Baba Koleoso Karade, aka Nashid Fakhrid-Deen, JD, has undertaken the task of presenting us with a manual, a guide if you will, that can be used by groups across the Diaspora to assist their young men through a rites-of-passage program. Reaching Black Males Through Spirituality is a real and practical textbook that teaches our black males how to become MEN in America using the foundation of African principles. Koleoso tackles issues from teenage sex to racism and the problem of street violence, offering healing guidance on the central problems facing the African American Community.
 

 

 

Face Forward:
Young African American Men in a Critical Age
Julian C. R. Okwu;
"I wanted to introduce the world to another idea of young African American men," he writes in his introduction, explaining the reason for this powerful and important book. In Face Forward, he presents photographs and brief autobiographies, in their own words, of 40 young black men. They are a varied lot--a former gang member, a dancer, a medical student, a politician, businessmen, and activists. What they have in common, though, is a desire to give back to the black community, and to be seen for who they are.

  As I Am:
Young African American Women in a Critical Age
Julian C. R. Okwu;
As I Am is Julian C.R. Okwu's companion book to Face Forward (which focused on young African American males "in a critical age"). For As I Am, Okwu selected and interviewed 36 women with vastly different experiences and backgrounds to illustrate the complexity of black women's experiences in America. The civil rights era has come and gone, but battles are still being waged. From the superintendent at a construction company who has to deal with snide sexist remarks to the veterinarian who is warned by a dog's owner, "I don't know how she is with black people," struggles for equality in the workplace, on university campuses, and throughout our culture continue.

 Saving the Native Son:
Empowerment Strategies for Young Black Males
Courtland C. Lee
Achieving manhood has historically been a complex and challenging task for the Black male in America. Therefore Black manhood must be carefully fostered from an early age by major socializing agents and institutions. This book provides school counselors and related professionals with important information about the development of young Black males. It is designed as an action manual for all those concerned about promoting the development of the next generation of African American men. The concepts and programs presented are designed to guide initiatives for promoting the academic, career, and personal-social empowerment of young Black males.

Empowering Young Black Males, III:
A Systematic Modular Training Program for Black Male Children and Adolescents
Courtland C. Lee;
Organized in a systematic modular format, Empowering Young Black Males offers an empowerment program for young Black males. The modules are designed to provide culture-specific empowerment experiences that focus on helping young Black males develop the attitudes and skills necessary for current academic achievement and future success. Empowering Young Black Males is co-published with the American Counseling Association Foundation.

   Manhood: A Light From Within
by Cary D. Graham
A one of a kind gem. A must read for everyone who loves a son, or raises a daughter. The myths and stereotypes about manhood are shattered and the truth is laid bare. A provocative, in-depth analysis of intimate masculine nurturing which brings new levels of understanding to the development of manhood, from it's spiritual basis, through the myriad of issues males are faced with. Finally, a book that gets to the root causes of why males do what they do, and how to lead, teach, guide and direct them to embracing and then improving in their manhood. We now have a textbook on manhood that is easy to understand. Manhood is qualified, quantified, charted and plotted.

Pathways to Manhood:
Young Black Males Struggle for Identity
Janet Mancini Billson;
Pathways to Manhood offers a realistic and useful tool for understanding young Black males in their search for identity. How should a teacher respond to a "tough guy" so a potentially violent encounter does not escalate? How should a parent nurture a "together guy" to help him develop into a strong young male with high autonomy? How should a police officer deal with a young Black male who is into drugs and conning? Pathways to Manhood offers a wonderful model for identifying the "strategic styles" used by young people, especially Black males, and for fostering positive styles and diminishing the negative styles. This book is great for school systems, juvenile justice and corrections workers, and anyone else who is trying to understand and cope with young males who are, as the author says, struggling for identity in a confusing world.

Bringing the Black Boy to Manhood: The Passage
Nathan Hare;
Dr. Nathan Hare holds two Ph.D's (in clinical psychology and sociology). He is on the faculty of San Francisco State University, where he was the first person hired to coordinate a black studies program in the United States. Dr. Hare, a recent winner of the National Award for distinguished scholarly contributions to black studies, is in the private practice of psychotherapy.  
He writes:
"I am a Black Man
The evidence of anthropology now suggest that I, the black man , am the original man , the first man to walk this vast imponderable earth. I, the black man , am an African , the exotic Quintessence of a universal blackness. I have lost by force my land, my language, in a sense my life, I will seize it back so help me. Toward that end, if necessary, I will crush the corners of the earth, and this world will surely tremble, until I , the blackman , the first and original man, can arm in arm with my black women, erect among the people of the universe a new society, humane to its cultural core, out of which at long last last will emerge, as night moves into day, the first truly human being that the world has ever known."

African royal wedding and marriage ceremony: A guide
Kwabena Faheem Ashanti;

 

 

 

Kindezi: The Kongo art of babysitting
K. Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau;
Kindezi (the art of babysitting) and the ndezi (babysitter) provide an extensive amount of services for both the society at large and the idividual child, making for a cohesive, unified community.  Kindezi serves to provide an early education for African youth, therapy and feeling of purpose for the aged, and liberation and independence for African women.  In addition, Kindezi develops the moral and intelectual character of the young, thus ensuring a strong foundation for each new generation.

 

Positive Continental Afrikan Self-Knowledge Technology:
Or, to Know We Are Continental Afrikans, is to Be Afrikans in Thoughts, Words and Deeds
Afrikadzata Deku;

 

 

 

Let the Circle Be Unbroken:
The Implications of African Spirituality in the Diaspora
Marimba Ani;
... is an active organizer in the Afrikan Community. She has conducted Rites of Passage programs for Afrikan youth and young adults. She travels frequently to Ghana, West Afrika, where she is continuing her study and support of Afrikan traditional healing concept and practices. She is part of a "think tank" of Afrikan-centered scholars currently spear-heading the socially and politically dynamic "To Be Afrikan" campaign. She is Director of the Afrikan Heritage Afterschool Program, a voluntary effort which has been operating in the Harlem Community for the past 14 years. Marimba Ani holds a BA degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago, and the MA and Ph.D. degrees in anthropology from the Graduate Faculty of the New School University. She is Professor of Afrikan Studies in the Department of Black and Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York City.

   The Warrior Method
by Raymond Winbush
According to the recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice, black males die at a rate fifteen times higher than that of white males because of homicidal violence. The Department estimates that 28 percent of black males will enter state or federal prisons during their lifetime. In response to these devastating statistics, psychologist, educator, and father Raymond Winbush has created The Warrior Method -- a program designed for parents and teachers to help black boys become strong, self-reliant men. Filled with thoughtful reflections on the author's own experiences, the book looks at a male's life through the prism of the four seasons: spring -- conception to four years old; summer -- ages five through twelve; autumn -- ages thirteen through twenty-one; and winter -- age twenty-two and beyond.

Winbush's comprehensive, step-by-step approach draws on such African traditions as the "Birthing Circle" and a "Young Warriors Council" to help boys make important transitions, along with numerous other modern variations on tribal customs that instill the values of self-respect, dignity, and honor.

Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys
Vol. I-IV Series
by Jawanza Kunjufu

This book provides strategies and techniques for improving high school and college graduation rates.

"...This is an effective handbook for all Black people. It is virtually a little encyclopedia. You have done an impressive and important job." -- Gwendolyn Brooks, Poet Laureate

"The book clearly shows that African American parents, teachers, administrators, business people -- in fact, all members of the community -- are part of the conspiracy, and as such, have a role and a responsibility in countering the conditions that are destroying our youth, our future." -- Sanyika Anwisye, Co-founder and Director, Frederick Douglas Institute, St. Louis

Asafo!
Mwalimu K. Bomani Baruti

Asafo is an in-depth Afrikan centered discussion of the requirements of Afrikan manhood. In it, the author clearly lays out our sources of power and the tools that must be acquired, mastered and used if we are to reclaim our correct role as warrior scholars in the battle to provide safe, sacred and empowering spaces for our families and communities. It gives specific consciousness raising guidelines for our Nationbuilding effort, weeding out those compromising ideas and forces which have kept us confused over whether we want to be powerful or just influential in this world. This book is a very important tool in Afrikan men’s efforts to help Re-Afrikanize our people. As the table of contents indicate, there is a strong emphasis on building functional educational institutions, developing a dynamic sense of group-consciousness through elevating one’s self-consciousness, male rites of passage programs and a warrior’s mental preparation. In addition, we are taken through the difficult process of growing from being merely other-directed, apathetic individual consumers to powerful, mission-directed men in thought, word and deed. Asafo closes with an extensive collection of revolutionary quotes that specifically work to define, direct and heal every Afrikan

Homosexuality and the Effeminization of Afrikan Males
Mwalimu K. Bomani Baruti
Homosexuality and the Effeminization of Afrikan Males begins with an Afrikan Centered investigation into the origins and historical evolution of homosexuality. This elemental study expands into a detailed analysis of the most important part of this work, the growing gender confusion of Afrikans socialized into European culture and society. The historical relationship of white supremacy, based in the real and perceived threat of Afrikan males, to European global cultural imperialism/hegemony provides the foundation for these arguments. In plain terms, there is a direct relationship between the forced enslavement of Afrikan males into European society, the ongoing fear of Afrikan men by European men, the racist economic order that has gradually but systematically reduced its need for Afrikan labor since the official end of the Afrikan’s physical enslavement and the subsequent growing effeminization of a significant number of Afrikan males in this Western society. The process and desired result of this effeminization process is a significant part of the means by which European society seeks to reduce/eliminate the potential expression of a righteous rage by Afrikan men. This methodical de-masculinization manifests itself in numerous ways and rationales, from within the prison system to higher education to single parenting to the labor market to the church to the media, all of which are thoroughly discussed in this book. At the base of this assault is the historical confusion and cultural alienation of Afrikans themselves. If people act toward any problem without historical awareness, for all problems are located in history, then in all probability they act wrongly or, as many prefer to say, they do no more than react. Therefore, many of us who are alarmed over this growing sexual confusion are mostly reacting to what is being done to our sons. And, because of this, we are unable to effectively arrest the European psychosexual assault on them. We do not see ourselves as powerful enough to stop others from turning our sons into their daughters. In the Western cultural context, men fear men, not women. And European men fear Afrikan men for many good reasons. They understand that the best way to significantly reduce this threat is to turn your enemy’s males into females so that they make themselves into non-threats. Blame for powerlessness in the face of assault falls on the victim. That undeniable truth is what this book attempts to explain in as great a detail as possible so that Afrikans can act on a deeply informed Afrikan interpretation, and not a European fiction, of Afrikan traditions.

Ourstory
Qaidi Faraj
Qaidi Faraj is a writer, educator and activist who has written a book for our children about themselves. Ourstory tells them who they are through the eyes and work of their ancestors, the same ancestors who built and cultivated the world's first and greatest civilizations who consistently acted in their children's interest, whose lives consciously followed and defended the patterns and rules established by the universe. It is not someone else's fiction of what happened to us or what they did to us as we sat idly by or celebrated our destruction. It is a factual reenactment of our self-determined struggle to remain powerful Afrikan people. Ourstory is a book to be read and studied by middle and high school students (and adults also because we cannot teach our children what we do not know). It makes concepts, places and events plain without taking away any of the unfolding drama, while the vocabulary subtly challenges them to reach higher levels of thinking. It has already become a well distributed teaching tool among home and private schools, as well as study groups. People often ask for a history curriculum for their children that gives them a sense of self without glorifying that which never was. Ourstory is an essential part of such a curriculum that provides empowering truth.

Black Madonnas and Young Lions:
A Rites of Passages for U.S. African Adolescents
Bernida Thompson;
We need to take our youth through prepared teachings, exercises, and experiences that help lead them through a successful, safe, and happy passage into the threshold of adulthood. Black Madonnas & Young Lions is a training guide and workbook written to encourage and provide guidance to positive adult African-Americans and various African-American organizations who wish to establish affiliate Rites of Passage groups. This book is also meant to serve as a student manual for African-American adolescents going through this training. Objectives in this publication for the African-American Rites of Passage training of adolescents includes: enhancing the adolescent's knowledge about the Black family, physical and psychological endurance, health and proper nutrition, Black art, music, and dance, spirituality, cleanliness, time-management, Africentric values, sexuality, influence, respect and more.

Wholly Men Keys to Manhood
Kevin E. Clark
A powerfully informative book about the things that make men. In Wholly Men, Clark presents insights and truths about the high and noble concepts of honor, integrity, respect, reverence and spirituality. Kevin Clark gives solid advice and counsel to young and old alike. When you get through with this book you will want to pass it on. Wholly Men provides a platform for discussion of what it takes to change boys into real men. You will gain a deeper understanding of what God and society expects of men. You will also discover how to be a success at work and family life. Clark's concepts of leadership and Marriage is a must read. If you are trying to raise a boy child you will want to read this book.

Rites of Passage: Psychology of Female Power :
A Manual for Young African-American Women, Medicine Women, Priestesses and More Mature Women of spirit
Ayobunmi Sosi Sangode;
examines and raises everyday female issues, while offering self-help techniques. Probably more important, Iya Sangode presents various potent "female psychologies" culled from the Yoruba culture of Nigeria and West Africa. Researching deeply the sacred odus (Yoruba religious scriptures), Sangode draws the readers to the esteemed role of women and their profound position in the community as well as in some of the most powerful and important Yoruba societies and cults.

 

Orita: Rites of passage for youth of African descent in America
Marilyn Maye: This book is a guide for parents seeking to design a rites-of-passage program for their adolescent youth and for parents considering such a program. Orita (meaning crossroads) prepares participants for adulthood by teaching life management skills in the context of African heritage and biblical principles.

 

 

Coming of Age African American Male Rites of Passage
Paul Hill;
This book asks about the foundation of Rites of Passage and how can the Black community institutionalize rites of passage as part of the process of rearing male children?

 

 

Herstory: Black Female Rites of Passage
Mary C. Lewis;
When does a girl become a woman? This author provides a wealth of information about the physical, social, emotional, and cultural development of young Black females.

 

 

The Rites of Passage
Arnold Van Gennep
Compares the rituals that attend the celebration of such occasions as birth, betrothal, marriage, and death in various cultures.  Birth, puberty, marriage, and death are, in all cultures, marked by ceremonies which may differ but are universal in function. Arnold van Gennep (1873-1957) was the first anthropologist to note the regularity and significance of the rituals attached to the transitional stages in man's life, and his phrase for these, "the rites of passage," has become a part of the language of anthropology and sociology.

 

Rite of Passage
Richard Wright:
This posthumously published novella depicts the brutal conditions facing young African American men in 1940s Harlem. Though written more than 50 years ago, its portrayals of crime, alienation and adolescent disillusionment remain "highly relevant," said PW. Ages 12-up.

 

 Mentoring and the Rites Of Passage for Youth
Ralph Steele;
This book is a daily mentoring reference, a guide to mentors mentees and is a basic information guide for anyone who desires to become a mentor. It helps churches, communities and schools start a mentoring program with their organization and develop the minds, spirits and entrepreneurial talents of the youth in rural cities and suburban America. This book is also helpful to university professors who teach sociology and social work classes.

 

Afrocentric Theory and Application:
Advances in the Adolescent Rite of Passage
Nsenga Warfield-Coppock:
initiation & rites of passage through the ages & world cultures; the African American sacred history & task; research on rites programs across the U.S.; elders' roles; development & use of rituals; retreats & assessments; mentors & sponsors; families & parents; spirituality & health; the four areas of preparedness for adults; the basics of program evaluation & application to rites of passages programs including sample instruments. This volume is considered 'a seminal document for those who are seriously interested in the positive socialization of African American youth' - Useni Eugene Perkins.

 Crossing the Soul's River: A Rite of Passage for Men
William O. Roberts: A recent study at Harvard University concluded that the proverbial "midlife crisis" is largely a myth. The proponents of the study acknowledged, however, that the time of midlife is a period rich with possibility for growth. In "Crossing The Soul's River," William Roberts not only suggests but outlines a rite of passage for men who find themselves at this threshold of both danger and opportunity.

 

Crossroads: The Quest for Contemporary Rites of Passage
Louise Carus Mahdi;
Modern society differs from all other cultures in its lack of rites at life's transitions: this new collection of fifty writings on aspects of these transitions document rites of passage in different cultures around the world, examining both myth, history, and contemporary rites of passage.

 

Sisters Helping Sisters
The Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Girls' Rites of Passage Program
by Madeleine Wright
The book, "Sisters Helping Sisters", is superb reading! It focuses on understanding ones' ancestrial heritage in an effort to direct the future. The book stresses the importance of capturing and maintaining traditions, languages, names and customs. It is necessary reading for all.
 

Bringing Up Boys
by James C. Dobson
A notable Christian activist, powerfully connected right-winger, and founder and president of Focus on the Family, he has written a work with seemingly good intentions: "If you are honest, trustworthy, caring, loving, self-disciplined, and God-fearing, your boys will be influenced by those traits as they age.... So much depends on what they observe in you." True enough. His underlying arguments, however, are peculiarly mean-spirited. Any outsider who threatens traditional family values comes under fierce attack. Most early feminists, for example, "were never married, didn't like children, and deeply resented men, yet they advised millions of women about how to raise their children and, especially, how to produce healthy boys." Dobson also avows that gays suffer from a "disorder."

Bringing Up Boys: Video Seminar Workbook (Leader's Guide) James C. Dobson;	Bringing Up Boys: A Parents' Guide (How to Help Your Child) Tim Kahn;
Bringing Up Boys: A Parenting Manual for Sole Mothers Raising Sons Jo Howard; The author (who is a psychologist, family counselor, and Christian advocate) advises parents on handling the special challenges of raising boys.

State of Emergency
by Jawanza Kunjufu
This critical analysis looks at the dire state of African American males and the tough challenges they face daily. Providing a holistic look at the educational, penal, and drug industries, this book condemns the institutions and standards that have declared war on black men. Why is there such a disparity between punishments for crack and cocaine? Why is 91 percent of the African American prison population illiterate? What are the effects of rampant racial profiling?

 

Xodus: An African American Male Journey
Garth Baker-Fletcher;

In a bold, inventive style, Xodus addresses the increasingly perilous situation of black males by sifting critically through the mythic, cultural, and political realities that impinge on African American men, and discerning in them ultimate religious and ethical values that can affirm and inform new black male lifestyles.
Written in a bold, inventive style, Xodus aims at a new, positive "reconstruction" of African American maleness in light of the black womanist movement, the men's movement, the recent vision of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., and the theological sensibilities of Howard Thurman.

Style over Substance
RON MILLS, B.A., L.S.W. ALLEN HUFF, M.S.S.A., L.I.S.W.

An insightful and in-depth look at the African American teenage "subculture". Like it or not, these future leaders of our community have developed what has been referred to as their own infrastructure, complete with their own set of rules and codes of survival and economics. What the authors have done is to break down the issues that have many of us confused about "where our youth are headed", analyzed the "problem" (or if one exists), and finally offered solutions of substance.  Should be a part of the library in any home with African American teenagers.

These authors have provided a rare and fresh look at the way we view African American teenagers. The assumptions many of us make about they way in which these teenagers view their purpose are completly unjustified, The book outlines how the teenagers form their thoughts and provides constructive methods of response in order to get the results we want from this group, we are beginning to fear. The theory oultined in the book has allowed me to work with families and help them to understand their children. We need to offer these authors a thanks from the entire profession of social work

 

Kwabena Faheem Ashanti, a prolific writer and scholar of Afrocentric psychology, African studies and the traditional African religion PtahRa.  Ashanti, an NCCU graduate who holds a Ph.D. from N.C. State University, is the founder and international president of the International Board of African Historical Priests, Thinkers, Healers, and Religions; he is also a member of the Association of Black Psychologists and the National Association of Black Studies.
 

Africentric funerals and burials
Author: Kwabena Faheem Ashanti;

 

Psychotechnoloy of Brainwashing : Africentric Passage by Kwabena Faheem Ashanti	African royal wedding and marriage ceremony Author: Kwabena Faheem Ashanti;
Rites of African American People : A Glimpse into Rites Author: Skobi Matunde	Rites of African American People Author: Skobi Matunde;
Makini's coming of age Author: Nwandu Skobi Matunde;	Going into Darkness: Fantastic Coffins from Africa Author: Thierry Secretan;

The Black Student's Guide to Positive Education
Author: Baba Zak A. Kondo;