Learning, Wisdom and the African World Experience:Mbongi

 This is my third week at Howard University. This week in freshman seminar, the lecture was “Learning, Wisdom and the African World Experience: An Mbongi.” I truly loved this lecture. It made me think about the community I live in and the type of impact I will have on the community. It also made me think about the different Mbongi I have with people.  This was like a history lesson of African Americans in a really quick format. To me, the best part of the lecture was how everything continued to connect back to our education.

The one thing that I learned was that I truly did not understand before was the concept of Mbongi.  Mbongi is either a physical and intellectual space, or “common shelter” which constitutes many traditional African functions including law and order, cultural education, maintenance of social and political life, conflict resolution, the council of elders, and more. One of the questions during this lecture was “When will be done talking and do something, as a group and not individual achievers? Is this even possible?”  When I read this question it made me wonder does my individual accomplishment really make that big of a difference in the world? Or is it only the accomplishments of the group that can truly change the world.