What defines us?

Wats good,

What defines me? Many people have difficulty answering themselves that question. But, there are others that know who they are, where they come from and what kind of person they are. But, it takes growth and time to develop a sort of identity, a definition of who we are. Through time we have experiences, meeting new and interesting people, facing many challenges, and making life changing choices. Life in itself is changing, and we change with it. Now, it depends on how life goes for us, depending on the choices we make. The more we mess up, the less choices we have. However, we learn from these mishaps and pull ourselves away from it, and go on to another path of success and less failures.

Our roots is a one good example of how we define ourselves. It's not our hair roots I'm talking about, but our heritage that holds us firmly together. From our ancestors going all the way down to our parents, these people have some type of connection to who we are, bad or good. Some of us weren't raised by biological parents. But that's OK. If you were raised by foster parents, grandparents, etc., these people are your family. And family defines who we are. And if you don't have a family, there have to be someone out there that's linked to you. People say that we are not perfect, but that's the problem. We blame on our weaknesses more than we praise on our strength.

Now, I'm going put some history on you. Neg Mawon defines me, through history of my heritage, my people, my country. Neg Mawon is a name of a famous statue created by a sculptor Albert Mangones. In Haitian Creole, 'neg' means man and 'mawon' means brown, wild, or in hiding. This symbol is a tribute to the brown men in hiding (slaves) who escaped into the mountains and became the slave armies lead by Boukman for 13 years against the St. Dominique's colonists and later, Napoleon's army. These slave armies were commanded by General Toussaint Louverture and later by General Jean-Jacques Dessalines to ultimate victory over the French at the Battle of Vertières on November 18, 1803. It was on a new year, January 1st 1804, that my people declared independence as the first black republic in the Caribbean. Also, Haiti was the first country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery. Why a country that accomplished so much in its new beginnings as a nation by ending up the way she is today. But, that's another story, another time, another day.

As you could see above, the statue is a sculpture of a man holding a Queen Conch shell in his left hand signifying its use for communication, to call escaped slaves to gather while in hiding. The Mawon statue originally had a machete in his right hand to fight off the French, and cut down sugar canes; and a shackle and chain on his left ankle representing breaking the bondage of slavery and gaining back their freedom. The machete and shackles were damaged during time.

For me it means a lot to come from a rich heritage, trying to uphold and defend it, and at the same time, trying to better myself as an "individual". History says a lot about a person's self, success, and failure. Try not to portray something that you are not. But, just don't only be yourself, because you don't know that self yet. Our roots, families, friends, even haters, just being...that defines us.

I am Man, Son, Brother...Black, Haitian, just another...not Negro nor N*gga...Striving to be Better.