Excerpts of a lecture entitled: The Restructuring of the African Village Away from Home by Dr. John Henrik Clarke “Now let me return to the village in the United States because we are a nation of scattered villages. Last Wednesday night I spoke at what was once the Slave Theater. I spoke about the land and the African villages of the world and how we must claim the land in order to claim the nation. Now what I’m trying to say is that we must claim the family in order to claim the community, and subsequently the land which is the basis of nationhood, as that nation is the ultimate goal of all people who walk on this earth. We have suffered something other people did not suffer. We have been removed from our historical memory. The idea of nation is when we can rule our nation. So therefore, when we gain control of a nation, we will rule in accordance with the oppressor. The oppressor’s method of ruling a nation will never fit the nations we have to rule, because the oppressors have created a strait jacket for the nation State – and the nation State is un-African. What we have lived in is a territorial State. We had cross fertilization of cultures and religions without fighting over cultures and religions. When the foreigners and the fakers, and the fools came in, they began to pit one culture against the other in order to conquer both cultures. We cannot get rid of all this nonsense because this kind of nonsense is what kept Nigeria from being Africa’s Supreme State.” “I’m not asking you to leave your religion. What I’m saying is that, convert it into an instrument of your own liberation or leave it alone. Make it serve you. Make it serve the interest of your people. Realize that your nationhood began with you, your family and your community. One you get that together, you are on your way back to structure nationhood. Other people have an advantage over us only because they understand the meaning of “a nation,” and they understand a nation frame of mind. And although they’re in this country for five generations, they never lose contact with the original nation where they were created. Therefore, they never throw away their nation frame of mind. We say, “I’m American;” nobody brought you here to be an American; nobody brought you here to make you a citizen. They brought you here because of labor, and now that it’s completed, you are obsolete, and the people who helped to send you here haven’t invited you back home.” “Why haven’t we listened to the concept of self-reliance as dictated by Booker T. Washington?; The concept of political reliance as dictated by W.E.B. Dubois and Garvey’s concept of returning to the land of your birth and reclaiming it for yourself? Also Elijah Muhammad’s concept of lost nation away from home that needs to reclaim itself away from home, in order to get back home.” “We must be clear about our mission in the world. Our mission in the world is what all other people are clear about – getting themselves together, looking after their own best interest; understanding the essential selfishness of survival, making a place for the children, and leaving a legacy for their children. The essential selfishness of survival starts with the understanding of yourself and the relationship of the family and the family’s relationship to the immediate community and the world community. We are the owners of a piece of real estate called Africa which is twelve million square miles. We are not a majority. We are scattered throughout the world with nearly a third of African people in the world living outside of Africa. Strategically, we are probably the most dispersed of all people in the world which can be in our favor. We did not leave Africa to conquer any people outside of Africa, and we are not claiming the conquest of any people. Therefore, the world can feel safe with African people in power.”
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 20:33:19 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015