Posted on 12/18/2004 8:01:18 AM PST by mountaineer
Our Mission at the Columbus Africentric School is to develop an African-centered holistic education system for students, parents, staff, and community addressing the needs of the total self with the use of Ma'at and the Nguzo Saba as our guide
Ma'at, the dynamic principles of Right, Truth, and Justice was the source of harmony with self, universe, and the Creator. Eqyptian men and women knew that they must practice the Declarations in everyday life if at death they hoped to be divinely judged and successfully enter the Afterlife. The seven principles of Ma'at include:
Truth: Congruous in thought, words, and deeds.
Justice: Always showing balance in everything you do.
Righteousness: Acting in accord with Divine Law.
Reciprocity: What you give, you shall receive.
Balance: The scales must be equal on all sides.
Harmony: Making sure you are in accordance with nature.
Order: To put persons or things into their proper places in relation to each other.
The Nguzo Saba:
The way people live is really determined by the value system to which they are exposed. Maulana Karenga, a Black Nationalist and Founder of the U.S. Organization, is a strong advocate of this belief and, in his efforts to redirect African people to adopt positive goals, he has developed a Black value system called the Nguzo Saba. The Nguzo Saba is based on customs and traditions of African societies and is, as Karenga states, "a weapon, a shield, and a pillow of peace." The Nguzo Saba consists of seven principles, which embrace both spiritual and scientific concepts.
The seven principles of the Nguzo Saba are:
UMOJA (Unity): To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
KUJICHAGULIA (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, and speak for ourselves instead of being defined and spoken for by others.
UJIMA (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and to make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together.
UJAMA (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and to profit from them together.
NIA (Purpose): To make as our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
KUUMBA (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than when we inherited it.
IMANI (Faith): To believe with all our heart in our parents, our teachers, our people and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
In a time when our public schools can't even mention the word "Christmas," this strikes me as a form of religion or pseudoreligion not only being mentioned, but indocrinating these students in that belief system. Not only that, it doesn't seem to me to encourage the goal of racial harmony and tolerance. Rather, it's an intentionally racially segregated school.
I'm all for pride in one's ethnic heritage and for striving for excellence, but this seems over the top - unless someone can steer me to a taxpayer-funded "Irish-centric" or "Italo-centric" public school.
The school system's website description of the school here doesn't mention the link to black nationalist Karenga.
Can some Columbus area reader explain this to me?
That's what we need, a "pali-centric" school experience in mid-America.
Well --- the government does fund schools to teach kids in their own language which is Spanish --- at least here it's being done on a very large scale. And they are being taught their own country's history and culture --- that's what political correctness and multiculturalism are all about. What's given to one group probably has to be given to any other group that demands it.
What do you expect from a university town that's full of academic crackpots and cranks?
So, what was the score? Did they win?
I forgot to add, "or were they disenfranchised?"
I sent quite a bit of time looking -- in vain, it turned out -- for some solid information about this school: how many students and in what grades, how many actual teachers (as opposed to "staff"), and how many students per class. You know, nothing particularly top secret. But it must be, b/c I surfed and surfed and surfed that site and all its little side-sites -- nothing. A lot of pictures, a lot of rah-rah, and... for Pete's sake, I had a time just finding anything solid. I finally stumbled on to the list of teachers/staff. Turns out it took so long b/c they are now called "teachers and/or staff",. Instead, they are refereed to as (I'm not making this up): "Nation builders" The females of whom are called "Mama (last name)", the males are called "Baba (last name)"
HOWEVER! My search was not totally in vain. I did discover the school's official song, and I hereto wit present: (NB: Formatting is from site)
Baba Michael Owens
musician and CAS 6th grade teacher
As I walk through the door I know that I have arrived.
Its rich, calming spirit gives me a sense of pride.
Its strength and its power gives me courage to succeed.
In the eyes of those before me, I see all that I can be.
Where else can I go, where my soul can really grow?
Where else can I go, where my love can truly flow?
Where else can I go, where traditions abound?
Where else can I go, where my culture is found?
Chorus
It's the Africentric School, we're the brightest and the best!
It's the Africentric School, we honor elders with respect!
It's the Africentric School, where learning is the key!
It's the Africentric School, where learning is the key!
It's harmony and family, inside of me!
Tradition has taught me, that we come from Kings and Queens.
Tradition has taught me, we can realize our dreams.
Tradition has taught me, we have a rich legacy!
It's harmony and family inside of me!
Interesting that the Nguzo Saba principles are totally devoid of spirituality, nothing about faith in a higher power. This is an atheistic program of secular socialism dressed up in pseudo-African trappings.
It's going to waste a lot of tax dollars, and foundation money will line the pockets of some con artists like Karenga, but it will never be more than an artificial patch grafted onto the real culture.
Dang, there I go again, mired in old-think.
I haven't heard much lately about the Portland Baseline Essays (Egyptians invented the airplane 4000 years ago, etc.) but I would be surprised if they weren't somewhere in the curriculum.
I agree. Karenga is a convicted criminal and a quack. He's no better than L. Ron Hubbard as far as I'm concerned.
Do they allow whites in, or not?
Great song. I think its sung to the melody of "Me and the Devil Blues" by Robert Johnson.
If they can actually educate kids (unlike 95% of ghetto schools), and if they don't discriminate against anyone who wants to apply, there's no reason to set them apart from any other charter school.
Ma'at, the dynamic principles of Right, Truth, and Justice was the source of harmony with self, universe, and the Creator. Eqyptian men and women knew that they must practice the Declarations in everyday life if at death they hoped to be divinely judged and successfully enter the Afterlife.
The Creator? Divinely judged? Afterlife? I'm the first to decry the phony "separation of church and state" argument (never intended by the framers of the Constitution), but I just found it interesting that this is going on at the same time kids in other public schools are prohibited from speaking of such things (especially in the Christian context).
NewHampshireDuo: it seems the Africentric Nubians crush the other schools' sports teams, especially in basketball, if yesterday's scores are any indication!
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