How Do We Set Up An African Centered Curriculum On LivinginBlack?

[Shaka Barak]

Fellow members of the African race greetings. As I said when I first joined that I would read and study what you have placed on LivinginBlack. There are some of you who have built your pages with so much information that you have created a liberation, nationalist, economic University. My question is how do we educators work with brothers and sisters like Minister 8 Ball, RBG, Original Sista, Bro. Dr. Matt, Goddess isis, just to name a few, to have our elementary, highschool and college students come here to a curiculum, lesson plan, exams and more research. Most public school systems have blocked LivinginBlack on the computers there, so students would have to use community or home computers. My last thought on this for now is, what if one page could be set up that is linked with all the conscious pages like a class room that African children would be sent to and awarded if they complete the course?

[Proverb]

Very well stated.

[JC Callaway]

Blessings to all. Taking all comments into account, it's necessary that we do create an online curriculum, based on the abundance of knowledge contained here on LIB. However, I don't think the curriculum needs to be on LIB per say, but another ning network could be developed, as a sister network to LIB, and the subject matter could derive from members of LIB. This "Sister Network" would be exclusive for youth ~ their own network ~ e.g., livinginblackyouth. This way the education system cannot argue that it's a social network only; and LIB can remain a "Grown Folks" Network. Of course, we can build our faculty form LIB members, and parents would have to sign up on LIB; this would, naturally, increase our membership toward reaching our membership goal.

[Frank Narmer John]

Greetings:

LivinginBlack already has numerous African-centered educators providing online education for youth and adults. Check out www.ayaed.com and of course Mwalimu Baruti's offering as well. I'm sure there are other educators on here too. At some time in the near future you should be able to click on the marketplace tab at the top, then click on education and be able to see a wide variety of educational offerings for our youth.

Narmer

[Bro. Dr. Ahmses Maat]

Let's make this the topic for tommorrow's Maat Production.com show on www.LibRadio.com at 1pm - pst 4 pm est,. Is everyone down?

Ahmses
LIB Administrator.

[Azania Speaks Power!]

Hetepu!

Blacktastic vision/suggestion!

Azania Speaks -- POWER!

[Afiya]

So good to see so much energy around educating our youth. It's a must. I am Afiya Madzimoyo, co-director of AYA Educational Institute along with my husband, Wekesa Madzimoyo. For ten years we have been educating our own and presently serve students throughout the states in GA, MS, Chicago, Baltimore, Boston, CA and Trinidad. Using a web-conference platform, we teach a full-day African-centered curriculum.

www.ayaed.com
404-284-9667

Our Mission

Through its various programs and publications, AYA's mission is to provide educational services for children, youth and adults that facilitate Africans and Africans in the Diaspora developing
A HIGH motivation to achieve academically and socially based on a clear African identity and commitment to serve the African community first.

* A track record of demonstrable academic and social excellence

* A HIGH degree of self love, cultural love, people-hood consciousness and active extension for African economic and political strength

* A ZERO degree of dependency on those that have and continue to oppress us

We also provide online academic tutoring, learning acceleration and test preparation.

Check us out online.

[Bro. Dr. Ahmses Maat]

I attempted to contact you today and the line was busy... Can you come back on with this as a follow up show?

Ahmses

[Afiya]

Bro. Ahmses, thanks for the reach-out. You can always reach me at 404-492-7836 and Wekesa at 404-201-2356. These numbers will ring to us wherever we are.

Actually, Wekesa will be the direct person at AYA to speak with, and he looks forward to it.

Some folks are still asking about your coming back to ATL to do your workshop, and I know we could do it via our web conference platform, so whenever the both of us can put our heads together on this I know we will.

Sincerely,

Afiya
404-492-7836

[Shaka Barak]

Greetings Bro. Dr. Ahmses. That was a great show that served our race on Sunday/
Mothers Day. Dehuti or Tehuti was great and very committted. Keidi brought to the disccussion the leadership we needed. The Livinginblack audience of Africans are very serious. It would be an honor to serve on a another show with you.

[Mwalimu K. Bomani Baruti]

Greetings Bro. Shaka (& family),

I apologize for my lateness to this discussion and thank Bro. Narmer for appraising me of it. The discussion of an online university, or communiversity, seems to have come to a head. And it is such an exciting idea (although it goes back for us in this space to the Afrikan schools established by our Ancestors during and at the end of our enslavement to properly educate our children because, then, it seems, we knew others genocidal intent) that has taken on a serious grassroots movement. I am seeing evidence of classes and sites dedicated to this popping up all over the internet and in our communities. Many of these local classes resemble the work mainly found in places like ny during the harlem renaissance. They remind me of the energy and initiative of the likes of Doc Ben and Nana John Henrik Clarke who opened up their homes and other spaces to just teach. No questions. Just come and leave the stupidity and willful ignorance outside. We need to see more of these initiatives because we have so many people in our community who have studied what we need but do not feel qualified or believe they have the facilities to do this work. If you know something I don't know then I can learn from you. We can learn together. What's wrong with a basement, kitchen or living room? Why do we have to waste time searching for funding for space when we already have it (unless the audience is too large for what we have to accommodate). We hold adult/family education classes in our living room every semester and other people in the community will also be using our space shortly. There is nothing special about our house. It is the intent and sense of obligation that may differ, but nothing else. I said "family" in reference to our classes because our education is supposed to be a communal function. And communal includes children. A number of children have attended our classes with their parents. I remember Nana Amos N. Wilson, in the first essay of his "green" book, making the point that a nationalist understands that the individual who only teaches the adults is not really a nationalist because this is a very limited approach. And that is what I like about the initial statement and responses. We are talking about educating family, educating a nation, from an Afrikan nationalist center, independently and with full knowledge that the western education system is training us into less than we are as it is designed to and that the only correction, knowing this, is for us to educate ourselves as we are supposed to. In terms of the internet, I would like to suggest looking at www.abibitumumikasa.com as an example of the effort of one individual to create an environment where online classes are held by and for us. This summer, there will be classes by Kamau Kambon, Runoko Rashidi and myself. The more of these independent efforts we have the better we are. And there are many of us who have the skills and know how to set up sites for our warrior scholars who do not have the computer expertise so that they can teach the community. None of this is to dismiss the efforts of LibRadio, InnerLight, Harambee or others, including this site which I consider a natural outgrowth of LibRadio, in their educating missions. Their strategy is different (and we need a multiplicity of strategies to get this job done correctly) but fully complementary to online classes, just as are the lectures posted by family on this site by our warrior scholars. The question of credit is an interesting one because it begs the question of validation. Who, outside ourselves, should we be going to and asking for acceptance of us truthfully studying ourselves. Credit should be reflected in an improvement in our work. Of course, that's a discussion within itself because so many of us with hundreds of credit hours from others are doing exactly nothing to improve the quality of Afrikan minds and life.

[Mwalimu K. Bomani Baruti]

I must reiterate that no one but us is qualified to educate us and, therefore, no one else can be held accountable for our education. The children need us to establish an educational institution which empowers us as a people, as a nation. What I see here is a gigantic step in that direction.

[Shaka Barak]

Greetings Brotha Mwalimu K. Bomani Baruti. One does not obtain the knowledge that you have acquired without putting in the work. With your leadership, you will save us many hours and years as we move to improve the quality of the African masses minds and life. Not only can we learn from each other but collectively we will create audiences of a number we can not count (infinite), our impact will extend into a future we can not measure (eternity) as we prepare to win.