When on a quest in search of something it helps if one can recognize what one is looking for. Black power has been buried by centuries of white oppression and legalistic dog piling. Ironically, African American's anxiety over Black Power, despite all the talk about having it, has caused us to avoid it like the plague.

In truth, we would not know Black Power if it jumped up and bit us in our Afros and dashiki's.

It is the proverbial needle in a haystack of undesirables, whose discovery is feared equally by whites and blacks. The longer Black Power remains hidden the longer whites must retain their control and influence over us, and conversely the longer we must remain dependent on them. Our constant pleading, some would say need for beneficial legislation, coupled with the reluctant passing of such laws by whites enable this co-dependent and destructive relationship. As my dad would say, we're going at this bass-ackwards. As Harold Cruse, my adopted mentor, states [1] :

"Black Power, then, was raised when social reality forced so-called revolutionaries to put action aside and start thinking… Although the Black Power concept is a more specific and provocative abstraction than Freedom, it is open to just as many diverse and conflicting interpretations… In essence Black Power represents nothing more than a strategic retreat for a purpose…"

Is Black Power doomed to be relegated to such clichés as, "self-definition, self-determination, self-expression, and self-actualization"? As much as it may thrill us to say things like "Black Power" and "self-determination", do we honestly believe that our ancestors in Africa walked around saying things like, "Black Power", "Igbo Power" or "Ashanti power"? Can you imagine two people from neighboring clans passing each other on the road and proclaiming "Anlo-Ewe Power" or "Ashanti Power"? No, this would not be the case, and there are several reasons why:

1. Each member of an African clan found his/her identification in their respective clan, thus their identity was never in question. Membership in the clan was assumed at birth and supported by inclusion in and acceptance by that group, the existence of which predated the individual member.
   
2. Each member was seen as an extension of their particular clan rather than the clan being an extension of the member.
   
3. Each clan member felt the power inherent in clan membership. If any member was threatened, by human or non-human foe, the entire clan immediately responded with a collective effort. Each member was endowed at birth with value based in the clan.
   
4. The value of each clan, and thus clan member, did not evolve as a reaction to another group's power, but out of an understanding for the need of each clan to identify, actualize, determine, and express self. In short, to have and be power. In establishing themselves they declared their right to exist, their sovereignty, their power.

These points all can be summed up thusly: they were! In the bible, God reveals Himself to Moses as "I AM", nothing more and nothing less. How can one be more, or less for that matter, than whom or what one is? There is no need to go around proclaiming, "I am God", or "I am Ashanti", or "I am Igbo", for when one has to proclaim who one is it automatically signals those who hear it to ask, "As opposed to who?"

If God had said, "I AM GOD", then one would immediately ask, "God who?" This reasoning would lead to further questions, one of which would have to have been, "Who is not God?" In my opinion, this is how we should approach the subject of Black Power. Let us begin by establishing what Black Power is not. We must clear the path of decoys. By doing so, we eliminate the element of confusion. We become less likely to mistake it for something else, or stumble upon Black Power and ignore it because we have no idea what it looks like.

In Africa, our ancestors lived in villages - married, had children, raised cattle, had ceremonies and celebrations, hunted, fished, planted, gathered harvests, at times went to war with neighboring clans, built houses, compounds, laughed, played, rested - all without a single thought given to Black Power. They had part ownership in this way of life because each one of them helped to create it, sustain it, and participated in it regardless of what it might bring. Could it be that one entertains questions of Black Power only when one does not possess it?

What exactly did the African lose when the first chains were put on him/her? The ability to do all these things already mentioned. Nothing that they had known in Africa was a part of their life as a slave because it was not of their making. They had no ownership in this new life. Everything they had ever known, even down to the most personal tidbit of their life - their name, how they spoke, what they spoke, who they would have sex with and why, what they would eat, wear, where they would sleep and when - now was all under the express control and power of the slave master.

This new life did indeed rob them of the ability to self-define, self-determine, self-express, and self-actualize. Yet these were only by-products of slavery, symptoms like coughing and sneezing are cold symptoms. The cause of slavery was, like the cold itself, a virus that had infected the body and caused slavery to have an effect, thus creating the symptoms of slavery.

What is this virus that causes slavery? Submission. As with a cold, the body only begins to display cold symptoms when the immune system proves weaker than the attacking virus. Of course, the body eventually strengthens its immune system and fights off the infecting virus, but not before signs of the cold appear. Likewise, when one submits to slavery, one immediately shows signs of being a slave - chains, dehumanization, loss of identity, loss of value - powerlessness.

Amazingly, one of the most empowering things a slave could do was to run away. In running away one was no longer a slave but was transformed into a runaway slave, a totally different creature. Being a runaway slave is like being an AWOL soldier. One can hardly do any 'soldiering' when AWOL, likewise one can hardly do any 'slaving' when running away. While free, on the run, one immediately regained all those freedoms, liberties, and rights that vanished when slavery was imposed by the European and submitted to by the African. Let me share with you one account of Africans refusing to submit to slavery:

Of all the cases of slave rendition, the saddest and probably the most circulated at the time was that of Margaret Garner. Winter was the best time for flight across the Ohio River, for when it was frozen over the difficulties of crossing were fewer. Simeon Garner, with his wife Margaret and two children, fled from slavery in Kentucky during the cold winter of 1856 and, after crossing the frozen stream at night, made their ways to the house of a free Negro in Cincinnati.

Quickly tracing the fugitive Negroes to their hideout in Cincinnati, the armed pursuers, after some resistance, broke down the door and entered the house. There they found Margaret, the mother, who, preferring death to slavery for her children, had striven to take their lives, and one child lay dead on the floor.

Although the parents had been slaves, the dead child would never be. Many an African had chosen death over life as a slave. Submission to slavery brought the extinction of all rights and freedoms, while resistance, refusal to submit brought total freedom, even if, as in the case noted above, it meant death. After all, death is the ultimate freedom, at least as far as this life is concerned. Allow me to digress. There is an old gospel song that says, "Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin." Can one make the argument that yielding to slavery is as much a sin as slavery itself? Jesus said [2] ,

"Ye have heard that it was said of old time, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.' But I say unto you, 'That whosever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her in his heart… No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon… Jesus answered them, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin."

David Walker said [3],

"…not satisfied with this, however, they wanted slaves, and wanted us for their slaves, who belong to the Holy Ghost, and no other, who we shall have to serve instead of tyrants. - I say, the Americans want us, the property of the Holy Ghost, to serve them… We are all in the world together!! - I said above, because we cannot help ourselves, (viz. we cannot help the whites murdering our mothers and our wives) but this statement is incorrect - for we can help ourselves; for, if we lay aside abject servility, and be determined to act like men, and not brutes - the murderers among the whites would be afraid to show their cruel heads."

Make no mistake; my purpose is not to invoke any religious theme here. It is however, to draw attention to one that rings loudly already, that of submission to servitude. Both men quoted above clearly speak against submission to slavery. Without a doubt, they both understood that servitude was as much a sin as sin itself. When one submits to slavery, one submits to all the evils of slavery, all the effects of slavery, and to all the results of slavery. Slavery is a sin, is it not? Then would not submission to slavery be as much a sin as slavery itself?

It is one thing to be bound and physically held down yet all the while refusing to submit, and one can hardly slave in this condition. To be forever held in chains means the one who holds you in bondage knows that you can never be loosed at all or you will wreak havoc, and kill him if you get the chance. Yet, it's quite another thing to submit to bondage and its condition, because then chains are no longer needed. Your submission becomes your chains, and the individual, or in the case of African Americans today nearly 40 million people, keep him or herself in bondage, accepting their condition as unchangeable except by the good graces of the one who once held them in chains.

There have been countless petitions by and on behalf of the slave, and later the African American for freedom, justice, and access to rights. Sadly, none of them have been honored. Even sadder still, the petitions continue to this very day. Isn't it odd that the same requests from over 150 years ago are still awaiting answer?

Isn't it strange that the need, not mere desire but the basic need for such things as descent housing, fair and equal employment and pay, fair and equal opportunity, an end to police brutality, fairness in the courts, economic parity, adequate education, balanced reporting of the black condition, proper health care, fair and open access to economic programs and information - that these are still unfulfilled needs for the African American community after so long? Yet, here we are in 2005 seeking to hold onto something that we were fighting to have the right to use - the vote - in 1905!

Let me be absolutely clear. I submit that Black Power is not the following:

It is not self-determination, self-definition, self-expression, or self-actualization; It is not the slogan Black Power; it is not the Declaration of Independence; It is not the US Constitution; it is not new legislation; it is not the vote; it was not the 1964 Civil Rights Act; it is not protest; it is not marching; it is not, and I cast no dispersions, the Million Man March nor its successor the Millions More Movement; it is not Barack Obama; it was not Martin Luther King or Malcolm X; it is not The Nation of Islam; it is not equal rights; it is not integration; it is not buying a home or the right to buy a home in a white neighborhood; it is not owning your own business; it is not Harlem, Watts, Los Angeles or DC - rioting; it is not French braids, gold teeth, or big chains; it is not Hip-Hop, R&B, Rap; it is not a six or seven figure income; it is not the pumping black fist.

What it, Black Power is, is still yet to be determined, but suffice it to say all the things mentioned above, and more will be found in abundance once we locate and lay a death grip on Black Power. The quest continues…

References:
"The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual", Postscript on Black Power - The Dialogue Between Shadow and Substance pg. 544, 545, 548.

Matthew 5, 27-28; 6, 24; St John 8, 34 King James version

An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, David Walker (1829), excerpt printed in Black Protest, 350 Years of History, Documents, and Analysis, pg 76 & 78

Read The Quest For Black Power - Part 3
Read The Quest For Black Power - Part 1

© August 2005 By Dan Hardman

Brother Dan Hardman will be keeping the Black community informed on issues concerning the church and righteous living. Visit regularly for new information that could help you overcome and make the best of your everyday experiences.

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