What has been considered the most devastating, degrading and diabolical acts made on African life in America, the most detrimental and debilitating of all cruel and human and ungodly exploitation outside the realm of murder and physical brutality –was the denial and prohibition to a proper education of adults and their children. This was not just a spasmodic or periodic calamity but a designed molding and reshaping of human genetics and behavior that weathered for more than four-hundred years.

This system of mental expunging–an intellectual brutality– knocked many Africans in America off their psyche –a zombie transformation, creating a universal buffoonery– not to ever again be restored to that rightful status and pedestal of dignity, power and refinement.

AN EXPOSITION ON THE ABOVE:

After the “1850 Fugitive Slave Act” was in effect, fleeing and manumitted Africans from the South were no longer safe after reaching states in the North; scoundrels, called “crackers”–referring to the sound of the whip they carried– whenever advantageous, kidnapped not only freemen but also escapees as well. It was only after having crossed the Canadian border that freedom was certain. Therefore, Harriett Tubman, The Liberator, planted Safehouses, comparable to the Abyssinian throughout the most northeastern border states to Canada.

The Abyssinian, in Portland, Maine, established in 1828, a former church, later an apartment house and eventually a Safehouse where absconded slaves sought refuge until safe passage to Canada was announced, reminds visitors to this day of the plight that confronted Africans not only to acquire an education but to live a life in freedom.

Some decades after the 1865 Emancipation, Church life and Education were the two most controlling factors in the African–American community and parents suffered and went to great length to provide and supplement whatever necessities necessary to assure their children the bases of at least a fundamental education.  Gainful employment was distant from black family life; jobs of valor and meaning were few and far in between.  Most African- Americans did menial and domestic work for a few pence a day, notwithstanding; their children were tidy, respectful and eager to pursue and education to the extent that Sundays were full days in church and a continuation of weekly public school. So, one asks, “Where have all the flowers gone?” and maybe the answer is, ‘ask, integration.’

Some municipalities in the north had separate schools for Africans and were practically none existing in the south and if they were, three students occupied a seat that was built for one, or perhaps, two. And when most of the kids were present, there were crude seats resembling steps that became seating accommodation. Though schools were small and crude, there was always that “Golden Rule,” and be it ever so humble, there was a lot of learning going on.

Every generation had a Black Moses.  At the turn of the 20^th century the world recognized the scholarship and audacity of William Edward Buford DuBois, 1868-1963, America’s most proclaim activist, philosopher, educator, historian, international arbitrator, and founder of organizations that exist unto this day. “The Soul of Black Folk,” his manifesto, The Niagara Movement (NAACP) 1908, founder of the Pan African Culture Society, Accra, Ghana. Memorialized in Accra and founder of the School of Pan African Education and Culture.  “Culture is not interchangeable for…without Root connections one is never fully educated”. W. E. B. DuBois is now interred among his people in Africa. “Make no Marker for me, let me alone where there’s home for me.”

DuBois knew the Soul of Black Folks… and that is ‘keeping and maintaining one‘s Blackness not as a color but as a Spirit’.

So is it written, The New African Resurrection in the likeness of Kwesi Hutchison (Sly), poet and writer on Ashanti Life. The New African Mind as depicted in this modern Shona sculptures denoting attitudes and stamina of Zimbabwean life, repossessing native land from the likes of other Cecil Rhodes… Rhodesia… Rhodes Scholars…Rogue Scholars. Now the Great Zimbabwe of Old.

The Props! and Lights! Are focused on the African- American Stage!  But bring on the players!

Africans maintained their entire existence in El Duende, the solace! and discipline! in the Drum. Those therapeutic vibes…a remedy when all others Fail.

 EXCELLING IN SPIRITS “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, by Ntozake Shange.