How did you learn your rites of passage?
According to Baba Koleoso Karade, aka Nashid Fakhrid-Deen, JD, Rites-of-Passage programs are a method of healing the Black male. In his new book, Reaching Black Males Through Spirituality he states “Today we search for ways to reach Black males in reference to their education, career, social, and moral duties. Our African and Native American ancestors had the answer in their cultural educational systems.”

This monumental work is the result of Karade’s 25 years of experience working with African-American youth in higher education, as well as his personal spiritual journey.

Karade was raised in the Baptist church, but also became an active minister in the Nation of Islam, an Imam of traditional Islam, studied with a Hindu Yogi, and in 1998 was initiated as a priest in the traditional African religion of Ifa.

He blended his educational experience with aspects of African, Native American and Indian culture to create a specific Rites-of-Passage program, which speaks to the needs of black males. Koleoso has created a 9-month, three-phase program that flows with the earth’s natural cycles, beginning at the Spring Equinox (March 21) and ending in the winter at the beginning of Kwanzaa.

The curriculum is holistic, and includes subjects ranging from African & African-American history, sex education, social values, personal finance, and art. Educators, youth counselors, teachers and families can implement the entire program or incorporate aspects of it into their own practices.

The program’s goal is to develop healthy, culturally aware, responsible, BALANCED males. Through Rites-of-Passage programs such as these, young Black males are initiated into manhood becoming the MEN so desperately needed in the community.