Omoluabi: Self Actualization and Communal Responsibility

Thursday, September 8, 2011 lecture focused on “Omoluabi: Self Actualization and Communal Responsibility”. Dr. Segun Gbadegesin, the speaker of this lectures main focus was to explain to us how important it is for Africans as well as African Americans and Blacks to know our roots, where we came from and how we started out as people. Dr. Gbadegesin began the lecture explain to us what the African word “Ijuba”, meaning to pay homage to, is about and how it relates to the African culture and impacts our lives as well. It is important for us to pay homage to our ancestors and those who came before us because without them we would not be who we are today. They paved the way for us to have this life that we have now. Dr. Segun Gbadegesin continued by speaking about Omoluabi, defined as “a child begotten of the chief (or source) of Iwa”. It also means a person of character, disciplined, and self improving, thus earning the respect of peers and community on account of practical wisdom, putting knowledge acquired through education to the service of the community, and not shying away from personal sacrifices when needed.

Dr. Segun Gbadegesin really captured my attention when he began to speak about the second topic, human condition. It is important for us as people to acknowledge the human condition whether it is social, cultural, moral, economic, political, metaphysical, spiritual, scientific or technological. People must understand that human conditions exist in our society in different shapes and sizes and lead back to why so many African Americans are struggling in our society and not living up to their full attention.

It came to my attention during this lecture that many people do not think that Africans have any type of history or philosophy and I was baffled but still at the same time not surprised. Growing up in an African American church it was drilled into my head from an early age that Africa IS our history. Just as Dr. Carr explained in the last class our history as African Americans is not all about slavery. Our history consists of so much more than that including education and religion. As Dr. Gbadegesin explained religion actually began in Africa. I actually did not know this and this is the new concept that I took out of this lesson. He spoke about the Gods that came before the well known prophets and how they relate to modern day religion, it was astonishing.

All though I did take a lot out of this week’s lecture I did not enjoy it as much as the previous two classes. I do believe that Dr. Gbadegesin was affective in teaching us a new way of thinking while also teaching us new concepts however I feel like if he could have been more engaging and that would have made it more beneficial. However, I did like how this week’s lecture coincided with last week’s lecture with Dr. Carr and we can see the relationship between the two topics. Although I did not find this week’s lecture quite as entertaining as the last overall it was a good class. I learned quite a bit, which is the whole point of this class, to gain knowledge that I can pass on to future generations.