DISCOVER YOUR OWN HERITAGE!

 

Discover your own heritage, and embrace it! If you fail to discover your own family roots you will inadvertently adhere to someone else’s roots, culture, and customs. We were all created for different climates, altitudes, and geographical locations. Our chemical makeup, complexions, and bone structure dictate our propensity to survive in a given situation or environment. Knowing this vital information can add years to your already-short existence.

Other human cultures may appear more flamboyant or exciting than your own, prompting you to become someone or something that you are not. Be who and what you are, at all times. Avoid the urge to conform to the masses, simply to “fit in” with the crowd. I was often alone in school, college, and the military due to my non-conformist demeanor, but I was always happy being myself. Overseas, people, (mostly female people), gravitated to me because I never drank alcohol, rented an apartment in their neighborhoods, and learned enough of their language to show respect and love for their culture. Respect and love never meant that I abandoned my own inherent customs or heritage. On the contrary, I often taught the best parts of my culture to those who flocked to me for companionship, protection, and love.

As a military policeman, I needed to be totally above board and set an example for the soldiers and citizens I was charged with safeguarding. No, I was not perfect, but I also had an additional code of conduct to uphold as a Black Belt in a Japanese Martial Arts discipline. However, I never became Japanese, my roots were and still are from Africa, and thus my expression of the martial art was laced with my own personal cultural flare. I even created an Afro-centric language, which was later, adapted as the name of our Martial Arts Family in Japan: “Jadajiro Prihakiru”, (Unity of Man).

I have spent large portions of my life with people from many world cultures, speaking a variety of languages and dialects, but never once forgot who my mother was. Her heritage is Ethiopian, and I know very little of the specifics of that particular country. I do however have a firm grip on the continent that embodies its cultures and history, thus I consider myself African-American. Born in the good old USA, but bred and bathed in African mores. With Afro-centric ideals and an inbred rural American moral compass, I have managed to avoid the many pitfalls of the cross-cultural vacuum, which is designed to suck everyone into its vortex of conformity. “Drink this, smoke that pop a few of these; then snort some of this!” Not my cup of tea.

If you hail from an old-world country, steeped in cultural heritage and a system of respect and love that was designed by your forebearers, cling to the strength of what got you this far in life. Even if you feel a bit out of place in a room full of your peers and contemporaries, stick to your guns and wear what matches your persona, not what everyone else is wearing. Do you! The one human on the planet that you should know best!