Looking back can be affirming and comforting. Looking back on growing up in our seasons of innocence and remembering the joy we experienced in our childhood can be a beautiful experience.
Looking back also allows us to see where and why we made some mistakes to help us not make the same mistakes again.
That is why looking back is better than trying to go back to a delusion about a made-up greatness.
To illustrate the point, I introduce some to the Sankofa Bird, which is a symbol of the Akan people of Ghana. The bird is pictured with its feet pointed forward, while its head is turned backward, holding an egg in its mouth. The egg represents new opportunities and new life gained from looking backwards to retrieve what was missed.
The Sankofa Bird symbolizes the phrase “going back to fetch what was lost in order to go forward.” Looking back is better than trying to go back because looking back keeps you from becoming stuck in the past, but to learn the lessons from the past to create a better future. Looking back is not just a cultural principle but a biblical and theological principle as well.
In Micah 6:4, it says, “Indeed, I brought you up from the land of Egypt and ransomed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.” Deliverance from Egyptian bondage is mentioned over eighty-seven times in the biblical narrative. The reason is that looking back to see what God did for the people who were oppressed serves as a reminder that God does not approve of people being oppressed, held in bondage or politically and economically dominated by anyone. Looking back in the Bible to what God did for the people in Egypt also reminds the people that God is a delivering God and will work through people to liberate those who are being oppressed.
Yet looking back in the holy scriptures also serves as a chastisement by God whenever the people that God delivered in their arrogance and hubris forget that it was God who brought them out of slavery, and that they owe God their faithfulness.
The bible teaches a cultural and theological principle that looking back is better than trying to go back. Those today who think they can go back to a fabricated and unrealistic past are using the rear-view mirror on their car as a windshield, which will ultimately lead to crashing the car into another car and putting the lives of innocent people at risk for great harm or even death. Rearview mirrors are designed for glancing or looking back briefly to help navigate forward by keeping a focus on the road ahead.
Therefore, in this present time, we must look back like the Sankofa bird so that we will never forget that the illegal and immoral human trafficking of people of African ancestry was the fabric of this country’s identity. We must look back to see that defining African people as three fifths of humans was an un-Godly strategy to make money off black bodies while defining and treating persons that God created in God’s image to be loved as a thing to used.
We must look back to remember that indigenous people who were already here before the invasion of Europeans were systematically killed by those same Europeans after being graciously saved by the indigenous because the Europeans did not know how to farm or survive in this land. We must look back to remember that while every white person did not own people as property, every white person benefited from the institution of chattel slavery, and most of those whites who did not own people as property still supported the hateful doctrines of Manifest Destiny.
We must look back to remember that slaves were not stolen from the continent of Africa, but artists, scientists, medical professionals, warriors, carpenters, theologians, husbands, wives, and children were illegally stolen.
We must look back and remember finally that it was not Abraham Lincoln who freed African people but the people themselves who refused to be governed by their oppressors but fought the institution of chattel slavery with every fiber of their being, and just like God stepped in to raised up liberators in Egypt God raised up liberators here in these “yet to be united states” to quote Queen Mother Maya Angelou to keep the fire of deliverance burning bright.
Looking back is better than trying to go back to a nightmare.
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.
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.”
- Rev. John E. Jackson
- Rev. John E. Jackson
- Rev. John E. Jackson
- Rev. John E. Jackson
- Rev. John E. Jackson
