The Importance and Strength of the African Family in North America

By Frank T. Scruggs

What is important to us as African people of the world? First of all I think the most important thing for us as a people is to avoid falling into the trap of selfism which Dr. John Gueguen, Illinois State University professor emeritus, described as being a “studied preoccupation with the self which causes everything else to orbit around it.”

We, African people, need to look at our five pivotal institutions; the family, our spirituality, our schools and education, politics and economic. Holistically, we need to think of what we can do to improve each of these areas for our community and our future. Our families are the foundation of our community and we need to come to the realization family is sacred. Today, our families seem to be slipping apart as more and more African women become better educated and fewer African men go to college and even disdain education. To our credit, many Black men are doing the right thing however the mainstream media and some members of our own community are far too concerned about those within the criminal justice system.

Far too often we have been partners in claiming pathologies that are common in all human beings. African people are in no way, pathologically prone towards crime, violence and other ills; especially when these problems prevail in our communities due to causes mainly arising out of the lack of economic opportunity within our communities. We must stop allowing ourselves to be defined as ghetto dwellers, hoods, hoochies, ho’s, gangsters, pimps, slaves and second-class citizens (regardless of where we are located in the world). Next our own souls must be purged and purified of the stress, strife and strain of everyday life before we return home to one another and our families.

Our families, when healthy and strong, provide us comforting, healing and the power to regenerate our spirit and renew our souls. Family provide us with moral courage; the strength to encourage and influence others to live up to higher human principles. Higher human principle such as the six pillars of self-esteem recommended by bell hooks which include 1) personal integrity, 2) living consciously, 3) self-acceptance, 4) self-responsibility, 5) self-assertiveness and 6) practicing kindness and compassion.

Spiritually, we can stand by what we believe is the right thing to do for our people by rediscovering our moral courage. The principle of moral courage requires us to be involved with others, having a sense of group affinity and community; shared values and higher human principles. Politically, our government and we ourselves need to think in terms of who we as the African people of North America are today and who our posterity will be tomorrow.

Please feel free to leave your comments and ideas about what we can do as a people to lay claim on our rich identity as a people; any solutions will start with us first.

Let’s keep the conversation going, contact me at fscruggs@yahoo.com and by all means please talk to each other.

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