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In Kemetic (Egyptian) cosmology, the goddess Ma'at
embodies the energy of judgment. She uses her divine scale to weigh our hearts against her feather, through this she determines the pathway our soul will travel upon leaving its physical vessel. In Reveire's Afrocentric research framework Ma'at represents the aspects of 1.Truth 2. Harmony and 3. Justice reflected in our work. Culture is the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively. (Brittanica.com). Culture is how a people define themselves. The people defining themselves is important in this respect because cultural assimilation being forced is a common practice In places colonized by Europeans (people who later came to define themselves as white). In order for the canon of Ma'at to be properly served in our work, we must adopt a TRUTHFUL attitude towards the issue of cultural assimilation and realize that African culture is not only a reality that lives on in all Black culture throughout the diaspora from Haitian and Jamaican cultures to African American culrures, but African culture is the FIRST human culture. John Henrik Clarke writes: "Most Western historians have not been willing to admit that there is an African history to be written about, and that this history predates the emergence of Europe by thousands of years. It is not possible for the world to have waited in darkness for the European to bring the light because for most of the early history of man, the Europeans themselves were in darkness. When the light of CULTURE came for the first time to the people who would later call themselves Europeans (and later call themselves white), it came from Africa and Middle Eastern Asia. Most history books tend to deny or ignore this fact (Jackson, 1970). Black culture is a part of American culture, we contribute to what makes America what it is today. JUSTICE must be applied here as well meaning white/European culture cannot remain the standard by which we judge ourselves or each other culturally. For justice to be served our culture must be legitimized and given its proper place in our communities. Finally the aspect of HARMONY can be employed once Black/African culture is as equally recognized for its contributions to human history and modernity as any other culture. Britannica.com Jackson, G. John. "Introduction to African Civilizations". New York, 1970. |