Dispatches to the AfroNet #005
Tweet from April 8^th, 2025
Title: What is Freedom to you?

Original Tweet – What is Freedom to you – is it simply being able to live your life without any hindrances? Is it having institutions from which your culture shines through? Is it having the resources necessary to build whatever, whenever and for whomever in your culture? What is Freedom to you?

EXPLANATION –I didn’t realize how important this question was until I proceeded to look up the definition for the word “freedom” and its root word “free” in my Century Dictionaries. The definitions found do not communicate the depth associated in the word for those of us blotted by the stain known as enslavement. Yes, the definitions found communicated the facts associated with the word; both “free” and “freedom” for instance, are said to mean “removal of obstructions, constrictions and restrictions”. They are said to confer “privileges” and “enfranchisements” onto those blessed enough to receive their restraints removed. However such definitions lack something crucial in them, a perspective not rooted in the celebratory ego stroking utterances of a civilization wanting the praise associated with doing something positive without admitting the reason they were in the position to accomplish the positive act was because they performed a negative one first. Meaning, the definitions are all structured from the stand point of the person granting freedom or the person who was given freedom; freedom is not defined as something earned or envisioned. Even when looking at similes, other words are given the task to lay out the vision within Freedom or the core emotion experienced by gaining it.

Upon facing this reality I thought about the words correlation to the power dynamics associated with the world as it existed when the Century Dictionary was created; Freedom was something experienced by those who were given it by God and those who were deemed superior by nature. God has bathed the white race with a hue that suggested they were not only the chosen people who would bring grandeur to the world but also help Humanity reach its collective destiny, or so this is how that civilization explained their sadistic conquering habits to the masses they were subjugating. Freedom was not experienced as something won through struggling against these powers, or something beyond the ideas expressed by this power dynamic; it was something to be merited out and controlled, it itself was part in the power dynamic formula. Had the radicals of the time written a dictionary with the girth of the Century collection, that survived till this day, I imagine their view on Freedom would have been significantly different as their understanding of power was different as was their historical consideration.

Dr. T’Shaka has referenced Freedom as a destination and a feeling in his lectures many times. In just about all cases, he sees Freedom as something you experience as a result of your doing what is morally right. Freedom or the word free itself, is something one gains when they place aside fear and move according to their Soul. His lifetime in the movement lends immense credibility to this view, yet I wonder if it should still be seen as more. This spiritual concept associated with the word is as African as one can get in its connection between this thinly defined English word and the thoroughly defined moralistic Afrikan expectations; yet due to the circumstances many of our people find themselves in, this view could be seen as the first level in a multi-level definition that must include the examples given in the dispatch. After all, if freedom or Being-free itself is only a spiritual or moralistic experience, how then can it be brought to the physical reality we exist in? This is a question easy to answer since for the Afrikan, not much is separated from the spiritual, our physical world is an extension from it; yet those who have been in the Maafa so long they have forgotten or suppressed this truth, may need some reminding of it to see truly what Freedom and Being-free is. End of Dispatch.