My
Book
to
Future
self
A Reminder
of Self
By :
Mai El
Dardiri
Table of Contents:
Dedication 1..........................................................................................
About the Author 3.......................................................................
Take Notes 5.........................................................................................
9The Spiritual Journey.............................................................
MAAT 12....................................................................................................
16The Maternal Role.................................................................
20Parenting Styles.....................................................................
References 25.....................................................................................
Dedication
This Book is a dedication to the dardiri
family and my husband. An immigrant family
that came from Egypt, Africa. My Family con-
sists of 3 sisters,one brother and my parents,
I'm the oldest child in the family. Life definite-
ly threw a lot at us as a family but we man-
aged to break through and get the best out of
it. My Father is such a hard working man that
tried his best to support his family in every
way possible, a business major he tried his
best to provide for us once we immigrated.
Looking for a job in a business field in the bay
area with his age was a little of struggle be-
cause it was so competitive yet they were so
much younger than him. But in the end he
managed to get a great job that supports him.
My mother is and always was a stay at
home mom, she is the rock of the house
making us stronger through good and bad
times. My younger sister is a successful assis-
tant store manager. She has always been in
love with fashion and design.
My Brother followed my dad's passion in
Business and became a business analyst
working in one of the biggest companies in
silicon valley. As for my baby sister, she is a
successful UX/UI designer who is looking for
a suitable job for her. As a Family my father
tried his best to always make us as close as
possible so later in life we can have our sib-
lings to be our backbone and provide support
where it is needed. As every family we had
our ups and downs together but we always
loved each other unconditionally.
My Husband is one of my biggest support-
ers. I felt an instinct to connect with him since
the day we met. We connected with each
other spiritually, mentaily and physically. He
processed his masters degree in Germany for
engineering on his own and he stayed there
for almost 7 years.Three years ago he got a
job offer to move to the bay area and he has
been in the Bay area since. I feel that I really
searched for someone that I connected with
on a spiritual, mental and physical level. That
has been very important to maintain my pur-
pose and goal in life.
I am a student studying design hoping to be a
UX/UI Designer. I want my design to help
people, with my design I want to make people
live in difficult situations like hospitals much
better.With this Book i want to remind myself
about what I really studied in my African
American course and what are the highlights
that I want to take away after finishing my
course.
This book is also a dedication to my teach-
er of the class Dr. Doñela C. Wright. She
opened my eyes not only to African American
history and studies but also made me think
about developing my life. It made me want to
apply what I have learned from this class into
reality. Reading all these great references ,
books and articles made me have a better view
of what matters in life and what our history as
African American is all about.
About the Author
My Name is Mai el Dardiry. I Am an immi-
grant that came from Alexandria Egypt 15
years ago. English is my second language
and Arabic is my first language. I'm a Visual
communication Design Major. I want to
design apps, products and tools to make any
patient in hospitals in life easier. I want to
help patients through my design and get
them the help they need. Creating the right
tools from apps, websites, products and the
environment.
I took African studies as a class to finish
my GED and graduate this semester. At first
I thought it was going to be a class that I just
needed to pass and get a good grade and
move on to my Design classes. But what
happened is completely different and very
interesting. The more I went deeper in un-
derstanding and studying the material that
Professor Wright had for us, the more inter-
ested I was in reading and knowing more
about the information that was given to me.
This course not only educated me a lot
about African American history but also
made me understand and focus my exis-
tence especially in the connection with my
spirit and my purpose in Life. I took a step
back while learning in this course about
what is my purpose in Life. Calculations I
didn't think seriously about until this class.
I learned alot about what family and
community means to any individual and
couple. Iam now very interested in a minor
in African Studies and to proceed with more
information about that great History.
Take Notes
This Book is Introducing you values and im-
portant information from African history. It
introduces you to a lot of meaning that will
make you understand the world a little
more. It's a Book where I remind my future
self about what are the important things in
life and what are the lessons that I learned
from this course that are useful to me. When
reading this book it will introduce you to
tools that will help you be a better individual
, a better family member and a better person
in the community. I hope this Book will help
me and others stay track of my purpose in
life.
This Material was discussed throughout my
class of African studies this year with profes-
sor Wright.
The Spiritual Journey
The Ancient Kemetians of ancient Egypt, the
Akan of Ghana, Evhe of Togo, Fon of Dahomey,
and Yoruba of Nigeria, the goal is to unify with
God so that one achieves immortality or eternal
life.
Do you have a Spirit Journey?
What does your spirit journey mean to you ?
Do you believe that every human has a spirit
in him?
Are you searching for your spiritual journey?
What are your goals?
The Ancient kemetians Had certain goal
they gathered for their spiritual journey:
1)Bringing good to the world and doing
good by living a moral and ethical life;
2) Engaging in practices to help in one’s spir-
itual evolvement;
3) Carrying out one’s divine earthly purpose,
destiny, or reason for being;
4) Bringing children into the world so that
they can also bring good, do good, and help
one to be remembered. (311p,Dixon)
Reminder:
Identify what is important to you in your
spirit journey and why ?
What are your spiritual goals?
What are your daily spiritual goals?
What are your monthly spiritual goals?
What are your yearly spiritual goals ?
What are you doing to achieve these goals?
How can you improve your spirit journey?
MAAT
Maat : is an ancient egyptian
word that mean truth
Maat is an ancient Egyptian spiritual and ethical
concept with multiple meanings. Its etymology
suggests its evolution from the physical concept of
straightness, correctness, levelness, and rightness.
In its most basic conception, Maat is “the right” or
“rightness,” but Maat also connotes the expansive
range of meaning in- dicated in its various forms:
rights, rightful, rightfulness, upright, uprightness,
righteous, righteousness.
The ancient Egyptians saw Maat as a divine
power called into being at the beginning of
creation by the creator, Ra. Maat, then, is a princi-
ple and power constitutive of creation itself. This is
expressed as a divine order of rightness that per-
meates existence and gives life to all living things.
Maat requires and demonstrates this order of
rightness in the divine, natural, and social realms.
Thus in the practice of Maat, practioners seek to
have and maintain right relations with the divine,
nature, and other humans.
Maat represents :
Truth
Justice
Righthouse
Balance
Order
Property
Reciprocity
To reach the Maat state you need
SBA which refers to wisdom, learning,
teaching and study.
To achieve SBA you must have SIA which
is insignt and deep thoughts.
One Self need to be aware of their own
uniqueness and individuality .
Reminder:
What does Maat Mean to you?
What does Truth mean to you ?
What Does Justice mean to you ?
What Does Righthouse mean to you?
What Does Order mean to you?
What Does Balance mean to you ?
What Does Property mean to you?
What Does Reciprocity mean to you?
The Maternal Role
What did your mother teach you about
men?” is a question I often ask students in
my courses on African-American women.
“Go to school first and get a good educa-
tion—don’t get too serious too young,”
“Make sure you look around and that you
can take care of yourself before you settle
down,” and “Don’t trust them, Want more
for yourself than just a man,” are typical
responses from Black women.
What did your mother teach you about life?
Men? Family? Community?
Reminder:
What are the challenges you see as an
African woman when it comes to starting
a family ?
Was Having a career or making a family
more important to you ?
Were you encouraged to focus on your
career or on marrying
What did your mother advise you in your
early years?
Was marriage encouraged early in your
family?
What was the idea you had for your partner?
Are you in a relationship?
Do you Agree with the statement “ Don't
rely on any Men just rely on yourself”?
Parenting Styles
1-Authoritative parents—are high on de-
mandingness and responsiveness. There is
clear communi-cation about what is expect-
ed of the child, high demands and control
are balanced with support and nurturance,
directives are given with reasoning, there is
verbal give and take, and there is balance be-
tween the child’s self-will and interests and
the parent’s perspective and policies.
2-Authoritarian parents—are high on de-
mandingness and low on responsiveness.
The parents con-trol the child in accordance
with a set standard of conduct, exert firm
control and power, with less nurturance,
support, or affection. The child is not en-
couraged to express him- or herself, strict
obedi-ence to absolute rule is required, and
failure to do so may be met with forceful,
punitive measures.
3-Permissive parents—are low on de-
mandingness but high on responsiveness.
The parents demand little of the child and
are lax with regard to control, allowing the
child to regulate his or her own behavior,
free of restraint, and the child is “babied”
more.
4-Disengaged or uninvolved—are low on
both demandingness and responsiveness
and are essen-tially disengaged and are not
involved in the child’s life (Baumrind, 1966,
1967, 2005).
Reminder:
What do you think about these 4 Parenting
Styles ?
Which Parneting Style were you raised
with ?
What Parenting Style will you use with
your kids?
Were both your parents using the same
Parenting Style?
What did you approve and disapprove
about your parenting style?
Was punishemnt part of your Parents
parneting style ?
Have you ever been through Corporal
punishment ?
Read me On the Daily
You are Amazing
You are Unique
You are Special
You are Important
You are doing your Best
You are not Alone
You are Talented
You have a Purpose
You are a Blessing
You are Unstoppable
You are a Dreamer
References.
Reawakening of the African Mind.
Karenga, M. (2010). Introduction to Black studies. Los Angeles,
CA
University of Sankore Press.
Nobles, W. (1985). African Culture as a Basis for Understanding
Black
Families. In Africanity and he Black Family: The Development of
a Theoretical.
Ani, M. (1994). Yuguru: An Afrikan-centered Critique of Europe-
an Cultural
Thought and Behavior. Baltimore, MD: African World Books
Dixon, P. (2017). African American Relationships, Marriages, and
Families: an
introduction. New York, NY: Routledge.
Families. In Africanity and he Black Family: The Development of
a Theoretical.
Somé, S. (2002). The Spirit of Intimacy: Ancient African Teach-
ings in the Ways of Relationships. New York: Quill.