The Afrikan Maafa or The WAR
“The Afrikan Maafa has disconnected us from our cultural origins, we have remained vulnerable in a social order that does not reflect our cultural identity.” Dr. Marimba Ani
In the early 1990s, Queen Mother, Dr. Frances Cress Wesling, a Black Psychiatrist, articulated a speech to resurrect Afrikan consciousness within Afrikan youth titled “The WAR (Afrikan Maafa) Against Afrikan Youth'' subtitled“From Endangerment to Empowerment; From Mass Death (Physical and Psychological) to Mass Resurrection.” In the opening remarks, Dr. Wesling shared,
“Those that know me, know that since the 1970s, I have been making a statement about what I understand to be what is going on. And I have been saying to Black People, we as Black People greet each other with a saying “what is happening?” I say, we put that greeting in the form of a question because we don't really understand yet, what is going on?” After today, I hope we will be greeting each other by saying “you do know what is happening don’t you?” We will be saying The WAR is going on, we will greet each other by saying The WAR continues; and that each and everyone of us will do our part to see that we bring The WAR to a just end, so that it can be peace on this planet” - Dr. Frances Cress Wesling
The criminal punishment system is connected to other structures within society as a means to surveil, criminalize and terrorize Black communities as a form of undeclared WAR (Burton. 2023). In this analysis, we deem prisons equal to WAR - including white supremacy science, colonization, and counter-insurgency. Mama Marimba Ani and Dr. Wesling’s Afrikan-Centered Approaches to defining THE Afrikan Maafa are “Community Specific.” Their analysis derived from the empirical, spiritual, cultural and collective perspectives, experiences, and/or world-views of Black people. There analysis explains, critiques and develops an alternative reality to the problems of racism, imperialism, enslavement, colonialism internalized anti-Akrikan/Blackness, and the ongoing genocide that is manifested thru governmental, state and non-profit programmatic, policy and institutional limitations/failures (Resurrection Study Group, 1997 p 5).
A Community Specific Approach provides an explanation of the destruction of Afrikans’ origin story, and the aftermath effects on Black peoples’ human development. It explains the European, Indo-european and anti-Afrikan genocidal killing of Afrikan/Black/Indigenous ancestors, culture and land/earth-based practices (Ani/Richards, 1981). THE Afrikan Maafa provides an explanation of how THE WAR on Black people is maintained through the development of global capitalism, international politics, the U.S American government’s policies, domestic and foreign laws and societal institutions that attack Afrikan communities (wherever we may be, today), and work to further Afrikan enslavement, the clamps of psychological warfare on Black minds (Amons Wilson, 1996), and the colonization of Afrikan lands (Smalls, 2022).
(Her)Historical violence is a major aspect of The WAR/Afrikan Maafa that prohibits Afrikan youth/community from accessing the “new consciousness” needed to address (her)historical violence. (Her)Historical trauma is a particular focus within this project as it is a phenomena that manifests through intergenerational transmission, particularly when (her)historical wounds are not acknowledged/addressed/healed. The criminal punishment system is framed as a system connected to other structures/systems within society that inflict violence on Black communitiesas a form of systemic oppression (Hill-Collins, 2000) and undeclared WAR (Burton,2023). Simply put, the criminal punishment system is a continuation of historical violence aimed at Afrikan’s human and community development(s) towards liberation. Because the legal analytical frameworks obscures/hides much more than it reveals, this book follows the directions of Dr. Burton (2023) analysis to take the study of prisons and the legal system out of the criminal justice analysis and to frame the the legal system within an analysis of WAR.
The Afrikan Maafa is maintained through the development of global capitalism, international politics; the U.S American government, domestic and forgin policy, laws and societal institutions that do not serve the development of Afrikan communities (wherever we may be, today), and work to further Afrikan enslavement and colonization. The Afrikan Maafa explains why Afrikan/Black youth are currently situated in a “Matrix” and/or a (her)histrocial, spiritual, socio-political, economic, & global attack from The WAR (Smalls, 2022). The Afrikan Maafa/WAR is sustained; reproduced and to works from multiple levels and across multiple intersections of violence: 1) (her)historical/Spiritual Violence (Leary 2017); 2) Structural Violence (Combahee River Collective, 1977); 3) Interpersonal Violence (Kaba, 2021); 4) Internalized Violence (Resurrection Study Group, 1997); that are inter-related and connected.
“Slavery didn’t end in 1863, it just evolved.” Bryan Stevenson
The Criminal Punishment System is a Continuation of (Her)Historical Violence/Afrikan Maafa. The WAR continues…
