Ujima and Alkebu-lan Village:
The Collective Work and Responsibility of Raising Our Children in Community
Copyright © 2024 / Harold Shujaa Baker / All rights reserved
“Ujima / Collective Work and Responsibility – To build and maintain our own community together and to make our brothers and sisters problems, our problems, and to solve them together.”
Alkebu-lan Village on Detroit’s east side models the Afrikan communal idea of Ubuntu – I am because we are – as well or better than most. From the very beginning, Alkebu-lan Village has been focused on nurturing and investing in the Black community and its children so we become the best possible version of ourselves.
Starting in 1978, Alkebu-lan Village began as the Alkebu-lan Martial Arts Federation, where 7th degree Black Belt, Marvis Cofield, began a lifetime mission of providing affordable martial arts training to Afrikan American children. Since then, the organization has trained over 300,000 people in the martial arts while expanding their program offerings to serve and develop our children and community through a wholistic cultural framework.
If you ask Baba Cofield about how it got started, he will tell you, “It was not me, but WE. It was Black Belt men and women coming together who realized we needed to have our own martial arts organization who started Alkebu-lan.” He insists on the organization’s collective start being known.
Today, Alkebu-lan Village is a “thriving and self-sustaining community of families, businesses, and institutions that embrace a shared mission as a result of our endeavors.” It is “an Afrikan-centered community-based organization committed to developing and nurturing an environment where families work together to build healthy minds, bodies, and communities.”
The “Alkebu-lan philosophy is to live in harmony with self and others by learning and teaching self-respect, self-discipline, self-control, self-defense,” and various forms of self-development. Current programs include – “youth and adult sports and fitness, leadership training, visual and performing arts, homework assistance and tutoring, youth entrepreneurship and community service training,” plus computer and multimedia training.
Alkebu-lan Village offers a regular selection of Pan Afrikan cultural programming where community children and adults can learn, explore, and further develop their identity, purpose, and direction in the most meaningful way.
“With vision, insight, and equipped with an aggressive, yet attainable mission, Alkebu-lan Village has defined a set of principles to guide the culture of the Village and the actions and efforts that take place therein. These principles constitute the Afrikan-centered cultural framework of the Village.”
Among the Afrikan and universal principles and teachings that inform the Alkebu-Lan mission, the Nguzo Saba / the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa and Kawaida Philosophy are central to the organization’s operation. In fact, Alkebu-lan Village’s work is an outstanding example of the principle, Ujima / Collective Work and Responsibility.
Besides that, Alkebu-lan Village bears the rare distinction of managing the annual build and presentation of “The World’s Largest Kwanzaa Kinara” as part of the annual celebration of cultural identity and inter-cultural cooperation through the Detroit Holiday Festival. Business Development Coordinator, Gregory “GMAC” McKenzie, navigates all logistical matters related to the annual assembly, disassembly, transport, storage, and presentation of this compelling symbol of Detroit’s commitment to Afrikan American and Pan Afrikan culture.
The indisputable truth is that “Alkebu-lan Village organizes its efforts around the realization of its vision.”
So, when the question is asked – What is Alkebu-lan Village? The best response explains that – “We are a non-profit eastside Detroit community-based organization with an almost fifty-year history and tradition of trust and service. Our vision is to build healthy minds, bodies, and communities.
Won’t you join us?”
For more information and a schedule of current events, please see https://alkebulanvillage.com.
