Over Troubled Water

Showing posts with label Slavery. Show all posts

The Pain Of Not Knowing Who You Are

Posted by Robin R. Foster Sunday, August 21, 2011 1 comments

Animation of the structure of a section of DNA...

Image via WikipediaI received an email last Friday letting me know that my DNA sample had been received. I felt the anticipation of the results heighten within me. The six to eight week wait will be hard. While I read over the email, tears started streaming down my face, and they were not tears of joy.

A feeling that I had subconsciously repressed came rushing forward uncontrollably. A pain so severe and very deep had me so astonished that I could not articulate it. I knew that it had been with me for as long as I could remember, but somehow I had not experienced it so.

So why was I feeling the full weight of it then? Where was it coming from? I wanted it go away. I wanted to push it back to where it had been lying dormant, but I really think someone wanted me to analyze it so that I could understand there are others who carry it unknowingly. There are those who carry it and have not been hindered to the degree it has effected me, and there are others whose lives have been destroyed by it unawares.

All I could do was to utter a prayer for guidance. The answer came quickly. "This is what it feels like to not know where you come from." In my mind, I answered, "But I know I am a child of God." Then the reply came that it was not by design that I or anyone should move through this life not knowing who our ancestors are or where they came from.

The Official Medallion of the British Anti-Sla...

Image via WikipediaI was told that I had been shielded from the pain, and I was being shown what that pain felt like. I was told that it was a gift being granted to me to know the places where my ancestors originated. For me, I could look forward with hope and I would not carry this pain any longer even subconsciously.

However, many have this subconscious pain, and it is destroying their lives. It was never intended that they should experience the removal of their heritage, and it was never intended that they should know what it felt like to live in a place where they were not accepted wholeheartedly.

I felt the pain surface of what it feels like to have your heritage, your history, the knowledge of who you are, and the knowledge of where you have come from taken away. I felt the pain of what it feels like to have the blood of ancestors run through me whose descendants would be hesitant to claim me. I felt the pain of being able to document them so extensively and not the ones for whom my genetic makeup signifies I am.

When my results come in, I am anxious to know from what part of Africa I am from, but I claim the whole continent. I will be able to study the pre-1800 history and understand the contributions of my forebears and their existence before American chattel slavery. I may never know their names in this life, but this connection will bring me one step closer to who I am. I will be able to discover living people who carry the same mitochondrial DNA.

As hope restored and the pain subsided, I thought of how my family will be blessed by this gift. Then I wondered, am I reaching others who carry this pain? Who is most effected by it? Perhaps it's our youth who struggle and have lost their way. I feel a sense of responsibility because I escaped the paths they now trod mostly because of Divine Intervention. I want to reach those suffering because they do not know who they are. If you do not fall in that category, then please let us continue to search out and help those who do.

What Slavery Did To Us

Posted by Robin R. Foster Sunday, July 31, 2011 1 comments

We are a strong people. We will be greatly empowered when we realize that we have already overcome one of the greatest travesties known to man, American chattel slavery. I have often considered the emotional impact that slavery would have had on my ancestors. I never really anticipated I would ever really be able to remotely understand what that was like until now. After slavery, a new system of labor, sharecropping became the chosen way of harnessing the labor of the former freedman. The economic systems of labor were identical, and so were the behaviors and effects of those behaviors upon the hearts and minds of those who survived both systems.

Those families who stayed and spent their lives trapped on plantations and in labor camps suffer the effects even more so. It is time we identify the ways we are yet doing the slave master's bidding so long after he has been forgotten. I am struck by the following account of Sheba's search for love to make up for the things that were done to her, and the inability of those around her to provide the true nurturing she needed. It is a miracle she is here to provide this insight. I hope it helps us to take a second look at what slavery did to us and what we are doing to each other. First and foremost, we should do what is in the best interests of the children around us. They are the future.

Robin Foster

Over Troubled Water

What slavery did to us

By Queen Sheba

In the arms of the black man, I became a tool to be used and abused as I searched for love from the people that came in to my life to full the void left by not having a relationship with my father. Once I thought I had found it. I met a man who was very kind to me. I was about fifteen he was around twenty-five. I was crazy about this guy. He drove a black and white car with a fish tail on back. The things I took my mom through with this man I regret today and beg her forgiveness.

Once she came and tried to get me to leave and go with her to the field to pick limes. She even had a talk with him. He told her that he had tried to get me to go home, but I would not. If anyone would bother with me, he would go to them and have a talk, and they would leave me alone. I felt protected by him. Life felt good to me. He was living in a trailer park and he would let me go down to the store and get what food I wanted to eat on credit. At the end of the week, he would pay for it. At home with mom there was never food to go around with her having so many kids.

One day things came to a halt, and he made me go home. He got very mean to me, and said he did not want me anymore because his wife was coming back. He had never said anything to me about a wife. She was in what they called the “crazy house” and she was coming home. My whole world fell apart for days. I did not know what to do. I did not want to leave this man. I was out of my head. I would go around and just hang around the trail park just to get a look at him.

One day I went off the deep end and went to talk to her. This lady could have killed me and not done a day in jail because of her condition. She said he was not worth it and that I was young and forgetting about him would be the best thing for me.

My life seemed as if it was over for me at that time, and everything started falling apart around me. Around this time, there was group of girls threatening to double team my sister. I was sitting on the stairs when my mom tried to get me up to help her. I could not move. My twin sister was a fighter. She would cut you in a minute and beat the mess out of you or whatever it took to get you off her. As for me, I hated fighting. I was a coward and very afraid.

That’s when they all started calling me crazy, but they had been calling me crazy all the time. I do believe that is when it seemed my whole family turned on me. That was the day I decided to end it all. I made plans for doing so, and I carried out my plan.

After I went into the kitchen where they all were sitting around being happy, I sat at the table not saying anything. The next thing I remember was waking up at the hospital with my head hurting and sore all over. I was taken home and never got any kind of therapy. Back then they just did not do that for black people. We escaped through drinking. While writing this, I called my mom to speak to her about it. She said she should have gotten some help for me. My mom did what she was taught. She kept on moving thinking, “this too will pass.”

Looking back on what I went through as a young girl, I realize that I wanted someone to love me, but I did not know what love was. What I have found out is that you first must learn to love yourself. This is something that I was not taught. When we come into this life, we must be taught by the way we are treated by our parents and the people that are around us. This is something that was taken from us during slavery. We were not allowed to care for each other and we were deprived of the opportunity and the memory of establishing a family.

See Dear Daddy

We began to treat each other the way we were treated. This behavior was encouraged by those who held us in bondage, and generations later there are those who still are trapped in this cycle. Everyday a young girl matures and goes out searching to fill the emptiness in the same ways. In today's world, that could mean the loss her life. Like a wounded bird, she is lulled away by one promising false security, basic needs, and a substitute for love. When she comes to, she realizes too late she is in for more than she bargained for, and the cycle continues.

Our Commitment to the Vanishing Black Male

Posted by Robin R. Foster Friday, July 15, 2011 1 comments

Commitment
Be true to...............Loyalty
Exercise patience with..........Tolerance
Seek to understand..............................Open Mindedness
Set aside time to help.........................................................Flexibility

Documentary available at http://cincinnatiiptv.com

"The Vanishing Black Male" is a documentary produced by young men who seek advice from leaders in their community and young women concerning the many issues and obstacles they face today. Told from the perspective of black men, "The Vanishing Black Male" will help you to identify ways to help in this crisis.

You will want to have your pen and note pad handy to jot down issues and ideas that come to you. Some of the issues addressed are:

1. Mother's put sons in the position of feeling responsible to fill the shoes of the absent father at a young age. They worry about filling that role and taking care of their mother and miss out on a healthy mother-son relationship. They are not mothered and subconsciously begin to resent women. This adversely effects relationships with girl friends and wives.

2. The media is a resource for the rich who exploit women and black men in particular. Negative images and music are big business. This scheme is a another form of oppression (mind control), and young black males exposed to it emulate it until it becomes reality. He acts it out. Shooting and going to jail become a right of passage. He has not identified positive ways to prove his manhood.

3. Black men carry the scars of parents and behaviors learned during slavery. No one ever cared to discuss his issues in the past, so he has held it all inside. It festers. Anger was channeled into devising ways to run away from the issue. That was one way to survive during slavery. It even even appeased those who never actually obtained freedom. All the thought was, "How to I get away from this place?" It was a means of survival all through Jim Crow when you were hung from trees, beaten, and humiliated.

Now the descendants of those who had him on the run back then have forgotten why he started running in the first place. They have even taught his own women to hate him and his seed. They all stand today ready to point out every way they perceive he falls short. Their solution is to just incarcerate him because they do not feel he is human anyway. They prefer the control they had over him in slavery. Hence: Some Republicans Say Children Were Better Off in Slavery.

Anger arises quickly and he is ready to fight or flee. Well, the answer to the black man's demise today must be different. He needs to ask a new question: "How do I stick to this thing and work it out?" We need him to stay home and and in school long enough to develop skills to one day stand by his wife and take care of his children and stay on that job! He can do it if he comes to understand there is no quick-fix in life and that we have a whole community waiting to embrace him if he will put anger in check and stop running away into the arms of devices designed to enslave him.

The issues of language, dress, and respect for women are obvious. Some of the language in the video reflects this. We must understand that all of the behaviors addressed above were learned during slavery. They are the behaviors that others attribute to being a part of our culture. We had a culture well before slavery which reflects our true heritage. The decision is our now to embrace our true heritage. Do we want to continue to adopt the ones forced upon us by an oppressor?

Thank you to Conscious Media Productions for making this documentary available at Cincinnati IPTV. After you reach the site you will be able to locate the documentary in the black menu box attached to the video:

"The Vanishing Black Male" at CincinnatiIPTV

After you watch the documentary, please share you thoughts in our Facebook community, Over Trouble Water Discussions section. There is a topic there entitled "What is your social commitment to the vanishing black male?" Please post your feedback about the documentary there.

The Marriage Vow and the Slavery Passage Get a Quick Divorce

Posted by Robin R. Foster Saturday, July 9, 2011 0 comments

It did not take long for the drafter of the Marriage Vow to figure out that it made strange bedfellows with the "slavery passage."

"Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA's first African-American President."

I guess that's what happens when you jump into things without thinking. They solicited an additional signer in Rick Santorum before dropping the passage which now reads: click here. Also, without the slavery passage, there is no need to embellish it with the following study which did not support or verify the slavery passage in the first place: The Consequences of Marriage for African American Families.

I was able to determine this on my own because things are a lot different now than when were in 1860. I can read, form my own perspectives, and write and share my opinions. We are the Frederick Douglasses of our day.

Malcolm would be proud. He once explained that we had become a different people than we were in slavery. We have become more educated, more conscious, and are making better decisions. Thank you to George Geder for also writing about this topic. See Michele Bachmann Thinks Slavery Times Were Better for Black Children. I appreciate all my followers on Facebook and Twitter for reading and sharing as well.

I am especially appreciative to Jason Linkins at the Huffington Post who said:

"Didn't want to stay together for the children, The Family Leader? Oh well, it may have disappeared from the pledge, but the internet never forgets." See "The Family Leader Drops Controversial Section From Marriage Vow Pledge."

We have separation of church and state so that no one religious group can force their doctrines upon any citizens of this country. The false belief that people of a darker race were put on this earth here to serve the others because they were somehow perceived to be inferior or generally less than human and in need of direction of other races is a doctrine used to justify the enslavement of African people for hundreds of years.

It is impossible to form an alliance with anyone who sees you as less than equal. Years of European and American Colonialism rested in the belief that we needed to be conquered and forced to be subservient to be considered acceptable. When you begin to exercise your agency which is a purely human characteristic, you are interfering with some who still hold to this old frame of reference, and the reaction will many times be aggression, control, and contempt.

It is wonderful that the slave passage has been blotted out, however, when will we see the perceptions that put it there in the first place blotted out as well? Until then, it behooves us not to forget:

Michele Bachmann Official Photo circa 2007

Image via Wikipedia

Michele Bachmann, 1st signer of original Marriage Vow

Image via Wikipedia Rick Santorum, 2nd signer of original Marriage Vow

Some Republicans say our children were better off in slavery

Posted by Robin R. Foster Friday, July 8, 2011 2 comments

Image via WikipediaIf you just watch and listen long enough, people reveal who they truly are. Given a certain measure of influence and power, humility subsides, and tongues yield revealing anger, hate, and pride. Conservative Bob Vander Plaats through his organization, Family Leader released a vow on marriage and the family. As complex as our social and economic issues are that we face, he complicated things even further by including slavery:

"Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA's first African-American President." Learn more.

Now in case you were to assume he would not be able get someone else to sign something so atrocious, Michele Bachmann, GOP candidate for President, wanted to be the first one to step forward to sign! Either she did not read it, or is just as insensitive herself. Either way, neither makes her Presidential material. Unfortuately, she believes that "Thomas Jefferson was the exception" as one of the Founding Forefathers who owned slaves. No mention is made here about George Washington: Michele Bachmann. I did take the liberty to post this article on her Facebook page, however, she probably is not interested in a open dialog on the subject. They removed my post. That speaks volumes in and of itself.

If they really cared about the plight of African American children in particular, they would not say they were better off enslaved, neither would they infer that single African American parents are not as equipped to rear their children as slaves were.

If they were really sensitive to the plight of the African American family, they would consider the effects of the evil practices forced upon slave families. During slavery, the African American male had no say as to what happened to his wife or children. He was made a breeder and forced to impregnate slave women of all ages who were ready to have children with no regard to whether he was related to the women or not.

At any moment of the day or night, the sanctity of the relationship he had with his wife fell victim to his master and overseer as he helplessly stood by while they had their way. Many sought wives from different plantations so they did not have to witness these events. The birth of a daughter brought bought both joy and pain as mothers and fathers feared the approach of a day they could not keep from dawning.

To insinuate that African Americans were better off during slavery, also implies that they were better off suffering the cruelty and violence that accompanied slavery. Would they dare tell a Jewish brother or sister that the terrible Holocaust was good for them? I should say not! I do not have to strain too hard to hear what Martin Luther King Jr or Malcolm X would have to say today. Come 2012, let's not be what Malcolm called Chumps!

Slavery, Sharecropping, and Oppression Gave Birth to The Blues

Posted by Robin R. Foster Tuesday, July 5, 2011 1 comments

"At the bus station in Durham, North Caro...

Image via Wikipedia "At the bus station on Durham, NC," May 1940, Jack Delano

If you really pay attention and study the lyrics of Blues songs, you will learn a great deal about the struggles on Southern plantations which gave birth to this form of music. Slavery, sharecropping, and oppression during the Jim Crow and Civil Rights Eras inspired African Americans to tell their story in song. No one person invented the Blues. It sprung out of gospel music.

Each song is a varied as the personal experiences of African Americans coming from slavery and involuntary servitude. Music was the only of the only things they had to bring joy and to ease a troubled mind. This is the reason it may sound mournful to some who do not understand its origins. The Blues has influenced Jazz, R&B, and Rock 'n Roll.

People sang the Blues for themselves long before it was commercialized. It started to become popular in the early 1900's. The Mississippi Delta is recognized as the place that produced the greatest Blues artists. Blues was also popular in the Carolinas and Texas.

Blues songs should become a major resource as we study African American history. See this neglected art form as oral history put to song increases our appreciation for it. From the Blues, we can gain great insights about the history of our ancestors in these rural areas. Blues songs help to supplement the missing oral history in our own families. Sheba, the Mississippi Queen, escaped with her mother and siblings from Sunflower Mississippi in 1965. She grew up singing the Blues in the cotton fields.

The following video was shared by Sheba and Miami Dade College. Instructor, Robert Moore gathers a few of his friends to teach his students about the history of the Blues. Listen especially to the words of the song Sheba dedicates to her mother and grandmother. Sheba will share an article with us soon about the history of the songs included on her album, "Butter on My Roll."

A 2010 Black History Month production
at Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus.

Hosted by Robert Moore.
Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome with Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary

Posted by Robin R. Foster Saturday, July 2, 2011 0 comments

This site was created out of the desire to help strengthen the relationships between African ancestored people. Our focus in this post is to identify what African Americans can do to individually and collectively to find greater happiness. I spoke in the last post about my quest to identify the principles that will help me realize a greater measure of freedom and happiness.

I have researched my family history for over twenty five years. This includes spending time with family conducting oral history interviews. I am very proud of their accomplishments, but I believe they were robbed of the enjoyment they should have felt for what they achieved in life.

Submitted by Nana Nethanel Nasi

They never took vacations. They continued to work like a slave driver remained over them. When they left work, they spent all their spare time serving in the church or community. I learned from each of them, especially my father, that I was to drive myself the same if I wanted to measure up. I took on my father's fear. I know that he looked at his little girl and feared that I would one day be taken advantage of. That is a fear a parent in slavery with a young daughter would have.

He kept me under lock and key with exception of letting me go away to school. It took a lot for me to convince him that I would be ok. He had toughened me. My father is gone now, and oh how I wish I could have understood back then that he was only trying to protect me. He transferred his method of survival to me during a time when the threat had long passed away. How different that relationship would have been.

My father worked himself into an early grave at the age of fifty. He worked because he did not want to see his family suffer. He descended from ancestors who worked the cotton fields and saw mills of Mississippi and Arkansas. He worked them as a young boy too in Tennessee. They were so poor, my father, one of the youngest of twelve children ate mud pies and searched the dumpsters of Memphis for leftover food for his family even though his mother owned a store and his father was a traveling carpenter.

He vowed he would we would never go without, and we always had plenty. He built homes from the ground up all by himself. He would teach the fatherless young boys in the neighborhood how to paint, drywall, and pour a foundation for pay. I was jealous of them then. I was not a boy and could not get that kind of time with my father. I did not realize then that he knew they were hungry, and it was better to give them work than to give them food. They would learn that they could eat if they would work.

Be the Healing

What behaviors can you discontinue today that your ancestors learned in order to survive oppression or slavery? What will you teach your children? According to Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary, we hear some falsely attribute these behaviors to our culture. Our ancestors only adapted to survive the conditions of their day. If we continue incorporating them, we will never be free.

I am so grateful to Conscious Media Productions for sharing this resource with me: Be the Healing. Purchase her book and companion workbook entitled "Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome." You will find a great many more resources such as articles, podcasts, and events. You can follow Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary on Twitter and Facebook.

Please share what you learn about the following:

How would you define racism?

Is it possible that our ancestors suffered post traumatic trauma as a result of slavery?

Could this post traumatic stress have had any effect on their descendants?

After slavery and decades of racism and oppression, how healthy are African Americans today?

What are the negative behaviors that we have learned in the process of trying to survive?

What are the problems today? Solutions?

A New Kind of Freedom is Coming!

Posted by Robin R. Foster Tuesday, June 28, 2011 0 comments

A New Kind of Freedom is Coming!
By Robin Foster

In the latter part of 2010, I took an inventory of all the twenty-five plus years of genealogy research I have conducted on my own family. I realized that even though they came out of slavery, they had embraced very high principles which they worked to instill in their children.

Slaves Waiting for Sale, Richmond Virgina. Based on 1853 sketch. Image on Wikipedia.

They embraced principles of faith, family, work, and community after having endured a system which had erased the basic building blocks to living those principles successfully. The physical components of each were erased, but the potential to restore them remained forever etched in their consciousnesses.

Image via Wikipedia

I owe them so much. They came victoriously out of slavery. While the onlookers feel that should be sufficient and that we should forget about it and move on, we know we have not yet been made whole. I embarked on a journey that started with About Our Freedom. I realized we have incorporated the best gifts of the ancestors and have progressed beyond what they could have imagined, however, we also bear the wounds of the abuses that they endured, and we need to be free from the shackles brought on by offense in order to experience increased happiness and success.

We talk about sin and repentance a great deal, but we neglect to speak of the Healing Balm available for those who have been treated unjustly. There is a process we each must undergo individually and collectively in our families and communities. We are all at different stages in this healing process. We need to seek an environment conducive to healing, and we need to start a dialog that facilitates that process.

Over Troubled Water is set to become one of those avenues. There is a saying, "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear." Out of my desire to experience freedom to the fullest extent, I knew I would need to identify and fix what was broken. A kind, wise, and loving Heavenly Father has blessed man with the knowledge and the means to heal the sick and bind up the feeble knees.

You never know what form the teacher will take, but you can be certain that if you move forward with faith, help will come. I am in the midst of coming to intimately understand how slavery effected my family and the effect that had on me. I have nothing to be ashamed of, but rather marvel at what they were able to accomplish. I have so much hope for my future posterity that I can sufficiently keep the effects of abuse from reaching the next generation. I am finding it hard to contain myself. I am not going to keep this to myself. I am happy to begin to share some important resources with you starting this week. Gather your family together to participate.

The most important part about this exchange will be your feedback. When someone takes the time and energy to share something to be helpful, take the time to tell that person whether you liked it or disliked it. This is how that person can know to either keep sharing or go back to the drawing board.

Remember what I said about dialog? We share similar stories and experiences. Our exchange can benefit both of us, as well a those who happen by. Please, please, please, share your insights about the historical African American lectures and documentaries that will be reviewed and linked here thanks to Conscious Media Productions.

There is a new kind of freedom coming! I just wanted to set the tone ahead of time by re-posting this Psalm from About Our Freedom that I wrote for my own posterity in the spirit of my ancestors who continue to whisper to me:

My Children's Freedom Psalm

By Robin Foster

There is no need to succumb to grief or sorrow. Do not easily be overtaken. Work past the feelings. His love and help are perpetual unto me.

He has been with me all my days and through every dark night. He has led me out of bondage. Through all persecutions, He has preserved me. His love and army shields and protects me to the point where I am a wonder. No unhallowed hand can hinder my progress. My enemies are dumbfounded.

He has heard and answered me swiftly in a still small voice. Knowledge disseminates upon me with each breath. My eyes, though they see not, see all. All day and all night my heart yearns to commune with Him. My beseechings have ascended and fallen at the foot of His throne.

Secret friends have buoyed me and steadied my staggerings. I have transcended this mortal existence and spiritually supped satisfying the depths of my soul---a meal prepared solely for me.

Why waste one moment of such great delight wallowing in the mire? Why gorge myself on crumpets which leave me in staggering dizziness only to turn to rend the baker? Turn away. Find secure footing.

Listen for the One who calls infinitely after me. He is gentle. He is kind. His voice I can recognize even though a thousand war cries sound on every hand. No need for crumpets once I have thoroughly feasted. No stoop among counterfeits again.

Be grateful! Be joyous! Be glad! Straighten your shoulders, and look upward. Be strengthened by the renewing of your mind. Praise ye the Lord perpetually! Check yourself. Heart, mind, and soul should balance.

In all things, Praise ye the Lord! In your in comings, in your outgoings, Praise ye the Lord! Enter the Cleft of the Rock of Ages, the Rock for days to come.

He only warrants perfect trust...only He alone. I have proven Him in days past. I remember the night. He proves me now. Move on! Move on! Move on to victory!

Can a Captor Cradle you?

Posted by Robin R. Foster Thursday, June 9, 2011 0 comments

Can a Captor Cradle You?
By Robin Foster

Oh people! What must we do to overcome the effects of the abuses endured during slavery? We suffered the removal from our native land, the wiping out of our history from our memories, and we have been armed with the knowledge of how to inflict pain and suffering as we experienced being forced into the servitude of others.

What happens to a child raised up under the influence of emotional and physical violence? How many children can on their own leave the cradle of the captor, establish a productive family, and become a positive force for good in his community without the help of good friends and family? Where is the village?

Image via WikipediaThink of the abuser of the child. If he never respected the sanctity of the child in the beginning to the point where laws had to be imposed on him, and the child had to be taken by force, is it wrong to anticipate that he will continue to act out of anything but selfishness? Unless he has some Divine conversion, can the child expect love, sincere acceptance, or any form of nurturing at his hands?

This is what went wrong after the American Civil War was fought. Granted, we take nothing from the sacred blood that was spilled on behalf of freeing the slave. There were African American freedom fighters among them too. This is why "the forty acres and a mule" never materialized. After the benefactors went returned home to the North, we see charity and goodwill could not be forced from the abuser.

The so-called freedman remained in the hands of the abuser as the child under his stewardship and as a dependent on him for shelter and food. Slavery was off the books in 1865, but remained in the hearts and on the plantations for decades more. So what effect does living in an abusive home have on the children? Do you think they might start to act out these abuses on each other? If left unchecked, how bad could it eventually get? Would they begin to play the part of the abuser?

So now the question comes to mind, "Are we free?" What do people do today once they have the courage to realize they are trapped living under the effects of abuse? They turn to a friend, someone they can trust. They turn a blind eye and deaf ear toward any person who would thwart their empowerment or who would try to make them feel inferior. After all, that is a tactic used to perpetuate abuse. They seek out others who are have suffered and worked through the same difficulties. As they come together in these communities, they are able to receive strength and be a strength to others less strong.

Submitted by Nethanel Nasi

To all the children from the Diaspora I say, "You have been waiting in the wrong cradle. Wake up, before you it is too late. You were kidnapped from a golden cradle and have been separated from the source of your identity. Do you remain separated from those who do not feel uncomfortable with your ebony or nutmeg complexions, your wavy or kinky hair, or your fully developed frames? Create a bridge for yourself to pass over from time to time or to pass over once and for all.

With the blessings of technology all African ancestored descendants can develop an online haven where healing can take place. Let's recite and relish in our history. Let's come together to identify the principles that help us to enjoy freedom and happiness. Hopefully, "Over Troubled Water" will be the beginning of that for you. If we fail in breaking the chains that shackle the minds of the present-day generation, the future generations may have no hope. Quite frankly, what would then be the purpose of our ancestor's hopes and struggles?

Our History Before Slavery

Posted by Robin R. Foster Tuesday, June 7, 2011 0 comments

Our History Before Slavery

By Robin Foster

Welcome! I am inviting you on this journey with me to discover who we were before slavery. I will continue to research the plight of my ancestors during the period of slavery in the America's, however, I know that the best part of who they were existed before they were kidnapped and crossed the Middle Passage.

My focus has been to search out the principles that made them successful so that I can evaluate my own life and provide an example to my posterity. The African students and friends whom I have known through the years have been good examples to me of hard work, respect, and community.

I have identified these same qualities in my parents and grandparents and other family members. Unfortunately, I can only trace my forebears so far at present. I have found solace in identifying as many as I have been able to document, but I think it is very dangerous to let slavery alienate me from where I came from before slavery. If I do not overcome the intentions others had to erase who I was, they will be the victors and I will cease to learn more.

I am referring to more than paying someone to examine my DNA and provide a certificate from which tribe I descend. When I look at my round nose, my coarse hair, and the great desire I have to work past the amnesia which erased our sense of who we were and where we came from for myself and my posterity, my desire is to connect with other African ancestored peoples, share stories and compare notes, then move forward.

Submitted by Antoinette Harrell. Trip to Niger.

Thinking I would begin with searching for others who have bridged this gap, I started this site. Up to this point, it has been my great fortune to collaborate with genealogist, peonage researcher, radio and television Host of Nurturing Our Roots, Antoinette Harrell. I am fortunate to also be associated with our colleague, Nethanel Nasi. The sacrifices that they have rendered have paved the way and each of us will be able to add a section to the bridge. Brother Nasi sacrifices to help the people of Ghana and has recently organized resources and people locally to help people in the Mississippi Delta have the things they need after devasting tornadoes in the region. I know in my heart that these key individuals would help in this endeavor as well. I was not prepared, however, to come to the understanding that Brother Nasi as well as Antoinette hold the key to recapturing vital hidden history. I am happy to be able to share their insights about their experiences on our native land with you. I also invite others to contribute their stories with us here so that we may all benefit.

Son, Aubrey Younger (Left) (aka) Prince Obiri and Nethanel Nasi (Right).

In our second or third conversation, he explained the connection between W. E. B Dubois and Ghana. There is a museum there, and W. E. B. Dubois is buried there. I have read and studied the life of Dubois, but I marvel that so much history is still left for me to discover. I am also intrigued by the fact that Dubois' personal library was left in Ghana.

Come back often as we make sacred connections, explore our history before American slavery, and share the stories and experiences of people of African decent from every continent.

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The Pain Of Not Knowing Who You Are

What Slavery Did To Us

Our Commitment to the Vanishing Black Male

The Marriage Vow and the Slavery Passage Get a Quick Divorce

Some Republicans say our children were better off in slavery

Slavery, Sharecropping, and Oppression Gave Birth to The Blues

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome with Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary

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Can a Captor Cradle you?

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