The Significance of Black Liberation Theology

Hotep (Peace)!!!

Take notes!!!!!!!!!!

Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor of Black Studies at California State University at Long Beach, the co-founder of the Us Organization-a revolutionary Black cultural nationalist organization established on September 7, 1965 in Los Angeles, California, the founder of Kwanzaa, and the creator of Kawaida, writes in his book called Kawiada: And Questions of Life And Struggle, “Afrikan people must speak their own cultural truth.” Kawaida (Kiswahili word meaning "tradition" or "reason," pronounced ka-wa-EE-da). Dr. Karenga defines Kwaida as, "a communitarian African (Afrikan) philosophy created in the context of the African (Afrikan) American liberation struggle and developed as an ongoing synthesis of the best of African (Afrikan) thought and practice in constant exchange with the world." Kawaida is the predecessor of Afrocentricity (Afrikan centricity) of the 1980s. Afrocentricity (Afrikan centricity) was created by Dr. Molefe Kete Asante, a Professor of Afrikan American Studies at Temple University, defines Afrocentricity (Afrikan centricity) as " the centerpiece of human regeneration. To the degree that it is incorporated into the lives of millions of Africans on the continent and in the Diaspora, it will become revolutionary. It is purposeful, giving a true sense of destiny based upon the facts of history and experience. The psychology of the African without Afrocentricity (Afrikan centricity) has become a matter of great concern. Instead of looking out from one's own center, the non-Afrocentric person operates in a manner that is negatively predicable. The person's images, symbols, lifestyles, and manners, are contradictory and thereby destructive to personal and collective growth and development." Since the advent of the ideology of White supremacy and the system of racism, Black people have been fighting against White domination in the Afrikan world community. For generations, many courageous Black people came forward to create organizations and Afrikan centered ideology to reclaim and reconstruct our people from white oppression. But as our people struggled to fight back White domination; White supremacy and the system of racism worked even harder to justify the enslavement, colonialism, and segregation of Black people in America and in the Afrikan world community. Hundreds of years of racial oppression has affected our mental consciousness. Although we as Black people have made some gains struggling to eliminate the physical chains of enslavement, colonialism, and segregation; the mental chains and shackles of Whiteness are still present within minds of many of us Black folk. In fact, the domination of the Black mind by White supremacy is another tool racism uses to completely oppressed and control Black people.

This is why many of us do not have an Afrikan centered world-view. Our Afrikan centered thinking has been de-centered to only reflect Europeans, Arabs, and non-Black people.

This past Sunday, I visited the Nation of Islam’s Muhammad Mosque #25 in Newark, NJ. I listened to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s Saviors’ Day part 2 speech. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan is the leader of the Nation of Islam. He opened his speech up saying God intervened in Black people’s affairs by coming himself in the person of Master Fard Muhammad. The Muslim members of the Nation of Islam believe that Master Fard Muhammad is also the founder of Nation of Islam. This is a powerful belief. I smiled with pride. To know that there is still an organization in the world teaching Black people to believe that God cared enough for us to help liberate the Afrikan world community. This belief is right along the ideological lines of Afrikan centricity and Black liberation theology. However, to many people in the western world this is impossible. To some Sunni Muslims this is shirk (an Arab word for associating partners with God). But to many of us, who embrace the ideology Afrikan centricity and Black liberation theology as our way of life, then this is a accepted cultural and religious truth.

Afrikan centricists and the followers of Black liberation theology know that the Creator intervenes in the lives of Black people all the time. We know that the Creator sent many Black prophets and messengers and Orishas (Yoruba term that means God’s representatives in human form) to help us in our fight for Black liberation (i.e. Osirus, Horus, Isis, Patah, Nut, Ma’at, Akhenaton, Shango, Obatala, Yemọja, Osun, Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vessey, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Douglass, H. Sylvester Williams, Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, the Honorable Marcus Garvey, Noble Drew Ali, Master Fard Muhammad, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Clarence 13X, Yaa Asantewaa, Nzigha, Clara Muhammad, Patrice Lumumba, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Dr. Martin Luther King, Kwame Ture’, Huey P. Newton, Dr. Khalid Abdul Muhammad, Queen Mother Moore, etc). In many Afrikan centered faith traditions (i.e. the Yoruba system, the Kemetic system, the Nation of Gods and Earths, etc) the one supreme Creator can manifested itself spiritually as a Black male symbol (God) and as a Black female symbol (Goddess). This is ideology of Black liberation theology.

The Nation of Islam’s theology reflects both the ideology of Afrikan centricity and Black liberation theology teachings. In Afrikan centricity and Black liberation theology, these Black power ideologies make all religions reflect Black people’s history and culture. But most importantly, Afrikan centricity and Black liberation theology makes God Black!!!

At the death of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad in 1975, his seventh son, Warith Deen Mohammad (formerly name Wallace Muhammad) took over the leadership of the mighty Nation of Islam. In three years, the Nation of Islam, the largest Black Islamic organization in America was dismantled. There was no more Nation of Islam. It was replaced by Sunni Al-Islam. All of the Nation of Islam’s Mosques were closed for public meetings that were at one time used as a platform for organizing Muslims and Black people for liberation struggle. They were turned into a masjid (Arabic word for mosque) now just used for salaat (Arabic word for prayer). The Fruit of Islam (F.O.I) and Muslim Girls Training-General Civilization Class (MGT-GCC), the weekly military training of Muslims, Blackmen and Blackwomen,were abolished. Its’ Black liberation theology on Al-Islam was replaced by a more moderate American, and some aspects Arabic centered theology. After three years,the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, who join the Nation of Islam under the most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, could not take the destruction of Nation of Islam moving forward. He left Imam Warth Deen Mohammad’s leadership. He saw how the fall of the Nation of Islam, help set the Black community back deeper under the yoke of oppression in America. Therefore, he went on to rebuild the work of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam to fight against White domination and Black oppression. He reestablished the F.O.I and MGT-GCC for the training of Muslims,Blackmen, and Blackwomen to help empower Muslims, Blackmen, and Blackwomen. Although successful at rebuilding the work of the Nation of Islam, businesses, the Nation of Islam schools, community centers, and the work of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, it has been a long struggle to win back the attention and respect of Muslims and Black people as a legitimate Black Islamic organization.

Black liberation theology was influenced by Dr. Karenga, and the Black Power Movement of 1960's and early 1970s. But during this time, Black nationalism swept across Black America. It was all inspired by Malcolm X’s ideology of Black nationalism.

After the murder of Malcolm X, Black people began to embrace Black nationalism as a mass ideology for Black people. Black nationalists began to organized for the unification of Black people to fight against White domination on a mass level. Black nationalist movements attracted the attention of the masses of Black people, such as the Us organization, the Original Black Panther Party, the Republic of New Afrika, and the Nation of Islam. Dr. James Cone, the late university trained Black theologian, was touched by Black nationalism.

In the 1960s, he created the ideology of Black Liberation theology for Black people as a way for us to understand that God and Black liberation are both working divinely together to free Black people from racial oppression in America and in the world. In 1970, Dr. Cone publishes his book-A Black Theology of Liberation. He writes an argument for the basis for western religions, and all religions, to become the instruments for Black freedom. Dr. Cones says, "the black theologian must reject any conception of God which stifles black self-determination by picturing God as a God of all peoples. Either God is identified with the oppressed to the point that their experience becomes God's experience, or God is a God of racism.The blackness of God means that God has made the oppressed condition God's own condition. This is the essence of the biblical revelation. By electing Israelite slaves as the people of God and by becoming the Oppressed One in Jesus Christ, the human race is made to understand that God is known where human beings experience humiliation and suffering. Liberation is not an afterthought, but the very essence of divine activity."

Afrikan centricity and Black liberation theology are tools needed to empower Black people in our fight for liberation, particularly the development of an Afrikan centered mind. Although I don't agree with everything the Nation of Islam stands for in the world, I do support the Afrikan centric ideology and the Black liberation theology exposed by organization. The Nation of Islam is unapologetic in it's Blackness.

Since the death of the Most Elijah Muhammad 1975, the Nation of Islam has moved into Sunni Islam. On a mass level, theologians within Sunni Islam have not organized Muslims in America, and around the world, to aid Black people in our fight for Black liberation within the Afrikan world community. Dr. Williams Sales, the retired chairperson of Seton Hall University’s African (Afrikan) American Studies department in South Orange, NJ, writes in his book, From Civil Rights to Black Liberation: Malcolm X and the Organization of Afro American Unity, “Sunni Islam has struggled to find its place in the Black liberation struggle.”

On the other hand, the Nation of Islam is still resisting White supremacy and the system of racism. It is the only Black Islamic organization left in the world still fighting on battlefield for Black people’s freedom and independence. The Nation of Islam is still creating and developing a much needed Afrikan centered consciousness in the 21st century to empower and liberate the Afrikan world community from racial domination.

This is why regardless of what western religions, the western world, America, Europeans, Arabs, Republicans, Democrats, elected officials, snitches, western Professors, western preachers, western teachers, western theologians, Imams, sheikhs, FBI agents, agent provocateurs, and non-Black people say against the Nation of Islam, and they will continue to fight against the Nation of Islam; we as Black people must continue to support the Nation of Islam. In the Afrikan world community, the Nation of Islam represents Black empowerment and Black liberation. But importantly, Black liberation theology and Afrikan centricity must be embraced to help us Black folks redevelopment an Afrikan centered Black consciousness necessary to rebuild the Afrikan world community.

Asante sana (Kiswahili for thank you very much) for reading my commentary

Hotep!!!

O Daboo (Yoruba word for go with God until we meet again)!!!

-Bashir Muhammad Akinyele is a History Teacher, Black Studies Teacher, Community Activist, Chairperson of Weequahic High School's Black History Month Committee in Newark, NJ, commentary writer, and Co-Producer and Co-Host of the All Politics Are Local, the number #1 political Hip Hip radio show in America.

Note: Spelling Afrika with a k is not a typo. Using the k in Afrika is the Kiswahili way of writing Africa. Kiswahili is a Pan -Afrikan language. It is spoken in many countries in Afrika. Kiswahili is the language used in Kwanzaa. The holiday of Kwanzaa is celebrated from December 26 to January
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