Mr. President, Honourable Members of the Board of Trustees, Faculty, Distinguished Guests, Parents, Ladies and Gentlemen: And, indeed, my fellow students. I consider myself a fellow student because all of us keep on learning, as the sage and the aged have made us to accept that education has no end!
Today, I rest on some strong African shoulders as I make my acceptance speech for the honour from an educational institution that I very much admire and respect. Among your graduates are two former African Presidents, the late Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria and the late Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, both of whom also received honorary doctoral degrees from Lincoln University, their alma mater. I was very proud when I learned, at the time of Lincoln President Herman Branson, that a building on campus was to be named as Azikiwe-Nkrumah Building, now re-christened as Azikiwe-Nkrumah Memorial Building after the demise of both African leaders.
Indeed, looking at you in your seats today, you remind me of myself at my own commencement ceremony in 1976, following the completion of my BA degree back in Nigeria. Like you, I did not know the extent or gamut of the future ahead of me. Yet, I was only sure of one thing: the commitment to the woman I wanted to marry, whom I began to date a year before my graduation! Also, like you, I wanted an academic degree and a job, and I had an aspiration to be a good citizen. The memory of this event brings into sharp relief the words, “The past is a preface.” Indeed, the ceremony today will soon be history, a bold step into the future so that, in the end, it is to become a preface to your phenomenal achievements ahead.
Before I arrived at that juncture in my life when I graduated from college, I had participated in a long journey. After all, in youth rebellion, I had dropped out of high school after two years and wasn’t even thinking of attending a university, but the next time I found myself in school, I was heading for college. But even then, I did not know what I wanted to become: an attorney, an administrator, a pastor, a doctor, or a teacher? Perhaps like many of you, I was barely thinking of what to become or what to do. I was just like you: I aimed for the degree and deferred the worry about my career trajectory until later. Here I am today, a product of a vision and, indeed, perseverance, anchored in resilience.
As you move ahead in life, let hard work, self-respect, honour, and dedication to pristine values be the cornerstones of your foundation, as well as the wheels of your progression. Do not despair when your steps falter, because there is always a learning curve. Have the courage to listen to the voice within you and be yourself, that is, be consistent and congruent between who you are and who you want to be.
We all resolve our dilemmas by clarifying our values and vision, including how we spend our time and how we avoid what can destroy us. I assure you, as I myself did in the past, you will make some mistakes, just as all of us do. In fact, success is failure turned upside down and disappointments turned inside out! Learn from your mistakes and move on with resolution not to repeat them.
However, how you move on or move past your mistakes is what will determine your future. No one, no system, and no proven obstacle can stop you from achieving your goals in life. You are the only one who can stop yourself. Therefore, I urge you never to stop yourself from accomplishing your dreams. I urge you never to stop!
For you are a part of a larger tradition: the Lincoln University tradition. Your university has produced great leaders and heroes. Lincoln alumni worked to abolish slavery and fought against the Confederacy. Lincoln spoke of the beauty and achievement of the Harlem Renaissance. Lincoln alumni were at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement and spearheaded the efforts to repeal “separate but equal” segregation. Lincoln alumni have shaped American music, sports, television, and culture. You are part of a university whose legacy is interwoven into the fabric of American history and society.
Lincoln University’s reach and legacy, as I underscored as a preface to this humble address, does not end there, however. It is not only here in the United States where your university is known and venerated. I am also here today because of Lincoln University. This university produced visionary leaders who resisted racism, colonial domination, and reimagined Pan-Africanism to unite black people against oppression and discrimination. Ultimately, they succeeded in this regard and helped push the British Empire out of West Africa.
Lincoln University has a very proud heritage and a rich history. Out of its long historical development is the mission to inspire its students, to encourage them to achieve their goals in life and to embolden them to continue the push for equality and social justice in this country and in the world around us. I would like to repeat elements of this history to further fortify you:
As you no doubt know, Lincoln University is the United States’ first degree-granting historically black university. It started as a private university in 1854, but has been a public university since 1972. It contributes to the education of our people, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Former president Dr. Horace Mann Bond, in his Education for Freedom: A History of Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, said that “This was the first institution founded anywhere in the world to provide a higher education in the arts and sciences for youth of African descent.” This is a record that no one can question or match. No doubt, you have a proud, rich heritage. You also have an impressive list of distinguished forerunners, great men and women who have carried the torch of this great institution to illuminate other institutions, industries and spaces at the local, national, and international levels.
I have said all the foregoing to remind you of the proud heritage of which you are a part. That heritage was carved out of a long and difficult history. Those who preceded you fought the battles of their age so gallantly. By so doing, they provided you with the priceless opportunities for the new vistas that are now opening before you. March to the future with pride and embrace the challenges of your own age. I can make this bold prediction with complete confidence: many of you will become notable figures in the future.
For a brief moment, please let me share part of my own episodic past, as I arrived in the United States in 1991. It was a time when the black community in America hit the 30 million mark in population. The black community had been disproportionally affected by the recession of the early 1990s that widened the gaps in median income, life expectancy and overall net worth for black families. It was a time when disadvantages in education and family instability continued to limit the horizon of black people in America. There were significant racial inequalities, high drop-out rates in many urban schools, high levels of joblessness and despair, a crisis in the black family unit, the over-incarceration of African American males, and increase in the levels of poverty in many inner-city communities. I have witnessed in my 24 years in the United States, and have been greatly inspired by the dignity and relentless struggle of our people. For this, I am forever grateful for the black leaders of the past who championed the struggles for racial equality and equal opportunity. Without their efforts, I would not be standing here before you, receiving this honour. However, while there have been changes and improvements in race relations and remarkable black achievements over the years, there is still a long way to go before we get to where we need to be, as a people, as a community, as a family, as members of the human race.
May I please request that we all rise up and take a moment to remember our brothers and sisters in Baltimore, Ferguson, Sanford, Staten Island and elsewhere, the families of Freddie Gray and others who lost their lives but gave birth to a new movement for this generation so that the world may be a better place for us all!
Please sit down.
As James Baldwin said: “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.”
I do not need to ask to know that Lincoln University is not merely conscious, but indeed that Lincoln University is alive and vibrant. So the question I pose to you today is, what should we as black people do with our “rage”? Let us use it to invigorate the struggle in a productive manner. The great task ahead of you is to continue the struggle of your founding members, the struggle for the full liberation of our people, our brothers and sisters, our families. Let us release our ‘rage’ in ‘style’ and excellence. Let us express our rage in excellence: excellence in our efforts; excellence in our desires; excellence in our ambitions and aspirations; excellence in our success; excellence in family; excellence in upholding that which is just and in eschewing that which does not edify; excellence in serving with honour and dignity; and above all, excellence in letting the content of our character and the altruism of our motives serve as our moral compass.
Many of you will also become notable figures, statesmen and stateswomen, and captains of industries in the future. You will stand on the shoulders of men and women of great repute who have gone before you. Among them are the likes of:
U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall;
Tony Award-winning actor, Roscoe Lee Browne;
Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes;
Again, the first President of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe;
And again, the first President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah;
Song artist and activist, Gil Scott-Heron;
Dr. Robert Walter Johnson, famous tennis coach;
Lillian E. Fishburne, First African American woman promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral in the U.S. Army;
Saara Kuugongelwa, Prime Minister of Namibia;
Boyce Courtney Williams, Sr. Vice President for the National Association for Equal Opportunity;
… and the list goes on…
These ‘Great’ Lincoln trailblazers and torchbearers have shown you the way forward. You are the proverbial horses that must chase after the swift ones that went ahead of you, as the Yoruba people often say. Be determined to build on their achievements, and surpass them. Our ancestors and predecessors at Lincoln have given us words of wisdom; they have shown us the way forward. You have to build on their legacies.
Lincoln is a success story, and you are part of this success. This university is part of the driving force of the American community and the global society. It is a major economic driver. It has addressed your need for education. While the university has satisfied your desire for great education, do not forget to sow a seed for the expansion of knowledge. Remember that the past is a prologue. Be part of the institutional effort to give opportunities to others, to nurture other great minds. Therein lies your honour! Partner with the institution to educate others. Be committed to strengthen and promote community ties, be part of its development.
Let our heritage endure.
The growth of Lincoln lies in our hands. Together with other Historically Black Colleges and Universities, your achievements are monumental, and the data will always be there to confirm the figures, including the following:
HBCUs enroll 12 per cent of black students;
HBCUs produce about 23% of black college students;
HBCUs, produce almost 40% of African Americans in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math);
HBCUs produce 60% of black graduates within engineering degrees;
Lincoln and other HBCUs are responsible for producing 40% of African American skilled professionals.
We have to keep the traditions; salvage the treasure; and make up for lost revenues. Keep the ball rolling!
We have to continue what Thurgood Marshall, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Kwame Nkrumah, Saara Kuugongelwa and many other distinguished Lincoln alumni started: education for liberation and empowerment, and strengthening the bonds that bind Africa to African Americans beyond the superficial realm of politics and rhetoric.
As you all go forth into the world, remember to do a couple of things for humanity:
Reject domination
Reject invasion of our spaces
Reject re-colonisation
Reject hegemony
Promote our unity
Promote Pan-Africanism
Promote the idea of oneness and sisterhood and brotherhood.
Promote freedom.
Lincoln is yours. And you are for Lincoln. You are Lincoln. Remember: once a Lincoln, always a Lincoln. And what starts in Lincoln shapes the world.
Congratulations to the Class of 2015 ! And I thank you unlimitedly!!
*This was Dr. Toyin Falola’s Honorary Doctoral Conferment Speech at Lincoln University on May 8, 2015.
Toyin Falola is a Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, University of Texas at Austin and President, African Studies Association.
