To All My Nubian Brothers and Sisters, What’s Up?

I’m so excited to present to you, the first Nubian Message of this year’s Black History Month. My staff and I have thought long and hard about how we could do our part in contributing knowledge about Black History that is often overlooked.

After much consideration, we decided that for each week of February, we would come up with a different theme for the Nubian Message This week’s theme is “Respect Your Roots!”

Within this issue, we have tried to incorporate articles and topics that resonate with the early aspects of African American culture and its origins to the African continent.

One way in particular that we have tried to do this is through the use of adinkras. Adinkras are picture symbols that represent various principles of West African culture.

Adjacent to every article in this week’s Nubian, you will notice an Adinkra that in some way relates to the content of the article it is beside. I challenge you to challenge yourself, and figure out why we chose to use the adinkras we did.

I also challenge you to find an adinkra that speaks to you and your core values and principles. For me, that adinkra is Dwennimmen.  It is a symbol of humility and strength— two traits that I think are necessary for success and which I strive to exemplify in my everyday life.

If you find an adinkra that really speaks to you, please tweet us @nubianmessage and let us know which one it is and why!

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this week’s issue and be on the lookout for next week’s paper, which will be the Renaissance issue.

– Kierra Leggett