Skip to main content

Ujima | Coltrane | Berta, Berta


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 cornerstone of our working and building together.
The rhythm of both Equinox and Berta Berta keeps us in time while letting us get lost in time - individually and together at the same time. The rhythmic trance of such work opens the door for responsibility symbolized by Coltrane’s spiritual saxophone.
Like the caller in Berta Berta, Trane calls to our Afrikan DNA, his sound takes us way back home and calls our ancestors forward. In that great cosmic meeting, Afrikan identity and accountability are reborn. These are the roots of collective responsibility.
Equinox can remind us to take care to organize our work in rhythmic and mutually affirming ways. It reminds us to make sure our work (not just our words or libation) calls the ancestors forward while affirming our Afrikan identity and thus sending us back to meet them.
If this seems too esoteric, try these things while bathing in our spiritually affirming music:
1. Ask for help. Then take it. You deserve it. Yes, this is Ujima. This is the most powerful way to combat the Eurocentric rugged individualism mythology and its deadly silent message that if you need help or ask for help, you’re weak, inadequate, unworthy, etc. Ask for help sometimes even when you can do it alone. We have far to go, so we need each other. This is also the doorway to collective responsibility because it asking and receiving creates an attachment and obligation to each other.
2. Return the favor. Offer and give help (an ear, a hand, a ride, a dollar) where you see us working for what’s good for our families, our community and for Afrikan people - including what’s good for the person or family. Be aware of how you’re lifted by lifting our people. Sing while you give. Don't just join what's already going well, help someone get started and rolling.
3. If you see a good fight where a family or our people are fighting oppression (even if it’s not your preferred way to fight), get in it, or get inspired to fight it your way and ask others to join you.
4. Exercise, eat well and take care of yourself to become physically and emotionally strong. You can't help much if you're sick.
5. Become good at many things, and greatly skilled at a few things. Actually, helping others will help you do this.
Now, make sure you listen to, sing, dance and work to our music together.
Ujima will follow.
Berta, Berta:


Let Your Hammer Ring:


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

White Images in the Black Mind - The Color of Christ and White Supremacy

Wekesa O. Madzimoyo Take a look at Roland Martin's take on the white Jesus issue. Here "To whom much is given....” This one is for my Christian family and friends who may have slipped back into the "color of Christ doesn't matter" thinking. I don't have this discussion much anymore. Dr. Yosef Ben Jochannan settled it for me 40 + years ago, and I've not looked back since. (Dr. Ben's link at the end of this post.) In fact, I've moved forward. But this post isn't about me or religion, per se, and it's certainly not about getting you to change your faith. It's more about "racial scripting" than scripture. It's about religion as a tool for white supremacy and the domination of our people - African people. It's about our believing that God's loves for us (and God's presence in us) is not dependent on us bowing to or ignoring images of white Jesus/God/angels. It's about us caring about the psycholo

Falsification of African Consciousness - Weekend Academy Special

Web-Conference Weekend  Academy Special! AYA offers many courses designed to prepare adults and youth for advanced historical, social, and psychological analysis and synthesis. Useful for in both the university of life and academic universities, these courses will meet together on the weekends on starting Saturday, Sept. 27th. Register today! Due to popular demand, we'll offer two special courses as a part of our national web-conference-based Weekend Academy so that student who attend other institutions, home school students, and adults who work can partake. The two courses are: Falsification of African Consciousness based on the work of Dr. Amos N. Wilson The course is an introduction to Amos N. Wilson - his mission and his works. The course explores:  How  Eurocentric history-writing rationalizes and justifies European oppression of Afrikan peoples How that process creates a  false Afrikan consciousness - one possessed by an alien consciousness that serves

2020 Community Warrior-Healer-Builder Love Honoree: Mama Nobantu Ankoanda

We are proud to announce the 2020 Black Love Day Community Warrior-Healer-Builder Love Honorees. In this oppressive environment to fight, heal, and build are revolutionary acts. One of the three Community Warrior-Healer-Builder Love honorees is Mama Nobantu Ankoanda Before you can say “lets,” Mama Nobantu is in the van saying, “C’mon, let’s go.” Before you can say, “I need…” Nobantu has opened her house, extended her hand and her heart. She’s a Warrior-Healer-Building Mama! Her children grew up knowing that their mother belonged to our community. Mama Nobantu Ankoanda is an educator, teacher, former principal and founder of Afrikan centered community-based institutions in Palo Alto, California and in the Atlanta, GA Metro area. Mama Ankoanda is also Dr. Mama Nobantu. She holds a doctoral degree in Education, a Master of Arts degrees in Elementary Education and a BA in Social work. She’s earned this Black Community Warrior-Healer-Builder award because she’s been spreading love