Rootwar: Calling Up The Legions

“Our struggle for liberation is indeed a long long distance race, to win this race will require planning, pacing, discipline and stamina, and a belief in our ability to win the long protracted struggle. we must construct one hundred year plans; two hundred year plans. we must construct institutions for generations unborn.” - babajohn killens

Generally my Work is not overtly political, that’s not how Art roll, but when tyranny raises its worm-eaten head is when the literary life proves its worth. This when we separate the writers from the wannnabes and the dilettantes. Let this Work be done. In the name of Babajohn Killens. The Great Griot Master of Brooklyn.

The election of Trump 2.0 rocked me, I panicked, decided I got to call up the Legions, calling on the Spiritual Masters of the Hoodoo Way to provide the Tribe with spiritual and strategic guidance during the oncoming winter of the soul.

Premise being that contemporary tribal healers and griots in times of great tribal need must serve their ancient role as tribal custodians. I ask that you take responsibility for the welfare of your chosen community, as I take responsibility for the spiritual well being of Black Memphis. My father tended to their bodies, I tend to their souls.

The only thing certain in the Age of Trump is that Blackfolk will suffer. Accordingly, this Divinatory Presentation is a griotic Call to Battle. Asking what are the responsibilities of our tribal healers in times such as these. Just what is Good Game in the Age of Trump and how do we get it on.

Ultimate Goal: a new kinda Black people.

Been calling for a new kinda Blackfolk for sometime now. Im tired of being a Beggar People. Aint you. Plan is to use this Hammer to forge a new kinda Blackpeople, a race of Playas.

Whatever we do to Finesse the Hammer that is coming our way we gon have to be slick with it, mi Playas, fighting tomorrows battles today, employing new strategic instruments to replace resources being systematically dismantled, Battle has come to us, Blackpeople, got to get your game on.

Took generations for the right wing to achieve their current dominance, from the bottom up, schoolboard, councilfolk, city, state and county. Organize, organize, organze. Block Associations. Unions. PACs. Focusing exclusively on Congress and the President will simply not suffice.

With his war on DEI Trump has tried to erase Blackness and equate it with incompetence. This is a historical pattern in America, Black progress then the pushback, Prepare to take the Hammer, mi Playas, it will get worse before it gets better. Coalition politics is a given. United we stand, divided we fall.

Using Project 2025 guidelines Trump and the Techbros, Musk, Theil, Planatir, and them, have systematically imposed a Police/Surveillance State with its own dedicated brownshirts. Trump has systematically dismantled institutional guardrails, bullied Congress, Big Law, Big Business, Media, Universities, etc.

Even institutions that resist have their changed their policies accordingly, afraid of his willingness to bring the full weight of the government down on anybody who irritates him. Some interviewer asked Trump what restrains him from doing whatever he wants to us, he said - my morality. God help us.

Trump has systematically corrupted military, justice and national security, built his own private army and indemnified them from being held accountable for abuse unto murder, and only the Courts defy him. Barely. His assault on Democracy has been so effective I question America’s ability to recover.

But defeating Trump, as important as it is, is not our primary goal, our goal is to come out of this stronger on the other end. It is in times of great social upheaval that new peoples are born, new ways are forged. They are systematically dismantling the old model of Blackness, we might as well rebuild to our liking. Playas.

Can’t be no Playa if you aint generating no Instruments. What Strategic Instruments need generating depend on your goals and objectives. Mi initial goals are forging new avenues of communication and coordination. Mi immediate goal is calling up the Hoodoo Legions. Mi Longame is developing an Afroam School of Sacred Hoodoo literature, premise being nothing shapes a culture like its body of sacred lit.

Ultimate Goal: transform the tradition, transform the culture, transform the world, take them all to Higher Ground

My most salient response to the current challenges is my willingness to actually implement Game I in the past only thought about doing. To make real into the world that which was not. My instruments are determined by my skill sets and positioning. At any given moment I have an array of initiatives in play, some of which have been implemented, some of which are in procedure, some of which are faltering, all of which need to be constantly recalibrated.

This how I wage Hoodoo War. What I call Rootwar. Totalwar. By every sector of the culture, every individual in it, each unto self an army. First and foremost, I have a Life Mission to which I have dedicated mi Life and mi Works. My Life Mission is how I stay ahead of the Game and not just reacting to the moves of our enemies. It evolves as I do. Don’t nothing throw me off my Game. Not even Trump throw me off my Game. My Game bigger than Trump.

Mi particular Life Mission is giving the Black Generations a Mission greater than their Adversity. A Destiny. I do this thru mi Mythwork. Mi metafiction. The Illuminated Children of the Sun work. The Long March of the Firstborn. Guide & Guardian of Human Destiny.

In addition to mi Life Mission I build strategic instruments as necessary. Mi Works are the seeds of Future Realities, mi Orchestrations preparation of the ground. These the Instruments I am currently working on to Finesse Trump:

Counternarratives: the power of narrative, nommo, from the Dogon, the power of the word to forge reality, specially in this era of personalized truths and alternative facts. The right wing media network has gained control of the cultural narratives, claiming DEI stands for incompetence, that immigrants are the cause of all problems, that its whitefolk discriminated against, that Trumps lawfare is legit, etc.

We have to mount counternarratives so real and empowered they are able to challenge the right wing media machine. Every time we insist on the viability of Truth and the Rule of Law we empower the counternarrative.

“Our struggle for liberation is indeed a long long distance race, to win this race will require planning, pacing, discipline and stamina, and a belief in our ability to win the long protracted struggle. we must construct one hundred year plans; two hundred year plans. we must construct institutions for generations unborn.” - longgame by babajohn killens, the great griot master of brooklyn

Legacy Institutions: Answering the Babajohn’s call to create institutions for generations unborn, whatever legacy institutions you got in mind to forge now is the time to forge them. I been making baby moves designed to build a vertical pipeline of Sacred Hoodoo Literature. Found a School of Literary Hoodoo. Something I shoulda done years ago. Ima weary elder now but Trump has forced my hand. Surely, I got one more campaign in me. Defeat Trump. Discredit MAGA. Save the Country. Save the Race. That will about do it.

My Question then is how does this custodial responsibility manifest under contemporary conditions and in particular under the kind of existential assault we are currently under.

In my mythmagination I see mi Hoodoo Practitioners taking responsibility for the well being of their chosen community. Spiritual & otherwise.

This is in good times. How does that commitment get supercharged under the assault of Trump, when we are actively engaged in battle, under existential threat. Im blowing the Warconch on this one. Need a whole new kinda people to come out of this crucible. The Illuminated Children of the Sun. Battle has come to us, Blackpeople. Git your Game on.

So. Raising the Legions is not going as I imagined, fire and fury and accolades. No sense whining cause folk don’t see what I see. That’s what make a vision a vision. Had to settle back into mi long game, again, step by step, inch by inch. Shaping generations like the Babajohn taught me.

When Moving a People got to think in Generations or defeat is certain, burnout inevitable. Took generations for the rightwing to put us in this Trickbag. It will take generations to get out of it.

I am confident that we will prevail. I have become comfortable with the glacial pace of social and cultural change. In the Arena you just don’t win them all. You find yourself passionate in the belief that any given campaign is a matter of life & death and defeat feels like the end is near. But you get used to losing. You learn to take your punches and position yourself for the comeback. You win some you lose some, you keep on struggling.

Which bring mi to mi Soulcare. Everyday, we are damaged and in need of healing. Everyday it behoove you to cleanse the soul as often as you do the body. Daily soulcare is essential, daily, your own and the care of others, clients and loved ones and strangers too, but even more so the Griotic Ministry, tending to the health of the tribal soul as monitored thru its cultural products, giving it what it needs, extracting what it don’t.

I say we consider the security and prosperity of our generations the Prime Directive, I say we calm, cool and collected, forever vigilant, deploying an ever evolving, constantly calibrating, multifaceted strategic posture, some moves bold and strong, some hidden in the shadows, others waiting silently in the wings.

Grandmasters of the longgame. Awaken the Sleeper. Protect the Weak. Guide the Strong.

May your days be full of passion, may your lives be full of grace, may your works serve many generations, may God‘s blessings be on us all - demoja demoja - good blessings, good blessings, good blessings on us all.