In Class with Carr, Ep. 338: King Me: Africana Governance and Purpose in a Changing World

0:00I reach to finally address the young

0:03people present here and through you

0:06young people throughout the African

0:07world. You are he to a history that

0:10contains both extraordinary suffering

0:13and extraordinary achievement and you

0:16have inherited technological

0:18possibilities that earlier generations

0:20could scarcely have imagined.

0:22Within seconds you can connect Ara to

0:24Washington, Kumasi with Kston, Lagos

0:28with London and Johannesburg with

0:30Toronto.

0:32But technological connection is not the

0:34same as human unity.

0:36Unity requires knowledge, trust,

0:39discipline and responsibility.

0:42Do not allow yourself to define Africa

0:44entirely. Do not allow others others to

0:48define Africa entirely for you.

0:50Study its history and its complexity.

0:54Learn its languages. Examine its

0:56institutions. Understand its

0:58achievements and failures. And do not

1:01approach culture only through fashion,

1:03music and social media.

1:07>> [cheering]

1:10[applause]

1:12>> However, however valuable these

1:15expressions may be, heritage requires

1:18deeper engagement.

1:20>> So at the same time, you should accept,

1:24you should not accept every inherited

1:26practice without question.

1:28>> Yes. Because respect for tradition does

1:31not require intellectual silence. Ask

1:34questions.

1:36Investigate claims. Challenge injustice.

1:40Preserve what is valuable.

1:43Correct

1:44what must be corrected. And now add to

1:47the inheritance through your own

1:49creativity.

1:51The future of African culture will not

1:53be secured by elders alone. to be

1:56secured when young people discover when

1:58they inherit within their inheritance

2:00intellectual and moral resources that

2:02help them confront the problems of their

2:04own generation. So you are not required

2:07to choose between being modern and being

2:09African.

2:12>> Be a scientist,

2:13physician, engineer, lawyer, whatever

2:16scholar of the highest international

2:18standing and remain deeply grounded in

2:21the cultural inheritance from which you

2:23emerged.

2:25Indeed. [cheering]

2:27[applause]

2:28Indeed, the greatest contribution Africa

2:30can make to the world will not come from

2:32imitating others perfectly,

2:35but from participating confidently in

2:37global civilization by contributing

2:40knowledge,

2:44>> instituting values and creativity that

2:47arise from our own historical

2:48experience. Distinguished ladies and

2:51gentlemen, perhaps what we we ultimately

2:54require is a new conception of global

2:56African respon responsibility.

2:59National citizenship will remain

3:01important. A Ghanaian remains a

3:04Ghanaian. An African-American remains

3:06American. A Jamaican remains Jamaican.

3:09And a Brazilian of African descent

3:11remains Brazilian. Beyond these national

3:14identities, however, there can exist a

3:17moral conscience consciousness that

3:20recognizes a shared historical

3:22connection and shared responsibility for

3:24the future. That responsibility includes

3:28preserving memory, strengthening

3:30education, opposing racism, expanding

3:34opportunity, developing African

3:36institutions, promoting ethical

3:38investment, supporting scholarships, and

3:41defending human dignity wherever it is

3:43threatened.

3:45>> Such unity must never become hostility

3:48towards others. The suffering contained

3:50within African history should not teach

3:52us hatred. It should teach us justice.

3:56Our historical experience should make us

3:58defenders of dignity not only for

4:00Africans but for humanity.

4:03>> The relationship between Ghana, Africa

4:05and the global African diaspora must

4:07therefore be founded on more than

4:09ancestry alone. Ancestry tells us that

4:13we are connected while responsibility

4:16tells her that we must

4:18do with that connection. What we must do

4:21with that connection? We must move from

4:24occasional vis to enduring institutions.

4:27From symbolic embrace to intellectual

4:29cooperation, from nostalgia to

4:32development, from the language of return

4:34to the practice of belonging, from

4:36remembering shared suffering to building

4:38shared strength, from se from sentiment

4:41to structure, from memory to

4:44responsibility, from connection to

4:46collaboration, and from a shared past

4:48towards a deliberately constructed

4:50future.

4:58There is an account proverb which says

5:04>> meaning that when a single tree stands

5:06alone against the storm it may fall.

5:10>> The strength of the forest lies not in

5:11the isolation of its trees but in the

5:14relationship among them. Their trunks

5:17may stand separately and their branches

5:19may grow in different directions. But

5:21beneath the soil, their roots strengthen

5:23the same earth. So it is with the global

5:26African family.

5:28Our nations are different. Our histories

5:31have followed different paths. Our

5:34cultures have developed into different

5:36circumstances. And our experiences are

5:38not identical.

5:40>> Our futures can be strengthened through

5:42deliberate cooperation.

5:44There's another pro proverb

5:49meaning that one hand cannot lift a

5:51heavy load

5:53>> that work before us too great for one

5:55nation, one university, one government

5:58and one traditional institution or one

6:00generation. Africa cannot under Africa

6:03cannot undertake it without the its

6:05diaspora. The diaspora cannot undertake

6:08it without meaningful engagement with

6:10Africa. Traditional leadership cannot

6:13undertake it and cannot undertake it

6:15without scholars and young people.

6:18Universities cannot undertake it without

6:20communities.

6:23>> Oh good everything

6:26I cannot hear you. You are muted. That's

6:30okay. You're muted. Yes.

6:32>> Everything. [clears throat]

6:33>> Good morning [laughter]

6:35Joe. Joe

6:38>> Joe.

6:40you know, um, thank you for for sharing

6:43this. I, you know, I I did a little just

6:45a smidge just little search on him. Um,

6:48and I just, you know, as as we are

6:51watching this and you're going to tell

6:52us what this is, I'm also struck by how

6:55the call and response and the signifying

6:58that we do just naturally

7:01obviously has its roots much deeper in

7:03our DNA. So,

7:05>> it's in our DNA. That's what our sister

7:08Ara said. Of course, thank Dr. Azam

7:11Moore. She she's the one who kind of

7:13made that possible. She was the bridge.

7:15Mom from Connecticut, father from Ghana.

7:18And so because of her, we just saw uh

7:21there at Howard University on Tuesday

7:23night. Ofu

7:25II, the Asantini, the king of the

7:27Ashanti, uh with his wife,

7:32Julia Oetutu,

7:34who is the queen of the Ashanti. And

7:36they were there on Tuesday night. So,

7:39and she said that as she opened up, she

7:41did a call and response and all the

7:43students at Howard, she was like, "Hey,

7:44you and they all were like, you know,"

7:45and she said, "See, it's still in our

7:47DNA." It was a lot of calling response.

7:49>> Okay. I saw I saw Mario Dr. Mario Batty

7:52in the audience and oh, that was that

7:55was really nice. Um, and Aua is Dr. Aua

7:59Aimoa is why we are here. She introduced

8:02us many many moons ago on a Veterans Day

8:04holiday. Um, and that started this. It

8:07wouldn't be an in-class car without her.

8:09So, no.

8:10>> Um, she she seems to be a mass

8:13connector.

8:13>> She is in the plug. She's the plug.

8:16That's that's a good nickname. You are

8:17you good at giving nicknames? The plug.

8:20No question. She's the plug. So, sitting

8:22there listening to him for just those

8:24few minutes and I encourage people, you

8:25know, the Ganaian had all kind of

8:27cameras there. The Africans from the US

8:29did well. So you can search that and it

8:31was called the officially it was called

8:33the royal visiting lecture and uh but

8:36you can find it all over YouTube. I

8:38would encourage folk to watch it. It was

8:39it was a little less than an hour I

8:41would say probably about 45 minutes and

8:44every

8:46element of it was as compelling as the

8:50five or six minutes we just saw. So you

8:52have any any any thoughts or any

8:54reactions just listening to that

8:55specific little chunk? Yeah, that what

8:58what we're doing and how we have uh

9:01convened now 338 consecutive Saturdays

9:05and then some in between and now

9:07expansively throughout Nubia uh

9:09throughout the week is the way forward.

9:12It's community. It's it's the drum beat

9:13of community. It's the drum beat of

9:14community. This is the last thing that

9:16he said in community. I this week um had

9:19the awesome pleasure to interview a

9:22South African Vousy um Timbuko

9:26um who is an economist a speaker you

9:29know he does a hedge fun he's he's got a

9:31lot of things going on but that was his

9:33overarching message that you know

9:35wherever we are scattered throughout the

9:37world the thing that will sustain us and

9:41keep us moving forward is community

9:44whatever's going on in the world he said

9:45we can't control a lot of the things but

9:47the things we can control is how we

9:48engage with one another. And I feel like

9:51that that is the clarion call. You know,

9:53we can have a lot of uh you know,

9:55concerns about certain people or what

9:58have you, but this this does not work if

10:00we do not see each other in each other.

10:04>> This will not work.

10:05>> That's exactly right. It was really

10:08quite something as you said that that we

10:09have to be together and being together

10:13doesn't mean that we are all exactly the

10:15same which is something he stressed.

10:17>> He said yeah.

10:18>> Yeah. He said we not you know you still

10:20going to be who you are

10:23>> American you know African-American you

10:25going to be Ganaian Nigerian and that's

10:28not the same. Everybody has their own

10:30unique perspectives and and experiences,

10:33but yeah, I look at us as seeds

10:35scattered all over the the globe and

10:37some of them they tried to bury and pop

10:39some great fruit.

10:41>> Yes.

10:41>> Among us.

10:42>> Yes. It it was partic it's very yeah

10:45speech is so powerful

10:48the words the metaphors as you say he he

10:50used the metaphor of course of trees and

10:52branches and roots and evokes of course

10:55Marcus Garvey whose birthday was a

10:57little over a week ago in this in this

10:59last Saturday in black August and those

11:02metaphors his choice of words

11:03particularly because he was speaking in

11:06public which isn't usually the case

11:10those brothers who we saw standing there

11:12elders uh collectively they are known as

11:16the Akiyame those are his voices there

11:20are 12 of them in the Akan so are in the

11:23Ashanti a kind is a much larger

11:25formation as AA made the point she says

11:27I'm not ashanti but I am a is like the

11:30umbrella in the region that spills over

11:32between Ghana and Togo and all over but

11:34underneath that large umbrella uh is are

11:38the Ashanti which are kind of like one

11:39of the anchoring groups But those

11:42brothers typically and you saw the chief

11:45linguist there uh aka him in Guas Poco

11:49the third he was standing up there and

11:52there are 12 of them. So they were only

11:54there there you kind of see them. You

11:56can see the staffs over there to the

11:58left and you see of course the brother

12:00with the umbrella and the guy the two

12:03brothers behind him all the way with the

12:06with their uh shoulders out with their

12:08top hat there. Those brothers are I

12:11suppose you could to use a kind of way

12:14they are often described when talking

12:16about a people praise singers. So they

12:19were calling response when they came up

12:21before he spoke they in tree the

12:24language he was they were using they

12:27were basically saying you know this is

12:29the king and then the other brother

12:30would say yes he is the uh the ruler of

12:32a shanti land and then the other brother

12:34is like yes and these other people I

12:35mean they're going back and forth now uh

12:38and then the brothers said you see those

12:40staffs those golden staffs there each

12:41with a different set of adinker symbols

12:43those are the linguists and so they

12:45stand over to one side or sometimes down

12:48um beneath him and they stand there and

12:51we heard that Je it is not a real direct

12:54translation but it's almost like we have

12:56authorized this or this is this is

12:58vetted this is authentic what he is

13:00saying is true I mean it's like you see

13:02we never stop being Africans

13:04[clears throat] y'all [laughter]

13:05it's like that could be a church you

13:06know he's standing and the deacons

13:08everybody's there

13:09>> the gentleman in the suit um standing

13:12there with the very stern vis

13:14>> protocol I mean this again what Angie

13:16Porter would call protocol so You see,

13:18and this is a this is a point that he

13:20made in the speech. He said it, you

13:22know, in the clip that we saw and then

13:23he went on to talk about it after is

13:26this looking at our culture doesn't mean

13:29staying in the past. What it means that

13:32we have to be critical even of the

13:34things we've done before. But in order

13:35to be critical of them, we have to know

13:36them. So that brother got a suit on.

13:38He's part of the official delegation.

13:40He's like an official representative.

13:42But what even does that image signal to

13:44us? You don't have to dress a certain

13:47way to be an African. In other words,

13:49there are people who are going to look

13:50and say, "Okay, it's official because

13:51the student in this tailored suit."

13:52Yeah. And there other people who gonna

13:54say, "Yeah, it's official because he

13:55brought the official linguist." And he's

13:57like, "Yes, the answer is yes. All of

13:59it. All of the things. Doc,

14:02>> Dr. Car, why why is that such a hard

14:04why? Why is there so much resistance to

14:07accepting just that little piece that we

14:10are part of something ancient and

14:12greater? Why why do you think some some

14:15people resist that because and resist it

14:17in a very I would call it violent way

14:22>> diseducation

14:23he addressed that as well you know it's

14:25funny he said he said something his

14:28children were there their children there

14:29um uh setu and uh and his wife Julia

14:35setu

14:37Julius their two children were sitting

14:40behind them and during the speech

14:43He said you know my own children after

14:46after he had employed all of us and of

14:49course in Nubia we have better nature

14:51you know there and then that's just the

14:53beginning of the languages but he said

14:56learn the languages of your grandparents

14:58of your great-grandparents he said my

14:59own children thought they were Americans

15:01and British until they got to be a

15:04certain age and realized they are

15:06Ashanti and then and they started

15:08laughing so as they were walking out I

15:10said to his son I said your father lit

15:11you pop up there, huh? He just started

15:13laughing cuz they couldn't they couldn't

15:14deny it. But when young people are

15:17socialized to believe that we are

15:18disconnected and you see something like

15:21this, you just you don't automatically

15:24uh identify with it. And in fact, you

15:26can have a visceral disconnect when we

15:28have been socialized to think that

15:29Africa is savages, Africa is, you know,

15:31or or or here's one I want to the people

15:34who are descendants of slaves to really

15:35kind of sit with this, the Africans sold

15:37us. You know I was like I mean the

15:41Ashanti at one time Ashanti land

15:43extended from the forest land to the

15:44Atlantic Ocean. They had expanded

15:47considerably but like the Zulu in South

15:48Africa it was not without violence. Aua

15:51strong armed me into giving you know

15:54about six or seven minutes of remarks

15:56before the assign. So she was the

15:59mistress of ceremonies and she brought

16:00everybody up. the provos spoke uh Tony

16:02Wuto who is Ganaian and then I spoke and

16:06then she introduced young sister who is

16:08Ganaian who is with the Ghana the

16:10Ganaian student association so she spoke

16:13and then she int she introduced the the

16:14Asantahini but one of the things I said

16:16was you know Asanti expanded through

16:18diplomacy and war I said it isn't always

16:21pretty I said that in front of the

16:23Asantini and the queen I want I want

16:25y'all to know that we know we understand

16:26we're not trying to look away from the

16:28difficult moments in history we we're

16:31traffic, but for him to come here, and

16:32this is where is getting to the point

16:33that you raised, you know, that creates

16:36a difficulty if we allow it. But he's

16:39here now. He's been here before. He's

16:40got family over here. And we'll talk

16:42more about some of the other people with

16:43him with with him, he and her, but him

16:46and her. But

16:48that disconnect

16:51that we feel, I'm convinced it isn't a

16:55disconnect

16:56that is at the deepest level. Because if

17:00it was, you know, we were laughing

17:02before we turned we came on on live.

17:06If it were that deep, you wouldn't think

17:08about Zumundor Wakanda. So in other

17:11words, if if you really want to reject,

17:13I was no but some kind of way you will

17:16connect with that. So it's something

17:18else going on. You know what I'm saying?

17:20That's that's our hope. That is our

17:22hope. If you can, if you love Wakanda,

17:24if you love laughing wisdom, then when

17:27the real queen and king come show up,

17:29then you should be like, "OH, OKAY. ALL

17:31RIGHT. WELL, and there was a lot of that

17:33love in the room. A lot of that love in

17:35the room." [laughter]

17:40So, we we think about that. I mean,

17:42again, the royal visit uh the there were

17:46social structure dimensions of it. That

17:49was Tuesday night. We just saw that. Uh

17:51Monday they played golf. Apparently he's

17:54an avid golfer. So they were in the in

17:55the DMV playing golf. Tuesday they came

17:58to campus and as you saw you caught

18:00glimpses of there and thank you

18:02everybody in the

18:05Nubia and in the chat and YouTube and

18:07yeah and YouTube. Y'all hit that like,

18:09share and subscribe. Let's keep driving

18:11it. Um

18:13the

18:15the welcome was really incredible. You

18:17came on campus. Y'all saw you saw a

18:19little bit of a glimpse of it. Like I

18:20said, you can look all over. It's on

18:21YouTube. C-SPAN has the whole thing.

18:23They were there as well.

18:26The the people there, a lot of students,

18:29a lot of folks from uh the Ganaian

18:32community, a lot of Ashanti in

18:34particular, uh a lot of the staff and

18:36faculty at Howard. Um I I I saw a lot of

18:40people I hadn't seen in quite some time.

18:42And including Nicole Nicole was there.

18:45Hannah Jones, I hit her I said, "Hey, I

18:47saw you there, but I I didn't get a

18:48chance to see you in person." Because I

18:50afterwards, I saw the recording. I said,

18:51"No, Nicole, you just just kind of being

18:54in the room." We were all happy to be in

18:55the room. The brother uh sitting next to

18:58me um was the um is the grandson

19:04of Primpy. Primpy the first, who I'll

19:08talk about in a minute. I'll tell y'all

19:09what that means. So for us to be

19:11together

19:13and I want to talk about this just a

19:14little bit in terms of our Africana

19:16studies framework

19:19the the social structure we live in is

19:21rapidly deteriorating as we see global

19:25arrangements are being

19:27renegotiated and by renegotiated I

19:30simply mean people we all live in a

19:33modern world system whether directly or

19:35indirectly we're impacted by everyone on

19:37the planet connected in many ways

19:40politically, economically, socially,

19:42because of the technology, as you heard

19:44him say, because of the the money

19:47systems, the financial systems, which we

19:50saw uh Kevin Walsh, the new chair of the

19:54Federal Reserve. This is today's

19:56Financial Times weekend. You see what it

19:57says? Hawus Wash hints at a Fed rate

20:00rise. Bozo's not happy. His handpicked

20:03man is like, "Yeah, the Fed's

20:05predominant focus right now should be on

20:07our prices, so maybe they'll get an

20:09interest rate rise and not a cut."

20:12Sorry, Bo. So, you're not in charge. I

20:14know you think you are. Another reason

20:16we're going to talk today between what a

20:18real monarch looks like and what a fake

20:20one, wannabe monarch looks like. You're

20:23living under one now. Or you're living

20:24with one, not under one. He really

20:26doesn't have the authority he thinks he

20:27does. And that's not because John

20:28Robertson aren't trying to give it to

20:30him. It's because we're not going to

20:31give it to him. But at any rate, so the

20:34social structure, you know, that that

20:35ritual moment at at Howard, which the

20:40Asantini, the king of the Asanti said

20:43should not be fetishized.

20:45He says, "Don't get caught up in the

20:48umbrella, the linguist, the clothing,

20:51the ritual. All that's very important,

20:53but you will miss the point if that's

20:55all you do." He said, even he went so

20:58far as said, don't get caught up in

21:00having an African name. Oh, everybody

21:03got it. And I was loving it. You said, I

21:05was sitting right down front. I'm like,

21:07I'm loving it as a an African name. One

21:10I one I treasure in value because it was

21:12given to me by Euroba priestess, you

21:14know, by an ei. And I know that that is

21:18a point of entry and that's not nearly

21:20enough. That is the point of entry. And

21:22you don't have to have an African name.

21:24was making these points over and over

21:26again. But that was in many ways that

21:27was an engagement with a social

21:29structure that has so divided us.

21:33That was Tuesday. Wednesday, Thursday

21:35there was a business

21:38investment

21:40engagement con uh convening in Prince

21:43George's County down the street and they

21:46all got together the business leaders

21:47and man saw one headline in the wake

21:49says you know uh Santini calls for a

21:52real Wakanda. Yeah. In other words,

21:55there are ways to do this. There are way

21:57let us do business together. Let us

21:58connect together and not for the sake of

22:00profit

22:02first the sake of connection. The

22:04profits will come. We live in a we live

22:06in a society where we need the money.

22:09But let's be crystal clear. The culture

22:10and the values must ground what we do

22:12with the money. And that was what he was

22:14saying over and over again as well. It

22:18was very interesting because this social

22:19structure and this is a very important

22:22point you all those of us in Nubia who

22:25have taken the introduction to African

22:26studies course a couple of times and

22:28we'll do a third iteration at some point

22:31next year probably

22:33um know that in the African studies

22:35framework social structure who we are as

22:37a people applies wherever you are in the

22:40history of humanity in the journey of

22:42humanity in the long

22:45journey of human being. So the Sajini

22:48making the point that

22:51my particular governance formation and

22:54by governance now I'm talking in a broad

22:56sense using our Africana studies

22:58framework to mean the things that are

22:59most intimate the arrangements that are

23:01most intimate

23:03family immediate community neighborhood.

23:07See the Ashanti are a family that

23:09expanded

23:11400 or so years ago. They were different

23:14people. Sometimes at war, sometimes

23:17negotiating for peace. And by the way,

23:19the Asant, this Asantini, he was only

23:21the 16th Asantini since the late 17th

23:24century, since the 1680s and 90s. He is

23:27known as the pillar of peace because

23:29he's known as a ruler who helps resolve

23:32disputes. Even when Ganaian heads of

23:34state have had frictions, they will call

23:36on the Asanti. He need to come in and

23:38say, "Okay, let's talk about it. You

23:39talk, you talk, let's figure." That's a

23:41hell of a thing because remember Ghana

23:43got a lot of different groups in it. A

23:45lot of different governance formations.

23:46As Shanti, Fonti, Ga, all these

23:48different groups are within that little

23:50square that we call Ghana as we read

23:52about in uh the second emancipation,

23:54Howard French's book, we talked about

23:55the birth of quoteunquote modern Ghana

23:571957. One of the things who comes from a

24:00little governance formation, a little

24:01group, what the Europeans might call

24:03tribe, a little tribe. One of the

24:05reasons he could rise to power is

24:06because he didn't he wasn't a shanti. He

24:08wasn't fonti or ga. he wasn't part of

24:10one of those larger formations and that

24:12can engender friction when one rises and

24:14the other does you see the Nigeria

24:17for example with the Yurba the house you

24:20know you see you see okay who's going to

24:22be the prime minister who is going to

24:23run who we're going to push you know

24:25these are things we're working out

24:26because one of the most deeply flawed

24:29polities and structures for humans

24:31living together in human history is the

24:33nation state that's why it's so

24:35difficult to maintain the United States

24:38of America

24:39as it dissolved

24:42because you got to come up with a

24:44fundamental agreement that I don't care

24:46what governance formation you come from.

24:50I don't care if you're Irish or Jewish.

24:52I don't care if you're a person of

24:53African descent who happens to have come

24:55from Puerto Rico or Dominican Republic

24:57or somebody of African descent whose

24:59people were trafficked and you ended up

25:00coming from Georgia to New York. I don't

25:02care whether you're Chico. I don't care

25:04whether you're queer. I don't care. All

25:06of those are different

25:09nations of such of sorts, different

25:11governance formations. Putting them in a

25:13larger social structure requires a great

25:15deal of effort. And so what you see with

25:17the Asanti,

25:19what you see with them coming here in

25:22with ritual, with protocol as Angie

25:24would call it, with all of these

25:28engagements, you're seeing trying to

25:30work out at the state level, at the

25:32country level, relationships between

25:35indigenous leadership that goes back

25:37centuries and formal institutions that

25:40go back decades. Ghana

25:44is 70 years old, 1957 as a country.

25:48Nigeria is three years younger. But the

25:51people in those countries have

25:52governance formations that precede them.

25:54One the first thing I said Tuesday night

25:57in in speaking before uh the royal

26:00delegation was that what we had before

26:02us.

26:04I said

26:07before there was

26:10were articles of confederation in the

26:12United States. the criminal enterprise

26:13notes of the United States. Before there

26:14were articles of confederation in the

26:161780s,

26:19a century before

26:21there were articles of confederation in

26:23what became the United States, there was

26:24the Asanti Federation. And what you are

26:27watching here right now with Oetui, the

26:31second Oetui,

26:33Oetu, the first was the first ruler of

26:36Ashanti, his greatgrandcle. That's how

26:38tight they keep it in the in the in the

26:42creation

26:44of the Asanti social structure which

26:47incorporates many different governance

26:49formations under that umbrella called

26:50Ashanti which is itself under a larger

26:53umbrella called the uh Akan.

26:58What you see there was tied together by

27:00ways of knowing to evoke our third

27:03conceptual category

27:06and cultural meaning making

27:08to evoke our fifth conceptual category

27:13tied together as well with some science

27:14and technology. Then I think about it to

27:16evoke the fourth. What do I mean by

27:18that? In that moment after Oetu and his

27:21friend Anoke who was the priest who was

27:23his friend they had been raised

27:25together. They had grown up together

27:27under the thumb of another group

27:31that they were fighting with. Dakira,

27:35the people who were fighting them

27:38as they as a S2U brings together people

27:43through negotiation, through discussion,

27:45through conflict at times to begin to

27:48build what becomes the Asanti nation at

27:50a critical moment after everyone has

27:53been assembled and now they got to seal

27:55the deal on this thing. You got to have

27:57culture at the center of that because

27:58the way of knowing requires

28:00relationships. That was what we saw in

28:02that little sixinute clip we saw. He

28:04says, you know, it's not enough to be

28:06geographically and biologically

28:08connected. You got to have something

28:09underneath that. What are the roots of

28:11this? So, as his friend Anoke, the

28:13priest,

28:16praise at the center of this ways of

28:19knowing, these Africana ways of knowing

28:20is a notion that there's something

28:22bigger than us. If you're an atheist, if

28:24you're an agnostic, still be African.

28:26But let's be crystal clear. among the

28:28Africana ways of knowing. Those are

28:30minority

28:32ways of knowing, the materialist

28:34renderings, minority ways of knowing.

28:36It's fine, but let's be crystal clear.

28:38If we talking about African people and

28:39all of our broad diversity, that is a

28:41unifying element, the idea of ancestism,

28:44the idea of of things beyond us. So, in

28:46that process, in this moment, in the

28:48late 17th century, the late 1600s, Anoke

28:53prays to heaven. And out of heaven it is

28:56said descends a throne.

29:00A golden throne.

29:02A golden throne. Uh this is an excellent

29:06book. It started life as a dissertation.

29:10Uh Hiimu Rah incomit PhD. He then

29:16published this as divine kingship of

29:18Asante a model for sustainable

29:20development of self and community. You

29:22see some of that dookie gold to be on

29:23the Santini's hand. There's the good

29:26brother African from the United States

29:28who uh took this dissit took his

29:32dissertation took his PhD in African art

29:34and culture at the school of gradu

29:37graduate studieswami encrum university

29:39of science and technology in Kumasi.

29:41That's the capital of Ashanti land.

29:43There is there is the uh cover page

29:46there. And uh I'm happy to say and thank

29:49you uh Baba for sending this to me. Um

29:52he sent this to me back in 2017, signed

29:55it to me here. And

29:58what happened was and I mentioned this

30:01because the idea is that like the

30:03Egyptians I said this too. I got a lot

30:05in that little six minutes because I

30:07wanted to get out of the way. I'm ready

30:08to hear the asantini. Audrey was like

30:10you got to say something. I Okay. All

30:11right. I will, but I'm gonna talk quick

30:14and get out of the way because I'm

30:15trying to hear the assanti is the

30:16santini. Anyway, you know how our sister

30:19is when she gets insistent. You just got

30:21to do what she say. Always follow black

30:22women, which I also said. I'll talk

30:24about that in a minute. But in

30:26[clears throat] the process, he onoke

30:28praised the the sika, what they call it,

30:31the sika kofi, the golden throne, which

30:33everybody has seen versions of it. I was

30:36I was going to try to find a picture of

30:37it, but what I will do right now is just

30:40draw a quick picture, a very simple

30:44rendering of what it looks like. The

30:47ceda, it's like a little stool. Can

30:50y'all see that little stool?

30:52It's made of gold. It descent the the

30:55principal one, the the asanti, the stool

30:58that represents the soul of the as

30:59people. It comes out of heaven. It is

31:02said in this ways of knowing in this

31:05cultural meaning-making in this movement

31:06in memory as the story goes. In other

31:07words, movement in memory how these

31:09stories pass from generation to

31:10generation. It comes and lands at the

31:12feet of Oatu to the first.

31:16And in that moment, the Ashanti nation

31:19is sealed together as a nation.

31:22And from that moment until

31:26now now

31:29until this very moment we're in that

31:32element that stool that piece of science

31:35and technology because it is a real

31:37thing. It is a visible thing. I've never

31:39seen it. I hope one day too see it.

31:42There are ways for us to see it. And

31:44those of you, those of us, the thousands

31:46who are here every week in class with us

31:50who have seen it, drop it in the embanki

31:53in there. Drop it in the chat in YouTube

31:55or over the course of the week if you're

31:56not here with us right now. Write it in

31:58the comments. Would love for us all to

32:01be able to read somebody who has been

32:03present when they bring out the golden

32:05stool. Because here's the thing about

32:07the seced as they would say in tree or

32:09the secu kofi or the golden stool.

32:11Here's the thing about the golden stool.

32:14The Santiene can't sit on it. Why?

32:16Because a stool, a lot of y'all have

32:18stools. A lot of us have stools. They

32:19got the little ones, the big ones. My

32:21man Modell Gaunt, we we laugh a

32:23president of our eastern region of the

32:25Association for the Study of Classical

32:26Civilizations. When we went to Ghana in

32:281995 and we were in Kumasi and we went

32:31to the palace. We didn't get the chance

32:32to see the Asantini who is the current

32:34Asantini's cousin. After he passed,

32:36Oetuch II took over.

32:39uh Modell purchased one of the uh wooden

32:44thrones, one of the wooden stools. You

32:46can buy them. You can get them here in

32:47the United States. You get them all over

32:48the world now because the in Shanti,

32:49they known for carving and so they carve

32:51the stools and okay, he took it home and

32:53and he was so protective of the stool

32:56that he bought, which is probably about,

32:58you know, that big. You know, you can

33:00sit on it. A lot of people don't.

33:02They'll put stuff on it or they'll put

33:04it in their house or have something, you

33:05know, see maybe put it near their altar.

33:07But he was so protective of it, he

33:09didn't want to check it. So he took it

33:11on the plane as we were leaving our cry.

33:14And of course it wouldn't fit in the

33:15overhead. So he was tustling back and

33:18forth with the people. So eventually

33:19they put it somewhere and and and we got

33:22it back. So he's from Buffalo. So Haney

33:25is like the king, the Santa Heiny, the

33:27king of the Asanti, right? They have

33:28different names depending on which the

33:30Paramount Chiefs were. So we started

33:31calling Modell, which we call him to

33:33this day, the Buffalo Haney. You the

33:36king of Buffalo. you brought your stool

33:37back with you. But the golden stool that

33:40has been with us in the world since the

33:4318th century, late 17th, early 18th

33:45century, that no one can sit on. So when

33:48the Santiini comes out and they bring

33:51the secret out, the golden throne, it's

33:53got his own chair.

33:56The Santiini got a chair and next to him

33:58on its own throne is the golden stool

34:00because it contains the soul of the

34:02Asanti people, ways of knowing. What do

34:05we have like that? We got a lot of stuff

34:06like that. Think about something that

34:08you can't sit on because it is attested

34:11to have a particular relationship to

34:13everybody in your family. I know the

34:14first thing y'all thinking about is

34:15probably that couch with the plastic on

34:17it or your granddaddy's chair or your

34:19grandmama's chair or something so you

34:20can't sit on that one. That's nana's

34:22chair or that's papa's chair. Well, we

34:24never stop being Africans.

34:27Yes, I know some people are going to

34:28remember all in the family and RG

34:29Bunker's chair. Sure, it's not exclusive

34:32to African people, but the idea is a

34:34object for us isn't just an object. A

34:37chair is not a chair. Even if there's

34:39someone sitting there, see, because a

34:42chair is not a house and a house is not

34:44a home when the two of us are apart.

34:47>> Come on.

34:47>> One of us has a broken heart. So, the

34:50whole point is the people that makes the

34:52thing, right? So, this this this OBJECT

34:54ISN'T JUST AN OBJECT. It's the soul of

34:57the Ashanti people. And as he said in

34:59his speech on Tuesday night, the

35:01Santiini said, "I'm just the custodian."

35:04Y'all understand we got a federation. We

35:06got a constitution.

35:08Do you know how he became the Asantini?

35:11Let's talk about that for a minute.

35:13Let's talk about that in a minute. He's

35:15not the Asantini because he was so

35:17brilliant, or because he went to school,

35:18which he did, or because he learned

35:20finance and economics, which he did, or

35:21because he was working at a bank when he

35:23met his wife and and she was, you know,

35:25there and he was like, "Who is that?"

35:26And bring her to the palace. That ain't

35:27got nothing to do with it. He's the king

35:29because of who his mama is. And before I

35:32said anything else, I had to raise his

35:34mother's name because there have been 16

35:35Asanti. And his mother was the 13th

35:39queen mother of Asanti. Nana Aia Kobe

35:43Sero Am the 13th queen mother of Asanti.

35:48The 13th. In other words, you become the

35:51king based on who your mama is.

35:54This is the genius of African people. Do

35:57we start talking about patriarchy or

36:00managenoir or whatever those name all

36:02these things become all important to

36:03tussle with and grapple with

36:05intersectionality.

36:07No, no, no, no, no, no. Stick all of

36:09that stuff in the social structure

36:12category, meaning necessary, worthy,

36:16important to discuss, to tease through,

36:18but not don't mistake that language

36:22of gender, that gendered language in the

36:24way that we have been socialized to use

36:25it with governance formations, who we

36:27are at each other. Human beings have had

36:30problems since they're human beings. How

36:31we solve the problems is what determines

36:33what cultural postures become more

36:35efficient, better at problem solving.

36:37Again, this was a powerful lecture.

36:39Please, I encourage everybody to go

36:41watch this. This was one of the best

36:43public orations I've ever heard for a

36:46lot of different reasons. But in that

36:48conversation, what I'm saying is he's

36:50the king because the women allow it,

36:51which is what I said. I said, you got to

36:53trust black women. That means something

36:55different in that formation. And it is

36:57also connected to what we say today. You

37:00want to know trust black women? I said

37:01his mother the 13th queen mother. You

37:03know who the 14th was? The 14th just

37:05made transition uh not even two years

37:07ago. Na canadu Yadum III.

37:11She the 14th

37:13queen mother of Ashanti the firstborn of

37:17the previous Asante Mahaz five children.

37:21So the 14th

37:24the 14th queen mother I'm sorry. Yeah.

37:26The 14th queen mother was the daughter,

37:28the oldest child of the 13th queen

37:30mother. The 13th queen mother's youngest

37:33child

37:35is the son toy today. So his sister

37:38became the 14th

37:41queen mother after his mama was the 13th

37:44queen. is 13 and 14 since the beginning

37:47of the Ashanti nation which is a 100

37:49years old than them funky ass slave

37:51traffickers Benjamin Franklin, Thomas

37:53Jefferson, James Madison, George

37:55Washington, all of you funky criminals.

37:58George Washington, you're not my dad.

38:03One of my uncles and auntes came here.

38:05One of our uncles and aunts came here

38:08this week. They're here right now. If

38:10you want to see them in person, you can

38:11go Sunday. That's right. Tomorrow. For

38:14those of you watching later, Sunday,

38:16August 30th, they're going to be on the

38:18campus of Buoie State University. Ara, I

38:21give you credit, sis. Chef's kiss. I

38:22want power H.B.CU on a public H.B.CU in

38:25the reach. I want to bring the two

38:26together. I want to invite everybody

38:28together and I want them to come to

38:29both. So, they're gonna have a festival.

38:30I'm going talk about in a minute. The

38:3214th queen mother of Asanti, Na Canadu

38:35Yadum, the third, the sister of Wet Tutu

38:38II. That's her that was her baby

38:40brother. Her baby brother is the Asante

38:43Heini. But it's because they share a

38:45mother and her mother, their mother was

38:47the queen mother, first born

38:50of the Asanti of the Asante Hama's five

38:54children. As Sante Hama, the queen

38:55mother, that's what it mean of Asanti.

38:59Now the 14th queen mother, his sister

39:04made transition a year ago.

39:08She was 98 years old. She was the 14th

39:11queen mother. Her father was a

39:14carpenter.

39:16So the 13 queen mother's husband was a

39:18carpenter like Jesus, you know, work

39:21with his hand. Her husband

39:27say to the sister now, the 14th queen

39:29mother,

39:32her husband was a blacksmith. Work with

39:36his hand. Work with that metal. It's

39:38important. So let's say okay. The 13th

39:42queen mother was his mother. The 14th

39:44queen mother was a sister. She made

39:46transition in 20 25. That means there's

39:49a 15th queen mother. Wait for it. Wait.

39:51The 15th and current Asantema

39:56Nana Amab Bonsu from the royal okoko

40:00family of Asantiman of Asanti land.

40:03She's a direct daughter of Ounfo Aiman

40:06Primpy the first. Primpy the first who

40:08we gonna come back to in a minute. the

40:1013th of Santahini,

40:14Bozo,

40:16Barack,

40:17Richard Nixon, whoever.

40:21You ain't got that kind of culture. And

40:22there's nothing wrong with it. It's

40:24great. In America, anybody can be

40:26president. Sure.

40:28Sure.

40:30In Asante, you got to have some blood

40:31connection. See, that's backward. Hey,

40:33don't y'all start talking about backward

40:34now. Queen Elizabeth,

40:37Andrew, or Char. Oh, yeah. Mhm. They can

40:40get rid of the Asantini too. Maybe we

40:42can talk about that in a minute. But the

40:43point is this you because as he made as

40:45he opened up his speech what he said is

40:47you know these culture what you're

40:48watching is very important. It's

40:49essential but it is not set in stone and

40:52it must not go without critique but you

40:54got to know it to critique it. So in

40:56this process,

40:59the

41:01new queen mother who is the 15th, she

41:05was appointed

41:06July the 6th, 2026.

41:11It just happened.

41:14And she is in that broader bloodline,

41:18but not a direct res descendant. Now

41:19she's descended, however, from Primpy

41:21the first. This is what's wild to me.

41:24You talk about governance,

41:26she's descended from Primpy the first.

41:28Now, let me tell you a little bit about

41:29Primpy the first. Primpy the first.

41:33Priy the first was the king of Ashanti

41:38when the British fought the last of the

41:40Anglo Ashanti wars.

41:43If I had been tasked with talking longer

41:48than I did and getting into more detail,

41:50I would have talked about some of this

41:51because one of the reasons I brought,

41:53you know, enough history up to let them

41:55know that we here in the African world

41:57beyond the continent of Africa and

41:59beyond the Shanti land, not only respect

42:01and admire, but are connected to you.

42:04Like Paul Robinson told Harry

42:05Bellafante, you need to learn people's

42:07songs because if you learn their songs,

42:08they'll want to know who you are and

42:10they'll feel that you're connected. I

42:12don't care whether they know who I am.

42:13Anyway, I actually shook the hand of

42:15both of them and earlier, you know, he

42:16got on that knee. Here what I do. I'm

42:18not Ashanti. I'm not subject of Ashanti.

42:21However, I know what authority looks

42:23like and I know protocol because I was

42:25raised in the black church. It's an

42:26echo. We never stop being Africans. Just

42:29a beautiful spirit, this brother and

42:31sister, both of them. So, in that

42:33process though, you ain't got nothing

42:34else about me. But know this about us.

42:37Know that we are connected as the

42:39Santini said. So, uh, the British fought

42:45several wars with the Ashanti, trying to

42:47break them, trying to, they had a siege

42:49of Kumasi, the capital city, trying to

42:51starve them out. And every last one of

42:53them fights, they was trying to break

42:54the Ashanti. And in the last one, some

42:56punk named Frederick Hudson marches his

42:59ass up into Kumasi, demanding the seeka,

43:03demanding the golden throne, demanding

43:05the golden stool.

43:07Now, y'all heard me tell this story

43:09before in class. If you go back into the

43:10archive, you'll see us talk about it

43:12even more detail. I even showed books.

43:15But in that process of demanding the

43:17golden stool, this is 1899, 1900, they

43:22the British capture the Asantini, Prempe

43:26Primpy the first. They capture the

43:29Asantini

43:31and they send him into exile into the

43:35Seyell's Islands. They send him into

43:38exile. Then they come back to continue

43:40the war. They want the golden stool

43:42because they say that's the soul of the

43:43Santi people. Really? We're going to

43:44break y'all. We'll take it and put it in

43:46the British Museum. Maybe we'll melt it

43:47down and give it to earrings. Maybe give

43:48it to the queen of England. Whatever.

43:50And out of the conflict as the Ashanti

43:54generals meet as to what they will do,

43:57how do we negotiate with the British?

43:58How do we do we assault? Do we attack?

44:00Do we sit back? Do we move back and

44:02forth? A queen mother,

44:05not the Asante Ma. She's a queen mother

44:07of a regional

44:10ejisu is the town she's from. See queen

44:13mothers and paramount chiefs are all

44:15over Asanti land. This is not just one

44:17person or two people. The king and the

44:19queen. It's all over. They got they got

44:22connected people all over Asanti land.

44:26Think of them as like governors.

44:27Paramount chiefs and queen mothers is

44:29what they call them. When we went to

44:31Ghana, as I've told y'all before in

44:321995, they entrusted us, Mario B and I.

44:35You saw us all sitting there listening

44:37to the sound of any with a thousand

44:39other people. They entrusted us. We were

44:41in our late 20s at the time.

44:45And they entrusted us with having a

44:48three-day youth summit with youth from

44:50ACRA and youth from the United States.

44:51Mostly uh mostly Krenshaw High School in

44:54South LA.

44:56We come with ASCAT delegation to Ghana

44:59and then we went to Kim went to Egypt

45:02and uh shout out to all my people in

45:03South LA Baba Flag and everybody sister

45:05Mada and all them you know it was young

45:07people because Baba Flag's daughter

45:09Nandi was one of those young people who

45:11came she was young very young in her

45:14teens and so for three days we had

45:16conversation with them and at the

45:18opening moment in the Ganaian Senate

45:19building in 1995 June July 1995 was such

45:23a blessing to spend July 4th in Africa

45:25in Ghana in conversation. On the third

45:27day as we were there after in the

45:29opening ceremony, all the students from

45:31across stood up and had on shirts and

45:32ties and dresses and all the students

45:34from LA stood up and had on African

45:36clothes. Those clothes were secondary to

45:39the respect they were showing each other

45:40by coming in formal dress. It was quite

45:43a moment just as we saw the brother with

45:44the suit and tie standing next to the

45:46Santahini. Again, what you have on is

45:48one thing. What's underneath why you

45:49have it on that way of knowing that

45:51protocol and governance is the thing

45:53that matters. And on the third day, as

45:54we were in deep conversation, who comes

45:56in? Leonard and Roslin Jeff, the aunt

46:00and uncle of Hakee Jeff. Hakeem Jeff, as

46:03Lewis Faircon told Mike Wallace, "You

46:06should be quiet." Oh, now Mr. Jeff, you

46:10should be quiet. And while you're being

46:12quiet, you might want to get on the

46:14phone with any other elected

46:15representative who is saying something

46:17other than stay focused and let's break

46:19their political backs. I ain't gonna

46:20name no names, but I'm saying that Texas

46:22Senate seat probably a little bit more

46:24important to try to, you know, don't try

46:26to nuance. Let's just You should be

46:28quiet, Mr. Jeff. But anyway, his aunt

46:30and uncle,

46:32Leonard Rosen Jeff,

46:34still with us in Jersey. Shout out to N

46:37Roslin and Baba L came into the room

46:40where we were. There's about maybe 40 of

46:42us, young people, teenagers, and then us

46:45just a little older than them in this

46:47conversation about, you know, culture

46:49and politics and what it means to be

46:51black in West Africa. What it mean to be

46:53black in Los Angeles, in the United

46:55States, all this conversation, they they

46:56come in with about a dozen other people.

46:59Who were those others?

47:02Paramount Chiefs and Queen Mothers of

47:04Cape Coast. And as one, everybody rose.

47:08It was a hell of a thing to see

47:10protocol. You didn't have to tell those

47:12black children from LA. You had to tell

47:14those black children from the United

47:15States to stand up. You didn't have to

47:18certainly didn't have to tell the young

47:20people from our crowd because they used

47:21to stand up when authority figures.

47:22These are the paramount chiefs and queen

47:24mothers of the region. And it was

47:27beautiful to see them rise as one. We

47:29never stopped being Africans. But now

47:31back to the story. The British have

47:32exiled Prempe 1900. They've exiled him

47:36to se shells. A queen mother, one of

47:38those queen mothers from one of the

47:40towns, no different in many ways than

47:44the sisters that we saw in 1995 who came

47:46in, the queen mothers from the regions.

47:48She is in the conversation on what we

47:50going to do to the Ashanti nation. And

47:52she stands up in the meeting with the

47:53generals and everybody there. It is

47:55lore. It is moving in memory in Ashanti

47:57land. And she said, "Oh, you men of

47:58Ashanti,

48:00I never thought that they would come

48:02when you would when you would not fight

48:04for the return of your king." I told her

48:06that story from the stage right there in

48:07front with the Santi and the queen

48:09sitting right there. You know, cuz they

48:10know that story. Some of our people may

48:12not know that story. She said, "Oh, ye

48:14men of Basanti Yasanti." I told him, I

48:16said, "It is my blood niece, my

48:19brother's daughter, his name Yantiwa."

48:21Okay,

48:24that name resonates because when Yasanti

48:27said that she said no problem if you men

48:30will not fight

48:32then tomorrow morning we women of

48:34Ashanti will be on the field to meet the

48:36British and when we win

48:39because we're going to the field you

48:41stay here you tend to the the children

48:43you make sure the food is there the farm

48:45everything is beautiful when we win in

48:47return you are not welcome in our beds

48:50so you know what happened. John Clark

48:52tells this story better than everybody.

48:54What happened was the next morning the

48:55entire Ashanti nation was on the field

48:58against the British. The men couldn't do

48:59that. And so I say you got to trust

49:00black women and so you got to listen to

49:02black women. Everybody started laughing.

49:04The point is this the ca now in the

49:07British museum

49:11because they defeated they sent Yasanti

49:13into exile. They took the golden throne

49:15and now you got to go see it in London.

49:18But did wait a minute. Hold on.

49:22That's not true. They never got

49:25the secret draw. The golden throne is in

49:27Kumasi, baby. Yante was like, "Come get

49:31it."

49:33As John Amos told Calvin Lockheart and

49:35let's do it again. You got to bring ass

49:37to get ass.

49:40We never stop being Africans.

49:44You want to mess with black people, you

49:45harm the thing they love the most.

49:47Sometimes the thing is an object.

49:52Sometimes the thing is a person.

49:59Sometimes the thing is a concept. When

50:04you violate us, you will know you have

50:05violated us when we all rise up. What

50:08did he say? He said our traumas, our

50:11experiences, whether they be

50:12colonialism, whether they be human

50:14trafficking, captivity, what is called

50:16enslavement, whatever those traumas

50:18were, should not teach us hate.

50:24Put in another pair of earphones here.

50:29Let's try Let's try that. Hold on. Let

50:32me get these earphones together cuz

50:35sometimes they come together. Is that

50:37better? Can we hear you?

50:39I think it's all right. No. Okay, let me

50:41try this then. I got a protocol for all

50:44of it. I know what to do. The technology

50:48can sometimes uh can sometimes fail, but

50:52the beautiful thing about it is it can't

50:54fail but so much. You give me a second.

50:57Give me a second here to do this right.

51:00Let me go here for a minute.

51:07There we go.

51:09There we go. Oh, let me get it right.

51:12There we are. Now,

51:15this will do it.

51:17I got redundancies on redundant. That's

51:20good, right?

51:22We're good now. Here we go. So,

51:26the point is I think we got it.

51:30Uh, let's go here to audio

51:33and mic

51:36default.

51:37Let's go to

51:42I think that's it, right?

51:47No, it's not. Okay, it's interesting.

51:50Hold on. Give me a second. Come on back

51:52because I want to make sure

51:55that y'all give me a second. So, the

51:57whole point is the point I'm making

51:58there is that in that process, we have

52:01always been very clear that Hold on.

52:06Ah, here we are. Let's try this.

52:10>> What about now?

52:12That should do it. Perfect. Very good.

52:15There we go. Sorry, y'all. Yes. Thank

52:16you. Yes. So, we resume science

52:18technology. So, the the whole process

52:23of

52:24violating us, you'll know you violated

52:26us when we've risen together. Today, of

52:29course, Saturday uh the 29th, we're in

52:32session now. Live session on the 28th.

52:34We know that was the birthday of EMTT

52:36Lewis Till and that's why in 1963

52:39the March on Washington was convened

52:42August the 28th 1963 because August the

52:4428th 1955 as you talk with the author of

52:47the book the barn as over the years the

52:50family of Emit Lewis Till has talked

52:52about the violation and the premature

52:54ancestorhood of Emit Lewis Till. We know

52:57that it was August 28th that that

52:59happened and when you touched I miss

53:00Till you woke all of us up. We were

53:03already awake, but we congealed and we

53:05conformed and we moved around that when

53:07when Rosa Park said when they attacked

53:09him till I knew it was time for me to

53:11get even more involved even though she

53:13had been involved before. But then you

53:15see the sparking of the so-called modern

53:16civil rights movement in this

53:18generation, whether it be Trayvon Martin

53:19or Sandrew Bland, whether it be Mike

53:21Brown Jr.

53:24or any of the other folk who have been

53:26harmed. Whether it be Louisville,

53:29whether it be Texas, whether it be the

53:32lynchings that continue,

53:34it could be Briana Taylor in Kentucky,

53:38it could be Emit Till in Money,

53:40Mississippi,

53:41it could be any number of people. But

53:43those moments, those moments crystallize

53:45us. And in the case of the British

53:48versus the Asanti, it was the Sikua. was

53:50the soul of the Asanti people

53:52represented by the throne and Yasanti Wa

53:54was like no they call it the Yasanti wa

53:56war

53:58now I bring all that up to say that the

54:00current Asanti na Bonsu from the royal

54:04okoko family of Asantiman of Asanti land

54:07she's a direct granddaughter of the one

54:10they sent into exile Ajiman Primpy the

54:13first the 13th Asantini

54:17she's the niece of O Aiman Prempe II who

54:21was the 14th Asantini. She's appointed

54:24only a couple of months ago. Now she's

54:26the niece of the Asantahini who is two

54:28Asantinis before Oetu. And Oetu the

54:32second is only the second person with

54:33their name. The first is the founder of

54:35Asante. Stop playing with our social

54:37structure. You got nothing nothing that

54:40even comes close to approximating the

54:43length of our unbroken chain of

54:45governance or

54:48the genius of our ways of maintaining.

54:52And in that clip we showed, you saw me

54:55sitting there listening. I'm sitting

54:57next to

54:59the direct grandson of Primpy the first.

55:03He's the Santahini's personal secretary.

55:05And we were sitting there, you know,

55:07talking before and then after and, you

55:09know, we exchanged information. I'm

55:11intent on having much more many more

55:12conversations. They say, "Man, you you

55:14the blood

55:16grandson of man, it's when you see

55:19African governance up close and you

55:20realize these people ain't no different

55:22than we are with the exception that the

55:23governance is more directly preserved,

55:26but we got our own protocols to be in

55:28conversation with ourselves." Then

55:30somebody drops out the sky who's been

55:31diseducated say, "Ido African, I don't

55:33want to talk about this fool. Everything

55:35you do is African but what you are

55:37missing is your memory. That's what the

55:39Santiini was talking about. So again the

55:42protocols and connections Aua brilliant

55:44job sister I agree with 500. You are the

55:47plug. The Millennium Excellence

55:48Foundation who are the ones who put it

55:50together on the Ganaian side and here

55:52and as the Santinia said symbols are not

55:55enough. Your custodian of power your

55:59custodian of authority and things must

56:01be contemporized. If you read the

56:03Asanti, divine kingship among the

56:05Asanti, I made this point as well. I

56:06said divine kingship doesn't start with

56:08the Asanti. Divine kingship starts with

56:10the Nile Valley with before the Nile

56:13Valley. But in terms of our material

56:14evidence, we see it in the Nile Valley.

56:16That is the feronic notion. You don't

56:18just get to be a pharaoh, woman or man,

56:21because there were women who were

56:22pharaoh. So unlike the Asanti, you can

56:24have a chief ruler who is female,

56:26whether it be hatyp, whether it be the

56:28women who preceded her in the old

56:30kingdom. So in in Kimit women sit on

56:32that throne as well. And then of course

56:35if you go up the Nile going to Ethiopia

56:36you start talking about the candidaces

56:38the Candacees the Kandakis and the women

56:40who were also the rulers in Ethiopia.

56:42The women who turned Alexander of

56:44Macedon who who the hell calls him the

56:46great because you got your booty roasted

56:48when you came up the Nile Valley started

56:50messing with them Ethiopian queens. They

56:51sent your ass back to the river. You

56:53kept crying didn't you little boy before

56:55you went on to your ancestors. The point

56:57is this

57:00that rulership doesn't start in West

57:02Africa. It starts in east. They say they

57:04came from the east. When you read that

57:05Gana and Aayquarma

57:07and all the historians that preceded

57:09him, Joseph Aay and all of the people in

57:11Nigeria and Ghana the historians they

57:13plowed into that which is why the Asanti

57:15was like we need the scholars, we need

57:18the community, we need everyone.

57:24Hopefully, it will uh continue. I don't

57:27know. You know what it is? It must be

57:28something in the technology out here

57:30that's uh that's uh interfering. It's

57:34not something here with the hardware. I

57:35hope it's nothing with the line.

57:38Hopefully, we'll just kind of power

57:40through and I'll slow down a little bit

57:42to make sure that we can hear. Clearly,

57:45something else is going on in here. Uh

57:48the devil is a liar. Again, ways of

57:50knowing. So, okay, very good. So,

57:55as I said, in terms of movement and

57:57memory, let me go to the last one and

57:58then we're going to kind of talk about a

57:59couple other things and move on for the

58:01day. Uh, this Sunday there's going to be

58:04a celebration called the Aquacade.

58:07Aquacade,

58:09aka W AI DA. Aquac. The quasa day is a

58:16ritual celebration that is held every 42

58:18days

58:20depending on where it falls in the in

58:23the Akan calendar which is an ancient

58:25calendar

58:27and it occurs on a Sunday. So this

58:29Sunday is not going to be where it

58:31normally is. Excuse me, which is in

58:34Kumasi at the palace.

58:37It is going to be on the campus of Buoie

58:40State University. Go Bulldog Nation.

58:42Love y'all. We're all going to be out

58:44there. Starts at 11:00 a.m. continues to

58:476. There's going to be drumming and

58:49dancing and all kind of other stuff. The

58:51Asantini and uh the queen are going to

58:54be there. Uh they'll be there at the

58:56beginning or tunu and a ton for y uh o

59:01tutu are going to be there at the uh

59:04beginning. So around 11 o'clock. In

59:07order to register, you have to go

59:09online. Just look it up. Just look up

59:10Aquasi Day Buouie State or Aquasi Day uh

59:14Prince George's Maryland and you can

59:16find it and then you can just you know

59:17it's free. I guess they just trying to

59:19get a headcount because I know they

59:20can't keep up. So many people showed up

59:22at Crarampton they had to register for

59:23that too and they had the young people

59:25there checking people in and they was

59:27like nah we just got to let y'all in.

59:28And you know it's cra I say it's crazy

59:31as we processed over a had everybody

59:33line up right so we left the library and

59:35we processed over to Crampton to the

59:37auditorium on Howard's campus and there

59:40were two sisters who were like the

59:42praise dancers they were dancing in

59:44front of the Satini and he came he had

59:46the umbrella bearer and the linguist

59:47were there and everybody's in the line

59:48behind him coming in

59:51but when earlier in the day when he had

59:53gone over to the administration building

59:55uh to talk very briefly with the

59:57president of Howard

59:59There was a little girl. Now that's a

1:00:02beautiful thing because they will have

1:00:03little children who perform the kind of

1:00:06ritual movements that you will often see

1:00:10with the uh

1:00:14that the adults do. You may have a

1:00:16little drummer. You may have little

1:00:19dancers. So this little girl was dressed

1:00:20just like the sisters who danced him

1:00:22into the auditorium and then performed

1:00:24the ritual dance as he was coming up on

1:00:26stage. This kind of thing. But this

1:00:28little girl couldn't have been

1:00:30I don't think she was five years old.

1:00:31She ain't look school age and she was

1:00:34dressed just like them and she was doing

1:00:36the movements. I'm like look at this.

1:00:37See this is how it looks. You train

1:00:39those children up as a as a child.

1:00:42It is so very important to see that. And

1:00:45so anyway uh the quasi day is a festival

1:00:49every six weeks or so that is held in

1:00:53Asanti land at the palace. There's going

1:00:56to be a version of it held this Sunday,

1:00:59the 30th of August. If you're watching

1:01:01this later in the week, it was held on

1:01:03the 30th of August and Sunday if Bozo

1:01:05didn't push the damn uh nuclear button.

1:01:08But at any rate,

1:01:11and it is done to honor the Abosong,

1:01:16which are like personal ancestors. So it

1:01:18would be your ancestors, your bloodline

1:01:21ancestors, my bloodline ancestors, our

1:01:22bloodline ancestors, my parents, you

1:01:25know, pride, your your father would

1:01:27honor the aboson and then the insafamo

1:01:30who are like the broader national global

1:01:32ancestors that go back. Demarcus

1:01:34Garveys, the Holly Salasi whose birthday

1:01:36was a couple of days ago, the Alice Cole

1:01:38trains whose birthday uh was the 28th

1:01:42and so forth or you know Nelson Mandela

1:01:45or Winnie Mandela all you know the

1:01:48Safamo and those even older in Safamo

1:01:51going back to the principles that we use

1:01:53to name the force that cannot be named.

1:01:57Okay. So in that process, you know,

1:02:00we're going to see that.

1:02:02And so, you know, we spent our time

1:02:04today, at least this part of it,

1:02:07wondering what it would mean to say king

1:02:09me. Like you play checkers, say king me

1:02:12or, you know,

1:02:15touch my queen, advance the queen,

1:02:17right? The queen's gambit, whatever. The

1:02:20queen and the king. What does it mean to

1:02:21be elevated to that? It's a question of

1:02:23governance. It's a question of

1:02:24deliberation. You could read about how

1:02:26the queen mothers have to decide.

1:02:28They're part of the decision-making

1:02:29process at the very end on who becomes

1:02:32the Sanini. And when he becomes the

1:02:34Santahini, he's got to pledge to all of

1:02:37the people, the the paramount chiefs and

1:02:39queen mothers. He's got to pledge to the

1:02:40senior officials. He's got to pledge to

1:02:42the queen mothers. And all of them then

1:02:45in turn pledge to him with the exception

1:02:53of the mother's board. I'm sorry. That's

1:02:55what they call it in the black church.

1:02:57Oh, yeah. The queen mothers. They don't

1:02:59He pledges to them. They don't pledge to

1:03:01him. I want you to think about that in

1:03:03terms of how we think about women,

1:03:07how we think about authority.

1:03:10I pledge to you. Very good. And you

1:03:14don't pledge to you. I'm the queen

1:03:16mother. You understand?

1:03:19Ain't no man gave gave birth to nobody.

1:03:21not going to get no argument at no

1:03:23Senate hearing or no Congress hearing

1:03:25about definition of a woman, definition

1:03:26of man. In fact, I'm not going to play

1:03:28your gendered game, my friend.

1:03:32Y'all going to play them silly games. We

1:03:34got other things, more important things

1:03:35to discuss. So, let's talk about a

1:03:37couple more things before we uh wind up

1:03:39for the day. Uh let's talk a little bit

1:03:42about the world in Bozo because Bozo

1:03:45continues to torment, which is, you

1:03:46know, okay, because we understand we got

1:03:49stuff we got to do. though this week in

1:03:52Bozo and I want to contrast here because

1:03:54Bozo is a wouldbe monarch. Okay? In

1:03:57fact, let me just say because you know

1:03:58every week we write a description of

1:04:00this week's conversation and if you read

1:04:03when you read the one that's underneath

1:04:05the the live that we're having now I

1:04:08said during Black August the Santiini

1:04:10Ofo Setu and Ofu Julia Oetu of the

1:04:14Asanti people are visiting to the United

1:04:15States visiting the United States. Their

1:04:17trip features a royal lecture at Howard

1:04:20University and an aquac festival at

1:04:22Buoie State University. Bracketed by a

1:04:24major African business summit,

1:04:27Panaffrican doing business globally.

1:04:30This historic visit highlights a

1:04:32foundational truth. Global African

1:04:36solidarity and belonging must anchor

1:04:38self-determination

1:04:40to drive local, regional, and local

1:04:42advancement.

1:04:44This journey happens during a time of

1:04:46deep political friction. As the old age

1:04:49of European expansion rapidly

1:04:52deteriorates, they've expanded as far as

1:04:54they going to expand. They still got

1:04:55their languages in our mouths. Even

1:04:56though we have brought them into our

1:04:58sensibilities, into our various Ebonics,

1:05:01they still got them in our mouths. But

1:05:02let's be crystal clear. powerful nations

1:05:08uh

1:05:10powerful nations scramble to renegotiate

1:05:13global advancement. So people are

1:05:15renegotiating.

1:05:16The Asantini coming here is a is is a

1:05:21continued effort to renegotiate global

1:05:25connections, global advancement. You

1:05:28heard what he said.

1:05:30Again, I understand I'm descended of

1:05:32those who were trafficked, who were

1:05:34descended from those who were not

1:05:35trafficked. Did not your ancestors have

1:05:37ancestors? This is a living

1:05:38representative of Africa. And he said

1:05:40himself, I'm just one among many

1:05:43different quote they would call

1:05:44traditional rulers in a social

1:05:45structural rendering or rulers in a

1:05:48governance formation because the people

1:05:50who are the newest are the prime

1:05:51ministers and the presidents, not the

1:05:53queens and kings. And before we get into

1:05:55a critique of monarchy, a critique of

1:05:56royalty, listen to the whole

1:05:58conversation that the Asantini said. He

1:06:00said, "Let us not overindex on this

1:06:02question of royalty. We're not talking

1:06:04about uh idealizing or romanticizing."

1:06:07He even said that. He said, "Do not

1:06:08romanticize this. These institutions

1:06:10must be constantly critiqued in order to

1:06:12be constantly renewed." So this is not

1:06:14we were all kings and queens. No, we

1:06:16were not all kings and queens. I

1:06:17couldn't be the Santini. But remember,

1:06:19his mama's uh mother's husband was a

1:06:23carpenter. His sister's husband was a

1:06:25blacksmith.

1:06:27So you work on a you work on in the auto

1:06:29shop and you know your wife is the queen

1:06:31mother. So y'all baby going to be the

1:06:33king. Listen, let's not even get into

1:06:36the argument that we're romanticizing

1:06:39because we are not. What we are talking

1:06:40about is governance. What we're talking

1:06:42about is authority. What we're talking

1:06:43about is protocols. What we're talking

1:06:44about is how you manage having people

1:06:47come together. And in this process as

1:06:49the western world order is being

1:06:50rearranged and as the old age of Europe

1:06:53which started around the time that

1:06:54Asante came together for its federation

1:06:56that that age of Europe is rapidly

1:06:59withdrawing

1:07:01even as people are filling the earth

1:07:04with people more and more people who are

1:07:06non-European revealing the minority

1:07:08status of what we would call white

1:07:10people here in the United States for

1:07:12example all of that

1:07:15all of that is being renegotiated.

1:07:18Meanwhile,

1:07:20coming to Bozo, meanwhile, political

1:07:22figures in the United States are

1:07:23fetishizing

1:07:26authoritarian leadership. You want to

1:07:27talk about people fetishizing kings and

1:07:29queens, look no further than the United

1:07:31States of America because you got a

1:07:33whole mad man. I went down to the big

1:07:36boy Grand Prix, the practice round,

1:07:38setting up the rounds on Saturday. When

1:07:40I got off here, we left here. I went

1:07:42down. And I sent prophets sent you a

1:07:43little clip of the big boy

1:07:45and 15 people looking around. Nobody

1:07:47down here at the big boy grand pri. The

1:07:49next day, here come the big boy waving

1:07:52the green flag upside down the wrong

1:07:55way, sitting with his wife. Well, I

1:07:56guess they paid to stay there as long as

1:07:57she could take it until his join showed

1:08:00up with his phone and she got up and

1:08:01walked out. You want to talk about clown

1:08:04buffoon pretend monarchs?

1:08:08Did you see the big boy car race on

1:08:10Sunday? I know y'all didn't watch that.

1:08:12I didn't watch it, but I did see the

1:08:13clip of what happened when his join and

1:08:16his wife cross paths in the booth. It's

1:08:19hilarious to me. Uh, who's your mama?

1:08:23Melania,

1:08:26we know who your boy's daddy is. He was

1:08:28the king. Wait, you wasn't the king?

1:08:30Your boy's crazy. Okay. Yeah. Roy Con,

1:08:32your husband's father. But anyway, story

1:08:33for another day. Go back to next week.

1:08:35We'll talk about that. Or not. The point

1:08:37is that they're fetishizing

1:08:38authoritarian leadership in the United

1:08:40States. And if you don't think that

1:08:41there's a cultural index under that,

1:08:43you're not paying attention. You're

1:08:45certainly not listening to Kevin Roberts

1:08:46at the Heritage Foundation. His whole

1:08:48concept is monarchy. And in his mind, he

1:08:52done made up a Jesus, Christ the King.

1:08:55Y'all know those he went to Catholic

1:08:56schools. They done made up King Jesus.

1:08:59But their King Jesus has nothing to do

1:09:00with Jesus Christ. their king. Jesus is

1:09:02a is a is a eurosentric murderous

1:09:06maniac.

1:09:08Yeah. So, if you're a Christian, you

1:09:10know that they're not. They coming up

1:09:12with a monarch. And they got a bozo who

1:09:14doesn't think about or believe in Jesus

1:09:16Christ any more than any atheist does.

1:09:18He believes in himself. He has put

1:09:20himself as a monarch. And they are damn

1:09:22sure down with it. So, they fetishized

1:09:25authoritarian leadership and are trying

1:09:27to destabilize existing political and

1:09:30economic orders. That's what's going on

1:09:31with Canada right now with these

1:09:32tariffs. That's what's going on in

1:09:33Venezuela where they have lined up to

1:09:35steal all of Venezuela's oil. All of it,

1:09:40you know, and as they're doing that,

1:09:43they are Bozo has a dream of being a

1:09:46monarch.

1:09:47And in the domestic United States, where

1:09:50most of us are right now, well, many of

1:09:51us is we increasingly people are

1:09:52watching from all over the world and

1:09:54we're grateful that we're all in class

1:09:55together. this domestic unit US

1:09:57formation that we're in this social

1:09:59structure is people within it are also

1:10:01struggling to claim collective authority

1:10:04and protect individual rights within a

1:10:07destabilizing US legal system. In other

1:10:09words, the Ashanti Federation, if you're

1:10:13a member of the Ashanti nation, you have

1:10:15rights. They're protected by

1:10:16Constitution. As the king said, I'm the

1:10:18custodian. If I don't do what I need to

1:10:19do, they will switch me out.

1:10:22this conflict, this struggle and whether

1:10:24it be Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa,

1:10:27anywhere else where rulers who predate

1:10:30the nation state still exist and Ghana

1:10:34is a great example of this. The struggle

1:10:35between the struggle to reconcile and to

1:10:38somehow put in conversation these

1:10:39governance formations that predate

1:10:41imperialism, predate empire, predate

1:10:44colonialism, and the countries that have

1:10:47now been created in the wake of the

1:10:49struggle for liberation. You got to

1:10:50balance that some kind of way. In the

1:10:53United States, there's also that

1:10:55attempt. So when they before they do

1:10:57anything in the United States Congress,

1:10:59they have to consult with the indigenous

1:11:01chiefs and rulers who are the people who

1:11:02of the people who were here before.

1:11:05Wait. Oh no, they don't. Oh, they tried

1:11:08to kill them people and the ones they

1:11:09didn't they cut their hair and made them

1:11:10learn the languages and they're

1:11:12struggling to claim the Okay. No, I'm

1:11:13sorry. Right. So, so they have to

1:11:16consult with uh the the those who were

1:11:20trafficked who have come Wait, no, they

1:11:23don't have to do that either, do they?

1:11:24No. So, they wrote a constitution for

1:11:26themselves.

1:11:28We fought our way into it during the US

1:11:31Civil War and after reconstruction. Not

1:11:33because we loved it so much, but because

1:11:35that was our best option to enter a

1:11:38legal universe where there's some

1:11:39individual protections that can give us

1:11:41some protection as we regroup and form

1:11:45these polities, these governance

1:11:47formations that will allow us to

1:11:48navigate. And here's where here's the

1:11:51key here for that. As the Santahini

1:11:54said, if you are in Memphis and

1:11:56disconnected from Africa and the

1:11:58Caribbean and Latin America, your power

1:12:00in Memphis has been diminished because

1:12:02the strength within any social structure

1:12:05is those who populate that social

1:12:07structure from whatever governance

1:12:09formations they're in who have knitted

1:12:11together to advance their group

1:12:13interest. This is what the Asantini was

1:12:15saying.

1:12:16Please understand

1:12:18and in that process then the in

1:12:21grappling with these relationships

1:12:22between governance formations the

1:12:24intimate politics whether it be the

1:12:25black folk in St. Louis or Latinos in

1:12:28Texas, whether it be Asian communities

1:12:30in Chinatowns, whether it be DC,

1:12:32Philadelphia, Boston, New York, whether

1:12:34it be other populations of people who

1:12:37have recognized that strength lies in

1:12:40connections and the local politics then

1:12:43can bend to them as the supporters of

1:12:45Israel.

1:12:49Why run for office when you can own the

1:12:51politician? Isn't that right,

1:12:55Mr. Jeff? you should be quiet. So in the

1:12:57process,

1:12:59again, this isn't about critiquing or

1:13:03demeaning because what did you hear the

1:13:05Santiini said? Our trauma should not

1:13:07teach us hatred. It should teach us

1:13:09justice. And that's what we're talking

1:13:10about is justice, not hatred. When you

1:13:13look at group politics, it must advance

1:13:16cultural grounding in our common

1:13:18humanity. But as he said a little bit

1:13:20later, you didn't see this part in the

1:13:22speech. What he said was being

1:13:25integrated into society should not come

1:13:28at a cost of yourself. You should not

1:13:32have to cut off your whole memory in

1:13:33order to enter society. It was a

1:13:35powerful moment. I was clapping my hands

1:13:37off. This is the point. You don't come

1:13:39into society entering the legal universe

1:13:42entering the cultural universe naked and

1:13:44changed talking about give us free. You

1:13:46came from somewhere. And when you cut

1:13:48that off, you then become a figment of

1:13:49the imagination of the social structure

1:13:51you find yourself in. This is the

1:13:53essential grounding importance of

1:13:55Africana studies. Not the discussion of

1:13:57interesting black facts or figures, not

1:13:59grappling over questions of blackness

1:14:01and race. No, grounded in culture,

1:14:04exploring the entirety of the human

1:14:06experience from your various culture

1:14:08perspectives. And to do that, as

1:14:10Sterling Brown said, if you're going to

1:14:12be integrated into a political system at

1:14:13that point, you're integrated as an

1:14:15integer. You're integ you're integrated

1:14:17as a whole person not as a fragment of a

1:14:19person or people say we c we're three we

1:14:21were we were three-fifths of a person

1:14:23you were never three-fifths of a person

1:14:24a social structure for their purposes

1:14:26described you as three-fifths of a

1:14:28person but you've never been anything

1:14:29other than a whole human being throw

1:14:31that language away so in grappling with

1:14:35these relationships between governance

1:14:38and social structures that hold them

1:14:40together the Asanti delegation raised

1:14:43questions of governance where authority

1:14:45is informed by the cultural

1:14:46meaningmaking that recognizes

1:14:48relationships between memory and vision,

1:14:50the protective custodianship of

1:14:53ancestral continuity. And as we're

1:14:55thinking about that in this week where

1:14:58bozo has gone berserk again on the

1:15:01international level trying to steal the

1:15:03Venezuelan oil, saying now we made a

1:15:04deal. He didn't make no deal. You strong

1:15:06them people and you think they just

1:15:07gonna go along with it forever. No sir,

1:15:10this wheel will again turn. the Canadian

1:15:13revolt and shifting, right? You heard

1:15:15the prime minister of Canada back uh in

1:15:18the winter time in Davos when he said

1:15:19it's time for the middle powers to band

1:15:21together. So, not Russia, not China, not

1:15:23the United States, but the middle

1:15:25powers, Canada, uh Brazil. Okay. Okay.

1:15:29Lula de Silva this week talking with

1:15:31Bozo because Marco Rubio somehow thinks

1:15:35he going to be the next king that

1:15:37there's going to be a king to begin

1:15:38with, but he going to be the next one.

1:15:39See, he trying to lean on Brazil like he

1:15:41leaning on Cuba like he leaned on

1:15:42Venezuela like he's some kind of damn

1:15:44vice ro. Let me tell you something,

1:15:46Dumbo.

1:15:48Little Marco, you ain't never been no

1:15:50king and you never going to be no king.

1:15:51We have to get our act together to break

1:15:53your political back, but it will be

1:15:54broken at the ballot box if and when we

1:15:57do what we need to do. On the domestic

1:15:59level, as he was waving his green flag

1:16:02at the big boy Grand Prix, his stoogge

1:16:04postmaster general was finalizing rules

1:16:08trying to steal your mail-in ballots by

1:16:10deciding who mail-in ballot gets

1:16:12returned and who doesn't based on some

1:16:15list that he thinks they can strongarm

1:16:16the states into giving up. None of it is

1:16:19constitutional. It is absolutely not

1:16:21constitutional. Voter suppression

1:16:23through mail in ballots. While we

1:16:25talking about Bozo thinking he a king,

1:16:27he can just tap a magic wand and rename

1:16:29a lake. He can't. I don't care what it

1:16:32says in the GIS. I don't care what it

1:16:33says when you enter the map quest or

1:16:36Google maps. It don't matter. You what?

1:16:38Lake Ontario is not Lake America. But

1:16:40you bo unlike the Santahini, you think

1:16:43you're a king. He's a king. You're not a

1:16:45king. The point is this. While we

1:16:47looking at all that and talking about

1:16:48all that, the voter suppression, the

1:16:50next step in lawfare, this is what

1:16:52they're engaged in now. lawfare. All of

1:16:55it is lawfare. Go to the courts. Go to

1:16:56the courts. Go to the courts because

1:16:57that does a couple of things. It

1:16:59reinforces the idea that the rule of law

1:17:01is what binds nations together. What

1:17:03binds rather states together. The

1:17:05Santiini again talking about that there

1:17:07are laws in Asanti land. Old old laws.

1:17:10Laws that must be constantly re renewed,

1:17:13refreshed, visited, adjusted, but laws

1:17:16nonetheless. in the United States, they

1:17:18will swear to you that their

1:17:19constitution that that flawed 17th

1:17:21century do 18th century document 1787 is

1:17:24ratified, that flawed 18th century

1:17:26document is somehow the foundation for

1:17:28everything that comes after. And it is

1:17:30true,

1:17:32which means when you burn it up, John

1:17:35Boy Roberts, when you burn it up, when

1:17:38you ignore it, it is stated explicitly

1:17:41in the constitution. Elections are the

1:17:43purview of the states.

1:17:46So, John Boy Roberts is a long article

1:17:48in the New Yorker for uh the week of

1:17:50August 17th. Uh I came back and this was

1:17:53waiting for me in my mail. The delusions

1:17:56of John Roberts, Margaret Talbert, which

1:17:59is an excellent article because John

1:18:00Roberts seems to think it is. Look at

1:18:03John. Boy, they love that. The Delusions

1:18:05of John Roberts. Uh this is an excellent

1:18:07article article by Margaret Talbert. The

1:18:09Chief Justice insists that his court

1:18:11isn't biased, even as it keeps making

1:18:13dramatic leaps rightward.

1:18:15This fool thinks that

1:18:20Bozo is a king, a monarch. He can never

1:18:24get away with that in the Ashanti

1:18:26Federation. Couldn't do it. Couldn't do

1:18:28it. But in the United States of America,

1:18:31you're tearing up your own constitution.

1:18:33John Boy, on Monday, we talked about it

1:18:35in the office hours. The the the

1:18:37decision had just come down. the

1:18:38procurium unsigned decision that John

1:18:41Boy Roberts and some of the rest of them

1:18:43MAGA six probably all of all of them

1:18:46probably all of them maybe we don't know

1:18:47because they didn't sign it but we know

1:18:49the three that didn't agree Sonia Sayor

1:18:52Elena Kagan and of course Katani on

1:18:55Brown Jackson who wrote a 20 plus page

1:18:57disscent saying that you're intro you're

1:18:59introducing unnecessary chaos you're

1:19:01unnecessarily introducing chaos into

1:19:03this we know that they said we're going

1:19:06to let this thing go on because the

1:19:09United States Postal Service has not uh

1:19:12put into place or activated rules for

1:19:15trying to get voter lists and decide who

1:19:18can vote and can't vote by by mailin

1:19:21ballot. John Boy Roberts and his friends

1:19:24write that. Here's the problem with

1:19:27that. That was Monday. The US Postal

1:19:30Service released the damn final rigs on

1:19:32Friday. You They released them. There

1:19:36they go. And what happened?

1:19:38Supreme Court tells them on that rocket

1:19:40docket, no briefs, no arguments, no

1:19:42nothing. Okay, post office. Uh, the post

1:19:44office hasn't done it yet, even though

1:19:46they had released the damn rigs on the

1:19:48Friday before this opinion came out.

1:19:50Okay, we're going to pretend like that

1:19:51didn't happen, huh, John Boy? The

1:19:53delusions of John Roberts. But at any

1:19:55rate, okay, well, when they release

1:19:57them, then you know, then you can come

1:20:00states and make the argument. It's in

1:20:02the damn document. They're going to lose

1:20:04unless you come up with another way to

1:20:06let them steal mail in ballots. Okay, no

1:20:09problem. Well, guess what? This week,

1:20:11the United States Post Office

1:20:15went live with the we're not going to

1:20:18deliver ballots until we scrub the voter

1:20:21roles that we're going to get from

1:20:22y'all. And the judge in Massachusetts,

1:20:24the federal district jud uh court judge

1:20:26uh judge, judge uh Indira Tawwani, Judge

1:20:30Tawwani, who earlier this week said,

1:20:32"Well, after the Supreme Court said what

1:20:34it said, I'm reluctantly lifting this

1:20:36injunction, stopping the post office

1:20:39from doing what it claim, what it plans

1:20:41to do." Because now the Supreme Court

1:20:42said, "You got to wait." And then the

1:20:45the postal service was like, that fool,

1:20:46the postmaster general was like, "Okay,

1:20:49Bozo's rules in effect." And Justice

1:20:51Talwani was like, "Ah, thank you.

1:20:53Enjoined." So,

1:20:56they can't do it right now. It's got to

1:20:58work its way through the court. John Boy

1:21:00Roberts brought him a few more days. And

1:21:02he is so determined

1:21:04to help them. And if he came with his

1:21:06right now with his little upside down

1:21:07smile, that's not true. I'm just calling

1:21:10balls and strikes. My response to him

1:21:12would be like, "No, you want a king."

1:21:13that expansive uh executive, that theory

1:21:17of the executive that y'all have that

1:21:19basically says the president's a king.

1:21:21He can do whatever the hell he wants.

1:21:24Yeah, you tried it, John Boy. You

1:21:26continue to try it. And if you allow

1:21:28that to happen,

1:21:30then you have created a monarchy. And we

1:21:32know what happens to monarchs when there

1:21:34are no rules of law in place to check

1:21:36them. The Santiini told us in his

1:21:38lecture what happens to them. He says,

1:21:40"I'm the temporary occupant

1:21:43of this office. If I'm not a good

1:21:46steward, hey, I got to go too." See, we

1:21:49got laws in Ashanti. You live in the

1:21:51United States, maybe it's a little bit

1:21:52different for you. So, this voter

1:21:53suppression, this lawfare, going to

1:21:55court, going to court, going to court.

1:21:57What is the authority of the courts when

1:21:59they have been compromised? It's

1:22:00critical to understand that. And Bozo

1:22:03thinks he's a king. They went to court

1:22:06this week. Talk about a fiasco. read the

1:22:08filings they put in where they said put

1:22:10Bozo's name on the Kennedy Center. If

1:22:13you don't, we may have to knock it down

1:22:15and put an amphitheater there. What?

1:22:18Yeah, because see Bozo going to raise

1:22:20half a billion dollars and restore

1:22:22because right now it's about to fall

1:22:23down. They just making stuff up. But you

1:22:26know why? Cuz they got a mad man who is

1:22:28determined to put his name on

1:22:29everything. airports like uh John Foster

1:22:32Dulles the Kennedy Center build a big

1:22:34ass arch which this week the National

1:22:36Park Service staff to the gills with his

1:22:38lackey have approved even though it's

1:22:40going to destroy the sightelines and

1:22:41disrupt the movement in memory that

1:22:43connects the hill out there where Dr.

1:22:45Chenise Thompson used to work when she

1:22:47was an undergraduate and a park ranger

1:22:48for the National Park Service. the Lee

1:22:50House where Arlington National Cemetery

1:22:52is comes down the hill across that

1:22:54bridge and connects to the Lincoln

1:22:56Memorial where Al Sharpton and Martin

1:22:58Luther King III and his and his daughter

1:23:00Dr. King's granddaughter Yolanda and

1:23:02Autumn were there uh marking the

1:23:05anniversary of the 1963 March on

1:23:07Washington on Friday and renewing the

1:23:09call for voting rights and to pursue and

1:23:11to do what we need to do in the ballot

1:23:13box. That whole area there is a

1:23:17testament to the civil war and

1:23:20aftermath. The notion of conflict and

1:23:23reconciliation.

1:23:25What uh David Blight in an earlier book

1:23:27he wrote called race and reconciliation.

1:23:29The architecture does that. But the park

1:23:31service this week said Bozo gets to put

1:23:32his big boy arch on that road and

1:23:36disrupt that conversation. I say

1:23:39ah do it do it. Do it. Do it. Ah do it.

1:23:42Do it. Do it. Do it. Cuz once you tear

1:23:44it up

1:23:46and after you fall and you're falling

1:23:48now a little unsteady, aren't you Bo?

1:23:51Maybe that's why you couldn't get up and

1:23:52follow Melania out after your join gave

1:23:54you her your phone. But cuz you made it

1:23:56fall but any do it, do it, do it, do it.

1:23:59Cuz once you tear it up and it crumbles,

1:24:03then we get to engage in construction. I

1:24:07think I'm going to take the re off. I'll

1:24:09take the re off in part because some

1:24:10people might want to engage in

1:24:12reconstruction by saying, "Well, our

1:24:13founding fathers had this, so we're

1:24:15going to finally uh make these

1:24:16principles stand up." My response,

1:24:18you're not my dad.

1:24:20You want to you want to build something

1:24:22different? Let's do it. But what we're

1:24:23not going to do anymore is go back to

1:24:26Washington and Jefferson. If you want to

1:24:28use that paper you wrote on, I'd rather

1:24:29go to Frederick Douglas, the Jourer

1:24:31Truth. I'd rather go to Harriet Tubman

1:24:33and Martin Roberson Delaney. I'd rather

1:24:35go to those meetings that we had in

1:24:37Negro Convention movements of the

1:24:381840s,50s and 60s. I'd rather go to the

1:24:41conversations that Francis Ellen Watkins

1:24:43Harper and Pauline Hopkins. I'd rather

1:24:45go to the conversations in the AM Church

1:24:47review with Henry Manil Turner uh or

1:24:49Arisha Tuka Fatuma on the pages of the

1:24:52uh AM Church review. I'd rather go to

1:24:54the conversations of Marcus Garvey and

1:24:56Booker T. Washington. I'd rather go to

1:24:58Madam CJ Walker and Web Duboce and

1:25:01Shirley Graham Duboce. I'd rather go to

1:25:02the conversations that William Patterson

1:25:04and and and Paul Robersonson. I'd rather

1:25:06go to the conversations of all those

1:25:08young Africans in the student nonviolent

1:25:10coordinating committee and the man who

1:25:11helped them, uh, Jim Foreman. I'd rather

1:25:13go to Septa McCclar and and, uh, Ella

1:25:16Joe Baker. I'd rather go, in other

1:25:17words, to our unbroken genealogy of

1:25:19governance. I'm not going back to them

1:25:21damn fleeing felons from the 18th

1:25:23century who were hundred years younger

1:25:25than the Asantini Federation and the

1:25:27Asanti and the Asanti Federation. I'd

1:25:30rather go, in other words, to our

1:25:31government's logics, cuz I trust Miss

1:25:33Fanny Liu HR, who I don't trust as you.

1:25:37So, as it crumbles and you put the big

1:25:38boy arch up and you break your movement

1:25:40in memory, you break your unbroken

1:25:42genealogy, you break your attempt to try

1:25:44to make this something better, I think

1:25:46it's time for Abraham Lincoln to come up

1:25:47out of that marble in that chair that

1:25:49y'all boguarded on and took from an

1:25:51Egyptian temple through the Greek

1:25:52intermediary. It's time for us now to

1:25:55build what we want. And you're more

1:25:58than welcome to come to the cookout once

1:26:01we've got the cookout established

1:26:02because the cookout is the governance

1:26:04formation and who we invite will be that

1:26:06decision will be made by us.

1:26:09That's how you deal in a from a position

1:26:11of strength. And if you want to start in

1:26:13a field with your shed earth talking

1:26:15about give us us free and what you owe

1:26:17us and we did this and I'm a descendant

1:26:19of a slave and okay then you could come

1:26:21to the cookout too but you can't be on

1:26:22the grill. Why? because you've clearly

1:26:24shown you don't know how to cook and you

1:26:26will have us all out here with food

1:26:27poisoning because nobody gave you the

1:26:30recipe and you can stand here next to

1:26:32the grill. We show you how to do it and

1:26:33when we begin to trust you, you can

1:26:35start with the vegetables or maybe you

1:26:36can make uh the sllo over there or

1:26:38something and but ultimately you can't

1:26:40have a grill until you shown that you

1:26:42know how to cook and all this descending

1:26:43of slave stuff is people who forgot the

1:26:45recipe. But we can help you with that.

1:26:48We can help you with that. So,

1:26:52I'm going to turn to this moment for a

1:26:53moment. We're going to close here.

1:26:54School started this week formally or

1:26:56this month. We're at the end of school.

1:26:59And in that process, uh, you know, I've

1:27:01got this black university class we're

1:27:03teaching at Howard. This is we're going

1:27:04into the third week next week. The young

1:27:06people are very excited. Um, you know,

1:27:08because I'm doing it in par in parallel

1:27:10with what we're going to do here

1:27:12publicly. And with the conceptual

1:27:15categories we've developed, there was

1:27:16some very interesting stuff that broke

1:27:18this week. You know I'm very clear about

1:27:20this. I think we all should be clear

1:27:21about this. I say this over and over

1:27:23again. The university as a concept

1:27:25cannot be the center of our intellectual

1:27:27work. What did the Asantahini say? He

1:27:31says the the the concept that therein

1:27:34that traditional governance that

1:27:35governance formation exists continues to

1:27:37exist not uncritically but continues to

1:27:39exist. He says you've got to ground

1:27:41yourself in the memory. He said learn

1:27:43the languages of your grandparents your

1:27:44great-grandparents. My own children

1:27:46learning had to learn that language.

1:27:48everybody he's talking to the young

1:27:49people that's why the clip we showed was

1:27:51at the very end he's talking he said I

1:27:52want to start I want to end by talking

1:27:54with the young people

1:27:56so in that process please understand he

1:27:59said we need the academics we need the

1:28:01scholars but those scholars on the

1:28:02periphery of the governance formation

1:28:04not at the center two

1:28:08parallel writings

1:28:10broke late this week that are

1:28:13fascinating

1:28:15one uh by my former colleague at Howard

1:28:18University. Paul Zlesza, one of the

1:28:20world's great scholars. Uh I had

1:28:22intended to go I should have uh maybe

1:28:24next week I'll show him to you or Monday

1:28:25night we'll talk about it in office

1:28:27hours because on Monday night in office

1:28:28hours I'm going to unveil the black

1:28:30university uh syllabus and we're going

1:28:33to talk through the syllabus. We started

1:28:35a little bit uh on this past uh this

1:28:38past office hours, but we didn't get

1:28:41very far because we had a very important

1:28:42and interesting conversation around

1:28:45education that you know I'll mention in

1:28:46a moment. But the university is on the

1:28:50periphery. We get what we need from it.

1:28:52We certainly infuse it with enough

1:28:53resources to be able to sustain and have

1:28:55a conversation there. Our institutions,

1:28:57particularly our H.B.CU, cus which are

1:28:59global and I made that point too in that

1:29:01couple of minutes I was speaking there

1:29:03on Tuesday night I said I believe in one

1:29:05HB.CU with all these global locations.

1:29:08So whether it be the University of Cape

1:29:10Coastwiam Kruma University in Ghana

1:29:11whether it be University of Cape Town in

1:29:13South Africa or the University of the

1:29:15West Indies in the Caribbean right

1:29:16alongside Gramling and Southern and

1:29:18Tuskegee. By the way, good luck to

1:29:20Jackson State and Tennessee State

1:29:21meeting tonight in Nashville at the John

1:29:24Meritt Classic, the Red Tail Classic in

1:29:26Montgomery, Alabama. Tuskegee is

1:29:28playing. Alabama&M is playing in

1:29:30Birmingham. That's going to be a hell of

1:29:31a game tonight. Uh Mississippi Valley

1:29:33played earlier in the week, although

1:29:35they lost. And Delaware State University

1:29:37opened their season the same night and

1:29:39they won. So, uh it's going to be a

1:29:41great convening, great college football

1:29:43season. All beautiful H.B.CU. Everybody

1:29:45love it. Howard is playing Alabama&M

1:29:48Bulldog Nation playing Bison Nation

1:29:50tonight in Atlanta at the Swatnak

1:29:53Conference Challenge. So if you're a

1:29:55young person or if you're elder got

1:29:56around young people, take them to some

1:29:57of these classics. Let they see what it

1:29:59looks like. All those campuses are very

1:30:01important. All of them are very

1:30:02necessary. I've spent my entire life,

1:30:04academic life as a teacher. When I'm in

1:30:06a university, I'm at a H.B.CU. I'm at

1:30:08Howard University. And before that, I

1:30:10went to Tennessee State. That's the

1:30:11place that molded me as an academic

1:30:13because I modeled from those who came

1:30:15out of that last generation that escaped

1:30:17US apartate, the great elder scholars. I

1:30:19believe in and I'm committed to and my

1:30:21life is a testament to the importance of

1:30:23those institutions and they are on the

1:30:24periphery of the community right

1:30:26alongside the white ones that we go to.

1:30:28That having been said this week Paul Za

1:30:33after leaving Howard University.

1:30:36He was the special assistant to the

1:30:38previous president of Howard University

1:30:41and he wrote a very interesting piece

1:30:43that dropped on the 27th of August

1:30:45called the ordeals of the Howard Hustle.

1:30:49why I left Howard University.

1:30:52And it was so uh it was a searing

1:30:56indictment in many ways, not just of

1:30:58Howard, but of H.B.CU life in general.

1:31:01And I won't go into great detail in it,

1:31:02but I will mention a couple of things.

1:31:04He begins, he says, "I began my journey

1:31:06at Howard University with a sense of

1:31:07long-awaited anticipation for an

1:31:09institution whose physical presence

1:31:11seemed to embody historic past." And he

1:31:13goes on to describe Howard. He goes on

1:31:15to describe coming there. And then he

1:31:17goes through all of the things that he

1:31:19experienced that he talks about that are

1:31:21things that are in many ways like the

1:31:23Asanti was talking about you can't just

1:31:25romanticize

1:31:27the kingship of Asanti. We can't just

1:31:29romanticize the H.B.CU. That does not

1:31:32mean we abandon them. That does not mean

1:31:34we quit them. But it does mean that we

1:31:36must deal with the question of what it

1:31:38means not to be in a space.

1:31:42He goes through what he calls hustles.

1:31:44He's got eight of them. He says, "The

1:31:45hustle's seventh manifestation, the

1:31:47quiet violence of conditional belonging.

1:31:49The moment when the institution revealed

1:31:51that home was never guaranteed, only

1:31:53loaned and always revocable. It was the

1:31:56realization that the sanctuary I sought

1:31:57could become a prison, that shared

1:31:59identity could be weaponized, and that

1:32:01the very walls built to protect black

1:32:03excellence could suffocate it instead."

1:32:05In its final form, the hustle was

1:32:08existential, making belonging a

1:32:10privilege granted only to those who

1:32:12upheld the old order and punishing those

1:32:14who dared to imagine something better.

1:32:15The wounds of proximity cut deepest

1:32:18precisely because they were inflicted by

1:32:20those who professed affinity but

1:32:22withheld solidarity. It's it's it's

1:32:25tough to read, especially for somebody

1:32:27like me who been there 27 years. But

1:32:29I'll tell you this, any response to it

1:32:32must address everything he raised, if

1:32:34only to refute it. And I'm saying that

1:32:37as we read and think about these things,

1:32:39we must never lose sight of the fact

1:32:41that all of the universities, including

1:32:42our beloved H.B.CU, with all of our

1:32:45governance flaws and challenges reside

1:32:48on the periphery of the community. We

1:32:51send our people to these places. They

1:32:54are not the center. They are the places

1:32:56we are to get things from and be in

1:32:58conversation with and return to the

1:32:59center to strengthen the center. That is

1:33:02the meaning of Africana studies. It did

1:33:04not it was not created at the

1:33:06universities black white or polka dot.

1:33:08It came out of the intellectual

1:33:09genealogy that begins in antiquity

1:33:12before antiquity and comes with us

1:33:14through and across and gets on those

1:33:16boats and is traffic. It is an unbroken

1:33:18genealogy. Finally, of the two, I said

1:33:20there were two pieces. Other piece that

1:33:22came out this week is a very interesting

1:33:25piece. It came out on the same day.

1:33:27Jeremy Veron writing uh in Descent

1:33:30magazine

1:33:32writes an article called What's Left of

1:33:34the New School. Y'all know the New

1:33:36School in New York. He said, "Leadership

1:33:38at the iconic progressive university has

1:33:40declared war on its own workforce. fired

1:33:43tenure professors, shuttered whole

1:33:45departments. But what's happening to the

1:33:47school is an increasingly common story

1:33:49across all of higher education. Indeed,

1:33:52it is. And then he goes into what's

1:33:54going on at the new school. This place

1:33:56that was once a source of all this

1:33:58radical thinking and all these scholars

1:34:00and all these students and and faculty

1:34:02moving forward with different ideas,

1:34:04engaged with communities. But guess

1:34:05what? It's under assault.

1:34:08So, I was reading Veron's article

1:34:10against Zelelesa's post. I'm thinking

1:34:13about that as someone who is imshed in

1:34:18the H.B.CU see you veilance, but someone

1:34:22who thanks [snorts] to the community has

1:34:26all of my soul anchored in that

1:34:29community space that strengthens the

1:34:32periphery when allowed and protects us

1:34:36against notions when the periphery

1:34:38decides it wants to shift. I understand

1:34:41like this was telling us Tuesday night,

1:34:43the strength of solidarity, the strength

1:34:46of community. What did he say?

1:34:49governance. He used the language of

1:34:50governance. I'm sitting there like like

1:34:52go ahead man. It's like you in our head.

1:34:55But that language I'm using didn't come

1:34:56from me. It came from Jacob Kurther's

1:34:58his essay the wisdom of governance in

1:35:00ancient Kmet. Spending the time spending

1:35:03the day spending our time in classrooms

1:35:07on the periphery. I spent much of

1:35:09yesterday at Sanc Kofa with my students

1:35:11and fellow faculty members sitting and

1:35:13talking being in community. learn from a

1:35:15student. As we talked about Benjamin

1:35:16Mays in our black university class this

1:35:18week that Benjamin Mays, I'm talking

1:35:19about 96 South Carolina and Benjamin

1:35:21Maze and what he did at Morehouse. We're

1:35:22watching video and this sister puts her

1:35:24hand up, this young sister and said,

1:35:25"I'm from 96. I've been to Benjamin Ma's

1:35:29birthplace. I was there when they had

1:35:31the ritual to unveil the the refurbished

1:35:33building." I'm like, "Come on." just

1:35:35after leaving my morning class before

1:35:38that with the granddaughter of one of

1:35:40the former presidents of Liberia and

1:35:42we're sitting there walking through the

1:35:44politics of Liberia. She said, "My

1:35:45mother is from an indigenous nation in

1:35:48Liberia and my father is from the

1:35:50descendants of America Liberians." I

1:35:52said, "Look at you. This is why I'm

1:35:54here." But you know what I'm doing

1:35:55there? She and I, all those students and

1:35:57I, we're reading, we're discussing,

1:35:59we're thinking. At the same time, I'm

1:36:01recruiting them into the community work

1:36:03because that black university class is

1:36:05that in that veilance is going to feed

1:36:07what we do in the community. And then on

1:36:10Friday during urban view mornings, we

1:36:12had another session with HBHS, HBCU,

1:36:15historically black college,

1:36:16universities, historically black high

1:36:17schools, and people calling in, people

1:36:19putting their names in in the Nubia uh

1:36:22inbongi and the Nubia chat, people

1:36:23saying, "Here's where my mother went.

1:36:25Here's my grandmother went." All of this

1:36:26so very important

1:36:29on Monday night in office hours. Shout

1:36:31out to Zoe Sarabo

1:36:34and her folks in Phoenix, Arizona who

1:36:36are creating the Ibuntu Leadership

1:36:38Academy in conversation on Monday night

1:36:40in office hours with our great

1:36:42mathematician and historian Akquil

1:36:44Parker hisatics which we have in Nubia

1:36:46and he also has the YouTube channel so

1:36:48you can see and continue everybody can

1:36:50have access to these lessons he's doing

1:36:51remarkable lessons he and his children.

1:36:54And of course Dr. Dr. April Warren

1:36:55Grace, our colleague and friend, who was

1:36:57developing her own notions and paradigms

1:37:00of how you build community together and

1:37:02how the whole world becomes our space

1:37:05for study. In that conversation we had

1:37:07Monday night, I go to class Tuesday

1:37:09morning on the periphery in the academy

1:37:11at the university with these black

1:37:12students and a young sister comes to me

1:37:14after class and say, "I'm from Phoenix."

1:37:17And we started talking about George

1:37:18Washington Carver High School. And I

1:37:20said just last night with a thousand

1:37:22plus people in Nubia, we were having

1:37:24this conversation. I got to pass your

1:37:26information on to the people who are

1:37:28creating the Abuntu leadership academy.

1:37:30That's how the university is supposed to

1:37:32work. Connecting those who do work

1:37:34resets the concept of black learning in

1:37:37a protein way, in an organic way. The

1:37:40community is the source of it. The

1:37:42community is the source of it. Finally,

1:37:43movement in memory with the end of Black

1:37:46August. Alice Cold Train's birthday, as

1:37:49I said, was the 28th. This is the new

1:37:52book on her, Cosmic Music, the Life,

1:37:54Art, and Transcendence of Alice Cold

1:37:56Train. If you want to uh enjoy something

1:38:01of Alice Cold Train, go turn on some of

1:38:03Alice Cold Train's music. Go turn on

1:38:06some of her work. um

1:38:10journey to Sacha Jananda which is

1:38:13dedicated to the Indian yogi who opened

1:38:16up Woodstock

1:38:19and you listen to her and Frell Sanders

1:38:20on that it is a uh of course she was the

1:38:23partner of John Cold Train and that's a

1:38:26very important uh recognition because

1:38:29together with their individual gifts and

1:38:32talents they created music cultural

1:38:34meaning making that has lasted in terms

1:38:36of movement and memory there's four-part

1:38:38uh piece beginning with her birthplace

1:38:40in Detroit. Part one, Alice Mccclead and

1:38:43the chapters there. Part two, Alice Cold

1:38:45Train. She and John Cold Train together.

1:38:47Part three, Turia as she moves into

1:38:50Indian and Eastern ways of knowing. Very

1:38:53important.

1:38:55Establishes an ashram. Part four as she

1:38:58was known uh Swamini

1:39:02Turasan

1:39:04Yetananda.

1:39:06She was a she was a swami. She did this

1:39:09work swami and when you listen to her

1:39:12music including the chance the

1:39:15meditation music that now survives.

1:39:17There was a huge fire back in 2008 that

1:39:19destroyed a great deal of the back

1:39:21catalog of she Lewis Armstrong uh um the

1:39:25masters that is she Armstrong her

1:39:26husband John cold train many others

1:39:28dizzy Gillespie but her music survives

1:39:31so cosmic music here at the end of Black

1:39:33August include Alice Alice Colrin in

1:39:37that work of remembering particularly

1:39:40cultural meaning makers and of course uh

1:39:43I want to mention as well uh today

1:39:46There is uh something called the

1:39:49commemoration of the 25th anniversary of

1:39:52the Durban meeting. Remember it was

1:39:54August 2001 when 400 plus Africans from

1:40:00around the world mostly out of the

1:40:01United States convened with others at

1:40:03the Durban Conference Against Racism and

1:40:06Xenophobia sponsored by the United

1:40:08Nations. United States did not send the

1:40:10delegation. Colin Pal wanted to go but

1:40:13George W. Bush wouldn't let him and then

1:40:14Cona Rice argued against it. But guess

1:40:16what? But they're all uh gone and and

1:40:18pals and ancestor. But the 400 plus who

1:40:21went, my man Roger Wearham and others,

1:40:23if you want to uh participate or to see

1:40:26what they're doing, go to

1:40:27www.urbanreparations.org.

1:40:33Tap in as the young people would say to

1:40:35see because that's a very important

1:40:36convening that is being held today. Uh

1:40:39KCBuff, KC Black United Front is doing

1:40:42something injunction with that at 4 pm

1:40:43out there in Kansas City. So, if you're

1:40:45out there, please uh please, you know,

1:40:47check them out. So, I'm going to pause

1:40:50there with the whole notion if you are

1:40:52playing checkers of chess and if you're

1:40:54talking about having your queen make her

1:40:55move or you get to the end and say,

1:40:57"King me," please understand that if you

1:41:00could pretend to be a ruler, but with

1:41:02great rulership comes great

1:41:04responsibility. And whether it be the

1:41:05Asantahini in uh in the Akan in Ashanti

1:41:09land, whether it be the Pharaoh and

1:41:11ancient Kimmit, or whether it be you in

1:41:13your neighborhood, if you decide to

1:41:15aspire to that crown, understand that

1:41:17like the see the golden stool, that's

1:41:19not just an object. It contains the