us today. Not to be
depressed, not to be angry, or to berate white people.
We are here for
Atonement, Reconciliation, Healing, Responsibility, and most importantly, to
say, Thank You, to our enslaved Ancestors. They made it possible for us to be
what we are today.
It is clear to me on this day, God, the
Ancestors, and you, are pleased with us. I see and feel the spirit. Today we
rise from the hurts, like the sacred drums call, and wake up our Ancestors.
Today, we remember and treat our Ancestors like they ought to be treated --
with respect, honor, and dignity. This is the sacred day of the Ancestors.
Our enslaved Ancestors always had a
holiday, but they had to ask their slave masters for permission. Today, as
their children, we return to free them. We asked no one's permission. The Kemetic
Benu Order African Fraternity, and You, declared this day to be Adae Kesee.
In these African proverbs there is wisdom. Forgive me a thousand times for saying them to someone as wise as you.
"The wise person who does not learn ceases to be
wise"
" If you travel with lies, you may reach your
destination, but will be unable to return "
" However hungry the alligator becomes, it looks for
food in the river, not the forest "
" If a mouse was the size of a cow, it would still be
the cat’s slave.
"One who gathers water at the same place on the
riverbank too often,
ends up in the belly of the alligator."
There is an African word I want you to
learn and to remember today, it is called SANKOFA
! It means, you can always undo your mistakes. You can find your source of
strength, to know the present in the past, and to ensure your future. Repeat
after me, SANKOFA ! This concept is
symbolized as a bird looking backward.
Today we observe SANKOFA by returning to our past to express our gratitude to our
enslaved ancestors. We honor their courage, the lives they led, and for making
it possible for us to prosper today. We return today to open the wounds of our
minds, to confront our hurts and angers, so that our true HEALING will began, and to ATONE for our behavior. We do not feel
depressed today being on this former slave plantation. No, we rejoice ! The
first laws found in the Holy Bible are: "Man know yourself" and
"Physician heal yourself". You can not know yourself when your
identity has been destroyed. You cannot heal yourself if you do not know you
are sick. Who are we ? Are we sick ? We can not be defined as a people who went
from slavery to freedom. No ! We can only be defined as a people from Empires
to slavery to freedom to Empires.
"The wise person who does not learn ceases to be wise"
We are the people of Yesterday, Today,
and Tomorrow ! Our history did not begin here in slavery, like we are taught in
school. No ! We are the people of yesterday, today and tomorrow. "If you travel with lies, you may reach
your destination, but will be unable to return." Yesterday our African Ancestors built the great pyramids of
Egypt, wrote many of the holy words that are found in the Bible. Yesterday our
Ancestors created mathematics, medicine, law, art, and music. Yesterday, our
people ruled the Great Empires of Ghana,
Mali, Songhai, the Great University
of Sankora in Timbuktu, Yoruba, Zimbabwe, and Ashanti. Yesterday, our ancestors produced iron, gold, diamonds,
and agriculture. Yesterday our
Ancestors wore their own names, practiced their African religion that God gave
them, honored their Ancestors, observed their own morals and values, and had a
mission and a purpose for their lives.
Then
today , yes, they were torn from their motherland ‑ Africa. They were
captured prisoners of war, male and female, the best of the best. In fact, they
were sold to white people, by rival 'misinformed" African kings and queens
who captured them. The chained and shackled voyages across the land, the ocean,
and diseases killed 3/4 of the Africans sold. Additionally, white slave
merchants conducted experiments to see who could survive the long Atlantic
crossing in the slave forts in Africa.
Only the strongest and most intelligent ones survived, to be resold in
the American markets. Most cities had a
slave market, including Wall Street in New York, Washington, D.C., Raleigh and
Fayetteville, NC, and Charleston, S.C.
Our African ancestors were not called "Negroes". Instead, they
were from the ethnic groups of: Zulu,
Ibo, Kongo, Ethiopian, Kukuyu, Shona, Wolof, Akan, Ewe, Yoruba, Egyptian,
Nubian, and many others. Once here on the plantations, selective breeding
was added to the mix. Unintentionally, the slave merchants, and masters, caused
a superior group of human beings to be produced. We are those people, descended
from the best of the best. They became the Economic Prisoners, called slaves,
here on the plantations. They were the
ones that created the wealth and made it possible for the power and
opportunities that many
white people have
today. It was the brutal physical punishment, and the Psychotechnology of
brainwashing, that forced noble Africans into becoming submissive Negroes, now
called "Minorities".
Our enslaved ancestors were punished and
taught to forget that they were Africans. However, they were rewarded for
remembering that they were black and inferior to whites. Today, our Ancestors were raped, abused, and
sexually taken advantage of, by white
men and women. Children born by Africans, through sexual conquest, caused color
discrimination and divisions among our people, by color and hair texture. Their shades of skin color were classified
by the percentage of white blood. They were known then as "Mulattos"(1/2),
"Quadroons"(1/4), and "Octoroons"(1/8). When they
married a darker skin African, or were not economically and socially
successful, they were referred to as "yellow gone to waste"! Yet,
they all, dark and light skinned, caught the same hell. Many quadroons and octoroons
moved to other cities or states and "passed" into the white race and
lived in fear of being found out! Today, the brainwashing created into psychic,
good hair and bad hair. If the hair was
kinky (African), it had to be made
"bone straight", fixed, or done. This was true for males and females.
Was
their hair broken, or
unfinished by God? The standard of
beauty became no longer African, but white, for black males and females.
Today,
here on the plantation, they first heard the word "nigger". "Nigger" became a key power word;
"run nigger or die". They became humans lost, in someone else's
system of religions, beliefs, values, and morals. They were forced to seek love
and acceptance by denying their Africanness. Today, they used this "n" word to refer to each
other. This is a case where brainwashing today is still today. Let the
"n" word die an unnatural death. Today, they were taught that they
were less intelligent than whites. They were taught to disrespect and to distrust their own black leaders and
experts. They felt inferior and sought
approval, and consulted experts who were White to define their reality. This relates to the poverty of looking for
food in the wrong places. "One who
gathers water at the same place on the riverbank too often, ends up in the
belly of the alligator."
Today, most of our enslaved Ancestors
resisted. They rebelled, fought, died, and multiplied. We are now over 40
million. How long was today? Not too
long ago. There are people here today, 83 years old, whose fathers were freed
slaves. Somewhere in America, there are still some former slaves alive today.
They are about 109 years old. As you should know, the Act of 1865, freeing
slaves, alone did not stop illegal slavery.
As late as 1888, a slave ship arrived at Charleston, S.C. Only the enforcement of the laws abolished
physical slavery. Today, the psychological chains still remain on the minds of
too many of our adults and children. We are the ones passing on these
psychological germs to our children.
However, it is not our fault because we
have been brainwashed. Today, we begin to undo this brainwashing.
The Bible says in Genesis " Then the Lord said to Abraham, 'Know
of a surety that your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not
theirs, and will be slaves there, and they will be oppressed for four hundred
years; but I will bring judgement on the nation which they serve, and afterward
they shall come out with great possessions."
This description of bondage describes the
experiences of Africans born in America. The 400 years are up now. Rejoice, and
know that God, the Ancestors, and our struggles for freedom, have answered the
prayers for our deliverance. Tomorrow, all we have to do, is to learn how to
reprogram our minds, or to reverse this Psychotechnology of brainwashing. My
book, The Psychotechnology of Brainwashing:
Crucifying Willie Lynch provides instruction. Only then will, we be able to define
ourselves, not allowing fear to stop us, and to practice Sankofa. "If the mouse was the size of a cow, it
would still be the cat's slave."
Here we are tomorrow, being healed ! Tomorrow, we will remember Sankofa. We will
look back to our source of strength. We
will undo our mistakes and be healed. Tomorrow, you must reconcile your
differences with your family, friends, and within your communities.
If you are still looking for the secret
to freedom and empowerment, you must observe Sankofa. Remember this; each
different race of people on earth, with
the nuclear bombs, also have the money.
What they all have in common is the practice, and support, of their own:
cultures, religions, languages, names, education, economics, politics,
traditions, and control of their media. They define and defend themselves, and
their social system. There is only one human race, but there are many social
races. The social races that are oppressed, do not practice and support their
own social system, but that of another social race. This is what makes racial supremacy possible. If you believe in
equality, then you must play the game by the equal rules that others play by in
America. Then you will create equal
wealth, equal power, equal education, equal employment, equal communications,
equal health care, equal happiness, and equal relationships. This is not racial
separation, instead it is equal diversity. This is the true secret formula for
freedom and respect. This is the secret you have been seeking. You must become Africentric. Relearn your
history, before enslavement. You are now free to take back your African
culture; buy books, attend seminars, and ask questions. "However hungry the alligator becomes,
it looks for food in the river, not the forest."
With Sankofa, we will once
again become the noble people
of Yesterday and the
people of Tomorrow. You will see our
children blossom into high achieving students, law-abiding citizens, and the
disappearance of killings and drug abuse
in our communities. This is the message of Sankofa that our enslaved Ancestors
have asked me to bring to you this Akwasidae Kesee. These laws were established
by the Ancestors for the people to obey. They are to regulate our society. As we have already seen, when they were
first broken by enslavement, and later through mis-education and brainwashing,
destruction and disunity descended upon us, even while many of us materially
prospered. It is only through Sankofa that we will relearn to build our own
homes, instead of rearranging the furniture in other people's houses.
Race relations will improve when you
define yourselves in your own African image. You then will become producers,
instead of consumers. You will create a factory for each church you build, for the employment of your
people. You will support black owned businesses that support you, and defend
them. You will spend your money with white owned institutions that also
supports you. This is what actually will improve racial relations, lessen
resentment, and put interaction on mutual terms.
I, Nana
Ashanti, am calling today, for the
establishment of an Institute for the
Study of the Enslavement of African People. We need to know the locations
of other slave plantations in America. We need to know the impacts of slavery
on the mentality, economics, and the spirituality, of descendants of enslaved
people. We need to know the remedies that must be made to them, to make them
Whole again.