NAKUMBUKA I REMEMBER

Murphy Browne © November 2017

“Nakumbuka Day is a day to freely and openly grieve the trauma of the genocide of African peoples through enslavement, and its continued after-effects. This event will feature a number of artists and performers to help students, staff, faculty, and community members process this trauma through collective, artistic mediums. Nakumbuka, a Kiswahili word meaning "I remember," is a day of remembrance for the Maafa, a Kiswahili word that means "great disaster or devastating occurrence" and refers to the genocide of African peoples through enslavement, including the Middle Passage. Nakumbuka Day will feature collective ritual healing ceremonies including African drumming, poetry, dancing, spoken word, singing, and a personal reflection ceremony.”

Excerpt from the webpage of Occidental College in Los Angeles for Nakumbuka Day, November 11, 2017 https://www.oxy.edu/events/nakumbuka-day

Nakumbuka Day has been commemorated/recognized on November 11 for close to three decades. The commemoration of Nakumbuka Day was the brainchild of Jomo Nkombe, a Tanzanian who lived in Toronto and pioneered the idea in 1990. Nkombe asked Charles ‘Mende’ Roach an activist lawyer/jurist to take the idea of Nakumbuka Day to the 1992 World Pan African Movement Conference which was held in Nigeria. During the August (1st – 8th) 1992 World Pan African Movement Conference in Badagry, Nigeria the observance of “Nakumbuka Day” as a day of Remembrance was established. Africans from various countries on the continent and the Diaspora who attended that conference were encouraged to return to their communities and establish the observance of Nakumbuka Day on November 11 of each year.

Nakumbuka Day was promoted in Nigeria by Naiwu Osahon. In the USA, Nakumbuka Day was initiated at San Diego State University, California on November 11, 1994 by Baye Kes-Ba-Me-Ra and Adande Ima-Shema-Ra of the Pan African Associations of America. In Toronto the Nakumbuka Day observance began in the 1990’s and in 2003 Charles Roach went to Kingston, Jamaica and with Jamaican writer/educator Basil “Ku-Soonogo” Lopez, established the first Nakumbuka Day Ceremony at Mico College. Charles Roach who transitioned on October 2, 2012 was the driving force behind the annual Nakumbuka Day Remembrance in Toronto. The Nakumbuka Day ceremonies in Toronto organized by Nkombe and Roach were usually street processions called “Bwagomoyo to Ujiji.” The participants dressed in African clothing and some symbolically wore shackles. At the end of each procession there would be the symbolic “breaking of chains” and the reciting of a pledge to lifelong struggle for the liberation of Africa and African people. The Nakumbuka Day ritual involved saying/recognizing the names of ports from which enslaved Africans were taken with the response "Nakumbuka!"

Observing Nakumbuka Day reminds us that we should never dismiss, minimize or simplify the approximately four hundred years of devastation and horror visited upon our ancestors during their enslavement. On Nakumbuka Day we must remember those African ancestors who were killed as they resisted their enslavement in various ways. Some resisted by waging armed resistance against the Europeans who kidnapped them while others resisted by fleeing, breaking tools or poisoning their enslavers. Nakumbuka Day is a time to reflect, read and share our history especially with the next generation. We must remember and strategize ways to ensure “never again.”

The horror and inhumane brutality of the Maafa, must never be repeated, never forgotten. The result of the Maafa devastated many communities on the African continent including centuries of underdevelopment. The more than 400 years theft of the human resources of the continent did irreparable harm to its people and its people of the Diaspora. During the Maafa Africans were ripped away from their families and in many cases worked to death solely for the enrichment of European individuals and nations. They were not killed quickly but slowly worked to death until their bodies just gave out. In an article “Slaves Worked to Death” from the “New York Daily News” published on Sunday, July 20, 1997 White American journalist Mark Mooney wrote: “The first phase of a $20 million study of slave skeletons from the city's recently discovered African Burial Ground indicates that many of them even children were literally worked to death. A heartbreaking example of the stunted, horrific lives led by many of the slaves is the medical history of a 6-year-old boy known only as No. 39. The boy's teeth and bones tell his age and a medical history that includes malnutrition, anemia from birth, serious infections, indications of unusually developed muscles from heavy lifting and fractures of his neck bones indicating major trauma from carrying large loads on his head. His tale is one of 427 being sorted out by Howard University's African-American Burial Ground Project. The 427 sets of human remains were unearthed near City Hall six years ago during excavation for a new federal building. The site is believed to be the graveyard for as many as 20,000 slaves. After black activists protested, the remains were turned over to the project, headed by anthropologist Michael Blakey, and the site declared a U. S. National Historic District. Most of the adult skeletons show lesions on arm, leg and shoulder bones, where muscles were torn away under strain from overwork.”

Africans were destroyed during the more than 400 years enslavement by Europeans, during colonization, neocolonization, apartheid, racial segregation and cultural assimilation. It has resulted in deep spiritual pain of unmeasured effects on Africans worldwide. The horror of the Maafa is compounded by the inability of its victims to express their grief without embarrassment. There has never been any emotional, psychological or spiritual closure or repair to the trauma that was experienced. Every day should be a day of remembering, repairing and reawakening our collective African consciousness. During this UN declared International Decade for People of African Descent we need to insist that the emotional, psychological and spiritual damage/trauma that continues to bedevil our communities is addressed. Reparations now!!

Murphy Browne © November 2017