Note that I said "refining" in the title & not "redefining" because I'm not changing anything, I'm simply reintroducing what we know works as Africans to relevant places.
In South Africa there are many groups of black people who are almost completely culturally white/European. Their only reminder that they are black is that they may speak an indigenous African language. Race & culture are often intertwined but are two different things. So what would a black/African man need to be considered a black African man?
1) Language: The most distinguishing feature that someone is a black African man is that they speak a black African language. You can speak many world languages in the globalised world but if you can't speak your own indigenous language or a black African language, it's hard to consider you African.
2) Surname: In a globalised world, many black people pick names of foreign origin. There are many Mohammed's in West Africa, many Jean's in Francophone Africa, Alfonso's in Lusophone Africa, David's in Anglophone Africa & so on. But your surname, at least from my culture, is your clan name where your blood originates. If you don't have that, you virtually have no African origin on paper. You are from wherever your surname originates from.
I'm not going to babble on about culture because culture is fluid & speculative at times. Many older & some younger black people enjoy classical European music for example, I don't think it makes an individual any less black. Many people in the developed world listen to Malian/griot music but that doesn't make them any less what they are or any more African.
3) Affiliation/Association/Solidarity: We often don't mention this when asserting identity but the French already formalised it when they broadened their definition of who is French to people who may not stereotypically look French. The best example I can come up with for this is the Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Chukwuma "Kaduna" Nzeogwu who grew up with "northerners" (Hausa) & would speak their language more than his ethnic Igbo language, he would also wear northerner clothes as opposed to typical Igbo clothing. They'd say "He was Igbo in name only." So he was essentially a northerner & his affiliation was to northerners despite him being born of Igbo parents. If you are not affiliated/associated (i. e. show solidarity) with black African people, are you really black or African? We never consider this when defining what a person is. Napoleon was pure Italian but will always be remembered as French because of all he did for France. Which group of people does an individual gravitate towards? Even though in time your solidarity eventually aligns with your blood/language/culture, it does not always for various human reasons. So your solidarity with black Africans matters when we decide whether you're a black African or not. Because you could be a black African in name but have more allegiance to Vietnam due to you being raised in Vietnam. And in that case, you're Vietnamese & not African.
1) Language: The most distinguishing feature that someone is a black African man is that they speak a black African language. You can speak many world languages in the globalised world but if you can't speak your own indigenous language or a black African language, it's hard to consider you African.
2) Surname: In a globalised world, many black people pick names of foreign origin. There are many Mohammed's in West Africa, many Jean's in Francophone Africa, Alfonso's in Lusophone Africa, David's in Anglophone Africa & so on. But your surname, at least from my culture, is your clan name where your blood originates. If you don't have that, you virtually have no African origin on paper. You are from wherever your surname originates from.
I'm not going to babble on about culture because culture is fluid & speculative at times. Many older & some younger black people enjoy classical European music for example, I don't think it makes an individual any less black. Many people in the developed world listen to Malian/griot music but that doesn't make them any less what they are or any more African.
3) Affiliation/Association/Solidarity: We often don't mention this when asserting identity but the French already formalised it when they broadened their definition of who is French to people who may not stereotypically look French. The best example I can come up with for this is the Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Chukwuma "Kaduna" Nzeogwu who grew up with "northerners" (Hausa) & would speak their language more than his ethnic Igbo language, he would also wear northerner clothes as opposed to typical Igbo clothing. They'd say "He was Igbo in name only." So he was essentially a northerner & his affiliation was to northerners despite him being born of Igbo parents. If you are not affiliated/associated (i. e. show solidarity) with black African people, are you really black or African? We never consider this when defining what a person is. Napoleon was pure Italian but will always be remembered as French because of all he did for France. Which group of people does an individual gravitate towards? Even though in time your solidarity eventually aligns with your blood/language/culture, it does not always for various human reasons. So your solidarity with black Africans matters when we decide whether you're a black African or not. Because you could be a black African in name but have more allegiance to Vietnam due to you being raised in Vietnam. And in that case, you're Vietnamese & not African.
RECLAIMING LOST DIGNITY:
My theory on why black communities seem to be stereotyped as corrupted & dysfunctional is that we don't plan an individual's life to develop an individual into a complete person, this would include a relative amount of self-determination like owning our own institutions - schools, banks, tertiary institutions & various businesses & industries. This sometimes means obtaining independent political institutions for our self-determination i. e. a sovereign state.
A few factors to consider in developing a black community/nation:
Youth development: Equipping youth with necessary skills for survival & to be productive in the land. Ensuring their physical, mental & emotional development is up to standard.
Post education system: What do the young individuals do once they leave the education system? Do they serve in the military to protect the country & it's borders to gain an extra level of discipline & sense of responsibility? Do they get put in a database after they have completed their school & tertiary education to get sorted into a suitable available job in the state? Because if you leave job advertisements & vacancies to the private sector, everything becomes decentralised & the right people won't always be found for a job as opposed to a centralised government database & job placement system.
A few factors to consider in developing a black community/nation:
Youth development: Equipping youth with necessary skills for survival & to be productive in the land. Ensuring their physical, mental & emotional development is up to standard.
Post education system: What do the young individuals do once they leave the education system? Do they serve in the military to protect the country & it's borders to gain an extra level of discipline & sense of responsibility? Do they get put in a database after they have completed their school & tertiary education to get sorted into a suitable available job in the state? Because if you leave job advertisements & vacancies to the private sector, everything becomes decentralised & the right people won't always be found for a job as opposed to a centralised government database & job placement system.
National morale: Things like national sports, national activities that bring some unified joy to the people.
Elders/veterans: Benefits the elderly get to make their lives easier in their old age & incentives for the military system i. e. benefits obtained by people who serve the land's military.
We need to look into developing ourselves into the people we want to be rather than let the "streets" raise us. To all those who think that this is a foreign, un-African or anti-black practice; you'll be surprised to know that an African conceptualised this. From educational fables, to circumcision, to virginity testing, to marriage rituals, to right-of-passage rituals; all was done to ensure society doesn't succumb to moral decay long before the first European ships landed on our shores. These cultural rituals then vary from nation to nation & tribe to tribe because ethnostates were common in Africa but that's another blog topic.
Elders/veterans: Benefits the elderly get to make their lives easier in their old age & incentives for the military system i. e. benefits obtained by people who serve the land's military.
We need to look into developing ourselves into the people we want to be rather than let the "streets" raise us. To all those who think that this is a foreign, un-African or anti-black practice; you'll be surprised to know that an African conceptualised this. From educational fables, to circumcision, to virginity testing, to marriage rituals, to right-of-passage rituals; all was done to ensure society doesn't succumb to moral decay long before the first European ships landed on our shores. These cultural rituals then vary from nation to nation & tribe to tribe because ethnostates were common in Africa but that's another blog topic.
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