Paut Neteru: Company of the Gods

Taking his inspiration from the famous teachers of Taui, the Two Lands, brother Men Maa Aim Ra has produced a collection of poetry that contains images and themes from the most ancient times. He is at once a teacher and yet a poet of great distinction. This is to say that he is not a mere versifier but a major Afrocentric voice in these times who understands what the ancient Kamitic priests who were eloquent chanters of poetry understood: that there is no magic that is not eloquent word magic. Words spoken aloud in the proper manner and with the proper consciousness can produce magic, but it is only the poet who has felt deep into the ancestral womb who can bring about the magic. There have been many movements of African poetry in recent years. We know that the Harlem Renaissance produced some giants that were on the cutting edge of our thoughts. We know that the Negritude Movement and the Indigenistes Movement of Africa and Haiti produced some outstanding poets. We know that the Black Arts Movement produced some powerful voices and we celebrate all of them. Our panoply is full with the likes of Langston Hughes, Robert Hayden, Sonia Sanchez, Mari Evans, Amiri Baraka, Haki Madhubuti and others. But generations come and generations go and each in its own way contributes to the forward progress of a noble people. Brother Men Maa Aim Ra has now jumpstarted an entire corpus of works that will follow this volume. I am certain that the Afrocentric artists who have already begun to make blossom a new garden of brilliance in the aesthetic arena will find the addition of this work to be of the greatest benefit. This is the resurrection of the dead in much the same way as the resurrection of Ausar meant the redemption of ancient Kamit. We are seeing in the power and dynamism of the images and symbols used in this poetry the incredible system of eloquence, beliefs, and ancestral images that have made us withstand all the brutality and vile that has been dumped our way. What the brother is telling us is that we are victorious. Men Maa Aim Ra is not an informer giving information to the enemy; he is a brave and courageous warrior-poet, a lover-warrior embracing his people and their desires, ambitions, and wishes in the caresses of tantalizing language that speaks the power of ancient ones. We are in the presence of a great poet when we open this book. Molefi Kete Asante Author, The Afrocentric Idea