Shades Of Memnon

  Foreword

  What is history?

  What is the context of reality within which we all live? All of the moments before this moment. Why is it important to record it in a way that it reflects? Because history is a way of saying that, "I was there too." I mattered. I contributed. I am somebody. And the degree of that contribution gives validity to how I walk, how I talk, my sense of aesthetics, how I wear my hair, my ornamentation, the way I dress, the way I dance, my religion.

  I have significance because so and so of long ago walked, talked, spoke, danced, felt, realized in a similar manner. And if so and so walked, talked, spoke, danced, felt, thought and heard music in a similar manner, and he was significant, and he accomplished many great things, and his aesthetics, his sensibility is similar to mine, then perhaps even I, in this small shack, or this small ghetto pad, or this island in the Caribbean, or this African hut, if he who is before me, who looked like me, whose lips were thick like mine, whose nose was wide like mine, and whose shoulders spanned the globe of his dreams, if he could achieve greatness with his light, then perhaps, so can I.

  But without my reflection in the mirror of history, if my reflection is nowhere to be seen, if my reflection is insignificant or cast in the light of criminality, if my light is not of importance, then of what importance could I be in this present moment? Because if nothing of significance looks like me or has my voice or my walk, wears his hair like my hair or thinks in the way that I think or wears his clothes on his back that way I wear mine, then of what significance am I? What significance do I hold dear to my heart if I am only a recent discovery, an experiment. What is my significance?

  The question of context and significance are not of intellectual import only. Young men passing through the passages of life, proving who they are, is something that we should pay attention to. Because if you and those that have gone before you, been like you, have proven themselves in a manner that is significant, that did not require them to defile themselves or their brother or any part of humanity, then perhaps you can copy that behavior.

  But if that memory is not taught and if the only reflection I see is the present and around me is only the sociopathic that preys upon my ignorance of myself, and does not hold my mother and father, uncle and aunt, grandmother and great grandfather and relatives in high esteem, then my culture and my tribe is not worthy. Then I must prove myself to you. I must prove my manhood, my significance, my contribution to you in ways that sometimes are not only self destructive, but destructive to you as well. Because if I can not value my own life, I most certainly can not value yours.

  So within this context of history, we perceive reality. History is the moment reflected in the context of the past. We are always struggling for something to hold onto, something that says, "I have a lineage of significance and importance like others."

  This is why this book is not a book that is to be read by those who want to have a scholarly treatise on a great man of antiquity, but by all of us, black, yellow, white, and brown, who understand the importance of and impact of individual achievement and contribution. So that that contribution not only reflects the importance of the struggle of that particular culture, but of the human spirit and its importance. Because history is not only the chronicling of a single event or cumulative events or contributions of a particular individual only, but it is more importantly the chronicling of the process through which individuals and nations go, the process through which we all go to reach a certain goal. And history is also a teaching device in terms of chronicling what not to do, where not to go, what stoves not to put our hands on. It is the chronicling of the process of accomplishment itself.

  What is the anatomy of accomplishment? It is the dissection of accomplishment. History is a dissection of tradition and rituals and rites of passage. And the dissection of ethics and sacrifice which is always involved in the process of accomplishment. The dissection of discipline, of commitment, of legacy and most importantly, the dissection of generational responsibility. These fundamental elements -the process of accomplishment, tradition, rituals, rites of passage, ethics, sacrifice, discipline, commitment and generational responsibility are some of the fundamental issues that are absent in the consciousness of the twenty-first century. I believe that if we do not begin to reexamine these fundamental principles of survival that had been utilized by cultures of the past, we will not be able to survive the twenty-first century.

  So I celebrate this book and this author, and though it may be seen as the accomplishment of one man, Memnon, I would ask you to think of Memnon in a greater context. The context of his historical significance. Not as an individual, but as historical process itself, because he was truly the Homo Universalis, the universal man, who accomplished more than many. And if we examine the principles that he lived by, the rituals of his culture, the rites of his passage, the ethics by which he functioned and the legacy which he left that connects us to him through the chord of generational responsibility, then perhaps we will see that he is a symbol of all accomplishment and of all the processes thereof. As we celebrate Memnon, in essence we are in the light of the celebration of ourselves, because we all have the potential to be like him and more. We have the potential to move towards our light and our way. However, without the lantern of history, we are certain to flounder in the abyss of ignorance.

  Bill Duke

  "Go back again and find the divine dark,

  Seal up your eyes and be as tombs,

  See that yourselves shall be as Memnon was.

  Then, if you have the strength to curse the darkness,

  And praise a world of light, remember Memnon..."

  Conrad Aiken, "Preludes for Memnon" - 1945