Splitting the Pole: Is it In Fact That Deep

Jediah Thomas

Kwame Ture Society, Howard University

I don’t remember learning to not split the pole. It’s just always been the practice. At this point it’s subconscious in most settings. Whichever way one starts to move, we all move. A colloquial behavior rarely discussed. Until of course, someone decides to split the pole.

Some people say it’s bad luck. Others speak on how their mama, and mama’s mama been tellin’ ‘em for their whole lives not to do it. Some have more elaborate explanations, speaking on enslaved ancestors and similar tales. Nonetheless, us folks ain’t the ones to fuck around with spirits/ancestors and find out. So we don’t split that pole. And when someone tries, they are met with a passionate redirection.

However, there are people not brought up in this practice. They question it as “superstition.” Some may go all the way to intentionally bring up how it doesn’t make sense, complain about having to go back around the intersection, or even intentionally split the pole. The latter of which has produced many conflicts.

Me personally, I ain’t fighting folks over their choice to split the pole…but I do take note. Subconsciously, I will shift my walking path or slightly nudge others one way in order to avoid separating through all assortments of obstacles in the city. However, my existence in many white dominated institutions has situated me into many instances where people split the pole--and bringing it up doesn’t elicit any reaction in them. As such, after an initial mention of splitting the pole is met with opposition, I don’t address it again. I know my behaviors and practices, and now I’m familiar with theirs.

In one instance, a melanin deficient friend of mine asked why I insist on not splitting the pole. I contemplated. Again, I am familiar with many of my peers’ reasoning--as well as the opposition. Still I’m compelled to just not split the pole. Not in the same way that I sometimes try to not step on cracks on the sidewalk or avoid walking on the subway gratings. But in a way where it feels wrong to. I tend to be confused when others deliberately choose to split the pole, like “why would you wanna go a different way then the group?”

So I told her how it’s a habit for me, and how some others have reasoned it. She commented that the idea of a group of people being separated by a pole, and that affecting their connection and collective destiny reminded her of the East Asian concept of a Red Thread of Fate. We imagined that the concepts of bonds and relationships could be understood through physical objects like a string that connects people together. Similarly, this physical obstacle of a pole, could be mapped onto the spiritual significance of force that threaten to separate people and break our bonds with each other.

A gem of knowledge formed somewhere between my ancestors interfering in my life, the experiences I have grown from, and the times I was captivated with doom scrolling: the colonizers mystified our ancestors beliefs and practices, having us perceive our knowledge systems and customs as magic and witchcraft. Interestingly, that didn’t just have us believing our heritage and ways of knowing were unholy and demonic, but also, convinced us that such rituals and spirituality of our people was an absurd form of magic. And they mystified this magic to the point where we wouldn’t recognize ourselves in the mirror. So that when we went back to fetch ourselves and that which we lost, we were looking for the magic found in Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. But what about the magic that is the miracle of life? What about the magic of being able to grow food? Or boil poison out of them? Do we not look at the floating ball of dirt known as earth as magic? Is it only magic if you can make fireworks come out of a stick??? At what point did we take the way things are for granted, and arrogantly mistake our observations of the universe and its patterns for understanding? To what extent do we actually understand gravity? Or natural disasters? Or even the electricity running through our homes?

It seems facetious to engage with African knowledge from a mystified perspective, while holding the belief that mystical knowledge and practices are unrealistic and ungrounded in our current reality. By mystified, I mean the attribute of believing something defies natural laws--such as believing gravity is absolute but there is a foreign energy with little to no rules that could allow you to fly. Such a mystified perspective would search for circles of writing that glow or a phrase in a foreign language that triggers an action that defies natural laws. It would devalue that we indeed are able to defy gravity, in essence, fly, through planes or even temporarily by jumping. If you are searching for levitation spells, it’s easy to dismiss the miracles of human ingenuity, such as airplanes. This begs the question, are we searching for African knowledge, or the witchcraft that the colonizers demonized?

Internalizing the colonizer view of ourselves, separates us from our memory. Deviating from purist linear conceptions of time, we can use future practice (imagination) to repair the past practice (memory). An example of how we already do this can be seen when we have forgotten the placement of something– let’s use keys as an example. When we are unable to rely solely on the past practice of memory, we oftentimes use the future practice of imagining how we might have placed our keys in a similar environment given similar temporal circumstances. We started to patch work and mend our memory through imagination, projecting our sense of self (present practice) across time and space to find the most probable states we could have existed in. We move through those possibilities till we find the match, allowing us to find the keys. We even do this when it wasn’t us who lost the keys. We are able to imagine our parents losing objects or placing objects intentionally for us to find. Now instead of parents, imagine it as your ancestors. Instead of keys being placed for you to find, imagine they are intentionally placing knowledge for you to receive.

Colonization has disrupted our practices, imposing foreign language, behavior, and beliefs. Therefore, if we attempt to interpret African and Ancestral knowledge without interrogating the extent to our colonization, it’s easy to see how we can miss the point. Nonetheless, we can intentionally use imagination to repair memory, and receive greater insight and knowledge that has been passed down. Believing that our ancestors are grounded, and move with purpose is critical. Validation of our oral traditions looks like taking tales, stories, idioms, and superstitions as carriers of messaging. Generative engagement could look like tuning your radar to receive such a message, or decoding it in a sense, by shifting your perspective on how/the context to which the message might have been sent and/or encoded.

To put this repairing of ancestral memory into action, we can look at the practice of not splitting the pole. Unfortunately, I know very little of where this has come from, nor my direct connection to the practice. However, I understand our people have used metaphors, stories, and occurrences in the physical realm to reinforce spiritual lessons–even when the physical practice may not seem of great significance. An example of this in contemporary times is the rule common in many families to finish homework and chores before engaging in one’s preferred form of play. As we get older, we know that it’s certainly not the end of the world if the order isn’t followed to the T, however, the responsibility that it has instilled in generations of peoples to ensure that we prioritize the work we need to do so that we can better engage in the work we want to do. If we extend this line of thought, the physical practice of splitting the pole could logically relate to a spiritual principle of avoiding the harms of separation. More specifically, the ancestors that have my best interest at heart would very much affirm the importance of committing to the people we surround ourselves with.

The practice of not splitting the pole has become a subconscious awareness of those around me, and concern for our collective wellbeing. Further interrogation reveals that this precipitates into other parts of my life. My decision making is never without consideration to all those it may affect. If I’m presented with an obstacle in a path I know my folks will also be taking, I’m quick to alert them. From minor inconveniences to major dangers, to even opportunities, I’m constantly in communication with my peoples to the best of my ability. This isn’t a preordained character trait, but a pillar of my integrity that has been practiced, reinforced, and nurtured. The thought process of considering which side of a poll to go, is similar to choosing between paths to embark. Even if I didn’t know if one path was significantly more dangerous than another…my limited scary movie knowledge tells me that the group should definitely not split up. Even more so if I have insight on a path. A more realistic situation may be a fire occurs in your apartment complex. Do you check to make sure your roommates are up at leaving? How about your friends on different floors? Or your neighbor that is a bit less mobile? Or are you the person that gets out safely and then starts making those calls–hoping all these people are safe?

This is not to say people that split the pole don’t have any integrity or concern for the collective. However, Mike Tyson once said “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” In essence, you may think you are thoughtful and a great community member, but how do you practice and prepare for this? When an unpredictable event occurs, is this type of community care engrained in your behavior? Or do you revert to something else?

This interrogation of our behavior and implementation of ancestral knowledge (ritual) in all aspects of our life is increasingly critical right now. While the intellectual struggle in organizing spaces is super important and guides us in this, the liberation driven and ancestrally grounded communities that we say we want requires us to be people with behavior that engages and nourishes these communities continuously. Decolonization is not just being able to critique the empire in an essay or even participate in a mutual aid ask every once in a while, but also making your life one that is community centered even at your lowest vibrational states and subconscious movements. In our relationships with each other, our ancestors, the land, ritual, and all other things in existence, I hope to move with a love and consideration that is incompatible with colonial institutions. I seek that my communal intentions seep into deeper layers of my consciousness and soul that are not always easily within my reach, preparing my being for conditions I haven’t even yet arrived in.

While I’m not familiar with the full extent to which my behavior and subconscious has been colonized, I have faith that there are messages for me to uncover. As such, I aim to approach all passed down rituals, large and small, like how we have with avoiding splitting the pole because I trust in the intentional and grounded nature of my ancestors with good intentions as well as that which is higher that guides me.