The reason I named it the Mama Akua House is because first and foremost I wanted to pay homage and respect to somebody who’s alive. Too often the decision is made to name Our institutions after Our great ones who have passed, instead of, as they say, giving them their flowers while they’re here. I had the great honor to travel to Ghana from late December 2019 into January 2020. Being in Ghana, and absorbing the Ashanti culture, history, and lineage from stories about the matriarch echoed what We know in Black Detroit – the importance of the matriarch. Stories shared how this system functioned in many Afrikan tribes, and we know black families in Black Detroit have historically had a matriarch.

So, naming the house after Mama Akua is honoring that matriarch tradition which uplifts Black women who have been at the center of the Black struggle/movement for Black liberation…Our grandmothers, mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters! Mama Akua is Detroit-bred and epitomizes the blue-collar revolutionary Pan-Afrikanism commitment, love, and integrity that the community house will embody as We engage and organize Black Bodies for transformation and liberation. Lastly, Black men are celebrated all the time fundamentally, but it is through Black womanhood that Black men come about.

LEARN MORE