by KenRay Sunyaru
“We will consider where the center is using our Ancestors’ most honored shape – the circle.” “We are a people of the circle.” – Mwalimu Bomani Baruti
According to the current Ebonic word ‘square’ that means to be unexciting, unadventurous, or dull; generally used in describing a Black man with such attributes who plays it safe – don’t take self-determination risks or challenge racism 'institutional white supremacy'.
A square Black male’s goal is to only have a respectable ‘decent’ job, a nice home, a new car/SUV/truck, marry, and have some children. He’s to be a mere mainstream meal-ticket, conformist, consumer, patriotic, voter, sports enthusiast, retire, die, and leave an insurance policy. Then there are square Black men who are trapped ‘self-contained’ in self-defeating and self-destructive lifestyle boxes of drugs, recklessness, crimes, violence, prison, and death.
From historical Ebonics a ‘square’ derived from a slave whose only goal in life was to have three "square meals" a day. Moreover it's derived from the fact that our enslaved Ancestors were dominated by the square: they were sold on auction blocks and lynched in ‘town squares’; they were designated and restricted to specific spaces ‘Congo Square’; they were forced to live in ‘square slave cabins’; they were forcibly indoctrinated with Christianity in ‘square praise houses’; they were super-exploited in plantation 'field squares'.
The oppressive and exploitive square existence forced on our enslaved Ancestors was a conflict 'clash of cultures'. Case in point was the European colonizers’ square architecture ‘Palladianism’ in contrast to the circular architecture of Africans known as ‘Rondavel’. Indeed the European colonizing enslavers forcibly imposed square culture was confining, dehumanizing, exploiting, restricting, and mechanistic. In contrast African circular culture was ‘dynamic’ constantly revolving, expanding, connecting, moving, innovating, resisting, and freeing.
Enslaved ‘Squarely’ But ‘Re-Circled’ Culturally
Though enslaved by the European colonizing cultural square our Ancestors re-established the spiritual-cultural continuity of the circle ‘Ring Shout’ so that it would remain unbroken. The Ring-Shout is a counter-clockwise ritual based on our enslaved African Bakongo Ancestors cosmogram ‘Dikenga’ – circular symbol of existence representing the ongoing cycle of change, transition, and the continuity of human life that represents the movements of the sun.
Our Ancestors counter-clockwise based spirituality kept them attuned to the sun that turned on its axis counterclockwise and the earth that rotates around the sun counter clockwise along with the other planets. The Ring-Shout ritual representing the ‘Dikenga’ played a central role in our enslaved Ancestors transmitting traditional African values and beliefs from generation to generation thus preserving history, culture, and spiritual identity throughout the extreme disruption and dehumanization of slavery.
On slave plantations our Ancestors ‘stole-away’ and gathered together clandestinely in the cabins, fields, and woods in healing circles where they engaged in conjuring, praying, and ecstatic dancing for the purpose of remembrance, reinforcement, and emotional distress releasing - ‘lay their burdens down’ so they could humanize ‘recreate’ themselves as New Afrikans in this foreign land of racial oppression they found themselves captured and super-exploited in.
Through conjure, prayer, dance, and trance they were able to communicate with the African-Ancestral spirit(s) and became inspired. Often times the ‘Ring-Shout’ gatherings were used for the purpose of freedom by psychologically preparing slaves for the arduous and dangerous task of escaping to the North.
Busting Loose From the Cultural L-7 Square and Let the Circling Culture Begin
Under white supremacy the behavior form of Black men was to be indefinitely a self-limiting ‘square’. Unfortunately too many Black men are still suffering from an imposed racist square culture that they self-promote and self-perpetuate; too many Black men super-disproportionately wind up in ‘square death-beds’ box coffins from Black-on-Black male violence and health-neglect 'chronic diseases'; too many Black men are locked in a box ‘square prison cells’.
As Black men we must break out ‘bust loose from L-7’ oppressive square culture legacy; we must become self-determining circles ‘whole’ creating the best self-circle within ourselves, within our family circles, within our community circles, and circles within our peoples'. Let us be mindful of the words of Mwalimu Bomani Baruti who stated: Our Ancestors knew that circles had more area within them than squares of equivalent dimensions.”
Yes Black men we must see our circles as being bigger than the squares of 'boxed-in' oppression. Stop being squares, get free from the 'boxes'!
Orthoboxy: Boxed-In by Our Own Thinking
“I reflected many, many times to myself upon how the American Negro has been entirely brainwashed from ever seeing or thinking for himself." - Malcolm X
I remember growing up hearing old wise-heads tell other Black men "You's a box-head MF, you need to sho-nuff free your mind." These 'wise-heads' defined a box-head as being ignorant, stupid, limited, and easily manipulated caught in a 'trick-bag'. They said a Black man in racist America "could not afford to to be a 'box-head"; being a box-head could result in landing in boxes: 'prison-cell boxes' and 'coffin boxes'.
Regarding Black history, the origin of the Black box-head is the slave plantation 'yard box' where African minds were forced 'enclosed' into a white concept box that encased 'produced' a slave mentality 'nigga box thinking'; an ignorant mindset square that keeps us self-confined in oppression.
From my perspective I refer to the Black box-head as 'orthobox' similar to orthodox views. Regarding orthodox thinking, it's a persons concepts especially religious or political ones that conforms to dominant beliefs of what's traditionally accepted as right or true.
Somewhat similar, orthobox means to be self-restricted and self-contained thinking that's self-confining; orthobox thinking consists of the following boxed in cognitive distortions:
*Close-mindedness
*Narrow-mindedness
*Unrealistic thinking
*Fantasy-thinking
*Fortune-teller thinking
*Ego-inflated thinking
*Blind-faith thinking
*Self-righteous thinking
*Confirmation-bias thinking
*Pre-conceived 'unexamined' notions thinking
*Illogical thinking
*Emotional thinking
*Over-optimistic thinking
*Pessimistic thinking
Black folks, it was Malcolm X 'Al-Hajj Malik Al-Shabazz' who taught us to struggle to "think outside the box"; thinking differently, unconven-tionally, or from a new perspective. Indeed, Brother Malcolm struggled not to be contained in the 'self-hate box'; he struggled not to be contained in the 'street criminal box', and the 'religious box', as Malcolm stated:
“I feel like a man who has been asleep somewhat and under someone else’s control. I feel that what I’m thinking and saying is now for myself.”
Black folks, we cannot free ourselves from the box of racial oppression until we free our minds from our own self-enclosed distorted mental boxes.
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