Happy New Year fellow Rattlers. This is an extract from a book I am writing. It may bless you if you take time to read till the end. Happy New Year from the FAMU West African Alumni Chapter! HOW SENATOR THRASHER HELPED PROVOKE ME INTO PURPOSE - Year in Review As I look back on 2014 and take stock of my year in a manner consistent with my HBCU (FAMU) upbringing – that holistic upbringing that focuses on the head, the heart, the hands and the field – I cannot help but count then Senator Thrasher - now FSU President among my many blessings. I therefore dedicate this article to the provoker of a journey I look back upon within the context of my great “romance” of 2014 – romancing my purpose. HOW I MET SENATOR THRASHER At the end of a routine day, April 7th, 2014 in Lagos, Nigeria - where I am currently serving as a resident expatriate – I logged onto Facebook and all I can recount now was the outrage of an intensely engaged group of FAMU – FSU College of Engineering Alumni. Curiosity got the better of me so I immediately begun to dig through the chain of comments to find out what had provoked my fellow brethren of the historic great and beloved FAMU. Lo and behold a certain “Thrasher” I had never met was “trending”; this senator of a man, Thrasher had purposed within his heart and made manifest his intent to engineer the divorce of a joint institution that has birthed and nurtured thousands of engineers who are blazing the trail in industry and academia. For some, it was outrage over the fact that someone had tried to engineer a radical disintegration of an institution upon whose shoulders we stand; for some of us it was outrage over the fact that Senator Thrasher had the audacity to call out my alma mater as the dead weight in a marriage partnership who is holding the other partner FSU back from attaining its glorious goals – my pride was hurt to say the least and I had to act. How to act percolated in my sub-consciousness even as I slept that night, for at 3am, my eyes opened, something deep within me was telling me to take a step of organizing a conference call. I wanted to call my friend Petra Robinson to bounce this of her, it was 9pm in Orlando where Petra lives- I called. At this point my wife is wondering what the heck is wrong with me – tossing and turning and waking up to make a call.....at 3am Lagos, Nigeria time. CALL TO ACTION - A CONFERENCE CALL Petra Robinson was onboard with having the conference call, so was Adrienne Huffman and a group of about 15 who accepted the invitation to convene and strategize. My pride had the better of me going into the meeting – my position was if FSU wants a divorce, give it to her. I(FAMU) can do good all by myself. However, the majority’s tempered opinion was more practical and strategic – FAMU is not in a position to strike it out by herself given that it was resource challenged. The meeting ended with a consensus that we may not be acting on meaningful reliable information so there was a need for the team to converge in Tallahassee, put our feet on the ground and talk to administrators and engineering school faculty to assess “what was going on?” “What the challenges were?” and “how we could help? “. Finally we were to report back to the cohort that participated in the conference call. THE TRIP FROM LAGOS, NIGERIA to TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – DIVINE ORCHESTRATIONS Very much against the counsel of my wife - a Howard University Alumni, I embarked on my expensive trip back to the USA starting with a stop in Tallahassee. I was a man with a cause. I was to meet Petra in Tallahassee and together we were to embark on a fact finding mission to ascertain the “situation on the ground” with our Alma Mater and the joint FAMU-FSU College of engineering. I had been able to secure an appointment with Dr. Yaw Yeboah, Dean of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. To his credit he responded to a random request to meet using the medium of a web form on the eng.fsu.edu website and was able to concretize an appointment. We did not have any other appointments – I had not been able to get through to FAMU after numerous phone attempts to the switchboard. Upon my arrival in Tallahassee, I did something I had never done before – I yielded to getting my shoe polished by the “ shoe-shiner” at the airport. We got engaged in conversation as he shined my shoes, he was wondering what my African dressed self was seeking to do in Tallahassee. I told him my cause and I was surprised to find out that he was the brother of the Director of Admissions at FAMU. I jumped on the opportunity to have her direct line – Miracle #1 – and try to set up on appointment. After all, I expected her to be a great resource on questions regarding admission of strong candidates to the FAMU-FSU engineering program. I however choose to highlight here – Miracle #2. How we got an appointment with the FAMU President – Elmira Mangum. During one of my daily check-ins with my wife(back in Nigeria) after I settled down in Tallahassee hotel, my wife mentioned that she had heard that the new FAMU president had appointed someone with a Nigerian sounding name - a certain Funmi Ojetayo - as her special assistant. Here was my opportunity to get an appointment with the FAMU President I thought. I found Funmi on LinkedIn and sent an invitation to connect. That did not get me too far but my checks gave me a hunch that this guy with a Nigerian sounding name was married to a lady with a Ghanaian sounding name – Abena Sackey Ojetayo. I figured I will try connecting with Abena, afterall my name is Kwabena – our names are Ghanaian names for a girl and boy respectively born on a Tuesday; at least we had that much in common. To make a long story short, this route worked; I was able to secure an appointment with Abena’s husband Funmi. After sharing the cause with Funmi , he was gracious enough to offer to help set up an appointment with President Mangum if we were going to make it to Kentucky for the FAMU Alumni convention. My contact was Chief of Staff Shamis Abdi – same person I had tried to connect to on LinkedIn as I tried to pursue an appointment. Miracle #3 - I am still married after making significant poorly planned expenditures without my wife’s knowledge. I bought a same day ticket to Kentucky for the FAMU NAA convention. My plan was to convene some brains to strategize on the engineering school’s future so I got a suite with a big conference room, two rooms and other amenities. I even offered to pay my friend’s way since she was working towards the purchase of a house and was not prepared to make the unplanned expense to the FAMU Alumni convention. My other unsanctioned act was writing a check to FAMU in the amount of $5000. This was after I was taken by a beautiful portrait of the future global FAMU that president Mangum painted in her speech. In essence, her speech had inspired me to see the future FAMU with global aspirations beyond Florida - in that moment - and I was provoked to sow a seed in that fertile promised FAMU. In our enthusiasm to galvanize further action on the engineering school at the NAA convention, I approached the President’s Chief of staff to help set up a FAMU leadership team meeting on the future of the engineering school but she soundly rebuffed me for thinking our ideas and request for a working meeting on the engineering school should be more of a priority than the numerous proposals/issues the FAMU executive had on its plate at that moment– The lady asserted that she knew her job and that I could trust her to do her job! I also got a dress down on my “unrefined” request to connect on LinkedIn when we had not met. I quickly apologized for assaulting the young woman’s sensibilities. I was on a cause to save the engineering school and I was not going to let my sensitivities get in the way. The meeting with President Mangum and the president of the FAMU Foundation, Dr. Haynes took place. Petra and I shared our cause and mission and offered to send the office of the president a copy of our fact finding report for comments – which we did. Another unintended consequence of Senator Thrasher’s actions was a provocation to get the various Africans who have gone through FAMU mobilized under the umbrella of West African Alumni Chapter so we can contribute our quota to the growth of FAMU. We expect to have a functioning executive in January 2015. TURNING CHALLENGES INTO MILESTONES FOR A PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE The pursuit of the cause to save the engineering school as we know it has resulted in my exposure to two realities about the battle for the future of FAMU – it is being fought on the institutional/political front and on the personal/village/student/alumni front 1. On the institutional/State government front, it seems to me that the political institutions do not favor a progressive FAMU. This is due to the fact that the institutions of state are still evolving to catch up with the professed civil rights of people of African descent in Florida and much of America. Individuals like senator thrasher hold sway in this institutional/political/state government world. For institutions like FAMU to thrive and excel under a more balanced institutional/political environment, people of African descent and lovers of people of African descent must reconcile their differences and organize into more potent political and economic block. In this era of social media, the barrier has been lowered to reconcile and mobilize globally for causes that negatively impact any constituency in the global African diaspora. I don’t care what Raven Simone says; there can be no sustainable success or growth in any constituency of the global virtual, borderless African diaspora and continental Africa unless it is predicated on the personal liberation and collective reconciliation of the global African diaspora into one organized block. Fair governance systems do not drop from the sky anywhere, fair governance only shows up when enlightened and empowered citizens make a demand on the special interest beholden elite who govern us. Yes, we vote them in but they sell themselves to the highest bidder most times. 2. On the personal front, people of African descent who are oppressed and marginalized everywhere need to take individual responsibility for the liberation of their mind, body and spirit. See United Nations report at the link below: un.org/en/events/africandescentdecade/background.shtml Yes, as Africans and members of the global African Diaspora we have been through some weary years – of slavery, colonialism etc. We have all been through some silent tears, we have been looked down upon and spat upon; we have been called a dark continent I will like to invoke the last verse of the FAMU Alma Mater below: God ever keep us true to thee; Thy faith that truth shall make men free. Shall guide thy loyal sons aright And fend them thru’ the skeptic night I encourage all FAMUANs, the global HBCU community and the global African diaspora at large to open the cupboards and closets where - as a collective- we seem to have banished essential truths, dust them off and internalize them. Yes, it is time for us as individuals to subject ourselves to the reviving and liberating power of the Holy Ghost and His truth. The truth is that God loves us as Africans and the Global African Diaspora. The truth is that God has deposited some treasures in the very deep recesses of our persons. The truth is that walking into that customized God ordained destiny for each of us is a personal choice - a choice we must preoccupy ourselves with as a priority because it is the key to what we can do sustainably as a collective. As a people we need to contemplate what we can accomplish together if we tend to the truth which makes men and women like us free and makes us whole in our relationship with God and our fellow men. What we can accomplish together if we organize, innovate and build together as a global borderless constituency of a people liberated and empowered to bring about transformation in every space we find ourselves – rural America, urban America, the islands, Brazil, Europe and continental Africa – will blow our minds. 2015 will be the year to organize and find out. To Senator Thrasher Thank you Senator Thrasher, you have helped me find my purpose in life. You provoked me to look deep within myself and the state of the union of the Global African Diaspora Nation. You have been part of all the things that have worked together for my good in 2014. I walk into 2015 knowing with absolute clarity what my God given purpose and assignment in life is. You have provoked me into purpose, vocational clarity and relational integrity. I was born to be a bridge builder within the Global African Diaspora. You have awakened the “slumbering” Africa. God has used you to turn this Electrical Engineer into a Thinker, a Writer, a Social Engineer and a politically incorrect Social Entrepreneur. God bless you real good, you have served your purpose and I love you with the love of God. I end with a poem I have written to the New African – Inspired by Senator Thrasher. Enjoy!! I am Africa The time is now right to tell you my story because God has set me in transition. You see, I come from a root ancestor who knew God. My flow and communion with God has flowed and ebbed over the centuries. The story that has been told in this age is a misleading one that seems to assert that heathenism and idol worship has always been my passion. The truth is that I turned away from my God in self idolatry and worship of other intermediary created gods. I became disillusioned as a result of the darkness that I chose over what I thought was the heavy yoke of my God. In this disillusionment, I started selling my inheritance and even some of my own children who are today scattered all over the earth. Some in North America, some in South America, some on the islands, some in Europe and Asia. Others have left voluntarily because I gave them no hope. In my disillusionment I was raped and spat upon and the devil seemed to have won. Today, I have come to my senses by Gods grace I have come to appreciate that as much as I try to work my issues out and bring about love and reconciliation among my people, I keep failing. My best warriors, Marcus Garvey, W.E.B DuBois, Kwame Nkrumah, NNamdi Azikiwe, Booker T. Washington, Martin Luther King Jr, Barack Obama have been sent out to battle my Goliaths but alas the more they tried, the more things stayed the same or worse. I felt wretched! But now, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. For those who lived in a land of deep shadows-- light! sunbursts of light! God is repopulating our nation and expanding its joy. Oh, theyre so glad in your presence! Festival joy! The joy of a great celebration, sharing rich gifts and warm greetings. The abuse of oppressors and cruelty of tyrants-- all whips and cudgels and curses-- Is gone, done away with, a deliverance as surprising and sudden as Gideons old victory over Midian. The boots of all those invading troops, along with their shirts soaked with innocent blood, Will be piled in a heap and burned, a fire that will burn for days! For a child has been born--for us! the gift of a son--for us! Hell take over the running of the world. His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness. His ruling authority will grow, and therell be no limits to the wholeness he brings. Hell rule from the historic David throne over that promised kingdom. Hell put that kingdom on a firm footing and keep it going With fair dealing and right living, beginning now and lasting always. The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies Is doing this in the African Diaspora Nation starting in 2015. Please check out the Trailer below. God bless! https://youtube/watch?v=ZhzcDm5jOcQ&feature=youtu.be
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 17:41:57 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015