Why Rosa Parks Sat on the Bus
It was not just because she was being attacked
I am old enough to remember the KBS buses that had doors on both sides — in front and at the back.
It’s also likely because of where I was brought up. Someone in my class, when I was in class seven, had never seen a wheelbarrow. When it was brought into a science exam, testing the types of levers, he wondered what kind of a machine that was.If he had seen the actual picture of the KBS buses back then, he would have thought it was a part of a movie set.
In reality, however, these buses were one of the most used and preferred means of transport for many Kenyans striving to make a living in Nairobi.
We used to stay in Kayole when I would get hurled by my mother to enter from the front door, likely because the one at the back was used for, literally, backdoor antics. Someone could get in from the front and then leave from the back without paying the fare.
Buses, thus, could be divided into the front and back.
That’s how it was in Alabama, where Rosa Parks made history. You see, the buses were just like the KBS buses, with front and back doors. However, due to the racial segregation policy, whites were given preferences. They would sit at the front and the blacks occupy the back.
The driver also had the authority to instruct a black passenger to seat elsewhere when white people boarded the bus. Usually, they would be ordered to move to the back so the whites could have the front seats.
At some point, Rosa Parks was ordered by a specific driver, James F. Blake, to board the bus using the back door. He then took off without Rosa ever boarding the vehicle. It seemed the driver was in a hurry and was pressed so much that he wanted to drive off to the nearest washrooms.
Likely.
While this reason is not true, Rosa Parks was unlucky to find herself again and later in the same bus driven by our supposedly small-bladder-ed driver. Dutifully, Rosa sat at the foremost row where blacks were allowed to seat. Soon, when a white passenger boarded the bus, the driver ordered all the blacks seated at this row to head back.
With her actions, Rosa said no.
She put her foot down.
She sat.
Unmoved.
She has had enough.
She asserted her existence and relevance.
That’s why Rosa sat on the bus
— Common
South Africa
Some people argue that this was the beginning of the civil rights movement.
It happened in the American South.
But in Africa’s south, another country started its movement almost forty years later after this bus incident.
If you have watched Sarafina, you can get a sense of the urge of the people in the film actively fighting for their freedom.
One of the most moving scenes is infused with music. It was in this same movie that I acknowledged just how musically gifted the South Africans are. Their songs are a medley of well-stretched vowels and clicks creating an unpredictable rhythm that somehow turns out to be beautifully musical.
The music was a preamble to the movement that would follow.
The movement is a rhythm to us
Freedom is like religion to us
Laced with emotion, you get the feel of the blacks who suffered under the unfair rule of Apartheid.
One of the great leaders of the time, Nelson Mandela, was imprisoned during the regime. The country had to wait until 1994 for it to see some semblance of internal self-rule.
A movement was made. The ANC party formed the majority of voters who would later vote for Nelson Mandela to represent them.
But when Nelson Mandela was released, the people has only one expectation of him — revenge.
They had suffered under the mercy of the white rule for so long that they felt subjecting them to the same treatment would even the score.
But Mandela put his foot down. Like Marcus Aurelius, he decided to forgive rather than retaliate. If one of the greatest Roman Emperors was able to do it, by executing the same course of action, Mandela showed that deep oceans of forgiveness exist despite the seething vaults of heating hatred underneath.
Every day women and men become legends
Sins that go against our skin become blessings
By taking such an action, it becomes an odd moment in history. Mandela does not just assert human dignity but impresses on us the importance of ascendance in accountability.
When Mandela and South Africa were attacked, he asserted his existence.
People are an Organism
No one can win the war individually
It takes the wisdom of the elders and young people’s energy— Common
It does.
The elderly are the pieces of genome that the society looks toward for assistance when moments get tough. They are the library that the leaders scour to seek solutions to problems they might have previously encountered.
While they serve a vital role, they also let the young leaders lead. It takes the wisdom of the elders and young people’s energy.
It does not have to be an individual, but an individual serves as a good reference.
The Rosetta Stone test for the existence of an organism, according to the theory of Organismal Selection, is subjecting it to a form of credible threat. Tell a lady who knows her worth that she does not have a right to a seat where she rightfully knows she can sit and you threaten what she believes in.
If one kowtows, they leave the seat. If one holds their ground, they create a movement. The organism then grows. Both actions show someone who fears or fights for something they believe is precious.
For those who go to the back, they realize it is not in their best interests to retaliate. Those who, like Rosa, realize they have to resist, know it is in line with what they believe in.
An individual then makes it easier to see how a country can create resistance. They have been facing imminent threat for years but when push comes to shove, an organism has to assert its existence.
That’s how South Africa got its independence.
Those who never mount a resistance are not an organism. They are divided. An organism is united in a single goal.
Thus, as people started to respond and align with Rosa Park’s ideas, the organism began to grow in size and self-organize. They merged through various ideas and projects — what evolution would call symbiosis. Size, self-organization, and symbioses are core concepts of Organismal Selection.
It starts by identifying an organism. If the force scatters the organisms without mounting resistance, it wasn’t an organism in the first place.
Organisms resist when they are subjected to imminent and credible threats.
That’s why South Africa resisted.
That’s why Rosa sat on the bus.
What I’m trying to say is…
Organisms are not just what we were taught in biology classes.
Nature allows for uncertain boundaries, including organisms biologists have failed to see or acknowledge such as the civil rights movement or the South African people.
Organisms try to avoid anything that will kill them. Their goal is to avoid annihilation however best they can. If it’s feeling, well and good. If it’s fighting, then may the fittest win.
Rosa did not just sit on the bus because she felt she had been treated unfairly.
She sat on the bus because she knew and behaved like any organism does.
PS: You have the spirit, will and verve or Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela and Marcus Aurelius. I have developed a course to help you handle your worst days using writing. If it’s not for you, then you can share it with someone who might benefit from it.
