RZA’s biggest fears: “I was afraid of everything”
It takes a certain sort of person to preside over a crew like the Wu-Tang Clan, and, really, it could only ever have been the RZA. The man is a leader, but that doesn’t mean he necessarily was always so strong-willed.
RZA grew up in difficult circumstances. His childhood home was a two-bed apartment, within which as many as 19 people could reside at a given time. Given such cramped, challenging living conditions, is it any wonder that he was a nervous sort as a kid?
In his book The Tao of Wu, first published in 2009, RZA reflects on his childhood days, noting that, as difficult as they could be sometimes, his experiences taught him lessons that he would hold for the rest of his life. “I learned a lot from hardship,” he told NPR the year that his book came out. “I guess the hardship and taking the goodness out of it.”
There is a section of The Tao of Wu in which RZA specifically deals with the idea of fear, during which he explains that, as a kid, he was often overwhelmed by it. “I was afraid as a child,” he wrote. “I was afraid of everything.”
Some of RZA’s fears at this young age were deeply irrational. “I was scared of water—I couldn’t swim,” he admitted. “I was scared of trucks on the turnpike, and mostly I was scared of ghosts.”
Even as a child, it seems that RZA possessed the makings of the philosophical mind that he would truly develop in adulthood. “But at some point, I realized something,” he wrote. “A ghost is something you create yourself—a man’s mind makes it happen. If there were nobody on Earth, would a ghost still have a chance to spook somebody? No. You manifest ghosts through fear.”
RZA then quoted the words of Marcus Garvey, whom he took great inspiration from. Garvey was a controversial figure, a Black nationalist and Pan-Africanist who, while promoting pride and dignity within the Black community, was nonetheless criticised by others for his advocation of racial separatism.
Garvey was an interesting figure, and, while some of his beliefs are certainly worthy of debate, he was undeniably a fine writer and orator. RZA, in his book, quoted him on the subject of fear: “Fear is a state of nervousness only fit for children. Men should not fear. The only thing man should fear is God. To fear anything other than God is to offend God.”
These words meant a lot to RZA. “I carry that to this day,” wrote the Wu-Tang leader. “Enlightened men do not fear.”