Nubian’s Nescience

Just as a tree without roots is dead, a people without historical or cultural roots also becomes dead. When you look at those of you who are called Negroes, you are called that because you are like a dead people. You have nothing to identify yourselves as part of the human family. You know, you take a tree, you can tell what kind of tree it is by looking at its leaves. If the leaves are gone, you can look at the bark, and tell what kind it is. However, when you find a tree with its leaves and bark gone – everything’s gone – you call that a what? A stump; and you cannot identify a stump easily as you can identify a tree. This is the position that you are in here in America. Formerly you could be identified by the name you wore when you came here. When you were first brought here, you had different names. When you were first brought here you had a different language that identified the culture and land that you were brought from.

In identifying that, you were able to point toward what you had produced, your net worth. But once your names and languages were taken, your identity was destroyed, and your roots were cut off with no history, you became like a stump (Psalm 83:4), something dead, a twig over here in the western hemisphere. (Reclaim your cult[ure].)

• A stump illustration

Excerpted from Our True Roots by Dr. Malachi Z. York-El
Recommended: Ordinariness, Fit Into America