Gye-Nyame Journey Media

  Great Kuumba Congratulations you have been born in a legendary time. I am serious, we are standing in the midst of a crisis point in history, and you have the opportunity to take action that will mark you down in the historical memory of your people. But before you go out and conquer the world please take some time to conquer yourself, or better yet align yourself with your Culture, and principles. The world is in the middle of changes that are happening so fast that people are lost. If you don't believe me just take some time and think about the changes you have experienced in your life. It used to be that the only way you could be heard was to be selected by a big corporation and pushed. We are now standing in a time where we can actually share our talents, and skills with the world (no middle man needed). When I was young I used to dream about being on TV. Now I get up every morning and do a show. I never thought that I would be able to do something like that, but that is the

  Great Nia: Today we will be talking about the combination of Ujima and Nia. We are going to come at this from the angle of "Collective Nia '' and Our responsibility toward it. Once again I want to take the time to thank those that are supporting our efforts. We are here trying to build up "Collective Nia'' within our tribe and it is not an easy thing. We all have our lives that require many of us to deal with a myriad of things that constantly steal our focus. Sometimes it can seem as if we are in a land of the walking dead, because some people just don't get it. Believe me I understand so we try to bring you information on a daily basis so that you know that you are not alone. Be on the lookout for announcements about our events, and trips. If you ever want to come out you are welcomed. By the way I know that I have a few writers out there that have some things to say, feel free to email me and I will gladly publish it in our eMag. I also don't want

  Great Ujamaa in this week of Ujima: These are two beautiful principles especially when they come together like today. we are forced to look at them and then take a hard look at ourselves, and think about whether we are exercising them. Ujima (which is the week that we are in) speaks to us about collective work and responsibility, but also in our system it represents the powerful and necessary principle of respect. Without respect nothing moves. Respect is like oil; it allows different parts to run smoothly together, and it reduces friction. Today's Principle is Ujamaa which talks to us about cooperation and resources, but it also represents the principle of gratitude, and reciprocity in our tribe. When we take the time and put these two principles together we get an unbeatable combination. A combination sorely needed in our communities. "Ujima reminds us of collective work and responsibility; but also respect, without it nothing moves." Today, I want to take a look at t

  Great Ujima during this third Ujima in 2022: I am excited to be able to reach out to all of you and build in the way that we do. Waking up this early and hitting this keyboard has been a mixed blessing. I guess all blessings are. Strange how the world seems to work like that. Hey... That thought moved us into what I want to talk with yall about this morning. Work, that dirty word that we have learned to associate with early mornings or late nights. Work, the place we go to be abused and missed used. Work, that hamster wheel that we have sold our most valuable asset to run on powering someone else's dream. I know y'all may be waiting for me to unleash some secret that is ingrained in the Nguzo Saba that can free you from the drudgery, but.... Naw I can't. There is no cure for it. We have to work, as a matter of fact I am writing this to encourage you to continue doing so, but what I am going to point out for you is that you may be working too much for the other team, and n

  Great Kujichagulia to all my Kuji born out their: "Umoja in motion (collective work and responsibility)" We are looking at Kujichagulia today through the marvelous principle of Ujima. For those new to the journey, and to remind the old heads Ujima means collective work and responsibility. We teach within Gye-Nyame that Ujima is Umoja in motion. Today let's look at the power of a collective, which is a group that pulls together to accomplish a goal. Now let's imagine that they collectively focus on defining their world, or bringing it close to home,redefining their world. What type of changes could this collective bring about? "Gye-Nyame Journey has already put this into motion , by redefining the day" Kujichagulia as we saw last week is strong on defining the world, and since we are in the week of Ujima I believe that it is appropriate for me to call on our collective to start to redefine the world that we are in. Using our collective thought power to resh

  Great Umoja: We have entered the week of Ujima, and it is time to look at the principles and the world through its eyes. Ujima is the principle that we describe as Umoja in motion, or action. We also in Gye-Nyame connect Ujima with the principle of respect. This comes to us through our M-7 system that we developed to work with young people. Collective work and responsibility was hard to get the students to grasp, but respect was already in their vocabulary, and we could use it as a "lure to mastery". "unity begins within ourselves and then manifests elsewhere in our lives once we start practicing it" This brings us back to the principle of the day, Umoja which means unity. All of those that have been dealing with GNJ know that all the principles start internally and then they manifest in the world. We have to understand and be practicing Unity internally before we can ever see it outside of ourselves. This means that I have to be working on the Unity between the f

  Great Imani: "Let us look at Imani through the lens of Kujichagulia" Yesterday we spoke about the power of Kuumba and how it was unleashed when we were able to define our purpose. Now we are going to continue that conversation by traveling to the other side of Kuumba. Ladies and Gentlemen a present to you the principle of Imani. For us in Gye-Nyame Imani is the basis of the Nguzo Saba, which means that if we want to unleash the power of our principles we have to start with Imani. "Imani means faith in self, family, community, and our people" For today's post, I want to look at Imani through the lens of Kujichagulia, and ask what Imani is. Imani means faith, and in the Kwanzaa tradition it means to believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle. Faith in general means a strong belief or trust. In the context of Kwanzaa, it means the belief that we can be self-determined, self-authored and s

Great Kuumba: We have made it through week two of this cycle's challenge and I want to salute all of you that are participating and hanging in there. I know that it can be hard dealing with these questions, getting up for the Toast Ritual, writing and moving more than usual, but believe me (My fault), don't believe me believe the process. The process that you are going through now was created over a long period of trial and error, but we got it together. As a matter of fact this process is a living testament to Kuumba. It was through following the process that this system even emerged. Realize that where you are I was... I will just leave it at that, I was struggling trying to figure out what my Ancestors were trying to tell me through their "crystalized wisdom" (write this term down because it will continue to pop up throughout the process). One proverb always stood out, I must admit that it was not my favorite but it was the one that held the secret I needed. The qu

Great Nia: I was out yesterday with the Gye-Nyame girls, because Gina wanted to take a walk in the woods ( I will attach pics). She actually wanted us to go out after dark, and go for a hike. I personally was not with that yet. I have noticed more and more tents around some wooded areas and I don't want to get caught in the dark with my little ones and it end up bad either way. To make a long story short I was walking, observing the environment, and listening to a book and the author quoted Brother Cornel West. Dr. Cornel West was giving a talk about the blues and his statement set me off on this article for the FAM. Brother Cornell described the blues as "courageously bearing witness before the worms get your body". For me that is a perfect definition for living Nia. Can you stand up and say that you are courageously bearing witness to your Nia? "Once we know the truth of each principle (Umoja, Kuji, Ujima, Ujamaa) we can bear witness to our Nia" Bear witness r

Before I go down the road of the title I want to reflect on what we discussed yesterday and bring it in line with today's idea. We focused on defining responsibilty. We stated that "taking responsibilty gives you power", but now brother ha2tim wants to to take it one step farther. When we take responsibility it puts us in the seat toward ownership, or it should. Ownership of a thing gives you control. There are many things in life that we cannot control; but, there is something that all men have some level of control over, and that is their own physical body - your mind and spirit too. See, I can't make the sun shine, but I can put on my shades. I can't make it rain, but I can get an umbrella or simply stay indoors. "Taking responsibility gives you power" When you think about your life, your career and all the things that are apart of your world, who owns them? Who do you give ownership to? If you think about your job, who owns it? Is it your company, o