Let me share this comment by Ana to my post on Black History.
Not loving ourselves enough, recognizing, respecting and appreciating our differences have been the detriment of African people. God loved us so much that African people were the first to attained every type of knowledge including the spiritual one but Africans were also the ones to squander them foolishly .
We do not have to go back into history to see that it was very easy for one tribe as a result of warfare after acquiring captives (spoils of war) to sell them off to outsiders(Arabs and Europeans). There tribalism presented its biggest sting. African Muslisms had no qualms helping Arab Muslisms capture their fellow non-Muslim African. The very Arabs came back for them. Even today, tribalism is still a big issue on the continent.
If Europeans can overcome tribalism and create the European Union, then African people can learn something worthwhile from them. The Chinese although an ancient people, scattered in a vast region, not having any kind of political national unity in the early days, never allowed themselves to be bamboozled and fall prey to outsiders.
I scoff at all those black people who believe that Pan Africanism is only about having black skin and wearing a natural hairstsyle. Right now there is a cultural movement in places like Argentina and Uruguay to ressurrect African culture and many of those involved are not even black, but they represent a better example of blackness than many of the black people I have met here in these United States.
I look for customs,agendas, beliefs and traditions that exhalt black people regardless of color. If I do not see anything exhalting or uplifting , I do not care how black that person is and what they are saying.
There are some truths that most be digested:
Culture, education and acquiring vast knowledge of practically everything, especially that of African people are very important.
People of African descent are not a monolith.
No particular group of black people in the Diaspora is blacker than the other.
Black people speak many different languages and come in many different skin shades.
Skin color does not mean much when you have within families people of different hues.
Black boys must be taught to respect black girls/women and vice versa.
If we teach our children to love, respect and appreciate their cultural groups, most of their problems will disappear.
I will hate to believe that when the ancestors walked the gangplank of that particular area of no return, that, in itself represented the entire rupture and breakaway of selves and an illustration of what we see today in many people of African descent throught the entire world.
Saludos,
Ana
afrospear.wordpress.com 
We are all of the darkness even those of lesser descent.Most of us suffer from that Generational Helsinki Syndrome of the loss of self will and identity.The identification by many Kemetic people with the west(the Light) as their origin reveals a dismal outcome for many of our people.If we do not know ourselves , or who we are in the circle of LIfe.How can we know the Most High.We are the Origin of Man. My people perish for lack of knowledge.
Asabagna ,I believe this is the period that many of us are observing and gaining lots of insight from each other.
It is noticeable that there are so many problems around that warrant immediate change.
I have learned a lot from my frequent visits to the many black blogs online but I consider myself an activist and not a talker.
I prefer putting well studied ideas into practice than just simply talking about problems.
Sadly, many of these approaches will have to be dealt with on individual basis because the problems are too acute.
But I believe one of the areas black people need to begin to start working on , “pero ya ” (right now) is in the cultural area.
I taught for years in NY city public schools and one of the biggest problems I encountered with the kids( black chidren) was a lack of a binding or cultural force that could guide , hence strengthen and unite them.
Everytime I read black blogs( with a specific agenda for certain black people), I get the impression that they always leave out the most important part, the cultural component.
Without that, things will always remain the same.This is like chemotherapy to a cancer patient.
Remember the days of the Soviet Union,it was not only communist ideology that did the trick, Soviet citizens from across the entire union were some of the most cultured people( versed in art,music,dance, literature). And I am not a communist.
Cultural development, entertainment and appreciation were cheap and accessible to everyone.
A good way of getting to know oneself and therefore respecting others is through the arts.
What we have today in schools is that they have eliminated the arts. Many children cannot even play a musical instrument.
I laugh at those hip hop musicians because if you ask them what instrument they play, none can give you an answer. Their disrespectful and sloppy work is the resut of lack of training in the real arts.
At least many of the singers of the past played some kind of instrument; also most sang with a band they often could direct because they knew music .
These silly entertainers of today come up to the mike today and tell someone in the back to” play track two”.
It is much easier to communicate and plan agendas with individuals who are cultured(have knowledge of something and about who they are) and I am not speaking in an elitist way. This is something I humbly believe.
Skin color and religious belief are not strong enough to unite anyone. Even today, ethnic smilarities devoid of a strong cultural component and knowledge of one’s history cannot do much .
I have a question that I will answer:
Why does Somalia a country with a homogeneous population and belief in the same religion cannot even create a “Mickey Mouse’ government to rule obver their nation?
My answer :
What is binding to them is not even strong enough to create a simple government( semblance of national unity).The Somalis are not aware of what being a Somali is all about.
If you ask any European member of the EU, they can define what European is in terms of history, mentality and cultural values.
Ask a black person what African or black means. Needless, I say any more.
At least it is not late for black folks who know better and are raising their children well.
This world belongs to all of us and each and everyone of us should enjoy all its God given glories.
The conscious brother,
Uruguayan writer and activist Eduardo Galeano says he is obsessed with remembering. I pray to God that I never ever lose my memory.
Saludos,
Ana