Darrell Q. Slade to host Lecture on Nationhood at Forsyth County Central Library

Ibn Darrel pictured at his first lecture of the year held at the Live Alkaline Cafe in Yadkinville, January 26th, 2024. Pictured by High Yield Productions

Saturday, March 2nd, 2024 from 1-5pm, at the Forsyth County Central Library, Darrell Q. Slade will host a lecture on the Original Lords of the Carolanas in the main auditorium.

Preserving our heritage is my life work, says the three time published author, Ibn Darrel, better known as Darrell Q. Slade. As Aboriginals we have a very cultural diverse heritage, for me I represent fine arts, preserving our story by telling our story. For the indigenous tribes of the Carolanas we told folklores to preserve our heritage. It’s very important that we do this so that our history will not get lost or diluted. Everyone has a role, we all are apart of history, simply documenting your family tree, can be a tangible source for the future generation when they want to learn about their roots. This was author Carlos A. Jones, objective when he published his novel, 1975, in March of 2021, this book provides a wealth of not only his family’s history but also pivotal historical moments that occurred in the triad from 1975 until present.

Eytmology for Carolana

1663, North American colony named for King Charles II (the Latin form of the male proper name is Carolus). Earlier French colonists had called the region Caroline (1564) in honor of Charles IX, King of France, and a 1629 grant here by Charles I of England was named Carolana. The name ultimately derives from the German name Karl, meaning “free man” or “freeholder.

Darrell Q.Slade has been doing this ground research for nearly 10 years now, in 2021 he made his area of focus the Carolana Piedmont region. “I took it upon myself to do research in this region because for one, this is my birth lands, says the author, two there aren’t many scholars who are from my nationhood that have performed studies in this region let alone the Carolanas. However Carolana has a rich rich rich history and my city Wachovia presently called Winston-Salem, was at one point, one of the largest metropolises in the south. When you are actually from these areas and produce scholarly works on this area, it’s a lot more authentic. Mind you I didn’t go to school for this I just felt that it needed to be done, to set precedence for the next generation. I am confident that real education will save the next generation, it's an outlet that can prevent violence and any other disease that plagues our communities.”

Growing up in the Yadkin Valley I never paid any attention to the city’s rich heritage, for one I didn’t realize that I was apart of it, also no one told me nor was I challenged to think critically about the anthropology of the people in my area, there wasn’t really a standard for scholarship outside of traditional schools. Frank Tursi in Winston-Salem A History on page 8 says that at the Great Bend of the Yadkin, bones, pottery shards, and other remnants of an ancient society have been discovered with carbon dates nearly 10,000 years old.

“About the time of Jesus’ birth, Tursi says, Indians began building scattered shelters near the Great Bend.’

This alone should give us a sense of national pride, the fact that our people have been in this region for such a long time, however we was programmed to think that we came here as indentured servants in the 17th century, but that’s not necessarily true, again this why the title for the lecture is the Original Lords of the Carolanas because that represents us the real people or the Aniyunwiya who were here long before 1492. This is probably why we don’t have many scholars from here who is doing these independent studies because they don’t know their ties to the land. However people from all over the world, come here and do these study works on our homelands.

Commonly, from a sense of nationhood, it would make sense for nation groups, to be well versed in the history of their territories to preserve there heritage, this way when scholars come visit they can talk to us as a human resource to learn about the Carolanas, this has to be the standard or else foreigners will continue to tell our story on our behalf. A great example of us writing our own history, is a book that I am really inspired by called, Paths Toward Freedom, written by Indigenous Carolingians for the Indigenous Carolingians, published in 1976, this is a prime example of our own people who preserved our history, as aboriginals of the Carolanas, again through Fine Arts— real written records. And this is a tangible source of information, that can be used in modern times for reseach, educational lectures *hint*, etc.

RSVP FOR THE LECTURE

Lew Barton on page 9 in the book referenced in the latter paragraph, says that before the coming of the white man the Indian must have seen the Carolinas a Shangri-La. In the book Scotch~Irish A Social History by James G. Leyburn, on page 214, describes the Region of the Yadkin and The Catabaw as a Mesopotamia, with rich river banks, this why the aggregate territory once hosted an ancient civilization, and this region thrived in agriculture in fact agriculture and water is the source for civilizations that were built world over. What is interesting with that parallel is that in the Mesopatamia region in Modern day Iraq you have the Madinaat al Salam مدينة السلام, The City of Peace, established by the Abbasid Caliph, Al Mansour in 762 AD along the Tigris River in Modern Bagdad; on page 168 in Winston-Salem A History Frank Tursi stated that it was recommended for the consolidated cities (Winston and Salem) to be called “The City of Salem” whereas the Hebrew term for Salem is Shalom which is Peace, therefore translating to The City of Peace as well, which was also built along the Yadkin River Basin. The main venue in the Madinaat as Salam, was it’s library, called the House of Wisdom, The Grand Library of Bagdad, where writers, translators, authors, scientists, scribes, and others would meet daily for translations, writing, conversation, reading, and dialogue. See the Abstract The House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikmah) and Its Civilizational Impact on Islamic libraries: A Historical Perspective by Algeriani Adel Abdul-Aziz and Mohadi Mawloud.

Note: Bethabara another small town in the Yadkin river basin in the Carolana Piedmont, just north of Salem, is also a Hebrew word that means the house of passage. Bethabara can be referenced in the bible in Jon 1 verse 28 where it says “These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, were John was baptizing” KVJ.

Scholars at the Abbasid library (*Maqamat al-Hariri*)
Illustration by Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti, 1237

Therefore, Ibn Darrel, is setting the standard by bringing this knowledge back to the forefront. “I want more for our people, these lectures should be consistent in our communities, I’m just one person but scholars are born everyday, so we have make this real so they too can be inspired to research these parts because ultimately this is apart of world history because We are the world.”

I know that this is what Mrs. Sylvia would have wanted to see in her library in our City of Peace. In 2022, the Forsyth County Board of Commissions, Named the Library in honor of her Majesty, the late and most honorable, Sylvia Sprinkle Hamlin, who passed away in that same year in January. Mrs. Hamlin, Co-Founder of the Black Theater Festival, alongside her late and great husband, the honorable Larry Leon Hamlin, served the Central Library for 40 years. Sorta like Moses. She retired in December of 2019.

THE BOOK DRIVE

The objective for this lecture will be of course to raise awareness for Carolina Nationality but also to launch our book drive campaign to get books written by our affiliate authors whose books aren’t yet in their database. All the books raised will be donated to the Forsyth County Central Library’s North Carolina Room. This is my way of giving back educating my people and providing authors in my network with an opportunity to get there books in the North Carolina Room, that’s like securing a legacy because those books will still be there long after they are gone, and the common person can always come there, to research their literary works. Plus I want the authors to share the same amazement I did when I first saw my book on the shelf in the library. Everything is historic.

Learn more

This event is free and open to the public and everyone from all walks of life is encouraged to come out a learn about their real roots. If you will like to attend click here to rsvp.