AYA Educational Institute

For Ujima, I offer you John Coltrane’s Equinox . This original rendition with over 7 million views/listens on YouTube alone may help us move the principle Ujima  which calls for collective work and responsibility into action. The strong percussive piano of McCoy Tyner, the drums of Elvin Jones and the vibrations of Ron Carter’s bass reminds me of how we used rhythm to stimulate Ujima. In Equinox, I hear “Berta, Berta” - the work song: “Be my woman, and I’ll be your man…” Hear it? Elvin Jones - the drummer - is playing “ Let Your Hammer Ring .” Don’t get it twisted, we didn’t just use work songs to help us get through imposed work, we created and used them to help us complete work of our own choosing. It was healing, bonding, spiritual. There was a caller, but no star. We all responded. The call and response process bound us together while taking us higher in a way that affirmed each other’s worth . This higher, mutually affirming place is the birthplace of trust - the co...

In the spirit of kujichagulia (self-determination), I offer you Gil Scott Heron's remake of the Marvin Gaye classic- Inner City Blues. Makes you wanna "holla" and throw up both of your hands. See, most don't understand the role of the blues to take us through despair. Gil helps the uninitiated, guiding us like the blues so that we throw up both our hands - not in despair, in Black liberation and Afrikan sovereignty. Listen to the end. He'll take you back to the block and bac k to New Orleans, back the future! Kujichagulia is not something that will be given by those who profit financially and psychically from your misery. Self-determination is not something that you beg for. It's not a concept as much as it is a verb - both an action and a state of being!If you're going to determine the education of your children, you don't beg others for permission to shape their course or method of study. You do it. Of course, there is a price t...

Don't you get it? It's comedy to them - tragic comedy. So are we. It can't be a horror film, they hypnotize us to believe ourselves powerless to serve our own interest and only to serve them daily. What's horrible about that? One got away, this time. So what? Full article . From their perspective, the doctor's Frankenstein-like efforts are laughable when the vehicle of story and the very viewing medium (movies, media, etc.) generate far less resistance and often garner voluntary life-long  commitments to servitude from Black bodies and Black brains. For survival and physical prowess, dipping into the more African gene pool is a far more elegant solution than messy neurological transplants. See the classic movie "Rabbit-Proof Fence" or view Serena's wedding! Black, loud, race-conscious, father Richard is gone. See image in comments. Resistance is gone. Retreat has devolved into surrender. The brains and the brawn of the next generation w...