AFRIKAN YOUTHS and WHITE FAIRY TALES.

By Alexandrio Morley
BlackFood News Reporter

TWO young African-American scholars recently spoke on comparative religious studies and modern day fairy tales at the College at The Bahamas.

They were invited to The Bahamas by Anku Sa Ra and friends.

A. J. Varmah and Linzi Morris are members of the Church of the Black Messiah – a group that is known internationally as the Journey Home Group. The group has members in the United States, the UK, Trinidad, West Africa and Tanzania.

According to Varmah: “the Journey Home Group is about making a journey mentally and then physically back home to the Mother Continent.”

In an exclusive interview with BlackFood, both young scholars said that they had spent their teens working in New York with various community organizations and leaders such as Harry Belafonte, Queen Afua, and Dr. Yorke.

Varmah said that their work is a part of the struggle of humanity to put everyone back in their respective place where they should be.

“European culture or teachings is great for European children. I think Oriental teachings is great for Chinese children or Japanese children. I think Asian education is great for Asian children. But there is also an Afrikan education. We have our own medicines. We have our own sciences, and we have our own culture,” Varmah explained.

Asked to describe the basic concept behind their work, Morris said: “We are trying to have comparative religious studies, where we compare the different religions, whether it’s Christianity, Islam or Judaism, and the affect that they have on our Nubian Melanite family wherever we are in the world.”

Varmah defined a Nubian Melanite as “some one who is descent from that land of Africa of melanin genealogy.”

Morris went on to say that fairy tales set the stage for us to accept religious teachings when we become older.

She said that many fairy tales (Snow White, Goldilocks, and Cinderella) are derived from Germanic and Nordic mythology, and that their original authors wrote them as stories geared towards adults, and not children.

“There’s a Prince Charming in every story. We have our sisters out here waiting for this one guy to come and save them. That’s not the reality. You’re always gonna have good times and bad times that you’re gonna have to deal with. But we don’t prepare our children for that,” declared Morris.

She said that Afrikan people must expose their children to knowledge about Ancient Egypt and ancient African civilizations.

And, she also stressed that it was important that we teach our children about the greatness of their moms and their dads, so that they will realize that they have great people right in front of them that they can learn from.

Persons wishing to find out more information about the Journey Home Group should check out that organization’s myspace page at www.myspace.com/journeyhomegroup.♦bf