A Tale of Discovery...

On the coffee table in my living room I keep copies of the National Geographic magazine lovingly passed on to me by an associate who knows of my fondness for well-turned phrases and provocative subjects.

The December 2009 cover asks the question, “Are We Alone?” The subtitle reads: “SEARCHING THE HEAVENS FOR ANOTHER EARTH.”

The author – Timothy Ferris – is described as a stargazing veteran with a California observatory. Astronomers, he said, have identified 370-plus “exoplanets,” which are worlds orbiting stars other than our own. Eleven of these have been photographed; the rest have been picked up by something called “spectroscopic Doppler technique.”

Writes Ferris:
“No planets quite like our own have yet been found, presumably because they’re inconspicuous. To see a planet as small and dim as ours amid the glare of its star is like trying to see a firefly in a fireworks display; to detect its gravitational influence on the star is like listening for a cricket in a tornado.”

This weekend, I thumbed through the article again. Afterwards, I immediately picked up my copy of the “Urantia” – which I have read twice – and randomly opened it. Here is the last verse on the page I turned to:

“Your planet is a member of an enormous cosmos; you belong to a well-nigh infinite family of worlds, but your sphere is just as precisely administered and just as lovingly fostered as if it were the only inhabited world in all existence.”

I think I hear the theme music from the “Twi-light Zone.”

Let me help you to talk to me

I once habitually made statements whenever someone moved on me about something. I responded from my frame of reference rather than helping the person say what they were trying to say.

I've learned that such statements cause short circuits.

Now, when I am at my best, I find creative ways to ask these questions of the person moving on me:

What do your words mean?

Why are using those particular words?

What is the idea behind the words?

What is the reason for the words?

When the exchange allows, I play back all that I think I understand and ask my conversation partner if she/he has been understood.

I stay on this path until my partner is satisfied.

A smile is just a frown turned upside down

We must start to smile, honestly smile, smile very deeply from the inside.

Such honest and deep smiles will help us uproot the very hurting stereotypes that we culturally inherited and habitually use -- without thinking -- every day of our lives.

Building blocks for a new character

1. No negatives.

2. Think human.

3. Get the facts first.

4. Learn to value the truth.

5. Beingness is key.

6. Be a pioneer.

7. Eliminate hate.

8. You Can do Greater Works.

9. Slavery is the problem; Esnicity is the answer.

10. Don’t panic; stay in control; breathe.

11. Learn the value of the Declaration of Independence.

12. Know this: There is more to the world than what you see.

13. Learn to suspend judgement.

14. Be of good cheer.

15. Know love; be love.

16. Update your “self” files

17. Take time to reflect, review and study.

GHOSTS OF FEARS OF AFRICAN AMERICANS*

Psychological Blocks to Personal and Ethnic Family Growth

1. Fear of the "WHITE MAN!"
2. Fear of "The White Conspiracy," which will thwart every initiative!
3. Fear of being displaced as THE TOP AND ONLY African American authority on all issues.
4. Fear of being fired from the job if a reasonable and sound position is taken on issues (fear of being tossed into the streets)!
5. Fear of being ridiculed -- called a fool (laughing stock)!
6. Fear of an African American conspiracy to plot one's downfall.
7. Fear of rejection -- lack of affirmation from birth.
8. Fear of the invisible "THEY" (great and invisible negative forces)!
9. Fear of being homeless!
10. Fear of supporting one's own mind and its conclusions.
11. Fear of the "I" -- writing and speaking on issues in the first person!
12. Fear of the "them against me" illusion!
13. Fear of not having an equal voice in matters!
14. Fear of being subordinate to an African American Authority.
15. Fear of not having the prime spot on the stage!
16. Fear of not being heard -- not having a voice in substantial matters (not being accounted for, not being important)!
17. Fear of asking questions -- fear of exposure or being uninformed or ignorant about an issue.
18. Fear of loss or intimate companionship -- jealously, rivalry, illusionary parity!



* Future America Basic Research Institute, March 15, 1995

Thought you should know

"Psychosocial slavery” is the root cause for the condition of America’s troubled communities and people scrambling to survive in them.

“What is psychosocial slavery?”

It is the ongoing effect of slavery days as it shows up in the psychology and social lives of people today. It is embedded in our language.

Undoing slavery means learning how to go into the upper room of your mind to create a concept of yourself that is not restrained, chained or confined by any condition of the environment or old information about history and culture.

The process for undoing slavery is “esnicity” and the new science of raising children with "esnicity" is called Humaculture.

Both the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Board of Commissioners have unanimously embraced resolutions supporting the exploration of the creative use of "esnicity" in Greater Memphis.

Can you believe that?

I am 3 in 1!

I am Dr. Karanja A. Ajanaku. Karanja means guide. My middle name is Aidoo. It means one who puts things in place; sets things in order. Ajanaku (as redefined here in Memphis) means free and wealthy people.

So I am the guide who sets things in order for free and wealthy people.

I take my name seriously. I have earned the right to do so. I changed my name on Sept. 26, 1986 from Leroy Williams Jr. to Karanja A. Ajanaku. I paid my approximately $42 to the local court system and went through the 15-minute court process.

Leroy Williams Jr.


The judge - Judge James Swearengen - saw me sitting at the back of the courtroom after all other business was concluded.

He said, "Young man. Do you have business with this court?"

I said, "Yes sir. I do."

I took the witness stand and swore to tell the truth about a self determination that I had made.

Judge Swearengen asked me all the questions he legally had to ask. That includes whether I was changing my name for religious purposes or to evade debt.

I told him it wasn't a religious thing and that although I had plenty of debt, I wasn't trying to weasel out of it through a name change.

I brought with me to the court a petition that my sisters in the Ajanaku African American Research Institute (now the Future America Basic Research Institute ) had helped me draft. It included an order to okay the name change. It only needed the judge's signature.

That order reads, in part:
"It appearing to the court that petitioner has all his life used the name of Leroy Williams Jr., and that petitioner was born in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. It further appearing that the said petitioner for good and sufficient cause desires to change the name of Leroy Williams Jr. to Karanja Aidoo Ajanaku, and it appearing to the court that the change of name should be officially noted on the birth certificate of the petitioner."


I changed my name to reflect a discovery I made about who I am. I learned at age 30 that I was an African. Up to that time, it never occurred to me, even though I had personally done genealogy research and had located a great-great-great grandmother, called Sara Brown, who the U.S. Census said was born in Africa.

It did not occur to me, at the time, a quote "educated black man" unquote - that I must be African, at least a little bit.

It wasn't until years later (when) I heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s former secretary - Washiri Ajanaku - the former Francis Sims Bascom - talk to me about her experiences, that I came to consciousness about Africa being in me; about being African.

Dr. Washiri Ajanaku

I mean, after all, I was American. Today, I know there is no conflict between being American and being African. To my way of understanding, America is a civic - government - situation. As a citizen of the United States of America, I have certain rights and responsibilities.


I have the right to be who I am as a cultural being - an African – and the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of being happy.

I am an African culturally, an American civically and human essentially: 3 in 1.

Go With the Flow of Unity

The vital intellectual energy of the nation is dammed up. Cooperation in a great undertaking with a high goal is what we need to dissolve the blockage.

I think the great undertaking should be to penetrate the core of racism and eliminate it at its root - slavery. The result would be a release of creativity that would put the squeeze on poverty and crime, generating wealth in the process.

The lesson I've learned about slavery - my emotions notwithstanding - is that Africans suppressed their own history and culture and ushered in the institution.

This runs counter to what now is believed. Still, the truth is that one person or group can't put another person or group into slavery. One can make the other a prisoner, but the prisoner must decide whether to be a slave and assume the behavior required.

If it were true that Europeans had the unilateral power to create slavery, then the Native Americans would have become slaves. And if it were true that Europeans had the unilateral power to create slavery, then it would mean they are inherently superior.

Now - more than ever - it is necessary to focus on how slavery functioned, how it was/ is passed along and acted out today, and how the crippling cycle can be interrupted.

My Experience with 'The Book of Eli'

I went to see "The Book of Eli" at 9:20 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 18, as I wound down from a long Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Earlier, I had covered two King Day events for the Tri-State Defender. On the way home, I bumped into an associate at the Schnucks on Union (one of my favorite chance-meeting spots.) He asked about my day. I shared my highlights and then asked about his day. He'd seen "The Book of Eli" with a friend and was primed to see it again. Two thumbs way up!

I took his energy with me and moved on it later after watching the conclusion of the two-day, four-hour premier of this season's "24." I went alone to the movie. I've not done that in years.

I'd gone with so little sleep the previous 36 hours that I literally was fighting to keep my eyes open during the first few moments. I don't know why, but I snapped alert about the time Denzel made his way into town.

From then on, I was riveted by the imagery, the storyline, but mostly by Denzel's character. There was something about him that just seemed, well, familiar in a way that was very alright with me.

Then came the scene that sticks with me. Denzel as Eli is recounting how he came across the book and how he came to be traveling west in search of a people and a home for it. He talked about a "voice" that essentially was his guide.

Well, that was a little spooky to me. Here's why:

Twenty-five years ago, I was sitting in a car with a woman I did not know outside of a supper club on Elvis Presley. We'd stepped outside during a break of a performance by Dennis Edwards, the former leader singer of the Temptations.

We were chillin' when suddenly this thought came into my head. It was so strong and real that I could not help but blurt it out, even though it just didn't fit at all with the scenario. I yelled out, "I'm going to be the leader of the free world."

The woman in the car with me about blew a gasket. She said let me out of here and quickly made her way back inside the club. I strolled back later, enjoyed the show and made my way home.

The next day, I went to visit the man who was evolving into my growth coach. My name was Leroy (Williams Jr.) and he asked me what I wanted to do in the world. My mind instantly went back to the night before and I said, "I want to be the leader of the free world."

He told one of the "sisters" in the room to go and get me a name that fit who I wanted to be. Minutes later, she came back and presented me with Karanja (guide), Aidoo (one who puts things in order, sets things in place), Ajanaku (free and wealth people.)

It took me a while to grow into it. In fact, I still am. More than a few have wondered whether I had/have lost my mind.

I've come to know that I have. The mindset I had previously needed to be lost. It was like a coat that just didn't fit my reality. So, I had to go crazy to get on the road to sanity.

All of this came rushing back to me during my viewing of "The Book of Eli," which sticks out to me as a story of conviction and a testament to the role each individual can play in helping a new world take root.

My Ideal Woman

by Karanja A. Ajanaku

My ideal woman knows it is ideal to be human.
She smiles at me from deep within stimulating
my intellect to tell my emotions that I love her.
My heart races to tell my brain that it got the message.

My ideal woman knows that my human nature is wired
to respond to a sincere statement of her need for me.
She knows the power of truth, which she demonstrates
by telling me that she appreciates me in her life.

My ideal woman desires to be great.
She pioneers through the frontier of ignorance,
knowing that my desire for greatness mirrors her own.
She hears my ideas and improves upon them.

I dream of her dreaming of me.

Dr. King Day – 2010

We have to face the truth. And part of the truth that we must face is that we are late in learning the truth.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. says we have to rise up and live out the creed. What does it require to “rise up and live out” the creed? And what exactly is the creed?

There actually is an “American Creed.” William Tyler Page (of Friendship Heights, Md.) wrote it in 1917 as an entry into a patriotic contest. The U.S. House of Representatives adopted it on April 3, 1918. Page described it as “a summing up, in one hundred words, of the basic principles of American political faith.”

Here’s what he created:

“I believe in the United States of America, as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.

“I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.”

As for Dr. King and the “creed,” it’s clear that he was focused on the Declaration of Independence during his classic “I have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. in 1963.

Says Dr. King:

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’”

Memphis – forever linked to Dr. King’s spirit by his last days on earth here – eventually will be the epicenter for a “rise up and live out the creed” movement. This I see. This I am committed to make happen.

To “rise up” we have to first "slow down," and attach value to the creed – as did Dr. King. Start simple: read the “Declaration of Independence.” And then find a child you can talk to about it.

My Top Ten Thoughts – Vol 1

10. When someone says something to me, I want to curb the tendency to make a statement in response. I want to focus on getting clarity about what the speaker is saying. Slow things down.

9. Color locks in the old world relationships from the plantation and slavery.

8. Becoming “free” is simple:

7. I must define myself.

6. I must introduce myself to myself.

5. I must establish what I can expect of myself.

4. I must introduce myself to others.

3. I must let others know what they can expect of me.

2. Freedom involves being aware that my species is “Homo sapiens”; and knowing how cool that is.

1. My first orientation simply was not enough to encompass who I am.

How has Dr. King increased your life?

I first ‘met’ Dr. King in January of 1985.
He had been dead nearly 17 years.
The ‘introduction’ was by his one-time scheduling secretary, Dr. Washiri Ajanaku, formerly Francis Sims Bascom.
Through her, I got acquainted with the human being who she said gave all he had for all people, particularly African Americans.
She paved the way for me to meet the man who would become my mentor, Dr. Nkosi K.M. Ajanaku, esq.
He told me Dr. King was the ‘modern day Founding Father’ – the person whose life provides a bridge to the country’s Founding Fathers.
Once I ‘tagged up’ with the Founding Fathers, he said, I would have the footing to pursue the idea of making Memphis a model city in honor of Dr. King.
That remains my mission.
In 2010, I’m determined to increase the pace.

The Truth Is Always Naked

In the context of human evolution, any two people should be able to connect through an idea.

Events of recent days, however, once again indicate that we have a problem living this out. At the core of the problem is that while each individual sees through his or her eyes, the individual tends to be measured by his/her ethnic group.

Follow me down this road:

As babies, African Americans inherit an image of European Americans as a “big, bad, white, dirty group.” So, when an individual European American shows up, the individual African American cannot get rid of the early orientation of how he/she sees the whole European American group.

Meanwhile, the European American shows up not knowing how the African American baby is looking at him. The two can’t get a communication going. They are culturally inhibited in the negative.

And they have no idea to build upon.

The cool thing is that the individual actually is built/designed/endowed with the capacity to create a new culture. But he/she cannot change the existing culture doing business as usual.

Year after year, small groups of African Americans get together to change things, but they come to the “change” meeting with images in their heads of the big group they want to change.

If African Americans could ever really truthfully get at how they see European Americans, or if European Americans could ever truthfully get at how they see African Americans, and people could actually talk about that, then you would create another culture.

But normally, we don’t get at the truth.

Life after Reid

In light of the hoopla over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's reported comments, we need a starting point for life after the eruption.

I have learned that it helps to start with an understanding of the core of America.

Consider this: African American males and females and European American males and females are the founding core of the country.

Other groups have tried to penetrate that core. And despite varying attempts, the core has not been breached (as Capt. Picard of the Starship Enterprise would say.) Some of the groups have tried to organize African Americans to overthrow the European Americans. At last, that has not met with success either. Thus the newer groups are left to orbit the core in satellite mode.

Newer generations of African Americans inherit the "backyard" of the core. Newer generations of European Americans inherit the "frontyard" of the core. The two core member groups do just enough to keep the core intact and in motion.

Trying to break this core relationship with tools created within the core is futile. (Okay, another "Star Trek" reference for those familiar with the Borg.)

New tools are needed. And this means going into our imagination to think outside of the black-white core.

Let's stop there and chew on that for a while.

Then check back with me tomorrow.