Lift Where You Stand

“In fact, to take up arms to dominate a people is, above all, to take up arms to destroy, or at least to neutralize, to paralyze, its cultural life. For, with a strong indigenous cultural life, foreign domination cannot be sure of its perpetuation. At any moment…cultural resistance (indestructible) may take on new forms (political, economic, armed) in order fully to contest foreign domination.”

– Amilcar Cabral,  National Liberation and Culture

The cry of the masses of the people throughout Oakland and the Bay Area is one against foreign economic developers causing mass levels of displacement and economic disenfranchisement. These sociological terms give no justice to the level of emotional trauma that such “business as usual” inflicts on the people and families of our communities… The fight against gentrification is REAL, worthy and necessary in every sense. It is our duty then, in this national fight for liberation, for every member of society to lift where they stand. No one person in no one part of the states can lift the burdens of oppression alone: we, the people, must all lift where we stand under a collective and conscious commitment to truth, freedom and justice.

So where do WE stand in the struggle for liberation as members of the African community in the Bay Area? As Cabral indicates, our cultural resistance is the strongest weapon we have. At the moment, we must not focus on the enemy, always reacting to their moves: we must RESIST by celebrating, bolstering and investing in our own culture and simultaneously divesting from theirs. Resistance is the strongest weapon we have. As long as we continue to operate on capitalism, African producers and consumers must lift each other up by internalizing and practicing cooperative economics where we stand –right here in the Bay.

We know we must practice ujamaa but do we understand why? You may think to yourself, “Oh yea, I understand…” but it is not enough for just some of us to understand. We must institute “ujamaa culture”, in which investing in our local African businesses and entrepreneurs is as natural as the curls in our hair. To the point where we are proud and willing to take BART the nearest African store and spend that “extra dollar” over shopping at the convenient store down the street. To the point where we go online to baobobdirectory.com to research Black owned businesses before making our next big purchase. Then and only then, as an organized community with a strong economic base can we decide what to do with the dollars we keep: to purchase land against extractive developers, to create low income housing, to hire our own against disenfranchisement…that’s change on a  revolutionary level.

Today, we largely have the buying power to manifest all of these noble goals! Individually we must be willing to sacrifice some convenience for the vision of lasting economic liberation, accept and propagate the spirit of ujamaa culture. We must get behind organizations such as BAOBOB already committed to doing the work. That is the reason I am writing this blog; it certainly isn’t because I have a passion for writing. It is because I am a proponent for real change, and herein lies an entity committed to the economic aspect of our cultural resistance in the national struggle for liberation. This is me lifting where I stand. Whether it is through the very important work of economic and political organizing, through direct patronage of our local businesses over large, outside producers or basic word of mouth promotion, I encourage everyone to act within their capacity to lift where they stand. Not as a fad, but for the deep, righteous process of economic liberation for our African family (in part of the human family) all over the nation and beyond. In the words of my Papa, “it may be hard by the yard, but it’s a sinch by the inch”.

Peace to the revolution.