Have We Really Lost Anything? Do We Know What We Have Lost? Can Our Losses Be Regained? (Part 2)
Following part 1 of our last story, I continue in this story to answer the questions that are raised. To do this, I travel to the wisdom saying of our Meritah Ancestors: “If you don’t know where you are going, go back where you came from.” The question for me becomes: “where did I come from?” The wisdom saying of our Ancestors can unleaf so many pages of a book. It carries so much meaning in only little words. It allows for the humble in the heart the opportunity to learn and improve their human qualities. For if I am humble enough to follow the prompt of my Ancestors in this wisdom saying, it means that in a world where even the next moment is blink or uncertain, where purposes are redefined, where an anchor is not sure and a path for humanity leads only to destruction, a pause is necessary to reflect on the instructions found in the saying. This pause will enable us to ask the question: if all that the modern society presents began in war, murder, genocide, thievery, rape, enslavement, and destruction; if it is continued to be sustained through war, murder, genocide, thievery, rape, enslavement, and destruction; following this trail, the future will continue in war, murder, genocide, thievery, rape, enslavement and destruction, where then are we going and for what purpose? However, if we as a people, even from blurry memory, know that our Indigenous societies are a harmonious society, aligned with Nature, where we could drink from our clean rivers, had no crimes, no concept of unemployment, no landlessness as Land is considered the right of the Creator to everyone, no police, men did not beat their wives, e.t.c.: If this is the remembrance that our blurry memory without doubt provides, I know then that a return to my society that produces such societal results may then be best for my survival.
By the time that I decided to return, I began to ask another set of questions which is what this part two of the story seeks to answer: Can Our Losses Be Regained? Our elders and priests share with us that nothing has been lost but only the material aspects of our greatness. Our traditions and Indigenous communities still exist today, it is us that have chosen the modern path of destruction paved inconvenience and governed by what is referred to today as the “white system.” Our tradition is a culture of preservation. The choice becomes clear; we can decide to return to our Ancestral culture of preservation or continue with the foreign invading culture of destruction. Should we choose the latter, we should then not lament to see destruction befall us. Should we choose the former, which is ours, we will realize how all that we need to be is to just be – within our Ancestral domain and cultural values! It is only within these that we will thrive and flourish, successfully navigating this so-called modernity from the place of our Ancestry and tradition. It comes with hard work and discipline, but it is that which preserves our spirit, soul, body, and mind in harmony with the Earth and with Nature.
Following the first story, I conclude here with the words of Baba Hilliard-III (2000): “while our problems may be many, the critical first step towards restoring who we are is to remember who we are; and a large part of what we must do is to get our memories back intact and regain our orientation, and only then will other things be possible” (Oshobugie, 2019).
Some of us have chosen to get back our memories and regain our orientations. We do this so that moving forward, our personal and professional lives will be informed by our Meritah Indigenous cultural roots and worldview, which is governed by the Kem culture of harmonious living and alignment with Nature. This means that in returning to our Indigenous Kem culture, we are aware of the boundaries, rules, and principles that align us with our origins and the Divine world. This choice is a clear choice to choose our culture whose fundamental goal is to preserve life and build good character, creating high-quality human beings as it has always done and still does.
If you wonder like I did: “where do I begin on my journey to where I am from?” I invite you to visit www.theearthcenter.org where our traditional society has extended itself as a bridge to bring us back to Indigenous Meritah, as we were and still are when we stood and still stand on our feet. This Indigenous Meritah is different from the colonized, Christian, or Muslim Africa as most people know it today where it is crawling on its knees under the weight of the white system and its values. Again, if a thing began in war, murder, genocide, thievery, rape, enslavement, and destruction; sustains itself in war, murder, genocide, thievery, rape, enslavement, and destruction; do we then suddenly think that if a thing looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, then, it must be a fine horse?
I wish that we all choose wisely. May our Ancestors guide us and may we listen and act accordingly.
Duaoo! Obekha! Uhrese! Nagode! Dalu! Eseun! Asante Sana! Mesi Anpil!
