I am perpetually inspired at the myriad of ways you resist absolution of your community, refuse to concede to osmosis, and rebuke the false narratives about your self determination. Your multigenerational struggle for freedom to live, love, work, & commune in your homelands mirrors my own. My people's right to self determination, autonomy, and the practice of our Ancestral cultures have been shackled, policed, pillaged, forced, criminalized, abused, and misconstrued. For 400 years, a contingency of my people have resisted in the same ways as you. While many of us have integrated into the dominant culture, drank the proverbial Kool-Aid and disavowed our history and the potential to win on our own terms, we, proud Africans of many tribes, displaced to the western hemisphere, still exist and thrive. This is the community I belong to. My blood family and chosen family. We stand ready to build a new world with you, Falastin. With your children, babas, mamas, aunties, uncles, sisters, brothers, niblings.
I look forward to walking your land with you. Learning about what you grow to feed your families and what you grow that sustains the rest of the environment, alongside your needs. Conversing over a plate of molokhaiya and tasting what I imagine are the finest olives in the world. We can, and we will, regrow a world where our people can thrive. Where we can learn from each other's wisdom and devise and practice familial and governance systems that honor our Ancestors, celebrate our differences, ensure that our people have ways to learn who they are and how they can honor their needs and life's purpose while contributing to their community, and that deal with conflict and harm holistically.
I am committed to ensuring our survival and that we thrive. As your sister, my heart and Spirit hurts to see you under siege by Israel and their international allies. I never imagined I would witness a genocide in my lifetime. The degradation of land and waterways. The blocking of aid to those whose resources have been stolen, controlled, and obliterated. This assault requires a strong spiritual commitment and faith in karmic justice, the bolstering of our minds and hearts with history re-membered by those who have endured, and material resources to sustain our bodies. My community wishes to send you prayers and funds to support your survival and the fight to rebuild your homeland. We stand with you, fight for the same causes, and know that oppressive regimes and empires are not insurmountable. We have seen the toppling of states that elect to bleed its people and degrade the Earth. The ones we resist today are on the same path.
Keep the faith Falastin, you have allies in African people, an ally in me. We organize, rally resources, and vision for a greater world than this. Mama Assata Shakur’s chant echoes in my spirit,
“It is our duty to fight for our freedom,
It is our duty to win.
We must love and support one another;
We have nothing to lose but our chains.”