A few words on Independently Afrikan Entrepreneurs

[Olùkọ́ Ọbádélé]

For most of us, to step out on our own as, say, entrepreneurs, is a
very frightening prospect. Because we have existed in a state of
social and economic disadvantage and deprivation for so long, and
whatever level of success in the "mainstream" has meant us becoming
something else, we intensely fear the possibility of failure because
we know where the bottom is. To be an Afrikan at the bottom is to be
unknown and without.
We also know, even if only subconsciously, that we subsist in a state
of insecurity – for there is no secure job here for Afrikans, there
is no secure investment here for Afrikans. Yet, we are compelled, in
order to feel sane, to feel that at least, minimally, the security of
insecurity will at least feed, clothe and house us.
However, the risks that becoming independent would involve are
considered out of the question. The risk of losing all, forever, is
too great, too terrible an end to imagine. So most of us do not try.
Most of us do not even consider trying, except possibly dangling from
the coat tails of someone more daring, a little crazier, someone with
nothing to lose because they have nothing of substance anyway, except
a dogged determination to win at any cost and any compromise.
We also know that many Europeans fail to succeed in their efforts to
become independently wealthy in their own game. And we know that what
may befall us if we try and fail is immeasurably worse. We calculate
the probability of our success in their world given their experience
of failure in it.
We are even less inclined to seriously consider stepping out on our
own as Afrikans, centered in a self-defining, self-determining,
liberating vision for our people. Even the possibility of such
thoughts brings on the worst fears. Images of a sure social and,
even, physical death, tortures any semblance of peace we may have
found in food, drugs, sex, comedy or make overs, if our mind slips in
that direction. It is bad enough to want to succeed as a lost soul or
negro in an enemy's world. To contemplate and act on being something
Europeans systematically seeks to remove from our memory would be
suicidal.
This inbred trepidation is why we remain a global power minority. It
is why, even with sporadic, occasional victories, our nationbuilding
efforts falter. Those of us with the skills and courage become
sidetracked by a fear of the unknown in a known anti-Afrikan world.
We do not see the ourstorical possibilities exhibited time and time
again by a people determined to be Afrikan because we have come to
value surviving with distractive trinkets over living with power.
And, our children see our model and become us as they turn against us
for fearing those who wantonly destroy them.
As Afrikan warrior scholars, we also can be said to have a choice. We
can pretend, trying to blend Afrikan trappings with european
imperatives. We can pretend to be "afropean" emissaries. Or, we can
remove all contradictions in what we think, say and do as our
people's revolutionaries and become independently Afrikan.
Then, again, this is not true. We do not have a choice. If we truly
removed all compromising intent and anti-Afrikan motivations, then
there is no choice. If we have chosen to be Afrikan warrior scholars,
then there are not even any partial european options to consider. All
was decided when we swore never again to commit treason against our
ancestors. At that point, we decided to be nothing less than Afrikan.
If some choice still remains, then we have not truly decided to be
Afrikan warrior scholars. ReAfrikanization and nationbuilding have no
room for gray areas.
But the question remains, how do we do this? How do we become
independently Afrikan in a global sea of anti-Afrikan insanity? How
do we be Afrikan? We do this by moving on what we know, without
doubt, without regret, without fear. We do this by taking the time to
deeply and courageously think of just what institutions or actions
Afrikans need to become truly liberated and making that into a
reality. We just do it.
Most of us have Afrikan dreams. We know, based on our experience in
this reality, just what we need to do and build in order to move us
toward liberation as a people. We know, if there were no obstacles,
what we would instantly do.
To become independently Afrikan we must do these things and never
concern ourselves, unreasonably, with the reaction of others. We must
act as if we must answer to our Ancestors, our children and the
unborn. We must act as if this is our testing ground, as if what we
righteously do here will determine whether we will be honored as
warrior scholars or dismissed as traitors when we make our transition
and are judged.
Obviously, it is not easy to step out and be Afrikan. What semblance
of security we feel quickly disappears and the only lifelines that
appear to be dangling before us are those which will pull us straight
back into chaos. And, as has been said, it is even more difficult a
choice to work toward being independently Afrikan because we have
consciously chosen to burn those bridges forever. There is no return,
except as a humiliated, impoverished slave.
Yet, we know that nothing is impossible. We have been taught this. We
have witnessed this. So, we know that being independently Afrikan
requires no more than a conscious and committed state of mind. It
requires us to do no more than say we will do what must be done, be
it taking our children out of a system designed to corrupt and
suppress their genius and building schools for them in our homes, or
providing politically imprisoned warriors with study materials and
words of encouragement, or establishing farming cooperatives to feed
our families nutritious foods, or developing rural and urban
collectives of individuals who feel the need to operate as
traditional Afrikan communities using our traditional languages and
ways of doing, or providing martial arts and tactical and survival
training for our youth so they can learn how to fully defend our
communities and even extend themselves unnoticed into enemy territory
when necessary.
We must take the time to daily ask ourselves, "If an Afrikan thinks
victoriously but does not act on these thoughts, will anything be
accomplished? " Revolution requires revolutionary thoughts, which have
not been disarmed by selfish, mortal fears, to be acted upon.
Righteous rage, by itself, never removed evil doers from power. It is
the action which directly and uncompromisingly comes from these
thoughts which produces results. As the elders still say, "Talk is
cheap."

Mwalimu K. Bomani Baruti
"Independently Afrikan"

[olufemi_baina_ayo]

I completely agree with this statement. Blacks who are slaves to the white imperialist stronghold fail to realize that they are modern day slaves. They should realize that when they get fired from the big house,it won't be because of work performance,it'll be because they're black. Now they have two choices,continue to be a slave,or start their own business.

Originally Posted by Obadele Kambon

For most of us, to step out on our own as, say, entrepreneurs, is a
very frightening prospect. Because we have existed in a state of
social and economic disadvantage and deprivation for so long, and
whatever level of success in the "mainstream" has meant us becoming
something else, we intensely fear the possibility of failure because
we know where the bottom is. To be an Afrikan at the bottom is to be
unknown and without.
We also know, even if only subconsciously, that we subsist in a state
of insecurity – for there is no secure job here for Afrikans, there
is no secure investment here for Afrikans. Yet, we are compelled, in
order to feel sane, to feel that at least, minimally, the security of
insecurity will at least feed, clothe and house us.
However, the risks that becoming independent would involve are
considered out of the question. The risk of losing all, forever, is
too great, too terrible an end to imagine. So most of us do not try.
Most of us do not even consider trying, except possibly dangling from
the coat tails of someone more daring, a little crazier, someone with
nothing to lose because they have nothing of substance anyway, except
a dogged determination to win at any cost and any compromise.
We also know that many Europeans fail to succeed in their efforts to
become independently wealthy in their own game. And we know that what
may befall us if we try and fail is immeasurably worse. We calculate
the probability of our success in their world given their experience
of failure in it.
We are even less inclined to seriously consider stepping out on our
own as Afrikans, centered in a self-defining, self-determining,
liberating vision for our people. Even the possibility of such
thoughts brings on the worst fears. Images of a sure social and,
even, physical death, tortures any semblance of peace we may have
found in food, drugs, sex, comedy or make overs, if our mind slips in
that direction. It is bad enough to want to succeed as a lost soul or
negro in an enemy's world. To contemplate and act on being something
Europeans systematically seeks to remove from our memory would be
suicidal.
This inbred trepidation is why we remain a global power minority. It
is why, even with sporadic, occasional victories, our nationbuilding
efforts falter. Those of us with the skills and courage become
sidetracked by a fear of the unknown in a known anti-Afrikan world.
We do not see the ourstorical possibilities exhibited time and time
again by a people determined to be Afrikan because we have come to
value surviving with distractive trinkets over living with power.
And, our children see our model and become us as they turn against us
for fearing those who wantonly destroy them.
As Afrikan warrior scholars, we also can be said to have a choice. We
can pretend, trying to blend Afrikan trappings with european
imperatives. We can pretend to be "afropean" emissaries. Or, we can
remove all contradictions in what we think, say and do as our
people's revolutionaries and become independently Afrikan.
Then, again, this is not true. We do not have a choice. If we truly
removed all compromising intent and anti-Afrikan motivations, then
there is no choice. If we have chosen to be Afrikan warrior scholars,
then there are not even any partial european options to consider. All
was decided when we swore never again to commit treason against our
ancestors. At that point, we decided to be nothing less than Afrikan.
If some choice still remains, then we have not truly decided to be
Afrikan warrior scholars. ReAfrikanization and nationbuilding have no
room for gray areas.
But the question remains, how do we do this? How do we become
independently Afrikan in a global sea of anti-Afrikan insanity? How
do we be Afrikan? We do this by moving on what we know, without
doubt, without regret, without fear. We do this by taking the time to
deeply and courageously think of just what institutions or actions
Afrikans need to become truly liberated and making that into a
reality. We just do it.
Most of us have Afrikan dreams. We know, based on our experience in
this reality, just what we need to do and build in order to move us
toward liberation as a people. We know, if there were no obstacles,
what we would instantly do.
To become independently Afrikan we must do these things and never
concern ourselves, unreasonably, with the reaction of others. We must
act as if we must answer to our Ancestors, our children and the
unborn. We must act as if this is our testing ground, as if what we
righteously do here will determine whether we will be honored as
warrior scholars or dismissed as traitors when we make our transition
and are judged.
Obviously, it is not easy to step out and be Afrikan. What semblance
of security we feel quickly disappears and the only lifelines that
appear to be dangling before us are those which will pull us straight
back into chaos. And, as has been said, it is even more difficult a
choice to work toward being independently Afrikan because we have
consciously chosen to burn those bridges forever. There is no return,
except as a humiliated, impoverished slave.
Yet, we know that nothing is impossible. We have been taught this. We
have witnessed this. So, we know that being independently Afrikan
requires no more than a conscious and committed state of mind. It
requires us to do no more than say we will do what must be done, be
it taking our children out of a system designed to corrupt and
suppress their genius and building schools for them in our homes, or
providing politically imprisoned warriors with study materials and
words of encouragement, or establishing farming cooperatives to feed
our families nutritious foods, or developing rural and urban
collectives of individuals who feel the need to operate as
traditional Afrikan communities using our traditional languages and
ways of doing, or providing martial arts and tactical and survival
training for our youth so they can learn how to fully defend our
communities and even extend themselves unnoticed into enemy territory
when necessary.
We must take the time to daily ask ourselves, "If an Afrikan thinks
victoriously but does not act on these thoughts, will anything be
accomplished? " Revolution requires revolutionary thoughts, which have
not been disarmed by selfish, mortal fears, to be acted upon.
Righteous rage, by itself, never removed evil doers from power. It is
the action which directly and uncompromisingly comes from these
thoughts which produces results. As the elders still say, "Talk is
cheap."

Mwalimu K. Bomani Baruti
"Independently Afrikan"