<strong>The virtue of the Month – Truth</strong>

February is African Heritage Month but as you know, we, at Woodlawn celebrate our African heritage and our virtues of the month everyday and will continue to dedicate February to the search for “truth in history.” As a community of learners, it is important that we take a critical stock of our true history since history is supposed to represent “true accounts” of the past. However, we know that history cannot be reduced to the celebration of those who struggled to give us the little freedom we have now. “Black History Month” has become “an exercise in the inflation of the ego.” Most importantly, when we see other people celebrating our “history month” it should mean that they see in it something that works for them and possibly against our interest. We have to make sure that we do not treat history as “only a collection of facts and dates.” We must treat our history as a tool to advance our interest, not to inflate our ego thus blind us from reality.

We know that “history” is always written from the “victor’s” point of view. This explains why our history as African people has too often been distorted, omitted and or relegated to a level of unimportance as if we are spectators to, rather than active participants in those events that have shaped the world. Hardly are we placed in the center of events that directly affect us as a people even though genetic science has established that humanity took its first steps in Africa and migrated across the face of the earth. There must be a reason why our history is relegated to footnotes. If not then why is it that European historiography is typically about their heroes? As Amos Wilson enquires; “Why is it that the European wants to take our history away from us?  Why is it that the European wants to rewrite our history and or distort it? Why is it that the European does not want to present it at all?” In a recent television show, Pat Buchanan who describes himself as “conservative” instead of “racist” made some wild claims. Thank goodness the host set the record straight. You can find it here: <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#32016430">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#32016430</a>

In the recent disaster in Haiti, one could not find any American television network willing to tell the true history of the Haitian situation. The best reporting came from Amy Goodman on LinkTv. Sadly the general public knows very little about African Americans. Some have attributed this “ignorance” to a deliberate attempt to write out African American contributions to the building of America. It is therefore, our duty to reclaim our history from those who have distorted it. We have to start from “sba” to “heka.” Our responsibility should be to speak and do truth to power.

The ancient Kemetic people made Truth a virtue of social behavior to be pursued and attained, because as we say at our morning rituals, it is important to be correct and truthful in all our dealings first, with ourselves, then with the rest of the world and everything in it. We should "always seek to know what is correct."

The Virtue of TRUTH challenges us in many ways and on many levels of consciousness. Our challenge this month is to rediscover who we truly are, and our contributions to the history of the world. It is the only way to break the psychological chain of mental slavery. To that end we humbly dedicate this month to the people of Haiti, under Toussaint L’ouverture who lit the torch of freedom that inspired millions of oppressed people around the world.

Hotep.