With Our Own True Hands

Today we celebrate Kujichagulia, the second and arguably most important of all the Nguzo Saba. As the ancestors have proclaimed, there can be no viable future for Black people other than the future Black people create for ourselves. Tell it.

Frederick Douglass (1886) 

"He must not expect to be carried into the heights of civilization on the backs of other men. He must go on his own feet. He must work with his own hands. He must think with his own brain." Source: "The Nation's Problem" Address (1886).

W.E.B. Du Bois (1919) 

"We are the first to acknowledge that for the ultimate solution of the Negro problem, the Negro himself is the most important factor. The Negro must be the active agent in his own progress; his own hand must shape his own destiny." Source: "The Crisis" (1919).

Marcus Garvey (1923) 

"The Negro must have a country and a nation of his own. He must have a culture and a civilization of his own. He must have a future of his own. We must no longer be satisfied with being the subjects of others; we must be the masters of ourselves. Self-determination is the only way to true freedom." Source: Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (1923).

Mary McLeod Bethune (1955) 

"If our people are to take their rightful place in the world, they must first learn to believe in themselves. We must define our own goals and set our own standards. We cannot wait for others to tell us what we can or cannot do. We must be the architects of our own progress, building on the foundation of our own strength and intelligence." Source: "My Last Will and Testament" (1955).

Malcolm X (1964) 

"You can't give a people their pride. They have to get it themselves. You can't give a people their identity. They have to find it themselves. You can't give a people their freedom. They have to take it themselves. We must learn to think for ourselves and act for ourselves, without waiting for the permission of those who have oppressed us." Source: "The Ballot or the Bullet" Speech (1964).

Kwame Nkrumah (1965) 

"We are not struggling for the sake of struggle. We are struggling to build a nation that is truly our own. We must decide for ourselves what kind of society we want to live in, and we must be the ones to build it. Our destiny is in our own hands, and we must have the courage to shape it according to our own needs and aspirations." Source: Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism (1965).

Shirley Chisholm (1972) 

"I am not the candidate of Black America, although I am Black and proud... I am the candidate of the people, and my presence before you now symbolizes a new era in American political history. I have defined myself, and I will not be moved by the definitions of others." Source: Presidential Campaign Announcement, Brooklyn, NY (January 25, 1972).

Steve Biko (1972) 

"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. If one is free at heart, no man-made chains can bind one to servitude... We must break the mental chains and define our own humanity." Source: "Black Consciousness and the Quest for a True Humanity" (1972).

Thomas Sankara (1987) 

"He who feeds you also imposes his will upon you. We must learn to produce what we consume and consume what we produce. We must have the courage to invent our own future, to define our own path to development, and to reject the models that are forced upon us by others." Source: Address on African Debt, OAU Summit (July 1987).

Wangari Maathai (2004) 

"You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must guard them. Self-determination is not just a political act; it is the act of taking responsibility for the land that sustains you." Source: Nobel Peace Prize Lecture (2004).