by Kamau M. Askari
Primacy should be given to an understanding of the material fact we are all one family. Our relations are consanguineous (related by blood) stemming from our common Afrikan ancestry.
Each of you constitutes one link in the great chain that is representative of the whole, i.e., the family, which is also our New Afrikan (Black) Nation. Learn to view the next Black youth from this objective standpoint inherent within objective reality – as your fellow family member, kinsman and kinswoman, as opposed to your enemy, rival, competitor, nigga, dog and the like.
Understand that how you view each other, consciously or subconsciously, will determine the course and character of your interpersonal relationships and social interactions amongst each other.
Understand that each of you is your brutha’s and sista’s keeper and that our history has taught us that together Black youth are far better equipped to meet all the challenges that confront you.
Each of you constitutes one link in the great chain that is representative of the whole, i.e., the family, which is also our New Afrikan (Black) Nation.
Learn to have tolerance for each other and exercise a ready willingness to forgive each other’s offenses.
Recognize your historical role within and relationship to Amerikan capitalist society and culture. The concrete conditions of you and your people’s material existence in the society and the inherent defects within capitalist society and culture give rise to the breeding and fostering of individualism, unscrupulous competition, greed, selfishness and avarice at odds with our vested life interests.
Understand that each of you is your brutha’s and sista’s keeper.
You are individuals in the sense that as human beings you each grow and develop your own personalities and unique characteristics.
Your individual initiative must be geared towards contributing to the forward progressive advancement of the whole family and nation and not yourselves alone.
Recognize that voice inside you that sounds just like you. Listen to and for that voice in moments of indecision or temptation in your life, when it seeks to urge, warn or prompt you, for it is the Holy Spirit seeking to guide and direct you long life’s correct and righteous paths.
Exercise your minds and bodies each day. Keen mental and physical ability is our livelihood and key to longevity.
Your individual initiative must be geared towards contributing to the forward progressive advancement of the whole family and nation and not yourselves alone.
Recognize your elders, treasure them, respect them, protect them and utilize their vast reservoir of wisdom as a resource.
Practice constant self-discipline. Discipline is very necessary if your positive, productive, progressive objectives in life are to be achieved. This entails studying, learning and knowing all that is required to meet your goals in life, and through your accumulation of this pertinent information you will have the starting point from which to chart a practical course of conduct to adhere to in pursuit of your established objectives.
Be as good as your word. When you give it, keep it.
Recognize that the first things learned are the hardest thought processes to break with. There are concepts, ways, tendencies, standards and values existential among our people which have been passed from one generation to the next, stemming from the seasoning process relative to the chattel enslavement of our Afrikan ancestors, which Black youth must change via rediscovering your humanity and making the transformation into New Afrikan men and women ideologically, politically, socio-economically and economically.
Send our brother some love and light: Kamau M. Askari, b/n Ralph A. Taylor, D-03780, CSP COR 4B2L-49, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran CA 93212. Kamau is part of the New Afrikan (Black) Family Unity and Advancement Foundation (NABFUAF) and a coordinator of the NCTT (New Afrikan Collective Think Tank).