Jasiri Kilinda Watu is a Swahili phrase that translates to “Fearless Protector of the People.” I embrace this name because I feel it describes my actions and me. This name also relates to the change that I’ve made in myself.

Ever since I was a little boy, I have never been afraid of anything. I think it started with the murder of my father. I was 8 years old and it was Martin Luther King Day, Jan. 20, 1991. My father, Willard Young (everyone called him “Chuck”), dropped me off at home and told me he would be right back to pick me up. We had marching all day, enjoying the festivities, honoring Dr. King’s birthday. Baba (Swahili for father) told me he had something to do that would take around 15 to 20 minutes. I pleaded to go with him. About an hour later, the police were at my house talking to my mother as she cried and cried, which only sent the rest of my siblings into tears. Later that day she sat me down and explained what really happened. I took this news worse than I would anything else in my life. This event really led to my fearlessness. The reason being, nothing would ever hurt like the loss of my Baba, and if I die, oh well. I would be right there with him anyway.

This is where Jasiri/fearless comes in. When it comes to my family and the ones I love, I’m very protective. I’m the one that my loved ones can call on to do anything that they couldn’t. I used to do the fighting, fixing and the mediating in any situation, whether it be big or small. I was what you would call the “Jack-of-all-trades.” Cutting hair, playing sports, and was always there if anybody just wanted to talk. Today I’m still that way, just now my family is not just flesh and blood, my family is also my community. I want to protect the community, the people, at all costs.

Kilinda means protector and Watu means people in Swahili. This translates to Jasiri Kilinda Watu – “Fearless Protector of the People.”

In my present state of mind, I feel that I have a calling to not only try to educate, but protect the community from injustice, crime, and anything that can stop a young man or woman from achieving their goals in life. I do this by showing them the downfalls of the many things that I did that they might consider achievements. I use my life as a teaching tool, a way to express how some of the same things these at-risk sisters and brothers glorify, that can make them a victim to the system.

I do this because I wish I had someone to pull me aside and place a book in my hand to educate me. I feel there’s so much to teach the people today, that I don’t know where to start. I had to start by educating myself. As I keep on this self-educating campaign, I will teach the people everything I learn and what they need to know. Education is a never-ending accomplishment; you can never stop attaining knowledge. People might not realize it, but you learn something everyday, even if it’s the most mundane of things. Now what you have to do is apply that knowledge to make it worth gaining. A good friend told me “knowledge is void without implementation.”

The way I implement the knowledge I’ve gained is to try to feed it to the people. This makes me very protective of the people, because I don’t want any man, woman, or child to be stagnant. I would like to see everybody obtain their higher self. When you obtain your higher self, nothing can hold you back from what you want and can do in your life. One has to know that he or she can succeed in life and pass that success on to the rest of the community, and help one realize that they too can set out on that path. I am here to help one realize that their higher self can be reached and success for the community can be achieved.

This is what makes me Jasiri Kilinda Watu. If the people or community embrace me as not only an educator but also as their protector, then I know my calling is being met. Now once I lose the people’s ear and their faith in me as their protector, then I’m stagnant. If I’m stagnant then I’m doing something wrong because there is no way I should not be gaining knowledge, unless I stop seeking it. I will never stop seeking knowledge, and feeding the community.

As long as I keep feeding the community what needs to be known and everything I can give them, then that makes me happy and a very satisfied man.

For as long as I’m alive, I will always be

Jasiri Kilinda Watu.

“Be the change you seek in the world.”

  -Mohandas Gandhi-