Unity of Kuumba

Great Umoja in this week of Kuumba:

I am excited to begin this week. I think that we need to go a little further in Kuumba to help you create the practices that will help you move to the next level. I believe (Imani) there is no better place for this to happen than the week of Kuumba. So let's jump in!

“We need to shift our thinking about Kuumba.”

Great Umoja and today we are once again talking about the Unity of Kuumba. We will return to this combination many more times, in fact in this system we will return and converse about all the combinations of the Principles over and over again. This helps us move through the 3 levels of learning. Today we want to talk about how we can use Kuumba to strengthen our Umoja, and I will share some of the GNJ methods so that you can incorporate them, or have an idea for your path.

“Groups, Organizations and Societies that use Kuumba to reinforce Umoja will flourish and grow.”

We spoke yesterday about the 3 levels of learning on Imani in the week of Nia. Now let's stress the importance of building a system in our lives using these three levels to move to mastery. In our ancient culture we relied on people to move toward mastery, but mastery requires us to be able to work through all seven of our principles, and the 49 different combinations so that we have the group power and understanding to support a master. A master is someone that becomes so good at a skill, and is moving in their Nia, but they need a community around them to support their efforts. Umoja for those that are new means Unity, and not uniformity. This Unity allows a group to move from surviving to thriving. Because in a collective (Umoja) you have masters who have become so good at what they do that is what they do, and they depend on everyone else moving and doing their Nia to support. 

“As was mentioned yesterday we move from survival to thriving. Skipping the struggling phase, and actually using our community to support us as we master the skill sets that we are attempting to master. That is what is going to get us to the next level”

Join The Email List

For example, Let’s say I make shoes, and I have a group of people in my group that need shoes, and there's a world around us that needs shoes. If the Shoe master has to spend time marketing and selling the shoes, that is less time that he will spend on making shoes, which takes away from the quality or quantity of the shoes that he makes. But if the same master is surrounded by a collective that understands his mastery and allows him to serve them they will earn money and buy the shoes from this guy. This guy will be able to focus on shoe making, and then maybe if someone in the collective has a knack or a purpose in selling they can pick up the shoes and take them out in the world and sell them. Maybe someone else has the nia for marketing they can market the shoes. Now the master shoe dude can focus on the shoes, the salesman can focus on selling, and the marketing lady can focus on that. Mastery of a purpose provides a product or service that the wise collective can use, and sets up a stream of income that could help support a group. Making enough space and time for other masters to rise in the group, creating more resources that that collective can use. At the heart of this are the two Principles of  the day (of course other principles are at work, but cut me some slack) Umoja, and Kuumba.

“ This is the very first time, in the whole history of humanity, all 7 billion people on the planet can earn, buy and sell with each other, all from the comfort of their own home.”

What type of practices could an individual as well as a tribe use to help them open their Kuumba as well spark Umoja. I can share some of the things we use in GNJ (Gye-Nyame Journey Tribe) that you can either plug into or shape to use in whatever way you are going to use them:

• In Gye-Nyame we began by creating rituals, or plugging into rituals that our people needed, I first started then I invited others to use them. Of course FAM if you are alone you have to begin by yourself and do it until it becomes the intelligence of the heart. This is not a fad or a game that you are playing with. Remember the Law of reciprocity. Everything you do has a reaction, so when you start this stuff please understand there is a reaction coming. One of the first rituals that we plugged into was that of libations. At first I started pouring them for my Ancestors, and then as I started building a group I would pour them for. In time word began to spread and  then I would be invited to events to pour to open up the event. From here I began to pour on line and this gave birth to the “Daily Toast”. Which is still going on to this day, we have made changes but it still is part of my life. Through this simple ritual I have been able to educate hundreds of people about the importance of learning to plug into their Ancestors for help and healing. We even added a health element to it through the “Daily Toast”, I encourage those that listen in to apply the libations to their health. We start the toast out by drinking a large glass of water every morning together, and toasting the Ancestors with a health drink thereby serving two purposes, to call on our ancestors, and to take care of our health. To go farther in the song we added in the four pillars of health so that people could learn how to stay healthy (breathing, drinking half their weight in ounces everyday, eating a culturally appropriate diet, and movement). So the ritual does not have to be complicated, but it has to provide something for you and something that others need, and everyone needs health and healing.

• Next thing is going to be scary, but what is the myth for you and your group? The Myth is important because everyone has one about themselves and their group. They may not realize it but this myth sits at the back of their mind acting as a self fulfilling prophecy that they live their life under. They usually begin hearing these myths when they are young and they are repeated to them over and over again until they become an adult, and many because they don’t know it move out into the world,  living out the myths. So if an individual has a myth about a vengeful deity, how suffering is good for the soul, how being poor means that you are closer to your creator. You have to either plug in to a better myth or create one that fits where you are going. I use the term myth because I don’t want people to get caught up in their religious bag, but they can be some of the conveyers of many of the destructive myths if they are misunderstood, or in some cases misused. The goal here is to either create a new myth that you can plug into that works for your benefit, begin to redefine some of the myths that surround your life, or do both. In Gye-Nyame we created the mythic founder of our organization. We make sure that everyone that comes into the circle knows this myth and knows that it is myth. This is not something that you place above you but something that you use as a mental map to help you in those dark times. Like you Gye (our Mythic hero) is mortal, and was betrayed, receives a call, pursues a Nia, becomes something greater than he ever thought he could be. Now this Myth does not conflict with any religion nor does it try to supplant anyone’s religious tradition. It simply gives those that are part of our tribe a mental tool that they can reflect on and use to move them in their hard times.

• The next idea goes hand in hand with the myth. This is Philosophy. How does your system set yourself and other people up to succeed and help them build up skills for life? How does your system help you learn to think, and what ideas are you introducing yourself too? What life experience do you have that you can share, what lessons that you have come across in books, or through other media,that you can use to help yourself and others live the best life. Compiling these first for yourself, and then sharing with others. In Gye-Nyame we use the Nguzo Saba, the principles of Maat, the hermetic principles, which all have seven that we combine and apply to the days of the week. With these we can promote discussion and in some cases arguments, that can build the knowledge of each tribe member. Then when you add in the folktales, proverbs, and training on symbolic literacy we end up with a lifetime of information and regardless of which part I decide to master I am moving in a balanced (from our way of knowing ) life.

We incorporate these ideas from our Kuumba into our everyday life and develop systems that can aid all of us (including myself) in living what our Ancestors would call living “The Best Life”. But before we can move there we have to first begin to focus on practicing all of this within to bring Unity to ourselves. I will see y'all tomorrow !