Hello Family,

I'm just wondering ... what's the difference between this forum and the PanAfrican forum?

Is there a difference?

Are both needed?

Please share your thoughts on this.

Thanks a Bunch.

:heart:

Destee

I the purpose of this forum is to show us from whence we came, and help us figure out where we are going next. The Pan-African forum, in my opinion, shows us how we relate to other countries/cultures of darker-hued people.

JMO!

Toya

Sista Destee, this is a good question, and I will attempt to answer it without being too long winded... I think Sista Toylin gave a very good nutshell synopsis, and if might add to what she said, I would say that Culture is the all-encompassing essence of who a people are, why and how they do the things they do, what distinguishes us from one culture to the next....

For example, I presented an essay on the Talking Drum... To my knowledge, there is not another people on the planet who've evolved a musical instrument to such an extent... This should show us how important the drum is in our culture, yes, but it should also show us that it is not just a musical instrument in our culture... In the near future, I will be presenting some more information to that effect...

As I said, culture encompasses the gamut of activities which we engage in as a group, and as a society, so in the absence of a forum such as this, folk would naturally gravitate toward, for example, the Pan African Forum, or even the Sports and Entertainment forums, as those things are part of our culture, as well as, the general culture... What I want, personally, from the Culture forum is to show that it is, indeed, not stolen, but very much alive and disguised in many ways, because our ancestors had to think on their feet, in their efforts to keep those things African close to their busoms...

The other day, I was listening to the songs of the Cuban Santeria, and I realized something that I had not, heretofore, and that is from whence does the Call-and-Response come in African and African New World Culture??? It comes from participatory religious ceremony, where there is a lead caller, who leads the sacred chants, which are responded to, as if in conversation, by the audience of congregants. In essence, call-and-response in African song, or African conversation, is not some cute invention by African Americans, but is a common musical and oratorical trait of African people throughout the world... African people participate as a community in religious services, but also participate as a community at any event where we are gathered - including at the movie theatre(smile!)

Pan Africanism is much, much younger than African Culture(s), and is theoretically a movement designed to bring African peoples to a state of unity based on our commonalities. It does not encompass everything we DO, as does culture... It does not EXPLAIN what it is we do, or why it is we do it... It may point out that we do these things because we are African, but does not plumb the depths of whom we are, and why... One thing Pan Africanism does do, and I hope through an examination of culture we can give it some impetous and emphasis, is it seeks to bring us together as a global village, so to speak... I would hope that we can, through discussing the importance of our Culture, learn the importance of Pan Africanism...

Peace!
Isaiah

Pan Africanism is much, much younger than African Culture(s), and is theoretically a movement designed to bring African peoples to a state of unity based on our commonalities. It does not encompass everything we DO, as does culture... It does not EXPLAIN what it is we do, or why it is we do it... It may point out that we do these things because we are African, but does not plumb the depths of whom we are, and why... One thing Pan Africanism does do, and I hope through an examination of culture we can give it some impetous and emphasis, is it seeks to bring us together as a global village, so to speak... I would hope that we can, through discussing the importance of our Culture, learn the importance of Pan Africanism.

Good answer brother Isaiah! I specifically had questions about why these thread topics belonged under culture, and could not fit under the umbrella of PanAfricanism. However you gave an excellent case for why this doesn't have to be. :thanks:

Thank you brother PanAfrica, I am pleased that you understand...

Now, Sista Destee... What I would like to know is what are your expectations for and from this forum? As culture is something we tend to do on a daily, and something which we do not often ask the "why?" about, it can seem unimportant... Asking oneself WHY African people talk the way we do, or why African males use elaborate handshakes, or why sistas crane their necks when they're making a particular point very plain, may not seem important at all, but understanding of oneself, I've learned, is integral to understanding others... Knowing our culture is important in demystifying it for others and for our children... Knowing our own culture also means others cannot distort and defame it in the way some of our own folks have done - as in purporting that the N word is Our culture... Garbage! From my vantage point, I want the young peops to read, and absorb, and feel comfortable within the context of their real selves, so I will presenting evidence of their Real Selves...

So many of our daily activities fall under the umbrella of culture...
Education/Music/Relgion/Song/Dance/Cuisine/Speech & Communications... Culture determines how Walter Moseley, Toni Morrison, August Wilson, and Spike Lee will write their books, plays, and films, and whom they'll seek as an audience for their art... Culuture has determined why each and every last one of us who are of African Descent, and have made a decision to post to this discussion board, as opposed to one which does not feature the things common to discourse in the African community...

Oh, yeah, peops, my grandmother made some blankets for the grandchildren in the 1950's, using African quilting patterns... My sister told me recently that those blankets are worth in the thousands of dollars... Why??? Because it is a dying art... The old folks tried to teach the young folks, but Macy's and Sach's 5th Avenue came a calling... No more blankets with the African patterns... That is how culture is lost, because folk don't think it is important enough to preserve... Hopefully this studying of our culture will render it greater in importance to us, and maybe we can get about the business of preserving it when we understand its importance... You see, Destee, you aint gonna find pieces on African Quilting and Cuisine on no Pan African Forum(smile!)

Peace!
Isaiah

Brother I, you put it down so well. I hope that all who visit the forum will visit here and Pan Afrikan for a few moments every chance they get. To me, even if we dont get deep into each post, it is the absorbing of the energies that's important, (especially if we understand that the mind absorbs every word it sees, even if we dont re-call it all). The wealth of information this entire site offers is part of the responsibilty we have all undertaken, to combat the almost overwhelming ocean of propaganda that we have to swim in 24/7/365. Every time I read something positive about Black People, it's like a breath to keep swimming with.

Brother Isaiah ... you ask what are my expectations for and from this forum. They are vast. It is my hope that as a result of our coming together and sharing, we can begin to understand just how much was stolen from our Ancestors, and how much was retained by them (and us). We can then begin to try and unearth the stolen, apply that which was not completely lost, and adjust our lives accordingly.

You mentioned that our culture was not stolen, but i think parts of it were. Whatever we have of it now, in my opinion, is only that part our Ancestors were able to hold on to and pass to us. I believe there is much more that we, in particular African Americans, have lost.

I mentioned in the opening thread to this new forum how culture seemed to be tapping on my shoulder ever since she was first mentioned by Brother Kannte. That thread is deep. It was almost too deep for me to embrace it. So i just left it alone, but thoughts of her kept coming back to me.

I began to think on the many "dysfunctions" in our families and communities, and they all stem from what was taken from us and what that was replaced with. I believe if we try to understand this we can make better progress than we have thus far.

We are trying to advance without crucial pieces of the puzzle. This leaves us moving forward in a much more haphazard sort of way. While we may still be able to get where we're going, it will take much longer than it has to.

So it is my hope that this forum can help develop the picture for us clearly, a map if you will, on how to do things better than we are doing them now ... or at the very least, understand why we are doing the things we are. If some are inclined, we can even reclaim those things that have been devalued and thrown away by the majority of the world and ourselves included.

Brother Isaiah, i have so many threads that i want to start in this forum. It's just that i haven't had time to compose my thoughts and share them. I may be wrong on some things, but the dialogue alone should get us to thinking about even more of ourselves that we can capture and save, before it too is lost completely.

I'll post one of my threads tonight, as i had originally started to include it in this post, but changed my mind because i don't want it lost in this discussion. I will be adding many more like it, as time allows. Issues that we are facing every single day, that is rooted in the fact that the map that is rightfully ours was taken ... leaving us struggling to decide which path to take.

Thanks again for the suggestion of creating this forum and all that you've contributed to it thus far. While i may not always have time to respond to every thread, i am often reading and absorbing what is being shared here ... as i hope everyone is.

Much Love and Peace.

:heart:

Destee

"So it is my hope that this forum can help develop the picture for us clearly, a map if you will, on how to do things better than we are doing them now ... or at the very least, understand why we are doing the things we are. If some are inclined, we can even reclaim those things that have been devalued and thrown away by the majority of the world and ourselves included."

I understand, Destee, and I will be bringing some of my own questions on this forum, as well... I posted the websites to give folks a working knowledge of what constitutes culture... Sometimes it is right there in our faces, and we don't understand what it is, or where it came from... I wanted folk to have a vision of precisely what it is when we say culture, because the word, itself, has kind of a vague and nebulous quality, and encompasses so much... How many of us undestand that mathematics is cultural, that the Chinese developed an abacus, the Arabs developed a way of writing numerals, and so did the Greeks??? How many of us know that Architecture is cultural, that what the Khemites did with the pyramids, or the basic geometric structure of an African village compound has to do with, again, African mathematical schemes???

I will be attempting to bring some of that information to the board, but I hope I don't bore African folks - particularly the young people... I wish I could connect everything to HipHop, which is a subject they warm to, but I don't have time to do all of that(smile!) Just as we cannot discuss everything in Ebonics, we can't always attach stuff to HipHop... So much was here before HipHop, so there really is no connection...

But, thanks, Sista Destee for responding to my question, and being patient... I am sure that if we hang on in there to the end, this forum will turn out to be one of the more hotly posted to... We've just got to learn more about ourselves as a people, to become more interested in ourselves as a people...\

Peace!
Isaiah

Sista Destee, this is a good question, and I will attempt to answer it without being too long winded... I think Sista Toylin gave a very good nutshell synopsis, and if might add to what she said, I would say that Culture is the all-encompassing essence of who a people are, why and how they do the things they do, what distinguishes us from one culture to the next....

For example, I presented an essay on the Talking Drum... To my knowledge, there is not another people on the planet who've evolved a musical instrument to such an extent... This should show us how important the drum is in our culture, yes, but it should also show us that it is not just a musical instrument in our culture... In the near future, I will be presenting some more information to that effect...

As I said, culture encompasses the gamut of activities which we engage in as a group, and as a society, so in the absence of a forum such as this, folk would naturally gravitate toward, for example, the Pan African Forum, or even the Sports and Entertainment forums, as those things are part of our culture, as well as, the general culture... What I want, personally, from the Culture forum is to show that it is, indeed, not stolen, but very much alive and disguised in many ways, because our ancestors had to think on their feet, in their efforts to keep those things African close to their busoms...

The other day, I was listening to the songs of the Cuban Santeria, and I realized something that I had not, heretofore, and that is from whence does the Call-and-Response come in African and African New World Culture??? It comes from participatory religious ceremony, where there is a lead caller, who leads the sacred chants, which are responded to, as if in conversation, by the audience of congregants. In essence, call-and-response in African song, or African conversation, is not some cute invention by African Americans, but is a common musical and oratorical trait of African people throughout the world... African people participate as a community in religious services, but also participate as a community at any event where we are gathered - including at the movie theatre(smile!)

Pan Africanism is much, much younger than African Culture(s), and is theoretically a movement designed to bring African peoples to a state of unity based on our commonalities. It does not encompass everything we DO, as does culture... It does not EXPLAIN what it is we do, or why it is we do it... It may point out that we do these things because we are African, but does not plumb the depths of whom we are, and why... One thing Pan Africanism does do, and I hope through an examination of culture we can give it some impetous and emphasis, is it seeks to bring us together as a global village, so to speak... I would hope that we can, through discussing the importance of our Culture, learn the importance of Pan Africanism...

Peace!
Isaiah

This is an excellent point of view!

True panafricanism is limited to just blacks/Africans. I also see it as an ongoing movement.

Reclaiming our stolen culture could mean acknowledging elements that were stolen in cultures that are now non-black. In my opinion its purpose is for historical knowledge more so than using it to actually do something.

To me both are very important but still have comprising sets of goals which is why it is very appropriate to have separate forums dedicated to these topics.

True panafricanism is limited to just blacks/Africans. I also see it as an ongoing movement.

Reclaiming our stolen culture could mean acknowledging elements that were stolen in cultures that are now non-black. In my opinion its purpose is for historical knowledge more so than using it to actually do something.

To me both are very important but still have comprising sets of goals which is why it is very appropriate to have separate forums dedicated to these topics.


soulsearcher,

have you read the book "Stolen Legacy" by George G.M. James?