Condemning the Elders, while not condemning yourselves

I’m beginning to notice a disturbing Trend among many young folks who claim to be ‘conscious’. And what I am noticing is extremely troubling indeed. Many of these young folks who are claiming to be ‘conscious’ are now blaming all Elders for all the issues that plague us today, as a race of people. What they are now doing is blaming all of the Elders who have been out on the Forefront fighting against this system of Racism white-Supremacy and who had been out there doing real-life’s work back in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. They are assigning blame to all Elders for all that has come since then, without fully understanding and analyzing all that went before. They have not fully analyzed the 60s, 70s, and 80s with the assassinations, agent provocateurs, under the FBI’s COINTELPRO program, as well as the sellouts and traitors who were among us during that turbulent time. You sit behind a keyboard assigning blame where it doesn’t rightfully belong. My questions for them are these: Who are these specific Elders you are referring to? What are their names? Why aren’t you blaming your own Elders and/or other family members, who in many instances weren’t even ‘conscious’ themselves and who were the actual folks who didn’t contribute anything and aren’t contributing anything now? And who were the ones who actually did nothing? In many of those instances, it was alcoholics, drug addicts, Pimps, Preachers with the Mega Churches, drug dealers, thieves, murderers, rapists, etc. Where is your condemnation for them? These are the real culprits who did nothing. Did you blame the Con men in our communities and others who were the ones pushing this new, crazy-ass idea of blaming the Elders? They are the ones who’ve actually done our movement far more damage, in pushing this idea than anything my generation ever did incorrectly? Where is your condemnation of them? Stop the blame game and pull up your sleeves and get to work. Those Elders were young once too. We were the youth and young adults back in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, who were out on the Forefront, in streets, actually putting in that real work, putting our lives in danger, and our freedom in danger each and every day. Stop saying the Elders failed. In fact, those Elders who put that real work had many successes. The question you need to ask yourselves is this: What generation did our enemies target and recruit in the assistance of undoing those accomplishments? Was it the Elders or the Generations that came after us Elders? Sure, many mistakes were made by us. But we’ve learned from those mistakes. And what we’ve learned during those dangerous and turbulent times we can pass on to Y’all. Are Y’all ready to listen? How do you claim to be Afrikan-Centered while not being willing to listen to the elders who have much to import to y’all that you can now synthesize and utilize and make better what we didn’t complete. Keep this in mind. We didn’t even have access to or even know of all of the scholarship of the likes of Dr. Chancellor Williams, Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop, Dr. Theophile Obenga, Dr. Yosef Ben Jochannan, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, Dr. Amos Wilson, Dr. Marimba Ani, Dr. Ivan Van Setima, Dr. Charles Finch, Dr. Jacob Carruthers, Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, Dr. Bobby Wright, Dr. Tdka Maat Kilimanjaro, Ashra and Merrira Kwesi, and the Warriors such as Harriet Tubman, Denmark Vessey, Nat Turner, Marcus Mosiah, Garvey, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, Marc Clark, Bobby Hutton, George Jackson, Jonathan Jackson, Kwame Toure, Dr. Khalid Muhammad, Steve Cokely, Dell Jones, Mwalimu K. Bomani Baruti, Kush The Black Unifier,  and so many others. All of whom have displayed high moral standards of decency, ‘Iwa: A Warrior’s Character’, and courage. It’s time for all of us to put in real work. The Elders and the young have a job to do. However, the Elders’ job is quite different from the job of those who are of this generation. If you don’t understand the job that your generation is supposed to be doing, you can’t understand the job of the Elders. No other race of people so disrespects its Elders or condemns those who paved the way for them to be here as our own Young folks do. Let’s stop this blame game. Get from behind that keyboard and get to work. Remember, in a few years you will be an Elder. What will you leave the next generation that comes after you? And will you expect that generation to spend it’s time condemning you and blaming you or will you expect that generation to build on what you left them?

I’ll leave you with this quote to contemplate.

“Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity.” 
― Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth

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Olatunji Mwamba

I Pronounce my name Oh-LAH-TOON-jee UUM-WAHM-bah I was born June 7, 1954, in Baltimore City, Maryland, The United States of America. I grew up in Baltimore City, Maryland on the Westside until I was 14 years old. We then moved to the Eastside of the City where I lived until Adulthood. I am a straight Black man and I am happily married to my wife, Zakiyah. I am currently 66 years old. I am a father 8 (2 daughters and 6 sons), one step-daughter. I am a grandfather of 14 (9 granddaughters and 5 grandsons) and a great-grandfather of one great-grandson and one great-granddaughter. I am a former member of 'The Black Panther Party For Defense' with my brief membership in the organization from 1969-1970 at the age of 15 (1969) - the age of 16 (1970). My job as a junior Panther was to Chronicle Police Brutality for The Black Panther Party For Defense. I left to pursue a Singing career in 1970. I was introduced to Black Nationalist, Afrikan-Centered knowledge, and Cultural Information by my Jegna, Bilaal Opio Oba in the summer of 1974. I became a staunch Black Nationalist when I was 20 years old, by the fall of 1974. I also converted to Islam in 1974, as well. I even became a Muslim Imam for about 3 1/2 years, between the years of 1977-1981. In addition, starting in 1974, I began a serious study of our History thru reading and studying our Grandmaster Afrikan-Centered scholars, as well. This study has been on-going; my entire adult life. This study of Afrikan-Centered information is a life study and is on-going. However, because of my search for truth, I no longer subscribe to the dictates of Islam. The study of History has provided me with the facts, the evidence, the truth. I continue to study and study is a lifelong profession for me. As to my current stance on issues of religion--any of them, I am not afraid of the facts and the truth. Nor am I afraid of where those facts, the evidence, and the truth might lead me. I've worked in a variety of Black organizations since 1974. I've been seriously studying our story--'the good and the bad' since 1974, trying to understand how we as a race have found ourselves in our current circumstances. And most importantly, trying to figure how we can get out of it. Once I became aware of our circumstance I began to do all I could to change it. I began living a more Afrikan-Centered cultural lifestyle. I changed my name legally in 1977, to make sure none of my children would carry on that Caucasian slave name that our mortal enemies had forced onto my Ancestors. I refused to pass down that Caucasian surname to my progeny. So, I made sure that all of my children had Afrikan first names, middle names, and my surname. And my children, who have Afrikan names, range in ages of 40 years of age, down to 5. I've read all or most of the major works of our most Esteemed scholars and writers and I've done so multiple times too. Scholars and writers such as Dr. Yosef Ben Jochannan, Dr. John Henrk Clarke, Dr. Chancellor Williams, Dr. John G. Jackson, Dr. Marimba Ani, Dr. Charles Finch, Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop, Dr. Theophile Obenga, Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, Dr. Amos Wilson, Dr. Bobby Wright, Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, Tdka Maat Kilimanjaro Ph.D., George G. M. James, Dr. Jacob Carruthers, Dr. Charsee McCintire, Dr. Joy Degruy, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Mwalimu K. Bomani Baruti, The Irritated Genie Of Soufeese, Del Jones, and so many others. And I've read their works multiple times too. At one point in time, I also co-hosted a radio program in Baltimore City on WEAA, Morgan State University Radio, 88.9 FM, with my good friend, sister Nalungo Sayyed for few years, as well. I try to adhere to the best in Afrikan Culture. I am Shemsu Ma'at (a follower of Ma'at). I'd like to part with this quote. "Be not arrogant because of your knowledge. Seek Counsel from the ignorant, as well as with the wise. For the limits of knowledge in any field have never been set. And no one has ever reached them. Wisdom is rarer than emeralds. And yet, it can be found among the women who gather at the grindstones"---The Teachings of Ptahotep" Author of the books entitled (1) "An Afrikan-Centered Response to the LGBTQIA Organizations and their Agenda: The Conversation no one wants to have" , by Olatunji Mwamba (2) "Raising Awareness: Past, Present, Future" by Olatunji Mwamba Sba, and Mkuu Mzee, Sba I am a member of "The Raising Awareness Group".

Latest posts by Olatunji Mwamba (see all)

• “Proper response to Caucasians who are the descendants of the perpetrators of the Trans Atlantic Slave kidnappings, Chattel Slavery, and the System of white-Supremacy/white-Terrorism, when discussing how we should assess and feel about those atrocities their ancestors committed and still commit against us” - August 29, 2023
• “Elders Keep It Real” by Olatunji Mwamba, Sba - March 27, 2022
• New Book entitled, “”An Afrikan-Centered Response to the LGBTQIA Organizations and Their Agenda: The Conversation no one wants to have”, by Olatunji Mwamba - May 5, 2021