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Welcome to the 30th Annual MAAFA
Commemoration San Francisco Bay Area, Sunday, October 12, 2025,
6-9 AM PT.
As we wait for our sisters and brothers to make it to the other side, the
shores where we were taken, we dance the dundunba dance—the
Warrior Dance, from West Africa. We will drop our shackles, call on the
ancestors in this mighty dance and be free. . . .
Program Theme: Impermanence & Transitions
-- Feel free to put food and your special item on the community altar.
Welcome: Sister Wanda Sabir
As we process through the philosophical “Doors of No Return” give thanks
for what we remember . . . trauma induces amnesia, yet the body remembers
what the mind forgets. Intuition is another name for Divine Spirit. The
bones which lie between Alkebulan and the West, link black people
genetically through this liquid experience: sweat, blood, feces, urine,
milk, afterbirth, death. The transcontinental passages, our ancestors
packaged as if they were inanimate cargo, connect our souls and scarred
bodies to this day. The Maafa Commemoration acknowledges this. The yokes
and chains and shackles many of us still bear speak to this, as does
freedom.
Opening the way:
Song, “Many Thousands Gone” – Darinxoso Oyamasela—
Maafa Theme Song (Call & Response): Brotha Clint (Aṣe),
composer/Dedication: for the Millions
Lead singers: Desmond and Lady Sunrise
MAAFA we remember you.
The Middle Passage/
And All that we’ve been through/
We’re still here/
Lest we forget/
Our heads to the sky/
We cry . . . why? –
(© Clint Sockwell II, Dana Sockwell & Roberta Robinson Aṣe, Aṣe, Aṣe-o)
Libations & Prayers: Minister Alisha Teasley, Mama Ayanna Davis, Yeye
DvinaEstrella Ramey
A Liberating Black People’s Prayer, for Justice and Peace) By:
Francis Cress Welsing, M.D., © 1996. To say and envision when in
prayer
Call and Response—Youth volunteer
Thou who art Blacker than a trillion midnights,
Whose eyes shine brighter than a billion suns
Thou whose hair doth coil tighter than a Million springs, radiating all
energy throughout the universe,
We beseech THEE, ONE and ONLY ONE,
To give to us total strength, to carry out THY will for the universe!
To establish JUSTICE on planet EARTH and live in PEACE.
Sayings from Iya Audre Lorde (Feb. 18, 1934-Nov. 17, 1992
Call and Response—Youth volunteer(s). Alternating voices.
1. “What we must do is commit ourselves to some future that can include
each other and to work toward that future with the particular strengths of
our individual identities. And in order for us to do this, we must allow
each other our differences at the same time as we recognize our
sameness.” —Audre Lorde
2. “Survival is the greatest gift of love.” (Repeat)
3. “We are powerful because we have survived, and that is what it is all
about—survival and growth.” —Audre Lorde (Repeat)
Sister Wanda: Ring Shout from Toni Morrison’s Beloved
Song: Brother Dar “I'm Building Me a Home"
Poem: Jabari Aali Shaw
Poem: Sister Wanda “I Lieu of Flowers” for Monica
Keynote: Minister Alicia Teasley
Lady Sunrise: Calling All Angels
Community Share
Other prayers and offerings. 1-2 minute limit per person up to 10-12 people
(10-20 minutes). Prayers requested from those assembled in traditional
African and African Diaspora (which includes English languages) –
Ritual of Forgiveness Call and Response – © Sister Sheba
Makeda Haven
(Red Roses passed out) – Wanda Sabir
Some confuse forgiveness with amnesia and reluctantly remain bound to a
millstone and drown in a sea of regret. Children of the fishermen know the
sea to be primarily a place of nourishment, renewal and fond farewells.
We will always cherish the memory of those who go before us
Our ancestors walk through the corridors of our minds setting sign posts
to guide us into our rightful legacy, and so/ We will always cherish those
torn from us in the middle passage by corporate greed, / Those torn from us
by Jim Crow violence still speak to us as we weave our own destinies,
The bitter taste of unripe fruit felled by drive-by shootings still
linger in the recesses of our souls, and we can hear the cries of youth
stolen by neglect, pestilence and starvation, / Yet, we must go forward if
we are to honor their memories,/ We must cast away all impediments to
progress if we are to honor lives lost to greed and fear
And so today we choose . . .
We choose compassion of our own free will and we consciously reject the
lure of revenge.
Today
we choose understanding over blame,
And like our South African cousins we choose truth and reconciliation
over ignorance and bigotry
We
choose to be confident and to have confidence in each other, for we are not
victims, but warriors.
We
choose to acknowledge our choices, as we acknowledge that our determination
to do so is the foundation of our freedom.
As you recite and agree with the words above invest the red flower
with any negative energy you choose to cast off, removing petals as you do
so. Let the petals fall to the ground, and bury them in the sand along
with the remains of the flower— © Sister Sheba Makeda Haven (https://www.etsy.com/shop/sistersheba)
Tracie Harrison: Kemetic Yoga
Song: “Oh Happy Day”—Baba Darinxoso Oyamasela
Song: “I’m Proud that I’m Black” Minister Imhotep sings Macka B
(https://youtu.be/mGqP-rOrxdI?si=aKMIZSKXso-YMhQ2)
Announcements:
1. Today we have a fieldtrip to Black Gold at Fort Point (10-5
pm) here in San Francisco, 201 Marine Dr, San Francisco, CA 94129. It is an
art exhibit highlight Black pioneers in California on its 175 Anniversary as
a state. This state wanted to legally exclude Black citizens. It happened
in Indiana. Free Black people who disobeyed this law, like Sojourner Truth
were arrested and jailed. Today,
there will be a theatre program with actors depicting early Black settlers
like Mary Ellen Pleasant. Visit https://www.parksconservancy.org/our-work/black-gold-stories-untold
2. Sunday, November 9, 2 p.m. PT, we will have a mini virtual film festival
and conversation about Maafa SF Bay Area history. We will share a couple
archival documentary videos, along with the virtual MAAFA@25 art gallery. It
will be via Zoom on YouTube.com/wandaspicks Look for an email, post on
FB.com/maafabayarea
3. We have a virtual altar where you can add posts honoring loved ones. Please
take a moment and share a photo and memory of an honored ancestor. You add
by pressing the "+" on the right bottom corner of
page. Follow the site and share. Thanks! https://padlet.com/maafasfbayarea/Bookmarks
4. Follow, Like, Share: Facebook.com/maafabayarea and maafasfbayarea.com
5. Follow, Like, Share: Maafa 25th Annual Virtual Exhibit. Please
visit and share and like and comment. The history of the Bay Area
Ceremony is posted here. Visit MAAFA@25 Exhibit at Art Steps (https://www.artsteps.com/embed/5f7811bc267a720cbe7628fc/560/315)
Song: Baba Darinxoso Oyamasela—"Lift Every Voice” (James
Weldon Johnson)
Lady Sunrise: Meditation
Silently walk to the water for quiet reflection and prayer at the water’s
edge—toss flowers on the waves for the ancestors
Program ends.
Greetings and Conversation
Stay for Black people gathering afterward. Music, dance, and playfulness
encouraged. Please share a reflection with one of our Roving Scribes. We
need volunteers to do video chats. Short 1-2 minute impression videos for
the MAAFA website. It would be nice to get 20-30 clips.
If we miss you, email a recorded message (video is great) to us for the
website maafasfbayarea.com@gmail.com You
can also record or videotape a message here: 510-397-9705.
Save the date: The 31st Anniversary Ritual is Sunday, October 11,
2026.
Clean-up—it’s a team effort. Please take food from the altar,
bubbles, candy.
Let’s practice Ujamaa, Cooperative Economics. No one is getting paid to
host this community event
Donations: Checks can be mailed to Ms. Wanda Sabir, P.O. Box 30756,
Oakland, CA 94604 or you can send through Zelle. 
Special Thanks to:
Mama Ayanna Davis, Medicine Woman, New Afrikan Revolutionary Strategist,
Poet, Mother, Sister, Grandmother; Yeye DvinaEstrella Ramey, Community
Centered Herbalist, Full Spectrum Doula, Traditional artist, performer,
counselor, Ceremonialist, and Educator: Incensegurl.bigcartel.com & Sistasinservice.com; Rahmana Ali, Culinary Artist, Caterer, emailmsali@gmail.com, 925-594-2093;
Erica Youngblood, RN; Lisa Davis, CNM, Nubirthmidwifery.com; Lady Sunrise, Choreographer,
Healer, Song stylist, Composer, joyfullovingssunrise@gmail.com,
510-375-3362; Baba Darinxoso, Bay Area Black Studies Co-Founder; Jabari
Aali Shaw, UNIA Bay Area; Brother Che (Community Ready Corps); Laura McCoy,
Independent Gran Writer and Fund Developer, 415-902-5249, lmccoyevents@sbcglobal.net
We want to thank the usual suspects (smile), our Commemoration Team:
Baba Darinxoso Oyamasela, travel agent, Spanish language teacher (ritual
program, songs); Min. Alicia Teasley, wosesac.org, (ritual program,
libations, ritual program team member); Desmond Iman, wosecommunity.org, Sister
Carol Afua (ritual program emeritus); Yeye Ebun Akanke Adéṣokan (ritual program
emeritus); co-founder & CEO, Sister Wanda Sabir, SouljourningforTruthMinistryInc.com,
souljourning4truth@gmail.com
All Praises to MAAFA SF Bay Area Organization Ancestors: Sister
Makinya, Sister Hadiah, Sister Omitola Toluwalase Akinwunmi; Brother
Tahuti; Min. Lezell Williams; Sister Hadiah McCleod; Brotha Clint; Minister
Imhotep Alkebulan.
We honor Anna Julia Cooper, Ph.D., this year. She was a 19th
Century educator, school principal in Washington D.C. and the fourth
African American woman in this country to earn a doctorate in 1924. She was
65. Her dissertation at the University of Paris-Sorbonne was written in French
and focused on attitudes toward
slavery after the Haitian Rebellion (Bates 2015 qtd. in Dawson (womenshistory.org).She was also born enslaved. So much of her scholarship was lost, because
women’s scholarship was and is not valued. A contemporary of W.E.B. Dubois,
he took Cooper’s ideas and did not credit her nor did he assist her in
getting her work accepted. In an essay, “Anna Julia Cooper on Slavery’s Afterlife:
Can International Thought ‘Hear’ Her ‘Muffled’ Voice and Ideas?, published
in Toward a History of Women’s International Thought, (2021), eds.
Patricia Owens and Katharina Rietzler, the author, Vivian M. May, explores
Cooper’s thoughts on post-traumatic slave syndrome as she also shows how
Cooper had to struggle even into her 100th year to get a
publisher for a project.
Yet, Cooper accomplished a lot, despite her
unfavorable reception here and abroad. She is credited with publishing the
first work querying “intersectionality,” as a thing. She states that Black women are not
fragmented rather holistic so when one measures such a life all its
experiences have to be considered to do her justice. She says, “Only the
Black woman can say, ‘when and where I enter, in the quiet undisputed
dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage,
then and there the whole Negro race enters with me.” In other words,
I bring all of myself with me.
I visited Cooper’s house when I was in
Washington last year in the fall and the school where she taught, not named
after her, rather Frederick Douglass. Just down the street from her home
lived another powerful woman, Mary Church Terrell. I was so excited to step
on Cooper’s porch where she probably entertained and her nieces and nephews
played. Too bad her home is now a private residence. The street where her house sits is named
after her and there is a park there too in the cul-de-sac. I was so excited
to share physical space with this ancestor. It is beyond words how it feels
to be in a space, to touch the earth, buildings walls and other surfaces an
ancestor walked on too, cooked food on too, rested there too. Cooper’s famous
book is A Voice from the South, by a Black Woman of the South. For
more on Cooper’s life visit https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/cooper-a-voice-from-the-south.htm
I’d like to read the article and discuss Dr. Cooper’s life and her extraordinary
work despite the challenges she faced as a Black woman, widowed, raising
her brother’s children and refusing to be bowed by sexist, racist, biased
and dangerous circumstances for a free educated independent Black woman in
America.
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