Creating Cultural Based Activities For Our Children

When we say culture we actually mean quite a large variety of things.  Culture relates to traditions of our ancestors, rituals and ceremonies that define who we are through our lives, clothing, dance, art and many other particulars that make of the vast panorama that is Human society.

Depending on where you genetically descend from, your cultural practices and preferences may vary.  However, at the core of who we are as Humans we find that we have a connection to culture in general as a whole.

A yearly event created for our children as an alternative to Halloween

So, in reference to preparing for the cultural future of your child what do we have to keep in mind?

We live in a society that mixes cultures from all over the globe into one big pot.

We live in a country that teaches culture from a Eurocentric point of view so when an African American says culture, society can label that person as a racist because there are two different definitions of what culture is in modern society.

We as Nubians (African Americans) in the West have been taught to shun our own culture for the pursuits of a pseudo culture that doesn't connect us as a people genetically.

We have been programmed through tonal conditioning to dislike each other and to compete with each other for things that neither define us culturally nor connect us as a people.

We have also conformed into accepting every facet of society other than ourselves as viable centers of development and grooming for our children.

So we are working from a deficit...

When it comes to creating cultural resources for our children, we must not allow the ego of which culture is the best to cloud the simple fact that we are connected to all cultures.  We must be studious enough to research all available resources about culture.  We must be diligent in our study and not be distracted or discouraged by Western society in its attempts at keeping us under our current way of thinking (which has gotten us as a people nowhere).  We must be creative in devising concepts for our children starting with the simplest and establishing a consistent pattern until we have covered all age ranges.  We must also be humble enough to work with each other and not worry about competing with each other so much.

If we can maintain the above basic principles we will be well on our way to creating a cultural backdrop for our children that we can build a truly great society off of.

A game created for our children by Dr. Marvin Ellis

Remember...talking leads to storytelling which leads to singing which leads to songs which leads to dances which leads to plays which leads to scripts and eventually movies.  It doesn't take much...

peace, light and love