Djeli-in-Training: Assata Shakur

Welcome, Djeli-in-Training

The Family Lore Project is a research, storytelling, family healing, and celebration journey. It builds dialogue between you, your parents, and your family near and far.

A Djeli is a trained keeper and performer of memory, music, and lore. Among the Mande peoples of West Africa, the Djeli helps families and communities know who they are, honor worthy deeds, learn from mistakes, and carry wisdom into the future. As a Djeli-in-Training, you accept those responsibilities for your own family.

This journey is named for Assata Shakur, whose life asks hard questions about courage, the defense of our people, and who gets to tell our stories. In this course you ask what your family chose when it mattered most, who and what touched them along the way, and how to see through the broken stories told about our people.

This journey, focus on

• The lessons of the struggle
• Warrior, healer, and builder choices in your family
• The people and movements who touched your family
• Naming the five broken stories
• A family timeline or corrected family tree for the Return

How each challenge works

Plan on about two hours a week, in four 30-minute Skill Building Blocks. You, your family, and your support specialist can stretch a challenge to two weeks when you need to. Challenges I and II are a renewal this time, about one week together.

The Story Circle

The Story Circle is rooted in the African cultural practice of call and response. One voice calls, and the community answers, so no one speaks alone and every story is received.

Here, you start by answering the call.

Before you post a telling of your own, respond to two others, from classmates or from the Ancestor Shelf, using four moves:

• Name itGive the story a temporary name.
• Take itSay one thing it taught you.
• Ask itAsk the teller one question.
• Link itConnect it to your own family or adopted line.

When people answer your telling, post an answer back to close the circle. You choose who sees each post: Family Only, Keepers, Circle, or Showcase. Get the teller’s blessing before sharing a relative’s story beyond your family. Showcase needs a parent’s sign-off.

My journey

The four journeys

The Family Lore Project is four courses, two a year for two years. Each time, the dialogue deepens, and you and your family grow stronger.

1. 
   AramintaCompleted. Beginning with family.
2. 
   Assata ShakurYou are here. Courage and the defense of our people.
3. 
   Asa G. HilliardWe don’t start our story with captivity
4. 
   John Henrik ClarkePlacing our people in world history