Afrikan Theory Tenets of Education

Afrikan Theory Tenets of Education

Ø  "...Education has but one honorable purpose, one alone, everything else is a waste of time......that is to train the student to be a proper handler of power."  [John Henrik Clarke]

Ø  Powerful people cannot afford to educate the people that they oppress, because once you are truly educated, you will not ask for power. You will take it.  [John Henrik Clarke]

Ø  "The events which transpired five thousand years ago; Five years ago or five minutes ago, have determined what will happen five minutes from now; five years From now or five thousand years from now. All history is a current event."  [John Henrik Clarke]

Ø  "First, my people must be taught the knowledge of self. Then and only then will they be able to understand others and that which surrounds them. Anyone who does not have a knowledge of self is considered a victim of either amnesia or unconsciousness and is not very competent. The lack of knowledge of self is a prevailing condition among my people here in America. Gaining the knowledge of self makes us unite into a great unity. Knowledge of self makes you take on the great virtue of learning." [Honorable Elijah Muhammad]

Ø  "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blow, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." [Frederick Douglass]

Ø  "The only protection against injustice in man is power.....physical, financial and scientific." [Marcus Garvey]

Ø  "Every form of true education trains the student in self-reliance"
[Dr. John Henrik Clarke]

Ø  “I think every person that calls themselves a leader, a preacher, a policy maker of any kind should ask and answer the question in his own life time, how will my people stay on this earth?  How will they be educated?  How will they be schooled?  How will they be housed?  And how will they be defended?  The answer to these questions will create the concept of enduring nationhood because it creates the concept of enduring responsibility.  I am saying whatever the solution is, either we are in charge of our own destiny or we are not in charge.  On that point we got to be clear, you either free or you a slave.”              [John Henrik Clarke]

Ø  "Powerful people never educate powerless people in what they need that they can use to take the power away from powerful people; it's too much to expect. If I was in power, I would not educate people in how to take my powers away." [John Henrik Clarke]

Ø  "One is fully conscious when he or she is the results of having been informed and instructed by the experience of his or her ancestors and use that knowledge to master, understand and become able to create institutions that allow him or her to live in harmony with the rest of nature and the universe."  [Professor James Small]

Ø  "Now consciousness, what is consciousness? Consciousness is being aware of one's surroundings, recognizing the existence, truth or fact of something; being aware of the very moment, the very instant that you are in; being aware of how you affect the human social, political, and natural ecology you are a part of and how it affects you. Consciousness is being informed and instructed through your groups peculiar culture on the effects of the varied ecologies on your immediate and distant ancestors, and to be aware of their interpretation of that experience." [Professor James Small]

Ø  "When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his 'proper place' and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary"
[Carter G. Woodson]

Ø  "History is a clock people use to tell their historical culture and political time of the day. It's a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography. The history tells them where they have been, where they are and what they are. But most importantly history tells a people where they still must go and what they still must be"
[Dr. John Henrik Clarke]

Ø  "When you deal with the past, you're dealing with history, you're dealing actually with the origin of a thing. When you know the origin, you know the cause It's impossible for you and me to have a balanced mind in this society without going into the past, because in this particular society, as we function and fit into it right now, we're such an underdog, we're trampled upon, we're looked upon as almost nothing. Now if we don't go into the past and find out how we got this way, we will think that we were always this way. And if you think that you were always in the condition that you're in right now, it's impossible for you to have too much confidence in yourself, you become worthless, almost nothing. But when you go back into the past and find out where you once were, then you will know that you once had attained a higher level, had made great achievements, contributions to society, civilization, science, and so forth. And you know that if you once did it you can do it again; you automatically get the incentive, the inspiration and the energy necessary to duplicate what our forefathers did." [Malcolm X]

Ø  The genetic inheritance, the genes are not mere chemical packets that determine their physiological aspects but the genes are capsulated histories of the experiences of our people. In other words, the cultural history, biological history, climatic geographical history, the interactions our people have had with other people, the interactions our people have had with their environment on the African continent and other places over the thousands and thousands of years are carried right in the bodies of our children. It is a part of their psychology as well as their biology. Therefore the education of our children must be based on the knowledge of that history and the psychology that flows from that history. [Amos Wilson]

Ø  The education of a people must depend upon the problems those people have to solve. Therefore, I often say the destiny of the Black child is revolutionary while the destiny of the white child is conservative. The major thing that the white child must do is maintain the advantages and privileges that whites already have and ideally add to those advantages. When we refer to Black people and the Black child as being disadvantaged we are referring to the fact that we do not have our share of what this world has to offer. And when we recognize that we will have to take that share from other people and that we will have to be able to protect that share once we take it from other people. We must realize that the destiny of our children is revolutionary. And then we are in a sense preparing our children for warfare. That means that the children must be reared and educated to take on those tasks. Therefore that means they cannot be reared and educated in the same ways of white children. We must design their education in terms of their destiny. [Amos Wilson]

Ø  There is no such thing as “standard” education. There is no such thing as “equal” education. These things you must get out of your minds they will destroy you. There is no universal, non-ethnic, non-political type of education. Education is political to its very core. It is ethnic to its very core. [Amos Wilson]

Ø  “The ultimate function of education is to secure the survival of a people.” [Amos Wilson]

Ø  Knowledge must be wielded to a sense of purpose, people-hood and destiny. Then it becomes protective of your survival as a people. It is measured by how it protects your survival as a people, nationhood. [Amos Wilson]

Ø  Change your mind, your consciousness and change your circumstances. See your consciousness in terms of its Afrikaness, its life enhancing benefits, its consequences for your survival and goals as a people, measured in terms of its characteristics, what it must acquire. You must have certain intentions to do this. These intentionalities are the intent to be truly free, truly self-determining, to create prosperity for your self and people, to be able to protect your interests by any means necessary, to stop depending on white folk for your life, job and well-being. Your mind will generate what you need when you give it a goal or purpose. [Amos Wilson]

Ø  If you want to develop an Afrikan-centered curriculum, start by asking “What problems must we solve as an Afrikan people? Our problems include the problem of being dominated, not controlling our nations, being poor in the midst of affluence. What goals do we want to reach? What quality of life do we want to enjoy? What kind of people must we become in order to solve the problems that we must solve as a people? What kind of attitudes, relationships toward ourselves, one another, and Europeans/Asians/Arabs? What institutions must we develop so that we can act in terms of our interests? What kind of social and educational experiences must we expose ourselves and young to become the kind of people we need to become to solve the problems we need to solve? Unless education, politics and economics are designed to solve our problems as a people they are pointless. What kind of education and knowledge and information and skills and so forth must we develop so that we can build the institutions, develop the relationships, attitudes to be the people we need to be? Then work from there to look at your developmental psychology. In what ways do we grow and develop? At what point are we most ready to undergo particular kinds of experiences, so that we can match those experiences, with the developmental readiness of ourselves so we can maximize the kind of growth we need? [Amos Wilson]

Ø  Your time given to certain tasks in your curriculum is determined by your culture and history.  If you say you suffer from low self esteem, then give time to that in the curriculum. Failure to do this causes Afrikan children to be destroyed by the time system in these schools and universities, which are set up to deal with the problems of whites (Asians and Arabs). [Amos Wilson]