DECLARATION

Written by Ku-Soonogo and Dr. Clinton Hutton

Nakumbuka is a confrontation with our past, particularly that aspect which has to do with the slave trade. We are simultaneously ridding ourselves of whatever residual trauma might still be left in our psychic concatenation as well as embrace the life-giving sustenance embodied in the systems of high African culture, so that: when we say 'Nakumbuka' we remember the nameless millions who sought release in the waters of the Atlantic, and we believe that from this watery grave will rise up a fountain of unquenchable aspirations, that the laws that govern the past govern also the future and the righteousness of our reasoning is based on cosmic justice; when we say 'Nakumbuka' we remember the flaws inherent in our division, those senseless brutes who sold their brothers like carrion, and we believe that the spirit of healing will transcend the multiplicity in our perceptions and our resilience nurture corrections to the unforgettable opportunity given to our enemies; when we say 'Nakumbuka' we speak of those who are presumed dead, but whose dialogue live in the syllables of nature and we believe that the songs we carry have no beginning nor end, but are whispered from one generation to the next; when we say 'Nakumbuka' we remember the culture carriers: (libation to be poured at the speaking of each name) Grandi Nanni, Ana de Sousa Nzinga, David Walker, Henry Highland Garnet, Frederick Douglas, Daddi Sam Sharpe, Kofi, Antonio Maceo, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Iba B. Wells Barnett, Paul Bogle, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Amilcar Cabral, Patrice Lumumba, Walter Rodney, Cheikh Anta Diop, Chief Albert Luthuli, Bob Marley, Amy Jacques Garvey, Leonard Howell, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Boukman, Macaya, Henri Christophe; when we say 'Nakumbuka' we remember the high cultures of Africa - Egypt, Nubia, Zimbabwe - and the wisdom enshrined in the ways of the Orishas, Isis and Osiris, the vision of Ogatumelli and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari: and when we say 'Nakumbuka' we remember the best in ourselves and we believe that in each of us is a divine seed whose growth may be deferred but never destroyed.