“Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it’s against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it’s against the oppressor. You don’t need anything else.” – Malcolm X
Abantu Audio was borne from the need to create something from nothing as our ancestors did before us. Our stories are read by Black, Brown, Indigenous and all multi-cultural voices because these are the truths passed down through generations. The history, the pain, the sadness and defeat, but above all our resilience, our intelligence, and our imagination can only truly be felt through our voices. Our truths endure through eternity because they’re told by those who’ve survived every form of savagery in the name of “freedom” in order to tell them. Abantu means “People” in Zulu and that is who we represent, the people, the singular idea that when our stories are told and heard we will become inextricably linked as a human race.
“Vos tenés la bala… yo la palabra. La bala muere al detonarse… la palabra vive al replicarse. (You’ve got the bullet… I the word. The bullet dies when detonated… the word lives when replicated.)” – Berta Cáceres
Our task is to make you hear, make you feel, make you understand the power that you carry within you – the dreams of your ancestors, their hope that their suffering was not in vain. This is a new age, the atomic age, where one voice can become the guiding light for an entire generation. We hope to be the guiding light for oral story telling. The most intimate way a story can be told and heard is in the presence of another; the physical connection between the listener and the story teller is far deeper than the intellectual connection we share with a page. Look in the eyes of your elders when they share their stories and you will see what I mean; although they are physically weaker, their spirit is untouched and unscathed by a world that has tried to silence them.
The audiobook contains so much more than words, it contains a feeling that no story is ever truly lost, that our past, one of power, of mind and heart, has endured since the beginning. Hearing our voices tell our stories gives us a sense of purpose and connection with other people who share the same struggles. Abantu Audio not only uses audiobooks to spread knowledge but more importantly it represents an idea that we can become more human by sharing human narrative. This is what it means to fulfill our purpose, to know, to understand and to change, this is the meaning of all life, and we hope to bring this to our listeners.
“My task is to make you hear, to make you feel, and, above all, to make you see, that is all and it is everything.” – Luis J. Rodriguez
Luc Cadet, Travis Hatcher and myself all come from different backgrounds, different stories, but our drive to leave our mark in this world is equally shared. We each bring a unique blend of intellect and imagination to Abantu Audio. Being the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) means that I’m always looking for new ways to push the fields of software and mathematics in parallel with the boundaries of literature and the arts. My technical understanding is as equal as my creative and artistic sides, and I’ve always strived to merge the two in order to change what tech is and who it serves and to enlighten our people on the rich cultures and powerful people they come from. It’s important for me to carry on the legacy of our indigenous ancestors who were both in tune with the land and who also created the great pyramids of the Maya and Egypt and the original constitution of this nation created by the Iroquois. Without a bridge to our past we can never build a cohesive future.
“The supreme test of technical skill and creative imagination is the depth of art it requires to render the infinite varieties of the human spirit – which invariably hangs between despair and joy.” – Lorraine Hansberry
Tech has become desensitized to humanity, it’s torn humanity to pieces by promoting biases, profiteering off of fear, raping cultures and land for the gain of a select few. Seeing companies like Amazon, Google and FB, who write software to detect faces at our southern borders, track and falsely identify African Americans as criminal, or who sell data for political gain and self fortune, lose touch with humanity has only propelled us into the abyss of losing the powerful connection we share as human beings. Without the humanities, the arts, without history anyone can sell you a false narrative, and without the education or knowledge to combat this you will believe anything you’re told – as Malcolm X warned:
“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
Growing up we were never taught our true histories in school, we were glanced over as an asterisk, never considered fully American, if American at all, although we created the social fabric of this nation. From the stealing and rape of Indigenous lands and culture, the enslavement and torture of an entire African peoples, these atrocities have formed the foundation of what it means to be American today. Racism isn’t just a dark past of America, it forms our entire power structure; red lining districts with majority people of color, immigration laws, prison laws that continued slavery with the 13th amendment, segregated schooling and voting rights we have seen the continuation of pervasive racism. Deconstructing the legacy of colonialism is our purpose at Abantu Audio and we will break the chains of racism By Any Means Necessary.