Unity of Laguage

Toward the Unity of North American Africans

Unity of Language

Language unifies a people, when they speak a common language, when there is a consensus on word definitions, an agreement on what terms are sacred and what words are profane and obscene.Chaos comes into a culture when these is no longer a consensus on language, or what we call a psycholinguistic crisis, for words define reality. Words are the vehicle we use to express our interpretation of reality.

When the words lose a once agreed upon meaning, it is as though the earth shifts beneath our feet, for we are no longer able to communicate with each other. We then suffer a mental paralysis, a breakdown of the psyche because we are talking loud but saying nothing.The words thus lose their meaning for there is no agreement.

If the culture in its normal state is communal but suddenly the focus shifts to the supremacy of the individual, then we have a problem. We cannot unite for freedom when there is no agreed definition of freedom. For you, freedom is a job.

For her, freedom is land and economic independence. For him, freedom is being with same gender loving people, and for her it is the same. Nothing else matters. So what items can we agree upon that defines freedom? And are we going around the corner together or do we have a divisive situation that shall lead us nowhere except to tread water in a pitiful state until we drown, since we refuse to help each other push our agenda items because we don't agree.We started out on freedom but got diverted into things not communal but individual. Or the language was polluted by class division.

The bourgeoisie culture police attempted to define the terms of reality. We wonder by what right do they assume the gate keeper role. Perhaps by being placed into leadership by the oppressor.In the 1960s, we revolted against the language of the colonial elite, the leadership of the liberation movement shifted because a new consensus on language came into vogue, the language of black power that transcended civil rights to human rights, that shifted from integration to liberation and yes, sometimes, separation.

The old language was suddenly obsolete. The term Negro was cast into the dustbin of history. The Negro psycholinguistics shifted from passivity and non violence to revolution.The Black Arts Movement helped to cause the paradigm shift in terms of language. We revolted from the bourgeoisie socalled proper speech. In our plays, poems, essays, songs, we broke free of the conservative language.

We used such terms as motherfucker, yes, bitch, devil, cracker, peckerwoood, and other terms to express our rejection of the American language in favor our our Mother tongue, the raw ghetto language so despised by our culture police, for they were rejected as well. Of course we went to the extreme when we said anyone over thirty should be killed (Bobby Seale). But the expression in grass roots language advanced the freedom mentality in our people. We suddenly realized we can say what we want, we're truly free to do so.Of course there was reaction, from the oppressor and the colonial elite.

The police attempted to ban our plays, to invade our performances, to arrest us if we showed up to perform. The bourgeoisie refused to support us with their money. All this was actually good because it inspired us to continue doing our thing, realizing we were truly independent, no longer slaves to anyone.We were not able to return to our native language as Ngugi wa Thiango has called upon African writers to do, for we have no idea what it is, though we attempted to learn Swahili, Arabic and Yoruba.

And the little we learned helped advance our black consciousness and heal our psycholinguistic crisis. Yes, these languages unified some of us. We held classes in the hood with grass roots people who wanted to transcend the English or American language we called the slave master's language, so how can we ever break free speaking this devil language.

This is the language of the kidnapper, the rapist, the man and woman who lynched us, who stole our very identity and replace it with his notion of our very being. Thus, it is he and his language that is profane and obscene, and must be rejected, for it is not the language of love, it is the language of violence and madness.

We thus call for silence as the language of love, since our psycholinguistic crisis is so great it is the cause of physical, emotional and verbal violence with our mates. Almost any word we say is cause for argument. And it is the same when we gather at conferences and gatherings. We must spend an inordinate amount of time debating terms, defining what we mean by freedom, liberation, reparations, gender identity.

Yes, what is a woman, what is a man. Today "black brothers" is a gay term. How did "black brother" shift from revolutionary black men to gay men? Of course language is fluid and undergoing constant change. And those with power attempt to define the terms. How else did we come upon this English/American language? It was a violent act, a long process of domination and oppression.

Toby was physically abused until he renounced his holy name Kunta Kinte. Muhammad Ali reversed the process, not only by renaming himself but forcing his opponent to call out his name in the ring. Ali chanted, "What's my name, what's my name?" as he beat down his opponent, but he was calling for more than name recognition but for the recognition of his being as a free black man, the member of the Nation of Islam, a transcendence of his American slave identity.

And yet today we have a reaction by the culture police such as Bill Crosby and others who would have us claim our American identity and stop naming our children African and/or Muslim names. He doesn't tell Jose to call himself Joe. He doesn't tell the Chinese who get rich in the hood selling us their food but speaking no English/American to go learn English/American.

He don't tell the Arabs who get rich selling us swine and wine in the name of Allah, to stop speaking Arabic in the hood and speak English/America.Clearly, Bill Crosby suffers a psycholinguistic crisis of major proportion. And he is not alone. It is again for this reason that I call for the language of silence as the language of love, until we can indeed arrive at a new consensus.

The Million Man March brothers took a vow to never use the term bitch. But in the hood bitch is clearly a trans-gender term, for males are called bitches these days, especially when they come incorrect in the dope culture. The dope boys will address an adult male dope fiend as punk bitch. "Punk bitch you better take this dope and get the fuck up otter here wit da quickness 'fore I smoke yo ass."

It's possible the language shifted when adults began buying dope from children, especially during the Crack era, reversing the natural order of adults serving children, thus children lost all respect for their elders and this aspect of the psycholinguistic crisis resulted. It was being addressed with this language when I was a dope fiend that made me want to recover so that I would no longer be so verbally debased by children who had every right to talk to me in this manner because I was, as a dope fiend, in the persona of a punk bitch!

There shall be no language of love until we stop behaving like a nigguh or punk bitch. Don't tell me to stop saying motherfucker while you are in bed with your mother, son, daughter. Who is the real motherfucker up in here, me or you? I'm saying it but you doing it!Language confusion exists when there are contradictions in behavior, especially adult behavior that the children observe.

And so when we hear them on the street, at school, in the clubs, in their raps, we must ask ourselves where they got this language from, and more importantly, what is the meaning of it. They are simply trying to do as we did, give order to reality by way of language. Is it better to be silent, to say nothing since the entire language is vile, polluted and corrupted. Let us not go to an examination of the political language, double speak, evasiveness,subterfuge. See George Orwell's Politics and the English Language.

Listen to the politicians lie and attempt to deceive the world with words, yes, talking loud but saying nothing. Vote for me, I'll set you free. Change we can believe in. Change is gonna come. A chicken in every pot!Yes, silence, there are possibilities for unity if, we just be quiet.

To speak is to fail the tone test, for anything we say is suspect, for we don't trust the language, the words, and most of all, we are not truthful in our expressions, in short, we have become liars too, in harmony with the ruling class and the culture police or those colonial elite gate keepers in league with the blood suckers of the poor.

Some day we shall arrive at the language of love, where we say what we mean and mean what we say, where we understand the tone test and can pass it, with the police, with a brother and with a sister, especially our mate who was going to make love with us until we said the wrong thing, even though we didn't intend to do so, something just slipped out carelessly, but we blew it.

Baby's mood changed because we said the wrong word, or she took it the wrong way.Let us strive to reach a consensus on this pitiful bastard language we speak, for these words are killing us, literally. Better to speak as little as possible until we can transcend to a language that unifies us and allows us to love each other unconditionally.

--Marvin X

12/13/10

Toward A New African American Spirituality

Toward a New African American Spirituality by Nefertiti El Muhajir, Minister of Spirituality and Event Planning, First Poet's Church

L to R: Nefertiti, Dr. West, Amira, esq. (daughters of Dr. M)

This is a spiritual movement that reflects the cultural heritage of the African American individual. Historically, religious movements have reflected the culture by which they were adopted. For the African brought to America through the North Atlantic slave triangle, adopting the religious beliefs and practices of the enslaver was a method of survival.

So if we are to reclaim the traditions of our African ancestry, while also forging something that is reflective of our experience in America, we must create something new. This has partially been the case with the Black Muslims, and thus this partially accounts for its appeal to individuals who have sought to be connected with their African ancestry/heritage. Although they have adopted Islam, their religious practices have unique reflections of the African American experience; it speaks directly to our experience as an oppressed group of people in a foreign land. It (The Black Muslim religion) does not resemble any other Islamic traditional sect.

The Christian church on the other hand, has primarily adopted the ways of the mainstream, Western church. It’s worship services, hymnals, conventions, doctrines, etc. are for the most part patterned after white churches. There are minor exceptions, the most powerful and relevant exceptions were during and immediately following slavery.

The African Methodist Episcopal church was fashioned as a unique African experience in America. In addition, Negro spirituals and gospel hymns were an African American musical response to traditional, Western, church music. The strong warriors, rebels and abolitionists who were birthed in the church was an outgrowth of the uniquely African American preaching traditions that empowered believers through the understanding that they were not slaves. With this understanding came the strong belief that they were not waiting for the Messiah for deliverance from their current oppressions, but they were imbued with the belief that the power that they needed to redeem themselves was within their own mental and physical capabilities.

They believed that God had endowed them with the capacity to act on their behalf. We have gotten away from the strong anti-establishment religious traditions that gave birth to Harriet Tubman, David Walker, Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vessey, Frederick Douglass, and others. Instead of being counter culture, we have begun to emulate the weak, watered down Christian traditions of America. This work is designed for those individuals who desire to create a spiritual experience that is unique to their African experience in America. Our tradition is not the same as the Irish, the Germans, the Jews, the Spanish, or any other cultural group. Our tradition in this country has been one of tragedy and triumph (slavery and liberation, defeat and resilience; of creative genius).

We certainly deserve a unique spiritual experience that embodies the strength and boldness of our cultural traditions. This is something that will be rejected by many, but for those who are ready to adopt traditions and experiences that are reflective of your cultural experience, I hope that you will find this document useful. This is something that is organic.

It is being birthed, so the spiritual experience that you create will not be identical to anyone else. You will see traditions borrowed from both religious and secular institutions, with the vast majority of them being borrowed from the Christian tradition. The strong Christian influence is as a result of my own narrow lens, but if you see a more powerful way to tune into the best reflection of light that is you, then create your path and be true to it for as long as you know it to shed light (reflect truth).

Topics to be covered:

On Birth

On Naming

Girl’s Rites of Passage

Boy’s Rites of Passage

Womanhood Training

Manhood Training

On Weddings

On Death

Holidays to be covered:

New Years

Martin Luther King Day

Black History Juneteenth (-)

4th of July (-)

Halloween (+)

Thanksgiving (-)

Christmas

Kwanzaa (-)

Easter

Return to the Motherland

Barak Obama Day

Caravan to the Ancestors

Foods: All things are allowed, but are all things beneficial?

On Spiritual Tenants

Fasting

Praying

Meditating

Service Studying (individually and collectively)

Texts: The Bible and other religious texts

The Way Forward and other texts by Ishmael Tetteh

How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy

I Am Because We Are

Other texts that speak truth

On Gender Roles

On Giving

On God (speak to the weakness of the Black Power Movement; it diminished the fact that we’re spiritual beings)

The Worship Experience

On Truth – we have not corned all truth On Activism

First Meeting of the First Poet's Church

Notes on the first Meeting

of the First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists

At the outset, Dr. M told those gathered for the first meeting that the Minister of Business advised him to cancel the meeting because it was not necessary since he had not handled the first order of business, preparation of articles of incorporation and bylaws. Gregory Fields, Minister of Planning, agreed that those documents are priority. Dr. M assured the group at the next meeting those documents will be available for their consideration.

Dr. M was asked to explain his vision for the church. It's a poet's church yet today every North American African is a poet. Ask any person on the street coast to coast and they will tell you they are in the studio making beats and rhymes, so the people are the poets, thus we are a church of the people, especially those conscious of their creativity.

We are a social activist church. We are not only concerned with problems but with solutions. Talk is cheap if not followed by social action. Gregory Fields, Minister of Planning, explained the AME traditon of acquisition of land and propertry and that the First Poet's Church should follow that tradition. He explained in a very detailed manner how things can be done collectively.

The only problem is the behavior of people once success is achieved. Dr. M said this is why his book How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy is a required text for membership, for unless we detox and recover from our addiction to white supremacy (type II White Supremacy for Pan Africans who suffer over identification with the master, according to Dr. Nathan Hare), we lack the power to transcend greed, selfishness and materialism or conspicious consumption.

Dr. M explained his vision of leadership. Although I assume the responsibility of leadership, my vison is that we are all the leaders, we are all the central command. During the Vietnam war the socalled Viet Cong moved into Cambodia. The Americans claimed they expanded the war into Cambodia because it was now the location of the Viet Cong's central command. The VC came on the news to say, "The Americans don't understand they cannot destroy the central command because we are all the central command!"

Those present gave their vision for the church and as choreographer/dancer Raynetta noted, there was a oneness of thought, a unity of mind as per the vision.

Aries Jordan, Minister of Poetry and Youth, said the language of love should be the official language. Indeed, there was a momentary psycholinguistic crisis over the word utopian, whether the church was an impossible dream or an achievable goal. Utopian had to be defined but Dr. M said we will have many psycholinguistic discusions because there is no consensus on definitions and usage. What do you mean by freedom, he asked? What is blackness? What is a woman, a man?

For sure, brother Gregory said, we must escape darkness as we interact with each other. Don't look at each other and see darkness but light. We are children of light, not darkness. Let us walk in the light and see the light in each other.

When Aries said her ministry is the children, Dr. M agreed with her that the focus is the youth. We are here to pass the baton to you young people, speaking directly to Aries and Jermaine, the youngest in the group.

But we are here for all of our people, the young and the elders. Dr. M said at the Academy of da Corner (essentially his street ministry) he is approached by youth and adults who need to vent and demand he look in their eyes as they discuss their grief and trauma from living in a hostile environment. There are mothers who need to discuss problems with their daughters and sons, and fathers worried about their daughters, so we must serve all the people, young and old.

The meeting finally ended with prayer and a few departed. When Jermaine got up to leave, Dr. M told him to hold up because Part II was about to begin. Before Part II began, Ramal went to his car for a drum. When he returned and began drumming, Dr. M opened the Poet's Bible, the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Issue which he guest edited. Ptah Mitchell, Minister of Poetry and Philosophy, called it the Bible because it contains the new Pan African Consciousness, a wide range of thought on reality in the new millennium. The group took turns reading from the Poet's Bible, including the following poems:

For Gwen in Passing by L.E. Scott, New Zealand, read by Eugene Allen

Going to the Village by L.E. Scott, read by Ptah Mitchell

Dr. Nigger by Dr. Neal Hall, read by Jermaine

No Black Fight by Marvin X, read by Marvin X

Poem for Clara Muhammad by Marvin X, read by Ptah Mitchell

Wish I Could Fly like a Hawk by Marvin X, read by Ptah Mitchell

A Mile in My Stiletto Shoes by Aries Jordan, read by Aries Jordan

Letter for Bobo by Shaggy Flores, read by Eugne Allen

Medical Mythology by Ramal Lamar, read by Ramal Lamar

--Dr. M, Prime Minister, First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists

4/3/11

Ed Howard,
Minister of Business Affairs,
First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists

Pimpin and Spirituality

by Marvin X, Prime Minister of Poetry

I am not a pimp. I am a hustler, sometimes a trick. A hustler waits for no one to bring his money, he gets his own. It is beneath his dignity to wait or depend on a woman or anyone to get his hustle going. All he needs is product, almost anything will do, even a roll of toilet paper he can hustle. But the pimp's thing is women, he considers himself their manager and they consider him the same, usually by mutual agreement, often by torture, kidnapping and exploitation, including mind control, deprivation of sleep, food and isolation.

Having never been a pimp, I cannot speak with total authority, although I have been around pimps off and on my entire life, from growing up on 7th Street in Oakland to hanging with pimps in New York. My brother's claim to fame is pimping. He never desired anything else in life but pimping, as a result his life has been pimping and prison, nothing else. I have been deprived of his brotherly love because of his pimping and prison life.

Many of my friends were pimps, including some of my Muslim brothers who said they made their ho's make salat or prayer before they went out on the stroll. I was around Muslim pimps on the east coast who had their women selling bean pies and whoring to buy Crack.

More recently I had the pleasure of meeting several pimps-in-recovery at my theatre in San Francisco's Tenderloin district when we produced the Black Radical Book Fair in 2004. The pimps included Fillmore Slim, Gansta Brown, Jimmy Starr and Rosebud Bitterdose. They claim to have given up pimpin and have indeed written books and films on the gospel of the game.

In the case of Fillmore Slim, he is still greatly respected as the godfather of pimpin, especially on the West coast. He hooked up with me to see if I could help him get the message to young people that pimpin ain't easy and there's a price to be in the game. If you willing to pay the price, then go for it, but just know you are going to pay. Fillmore paid with several prison terms.

He says these young brothers call themselves pimpin but ain't hardly pimpin, ain't doing nothing but messin up the game. Don't have no style, no class. If you saw the BET awards last night, Prince was the only artist with class, the others looked like bums and derelicts, especially the hip hop brothers. As Fillmore said about young pimps, they don't know how to dress. And he said they most certainly don't know how to treat a lady. They want to beat women. He said they don't understand if they don't beat her, she might come back. They want to kill another nigguh if she runs off with him. This ain't part of the game. Don't be killing people, he said, like you own the woman. You don't own nobody. When she choose you, she with you, when she choose somebody else, let her go. Fillmore said these young nigguhs act like they in love. And keep a night job, he says, because pimpin ain't easy.

Young brothers so close up on the ho a trick can't get to her. And the nigguh look more like a woman than the woman. You don't know who to turn a date with, the pimp or the ho. He got earrings in both ears, blond hair and pants hangin off his behind, living at his mama's house, pimpin on a bicycle. Nigguh please.

Pimp like Bush. Get you a real ho like Condi Rice that can ho all over the world, that can serve presidents, prime ministers, generals. Dr. Bey used to say, "If you going to do something, do it in a big way." Some would say Dr. Bey did right and wrong in a big way (may he rest in peace). And my daddy said, "If you gonna be something, be the best."

The white man is the world's greatest pimp: he pimpin you and yo woman, but you don't have a clue. On BET last night he pimped some of our greatest artists, had them parading as nothing but naked whores.

Nigguh pimps got babies on the street, eleven, twelve and thirteen. What they know about ho'in? They don't know how to put a rubber on a nigguh, let alone give head. They need to be in school. Get their GED. And the pimp needs to go with them to get his. Imagine the social consequences of over a million children dropping out of school each year, over 50% of them. Society, including the school, the religious community and the politicians are responsible for children choosing the pimp life, especially when our nation needs scientists and engineers if we are to have a future beyond pimpin and whoring.

posted 29 June 2006

Wish I Could Fly Like a Hawk

Wish I Could Fly Like a Hawk

Wish I could fly like a hawk
just soar above earth
silent
gliding smooth
no noise
silent
observing all
madness below
rats scurrying
snakes in the grass
wish I could fly like a hawk
sometimes in motion still
wings frozen in flight
yet moving
wish I could be hawk
above the madness of it all
the meaningless chatter
cell phone psychosis
talking loud saying nothing
why are you breathing
jogging
without meaning purpose
no mission beyond nothingness
absorbing air from the meaningful
who subscribe to justice
let me fly above the living dead
let me soar
let me dream
imagine
another time and place
another space
this cannot be the end game
the hail marry
let me soar above it all
wings spread wide
let me glide
ah, the air is fresh up here
did I make it to heaven
did I escape hell
come with me
do not be afraid
the night is young
let us fly into the moon
see the crescent
so beautiful
let us fly into the friendly sky
wings spread wide
we are strong and mighty
the hawk.
--Marvin X
10/10/10

To Egypt With Love

Monday, January 31, 2011
To Egypt With Love

To Egypt With Love

Dedicated to my son, Abdul (Darrel P. Jackmon, RIP)

He studied at the American University in Egypt
he fell in love in Egypt
some Ghanian ambassador's daughter
I told him don't give no woman the key to your apartment
he never did
not even the ambassador's daughter, he told me
he loved Egypt
he spoke the language
graduated from UC Berkeley in Arabic and Middle Eastern Literature
He said the Africans were slaves throughout the Middle East
The Arabs took their passports
making them virtual slaves
their racism was pervasive
totally unsustainable
yet understandable
for they are not the aboriginal Arabs
they are not the Arabs of Sabah
Queen of Sabah's land
who ruled from Canaan to Jerusalem to the Persian Gulf
Queen of Sabah
who fascinated King Solomon

My son loved Arabic and Persian
He got a Fulbright fellowship to the University of Damascus
He said Syrian intelligence officers interrogated him daily
why was he hanging around those filthy Palestinians
Why did he go to the American embassy to swim

He said, Daid, they tried to recruit me for the C.I.A
The Mormons controlled the US Embassy
they wanted me to be a Mormon

Toward the end my son became a Mormon
He lived with Eldridge Cleaver
himself a Mormon, for a time
My son said Eldridge got strange phone calls
from strange people
we know Eldridge was dr. strangelove

The Ghanaian woman came to see my son in Cali
I do not know what happened
but she went home

In the end he loved a Portuguese woman
he loved Brazil
said he wanted to live in Bahia
dance Condomble rituals

a man of the world
at his funeral came his friends
no black man no black woman
Asians whites
after all
he was a man of the world
what could he say to a nigguh in the ghetto
his travels to Africa, Egypt, Jerusalem, Brazil,Japan, what could he say to a ghetto nigguh
In Japan, he said they teach the women to say three things:
yes, thank you and I'm sorry
but the Japanese woman he got pregnant said no to his black baby
so she could go home in peace
her family told her don't bring no black baby home.

Abdul loved the Middle East
He loved Persian
the poetry
the rhythms of the language
of the poets who do the dance of the dervish.

Egypt may fall today or tomorrow
but my son will be pleased
to know Pharaoh Mubarak is no more
the regime is history
what a story to tell my son
who walked into a train
in his midnight madness
Dr. Hare said he was like Malcolm and Martin
he was 38, they were 39
but nonetheless he self destructed
suicide and homicide is the same
simply different sides of the same coin.

Let Egypt arise for the sons and daughters who have suffered
a long suffering that has come to an end.
Let Mubarak be a page in history
a pitiful note in the eternal narrative of a people.
--Marvin X
1/31/11