Kwanzaa: Nia

You take a chance on Facebook. You reach out to someone you don't know--except that she is a friend of a friend--and she accepts your request. And then, one day you realize one of the reasons why she is a friend. You share a lot more than friendship through others.
Today, Vanessa Byers (Blogging Black Miami) posed an interesting question which went beyond a status update:
Good morning, family! This is the last Sunday in 2012. It is also the fifth day of Kwanzaa. The principle on which we focus is purpose. Each of us has something to contribute toward effecting positive change and uplift in our homes and the community at large. What is your purpose? Are you using it to help others?

Dear Vanessa, 
I am a storyteller. Many of my stories are about the trials of fatherless boys trying to become men and the crises within the Jamaican/Caribbean/ Black community. 
I believe in the power of stories. The more we are able to see ourselves in stories--which is why I write children's books and adult fiction--the better we will be equipped to think through some of the vexing problems we face and perhaps see the beauty in our lives. 
The work of elders/ancestors such as Derek Walcott, Kamau Brathwaite, Dennis Scott, Bob Marley, Tony McNeill, George Lamming, Michael Anthony, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Rita Dove, James Baldwin, Lorna Goodison, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, and Orlando Patterson (and that's only the top shelf of my bookcase) showed me how complex questions of identity could be framed in a way was both intellectually challenging and aesthetically pleasing.
The stories pose the problems and some of the solutions, I believe, are in the teachings of Marcus Mosiah Garvey whose Philosophy and Opinions encompass Kwanzaa and provide a useful framework for the upliftment of Africans at home and abroad . This is why I am working for his exoneration as the first step in our eventual redemption. But we will have to do it for ourselves.
Thank you, Vanessa, for this opportunity. The purpose is unfolding.
One Love, Geoffrey






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