We can never ignore the psychological effects of slavery and how we have carried these forced traits generation after generation. Before European colonialism and the trans-Atlantic slave trade, African fatherhood was incredibly stable. After many years of forced labor, torture, hangings, dismemberment of limbs, auctioning of family members, and exhausting Black resistance, we, as African men, slowly began to submit to the will of evil. Millions of African men made decisions to stay alive and pray that redemption would visit the future.
We can clearly see how Black men have continued the behaviors forced upon us. These certain behaviors have absolutely no space for strong and accountable fatherhood.
During traditional slavery, we were evaluated by our ability to perform physical and strenuous tasks and to produce children. Black manhood was clearly defined by our ability to impregnate Black women and our sheer strength and endurance.
Repairing the Black family and restoring African fatherhood is of paramount importance. It is the key to our liberation. Dismantling Black mass incarceration, cradle-to-prison pipeline, police brutality and murder, homelessness, poverty, drug addiction, miseducation, mass unemployment, health disparity, and miseducation will be very difficult. Confronting these ills to restore Black fatherhood will take sacrifice, strategic organization, mass mobilization, African cultural awareness, Pan-African ideology, religious tolerance, trust, and building strong, united villages.
It takes a Village!
**********
Thank you for reading an excerpt of Junious Stanton’s article on scoopusamedia.com. To read more of the article, “Notes on Black Fatherhood, Part II,” please subscribe to Scoop USA Media. Print subscriptions are $75.00 and online subscriptions (Print, Digital and Vizion) are $90. (52 weeks/1 year)
