HAPPY FATHER'S DAY BABA!

IMAGE: BLUE MOUNTAIN

Day Celebration

On June 21, we celebrate Father’s Day, a holiday that became nationally recognized in 1972. While Father’s Day is often commercialized and reduced to cards and gifts, it offers us an opportunity to reflect more deeply on the meaning of fatherhood, caregiving, protection, and love.

As someone shaped by a Motherist worldview, I believe we cannot truly celebrate Mother’s Day without also celebrating Father’s Day. Motherism teaches that community flourishes through partnership, reciprocity, and mutual care. It reminds us that none of us thrive alone. “I am because you are” is not simply a philosophy; it is a way of living together steeped in African philosophy particularly South African culture.

One of the challenges with both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day is that our society often defines these roles too narrowly through gender. Yet life teaches us otherwise. There are women who have served as protectors, providers, mentors, and father figures. There are men who have nurtured, comforted, healed, and mothered. Caregiving, protection, sacrifice, and love are not limited by gender; they are human responsibilities and divine gifts.

On this Father’s Day, I want to honor those mothers who have carried both parental burdens. I remember the Black women throughout history who protected and nurtured their children through the horrors of enslavement, even when families were torn apart, fathers were taken away, and children were denied their birthright and dignity. Their love endured despite unimaginable circumstances.

I also want to celebrate Black fathers whose love for their children persisted despite separation, discrimination, incarceration, economic hardship, and social systems that often sought to diminish their role. I honor the fathers who remained present, the fathers who fought to stay connected, and the fathers who continue striving every day to build meaningful relationships with their children.

As we navigate a society whose values can sometimes be contradictory and unjust, let us not forget the profound importance of fathers, father figures, mentors, grandfathers, uncles, and all those who guide, protect, and nurture the next generation.

May we continue striving to become better mothers, fathers, caregivers, and stewards of our culture, our communities, and our faith.

Happy Father’s Day.

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