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Showing posts with the label ujamaa

Stand Up, But Be ready To Fight

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  Stand Up, But Be ready to Fight Seeking what is yours in the court of an oppressor never works out well. This story reminds us of this. I think that it was stories like this that really made me fall in love with Aesop. He showed that if you really want something that requires you getting permission from others you have to be willing to fight. Freedom can never be given it has to be snatched out of the hands of oppressors. This story does a much better job of demonstrating this because in this story the lions make a reply to the poor hares.  I can see the hares going to lion universities integrating into their system, and still be hunted as prey. Learning the ways and laws of lions, but after all that they end up being shut down by the simple  fact.  What is crazy to me is the rabbits were not seeking separation, they simply were asking to be treated equally, by the lions and other animals. But this request was out the question because the one thing that rabbits needed they did not ha

#NguzoSabaChallenge 4

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  #NguzoSabaChallenge 4 Great Ujamaa: We have embarked on a journey, and took this Imani week to talk about the #NguzoSabaChallenge, of course staying true to the game and making sure we talk about the principle of the day. Speaking of the principle of the day, we are on the principle of Ujamaa. Ujamaa to us is the green key to the whole system. It was the way that Ujamaa lined up in our system that let us know that the Ancestors were with us. Ujamaa in our system aligns with gratitude, reciprocity and the color green. I would also throw out the hermetic principle that it lines up with but that might be a little overkill. So Let’s look at the spiritual resources that are opened up when we apply ourselves to this system.  "If we apply ourselves to the principles tied to Ujamaa in a revolutionary way and use the resources that are opened up to us, we can build the kind of world that our Ancestors would have wanted for us." In the #NguzoSabaChallenge system we introduce the user
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  Creative Economics Great Nia: Let's start this conversation by using some of our crystalized wisdom that has made it to us from our Ancestors, we will be using the idea of Sankofa. Sankofa for those who are new to this journey is the Akan symbol with a long necked bird stretching its head back to grab an egg off of its back. This is defined as going back and fetching it. It for us is cultural wisdom, and I want to reach back and remind you that wealth for us traditionally was in the people, and believe it or not it still is! Nothing of value is found, created, shaped, molded or whatever can be done to it without the touch of a human being, or groups of human beings.   “Wealth exists in the people and we need to reclaim that value,  to help us build pathways for real wealth.” The smart phone you are reading this article was made and created through a process hundreds of individuals through their combined effort was able to put together. The components that were put together for th

The Family Pyramid

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  The Family Pyramid Great Ujamaa: Continuing in the line of the discussion that we have had all week, I want to remind those that have been reading up to this point about the “The Family Pyramid”. You are sitting at the pinnacle or sat at the top of this pyramid at least until you had your own children. Now I want to explore what makes up this pyramid. This pyramid is made up of your living family, and your Ancestors. Your whole life is built upon those who came before you. Now I want to ask a simple question, what does that mean? Don’t just move by this question! I want you to really break down what this means for you, that the building blocks for all parts of your being are built upon those who came before you. In a sense others have sacrificed so that you can be on top, and you are now (metaphorically) standing upon them. Do you have a responsibility toward them? Is your life adequately reflecting the fact of your position on the pyramid, or are you just breathing air and hoping fo

The MisUsed Resource

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  The MisUsed Resource Great Imani: We have hit the final day of Ujamaa and it has been an exciting and trying week, but we have made it and we will continue building in the weeks to come. I once again want to stress my Gratitude ( the M-7 principle for the principle of Ujamaa) for those that take the time out of their busy schedule to read these blogs. I know that time is precious so I will continue to bring content that you can use as well as think about. I have to always remember as well as you do,  that the goal should be to always bring as much value as possible. Since we are striving to free ourselves first internally then manifest that in the world, I want to look at the misused power of Imani. Imani is the principle that talks about  Faith , Belief, and Trust. These are principles that have rode with our people and boosted us up when we needed it. Now is the time for us to talk about this resource and how it is being misused and possibly how we can direct it toward helping us

Kuumba Can Free Us!......Maybe

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  Kuumba Can Free Us!......Maybe Great Kuumba: It is the start of another day, and I want to greet you and thank you for checking out this blog and hopefully you have joined the email list or maybe even considered becoming a supporter. We have made it to our Kuumba post and eventual show. We are in the week of Ujamaa and it flew through. I can't say it was easy, but it was fast. In changing up my schedule I have thrown myself totally off, right now I am at my adventure, and have on the wrong day shirt. I guess it will take a few more weeks before I am totally in sync with my style. Every day I am trying to create content of value for you to get and use. The most surprising thing for me is that I am not a Kuumba baby, because I spend a lot of time at her altar. Each and every day is a creative event for me so believe me when I say I am no stranger to Ms. Kuumba. Now Let's get to the discussion. “Ujamaa is about more than just living in a community. It is truly about working toge

Ujamaa Of Rites Of Passage 2

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  Great Nia I am trying to adjust to my new schedule, and on some parts of it I am victorious but on other parts….. My goal was to switch the time of my show, and do it in the evening so that I could have more time in the morning, but now I am tired and dragging throughout the day. I also wanted to spend time doing Folktales & Proverbs on the Wisdom platform, but that is not working. I also am trying to get familiar with some new software that will help with my blog, it works well but I lost a whole article and had to rebuild it. Thank goodness I backup all my stuff on Gdoc. By the way the tobacco beast has taken a bite and is holding on, so that is also complicating the whole thing. So that is enough of my woes, now it is time to take another dive into the culture. I hope that you are getting some value and inspiration from these discussions. Remember we are not just talking about these things to just talk, we are having these discussions to make changes first with ourselves, and
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Ujamaa of Rites Of Passage part 1 Week Of Ujamaa Great Ujamaa: We have made it to a double principle day. We are on Ujamaa day during the Ujamaa week, so let’s dive deep into the idea of cooperative economics. Yesterday we ended our discussion peeking into the collective resource of Rites of Passage (ROP). Believe it or not this is a crucial resource for any Culture, and since we here at GNJ we are trying to plug as many of our folks as possible back into our ancient culture. “ROP binds warriors together and allows them to grow” The culture of a people is important, because it plugs the people into their past, solidifies them in the present, and propels them toward their future. Now the culture that spawns from and with a group strives to help its peop

Building Your Tribe

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We are on Ujima  today which we know to mean collective work and responsibility. Collective is one of the keys to this principle tying the idea of resource; we can say that the collective is the focus for today. Tribe building is a skill in putting people & the resources they bring together. Of course before we get into bringing different people together, we first have to take the inward journey of putting the parts of ourselves together. We have to recognize the resources we put on the table. Let’s once again take a look at the 5 parts of ourselves that make up the whole that we are, and be able to maximize their power so that we can pull the best out of our external tribe. Yep, we have an internal tribe that we will have to work with composed of our: Intuition - This is the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning. This part of ourselves plugs us into a larger reality, and gives us access to information without having to go through the