An excerpt on Mammonism from “The Souls of Black Folk”

Listen Siblings, I come in peace,

“When the governing class isn’t chosen for quality it is chosen for material wealth: this always means decadence, the lowest stage a society can reach.” — KMT Proverb

Our ancients have spoken. We are living in the lowest stage of society. It’s up to us to get us out of it. You are responsible. Write the ABS about building an African Blood Siblings Community Center to raise our condition. Hurry. It’s the great work like this which will limit our destruction.

An excerpt on Mammonism from “The Souls of Black Folk”
As commented by Onitaset Kumat

In the Black World, the Preacher and Teacher embodied once the ideals of this people,—the strife for another and a juster world, the vague dream of righteousness, the mystery of knowing; but to-day the danger is that these ideals, with their simple beauty and weird inspiration, will suddenly sink to a question of cash and a lust for gold. Here stands this black young Atlanta, girding herself for the race that must be run; and if her eyes be still toward the hills and sky as in the days of old, then we may look for noble running; but what if some ruthless or wily or even thoughtless Hippomenes lay golden apples before her? What if the Negro people be wooed from a strife for righteousness, from a love of knowing, to regard dollars as the be-all and end-all of life? What if to the Mammonism of America be added the rising Mammonism of the re-born South, and the Mammonism of this South be reinforced by the budding Mammonism of its half-awakened black millions? Whither, then, is the new-world quest of Goodness and Beauty and Truth gone glimmering? Must this, and that fair flower of Freedom which, despite the jeers of latter-day striplings, sprung from our fathers’ blood, must that too degenerate into a dusty quest of gold,—into lawless lust with Hippomenes?

–W.E.B. Du Bois in “The Souls of Black Folk” 1903 (Emphasis mine)

           To answer Du Bois, Mammon speaks for our majority.  It’s sad, but our recent rap culture, with its excesses on jewelery, automobiles and fashion has minimized the African’s natural quest for ‘goodness’ into one of ‘goldness.’  This century’s old warning was in vain.  Only by a constant protest of Mammonism ought we as a people reverse what damages have arose.  I encourage the reader to share the above youtube video, along with this site, with fellow Africans.

HTP