The Joy of Existence

As we approach the thirtieth anniversary of the Black  People's Day of Action, I continue to reflect on the impact of that day in 1981 when, what I at the time felt where, my people marched though London, to protest the terrible treatment of us and in particular the families of the children that had perished in the New Cross Fire. My thoughts are on my personal journey from that time until this. I made some decisions at that time which have had a significant impact on the life that I eventually lived. As a young man growing in England, with a government under the Iron Lady, it became clear that if I didn't take responsibility for my own growth, I would remain amongst the ranks of the unemployable and uneducated.


 I therefore found a way to enter night school, with the intention of achieving a trade. my chosen course was a City and Guilds course in Television and Radio mechanics. I can testify to the fact that we had been written off by many, including family members as a lost cause. Much like the rhetoric I hear today about our youth. How could any of us expect the youth of our "communities" to be better, if we ourselves have not invested in them. We have allowed them to be inculcated by people who, even those with the best of intentions, have proven time and again that they can not compehend the destructive nature of the captivity and its aftermath. I am thankful to have been born into this time. We are able, despite the attempts made to consign us to the garbage bin of history, to recreate an Afrikan identity, which for obvious reasons is not the same as it might have been if the Maafa had not taken place, yet nontheless comes from deep within our soul and is linked directly to our ancestoral gene pool. Like the Rastafari movement which rose in the island of Jamaica and the various Pan Afrikan and Black consciousness movements in the USA and the continent of Afrika itself, we have made great inroads into the reconstruction of an Afrikan personality. We have given our children direction and seen the fruits of our labour flourish. We have in small pockets become proud, self determining people again. Through hard work and livication. With faith in the creator and its creation, we have maintained a firm connection to mama nature and have not lost touch with the deeper parts of ourselves. While many have questioned the concept of Jah and asked how could this be allowed to happen to us, the vast majority of us have maintained a faith in the higher consciousness and overstand that those who came out of an environment which was harsh became brutal and that many of the qualities their descendants now exhibit have been gleaned from observing and living amongst us, as many of the traits which we now hang on to so dearly have been learnt during our sojourn in the western hemisphere.
Give thank for life and for the giving of thanks. Each day as I rise, I honour the breath of life that is within me and allows me to take another step towards greater perfection as a created being.

Hotep
SOST