AFRIKANS: Sing Your Song of Identity
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Samuel Phillips is a writer, graphic designer, photographer, songwriter, singer…
Prisons, correctional facilities and the justice system that we currently operate globally are nothing but a physical manifestation of a rotten spiritual and mental reality. And it’s also true that we have a serious problem in our society, when it’s possible for a people or a person to kill a human being in order to protect a goat or a cow. How deep into rottenness have we stepped as a society of humans, that we no longer value human lives to the point where we treat our livestock or property with more respect and honor than we give to humans?
I am not saying that crime in the society should be overlooked and criminals given open space to make a mess of the society, but that somehow we need to go back to the basics of how crimes and criminality even begin in the first place; just maybe we can learn how to adjust ourselves. I am of the opinion that no one is born a criminal, neither is anyone born a saint. Almost all the time, we all turn out to be what the family institution, the educational institutions, the society at large and our own decisions and choices made us. Meaning that, mostly, the real identity of many of the people found in wrong doing are either dead or locked up somewhere inside and need the right voices to awaken them.
Before the coming of the white man to the space now known as Afrika, the means of justice in the society went deeper than punishment and the imprisonment of people. It was mostly about the return to balance and harmony, which is the reality of Ma’at. It was about reminding an individual caught in wrong doing who they are and what their true identity is and by that, helping them return to balance and harmony with self and others. But somehow, we have succeeded in creating not only a prison system for the correction of wrong in the society, like we have correctional facilities for those facing jail terms, but the entire system of the world has become a global prison where non-conformists to brainwashing ideologies of the globalists, or the system, are seen as rebels and worthy of mental, physical and spiritual jail time.
The family system, educational system, financial system, banking system etc., all have become a form of prison for mass control and global manipulation. All these are definitely against the cultural reality of the Alkebulan society and the principle of love, harmony and growth. Sometime back, I read a story somewhere about the Himba tribe of Namibia and how they handle wrongs in the society. It is a story that sheds light on the Afrikan reality of justice and reconnection back to society and thank goodness, I found the story again on a Facebook post very recently.
The story had this to say:
In the Himba tribe of Namibia in Southern Africa, the date of birth of a child is fixed, not at the time of its arrival in the world, nor in its design, but much earlier: since the day the child is thought in His Mother’s mind.
When a woman decides she’s going to have a child, she settle down and rests under a tree, and she listens until she can hear the song of the child who wants to be born. And after she heard this child’s song, she comes back to the man who will be the father of the child to teach him that song. And then, when they make love to physically design the child, they sing the song of the child, to invite him.
When the mother is pregnant, she teaches the singing of this child to the midwives and older women of the village. So, when the child is born, old women and people around him sing his song to welcome him.
As the child grows, the other villagers learn his song. So if the child falls, or gets hurt, he always finds someone to pick him up and sing his song. Similarly, if the child does something wonderful, or successfully passes through the rites of passage, the people of the village sing his song to honor him.
In the tribe, there is another opportunity where villagers sing for the child. If, at any time during his life, the person commits an aberrant crime or social act, the individual is called in the center of the village and the people of the community form a circle around him. Then they sing his song.
The tribe recognizes that the correction of antisocial behavior does not pass through punishment, it is by love and reminder of identity. When you recognize your own song, you don’t want or need to do anything that would harm the other.⠀
And the same way through their lives. In Marriage, songs are sung together.
And when, getting old, this kid is lying in his bed, ready to die, all the villagers know his song, and they sing, for the last time, his song.~
This story for me is such a clear reminder of how to live and thrive in a society, in which wrong doing is not rewarded with more wrong doing, in the name of justice, but the true identity of the person is called out, shown to the one who is wrong and then creating room for repentance and change.
Imagine if we all as a collective society learn to sing the song or songs that are directly connected to our destinies and purposes, while reminding ourselves who we are in relation to our God-given purpose and destiny, in order to bring back repentance and balance? Then, the spiritual, mental and physical jails would be out the window. Why? The one who committed crime would not have committed crime in the first place if he was connected to his identity, purpose and destiny. He would have known how his life’s choices and decisions affect balance and Ma’at in the society. For to think of crime in the first place is prison in itself.
At some point in out lives as individuals and as a people, we will have to shelve the rule of law for the rule of love; the rule of complaining for the rule of responsibility, the rule of war for the rule of peace, the rule of individualism for the rule of community. In fact, we will have to redefine what it means to live among others. The me, myself and I syndrome will have to be killed from our hearts and compassion and brotherhood have to come alive again. A state in which no one lives in fear of others but in exchange of love, mutual honor and collective growth. We definitely have to remember that life is more than our individual selves and that to be a thriving society, we must lay hold of that which unites us, rather than that which takes us to war.
Is this even possible? You may ask.
My answer is a definite yes. Every good or bad action or inaction comes from the mind, which is the seat of thoughts and the womb in which actions are created. Meaning that, if we all begin to consciously train our minds to think thoughts of love and mutual understanding, then we will fill our dear Afrika with the fruits and rewards of love.
Fear is a bringer of pain but perfect love casts our fear.
Think about it.
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Samuel Phillips is a writer, graphic designer, photographer, songwriter, singer and a lover of God. As an Afrikan content creator, he is passionate about creating a better image and positive narrative about Afrika and Afrikans. He is a true Afrikan who believes that the true potential of Afrika and Afrikans can manifest through God and accurate collaborations between Afrikans. Afrika is the land of kings, emperors, original wisdom, ancient civilizations, great men and women and not some road-side-aid-begging poor third world continent that the world finds joy in undermining.