Color Complex Effects Workshop Promotes Healing

Last weekend, I attended Marita Golden's "Sisters Under the Skin: Healing the Wounds of the Color Complex" Workshop in Washington, D.C.  During this workshop, the ladies in attendance openly discussed the topic of the color complex.  They spoke about how this historical habit, between African-American’s of various skin shades, affected their self esteem as children and as adults.

The workshop included presentations by experts in relevant topics, such as Dr. Pamela Brewer, a local therapist and the host of MyNDTALK radio show, and Dr. Lori Tharps, an assistant professor of journalism at Temple University and author of Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America.  These presentations explored the historical roots of the color complex, and the present day effects of it.

Participants engaged in insightful individual and group exercises, such as journaling exercises and group assignments designed to encourage communication and healing between the women.  The heart-felt, poignant testimonies were cathartic moments of reflection, as attendees shared painful experiences due to the issue the shade of their skin.

The workshop concluded on a very positive note, as the ladies were encouraged to affirm one another's beauty, and suggestions were offered as to ways to constructively deal with the problem of the color complex.

Zombies and the Human Condition

I read that today is World Zombie Day and that The Walking Dead, a television series about survival after a zombie apocalypse, returns tomorrow.

There is something about zombies that repulses, yet fascinates some people.  What is it?  Movies about zombies may seem macabre, mythological, and even silly.  The idea of zombies unnerves people.  There's something that feels real about them.  Why?  When we know they don't exist, as presented in movies.  Is it that zombies represent the worse aspect the human condition, mass, mindlessness and bloody violence?

World history reveals mass genocides and wars, in which people have, in disturbing historical episodes, behaved like zombies, possessed with destructive energy (evil) and mindless violence.  There was even a song (Fela Kuti's Zombie) about zombies.  What draws some people into behaviors which they normally would not dream of doing, like killing and destroying other people?  Maybe that's why zombie movies have the potential to disturb and frighten.  They remind us of what horrors could be possible sometimes in the human condition.  

By Angeline Bandon-Bibum

Angeline Bandon-Bibum

A Peace Wish For You

Happy Friday! I wish you peace on this day, International Day of Peace, and always.


A smile for a friend, handshake for an acquaintance, hug for a family member, or supportive words for a spouse, these are ways we can start to express our wish for peace.

Peace can affect everything that happens in our world.  An individual’s inner peace, or lack of it, can affect the peace of his family in a positive or negative way.  For instance, a peaceful person can be a joy to be around, a calming presence for those around him.  A person with no peace, on the other hand, can be a destructive force who drains the energy of persons close by.  Likewise, this is true for the family unit, which impacts its surrounding community.  It’s a ripple effect, as whole nations and the international community are eventually affected by the presence or absence of peace.

Yet, on an individual level, there’s something each of us can do. We can take concrete steps towards peace within ourselves and share that with our families and communities.  In this way, we can make our small, yet critical contribution to peace in the world, one person, and one action, at a time.

Let’s remember the healing power of introducing peace into the life of an individual who’s in pain. Imagine nationwide and international peace, no wars, no genocides, and no violent crimes.  Does this sound too good to be true?

Think about it though. What actions promote peace?  What actions threaten peace?  What are the concrete benefits of peace?

We can do things in our daily lives to add to a peaceful environment in our families, communities, nation, and the world.

Let’s all own a peace action task today.

Peace to you all.

Angeline Bandon-Bibum

Remembering the Rwanda Genocide

April is a very meaningful month for me. The Easter season occurs in April and provides Christians with renewed faith. I was born in April, as was my father and his mother, both of whom have passed away. My mother died in April. So, April is also a month of loss. As I glance out the window, admiring the bright, sunny sky, green grass, and trees swaying on this windy day, this feeling of loss becomes stronger. I’m contemplating the Rwandan genocide, and those 100 days of murder, which started in April of 1994.

Today, the international community is asked to remember that nightmarish episode in human history. On April 7, 1994, a mass murder had started in a small country in Africa, named Rwanda. It's a country slightly smaller than the state of Maryland. In this small Africa nation, which shares a border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and Tanzania, something unimaginably evil was happening. One segment of the Rwandan population, which was the majority, was in the process of brutally murdering the minority portion of the population. When these one hundred days of terror, rape, and murder had ended, it is estimated that 800,000 men, women, and children had been murdered. When we read this in the newspapers, we were shocked and horrified. We had many questions. The main question was why? Why did this happen? What were the root causes of this tragedy?

It's so important for people to know about this atrocity, so that steps can be taken to ensure this does not happen again in Rwanda or anywhere also. This is because it can happen somewhere else. That's the horror, a horror that most people do not want to give a second of thought to. The Rwanda genocide, as we know, was not the first genocide, or massacre. There have been numerous massacres and genocides throughout human history, from ancient times to modern times. For example, there was the Holocaust which took place during World War II, in which six million people were systematically killed. There was also a massacre that took place in Nanking, China, also during that World War II period. A religion-based massacre, St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, took place four centuries ago in France. Massacres have occurred all over the world.

What I find completely unnerving is that the Rwandan genocide was one in which civilians largely participated in actively. People were persuaded to turn against each other because of perceived ethnic differences, even people who knew each other, neighbors and other community, familiar faces. The victims of these, and all other, human tragedies, should not be forgotten, nor should those who risked their lives to save them in the midst of the bloodshed. Let’s not forget the heroes, who bravely refused to be a part of the madness. Those who followed their faith, in spite of the danger faced. To find ways to prevent these evil occurrences from repeating themselves would greatly benefit all of humanity.