Policy
From the time that Shango first condemned his
Muntu to suffer under an alien yoke in alien
lands, to this day, centuries have passed and
your fists have not yet carried out his command
to set yourselves free!
--Zapata Olivella (after Smart, 1996)
Africans Unbound will be about setting ourselves free as a people. At its core it will contain articles addressing:
New articles will be posted as they are ready. Check back
Africans Unbound seeks to promote clarity of vision and analysis on these matters. Therefore, it invites discussion. Readers are encouraged to email us with articles, views, and commentaries of their own on any of the range of topics constituting the scope of coverage listed below, as well as in reaction to our own articles. Dissenting views are welcome, as long as they are constructive in tone and intent, and observes normal standards of decency and courtesy. Email that meets these standards will be posted as they are received, with or without editorial rejoinder, as appropriate.
Contributions are not restricted to Africans and diasporans. However, contributions from a non-African perspective would be limited to the extent that either qualitatively or quantitatively they would distract from the main focus outlined above.
Africans Unbound will contain the following regular departments:
- Advice: an advice column run by our African holistic healer/counselors, who will answer your questions about romance, finance, health or other ... Updated weekly.
- Tehuti: a column dedicated to commenting on issues of the day, based on answers given by the Great Oracle of Tehuti, the ancient Kamitic god of wisdom, to questions posed to him by your editor. Updated monthly.
- Health: a column dedicated to health and wellness issues from an African holistic healing perspective. Updated monthly.
- Drumbeat: News, announcements, and information from around the diaspora. Updated daily.
Scope
The topical scope of coverage of Africans Unbound will embrace:
- Overall focus and vision
- Guiding wisdom
- Enabling Organs, structures, strategy
- Ideological issues
- Diplomacy, trade, discipline, and defense
- Leadership issues
- Creative expression, entertainment, and health issues
- Education (Skills, trades, and crafts) and communications issues
- Education (soul awakening) issues, rites of passage, family and community nurturance issues
- Community welfare (eg. housing, recreation facilities, employment, poverty, crime, etc.)
- Ancestral links and community rituals and traditions
- Media and other manipulation of the subconscious mind (eg. negative/positive images, stereotyping, subliminal advertising)
1. Overall Focus and VisionNation-Building:
- Spiritual Foundations: The purpose of individual life, and the purpose of community/nation
- The "Why" Question: What defines a people? Do Africans and Diasporans constitute a people? Why and in what sense should/could we come together to "build nation"?
- Separatism, or integrationism
History:
- African Origins of Man
- Ancient Egyptian Origins in Central Africa
Current Issues and Events:
- Disunity among Africans and the Diaspora
- How to overcome it
2. Guiding Wisdom:Nation-Building:
- On what constitutional precepts should we "build nation".
- Traditional African democratic precepts.
- How to reconcile the secular and the religious?
History:
- African Origins of Civilization, Egyptian and Pre-Egyptian
Current Issues and Events:
- Africentrism and the liberation of the mind
- Christianity: Does it help or hinder the liberation struggle
- Islam: Does it help of hinder the liberation struggle
- Religious Conversion and Missionary Work in Africa: Spiritual Enslavement or Liberation
- Traditional African Religion and the Liberation Struggle
3. Enabling Organs, Structures, and Strategy--Foundations:Nation-Building:
- Eldership Structures and Democracy
- Traditional African Democratic Precepts: The Mbongi or "Village Parliament"
- Federated Structures based on the Mbongi
- Liberation Strategy for Africans and the Diaspora
- Organization Structures for Liberation
History:
- Ancient Greek Model of "Democracy"
- Traditional African Models
- United States Constitution, 1776: How democratic then, how democratic today?
Current Issues and Events:
4. Ideological Issues:Nation-Building:
- Political, Economic, and Social Ideologies evaluated within ethical context
- The prevailing (Western) "-isms", namely capitalism, communism, and socialism: to what extent do we adopt, and/or how do we coexist with the structures represented by these systems
- Is there a viable "-ism" that may be drawn from traditional, pre-colonial African way of organizing society
History:
- The Evolution of Capitalism from its origins in feudalism, imperialism, slavery, colonialism, and into neo-colonialism
- Racism, and its nexus with capitalism and its ideological forebears (feudalism, imperialism, slavery, colonialism)
- African vs. European Asili
- Slavery and the Bible
Current Issues and Events:
- Sex roles, feminism in the liberation struggle
- Race, racism, inter-racial and trans-racial issues in the liberation struggle
- Africentrism, race, and racism in the liberation struggle
- On slavery in Africa, past and present, and the implications for the liberation struggle
- Inter-tribal conflict in Africa
- Issues of class vs. race
- Issues of class per se
5. Diplomacy, Trade, Discipline and Defense:Nation-Building:
- Armed struggle or non-violence? Tactical choice or ethical dictate?
- Strategic and tactical alliances in politics and economics
- Organs of justice and law enforcement
History:
- The Destruction of Black Civilization: what were the internal weaknesses and failures which caused it? And what were the external motives and tactics which inflicted defeat
- The Migrations out of Egypt and the genetic link between ancient Egypt and the rest of Africa
- Arab and Christian invasion and the consequences of "conversion"
- The Slave Trade and the Maafa
- White Supremacy and its consequences
Current Issues and Events:
- Reparations
- Inter-tribal conflict and their genesis in divide-and-conquer colonialism
- Black/Jewish relations
- Black/Brown alliances
- Class-based trans-racial unity
6. Leadership IssuesNation-Building:
- How to establish structures that bind leaders to their constituency and to prevent betrayal
History:
- The subversion of African leadership and community structures by colonial and imperialist powers through divide-and-conquer, bribery, honors and awards, etc.
Current Issues and Events:
- leadership that "sells out"
- leadership that is miseducated, alienated from traditional African values
7. Creative Expression, Entertainment and Health IssuesNation-Building:
- The importance of the artist (eg. song-writers, performing artists, dramatists, movie-makers, etc.) in the liberation struggle
- The importance of athletes, "super-stars", celebrities, etc. as role models (positive or negative)
- The importance of preventive, holistic healing arts in maintaining individual and community health
- African features and concepts of beauty: the importance of self-image in the liberation struggle
History:
- African origins of the arts
- African healing systems
- Negative stereo-typing and the destruction of the African self-image
- Oppression and its impact on health
Current Issues and Events:
- African features and concepts of beauty: "nappy hair", color-consciousness among Black folk
- Health issues: widespread ill-health in the community. The impact of Western lifestyle and Western medicine on community health
- Lack of knowledge of the ancient African holistic healing arts
- Relationship issues between Black men and women
- Hip-hop: If only it could be more like Bob Marley
- Kirk Franklin Music: Spiritual or Profane?
- Black comedy and nation-building: destructive elements
- Kwanzaa
8. Education (Skills training, trades, and crafts) and communicationsNation-Building:
- Schools systems for training the youth
- An African-centered pedagogy
- Science and engineering, trades and crafts, farming, building trades, etc.
History:
- The "Mis-education of the Negro" syndrome -- Western education and alienation
- African origins of science and technology
Current Issues and Events:
- Race and IQ
- Ebonics and Schooling
- Public school, vouchers, chartered schools, or independent African-centered schools?
9. Education (soul awakening) issues, rites of passage, family and community nurturance issuesNation-Building:
- Community rituals and Rites of Passage programs
- Designing/evolving systems for taking care of the elderly, the sick, the hungry, the orphan, and the less fortunate
History:
- Traditional African "social-security" systems
Current Issues and Events:
- Adoption
- Trans-racial adoption
- Black family breakdown
- Respect for women
10. Community welfare (eg. housing, recreation facilities, employment, poverty, crime, etc.)Nation-Building:
- Physical and Institutional Infrastructure
- Farms, factories, housing, towns, parks and recreation, etc.
- Public Health
- Crime
- Employment
History:
- Lessons from pre-colonial Black Africa
Current Issues and Events:
- African disempowerment
- Poverty and joblessness
- Crime
11. Ancestral links and community rituals and traditionsNation-Building:
- Repairing ancestral links broken through the Maafa
- Celebrating our heroes
- Reclaiming and celebrating ancestral culture
History:
- Imperialist/colonialist assault upon traditional African values
Current Issues and Events:
- Travel tours to Africa
12. Media and other manipulation of the subconscious mind (eg. negative/positive images, stereotyping, subliminal advertising)
Nation-Building:
- Protection against subliminal assault against the community through
- negative media images
- foisting of negative role models
- Projection of positive media images
History:
- Islamic and Christian proselytization, and their part in the destruction of Black civilization
- Hollywood and media propaganda and assaults on the self-image of Africans
Current Issues and Events:
- Media watch
- "Prince of Egypt"
- Negative role models in entertainment and the arts
