The Importance of Black Studies in the Home and Abroad

Hotep!!! (Peace)!!!

Take notes!!!

Yesterday, when I arrived home from a long day of teaching at Weequahic High School in Newark, NJ, my middle son, Khalil Nadhari Kuumba Akinyele, was very upset with the misinformation the system of racism and White supremacy constantly disseminates about Afrika (Kiswahili for Africa), Black people, and Kemet (Egypt). Kemet is the Afrikan name for Egypt, which means the land of the Blacks. I said to our middle son in what ways are racism and White supremacy disrespecting Afrika, Black people, and Kemet. He said to me that the system of racism and White supremacy promotes false beliefs that Black people did not contribute to civilization, Afrika is not cradle of humanity, and Kemet was not a Black civilization. Our son said to me that he experiences these racist and White supremacist beliefs in his history classes and with some of his non Black classmates (i.e Latinos, Asians, Indians from India, Arabs, etc) in his school in Newark. I said to him that these things are not true. I said to him, because of the system of racism and White supremacy, all people will believe that Afrika and Black people did nothing in history. He went on to say to me that I know these things are not factual, but he said to me that he needed some legitimate written facts to prove his teachers and his classmates wrong. He started going on his lap top computer looking for information to give some push back to racism and White supremacist notions about Afrikan history and Afrikan culture. I said to our son, Khalil using your computer to retrieve real facts about Afrika is all good; but I said to him, you have been blessed with a in-home massive library on history. Khalil then said to me Abu (Arabic and Kiswahili for dad) we have the scholarly books to defend Afrika, Black people, and Black culture.

I said yes son, we do. Your mother and I built a massive library on the facts on Afrika, Afrikan culture, and Black people before you were born. My wife, Natasha and I, are raising four boys under the Akinyele roof. Three of our boys are from our own loins, but we have taken on a foster child. This young brother is our nephew. But enough about our four children. Back to my commentary about the significance of Black studies and the Akinyele library.

I immediately pulled out Dr. John G. Jackson’s books, Introduction to African Civilizations and Christianity Before Christ, Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan’s Africa: The Mother of Western Civilization, Dr. John Henrik Clarke’s African People in World History, and Cheikh Anta Diop’s Civilization or Barbarism for my son to read and research.

After I showed our son these treasures of knowledge on Afrika, Afrikan history, Black culture, and Black people written by Black scholars, he went right to work. He starting reading and citing evidence to build his arguments against racist’s and White supremacist’s notions of Afrika and Black people. He ask me do we have White scholars that speak to the facts about Afrika and Black people. I said yes sir!!!! I pulled out Charles Darwin’s book, The Origin of Species, Martin Bernal’s book, Black Athena, and Gerald Massey’s book Egypt: The Light of the World. He was so amazed by all of this information right in our home. I was gleaming with pride!!!!!!! However, a feeling of sadness quickly came over my proud spirit. I said to myself, in the new millennium, America, and our world, are still struggling to establish Black studies in schools and fill libraries shelves with Afrikan/ Afrikan American history books. This is not good.

However, as we looked for books on the facts about Afrika and Black people, I found my classic book, Abu Simbel to Ghizeh, written by late and great Afrikan Egyptologist Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan. Man, I tell you all this was the work of the Creator and my Afrikan ancestors!!! I opened the book up to the glossary page. The first word was Ta-Nehisi. I said to myself, wow!!! I said someone in brother Coates’ circle was Black, conscious (woke for you millennial heads), and inspired by Black studies. Brother Coates first name is Ta-Nehisi. His first name is one of the original Afrikan names for the Sudan. Ta-Nehisi Coates is considered one of our best and brilliant new Black writers in the world of literature. A few years ago, he published a series of commentaries called the Case for Reparations in The Atlantic. He recently spoke sternly and eloquently on capital hill in Washington, DC urging the United States Congress to create a committee on reparations to help repair the long lasting damages done to the Black people due to American slavery.

Black studies inspires Black people, builds self-esteem in Black people, gives direction for Black liberation, provides Black people with needed factual information on our history, and re-centers Black people on our cultural traditions in the world. But equally important, Black studies challenges racism and White supremacist pseudo-scientific notions about Afrika, Black people, Black history, Black spirituality, Black philosophy, Black economics, Black politics, and Black culture. This is why I am must go to Kemet!!! I plan to take an education tour in Afrika this June 27, 2020 to physically see Black people’s contributions to world civilization through Kemet. Every year, there is a Black studies trip to Afrika annually by respected African American history Professor Ashra Kwesi. Professor Kwesi was a 14-year student of the late and great Afrikan Egyptologist Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan. Dr. Ben, as he was affectionately called by the masses of people in the world, died on March 19, 2019. He was 97 years old. Although Dr. Ben-Jochannan has passed, he authored many widely read books before his death, such as Africa: The Mother of Western Civilizations, Africa: The Mother of Western Religions, We the Black Jews, and The Blackman and His Family of the Nile. Inspired by the scholarly works of Dr. Ben, Professor Ashra Kwesi has spent 39 years taking people from all around the world to teach and tour the Afrikan histories and cultures of Kemet, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Kenya.

More information on Ashra Kwesi’s annual trip to Kemet can be found in his website at this link: https://www.kemetnu.com/egypt_tour.htm

I am familiar and comfortable with Professor Ashra Kwesi's work. Brother Kwesi's educational tour of Kemet will help me expand my lessons on history, as it relates to ancient Kemet, on world history, on the world’s cultures, on the world’s religions, on American history, on Afrikan spirituality, on Afrikan religions, on Afrikan culture, on Afrikan history, on Afrikan American history to my students at Weequahic High School in Newark, NJ.

As I begin reaching elder-hood, I am thoroughly convinced that the Creator, and my Afrikan ancestors, are calling me to Afrika. I must complete my mission to document and share all this great information on Black studies with the next millennial generation while I am still alive. Our next generation of young people must be inspired to continue to help liberate Black people, and humanity, from ills of racism and White supremacy!!!

The 1619 Project founder Nikole Hannah-Jones said it was Black studies classes she took, as a teenager, at her high school, that inspired her to establish her mission to speak truth to power as a journalist. Sister Jones said studying trail blazing Black journalist, like Ida B. Wells-Barnett, in her Black studies classes, inspired her to become a investigative journalist. Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a great women rights and civil rights activist. She reported on lynchings and racial violence consistently directed at the lives of Black people in America. Ida B. Wells-Barnett co-founded the NAACP. When sister Jones became an adult, she became a respected journalist. Her investigative journalism, and her inquisitiveness in Black studies, led her to see the racist deliberate negation of Black people’s contribution to American civilization, particularly American democracy, and Black people’s enduring struggle to rebuild Black culture despite United States slavery and segregation. When the opportunity presented itself, sister Jones boldly went to her supervisions at the New York Times to pitch a project to include the missing pages of Black people’s history to American history for the new millennium. Her project successfully became the 1619 Project. The rest is Black history.

Hotep (Peace)!!!

-Bashir Muhammad Akinyele is a History Teacher and Chair of Weequahic High School’s Black History Month Committee

PLEASE GIVE A DONATION TO MY EDUCATIONAL TOUR OF KEMET (EGYPT) COMING UP IN JUNE OF 2020.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/education-tour-of-ancient-kemet-…