Imani (Faith)

The seventh principle is Imani (Faith) which is essentially a profound and enduring belief in and commitment to all that is of value to us as a family, community, people and culture. Faith is put forth as the last principle as unity is put forth as the first principle for a definite reason. It is to indicate that without unity, we cannot begin our most important work, but without faith we cannot sustain it. Unity brings us together and harnesses our strength, but faith in each other and the Good, the Right, the Beautiful inspires and sustains the coming together and the commitment to take the work to its end.

In the context of African spirituality, it begins with a belief in the Creator and in the positiveness of the creation and logically leads to a belief in the essential goodness and possibility of the human personality. For in all African spiritual traditions, from Egypt on, it is taught that we are in the image of the Creator and thus capable of ultimate righteousness and creativity through self-mastery and development in the context of positive support. Therefore, faith in ourselves is key here, faith in our capacity as humans to live righteously, self-correct, support, care for and be responsible for each other and eventually create the just and good society.

Faith in ourselves is key, Bethune taught us, saying the greatest faith is faith in the Creator but great also is faith in ourselves. "Without faith," she states, "nothing is possible; with it nothing is impossible." Also, she taught that faith in the masses of our people is central to our progress as a people. "The measure of our progress as a race is in precise relation to the depth of faith in our people held by our leaders," she reminds us.- As a community-in-struggle there is no substitute for belief in our people, in their capacity to take control of their destiny and daily lives and shape them in their own image and interests. This is fundamental to any future we dare design and pursue.

Especially we must believe in the value and validity, the righteousness, victory and significance of our struggle for liberation and a higher level of human life. This must be tied to our belief in our capacity to assume and carry out with dignity and decisiveness the role Fanon and history has assigned us. And that role is to set in motion a new history of humankind and in alliance with other oppressed and progressive peoples pose a new paradigm of human society and human relations. As Fanon says we should not try to imitate others but rather invent, innovate, reach inside ourselves and dare "set afoot a new man and woman." The world and our people are waiting for something new, more beautiful and beneficial from us than oppression has offered us. We must, then, not imitate or be taught by our oppressors. On the contrary, we must dare struggle, free ourselves politically and culturally and raise images above the earth that reflect our capacity for human progress and greatness. This is the challenge and burden of our history which assumes and requires a solid faith.

As we of Us say prior to our doing Harambee, "faith in ourselves, in our Creator, in our mothers and fathers, our grandfathers and grandmothers, in our elders, our youth, our future, faith in all that makes us beautiful and strong, faith that through hard work, long struggle and a whole lot of love and understanding, we can again step back on the stage of human history as afree, proud and productive people. " It is in this context that we can surely speak our own special cultural truth to the world and make our own unique contribution to the forward flow of human history.