Black Literary Awareness for Cultural Knowledge (B.L.A.C.K.)

The Two Cradle Theory: Afrocentric Meets Eurocentric Head On

On Sunday, April 27,  twelve high school students in the Black Literary Awareness for Cultural Knowledge (B.L.A.C.K.) homeschooling network will celebrate their academic achievements as graduates of the organization's first Afrocentric history class, Introduction to Ancient African History.  The end of year celebration will culminate in a student-led panel discussion, "Across Many Waters: Building Bridges to Africa".  Their extraordinary accomplishments unwittingly transcend the academic arena on many levels.

Although they are from diverse family, socio-economic, and religious backgrounds, the Ancient Africa class share three common factors: All are teenagers striving to find their place in a complex, rapidly-changing world; all are children of the African Diaspora; and all represent a sub-culture of their communities as homeschoolers.  Their class may very well be the first of its kind in Maryland homeschooling circles in that it paired inner-city lifeschoolers steeped in African history and culture with their suburban peers who, conversely, had tenuous or no connections to their African heritage.  The results were impressive.

In just a relatively short time, the students' participation in academically-challenging, integrated, holistic activities, designed to reconnect them to Africa, to their Black history and culture, and to each other, enabled them to discover their common heritage, cultural connections, and shared values.  In the process, they excelled to exceptionally high academic standards, gained strong self-identity and racial pride, and found a means to form lasting, cooperative friendships, despite their religious and other differences.

The Ancient Africa history class was an experiment in African Centered Education (ACE), developed and taught solely by three suburban African American parent educators, whose previous training consisted primarily in traditional, western-oriented Classical Educational theory.  Drawing on both the Afrocentric and Classical learning models, B.L.A.C.K. tutors were able to immerse the students in engaging, multi-sensory, experiential,  learning activities, which placed their African heritage and culture at the center of the learning process and presented a more balanced world view of African and African American contributions to world history.

The Mwalimu or "Instructor" leads B.L.A.C.K. students in an experiential, multi-sensory, dramatization of the Middle Passage (Maafa) to instill a lasting memory of the atrocities their African ancestors endured and, more importantly, their bravery and fortitude. Surprisingly, B.L.A.C.K. students had difficulty "centering" themselves during the exercise, indicative of the "generational gap" created by the "milquetoast, false, and misleading" treatment of the middle passage in most social studies text books. The Mwalimu's painted white face was designed to demonstrate to the students how alien the foreign captors must have appeared to the disoriented, enslaved Africans. Again, the Mwalimi were surprised that one student perceived the painted face as "reverse racism", leading to further discourse in the Kemetic Circle in order to vet the real purpose and object lesson of the painted face.

Although, at face value, Classical and Afrocentric models seemingly are diametrically opposed, B.L.A.C.K. tutors were able to find common ground to teach both African traditions and culture, while fostering critical thinking, rhetorical, and logic skills, which the Classical model is heralded for developing.  In fact, it was discovered that the philosophy of Classical Education, known as the "Trivium," is an African pedagogy rooted in Ancient Kemet (Egypt) and the Dogan people of Mali, West Africa. While the Trivium identifies the three developmental learning phases as "grammar, didactic and, and rhetorical," the Dogan people use four words to describe them:  (Rivers, 2004)


B.L.A.C.K. tutors attribute the high academic, social, and personal success of their first Afrocentric homeschooling class to their unique set of lesson plans, which they developed specifically for the Ancient Africa class, to infuse and bring balance to the Afrocentric and Classical models. The closest approximation to the B.L.A.C.K. learning module is what the brilliant Senegalese historian and scientist, Dr. Cheik Diop, called the "Two Cradle Theory", one cradle being the Southern (African) cradle and the other being the Northern (European) cradle.

The combination of all of the above, coupled with a philosophical educational framework based on four theoretical perspectives, has produced B.L.A.C.K. curricula which work for all students.  The theoretical perspectives include: 1) cultural relevance; 2) Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP); 3) Medew Nefer (the ancestral inter-generational transmission of the knowledge and memory that defines a people through "good speech" (lectures) and "good listening" (note taking), leading to "wisdom" or application of knowledge (sound living); and 4) the tradition of the African Circle of discourse, which B.L.A.C.K. tutors describe as "Kemetic Circles." (Rivers 2004; Curruthers 1999)

The African or "Kemetic Circle" is an important tool for discourse (logos) to develop critical thinking and rhetorical skills as students discuss and ponder culturally relevant contemporary and historical topics. The circle is an ancient African tradition that influenced "Socratic Circles" in ancient Greece.

The academic, social, and personal growth witnessed in all of the B.L.A.C.K. students enrolled in the Ancient Africa Class resulting from their limited exposure to ACE has inspired B.L.A.C.K. Co-founder, Kyna Clemons, to broaden the B.L.A.C.K. vision in support of the African Centered Educational Model, which she no longer views as optional, but essential to the survival of Afrikan people, their culture, and traditions. (the “k” in Afrikan representing people of the African Diaspora collectively across the globe, rather than only on the continent).

CELEBRATE WITH US AS WE RECOGNIZE THE 2013-2014 B.L.A.C.K. STUDENTS WITH AN END OF YEAR PROGRAM  AND PANEL DISCUSSION:

B.L.A.C.K. students will lead and run the panel discussion.  Our Guest Panelists will include brothers and sisters from all regions of the African Continent. African-Americans and local Pan-African Historians with intimate knowledge of African culture and heritage will also be represented!

LIGHT REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED

On April  3-5, Gyasi, and his childhood buddy, Tumie Hurd, also a lifeschooler, will compete with their Robotics Team in the Chesapeake Regional FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) at the University of Maryland, College Park.  Their team is an activity of the Patriots' National Society of Black Engineers Junior Chapter. Patriots is a local organization that has operated minority STEM summer camps and other programs for over 17 years.

Lady Kauit Takes a Drink by Nadia Fogg

Thousands of years ago, a “creative explosion event”, described by researchers as a sudden blossoming of early man's symbolic thought--the ability to identify, create, and represent things--occurred in Africa long before it occurred in other parts of the world.  Evidence of early man's advanced human behavior and symbolic thought is abundant in Africa to include fishing, the manufacture of bone tools, the use of decoration, and the production of art. The Ancient Africa Classes' Virtual Art Gallery represents their artistic creative expressions at depicting these archaeological findings from prehistoric Africa.

We hope you enjoy the Virtual Art Gallery as much as the B.L.A.C.K. students enjoyed creating it.  For optimal viewing, it is recommended that you take your virtual tour on a PC, where you can enjoy the CoolIris 3D technology; However, you  may still view it on your IPAD and other platforms!

Click here to view the Virtual Art Gallery

Webster's virtual dictionary defines perspective as a) the interrelation in which a subject or its parts are mentally viewed; b) the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance; and c) the appearance to the eye of objects in respect to their relative distance and positions.  Inherent in each is the notion that perspective involves a mental process on a psychic plane, which lends itself to how something or someone is seen or viewed by the optical eye and processed in relationship to a location or psychological time and space.

For the child of color, a proper perspective is important when studying history because he must be able to see himself, and his ancestors before him, in true proximity to world events and as active, significant participants on the stages of world history. On a subliminal level, such a view sends a strong signal to his sub-consciousness that he is important, which in turn aids in the development of his self esteem and racial pride. 

It is for this reason that B.L.A.C.K. history classes begin with a study of ancient Africa, a time when people of color were important builders of world civilizations, rather than with the Maafa (African Holocaust). B.L.A.C.K. students are taught to stretch their minds beyond the traditional Eurocentric perspective in the typical textbook and to view history with the lenses of their African and African-American ancestors.  Like the archeologist who tirelessly wields his rusty spade below the earth's cold, hardened surface for months and even years before unearthing his greatest treasure,  students are encouraged to use their classically-learned research and analytical skills to dig deeper and  uncover the hidden truths about Black history.

"His-story vs. Our-story" is a popular cliche among Pan-African revisionist historians.  While there is a lot of truth in this, children of color, like their Europeon counterparts, need to know the "whole-story".  Everyone is taught, for example, about the Austrian born, musical genius, Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus, who is said to have composed his first symphony at the age of 5.  But few children learn about  the BLACK Mozart,  Chevalier de Saint-George, who  was the first black man to lead France’s most important orchestras.

The life story of Chevalier  de Saint-George's is a fascinating drama of love, mystic, courage, and success, which all children, particularly those with an interest and talent in music, would be excited to learn about. Born to a Senegalese slave and a French colonialist in the French-Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, Chevalier de Saint-George moved to France with his parents at the age of 8.  In France, he was raised as nobility and excelled as a composer, swimmer and swordsman.  He ranks among the first French composers of string quartets, symphonies concertantes, and quartets concertantes, and is said to have once given Mozart a job.

When studying history, it is important to encourage children of color to look at historical developments and the people and places in antiquity from a proper perspective, one which enables them to view world developments in their true relations and relative importance as it pertains to them as descendants of the African diaspora.  In the words of ancestor, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, the distinguished Pan-African historian:

But if the child of color is only viewing history from a Eurocentric perspective, then his vision is skewed and distorted, and he will lack capacity to use his historical map and compass toward a path of social justice and economic liberation for his people.