Education: Striving For Greater Success
By: Ewa Unoke Ph.D.
A paper delivered to the KCKCC African American Students Union- TAASU during its 6th Annual Silver Harvest Banquet on March 10, 2007
- TAASU Advisor and Dean of Student Services, Richard Lee
- Student Activities Director, Linda Sutton
- TAASU CO-Advisors,
Alice Jenkins, Marisa Gray and Jeremiah Mc Cluney
- President and Vice President of TAASU,
Victor Trammell and Aliesa Roath
- Other Officers of TAASU
- KCKCC Board Members
- President, Provost
- Faculty and Staff here present
- Distinguished Guests and Friends of TAASU
Thank you for inviting me to share my thoughts during your Annual Silver Banquet on the topic; "Education: Striving for Greater Success.” May we begin our celebration by observing a moment of silence in honor of our ancestors, the great warriors for freedom, justice and educational equality especially in remembering the significance of Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954. This year’s celebration is indeed unique as it takes place almost fifty three years after Brown and about ten days after the end of the Black History Month. We owe so much gratitude to Carter G. Woodson for pioneering the black history awareness movement.
For too long, we have been silent over the conscious or unconscious ignorance of many Euro-American historians who have continued to ignore the great contributions of the Africanworld to human development and progress. For too long, the history and contributions of African-Americans have been absent from U.S. history books. But America would be a much different place today if not for the inventions and intellectual contributions of the African-Americans. With education, talent and wisdom, Black inventors have helped to make life better for every American and for humanity. Without the African American creative ingenuity, there would be no traffic lights anywhere in the world today.
On November 20, 1923, Garrett A. Morgan invented and patented his automatic traffic signal which stands as a significant contribution in the evolution of traffic management worldwide. Morgan later sold his technology to General Electric Corporation for $40,000. Similarly, in 1919 Alice Parker of New Jersey invented a new gas-heating furnace for central heating. Without this invention, millions of people would have perished every winter. On November 26, 1962, Paul. E. Williams patented a helicopter, which is now Lockheed Model 186(XH-51). Other inventions by African- Americans include; the refrigerator, lawn mower, pencil sharpener, ice cream, self-starting gas motor, automatic ticket dispenser, automotive air conditioner, spark plug, golf tee, fire extinguisher, clothes dryer, trolley car, gas mask, peanut products, blood banks, elevator and the list goes on.
There is an urgent need to educate today’s youth on the American past, especially since the African meta-narrative or holistic story is still an unfinished business. Just three weeks ago, the Virginia General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution of "profound regret” for "the involuntary servitude of Africans and the exploitation of Native Americans” thereby becoming the first state to express remorse for its past support of slavery. Today, I appeal to you. It is our generation’s turn to write the end of this sad narrative in order to bring healing and national reconciliation, since it is now obvious that the destiny of the American people is indissolubly linked with that of the African people.
As an African scholar, I have come to dine with the students of TAASU and their guests but more importantly I have come to remind them that under the cover of "separate-but-equal” law, many African-American children were forced to learn in dilapidated and ill-equipped, low quality schools. Then, there was no level playing field for quality, critical education which could empower and liberate the long suffering Africans in America. Since Brown, much progress have been made in the restoration of the dignity of the African American person, which would have been unthinkable half a century ago. Progress has been made also in desegregating lunch counters and schools, in ending unprovoked lynching and in ending Jim Crow laws. But I will argue that while de jure (legal) segregation has been successful, de facto (economic) segregation has not. This is why there is an urgent need for a critical type of education which can at once, heal, empower and liberate.
Almost fifty three years after the Supreme Court’s ruling that segregation should end in public schools, the outcome of Brown has arguably altered the social, political and educational landscape of the United States such as: The Civil Rights Act of 1964; African-American two secretaries of state; and most recently, two 2007 Super Bowl Head Coaches’ successes; one most-talked-about presidential candidate (whose Kansan mother is white). Since Brown in 1954, many African-Americans have emerged as; senators, governors, Congressmen and women, and successful corporate personalities. Since desegregated school system opened these doors of opportunities, I will call these great achievers ‘the children of Brown.’ We, at KCKCC and Wyandotte County are lucky to be linked by destiny to this great Kansan narrative.
However, despite these achievements, the pains of the past are still felt today by the African-American people. So then, how can the African-American youth today empower themselves in order to lead their community towards economic justice and greater success in the 21st century?
In a recent survey conducted specifically for this TAASU presentation, 55.5% of the total students polled at KCKCC believe that education is the golden key to their success while 44.5% do not. Something is seriously wrong with this picture, if today’s youth is still unaware that without education the legal, socio-economic and political achievements so far recorded could not have been possible. If Thurgood Marshall and NAACP lawyers, W.E.B Dubois, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Rosa Park, Jesse Jackson, Fredrick Douglas and Booker T. Washington, Ralph J. Bunche did not have good education, imagine what would have been the condition of the African and African- American societies today.
For too long, people of African descent have been erroneously perceived as those who have not contributed anything to human civilization. For too long, they have been depicted as people consigned to the infancy of humanity. For too long, this country’s minority has been treated as America’s Second Class Citizen. This historical child has remained forgotten for a very long time without the right to life, to liberty to own property, to vote and without access to education. When made homeless by Katrina, America’s second child has neither shelter nor any shoulder to cry upon. This child is what Africans call Inweronye, the child of nobody.
Africa is saddened to see how its kits-and-kin who helped to build the great American civilization are consistently treated as nonpersons in the land of their birth.
As a Bison, allow me to explore the intellectual, moral, and political realities of the American subaltern society as I see it. I will adopt a theoretical framework or an African metaphor of America’s Second Child. If I may adapt my former colleague, Charlie Reitz’s postulations, my central argument will seek to determine how to make educational theory more critical and educational philosophy more liberating in other to pave the road to better life for the onwonye, the long-forgotten non-person who has no representation. The America’s Second Child.
According to the Children’s Defense Fund, one in five of America’s youngest children today lives in poverty. But what more do we know about the condition of America’s Second Child? Do we know that one in three black children and one in four Latino children is poor? In striving for greater success through education, poverty has continued to deprive the American Second Child of his or her natural right to better life through quality education.
This Second Child does not grow or develop as fast as other children mentally and educationally. This child is likely to repeat a grade or to drop out of school before graduation. This child is more likely to require special education, to end up on welfare, or in jail. America’s Second Child begins school already thousands of words behind her middle school classmates because "she is not read to, does not have books in her house and is not provided a quality childcare, preschool, or early head start experience.” The condition of this child’s parents deprived her of a good, early family education such as assistance in doing her homework.
America’s Second Child is engaged in an endless multi-front war against family breakdown, neighborhood violence, drugs, fear, shame and sickness. She is tired trying to keep her spirit up; trying to get attention at home and at school, and trying to hang on to a sense of being somebody. America’s Second Child is less likely to have a father at home, the support and affection of two parents, the stability of a married family, a steady family income, significant extended family support and as she gets older is more likely to be abused, arrested and tried as an adult or to be sentenced to prison. This child can no longer trust the adults such as her; teacher, faith leader, media, senator, representative, governor, or president. The American Second Child cannot strive for greater success in education when she is perpetually afraid. Afraid of being hungry always; afraid of having no roof over her head; afraid that her mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, grandmother may disappear or get murdered anytime. America’s Second Child is the most vulnerable American; he is poor, hungry, homeless, unstimulated, abused and neglected during the most important, formative years of his early brain, emotional and social development. But under the U.S. constitution, every American child has the right to life, liberty, to justice and equality.
Thinking of the American youth reminds me of my own experiences with colonial education and the desire to strive for greater success in the traditional African society.
Compared to the African American, I will regard myself as an African First Child.
As an African youth, my early childhood education began with my family values of discipline, respect, honesty and truthtelling.
Early in life, Ogom and Nwadam taught me that hard work is my insurance policy against old age. Divorce in the traditional African society is an unthinkable taboo. Society demands that the training of a child is the collective responsibility of all members of society especially the adults. Although my parents were not literate, the British Colonial system severely punished any youth who failed to do school assignments or class work. Flogging was part of it. As an African Prince, I was not supposed to go to school. In those days, only the children of the poor were drafted to go to school. Coming from the Igbo warrior community it is the responsibility of my family to lead our village to war. However, early enough my father realized that I was neither strong enough nor warrior-like. When I was drafted to go to school, I showed no resistance like other youth. What sustained my interest at school was the sight of my teacher wearing shoes. I had never worn nor seen anybody wear shoes in my rural village. From that point, I knew I wanted to be like my teacher, just so I could wear shoes.
Soon enough, I would discover that Arithmetic had become my worst subject. Day in and day out, I was among the worst kids in this subject who would be flogged by the teacher for not being smart enough in Arithmetic. Since my Mama and Papa did not go to school and could not help with my homework, I had to develop a survival strategy, which was to befriend the better students in Arithmetic, so that they could coach me privately without flogging me.
Secondly, I decided to do my homework always in order to avoid the teacher’s punishment and more importantly since education is my only hope for a more meaningful life. As an African youth, I attended a technical college which is cheaper than a formal secondary school. We had no community colleges in Africa.
Within this period, I mortified my flesh; no drinking, no drugs, no bad friends and no girlfriends. I had a CHOICE to make; between perpetual poverty and future successful life. Yet, success is such a long misunderstood concept. According to Dr. Martin Luther King JR, "We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than the quality of our service and relationship to humanity.”
As an African Youth, I did not understand the American racial question. I come from Nigeria, an energy superpower, a country of over 140 million black people, where one would hardly notice the presence of any other race. My teachers from elementary to technical schools were Nigerians. Like the United States, we were colonized by the British imperium. The British educational system discouraged the teaching of colonialism and slavery in schools. Race was therefore not a factor in my experiences in Africa.
On coming to America, my racial eye began to open. In 2003, my family had its first experience. After a brief misunderstanding with my Caucasian neighbor in Philadelphia, we woke up the following morning to discover that the four tires of my family car had been deflated. The car was lying on its stomach. Similarly, since my arrival at Wyandotte County in mid-July 2005, my family members and I have been profiled by police several times. For over sixteen year’s residency in Philly and five years in D.C. the nation’s capital, my family and I have never been booked for any traffic violations. But since last six months here in Wyandotte County, we have been to the traffic court four times. It is a paradox that despite the gravity of the traffic violation, the offender can always pay extra fees to reduce the so-called traffic offenses to jay-walking.
Later, one of my police confidants would explain why my family is being profiled. We are new, black residents of Piper. When Piper police gets to know us better, profiling will minimize.
Distinguished TAASU members, ladies and gentlemen, education is better than living in ignorance. During the question and answer period after one of my speaking engagements in Washington D.C., an American youth had asked whether it is true that Africans live on trees. I said yes. I narrated how I arrived at J.F.K airport in summer, and because of the excessive heat in Africa, I arrived completely naked because I could not have enough leaves to make a good dashiki. I added that two kind-hearted, middle-aged American white males, as if they knew that an African was arriving, ran to me, covered me up and took me into a waiting room where I was given a pair of pants, a shirt and of course with black shoes and socks to match. The laughter was hilarious.
Everyone enjoyed this rampant ignorance which makes fools of the uneducated. Any wonder, our ancestors had opined that the mind is a terrible thing to waste. Similarly, African Americans have asked me whether it is true that Africans are advised not to associate with them because they are massively involved in drug dealing and violence. On the other hand, African Americans are presumed not to associate much with their African kits-and-kin because they consider themselves more superior and more civilized. There is a great misinformation in these assumptions. Great progress has been made in inter-marriages between our two societies but more education will remove fear and reunite the long separated peoples of Africa.
Today, I wish to use this auspicious occasion to apologize to African Americans and to all descendants of the Africans worldwide for the regrettable role my Ezza Community played in facilitating the Trans-Atlantic-Slave trade. My community had the largest slave market in West Africa. Despite my society’s despise for slavery, the colonial administration established this infamous market which has since been converted to a commercial center. Thank you TAASU for giving me the opportunity to make a spiritual reunion between Ezza people and their long separated relatives in Diaspora. With this apology, let the healing process begin. I invite you all to join me in planning for the First National Reconciliation Conference next year at KCKCC with the objective of telling our collective story in order to say Ozoemena, Nunca mas, or NEVER AGAIN.
Indeed there would be no need for remembering past injustices to Africans and African Americans if the Euro-American perpetrators did not display such morbid ignorance about Africa. This ignorance is reflected in the statement made by Hugh Trevor Roper of Oxford University in his book, "The Rise of Christian Europe,” in which Roper writes:
"Undergraduates seduced as always by the changing breath of journalistic fashion, demand that they should be taught African History. Perhaps in the future there will be some African History to teach. But at present, there is none. There is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness. And darkness is not a subject of history.”
Leslie Fielder, also wallowing in similar ignorance writes in a magazine named Mid-Stream in 1956: "…The Negro is America's shame…the Negro arrived in the U.S. without a past, out of nowhere, that is to say, out of a world he is afraid to remember.
Before America, there is for him simply nothing.” It is this monumental ignorance which compels a sustained intellectual radicalism to redeem the benighted history of the birthplace of humanity- Africa.
As we celebrate TAASU’s anniversary, we should equally use the opportunity to reflect on the political problems that still confront the black world. For the past 45 years, only three blacks have won state wide elections. I am referring to Edward Brooke, Carol Mosely Braun and Barrack Obama. And three blacks have been elected governors. Individually, we have come a long way in achieving success in every aspect of human endeavor. But individual success has not translated into a better life for the black community.
I urge you KCKCC students to dream lofty dreams, to become more dedicated and committed to education as a liberating force for the 21st century. Education is the key in our individual and collective resolve to redress past and present political exclusion, poverty and powerlessness. As I insist in my recent book Ever Bold To Battle Wrong, Liberation education is the 21st century strategy for economic, social and political redemption.
On global interdependence, I propose to KCKCC to become a pioneer in collaborative projects with African universities and colleges, especially with its PACE program. Numerous European and American colleges and universities are massively involved in so many collaborative projects with Africa. In this regard, I appeal to the KCKCC Board of Trustees, President and Provost to consider an exploratory project in globalizing its PACE program in line with its recently adopted strategic framework. Africa, the original homeland of humanity is ready to welcome and to reunite with its vast humanity. The cost will be so cheap while the reward in popularity and recruitment will be astounding.
Despite the differences between the African Americanand the African, let us always remember that nothing can obliterate our common ancestry, our common history and a shared desire for freedom, happiness and success in life. We can overcome our differences by organizing a united front, by investing together and by encouraging more inter-marriages between home and abroad.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, as people with African roots, our striving for greater success must be founded on the African ethical philosophy of kamenu. Kamenism is the original spiritual path of mankind which seeks to build a just human society founded on truthtelling, natural justice and wisdom. This evening, I appeal to you parents, teachers, society, faith leaders and government to perform your shared responsibilities in the spirit of kamenu, the original moral path of humanity.
Friends, my discourse began with the legal theory of Brown. What the spirit of Brown is saying is essentially this; ‘you African American people are now legally equal in the United States and therefore free from segregation and free in your pursuit of quality education for greater success at KCKCC, at Howard University and elsewhere.’
Brown is a milestone in the struggle for educational equality and justice which opened the door to dignity for all people regardless of color, race, religion, age or gender. I read the Brown case in Africa in my first year at the Louis Arthur Grimes School of law in Liberia. (When I got my job -----Middle of nowhere, What my colleagues don’t know is that...)
As Kansans, you are the lucky children of Brown. You have inherited a greater responsibility to pass the Brown legacy on by striving for higher heights and greater success through education. As children of Brown, we have no right to remain poor and unsuccessful in the twenty-first century. This great Kansan judicial precedent has created the pathway upon which most seekers of educational equity and success now travel, worldwide. Brown is a journey. It is neither the beginning nor the end, but rather a milestone along the way. Distinguished guests, TAASU members, ladies and gentlemen, JOIN us at KCKCC, as we continue to pass on the Brown legacy. Pass it on! Pass it on!! Pass it on!!!
I thank you.
Works Cited
Achebe, Chinua. (2000). Home and Exile. New York: Oxford University Press.
Children’s Defense Fund. (2002). The State of Children in America’s Union. United States: Children’s Defense Fund.
Daniel, Lloyd. (1995). Liberation Education. Kansas City, Missouri: New Democracy Press.
Fielder, Leslie. 1956. The Negro is Americas Shame. Midstream Magazine.
Johnson, Greg. 2007, February 28. African American that Helped Make Life Easier. The Philadelphia Tribune
Kluger, Bruce. 2007, February 21. Racism: What do we tell the kids? USA Today
Reitz, Charles. (2000). Art, Alienation, and the Humanities. Albany, New York: State University of New York.
Roper, Hugh-Trevor. (1965) The Rise of Christian Europe.