RISE

Photo: Valario Davis via Unsplash

The world is a much smaller place since 1998, I remember it was the year I first watched the ‘The Lion King’. As a boy, no older than six years old at the time, I remember quite vividly singing ‘I just can’t wait to be King’.

In hindsight I realise that my first experience of ‘The Lion King’ was in Africa. The concept of Kingship was very real to me growing up, so in a real way I truly connected to the story of ‘The Lion King’. I was quite literally raised on the knowledge that my ancestors were great warriors, leaders, and Kings. From six years old I walked with my head held high, informing the people around me that I was a Prince, who one day will be King. Granted at six years old I took the idea of being ‘King’ very literally, the is that a young black child, growing up in this world, walked around with his head held high, as it should be. I am not singular in this reality of descending from Kings; every black child on the planet is descended from Kings and Queens. If nothing else, I affirm this to black culture all over the world. Black people must know their truth; we must experience our heritage, because it is much greater than what we experience today as being black and alive.

It is now, in 2020, that I truly realise how rare that experience is, especially for young black men and women growing up outside of Africa. In light of the global Black Lives Matter movement, the #EndSARS movement and an increased cultural awareness of the Black experience, there has been an uprising of Black representation and the amplification of Black voices in popular culture - this includes the conversation of going back home, to remember who you are. Of late, Black figures like Jay Z, Jay Electronica, Beyonce and Burna Boy to name a few, in recent music projects like, ’A Written Testimony’, ‘African Giant’ and Disney’s remake of ‘The Lion King’, featuring Beyonce’s epic visual album ‘Black is King’, have affirmed their experiences and amplified voices from the Black diaspora, raising the consciousness of young Black men and women across the world - reclaiming their royal legacy. 

Perspective is a beautiful thing: our perspective of ourselves is what forms the path we walks in life. I have been raised across multiple continents, I have a unique experience of life as a black individual. My experience of life as a young child growing up in Nigeria, my further experience of life between the United Kingdom and the United States, has put quite clearly into perspective where many young black men and women sit today, on history’s timeline. 

I have been privileged to live in Brooklyn (New York), Inglewood (California), Chiswick (London), and I have observed that some black men and women are truly unaware of who they are; yet, this does not change the fact that somewhere outside of the bubbles of New York, California and London, these young black people are Kings in their true homes - the Kingdoms of their ancestors. 

Whilst the ‘black experience’ is not a universal experience, I do believe that it can be and perhaps at this moment it should be - a global understanding of where we truly come from and as such who we truly are. It is not to say that all young black men and women who grow up in Africa know themselves to be ‘Kings’ either; in honesty, it is a conversation about the enlightenment of all individuals within a culture. Generally speaking, as black culture, we are often unaware of the truths of our past, and as such, unaware of our true story - our history. Some affirm that the evolution of Western Civilisation is the cause of Black culture’s loss of their identity, arguing that as the Western world civilised itself, it used the labour and oppression of black minds to do so.

I speak in general terms when I say that African-Americans today understand themselves as American first and as African second. The African-European society holds the White-European lifestyle to high regard - as the way forward - that they work hard to emulate it, without realising that in the process they lose who they uniquely are - African, first. I observe this in the African-European’s idea of their identity, especially in older generations; as older generations often migrated westward to live and emulate what was considered, ‘a better way of life’. Yet in doing so, in believing that outside of home is where a better way of life is, one no longer ventures to new lands to evolve as an individual, instead to evolve into another individual. To this point, in discussing the worldwide distribution of the species, Darwin states “in their new homes they will be exposed to new conditions, and will frequently undergo further modification and improvement; and thus they will become still further victorious, and will produce groups of modified descendants.” (Darwin, C. On The Origin of Species, Oxford University Press, New York, 2008, p. 258). That is, to take advantage of what the Western world has to offer, evolve into greater black men and women, and use that knowledge to educate our brothers and sisters, not to lose our identities, rather to evolve it and produce greater descendants. I believe it is quite clear what the impact of this might be, when black generations with either an accepting or rejecting perspective on who they are, raise black children.

In black culture today, we see a great rise in enlightenment; a rise in the understanding of our past and our present. We can look forward, with growth of the culture as our mind state. If there is any positive to take from the incessant generational experience of oppression, it is that it is the oppressed who rise to change the status quo - because, quite literally, the status quo will not be changed by those benefiting from it most. It is black and brown culture that shall now give the world its next greatest thinkers, changers and doers. It is black culture which must rise most at this time, so it is black culture which must change the world today. Whether we want to or not, whether we feel it is our responsibility or not, we must either rise and be those who rose from oppression to change the world - moving it forward - or remain where we have been put.

I am forever thankful for the works of great Black artists, creators, inventors, academics an professionals like Fela Kuti, Sean ‘Jay Z’ Carter, Bob Marley, Tyler Perry, Lebron James, Thurgood Marshall, Michael E. Dyson, Damini “Burna Boy” Ogulu and many many more, who chose to raise their culture by expressing their truths. As black men and women, we must learn from these individuals, the necessity of raising oneself whilst remembering to lift our brothers and sisters to do the same.