I HAVE come to the realisation that God has touched me. So I feel I must touch others.

This awareness became more real recently when I had the good fortune to meet a child, still in the pre-creep stage, who was apparently abandoned by his birth mother.
This boy was brought to my wife’s home by his father who is a friend of my step children.

In this home this African roots child, clearly affected by the turmoil around him, responded to play and soon was creeping a little. I lifted him up and goo-goo-gah-gah-ed.

On one occasion he smiled and reached out with his tiny fingers and touched my lip.
He did not care if I was Indian or not. He was not touched by the world of prejudice … as yet.

This moved me to my roots. Until my own mother died, I always had two parents and know the value of having parental guidance and love.

I could empathise with this boy’s situation. My wife’s home cannot be considered Indian because representatives of all the races regularly visit.

There is interaction with all as village families are supposed to do. By and large we former slaves, indentured labourers and the rest live in essentially a dynamic harmony.

And this is not to be despised, for we change from ignorance to the knowledge that we are after all human beings and we are happy when there is respect and love.

Of course there are stumbling blocks to this. We know them as race, politics, prejudice, envy, jealousy … and whatever else the wicked imagination comes up with. The list is endless.

But we must overcome. When we over emphasise race we can become racist and so biased and prejudicial.

Instead, it is better to celebrate our racial characteristics -- skin colour, hair type, facial configuration etc. All in the image of God, after all.

In one of Lobsang Rampa’s books which I read many years ago, I recall his belief that one day the human race will be one colour -- Tan.

This to me is a ridiculous concept. The diversity of creation is marvellously displayed in the variety of shapes, colours, scents, tastes that abound in nature.

I revel in such beauty ... as a rainbow and as the magnificent innocence of a child. Some African descendants in T&T seem to have a problem with their very own God-given attributes.

Someone told them they were Black, inferior and slaves ... and they believed it.Their beautiful blackness was depreciated ... so they denied their goodness and became adulterated by the negative elements of this world.

As a young boy I joined the public library when I was going to Richmond Street Boys School. I devoured books on every subject from Astronomy, Geology, Biology, Anthropology and Semantics.

So I educated myself in those technical subjects, but the most education I received was from some books on Africa. I came to admire the African personality, even the tribal diversity. I read books like King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard and was absolutely fascinated by the characters.

In his books, he treats the African in a respectful manner. He wrote like that because he worked in South Africa and interacted with the natives and came to know them.

One character in the King Solomon’s Mines story fitted almost perfectly my behaviour at the time. He was called Macumzahn and he too had a very respectful ralationship with the natives.

Macumzahn roughly translated means “he who gets up in the middle of the night.”
I took the name for my own. This has amused many of my friends since they knew little of my activities except that I read profusely.

Nowadays I go to bed around 10 p.m., wake up 2 a.m., back to sleep, then up again at 4 or 5 a.m.
So it still is a most appropriate name for me.

And I am proud of the name, it being beautifully African.

Pride in one’s name is important for every human being.

To my African brothers, I commend your names to you.

According to an Internet source:
Your name is your identity and a window of your culture and self.
Your name links you with your past, your ancestors and is a part of your spirituality.
Taking on an African name if you are of African descent or culture is a way to make these cultural linkages.

Even if you only take the name privately without officially changing your name, you can still gain much satisfaction from making this link with your ancestral home -- Africa.

Even if you are not of African heritage perusing these lists will enable you to delve a little into the rich traditions and heritage of Africa and so give you new perspective and understanding of your own rich heritage and traditions.

In Africa as in the rest of the world the birth of a child is an event of great joy and significance. Much importance is attached to the naming of the child.

The hopes of the parents, current events of importance and celestial events that may have attended the birth are all given consideration in naming the child.

It is believed that the name chosen will exert an influence for better or for worse on the life of the child and on the family as well.

As we come to recognition of self and gain respect so we would be able to show respect and appreciation for what God has given us.

A book I highly recommend for my African and East Indian brothers and sisters is C.R Ottley’s The Trinidad Callaloo. Ottley states that for the Indian indentured although regulations may have limited his freedom to a certain extent, he knew that this was for a limited time.

He had a choice of remaining in Trinidad after his indentureship was over with a piece of land or of returning to India with what wealth he could have saved.

The African could have no such hope, he suffered perpetual banishment.

These conditions developed different attitudes of mind of the two races, which has had far-reaching repercussions on their development.

The African lived for today.

The Indian lived for tomorrow.

Every Indian and African today must face the truth of the above facts. We must rationalise it and move beyond our differences and conflicts.

The African is still struggling to catch up.

He will overcome, with God’s help.

So we can make our country a paradise. Let us do it.

I wish also to commend a book by Dr. Morgan Job which he personally autographed for me.
It reads: Michael, see God in every face, not race.

I gazed upon the smiling face of this African child who touched me and a name came to me to call him ... it was Mapupula -- The one who touches.

Incidentally his surname is Martin.

Akeva Zambe!