The Afrikan sojourn ‘abroad’ entails coming from ”Matriarchal foundations”(1) that existed across the Motherland of the past to a present being subjected to a rapacious, patriarchal, global political, economic and religious oppression. (2)
In spite of the pervasive impact and influence of European culture (including so-called Abrahamic religions), matriarchal retentions in the form of active participation in the public sphere are replete in Afrikan history. This is typified in the historical accounts of, for example, Queen Nzingha in Ndongo (3), Nanny in Jamaica (4) and the likes of Cecile Fatiman, Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniére, Princess Améthyste, Lazare and Sanité Belair in Haiti (5).
In in more recently, Afrikan women formed almost half the executive of Marcus Garvey’s UNIA-ACL (6) and around 60% of the membership of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defence. As academic Elizabeth Michele Jones notes “Black women remain as a constant force in setting the pace for change.” (7)
However, Jones also states:
“Black women have long contributed to the Black Nationalist strain of social movements their participation and work in sustaining the community lingers near invisible.” (8)
A case in point could be that of Mama Ella Baker. When people think about the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC), the most referenced personalties tend to the likes of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), John Lewis and H Rap Brown. Yet Mama Ella helped mobilize to create both of these organisations that were the most crucial to the Civil Rights Movement but relatively call, or even know her name. (9)
What tends to get overlooked is the context for Afrikan organizational dynamics. For successive generations Afrikan organising, even so called revolutionary organising, has largely occurred within a European ideological framework. Yet Afrikan-Centered Cultural Scientist, Mama Marimba Ani urges “our solution lies in the denial of the European world-view as a basis for human organisation.” (10)
As an antidote she asserts “the realities of working successfully among us is that there is that there must be a spiritual component in the organizing apparatus.” This underscores the limits of organizing solely around socialist or Marxist principles where is a tendency to mistake ideology for methodology. (11)
As we can see from the accounts of Queen Nzinga of Angola, Prophetess Kimpa Vita, Cecile Fatiman & The Haitian Revolution, Solitude from Guadeloupe, Queen Nanny of the Maroons and Yaa Asantewaa, working within an Afrikan spiritual framework did not hinder the ascendance of women leaders. (12) So it is not surprising that the UNIA-ACL, organised around principles of Afrikan Spiritual Orthodoxy, was also characterised by female prominence. (13)
All of this suggests that it is not, as commonly assumed, the fact of being a nationalist alone that promulgates patriarchy and/or masculinity be it toxic or charismatic but the world-view that underpins it – a European world-view. The remedy, it is argued, can only be found in a politicised Afrikan-Centered Spiritual world-view. Again for Mama Marimba Ani, there are 14 stages of development for Afrikan women that will enable the manifestation in their true essence to be:
“Life affirming
In partnership with an Afrikan man
A political organiser
Functioning as part of a collective
Able to exert influence
Able to speak for the Ancestors
An advocate for Afrika
A mother who does whatever is necessary to protect her child
Able to teach
A healer
Able to represent the continuity of Afrikan people
Able to represent the stability of the Afrikan family
Able to maintain and pass on Afrikan culture
Able to organize and direct the Afrikan market, enabling our people to understand the spirit of economic exchange and distribution of our resources
A scientist of the sacred
A spiritual leader
Able to think deeply
Divine” (14)
In this manifestation, Afrikan women and men function as the “mirrors of each others soul.” (15)
With his avowed goal of waging a cultural revolution as a means for restoring our identity, (16) this could well be where Omowale Malcolm X was trying go. Had he done so it would have created a formidable force in the service of Afrikan redemption and liberation. Perhaps this is another reason why this aspect of his legacy is consistently under emphasised.
(1) Ifi Amadiume (1987) Afrikan Matriarchal Foundations – The Igbo Case. Karnak House. p.7
(2) Erriel D Robinson (1995) The Maafa & Beyond. Kujichagulia Press. pp. 57-76
(3) Robin Walker (2013) When We Ruled. Reklaw Education Ltd. p. 417-8
(4) Ray Uter (1987) Nanny Of The Maroons in Ray Uter, Virginia McLean, Lesnah Hall & Frank Forde, Black Makers of History: Four Women. The Bookplace. pp. 4-11. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/17/patrice-lumumba-50th-anniversary-assassination
(5) Thomas Brandstetter (31/07/15) Women Combatants in the Haitian Revolution. https://wargamingraft.wordpress.com/2015/07/31/women-combatants-in-the-haitian-revolution/
(6) Nzingha Assata (2008) Women In The Garvey Movement. N. Assata. p. 3
(7) Elizabeth Michele Jones (2006) The unknown struggle : a comparative analysis of women in the Black Power movement. https://ir.library.louisville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1711&context=etd. p. 6-7
(8) Ibid.
(9) Pascal Robert (21/02/13) Ella Baker and the Limits of Charismatic Masculinity. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/pascal-robert/ella-baker-and-the-limits_b_2718608.html
(10) Marimba Ani (2004) Let The Circle Be Unbroken, Nkonimfo Publications. p. 51
(11) Ibid.
(12) Toyin Agbetu (27/11/12) Three Continents One History. Ligali Newsletter. http://www.ligali.org/newsletter/nyansapo_27nov12.htm
(13) Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka (2008) Will the real Garveyite please stand up! The Whirlwind, Edition 6, p. 3
(14) Marimba Ani (2007) To Be An Afrikan Women in Burnett Kwadwo Gallmanm Marimba Ani & Larry Obadele Williams (Eds) To Be Afrikan. M.A.A.T. Inc.. pp. 42-43
(15) Ibid.
(16) The Organization of Afro-American Unity (1965) Program of the OAAU. https://www.malcolm-x.org/docs/gen_oaau.htm.
we ask the question:
Can spirituality restore Afrikan woman leadership to it’s rightful place?
1) Why does so little commentary about women in the movement focus on spirituality?
2) How do we develop a politicised Afrikan-Centered Spiritual world-view”?
3) Why does so little commentary about women in the movement focus on spirituality ?
4) What are the stages of Development for Afrikan women?
5) Is there an equivalent for Afrikan men?
Our very special guest:
Mama Marimba Ani: Is an Afrikan-Centered Cultural Scientist, engaged in the reconceptualization of the Afrikan Experience from the perspective of Afrikan people and also is known for introducing the term “Maafa” to describe what is known as the Afrikan Holocaust. She served as an SNCC field secretary in the Freedom Summer of 1964 and was later brought to Hunter College in the City University of New York, under the tutelage of Nana Dr. John Henrik Clarke, where she taught for 25 years. A partial list of the courses that she delivered include: Afrikan Civilization; Afrikan Spirituality in the Diaspora; Women in Afrika; Women in the Afrikan Diaspora; Men in the Afrikan Diaspora; Afrikan Spiritual Thought Systems; The Afrikan World View; The Work of Cheikh Anta Diop; The Work of Ayi Kwei Armah; Theories of White Racism.
In addition, she created the Maat/Maafa/Sankofa Paradigm as part of the development of an Afrikan Cultural Science and Social Theory. She is the founding director of the Afrikan Heritage Afterschool Program (AHAP) in Harlem New York (1983-1998) and after leaving the academy now directs this programme in Atlanta. Mama Marimba is an active member of Us Lifting Us, an Afrikan/Black economic cooperative, and the Association for the Study of Classical Afrikan Civilizations. She is author of a number of ground breaking books: Let the Circle Be Unbroken: The Implications of African Spirituality in the Diaspora (1989); Yurugu: An African-centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior: African-Centered Critique of European Thought and Behavior (1994). Ideologically, Mama Marimba considers herself “a Garveyite, An Afrikan Sovereignist, and a Race Woman” and in Mosiah 2015 Mama Marimba was appointed the UNIA-ACL Ambassador of Race First Sovereign Development.