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January/February 2000
Free Black
Ink Once upon a time there were two brothers.... Imagine Peace, a musical storytelling project inspired by the UN Decade for a Culture of Nonviolence, is the brainchild of Hassaun Ali Jones-Bey, a West Coast writer and editor. Imagine Peace has been launched with a Web site and a computer game both based on a musical play, Free Black Ink. The story concerns Black Ink, Greedinc, and Mama Earth. Black Ink, an archetypical noble African warrior, was captured during the early days of the slave trade and has since spent half a millennium passing through various forms of exploitation in the USA. Greedinc, an archetypical European merchant and adventurer, participated in the slave trade, and is currently a powerful and ruthless multinational corporate magnate. Mama Earth is the elemental force represented by the Earth Goddess in some traditions, or the earthen clay in others, from whom all living bodies arise and back into whom all living bodies return. Black Ink, the elder brother, has been given Truth as an attribute to maintain in the world. Greedinc, the younger brother, has been inspired with Freedom and Prosperity. Unfortunately Greedinc grew jealous at the thought of having to employ his Freedom and Prosperity in the service of Black Ink's Truth. Thus it was (according to the play) that nations could claim to champion freedom while enslaving, colonizing, and subjugating other people, all for the purposes of financial gain. During the first half of the play, Greedinc captures Black Ink, holds him captive for 500 years, and sentences him to death. However, Mama Earth intervenes to save her firstborn before the sentence can be carried out. She angrily states her intention to reclaim Greedinc, but Black Ink persuades her to try his plan instead. During the second half of the play, Mama Earth, with the assistance of musicians, storytellers, and artists among Black Ink's numerous "widows and orphans," puts the Imagine Peace plan into action and defeats Greedinc's military-industrial complex without firing a shot. The plan calls for placing commerce at the service of human creativity instead of the other way around, and putting the land and resources of the Earth in the service of nurturing and raising children in the presence of respected elders instead of amassing profit. The play ends when Greedinc returns to the village where Black Ink was originally captured and places his aspirations for Freedom and Prosperity in the service of Truth, under the tutelage of Mama Earth. (Incidentally, the idea of the trans-Atlantic slave trade as a heroic African quest has deep roots in African mythology.) The scenario for the adventure game comes from the first half of the play. The player's task is to free Black Ink by negotiating dangerous, deadly, and frustrating situations without using violence. When a player chooses a violent option, he or she loses points or may lose the game. Even if the player's violence is successful in the short term, Greedinc is still able to turn the situation to his benefit in the long run. So the Free Black Ink Game is just as adventurous and lively as other computer and video games, but winning requires the exercise of qualities such as nobility, compassion, self-sacrifice, and patient perseverance. These same qualities are at the foundation of traditional mythologies, as well as modern religion and even empirical science. The Imagine Peace Project strives to bring these ancient messages to life for young people today and in the future. Contact: Hassaun Ali Jones-Bey, Imagine Peace, Box 424, Fremont, CA. 94537; e-mail: ibnmusa@wco.com. Web: http://www.imaginepeace.org
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