By: Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 15th February 2019)-Donating black conscious books to schools and youth centres remains a top priority for the Rastafari Nyabinghi Theocracy Order Church of His And Her Imperial Majesty for the occasion of Black History Month, culturally recognised as ‘I Story Month’.
“Happy Happy Black I Story Month, Happy Black I Story redemption. Happy black foundation for all African brothers and sisters. We are not here to entertain racism but we are here to pursue dignity in our livelihood,” said Ras Iyah during a sit-down interview this week in sharing details about the group’s upcoming annual celebrations under the theme ‘Reconnecting Black I Story Month With African Spirituality.’
The 2019 week of activities is slated to begin on Sunday 17th February with a Nyabinghi Ises and reasoning at Phillip’s community from sunset and end with a similar session at St. Paul’s Play Field on Sunday 24th February.
Speaking about the theme, Ras Iyah highlighted: “We are not trying to force anything down anyone’s throat or make anyone feel that we have every answer to the problem; we’re just saying that the knowledge that we receive and we seek forward with and we continue to seek, we are willing to share with our brothers and sisters wherever you form in regard to the love of African heritage…”
Books to be contributed to the St.Paul’s Primary School and the New Horizon Rehabilitation Centre will include content written by local historians such as the 1935 Buckley’s Uprising and the colonial time period.
When asked about the significance of the donation of books, he replied: “These are books that we are looking at to edify our youths so that they can know the struggle that we were facing during the colonial era.”
Ras Iyah went on to say: “One of the things that we should open up our [efforts as a people] is to make an understanding of each and every one but times we are not going to get it worked out the way we would like it from time to time. However, we would be able to see changes come as we begin to work to help the betterment of our development as a people because if we don’t do that and we let the youths grow up without any sense of purpose in life then what they came from or how they came to be at the way they are today in the 21st century , it makes no sense that we have an understanding of what our people fought for, and so that is why we must always incorporate the history to maintain the strive of our people. It is not to force any ideology or philosophy on anyone; it is something that is [connected] in our spiritual thoughts why we have to put knowledge and facts for our people development not how we want to control the world; it is how we going develop the world because the world is more than any one of us so we have to respect mother nature and how she has considered us as a human beings and nature of life.”
According to him: “The history is very important for the young generation to uphold …”
The other calendar events are: Monday 18th – Question and answer radio session and visit to the hospital; Tuesday 19th- Question and answer radio session and visit to the New Horizon Rehabilitation Centre for distribution of local history books; Wednesday 20th-Question and answer radio session and island wide food hamper distribution on St.Kitts and Nevis; Thursday 21st- Question and answer radio session and distribution of local history books to the St. Paul’s Primary; Friday 22nd- Question and answer radio session and visit to the graves of fallen martyrs of St.Kitts and Nevis and on Saturday 23rd -soccer game for children under 16 years old to be held at the McKnight play field , starting at 2PM.
The health benefits of marijuana, youth crime and violence and reparation will be among the topics discussed during the week of activities.