I read Chapter 1 and the start of Chapter 2 of Yurugu: An Afrikan-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought & Behavior by Marimba Ani this weekend, after having taken a two-week break to focus on my first book launch under Savvy WizDoom. I knew the weight of what I would be getting into and the energy this text would demand (which are the crux of why Savvy WizDoom exists to begin with.) Two systems-impacted women making sense of self, being, and connecting in devastatingly chaotic times.

Yurugu as defined by Marimba Ani:

A being in Dogon Mythology which is responsible for disorder in the universe. This is a being conceived in denial of the natural order, which then acts to initiate and promote disharmony in the universe. In African Cosmology such a being is deficient in spiritual sensibility, is perpetually in conflict, is limited cognitively, and is threatening to the well-being of humanity.

When I first came across this term and what it meant, I immediately knew it to be true. I had to look no further than my very existence on this land, my experiences navigating it in this skin, and the daily dishonesty, death, and destruction proudly carried forward as “legacy” by our current administration (one that may ironically carry more in common with the “forefathers” than many care to admit.)

Because to admit that would prove my assertion made in response to one of the myriad absurd acts being carried out (take your pick) from a few weeks ago to be true:

Yurugu is as Yurugu does.

To understand why that is a damning truth that must at all costs be denied (to uphold all that we see happening under the illusion of “freedom, liberty and democracy”) we must understand HOW the masses would have to be patterned in thought and behavior to see fighting FOR this lie as more pressing than fighting to dismantle the illusion which oppresses US ALL.

Asili is “the logos of a culture, within which its various aspects cohere. It is the developmental germ/seed of a culture. It is the cultural essence, the ideological core, the matrix of a cultural entity which must be identified in order to make sense of the collective creations of its members.”

Looking at the foundation of what we call the United States of America, rooted in genocide (Indigenous AND African), dehumanization, indentured servitude and enslavement, theft of land, destruction of nature, and a host of the most unconscionable acts against the most vulnerable, what could we expect the Asili of this country to be?

If you guessed power over others, you guessed right.

You can choose any topic or lane, from education to occupation, incarceration, religion, policy, and play, and you will find that to be true.

Sister Ani asks and answers:

“What is it that the soul, mind, or psyche has that the body and senses do not? Clearly it is control and with control comes power as in ‘the ability to dominate.’ The desire (need) for control and power are the most important factors in understanding the European asili. We will see that the sensation of controlling others and of therefore having power over them is the most aesthetically, psychologically, and emotionally satisfying experience that the culture has to offer.”

I’m pretty sure these statements (both hers and mine) will elicit a visceral response, as do most that challenge European/Western thought and behavior. That is both a function AND feature of us all being assimilated into perpetuating it as true and natural, to begin with.

But if this isn’t what most “decent” people would want to sign up for, then HOW could they be coerced into perpetuating it in perpetuity?

That is where Utamawazo comes in:

Utamawazo — Culturally structured thought. It is the way in which cognition is determined by a cultural Asili. It is the way in which the thought of members of a culture must be patterned if the Asili is to be fulfilled.

I will spare you the full-blown history that Sister Ani breaks down, and honestly, I wish I could remember more clearly what I was being taught about Greek philosophers in my earlier educational days to save myself the decades of confusion. However, those who know me well have often heard me declare:

“They did they thug thizzle when they created racism, misogyny and capitalism.”

But I didn’t quite yet know just HOW. Now Plato didn’t plant the seed or even start the germ, but he did manage to memorialize a “logic” that would shape how we as humans — with the exception of the few places untouched by direct colonialism/imperialism and its indirect outcomes — experience life on this planet today. Below is a passage from the “Dichotomization and the Notion of Harmony” section in Chapter 1:

“The Platonic view sacrifices the wholeness of personhood in order to set the stage on which the epistemological foundations of the European view will play out. This codification suited an utamawazo that was the realization of the cultural asili. Plato had laid an elaborate trap. Once the ‘person’ was artificially split into conflicting faculties or tendencies, it made sense to think in terms of one faculty ‘winning’ or controlling the other(s). And here begins a pattern that runs with frighteningly predictable consistency through European thought, continually gathering momentum for ages to come. The mind is trained from birth to think in terms of dichotomies or ‘splits.’ The splits become irreconcilable, antagonistic opposites. Holistic conceptions become almost impossible given this mindset. First the dichotomy is presented, then the process of valuation occurs in which one term is valued and the other is devalued. One is considered ‘good,’ positive, superior; the other is considered ‘bad,’ negative, inferior. And, unlike the Eastern (Zen) conception of the Yin and the Yang or the African principle of ‘twinness,’ these contrasting terms are not conceived as complementary and necessary parts of a whole. They are, instead, conflicting and ‘threatening’ to one another.
The process of dichotomization in the European utamawazo is of great significance, for it is this dichotomized perception of reality on which the controlling presence (imperialistic behavior) depends. The utamaroho, which needs to control, is dependent on the antagonistic oppositions presented by the cognitive style (utamawazo) of the cultural myth (mythoform). Realities are split, then evaluated, so that one part is ‘better,’ which mandates its controlling function. This, we will see, is a pattern throughout Platonic thought. Moreover, it is a pattern that develops consistently as a continuing characteristic of the European utamawazo grounded in the nature of the originating asili.”

Before I had seen this breakdown, I remember searching for the “why” in all that I learned and was introduced to in grad school within the realm of industrial-organizational and consumer psychology. Because while I KNEW the patterns, I also realized that I was going to have to connect the dots for myself as what was being taught could be seen as an indictment of the very organizations and schools modeled after Platonic thought.

Why would we knowingly operate this way as a society, and WHY is it necessary to keep it up?

Utamaroho, mentioned above, helps to make sense of that:

The vital force of a culture, set in motion by the Asili. It is the thrust or energy source of a culture; that which gives it its emotional tone and motivates the collective behavior of its members. Both the Utamawazo and the Utamaroho are born out of the Asili and, in turn, affirm it. They should not be thought of as distinct from the Asili but as its manifestations.

Even before I had this specific language or the capacity to begin truly breaking down these intricate mental systems, my own seeds were being planted — building a pathway toward a more regenerative and restorative Asili through CultureROOTS.

In this episode, I talk more about how I started unknowingly building CultureROOTS over three years ago, and even as I write now, I can SEE how my arrival at this wisdom and my non-linear mode of building are an embodiment of the Sankofa to Maat, (a return to knowledge and truth) that CultureROOTS is designed to enable for those seeking to work in real harmony with who they actually are and what we actually need as humans.

I’m aware that I still have a ways to go in articulating this for those less versed in African-centered thought (as I once was), but I hope that in learning out loud, my intent and impact will be clearly understood when it’s time.

There is a liberation that comes with knowing that all is in divine order and being empowered to challenge the status quo. I now understand that this would have been damn near impossible under my prior circumstances of being gainfully employed by an organization still largely influenced by a destructive national cultural Asili, despite its best efforts to go against its own nature.

I am thankful for the order in which I have been reading and absorbing this knowledge, which allows me to speak even more deliberately about what it is that needs to be dismantled, without the artificially conditioned default of fear of “lost opportunities” that come with such audacity, heightened by the identities I carry.

Funny that I would represent such a threat to the state and NOT have used the power I wield in that truth — instead of the illusion of power that entrapped me for so long.

Anyway, and I will include myself in this:

If you don’t want to be Yurugu, then don’t be Yurugu.

Reflection Questions for the Week:

Where in your life have you been systematically trained to distrust your own intuition? What institutions in your life enforced that distrust, and what did they reward in its place?
If you named the Asili of the last organization you worked in, what would it be? Does what that organization said it valued match what it actually rewarded and punished?
Ani argues that the dichotomization of reality, splitting it into opposing and unequal halves, is not a thinking style but a tool of control. Where do you see that split still operating inside your own mind?
What would it mean to fully trust a way of knowing that centers spirit, intuition, and communal sense-making over institutional logic? What would you have to stop deferring to?

You can check out the ">video version of this episode on YouTube.

Arc I: Naming the Distortion (Yurugu is as Yurugu Does Pt. 1)