The Plight of the Fatherless
In His Father’s Footsteps: The Plight of the Fatherless
Mother’s Milk – Father’s Blood
From a previous submission, we have been made aware that Wsr is the cornerstone that forms the Second Trinity of our Divine forebears, who while being Divine, are also human enough for us to relate to. Wsr is the Father, that through an act of ultimate sacrifice, shows His love and vision for His descendants that stretches toward our perfection. His goodness is unerring and singular in its expression. Wsr has positioned Himself in such a way that in His absence He has secured His heirs and left no ambiguity as to the direction He wishes for His progeny to proceed -- forward; Yes! Onward for the task is great and ever at hand! This uncomfortable forward posture looks like an uphill journey and is characteristic of any species’ becoming on Divine paths. As such, we have been charged with shouldering a load of staggering immensity. From farming to forbidden territories, these indispensable survival tools are the birthright of the pilgrim, whereby we may lift our eyes from the muck of materialism, toward the purely transcendent. Lifetime after lifetime our Father knew that in the wake of the extinguished flame grows the night... and so the battle continues.
No teaching can be said to be truly effective that fails to address basic human needs. In other words, ‘A hungry man is hard to teach’. How does this notion connect with the plight of the fatherless? And further, how does it relate to the vision, hopes, and aspirations that stretch beyond the dark curtain of death? Did our fathers lose sight of this transcendent destiny? What do we make of a world where generations face the prospect of being deprived of the right to climb on the shoulders of their torchbearers? In this submission, it is this writer’s hope to advance this conversation.
At the very outset, our Father Wsr is killed by His brother and adversary, Seth. Heru is born only as a result of his be- ing posthumously conceived. Heru’s Father is dead even before S/He is born yet Her/His Father, Wsr, makes sure that His child is fully equipped to continue the mission. He must secure His legacy through His progeny, for it is they who will make the name of the Father live on. They will pass the blood forward that opens a path to His resurrection. They will fight for that vision and be His representatives in the advancement of that fight. But, for the fatherless, what can we forecast as their possible destiny that is not rife with unrest and apathy that is symptomatic of children living a life without purpose?
Without trying to be insensitive, in many of the world’s traditions right up until the modern era, we can find a word in many languages that is pejorative and deemed deeply insulting that fits the definition of the word “bastard” in English. A common meaning denotes, ‘one who is born out of wedlock or is fatherless’ and can easily dovetail with nearly every other negative adjective one can think of that can be attributed to a human being. Perhaps being called one stings and yet if it is true, we have to question why such a term might cut so deeply. We have even attributed, within the traditions, a very heavy stigma and an indictment of evil upon the mother who would deprive her child of the knowledge and access to their father. This is the degree of significance placed on the Father’s blood, i.e. his offspring and their connection to their bloodline through him. This intrinsic value hearkens back to our origins and the drama played out as our Ancestral Mother Aishat fought desperately to give Heru a chance to be born and to survive Seth’s attempts to destroy his nephew. Seth even implies that Heru is a bastard in His bid to claim Heru’s place as the rightful heir to His Father Wsr’s kingdom.
To be called a “bastard”, born illegitimately without community sanction or sanctity, from nothing, having no links or ties to a legacy and therefore no dignity, no purpose, no protector, no guide... well... it should sting. In a number of languages in Western Meritah to be called Sedjeh (one who has no one to hear or listen to) meaning ‘fatherless’ are fighting words. The implications can be far-reaching and incalculable in consequence. But how many of us suffer the indignity of this situation in this modern society? How many of us who actually know and were raised having our fathers around, still received only their blood, despite their presence? How many undergo not only the indignity of broken legacy but also face many of those ‘far-reaching implications’ just mentioned? Will we leave our children in a position to feel that same sting?
Technically this situation, from the traditional perspective, might be seen to be the most common status of humanity in the colonial world! How could this be? It is because of who are considered to be “men” according to our Ancestral traditions. Let us revisit the Holy Drama. Within it, there is a point that Heru receives His initiation, which prepares Him for manhood and to take the mantle of His Father (see Heru’s Initiation FF Vol.72). If this is our model for how our Ancestors structured the stages of progression through the life of a human being, then this is a clear indicator that it was and remains initiatic education that qualifies the individual to cross the various strata of maturation within the society. The threshold of manhood or womanhood is one such stage. It has less to do with biological maturity as it does with a boy or girl learning what it takes to fit into nature and the society, in order to be considered a man or woman. Now, the question is, how many of our fathers have been initiated in order to be considered men? From the traditional view, this can present as quite the dilemma. Some may posit that our issue is primarily an economic one, citing the traditional view as an archaic technicality or an outmoded model. However, this model if we look honestly, is what was in effect when humanity excelled in civilisation and harmony with existence to heights that remain woefully unmatched and from which we are still in unimpeded free fall. So, shouldn’t we be zeroing in on what we are missing in this era?
Nonetheless, in the United States for instance, there exists a very pressing socio-economic situation that has created a “chicken or the egg” scenario. “Technicality” aside, many Black families, especially those that have spent the last few generations in the inner cities of the U.S. have been victims of the subtle and sometimes not so subtle machinations of federal welfare programs called: WIC (a special nutritional supplementation program for Women, Infants and Children) and HUD (Housing and Urban Development). Though both of these programs were ostensibly intended to be for the benefit of the underprivileged, who are usually corralled into some of the worst districts and zones within the major urban centres around the United States, in effect they have only exacerbated the condition of disintegrating families within black communities, starting with the fathers. This is despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of welfare recipients in the U.S. are white. In the mid-1950s, according to one online article, there was a technological shift that eliminated the need for unskilled labour jobs, the ones black men usually would supply the labour force for, and created hi-tech jobs for which black men could not qualify. The result, in many cases, left men out of work and removed them from being the primary breadwinners for their household, effectively hobbling one of the prime roles of the male figure in the home. Men were often relegated to seasonal work, where during warmer months they could find employment in areas that still needed labour during that season.
On the other hand, women could find work as housemaids and domestic workers in the city year-round and so became the primary income generator for the household. Yet this was not really enough to support a family with the rising cost of housing, inflation, and the cost of living for a growing family in general. This led to the need for government assistance. The problem was that for fathers, this financial neutering had a demoralising effect to add to the widespread discrimination and racial abuse of living in a systemically hostile society. They also risked depriving the family of the needed government aide with the little added income they could bring in, with whatever they could earn, which would disqualify their family from the much-needed support. This meant that they would have to live elsewhere so that their inconsequential income could not affect the tally of the total income for the household when government welfare officers would arrive to assess the family’s status and compliance with the qualifying income thresholds. Fathers became “Rolling Stones”. Now, women increasingly “didn’t need no man” and even the guidance, discipline and protection provided for his children, granting them a semblance of what a father should give his children based on our traditional Ancestral roles, has completely eroded and withered almost entirely. If “a hungry man is hard to teach” what kind of legacy can we hope to build far less bequeath to our children if they are starving, both literally and figuratively?
Consequently, the inevitable discontinuity, as the inherent by-product of a society at war with life and nature, seen in this one example among countless, leaves those of us who would call ourselves fathers in a most challenging predicament. The paradigm of “development” as a way forward only reflects on the West’s near total dismissal of the question of where they are asking us to go forward to; where will this leave us? If the current signs along the road of “development” are any indication, we may have some ideas by now. Try to imagine, if you will, a railroad constructed on the basis of instructions that, by virtue of the fact that there is a blueprint, suggests that there is intent behind building something that has two rails and leads a train somewhere, yet there is no direction for where those tracks should lead as a destination. How would one envision that railroad turning out? And further, how far could any train that should then attempt traversing it, under the further pretense of rapid “advancement”, get? The foreseeable train wreck of a situation is the inevitable visual that should come to mind. This “runaway train” can be analogous to the situation of modern society’s manifest destiny in front of the underdeveloped world they would arrogantly claim to have left on the platform of man’s infancy. Maybe the idea of the roller-coaster is a more fitting exemplification, as it is born out of the nonsensical placement of railroad tracks that go nowhere. It peddles the illusion of forward movement as it distracts its occupants with the exhilarating thrills to be had at the edge of annihilation.
Meanwhile, the vector of our Ancestral lineage has long been established since the inception of human civilisation. It has been set on the “railroad track” of values that were prescribed by the Divine World, whereby every segment of this track has been rigidly defined and leads to a predetermined destination. These tracks, conversely, bear the hallmarks of a society that has long abandoned the immature approach of laying the tracks while the train is already locomoting. For the guide has been founded in the immovable annals of time-tested traditions. It reflects the image of the original human society which has courageously chosen to stand in front of nature and the existence in defiance of the carnality and debasement that would besmirch the unimpeachable dignity of our Father Wsr, and the mission to avenge Him and reclaim His domain.
If one is observant then one should not need an elaborate exposé on the state and atrocious conditions we find in the modern society. It is a condition that stems from the derailment from our original path and is embodied by the commensurate deficit that cloisters the light of our inner sun. We suffocate under the tonnage of pollutants we met when our flag bearers appear to have surrendered in the face of tremendously dynamic forces: the adversary that works tirelessly to snuff out life in the crib. Whatever the case, whose duty is it to bring about redress? Where is the love that is in truth a selfish act that ensures our legacy and ultimately that of our Father, Wsr? In this time of tumult and shifting sands, as immeasurable sacrifices have been made by brilliant stars born in our midst, maybe we can be the torchbearers many pres- ent and yet to come are waiting for.