FORTY YEARS OF STUDY • A LIFE OF WITNESS
Sulyaman Al Islam Wasalaam writes as Sul Ya Man, Sun God Man. More than forty years of independent study meet ancestry, faith, protest, street knowledge, and a life he refuses to let anyone else define.
THE AUTHOR
Sulyaman Al Islam Wasalaam writes as Sul Ya Man, Sun God Man. Long before Excelsior became a book, he was studying scripture, history, ancestry, social order, and the ways people learn to define themselves. Much of that study was done independently, over more than forty years.
His writing also comes from what he lived. He remembers marching for Black Power as a child, growing up around protest, integration, authority, family, and the wounds that followed those experiences into adulthood. Cherokee and Croatan heritage, the African diaspora, and the Islamic tradition all appear in his work, but never as decoration. They are part of how he asks where identity comes from and who gets to define it.
“Stop looking outside yourself for fault, for mistakes, for blame. It’s hardest to see inside yourself; it’s easier to look outside and see others.”
SUL YA MAN — EXCELSIOR: NECTAR OF LIFE
The Journey
Long before the book took shape, Sul Ya Man was collecting lessons through experience, independent study, faith, ancestry, and the world he was growing up in.
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As a child, Sul Ya Man remembers marching for Black Power and growing up around protest, integration, authority, and experiences that stayed with him into adulthood.
Much of his learning happened on his own time, through scripture, history, ancestry, ancient knowledge, symbols, and the ideas people use to understand themselves.
Memory, faith, street knowledge, and social observation began meeting in his writing. Sul Ya Man describes his method simply: he writes “straight off the cuff.”
Excelsior: Nectar of Life became what Sul Ya Man calls his second installment in the “episodes of the unknown,” carrying those lessons into doctrine, reflection, survival, community, and witness.
