Ubuntu

by Gwendolyn Littleton White

You are mine. I have given birth to each one of you because I have dreamed you. I have loved you! As your parents and your aunts, and your uncles and your fathers and your cousins and all your teachers have loved you. You are created! We have invented you! Because we have stayed alive somehow. Miraculously, people live in direct relations to the Heroes and SHEroes they have. Always and in all ways, it is imperative that you see yourselves as having been loved. And are now loved! It is imperative that you do so. You are cared for! You know that the first Africans were brought to this country in 1619 and I was brought to this country in about 1854. I went through experiences too bazaar to be included in a television phenomenon like Roots! And yet, here we are. In 1870 there were statements made in Southern Legislatures that by 1920, all blacks would be dead or gone. Yet, here we are. Upward of 2000 Littleton's and that is a conservative estimate. Here we are! And you were born, right out of their heads. Right out of our hearts. We have loved you. You see, you have already been paid for. Isn't that amazing? You do not have to pay for yourselves. We have paid for you. All of us men and women who went before you have paid for you already. And to the young generation just starting out. The reason you study. The reason you do the best you can. The reason you stand always as black kings and queens with something of ... your queenly and kingly nature in your walk remembering something of the sweet poignancy of your slave history in your voice. That is your history too. Everything that life has to offer is yours. You have earned it. But before that, you had it before you earned it because it is your inheritance. You must love your self. Never trust anyone who says that he or she loves you if they don't love him or her self. There is an African saying, which is "Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt." I mean, if he had something he would cover himself first, right? Uou are mine!