Power of love to overcome evil

Without retaliation, evils would one day become extinct from the world.
(Nigeria)

Dear Zayda,

Jamaica has more churches per square metre than any other country in the world. Jamaica also at the moment has the highest murder rate in the world. The link between number of churches and the murder rate may well be Jamaican’s love of the Law of Moses. “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” says that law.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye will soon make the whole world blind.” That belief in retaliation certainly keeps bad things happening in families, in communities, in nations, and in the world.

Gandhi wanted to free India, but he chose peace over violence. Britain then ruled India and occupied much of Africa and the Caribbean as well. But India was at the centre of Britain’s empire. India provided Britain with riches, power, and control over land and people. Britain also had a strong army, and the best navy in the world. Gandhi had little more than a desire to see the backs of the British, and to see Indians rule their own country. Yet Gandhi’s refusal to hit back led to the end of the British Empire not just in India, but in Africa and the Caribbean as well.

If we feel we have to do to someone what the evil have done to us, or worse, we give away our power. That other person is now ruling our life, and may later rule our children’s lives as well.

Today in Jamaica there are communities at war with each other. Often the reasons are not clear, just that someone from this side once injured or disrespected or disagreed with someone from the other side. The wars break up families and friends, and isolate people who have to avoid the war zones. Battles take place in which people lose their homes and sometimes their lives.

When the fighting wears down people enough, peace might come for a while. People wonder why they chose to fight when life is so much easier when they care for each other, and when they can walk freely on streets that used to be no man’s land. If the will to give up “an eye for an eye” is strong enough, the peace will last. Too often, however, the mistrust does not go away. A small incident – such as an argument in a bar - can start up the war again.

The desire for retaliation seems never far away, especially when it seems to have support from the Bible. Jesus said his teachings of love were to replace the Law of Moses. He told his followers to love their enemies and to do good to those who hurt them, but Jamaicans seem to prefer to follow the hate teachings of Moses.

Nelson Mandela had every reason to hate those who kept him in prison for 27 years. Like Gandhi, Mandela wanted to do what seemed impossible at the outset. He wanted to free a country where one group enjoyed life at the expense of another group. The white South Africans had all the power, and did all they could to ensure the Blacks had no power at all. They were shot down when they tried to march peacefully to resist unjust treatment., but later took up arms to defend themselves. Blacks tried to use Gandhi’s methods

Nonetheless, when Mandela walked out of prison as a free man, and white rule ended, Mandela insisted there should be no retaliation. He did not wish evil to continue under Black rule. He set an example by making peace with his own jailers, and with those who had mistreated Black people so badly and over so many years.

My grandniece, we will be tempted to hit back when others hit us, so as to give them a taste of their own medicine. Even as we do that, we need to realize we are giving away our power to those persons. The best we can do then is to re-take our power as soon as we can. We can step back for a while to think about what we want most of all.

Is our goal to hurt someone today and risk retaliation tomorrow? Is the loving thing to move away from that person (if we can)? Could we try to love ourselves so much the person’s words and actions cannot hurt us? Could we bring ourselves to understand that the other person is acting out of his own pain, and that his behavior has nothing to do with us personally? Could we re-focus on our goals rather than stay focused on the person’s conduct?

Taking the peaceful road is not easy, Zayda. It takes more courage than fighting back, and it certainly leaves us with less evil for even the new-born to deal with.

We can choose. So, like Gandhi and Mandela, let us choose to love and forgive.

Blessings,

Your shangazi Nothango (Yvonne)

Loyalty to Ubuntu principle

One can't make a pact with the slave and make a pact with the master and not betray one of them. (Yoruba)

Dear Zayda,

The blood of slaves and slave masters runs in our veins. If they wanted to continue living, our female ancestors could not say “no” to their owners. Children of mixed blood often had an easier life than Black children - lighter work, better food, and a chance to read and write. Lucky ones got their freedom. The question then, as now, is who will have our loyalty, slave or master.

Some ease their minds by making a pact with the master. They speak the master’s language (sometimes with the master’s accent) and consider slave-derived language as “bad”. They wear the master’s clothing, intended for cold climates, even in tropical heat. As best they can, they try to make their hair and skin colour resemble the master’s. What they can’t do for themselves, they may try to do for their children and grandchildren by choosing spouses who are white or near-white. Some may go so far as to refuse to acknowledge relatives who look or act “too Black”.

Those who make a pact with the slave could be considered as “too Black”. They will wear their hair long, but in dreadlocks or natural braids, not straight hair weaves. They are proud of having smooth chocolate skin and generous lips. They take every chance they can get to celebrate with the drumming and dancing and stories of their African ancestors. Persons such as Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X inspire them.

But we live in a world together - Blacks and whites, children of slaves and slave masters. We need to make pacts with each other and with ourselves. Even if one side or the other thinks we betray them, we must never betray ourselves. That means, Zayda, that we allow principle to guide us.

Nelson Mandela is an example of someone who tried to make pacts with slave and master while respecting the rights of all. He tried to follow the principle of Ubuntu. He explained it in this way as:

“A traveler through a country would stop at a village and he didn't have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?”



One of my heroes, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, is also someone who tries to find principled ways of making pacts. This is how he explains Ubuntu:

“One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu - the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality - Ubuntu - you are known for your generosity.

“We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.”



To me, the essence of Ubuntu is love. So we have to love ourselves enough to find peace between the masters and slaves who may at times seem to be at war within us and around us.

We have to love others to see beyond the slave or the master to the humanity that we all share.

It’s not easy, but we can do it. We have to do it for our survival.

Blessings,

Your shangazi

Black History Month - Nelson Mandela's release

If we go forward we die; if we go backward we die; better go forward and die. (South Africa - Zulu)







1990 - Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela freed from prison after 27 years.







Up to the 1970s, freedom for Nelson Mandela seemed less likely than a snowfall on a Jamaican beach. So when the impossible happened, I dressed in my Ghanaian outfit and went as close to African soil as I could. A group of us went to the Nigerian Embassy in Jamaica, and celebrated with drums and dancing. Later, we marched from the embassy to a park that was re-named for Nelson Mandela. "I have to wrap my mind around being able to go home again." South African told me. A freedom fighter, she had been exiled for decades.

For most of 27 years spend in prison, Nelson Mandela was locked up on Robben Island. He could leave his prison cell only to break rocks in a quarry. Further, as a political prisoner he could receive only one visitor and one letter every six months. The censors often delayed Mandela’s letters, and marked them up so badly that he was often unable to read the letters. Nonetheless, Mandela found creative ways to communicate with the outside world.

In 1985, the apartheid government offered to release him in exchange for giving up the anti-apartheid struggle. Nelson responded by stating, “"What freedom am I being offered while the organisation of the people remains banned? Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.”

People all over the world celebrated Nelson’s unconditional release. On the day of his release, he said:

Our resort to the armed struggle in 1960 with the formation of the military wing of the ANC was a purely defensive action against the violence of apartheid. The factors which necessitated the armed struggle still exist today. We have no option but to continue. We express the hope that a climate conducive to a negotiated settlement would be created soon, so that there may no longer be the need for the armed struggle.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was president of South Africa from May 1994 to June 1999.


Also on this date in:

1644 - First Black legal protest in U.S. by 11 Blacks who petitioned for freedom in NY.

1979 - Grammy award winning singer, actress Brandy born Brandy Rayana Norwood in McComb, Mississippi.

2007 – Barack Obama launched his US presidential campaign

Black History Month - Mandela's jail release announced

FEBRUARY 2
Fire can soften iron. (Zaire)

1990 - The 30-year ban on leading anti-apartheid group, the African National Congress (ANC) was lifted. Jailed ANC leader Nelson Mandela’s release was announced.

The ANC was founded in 1912. For many years, it worked within the law, using strikes and boycotts to end racial oppression in South Africa. However, the Sharpeville Massacre ended peaceful protest. Pass laws had restricted the movement of Black people in South Africa, and in 1960 the AND declared a campaign against pass laws. A large crowd gathered outside a police station offering themselves for arrest since they were not carrying passes. Apparently the crowd was orderly and even festive, but the police fired on the people. Most of the killed and wounded were shot in the back.

The massacre of these 69 unarmed persons marked the change for the ANC from non-violent resistance to armed resistance. The ANC was banned, but the organization continued to function underground and in exile.

The South African people, supported by the international community including Jamaica, , continued to demand political power. By 1976, the apartheid government introduced reforms for the first time, and these attempts at reform led to greater resistance.

In 1994, the then South African government removed the ban on the ANC, and ANC leaders entered negotiations that resulted in the 1994 democratic elections in South Africa. Today, the ANC is the dominant political party in South Africa.


Also on this day in:

1897 – Alfred Cralle, inventor and businessman, patented the ice cream scoop

1948 - Musician Al McKay (Earth, Wind, and Fire) was born.