Sunday, October 11, 2026 • Ocean Beach, San Francisco, Fulton Street & The Great Highway
• Predawn / Sunrise Gathering
Theme: FREEDOM ©Wanda Sabir. All Rights Reserved
The ceremony is community-led, community financed by a few people for the past 31 years. Consider giving a donation today. The theme Freedom runs through the full arc: MAAFA → SANKOFA → MA’AT → RETURN.
Working principle: remember what was endured, retrieve what sustains us, restore right relationship, and carry freedom into living.
GATHERING THE CIRCLE
Gathering song: “Many Thousands Gone,” led by Baba Darinxoso Oyamasela
Maafa Theme Song (Call & Response): Brotha Clint, composer/Dedication: for the Millions
Lead singers: The Teasley Family
MAAFA we remember you.
The Middle Passage/
And All that we’ve been through/
We’re still here/
Lest we forget/
Our heads to the sky/
We cry . . . why? –
(© Clint Sockwell II, Dana Sockwell & Roberta Robinson)
31st Annual MAAFA Commemoration — Freedom
Sister Wanda Sabir: Land, Labor, and Ancestral Genius: An Acknowledgement
Family, now that we have gathered our collective energy and called everyone into this sacred circle, let us ground our feet and our hearts in the absolute truth of where we stand.
Before we take another step into this morning's ritual, we pause to offer our deepest respect and recognition to the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples—the original, rightful, and unceded stewards of this San Francisco peninsula—and the Yelamu people who cared for this specific land for generations.
We honor their ancestors, their elders, and their enduring presence on this earth.
This dirt is our mother, too. The African continent is the birthplace of humanity, and Afrikan history in the Americas did not begin with enslavement. We recognize the histories of free Afrikan people who came to these shores, as well as the generations born here through the transatlantic slave trade and the system of forced breeding that followed.
California is our ancestral home, too. Afrikan people were here before statehood in 1850—as free people and as enslaved people. Our ancestors helped shape this state's agriculture, commerce, communities, and culture. Their descendants continue that legacy today.
And just as we acknowledge the stolen land beneath our feet, we explicitly recognize the stolen labor that built the foundation of this nation.
We honor the millions of Indigenous Afrikans and their descendants, recognizing not only their immense physical labor, but their intellectual, scientific, cultural, and spiritual genius.
Our ancestors did not arrive on these shores empty-handed. They carried civilizations within them—scientific and technical knowledge cultivated across generations, long before their forced arrival in the Americas.
They brought sophisticated agricultural knowledge: the cultivation of rice, the tending of crops, the understanding of soil, water, seasons, and sustainable food systems. They brought expertise in animal husbandry, irrigation, metallurgy, carpentry, masonry, architecture, and engineering.
They brought medical knowledge and healing technologies—herbal medicine, midwifery, childbirth practices, and traditions of caring for the body and community. They were healers, builders, inventors, artisans, farmers, scientists, and keepers of ancestral knowledge.
Their knowledge and ingenuity helped shape this nation's institutions, technologies, infrastructure, and economy.
As this nation marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, we remember that its wealth was built not only through the theft of Indigenous lands and the exploitation of Afrikan bodies, but also through the appropriation of Afrikan knowledge, ingenuity, and invention.
The knowledge and innovations our ancestors brought helped build the foundations of this country. Yet too often, their contributions were claimed by others, their expertise was exploited without compensation, and their names were erased from the historical record.
This, too, is part of the Maafa: the theft of an intellectual and cultural legacy, the attempted severing of a people from the knowledge of their own genius.
And still, that legacy survived.
We honor their profound spiritual wisdom, their traditions of community care, and their determination to preserve life, dignity, and relationship under conditions designed to destroy them.
And we honor their boundless cultural brilliance—the sacred technologies of music, song, dance, language, storytelling, and spiritual expression that transformed American culture and continue to influence the world.
We remember. We reclaim. We honor the ancestors whose brilliance continues to live through us. Aṣé.
As we begin this 31st Annual Maafa Commemoration, we bridge these truths.
We honor the spirit of this land, and we lift up the supreme resilience and genius of the Afrikan Diaspora.
May our ancestors hear us...
may this land hold us...
and may our work today honor them both.
References and Intellectual Lineage
Chancellor Williams, The Destruction of Black Civilization: Great Issues of a Race from 4500 B.C. to 2000 A.D.
Ivan Van Sertima, They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America.
Dr. Marimba Ani, Yurugu: An Afrikan-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior.
Dr. Marimba Ani, Let the Circle Be Unbroken: The Implications of African Spirituality in the Diaspora.
Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors.
Good morning and welcome to the 31st Annual MAAFA Commemoration.
We gather before the rising sun to remember our ancestors, to honor those whose names we know and the millions whose names we do not know, and to affirm the lives we are living because they lived.
Our theme this year is FREEDOM.
As we move through this morning together, we will remember the Maafa, practice Sankofa—reaching back for what sustains us—and move toward Ma’at: truth, justice, balance, harmony and right relationship.
We begin with water.
WATER RITUAL — COOLING AND OPENING THE WAY
One communal vessel is placed at the center. The eldest woman, eldest man, youngest girl, and youngest boy each pour fresh water into the same vessel, joining generations in one shared source.
Eldest woman
Eldest man
Youngest girl
Youngest boy
TÚTÙ INVOCATION
As our eldest and youngest come together around this water, we ask for coolness—for ourselves, for our paths, for the earth beneath us, for the crossroads before us, and for our ancestors.
Call and Response:
Omi tútù...
Community: May our water be cool and refreshing.
Facilitator: Ọ̀nà tútù...
Community: May our paths in life be smooth and clear.
Facilitator: Ilẹ̀ tútù...
Community: May our homes, our community, and the earth be peaceful.
Facilitator: Tútù Laroye...
Community: May the crossroads be cool and all obstacles be removed.
Facilitator: Tútù Egun...
Community: May the ancestors who walk beside us be cool and elevated.
Entire Circle: Aṣé! (May the words have power!).
Min. Alicia Teasley—Libations and Prayers
“O Source of all Life, our eternal Anchor,
“We turn to You in this sacred circle of memory.
“We stand here as the living evidence of resilience, yet we acknowledge our place as late arrivals and humble guests in this ancient universe.
“In this space of remembrance, we look back over the waters to fetch the truths of our ancestors. We invoke the unshakeable dignity of those whose names were stolen by systems of human dominance, and the millions of unnamed souls who were treated as mere commodities by the violent monopolies of ownership. We declare that their value was never defined by their captors, for worth carries no structural assignment; it is a sacred spark of the Àṣẹ hardwired into the soul.
“Shield us, O Infinite Presence, from the sharp edges of life's difficult days and the lingering harms of past conquests. We stand in awe of Your cosmic order and the natural laws of cause and effect, knowing that the consequences of systemic friction will always catch up with those who turn away from the truth.
“As we honor our elders and the fragile, sacred web of all living beings, we pledge to live without causing harm, to protect the vulnerable, and to actively heal the breaches left behind. While the temporary physical forms of our ancestors did not physically last forever, their enduring energy remains woven into our bodies and souls, the soil and the wind.
“You are the source of all blessings, our ultimate Refuge, and Most High”
(reinterpreted by Wanda Sabir).
Lady Sunrise: Calling All Angels
Sister Wanda’s Reflection on Freedom
Today my friend S. Pearl Sharp died a year ago. She said she was going to attend last year for our 30th Anniversary, and here she is, today on the one year anniversary of her ascension. S. Pearl directed the film, A Healing Passage which looks at how the Maafa impacted everyone and every system, yet people are unaware of how the Maafa changed everything.
We hosted a fundraiser so she could complete the film over 20 years ago. And here she is again (smile). She said she'd try to make it. . . October 11, 2025. October 11, 2026. What a sense of humor.
My brother-in-law Rahim was making his ascension as I wrote this talk I am about to share, Sept. 9. Wow! I didn't know I'd never see him again. He'd been unable to walk for a long time, but his attitude remained positive and cheerful. He always wore a smile. He never (frowned or) complained about anything.
I invite S. Pearl and Rahim to join me now. Ase. Yesterday my Uncle Namon died in Mississippi. There were 12 in my mother’s family, now there are two—she and her big sister. I invite these ancestors to stand with me today. I invite them to use my body in any way they please today within reason (smile). Once again they have legs, arms, feet, breath…voice.
And so we begin.
This is the 250th anniversary of this nation, yet to its Indigenous Afrikans the question of liberty which is a human right, remains unanswered. However, despite this, liberty is an inalienable right. It might be excluded from a Constitution or Declaration, yet we are born free. Freedom is not granted, we possess it. We can give it away, but no one can take it.
Our ancestors knew this and this knowledge is what gave them hope. It's hard having hope when a body is chained or confined. Yet, it is possible. We are evidence of this hope. Hope is breath that fills spaces to capacity when one is submerged in systems that deny our peoplehood and with it our innate rights to freedom, justice, equality and resources to sustain our lives.
Air is freely given. The symbiotic exchange between plants and mammals is a seamless example of how easy it is to live without harm. There is enough air for every body. Invisible, we take what we need and let the excess go.
What if this simple action were adopted consciously? We take only what we need. What we can't control we release: control over people, places, things.
We mind our own business. We ask rather than assume. We listen without judgement. We cultivate curiosity. What if we believed, really believed we were enough just as we are right now? What if, we loved our crooked teeth, short leg, aged hip . . . just as it is right now? What if, we practiced gratitude?
What are you thankful for?
If you can hear me your ears work even if they need assistive aides. If you woke up this morning, you are still an earthling. If you are smiling, your heart works. If you feel the breeze or mistiness in the air, your sense of touch is active. What are you thankful for? Some people say thank you is a prayer. I agree.
I think freedom is recognition of what one can touch and feel. Freedom is abstract only if it lives on a page, in an archive or on lips positioned to deny one's rights to something innate. Freedom is not something someone or a system can take. This might be why, once physically released from captivity African Ancestors were building communities: Black townships, even serving as elected officials until whiteness erased these democratic ideals. Envy has been the death of many people that look like we gathered here.
However, death is a process, just like life. We don't fear it. We know impermanence means we have to value this time in these bodies because it is a limited contract with Earth Mama and the Egbe or celestial beings. We have a mission when we arrive. It's an opportunity we can fulfill if we center ourselves, stay curious, ask ourselves the right questions, take care of our flesh bodies, and practice gratitude.
Gratitude is how we stay free. So what are you grateful for? What are you thankful for? Do you ever stop and literally count your blessings? Do you ever write spiritual thank you notes? Do you pick up the phone or get on the bus and show up like a greeting card on someone's porch you love? Love, freedom, gratitude...they are synonyms.
Hum. I am standing on the corner near my apartment writing this, Wednesday, Sept. 9. Just treated my body to a massage and acupuncture. The monarch butterflies were dancing around milkweed flowers and I spied turkeys chillin beneath a bush. It's very warm today. I feel like grapes, so I am walking to the store, I think. I might turn around, go home and get my car. I might walk to the beach first. I am wondering what's best for this 68 year old body. How are you feeling girlfriend? I ask.
Hum. Freedom. Gratitude. Curiosity. Curiosity gets a bad rap. It didn't kill anything. The word "why" is a part of our DNA. We have minds programmed to keep our flesh house alive, well, and safe. However, we can rest our minds. When we rest in stillness, we notice freedom.
How does it feel? Quiet your breath. Breathe in to a count of 4; hold the breath for a count of 7. Release the breath to a count of 8. Make the sound of the waves: shhhh as you exhale.
Let's do this three more times.
Let's release old stories and bookmarks to landscapes we have left behind us. We don't want any hitchhikers.
Repeat after me:
“I call all my energies back from all the times, all the places, all the events, all the planes, all the dimensions and release any bonds ties or cords and bring myself back into full sovereignty. And so it is!” (Lisa Drake’s Energetic Reset), InsightTimer App).[1]
Develop a freedom practice. I hoped perhaps the 42 Ma'at Ideals could help us develop a collective practice, bound by our shared remembrance of the Maafa or great calamity, Sankofa, our historic legacy or medicinal treasure chest and again Ma'at-- a shared belief in freedom which comes from living an intentional life.
Freedom is a practice. Freedom is a gift and freedom is attractive, therefore not guaranteed. I can't tell you how to practice freedom. However, our ancestors prayed. They believed in a higher power or creative energy called by many names or none. Our ancestors stayed free because they knew, they really knew that the evil present in their lives was not going to shape their actions. They moved with intention or mindfulness. They practiced loving kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity--right thinking, right action, right livelihood.
This is where freedom lives. Free people look different. They have light all around. They know they are never alone because our ancestors live in us, literally and spiritually. We are flesh of the flesh that came together to make us. Sometimes these two aspects of the creation triangle challenge how we feel; however, our families of origin and the circumstances that have passed or we are currently working through do not diminish our freedom.
Freedom is always present. It is present in our choices. So anyhoo. I have said a lot. Pick up a bookmark. Practice Ma'at with your family this year. Make a friend: call that person your accountability buddy.
Perhaps the person you will bless with the symbolic red road or red bracelet can become your accountability buddy for 2026-2027? This suggested practice is something new for Maafa Commemoration SF Bay Area's 31st anniversary.
Check in periodically with your buddy to affirm each other.
Ask: How are you staying free? Share: I did this today. Share: I slipped into captivity for a moment the other day, and then I caught myself with the breath. I just stopped and took a couple cleansing breaths.
Maybe you might want to do a morning meditation together or an evening gratitude share? I am going to be hosting a few gatherings in the redwoods for wxmxn before it gets wet. If you are interested in joining Souljourning for Truth Ministry[2] let me know. Text, call or email. It is for older womxn, 60+; however, womxn 45+ are also welcome. It is not a Black space, rather a women space.
We will have a virtual film festival soon. Sign the mailing list. Drop money into the donation jar or hat. Two men are carrying Maafa Commemoration@31 financially and everyone is volunteering. I started this ritual when I was 37, 31 years ago. We need a bigger team.
We will pass the microphone now for you to share thoughts on freedom.
Consider: What is freedom? Where are you free? Where are you still becoming free? What does living freedom ask of you? How do you know you are free? How do you stay free? Share a little of your practice.
You can share a song, a prayer, a revelation, a thought. . . be succinct (1-2 minutes) but add your voice to the kettle we are stirring right now
RITUAL OF FORGIVENESS — FREEDOM THROUGH RELEASE
The Freedom Circle turns toward the question: What might I need to release so that I may live more freely? Forgiveness here is not forgetting or excusing harm. It is a ritual of releasing what one no longer chooses to carry.
Song: Nube Brown—A Song about Love by Tuck and Patty
Sister Wanda leads: Ritual of Forgiveness[3]
Call and Response (Red Roses passed out)
© Sister Sheba Makeda Haven
Baba Dar: “I’m Building Me a Home”[4]
EMBODIED FREEDOM from Toni Morrison’s Beloved (Chapter 9)
“Let the children come,' and they ran from the trees toward her. 'Let your mothers hear you laugh,' she told them. And the woods rang. The adults looked on and could not help smiling. Then, 'let the grown men come,' she shouted. They stepped out one by one from among the ringing trees. 'Let your wives and your children see you dance,' she told them. And ground life shuddered beneath their feet. Finally, she called the women to her. 'Cry,' she told them. 'For the living and the dead, just cry.' And without covering their eyes, the women let loose. It started that way, laughing children, dancing men, crying women. And then it got mixed up. Women stopped crying and danced. Men sat down and cried. Children danced. Women laughed. Children cried until exhausted.”
Inspired by the structure and themes of Baby Suggs in the Clearing in Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved.
Children are invited to laugh.
Men are invited to dance.
Women are given space to cry.
Then the whole community is invited into a reclamation and loving of the Black body. Continue for 5 minutes. Do not stop.
Music / drum cue
Sister Wanda: Movement Meditation (Tai Chi Chih)
1. The Shake-Out & Ase Friction (Warm-Up)
2. Rocking Motion (9 times total)
3. Around the Platter Variation (9 times Left, 9 times Right)
4. Carry the Ball to the Side (3 steps Left, 3 steps Right — Repeated 3 times)
5. Pulling in the Energy (9 times Left, 9 times Right)
6. Passing Clouds (9 times total)
7. Light at the Top of the Head / Light at the Temple (6 Cycles Total)
8. Windows of Eternity (1-Minute Meditation Finale)
Announcements
Let’s visit Nengi Omuku at the deYoung Museum today. People are also encouraged to see “Mildred Howard, Poetics of Memory,” which closes at the Oakland Museum on Sunday, October 18, 2026.[5]
Again sign our mailing list. Please stay in touch: maafasfbayarea.com@gmail.com (510) 397-9705. Take a bookmark from the table for the family. Let us know how your freedom practice is coming along. Let's be free together.
Red Thread Ritual: MAAFA, SANKOFA, MAAT
MA'AT — FREEDOM IN RIGHT RELATIONSHIP
Min. Alicia gives a brief introduction to the goddess Ma'at. We will recite the 42 Ideals. Call and Response. Freedom is not only release from restraint; it asks how we live with one another once we are free.
WHITE FLOWERS & SILENT PROCESSION TO THE OCEAN
Several buckets of clean white flowers are positioned along the route out of the bracelet circles.
Facilitator: Remain in silence. As you leave the circle, take one white flower. Carry it with you as we walk together to the ocean.
No further talking. Participants take one white flower as they pass the buckets and walk quietly toward the water.
The bowls of ocean water—with one white flower still floating in each—are carried forward with the circles.
RETURN TO JOY
The silence ends. Music, food, conversation, children, greetings, photographs, laughter, and fellowship return the gathering to living community.
Baba Darinxoso Oyamasela: Closing/celebration song Lift Ev’ry Voice; Lovely Day
Sign the mailing list. We accept donations. Freedom isn’t free. The Maafa Commemoration is not funded by any grants. We are all volunteers. Please send checks to P.O. Box 30756, Oakland, CA 94604. We also accept cash. Make checks out to Wanda Sabir re: MAAFA San Francisco Bay Area. MAAFA San Francisco Bay Area is a project of Souljourning for Truth Ministry, a nonprofit 501(c) (3) organization. Donations are tax-deductible. We have a wish list (smile).
Contact information: maafasfbayarea.com@gmail.com, 510-397-9705.
Appreciations, Deep Bows and Thank Yous: First we thank the Almighty One by many names and none. We thank the spirit that allowed us to rise this morning when so many did not. Deep bows to the 2026 team: Nube Brown, Kwalin Kimaathi, Wanda Sabir, Marcus “Zahir” Blevins, Baba Dar, Nnennaya Amuchie, Lady Sunrise, Laura McCoy, Min. Alicia Teasley and her family, Necole Traylor, Desmond Iman, Charlene Gumbs and the MAAFA Drum Corps, Baba Che and the Community Ready Corps who provide security. Much respect!
Again, monetary donations are welcome! In some communities, it’s called Gift Economics, sadaqah[6] and dāna[7], generosity.
Soundtrack: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3wIbP6LA7skpT2BCQHtTZw?si=Nl_ZUTKwSXi7L2F658TV5w
Questionnaire
Name _____________________________________
Email _____________________________________
Address_____________________________________
Phone number ____________________________
Website________________________________
Mailing Address _____________________________
MAAFA SF Bay Area needs a person with fundraising skills, technical support-- web design, outreach; a liaison, assistant to the CEO, audience development, researcher, publisher, a vehicle--car, van, camper, property-- live work, commercial, a gallery.
You can also record a message here: 510-397-9705
1) How many Maafa Commemoration Rituals and other programs have you attended?
2) Why did you come?
3) List 3-4 elements which were most meaningful to you and why
4) Will you return and bring others next year?
5) How would you like to be involved in Maafa-related activities during Maafa Awareness Month (October) and throughout the year? What expertise or skills would you like to share?
6) Profession/Skills
7) Anything else?
Return Questionnaire to: maafasfbayarea.com@gmail.com. Donations can be sent to the organization via Zelle: wandasabir@gmail.com
[1] I use this free tool called InsightTimer and there a person can find meditations, classes, and other tools to help them lead a more engaged, happy and peaceful life.
[3] Recommended song: India Irie https://youtu.be/HKMxgKsD0cw?is=Wr3umj20SNT7cl65
[4] “I’m Building Me a Home” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h0dn7tAa6Y)
[5] Here are two reviews about these wonderful exhibitions: https://wandasabir.blogspot.com/2026/10/nengi-omukus-gathering-reflective.html
https://wandasabir.blogspot.com/2026/09/mildred-howard-poetics-of-memory-review_01315475998.html
[6] Sadaqah is a voluntary act of charity or righteousness given freely in Islam to please God.
[7]Rather than a simple transactional donation, dāna represents the voluntary practice of giving from the heart without expecting anything in return. The Spiritual Purpose: It is considered the very first step on the Buddhist path and the first of the ten perfections (pāramīs). It is practiced to cultivate non-attachment and diminish the ego.
