DUSK OF DAWN AND 'KINSHIP'

The real essence of "kinship" is social heritage. Not common blood. Not genes. But, rather our human kinship comes from common living, from common experiences: shared joys, disappointments, triumphs, tragedies, meals, home, memories. This reality is obscured by familial, kinship ties . But, beneath blood ties are social ties, if not above such ties, in day-to-day living. "There is a friend who is closer than a brother," in other words. Prov. 18:24 This thought was engendered by one written by Dr. W.E.B. DuBois. He wrote: "But the physical bond is least and the badge of color relatively unimportant save as a badge ; the real essence of this kinship is its social heritage of slavery; the discrimination and the insult; and this heritage binds together not simply the children of Africa, but extends through yellow Asia and into the South Seas. It is this unity that draws me to Africa." P. 640, "Dusk of Dawn, DUBOIS WRITINGS (1986) I had long wrestled with the ties that bind. Happily this solves it.