Black History Month 2021

3 years ago

It’s February! First of all, thank God for bringing us safely into a new month. 1 month down, 11 to go. We celebrate a few things in February. For me, personally, my mom’s birthday is February 2nd. I still miss her more than words can say. She was a beautiful human being inside and out. I’m forever grateful for the wisdom she imparted in my life. What an honor to be Maria Obi’s daughter. We also celebrate Valentine’s day in February, making it the “love” month. Love is a beautiful thing for those who are fortunate enough to find it. I pray that we will all experience pure, unadulterated and unconditional love in our lifetime. This year though, the celebration that’s most on my mind is Black History Month. A celebration of our African American history and heritage, although I don’t think we do enough to own our African heritage. We tend to claim every other heritage but ours. If we only understood that it was the same kings, queens, lawyers, doctors, hunters, gatherers, mothers, fathers they brought to enslave in the U.S that they dropped off in Cuba, the Caribbean and other places. Heck, the cradle of civilization can be traced back to Africa so even our white brothers and sisters have an African heritage. How deep is that? We need to own our heritage. Its one of the reasons I write because I feel that we need to own our heritage by telling our stories from our perspective and not just rely on his story, whoever he is. We also need to own and be proud of our heritage so they can’t rewrite our identity for us. It dawned on me that Kunta Kinte in the movie, roots, was saying his name instead of the new name they wanted him to adopt because he was trying to remind himself of who he was and not necessarily because he was just being defiant. It’s the same reason the ghost of Mufasa kept telling Simba to remember who he was after seemingly losing his way in the lion king movie. Heritage in shaping identity is powerful. Losing it makes identity pliable. I was in Africa for the holidays and Africa is beautiful. From the people, to the food, to the rich culture, to the land itself with the amazing wonders, Africa is certainly a sight to see and we should be proud of our African heritage. I know that slavery tarnishes the joy of this because those who sold their brothers are just as much to blame as those that bought and enslaved them. But that’s where the mindset of Joseph has to come in. Much like the African American, Joseph was sold by his brothers and enslaved in Egypt but he never forgot who he was. It was that mindset that allowed him to rise to the highest position in Egypt. I want to remind my African American brothers and sisters of who they are today. They did not bring slaves to the United states. Rather they brought the cream of the crop of Africa and enslaved them. There is a difference. Do not allow your identity to be diminished by a moment in history that God allowed because He had a greater purpose in mind. Our story should never be defined by that moment in his story. Rise up great people, remember who you are and realize your worth. SELAH. I love you all! Happy Black History Month!

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