David Walker and other Dead Prophets
Rivers, Shariba W.
1996
1990-1999
What do David Walker, Jesus, Kahina of the Mahgreb, Dona Beatrice of Kongo, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X have in common? They were Africans of change. They were Africans not afraid of criticism. They were Africans who stood up to their present day challenges. They were Africans who confronted Europeans and their morals, their Christianity, and their imposed sense of superiority. These leaders, prophets, revoiutionaries had faith in a God, a supreme being, that was unshakeable. They constantly questioned the morality and the professed Christianity of the Europeans. This group of prophets put to the test the 'ultimate religion' and dared to call it a farce; dared to call its followers hypocrites. The prophets called into question the Europeans' societal values and their imposed sense of superiority by continuing to question from whence came all of this power? They dared to threaten the Europeans with physical and spiritual violence. It is because of these stances of confrontation and because of their fight for freedom and justice that these prophets were repaid with injustice. In this paper I will give instances of all these positions and draw the parallel of the lives of these prophets. I contend that these people were killed because the Europeans or mainstream society felt threatened. It is no coincidence that the strongest and most outspoken leaders of our race are those who are not afraid to die, because they knew that death was the ultimate price for freedom. It is no coincidence that other accommodating leaders never lived the life of constant uncertainty that the prophets lived. If freedom meant accommodation, the prophets preferred death.
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Clark Atlanta University
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/endarch:fall_1996.005
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/