FINDING YOUR OWN AFRICAN-CENTERED RHYTHM
Jay Thomas Willis

PREFACE


This book was written to help African-Americans to reassess their value systems. Many African-Americans have abandoned African-centered values, and have subsequently gotten off-center, in terms of African values. The book is a call to all those who lack meaning in their lives to reexamine their values. Possibly the reason they lack meaning is a lack of clarity regarding their values. We have gotten out of sync with our traditional values. It is necessary to reclaim these values. We must again make traditional African values the center of our universe, culture, and societal value systems. Many of the problems facing the African-American community are a direct result of being out of sync with our traditional African-centered values. For African-Americans this means reestablishing their African-centered values and identity.

It is felt that we, as a people, must consider our place in the world, and the lack of progress in trying to function from a Eurocentric framework. Since slavery, we have existed in a middle-of-the-road position: we were not allowed to keep our own values and not fully allowed to adopt Eurocentric values. This is a confusing position. At this point we are able to declare our own values, maybe at some cost, but to the ultimate benefit of the group. Whatever cost we incur as a result of moving toward African-centered values will be negated over time. Adopting Eurocentric values have served the benefit of only a few African-Americans, but not the majority. We must begin to think about the survival of African-Americans as a group: including friends, relatives, neighbors, and the larger community; as well as our children and our children's children.