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Take a Spiritual Walk With Me, Please.

One day while contemplating an upcoming workshop with young women, I became convicted.  My usual recourse is to try to change our youths� behavior by convincing them that we are descendants of kings and queens.  For those of you who don't know, our children are on a path of dogs.  Our young men call each other dawg and call the women bitches.  They bark at each other and their heroes have names like Snoop Dogg (named because he looks like Snoopy) and Lil' Bow Wow.  I was becoming more and more alarmed because this is not just a passing fad.  From my best guess, we as a people have been on this path at least since 1983 when the original funkmeister, George Clinton, sang �bow wow wow yippy yo yippy yay!� on his explosive album, "Atomic Dog," which topped the R&B music charts. That was over 20 years ago and we are still progressing down the dog-dom trail.

 

What troubled me about this is that I'm working from a school of thought that revolves around three concepts.  The first two are pretty easy for anyone to understand.  The third concept, while pretty uncommon, if given enough thought can be easily understood and proven on both spiritual and scientific levels.

 

First, whatever a person thinks of themselves, that is what he/she will become because they behave in a way to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. (Proverbs 23:7)  Secondly, the words coming out of your mouth direct your path.  In other words, your words determine your destiny.  So, my feelings are apparent, our people will ultimately behave like dogs if we keep calling each other doggy names.  The third premise, the new school of thought, dictates that as people, we remember on a cellular level those things that happened to our forefathers.  In other words, our blood, skin, flesh and even bone has memory.  Not only does our DNA carry physiological instruction from generation to generation but other things are also transmitted, things that our brains don't recollect.  For example, mannerisms, alcoholism, emotions, etc.  There are all sorts of scientific and biblical data to back up this statement. 

 

This third concept is what I�d hoped to tap into to change the hearts of our children and let me add that this concept has been somewhat successful.  But this particular night God stepped in and called me to His spiritual journey.  As I was preparing my �script� that night, the Holy Ghost convinced me to search for those kings and queens that I continuously speak about.  I have been teaching that we, black people, are the descendants of kings and queens and yet I had nothing tangible - no names, ideas or faces.  We all know that Nefertiti and Cleopatra were African queens but Egypt clearly distinguishes itself from black Africa and that somehow did not set well in my spirit because its too complicated to connect those dots to a group of teenagers who continue to bark at each other.  I wanted to convince our children to stop giving �what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs.�  Jesus said that at Matthew 7:6.

 

So.  I began my research on the Internet.  After all, I�m an internet expert.  I can research in a few minutes what would take hours in an actual library.  I�m just smart like that, okay?  That way when I appeared at my workshop the next day, I'd have a nice airtight argument that we are kings and queens.  I pictured myself posing this majestic question, "If we were of a royal bloodline when we were put in chains, at what point did we cease to be royalty and take the bloodline of dog-dome?"  I was going to follow my normal recourse and help our youths to tap into that cellular memory, grab that royal blood line with a two-fisted kind of loving-kindness and juss gone and be great anyhow.  I believed that I�d quickly connect those dots and draw that picture to join us, former slaves, with African royalty -- and I don�t mean the biblical royal priesthood noted at 1 Peter 2:9 in the Bible.  Some of our children would be disqualified from that chosen race.

 

After a few hours of constant searching, when I still had nothing to support my royal-flesh theory, I started getting desperate. I searched and searched.  I found lots of interesting things but I found nothing linking a royal bloodline to the formerly enslaved descendants of Africans in the United States.

 

Finally about 3:00 am, with tears in my eyes, I backed away from the computer empty handed.  I was brought first to my knees and then flat on my face.  It was one of those times when we are called to pray.  I said �Lord, this is the story that has been passed down from generation to generation.  If we are the real flesh and blood descendants of royalty I want to know now.  If we are not the physical descendants of royal blood I�m asking You to show me now, here, tonight.  If this story is a myth, I want to know and I won�t spread the word any further.  I�ll be satisfied with being a 1 Peter 2:9 royal priesthood.

 

I laid there suspended in a timeless prayer closet, just me and God.  I laid there and found my peace.  I asked God to forgive me for many things but most of all I repented because I realized that I had hung my hat on being of a royal bloodline from Africa.  I had taught that idea across the United States, the Caribbean and Europe too and I resolved in my heart and soul that my bloodline didn�t make a bit of difference.  I was God�s child, a joint heir with Christ and all those things promised to the righteous are mine.  I understood on a different level the significance of my earthly wealth . . . that money is only a piece of my wealth. . . that I was already walking in the abundant life that God promises His children.

 

Finally, around daybreak, I rose from the floor well rested even though I had not slept.  I stepped over to the computer keyboard and who knows what I typed into the search engine but you will never guess what rolled up on my screen.  You will never never never guess what was revealed in that continuous flow of information . . .  My chin must have hit the desk because I could not believe what turned up on that screen . . .  Immediately, many things were cleared up for me, things that I had wondered since early childhood. . .  All of the entries said the same thing so I just picked one and clicked on it . . .  It said, �The Kingdom of Bow Wow�.  The Kingdom of Bow Wow . . . The Kingdom of Bow Wow.

 

Like in a vision I was moved back in time as I began to read a soldier�s account of a 16th century war.  The young soldier, whose name I don�t recall, eloquently wrote an extremely logistic explanation of the exploits of war.  His letter was pretty lengthy and yet interesting.  After a short while his military prose took on a different air and he began to tell about how he, as a young boy, was abducted from his homeland and brought on a long voyage to a life of enslavement.  Sometime during his training and adventures as a soldier this man learned to read and write.  He became a �gentleman of letters�.  He wrote of his boyhood home, The Kingdom of Bow Wow.  That kingdom was a majestic kingdom of kings and queens.  From his description I understood that each household had a king and a queen and that there were certain things that every king and queen needed to know.  This Kingdom of Bow Wow, as described, was located in present-day Ghana and these were a joyous people . . . until the day of destruction came.  As I understand from his writings, the entire nation was captured and forced into slavery and the only survivors assimilated into the Zulu tribes.

 

As I read about the Kingdom of Bow Wow it was like I walked among those kings and queens.  I could see their vibrant colors and hear the drums.  I saw the culture, the work, the food, heard the language.  I understood the village life and had a new respect for the elders.  I saw the horrendous abduction and remembered the captivity, the ship, the ocean, the stench and the crying.  I heard the kings and queens wail and howl �Bow Wow, Bow Wow�.  And I saw their captors mock in laughter and turn the bow-wow sound into a dog�s cry.

 

As a small child I understood that cows moo, cats meow, but dogs do not bow-wow.  I distinctly remember questioning that notion as a pre-schooler.  As the foulness of this vision struck my consciousness I began to weep audibly and tears stung my eyes and streamed down my cheeks.  I choked out an agonizing �Why?�  I wanted to know why this horrible thing happen, why did we survive and finally I asked God why he let that wonderful name �Bow Wow� become the synonym for a dog�s language.  Then God told me, �I let that happen because I knew that one day, 300 years later, you�d search for your ancestors and I wanted you to have a place to hang your hat.�

 

When I stood up from that journey, I was unexplainably different.  I felt that God had done something special for me.  He gave me, alone, answers that I didn�t know how to digest.  I walked away from that virtual world and went on to my seminar.  I taught from my soul for those two days.  At the end of the workshop when it was time for the students to identify what they�d learned, one Caucasian girl jumped to her feet and demanded to go first.  I was surprised because she�d only spoken when absolutely necessary during the two days.  She loudly declared, �I learned that I�m a queen!  When I came in here yesterday, I was an atheist and now I wanna� see �bout gettin� some o� those promises that God�s people get!�

 

Look how the world gets blessed when we get blessed.  That�s what it means for your cup to �runneth over�.  Others get sustenance in your overflow. 

 

That was a freebee.  What�s really important here is that the spirit of Bow Wow is about our royal birthright not doggie-hood.  Satan is good at taking what is good and perverting it until it�s unrecognizable.  During that class it became real apparent that our children remember Bow Wow on a cellular level.  Let�s not pervert it but carry our birthright with the excellence of God.

 

The evening after the first day, I raced home to read more about the Kingdom of Bow Wow and my screen was blank!  From that day to this one I have never been able to find any more data on the man and people or the culture.  It vanished.  Here�s the challenge:  will you help me find more information on the Kingdom of Bow Wow?  Until I can cite that man�s letter or find other anthropological information, we�ll have no choice but to accept this story on faith.  I believe it . . .  Will you help me prove it?

A Continuation of the Spiritual Walk

One day while feeling quite angry and sorry for myself, my telephone rung and a gentleman introducing himself as Thomas Brown was on the other end.Mr. Brown explained to me that he was looking for his ancestors (genealogically) and had a clue that his 6th great grandfather�s name was Jeffrey Brace.He asked me if that name sounded familiar and I told him it did, but that I couldn�t remember where I heard it.

 

That�s when he threw the bomb at me. . . Mr. Brace, formerly named Boyrereau Brince, wrote memoirs about his 18th century (things were starting to sound familiar to me) . . . homeland . . . the Kingdom of Bow Wow!!!

 

I dropped the phone and ran around the house screaming.I came back to the phone screaming repeatedly, �how did you find me?!�Mr. Brown said he saw my article at MyrnaRoberts.com and was grateful that I too was searching for his 6th great grandfather.Mr. Thomas advised me that there was controversy between two Caucasian people who were both publishing Mr. Brace�s memoirs.The lady, in an effort to publish her version before the gentleman, put her article on the Internet.I found her article during a very brief period of time that it was on the web.A subsequent legal battle ensued.The man won and the woman took her book off the web.

 

I have not read this book and I understand that this gentleman�s book is quite different from the lady�s that I read on the Internet late one night.Excerpts of Brace�s memoirs can be found at http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/brinch/ill1.html.My information came from the lady�s book and apparently her information about the Kingdom of Bow Wow (sometimes know as the Kingdom of Bow Woo) is not supported here.For example:we know that the tribe probably didn�t assimilate with the Zulu because they are from South Africa, a very long distance from Ghana.However, this version does talk about trade between Bow Wow and people in Morocco.That too is a very long distance.This version is in direct contradiction with regard to every household having royalty (which was the very point of my story); it distinctly describes that the King of Bow Wow was basically a tyrant.

 

By Myrna Roberts