To Be African

To me being African means being respectful of your self and respecting others. It also means that you embody Africa because being Africa is not have to mean that you are born in Africa but it means that Africa is born in you; culture, rhythm and ancestry stories. To Marimba Ani being African means that you understand African culture as an African, it means being responsible for our faults and it means recognizing that we are great as African people.

To understand being African you have to have knowledge about where you come from. You have to be socially aware of what is going on in Africa because what ever happens to Africans, happens to you because it is destroying your homelands greatness. It is taking the power away from your African ancestors. Marimba Ani states " The members of a culture are bonded together by their shared culture, which gives them a sense of collective identity. Without a culture to be bonded to you are not bonded.

We are not taking responsibility for we we are doing wrong. We are letting our families get torn apart by drug and alcohol abuse. We do not take responsibility for that because the addiction takes over the love for our family, the love that helps us have a loving home. We don't take responsibility for the faults that we do to our young Americans. We put them in foster care to abandon them and some of them get leaded down to the road of nowhere because that's all they know. That's how they grew up to nothing to some of them can only achieved nothing.

To Ms. Ani being African means recognizing that you come from greatness so you can achieve greatness."We are awakening to the need to claim our cultural legacy". She is says we need to step up and claim our heritage because it makes us who we are. Our culture makes every culture who they are because it all originated in Africa.

To be African means recognizing that you are good because your skin is black, but to be excellent you have to achieve more. You have to look deep within yourself and find the answer to how you can achieve greatness. You have to be your own person and not be what you think people want you to be.