When, beneath the black mask...

a human being begins to make his self felt, one cannot escape a certain awful wonder as to what kind of human being it is.  What one's imagination makes of other people is dictated, of course, by the laws of one's own personality and it is one of the ironies of black-white relations that, by means of what the white man imagines the black man to be, the black man is enabled to know who the white man is. 

James Baldwin, Stranger in the Village

Education for being human

The kind of knowledge we need today and should demand for our children and for ourselves is the knowledge of how we think and how we learn sometimes referred to as meta-cognition.  We need to learn ways to tap into that huge part of our mind that is sitting idle, getting ‘rusty’.  We need to learn how to deal with change and to place a focus on developing values and attitudes for a lifetime.  In other words, we need to educate for being human.  By understanding and energising all levels and dimensions of the brain-mind, educating for the whole person, we not only expand human potential, but we develop enthusiasm for the ‘spirit of learning’ and nourish our hungry souls. (Griggs,2003)

In the Beginning

IN THE BEGINNING

The great God dreamed a dream through me,

Mighty as a dream of God could be;

He made me a victorious woman,

Shaped me unto a perfect plan,

Summoned me forth to radiant birth

Upon the radiant earth

He lavished gifts within my hand,

Gave me the power to command

The thundering forces that he hurled

Upon the seething world

Creation’s dream was wondrous good

Had I but understood

The great God dreamed a dream through me,

But I was blind and could not see.

My royal gifts were laid in rust,

For parentage, I claimed the dust.

Decay and sorrow, age and blight

These gifts I deemed my right.

The great God spoke a word through me

That word was Life. How can it be?

That I, in God s own substance made,

Should face the universe, afraid?

Born of eternal life am I

Why should I fail and die?

O God, so huge was thine intent,

So greatly was thy passion spent!

This counterfeit is not the plan

That Thou didst dream for man

Tis this: man’s dream must mate with thine,

Man’s word, man’s life, must be divine;

Man must be conscious through and through

To make Thy dream come true!

Angela Morgan

C L R James

In 1984 C L R James (1984) made the following observation:

The black man or woman who is born here and grows up here has something special to contribute to western civilisation.  He or she will participate in it, see it from birth, but will never be quite completely in it. What such persons have to say, therefore, will give a new vision, a deeper and stronger insight into both western civilisation and the black people in it.  

What new vision are you giving birth to?