Trinidad and Tobago
Central Bank Auditorium
6.19.15
Table of Content TOPIC S (CHAPTER I) Page Greetings and Gratitude 3 Honoring the Customs 4 AFRICAN SPIRIT AWARD 5 Annual Kwame Ture Memorial Lectures 6 African Views of the Universe 7 African Views (AV) Organization 8 African Views Strategies9 Global Africa: 10 Personal Orientation 12 Past, Present and Future Challenges 13 “Emancipation” as Proposed… 14 The Power of Symbolism 15 Impact and Legacy of Emancipation ‘as proposed’ 16 Power of Words and Ascribed Meanings 17 Merits on Ideas of Emancipation Page 19 Laws and Principles of Contradiction Page 20 New Methods of Definition 21 Who are the Liberators? 22 Credibility, Credulity, Creditability of Liberators 23 Strategic Resistance to African Uprisings 24 The Colonial Rule Initiative25 Colonial Stakes in Africa 26 Colonial Stakes in Central America and Caribbean 27 Willie Lynch 30 The Willie Lynch’s Initiative 31 Henry Berry’s Initiative 34 Cultivated Dependency 35 Debunking the Myth 36 African Advancement of Human knowledge 37 Wealthiest Individual of all time 38 Hierarchy of Human Identity 39 Statutory forms and Hierarchy of Human Identity 40 The African Identity 41 Hypocrisy of Racism 42 Racism (The American Paradox) 43
TOPIC S (CHAPTER II) Page US Effort to address the Slave Trade by the US Government 47 The Dred Scott Decision 48 The Attraction and Impetus for Holding on to Slavery 49 The Inevitable Compromise behind Emancipation 50 The Role of Africa in the Slave Trade 51 Slavery: Arab Slave Raid (Illustration by Granger) 52 The Role of Africa in the Slave Trade 53 Relationship Between Returnees from North America and the West Indies and Indigenous Local Africans 54 African Resistance, Rebellion, Abolition Effort 55 Effect of Foreign interest in Africa 56 European Trade Routes in Africa 57 A Legacy of Deceit and Palpable Immorality 58 Bad Agreements with the Good, Bad, and Ugly Proposals 59 Evolution of the Map of Africa 60 The Discipline of the Merciful and the Wrath of the Merciless 72 African Genocide 73 History of European Madness: "Blood and Soil" 74 Why Racism still Exists 76 KKK at Santo Domingo Carnival in Dominican Republic 77 Black Resistance to White Supremacy 78 African Influence in Passing the Civil Right Act in America 79 The African ideals of Négritude 80 The Kerner’s Commission Report 81 The Kerner’s Commission Report: Patterns of Disorder 82 The Kerner’s Commission Report: The Basic Causes 83 The Kerner’s Commission Recommendation 84 The infallibility of the American Justice System 85 Truth and Reconciliation Assessment Committee 86 Protest demanding Apology for African Genocide 87 Admission of Guilt and Apology for Slavery and Colonization 88 Ark of Return 89 The Africanistic Paradigm Shift 90 The New Great African Awakening 91 “Lords of Poverty.” A challenge to African Intellectual 92 Quest for a Unique Branch of African Philosophy 94
TOPIC (CHAPTER III) The Change We Want The Ubiquity of Symbols of Supremacy Thinkers who shaped African Political Consciousness Villains who betrayed African Development African Philosophers and their DoctrinesFredrick Douglas Edward Wilmot Blyden Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. William Edward Burghardt "W. E. B." Du Bois Cyril Lionel Robert James Frantz Fanon Malcolm X, (el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz,) Martin Luther King, Jr. Thurgood Marshall Cheikh Anta Diop Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Anna Julia Haywood Cooper Toni Morrison Fannie Lou Hamer Maya Angelou Funmilayo Ransome Kuti Wangari Muta Maathai Angela Yvonne Davis Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga Amos Nelson Wilson Other African Philosophers and their Doctrines The Need for Ideological Reappraisal on the African Problems Pan–Africanism Vs. Pan-African Culture Pan-African Culture: CONVINCED Pan-African Culture: GUIDED The Human View The Role of Modern Technology in African Culture Advancing Science and Technology in Africa Unlocking the Future through Culture and Technology Summary of the Lecture Conclusion Thank you Note!
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It is indeed a great honor that by accident of history, the call has fallen on me to be summoned here to Trinidad and to grace this memorable occasion with a lecture instituted by the Emancipation Support Committee.
I am still in awe to be entrusted with such an important assignment, by being asked to deliver this year’s Kwame Ture Memorial key lecture. Kwame Ture’s contribution is of immense important to the birth of many causes in the development and resurgence of African identity as well as to the solidarity of the African worlds and to the vitality of the commonwealth and man’s pursuit of an improved global society. I am grateful to the Emancipation Support Committee for providing me the opportunity to meet you, my brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, uncles, aunties, nieces, nephews, sons and daughters here in Trinidad and Tobago. Thank you! May God bless you! And May God bless the kingdom of Africa that you have built and cultivated so well in your hearts here in Trinidad and Tobago.
It is customary to African Tradition that a guest brings a gift for the host especially on such an important occasion. So, on behalf of my Organization, African Views, we hereby bestow the African Views Certificate of Recognition as a token of our appreciation by presenting the African Spirit Award to the Socratic culture diplomat, the indefatigable Elder, Visionary, Honorable Khafra Kambon.
African spirit is the inextinguishable aspiration for ancestral legacy and the inexhaustible desire for truth, justice and peace; as well as the gospel of faith, empowerment, recognition, and reconciliation of global African dignity within the universal systems of human affairs.
Honorable Khafra Kambon has demonstrated leadership that represents the true value and unwavering commitment to the struggles and enlightenment of the collective African society for several decades. He is herewith awarded an African spirit recognition certificate as a token of our appreciation for his selfless commitment to bring African values to par in meeting its own responsibilities within the universal ecosystem.
Certificate of Recognition African Spirit Award African spirit is the inextinguishable aspiration for ancestral legacy and the inexhaustible desire for truth, justice and peace as well as the gospel of faith, empowerment, recognition, and reconciliation of global African dignity within the universal systems of human affairs. Honorable Khafra Kambon has demonstrated leadership that represents the true value and unwavering commitment to the struggles and enlightenment of the collective African society for several decades. He is herewith awarded an African spirit recognition certificate as a token of our appreciation for his selfless commitment to bring African values to par in meeting its own responsibilities within the universal ecosystem.
Friday, June 19, 2015
_________________ Assemblyman Carmelo G. Garcia Board Director
Approved by William A. Verdone Chairman
_______________ Wale Idris Ajibade Executive Director
Annual Kwame Ture Memorial Lectures I am incredibly grateful to the Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago who have taken the initiative to establish the Kwame Ture Memorial Lectures as a platform from which new ideologies and philosophy will be generated annually. These lectures are meant to inspire the people of Africa and all peoples of African descent to continue to sustain confidence in our abilities and improve our performance in collectively reaching heights attainable to all subsisting cultural peers on earth. It is m y perception that Kwame Ture Memorial lectures is important to the cause of African development and advancement, therefore lectures must be focused on shifting the instinctive reaction of the overwhelming majority to conscious motive by empowering it with reason and logic necessary for the courage and confidence we need as a people of Africa everywhere. We pray that as long as the Kwame Ture Memorial Lecture lives, these series will continue to strive towards fulfilling the true intention of the Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago. As a courtesy please allow me to introduce African Views‌ My name is Wale Idris Ajibade I am the Executive Director of African Views Organization
African Views of the Universe The African view of the universe has been carefully studied and systematized, and much more waits to be recorded in writing. What there is, is expressed orally in myths, legends, proverbs, wise saying, and in practical ways like rituals, dances, art and symbols. When this material is put together, a picture of African cosmology emerges – perhaps marred in some respect, but a picture nonetheless. This picture shows among other things, an underlying unity or similarity of views across Africa and diaspora, reflecting the obvious local differences. African views of the universe arose in the course of time, as people reflected upon life itself and the world at large. No human society can exist without some form of view of the world in which it lives. All the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling, tasting, and smelling are open gates of human awareness of man’s own existence and that of the world. So, as African peoples all over the world went though life experiences, as they reflected upon what they saw and experienced, as they discussed their situation in the world, as they went through changes of individual lives, changes of seasons, changes of environment, challenges of slavery, colonization, emancipation, etc., more ideas were generated concerning their understanding of the world. These ideas were by no means static, which, though in the due process of change, have come down to us. Ideas from one generation to another continues to persist in spite of the challenges of time. It is in this spirit that we endeavor to capture with extremely few exceptions, the evolution of ideas in the African World without compromising the integrity of existential dichotomy of the secular and sacred or the physical and spiritual, or the practical and hypothetical. In African views, there is harmony, rationale, logic, and sense of the universe. Just as in African views, the universe is permanent, unending and eternal. God sustains it! Such is the transfer of the African ideologies from one generation to another and the more diverse they are, the better they become. Would it be something of value if those ideas can be captured, not only for documentary purpose but also for their utilitarian value; especially in the understanding and interpretation of historical challenges, engaging current challenges and preparing for future challenges. This is the basis upon which we have formed the African Views Organization.
African Views (AV) Organization: A CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION THAT HAS BEEN GRANTED FEDERAL TAX EXEMPTION 501(C) (3) BY THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES (IRS) AND IS IN CONSULTATIVE STATUS WITH THE UNITED N AT I O N S ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL (ECOSOC) – BASED ON THE RECOGNITION OF ITS CHARITABLE PROGRAMS. All charitable organizations are nonprofit, and must exist only to represent and interpret the social and development services necessary for improving conditions of life and pursue missions that address needs of the society. There are no legal owners. African Views (AV) provides well researched information on root causes of social problems as well as mosaic analysis for implementing sustainable development solutions. We are a framework for collaborative global intelligence for the advancement of African and African Diaspora societies.
AV is a framework for global intelligence collaboration in social sciences and humanities.
AV är ett rameverk för global intelligens samarbete inom samhällsvetenskap och humaniora.
AV est un cadre de collaboration de l'intelligence globale en sciences sociales et humaines.
AV é uma estrutura para a colaboração global de inteligência em ciências sociais e humanas.
More information available on http://www.africanviews.org
AV ist ein Rahmen für die Zusammenarbeit in der globalen Intelligenz Sozialwissenschaften und Geisteswissenschaften.
Today’s Lecture I am here today to share my ideas about how we can unlock the future through a collective global African effort. The theme assigned to me based on my strength and experience is: Global Africa: Unlocking the Future through Culture and Technology
This topic is particularly appropriate as it complements the Observance of the United Nations ‘declaration of the ‘International Decade for People of African Descent’ The theme is also reflects relevance to justice and development in the African Worlds – especially, in reference to recognition of the need for reparation and restitution.
Personal Orientation Personally, this is not an easy task for me. The African Cause can be done in many ways, around the struggle. But there is no way that leads out of the maze without the truthful and honest assessment of how we got where we are today. And it is only by acknowledging and addressing the truth candidly that we can find rapprochement, peace, congruence and cultural harmony. This presentation has been designed to juxtapose the past and present chronologies of African experiences as well as the roots cause of the challenges we face today in Africa and in the Diaspora in spite of emancipation and “independenceâ€?. I hope that with this presentation, we can each begin to understand that we are all on a healing journey. The presentation is will elucidate emotions and provide substantive analysis but to bring us together on a honest and candid plain, not to heighten the division caused by mistrust and suspicions that is already prominent between the races everywhere. After all, We cannot cure a wound of the heart by addressing its symptom on the head. To create the future, we must understand the present‌ To understand the present, we must know the Past. We must get to the heart of the issue.
Past, Present and Future Challenges The search for solutions often requires an understanding of how problems developed. Most problems, when they persist is because they are misunderstood or misdiagnosed. The understanding, diagnosing, articulating and communicating the challenges we face with absolute clarity is imperative to the survival of African people everywhere. Our progress is slow and that is due to the fact that ‌
Many errors, of a truth, consist merely in the application of the wrong names of things. Words have meanings and meanings have powers.
“Emancipation” as Proposed… In 1833 Thomas Buxton presented the Emancipation Bill to the British Parliament. It was passed in 1834 on the condition that complete freedom would be granted to those slaves who accepted to be apprentice to their former master for minimum of 4 years. So “slaves” continued to work a 45-hour week without pay in exchange for living in the tiny huts provided by the plantation owners. Freedom from slavery was celebrated in 1838 at the end of the apprentice period and people in Antigua, Anguilla, Bahamas, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Vincent, Turks & Caicos, & Trinidad & Tobago. In Barbados, we went on the streets and we sang with joy: “Lick an Lock-up Done Wid, Hurray fuh Jin-Jin (Queen Victoria). De Queen come from England to set we free Now Lick an Lock-up Done Wid, Hurray fuh Jin-Jin ” On August 1, 1985 the government of Trinidad and Tobago declared Emancipation Day a national holiday to commemorate the abolition of slavery. While the Queen of England was credited for emancipation in Caribbean, Abraham Lincoln was credited for emancipating the Africans in the U.S.A. Emancipation day is celebrated throughout the world in various capacity today.
The Power of Symbolism The symbolic power of this iconic statue is impressive. However, the real essence of the power is in the caption, which would have been a real confidence booster for the society, if the emancipated slave had broken the chains of bondage rather than being cut loose by his captives or “masters mercy.�
Impact and Legacy of Emancipation ‘as proposed’ It is common knowledge that emancipation has not fulfilled the promise of freedom to people of African descent. Rather, we Africans find ourselves grappling with a condition that has relegated us to partly free everywhere. William Graham Sumner, in his book ""The Folkways" wrote: For Africans
emancipation contained a great disillusion. We must ask ourselves, where is the disillusion? Where is the Problem? Why does freedom and independence remain elusive to African people? Our children will ask these questions in their hearts and we hope that when they ask us why, we are adequately prepare or better yet, that we would have solved the problem. This also means that we must resolve this problem one way or the other in order to unlock the merits of abundance that awaits all people of African descent everywhere and others who are truly vested in the future of the world.
Power of Words and Ascribed Meanings I apologize for this exercise as it may sound academic, but it is in this context -- a means to an end. Certain words like “Emancipation”, “Problem”, “Independence,” “Justice,” “Poverty” and “Revolution” elude definition, because they are sensitive words and often trigger consequential reactions therefore their very meanings differ significantly by conditions, either in various degrees in perspectives of the observers to the various degrees in the consciousness and circumstances of those being observed. This deduction is further corroborated by the mundane ways of acquiring knowledge, such as a-priori and a-posteriori. The terms a priori ("from the earlier") and a posteriori ("from the later") are used in philosophy (epistemology) to distinguish two types of knowledge, justification, or argument: • A priori knowledge or justification is independent of experience (I know because I read it"). • A posteriori knowledge or justification is dependent on experience or empirical evidence (I know because I witnessed it, or I know because I have proof of it.) There is a dispute between rationalism and empiricism as to how better knowledge is acquired. Clearly knowledge can be gained independently of sense experience, knowledge can also be with experience. Since neither method is perfect or without error, there is no reason that we cannot also consider that we can gain knowledge by intuition, imagination, creativity, analysis, or spirituality for that matter. So let us reexamine the meaning of emancipation in a way that it resonates with our experience and expectation.
Emancipation, What exactly does it mean? According to the dictionary, Emancipate e-man′si-pāt to release, unfetter, unshackle from certain bondage by another. The word, etymologically stems from Latin emancipatus, past participle of emancipare (“to declare (a minor) free and independent of the father's power. I therefore concluded that the intended meaning of emancipation would be to remove ones authority to control the will of another. Out of this ambiguity, we might therefore postulate the three alternate purpose of emancipation in the context of Slavery: • To facilitate inclusion, where the oppressed individual or group acquires equal rights of participation in the existing social or political structure, • As a revolution (or reform) to eradicate the existing unjust or oppressive social structure • As unnecessary or fraudulent: because human rights includes rights; life, liberty, and freedoms that cannot be transferred or surrendered, or infringed upon by another – except in selfdefense, wartimes, or as a consensual punishment by an agreed upon political authority. That is, if a man was imprisoned for an extended period of time on a crime he did not commit, and eventually released upon the realization of this man’s innocence, calling this emancipation would be incorrect if unintentional or fraudulent, if so intended.
Merits on Ideas of Emancipation The contention between three dimensions on how to achieve emancipation is elucidated very clearly by Karl Marx, Alexis De Tocqueville and David Walker. This exercise is somewhat important because a third perspective has newly included to the two previously existing premises. I hope this inclusion merits the purpose intended.
Tocqueville thinks that using revolution to gain emancipation would not only leave previous structures of oppression intact, but also might sow the seeds of despotism, and results in even greater oppression. Therefore, a cautious approach which takes into consideration the full complexity of human nature is preferred. Result: Tocqueville was applauded as a social hero.
Marx argues that emancipation is one thing and one thing only: the complete eradication of the inherent contradictions between social structures and man’s true nature, species being. Furthermore, any political emancipation aiming at greater participation for previously disenfranchised sectors of society amounts only to partial emancipation at best. Result: Marx was recognized in spite of his radical views which became an alternative doctrine for different school of thought.
Walker simply contemplates the notion of emancipation and asked: “Why am I a slave? Why are some people slaves, and others masters? Was there ever a time when this was not so? How did the relation commence? Once, however, engaged in the inquiry, I was not very long in finding out the true solution of the matter. It was not color, but crime, not God, but man, that afforded the true explanation of the existence of slavery; nor was I long in finding out another important truth, viz: what man can make, man can unmake… Meaning emancipation is actually for the oppressors rather than the oppressed. It is the Oppressors that should redeem himself. Result: David Walker was killed by an “unknown assailant” due to this ideology.
Laws and Principles of Contradiction Under the European classical philosophy, the law or principle of contradiction is the second of the three classic laws of thought. It states that contradictory statements cannot both be true in the same sense at the same time, e.g. the two propositions "A is B" and "A is not B" are mutually exclusive. Therefore, there is a problem with emancipation, because it cannot be right and wrong at the same time. The goal of this exercise is to diagnose and determine where the problem lies, if it is in its definition, perception, application, or its proposition. According to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, a great Yoruba thinker and politician, whose spirit I am happy to invoke in this lecture said we cannot rely on dictionaries for a definition or true meaning of any problem. He said, everyone one can recognize a problem when we encounter one. If it is a personal problem, not only do we recognize and understand it, but we also feel its impact and effect on our whole being. What had never occurred to us to do is to take a word as generic term and define it, as the logicians would do, per genus et differentiam Definition by genus and difference is a an 'intentional definition' gives the meaning of a term by specifying all the properties required to come to that definition; whereby something is defined by first stating the broad category it belongs to and then distinguished by specific properties, is a type of intentional definition. This simply means you can make up new words when all the right properties are in place. The audacity of self-determination begins per genus et differentiam
New Methods of Definition Therefore, let us define few relative words per genus et differentiam: Freedom + (Liberators + interest)= Emancipation Freedom – Liberators= Independence Entity – domination = Freedom (to be free from dominion) Entity – (adequate access to basic need + suffering) = Poverty Universal privilege and opportunity – 1(1x/1r) = Racism Ideological position + Logical reason + force = Revolution (Reform) Ideological position + Illogical reason and fatal persuasive method = Terrorism Alien control + (Exploitation + Coercion) = Colonialism Challenge – Immediate solution = Problem Deed + (Integrity – Cultural bias) = Justice Event + singular documented perspective = Fact Justice + (Ways + Means) = Peace Event + All Actual perspectives = Truth
This method of illustrative definition can help simplify as well as improve our understanding of the issues we grapple with as a society due to the wrong meanings ascribed to them.
Who are the Liberators?
Europeans began to use Christianity as a means to end Slavery in Europe since trade in slaves and serfdom was condemned by the church in London in 1105. Coincidentally, it was the same Christian scriptures that was used to propagate and justify chattel slavery of Africans. The Bible can be interpreted to rationalize any ideology or doctrine, and has created many different factions of the Christian fate. The European enslavement of African was based on the belief that Africans were the 'Cush' people of the Nile region who descended from Ham, son of Noah, who was cursed by his father after looking at his naked form. Thus, racism was justified as the right to condemn Africans who must be inherently evil as a consequence of sinful actions of Ham. However, the truth is that European Christians had witnessed caravans loaded with Africans en-route to the Middle East and wanted to get their share of the trade. The Portuguese, the Spanish, the French, the Dutch, and the British Kingdoms had already instituted a well-established slave trading system between Africa in the Americas with fierce competition by the 1700s. But none was as formidable and impressive as the British. By the 1800s Germany was emerging as a super power and with other European countries such as Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Norway wanting to get their own piece of the pie, it was clear that they needed a new plan to keep peace among themselves, hence a new world order turned the enslavers to become the liberators. The British took it upon themself to abolish the trade as well as police other countries; putting together amicable treaties to appease the growing appetite of other ambitious European kingdoms. So, Slavery gradually evolved into Colonialism. By the early 1880s, due to many factors including diplomatic maneuvers, subsequent colonial exploration, and recognition of Africa's abundance of valuable resources such as gold, timber, land, markets and labor power, European interest in the continent had increased dramatically to an unprecedented level of human greed, which led to the "Scramble for Africa" is the invasion, occupation, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers. In 1884, the disgruntled Portuguese, Germans, and Belgians arranged the Berlin Conference to discuss European colonization and Conference to discuss the Africa problem mainly to avoid war between themselves. The diplomats put on a humanitarian faรงade by condemning the slave trade, prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages and firearms in certain regions, and by expressing concern for missionary activities. More importantly, the diplomats in Berlin laid down the rules of competition by which the great powers were to be guided in seeking colonies. The rules were simple: No nation was to stake claims in Africa without notifying other powers of its intentions; No territory could be formally claimed prior to being effectively occupied. However, the competitors ignored the rules when convenient and on several occasions war was only narrowly avoided. Most wars were won by the British, a collective people of the United Kingdom (UK). The UK is a country made up of four small ethnically different islands, namely English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish Islands. The cradle of power is England, wherefrom ambitious queens and kings ruled for centuries. Out of about 193 countries, The United Kingdom has invaded every country on earth except for 22, which were not considered to be of significant interest or priority. The English monarch have been defiant to the Christian pope leading to writing their own version of the bible and spreading their own culture, view points, and asserting their influence everywhere around the globe. The United States of America got its independence from the United Kingdom by defeating the British in 1776 War of revolution. The United States elite, however, are made of descendants of British people. So the independence was considered a radical coup or an opportunistic prodigal steal from the United Kingdom by the American Aristocrats who were mostly descendants of prolific British emigrants. The Americans perfected colonialism with strategic coercion and persuasion methods. It was a very dark past for the indigenous natives and the slaves.
Credibility, Credulity, Creditability of Liberators The first organized opposition to slavery other than pockets of resistances by Africans on the continent, ship, and in the new worlds came from the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), who regarded slavery as unnecessary and undesirable as well as encouraged and managed to stop slavery in West New Jersey as early as the 1670s. One of the notable result of that effort is Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, who authored a strongly abolitionist autobiography titled The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African (1789). The book became a bestseller and, as well as furthering the anti-slavery cause. Africans who contributed to humanizing Africans and towards abolition of slavery included John Marrant's book,, the first autobiography of a free slave titled A Narrative of the Lord's Wonderful Dealings (1785) and, Thomas Clarkson’s Publication in London of An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, in 1786, which was the single most influential antislavery work of the late 18th century. Some of the effect of the push for anti-slavery movement resulted in the rise of new organizations such as the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, the Free African Society, The African Colonization Society (ACS) and several others. Rhode Island was the first state to abolish slavery in 1774. The Society for the Relief of Free Africans Unlawfully Held in Bondage, the first... to the cause of abolition, is founded in Philadelphia on this day in 1775. The society changes its name to the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Free Africans Unlawfully Held in Bondage in 1784. That same year, In February 1784, the Rhode Island Legislature passed a compromise measure for gradual emancipation of slaves within Rhode Island. Benjamin Franklin becomes Honorary President of the Society in 1787. Thomas Paine speaks out against slavery and joins the PAS leading to gradual Emancipation Act passed in Pennsylvania in 1780.
William Wilberforce becomes the Parliamentary leader and begins a ten-year campaign to abolish Britain's slave trade. Between 1793 and 1804, the Haitian people's revolution led by Toussaint L’Ouverture managed to abolish slavery and gained independence from colonial rules in one strike when they attacked and conquered the French and the British forces in Saint Domingue and Santo Domingo. The Haitian Revolution made Haiti the first truly free country in the world where no man was a slave. While Haiti became the first independent African nation, and an inspiration to enslaved and colonized Africans throughout the world, it provoked unsettling reactions to all slave establishment in the western hemisphere as it became clear that African nations have an indistinguishable thirst form freedom and self-governance. Therefore, Haiti should hold a significant position in history of the world, as liberators, just as America gained its independence from the British. Nevertheless, it was clear that the recording and reporting of historical events is skewed as such that credit due was not properly given to those who deserve it most. Wilberforce and Lincoln are practically given deity status.
Strategic Resistance to African Uprisings While it was understood that all men are created equal, one of the biggest problem was, then and still is, the inability for imperialist to accept or even consider that Africans are complete human, worthy of those inalienable rights of men that the British have carefully curated in the Magna Carta and constitutions. So in 1787, the U.S. Constitution allows a male slave to count as three-fifths of a man in determining representation in the House of Representatives. This was the precursor to the one-drop rule, a sociological and legal principle of racial classification that was historically prominent in the United States asserting that any person with even one ancestor of sub-Saharan-African heritage ("one drop" of African blood) is considered to be “black or Negro”. This concept evolved over the course of the 19th century and became codified into the 20th century segregation laws, which were created to affirm the principles of continuity in superiority of class and race. This incurable delusion of human hierarchy is ingrained in the European psyche. It is not natural, but a learned and acculturated belief system that is deliberately integrated in the Western spirituality as well as in all Abrahamic religions. So, in order to keep enslaved Africans and free Africans under control slave institutions adopted and practiced some initiatives among those relevant and effective are: • The Colonial Rule initiative • The Willie Lynch initiative • The Henry Berry’s initiative
The Colonial Rule Initiative Colonial rule had been a well-established and long tradition pre-Greek and Roman times. In the context of Africa, Colonial rule can be divided into three stages: Classical antiquity, Arab conquest, and European colonialism. The Egypt's Pharaoh dynasty that had existed for centuries before being taken over by Phoenicians, and later by the Greeks whose might was epitomized by the conquest of Alexander the Great (356–323 BC), and shortly thereafter fell to the Romans, and eventually fell to the Arabs in the 7th century. The Arabs ruled Egypt for centuries until the Europeans "partition" in the Scramble for Africa in the 1890s which led to the British takeover of Egypt. For the purpose of this presentation we will focus on the motives of European Colonization. The main purpose of the European colonization is not necessarily to assert foreign rule over societies that are incapable of governing or defending themselves, but as a strategy to control resources and value propositions of the known and unknown assets of the society. To do this successfully, requires cultivating negative dependencies such as:
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Ignorance: by asserting and inferiority complexes through religion; by portraying itself favored and in the image of God. Also, by enforcing cultural homogeneity and disregard for other’s own fulfillment need in place of servitude education for its own advancement, and claiming that its own advancement is human advancement.
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Poverty: often stems from indirect rules. Poverty is not the absence of wealth, but the lack of basic needs. This strategy is meant to distract others from pursuing the quest for self-knowledge, rather to forage for food. The concept fulfill itself by instilling greed in selective few to keep the society distracted and obedient, which is achieved through various levels of insidious bondage, constraints, oppression and corruption
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Other methods of distractions involves perpetuating unnecessary human suffering through indirect strategies, fear and anxiety that stifles education, free assembly, free thoughts, free speech, and highly suspicious environment for fellow citizens
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Citing unnecessary human suffering as incompetence and needs for aids, thus making it a cause completes the cycle of affirming the claim to superiority.
Colonial Stakes in Africa Areas controlled by European colonial powers on the African continent in 1913,
The "Scramble for Africa" is the invasion, occupation, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers during the period of New Imperialism, between 1881 and 1914. It is also called the Partition of Africa and the Conquest of Africa.
Colonial Stakes in Central America and the Caribbean
Colonial Stakes in Central America and the Caribbean
Colonial Stakes in Central America and the Caribbean
Note that other than Haiti, Dominican Republic (DR), Dominica, Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago, all the Caribbean States are still under some form of protectorate, which translates to indirect rule.
Willie Lynch Scholars are divided about the authenticity of Willie Lynch. But you be the judge instead of listening to pundits about what ails us. Willie Lynch was an owner of a plantation in the British West Indies around the early 1700s, and was invited to Virginia to give a lecture about his proven successful methods on managing slaves. This is customary, as it is still in practice today. Just as I am here to share my knowledge and experience on issues that are of mutual interests. In his case, he had sent a proposal to a private groups of in slave owners Virginia who were having problems managing or losing their stock of slaves in droves. His lecture would come to designate a lasting impact on not only African development, but also conditioned European of ways and means of pursuing the evil supremacy ideals. “I saw enough to know that your problem is not unique. While Rome used cords of wood as crosses for standing human bodies along its highways in great numbers, you are here using the tree and the rope on occasions. I caught the whiff of a dead slave hanging from a tree, a couple miles back. You are not only losing valuable stock by hangings, you are having uprisings, slaves are running away, your crops are sometimes left in the fields too long for maximum profit, You suffer occasional fires, your animals are killed. Gentlemen, you know what your problems are; I do not need to elaborate. I am not here to enumerate your problems, I am here to introduce you to a method of solving them. In my bag here, I have a foolproof method for controlling your black slaves. I guarantee every one of you that if installed correctly it will control the slaves for at least 300 years. Let us make a slave. What do we need? First of all we need a black nigger man, a pregnant nigger woman and her baby nigger boy. Second, we will use the same basic principle that we use in breaking a horse, combined with some more sustaining factors.“
The Willie Lynch’s Initiative Take this simple little list of differences and think about them. On top of my list is "age" but it's there only because it starts with an "A." The second is "COLOR" or shade, there is intelligence, size, sex, size of plantations and status on plantations, attitude of owners, whether the slaves live in the valley, on a hill, East, West, North, South, have fine hair, course hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give you an outline of action, but before that, I shall assure you that distrust is stronger than trust and envy stronger than adulation, respect or admiration. The Black slaves after receiving this indoctrination shall carry on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands. Don't forget you must pitch the old black Male vs. the young black Male, and the young black Male against the old black male. You must use the dark skin slaves vs. the light skin slaves, and the light skin slaves vs. the dark skin slaves. You must use the female vs. the male. And the male vs. the female. You must also have you white servants and overseers distrust all Blacks. It is necessary that your slaves trust and depend on us. They must love, respect and trust only us. Gentlemen, these kits are your keys to control. Use them. Have your wives and children use them, never miss an opportunity. If used intensely for one year, the slaves themselves will remain perpetually distrustful of each other. Thank you gentlemen, Let's Make a Slave
The Lynch’s Initiative “We lay down the following principles for long range comprehensive economic planning. Both horse and niggers is no good to the economy in the wild or natural state. Both must be broken and tied together for orderly production. For orderly future, special and particular attention must be paid to the female and the youngest offspring. Both must be crossbred to produce a variety and division of labor. Both must be taught to respond to a peculiar new language. Crossbreeding niggers mean taking so many drops of good white blood and putting them into as many nigger women as possible, varying the drops by the various tone that you want, and then letting them breed with each other until another cycle of color appears as you desire. ….break the female mother, she will break the offspring in its early years of development and when the offspring is old enough to work, she will deliver it up to you, for her normal female protective tendencies will have been lost in the original breaking process.. This is a perfect situation of sound sleep and economic. Before the breaking process, we had to be alertly on guard at all times. Now we can sleep soundly, for out of frozen fear his woman stands guard for us. …completely annihilate the mother tongue of both the new nigger and the new mule and institute a new language that involves the new life's work of both. You know language is a peculiar institution. It leads to the heart of a people. The more a foreigner knows about the language of another country the more he is able to move through all levels of that society. Therefore, if the foreigner is an enemy of the country, to the extent that he knows the body of the language, to that extent is the country vulnerable to attack or invasion of a foreign culture.
The word ‘Lynch” to “lynch” or Lynching, also known as Lynch law, an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging or other ways of execution – was said to have derived from Willie Lynch. His lecture had such a lasting impact in the American south and continues to evoke horror in the African minds. Between 1889 -1918m 2522 Africans were lynched in African American communities since there was no legal protection against violence European American aggression towards them.
The Lynch’s Initiative For example if you take a slave, if you teach him all about your language, he will know all your secrets, and he is then no more a slave, for you can't fool him any longer. For example, if you told a slave that he must perform in getting out "our crops" and he knows the language well, he would know that "our crops" didn't mean "our crops" and the slavery system would break down, for he would relate on the basis of what "our crops" really meant. So you have to be careful in setting up the new language for the slaves would soon be in your house, talking to you "man to man" and that is death to our economic system. In addition, the definitions of words or terms are only a minute part of the process. Values are created and transported by communication through the body of the language. A total society has many interconnected value system. All the values in the society have bridges of language to connect them for orderly working in the society. But for these language bridges, these many value systems would sharply clash and cause internal strife or civil war, the degree of the conflict being determined by the magnitude of the issues or relative opposing strength in whatever form. For example, if you put a slave in a hog pen and train him to live there and incorporate in him to value it as a way of life completely, the biggest problem you would have out of him is that he would worry you about provisions to keep the hog pen clean, or the same hog pen and make a slip and incorporate something in his language whereby he comes to value a house more than he does his hog pen, you got a problem. He will soon be in your house.
Henry Berry’s Initiative The speech of Henry Berry, (of Jefferson,) in the House of Delegates of Virginia, on the abolition of slavery during a vote to enact a bill to gradual emancipation in Virginia on January 20, 1832 Said: "Pass as severe laws as you will to keep these unfortunate creatures in ignorance. It is in vain unless you can extinguish that spark of intellect which God has given them. Sir, we have as far as possible closed every avenue by which light may enter their minds. We only have to go one step further to extinguish their capacity to see the light and our work will be completed. And they would then be reduced to the level of the beasts of the field and we should be safe. Sir, a death struggle must come between the two classes or races in which one or the other will be extinguished forever.�
Underlying Problem Caused and its Cultivated Dependency The 36th President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson, often referred to as LBJ, puts it best when describing how poor whites and poor blacks had been kept apart so that they could separately be fleeced-. ''I'll tell you what's at the bottom of it," he said. "If you can convince the lowest white man that he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll even empty his pockets for you. “The effect of colonialism on the indigenous people s of the world is still being protested today with little attention or seriousness for resolution or reparation. This is because the power of authority rests with the colonialists themselves. However, colonialism left a legacy of intractable conflicts among colonized people, leaving them in disarray, disorganized, which keeps them vulnerable to economic and social exploitation, and keeping them politically and socially underdeveloped as a society. The Willie Lynch effect has a lasting impact on African development by infecting the individual psyche with psychosocial disorder which eventually culminates in a collective neurosis for the victim as well as for the beneficiary from the initiative. The adverse effect of “white privilege” begins with its denial. The rapid development experienced by people of European heritage, both collectively and individually is undeniably due to the wealth effect from its conquest of the unassuming indigenous people of the world, and taking over their land, legacy, knowledge, spirit, and intelligence. Even worse are the audacious and carefully curated lies, and insidious methods used to antagonize peaceful and rational effort s disoriented or discouraged to maintain the false sense of superiority, which is often unnecessary in a political system where people of European descent are majority. The falsified sense of superiority is well-established often become light houses for new forces of oppressive, corruptive, racists and misguided violent terrorist that purports to serve “western civilization – is termed cultivated dependency. Cultivated dependencies are myths and tethers that are consciously designed for subconscious and automatic implementation and effect to assert the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice that plagues people marginalized worldwide. The ripple effect of cultivated dependency and the wake behind its historical legacy can be traced as root causes of many bad social conditions and unnecessary human suffering in many societies. These conditions which occur in vicious cycles are often common to all African communities wherever they may be in the world; we can find similar forms of unnecessary suffering of the people. A typical list of social conditions of the minority citizens includes unemployment, poor economy, injustice, brain drain, high dropout rate, sporadic murder and mayhem in the streets, unsafe public environment, high unemployment, high crime rate, police brutality, racism, substandard schools, dilapidated housing, inadequate healthcare, internal mistrust, social hierarchy, and political misrepresentation, psychosocial effect on shades of veneer, and pervasive sense of hopelessness. The Henry Berry’s effect is the perfect explanation for why African communities are literally in the dark about our conditions. It also explains why the overwhelming majority in the African world are unconscious. And even more, the more educated one becomes, the less possible it is to join the cause of African redemption. This has been proven time and time again that African intellectual are docile and easily tempted with carrot stick to betray the African cause, while the strong unconscious proletarian are easily swayed by glittering greed. But here is a proof that not only does light enter the mind of the Africans, the African minds reflect light and could reflect light faster if the playing chances were equal. Here is a simple proof curated from the last 5 years alone:
Debunking the Myth of Cultivated Dependency Esther Okade is a 10-year-old British-Nigerian student She recently enrolled at the Open University in the UK Already top of her class scoring 100% in a recent exam Carson Huey-You is an 11-year-old and the youngest student ever to attend Texas Christian University, to study quantum physics, is taking calculus, physics, history and religion in his first semester, the station notes. Given that he was devouring chapter books by age 2 and attending high school by age 5. Kelvin Doe, also known as DJ Focus, is a Sierra Leonean engineer. He is known for teaching himself engineering at the age of 13 and building his own radio station in Sierra Leone, where he plays music and broadcasts news under the name "DJ Focus. William Kamkwamba is a Malawian innovator, engineer and author. He built a windmill to power a few electrical appliances in his family's house in Masitala. Ufot Ekong, a Nigerian student, achieved the highest grades at Tokai University in Japan for 50 years by solving a maths puzzle in his first semester that was unsolvable 30 years ago.
Dougbeh-Chris Nyan, M.D. is medical doctor and a biomedical research scientist of Liberian origin, who invented the most affordable and fastest infectious diseases diagnostic tool.
The technology is described in scientific terms as a quantitative multiplex isothermal amplification system. This method can simultaneously detect and identify at least 7 different viral pathogens such as HIV, Hepatitis viruses, Chikungunya virus, West Nile virus as well as Ebola virus, Plasmodium (malaria), Typhoid, Tuberculosis, Influenza virus and a host of other infectious diseases.
JAMAICAN scientist Dr Henry Lowe won the race to discover a cure for cancer. He rejected over $11 billion (US$100 million) offered for his patent.
African Contribution to Advancement of Human knowledge and more‌ People of African ancestry across history and time have made great contributions to the advancements of knowledge and human development in science, robotic technology, arts, and design just as significantly as any other group. Below, in pictures are just few more example of what has made the news in the last five years only as the previous page. There would be more if the same opportunity to excel were available in the same manner to the majority of African people around the world. Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge the impact and detriments of organized resistance to African advancement, which at this point in time of our world should be understood as crime against humanity, stagnation of human advancement, and deprivation of world’s growth.
Students at Makerere University in Uganda invented a robot that can detect and disarm explosive devices. The robot is remotely controlled by a computer and can navigate a flat surface of up to a 20m radius. The development comes in the wake of continuous terrorist threats as a result of the country's contribution of forces to the African Union peace keeping mission in Somalia.
Students at Makerere University in Uganda, developed Kiira EV, a two-seater electric car, reaching a top speed of 65 kilometers per hour and nimbly making its way up a 55-degree incline. The Kiira is capable of maxing out at a speed of 150 kilometers per hour, and can run for up to 80 kilometers on a single charge. Aside from its steering wheel and other accessories, every other component was designed and constructed domestically.
African Representation among 10 of the Wealthiest Historical Figures to Ever Live 10. John Jacob Astor
Astor immigrated to America from Germany to became the first multimillionaire realtor. His adjusted net worth amounted to $121 billion in today’s dollars.
5. Osman Ali Khan,
Asaff Jah VII, ruled over a part of India known as Hyderabad, for nearly forty years from 1911 to 1948. Hyderabad became a part of India when India gained its independence His wealth came from gold and jewels. His adjusted inflation amounted to approximately $240 billion.
9. Cornelius Vanderbilt
8. Henry Ford
7. Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar ruled over Libya Commodore, was an industrialist Henry Ford, founder of the Ford for over forty years. His Motors, had an adjusted net with interest in shipping and adjusted net worth amounted railroads. All in all, Vanderbilt’s worth of $188 billion dollars to $200 billion. wealth peaked at $185 billion
6. William the Conqueror
Ruled European empire for two decades. His wealth was built from invading and conquering, weaker kingdoms. adjusted net worth of $230 billion.
4. Andrew Carnegie
3. Rothschild Family
2. John D. Rockefeller
1. Mansa Musa I
Andrew Carnegie immigrated from Scotland to America 1n 1835. Became the owner of the Carnegie Steel Plant, and one of the wealthiest men in the country. His adjusted net worth amounted to $320 billion.
The Rothschilds family came from Frankfurt, Germany; they established a banking business that quickly overtook the other banking businesses in terms of wealth. Their adjusted net worth peaked out at $350 billion.
John D. Rockefeller was the first person in America to reach a net worth of $1 billion. He gained his wealth in the oil market in the latter part of the 1800s, eventually founding his own oil company. His adjusted net worth: $400 billion.
Mansa Musa I ruled the Mali and amassed a huge fortune producing gold and salt, which eventually turned into half of the world’s total supply. His estimated adjusted net worth today would be worth over $410 billion.
Basics and Basis of Differences in the Diversity and Hierarchy of Human Identity To understand racism, we must first understand the natural foundation of hierarchy of human identities. The categories are hereby ranked as follows in the order of importance: Primary Identity: Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens is the binomial nomenclature for the human species. Homo is the human genus, which also includes Neanderthals and many other extinct species of hominid that may have altogether evolved into one specie Homo sapiens, which has become the only surviving species of the genus Homo. Hence human beings with similar features, common capabilities, common sensibilities and native to earth. Therefore, human being, Homo sapiens is primary in the hierarchy of human family which involves the consciousness of the right to existence for every natural human soul on earth, and the standard of qualification is simply life. Secondary Identity: racial identity is secondary in the hierarchy of human biological foundation. Race (die Rasse) is the biological variation of human identity based on genotypes and appearance. There are several reasons for the existing variation of human genotypes among which are climatic and other related natural conditions at a given point in time of the formative stages in human evolution. Race is therefore the physical appearance of a human being due to the fundamental variation of the genetic lineage. This involves the consciousness of sameness or similarities in physical and genetic distinctions, such as European, Mediterranean, Indian, Arab, Chinese, African, Afro-asiatic, Indio, and other collective identities of indigenous people in the world, for example, “native Americansâ€?, aborigines, etc. The main commonality here is physical appearance and the existential condition. Tertiary Identity: ethnicity is tertiary identification in the hierarchy of human biological foundation based on the phenotype. Ethnicity involves having common societal consciousness, and is based on acquirable elements such as cultural traits, language, dialects, customs, traditions, and cuisines within a defined geographic area -- such as tribe, region, or in some cases, nation. This involves the consciousness of sameness or similarities in human experience and reflective spirit and vigor observable in such natural habitat such as the within the Chinese race alone there are about 55 ethnicities among which are Mongol, Han, Zhuang, Hui. Chosen, Tibetan, Kazakh, Donziang, Uzbeks, and so on; within Europe, there are about 87 distinct peoples of Europe, of which 33 form the majority population in at least one sovereign state, while the remaining 54 constitute ethnic minorities.; among the major ethnic groups are Slavic, Latin, Germanic, Aryan, Celtic, Brythonic, Goidelic, Greek, Italic, Turkic, Ugric, Finnish, Basque, Semitic, Hebrew, English, Cornish, Manx, French, and so on; the Indians have more than a thousand ethnic groups, among them are the Dravidian, Bengali, Guajarati, Punjabi, Rajasthanis, Nepali and so on; the indigenous people of the Americas, otherwise known as the native Americans that spans the entire north and south American continent had several thousand ethnic groups,among which are the Eskimo, Metis, Aleuts, Inuit, or Yupik, Mayan, Navaho, Quechua, Aymara, GuaranĂ, Marshallese, Samoan, Tahitian, Kumeyaay, Cocopa, Pascua Yaqui and Apache and so on; the African people have several thousand of ethnic groups among them are the Somali, Oromo, Luba, Berber, Luo, Shona, Ndebele, Mande, Fula, Hausa, Ashanti, Igbo, Amhara, Maghrebi, Yoruba, Zulu, Nubian, Tutsi, Hutu, Kikuyu, Calabari, Kamba, Massai, Afrikaan, and so on. The Tertiary level of human identity is based on culture and spirituality.
Statutory forms and Hierarchy of Human Identity The previous slide provides a good insight into what race is as well as its rank within the hierarchy of human biological identity. These three listed categories are the only natural form of human identity. Other method of human identity are artificial construct. The issue of nationality is a recent phenomenon that emerged from the western idea of the new world order. The whole concept is based on the need to manage the resources of the land by a form of government which will facilitate and regulate trades in an orderly secured and suitable fashion. Citizenship and citizenry as guide for National identity became the official political ideology acceptable for representation, though it is an artificial construct of a new society, made up of various ethnic and racial groups geography or events have made neighbors; or share common history of human struggle or common economic partners over time. The main commonality in national identity is based on political and social conditioning and collective behaviors and action. It is important to say that nationality is important but it is not dependent on race. Other granular form of identifications in ranked Statutory order are as follows: National Identity (passport), State identity ( State ID cards), Professional Identity (corporate ID), School ID( Student ID), Merits ID (Degrees, licenses, certificates), Community, Clan, Private access, Family, Personal ID or birth certificates. These are all systemic form of identification because they are backed by statutory authority of the government as part of the new world order. By understanding the natural hierarchy of human identification system, we are able to determine to understand the concept of identity. The African identity too becomes less ambiguous. Ethiopia, the only un-colonized country in Africa and one of the oldest countries and civilization in the world, derives its name from the Greek word Ethiop. Ethiop means burnt faces. Africa may have derived from the Greek word, Aphrike which means without cold and without wars, or as Odwirafo Kwesi Ra Nehem Ptah Akhan impressively demonstrated that the origin of the term 'Africa derived linguistically and cosmologically from Kemet 'Afuraka/Afuraitkait' - the original male and female aspects of the name which coincidentally happen to mean the same thing. Hence falling within the realm of binominal nomenclature system, which is a well-established logical naming system. Nevertheless, I personally would have no objection with warm and peaceful any day as an identity upon which the origin of the name Africa was founded. It is however important to say that the Identity of oneself by oneself for the sake of oneself is true freedom. Otherwise, others will define our identity. Nevertheless, In 2005, the Africa Union (AU) defined the African Diaspora as “... peoples of African descent and heritage living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship, and who remain committed to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union.� In 2012 The AU expanded its membership to those who do not live in its established 5 regions to a 6th region. on July 16th 2012 the African union Extended membership to all Africans not living in "Africa" - 300M people worldwide. 55 Million in USA. This announcement would be meaningful if it comes with the necessary perks such as statutory form of identification that grants African in Diaspora citizenship on a continental basis or any country of their choosing. But it is otherwise meaningless to make such unnecessary statement because human right is inalienable - such as life, race, and spirit. No one needs permission granted to be a human being, and certainly no statutory form of organization can determine or bestow racial identity to another. What Africans in Diaspora have lost due to no fault of theirs is ethnicity, not race, or humanity or nationality, especially not the ability to reason or think. This is something that the Africa Union can understand and acknowledge with effort to explore initiatives for restitutions.
The African Identity
“All people of African descent, whether they live in North or South America, the Caribbean, or in any part of the world are Africans and belong to the African nation. "We shall measure our progress by the improvement in the health of our people; by the number of children in school, and by the quality of their education; by the availability of water and electricity in our towns and villages, and by the happiness which our people take in being able to manage their own affairs. The welfare of our people is our chief pride, and it is by this that my Government will ask to be judged. " - Kwame Nkrumah -Broadcast to the Nation. 24 December 1957“
The Dynamic Nature of Ignorance, Trepidation, and Hypocrisy of Racism The notion of race does not have to be problematic from a scientific or from a social point of view. The concept of race can also be viewed as a common attempt to understand the diversity of human biological foundations. However, many attempts have been made to manipulate and exploit the process of the findings as well the results by so many institutions whose interest is to preserve and promote racist agenda. No one could tell exactly the cause of racism, whether it was narcissism, nordicism, vÜlkism, eugenicist and Social Darwinist ideas, cognitive dissonance, anxiety of racial survival -- or if in fact racism was the cause of slavery or colonization, but it is certain that racism became the evil legacy of colonialism and slavery. It is difficult for people who are not familiar with the history of racism or people who are not feeling the chokehold of racism in their lives to understand racism. Racism is a belief system that a particular race is superior to others and that another particular race is inferior to others, and that to ensure survival of the fittest, the superior race must become and remain dominant by any means necessary. Racism has to be systemic on a large scale and institutionalized for it to exist within a society as a cultural norm. This means that racism is powerful and deeply embedded in the institutions of American life. The only way racism is able to persist and subsist so far in human civilization is because of its insidiousness in our sociocultural and political economic paradigm. To put things in properly in perspective, I generally avoid using colors such as black or white to describe peoples, because I know that color coding distorts the true understanding of the matter and has been one of the root causes of racial problems today. 'Black' and 'White' as we have it up till now is an interpretation of the reflection of oneself in others. Many people, including notable scholars will argue the preference of 'Black' and 'White' as proper term of reference or valid existence of racial modality. These nomenclatures are easy to learn and perpetuate, but the wake of horror they leave behind is eternal. Many Africans have become complacent and assumed the belief of being black and many Europeans have equally assumed to be white. These beliefs are false. We have simply learned to identify ourselves based on our differences, not on who we actually are. And what about the product of the two disparities, such as mixture of both? Principle of Difference or Disagreement or of Discrepancy says two things, one of which disagrees with a third thing, and the other of which disagrees with the same third thing disagrees with each other. This may be why we are still divided. By using proper terms we can begin to humanize ourselves again. Whte and black relationship reiterates the master slave relationship implicitly whether not the one is aware. While nationality matters significantly, the issue of racism has to be addressed at the secondary level of human identity, after all it is all about empathy and the inclusion in all the benefits that is available to all human beings in their various culturally diverse states at the primary level of the biological foundation of human identity. The only one true narrative of identity for the People of African Descent Worldwide� is African, not black; and that of European descent is European, not white. The identity of race is constant as truth itself, which does not change. People of mixed heritages are either biracial or multiracial, not mulato (which is a derogative word for cross bred between a horse and a mule). We must first remove the ignorance, fear, and hypocrisy that holds the edifice of racism in place. In order to embark upon rapprochement and ultimately cultural harmony and political congruence. Even if we have ideological differences, as long as our differences are not based on trivial or obtuse principle serving as excuse to bully or jeopardize human dignity. We should be safe.
Racism Professor James M. Jones postulates three major types of racism: (i) Personally mediated, (ii) internalized, and (iii) institutionalized. Personally mediated racism includes the specific social attitudes inherent to racially prejudiced action (bigoted differential assumptions about abilities, motives, and the intentions of others according to), discrimination (the differential actions and behaviors towards others according to their race), stereotyping, commission, and omission (disrespect, suspicion, devaluation, and dehumanization). Internalized racism is the acceptance, by members of the racially stigmatized people, of negative perceptions about their own abilities and intrinsic worth, characterized by low self-esteem, and low esteem of others like them. This racism can be manifested through embracing “whiteness” (e.g. stratification by skin colour in non-white communities), self-devaluation (e.g. racial slurs, nicknames, rejection of ancestral culture), and resignation, helplessness, and hopelessness (e.g. dropping out of school, failing to vote, engaging in health-risk practices, etc.). Institutional racism is the existence of institutional systemic policies, practices and economic and political structures which place minority racial and ethnic groups at a disadvantage in relation to an institution’s racial or ethnic majority. Access denial to quality education, employment, high valued property neighborhoods, restrictive housing contracts, and stricter bank lending policies, racial profiling by security guards and police, use of stereotyped racial caricatures, the under- and mis-representation of certain racial groups in the mass media, and race-based barriers to gainful employment and professional advancement. The term was introduced by Black Power activists Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton in the late 1960s. Some pundits have managed to distinguish between institutional racism and "structural racism" (sometimes called structured racialization). The former focuses upon the norms and practices within an institution, the latter upon the interactions among institutions, interactions that produce radicalized outcomes against “non-white people”. An important feature of structural racism is that it cannot be reduced to individual prejudice or to the single function of an institution.
Racism @Work
Edifice
Ideology
Analysis
Suggestive resolution
Media Misrepresentation
Tabloids| Sport| New| Entertainment| Portrays| Advertisement| Games| Journals| Novels| TV| Radio| Social Media
Most Media t institutions are complicit by serving as the essential tool to reinforce superiority and inferiority between the races in the society.
Mediated racism functions in several ways, either by over representing or underrepresenting the focal issues. The media in the form of print, TV, Radio, Advertisement and Social media often uses its powers to permeates the values, beliefs, norms, attitudes, and behaviors of the dominant group in the society. At the same time, engages in preponderance of representations of victimized groups with negative images, unable to speak on their own behalf, passive, unknowledgeable and ignorant; and often turn to particular individuals within the communities, and position them as spokespeople. This indicates that the community itself is monolithic and that one person, chosen by the media, is seen to represent a community's opinions. Often times a program of benefit to the victimized group are infiltrated with antagonistic ad messages and threatening codes. (Pay attention, next time you watch a movie on tv with ads).
Media organizations are one of the most difficult institutions to challenge. For one thing, many hide behind the camouflage of 'balance or freedom of expression. African Institution must develop vigilante groups who are focused and capable of recognizing the damaging impact of media misrepresentation and filing reports with the appropriate authority, accordingly. Better representation and encouragement of African media.
Access Denial
Occur in institutions such as public government bodies, private business corporations, Loan, Colleges and universities (public and private), Immigration, Leadership
Access is a broader term used to qualify Institutional racism, and influence I interpersonal racial redlining and segregation and growth stifling the various level of denial to goods, services, earned merits and relative opportunities and advancement
Restrictive housing contracts and bank lending policies have also been listed as forms of institutional racism. Other examples sometimes described as institutional racism are racial profiling by security guards and police, use of stereotyped racial caricatures, the under- and mis-representation of certain racial groups in the mass media, and racebased barriers to gainful employment and professional advancement and government contract Most of the access denial structures are based on a belief that victimized group does not deserve the benefit. Institutional racism affects access to health and health care in non-white minority communities, resulting in racial disparities in health status
Active pursuit of political representation with a strong back up of focused group and mediation centers. In every community to work incessantly on exposing and reporting violations through various media to respective authority. Africans to must apply themselves to be more inclusive.
Mis-Education
Pedagogue, Curriculum, faculty, books, schools, School loans and cost of education| Libraries | Museums|
Current education system generally reinforces European cultural supremacy between the races, and perpetually train Africans for the service sector even when most have MBAs
It takes courage and spirit for African children to remain interested in education from childhood through adolescence. Challenges include lack of diversity from kindergarten, insensitive literature and irrelevant curriculum, copulated with unqualified teachers, less university and college choices, inadequate funding, high loan rates, lack of provision for special needs, discouraging media and environment and lack of opportunities after graduation are just a few of the choices of topics. Many historical African Universities are going out of business due to lack of funding.
Attention should be given to childhood development and learning disabilities should be remedied. Curriculum must include studies of African principles of the struggle to emancipation and civil rights. Affirmative action reform and HBCU must compete for standard inclusion.
Economic Weakness
Trade Corporation, Small Business Bureau, Financial Market, Money market, Market Access, patents
Economic principles are the most effective means of asserting supremacy over other races. Africans suffer wage inequality, and unequal, value propositions unequal cost of living, exploitative pricing, and market access. The effectiveness of Willie’s crop principles.
Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma, (aka "Black Wall Street"), was a promising base to development of African economy until it was destroyed in 1921 Race Riot one of the most devastating massacres in the history of US racist experience. Today, the overwhelming majority of Africans toil the hardest and earn the lowest-paying positions in America. Many pundits argue that this phenomenon is a new form of slavery, except that the worker no longer lives on the plantation but is paid just enough to live to work. Many Africans live from one paycheck to the other, and the threat of layoff could not only be detrimental to the livelihood but to life itself. The low paying jobs have very little correlation with intelligence, experience or academic achievement. Many Africans with PhDs are unemployed or are college professors with adjunct status. Many African businesses have to compete with high credit risk, high bank loan, against wellestablished corporations and well-funded small business franchises which often exploit them with substandard, unhealthy, expired, and overpriced merchandize., or so fairly underpriced to them out.
Civil Rights Act of 1964 criminalizes employers who discriminate based on race., but employers find new ways to hire anyone else but Africans. And would even outsource, this type of activity are criminal in nature and must be reported to the authority with proper evidence. More importantly Africans must invest in their community and their future in order to survive.
Racism @Work
Edifice
Ideology
Analysis
Suggestive resolution
Health
Hospital| Health research institutes | Counseling
The habit of using other races for research studies to the benefit of new drug development that can only be afforded to the rich
while the Tuskegee Syphilis Study is still a good reminder, the recent Ebola vaccine development stories has been shocking. The quality and quantity of hospitals and the doctors as well as health care per capita is also disproportionally distributed in favor of the most privileged group’s communities. Pick any infectious disease and you’ll see that by race, blacks/Africans in America face the most severe burden. i.e. HIV.. Even the number of fatality from diseases such as Breast cancer, mental illness, STDs, drug abuses, Africans carry the burden.
Efforts to address disparities will require nurses, physicians and other health care providers to develop new approaches, in consultation with experts in African communities, to ensure that research, treatment, and education are available and adequate.
Incarceration
Courts| Police| Prisons| Legal systems
The business of punishment has become very lucrative, essentially because of its economic incentives. Africans are easy targets based on the racists argument as slavery days. They deserve it!
"For private business," write Eve Goldberg and Linda Evans (a political prisoner inside the Federal Correctional Institution at Dublin, California) "prison labor is like a pot of gold. No strikes. No union organizing. No health benefits, unemployment insurance, or workers' compensation to pay. No language barriers, as in foreign countries. Prisoners do data entry for Chevron, make telephone reservations for TWA, raise hogs, shovel manure, make circuit boards, limousines, waterbeds, and lingerie for Victoria's Secret -all at a fraction of the cost of `free labor.'" In addition to that, police brutality resulting in fatality and unjust court rulings against people of African descent compounds the pain of racism on the human psyche.
Racism has undermined our ability to create a popular critical discourse to contest the ideological trickery that posits imprisonment as key to public safety. Prison should not be in private hands, just as minting money should not be in private hands. America. To safeguard a democratic future the purpose of prison should be debated.
Housing
Ghettos | Mayhem in the Neighborhood| Gangs| Dilapidated housing| Homelessness| Home loans
In addition to the empty promises of 40 acres and a mule, the United States Commission on Civil Rights concluded in 1959, that only 2 percent of all FHA-backed loans had gone to blacks. "Most of this housing," concluded the report, "has been in all-Negro developments in the South.“ Whereas 80% of the private homes built in that era was financed by FHA.. This was intended.
It was Madison Grant who recommended segregating "unfavorable" races in ghettos by installing civil organizations through the public health system to establish quasidictatorships in their particular fields. The Nazi state used such ideas about the differences between European races as part of their various discriminatory and coercive policies which culminated in the Holocaust. Today, with population explosion in urban areas, prices are skyrocketing and new phenomenon has emerged, it is called gentrification. Gentrification is the colonization of a community. The invasion is gradual and systemic. Determined and unscrupulous developers succeeded in getting the city government and banks to assist in their purchases, promising community projects, like homeless shelters and hospitals, that they rarely delivered before they flipped the property to the highest bidder. Coincidentally, most buyers are Euro and most of the displaced are Africans, who have been systematically coerced to sell or foreclosed, or rent hiked Homelessness too is primarily a poverty issue. In 2010, nearly one-quarter (23.3 percent) of African families lived in poverty, three times the rate of Euro American families (7.1 percent). That number for African Americans grew since.
National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and Los Angeles Community Action Network presented a report on Racial Discrimination in Housing and Homelessness in the United States to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination CERD in 2014. The Committee recommends that the State Party take immediate steps to making permanent the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act and creating adequate implementation policies, expanding HUD’s definition of homelessness.
Immigration
US Government| Political groups | American people
Immigration policy has historically always been determined by racial preferences.
It is my fundamental belief that human beings everywhere at any point in time will gravitate towards the oasis if they feel they are in a desert. The same drive that the Europeans had is the same spark that the indigenous people of the world are experiencing now causing them to look for a better life beyond the horizon with such desperation. Be it the borders of Texas, Arizona or New Mexico, or the Southern coast of Italy. Immigration conjures up images of restriction, repression, discrimination, bureaucratic bungling and the exploitation of our instincts.
I wish I understood what immigration reform is. What I do know is that African government could negotiate better for free mobility of their subjects, and do well for them that emigration is not a question. Because time has changed.
The American Paradox
Historical Effort to address the Legacy Of The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade by the US Government When asked who is wiser, the ancient pundits of old, the contemporary, or the future generation? The Elders answered, well, the ancestors are dead and we know what they know. The future is not yet born so we cannot know what it holds, but the contemporary is real and since the dead are no more, and the future is a secret, the contemporary is the only wise. Not wiser, but it is all that matters. This is why the bell tolls for no one else but us, and we must by making the effort to hear each other out without malice, allowing the emotion s to flow and address it intelligently with empathy, remorse and substantive resolution. June 18, 2009, after President Barack Obama took office, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution apologizing for slavery. The United States Senate acknowledged “the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery” and apologized “to African Americans, on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery. ”The resolution was introduced by Senator Tom Harkin, D. Iowa, and Senator Sam Brownback. R. Kan. In the resolution, the Senate "expresses its recommitment to the principle that all people are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and calls on all people of the United States to work toward eliminating racial prejudices, injustices and discrimination from our society.“ Wade Henderson, president and CEO of LCCR, said: "Slavery and the western slave trade are crimes against humanity and will forever be known as our republic's original sin.” Prior to that, on December 18, 2007, the Subcommittee on the constitution, civil rights, and civil liberties of the Committee on the United States Judiciary House of Representatives of the 11oth U.S. Congress’ held a session with the specific purpose to create a commission to examine the institution of slavery, its lingering effects, and to make a series of recommendations to the Congress. The committee was presided over by Honorable John Conyers, Jr. (Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary); in attendance were, Committee On the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, Representatives in Congress, witnessed by Representatives from various institutional department such as Institute for Race and Justice, Harvard Law School, National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA), Center for Equal Opportunity, Diocese of Massachusetts, American Bar Association, and others. This particular hearing was uniquely designed to facilitate field hearings where Americans across the country would be able to give their impressions and their views and opinions. On July 29, 2008, Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee, drafted the resolution that led to formal apology by the US Congress for the dehumanization and racism wrought by both the enslavement of African Americans and for Jim Crow segregation will admittedly never right such a grave wrong, but it is an important first step in acknowledging its tortured legacy.
While this is encouraging development, the United States Congress which is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of the two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives -- could not resolve the two apologies because of differing views on how the resolution would be used in any discussion of reparations. The Senate version was insistent that an apology would not endorse any future claims. The House could not agree. Significantly, the office of the president of the United States has never issued an apology. Though former president Bill Clinton expressed regret for the practice during a March 1998 trip to Africa, and his successor, George W. Bush, called slavery "one of the greatest crimes of history" during a July 2003 visit to Goree Island, Senegal, a former slave-trade port. The question should not be if there should be a reparation to slavery and restitution for colonialism and racism against African people, rather it should be about in what form it should be paid. This dilemma, has inspired a series of legal cases on the wake of the debate. J.P. Morgan, a couple years back, established a $5 million scholarship funded for Louisiana's African students. The year after, a Federal appeals court ruled that U.S. corporations can be found guilty of consumer fraud for failing to disclose their roles in slavery, which is being inquired into quite regularly. Since then, Six States have issued formal apologies for slavery so far: Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey Virginia and Florida.
The Dred Scott Decision An example of one of the most important reasons for an apology are the irreparable pains caused by the Supreme Court's decision on the Dred Scott’s case which declares Africans in America, free or slave, have no citizenship rights in 1857. This decision aroused public outrage, deepened sectional tensions between the northern and southern U.S. states. The Republican Party was created by abolitionist Northerners and Free Soilers as a maneuver to counter slave-owning South expansionist aggression and hastened the eventual impasse between North and South over the issue of slaves and threat to secede by the South would bring the country to a civil war in 1860. explosion of the their differences into the American Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and the post-Civil War Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments nullified the Court’s decision on the Dred Scot t’s case, and marked the beginning of the end of slavery in the United States of America. By 1865, the South had lost and the all Slaves were freed.
The Attraction and Impetus for Holding on to Slavery
The main reason for holding on to slavery and colonialism was that of economic gain and prestige. The greatest source of wealth in the Atlantic World, the emerging economy, is an economy based on African slavery and the slave trade. Slavery and colonialism were key drivers of the formation of Western wealth. As a whole In America, slavery didn't just enrich the South, but also drove the industrial boom in the North, companies such as JP Morgan, Bank of America, Lehman, Aetna, Wachovia, Norfolk Southern, USA Today, Fleet Boston, CSX, Brown Brothers Harriman, Canadian National Railway Company, Brooks Brothers, Barclays, and several others. Slave trade was structured across various industries and laid foundation for several business sectors and companies that spanned across various sectors including sawmills, cotton gins and mills, fishing, steamboats, cargo, and shipping, human trafficking, sugar refineries, coal and gold mining, railroads, cattle rearing, agriculture, printing, art and entertainment, welding, and other related services. These were the most lucrative industries at that time. As for prestige, Eight American presidents, beginning with George Washington, owned slaves during their tenure in the nation's highest office. In addition to that, the slave trade industry also included slavery equipment such as slave Mask, manacle, bridle, or brank, anchor ring, chains, capture scent hand cuffs, and Slave tortures implements and overseer. Then, there is also the actual trading, derivatives, and auctioning of slaves and slaves stocks. It has also become public knowledge that Many of America's elite colleges, both in the North and the South, were founded by slaveholders. Ivy league universities such as Columbia (then King's College),William and Mary, Yale, Brown, Princeton (then the college of New Jersey), Harvard, Rutgers and many other institutions owned slaves used for work, trade and sale. Historian Craig Steven Wilder has written a book exploring the history of slavery, race and the higher education in America. His book is titled, "Ebony and Ivy." Slave patrols and Night Watches, which later became modern police departments, were originally founded to protect properties, to maintain the economic order and to assist the wealthy landowners in recovering and punishing slaves who essentially were considered property. Slave tax and other slave related laws provided by the government, served as incentives and impetus for holding on to slavery for generations.
The Inevitable Compromise behind Emancipation Meanwhile, Haiti had already liberated itself from the shackles of Slavery in 1804. The wars of national liberation in Spanish America had already Spanish role in slavery between 1809-1825. Britain emancipated 780,000 slaves, and paid 20 million pounds sterling compensation to slave owners in 1833. Denmark and France had freed slaves in their colonial empires in 1848, but slavery survived in Surinam and other Dutch New World colonies until 1863 and in the United States in 1865. The last New World slaves were emancipated in Cuba in 1886 and in Brazil in 1888. Of cause illegal slave trade continued and so did slavery after it was official banned. Illegal Slave trade reduced the prices of captives at the point of purchase on the African coast and inflated the prices in the new world as well as shifted the its destination from West to the East.. Dr. John Alembellah Azumah in his 2001 book, The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa estimates that over 80 million African people died en route. African Slave trade continued in the Arab world till the 1980s, and traces of slavery are still present in many affluent Arab countries today, i.e. Qatar. It was not until 1962, that Saudi Arabia and Yemen abolished slavery; The United Arab Emirates abolishes slavery followed suit in 1964, Oman in 1970 and Mauritania abolishes slavery in 1981. While slavery was officially abolished, the main seed of slavery, racism, is still alive in all parts of the world. Nonetheless, the main impetus behind abolition came from social activists who find slavery repugnant, unethical, and backwards. Northerners needed a solution to the slavery but their options were limited in America. On one hand, they do not like slavery and on the other hand they do not believe that they can coexist in peace with freed African slaves. Thus, many opponents of slavery supported "colonization" -- the voluntary deportation scheme arranged by American Colonization Society repatriate freed slaves to Liberia, until William Lloyd Garrison denounced colonization in his publication, the Liberator as a cruel hoax designed to promote the racial purity of the North while doing nothing to end slavery in the South. Within a short period, hundreds of antislavery societies had sprouted up in the North, and had mounted a massive propaganda campaign against slavery in the south. Ending Slavery caused more human deaths as than African lives saved from the traffic, but this inevitable compromise had to be made to save the world from descending into a bottomless hell, for if the South had been successful in its attempt to secede, chances are, Slavery would be still be a norm and prevalent in many parts of the world today, everywhere. I would also dare to argue that if the Allies had lost the World War II, we would have slavery or worse in the world today. The institution of slavery, while it brought economic gain, emerged as symptom rather than a cause in itself. The cause of human disparity is racism. Therefore emancipation is only a step forward in human evolution and rapprochement of cultural endearment. If we address slavery without the motives behind it, from its roots, we would continue to fail.
The Role of Africa in the Slave Trade It is very important to observe and factor the role that Africans played in the Slave Trade. Traditionally, African indentured servitude persisted in small scale operations within same culture. Africans, though would fight for territories, for hunting or farming range expansion or perhaps for kingdom royalty replacement, but never to take mass slave for trades until the Arabs encounter. Some historians estimate that between A.D. 650 and 1900, 10 to 20 million people were enslaved by Arab slave traders. Others believe over 20 million enslaved Africans alone had been delivered through the trans-Sahara route alone to the Islamic world. Islamic Jihad was the impetus. The need to spread Islam by the Arabs warranted slavery and they devised every method of racism and superiority to accomplish this goal. The ultimate reason for any religious expansion is economic and Socio-political dominance. Arab jihadist warriors would conquer the closest nexus tribe who is familiar with the next and use that advantage against the other tribe and gained advances to reach most part of Sub-Saharan Africa. The concept was based on selling the idea that Arabic language is the language of God,(thus Muslims all over the world still communicate with Allah in Arabic), and none believers who rejected that religious ideology were captured, forbidden from fortune or livelihood, and e subjected to a life the servitude for the believers Therefore, most Africans who may have participated in slave trade primarily, would have had some Islamic influence and Arabic backing. The north and south divide came from this premise, since the waves of Arab invasion came from the north until the Europeans arrived from the south. The European arrival changed the tide of the Slave Trade and Slavery and the competition was based on Christianity against Islam with African Slavery as the score. Some tribes were eager to become allies to the Europeans to revenge, avenge, or settle old score against enemies. This situation was properly exploited between African ethnic groups, the largest affected groups are Mende, but Koronko, Mandingo, Susu, Temne, and Fula from the Upper Guinnea area, Galinhas (GuineaBissau) and Rio Pongo (Guinea), the Sene people, the Igbo peoples of the Bight of Biafra, the various tribes along the bight of Benin, the Yoruba peoples, Hausa, Luanda, and Nupe. A preliminary analysis of a large database of Africans (including their names) who were taken off slave ships by British naval cruisers between 1821 and 1841 and liberated in Sierra Leone and Havana suggests that one-fifth of those leaving the Bight of Benin were Muslims, many of them women. In the African context, strategies of slave traders were used to compete against each-others from three main dimensions: Competitive Religious dimension, Competitive economic dimension, and the Competitive African Resistance Dimension (this will be fully explained in another lecture). Therefore slave trade did not evolved in all areas of Africa at the same time, neither, indeed, did it decline uniformly in response, nor the attempts to suppress it. The sheer human and environmental diversity of sub-Saharan African societies made such an outcome unlikely. Mosquitoes, which became an African problem due to foreign intervention, could in fact be credited for slowing down the deeper aggression into in lands. While the mosquito effects could account for slowing down the Arab inland aggressions, in spite of known fatalities, it did not completely dissuade the European penetration. I hope with this, we can rest the myth, that it was Africans alone who went inland to capture slaves. This undermines European spirit, which knows no boundary especially when there is a worthy prize as incentive of a quest. Neither the Arabs, nor the African resistance were a match for the European strategy which was simply, unity in the face of alien challenges and competition amongst each other.
Slavery: Arab Slave Raid (Illustration by Granger)
The Role of Africa in the Slave Trade Although the Tran-Saharan slave trade was worse than the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade, it doesn’t get as much attention. This may be because the Trans-Atlantic slave traders established trading posts along the coasts and recruited locals who could help control the trade at source. Such was the story of a Returnee by the name of Williams Seriki Abas. His birth name was Faremilekun and his father’s name was Fagbemi. He was abducted by the Dahomeans and became a slave at the age of six years old.
His first owner in Dahomey was an Islamic scholar and a slave trader named Abass later sold him to a European slave trader named Williams. Faremilekun, the son of Fagbemi became known as William Abass because slaves bear their owners name. He was taken to Brazil, where he grew up as a house slave. His owner offered him freedom on the condition that he would act as Middlemen and Facilitators of the European slave trades. Abass Seriki Williams became a prominent enviable figure with lots of power within people, and was given the position of a paramount Chief of Badagry District in 1913 Under the British Colonial Policy of Indirect Rule, by Lord Lugard, for his active role as a slave merchant. He was given the title of Seriki (Head) by the Muslim organization of Yoruba land. This was the pattern of a handful of Africans who were employed by European as facilitators. Some chiefs and kings played parts, often times finding themselves on the opposite sides, mostly against slavery; such as the case of King Kosoko (for slavery) aided by the Portuguese and King Akintoye (against slavery) aided by the British 1850s in Lagos. It is also noteworthy to mention that many Africans managed to return and settled back in Africa. Most who did made good fortune for themselves, because of language, experience and other learned skill they were able to apply. Most Africans with European last names, whatever country they may come from, are very likely to have descended from Returnees. Fela Anikulapo Kuti had changed his name from Fela Ransome Kuti, because both are parents are direct descendants of Returnees. Both Sierra Leone and Liberia were founded by Returnees. This is just another proof that What unites the Africans as a is far greater than what could divide them.
Relationship Between Returnees from North America and the West Indies and Indigenous Local Africans Many free Africans in the Americas and Europe managed to return to live in Africa in significant numbers. As you can imagine, relationships between the Returnees from North America and the West Indies and the local peoples, were not always good. They were educated and Christians and felt that they had an obligation to covert and "civilize" the indigenous peoples. For example, there were a number of African missionaries who moved to Africa. One of the remarkable stories is that of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Crowther was a Returnee trained linguist and the first African Anglican bishop in Nigeria and grew up in Sierra Leone's ascendant Creole ethnic group. At the age of 13, he was taken as a slave by Fulani Muslim raiders and sold several times before being purchased by Portuguese traders for the transatlantic market. Intercepted by the British navy’s anti-slave trade patrol, the people were liberated in Sierra Leone. He one of the first students of the Fourah Bay Institution, founded by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1827 to train Sierra Leoneans for Christian service. He became a minister ordained by the bishop of London, and returned to Africa in 1843 to open a mission; where he translated the English Bible into Yoruba language and compiled a Yoruba dictionary, including a primer in Igbo language as well grammar and vocabulary of Nupe. In the upper and middle Niger territories, Crowther pioneered an early form of Christian-Muslim dialogue for Africa. He oversaw a fellow returnee J.C. Taylor’s ground-breaking work in Igboland and directed the evangelization of the Niger Delta, with notable results in proselytizing."Ebi di ri ebima," meaning "Good white man's book is the best," and "Ebi, Ebim, Ebima! Aa, beke diri ebima!," meaning "Good! Better! Best! Yes, Englishman's book is the best." In 1864, Crowther was ordained as the first African bishop of the Anglican Church; he was also given a Doctorate of Divinity by the University of Oxford. Two main reasons explain why Europeans organized and financed the resettlement of Returnees in Africa. First, the former slaves lived in poverty and were considered a social problem for the government. Second, a group of men who believed that slavery was wrong wanted to help create a free African community in Africa. Britain was convinced to form a colony in the land of the Mende and the Temne people, Sierra Leone, which capital is Freetown, to become home for freed slaves from North America just after the thirteen American colonies gained their independence from Britain. The first freed slaves returned to Africa from Canada in 1787. It was not too surprising that America purchased its own land next to Sierra Leone, and called it Liberia (derived from liberty). Mende and the Temne people are the main indigenous ethnic groups spreading across the boundaries of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. African migration continues today whereby indigenous Africans would travel in droves to the western world for better education and livelihood, while Africans in Diaspora continue to return due to racism. Notable prominent Returnees include Professor W.E.B. Du Bois, Jackie Robinson, Rita Marley and others. Noteworthy is Emperor Haile Selassie’s land grant to members of the Rastafari movement, Ethiopian World Federation (EWF) and other settlers from Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean to come to Africa.
Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther D.D. (c. 1809 – 12/31/1891). In the 1880s clouds gathered over the Niger Mission. Crowther was old, Venn dead. The morality or efficiency of members of Crowther’s staff was increasingly questioned by British missionaries. Mission policy, racial attitudes, and evangelical spirituality had taken new directions, and new sources of European missionaries were now available. By degrees, Crowther’s mission was dismantled: by financial controls, by young Europeans taking over, by dismissing, suspending, or transferring the African staff. Crowther, desolated, died of a stroke. A European bishop succeeded him.
African Resistance, Rebellion, Abolition Effort in the Slave Trade Although a handful Africans worked as employees or facilitators for Slave traders, there is no notable wealth effect on Africans who participated due to slave trade in Africa. It is important to mention that Returnees (returning feed slaves) quickly became wealthy and prosperous in Africa at the time. It is also worthy to mention that many Africans who took part in the Abolition Struggles and Opposition Movements includes kings, chiefs, and ordinary individuals who, were acting either alone or as members of groups, publicly expressed their opposition to the Transatlantic Slave Trade. And fourth fiercely to end it. Those who resisted were often colonial authority were deposed, exiled or killed.\ There were Six main categories of African resistance to slavery: • Resistance at the point of capture and departure: examples are resistance by King Ansah of Ghana 1470-1486), King Nzenga Maremba, Queen Nzingha, King of Almammy, King Akintoye, The Mossi Kingdom, The Ndebele Kings, Jaja of Opobo, Shaka Zulu, Ndansi Kumalo, Samori Toure, Yaa Asantewaa, Ovoranmwe and others. • Resistance on the way to the coast and in the barracoons: notable examples are efforts of King Maremba, King Agadja, and others. • Resistance on board the ships during the Middle Passage: notable example is the famous anti-slavery legal case of the Americas began. In 1839, 49 African captives who were on board the slave vessel Amistad (meaning ‘friendship’) to Cuba, freed themselves and launched a successful revolt. The Africans on board tried to force two Cuban sailors to return the ship to Africa. Instead the ship sailed to the United States, where the Africans were taken into custody at Long Island. The Spanish government demanded that the Africans were returned to Cuba to stand trial for piracy and murder. However, abolitionists in the USA made the case public, and got together a high-profile defense team that included John Quincy Adams, former President of the USA. In March 1841, the case found its way to the US Supreme Court, where the Court ruled that the Africans had been illegally enslaved and that it was their natural right to fight for freedom. Ten months later, 35 of the original 49 Africans who had survived the ordeal, were returned to their homelands.
• Rebellion on arrival in the Americas or Caribbean: Many slaves ran away from the plantations with the intention of permanently gaining their freedom. They did this either individually or in groups such were the so called Maroons who escaped from slavery and established their own free settlements in the British colonies of Jamaica and Dominica and what were then the Dutch colonies of Suriname and Berbice northern South America.. The word maroon comes from the Spanish word ‘cimarrón’, meaning wild or untamed. • Rebellion while being held in slavery: Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad operation to free slaves is one of the most notable of this rebellion, and the Haitian Revolution marks the most successful attempts resulting in independence of Haiti. Other efforts include the 1816 Bussa rebellion on Barbados and the 1831 Christmas rebellion in Jamaica led by Sam Sharpe. Significant and noteworthy are the events of Nat Turner and John Brown (European American) in the US. • The Abolition effort:: the abolition effort is spans across time including both intellectual efforts by great African writers such as Marrant, Equiano, Walker, and Clarkson. However, the single most important effort to ending slavery in the world was the American Civil war where All African regiments became known as the Buffalo soldiers because of their courage and valor. Approximately 625,000 men died in the Civil War, more Americans than in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War combined. 10% of that total were Africans.
Effect of Foreign interest in Africa European slave traders named African countries after their interest, except hose countries which are courageous enough to change their names after independence, such as Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia…. After the river route across West Africa was discovered, European formed companies sponsored or underwritten by their governments to “trade” pursue and “slavery”. The river was originally called different names by different cultures: Jeliba or Joliba "great river" in Manding; Orimiri or Orimili "great water" in Igbo; Egerew n-Igerewen "river of rivers" in Tuareg; Isa Ber "big river" in Songhay; Kwara in Hausa; ger-n-ger in Berber, meaning 'river of rivers' and Oya in Yoruba. The earliest use of the name 'Niger' for the river is by Leo Africanus in his Della descrittione dell’Africa et delle cose notabili che iui sono published in Italian in 1550. Since this was what European could identify with the name Niger was adopted for the river which served principal Trans-Saharan trade route to the western Mediterranean; it was the source of most European knowledge of the region. One of the most influential companies was the Royal Niger Company, a mercantile company chartered by the British government in the nineteenth century. It was formed in 1879 as the United African Company and renamed to National African Company in 1881 and to Royal Niger Company in 1886. It merged with other African companies such as West African Company, Central African Company, East African Company and several others into the United African Company International(UACI) and it is a subsidiary of Unilever. This company which used to be the kingpin of slave shipping firms now controls agriculture, processed food distribution, transportation, energy, wood, and several other key sectors in African economy, with just about 20 percent public offering of its stock. Many African countries were named after the resources derived from the land: Nigeria was named after the river Niger (Niger- area) alluding to its many resources; Ghana used to be the Gold coast, Ivory Coast because of its Ivory, Liberia for its American liberation and its capital Monrovia, after president Monroe who sanctioned the ACS repatriation to Africa.
European Trade Routes in Africa
It runs in a crescent through Mali, Niger, on the border with Benin and then through Nigeria, discharging through a massive delta, known as the Niger Delta or the Oil Rivers, into the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. The Niger is the third-longest river in Africa, exceeded only by the Nile and the Congo River (also known as the Za誰re River). Its main tributary is the Benue River.
A Legacy of Deceit and Palpable Immorality
Much to the detriment of African societies, the enmity within them often fostered alliances between Africans and Europeans against a common African enemy. The strategy was understood and well exploited by the European Imperialists as one of the most effective tool to suppress African resistance. It is the same Willie Lynch concept of divide, separate, isolate, infiltrate and dominate. It worked on the individual slaves, chiefs, tribes, ethnics, and countries. It is still in use today with a more sophisticated approach. In the 1880s, for example, the British used existing disputes between the Ndebele and neighboring communities to foment a conflict in which the British would have to intervene and would ultimately gain a position to claim control over Ndebele land. The Ndebele king, Lobengula of Matabeleland, was only too aware that King Mbandezi of Swaziland had forfeited the major part of his lands through granting concessions to Europeans and was deeply suspicious of signing a deal with Cecil Rhodes. But with promises of arms and kick back payment at the negotiation table, though he was cautious when he signed a deal believed to only be a ‘work permit and access to mining area’ extending exclusive right to mine minerals such as diamond and gold. A practice that still goes on everywhere today, for example oil drillers in Texas; gold miners in Ghana, etc. Nevertheless, Rhodes argued that the entire territory had become his personal fiefdom, a dispute ensued; the British attacked, the Ndebele knew what was at stake, humility, rape, pillage, molestation, rape, slavery, and death:” We thought it best to fight and die rather than bear it. death would be better—let us fight." (Ndansi Kumalo). According to a poem written by a British solider after his army of 50 soldiers beat an African army of 5,000 warriors: “Whatever happens, we have got the Maxim Gun, and they have not..”. The Maxim Gun was the first machine gun. It was used against the Africans during the so called "scramble for Africa". After the ordeal, the king was deposed and declared missing, meanwhile Rhodes had landed an intergenerational jackpot with the British South Africa and De Beers mining companies naming the land Rhodesia, in honor of himself. Rhodesia became divided in Northern Rhodesia, which became Zambia and Southern Rhodesia, which became Zimbabwe in after its independence in 1980. Furthermore, it was later inadvertently revealed in the biography entitled "Cecil Rhodes: Man and Empire" by the statement of Princess Catherine Radzwill who acted as Rhodes wife – that, Rhodes' had assassinated the Ndebele King, Lobengula, in a most brutal and savage manner. And it was a lie that King Lobengula "disappeared." This explains the callousness with which he made the son of Lobengula one of his gardeners, and did not hesitate to ask him one day before strangers who were visiting Groote Schuur in what year he "had killed his father." The incident is absolutely true; it occurred in my own presence.” Groote Schuur means big barn in Dutch, located in Rondebosch, on the slopes of Devil's Peak, was originally part of the Dutch East India Company's granary constructed in the seventeenth century, purchased and remodeled by Rhodes which later became emblematic of white supremacy and a continued reminder of the imperialistic goal. Just as Rhodes intended it saying: " The British happens to be the best people in the world, with the highest ideals of decency and justice and liberty and peace, and the more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for humanity. Groote Schuur is now a museum and open to the public only by appointment. " The chameleon gets behind the fly, remains motionless for some time, then he advances very slowly and gently, first putting forward one leg and then another. At last, when well within reach, he darts his tongue and the fly disappears. England is the chameleon and I am that fly." —Lobengula
Bad Agreements with the Good, Bad, and Ugly Colonial Proposals Colonization, though is a palpable term of insidious barbaric invasion, armed robbery, fraud, pillage and land theft (expansionism), however, in the context of the indigenous world at large, it was based on the simple principle of the “White Man’s Burden.” This was an idea that inevitably led to perilous European imperialism. “Whites” (Europeans and European Diaspora) adopted the belief that “Black” (all natives indigenes of the world outside of Europe) were uncivilized. Thus it was the White Man’s Burden was the idea that whites had a responsibility to civilize the Blacks. To civilize them means essentially to cultivate “Our crops (Willie’s Crops)” do this, the White must be able to rule the hearts and mind of the Blacks. Religion was designed to rule the hearts and the education system if homogeneous and structured accordingly to fulfill the Henry’s code (Henry Berry’s Initiative). This terms of endearment and engagement is what had characterized human relationship and history, whether we like it or not will judge us accordingly because change is the only thing that is constant and permanent. It will happen! If you can imagine that Euro centric wars have always occurred when one country or a group of countries have tried to impose their will on another country or group of countries in the western world (Euro-centric world). One of the advantages of the colonialism is that other societies have learned the trick of the trade, as well as the hidden semantics of the language and have mastered it, i.e. Japan, China, India. Many other societies, such as the Latin American nations have begun to retract the bad agreements of the colonial era, i.e. Venezuela has been leading the charge towards nationalization of colonial economic edifices and financial conduits, and Argentina and particularly Bolivia have begun to follow suit, Ecuador is on cue and the list is fast populating. The follies of European colonialism is based on its own contradiction: why cheat if you are smarter? Just like Lance Armstrong, the 7 times pseudo world cyclist champion and athlete who wasn’t. History will have its revenge, or perhaps the Tonya Harden Syndrome, where the competitor crippled so that the undeserved candidate can emerge as the winner. Slavery and colonialism have used trickery, force, diseases, poverty, assassinations, and exploitative mechanism to maintain white supremacy. And this practice still go on in various form today. When European colonialism collapsed in the years after World War Two and Africans resumed control of their own continent, sub-Saharan leaders agreed to respect the colonial borders. Not because those borders made any sense -- they are widely considered the arbitrary creations of colonial happenstance and European agreements -- but because "new rulers in Africa made the decision to keep the borders drawn by former colonizers to avoid disruptive conflict amongst themselves,” they were wrong. War, famine, diseases, atrophy, poverty have persisted and while, few have become rich, the condition of life for the majority have not improved at same pace compare to the rest of the world’s.. Just as during slavery, where five slaves was the going rate in exchange for a mirror; seven slaves in exchange for matches; ten slaves in exchange for tobacco, Fifteen slaves in exchange for Dry gin, Forty slaves in exchange for umbrella, One hundred slaves for a canon gun. These type of agreements is consecrated by the name bestowed to a slave port coastal town near Gberefu, called “Badagry. The name derived from the colloquial mis-pronunciation of “Bad Agree” to later became Badagry in Lagos Nigeria. The decision to carve Africa into artificial nations was wrong and for Africa to move forward it must relieve itself of this burden of bad agreements.
Evolution of the Map of Africa
The next following maps show reveals various observations of the driving interest and the rearrangement that occurred in Africa at different stages in time.
1400s
1554
1644
1737
1745
1800
1800s
1900s
2000 AD
Recent Mapping Analysis for Africa Foreign Intervention
Religion
Unrests
2015
The Discipline of the Merciful and the Wrath of the Merciless I’d like to open this chapter with a quote from Toni Morrison, who I have had the privilege to meet. In her book, ‘A Mercy’ set the stage for 1680s America when slavery was a color-blind, equal-opportunity state of misery, not yet the rigid, peculiar institution it would become. This stands in sharp contrast to her previous Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ‘Beloved’, which tells a story about a woman who kills her daughter rather than see her returned to slavery. In A Mercy she had this quote: “To be given dominion over another is a hard thing; to wrest dominion over another is a wrong thing; to give dominion of yourself to another is a wicked thing.”
Hendrik Witbooi
Samuel Maharero
One of the most important African experiences in world history took place in the present day Namibia during the scramble for Africa. This is a typical example of the repercussion of alliances between Africans and European imperialists against a common neighboring African enemy. Chief of the Namaq Tribe, Hendrik Witbooi, allied himself with the German imperialists against the neighboring Herero, illustrating strategies that continually placed Africans at a distinct disadvantage and often too late when realized that the devil you know than the devil you don't know. The Germans did not need Witbooi, but they needed Witbooi and Samuel Maharero, leader of the Herero people, to be divided. Witbooi came to this realization and reunited the Nama with the Herero. On August 17, 1894, Witbooi wrote a letter to the colonial administrator Theodor Leutwein, who had accused him of recalcitrance. Since you have the guns, you force the right on your side. I fully agree with you in one thing: in comparison with you, we are nothing here. …I guess this time I shall be forced to defend myself against you. I shall do so not so much in my own name but in the name of the Lord. Trusting in His aid and strength I shall defend myself. …I have told you that I am fully in favor of peace and that I shall never be the one breaking such peace. But you say you intend to attack me. The responsibility for the innocent blood of my men and yours therefore cannot be mine since I am not the instigator of another war... Please do leave us alone and withdraw! Call your troops back and withdraw. Please do withdraw! Please do so! This is my very serious plea!
Theodor Leutwein
Despite Witbooi's pleas, the Germans defeated the Nama and the Herero. But Witbooi rose again, at the age of eighty, to fight once more. In 1905 he was killed leading a charge against a German column. As the example of Hendrik Witbooi illustrates, African individuals and groups who resisted European colonial authority were aware of the challenges they faced.
African Genocide During the scramble for Africa era, German colonist, in the effort to fulfill its imperialistic ambition in South-West Africa (modern-day Namibia) launched an extermination campaign of racial against the Herero and the Namaqua people as a punishment for their resistance and recalcitrance between 1904 and 1907. The Kaiser had ordered a notorious and cruel lieutenant named Lotha Von Trotha to “destroy the rebellious tribes by shedding rivers of blood and money.� In just few weeks the Germans had killed more than several thousands of the Hereros and Namas by slaughtering them in battle, hanging them, poisoning them, torturing them to death, trapping them in their huts and burning them to alive, and driving them into the Kalahari desert to die of starvation and thirst. Those who were captured were sent to concentration camps in Sharks Island and systematically worked to death or infected with diseases. n these camps the principle of extermination through work was first experimented with. Children, women and men lived here in catastrophic circumstances. Nearly every second prisoner dies of ill health, malnutrition or exhaustion; only some 20 percent of the former 80 000 Herero survived and that of the Nama people, about half died in the war or during imprisonment. This first genocide of the 20th century in South West Africa was a crucial precursor to Germany's establishment of the holocaust death camps. "Colonial Namibia’s death camp at Shark Island was different from Spanish and British concentration camps in that it was operated for the purpose of destroying human life. Thus, it served as a rough model for later Nazi Vernichtungslager, or annihilation camps, like Treblinka and Auschwitz, whose primary purpose was murder."
History of European Madness: "Blood and Soil" Although all European and European Diaspora colonies or countries practice a form racialist ideology, none was as radical and extreme as the Germans. After slavery, European leaders could no longer find a reasonable justification in the Bible for furthering their appetite for the conquest of new lands and materialism at the cost of indigenous lives. So they turned to natural science to explicate the origin of man and hierarchy of the races. Charles Darwin was the man who provided a new method to the madness. His new hypothesis provided a new perspective on the theory of evolution, which was necessary and much needed as impetus to boost the colonists morale and relief them of their burden of guilt. He postulated that genotype (genes) mutates (adapts) based on its phenotype (natural habitat) with time. This adaptation shaped or driven by the challenges of the habitat may take a long period and could result new species, new forms, different races, and ethnicities. Therefore, survival is based on chance or competitive advantage cultivated by a cohesive group. This means that human development can be controlled by relative awareness and structural policies. This theory produced two major schools of thought and changed two pre-existing fundamental doctrines. Darwin’s Schools of Thoughts: theory of evolution (Darwinism). 1. Provided a basis for effective exploration of advantages of racism and effectively destroyed the philosophical foundation for objections to racism (hierarchy of race is inevitable). 2. Removed the basis for racial equality. If humans had evolved from lower forms of life and were gradually still evolving toward some higher form of life, then it stood to reason that some humans were more evolved—in effect, more human—than others. Therefore, all humans are not equal; some were closer to the superman that Darwinists promised in the future, and others were closer to the ape-like ancestor from whom Darwinists claimed all humans were descended. Darwinists’ Challenges to existing Doctrines: 1. Proposes that the Biblical story of human having descended from one family of Adam and Eve is a myth. 2. Proposes that the American basis for human rights is wrong. In the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” Because human beings were the creation of God, they had rights that other human beings were bound to respect. Darwinism changed race relations, and eroded the previous gain on the advocacy for racial equality in its entirety. Not long after the emergence of Darwinism, a new trend of scientific quest to interpret and validate the theory of evolution had begun to pervade as well as embolden the thinking of Eurocentric worlds, with American and Britain taking the lead. Out spoken pundits agreed publicly that interpretation of history through the lens of race is the correct scientific method of approaching the problem of the past. Now it all makes sense for the Europeans that their appetite for expansionism and materialism is an essential quest for ensuring the survival of the mighty master race as the fittest and the elimination or subjugation of the unfit. The Eugenicist, a group inspired and supported by Darwin, argued that for the human race to evolve ever upward, it must become the master of its own evolution and to do this effectively, drastic measures and new doctrines must be adopted to weed out the unfit, namely the Jews, the Slavs, the Gypsies, Africans, and other indigenous people considered to be worthless race types. To prove his point on Darwinism based on an alarmist book he had wrote, The Passing of the great Race, Madison Grant, a Conservative social reformer (eugenicist) placed an African man from the pygmy tribes of Congo named Ota Benga on display in the primate house of the Bronx Zoo. He argued against indiscriminate charity for the benefit of the individual and the need for racial hygiene through scientific racism, and played an active role in crafting strong immigration restriction and anti-miscegenation laws and recommended segregating "unfavorable" races in ghettos by installing civil organizations through the public health system to establish quasi-dictatorships in their particular fields.
History of European Madness: "Blood and Soil" Grant’s advocacy provided the national Socialist Movement in Germany (Nazi) the necessary architecture for creating Hitler’s concept of a racially “pure” Germany and Europe. The Nazi developed an elaborate system of propaganda to diffuse these theories through several hypotheses of the relationship between race and phrenology. The first genocide attempt by the Germans against African tribes of Hereros and Namaquas provided the lab studies of the Nazis’ claim to have scientifically measure a strict hierarchy of human race; the "master race" was said to be the most pure stock of the Aryan race, which was narrowly defined by the Nazis as being identical with the Nordic race, followed by other sub-races of the Aryan race and at the bottom of this hierarchy were "parasitic" races (of non-"Aryan" origin) or "Untermenschen" ("subhumans"), which were perceived to be dangerous to society. The Germans installed Hygiene Museums to help to shape the idea of which lives were worthy and which were worthless, developing possible discriminatory and coercive policies along the way, which culminated in the Holocaust. Some of the Nazi legislation included most notably with the 1935 Nuremberg Laws and the July 1933 Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring. Under the race laws, sexual relations between Aryans (cf. Aryan certificate) and non-Aryans known as Rassenschande ("race defilement") became punishable by law. Even before the Nazi, The African prisoners of war were transformed into human subjects for various laboratory experiments designed to confirm the racial inferiority of African peoples. These experiments were overseen by Dr. Eugen Fischer who became the senior geneticist of the Nazi regime. Medical experiments were also conducted there by (literally) the teachers of Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz "Angel of Death" [forty] years later."). He studied and made tests with the heads of 778 Herero and Nama dead prisoners of war. Severed heads were preserved numbered and labeled as Hottentotte - the German colonial name for the Nama. He used 'research' to prove the black race is inferior to the Germanic - Aryan race. By measuring skulls - facial features and eye colors - Fischer and his protégés sought to prove the native races were inferior - and as he put it - animals. Fischer's work influenced Nazi physicians and German medical experiments in concentration camps. Fischer's book on his research in Namibia, The Principles of Human Heredity and Race Hygiene, "went on to become one of Hitler's favorite reads." He later became chancellor of the University of Berlin, and one of his prominent students was Josef Mengele, "the notorious doctor who performed genetic experiments on Jewish children at the Auschwitz concentration camp." ("Here [in German South West Africa] the first concentration camps were set up, and 30 years before Hitler the cult of the German master race was practiced." "Concentration camps were neither a Russian invention nor a German one. They were first established in 1896 by Spaniards in Cuba.. The German colonial powers... contributed to the history of the concentration camp by introducing the idea of forced labor.“ The mortality rate was extremely high: more than 12% of the Hereros serving as slave labor for railroad construction died in a period of six weeks German merchants established House of the Black Heads, a fraternity of bourgeoisie in the Baltic zone of Europe.
Why Racism still Exists Conscious Racism and ‘Violence Against African Development ‘ persists simply because the principles that hold racism in place are grandfathered into the collective cultural psyche. There is an unspoken lack of political will (courage) to identify, monitor, and evaluate the systemic detriment of racism in the society due to the fear that it might cause political, social or economic instability. This is the main reason why many organizations around the world are designed to uphold the principle of white supremacy. There are two main types of racists. The conscious and the unconscious participants in white supremacy. A conscious racist is anyone who is acculturated with specific pedagogy or belief systems thus knowingly and willingly discriminates against isolated racial groups. The overwhelming majority of conscious racists are mostly brutes, sadists and bigots who seek to earn a sense of personal achievement through the illusion of responsibility of exercising an exclusive rationale or quest for moral judgment on certain distinction of excellence based on racial uniqueness. Conscious racists tend to claim the virtues of successful people within their racial origin as their own, and they are prone to belong to a fraternity that has a specific absolute predatory doctrine that suite their interest. One of these types of organization is the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) or simply the Klan was formed in Tennessee by disgruntled ex-Confederates soldiers immediately after the civil war in America. In the months following the end of the War many Euromeric Southerners carried out acts of random violence against Africans. In their frustration at having lost the war and suffered great loss of life and property, they made the former slaves scapegoats for what they had endured. The organization’s mission is maintaining the principle of “racism and White Supremacy” for sustaining the dream of the confederate invisible Empire of the South. Their goal was to enforce the racist principles of the Eugenicists, Willie Lynch, and Henry Berry. To protect the identities of their members, many of which public figures, they wear hoods to meetings and public activities. They marched openly in New York city during the Gulliani ‘s administration. Ku Klux Klan members in United States politics and US Presidents who were members of the KKK Many Other groups with similar agenda also emerged around the same time. Some of the prominent ones are: Constitutional Union Guard |Knight of the Rising Sun| Knight of the White Camelia |Knight of the White Carnation Knight of the White Cross| White Brother hood| Young Men’s Democratic Clubs. These groups are well established today. Their fraternities network is global and local everywhere; well-funded, influential in every department of human affairs around the globe. They have fraternal orders with secret codes in police force, in schools administration, in student unions, in political parties, in government, in media, banking and finance, development and even in nonprofit activities. Internationally. Their direct and indirect effects in the our daily lives and in our psyche are regrettably undeniable, far reaching, and distractive. The Unconscious racists in any given multi-racial or multi ethnic society are those mild type liberals or conservatives but are very effective way in upholding the existential edifices and well established privileges created by racist foundations. Many of unconscious racists are very decent people and do exist in all racial backgrounds, even if the benefits of racism is to favor white supremacy, they often benefit directly or indirectly, either by passively supportive of the spoil system or unintentionally supportive to the spoil system. This is more complex as it involves, belief systems and other relevant issues. These are the type of challenges facing African development which no other culture has, and gives the African experience a unique identity it deserves.
Full list of worldwide White supremacy organizations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_white_nationalist_organizations
KKK at Santo Domingo Carnival in Dominican Republic
The KKK public parades are meant to intimidate Africans and remind them who is in control, realized that they remained vulnerable and that they (the KKK) are having their way in time. So this parade did not come as a surprise in the as it is a common knowledge that people of Dominican Republic and its Government have cultivated a bigot attitude towards people of Haiti based on the fact that most Haitians have generally dark skin tone compared to Dominicans whose African heritage has been mixed with Spanish Europeans. The Dominican Republic has made news for racial issues recently based on a Supreme Court ruling that the elimination of birthright citizenship is to be applied retroactively, jeopardizing the legal status of thousands of Haitian immigrants and their Dominican-born children — the vast majority of whom are Africans with dark in complexion. Human rights groups estimate the ruling could strip more than 200,000 people of citizenship.
The KKK is the leading openly organized threat to African peaceful existence and development. And they are not slowing down The number of cases of incidences where the Klan sabotaged African development can only be called a reign of terror for over 160 years. Thousands Africans families destroyed, thousands more were killed, injured or driven from their homes or suffered property damage as buildings were burned and farm animals destroyed. During the Reconstruction period in the South, African politicians who tried to further the cause of the Republican were killed, beaten and deposed with impunity. The Greensboro massacre occurred on November 3, 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. Five protest marchers were shot and killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party at a rally organized by communists intended to demonstrate radical, even violent, opposition to the Klan.[1] The "Death to the Klan March" and protest was the culmination of attempts by the Communist Workers' Party to organize mostly black industrial workers in the area. May 31st, 1921 marks "one of the most devastating massacres in the history of US race relations“ when as many as 300 African Americans lost their lives and more than 9,000 were left homeless when the small town of Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma, (aka "Black Wall Street"), home to many prominent black businessmen was attacked, looted and literally burned to the ground. Despite efforts to control the violence, lynching in the South remained common throughout the 19th and into the 20th century. This pattern persists till today in small scales randomized around the world and can be associated with the mass incarceration and brutality of Africans by the law enforcement. While time has changed, this thinking has not changed much unfortunately. Books such as the Bell Curve accounted for an example of unconscious racists attempt to understand the situation; People like Bill Gates with all their good intention of selective altruism towards Africa or elsewhere is bent on reducing world population at all costs for the fear that there won’t be enough food or resources for available. These are the same principles upon which white supremacy and racism was built. It is almost like a going trend, the racial discrimination against Africans is becoming more popular and wide spread around the world. Russia, Germany, Spain, India, Italy, Thailand, South Korea, China, Greece, Dominican Republic, South Africa, and the United States of America have all seen increased in racial violence against people of African descent. Incidentally, all of these listed countries benefit directly from African economy.
Black Resistance to White Supremacy One of the biggest problems faced by Africans in the United States is how to balance the loyalty of racial identity with national identity. In spite of the fact that they have served their country valiantly in every war since the United States was founded in 1776, and the country has been at war during 214 out of her 235 calendar years of existence, they feel neglected, unappreciated and unprotected by the United States government. So, in the face of growing terror from such as the Klan, they have organized various forms of resistance. One of the first notable movement was the Call to Rebellion by Minister Henry Highland Garnet, who made history when he was chosen by President Abraham Lincoln to speak to the House of Representatives—making him the first African speaker to address Congress. In 1919, a radical U.S. black liberation organization called The African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption (ABB) was established in New York City by journalist Cyril Briggs as a response to the KKK with slogan: The Klan Forces Us to Protect Ourselves! On July 4, 1930, Wallace Fard Muhammad founded the influential Nation of Islam with the purpose to"... teach the downtrodden and defenseless Black people a thorough Knowledge of God and of themselves, and to put them on the road to Self-Independence with a superior culture and higher civilization than they had previously experienced.” The organization strategically recruits many of its members in prison. One of the main problems with understanding African plight and plea is the fact that the distinction between the outrage and resistance against nongovernmental white supremacy organized terror and governmental authoritative racial privilege or disenfranchisement – is often unclear. Africans often consider these problems to be one and the same US Imperialism or perhaps symbiotic. Although they are similar, they are not the same. Therefore, they cannot be legally or even intellectually addressed under such premise. Examples are the following laws: Slavery (1500s - 1865, Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, U.S. Government Suppression of Native-American Religion, Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, 1850 Foreign Miners Tax, "Greaser" Act of 1855, The Black Codes (1860s), (1862), Convict Lease System (1883-1910), Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), Jim Crow Laws (1876-1965), The Day Law (1904), Lynching, Anti-Miscegenation Laws (Inter-racial Marriage Laws), Literacy Tests for Voting, Poll Taxes, Women's Right to Vote (Women's Suffrage), Marriage Equality, (CURRENT ISSUE), Police code and impunity on brutality. One reason Africans gravitated towards Islam, especially in Diaspora is because “it’s a religion that teaches an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; and also teaches if someone steps on your toe, chop off their foot.” During the 1950s and early 1960s, nonviolent protesters challenged legalized racial segregation and discrimination in the only two places on earth where such blatant manifestations of white supremacy could be found—the southern United States and the Union of South Africa. Comparing these movements gives us a better perspective on the recent history of black liberation struggles in the two societies. The African National Congress’s (ANC) “Campaign of Defiance Against Unjust Laws” in 1952 resulted in the arrest of approximately 8000 recently enacted apartheid legislation. Whereas in the US, the nonviolent phase of the American civil rights movement was a coalition of SNCC, COPE, SCLC, the URBAN LEAGUE, and the NAACP, which began with the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56 and culminated in the great Mississippi and Birmingham and Selma, Alabama, campaigns of 1963-65. Viewed narrowly as an attack on legalized segregation and disfranchisement in the southern states, the movement was remarkably successful. It led to the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965, which effectively outlawed separatist "Jim Crow "laws and assured southern African Americans access to the ballot box. In 1966, a new generation of African youth and students in Oakland California, led by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, founded the Black Panther Party (BBP and they were prepared and armed for self-defense).
African Influence in Passing the Civil Right Act in America The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted necessarily to address an otherwise unnecessary issue that is to help finish the work of the Civil War, 100 years after the war had ended, that which antebellum reconstruction failed to achieve, and to make the promise of legal protection of human rights and equality for all a reality in the United States of America. The Civil Right Act is a legislation that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (known as "public accommodations"). Women, religious minorities, Africans, Latinos, and Euro-mericans also benefited from the Civil Rights Act, which provided a model for other anti-discrimination measures passed by Congress, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. Under the Civil Rights Act, women who had been fired because they became pregnant, or were not hired because they had small children, now had recourse. As a result of Title VII, "male only" job notices became illegal for the first time. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was also created by the law, giving women a workable "hammer" with which to shatter the glass ceiling.� The Civil right Bill, introduced in the House by Emanuel Celler (D–NY) on June 20, 1963, had the longest filibuster in U.S. Senate history, and only came to bear fruit after a bloody, long civil rights struggle which highlights the career of Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X, Mohammed Ali, John Louis, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, as well as a gave birth to a new African consciousness of socio-cultural empowerment.
Although the overwhelming majority of Southerners unanimously voted against the Bill, from both parties, more than 80% of Republicans in both houses voted in favor of the bill, compared with more than 60% of Democrats; 90% of lawmakers from states that were in the Union during the Civil War supported the bill compared with less than 10% of lawmakers from states that were in the Confederacy. Senate passed the act 73-27 in July 1964. It became law less than a year after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, and was signed into law by the truest friend of African people to ever occupied the White House, Lyndon B. Johnson. One of the great influences on passing the Civil right Act, often overlooked, is the diplomatic influences of African Member States at the United Nations and the African Consulates and Embassies in Washington DC. Ghana had already gained independence in 1957 and by 1962, majority of the African nations have declared independence from colonialists. The New African Nations were using their diplomatic ties and presence in the United States to influence not only the policies such as the Civil Right Act, but shape US Foreign policies, as well as also to influence the effectiveness and enforcement of the Civil right laws on those who still refuse service to minorities in American cultural lives. Many American students, especially from Howard University were well aware of this phenomenon and started a renewed cultural awareness as well as wearing the Dashiki to express the inextricable nexus of one Africa people. The pressure of the civil right opened up the opportunity to appoint the First African-American Woman Ambassador Patricia Roberts Harris to Luxembourg on June 4, 1965. Note that she was the first ambassador to a Non African country. Two males ambassadors before her were appointed to Liberia.
The African Dashiki is more than just an ordinary fashion statement. It is a cultural movement in solidarity with the common ideals of NĂŠgritude.
The Kerner’s Commission Report President Lyndon Johnson formed an 11-member National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders in July 1967 to explain the riots that plagued cities each summer since 1964 and to provide recommendations for the future. The commission was to provide answers to three basic questions: What happened? Why did it happen? What can be done to prevent it from happening again? The Commission’s report became informally known as the Kerner Report. To respond to these questions, we have undertaken a broad range of studies and investigations. We have visited the riot cities; we have heard many witnesses; we have sought the counsel of experts across the country. This is our basic conclusion: Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal. Reaction to last summer’s disorders has quickened the movement and deepened the division. Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American life; they now threaten the future of every American. This deepening racial division is not inevitable. The movement apart can be reversed. Choice is still possible. Our principal task is to define that choice and to press for a national resolution. To pursue our present course will involve the continuing polarization of the American community and, ultimately, the destruction of basic democratic values. The alternative is not blind repression or capitulation to lawlessness. It is the realization of common opportunities for all within a single society. This alternative will require a commitment to national action—compassionate, massive and sustained, backed by the resources of the most powerful and the richest nation on this earth. From every American it will require new attitudes, new understanding, and, above all, new will. The vital needs of the nation must be met; hard choices must be made, and, if necessary, new taxes enacted. Violence cannot build a better society. Disruption and disorder nourish repression, not justice. They strike at the freedom of every citizen. The community cannot—it will not—tolerate coercion and mob rule. Violence and destruction must be ended—in the streets of the ghetto1 and in the lives of people. Segregation and poverty have created in the racial ghetto a destructive environment totally unknown to most white Americans. What white Americans have never fully understood—but what the Negro can never forget—is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain, and white society condones it. It is time now to turn with all the purpose at our command to the major unfinished business of this nation. It is time to adopt strategies for action that will produce quick and visible progress. It is time to make good the promises of American democracy to all citizens—urban and rural, white and black, Spanish-surname, American Indian, and every minority group.
The Kerner’s Commission Report: Patterns of Disorder The “typical” riot did not take place. The disorders of 1967 were unusual, irregular, complex and unpredictable social processes. Like most human events, they did not unfold in an orderly sequence. However, an analysis of our survey information leads to some conclusions about the riot process. In general:
The civil disorders of 1967 involved Africans acting against local symbols of white American society, authority and property in Negro neighborhoods—rather than against white persons. Of 164 disorders reported during the first nine months of 1967, eight (5 percent) were major in terms of violence and damage; 33 (20 percent) were serious but not major; 123 (75 percent) were minor and undoubtedly would not have received national attention as “riots” had the nation not been sensitized by the more serous outbreaks. In the 75 disorders studied by a Senate subcommittee, 83 deaths were reported. Eighty-two percent of the deaths and more than half the injuries occurred in Newark and Detroit. About 10 percent of the dead and 38 percent of the injured were public employees, primarily law officers and firemen. The overwhelming majority of the persons killed or injured in all the disorders were Negro civilians. Initial damage estimates were greatly exaggerated. No particular law enforcement control tactic was successful in every situation. The varied effectiveness of control techniques emphasizes the need for advance training, planning, adequate intelligence systems, and knowledge of the ghetto community. The proportion of Africans in local government was substantially smaller than the Negro proportion of population. Only three of the 20 cities studied had more than one Negro legislator; none had ever had a Negro mayor or city manager. In only four cities did Africans hold other important policymaking positions or serve as heads of municipal departments. Although almost all cities had some sort of formal grievance mechanism for handling citizen complaints, this typically was regarded by Africans as ineffective and was generally ignored.
In Detroit, newspaper damage estimates at first ranged from $200 million to $500 million; the highest recent estimate is $45 million. In Newark, early estimates ranged from $15 to $25 million. A month later damage was estimated at $10.2 million, over 80 percent in inventory losses. Although specific grievances varied from city to city, at least 12 deeply held grievances can be identified and ranked into three levels of relative intensity: First Level of Intensity 1. Police practices 2. Unemployment and underemployment 3. Inadequate housing
Second Level of Intensity 4. Inadequate education 5. Poor recreation facilities and programs 6. Ineffectiveness of the political structure and grievance mechanisms.
Third Level of Intensity 7. Disrespectful white attitudes 8. Discriminatory administration of justice 9. Inadequacy of federal programs 10. Inadequacy of municipal services 11. Discriminatory consumer and credit practices 12. Inadequate welfare programs
The results of a three-city survey of various federal programs—manpower, education, housing, welfare and community action—indicate that, despite substantial expenditures, the number of persons assisted constituted only a fraction of those in need.
The Kerner’s Commission Report: The Basic Causes In addressing the question “Why did it happen?” we shift our focus from the local to the national scene, from the particular events of the summer of 1967 to the factors within the society at large that created a mood of violence among many urban Africans. These factors are complex and interacting; they vary significantly in their effect from city to city and from year to year; and the consequences of one disorder, generating new grievances and new demands, become the causes of the next. Thus was created the “thicket of tension, conflicting evidence and extreme opinions” cited by the President. Despite these complexities, certain fundamental matters are clear. Of these, the most fundamental is the racial attitude and behavior of white Americans toward black Americans. Race prejudice has shaped our history decisively; it now threatens to affect our future. Racism is essentially responsible for the explosive mixture which has been accumulating in our cities since the end of World War II. Among the ingredients of this mixture are: • Pervasive discrimination and segregation in employment, education and housing, which have resulted in the continuing exclusion of great numbers of Africans from the benefits of economic progress. • Black in-migration and white exodus, which have produced the massive and growing concentrations of impoverished Africans in our major cities, creating a growing crisis of deteriorating facilities and services and unmet human needs. • The black ghettos where segregation and poverty converge on the young to destroy opportunity and enforce failure. Crime, drug addiction, dependency on welfare, and bitterness and resentment against society in general and white society in particular are the result. • At the same time, most whites and some Africans outside the ghetto have prospered to a degree unparalleled in the history of civilization. Through television and other media, this affluence has been flaunted before the eyes of the Negro poor and the jobless ghetto youth. Yet these facts alone cannot be said to have caused the disorders. Recently, other powerful ingredients have begun to catalyze the mixture: • •
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Frustrated hopes are the residue of the unfulfilled expectations aroused by the great judicial and legislative victories of the Civil Rights Movement and the dramatic struggle for equal rights in the South. A climate that tends toward approval and encouragement of violence as a form of protest has been created by white terrorism directed against nonviolent protest; by the open defiance of law and federal authority by state and local officials resisting desegregation; and by some protest groups engaging in civil disobedience who turn their backs on nonviolence, go beyond the constitutionally protected rights of petition and free assembly, and resort to violence to attempt to compel alteration of laws and policies with which they disagree. The frustrations of powerlessness have led some Africans to the conviction that there is no effective alternative to violence as a means of achieving redress of grievances, and of “moving the system.” These frustrations are reflected in alienation and hostility toward the institutions of law and government and the white society which controls them, and in the reach toward racial consciousness and solidarity reflected in the slogan “Black Power.”
A new mood has sprung up among Negroes, particularly among the young, in which self-esteem and enhanced racial pride are replacing apathy and submission to “the system.” The police are not merely a “spark” factor. To some Africans police have come to symbolize white power, white racism and white repression. And the fact is that many police do reflect and express these white attitudes. The atmosphere of hostility and cynicism is reinforced by a widespread belief among Africans in the existence of police brutality and in a “double standard” of justice and protection—one for Africans and one for whites.
The Kerner’s Commission Recommendation National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders Our recommendations embrace three basic principles: • To mount programs on a scale equal to the dimension of the problems; • To aim these programs for high impact in the immediate future in order to close the gap between promise and performance; • To undertake new initiatives and experiments that can change the system of failure and frustration that now dominates the ghetto and weakens our society. These programs will require unprecedented levels of funding and performance, but they neither probe deeper nor demand more than the problems which called them forth. There can be no higher priority for national action and no higher claim on the nation’s conscience.... In 1998, 30 years after the issuance of the Report, former Senator and Commission member Fred R. Harris co-authored a study that found the racial divide had grown in the ensuing years with inner-city unemployment at crisis levels. Racially charged riots continue to develop in the same pattern of civil unrest all over America almost year after year since that incident.
The infallibility of the American Justice System The American justice system is a flawless mechanism for justice when applied on equal rights. However it is a tool underutilized by Africans in America to further their causes. While a system may be perfect in itself, if it requires human interaction to operate, it can be compromised. This is commonsense. Human beings have dynamic intensions and systems have consistent outcomes. Therefore a system’s expected outcome can be manipulated. Based on the America experience, Afromericans have good reason to distrust American system and Euromericans have good reasons to rely the system. It was not clear how deeply divided the American Society is along racial lines until the Non Guilty verdict of the OJ Simpson’s Murder case in 1995. Charles J. Ogletree Jr., director of Harvard's Institute for Race & Justice: believes that the case was a watershed case because it placed the issue of race and justice squarely before the American public. Here are few excerpts from familiar legal pundits: Michael Eric Dyson, professor of humanities at the University of Pennsylvania and author of numerous books on race in America, said that the case “revealed the fault lines of bigotry and bias that trace beneath our common lives together. But it did reveal to white and black America that, first of all, we see things enormously differently. There is contrasting and almost contradictory viewpoints that animate black people and white people around the issue of race, and O.J. revealed that in the sharpest of terms....” Donald Jones, law professor at the University of Miami School of Law: I think this case touches on our deepest fears. Just imagine you've drilled down into a reservoir, and it starts squirting up. Well, those fears have to do with race. We, as a society, are in a state of denial, a denial about the continuing significance of race, a denial about the fears that we have of each other, a denial about the extent to which unconscious bias still haunts all of us and especially our courtrooms. And I think that what the O.J. Simpson trial did was in a sense take a lid off the pot. That pot of fear… we have a tremendous problem in this country that has yet to be resolved, which is that we have different expectations based on the color of someone's skin, different fears, different assumptions about who that person is. I still remember our mayor of New York, who said he feels uncomfortable in black neighborhoods, especially at night. Those are the kinds of fears that went into this case. Alan Dershowitz, member of the Simpson defense team and Harvard law professor, said the case was transformative in the context of American social, racial and legal history. You can't understand the legal system in America without understanding the O.J. Simpson case. Juries are much more skeptical of police testimony about how searches were conducted. So-called testi-lying is now part of the American vocabulary. Everybody knows that there's "testi-lying." You no longer believe a policeman just because he's a policeman wearing a badge. And I think we've all become more expert on the legal system. The one downside of the O.J. Simpson case is the proliferation of talking heads on television. The lawyers who are put on television to explain the cases, who nobody would ever hire to be a real lawyer, these are only pretty faces and gentle voices, but they don't know anything about the law. That's a very big negative of the O.J. Simpson case. When asked if money could buy you justice in America, Alan Dershowitz responded: Well, if anybody thinks money will buy justice, ask Martha Stewart, Leona Helmsley, Mike Milken and many other people who have spent a long time in prison with all the money in the world. What money will do is buy you a chance at getting justice. Poverty will assure you injustice. Money gives you some chance of leveling the playing field and getting justice. The problem with this case is that the system worked, and it worked too well. It worked too well because it showed what the defense is capable of doing if they have the ability to use all of the constitutional protections that are given them by the Bill of Rights and by constitutional and other statutory rules. It showed what can happen if the defense has access to the best experts and good lawyers and experts in various other scientific areas. So it showed that the system can work very well, and that in fact the system will operate on the principle of better 10 guilty go free than one innocent be wrongly convicted. And you know what? The public doesn't like the system. The public much prefers the old system, the old system in which the prosecution really doesn't have to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt; the prosecution really doesn't have to abide by the Constitution; the prosecution really doesn't have to play fair with all the evidence. The public saw the system working, and they didn't like it. … (the light bulb should go up)
Truth and Reconciliation Assessment Committee The world needs to heal because a lot of damage has been done to it not only physically but also in the spiritual sense. This calls for recourse to correct and reconcile our misguided cultural differences which we have cultivated into racism, which generates violence, terror, war, and all modalities of unnecessary suffering among peoples in societies, between weak and weakened nations. We have been able to create carefully curated myths and installed tethers to exaggerate the margins of our cultural differences. This phenomenon is termed cultivated dependency, which helps to describe the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice that plagues people marginalized worldwide. The ripple effect of cultivated dependency and the wake behind its historical legacy can be traced as root causes of many bad social conditions and unnecessary human suffering in many societies. These conditions are often misguided by ignorance and corroborated by abject poverty, pollution, terror, violence, mayhem, preventable diseases, bondage, constraints, and corruption. To put it as John C. Maxwell said, “there are two kinds of pride, both good and bad. 'Good pride' represents our dignity and self-respect. 'Bad pride' is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance.� All colonialized people have similar pains caused by their hegemons'. It is time to put away foolish pride and move towards truth and reconciliation. Healing, Repairing and Restoring will require two types of approaches, Emotional and Substantive Damage Assessment Approach. These are considered to be each one side of a coin without which, the other is incomplete. Our goal is therefore focused directly and proportional to racism and the cumulative historical development deficit sustained by colonized indigenous people and the insurmountable suffering and losses from chattel slavery. Achieving cultural harmony on ne hand to fulfill the emotional aspect of an existing social challenge, and developing transformative strategies on the other hand to address the substantive practical requirement to meet the same challenge. All Americans must have the privileges of citizenship, regardless of race, and they are going to have those privileges of citizenship regardless of race. And I'll let you in on a secret--I mean to use it. And I hope that you will use it with me. This is the richest, most powerful country which ever occupied this globe. The might of past empires is little compared to ours. But I do not want to be the president who built empires, or sought grandeur, or extended dominion. I want to be the president who educated young children to the wonders of their world. I want to be the President who helped to feed the hungry and to prepare them to be taxpayers instead of tax eaters. I want to be the President who helped the poor to find their own way and who protected the right of every citizen to vote in every election. I want to be the President who helped to end hatred among his fellow men and who promoted love among the people of all races, all regions and all parties. I want to be the President who helped to end war among the brothers of this earth. Above the pyramid on the Great Seal of the United States it says in Latin, "God has favored our undertaking." God will not favor everything that we do. It is rather our duty to divine His will. But I cannot help but believe that He truly understands and that He really favors the undertaking that we begin here tonight. President Lyndon B. Johnson - March 15, 1965 In general, the expectation of apology for all the avoidable suffering that Africans have endured in different spheres, it is worthy to mention that while this is palpable t the emotion and could ameliorate the burden of pain as well as the burden of guilt on both sides. It is therefore good for the purpose of rapprochement to express remorse for suffering caused another indiscriminately and unjustly and it is just as redeeming to look for ways to mitigate the effect of the historical suffering on their current conditions. This is not an appeal but an advice. I am confident that whether we like it or not, Africa will rise again to be the pride of all Africans everywhere in the world. You are either for this cause or against it. And time is the playing field and history will be the judge. There is no better chance than to support this cause now.
Admission of Guilt and Apology for Slavery and Colonization On September 2, 2001, eleven EU countries were prepared to offer an outright apology for slavery, led by Belgium pushing hard to apologize. However, four others - Britain, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal -were prepared only to express "regret" about the slave trade, without any specific recognition of responsibility The British were the stickiest on the objection to call slavery a crime against humanity, because it could have legal implications and force them to pay reparations. Britain held the position that an apology could have damaging consequences. The European states fear that British resistance to African demands for a frank admission of guilt could wreck the international meeting and leave the Europeans blamed for its failure. The European Union issued the following statement "The European Union profoundly deplores the human suffering, individual and collective, caused by slavery and the slave trade. They are among the most dishonorable and abhorrent chapters in the history of humanity. The [EU] condemns these practices, in the past and present, and regrets the suffering they have caused," Unfortunately, seven days after this EU announcement, 9/11 terrorist attacked happened in the United States and shifted the matter of priority on the development of apology and reparation for Slavery by setting the attention on the Terror from the Islamic world’s “axis of evil”. It may be worth mentioning that in 2006, the Jamaican Prime Minister asked Britain to apologize for 'wicked and brutal' slavery during Prince Harry's visit and in response, Prime Minister Tony Blair r expresses 'deep sorrow' for Britain's role in the slave trade. A formal apology by the US Congress for the dehumanization and racism wrought by both the enslavement of African Americans and for Jim Crow segregation was issued in 2008. West African nations and tribes have issued apologies for their role in the transatlantic slave trade to black Americans, and even to specific African-American individuals who have traced their ancestry to certain locales and who would otherwise have never received an apology. In 1999 the president of Benin, a neighbor of Nigeria, apologized for his nation’s role in slavery. In 2006 Ghana apologized to American descendants of slaves. A few months ago a Cameroonian chieftain apologized to an African American who’d traced his lineage to a couple of local clans. Other West African tribal leaders have done the same. Ethiopia has issued apologies, via Haile Selassie and the Zimbabwean President Mugabe has made statements toward the need for Africa and African Diaspora to reconnect. On October 11, 2010, during the Second Afro-Arab summit in Sirte, Libya, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya issued the following statement of apology to African leaders on behalf of Arab nations for their involvement in the African slave trade: "I regret the behavior of the Arabs… They brought African children to North Africa, they made them slaves, they sold them like animals, and they took them as slaves and traded them in a shameful way. I regret and I am ashamed when we remember these practices. I apologize for this“ Note also that Germany apologized for the first time yesterday for a colonial-era genocide which killed 65,000 Herero people in what is now Namibia. "We Germans accept our historic and moral responsibility and the guilt incurred by Germans at that time," said Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's development aid minister, at a ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the Hereros' 1904-1907 uprising against their rulers.
Ark of Return "Acknowledge the tragedy, consider the legacy, lest we forget”
The UN has erected a memorial to victims of transatlantic slave trade at its New York headquarters. The monument’s name, Ark of Return, was inspired by maps of the triangular slave trade and unveiled on March 25, 2015 on the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. It was designed by American architect Rodney Leon, of Haitian descent who aims to underscore the tragic legacy of the slave trade, which for over four centuries abused and robbed 15 million Africans of their human rights and dignity, and to inspire the world in the battle against modern forms of slavery, such as forced labor and human trafficking. He explained that he wanted to capture the story of the door known ominously as the ‘door of no return at the castle on Gorée Island in Senegal was where slaves were held in captivity before being shipped away. “We felt it would be a good counterpoint to establish a spiritual space of return, an ‘Ark of Return,’ a vessel where we can begin to create a counternarrative and undo some of that experience.” The aim of the memorial is not only to document and remember the past but also to look beyond it and move forward into the future, allowing people to experience the tragedy and simultaneously to communicate and heal. Its three essential themes, carved into its walls - "Acknowledge the tragedy, consider the legacy, lest we forget” - represent with the past, present and future.
The Africanistic Paradigm Shift Paradigms are the mental maps that we use to describe the world around us. They are the lens that each of us uses to understand everyone and everything. The key of a paradigm isn't as much in the true nature of a thing as much as our perception of the thing. Steven Covey, a great man, spoke at length on this subject. To illustrate his point he used the example of a person trying to find his way through Chicago with a map of Detroit. No matter how hard he tries, he will never be successful. In the same way, when we have erroneous ideas of what something is like, we are destined to fail in dealing with whatever it is. All Africans must learn from the knowledge of their ancestors, learn the legacy and doctrines of great African philosophers both in Africa and African Diaspora. All Africans everywhere must the learn all experiences and histories of African ethnic groups and their encounter with the world in order to have correct and healthy understandings of the world around us. A paradigm shift is when we abandon an incorrect paradigm for a correct one. I found this posting on my FB wall and I experienced a paradigm shift; take a look at these simple transformative words: “You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.” This says a lot and it transformed my thinking. Because now, I know that life is the energy that connect the soul to the body. The body has a rhythm and mind is the satellite or the antenna shows me the way. Therefore the body is a means to an end. Thus Life = +, (Body + Soul)= Me & (Soul + Mind)= Spirit …. + (Experience, + Culture + Education) tools + essence = value …. As African people we are spiritual and spirited people. Our spirit is not timid. Over the time we have become like an eagle cradled in the chicken’s nest. We have forgotten who we are. It is my turn to remind us how to rise up and soar like an eagle that we are in the sky. As Leopold Senghor puts it, our culture is a recourse to sanity. When we are lost, we turn to our cultural compass. But, here is the catch, the notion that there is an African culture is a myth. It doesn’t exist. We have many variants of African ethnic or tribal or national cultures. Which brings us to the query of what culture is. Culture is a naturally cultivated emergency response system. It is the way we exists in our habitat, our language, cuisine, sensibility and traditions are part of our culture. Culture can begin with a revolution but it needs evolution to be formed. It is like a farming principle. Africans around the world are in a crisis mode. We have been struggling against all odds in similar ways across the board. By doing this we are cultivating our mode or response and managing crisis. We are already forming an African culture (Pan African Culture). The FESTAC 77 and FESTMAN conferences in Africa were conscious efforts to curate and organize a platform to showcase the beauty of African diversity. We must not stop! Remember the eagle that you are and soar together.
The New Great African Awakening It is a radical idea to challenge the legitimacy of the New World Order. But the New World Order was wrong to carve the It is even more radical to cite where the Bible went wrong. And yet, it was misleading from the Genesis, “for if, in the beginning was not the word, then the word came without a thought. These are simple ideas but they ca be powerful. It is important to know that Africans have not fallen though we have lost many battles, but the war itself is as long as time. “And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved” Mark 13:13. Many Eugenicist have pondered in the attempt to understand the origins of self, why do Africans exist at all, if not to serve them. Well, it is not a fair question, but an honest one. Who might answer it? Culturally speaking, if you ask a question from culture to another, and you tend to answer that question yourself, it will be contemplation, or to put it candidly, it is madness. Africa can speak for itself. And all the children of Africa, though scattered around the world, though we speak in different tongues, we must come to a new great African awakening that the common self is borne with common sense; that nature hath so made us one, and no system can put us asunder. And when we have been taught and all know this truth, and have interiorized it, our strength shall be restored, and we will be able to earn the power we need to obtain the freedom you want as well as the authority we deserve. In spite of it all, all that was taken from Africa has returned in ten folds, and the more that is taken shall return in ten folds. We have acquired new lands, new cultures, new languages, new wealth and new cousins and friends around the world. And if God is love, those who join the crusade against racial hatred and cultural bigotry shall be welcome in the realm of love. I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn't always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn't always win the battle. The hardworking sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don't always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time. My request to every African is to be all the more diligent to make our calling and election sure, seek light which we will find in the knowledge of our ancestors and reflect it to all mankind, seek our brothers and sisters who have strayed; guide them and help them up, protect the weak from the ploy and temptation of lawless people so that we do not lose our own stability. Seek the perfect law, the law of liberty, and know that power lies in simple things, but true power is in the collective. Now see how vast our world is. Go on explore the world, with malice to none; be alert, be aware, have no fear, your world is new go on and live in it. Move forward; nevermore trudging. But most importantly, do not compromise your integrity with any notion of inequity. Now soar…
“Lords of Poverty.” A challenge to African Intellectual by Field Rowe Third World, they say is the lazy man’s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent—totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it “the dark continent” for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day. “It’s amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die.” Who might do something about that? This conversation ensued on a flight to Lusaka between Field Rowe and Walter. Where are you from?” Walter asked. Zambia, replied Field. “Zambia!” Walter exclaimed, “Kaunda’s country.” You just elected King Cobra as your president.” I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s,” he continued. “I wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr. Siteke Mwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians.” He lowered his voice. “I was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off.” He smirked. “Your government put me in a million dollar mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all—the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy.” “I have since moved to yet another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotize the cobra. I work for the broker that has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us millions of dollars. We’ll be in Lusaka to offer your president a couple of millions and fly back with a check twenty times greater.” “No, you won’t,” Field said. “King Cobra is incorruptible. He is …” Walter was laughing. “Says who? Give me an African president, just one, who has not fallen for the carrot and stick.” Quett Masire’s name popped up. Oh, him, well, we never got to him because he turned down the IMF and the World Bank. It was perhaps the smartest thing for him to do.” At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles. “Isn’t that beautiful,” Walter said looking down. From my middle seat, I took a glance and nodded admirably. “That’s white man’s country,” he said. “We came here on Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise and now the most powerful nation on earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia.” Field grinned. “There is no Lake Zambia.” Walter curled his lips into a smug smile. “That’s what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels—crumbs. That’s your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that’s crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas (whites) take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That’s what lazy people get—Zambians, Africans, the entire Third World.” The smile vanished from Field’s face. “I see you are getting pissed off,” Walter said and lowered his voice. “You are thinking this Bwana is a racist. That’s how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Okay. Let’s for a moment put our skin pigmentations, this black and white crap, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?” “There’s no difference.” “Absolutely none,” he exclaimed. “Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took them thirteen years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino, and black people on this aircraft are the same.” “And yet I feel superior,” he smiled fatalistically. “Every white person on this plane feels superior to a black person. The white guy who picks up garbage, the homeless white trash on drugs, feels superior to you no matter his status or education. I can pick up a nincompoop from the New York streets, clean him up, and take him to Lusaka and you all be crowding around him chanting muzungu, muzungu and yet he’s a riffraff. Tell me why my angry friend.” Please don’t blame it on slavery like the African Americans do, or colonialism, or some psychological impact or some kind of stigmatization. And don’t give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer.”
“Lords of Poverty.” (Part II) Walter continued. “Excuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offense.” “You my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy,” he said. “When you rest your head on the pillow you don’t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.” “That’s not a nice thing to say,” Field protested. “Oh yes it is and I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the street selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?” “Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes a bunch of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don’t. We reserve the evening for brainstorming.” “And you flying to Boston and all of you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic to your country. You don’t care about your country and yet your very own parents, brothers and sisters are in Mtendere, Chawama, and in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure. You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked—oh, I have a PhD in this and that—PhD my foot!” “Wake up you all!” Walter exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers. “You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those research findings and dissertation papers you compile should be your country’s treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India, just look at them. "He paused. “The Bwana has spoken,” he said and grinned. “As long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you my friend shall remain inferior, how about that? The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole.” He tempered his voice. “Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff for god’s sake.”
At 8 a.m. the plane touched down at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Walter reached for Field’s hand. “I know I was too strong, but I don’t give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty.” He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something. “Here, read this. It was written by a friend.” He had written only the title: “Lords of Poverty.” “Get up and do something about it.” It was important to tell this story because it help address many things we take for granted as Africans. We must address this issues but first we must learn to see and recognize them.
Quest for a Unique Branch of African Philosophy If an African indigenous thought system makes Africans and their philosophy inferior to those of the colonialist, can the assimilation of Western thought system make Africans and the philosophy they would construct through it equal to the colonialists? And could such Africans and their philosophy be truly called African with Western background thought system? When Africans leave off everything that makes them African (traditions, culture, thought system, etc.,) and adopt those of the West in a cheap search for belongingness, do they become Westerners by default? Would they still remain Africans? Or do they now become évolués? Is being unique actually the same as being inferior? And is being like the West actually the same as being non-inferior? Let me share a personal story. These questions have brought sudden realization of the disillusion suffered from severe self-deceit under colonial temper. The question which trailed every African was, “Who are you?” Of course, the answers from European perspective were savage, primitive, less than human, etc. It was the urgent, sudden need to contradict these European positions that led the post- slavery and colonial Africans in search of African identity. So, to discover or rediscover African identity in order to initiate a healthy history for Africa in the global matrix and start a course of viable economic, political and social progress that is entirely African became the focal point of African philosophy. It is therefore imperative to open new doors of learning of ideas of original African thinkers whose philosophy and doctrines have influenced human civilization and global development. Therefore, our quest must begin with the identification and systematic study of not only the history of these agents but also make every effort to indoctrinate their experiences, thoughts, ideas, and directives in our pedagogic system as a unique branch of African philosophy. It would certainly provide an opportunity for enlightenment of the general public, but more importantly it will provide the sense of African role and responsibility within the universal ecosystem.
The Change We Want In order to implement change, we need agents of change. These are people who are able to analyze the past, understand the present, and articulate clear vision about the future. These are not merely pundits but philosophers who shape our thinking and shift cultural paradigms. Some of them are inventors, writers, politicians, or any other professional in academic or social department of human affairs. Let us observe the following: •
The philosophical thought that shaped Western Civilizations are the work of ordinary people who were able to analyze the past, understand the present, and articulate clear vision about the future and the role of Westerners in the universal ecosystem.
•
The philosophical thought that shapes Eastern Civilizations are the work of ordinary people who were able to analyze the past, understand the present, and articulate clear vision about the future and the role of Easterners in the universal ecosystem.
•
The philosophical thought that will shape African Civilizations must be the work of ordinary people who were able to analyze the past, understand the present, and articulate clear vision about the future and the role of Africans in the universal ecosystem.
These simple notion of orderliness must be acceptable in order for us to contribute to the honest development of the world. Therefore, as Africans we must contribute our knowledge and experience on par to the universal ecosystem. Therefore, Africans must learn about our philosophies’ ideologies and doctrines. This is a must, in order to create a just world for all. This must be done now without compromise and with full integrity. Only when we have been able to understand the legacy of our ancestors can we begin to make informed decision about self-determination, selfattainment and true self-worth otherwise known as emancipation and value propositions within the universal ecosystem. So every child can make a decision, just as in Christian or Islamic value on what is good. A Christian child would think before it act, would Jesus approve this? If Christianity is able to achieve that, it is already a successful religion. Now, every African Child must be able to know what is right or wrong based on the philosophies and principles of African spiritual development. And the child too must be able to ask before taken an action if the ancestor would approve this? I bet you if we are able to achieve that we would no longer have drug and gang related problems in our communities everywhere in the world.
The Ubiquity of symbols of supremacy
Current flag of Nigeria
Old flag of Rhodesia
On Nov. 11, 1965, Ian Smith announced in emotionless tones that Rhodesia had declared independence from Britain rather than bow to pressure from London for concessions toward the black majority. It was a broadcast proclamation of rebellion, ending with the words: "We have struck a blow for the preservation of justice, civilization and Christianity, and in this belief we have this day assumed our sovereign independence. God bless you all." His white countrymen were confident that "good old Smithy" knew what he was doing. His black compatriots were aghast at his display of defiance. But their resentments were countered by a state machinery that encompassed detention without trial, an efficient secret police and, later, martial law. Mugabe was one of many black nationalists jailed for years by the white authorities under emergency powers. Condemnation of the rebellion heaped up. The United Nations applied international sanctions intended to cut off Rhodesia from the rest of the world in 1966. Smith would not bend. "No African rule in my lifetime," he said. "The white man is master of Rhodesia. He has built it and he intends to keep it.“ Later, in 1976, he declared that there would be no majority rule, "not in a thousand years," in Rhodesia. Black Africans, Smith said, were not ready for self-government. The ubiquitous symbols of supremacy reveal that pride of the legacy and proves that there is an active continuity of racist activities and practice in the US and parts of the world.; often in plain site or in l east expected places. African countries should more vigilant and courageous in repealing all relics of slavery, white supremacy y and racism; including replacing colonial ascribed country names with meaningful African names. We must ascertain that no supremacy should not have to be part of our cultural identity. This insult is traumatic to say the very least. We must echo this sentiment loud and clear. Change can begin here.
The Confederate Flag to Africans is like the Swastika to Jewish people
Thinkers who shaped African Political Consciousness National Equal Rights League leader, assassinated by a white man attempting to discourage black voting in a key Philadelphia election. Catto's funeral is the largest public funeral in Philadelphia since Lincoln's and his death is mourned in black communities throughout the country. (1871) USA
( 1900 Abeokuta, Nigeria – 1978 Lagos, Nigeria) was a teacher, political campaigner, women's rights activist and traditional aristocrat.
Funmilayo Ransome Kuti
Octavius V. Catto
First Prime Minister of the Gold Coast in 1951, led the independence initiative for African countries and became the first President of Ghana. He was the father of PanAfricanism, and founding member of the Organization of African Unity and was the winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1963.
Kwame Osagyefo Nkrumah
Herbert Macaulay was one of the first Nigerian nationalists and for most of his life a strong opponent of British rule in Nigeria. As a reaction to claims by the British that they were governing with "the true interests of the natives at heart", he wrote: "The dimensions of "the true interests of the natives at heart" are algebraically equal to the length, breadth and depth of the whiteman's pocket."
South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. “It
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
always seems impossible until it's done.” Forgiveness, that is….
Ahmed Ben Bella became a founding member of an underground organization pledged to fight colonial rule, known as the Organization Spéciale
Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese independence leader and the first democratically elected leader of the Congo
Kaunda was an outspoken supporter of the antiapartheid movement
Haile Selassie I, born Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael, was Ethiopia's regent from 1916 to 1930 and Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He was a member of the Solomonic dynasty Emperor Haile Selassie
Joseph Jenkin Roberts has been described as a talented leader with diplomatic skills. His leadership was instrumental in giving Liberia independence and sovereignty.
Villains who betrayed African Development
Willie Lynch
The Willie Lynch story is a very controversial story. The authenticity of the story is contested by different African scholars, one of the leading dissenter is By Prof. Manu Ampim, who based his argument on lack of evidence of Willie Lynch’s existence. It is also true that no factual evidence exist as to the etymon of the word Lynch in mob justice. There are many ploys that occur behind closed doors, between cults, and organized oligarchs which cause great waves in world affairs yet the total actual truth of that are never revealed to the world public. The Willie Lynch letter is helpful has it helps encapsulate the motives behind the cultural and traditions of enslavement. Willie Lynch serves as the symbol of the evil deeds of slavery. Seeking to disproof it is an academic privilege affordable to few elite. Just imagine a world without Edward Snowden, and there I hope you find the respite.
Botha: We do not pretend like other Whites that we like Blacks. The fact that, Blacks look like human beings and act like human beings do not necessarily make them sensible human beings. Hedgehogs are not porcupines and lizards are not crocodiles simply because they look alike. If God wanted us to be equal to the Blacks, he would have created> us all of a uniform colour and intellect. But he created us differently: Whites, Blacks, Yellow, Rulers and the ruled. Intellectually, we are superior to the Blacks; that has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt over the years. I believe that the Afrikaner is an honest, God fearing person, who has demonstrated practically the right way of being.
P.W. Botha
Wallace is still perhaps best known as a symbol of America's resistance to the civil rights movement. Throughout the 1960s his candor and raw political acumen cast him into the role of defender of Southern traditions – namely white supremacy and segregation. But after a series of unsuccessful presidential bids and surviving a failed assassination attempt, Wallace pulled off perhaps the most astounding late career political reinvention in American history. He publicly apologized for his past, won a majority of African American votes.
Rhodes perfected the racist “land grabs” to which Zimbabwe’s current miseries can ultimately be traced. He said that “the native is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise. We must adopt a system of despotism in our relations with the barbarians of South Africa”. In less oratorical moments, he put it even more bluntly: “I prefer land to niggers.”
Blaise Compaoré killed Sankara because his agenda was disturbing relations with French government and neighboring nations.
George Wallace: The Great Divider
Cecil Rhodes
Eugène Terre'Blanche
Jean-Bédel Bokassa Ibrahim Babangida annulled Nigerian election result to suit his ambitions.
J. Edgar Hoover established a "dirty tricks" program called COINTELPRO: illegal wiretapping, infiltrating organizations, burglary spreading false accusations to disrupt various African development efforts, such as Garvey, MLK,, et al Islamic Jihadists, i.e. Boko Haram
King Leopold
Joseph Kony is the leader of the Lord's Resistance
Jean-Claude Duvalier ("Bébé Doc“) and François Duvalier, ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalie both bled Haiti dry
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Idi Amin Dada, became known as the 'Butcher of Uganda' for his brutal, despotic rule whilst president of Uganda
Mobutu Sese Seko Napoleon was the man who, for Kuku Ngbendu the first time in history, “asked Wa Za Banga himself rationally the question
how to eliminate, in as short a time as possible, and with a minimum of cost and personnel, a maximum of people described as scientifically inferior”
Sir Evelyn Baring, Governor of Kenya, imposes a death penalty for all those who organize the Adolph Hitler declares in Mein Kampf Negroes taking of the Mau Mau oath. are “half-apes.”
Fredrick Douglas A major theme in the philosophical tradition is the investigation into the workings of human nature. Some hold, for instance, that human nature is basically selfish we all ultimately act to maximize our own gain. Others argue that cooperation is the central human instinct, self -interest being a condition imposed by society. One way of examining human nature is through the experiences of individuals who have lived at the extremes of human interaction. Frederick Douglass’ discourse on the Self Made Man brought a new thought to the dimension of human knowledge. Man in one form or another, has been a frequent and fruitful subject for the press, the pulpit and the platform. This subject has come up for consideration under a variety of attractive titles, such as "Great Men," "Representative Men," "Peculiar Men," "Scientific Men," "Literary Men," "Successful Men," "Men of Genius," and "Men of the World;" but under whatever name or designation, the vital point of interest in the discussion has ever been the same, and that is, manhood itself, and this in its broadest and most comprehensive sense. The tendency to the universal, in such discussion, is altogether natural and all controlling: for when we consider what man, as a whole, is; what he has been; what he aspires to be, and what, by a wise and vigorous cultivation of his faculties, he may yet become, we see that it leads irresistibly to this broad view of him as a subject of thought and inquiry. The saying of the poet that "The proper study of mankind is man," and which has been the starting point of so many lectures, essays and speeches, holds its place, like all other great utterances, because it contains a great truth and a truth alike for every age and generation of men. It is always new and can never grow old. It is neither dimmed by time nor tarnished by repetition; for man, both in respect of himself and of his species, is now, and evermore will be, the center of unsatisfied human curiosity.
Fredrick Douglas (02/ 1818 – 02/20/ 1895). Douglass wrote several autobiographical works. In them we may find clues to the workings of the human character
Edward Wilmot Blyden As a writer, Blyden is regarded widely as the "father of Pan-Africanism". His major work, Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race (1887), promoted the idea that practicing Islam was more unifying and fulfilling for Africans than Christianity. He argues that the latter was introduced chiefly by European colonizers. He believed it had a demoralizing effect, although he continued to be a Christian. He thought Islam was more authentically African, as it had been brought to sub-Saharan areas by people from North Africa. His book was controversial in Great Britain, both for its subject and because many people at first did not believe that a black African had written it. In later printings, Blyden included his photograph as the frontispiece. Blyden wrote:
Edward Wilmot Blyden Born: August 3, 1832, Saint Thomas Died: February 7, 1912, Freetown, Sierra Leone
"'Let us do away with the sentiment of Race. Let us do away with out African personality and be lost, if possible, in another Race.' This is as wise or as philosophical as to say, let us do away with gravitation, with heat and cold and sunshine and rain. Of course, the Race in which these persons would be absorbed is the dominant race, before which, in cringing self-surrender and ignoble self-suppression they lie in prostrate admiration." Due to his religious affiliations, in the late 19th century Blyden publicly supported the creation of a Jewish state in Israel; he praised Theodore Herzl as the creator of "that marvelous movement called Zionism."
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. Life and Lessons, is a compendium of Garvey's eclectic philosophy. It is arranged in six sections. The first section, entitled "African Fundamentalism," contains the 1925 creed by that name---Garvey's attempt at a modern race catechism. The second section contains his abstract vision of the ideal state. Garvey's little-known serialized autobiography supplies the third section, and the fourth features Garvey's epic poem, The Tragedy of White Injustice. A series of dramatic dialogues from the Black Man makes up the fifth section. The sixth, and final, section consists of the lessons in leadership from Garvey's School of African Philosophy. The whole---garnered from materials created in the last fifteen years of Garvey's life---constitutes vintage Garvey and makes possible an enriched understanding of the popular allegiance that his ideas inspired. Garvey's pragmatic philosophy, with its emphasis on self-mastery, determination, and willpower, also contained elements of New Thought, which emerged during the Gilded Age out of the allied branches of the mental healing phenomenon. With its emphasis on mind mastery, New Thought offered a set of metaphysical theories that proffered to its millions of adherents a system of mental hygiene to equip them for the journey along the road to success. Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. Born: 17 August 1887, Jamaica Died: 10 June 1940 London, England
To rise out of this racial chaos new thought must be injected into the race. African vision of nationalism and imperialism, the African at home must gather a new thought. He must not only be satisfied to be a worker but he must primarily be a figure.
William Edward Burghardt "W. E. B." Du Bois A critical thinker who fits into the history of philosophy between the transcendentalists, pragmatists, and existentialism. Du Bois had a concept of double consciousness, one consciousness of what we do based on our first-person narrative and another consciousness of how other people see us. Du Bois saw the violence of racism, and he felt rational discussion was not the way to change the status quo. He argued against Booker T. Washington's program of slow integration. Du Bois thought that it was easy to misinterpret Washington's message as accommodating racism and he also thought that education was essential to changing the social status of African-Americans. Would a colorblind society eliminate race problems? Du Bois did not think that it would solve any problems. Du Bois emphasizes that race is important because it has been so central to the development of humanity. Whatever turns out to be the best general account of Du Bois' philosophy, it seems the significance of his thought only really shows up in the specific details of his works themselves, especially in The Souls of Black Folk. It is here that he first develops his central philosophical concept, the concept of double consciousness, and spells out its full implications.
William Edward Burghardt "W. E. B." Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author and editor. Born: February 23, 1868, Massachusetts Died: August 27, 1963 Accra, Ghana
The aim of Souls of Black Folk is to show the spirit of black people in the United States: to show their humanity and the predicament that has confronted their humanity. Du Bois asserts that "the color line" divides people in the States, causes massive harm to its inhabitants, and ruins its own pretensions to democracy. He shows, in particular, how a veil has come to be put over African-Americans, so that others do not see them as they are; African-Americans are obscured in America; they cannot be seen clearly, but only through the lens of race prejudice. African-Americans feel this alien perception upon them but at the same time feel themselves as themselves, as their own with their own legitimate feelings and traditions. This dual self-perception is known as "double consciousness." Du Bois' aim in Souls is to explain this concept in more specific detail and to show how it adversely affects African-Americans. In the background of Souls is always also the moral import of its message, to the effect that the insertion of a veil on human beings is wrong and must be condemned on the grounds that it divides what otherwise would be a unique and coherent identity. Souls thus aims to make the reader understand, in effect, that African-Americans have a distinct cultural identity, one that must be acknowledged, respected, and enabled to flourish.
Cyril Lionel Robert James CLR James’ Philosophy emphasizes social determinism and its effect in History of Human Necessity. We are now at the stage where all universal questions are matters of concrete specific urgency for society in general as well as for every individual. He argues: “It is precisely the character of our age and the maturity of humanity that obliterates the opposition between theory and practice, between the intellectual occupations of the ‘educated’ and the masses.” All previous distinctions, politics and economics, war and peace, agitation and propaganda, party and mass, the individual and society, national, civil and imperialist war, single country and one world, immediate needs and ultimate solutions – all these it is impossible to keep separate any longer. Total planning is inseparable from permanent crisis, the world struggle for the minds of men from the world tendency to the complete mechanization of men. He analyzes the inevitability of the role of the individual within the universal ecosystem. Using that to place the importance of interdependency at the center of African consciousness. Cyril Lionel Robert James, Born: January 4, 1901, Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago Died: May 19, 1989, London, United Kingdom
He used this premise to criticize Communism and argues in favor of Capitalism (with some moderation). Statecapitalism is in itself the total contradiction, absolute antagonism. The revolutionary bourgeoisie which established its power against feudalism could only develop a philosophy of history and of society in which, on the one hand, it spoke for the progress of all society, and on the other, for itself as the leaders of society. This philosophy can be summed up in one word: rationalism, the philosophy of bourgeois political economy. It is materialist and not idealist in so far as it combats superstition, seeks to expand the productive forces and increase the sum total of goods. But there is no such thing as a classless materialism. Rationalism conceives this expansion as a division of labor between the passive masses and the active elite. Thereby it reinstates idealism. Because it does not and cannot doubt that harmonious progress is inevitable by this path, the essence of rationalism is uncritical or vulgar materialism, and uncritical or vulgar idealism. The specific political ideology developed by rationalism was democracy – equality of opportunity for all men to rise to the top, and hence equality in all spheres outside of production, before the law, at the polls and in the market.
Frantz Fanon Fanon’s contribution to phenomenology, glossed as a critical race discourse (an analysis of the pre-conscious forces shaping the self that organizes itself around race as a founding category), most particularly his exploration of the existential challenges faced by black human beings in a social world that is constituted for white human beings, receives its most explicit treatment in Peau Noire, Masques Blancs. The central metaphor of this book, that black people must wear “white masks” in order to get by in a white world, is reminiscent of W.E.B. Du Bois’ argument that African Americans develop a double consciousness living under a white power structure: one that flatters that structure (or some such) and one experienced when among other African Americans. Fanon dissects in all of his major works the racist and colonizing project of white European culture, that is, the totalizing, hierarchical worldview that needs to set up the black human being as “negro” so it has an “other” against which to define itself. Fanon’s diagnosis of the psychological dimensions of negrification’s phenomenological violence documents its traumatizing effects: first, negrification promotes negative attitudes toward other blacks and Africa; second, it normalizes attitudes of desire and debasement toward Europe, white people, and white culture in general; and finally, it presents itself as such an all-encompassing way of being in the world that no other alternative appears to be possible. Fanon asserts, without subconsciously accepting the cultural meanings embedded in equations of purity with whiteness and malevolence with blackness: to be white is to be good, and to be black is to be bad.
Frantz Fanon Born: July 20, 1925, Fort-de-France Died: December 6, 1961, Bethesda, MD
One of the most pervasive agents of phenomenological conditioning is language. One cannot learn and speak this language, he focuses on the colonizing aspects of the French language, as well as offers an account of how language might enable decolonization efforts. Fanon describes a decision made by the revolutionary forces in Algeria in 1956 to give up their previous boycott of French and instead start using it as the lingua franca that could unite diverse communities of resistance, including those who did not speak Arabic. He situates his diagnosis within an unambiguous ethical commitment to the equal right of every human being to have his or her human dignity recognized by others. This assertion, that all of us are entitled to moral consideration and that no one is dispensable, is the principled core of his decolonization theory, which continues to inspire scholars and activists dedicated to human rights and social justice.
Malcolm X, (el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz,) Of all the Outspoken African thinkers whose deeds were revolutionary in their days, none was as misunderstood and controversial as Malcolm X. This calls for a renewed and honest assessment of his doctrine and philosophy. Many academics often mislabel his ideals as radical and extreme measure of self-glorifying resistance to the status quo with divisive message propagating racial violence based on the principles of the Nation of Islam – a view which he once represented, but had publicly regretted after his divestiture from the Nation of Islam. What is not often considered in the analysis however are the psychosocial, the socio-cultural, and the political economic environment that marred his experience and shaped his thought and to which his candor was directed to confront. Because without understanding this factor, we would have missed the contribution of one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century in the collective civilization of mankind. Malcolm had a typical American experience as an African in the United States, and he struggled between two choices: to assimilate or seek justice. His struggles between these choices were publicly played out as a theater of life on the American stage throughout his lifetime.
Malcolm X, (el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz,) Born: May 19, 1925, Omaha, NE Assassinated: February 21, 1965, New York City “Don't be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn't do what you do or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn't know what you know today.”
When he was six, his father was killed by the Klan; the death insurance verdict was unfavorable and the challenges led his mother to a mental hospital when he was thirteen. Though he remained ambitious and excelled in junior high and wanted to become a lawyer but a white teacher told him that practicing law, was "no realistic goal for a nigger". He became dismayed, dropped out of school; held a variety of jobs went from foster homes to prison. He was angry at the “American System of Authority,” in which he saw dishonesty, injustice, greed, hatred, and impunity because of racism against the African man. This made him exceptionally vulnerable to the recruitment tactics of the NOI while in prison. He was indeed an effective propaganda machine for the NOI who felt they had made him and he owed them perpetual allegiance. When Malcolm left the NOI to form other organizations, such as the Organization of Afro-American Unity, a secular group that advocated Pan-Africanism -- he met with new African leaders like Nkrumah, Ben Bella, Balewa, Ture and his views changed. “I realized racism isn't just a black and white problem.” I did many things as a [Black] Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then—like all [Black] Muslims—I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the cost. It cost me 12 years. I'm glad to be free of them.” However is position on justice remained firm. He gave speeches at Oxford University and the motions that defined his philosophy were: "Extremism in the Defense of Liberty is No Vice; Moderation in the Pursuit of Justice is No Virtue". Malcolm X argued affirmatively on this premise, and if he was wrong, there would have never been a United States of America which emerged as the greatest nation in the world because a handful of bold and courageous men stood up for justice even when the stake was against them.
Martin Luther King, Jr. In his first speech as the group's president, King declared, "We have no alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown an amazing patience. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.“ The bus boycott would be 382 days of walking to work, harassment, violence and intimidation for the Montgomery's African-American community. On March 9, 1965, a procession of 2,500 marchers, both black and white, set out once again to cross the Pettus Bridge and confronted barricades and state troopers. Instead of forcing a confrontation, King led his followers to kneel in prayer and they then turned back. King too is often misunderstood as naively weak or pacifistic during the civil rights movement. King’s philosophy and doctrine provides much room for study as ideology that combines element of Stoicism (courage, self-control, endurance, fortitude ) and Satyagraha, (non-violent method to enforce truth). This in itself is a theory of attaining justice through offensive peace. The principle is based on the notion that a person of "moral and intellectual perfection“ is above anger, envy, fear or suffer controllable emotion. There are six specific tenets of Nonviolent Resistance or Offensive Peace according to King.: • •
Martin Luther King, Jr., was an American Baptist minister, activist, humanitarian, • and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Born: January 15, 1929, Atlanta, GA Assassinated: April 4, 1968, Memphis, TN •
• •
First, he argued that even though nonviolence may be perceived as cowardly, it was not. In fact, it was a method that did resist. According to King, a nonviolent protester was as passionate as a violent protester. Despite not being physically aggressive, "his mind and emotions are always active, constantly seeking to persuade the opponent that he is mistaken. Second, the point of nonviolent resistance is not to humiliate the opponent, but instead to gain his friendship and understanding. Further, the use of boycotts and methods of non-cooperation, were the "means to awaken a sense of moral shame in the opponent. The result was redemption and reconciliation instead of the bitterness and chaos that came from violent resistance. The third point King advanced was that the battle was against the forces of evil and not individuals. Tension was not between the races, but was "between justice and injustice, between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. And if there is a victory it will be a victory not merely for fifty thousand Negroes, but a victory for justice and the forces of light. Thus, tension only existed between good and evil and not between people. Fourth, nonviolent resistance required the willingness to suffer. One must accept violence without retaliating with violence and must go to jail if necessary. Accordingly, the end was more important than safety, and retaliatory violence would distract from the main fight. King believed that by accepting suffering, it led to "tremendous educational and transforming possibilities" and would be a powerful tool in changing the minds of the opponents. King's fifth point about nonviolent resistance was that the "universe was on the side of justice." Accordingly, people have a "cosmic companionship" with God who is on the side of truth. Therefore, the activist has faith that justice will occur in the future. King's sixth point was central to the method of nonviolent resistance. He believed the importance of nonviolence rested in the fact that it prevented physical violence and the "internal violence of spirit." Bitterness and hate were absent from the resisters mind, and replaced with love.
Thurgood Marshall Marshall earned an important place in American history on the basis of two accomplishments. First, as legal counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), he guided the litigation that destroyed the legal underpinnings of Jim Crow segregation. Second, as an associate justice of the Supreme Court–the nation’s first black justice–he crafted a distinctive jurisprudence marked by uncompromising liberalism, unusual attentiveness to practical considerations beyond the formalities of law, and an indefatigable willingness to dissent. Marshall's most famous case came in 1954. It was called Brown v. Board of Education. In this case Marshall argued that schools should not be segregated. At that time there were separate schools for black children and white children. It was illegal in many states for black children to attend the same schools as white children. The argument that many states used was one called "separate but equal". Racial segregation in education varied widely from the 17 states that required racial segregation to the 16 in which it was prohibited. Brown was influenced by UNESCO's 1950 Statement, signed by a wide variety of internationally renowned scholars, titled The Race Question. Marshall argued that separate schools could not be equal. This declaration denounced previous attempts at scientifically justifying racism as well as morally condemning racism. The black and White Dolls theory research performed by the educational psychologists Kenneth B. Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark also influenced the Court's decision. The Clarks' "doll test" studies presented substantial arguments to the Supreme Court about how segregation had an impact on black schoolchildren's mental status.
Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the first African-American Chief justice. Born: July 2, 1908, Baltimore, MD Died: January 24, 1993, Bethesda, MD
Marshall won the case unanimously (9–0) decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." and that segregation in schools was unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation, insofar as it applied to public education. As a result, de jure racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution (("no State shall... deny to any person... the equal protection of the laws."). This ruling paved the way for integration and was a major victory of the civil rights movement In 1987, Marshall gave a controversial speech on the occasion of the bicentennial celebrations of the Constitution: The government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war, and major social transformations to attain the system of constitutional government and its respect for the freedoms and individual rights, we hold as fundamental today….
Cheikh Anta Diop In 1946, at the age of 23, Diop went to Paris to study philosophy where he acquired academic proficiency in diverse disciplines such as rationalism, dialectics, modern scientific techniques, Egyptology and prehistoric archeology. He applied this knowledge encyclopedically to his researches on African history. In 1949, he registered a proposed title for a Doctor of Letters thesis, "The Cultural Future of African thought,” In 1951 he registered a second thesis title "Who were the pre-dynastic Egyptians”. He completed this thesis on pre-dynastic Egypt in 1954 argued that ancient Egypt had been populated by Black people. He specified that he used the terms "negro", "black", "white" and "race" as "immediate givens" in the Bergsonian sense, and went on to suggest operational definitions of these terms. He said that the Egyptian language and culture had later been spread to West Africa, but could not find a jury of examiners for it: he later published many of his ideas as the book Nations nègres et culture (Negro Nations and Culture), which made him one of the most controversial pundits of his time.
Cheikh Anta Diop (29 December 1923 – 7 February 1986) was a historian, anthropologist, philosopher, physicist, and politician who studied the human race's origins and pre-colonial African culture. Cheikh Anta Diop University, in Dakar, Senegal, is named after him.
In 1956 he re-registered a new proposed thesis for Doctor of Letters with the title "The areas of matriarchy and patriarchy in ancient times. In 1957 he registered his new thesis title "Comparative study of political and social systems of Europe and Africa, from Antiquity to the formation of modern states." These topics were concerned with the forms of organization of African and European societies and how they evolved. He obtained his doctorate in 1960. His life work was centered on a unique branch of epistemology of the true origins, forms, and values of African people. His interpretation of anthropological data (such as the role of matriarchy) and archeological data led him to conclude that Egyptian culture was a Black African culture. He argued that African scholarship is still being influenced by the scientific racism of Carleton S. Coon and others. Diop consistently held that Africans could not be pigeonholed into a rigid type that existed somewhere south of the Sahara, but they varied widely in diversity, skin color, facial shape, hair type, height, and a number of additional factors, just like other human populations. He examined the role of African languages, which, he said, would be the sources of regeneration in African culture. He proposed that African culture should be rebuilt on the basis of ancient Egypt, in the same way that European culture was built upon the legacies of ancient Greece and Rome. His political influence on the idea of pan Africanism among students in both francophone and Anglophone speaking African countries, was significant and popularized the slogan "National independence from the Sahara to the Cape, and from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic." The movement identified as key task restoring the African national consciousness, which they argued had been warped by slavery and colonialism. He argued that only a united and federated African state will be able to overcome underdevelopment. This critical work constitutes a rational study of not only Africa's cultural, historic and geographic unity, but of Africa's potential for energy development and industrialization. Diop argues for the need to build a capable continental army, able to defend the continent and its people and proposes a plan for the development of Africa's raw materials and industrialization. All these factors combined, based on the formation of a federated and unified Africa, culturally and otherwise, are surmised to be the only way for Africa to become the power in the world that she should rightfully be.
Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba was a religious leader who produced a prodigious quantity of poems and tracts on meditation, rituals, work, and Qur'anic study. Politically, Ahmadou Bamba led a pacifist struggle against French colonialism while not waging outright war on the French as several prominent Tijani marabouts had done. Ahmadou Bamba founded the Mouride brotherhood in 1883.
Ahmadou Bamba, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacké (1853–1927) Aamadu Bamba Mbàkke in Wolof, Shaykh Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb Allāh )also known as Khādimu 'l-Rasūl (or "The Servant of the messenger", and as Sëriñ Tuubaa or "Cheikh of Tuubaa" in Wolof", was a Muslim Sufi religious leader in Senegal and the founder of the large Mouride Brotherhood (the Muridiyya).
Amadou Bamba's teachings emphasized the virtues of pacifism, hard work and good manners. As an ascetic marabout who wrote tracts on meditation, rituals, work, and Qur'anic study, he is perhaps best known for his emphasis on work and industriousness. Bamba's followers call him a "renewer" (mujaddid in Arabic) of Islam, citing a hadith that implies that God will send renewers of the faith every 100 years (the members of all the Senegalese brotherhoods claim that their founders were such renewers). He founded the city of Touba in 1887. In one of his numerous writings, Matlabul Fawzeyni (the quest for happiness in both worlds), Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba describes the purpose of the city, which was intended to reconcile the spiritual and the temporal. As Bamba's fame and influence spread, the French colonial government worried about his growing power and potential to wage war against them. He had converted a number of traditional kings and their followers and no doubt could have raised a huge military force, as Muslim leaders like Umar Tall and Samory Touré had before him. In the political sphere, Ahmadou Bamba led a pacifist struggle against French colonialism while trying to restore a purer practice of Islam insulated from French colonial influence. In a period when successful armed resistance was impossible, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba led a spiritual struggle against colonial culture and politics. Although he did not wage outright war on them as several prominent Tijaan marabouts had done, he taught what he called the jihād al-'akbar or "greater struggle," which fought not through weapons but through learning and fear of God. As Bamba gathered followers, he taught that salvation comes through complete submission to God and hard work. The Mouride order has built, following this teaching, a large economic organization, involved in many aspects of the Senegalese economy. Groundnut cultivation, the primary cash crop of the colonial period, was an early example of this. Young followers were recruited to settle marginal lands in eastern Senegal, found communities and create groundnut plantations. With the organization and supplies provided by the Brotherhood, a portion of the proceeds were returned to Touba, while the workers, after a period of years, earned ownership over the plantations and towns. Mouridism is today one of Senegal’s four Sufi movements, with four million devotees in Senegal alone and thousands more abroad majority of who are emigrants from Senegal. Every year, millions of Muslims from all over the world make a pilgrimage to Touba (Magal), worshipping at the mosque and honoring the memory of Sheikh Amadou Bamba. Modern Mourides contribute earnings to the brotherhood, which provides social services, loans, and business opportunities in return. Ahmadou Bamba is also known to have invented Café Touba. Bamba traditionally mixed coffee and spices together for medicinal purposes, and served it to his followers.
Anna Julia Haywood Cooper During her years as a teacher and principal at M Street High School in Washington, D.C., Cooper completed her first book, A Voice from the South: By A Woman from the South, published in 1892. It was her only published work, although she delivered many speeches calling for civil rights and woman's rights.[2] Perhaps her most well-known volume of writing, A Voice from the South is widely viewed as one of the first articulations of Black feminism. The book advanced a vision of self-determination through education and social uplift for African-American women. Its central thesis was that the educational, moral, and spiritual progress of black women would improve the general standing of the entire African-American community. She says that the violent natures of men often run counter to the goals of higher education, so it is important to foster more female intellectuals because they will bring more elegance to education. Cooper was not only an author and educator, but she was a speaker as well. Some notable speeches were delivered at the World's Congress of Representative Women in Chicago in 1893 (in which she was one of three African women invited to speak) and the first Pan-African Conference in London in 1900 (when she delivered a paper entitled "The Negro Problem in America")
Pages 26 and 27 of the United States passport contain the following quotation: "The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class – it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity." – Anna Julia Cooper In 2009, the United States Postal Service released a commemorative stamp in Cooper's honor.
Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (Raleigh, August 10, 1858 – February 27, 1964) was an American author, educator, speaker and one of the most prominent AfricanAmerican scholars in United States history.
Also in 2009, a tuition-free private middle school was opened and named in her honor, Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School on historic Church Hill in Richmond, Virginia.
Toni Morrison Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford;[1] February 18, 1931) is an American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon and Beloved. She was also commissioned to write the libretto for a new opera, Margaret Garner, first performed in 2005. She won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988 for Beloved and the Nobel Prize in 1993. On May 29, 2012, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Morrison serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. Morrison began writing fiction as part of an informal group of poets and writers at Howard University who met to discuss their work. She attended one meeting with a short story about a black girl who longed to have blue eyes. She later developed the story as her first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970). In 1975 her novel Sula (1973) was nominated for the National Book Award. Her third novel, Song of Solomon (1977), brought her national attention. The book was a main selection of the Book-of-theMonth Club, the first novel by a black writer to be so chosen since Richard Wright's Native Son in 1940. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1987 Morrison's novel Beloved became a critical success. When the novel failed to win the National Book Award as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award, 48 black critics and writers[10] protested the omission.[7][11] Shortly afterward, it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the American Book Award. That same year, Morrison took a visiting professorship at Bard College. Beloved was adapted into the 1998 film of the same name starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. Morrison later used Margaret Garner's life story again in the libretto for a new opera, Margaret Garner, with music by Richard Danielpour. In May 2006, The New York Times Book Review named Beloved the best American novel published in the previous 25 years.
Toni Morrison is an American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Sula, So… More Wikipedia Born: February 18, 1931 (age 84), Lorain, OH.
In 1996 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Morrison for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Morrison's lecture, entitled "The Future of Time: Literature and Diminished Expectations, began with the aphorism, "Time, it seems, has no future." She cautioned against the misuse of history to diminish expectations of the future. Morrison was honored with the 1996 National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, which is awarded to a writer "who has enriched our literary heritage over a life of service, or a corpus of work.“ In addition to her novels, Morrison has written books for children, one of them entitled God Help the Child. Toni’s contribution is very significant to the African cultural movement especially in the area of oral history.
Fannie Lou Hamer Fannie Lou Hamer was a grass-roots civil rights activist whose life exemplified resistance in rural Mississippi to oppressive conditions. Several pivotal moments in Hamer’s life became public reminders that America’s vision of democracy was incongruent with its horrifying reality. In 1961 she was sterilized without her knowledge or consent by a white doctor as part of the state of Mississippi’s plan to reduce the number of impoverished blacks in the state. On August 23, 1962, after hearing a sermon by Rev. James Bevel, she volunteered to become an organizer for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to help black Mississippians register to vote. While she was traveling by bus on June 3, 1963, state law enforcement officers in Winona, Mississippi, took Hamer and fellow activists to Montgomery County Jail where they were beaten mercilessly. She testified that she was beaten until her “body was hard.” She suffered a blood clot, sustained damage to her kidney, and required a month to recover from the assault. After her recovery, she returned to the effort to register and organize black voters. In 1964, Hamer became one of the statewide leaders in the Freedom Summer Campaign which brought hundreds of volunteers from across the nation to Mississippi to help with voter registration. It was during that summer campaign that three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, were killed by anti-black terrorists. Hamer became a national figure during the summer as the co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). The Democratic Party in Mississippi barred black participation. As a consequence black and white activists in the state created the MFDP. Since 1964 was a Presidential election year, and the regular Democrats had threaten to withhold support to the national Democratic ticket, Hamer and other MFDP leaders traveled to the National Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City to argue that they should be the official delegation from Mississippi to the Convention. Hamer, vice president of MFDP, spoke before the Credentials Committee protesting the all-white delegation from Mississippi and her speech was aired across the country. In stirring testimony she described the oppressive conditions she and other black Fannie Lou Hamer (/ˈheɪmər/; born Fannie Mississippians faced on a daily basis and urged recognition of the MFDP to encourage blacks to register to vote. Senator Hubert Humphrey who was campaigning for the vice presidential nomination, led a group of high level Democratic Party Lou Townsend; October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977) was an American voting rights activist, activists to persuade Hamer and the MFDP to accept a compromise that would allow token representation in the regular civil rights leader, and philanthropist. She was Mississippi Democratic delegation. Hamer and the MFDP rejected the compromise and returned to Mississippi. Her campaign, however, led to significant reforms in the way delegates are selected for the national Democratic Party conventions. instrumental in organizing Mississippi's Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent From 1968 the Party would require equality of representation in state delegations. Hamer continued to work in Mississippi for voting rights. She ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1964 and in a special election in 1965. In 1968 she was part of the regular Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later Mississippi delegation to the National Democratic Party Convention where she was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War. became the vice-chair of the Mississippi Hamer was also inducted as an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. On March 14, 1977, Fannie Lou Hamer died Freedom Democratic Party, which she of cancer at age 59 in Ruleville, Mississippi. She was buried at Freedom Farms Cooperative, an organization she helped to represented at the 1964 Democratic National establish so that poor farmers would have an opportunity to purchase their own land. Her epitaph reads: “I’m sick and tired of Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. being sick and tired.”
Maya Angelou Born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928, she received the nickname “Maya” from her brother. Maya was molested by her mother’s boyfriend and turned mute. After which she began to read voraciously and listen intently to everything that happened around her. By high school, her voice had returned. In 1952, she married, a Greek sailor named Anastasios Angelopulos. When she joined the traveling production of Porgy and Bess in 1954 she adopted the name Maya Angelou by combining her nickname with a shortened version of her ex-husband’s last name. In 1960, Angelou left the United States to reside briefly in Cairo, Egypt with her new husband South African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make. While abroad, she learned to speak French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, and the West African language Fanti, fluently. The couple soon separated and Angelou moved to Ghana. While there, she befriended former of Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X on his visit to Africa and embraced his black nationalist philosophy. Angelou returned to the United States in 1964 anticipating helping Malcolm X develop his new Organization of African American Unity (OAAU). However, Malcolm X was assassinated in March 1965 and the OAAU dissolved. Angelou continued to participate in the black freedom struggle, working with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and serving as the Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference until his assassination in 1968.
Maya Angelou ((Marguerite Annie Johnson) Born: April 4, 1928 Died: May 28, 2014
At the age of 38, at the urging of James Baldwin, Angelou began writing a series of autobiographical books including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), her most famous work, as well as Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), and All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986). In 2002, she authored A Song Flung Up to Heaven and in 2008 she narrated the award-winning documentary The Black Candle, and published a book for young women, Letter to My Daughter. Angelou also appeared on television and in movies including the highly acclaimed television miniseries, Roots (1977), Poetic Justice (1993), and Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion (2006). In 1996 she directed her first full length feature film, Down in the Delta. Angelou has received numerous honors and awards for her lifetime of achievement. In 1971, her book of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Die, earned her a Pulitzer Prize nomination. She also became the first black woman to recite poetry at a presidential inauguration (William Jefferson Clinton, 1993) and only the second poet (after Robert Frost at the John Kennedy inauguration in 1961), to be invited to participate in an inauguration. In 2000, Angelou received the Presidential Medal of the Arts and in 2008, she received the Ford's Theatre Lincoln Medal. On February 15, 2011, President Barack Obama awarded Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House Ceremony. The Medal is the nation's highest civilian honor. In 1981 Angelou became the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She continued to lecture and write until her death. Maya Angelou died in her Winston-Salem home on May 28, 2014. She was 86. The Philosophy of Maya Amgelou is based on the study of empathy and cultural harmony.
Funmilayo Ransome Kuti Born Francis Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas to Daniel Olumeyuwa Thomas and Lucretia Phyllis Omoyeni Adeosolu, was a teacher, political campaigner, women's rights activist and traditional aristocrat. She served with distinction as one of the most prominent leaders of her generation. She was also the first woman, in Nigeria, to drive a car. Ransome-Kuti's political activism led to her being described as the doyen of female rights in Nigeria, as well as to her being regarded as "The Mother of Africa." Early on, she was a very powerful force advocating for the Nigerian woman's right to vote. She was described in 1947, by the West African Pilot as the "Lioness of Lisabi" for her leadership of the women of the Egba clan that she belonged to on a campaign against their arbitrary taxation. That struggle led to the abdication of the Egba high king Oba Ademola II in 1949. Ransome-Kuti received the national honor of membership in the Order of Nigeria in 1965. The University of Ibadan bestowed upon her the honorary doctorate of laws in 1968. She also held a seat in the Western House of Chiefs of Nigeria as an oloye of the Yoruba people. Kuti was the mother of the activists Fela Anikulapo Kuti, a musician, Beko Ransome-Kuti, a doctor, and Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, a doctor and a former health minister of Nigeria. She was also grandmother to musicians Seun Kuti and Femi Kuti as well as Yeni Kuti and the phenomenal Sola Anikulapo Kuti.
Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, MON Born: 25 October 1900 Abeokuta, Nigeria Died: 13 April 1978 Lagos, Nigeria
Throughout her career, she was known as an educator and activist. She and Elizabeth Adekogbe provided dynamic leadership for women's rights in the 1950s. She founded an organization for women in Abeokuta, with a membership tally of more than 20,000 individuals spanning both literate and illiterate women. Ransome-Kuti launched the organization into public consciousness when she rallied women against price controls that were hurting the female merchants of the Abeokuta markets. Trading was one of the major occupations of women in the Western Nigeria at the time. In 1949, she led a protest against Native Authorities, especially against the Alake of Egbaland. She presented documents alleging abuse of authority by the Alake, who had been granted the right to collect the taxes by his colonial suzerain, the Government of the United Kingdom. He subsequently relinquished his crown for a time due to the affair. She also oversaw the successful abolishing of separate tax rates for women. In 1953, she founded the Federation of Nigerian Women Societies, which subsequently formed an alliance with the Women's International Democratic Federation. Funmilayo Ransome Kuti campaigned for women's votes. She was for many years a member of the ruling National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons party, but was later expelled when she was not elected to a federal parliamentary seat. At the NCNC, she was the treasurer and subsequent president of the Western NCNC women's Association.[5] After her suspension her political voice was diminished due to the direction of national politics, as both of the more powerful members of the opposition, Awolowo and Adegbenro, had support close by. However, she never truly ended her activism. In the 1950s, she was one of the few women elected to the house of chiefs. At the time, this was one of her homeland's most influential bodies. She founded the Egba or Abeokuta Women's Union along with Eniola Soyinka (her sister-in-law and the mother of the Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka). This organization is said to have once had a membership of 20,000 women. Among other things, Funmilayo Ransom Kuti organised workshops for illiterate market women. She continued to campaign against taxes and price controls. During the Cold War and before the independence of her country, Funmilayo Kuti travelled widely and angered the Nigerian as well as British and American Governments by her contacts with the Eastern Bloc. This included her travel to the former USSR, Hungary and China where she met Mao Zedong. In 1956, her passport was not renewed by the government because it was said that "it can be assumed that it is her intention to influence ‌ women with communist ideas and policies."[She was also refused a U.S. visa because the American government alleged that she was a communist. She was one of the delegates who negotiated Nigeria's independence with the British government.
Wangari Muta Maathai In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 1986, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, and in 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace". Maathai was an elected member of Parliament and served as assistant minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005. She was an Honorary Councilor of the World Future Council. Maathai became involved in a number of civic organizations in the early 1970s. She was a member of the Nairobi branch of the Kenya Red Cross Society, becoming its director in 1973. She was a member of the Kenya Association of University Women. Following the establishment of the Environment Liaison Centre in 1974, Maathai was asked to be a member of the local board, eventually becoming the chair of the board. The Environment Liaison Centre worked to promote the participation of non-governmental organizations in the work of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), whose headquarters was established in Nairobi following the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972. Maathai also joined the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK).Through her work at these various volunteer associations, it became evident to Maathai that the root of most of Kenya's problems was environmental degradation. In 1977, Maathai spoke to the NCWK concerning her attendance at Habitat I. She proposed further tree planting, which the council supported. On 5 June 1977, marking World Environment Day, the NCWK marched in a procession from Kenyatta International Conference Centre in downtown Nairobi to Kamukunji Park on the outskirts of the city where they planted seven trees in honor of historical community leaders. This was the first "Green Belt" which was first known as the "Save the Land Harambee" and then became the Green Belt Movement. Maathai encouraged the women of Kenya to plant tree nurseries throughout the country, searching nearby forests for seeds to grow trees native to the area. She agreed to pay the women a small stipend for each seedling which was later planted elsewhere.
Wangari Muta Maathai Born: 1 April 1940, Nyeri District, Kenya Died: 25 September 2011 Nairobi, Kenya (aged 71)
In the latter half of the 1980s, the Kenyan government came down against Maathai and the Green Belt Movement. The single-party democracy opposed many of the positions the movement held regarding democratic rights. The government invoked a colonial-era law prohibiting groups of more than nine people from meeting without first obtaining a government license. In 1988, the Green Belt Movement carried out pro-democracy activities such as registering voters for the election and pressing for constitutional reform and freedom of expression. She published her memoir titled, Unbowed. Here are some excerpts from the book: We hoped that these elections would provide the people of Kenya with a fairer and truer representation of their aspirations and beliefs. To our dismay and despair, however, the elections were the most disturbing and distorted in Kenya’s history. The government introduced a highly controversial system of “que” voting. Voters lined up behind their candidate and election officials counted each line and then told the people to go home. When election officials announced the winner, it was often the candidate with the shortest line of voters behind him! Since the voters were at home, there was nothing that could be done: The winner had been declared. The vote- rigging was so blatant that people who had lost their races were declared the winners in broad daylight with no embarrassment whatsoever on the part of the government… I knew that we could not live with a political system that killed creativity, nurtured corruption, and produced people who were afraid of their own leaders. It would be only a matter of time before the government and I came in to further conflict…” Wangari Muta Maathai – Unbowed, pp. 182–183
Angela Yvonne Davis “Dynamite Hill” area of Birmingham, Alabama received that name because so many African American homes in this middle class neighborhood had been bombed over the years by the Ku Klux Klan. Angel a grew up in this area before she moved to New York to attend Elizabeth Irwin High School, a school considered Communists during the McCarthy era with a number of its teachers blacklisted. As a college student, was conflicted by the deaths of the four girls killed in the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in her hometown in 1963 and decided to join the civil rights movement. Even before her graduation, By 1967, however, Davis was influenced by Black Power advocates and joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and then the Black Panther Party as well she became a member of the American Communist Party. In 1969 she was hired by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) as an assistant professor of philosophy, but her involvement in the Communist Party led to her dismissal. During the early 1970s she also became active in the movement to improve prison conditions for inmates. That work led to her campaign to release the “Soledad (Prison) Brothers." The Soledad Brothers were two African American prisoners and Black Panther Party members, George Jackson and W. L. Nolen, who were incarcerated in the late 1960s. On August 7, 1970, Jonathan Jackson, the younger brother of George Jackson, attempted to free prisoners who were on trial in the Marin County Courthouse. During this failed attempt, Superior Court Judge Harold Haley and three others including Jonathan Jackson were killed. Although Davis did not participate in the actual break-out attempt, she became a suspect when it was discovered that the guns used by Jackson were registered in her name. Davis fled to avoid arrest and was placed on the FBI’s most wanted list. Law enforcement captured her several months later in New York. During her high profile trial in 1972, Davis was acquitted on all charges. The incident nonetheless generated an outcry against Davis and then California Governor Ronald Reagan campaigned to prevent her from teaching in the California State university system. Despite the governor’s objection, Davis became a lecturer in women’s and ethnic studies at San Francisco State University in 1977.
Angela Yvonne Davis Born: January 26, 1944 Birmingham, Alabama, US
As a scholar, Davis has authored five books, including Angela Davis: An Autobiography in 1974; Women, Race, and Class in 1983; and Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday in 1999. In the political arena, Davis ran unsuccessfully in 1980 and 1984 on the Communist Party ticket for vice president of the United States. Davis continues to be an activist and lecturer as Professor Emeritus of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies at the University of Ca lifornia at Santa Cruz. She is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Women's and Gender Studies Department at Syracuse University. Davis was one of the founders of Critical Resistance, a national grassroots organization dedicated to building a movement to abolish the prison-industrial complex.[49] In recent work, she argues that the prison system in the United States more closely resembles a new form of slavery than a criminal justice system. According to Davis, between the late 19th century and the mid-20th century the number of prisons in the United States sharply increased while crime rates continued to rise. During this time, the African-American population also became disproportionally represented in prisons. "What is effective or just about this "justice" system?" she urged people to question.
Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga In the aftermath of the August 1965 Watts Rebellion in Los Angeles, two rival political styles were generated in California: the US Organization and the Black Panther Party. In Los Angeles Maulana Karenga, formerly the young student activist Ronald Everett, benefited from the phenomenal spread of the Black Arts movement as he developed “cultural nationalism” as the influential political style of the US Organization; Karenga took up African Studies and learned several languages, including Kiswahili and was deeply influenced by Malcolm X advocacy of black liberation. After Malcolm X’s assassination and the Watts uprisings, Karenga founded the US Organization on September 7, 1965. It insisted that African Americans formed a cultural nation in need of a black cultural revolution as well as Black Power. Early in the development of US Organization, Karenga proposed that African Americans study Swahili. Impressed by Malcolm X’s ethical reconstruction in the Nation of Islam, Karenga emphasized the need for a black cultural revolution guiding Black America toward seven principles (Nguzo Saba): black unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, the purpose of nation building, creativity, and faith in the ultimate correctness and victory of black liberation. As part of his cultural program, Karenga developed a popular African-American holiday, Kwanzaa, to teach the seven principles during a week-long celebration of black heritage. Today Kwanzaa is celebrated by millions of African Americans. As part of its political program the US Organization organized the Black Congress, an important united front group, embracing many of the new militant organizations in Los Angeles. Maulana Karenga’s influence spread quickly because of his role in the organization of the National Black Power Conferences between 1966 and 1969. Finally, as part of the US Organization ideological program, Karenga wrote a doctrine for the new Black Nationalism, which he called Kawaida, meaning “tradition and reason.” These seven principles comprise
• *Kawaida, a Swahili term for tradition and reason. Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the following principles, as follows: • Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race. • Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves. • Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together. • Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together. • Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga traditional greatness. Born: July 14, 1941 Parsonsburg, Maryland, MD • Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than Books: Introduction to Black Studies, More we inherited it. is an African-American professor of Africana • Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our Studies, activist and author, best known as the struggle. Kwanzaa symbols include a decorative mat (Mkeka) on which other symbols are placed: corn (Mahindi) and other crops, a candle holder kinara creator of the pan-African and African-American with seven candles (Mishumaa Saba), a communal cup for pouring libation (Kikombe cha Umoja), gifts (Zawadi), a poster of the seven principles, holiday of Kwanzaa. and a black, red, and green flag. The symbols were designed to convey the seven principle.
Amos Nelson Wilson Wilson believed the power differential between Africans and non-Africans was the major social problem of the 21st century. He viewed this power differential, and white “racist” attitudes, as principally responsible for the existence of racism, domination, oppression, and deprivation in the lives and interpersonal relations of black Americans and other people of African descent. The Developmental Psychology of the Black Child (1978) Black-on-Black Violence: The Psychodynamics of Black Self-Annihilation in Service of White Domination (1990) Understanding Black Male Adolescent Violence: Its Prevention and Remediation (1992) Awakening the Natural Genius of Black Children (1992) The Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness: Eurocentric History, Psychiatry and the Politics of White Supremacy (1993) Blueprint for Black Power: A Moral, Political and Economic Imperative for the Twenty-First Century (1998) Afrikan-Centered Consciousness Versus the New World Order: Garveyism in the Age of Amos Nelson Wilson Globalism (1999) Born: September 19, 1941 Hattiesburg, Mississippi, The Developmental Psychology of the Black Child — Second Edition (2014)
Died: January 14, 1995 (aged 53) Brooklyn, NY
Other African Philosophers and their Doctrines The List of great Africans whose legacy and doctrine provide guide like a light house is long. And I encourage everyone interested to look further into the series of books in circulation on this topic, because there is something for everyone to choose from. More importantly, because it may help guide our ideas and intuition in regards to justice against racism and violation of human rights or perhaps the advancement of humanity -with the validation to understand there is a leverage provided and available for us. You may not need to reinvent the wheel All peoples can learn from the knowledge of the African ancestors, learn their legacy and doctrines. All people everywhere must have the easy choice to the learn all experiences and histories of African ethnic groups and their encounter with the world in order to have correct and healthy understandings of the world. Africans in general cannot afford not to teach and learn the philosophy and doctrine s of the African people. Identity is important, and some of has many stages... Know thyself!
The Need for Ideological Reappraisal on the African Problems There is a long list of problems in Africa and similar problems can be found in almost every African community, in every society around the world. Of all the problems, unparalleled challenge for self-reliance, self -determination, and self- fulfillments are unequivocally more or less the same in each and every place you find African people everywhere in the world. In the particular case of Africa, this unique challenge bears an overtone of imperativeness and urgency, and imports a multitude of new and complex problems which also demand urgent solutions. Ever since independence and Emancipation, African people everywhere have been waiting for politicians to fulfill their promises, hopes and expectation to put an end to oligarchic oppression and capitalist exploitation; to elevate the Africans from the morass of humiliation and indignity into which more than five hundred years of slavery and colonialism had kept them; to usher in, for the masses of the people, a new era which would guarantee to them basic freedoms and the full enjoyment of the fruits that come from the products of their lands and labor. Given the current circumstances, we can say with conviction and provide evidence easily if need be that that politicians are, for a number of reasons, underperforming in their obligation to fulfill those promises which they voluntarily and solemnly made to the African people, everywhere. Some staunch African revolutionary argues that some of the reasons for this dismal performance or reluctance to engage the post-independence or post-emancipation African problems head on can be traced to those Colonial agents and opponents of the immediate grant of independence who do not cease to vent their spleen on the African effort to govern itself and lie in wait for such acts of commission or omission as would discredit African leaders, and justify their original opposition. In Africa, academics and activist argue that African leadership class remain shameless in their habit of helping themselves to the enjoyment of all the good things of this life affluence, personal advancement, power and all at the expense of the masses. The colonialist argue that Africans are lazy and only wants handouts. While the African bourgeoisie and government figures hold the position that the people are ignorant and indiscipline. Meanwhile many of the African resources continue to flow outwards, in the service and benefit of the imperial agents, showing clearly that the succession of power and' privileges hitherto wielded and enjoyed by the agents 'of Colonial Powers is automatic. Kwame Nkrumah was more convinced than ever before that the salvation of Africa lay in Pan-African solidarity. To this end, he conceived that a Pan-African organization comprising independent African States should be established as a matter of the utmost urgency, whose immediate aims would be: I) to liberate without delay all of Africa; And to put the whole of the Continent on a firm basis of rapid development and economic self-reliance. One advantage Nkrumah had was that he never regarded the attainment of independence any African State as the end of the ambition of the Pan-African solidarity. Rather, he saw it crystal clear as its beginning. But Pan Africanism has many enemies, much of it internal and the other half is external influences. While Africans have made much progress since independence and emancipation, not one problem has been solved. The procession has always been that in process of grappling with one particular problem, another greater problem occurs and supersedes the previous, meanwhile colonial agents and pseudo charitable organization are using that opportunity to cultivate African dependency on foreign aids. Though not all of these are as grim as it sounds, but much of it are even worse in reality. Kickbacks, deals, enfranchisement, and illegal commission continue to penetrate and weaken the African sovereignty, which had been flawed from the start. Therefore the in a world that gravitates to violence, diseases, brain drain, hunger, and unnecessary human suffering culture remains one of the most important recourse to sanity and meaningful national development. Culture is the paved path that can guide though the maze; it has proven itself a satisfying mode of connecting inter-societal friendship and human understanding. In other words, Africans must seek cultural harmony, cultural dignity and cultural respect within itself to find wherewithal for the essential coherence with which it could fulfill its pan African political and cultural ambitions But it is not that simple. According to Ali Mazrui, the African ancestors are angry. “People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors. “ The ancestors are angry because we have allowed the dissipation of spirits around the world and allowed cultural sabotage of Africa to persist.
Pan–Africanism Vs. Pan-African Culture
African peoples both at home or in Diaspora have suffered from the complexities of prolonged cultural and political economic burden of slavery and colonialism. African intellectual have assessed the thought for over two hundred years and remain today steadfast that Pan-Africanism is the most sustainable strategic solution for reorganizing and establishing measures for self-determination, accountability and integrity among nations; enabling the authority and protection of the environment, restoration of cultural strength and ethical relations; and developing strategies for national reconciliation, ensure the right and freedoms of the common man, respite and healing of a people besieged by racism and prejudice. This ideology has created a movement that encourages the solidarity of Africans worldwide. The concept of Pan Africanism is based on two essential axioms: 1.
All countries in Africa must be completely independent from colonial powers and the vestiges of colonial influence on its sovereignty, including its pseudo national birth, country names and its current artificial boundaries (divest imperial interest). Africa is one continent, one people, and one nation." Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
2.
Africa must become an empire with a social capital economic form of government which aims to "unify and uplift" people of African descent. nd become a welcoming homeland for every one who can trace their ancestry back to Africa at any point of time in history (invest in an common African Dream) Pan-Africanism actually reflects a range of political views and by default it is a political concept. At a basic level, it is a belief that African peoples, both on the African continent and in the Diaspora, share not merely a common history, but a common destiny. This sense of interconnected pasts and futures has taken many forms, especially in the creation of political institutions based on the belief that unity is vital to economic, competition, social progress, and political stability.
The First Pan-African Conference was Organized primarily by the Trinidadian barrister Henry Sylvester Williams and took place in London from 23 to 25 July 1900. Attended by 37 delegates and about 10 other participants and observers from Africa, the West Indies, the US and the UK. Du Bois address the Nations of the World: to European leaders appealing to them to struggle against racism, to grant colonies in Africa and the West Indies the right to self-government and demanding political and other rights for African Americans. Bishop Alexander Walters noted that "for the first time in history black people had gathered from all parts of the globe to discuss and improve the condition of their race to assert their rights and organize so that they might take an equal place among nations. The second congress met in London, August 27–29, 1921, and in Brussels and Paris from August 31 to September 2, 1921. Importantly, a third of its participants came from Africa, though only seven of the 113 were from the Caribbean. A third PAC in London and Lisbon, Portugal, 1923. The fourth PAC, organized by the Women’s International Circle for Peace and Foreign Relations (a black women’s club in New York led by Addie W. Hunton, Nina Du Bois, and Minnie Pickens,) met in 1927. It was originally to meet in Tunisia or the Caribbean, but when the French and British governments blocked the congress, it was moved to New York City, where they pushed the adoption of a resolution supporting black workers and calling for Egyptian, Chinese, and Indian liberation, and urging Caribbean national liberation and federation. Padmore and Nkrumah, led by IASB veteran T. Ras Makonnen, organized the fifth Pan-African Congress, which convened in Manchester, England in 1945. Amy Ashwood Garvey raised for the first time the need to address the special struggles of black women in the Caribbean and the African world. Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere convened the last Pan-African Congress June 17–19, 1974, in Dar es Salaam. Commonly known as the Six PAC, this was the first congress held in Africa. Nyerere considered this meeting, coming after national liberation had spread throughout Africa and the Caribbean, as an opportunity to discuss the “means, and further, the progress, of opposition to racialism, colonialism, oppression and exploitation everywhere,” and placing these in “the context of a worldwide movement for human equality and national self-determination.” Nyerere asked those present to recognize that “an end to colonialism is not an end to the oppression of man,” and to continue working “against oppression by the leaders of those countries which have recently attained freedom, whether this is directed against other black men and women, or against people of different races.”
Pan-African Culture: CONVINCED Pan-African Culture is the product of the shared experiences and history of ALL the African peoples, at home and abroad. According to Ali Mazrui, the notion of African culture must be based on a product resulting from three major influences, its triple heritage: 1) an indigenous heritage borne out of time and climate change; 2) the heritage of Eurocentric capitalism forced on Africans by European colonialism and Christian faith 3) the spread of Islam by both jihad and evangelism. The negative effects of this history have yet to be addressed by independent African leaders, while the West has tended to regard Africa as recipient rather than as transmitter of effects. Yet Africa has transformed both Europe and America in the past, Mazrui points out, and the difficult situation in which Africa finds itself today (economically dependent, culturally mixed, and politically unstable) is the price it has had to pay for Western development. 1976, GUIDED by the Organization of African Unity Charter, African the Council of Ministers and by the Assembly of Leaders of the OAU nations came together to adopt a set of Declaration of principles of international cultural co-operation by the Pan-African Cultural Manifesto of Algiers (1969), and by the Inter-governmental Conference on cultural policies in Africa organized by UNESCO in Accra in 1975 in cooperation with African development consensus; CONVINCED That any human society is necessarily governed by rules and principles based on traditions, languages, ways of life and thought in other words on a set of cultural values which reflect its distinctive character and personality; That all cultures emanate from the people, and that any African cultural policy should of necessity enable the people to expand for increased responsibility in the development of its cultural heritage; That any people has the inalienable right to organize its cultural life in full harmony with its political, economic, social, philosophical and spiritual ideas; That all the cultures of the world are equally entitled to respect just as all individuals are equal as regards free access to culture; that cultural domination led to the depersonalization of part of the African peoples, falsified their history, systematically disparaged and combated African values, and tried to replace progressively and officially, their languages by that of the colonizer, That colonization has encouraged the formation of elite which is too often alienated from its culture and susceptible to assimilation and that a serious gap has been opened between the said elite and the African popular masses; That the unity of Africa is founded first and foremost on its History, That the affirmation of cultural identity denotes a concern common to all peoples of Africa, That African cultural diversity, the expression of a single identity, is a factor making for equilibrium and development in the service of national integration; That it is imperative to edify educational systems which embody the African values of civilization, so as to ensure the rooting of youth in African culture and mobilize the social forces in the context of permanent education; That it is imperative to resolutely ensure the promotion of African languages, mainstay, and media of cultural heritage in its most authentic and essentially popular form, that it is imperative to carry out a systematic inventory of the cultural heritage, in particular in the spheres of Traditions, History and Arts‌ That African culture is meaningless unless it plays a full part in the political and social liberation struggle, and in the rehabilitation and unification efforts and that there is no limit to the cultural development of a people; That a common resolve provides the basis for promoting the harmonious cultural development of our States;
Pan-African Culture GUIDED by a common determination to strengthen understanding among our peoples and cooperation among our States in order to meet the aspirations of our peoples to see brotherhood and solidarity reinforced and integrated within a greater cultural unity which transcends ethnic and national divergences; AWARE That culture constitutes for our peoples the surest means of overcoming our technological backwardness and the most efficient force of our victorious resistance to imperialist blackmail;
AGREE to establish the Cultural Charter for Africa with following AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND PRINCIPLES} AIMS and OBJECTIVES (a) to liberate the African peoples from socio-cultural conditions which impede their development in order to recreate and maintain the sense and will for progress, the sense and will for development; (b) the rehabilitation, restoration, preservation and promotion of the African cultural heritage; (c) the assertion of the dignity of the African and of the popular foundations of his culture; (d) the combating and elimination of all forms of alienation and cultural suppression and oppression everywhere in Africa, especially in countries still under colonial and racist domination including apartheid; (e) the encouragement of cultural co-operation among the States with a view to the strengthening of African unity; (f) the encouragement of international cultural co-operation for a better understanding among peoples within which Africa will make its original and appropriate contribution to human culture; (g) promotion in each country of popular knowledge of science and technology; a necessary condition for the control of nature; (h) development of all dynamic values in the African cultural heritage and rejection of any element which is an impediment to progress. PRINCIPLES In order to fulfill the objectives set out in Article 2, the African States solemnly subscribe to the following principles: ÂŹ (a) access of all citizens to education and to culture; (b) respect for the freedom to create and the liberation of the creative genius of the people; (c) respect for national authenticities and specificities in the field of culture; (d) selective integration of science and modern technology into the cultural life of the African peoples; (e) exchange and dissemination of cultural experience between communities, tribes, ethnic groups, countries that constitute the African world and African in the field of cultural decolonization in all its forms. Therefore Pan African Culture is the cultural pursuit of all Africans who find joy and happiness in the rapprochement and harmony of the collective identification of African people in a singular or multidimensional form; either through pan Africanism or pan African culture, or Negritude, the goal is coherence and cohesiveness. The common enemy is the genetically modified history and the genetic modification of the path to success. Of cause an enemy of African progress is an enemy of humanity.
The Human View Many important African historical figures engaged and courageously outspoken in challenging the status quo about emancipation, who also made bold strides towards creating sustainable dialogue, forging partnerships and strengthening solidarity for struggling people of African descent and perhaps in doing so steered up inconvenient truth and other theories of observation and practicality of the quest against human suffering. Many of these people were labeled Pan Africanist, and I would agree that some of them were Afrocentric, but most of them were simply humanists -- advocating a better condition of living and human rights for Africans in the world. If there should be any discrepancy, I would be about methodology. This is a complex issue of right of self determination and one’s role in the universal ecosystem. Before we delve into this, it is important to explicate what racism demands. Racism in its naïve state may by masked by superiority complex, but that is not its only vice. What racism does essentially is deprive certain people of their rights to be fully human. If any human being fails to see the wrong in this then any state of peace is not tenable. The United Nations was formed specifically to maintain peace and security within the universal ecosystem, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with universal notion of justice based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of all peoples… Clearly there is no one alive today who was a victim of the chattel slavery and none guilty of slavery but, the ripple effect and the underlying cause of slavery is still with us and racism is the big gorilla in the room. Our mission is clear and nothing could be more important today in the process of human civilization than to recognize and respect the humanity in our being, which means, as well, to recognize that all societies are equally endowed with gifts, talent, and resources to benefit the world It is therefore, the responsibility of the whole to help each part in realizing its fullest potential as in-exclusive and indispensable benefit for the whole world. In the African context, any benefit to Africans is a benefit to humanity as whole. This has always been the rule of thumb, that every African advancement has moved humanity forward. This is also to imply that the whole world benefits when Africa is content. The United Nations has declare the declared open the Decade of the People of African Descent which signals that it is Africa’s turn to come into the spotlight as well as for the world to pay attention to African desires. The challenge remains, that much of this work has to be done by Africans themselves, because he who wears the shoe knows where the toe aches. Nonetheless, African strength is dissipated around the world, and it may take a miracle for each African society to sustain itself independently with most of its intelligence communities working incoherently, struggling separately, distracted from the need and importance of enriching their origins collectively. Therefore a substantial part of the healing is recognizing the need to forge a closer nexus between the various members of the African world. While culture will be the determinant factor in African identity, the role of technology will be indispensable to unlocking the future of the African society in order to access the full benefit of human civilization, as well as for Africa to assume its role in restoring its glory and dignity for all African peoples around the globe.
The Role of Modern Technology in African Culture Culturally speaking, technology is a means that, if used properly, could bring up the welfare of human beings. To understand this statement even better, it would be necessary to compare culture with civilization. Civilization is the combination of facts and social phenomena, structures, and values which characterize a given society. Culture is within the framework of this civilization, the combination of its value; in one word its spirit. That which determines the value of cultures and civilizations of a given society is how easily their use of creative tools have significantly simplify otherwise complex tasks in a measurable way. This phenomenon in a dramatic sense is called technology (logic of hidden knowledge). Since technology can potentially change the way people do things, it helps to breed new understanding; understanding changes attitude and attitude changes behavior, behavior changes policy, policy changes culture; if a culture for better in the general consensus of the society, an advancement of civilization has occurred. In this context, it is the current state of humanity's knowledge of how to combine resources to produce desired products, to solve problems, fulfill needs, or satisfy wants; it includes technical methods, skills, processes, techniques, tools and raw materials. When combined with another term, such as "medical technology" or "space technology", it refers to the state of the respective field's knowledge and tools. "State-of-the-art technology" refers to the high technology available to humanity in any field. The word "technology" can be used to refer to a collection of techniques. Therefore, technology is a reliable means for efficiency, consistency and effectiveness in the production, communication, and delivery of human needs and wants; and culture is the method of fulfilling environmental and communal demand- thus both become compatible because invention is driven by necessity and ultimately the cause of cultural evolution and the advancement. It follows from this that each race, each ethnic group, each nation, indeed, each society has its own values. Therefore, the African race according to their nations, ethnic groups, and societies have variable cultures and civilizations but constant identity and similar values. Today, we can use satellites for education and intellectual and cultural progress of human beings, learn an African Language online, extend an Harvard lecture to an African University, connect children between Africa, Europe, Asia, Caribbean and south America in real time; we have learned to use technology for generating alternative sources of energy -- or we can use them as a means to spread the genetically modified destructive cultural and ideological patterns. Therefore, if we accept the idea which says, "technology is a means in the service of a superior objective that is the better recognition of nature and a more suitable utilization of nature, and safeguarding the cultural identity as a factor for the solidarity and a requisite for the survival of society“. Since the use of Technology can be very broad, I’d like to narrow the focus of technology in its relation to culture according to the purpose of this lecture, and keep it on the subject of coherence and cohesiveness of all African people. As we know, culture determines the way in which individuals identify and recognize one another within their own social sphere of action and the traditional cultures and value systems on them constitute the factor for social harmony, and give a special cultural identity to the members of a community which, in itself, is one of the needs for endogenous development. Therefore, since we know that cultural values are the determinant factor in the choice and impact of technology, we must begin by asking how can technology and culture as independent systems be co-ordinated? Therefore, the main risk lies in the endangering of cultural identity which is rooted in the tradition of nations and in the issue of preservation of cultural pluralism for the entire human community. For example, the development of communication technology, the ability to record and transmit sounds and images over any distance, and the easy reproduction of these on a large scale, have changed the face of contemporary culture. We know that many African countries are faced with major challenges in the prioritizing the use of full scale technology to develop their society. There is still a struggle for basic electricity in most part of Africa. Countries have not succeeded in developing the technologies in conformity with their needs and cultural values. However, the effect of new technologies in the Diaspora has already began to shape policies in favor of the African who are political minorities generating the necessary uproar to make the action reprehensible. Police brutality are being caught on cell phones and shared worldwide within minutes. However, technology is key to the overall development in Africa.
Advancing Science and Technology in Africa Improving access to and the quality of science and technology across Africa is essential to improving human conditions and resource development from the continent. Science and technology offer a multitude of benefits for Africa from improving education and knowledge sharing, to increasing exposure for African innovation to improving the living conditions of the continent's residents. The role of the entire African Diaspora in partaking in the advancement of science and technology through investment and knowledge transfer could also not be emphasized enough. The African Ministerial Council on Science and Technology (AMCOST) was established in November 2003 under the auspices of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the African Union (AU). It is a high-level platform for developing policies and setting priorities on science, technology and innovation for African development. AMCOST provides both political and policy leadership for the implementation of Africa’s Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action (CPA). This plan of action consolidates science and technology programs with the vision of an Africa that is well integrated into the global economy and free of poverty. In order for African economies to grow, the continent’s political leadership has to play a crucial and pivotal role, which entails taking science and technology seriously as drivers of economic development, just as participation of Africans in Diaspora is equally important. The overall goals of this consolidated plan are: to enable Africa harness and apply science, technology and related innovations in order to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development as well as to ensure that Africa contributes to the global pool of scientific knowledge and technological innovations. The CPA focuses on three areas, namely research and development (R&D); a program for improving policy conditions and building innovation mechanisms; and implementation, governance and funding. Today there are 13 program
areas within research and development alone. The CPA program is robust and strives to build capacity as well as develop new systems in Biodiversity, Biotechnology and Indigenous Knowledge, known as the African Biosciences Initiative (ABI) in several countries in Africa-. Some of their Programs Energy, water and desertification, Material sciences, manufacturing, laser and postharvest technologies, ICT, space science and technologies, Mathematical sciences. Strategies to improve policy and promote technological innovation include empowering women living in arid areas by looking at where their resources are limited, and then enabling them to develop on smaller scales. There is also an on going investigation and experimentation on whether there is any scientific evidence behind traditional leaders’ approach to treating infections. Currently, our people are also investigating traditional medicines. Consequently, scientific validation of traditional medicine is currently ongoing at the CSIR. The African citizen should take a pivotal role in the implementation of this scientific and technological development according to NEPAD. Africa can no longer be considered the Dark Continent. Given the rate at which mobile connectivity is growing, it seems only natural that the way business is done will change. One indication of the transformative effect of technology is the advent of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) realtime electronic trading access, an achievement credited to Eleni Madhin.
Unlocking the Future through Culture and Technology This brings us to the conclusion of this lecture. The current scenario posits a continuation of the status quo, where African countries do not drive its reform agenda even in spite of best effort in advancing science and technology and other developmental factors in Africa. Rather, the external community will continue to set and dominate the African developmental stage. Just as we experienced after the Ebola virus outbreak in 2014, or the recent Tuareg invasion in Mali, or the Madhist terrorist movement called Boko Haram; dependency on foreign intervention to come to the rescue and foreign donors will dictate the change they wish to see, not necessarily following the natural order of African priority and self determination. That is to say that if Africans themselves were to be the champions of their own reform by leading the necessary development effort, the progress as well as the result of many attempted changes will be appropriate for local circumstances and will be politically sustainable, because African leaders will have taken ownership of the reform attempts. What we can do to promote this idea is to suggest that the cohesiveness of African people depends on the coherence between African cultures and technology might determine which scenarios provides the better path to Africa’s future. Excellent domestic leadership is, of course, an inescapable requirement for African countries to succeed. However, the requirement for Africa to ‘take charge’ of its own destiny demands that there must be a movement across Africa that allows the continent on the domestic, regional, and international levels to move ahead on important matters of reform. Such a continental movement could come about because of excellent continental leadership from the African Union (AU).; obviously we can not discount local civil societies and dynamic youth groups can drive the change. However, the real impetus for reform whether through youth, civil society or even the AU must come as a result of having forged a closer nexus with its Diaspora. This I saw with absolute certainty, that Africa’s future depend son the recognition of its need for interdependency between Africa and its entire Diaspora, as well as how well the continent (country government and AU) manages its Diaspora. The dispersion of a large number of Africa’s most creative people, and their assets, is a fact that cannot be denied. However, if African countries devise ways in which the Diaspora can be tapped for ideas and some of their energy diverted to promoting reform across the continent, a whole new dynamic will be launched. Indeed, the Diaspora can be an important bridge between Africa and the West. People of African heritage and migrant Africans living in Western countries can forcefully advocate the positions of their home countries, and of Africa as a whole while also explaining to African governments what the West is looking for as well as better positioned to explicate African order of priority to their immediate national government. If the ‘brain drain’ were to become a profound intellectual resource for Africa, the probability of Africa taking charge would be much higher. The success of such a laudable goal will require both Africa and its Diaspora to improve how share ideas, vision, experiences, and work together to unlock opportunities for mutual growth. People can harnesses the power of collaboration on many platforms through the help of technology, through which culture, feelings, and behaviors can now be quantified. The infinity gems required to forge the single key that will unlock the vibrant future of Africa is in the hands of many brilliant people scattered around the world. All the gems have come apart and must be reassemble back as a symbolic whole. I hope you find my metaphor appealing. Technology makes it possible to bring Africa and its Diaspora together like never before. An opportunity that was not available to the African ancestors now within our reach. Collectively we can identify factors that promote dynamism, change, and radical departures from the status quo. Collectively we can stand up for justice; calls for stability in Africa; collectively we can end violent conflict, of course, We can frame problems in the context of complex systems to design more effective solutions. We use it to clarify complex problems, build ideas in collaboration, and empower people to make decisions they can trust. Collectively, cohesively, and coherently we can do all things we want, need or desire. And If there is something we can have that would be the envy of the world, it will be congruence.
Summary of the Lecture The Kwame Ture lecture series is an annual tradition of breeding understanding of African needs and the fulfillment of self-realization with the notion that liberty cannot be achieved or preserved without a general knowledge of the reality of our conditioned nature and underlying truth about the roots causes of the challenging and restrictive circumstances that pervades the entire African world. Therefore, the Kwame Ture lectures are based on the tradition of uncompromising and inconvenient truths based on historical facts, with the hope that understanding can breed empathy; thereby encouraging positive attitude which can effectively change human behavior, since behavioral changes eventually leads to positive structural policy. It is indeed, positive policies and laws that changes culture for improved performance as well as moral and intellectual perfection within a society, especially where the plight of the African people is caused and exacerbated by the obscurity of actual historical events or negative cultivated dependency. This order of sequence is important because policy and law alone will not change culture if people do not understand the underlying purpose of the acts. This lecture argues that although no single entity alive today can be held responsible for slavery, many entrapments of racism and imperialism still exist and remain formidable hindrance to the collective ability of the African world to realize its full human potential. It also argues that emancipation is generally good because of its promise of freedom, but the current state of human affairs shows that apparent value of freedom for Africans in Africa or for Africans in Diaspora is yet to be actualized. It argues that some of the reasons for this condition are based on the misinterpretation of definitions and narcissism in the Western pedagogic systems which, whether predisposed, systemic or not, still confuse the order of priority as well as deter and dismay the development of the African world’s unique political and cultural identity as well and the realization of our true economic value. Therefore, this lecture illustrates the contradictions causing obstacles and challenges to the universal human cultural advancement with the effort to breed empathy and sympathy and hope to promote the awareness and understanding of imperative needs for the intra-cultural synergy within the Africa. The lecture highlights the various pitfalls, entrapments, tethers, as well as ideological pathways to improve the collective African cultural advancement and development. The lecture proposes that culture is a recourse to sanity; when one feels lost; it is essentially the understanding of ones strength for resourcefulness that endures and sustains the determination for survival. African strength is dissipated around the world, and must be reconnected for healing to ensue. The quest for a true African identity is fundamental and achievable but must forged through the innate capacity (proprium) and resources available to African people all over the world to face the historical, immediate and future challenges they may have experienced or be experiencing anywhere at anytime,; some of which are already well articulated in the ideas and doctrines already generated by our ancestors. Since technology enhances human efficiency for research, designs and communications it can be positively used for advancement of culture. The combination of culture and technology provides African people a unique tool to unlock the future because it allows for quantifying the cultural value proposition, feelings, and behaviors as well as mapping of resources, identifying strengths and coordinating necessary collaboration around the globe in real time and to assess other mobilization for self determinism, such as cultural relationship education, economic, health, environmental and trade and flow stability. After all, it is power of technology that enabled the research and distribution of this lecture to be possible and seamless. We can learn the essentials and share ideas on how to work together to unlock opportunities for healing and growth. This way, the benefit of technology in the advancement of culture outweighs the risk. The whole world benefits when African people make human right progress. It is the single reason why the world must support self determinism. All people of African descent, whether they live in North or South America, the Caribbean, or in any part of the world are Africans and belong to the Kingdoms of Africa. African identity is spiritual and should not be complicated with political ideology. This lecture argues unequivocally that a singular identity is next in the hierarchy of priorities for African development, and that will be the master key to unlocking the imperative synergy for fulfilling African roles in the universal ecosystem and global human affairs.
Conclusion I must confess that the research I did for the purpose of this lecture has been the most challenging study I have ever had to do because of the emotional and as well as the practical aspect entailed. I hope that you have enjoyed it as much I have enjoyed celebrating our African heritage, personalities, discoveries, achievements, and eras as proud people with rich culture, traditions and enlightenment spanning so many years. I have said many things in this lecture, but let me add something else about racism. If racism was not cultural, justice for the common man would have resolved it. That is to say, government could have devised a policy or law that would end the practice. But, unfortunately, racism exist even among the common man. And it is the common man that runs the system. So even if the system were pure, the common man would spoil it if he or she harbors racism. Therefore, the work is cut out for us to change the adverse conditions generating the ignorance and greed of unscrupulous and obtuse group through early education programs and cultural life enhancement systems. It is duty is foremost for Africans as much as it is our right and responsibility to se the record straight and show the world our collective true value, this must be sacred foremost before and above all things. I hope we all recognize this, and begin a new day of empathy for the fellow African man who carries the burden we know too well, as well as our fellow men and women who empathize with us sincerely. After all, we must live together with one another and the only way to harmony and peace is access to full justice and equality within the our cultures and systems. We must, finally recognize the freedom to collaborate and become interdependent within ourselves to truly emancipate ourselves! It not about color, its is condition, says the honorable Marcus Garvey. Therefore, seek the truth and spread it so that empathy can prevail among all people, and Africans can move a the expected human pace within affairs of men and women in the world.
In honor of the honorable uncle Kwame Ture who among others would have been pleased with our effort to give importance-due to the study of African ideological heritage and history. He was most articulate in his doctrine about breaking down the paradigm of social & cultural racism which was historically backed through scientific racism from the 18th century till today in some places. Furthermore uncle Kwame reemphasizes the importance of people on the continent and diaspora knowing their history. He emphasizes the importance of Africa being the Centre of history for the people on the continent. The thing he said that got me going, was, ‘to organize ourselves.’ I interpreted this as to learn to collaborate based on the basis of our need for interdependency. For, if we understood the need to collaborate, we would become organized automatically. But I also understand that the African world’s population is dynamic, differences exist on many levels -- national, cultural, economical, educational, and Geopolitical ideologies continue to fragment us into conflicting groups.
The Honorable uncle Kwame Ture
This aspect of African need for rapprochement is like our home work. We have to do it by ourselves. We may get some help from our parents if they are responsible. In this case, they have been more than resilient, they were martyrs. We are lucky!
I am once again eternally grateful for this opportunity to give the opening program of the Kwame Ture Memorial lecture series here in Trinidad. On behalf of the honorable Khafra Khambon and all the members of the Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago, please accept my gratitude of thanks. It has been a deep spiritual experience for me. May God bless you, and may God lighten the burden of all African people! May peaceful coexistence, love for humanity and nature, and justified interdependence prevail in our world!
Thank you! The work of human development is a contributive effort. No single person, or single entity has the answer to the challenges we face as a people. Plurality is the answer; diversity will triumph over homogeneity. Just as Europeans are united to constitute European doctrines, and Asians too, so must the Africans. It is important however not to compare our challenges at the racial level. The ideas entailed in this presentation consist of contributions from African and non African entities who believe in human parity. I have only made a mosaic analysis with their wisdoms. I am indeed grateful to those who sat through the whole extended hours of this lecture for their commitment, generosity and faith. All the information brought forth here can be found on the internet. If you have any question about any aspect of the information provided, Google it! As for me, I have fought the good fight; I have ran my portion of the race valiantly and did the work assigned to me as I understood and knew it – to the best of my ability. I have therefore kept the faith. And now, I have passed the baton‌ Wale Idris Ajibade African Views 2015