I know what you’re thinking.  It’s summer and you intend to bring your tablet on vacation and dive into a sexy, soft-read audiobook as you soak up the sun. You’re not wondering if you want to delve into the letters of The American Negro Academy as a relaxing read, but it happens.  The Abantu Audio audiobooks make it possible.  After all, there’s nothing sexier than cerebral stimulation, and The Abantu Tribe has their finger on the pulse of said stimuli.  It happened to me-on the beach. 

I listened to “The Defects of the Negro Church, Occasional Papers No. 10” by Orishatukeh Faduma as the red sun umbrellas popped up and the jet skis flushed the white surf into the sand.  Soon, I’d opened tabs on my Kindle, cross-referencing its contents with the New King James Bible, DuckDuckGo and Google.  Yes, I was intrigued, my brain was engaged and yes, it’s that good!  The Abantu Tribe gives great, well, you know what I’m saying. 😉

First, a little background on The American Negro Academy, the first national African-American learned society.  The ANA was created in response to the inception of many learned, historical, professional and ethnic societies by European-Americans.  Its founders aimed to improve the quality of black leadership and intellect to strengthen the community.  W.E.B. DuBois, John H. Cromwell, Carter G. Woodson and noted others were members until its demise in 1928. Although the members were a veritable Who’s Who in Black History, the more interesting detail regarding this text, which was published in 1904, is the social commentary and how closely the topics align to today-at 4:30 p.m., seriously.  A side note: women were not allowed to join the society for “social reasons”.  Despite that archaic belief, I continued to read.  I’ll circle the wagons back on this travesty later.

There are four major points that are addressed in this essay, however I’ll tackle the first one as an Abantu Audio-Read Appetizer: 1. The tendency to lay stress on outwardness rather than inwardness.

Faduma states that Christianity is a “heart and soul” religion that does not connect “outward life”, or man’s existence outside of worship.  I immediately thought of that “fishers of men” Bible verse and how churches draw people in with the hope of sustance and then fail to provide the food.  I was taught that if the church doesn’t address the immediate need of parishioners,  they will leave the church disillusioned and never trust in its value to life again.  Enter the Manifestation Theory, the idea that our thoughts and meditations bring forth what we focus on (by thought, word or deed) to fruition.  This is a pretty foward-thinking approach for the year 1904, and even more compelling when it applies to 2019.

The Abantu Tribe has done it again, with this scintillating audiobook offering (so much so that my intellectual afterglow was admired by passersby by on the beach 🌴).  If you haven’t joined already, The Tribe and I are waiting for you-jump in, the water’s fine.  #getwetwithabantuaudio #theabantutribereads www.abantuaudio.com/books