The Depth Beyond Our Skin

Since I have stepped foot on campus I have heard nothing but good things about Dr. Carr. People speak to the enthusiasm he exudes in his lectures which display his love for the African culture and the subjects in which he teaches. I am so glad I was able to experience this teaching for myself during our Freshman Seminar class this past week. The knowledge he instilled in us that day was something a majority of us never had the opportunity to hear. Dr. Carr was correct when he said we spend time in school learning more of our history in terms of slavery rather than the contributions our people have made.

 Coming from a predominately white school I have never heard of an Mbongi but the concept was amazing to me. It was weird to think that we live through this concept everyday not knowing it. An Mbongi is literally “a physical and intellectual space, or “common shelter” which constitutes many traditional African functions: law and order, cultural education, maintenance of social and political life, conflict resolution, the council of elders.” This can be translated into daily life through barbershops, hair salons, cookouts, and other places African Americans get together to talk and gossip.  We have unspoken brotherly and sisterly bonds between one another simply through the fact that we carry the same pride in our race.

Another valid point Dr. Carr made was that although in school we were taught that our history began with slavery and we have come a long way since then, we cannot let that be the basis of our accomplishments. We are more than just a race who endured slavery and racism and managed to produce the first U.S. leader of our kind, Barack Obama. We have done so much more than that. We were the first to produce any people from our motherland, Africa; we created text through Egyptian writing and held many power positions in many countries before Obama was even born. We were leaders before the world decided to acknowledge our accomplishments and give us any credit. If they won’t be the ones to credit us with what we deserve then the least we could do is learn for ourselves where we come from and the depth of our race. I am honored to be part of such a rich culture of astonishing, intelligent, and powerful people. I only wish more was done earlier in life to make us more aware of everything Dr. Carr showed us. I truly enjoyed his lecture and am looking forward to hearing more from the various speakers we will have this semester.