By Darvi Brooks
Obuntu is kindred spirit. It is the depth in the greeting between brothers, pulled in through a handshake and followed by “dap” – a finishing gesture of a tap on the back. Obuntu is the familiar feeling of it seeming like only yesterday, when really it’s been decades. It effervesces from the smiles and eyes of old folk, instinctively passing it along by nature of their very existence.
Obuntu (pronounced oh-boon-to) is a Bantu word from the Luyia people in Kenya, meaning interconnectedness. Spelling and pronunciation vary slightly due to distinctions among the more than 400 languages in the Bantu family. Traditional African culture has always been characterized by “safi obuntu.” Safi (sah-fee) is Swahili for pure and clean.
When people possess the moral trait of Obuntu, it endows them with a strong sense of humanity. They are ethical and generous in their community and in life at large. A person with Obuntu is unselfish and cares for others with a rational sense of belonging to a society. This harmonious consciousness is what is needed to unify and uplift the African American community, say some community leaders.
Dr. Lucas Nandih Shamala from Kenya is an assistant professor at Metropolitan State College, who teaches classes on African people and culture. Shamala practices and promotes Obuntu. He emphasizes that for African Americans to view ourselves in a positive light, “the first thing that needs to be understood (about the term African American) is that it's a notion that speaks about a very troublesome history in human society. The mere fact that we use that term behooves us to look back in history. It's an indictment of Western history for the evil of slavery and the slave trade. 'African-American' is a product of that. It is a necessary terminology to help people deal with their identity. It has a positive element in helping people define who they are and define their roots.”
Shamala speaks of a double consciousness for people of African American descent, stating, “We have to deal with our African-ness and our American-ness, born into one.”
He teaches that we must look at ourselves through a historical lens to witness our strength and to identify ourselves correctly.
“It is important to come out of the term ‘Black’ because, even by the dictionary, black has very negative connotations,” he explains.
“African Americans are dealing with a level of ‘blackness.’ Remember, they were called Negroes without a choice about it, so they have been named, labeled, signified by the dominant ruling class in history."
Shamala adds, “The trouble with Blacks, African Americans, people of color over the world, is that we are required to know everyone else's history. Knowledge systems, all the structures, systems in place in the world today, have been constructed alongside the Euro-Western society. They lift up western ideas that undermine people of color.”
Black people and the African diaspora are very misunderstood, he continues.
“We did not write our knowledge system but that does not mean it doesn't exist,” he says. “The lens used does not make the real existence comprehensible. The wrong tool has been used for knowledge and it didn't do Africans justice.”
Dr. Art Jones, a senior clinical psychology professor at the University of Denver, is the founder of The Spirituals Project, which is dedicated to keeping alive the songs and the teachings of enslaved Africans during slavery.
Through choir concerts and various educational programs, “People can experience music that was created by people that by all objective rights should not have been hopeful about anything, but did and were,” Jones says. “And, if they could do that, there is no excuse for us.”
The spirituals were the sustenance and glue that unified a people and cultivated Obuntu.
During the African slave trade, it was to the advantage of people in power to create a class of people they could identify as less than human to justify free labor, Jones elaborates.
“They created poor images about us to convince themselves they were doing a good thing. It's just continued. It's about power. The sad thing is we take this in ourselves,” he says. “We internalize all the images that have been created about us, and we sometimes become our own worst enemies.”
Shamala agrees, stating “the concept of divide and conquer is a classic method the oppressor, dominant group, uses to keep the oppressed down. The oppressor sets the standard and when we try to fit in, they discover another way. They shift the goal because we don't have power over where the goal is and we don't set the rules.”
Jones adds, “When there's a powerful oppressor, it's always easier to fight against ourselves than to fight against the oppressor. We don't have to be passive victims. If we'd come together, we'd be a force to be reckoned with. We did do it once, during the civil rights movement.”
“Black people have been taking care of other people throughout history and we need to learn to take care of ourselves,” Shamala proclaims, returning to the concept of Obuntu.
James Ellis, alumni and chair of the board of the African American Leadership Institute, says there has to be elements that bring people to the table, and what's missing is authentic leadership, committed to its cause.
“The cause creates the leadership. It is by its very nature charismatic, and that's what makes it authentic,” Ellis says. “The isolation from each other is very strong in Denver and that isolation does not promote unity.”
Shamala says African Americans need solutions to move toward community, unity and the “it takes a village” concept.
“We must go to the elders. Books are good too, but books written by black people,” he clarifies. “We must revisit history with a black lens. It's a lot of work and will take a lot of time, commitment and investment, financial, social and cultural.”
Concurring, Jones says that by writing articles, meeting in gatherings, working together with a really positive focus, and supporting our own businesses, African Americans can begin to unify and reconnect with Obuntu.
“Finding out how good it feels to do that is very rewarding,” he concludes. “Gathering places where people can come together and have a good time are important. Brother Jeff (of Brother Jeff's Cultural Café in Five Points) has a model that is providing a welcoming gathering place in the community, where people can come together, welcome each other and feel empowered to change their conditions.
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