Every now and then we meet up with one or more of our original Afrikan warriors.  They usually tell me that they were members of the Black Panthers, or the Black Liberation Army or some other revolutionary group. As we sit and listen to their endless tales of confrontation versus white supremacy, we are greatly awed by their courage and conviction.  However, following their war stories usually comes a harsh criticism of today's young Afrikans.

The tired and worn elders claim that the youth of today have forgotten the battles fought during the 1950s and 1960s.  In many respects the elders are correct; many young Afrikans have no idea of what really happened during the days of "Black Power."  They do not realize that the Afrikan Revolution at that time was worldwide.  Some have been taught a distorted version of the Civil Rights Era depicting "white" people as heroes and heroines. Afrikans are made to believe that "white" folks acted out of compassion to help Afrikans when in reality, they acted in order to save white world supremacy and themselves.

So, the old warriors say their legacy has been tarnished by this spoiled group of young "knuckleheads".  And today they cease to actively speak out or act in support of Afrikan causes for fear of being disappointed all over again.  Some of them publicly chastise Afrikan youth every chance they get, making statements such as, "Those young hoodlums deserve to be in jail".

So, these elders, once active members of the Afrikan revolutionary movement, today are inactive detractors to such activism.  They have become burned out after years and years of frustration.  Which is a shame because our young warriors are in great need of the sage advice of the elders.

Today's freedom fighters must avoid the perils of revolutionary burnout so that we may have longevity in the struggle.  First, we should realize that Afrikans have been the victim of more than four hundred years of white world supremacy and are therefore imperfect and bound to disappoint us at some point along the path to spiritual consciousness.  We should not expect our apprentice warriors to heed our instructions one hundred percent of the time.  While it may be frustrating to watch them make mistake after mistake, there are times that we must allow them to stumble.  Some lessons must be learned the hard way.

Next, we also cannot immediately expect all of our people to be awakened at the same time.  Many of our best minds are also our most sheltered ones.  They have not been on the front lines. They have not been down on the rock.  So, it is very difficult for them to understand our militancy.  It is very hard for them to feel our sense of anger and urgency.  We can only hope that at some point they will feel the heat of white supremacy first hand and then be propelled into action.

Perhaps our greatest challenge is overcoming our people's thirst for material things and the "American dream".  Struggling against these two evils may easily sap our strength and enthusiasm.  Bringing our youth from a Eurocentric mentality into an Afrikan mentality can be a difficult task indeed. However deaf their ears may seem to be, we must continue to speak the knowledge of our ancestors to them.  They may only be listening to us today, but may hear us years down the road.  There is nothing more satisfying than having a young man or woman come to you years later saying that he/she eventually followed the advice you offered and turned his/her life around.

It is especially important that we educate young Afrikan women.  "Whites" have an enslaving grip upon many of our sisters' minds with images of materialism, "white" superiority, and Afrikan male inferiority.  Their thoughts are very clouded, but we must be especially diligent in raising their consciousness because as the ancients said, "To educate the women is to educate the nation".  This is because the women are the children's first teachers.  If they are allowed to be ignorant then we will raise a nation of ignorant children.

Many of the burned out 1960s activists had too much faith in "the system".  We must not make the same mistake.  We must never expect the "whites" or their system to do anything for us.

So, we must teach our young people proper Afrikan principles  and values so that all of our struggling is not in vain.  We cannot allow them to go forth and use their learned knowledge and power to strengthen white world supremacy.  If we allow our energy to be wasted, we will unquestionably become burnt-out, disgruntled, and disappointed and will eventually bail out of the movement.  Longevity is the key to our survival.  Until we must die, we should work to stay alive in our battle for mental and spiritual liberation.