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Having looked in our previous shows at male and female leadership, tonight we bring the two together as a foundation for nation building.
Mama Marimba Ani, The special guest on the last show provided a context that assist in how leadership can be re-evaluated in the Afrikan context which is divergent from the feminist imperative of European women replicating, or even supplanting roles held by European men.
“Afrikan women are holding together families, communities, children they are teaching, they are guiding. Have always done this. Did this when we were escaping chattel enslavement. Did this when we were resisting the intrusion and attack and assault by the enemies of Afrika on the continent. They held us together. They taught us how to fight. They are the healers. In the midst of this they are holding themselves together, so that they can hold the family together. So that they can hold the community together. Now let’s fast forward to now to today. I can tell you that doing that and than also studying, reading, doing scholarship, writing speaking, being on the front line – it’s almost impossible. But that’s what we look for and that’s what you’re calling leadership. We need to focus more on organising. All of us, male and female.” (1)
Such a perspective necessitates a re-evaluation of how leadership is viewed – from an Afrikan-centred perspective. Rather than the profile or even celebrity that, for example, some high publicity campaigns can bring, the real focus was on building and maintaining institutions in the service of the nation.
This is characterised as steady, deliberate work based on the right foundation by people possessing the right character. This is something that Afrikan Ancestors has emphasised from time immemorial. But in terms of our liberation history Haitian Liberator Jean-Jacques Dessalines enshrined in the fledgling nation’s constitution:
”No person is worth of being a Haitian who is not a good father, good son, a good husband, and especially a good soldier.” (2)
About a century ago, no lesser figure than the Most Eminent Prophet and King His Excellency Marcus Mosiah Garvey continuously emphasised the importance of “good character” and “sterling character”
“Men and women who want to be of use to humanity must have good character… the greatest human possession is character. The man and woman of sterling character is a great builder. Not only a builder of themselves, they build around themselves…” (3)
In the current context warrior scholar Mwalimu K Bomani Baruti defines this as IWA:
“Iwa is conceptualised in terms of a divine ethicality, a universal, Spirit-based definition of what is right and wrong thought and behaviour. It is not individually, idiosyncratically decided on the earthly plane. It follows the order of “as above, so below.”” (4)
Baba Baruti further highlights that character is developed out of the relationship that are formed. Key in this are the relationships formed by men and women and the necessity that they exemplify Complimentarity:
“Complimentarity, as all other principles of Ma’at, should determine and guide our thought and action with everything animate and inanimate, tangible and intangible, knowable and unknowable. It should unquestionably remain an essential and inextricably intertwined ingredient in our relations with those we love and care about. It should remain deeply folded in foundation of all our interpretations and creations of reality. To be Afrikan is to be complementarily centered in all healthy and meaningful relations. Noncomplementary relations must be shaped into complementary ones. Or if that is impossible they should be discarded.” (5)
So it is in complementary relationships that the character is built and within this there is a natural sequence of developmental stages that Baruti identifies:
1) Choosing
2) Marriage
3) Sex
4) Procreation
5) The creation of family
6) Rearing Warriors. (6)
At the root then, the family is the goal of complementary relationship which are the foundation of the nation as it is in the creation of family where a woman truly becomes a woman and a man truly becomes a man. (7)
Stage 6 is significant as it functions to institutionalise the IWA (warrior character) for successive generations. This is why Baruti asserts: “Europeans have no greater fear in the contemporary setting than the consciously centered Afrikan family.” (8)
Initiatives in the Afrikan community like Origin, Akua, the Manhood Academy and the newly launched Womanhood Academy demonstrate a recognition of a key outcome of this stage. (9) In this vein, the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement established a structured rites of passage programme around twenty years ago. A central process in the programme is the Kuroira (Catechism) where prospective initiates are required to define ‘Rites Of Passage’ and its aims and objectives. It also requires them to understand the four major stages of human development and adhere to a codes of conduct, identify the natures of man and woman, their primary roles and how these interrelate.
When the foregoing is applied to leadership it appears to be at odds with the prevailing conceptions. It is far more profound than someone coming to prominence on the back of an event or campaign. It requires an (Afrikan) spiritual foundation, a commitment to developing complementary relationships that are consummated through marriage (the joining of two families) and the conscious rearing (not merely raising) successive generations.
It also affirmed conceptions of male and female roles that would largely at odds with the so-called progressive European paradigm. For example, the Alkebu-Lan Kuroira identifies the natures of man and woman as Germinator and Gestator respectively. Functionally, Baruti, suggests primary role of Afrikan men is that of warrior thinkers who seek to map out, defend and heal the nation’s perimeter. The primary role of Afrikan women is as warriors and scholars who define, defend and keep the nation’s interior pure. (10). When applied to leadership:
“Leadership is just a word if every individual in the family and community is performing his or her understood role/function. And common sense tells us that the voices in front are not always those who are leading.” (11)
(1) Mama Marimba Ani (26/02/18) Can spirituality restore Afrikan woman leadership to it’s rightful place? (Radio interview). Afrika Speaks with Alkebu-Lan on Galaxy Radio
(2) Emperor Jacques I (Dessalines) (Promulgated by) (20/05/1805) The 1805 Constitution Of Haiti. http://faculty.webster.edu/corbetre/haiti/history/earlyhaiti/1805-const.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/apr/04/preventingtheriseofamessi
(3) Bro. Ldr.. Mbandaka (Ed) (2009) Mosiah Daily Affirmations. Soul Force Promotions. p. 13, 17
(4) Mwalimu K Baruti (2010) Iwa: A Warrior’s Character. Akoben House. p. 10
(5) Mwalimu K Baruti (2004) Complimentarity: Thoughts For Afrikan Warrior Couples. Akoben House. p. 6-7
(6) Baruti (2010) p. 201-3
(7) Baruti (2010) p. 202
(8) Baruti (2010) p. 203
(9) The British Blacklist (12/02/18) Following the success of the Manhood Academy, Womanhood has now been born!. http://thebritishblacklist.co.uk/following-the-success-of-the-manhood-academy-womanhood-has-now-been-born/.
(10) Baruti (2010) p. 211
(11) Baruti (2010) p. 210
we ask the question:
Can we attain complementarity in our liberation leadership?
1) Does the character of leaders matter as long as they are popular and effective?
2) Given the levels of singletons and divorcees is marriage still a viable imperative?
3) What is complementarity?
4) Why would Europeans have no greater fear than the consciously centered Afrikan family?
4) Do men and women really have different natures and roles?
6) How does rearing differ from raising?
Our very special guests:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and UNIA-ACL Ambassador for the UK and national co-Chair of the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 30 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An African-Centred Guide To Excellence.
Mwalimu K. Bomani: is the co-founder and co-director of Akoben Institute, an independent Afrikan centered full-time and after-school home schooling and tutorial program for middle and high schoolers. He served as Assistant Professor of Sociology at Morehouse College from 1991 to 2001. Over the last half decade, Bro. Baruti has also taught various Afrikan centered evening classes for adults at the Institute and online. Bro. Baruti is the author of eighteen self-published books including: Excuses, Excuses: The Politics of Interracial Coupling in European Culture, negroes and other essays, Chess Primer: An Introduction to the Game of Chess, The Sex Imperative, Homosexuality and the Effeminization of Afrikan Males, Asafo: A Warriors Guide to Manhood, Complementarity: Thoughts for Afrikan Warrior Couples, Mentacide and other essays, Kebuka!: Remembering the Middle Passage Through the Eyes of Our Ancestors, Eureason: An Afrikan Centered Critique of Eurocentric Social Science, Battle Plan, Notes Toward Higher Ideals in Afrikan Intellectual Liberation, Sesh: An Afrikan Centered Guide to Writing and Self-Publishing for Warrior Scholars, Nyansasem: A Calendar of Revolutionary Daily Thoughts, Yurugu’s Eunuchs, Centered: Building Afrikan Realities, IAW: A Warrior’s Character and Message to The Warriors. He is currently working on a book entitled Asylum which examines the insanity of european culture and Identity which will reconceptualize a number of sociological concepts in Afrikan centered terms. Bro. Baruti lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife of 28 years, Yaa Mawusi Baruti, also co-founder and co-director of their homeschooling program.
Yaa Mawusi Baruti (Invited): is the co-director of Akoben a full-time Afrikan home-school program. A former English faculty member at Chicago State University and Morehouse College, she has edited books and articles on the Afrikan experience and has recently co-authored articles on Afrikan-centered education.