Instagram story viewer> @aj_barkinado> Posts

Asuma Jalloh

@aj_barkinado

1.5K

followers

1947

following

I am who I am.
Brainchild: @sierra_learn
NEGRITUDE ✊🏾🤎💚❤️
01AUG22♾️ @alphan7360 🤍🕊️

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Sometimes, we live way too long inside the rooms of our own minds, asking shadows to explain themselves. Now. Right now! I need answers, goddammit. Now. Right now. Instant gratification. Overthinking. But maybe we ought to learn to leave the door open. Maybe let time speak in the language of unfolding. Petals. “Time will tell,” goes the famous phrase. And yes, I attest, time has told and will continue to tell. This physical flesh will be no more one day. So I thrive. Try to chill. Maybe? Just let truth arrive without being summoned. Maybe the light was never lost. Maybe we have grown so accustomed to searching in the dark that we forgot dawn was always coming. Maybe a little bit of faith. Maybe honor time. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Just be…

- Asuma Jalloh aka @bindi_dimoh aka AJ Bongo AKA AJ Barkinaɗo by @aj_barkinado

27

1

a day ago

The story goes that Marcus Aurelius had a servant whose only job was to follow him around. Whenever people praised him, the assistant would lean over and whisper:

“You’re just a man. You’re just a man.”

They say two things reveal your character: Your patience when you have nothing and your humility when you have everything.

But I think leadership reveals a third: who we become when we have power. Maybe we need more people who can hold power without letting power hold them.

Have a blessed day ! by @aj_barkinado

13

1

8 days ago

“Who taught you to hate yourself?”

I used to take “Fula Musu” or “Nene” personally. To me, it sounded like a box: uneducated, unsophisticated, too traditional.

Then I had to confront the deeper question: why did I hear my own culture and translate it into inferiority?

Sometimes the hardest boxes to escape are the ones we’ve internalized.

So I’m unlearning.

Many angles. Same me. Rooted and evolving. Intellectual bada$$ and unconventional. Modern and ancestral.

#FulaMusu to da Core. Still me. Me, the Whole Me, and Nothing but Me, so help me 🤎

Song: Fulbe by @habib.fatako by @aj_barkinado

27

1

a month ago

What are your thoughts on my rant of the day? I’d love to hear about them in the comments. Power to my people ✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿💚🖤❤️💛 by @aj_barkinado

53

10

a month ago

First South Africa, now Kenya.

Where is this same smoke for the colonizers—or the leaders you elected who have stolen and plundered what actually belongs to you?

Instead, African countries are targeting and pushing out fellow Africans. Meanwhile, FBA rhetoric is rising across the diaspora, as though borders and labels can erase our shared ancestry.

Africans, are we okay?

Continental or diasporan, we are all children of Africa. There is a wave coming. Be mindful of who you allow yourself to be taught to hate—and find out exactly who your “we the people” are. Coz when push comes to shove, no one is asking for ID or ancestry before they hurt us. Don’t sleep on yourself. They will even use religion to divide us! Stay awake by @aj_barkinado

33

2

a month ago

Ko mi Jalloh. Mi kanata. Mi Anaya. Mi tampata. Yetteh Bah dem go vex. But Jalloh is where it’s at 🤭 by @aj_barkinado

35

2

a month ago

Keeping the culture alive goes beyond singing and dancing - nothing against that, but life na balance. We also need to nurture our intellect, preserve our languages, build, innovate, and pass on knowledge. May our greatness live beyond history books and be reflected in our present, in how we think, how we create, and how we care for our communities. Remember, we too are somebody’s future ancestors. What are we leaving behind? by @aj_barkinado

6

0

a month ago

Captain Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara
December 21, 1949 – October 15, 1987
Leader of Burkina Faso 1983 - 1987 by @aj_barkinado

16

0

a month ago

As a Muslim Soldier who wears a hijab in these #UnitedStates #USARMY idk how people make posts acting like being Muslim and being American are mutually exclusive.

There’s no honor bigger than signing those dotted lines to serve one’s nation. No sacrifice bigger than being willing to put your life on the line for it.

Yet ignorant fools will sit comfortably behind a screen and spew hate, questioning someone else’s Americanness because of how they worship or what they wear.

And then I think about the mental health implications.

In the Army, we’re constantly told: check on your Soldiers. Know your people. Build cohesion. Look out for one another.

But I guess we draw the line somewhere?

What does constantly hearing that you don’t belong do to the Muslim Soldier who raised their right hand too? Who puts on the same uniform? Who misses the same holidays with family, sleeps in the same shitty conditions 😂, embraces the suck, and signed up knowing that serving this country could require the ultimate sacrifice?

You cannot preach belonging, cohesion, suicide prevention, and “check on your troops” while normalizing rhetoric that tells some of those same troops they don’t belong.

I wear my hijab AND I wear the uniform. One has never canceled out the other.

Ngl, sometimes it almost gets to me. But thankfully, seeking acceptance from sycophants has never been my goal. I don’t need anyone’s permission to belong.

But dayum… ignorance is NOT bliss.

Beyond the hate, it’s really the stupidity that gets me!!! 😭😂🇺🇸

Can I get a HOOOAHHHH?! 🤭✊🏽✊🏾🪖
#SierraLeone #BeAllYouCanBe #LDRSHIP Soldier by @aj_barkinado

34

1

2 months ago

Happy National Left Hander’s Day!! Many things were designed without you in mind. Some cultures bash the natural way you were designed. Just here to say, we love you! 😘 Special shout out to my big bruv Jang Jalloh ! This one is for you, Kawu Jang in my Amitabh Bachchan voice (think Shava Shava style 🤭) by @aj_barkinado

5

1

2 months ago

Some hard truths I’ve been wrestling with:

Sometimes, the traditions that give us a history to imagine from also try to limit our imagination.

The hands that held us when we stumbled
“Teteh, bobo wawi yaadeh.”

Are often the same hands that drew the boundaries of our world.

Dream.
But not too big.

Ya book and pen.
But na for only for pass exam, u mind better not expand.

So where then do we draw the line?

How do we choose what to carry forward and what we must lay down?

Perhaps, therein lies the path I must take. The path we must take as a generation: to honor our inheritance without becoming imprisoned by it. by @aj_barkinado

32

2

3 months ago

“Be all you can be!” Hoaaaaaaah💪🏾 by @aj_barkinado

12

1

3 months ago