The Soul Of Black Folks Lives In Our Name
For generations, they forced names on us: slave, Negro, colored, African-American, “Black.” But we wanted a name For Us, By Us. A name that honored our enslaved ancestors and the culture they created and preserved. A sacred name that celebrates our Soul power.
“A good name is more desirable than great riches.” – Proverbs 22:1.
Say it with us: Soulaan (so-lawn). Soulaan, or Soulaani, is a sacred name and ethnic designation coined by T-Roy Parks, Maroc Wallace, and Dwayne Coleman. To re-identify themselves, they chose the name “Soulaan” as a spiritual act of resistance through the power of self-determination.
But what does Soulaan mean? Soulaan is a reclaiming of Black American history, culture, ancestry, and Afro-indigenous relationship to the land. Those who identify as Soulaan are directly descended from formerly enslaved, African diasporic free people of the United States.
As their Core Pillars, Soulaan’s founders respectfully claim that although all Soulaan people are Black, not all Black people are Soulaan. Understanding this difference allows them to wholeheartedly celebrate everyone within the African Diaspora and the spectrum of Blackness.
And of course the name is a nod to our sacredness. The Soulaan proudly call themselves such because they realize that they are descended from “the people of Soul.”
We are what we respond to, so let’s choose names for ourselves that make us feel sacred, empowered, and proudly Soulaan and/or Black.
In a world determined to define and denigrate us, determining ourselves is a sacred act of resistance.
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