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AFRICANIZATION     WILCOX

The recall of the African heritage is being merged with a search for a set of social relationships, a system of values and a learning process which will deepen the capacity of Black youth to not have to "resist" Americanization. The search has as an end product a process which offers one the alternative and the skill to grow into autonomous men, rooter in their own heritage, capable of dealing with any man, in need of no masters or servants, committed to the survival of their people; desirous of discharging their own responsibilities, aware of the world of which they are a part, and an ability to communicate. Blackness alone is not enough; nor should we assume that the values of the dominant group are sacred. 

The descendants of Africa are coming to see their destinies as being directly tied to their ability to articulate and implement culturally-relevant models, technologies and means to nurture a Black national consensus as it relates to the individual, the family, the community, institutions and self-governing, self-developing, self-connecting strategies and modus operandi. The educational process must become one in which one learns to think for himself and about how to develop his own nation. The sources of knowledge and data and the media through which they pass are presently limited in their meaning as they relate to the above-stated goals. Consequently, the educational process itself must be altered to ensure the transmission of relevant meaning and comprehension. 

Briefly, efforts are underway to test out teachers as resource persons and learner-enablers rather than as repositories of knowledge. Students are being urged to learn about how to solve their own communities' problems, rather than memorizing negative descriptions about them. The student's role is then modified to that of a producer of knowledge. In the area of values, the difference between needs and wants, the need to belong and the purpose for belonging are subjects of inquiry. The symbiotic self-destruction embedded within master-servant relationships is being evaluated; the tendency of both actors to see virtues in each other's roles is being studied. 

Efforts are also underway to identify the relevant powers and expertise that are embedded in each role as a means to elevate the value placed on real autonomy; a requisite for developing a respect for this value when expressed by others. 

The ultimate notion is to employ the learning process as one which places requisite value on that which is private and ethnic as against that which is public and culture-blind. The Black Restoration Movement has moved from the doorstep of the Litte Red School-

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