A tool for handling conflict and building family and community

We say "foo nda goy" (thank you) to Mama Marimba Ani. Her work and her spirit has been instrumental in the development of this workshop.  While she will not be conducting this workshop at this time, her very spirit will be present.

One of the keys to our sustaining both warrior and healer energy is our healing the Euro-centrically induced schism between our thinking and feeling selves (both sensational and emotional "feelings").

Marimba Ani’s Yurugu details the development of Europe’s strategy for themselves and others to suppress emotion in service of a cognition that leads to domination and control. Our having been held in captivity for so long and our having been socialized in a dominant Euro-centric culture more than explains how we also "caught" and carry notions of "thinking = superiority and feeling = inferiority."

Acceptance of this false teaching goes against our ancestral and cultural grain and creates a superior/inferior-division, a lack of unity between our thinking and feeling selves. This internal conflict causes enormous "gaps" in our communication with ourselves and other Africans. The resultant emotional illiteracy is not random and forms the emotional underpinning for cognitive ("Blacks are worth-less") and behavioral ("I’ll decide to wait until they say I can") oppression.

This sessions helps us get back in touch with our cultural and ancestral synthesis.

We are often taught to substitute mad or power when we're actually feeling scared or sad.  This socialized substitution produces self-alienation and hinders our becoming intimate with others, even when we want to do so. Problem is:  we cannot perpetuate alienation in our community and the unity needed for nation-building at the same time.

Re-connecting our thinking and feeling selves is critical to our personal and collective success at defending our people and healing our people. It is key to our facilitating such in our families, community, co-workers, employees, etc. It is a powerful process for challenging oppression.

In this session we focus on "how-to" strategies for each of us becoming more emotionally literate and whole.