Authentic Voices

"Authentic Voices" --

Quotations and Axioms From the African World Community, by Itibari M. Zulu

(To Stacey: It was the excerpt you cited from

Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet” that called to remembrance

other great voices of wisdom. This is for you):

Excerpts from “Authentic Voices”, by permission from the author;

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Art & the Artist

… if we understand that art and literary criticism are a form of class struggle, … we should understand that until the revolutionary artist create their own superstructure, their own organizations, networks, institutions, to criticize, encourage, distribute, and teach, we are in a razor fight without a razor. -- Amiri Baraka

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Culture

Our culture has never been destroyed or buried, despite all that has happened over the years. We’re indestructible! We’ve fought the oppression by becoming inventive.

-- Charles White

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Dance

Dance achieves what poetry achieves by connecting body with mind, and thus, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. -- Constance and Cortney Bennett

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Definition

We must reject any language or definition that limits our achievement and robs our community of the benefits of creation and success. -- Cathy Hughes

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Divinity

Life is an assignment from the Creator. -- Stevie Wonder

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Feminism

… I believe that our decisions about self-presentation can be among our most feminist acts.

-- Andrea Benton Rushing

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Freedom

Our march to freedom is irreversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way.

-- Nelson Mandela

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If you don’t guard your freedom, it can be taken away from you.

-- Myrlie Evers-Williams

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Guidance

Subordinate your weakness and accent your strengths. -- Haki R. Madhubuti

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History

Before you go anywhere, you have to know where you’ve been.

-- Gwendolyn Goldsby Grant

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Christopher Columbus …was the first person to suggest that there were Blacks in America before him. -- Ivan Van Sertima

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Identity

To know oneself requires study …through quiet reflection and contemplation. -- Kamau

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Literature

If you are truly a writer, or truly an artist, your writing evolves and changes.

-- Sonia Sanchez

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Love

Love is your spiritual identity. -- Iyanla Vanzant

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Music

Freedom of expression is cool, but when the music insults our intelligence, and degrades our women, its time to say, hell no. -- Anonymous

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Politics*

Ideas and their creators run the world. -- Haki R. Madhubuti

One cannot expect change, unless one creates a climate for change. -- Haki R. Madhubuti

…powerful people never train powerless people in the arts and techniques of taking … power… -- John Henrik Clarke

…oppressors never take kindly to those who question their authority. -- James H. Cone

We were born of the struggle, we fought for freedom, we exposed evil, corruption and murder. We sought justice and peace and the truth. Right to the end. -- New Nation

When the oppressed begin to imitate the oppressor, a master plan of domination is inevitable. -- Anonymous

…learning to be Black without apology is the threshold of true freedom. It is a goal infrequently attained, because it so often requires great internal and external struggles, but not a soul should doubt its value. -- Norman Lockman

When the people stand up, imperialism trembles. -- Thomas Sankara

No revolutionary theory is whole unless it comes to completion in practice.

-- Amiri Baraka

I cannot be a conscious contributor to my own oppression. -- Vena Crichlow-Scales

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Oppression has no shame. It makes its victims work and derides them for working. It gets rich on the sweat of its victims’ brows and taunts them for being poor and dependent.

-- Lerone Bennett

In the struggle, we are always trying to relate to leadership, to the people who are the theoreticians. Struggle is the essence of the human condition. We’re born into it, we choose a battle…get in line, and march… -- Ossie Davis

In the U.S., neo-colonialism comes in the form of Black Ghettos that are still largely controlled by external forces, “empowerment zones” where outside corporations exploit cheap labor and ready markets while stifling the development of local businesses and a Black community … that is essentially confined to consuming rather than producing.

-- Ron Daniels

The world must stop being a world where paternalist creditors meet timid and sickly debtors who dare ask only for leniency, moratoriums and cancellation. -- Abdoulaye Wade

I have no respect for people who shun controversy, particularly when they are Black….

-- Harry Edwards

To be an activist, you have to learn to do without. Nothing is free. -- Cora Lee Johnson

There is no shame in getting on one’s knees if it is in the interest of the people.

-- Thomas Sankara

It is high time for those inside and outside Africa who claim they are for the masses to know that traditionally it is not African to plan others’ lives without their consent.

-- Bisi Ogunleye

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Psychology

A person may be intelligent, but may use his intelligence for purposes which are not too intelligent. -- Cedric X Clark

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Self-reliance

Call forth your greatness, stand in your bigness, declare your freedom, and take the actions with your grandmother bringing up the rear… -- Iyanla Vanzant

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Social Confinement

…the new Jim Crow…is the prison industrial complex. -- Farai Chideya

The prison industrial complex, driven by the momentum of privatized prison construction as an effective rural economic development tool, has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It encourages more convictions, larger prison populations and longer prison sentences….

-- Yvonne Scruggs-Lefteich

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Spirituality

You can’t separate people from their spirit. -- Yolanda Adams

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Truth

Everything is ephemeral, only truth is eternal. -- Negussay Ayele

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Youth

Each generation must out of relative obscurity discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.

-- Frantz Fanon

*********************Authentic Voices********************

*I included more political quotes for the benefit of the Gather political aficionados.

Dr. Itibari M. Zulu is also the author of “Exploring the African Centered Paradigm: Discourse and Innovation in African World Community Studies”. He holds a Th.D. in African world community theology, a M.L.S. in library and information science, and undergraduate degrees, one of which is in African American studies. He is a tenured UCLA professor, and also Editor-in-Chief of an online journal.

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On a personal note I'll add, not only has he been a constant inspiration, encouraging me to write and publish, but in addition to all his other achievements, he is a brilliant poet, and I thank him for his encouragement and support.  Maybe he'll allow me to publish one or two of his pieces on Gather.

His books may be located now in paperback:

Paperback ISBN: 0967422620 “Authentic Voices” **

ISBN: 0967422604, “Exploring the African Centered Paradigm” **

Barnes and Noble

Amazon Books

**Copyright. All rights reserved.