Advancing by returning with evolved understanding
On the macro level, it appears that contemporary environmentalism has been one of the lesser documented aspects of African and African Diaspora life — “contemporary” because restorative ecological environmental principles were integral to our traditional cultures. But a lot is happening in the contemporary realm and, to help cover it, and its history, we founded the Ecollective.
In the broadest sense, the Ecollective is everyone who realizes the fundamental oneness of being and functions from that realization. That's why our view spans all environmentalists while bringing black-identified environmentalists to greater attention.
In a narrow sense, the Ecollective is a group of six black women writers (Margaret Gray-Bayne, Kendra Hamilton, Juliette Harris, Jacqueline McClendon, Hermine Pinson, Toni Wynn) who dislike the contrivances of alliteration yet describe their view of the garden as a "multiply-meaningful metaphor" because that succinctly says it all. While planning a book based on this metaphor, we spun off this platform as a public offering. Conscientious writers give voice to what should be said. Here we bear witness to how deepening human connection with the natural world revitalizes life on every scale.
Integral to this revitalization are principles of cooperation supporting the full spectrum of human and environmental being.
Why we don’t capitalize “black”
We recognize that the human identities "black" "brown" and "white" comprise a seamless continuum. As a corrective to racism, we encourage descendants of enslaved people in North America to discern the particular ethnicities of our African ancestors through DNA analyses. We require full knowledge of our black identities (plural) as well as our non-black identities (plural) for full remediation of the genealogies torn asunder by enslavement and colonization in the Americas. Re-learn what we once knew!
Lower case “black” style is generic because it represents a broad range of African and African diaspora ethnicities and nationalities. Discovering and collectively naming our planetary kinships will be empowering for ourselves and the world. And these kinships can be formalized by conventional upper case style.
The Ecollective style policy however is flexible and if contributing writers prefer to capitalize “Black,” we understand their point of view and their writing is published in that style.
Pages from Ecollective member Toni Wynn’s Ground, a book of poems illustrated by the author and published by Friends of Shakepeare Press Museum, 2007.
Image: OmniGeometry.com
unity⇆ multiplicities ⇆ unity (with the arrows going not in two, but all, directions)
unity into multiplicity into unity into multiplicity into ongoing waves of being closing the disconnection as healing and prayersome folks plant gardens in their minds
advancing by returning to roots with evolved understanding ecospirituality sacred earthinterdependence of all life
roots of African diaspora foodways
yams
efo tete (Yoruba, Nigeria) English name: African spinach or green-leafy spinach
healthy conscious living walking barefoot on the grassmarula (various African languages) English name: marula fruit
a place for butterflies the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice shoro (Yoruba, Nigeria) English name: amaranth
agroecology herbal lore & workin’ roots millet (various African names) modern English name: pearl millet or finger millet
African rice cultivation in South Carolina sweet grass baskets sukuma wiki (Swahili, East Africa) English name: collard greens or kale
meditative weeding shelling peas contemplationteff (Amharic, Ethiopia) English Name: teff grain
landscape and waterways as sites of memory rooibos (Afrikaans, South Africa) English name: rooibos tea
animal welfare rights biomimicryuziza (Igbo, Nigeria) English name: Uziza herb/spice
economies based on environmental principles environmental action nature sprites agroforestrybuchu (Khoi-San, South Africa) English name: buchu herb
integrative medicine wilderness as sanctuary morogo or miroho (Setswana, Botswana) English name: wild African spinach or pigweed
community supported agriculture literary ecocriticism soil conservation chefs with educational gardens njerere (Kikuyu, Kenya) modern English name: spider plant or African cabbage
upright uptight mother to daughter: “Don’t play in the dirt!” roots mama to daughter playing in dirt: “Let’s make mud pies, decorate them by sowing seeds in round and heart shapes and watch them blossom into circles and hearts!” efo yanrin (Yoruba, Nigeria) modern English name: wild lettuce or forest lettuce
"I know the songs of the birds, I know the language of the trees, I know the secrets of the wind and the mysteries of the sea." - phillis wheatley
(various African languages) English name: grains of paradise
"i am a black tree in the forest of night
my branches reach out to the stars" - margaret walker
“I see my soul reflected in nature” – walt whitman
ademe (Amharic, Ethiopia) modern English name: Ethiopian mustard or Abyssinian cabbage
“when will there be a harvest for the world” – isley brothers
turnip greens after the first frost the greening of black america rainforest prayersdika (Bamileke, Cameroon) English name: irvingia fruit or African mango
“absolute trust in the goodness of the earth” - alice walker
koko (Akan, Ghana) English name: sorrel or roselle
wildlife conservation healing the anthropocene with biodiversity ibitoke (Kinyarwanda, Rwanda) modern English name: African eggplant
“twirling beneath the fig's
seeds spinning like a newly
discovered galaxy
that's been there forever,” ross gay
ntoyo cibemba (Bemba, Zambia) modern English name: cowpea leaves or black-eyed peas
deeply grounded transcendence finite ⇆ infinite multiplicities ⇆ the wholeseed ⇄ garden ⇄ universe ⇄ sourceundivided
into interconnected energies of the world
The path forward demands that we take our rightful places as the younger siblings in creation, deferring to the oceans, forests, and mountains as our teachers.” — Leah Penniman
Leah Penniman's Black Earth Wisdom anthology is a bible of environmentalism.
This collection of essays and interviews documents our deep, ancestral connection with the Earth.
Omnigeometry.com (background) and Ecollective photo (center)
Corinne Basabe, Jumbie Garden drawing
“… many plants in Caribbean gardens were transported on the ships carrying enslaved Africans as cargo. In my drawing, the plants allow the jumbee (Caribbean carnival character) to be connected with their descendants.” — from Corinne Basabe’s Deeply Rooted Ecollective article here.