“You are the offspring of ancestors who would not die. Some people say one million Africans died in the slave trade. Others say that it was equivalent to the six million Jews that died in Germany. Others have increased the figures to 20 million. Some say it’s 40 to 60 million. Others feel that it was as high as 100 million if you include Africans who resisted being caught on African soil, those who died in the dungeons, on the slave ships, and on the plantations.

We are the offspring of the people who survived. Had our ancestors died in the dungeon, jumped overboard on the ship, or killed themselves on the plantation you would not be reading this story. There is something special about you. You have endured the world’s greatest oppression and still you smile, laugh, and make beautiful music. You built the first civilization and you made America the richest country in the world. Neither could have happened without you. There is something special about you and everybody seems to know it but you. You are the fastest in the hundred meters and the marathon. You knock someone’s brain out in the boxing ring and you can put his brain back together in the emergency room.” -From, “Sankofa: Stories Of Power, Hope, and Joy” By: Jawanza Kunjufu

“We can help heal the world by easing tension instead of aggravating it. In relationships and families in this society, we have a problem with tension points. Sometimes there’s a little thing, a rub, between two people, and instead of being aware of it and easing off, some people seem to like to pick at it. That’s what causes a lot of the pain in the world in the world. If somebody is sensitive about a certain subject, maybe you don’t need to rub their nose in it. You can help that person without pounding them into the ground.

If I feel something is helpful to a person, I’ll see how much of it they’re willing to talk about. But I don’t wear them out with it. It’s important to understand that when you’re dealing with human beings.” -From, “Black Dawn, Bright Day” By: Sun Bear with Wabun Wind

“In third world countries, at least 27 million acres of forest- an area as big as Tennessee- are either slashed and burned or flooded for dams each year. The most alarming destruction is in the Amazon Basin. (Not coincidentally, the indigenous people of the Amazon region have gone from numbering three million in the early part of this century to a population of 250,000 in 1989).

According to Brazil’s Space Studies Institute, which conducts satellite surveys, fires set in 1987 to clear the Amazon for farmers and ranchers destroyed 80,000 square miles of rain forest. In 1998, 50,000 square miles of forest lands were burned, of which 30 to 40 percent were virgin rain forest.

The environmental disaster in the Amazon is exacerbated by recent installations of giant power plants, mines and factories. To operate, these all require wood.

Coca growers also chop down large stretches of Amazon rain forest and dump millions of gallons of toxic chemicals into the Amazon River. Coca growers, who produce 75 percent of the primary source of cocaine consumed in the United States, have invaded two national parks and two national forests. They use fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, including Agent Orange and paraquat, to clear land and to care for their crop.

Some side effects of the Amazonian deforestation that contribute to other ecological problems come from the fires used to rid the area of trees. In 1989, these fires in Brazil produced approximately 600 million tons of carbon dioxide, 44 million tons of carbon monoxide, 6 million tons of particulate, 5 million tons of methane, 2.5 million tons of ozone, and more than one million tons of nitrogen oxides, according to the Earth Island Journal.” -From, “Black Dawn, Bright Day” By: Sun Bear with Wabun Wind