AYA Educational Institute creates intervention strategies to help heal African people’s wounds born of oppression. A key part of that strategy is nurturing our adoption of a Warrior-Healer-Builder (WHB) mindset and skill-set. Adopting a WHB identity is a tall order made necessary by oppression’s pervasiveness and the requirement of intergenerational protracted work for success over that oppression.
Warriors
We must become better warriors challenging the people, policies and practices that aggress upon our families, our people and our community. It is our work to find them and challenge them. Choose your area. Unfortunately, we continue to be preyed upon in every conceivable area of life.
Healers
African people worldwide have been and continue to be wounded by white domination and other forms of oppression and injected oppression. Unfortunately, neither educational attainment, physical prowess, or political position is sufficient. We need a safe place to discover and heal from the brutal trauma that reverberates down the generational lines from our ancestors to us. No one can do this work for us.
Builders
While we fight and heal, we must also increase our skills and our commitment to building families, businesses, schools, organizations, co-ops, etc. Such building depends on our ability to knit trust between individuals and groups in a racist environment where distrust is induced.
The WHB identity is also needed as a protection against escapism and delusion. Warriors, for example, tend to exaggerate what can be achieved by fighting, while healers are at risk of believing that we can "heal" our enemies even from our position of vulnerability and subordination. Too many builders buy into the meritocracy myth that if we build a better mousetrap, they will come.