Ẹ kú òmìnira o! Greetings of Freedom!
Baba Wade Nobles has said that “power is the ability to define reality and have others respond to that definition is if it were their own.” Further, the reality of today is based upon the concepts and theories of yesterday. These are concepts that are eternally linked to a specific culture. A specific language with a specific history. According to Ngugi wa Thiong’o, “language carries culture, and culture carries...the entire body of values by which we come to perceive ourselves and our place in the world.” It is said that, “the one who prescribes the diameter of your knowledge determines the circumference of your activity.” In other words, “a cow grazes where it is tied” and “cattle is only as good as the field in which it grazes.” How we are able to and choose to conceive of the world is mediated by language. It is through conceptual incarceration within the prison of an alien language designed and intended to serve only its master, that the alien is able to shape our destiny by shaping our very thoughts. Our ancestors say:
Watch your thoughts for they become your actions
Watch your actions for they become your habits
Watch your habits for they become your character
Watch your character for it becomes your destiny
As it is individually, so it is collectively. For our ancestors say “the actions of one generation become the history of the next generation. The actions of many generations become the traditions of a people.” Afrikans in general and Afrikans in the Diaspora in particular have endeavored to re-conceptualize the world through language. Oftentimes, lacking other options, through the language forced upon us. However, it is said, “the dog does not prefer bones to meat, it is just that no one ever gives him meat.” We are the long awaited hunters. “You are the slave of the one whose handcuffs are on your wrists,” We are the long awaited liberators. It is us! We who have been entrusted by our Ancestors. We, the guardians of our languages, hold the key to re-conceptualizing reality for the best interests of Afrikans throughout the world: those in Afrika and those abroad. That we may speak our reality into the future; that we may shape the destiny of our children, of our children’s children, of our children’s children’s children, and for the still more beautyful ones yet to be born.
This is our charge as we reclaim the Yoruba language and through it the essence of Afrikan philosophy and the Afrikan worldview. For our goal of the total liberation of all Afrikan people from the grasp of white world terror domination.
In this class, the student will learn our proverbs, our songs, our stories, our Ifa verses, our greetings a.b.b.l. and be empowered to teach others gaining self-confidence in the language through competence in the language.
!!!Welcome to the world of Abibitumi Kasa!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment