HOMAGE TO THE ANCIENT RASTA
By Nzinga Nzinga
To Morgan Heritage, children of Denroy Morgan (Black Eagles). It is their song which provided the theme of this tribute to the Ancient Rastas Also to their father, Denroy, whom I had the honour of meeting in Jamaica. Brother Denroy, I have enjoyed your songs tremendously. Blessed love!
♪♪Could you live thru what the ancient Rasta lived thru?
Would you hold on to your faith if you’d been thru what they’ve been
thru? ♪♪--Could You Live Thru’? Morgan Heritage
Part 4
Critical role of Rastas
How many of us really realize the critical role Rastas have played in awakening black people globally to consciousness of their African ancestry, especially through Reggae songs? Rastas are rewriting African (black man) history from the perspective of the global African man who is not ashamed to be black or to align his sentiments with the continent of black people. They are doing so without apology and without seeking rhe approval of white supreme racists and their own black detractors. They are doing so even in the face of little or no encouragement from continental Africans.
They try to unlie the lying propaganda that the white
racist media and foes of African
development continually broadcast about us,
our continent and our so-called ‘non-history’. Rastas are disengaging from
European fulsome and self- aggrandising history, the marginal history they have
allotted to Africans, in such a simple straightforward manner, that even the
unschooled can understand what they are saying. Rastas realized that Europeans
in denying us our true history, had notched and niched us into their
self-proclaimed illustrious history in a most distorted, demeaning, humiliating
and untenable way.
‘It is interesting that in the past, the privileged Jamaican scholars had
not written any really simple account of African history dating back to
4,000,000 years but rather focus on colonial history as if we had nothing going
for us historically before then.’
The reworking of African history is left to the Rastas
after Marcus Garvey. It took Walter Rodney, now an ancestor, to make Africans at
home and abroad, sit up and take notice of his straightforward and relevant
writings of Groundings with my Brothers and How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.
Rastas can thank Rodney who moved from his perch in the intellectual galaxy
down to the ‘ground’ where the words of his pen could be relevant to the
masses, his ‘brothers’. Rodney emphasized that ‘the black intellectual, the
black academic must attach himself to the activity of the black masses’.
“Men who serve the interest of a foreign, white capitalist system and at
home they uphold a social structure which ensures that the black man resides at
the bottom of the social ladder.They do not want anybody to challenge their
myth about ‘Out of Many, One People.’” Groundings with my Brothers by Walter
Rodney.
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| Kwame Toure aka Stokely Carmichae |
He pointed out. that the Jamaican government not only
banned people like Stokely Carmichael from coming to the country but also
banned all publications by Malcolm X.
Thanks and praises to you, brother Walter Rodney, African from Guyana in the Caribbean, whether for awakening, enlightening or heightening many black folks to our history via your powerful truths and your attachment to the masses in Africa and the Caribbean.
Thanks and praises to you, brother Walter Rodney, African from Guyana in the Caribbean, whether for awakening, enlightening or heightening many black folks to our history via your powerful truths and your attachment to the masses in Africa and the Caribbean.
- June 13, 1980 Walter Rodney, Assassinated
Our Caribbean learned people have an unfortunate way
of identifying our positive revolutionaries and prophets. What we have learnt about
our illustrious past, we owe primarily to our African-American kith & kin
who do not mince words or write in such abstruse and oblique intellectual jargon. They also write for a wider international African readership. I ask
myself time and time again, how is it that learned Caribbean scholars can
publish such obtruse writings for Pan-African oriented Caribbean people who are not too literate? Or are those publications
mere academic exercises produced only for the critical eyes of their
peers?
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| Marcus Garvey |
“The power
that holds down Africa is not divine or demonic. The power that holds Africa is
human, and it is recognised that what man has done, man can do. An essential
part of one’s education is to know the identity of one’s enemy. Know him and
then you will know what you are up against.”
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| Blackman's Flag |
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| Tarrus Riley |
“He, the white man, is our problem so it is a waste of time and a contradiction to sit down with him in his conferences to get him off your back.”
“No one can
govern another’s house as well as himself. Africa is the legitimate, moral and
righteous home of all black people and it is our duty to rouse every black
person at home and abroad to a consciousness of himself as an African.”
“In a world of wolves, one should go armed, and one of the most powerful defensive weapons within the reach of Negroes is the practice of race first in all parts of the world.”
“Any black leaders who organise in the West for the cause
of black liberty without bearing their compass point towards Africa, without
beaming on Africa, without focusing on Africa, are turning in the wrong
direction. We must let Africa be our guiding star, our star of destiny.”
“No longer
must our Race look to Whites for guidance and leadership; who best can
interpret the anguish and needs of our people but a Negro? This Organization
under God will thrive without the demoralizing effect of existing off the
charity of Whites.”
“African, Be Yourself! Take down the pictures
of white women from your walls. Elevate your own women to that honour. They are
for the most part the burden-bearers of the Race. Mothers! Give your children
dolls that look like them to play with and cuddle. They will learn as they grow
older to love and care for their own children, and not neglect them. Men and
women, God made us as his perfect creation. He made no
mistake when he made us black with kinky hair. It was Divine Purpose for
us to live in our natural habitat – the tropical zones of the earth. Forget the
white man’s banter that he made us in the night and forgot to paint us white.
That we were brought here against our will is just a natural process of the
strong enslaving the weak. We have outgrown slavery, but our minds are still
enslaved to the thinking of the Master Race. Now take
these kinks out of your mind, instead of out of your hair."
“You are capable
of all that is common to men of other Races, so let us start now to build big
business, commerce, industry and eventually a nation of our own to protect us
wherever we chose (sic) to live. A Beggar-Race can never be respected. Stop
begging for jobs, and create your own. Look around you and wherever you see the
need for factories and business, supply it. Stop begging for a chance, make it
yourself. Remember God helps those who help themselves.”
“No race can
develop, no race can evolve unless it is standing on its own feet, and is
supported by its own backbone.”
Philosophy & Opinion of Marcus Garvey.
Oh, My God, what salutary words of wisdom for black people! What power! No wonder the foes of African redemption and rehabilitation hated Our Uncle Marcus Garvey so virulently! It is said that he is stIll the most hated black person in the world. I rejoice that we, he and I, are related. How? Forensically speaking, we share the same DNA! The DNA of people of African descent! What an intelligent brother! No wonder he is indisputably regarded globally as the Prophet of Africa! He has no equal! Go deh, Uncle Marcus! We love, respect, salute and honour you all the way! Go deh, Black Tiger!
To be continued.
All the images were taken from the Internet and I claim no copyright.
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