A Tale of Two Africans

The late Baba Asa Hilliard, who, after watching an episode called “How to make a sheep dog,” on a program on the Discovery Channel, then shared some intriguing insights. Dr. Hilliard said that young weaning pups are taken from their mothers and placed among nursing sheep, where they begin to suckle on the nipples of the sheep. Those dogs ingest the sheep’s milk, it gets into their DNA and they grow to believe that they are one of the sheep. Despite the dogs being stronger, more agile, and smarter than the sheep, those dogs will now kill their own true mothers to protect the sheep.

Dr. Hilliard then pointed out that a lot of Black people suckling at the nipple of Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, and Yale get the DNA of white supremacy and oppressive capitalism in their bloodstreams to the point that they will sacrifice their own people to please their masters.

I think the African Apostle Paul had something like this in mind when he wrote in the letter to the church at Rome these words, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

There is a picture and personality of the sheep dog Baba Asa Hilliard described in Florida right now. His name is Dr. Joseph Ladapo, and he is the Surgeon General of Florida. He is a well-educated African who was born in Nigeria and immigrated to America at the age of 5.

He suckled at the nipple of Ivy League schools here in the U.S. and took in the DNA of white Christian Nationalistic Settler Supremacy in this country and now is willing to defend anti-science, false conspiracy theory flat earthers to protect those whose descendants colonized his own people. He is a poster child for the phrase “all skin folk ain’t kinfolk.”

Dr. Ladapo announced last week that vaccine mandates and immunization mandates had come to an end in Florida. He further stated, “Who am I to tell people what your child should put in their body?” The obtuse ignorance of that statement is magnified by the fact that he is a trained microbiologist and a general practitioner whose oath is to do no harm. It is his role to advise people on what medicines to take. Yet he has now set in motion the harming of thousands in Florida that will spread throughout this nation.

Finally, the betrayal is even deeper than that. It was another well-educated African who did not suckle at the nipple of schools in America but at the great wisdom and intellectual acuity of his African institutions. He was given the name Onesimus by his enslavers, and in 1721, Onesimus changed the course of medicine in this nation. He was given as a gift to the Puritan enslaving racist preacher Cotton Mather. Smallpox had ravaged Boston at this time, and Onesimus shared with Mather that his people on the continent had developed an inoculation from smallpox. He shared with Mather how they took a small amount of liquid matter from smallpox and rubbed it in a tiny cut in the skin, and people were protected. Mather shared it with the medical authorities and hundreds to thousands of lives were saved in Boston. The practice of inoculations, immunizations, and vaccines was born because this African had a renewed mind.

Dr. Lapado may not know that an African brought to this country the life-saving practice of immunization, vaccination, and inoculation, which rid this nation of measles, smallpox, and other viruses that are now coming back because of the lack of immunizations, but he should.

This is a tale of two Africans, one in the words of Tom Burrell, brainwashed by his oppressors, and the other brain-wise because of his renewed mind. One African in capitulation to his masters has set in motion the needless suffering of many people, while the other, who despite being a victim of human trafficking in this nation called chattel slavery, maintained his integrity and dignity and introduced the life-saving technology from the continent of Africa that has saved millions of lives. That African Apostle Paul had to have had a situation like this in mind when he wrote “do not be conformed to the pernicious and perilous pattern of this world, but be transformed by the life-affirming, life-sustaining, intelligent, and nurturing renewing of your mind.”

Be Authentic, Be Aware and Stay Woke! Uhuru Sassa!!!

The Rev. Dr. John E. Jackson, Sr. is the Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ-Gary, 1276 W. 20th Ave. in Gary. “We are not just another church but we are a culturally conscious, Christ-centered church, committed to the community; we are unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian.” Contact the church by email at [email protected] or by phone at 219-944-0500.