MONTHS OF ORGANISING at the grass roots level, brought delight to the eyes of the beholders this Friday, as red gold and green shoots of growth were clearly made manifest as marchers swelled the ranks at the Reparations March to Parliament Square in London on August 1st 2014… International Emancipation Day. Various groups from the different factions of the Rastafari, Pan-African, Nation Of Islam, and the Black community in general, came out, answering months of calling-out to support the demand for reparation for the damage that is still being caused as a legacy of chattel slavery. All of this came one week after the launch in Windrush Square, Brixton South London, of the Black Cultural Archive, the newly renovated building, dedicated to the collection of the history of black people here in the UK and elsewhere. An event which was also blessed with a great, and some have said, unexpected turn out from the usual downtrodden members of our community. 
What links these two events, and the third which I will speak about further down, is one Hyacinth Maynard… Hya-ites Purple to her friends.
Sometimes it takes outside pressure for the various elements of our community to come together in a show of unity like this. It is often quite reactionary… but on the scale that measures from No. 1, being mentally/spiritually dead, all the way up to No. 5, complete independent Revolutionary, “Reactionary” No.3, is a level up from being merely “Conscious” which is No.2… so at least it’s a move in the right direction. [the scale is; 1. Mentally dead, 2. Conscious, 3. Reactionary, 4. Pro-active, 5. Revolutionary] “Conscious” means having ones eyes open, but not necessarily being able to respond to outside stimuli… it’s a stage of our development that we have stagnated on for far too long following our spiritual death at the hands of our open oppressors. We have marked-time for so long at this stage, that being “Conscious” has become a buzz-word for something elevated… “Hey I’m Conscious!” we boast proudly… but if you think about it, it’s a boast which only really makes sense to Spiritually dead people at level 1.
Emancipation day 2014 started for me by paying tribute and attending the funeral of former JetBlakInk™ teamster, Sistah Souljah Chic, Hya-ites Purple, at a church up in Leyton East London. In truth I did not expect to be able to attend the march and the funeral both, and selected to be with my Sistah, and pay my respects to someone who connected with me in 2012/13 on a level that is not easy to explain. I sat myself at the front of the church, and stared at the large beautiful smiling and now famous reproduction of the image of Sistah Hya — the one that was a used as a Pan-African greeting card. It is hard to look at that image and not feel warmth, and love, and light. It’s hard to look at that image and not hear her cheerful voice, and that infectious squeaky laugh that she had. It’s hard to look at that image, and not have tears well up in your eyes… as so many of us at the church did. 
The service was beautiful, and her friends and family shared their warm reflections. The congregation were reminded by Bro. Ldr Mbandaka of the Alkebulan Revivalist Movement, that if Sis. Hya had been alive, she would’ve been at the Reparations March happening at the same time over in South London… This is a very important point, I thought to myself as we sat there marking her death with our presence. I know it would make Sis. Hya smile the brightest of smiles from the heavens if were to honour what she stood for in her life with our presence also. Sis. Hya, we were reminded, worked tirelessly throughout our community to help plant those very seeds that many of us are now witnessing glimpses of the red, gold and green shoots of growth and recovery all over our community, which is a representation of our garden. 
Sis. Hya held cultural events, presented on radio, and was a volunteer at the Black Cultural Archive and thus was instrumental in any renaissance we are having. How then should we best honour her? Would not our participation in her work be a fitting conclusion to Sis. Hya’s own Emancipation Day journey. Rise up sis! Hya. So as the church service concluded, I took a few pictures, (as a MediaAssassinExtraordinaire™ I always walk with my Canon), and I made my way down to the march in Parliament Square.
Let me state my position… I am of the camp who do not believe that reparations can be granted to us, by those who quite frankly are more in need of reparation than we. Pharoah could never grant reparation to Moses… he could only damage Moses and his people more, by promising them riches. Reparations are granted by our entire submission to the will of The Most High God, by whatever name you call Him. I am of those who believe that the first call for reparations must be made in our own families which are for the most part busted wide open, with parents living apart, and children being raised in single parent situation. Once we have dealt with this, then Reparation must be called for in our community, and amongst other things, in our community groups where various leaders are often ostracising and demonising many of their own congregation or followers for speaking out on truth, or for not being sycophantic follower and not falling into line with everything the leaders of those groups say, sometimes causing schisms and new strains of those groups to be formed eslewhere…
There needs to be Reparation between the various groups also, too much ego, envy, distrust and even intolerance and hatred amongst our own brothers and sisters for each group doing his/her thing a little way different… We must have Unity with a big YOU!… or is it Inity with a big I?… and finally, once we have all that sorted, and our combined leaders have gained some experience of how to humble themselves by going through Reparation on a family/community level, we can then call for it honestly on a National level… Once we’ve earned that right in the eyes of The Most High.
Sis. Hya-ites Purple sought reparation. She worked with many groups, and it is those unsung heroes who are like Sis. Hya (and there are many) who are right in front of our faces everyday, who I believe are showing us the way. They are the love, which makes the cement, that holds our community with it’s various groups together, yet we cannot see them, or don’t value them until they are gone. They are like worker bees pollinating the brightly coloured flowers, in attempt that the plants will bear fruit. It is a shame that they have to die, or be taken from us prematurely before we pay any quality attention to them. It’s only now, when the numbers have fallen significantly are the scientists are asking: “What happen to all the Bees?” It’s time we recognise who are the real leaders of our new school, and whose focus has always been on family, community and nation…. Onward and upward Sis Hya. Rest In Power and Peace
[You can view some of the work Sis. Hya-ites Purple produced as part of the JetBlakInk™ team in 2013 by clicking on these links 1. Interview with Celia C Peters, 2. Interview with Akala, 3. Interview with Umar Johnson, 4. Hya-ites at Images of Black Women. ]
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