Discipleofthenile
Honour

Not a personal attack. Just a response to what you said. And, you should check your posts again. You have used the word 'you' to me before. I did not take offence.

I will also like to remind you again not to make assumptions. I did not grow up in the waste, I was once one of those "folks with no plumbing or food." Among other things, I once drank rain water from a dent in the asphalt and I knew hunger as a daily occurence.

I have also been as ignorant/stupid and desperate/destructive as any other Black man you could think of. But I was also lucky.

I have never been close to a 'white' person. I lived among Black people from the first days I stepped into the waste and in time, when I started moving within the wider society, I found that while I could work with 'whites', they could not relate to me and I could not relate to them. I have never been with a 'white' woman because again, from the start, I found it objectionable when I saw an African woman with a 'white' man and, I did not want to be a hypocrite.

The worst things I have personally experienced came from from fellow Africans. But like I said on another post, this is not about individual lives. It is about OUR COLLECTIVE EXISTENCE. So, I love Africans without reservation. When I speak with anger at an African, it is not from hatred but because I feel pain when I see the direction they are headed.

'Ija ka di' is a name for the Yoruba form of wrestling. 'Ija ka di' is another word that contains an important lesson.
'Ija' = 'to fight'
'ka' = 'so we may'
'di' = 'become'.

There is a creature in Yoruba mythology called 'Ologbo Ijakadi' - where 'Ologbo' means 'Cat'. This powerful creature has the head of a cat and the body of a man - like the 'Sphinx'.

One who is fasting is said to be in 'Ijakadi'.

What I'm trying to say is, with all due respects, I know all about the harnessing of inner fire.

Wisdom and Strength.