African Rhythms for an african Renaissance
Transcending Our Time of Trouble to Build for Eternity
In the spirit of our Ancestors, our Pan-African global family, and the yet unborn, ASCAC extends a warm invitation for you to join us for our 36th Annual Ancient Kemetic (Egyptian) Studies Conference. Our 2019 theme is African Rhythms for an African Renaissance: Transcending Our Time of Trouble to Build for Eternity. In April of 2019, we will gather in Brooklyn, NY at Medgar Evers College to celebrate our past 35 years of existence and to not only renew our moral obligation and responsibility to counter the political, cultural, and psychological oppression of African people, but to also continue to promote, preserve, and disseminate African cultural and intellectual enlightenment that sustains our humanity and is the foundation of our liberation.
Our conference theme this year is inspired by long-time Brooklyn resident and great jazz pianist Randy Weston (maa kheru), our new Ancestor whose music and life work was deeply Pan-African. He stands for our African cultural renaissance in the way that Cheikh Anta Diop, John Henrik Clarke, Yosef ben Jochannan, Jacob Carruthers stand for our history, Marcus Garvey for our unity and Harriet Tubman for our liberation. Traveling the earth like an ambassador for African rhythms, Baba Randy held a mirror to our souls, reminding us who we are as if we had never forgotten. With his ageless smile, spreading his long fingers on the keys, radiating light with each note from classrooms to concert halls, in parks and practice rooms, Baba Randy passed his wisdom to future generations, never swerving, always inviting, wrapping the African world in his deep embrace and whispering eternity in our ears, minds and hearts. His African Rhythms will always be with us: Khepera. Ancient Futures. Spirit of Our Ancestors. African Nubian Suite. Uhuru Africa. We are eternally grateful for his live musical performances at two of our national conferences, in 2013 honoring the life and work of Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan and in 2017 honoring the documentary on the life and work of Cheikh Anta Diop, a film for which he composed the musical score.
Calling for an African Renaissance assumes that there has been a “Time of Trouble” and ASCAC has always provided a platform for our community to think deeply about the historical and contemporary cultural, political, social, and economic dimensions of our resistance against our oppression by the West over the past 500 years. But we can never view the West as the best or even the only historical and intellectual space that offers the world a social, political, economic, and cultural paradigm to copy, imitate, and refine in order for us to optimally live on this planet. The African Renaissance emphasizes the necessity for African people to seriously question and examine not only Western domination, but more importantly, our own cultural heritage and value systems as a foundation for our lives and liberation.
As we continue to “build for eternity,” this ASCAC conference will undoubtedly engage the whole community and prompt us to elevated levels of understanding of our mission to recreate a new world where the wisdom of our Ancestors is heard and used for the improvement of ourselves, our future generations, and the whole of humanity. This conference brings together researchers, artists, and activists from all walks of life from across the country to continue the work of our ancestors and sharpen our ideas and strategies to forge our “African Renaissance.”
Dr. Mario Beatty, International President, ASCAC