Convocation

To be honest, the convocation wasn't that interesting to me. The upperclassmen made it seem as though I was going to be greatly inspired by the speaker, but I didn't leave feeling inspired. Dr. Lomax's speech was informative. He spoke on how we are one of the most prestigious and well known HBCU's in the country. Though we are a well known university, we have to continue to strive for excellence so we can stay on top of our game and keep Howard's legacy going.

September 22, 2011 - Dr. Richard L. Wright Lecture

Dr. Wright's lecture; or should I say sermon, definitely made me think about every point he spoke on, not only because of the volume and emphasis in his voice, but the importance in what he was speaking about. He spoke on education in the black community during segregation. Others felt blacks were incompetent during segregation. Since they felt though black knew nothing and could learn nothing, they felt like blacks learning together would be no better. Little did they know, blacks took education very seriously. No black child was to be ignorant, they had to get an education. Dr. Wright also said he felt like there was a decline in education once desegregation began. I agree 100% with what Dr. Wright expressed in his lecture about blacks and their education in the past and now.

Convocation: The LEGACY

Coming into Convocation I didn't really know what to expect. I'd only heard that it was just a blessing over the school so I wasn't very excited to go to it. When I walked out of Crampton I had such a different view on not only the wonderful school that I go to but also how important I am to the school.
I learned so much about my school and its richness in history. I learned that out of a pull of 10,000 kids we were the few out of 1500 that got accepted. We are a legacy and we need to continue it because its kind of like us against the world. If we don't perform at our best in all that we do then we won't be the  best.
Dr. Lomax from the UNCF spoke about how our school is one of the most recognized HBCU's in the country but we need to keep in mind to come together with the other HBCU'S to keep the rest of them open. There are black colleges being closed and we have to do whatever it takes to keep our brother an sister schools opened.
After hearing this it truly made understand just how much of an amazing school it is that I go to. This convocation gave me another drive that I would need to be very succesful here at Howard and keep our legacy going. I felt very important knowing that I am apart of a Legacy. WE ARE A LEGACY

Segregation: What you didn't know

This weeks lecture was very interesting to me. Whenever I think of segregation I always think of the negative side of the topic. Sit ins, walks, schools all the negative stuff. Our speaker spoke on a topic that made me see segration in a whole different. In the times of segregation you had the feeling of protection. Education was taken very seriously for all of the young black kids in the segregated communities. With having having educated children it was the weapon that the Black community used against oppression at the time. I found this to be very interesting because the Black community were doing things to prove that they weren't the ignorant people they were looked on the be. Kids at the time weren't allowed to be uneducated; whether you had the money or not people in the community made sure everyone attended school
One thing that I took out of this seminar was that the increase of declince of black young people started afer desegregation. WHAT!? This was amazing to hear because I always thought tat since blacks received second class schooling their education wasnt so good. Yet once they were desegregated their education value only seemed to drop more. This made me question whether or not desegregation in schools really brought on much of a change for blacks in schol. Although we live in the Capitol of the United States it also has the highest rate of uneducated young black people as well. This saddened me because I'm at the mecca yet if I was walking down the streets of DC I wouldn't be able to tell.
As a community we need to figure out a way that we can tackle on this issue and bring a change. Thats the homework that I'm going to assign to myself.

1st post

Thelma Mubaiwa
@02663020
I used to be in the wednesday class and that is were i posted my first couple of blogs. I cant access my very first blog because its in the wednesday group as well as group 19 for the wednesday class. if there is a way that i can get an email of it or just say that i received credit for it because it does not show up on my blackboard.

4th post: Reconstructing our history

I really liked Dr. Batey’s lecture for this week. I really liked how he got us to participate in the lecture because it made me focus more and consider what he was actually saying? He talked about the dismemberment of Africans into various parts of the world and how those people were affected. When scholars talk about it they only focus on how the Africans lost everything and didn’t have anything to call their own. In our lecture we focused on the things that they didn’t loose and kept with them from their homes. They didn’t speak or write English so they were considered illiterate yet they spoke and wrote the language from their countries. Although they didn’t know the American culture there many things we do and use today that was brought over by the slaves. Dance, music, spirit, and LANGUAGE etc.

With dismemberment the African had to learn all the new society rules as well as a sense of belonging. Any ideas they had were looked on as coming from their master because that’s all they knew. This is what scholars mean when they say that Americans have been severed from their history. They’re very unaware of the things our ancestors went through to get to the places we are today. There’s an invisible hand in society that makes us see things in a different way (such as Africans lost everything).

This is why we are doing our research on figuring out how scholars have or are looking to change something in our society. How can we get Americans reconnected to the history that we’ve lost ad how do we go about getting it done. We need to bring back culture: reconstruct or rewrite the history of the Americans so we can all having an understanding so we all have an idea of where we come from.

3rd post: Omoluabi and me

This weeks lecture for me really brought some key points that can be very useful in all aspects if my life. Last week Dr. Carr spoke on our mbongi's and the use of knowledge and wisdom. This weeks topis was about how the transformation of knowledge and how it has magnified us.
Academic knowledge is more than just about what you learn in school. It aso goes on everything you learn outside of school. Like Dr. Carr said, "All learning doesn't go on in the classroom, its only just begining in the classrom. Academic knowledge has 3 very important factors.

• Production: How people see and view and certain topic. eg. All black people can dance
• Advancement: Confirming that fact without any thought or as much as a problem with it
• Transformation: CHALLENGE. eg. Im not only going to believe this statement, but im going to do my own personal research to see whether or not this fact is true

This lecture to me was another way of instilling in me that yes, I have this knowledge but am I going to utilize it in a way that it benefits more than just me. I'm also not only going to use it but I'm going to use the transformation point and challenge something without just accepting it.

2nd Post: Rembembrance and Acknowledgement: When does it start?

Thelma Mubaiwa
@02663020
Freshman Seminar
R: 6:10-7:00

Well first of all before I begin this blog I just have to say WOW! Dr. Carr is such an amazing individual. I had the opportunity to hear this lecture twice and I was amazed that I was drawn in the same way o had been the first time I experienced this lecture. Dr. Carr said something in the lecture that clicked with me and he completely encompasses. He said that, wisdom is knowing what to do with knowledge. He has wisdom
When I left my family in San Diego I left the physical Mbongi we formed there only keeping the mental. I wasn’t worried about meeting people but I was worried about being accepted. I have now create an Mbongi so strong with my fellow Bison’s that I’m not even homesick. I’ve been away from home for almost a month yet I’m not homesick because the people I’ve met here have made so feel so comfortable and almost loved to soon.

Before coming to Howard I always called people ignorant for always denying their African roots. I was born in Africa so in a sense it has always bothered me that people were so against claiming any African roots they have. What I learned in this lecture is that people aren’t educated. If you don’t know about something then how can you claim it? From the time that slavery began we were trained to forget. Ever since slavery ended there have been many methods used in replacement of the slavery back then. We have been mis-educated to think in that mindset. To disconnect ourselves from the people we truly are and where our roots truly originate from. This is what I would call Mental Slavery.

From the beginning of time OUR people have been the ones responsible for many things that we have never received credit for. Once again we’re trained to forget. It all started in Africa, people come from all walks of life but it’s all traced back to Africa. They learned how to adapt and live in this world and because of them we live the way we do today. I was truly amazed to learn that we created the usage of language, alphabet, and numbers. Hieroglyphics are the oldest form of writing used and was created in Egypt. Through this numbers, alphabet, language developed. CAN I GET AN UH HMMM!

My dream is that one day people will be able to acknowledge what an amazing people we are. Shouldn’t have to be ashamed to say yes, my ancestors were born in Africa. To speak up proudly and say I have African blood running through my veins. To stop forgetting and start learning.

Abandonment and Dismemberment: Something Torn & New

I enjoyed the lecture Dr. Beatty gave on Abondonment and Dismemberment. In our first blog we were asked to tell what lecture we looked forward to and this lecture was what I looked forward to. This lecture was my favorite and most interesting so far. We were asked to raise our hands if we felt like the Africans were torn from "everything" when invaded. I did not raise my hand, because I feel as though if we were torn from everything no one would remember. There would be no language, literature, dance, apparel, etc to trace back.

OMOLUABI

On Thursday, Dr. G's lecture was titled: "Omoluabi: Self Actualization and Communal Responsibility". I feel as though everything I spoke on tied in to having a good character and showing respect. One thing that stood out to me this past Thursday was that "knowledge, wisdom, and intellect" were all used in both Dr. G and Dr. Carr's lectures. Those three nouns play a big part in the human society. I like how Dr. G told the story of Iwa to show the significance of how character can get lost. In the story, Iwa means character. Iwa was the wide of Orunmila, the God of Wisdom. Surru, the God of patience, was the father of Iwa. Orunmila mistreated Iwa and eventually Iwa left. After Iwa left, Orunmila lost everthing he had, so he looked for Iwa. After taking in the story and thinking about what it means to me, I came to the conclusion that Suuru being the God of patience and Iwa's father, Iwa had patience and probably put up with Orunmila's mistreatment for a while before leaving. Iwa meaning character, Orunmila probably didn't know that she played a big part in his life. Though Orunmila was the God of Wisdom, after losing Iwa, he lost everything. Having great wisdom, intellect, and or knowledge are great, but without character, you have nothing.

“Learning, Wisdom, and the African World” (lecture #1)

1. To be African is to be brilliant and excellent. Dr. Carr makes it very clear that Africa is the birthplace of brilliance and excellence. He invoked the images of Seshat, the creator and Goddess of numbers and according to Dr. Carr “rocked leopard skin”. Djehuty was her husband and the creator of letters. He referenced these two greats of our history to show that we are indeed genetically members of the source of academic origins. This powerful link allowed us to connect mentally and emotionally to the richness, greatness and authority from which we come. We were indeed able to see that “To be African is to be Brilliant and Excellent.” From here Dr. Carr, in my opinion achieved his objective to call us into re-membering and re-setting our “Axis of Learning Around Excellence” through the eyes of Sankofa (taking us to Seshat and Djehuty).
2. Dr. Carr also broke down the meaning of an Mbongi. I had never heard this term before. It is a space where the community is engaged with one another for the purpose of to solve problems. According to Dr. Carr it is a “physical and intellectual space” where members come together, creating a kind of “think tank, which develops the best ways of knowing and keeping the traditions which characterize the group and order thought.” He also pointed out that this is a “common shelter” meaning this is a safe and protective place. I will always hold as vey significant the next thing he said. He stated that in this space all are given permission to speak however everyone is “required to speak with authority and clarity.” This is showing that everyone is valued and should also respect themselves as a valuable contributor to the growth of their community and an actual instrument of “effect” of the world at large. This is showing that when one views herself in this way she will hold herself accountable for her actions and be more mindful of the impact her action or non action has on the world. What a strong community, nation and world this would be if we all held and maintained such a high healthy self esteem.
3. Another point of immense value was the lens with which Dr. Carr magnified how many were trained to forget. He reminded us of how many Africans were separated from their memory. He highlighted that many American peoples of African descent have been taught that the history of their ancestors began with Africans who “showed up pickin cotton”. This of course resulted in the psychological disconnecting from Africa among many African Americans. Indeed many supporters of white supremacy desired this memory loss of connection to a power source.
Many Africans were enslaved and ripped from their continent. Africans have been spread across the globe as a result of many factors other than the Trans Atlantic Enslavement Trade. However it was this that caused the most amount of displacement of Africans and their descendants. Africans were forcefully taken to places like Brazil, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago and North America. Despite this, we maintained memory seemingly in our DNA. Retention of things such as the African way of cooking, African rhythms, African dress, African color combinations and African drum beats are all just a few examples of the presence of this memory across space and time. Though many of these continue to experience some evolution, the authenticity of the retention of memory is undeniable.
Seeing myself as heir “…to a tradition of African thinking” makes me feel powerful, influential and a strong sense of responsibility to be the best and most authentic human I can.