How are the children?

Among the most accomplished and fabled tribes in Africa, no tribe was considered to have warriors more fearsome or more intelligent than the mighty Masai. It is perhaps surprising then to learn the traditional greeting that passed between Masai warriors. “Kasserian ingera,” one would always say to another. It means, “And how are the children?”

It is still the traditional greeting among the Masai, acknowledging the high value that the Masai always place on their childrens’ well-being. Even warriors with no children of their own would always give the traditional answer. “All the children are well.” Meaning, of course, that peace and safety prevail, that the priorities of protecting the young, the powerless are in place, that Masai society has not forgotten its reason for being, its proper functions and responsibilities. “All the children are well,” means that life is good. It means that the daily struggles of existence even among a poor people, do not preclude proper caring for its young. I wonder how it might affect our consciousness

Degruy, Joy . Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing (p. 14). Kindle Edition. 

This month my nonfiction book discussion group has been reading Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond. It is an excellent book and has taken me back to my roots in Social Work when I and others cared about poverty and its devastating effects on human development and well being.

Desmond is a Sociologist and focuses on the structural aspects of poverty and the function it serves in a capitalistic and semi-democratic society. This perspective has encouraged my thinking about mental health in America from a public health perspective and led to my re-appreciation of the fact that mental health is not simply a clinical problem to be managed at the micro level.

I picked up Dr. Joy DeGruy's book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome  in a used book shop which has added more fuel to the fire burning in my mind and heart about what my life's work has been about for the last 55 years. So please join me as I explore mental health from a sociological and public health perspective on my substack at davidgmarkham.substack.com. You will find a series of articles on the topic of mental health from a public health and sociological as well as clinical perspective.

Social Workers are trained in systems theory and to view human problems at a micro, mezzo, and macro level. The idea is that we do a disservice when we focus on the problem at only one level without including the others.

The Masai greeting is one that perhaps we should practice in the U.S.

So I greet you, "How are the children?"