N'Joya Weusi Saturday School
The National Black United Front (NBUF) N'Joya Weusi Saturday School is named after two of NBUF's founding members: Baba Seydou N'Joya and Baba Jitu Weusi. Seydou N'Joya is a long-time Pan-African activist who started as a member of the Labor Section of NBUF helping people with discrimination complaints in the workforce. Jitu Weusi is the architect of NBUF and a long-time Pan-African Activist as well. He was a founding member of "The East," the Council of Independent Black Institutions, the Afrikan Street Festival, The New York State Freedom Party and many other organizations. Baba Jitu worked as an educator in New York City for over 40 years.
By applying point number two of NBUF's World African-Centered Education Plan, Expanding the number and quality of supplementary or after-school programs in the African Community, NBUF created the N'Joya Weusi Saturday School in Washington DC. Recognizing that the current District of Columbia educational system isn't designed to meet the needs of Africans in America, NBUF concluded that it should (as well as other community organizations) organize around supplementing the education (or lack of) that the children in the Black community are subject to in public schools, as well as private schools and the charter school system. NBUF's supplemental educational program is centered on mathematics, science, co-operative economics, and a value system based upon the principles of Kwanzaa. Having a program of this nature can help deter youth from the senseless horizontal violence that takes place in the Black community.
Using science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) along with the cultural arts, the program offers a creative and organic way of learning. The N'Joya Weusi Saturday School will give youth a more productive way to channel their energy, as opposed to using it to mimic the negative and stereotypical images portrayals of Black people in mainstream media. Much of the ill-advised behavior among young people is a result of their minds not being challenged. The old proverb many elder mothers in Black community used to say, "An idle mind is the devil's playground" has proven to be true when applied to the current focus of Black youth.
The purpose of education should be to teach a people how to become producers of goods and services, and controllers of the economy, politics, and social structure of their community. However, the current system is training Black youth how to be first class consumers and subjects of the prison industrial complex. The NBUF World African-Centered Education Plan is an organizing tool that can be used to counter the mis-education of Black youth and set Black people on a path of self-determination.
The program is free with registration and open to children ages 8 and up. It will take place every Saturday from June 7 – July 12 from 11a.m. – 2p.m. at WE ACT Radio Station, 1918 MLK Ave SE Washington DC. To become involved with the N'Joya Weusi Saturday School contact the NBUF DC Office via email at nbufdc@gmail.com.