Welcome Myal:
Indigenous People Movements
Usually when we think of resistance to oppression, as it relates to the Indigenous Peoples in the United States (or perhaps anywhere within the world), we usually think about either the Civil Rights Movement, Nation of Islam, or perhaps the Black Panthers. Those are the most popular key terms that tend to pop up within our mind when invoking things like rights, self-determination, and equality.
Not only do those terms invoke those stereotypical, if not traditional ideas, but also the imagery that is attached to that day and time. Pictures of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King jr. are obviously the most popular images when thinking of resistance. Sometimes other images may come to the fore, such as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Noble Drew Ali, Huey P. Newton, a founder of the Black Panthers (there are many more).
Dr. Martin Luther King jr. 1929-1968
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad 1897-1975
Learning about the above groups, terms, and images, concerning that era (surely important to Indigenous People across the world), is not what is detrimental to the learner and/or reader. It is how those same terms and images may put people in the mindset that those images and terms are the sum total of all Indigenous Peoples philosophy, culture, legacy, as well as resistance to injustice, race, class, etc., within this country and the rest of the globe.
The ideas that come out of the movements above, political separatism, integrationism, socialist thought, militancy, and the like, are oftentimes viewed as being exclusively from that era. This is far from the truth.
BLACK PEOPLE ARE GOD
Allow me to start off with the political and theological perspective that was popular for the Nation of Islam. They taught that god specifically the one worshipped by the Abraham faiths, is in fact black skinned and is in fact a man. To be more specific, the god of the bible and quran is a black person, a supreme black person. In some other parts of the doctrine, it goes on further to say that all black people (which is to include all Indigenous People) are considered gods or, as they say, Allah, collectively. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said he met his god as well as being taught this doctrine in the 1930s.
(We, the Myal, have issue with calling our most sacred and highest self god. Please refer to the post: Who is this being called God?)
Master Fard Muhammad - The Black Lord of the Nation of Islam
Another popular black god of the 1930s is the Rastafarian High Being called Selassie I/His Imperial Majesty/Jah/Ras Ta Fari Makonnen. Because of the influence of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey and the teachings of Leonard Howell, a man that was a Ras (noble) and later, a Negus or King of Ethiopia, became a Jamaican messiah. He was the only sovereign in Africa, at the time, that the small Jamaican sect of Rastafarians looked towards as a fulfillment of prophecy, a prophecy that stated a king from Africa will be the liberation of black peoples. This king became equated to the stories of Messiah in the bible and was percieved as god.
The Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey 1887-1940
His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I 1892-1975 - Black Lord of the Rastafarians
Other black gods include Father Divine. He was also considered a Messiah and fulfillment of the bible stories and established his organization called the Peace Mission.
Father Divine 1879-1965 - The Black God
The two things that we have to consider is that Indigenous People were/are highly concerned with identity. And we used the tools given to us under our oppression. Those tools are the proto germanic being called god (theos and deus as well) and the colonial racial category called black. We have/had put a lot of investment in both of those umbrella names, created our mythologies behind them, and have said that being god or worshipping god and being black are eternal spiritual ideas.
Truthfully, these investments are rooted in post colonial ideas and the lack of knowledge on older doctrine stemming from a diverse body of Indigenous People who go by a multitude of different ethnic names and nationalities. We even try to take the post colonial names and align our oldest ethnicities and nationalities alongside them. Why? It was/is because of the effects of colonialism. This spawned the use of race terminology, such as Negro/Indian/Australian Aborigine/ (and other terms like it), as an umbrella term of control for violently conquered people, which separated us from our diverse heritage.
I am not saying this to minimize the amount of power, effort, moves, successes, failures, wins, battles, accomplishments, that have/had been put into our use of colonial racial group names. On the contrary, we have done a lot of great things under the umbrella of black/negro and in the name of god. I am simply saying we can help ourselves more if we embrace genealogy first and trace our nationalities to our Indigenous roots.
I believe in and support all the hardwork and effort Indigenous People has put into fighting and struggling against oppression and oppressive regimes, no matter what name they have or post colonial story they promote.
I want to also say at this moment that even the word Indigenous is a loaded term and has it's own legacy. However, to best describe our people in commonality as it relates to us being most anciently connected to land and nation, also being here prior to all other peoples on this planet, as well as the sole founders, I find this term agreeable. The only term that would trump it would be our individual personal names for our family groups, nations, tribes, that we give to ourselves, past, present, and the future.
Those names are too diverse to name every time I speak about our people. So, INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, is a useful term for DESCRIPTION and NOT A RACIAL OR NATIONAL CATEGORY.
Despite the disconnect from our cultural, historical, and ethnic names and nations, the investment of blackness, and it's connection with a Creator-Being or Divinity has some place within our past. This is not something that was started with the UNIA-ACL, Nation of Islam, Peace Mission, or Rastafarians of the 1930s. In fact, images of a black being go back to very ancient times (old Egypt, Nubia, India, Greece, Maya etc.).
Ek Chuah - Black 'God' of the Mayans
But when considering the scope of the United States during the Nineteenth Century, we can see the proto germanic tribal being called god (which was linked to the bible in the 4th Century C.E) being aligned with the racial identity negro/black by Indigenous People that sought to create a strong resistance platform.
(Remember, this is all happening under our belief, mental conditioning, and investment, that we are what conquerors called us racially. This is from our temporary lack of knowledge.)
Minister Nat Turner in his confessions stated that he saw black spirits in one of his prophetic visions. He also said that Jesus took off his yoke and gave him the burden, which implies that Minister Nat Turner would be the representative Jesus at that time.
The idea of the minister representing or being Jesus is not a new one. Many church organizations look at their leadership as the expressed image of Jesus on the planet (Catholic Church and the Pope, for example).
Bishop Henry Mcneal Turner 1833-1915
Another person that professed the god of the bible to be negro (black) was Bishop Henry Mcneal Turner. He was very adamant in saying that if peoples that are called white can see their creator in their own image and likeness, what would be wrong with negro (black) people doing the same thing. At the time, the politically correct word for Indigenous People in the United States, was negro, hence the reason why Bishop Turner said god is a negro.
The original Nation of Islam and Rastafarians, in philosophy, promoted being politically (and in all other social aspects) separated from whites/caucasians (another colonial race term), and desired a separate Black Nation.
As I have said earlier, these ideas are not exclusive to, or originating from, these above groups. Gabriel (also known as Gabriel Prosser)organized a revolt to take over South Carolina and make it into a separate Black Nation. The African Blood Brotherhood of 1919, whose Leadership was Claude Mckay and Cyril Brigs, believed in a separate Black Nation as a solution for the continual lynching and abuse of Indigenous Peoples in the southern states. This manifested the dream of a separate or sacred spacefor our people in the midst of the effects and residue of slavery and oppression.
This was obviously realized in degrees with Numerous Indigenous Pocket Communities. And some of them were either forced to isolate themselves while others fought to maintain control of land they occupied. Some of them are the Maroons of Jamaica, the Palmares Kingdom of Zumbi in South America, Yanga of the Afro Mexican settlement Yanga, the still existing Caribbean country of Ayiti (may the power and dominion be their's once again), and the small Arawak spread throughout South America's interior and Native Americans in general.
We, the Myal, are the spiritual expression of Indigenous spiritual practices of both Native Caribbean and African Peoples, on the island of Xaymaka (Jamaica).
Yanga of the Afro Mexican Settlement of the Same Name
Zumbi - Ruler of the Palmares
Cyril Briggs 1888-1966 - Co-Founder of the African Blood Brotherhood
Claude Mckay 1889 1948 - Co-Founder of the African Blood Brotherhood
The Black Panthers were the group that was popular when it came to self-defense. The Nation of Islam also preached self-defense and was brought to national acclaim through El Hal Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X). The Black Panthers are the progeny of Malcolm's political philosophy. These two groups are known to be the groups of defending one's self against the violent and malicious attacks of anyone, specifically attacks rooted in race thinking or racism.
El Haj Malik El Shabazz 1925-1965 (Malcolm X) - National Representative of the Nation of Islam, Founder of Muslim Mosque Inc., Founder of the Organization for African American Unity
The African Blood Brotherhood taught that self-defense was the way before the manifestation of the Nation of Islam. And before the Black Panther Party ever existed, there was the Deacons for Defense and Justice, whose founder was Charles Sims. Even earlier, Moses Dickson, an abolitionist, created two organizations, one called the Knights of Liberty and a secret initiate group called the Order of the Twelve. Dickson was inspired to do this upon seeing the terrible nature of slavery in the southern states.
Charles Sims - Founder of Deacons for Defense and Justice
Moses Dickson 1824-1901 - Founder of the Knights of Liberty and Order of the Twelve
So we can see that the fight and the resistance of the Indigenous Peoplein the United States (and across the world) has always been an ongoing one, with the same themes and ideas being refurbished and perhaps applied differently. We must keep this in mind since in this present time, there are groups that may be mimicking the themes of the past but are not using an organizational styles that would compliment and compensate for the very different and constantly changing times we live in today.
So we try to define who we are through:
1) being black (negro/indian/aborigine/pariah, and much more)
2) god worshippers ( the same can be said for theos and deus)
3) being or becoming god,
These are the parts we need to analyze about ourselves. We need to understand that under the root of terms such as god and negro and things similar, we are not seeing our full potential. We must think outside of the box of those categories because we did not choose them. They were forcibly put upon us. We need to understand that colonial racial and germanic religious identities are umbrellas we have used to unite, in degrees, to manifest survival: food, shelter, clothing, cultural legacy, healthy and wealthy living.
What does this mean? We are NOT searching for a racial identity or worshipping a colonial religious being.
1) WE WANT OUR INDIGENOUS NAMES AND NATIONHOOD.
2) WE WANT OUR ORIGINAL BEINGS OF REVERENCE AND WORSHIP
3) WE WANT FOOD, SHELTER, CLOTHING, CULTURAL LEGACY, HEALTHY AND WEALTHY LIVING
Most Importantly, we are searching for better ways to unify to attain these things. The best way is through putting genealogy first and practicing the evolving art of being UNIFIED!
Our Great House School presents not only presents a unity model, but seeks to partner with any and every of the Indigenous who want to treaty with us and work on effective means of carrying out unifying results.
Please contact Abba@deozi.com for further information.
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Peace
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