Khalil's Learning, Wisdom, And the African World Experience Entry

This lecture was quite interesting. The lecture “Learning, Wisdom, and the African World Experience” was mainly about cultural unity, African origins in Humanity and intellectual work, and reflecting on African Foundations. This lecture was done by Dr. Greg E. Carr, and was very informative as well as interesting. I was actually focused and listening intently to everything he said and discussed. Dr. Carr’s energy is one that keeps you focused and hanging on his every word.

The aspect of culture unity is very important to me, because I feel we should all be united as one in certain if not all aspects. As for the African origins in Humanity, it is no secret that all life started in Africa which means most if not all intellectual stuff began in Africa as well. I feel it is important to know ones origins and foundations to have a better quality of life.

In this lecture I learned many words such as : Boko, yemba, Lusanga, Kioto, Mbongi, sankofa, and Ashae. The words that spoke to me the most were Kioto, Mbongi, and Sankofa. In the case of Kioto ,which means to inhale or intake a healing property, I think of taking in a breath of fresh air or to get a clean start. I feel that everyone needs kioto every now and then. Sankofa might be my new favorite word because I like what it means and it somewhat stands for my life. Its meaning “go and get it” is my type of attitude. Finally with the concept of an Mbongi is very intriguing to me. “A room without walls, or where privacy has no room” is a very cool idea. A place where everything is shared and nothing is secret. When I connect the concept to every day life I realize there are so many forms of an mbongi like : cyphers, barbershops, beauty shops, mma rings and much more. We are all part of Mbongi’s whether we realize it or not. I look forward to being apart of Howards Mbongi and contributing everything I possibly can to it.

The final things I found interesting is that “amen” has Egyptian roots and literally means ‘hidden one’. I never thought that the word originated there, it’s just something I accepted as coming from Europe or some other place.