The African-Centered Family - Introduction

“When a son receives the instruction of his father there is no error in all his plans. Train your son to be a teachable man whose wisdom is agreeable to the great. Let him direct his mouth according to that which has been said to him; in the docility of a son is discovered his wisdom. His conduct is perfect while error carries away the unteachable. Tomorrow knowledge will support him, while the ignorant will be destroyed.”

Excerpted From “The Precepts of Ptah-Hotep”

Introduction to a four-part series entitled “The African-Centered Family.”

By Heru Ammen

There are moments when a man’s spirit and soul are tested to the very core of his being. It is inevitable that if a man lives long enough he will come upon a moment when failing to answer the call of one of life’s many challenges is not an option. As such, there is no challenge greater or one that has more significance in a man’s life than accepting and embracing the responsibility to shape and mold his son into a man. In America, no job is harder or more demanding for an African American male than to traverse the system of blocks and obstacles placed within his path and maneuver his male progeny into a position to succeed in life.

An excellent example of the quintessential African-Centered father can be found in the person and progeny of the late Earl Woods. The world saw the culmination of his handiwork on display this summer at the British Open Golf Tournament in the person of Eldrick “Tiger” Woods and it was a masterpiece to behold. The greatness that is Tiger Woods is a direct reflection of and in direct proportion with the greatness that was Earl Woods.

For this writer greatness is not quantified by how many golf tournaments Tiger wins. The greatness that is Tiger Woods is quantified by his success at meeting the challenges that fame has brought upon him. There is no doubt whatsoever that his golf game is superior. However what impresses me is the humbleness and humility of his persona. It would be easy for Tiger to toot his own horn. But the fact that Tiger goes about his business with a quiet and Zen like discipline is a testament to the values that his father, the late Earl Woods instilled within him.

What a man teaches his son will affect the global family. When there is no man to teach the son the principles of how to order one’s conduct as a man should, the global family suffers. Our communities suffer because at this point in our history there are very few male-female familial infrastructures that exist within our communities. A women, even one who is spiritually strong and lives within and teaches right knowledge cannot offer her male child all that is required for him to become a man. Intuitively a male child will be drawn to the actions and mindset of the males that culturally predominate his community. As such, he becomes that which he sees and experiences and much of what is seen and experienced today is of a negative nature.

In the next the weeks to come the Urban Village Blog & Commentary will explore the issues that have hurt the traditional African American family and caused it to become almost non-existent within our communities. We will also explore the solutions that can be employed to reconstruct the African American family unit into the spiritual and economically viable entity that it once was, and how doing so will cause the reformation of a great African-Centered culture and society.