THE BLACK CANDLE

HOLIDAY SEASON

In the next few days many of us will be celebrating Christmas and Kwanzaa. While the celebration of Christmas has evolved over many centuries, the celebration of Kwanzaa is relatively new, 44 years old. The celebration of Christmas has been adapted and shaped by different communities and cultures. The Christmas tree (originally German) which is now an established part of Christmas celebrations was introduced and became popular in the former British Empire (which included Canada and the Caribbean islands) during the reign of Victoria. In 1846 an illustration of the British royal family Victoria, her German husband Albert and their children appeared in the Illustrated London News, standing around a decorated Christmas tree. The fashion caught on not only in Britain and the British Empire but also in the United States of America. In many homes today, a decorated tree is an essential part of the Christmas celebration.

Santa Claus in America, Canada and elsewhere, Father Christmas in Britain and many former British colonies is also an established figure in the celebration of Christmas. However, the jolly, white haired, bearded figure with the hearty laugh is mostly an American invention. Although legends abound from Turkey and various European countries of Saint Nicholas/St Nick, Kris Kringle and Sinterklaas, the modern version was popularised by Coca-Cola in the 1930s to boost sales of their product. Coca-Cola claim in their advertising: “2006 marked the 75th anniversary of the famous Coca-Cola Santa Claus. Starting in 1931, magazine ads for Coca-Cola featured St. Nick as a kind, jolly man in a red suit. Because magazines were so widely viewed, and because this image of Santa appeared for more than three decades, the image of Santa most people have today is largely based on our advertising.”

Since the days of the popularised Coca-Cola image of Santa Claus the celebration of Christmas has become less a religious observance/holiday and more a secular and highly commercial celebration/holiday. Christmas as a secular and commercial celebration is celebrated worldwide even in countries where the main religion is not Christianity.

In the Caribbean islands that were colonized by the British and in Guyana, the Christmas celebrations were at one time patterned after the colonizer but over time we made the celebration uniquely Caribbean with decorations, food and music. Steel pan music as accompaniment to the traditional carols, calypso, reggae and soca versions of those carols and even Caribbean composed songs to celebrate Christmas including the spirited and popular “Drink a rum” by Lord Kitchener and “listen mama I want you to tell Santa Claus” by Nat Hepburn. A Guyanese Christmas is not complete without a pepperpot (made with casareep) breakfast.

Christmas, many centuries old has moved from its supposed roots (many pagan rituals were included) of the celebration of the birth of Christ while Kwanzaa at 44 years old is still true to its roots as a Pan-African seven day celebration which begins on December 26th and goes until January 1st. The creation of Kwanzaa served as a way to reconnect African Americans to African culture and to celebrate family, community and culture. Kwanzaa is a celebration for all Africans regardless of their religion or country of birth. It is a time to celebrate our culture, learn about our history, honour African ancestors and traditions, spend time with family and friends and look to our future as a people.

The Kwanzaa celebration inspired racial pride in African Americans who, like other Africans in the Diaspora had been brainwashed into thinking that European culture was superior. The values articulated in the seven Kwanzaa principles “Nguzo saba” resonate with Africans and the celebration which began with a few people in the USA in 1966 is now an international celebration. In 1998 it was estimated that Kwanzaa was celebrated by 18 million Africans worldwide.

Kiswahili, the most widely spoken African language is used during the celebration of Kwanzaa which comes from "matunda ya kwanza" meaning "first fruits of the harvest.” Decorating the Kwanzaa table is an opportunity to learn some Kiswahili words. There are seven symbols that make up the table setting for a Kwanzaa celebration. The mkeka (mat) is the foundation upon which the other symbols are placed. The kinara (candle holder) holds the mishumaa saba (seven candles). The kikombe cha umoja (unity cup), mazao (fruits and vegetables), muhindi/vibunzi (corn) and zawadi (gifts) are placed on the mkeka. To the greeting/question, “Habari gani?” the answer is the principle of the day.

The Nguzo Saba (seven principles) are Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self- Determination), Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity) and Imani (Faith). Each principle is represented by a candle (mshumaa). The colours used during Kwanzaa (red, black and green) are the Pan-African colours chosen by the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. The red, black and green bendera (flag) is sometimes a part of the Kwanzaa decoration. Black represents the African people; red represents the blood shed in our struggle for freedom and green is the symbol of our future and the richness of the African continent.

The Mishumaa saba (seven candles) used during Kwanzaa are red black and green. The black candle is placed in the centre of the kinara, the three red candles to the left of the black candle and the three green candles to the right. On the first day of Kwanzaa, December 26th, the black candle, representing umoja (unity) is lit. On the second day of Kwanzaa, the first red candle next to the black candle, representing kujichagulia (self-determination) is lit. On the third day of Kwanzaa, the first green candle, next to the black candle, representing ujima (collective work and responsibility) is lit. The candles are lit in this alternating pattern until the last green candle, representing Imani (faith) is lit on the last day of the Kwanzaa celebration January 1st.

Celebrating Kwanzaa encourages making or buying educational African centred zawadi (gifts) for children to practice Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) so that money circulates in the community at least seven times. There are excellent books written for African children about the heroes and sheroes who can serve as inspiration and role models. Mathieu DaCosta by Itah Sadu, The Kids Book of Black Canadian History by Rosemary Sadlier, To Be a Drum by Evelyn Coleman, The Sound that Jazz Makes by Carole Boston Weatherford, In Daddy's Arms I Am Tall by Javaka Steptoe, Jambo Means Hello: Swahili Alphabet Book by Muriel Feelings, The Friendship, Song of the Trees, Mississippi Bridge and The Well by Mildred D. Taylor are all excellent Kwanzaa zawadi for children. The decorations for the Kwanzaa table, including a beautifully carved wooden kinara, mkeka, kikombe cha Umoja and kente cloth can all be found at African Canadian owned stores. The seven principles can be a guide throughout the year and do not have to be relegated to the Kwanzaa celebration from December 26th to January 1st.

An important part of the Kwanzaa celebration is the recognition of those who went before us. We remember those who paved the way for us, those on whose shoulders we stand and we are thankful that they never stopped striving for their freedom. Some of those freedom fighting ancestors are Kofi (Guyana’s National Hero who led the Berbice Revolution of 1763) Nanny (Jamaica’s lone female National Hero) Nana Yaa Asantewa (who led the last Ashante battle against the British in Ghana) Queen Nzingha (who battled the Portuguese in Angola) Mbuya Nehanda (who led the Shona resistance against the British in Zimbabwe) Viola Desmond who defied Canadian segregation practices and was arrested on November 8, 1946 for sitting in the white section of a New Glasgow, Nova Scotia cinema and Carrie Best who publicized and supported Viola Desmond’s fight.

The community is invited to a free Kwanzaa karamu on December 31 to celebrate Kuumba (creativity) at 100 Devonshire Place. If you have not celebrated Kwanzaa, now is a good time to start. Kwanzaa yenu iwe na heri! May your Kwanzaa be happy!! Merry Christmas!!

KWANZAA

KWANZAA

KWANZAA 2010

No part of our legacy is more valuable than the unique ethical teaching of the Odu Ifa, the sacred text of our Yoruba ancestors, that we and all humans are divinely chosen to bring good into the world and that this is the fundamental meaning and mission of human life. As cultural nationalists, we believe that you must rescue and reconstruct African history and culture to revitalize African culture today in America. In the final analysis shared social wealth and work are key to African economic development
Dr. Maulana Karenga

In 1965 Dr. Maulana Karenga and several advocates founded the organization Us. Out of that period when African Americans struggled to gain their civil rights Us “projected a new vision of possibility through service, struggle and institution-building.” In that framework and spirit, they co-founded the Brotherhood Crusade, the Black Congress, Mafundi Institute, the Community Alert Patrol, and the Operational Unity Committee. The organization was involved in planning the Kedren Community Mental Health Center, the Watts Health Foundation and the Ujima Housing Project. They worked with schools and parent groups to establish and maintain quality education and built a youth movement, the Simba Wachanga (The Young Lions) which is a model and inspiration for numerous rites of passage programs. The organization also established and maintains the African American Cultural Center, the Limbiko Tembo Kawaida School of African American Culture (an independent cultural school for children,) the Kawaida Institute of Pan-African Studies (which sponsors an annual seminar in Social Theory & Practice) and the University of Sankore Press.

The group is most famous for the creation of Kwanzaa and the introduction of the Nguzo Saba (Seven Principles.) Kwanzaa, which comes from the Kiswahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza” (first fruits of the harvest,) was created in December 1966. Karenga, professor of Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach, author and scholar-activist stresses the need to preserve and promote African culture.

Dr Molefi Kete Asante in his 2009 published book Maulana Karenga: An Intellectual Portrait writes: “Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga is an intellectual and political activist who is always at work, writing, speaking, editing teaching and consulting. Maulana Karenga is the preeminent African American cultural theorist and one of the towering figures in the science of social and cultural reconstruction of our era.” In the foreword of the book Dr Ama Mazama associate professor of African American Studies at Temple University writes: “Only five intellectual movements among African Americans in the last century have been fully transformative: Marcus Garvey’s Pan African movement, Martin Luther King’s civil rights movement, Elijah Mohammad’s religious nationalism, Maulana Karenga’s Kawaida and Molefi Kete Asante’s Afrocentricity. These intellectual and activist traditions have been at the forefront of changing the operational, social, religious, legal, or symbolic nature of the African American community.”


Kwanzaa is a celebration of family, community and culture based on African harvest celebrations that urges and encourages Africans in the Diaspora to connect with their cultural and historical roots. Kwanzaa is cultural, practiced by Africans of all religious faiths who come together based on the Pan-African philosophy of the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. In an interview with Emerge Magazine Karenga said, "As cultural nationalists, we believe that you must rescue and reconstruct African history and culture to revitalize African culture today in America. Kwanzaa became a way of doing just that. I wanted to stress the need for reorientation of values, to borrow the collective life-affirming ones from our past and use them to enrich our present."

The Nguzo Saba (Seven Principles) of Kwanzaa was designed to be a value system for African Americans to attain a national liberation from the cycle of poverty that has dogged Africans in the Diaspora since the abolition of chattel slavery. The Nguzo Saba are Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity) and Imani (faith). Karenga has stressed the importance of culture as a way to unite and overcome oppression and achieve economic freedom for Africans.

Initially celebrated by a few hundred people in the United States, Kwanzaa has spread internationally and celebrated wherever Africans live. The purpose of Kwanzaa, a celebration of family, community and culture has resonated with Africans and by the 1990s Kwanzaa was celebrated by over 18 million Africans in Africa, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe and the United States. Africans in the Diaspora, the descendants of enslaved Africans who for hundreds of years were disconnected from their origins have embraced the opportunity to connect/reconnect with the culture and history of their ancestors.

Kwanzaa was created to be more than a seven day celebration (December 26 – January 1) and lighting of candles. The Nguzo Saba has encompassed every area of the lives of Africans including the education of our future generations. The work of Karenga and other scholars like Dr Molefi Kete Asante led to the establishment of African centred education from elementary schools to post secondary institutions. It is through their work that Africentric elementary schools were developed and African studies were established at universities. They ensured that it was recognized that Africentricity is not Eurocentricity in Black face. Africentricity includes exploring and analyzing the culture and history of African people from the continent and the Diaspora from an Africentric perspective. Asante has described Africentricity as: "literally placing African ideals at the center of any analysis that involves African culture and behavior."

He has also written that: Afrocentricity stands as both a corrective and a critique. Whenever African people, who collectively suffer the experience of dislocation, are relocated in a centered place, that is, with agency and accountability, we have a corrective. By recentering the African person as an agent, we deny the hegemony of European domination in thought and behavior, and then Afrocentricity becomes a critique. On the one hand, we seek to correct the sense of place of the African, and on the other hand, we make a critique of the process and extent of the dislocation caused by the European cultural, economic, and political domination of Africa and African peoples.

It is possible to make an exploration of this critical dimension by observing the way European writers have defined Africa and Africans in history, political science, anthropology, and sociology. To condone the definition of Africans as marginal and fringe people in the historical processes of the world, including the African world, is to abandon all hope of reversing the degradation of the oppressed. Thus, the aims of Afrocentricity as regards the cultural idea are not hegemonic. Afrocentrists have expressed no interest in one race or culture dominating another; they express an ardent belief in the possibility of diverse populations living on the same earth without giving up their fundamental traditions, except where those traditions invade other peoples’ space.
Afrocentricity finds its inspirational source in the Kawaida philosophy’s long-standing concern that the cultural crisis is a defining characteristic of 20th century African reality in the diaspora just as the nationality crisis is the principal issue on the African continent. Afrocentricity sought to address these crises by repositioning the African person and African reality from the margins of European thought, attitude, and doctrines to a centered, therefore positively located, place within the realm of science and culture.

Afrocentricity finds its grounding in the intellectual and activist precursors who first suggested culture as a critical corrective to a displaced agency among Africans. Recognizing that Africans in the diaspora had been deliberately deculturalized and made to accept the conqueror’s codes of conduct and modes of behavior, the Afrocentrist discovered that the interpretative and theoretical grounds had also been moved. One can be born in Africa, follow African styles and modes of living, and practice an African religion and not be Afrocentric. To be Afrocentric one has to have a self-conscious awareness of the need for centering. Thus, those individuals who live in Africa and recognize the decentering of their minds because of European colonization may self-consciously choose to be demonstratively in tune with their own agency. If so, this becomes a revolutionary act of will that cannot be achieved merely by wearing African clothes or having an African name.

During the celebration of Kwanzaa it is important that we remember to live the Nguzo Saba everyday. Expressing Ujima (to build and maintain our community together and make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems and to solve them together,) in 1999 Karenga spoke at a seminar about the need for a living wage where he said: “One of the most important struggles for social and economic justice of our times is the expanding and ongoing struggle for a living wage. The struggle is essentially directed towards securing for low-income workers a wage which provides for them with adequate means to support themselves and their families, rise above the poverty level which entraps them and live a life of dignity and decency due every human being.”

JOMO KENYATTA

When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the Land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.

Quote attributed to Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first Prime Minister (1963–1964) and President (1964–1978)

Jomo Kenyatta became Kenya’s first Prime Minister when the country gained its political independence from Britain on December 12, 1963. Kenyatta, born Kamau wa Ngengi to parents Muigai and Wambui who were members of the Kikuyu ethnic group in central Kenya changed his name to Jomo Kenyatta as an adult.

The first Europeans entering Kenya in 1844 were German missionaries. These missionaries had more on their minds than converting Africans to Christianity. They made numerous exploratory journeys into the interior of the country where they carefully mapped and wrote about their findings. Their detailed maps and cataloguing of the land, which they published, showed huge inland lakes, speculations about the source of the Nile and their sightings of the snow-covered peaks of Mountains Kilimanjaro and Kenya. The findings of the missionaries published in 1860: Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labours During an Eighteen Years' Residence in Eastern Africa led to British adventurers descending on the country. Not surprisingly, the missionary Johann Ludwig Krapf dedicated the book to “The Prince Consort Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel etc.,” the German husband of then reigning British monarch, Victoria.

The history of Kenya however began long before the advent of Europeans to the area in the 1840s. In the 1981 published book Kenya’s Past: An Introduction to Historical Method in Africa, Thomas Spear writes “The history of eastern and central Kenya stretches more than two million years from the initial emergence of mankind itself to the present. The archaeological record of mankind in Kenya is the oldest in the world, stretching back some four to five million years to the earliest men and women and their immediate forebears living on the shores of Lake Turkana.”

The communities in the area included, farmers, fishers, hunters and ironworkers who supported the economy with agriculture, fishing, metal production and trade with other countries. Mombasa (Kenya’s capital) was the major port city of Kenya in the Middle Ages from where large and small ships left to trade with other countries. In the 16th century, Duarte Barbosa a Portuguese writer and trader visited several countries bordering the Indian Ocean and documented his findings in The Book of Duarte Barbosa: An Account of the Countries Bordering on the Indian Ocean and Their Inhabitants which was published in 1518. Of his visit to Mombasa, Barbosa wrote, “This is a place of great traffic and has a good harbour in which there are always moored small craft of many kinds and also great ships, both of those which come from Sofala and those which go thither, and others which come from the great kingdom Cambaya and from Melinde and others which sail to the island of Zanzibar.”


Kenya’s history was re-written by white colonizers who swiftly followed the German missionaries and British adventurers. The lives of the Africans changed considerably after this large scale occupation of the land by white men and women. The Germans and British were jostling each other for space in East Africa. The covetous Europeans had occupied other areas of Africa and by 1884 felt that they needed to have some rules since they were tripping over each other in their greedy stampede to occupy African land. In 1884 at the request of Portugal, German chancellor Otto von Bismark organized a meeting (Berlin Conference) of the major white controlled nations of the world to negotiate and end the confusion over who would occupy which portion of Africa. Fourteen countries were represented when the conference opened in Berlin on November 15, 1884; Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway (unified from 1814-1905), Turkey and the United States of America. The feeding frenzy lasted three months until February 26, 1885. This group of white men in Europe haggled over haphazardly drawn boundaries on the African continent, disregarding the centuries old established communities, cultures and order of the Africans.

The British moved into Kenya, occupied the most fertile land and forced the Africans off the land. They passed laws that disenfranchised Africans, even forbidding them to own land in certain parts of the country. With the white interlopers occupying what they dubbed the "White Highlands" of Kenya, the Maasai and the Kikuyu were displaced and some were forced unto reserves. With the fertile land in Kenya reserved for white people and Africans forced to subsist on mostly infertile land, the white settlers became increasingly wealthy while the Africans lived in poverty. The large scale farming that enriched the white farmers needed cheap labour but the Africans refused to work on the farms. To ensure that Africans were a cheap source of labour for the white population of Kenya, the British government passed laws which forced the Africans to work for the white people who now occupied their land. The British army was on hand to ensure that white farmers and the stolen African land they occupied was protected. The Masters and Servants Act (1906) ensured that a caste system of all white people as masters and all Africans as servants was firmly in place.

Even after carving up the African continent and exploiting the natural resources and the people, the Europeans continued to fight each other over territory until everything came to a head in 1914 with an all out European armed tribal conflict. Following that armed conflict, Germany lost the African land it had coveted to other Europeans. The second European tribal conflict which lasted from 1939 to 1945 was a turning point for Africans across the continent. Africans from the various colonized nations were forced into both wars as fighting men and when they returned home were not satisfied to continue living as third class citizens. Returning to Kenya after the second war in Europe the African ex-servicemen found that the British colonial government had reneged on its promise to provide them with land and other benefits and instead their taxes had been increased. According to authors Esther and Joseph Oppong (Kenya published 2004) Harry Thuku (co-founder of the Kikuyu Central Association) acting for a group of disgruntled Kenyan ex-servicemen wrote to the government saying: "When we went to do war work we were told by His Excellency the governor that we should be rewarded, but it is our reward to have our tax raised and to have registration papers given to us for our ownership of land to be called into question; to be told today that we are to receive title deeds and tomorrow for it to appear that we are not to receive them.”

The British government ignored the repeated requests to honour the promises made to the men. The continued disrespect and mistreatment of the Africans by the British government and the white occupiers of the land led to the independence movement with Kenyatta as its eventual leader. The British resisted the Kenyan call for independence, imprisoning, torturing and killing the freedom fighters. After decades of fighting the British for their independence during which Kenyatta and other leaders were imprisoned, some tortured and killed, with thousands of African civilians killed by British troops, Kenyans gained their independence on December 12, 1963.

HUMAN RIGHTS

In less than a month most of the world’s population will be celebrating a New Year, 2011. The rapidly approaching New Year 2011 has been declared the International Year for People of African Descent by the United Nations (UN). Meanwhile there is much to do and remember in December 2010. Last week Thursday, November 25, the city of Toronto celebrated Human Rights Day by presenting several awards to deserving Torontonians during which several important dates for commemoration and remembrance in December were mentioned. Those dates include December 2 the UN recognized International Day for the Abolition of Slavery and December 6, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

The December 2 UN recognized International Day for the Abolition of Slavery came out of the adoption of the UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (resolution 317(IV) of December 2, 1949). To memorialize the resolution, a UN report of the Working Group on Slavery recommended in 1985 that December 2 be proclaimed the World Day for the Abolition of Slavery in all its forms and by 1995 the day was known as the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.

The commemoration of December 2 is a recognition that the UN is committed to fighting against slavery and considers bonded labour, forced labour, child labour and trafficking people modern forms of slavery. Some sources claim that more than a million children are trafficked each year for cheap labour or sexual exploitation. These are global problems and against article four of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that “no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms”

The December 2, commemoration is separate from the commemoration of the horrific and inhumane centuries long enslavement of Africans. The recognition and commemoration of the end of the four hundred years Maafa (trade and enslavement of Africans by Europeans) is recognized annually on August 23 as the UN International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. From the 15th century to the 19th century Africans were subjected to a particularly horrendous form of slavery by Europeans where they were stripped of their culture, languages and names, forbidden under pain of death from practicing their spiritual beliefs and used for inhumane experiments. The systematic abuse was documented in books like Thomas Thistlewood’s diary published in 1999: In Miserable Slavery: Thomas Thistlewood in Jamaica, 1750-86. In his 1983 published Slavery and the Slave Trade: A Short Illustrated History, James Walvin writes that the enslavement of Africans “represent an unparalleled degree of human misery and social dislocation.” Dr Joy De Gruy Leary reminds us that the effect of the four hundred year trauma was never addressed and continues to plague the descendants of enslaved Africans today in the form of what she terms Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. While slavery has been sometimes considered an example of “man’s inhumanity to man” women because of their gender suffered a unique inhumane abuse during slavery and every armed conflict between men.

During the enslavement of Africans, women were vulnerable to sexual abuse because of their gender. In any situation of armed conflict, women are vulnerable to sexual abuse because of their gender. The ongoing armed conflict fuelled by white corporate greed has led to horrific gender based violence against Congolese women which has engendered nothing less than a deafening international silence.

This silence continues even on December 6 when Canadians observe the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women although the majority of mining companies fuelling the ongoing armed conflict in the Congo are Canadian. Admittedly the December 6 observances came out of the murder of 14 white women who were students in the engineering program at École Polytechnique de Montréal on December 6, 1989, however, violence against women is no respecter of race, caste or class. Where does this violence against women begin?

“A boy who hits a girl is a coward”: was a mantra from my childhood and youth growing up in Guyana, South America. Most boys took it to heart and it would be very rare where a boy would hit a girl. Maybe it was because they did not want to be considered cowards or because parents, teachers and their peers reinforced the idea. From recent incidents at schools in Toronto it is obvious that the decades old mantra from my childhood in Guyana is not part of the culture here in Toronto.

One incident involved a 7 year old student whose parents are clearly distressed at the continued bullying of their daughter by a 7 year old boy in her Scarborough school classroom. The child’s mother also detailed and posted to her facebook page her frustration with the continued physically violent abuse of her child. The mother documented on her facebook post that the little boy was attempting to kiss and lick the little girl’s neck among other inappropriate behaviour and when the little girl objected her classmate would then become physically abusive. The parents met with the principal of the school to express their concerns and were surprised when they were told by the principal that if their child could not handle the rough culture of the Scarborough public school system, they might want to consider enrolling her in private school. In another case a 5 year old kindergartner who is a student in a North York public school reported to her parents that she had been “kicked three times in the stomach” by a classmate. The teacher admitted to the little girl’s mother that she had witnessed the abuse but was not sure if the little girl had done something to provoke the violent attack. To her credit the teacher in that case did ensure that her kindergartner apologize to his classmate for kicking her in the stomach after ascertaining that the little girl had done nothing to provoke the physical assault.

Parents send their children to school to be educated and it is little enough to expect that those children will be safe from abuse. No student, male or female should fear attending school because of continued bullying from other students or staff and physical violence needs to be addressed immediately when it is witnessed or reported. The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has a Human Rights Policy, a Safe Schools Policy and a policy that addresses gender based violence which was adopted on April 14, 2010. The objective is to: “establish the Board’s commitment to eliminating gender-based violence in its school” Part off the policy includes reporting incidents of gender violence: “All employees of the Board shall report any concerns about or incidents of gender-based violence in the school community to the school principal.” It seems that some staff at the TDSB are ignoring or not aware of these policies.

It is very possible that Marc Lépine who murdered the 14 women at École Polytechnique de Montréal and the police officers who brutalized Stacy Bonds (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFq66qIWajo) were physically abusing their female classmates in kindergarten and their behaviour was tolerated and or ignored by adults.

SENGBE PIEH

On November 27, 1841 thirty five Africans aboard a ship the Gentleman sailed out of New York bound for Sierra Leone. These Africans were part of a group of 600 who had been kidnapped in West Africa, forced onboard a slave ship Tecora (flying a Portuguese flag) in April 1839 and taken to Cuba. The story of their struggle for freedom was fictionalized and immortalized in the movie La Amistad which was released in 1997. Several books have also been written about the Africans who were on La Amistad when it was intercepted on August 26, 1839 off of Long Island, New York, by the crew of the U. S. Coast Guard vessel, the USS Washington. These books include the 1953 published novel Black Mutiny: Revolt on the Schooner Amistad written by William Owens, the 1988 published Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy written by Professor Howard Jones and the 1998 published Freedom's sons: the true story of the Amistad mutiny written by Suzanne Jurmain.

When the Africans were kidnapped in 1839, Britain, the USA, France, Portugal and Spain had on paper at least outlawed the transportation of Africans from the African continent into slavery in the various European occupied colonies. The enslavement of Africans by Europeans was still a pratice but the importation of Africans had been abolished. Britain abolished the trade in 1807, the USA in 1808, the Portuguese in 1810, the Austrians, Danes, French, Russians and Prussians in 1814, the Dutch in 1818 and the Spanish in 1820. When the Portuguese owned slave ship Tecora set sail with the Africans in April, 1839 the owner, captain and crew were breaking an international law and “violated all of the treaties then in existence.”

Although all these European nations had abolished the slave trade yet Africans were bought and sold in the various European occupied colonies. The British had outlawed the transportation of Africans from the continent yet the Africans who were taken on board the Tecora in April 1839 were kidnapped and taken from Sierra Leone which was a British protectorate. Like millions of Africans before them, the occupants of the Portuguese slave ship Tecora were forced into the hold of the ship and shackled in place for the roughly 10 weeks of brutal travel along the Middle Passage. After enduring a horrific journey and landing at Havana in the Spanish colony Cuba, the Africans were fraudulently classified as Cuban-born slaves (renamed with Spanish names) and sold at auction to Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montez, who planned to transport them to their plantations on another part of the island aboard the cargo schooner La Amistad.

Three days into the journey aboard La Amistad the understandably angry and desperate Africans seized control of the ship in an effort to return to Africa. The Africans were led by Sengbe Pieh, a 25-year-old member of the Mendi nation (the Spanish had renamed him Joseph Cinque) who had managed to free himself and his companions. The Africans ordered the two Spanish sailors who survived the revolt to sail La Amistad east towards the rising sun and to Africa. During the night, the Spaniards secretly changed course, attempting to sail back to Cuba or to the southern coast of the United States and after more than two months at sea La Amistad eventually reached Long Island Sound in August 1839. In search of food and water, the Africans went ashore on Montauk Point, Long Island, where they were recaptured on August 26, 1839 by the crew of the Federal naval brig USS Washington. On August 29, 1839, three days after the La Amistad was towed to New London, Connecticut, Judge Judson presided at a hearing on complaints of murder and piracy filed by the two Spaniards Montes and Ruiz who had purchased the Africans in Havana. Thirty-nine of the 43 Africans who had survived the weeks at sea were present, including their acknowledged leader Sengbe Pieh. The three main witnesses at the hearing were the first mate of the USS Washington and Montes and Ruiz. After listening to the testimony, Judge Judson referred the case for trial in Circuit Court, where in 1839 all federal criminal trials were held and ordered the Africans put into custody at the county jail in New Haven. The incarcerated Africans were subjected to more indignities when reportedly as many as 5,000 people a day visited the jail where the jailer charged "one New York shilling" (about twelve cents) for close looks at the captives.

Meanwhile the Spanish government urged the United States government to return La Amistad to its Cuban owners, concede that the U. S. courts had no jurisdiction over Spanish subjects and return the beleaguered Africans to Havana. The almost two year legal struggle for the Africans’ freedom had begun.

On September 14, 1939, the Africans were sent by canal boat and stagecoach to Hartford for trial in the Circuit courtroom of Judge Smith Thompson who also served as a justice on the United States Supreme Court. District Attorney Holabird asked the court to let President Martin Van Buren decide the fate of the Africans since he (Holabird) viewed this as a matter that could affect the relations between two great powers. Lawyer for the defence, Roger Baldwin argued that the United States should not become a "slave-catcher for foreign slave-holders." After three days of argument Judge Thompson decided that because the alleged mutiny and murders occurred in international waters and did not involve U. S. citizens, the court had no jurisdiction to consider the criminal charges. He also decided that whether or not the Africans were slaves and if they were slaves who owned them was a decision for the district court; and he further ruled that although the Africans were no longer considered prisoners they should be detained until the district court could make a decision about their status.

The Amistad civil trial began on November 19, 1839 in Hartford and after two days of testimony, the trial was adjourned until January 7, 1840. Meanwhile President Van Buren, in anticipation of the court ruling in favour of the Spaniards, sent the naval schooner Grampus, to wait in the New Haven harbour to take the Africans back to Cuba.

Judge Judson announced his decision on January 13, 1840, after a weekend of deliberation. He ruled that the Africans were "born free" and had been kidnapped in violation of international law. He ordered that the Africans be "delivered to President Van Buren for transport back to Africa." The government appealed Judson's decision, but it was affirmed by Circuit Judge Thompson. The government then appealed to the United States Supreme Court, where five of the nine justices were southerners who either owned or had owned slaves. On March 9, 1841, the Supreme Court announced its decision based on the fact that Sengbe Pieh and his companions were "kidnapped Africans, who by the laws of Spain itself were entitled to their freedom."

Although the American government was willing to transport the Africans to slavery in Cuba, they refused to provide transportation back to Africa. Private donors provided the finance for the charter of the Gentleman which sailed out of New York on November 27, 1841 taking the surviving Africans including Sengbe Pieh back to their home.

RUBY NELL BRIDGES NOVEMBER 14, 1960

RUBY NELL BRIDGES NOVEMBER 14, 1960

Fifty years ago on November 14, 1960, 6-year-old Ruby Nell Bridges became a symbol for the Civil Rights movement and made history as the first African American student to enter the William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. Bridges' historic journey to school was immortalized in Norman Rockwell's painting "The Problem We All Live With," which appeared on the cover of Look Magazine on January 14, 1964. In the painting, a small African American girl with neatly braided hair tied with white ribbons, wearing a white dress, white socks and shoes is walking with four white men, two in front and two behind. The men are so much taller than the child that their faces are not seen; only their arms and legs. On the arm of each man is an armband with the words “Deputy U.S. Marshal.” Over the little girl’s head the word “ni--er” is scrawled and there is evidence that someone has violently thrown eggs and tomatoes that smashed against the wall. All this violence unleashed by a white mob because a six year old African American child was going to her first day of grade one class at the previously all white William Frantz Elementary School in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. The same area where Hurricane Katrina touched down in 2005 and the world again witnessed the mistreatment of Africans in America.

Although the Supreme Court of the USA had ruled against segregated public schools in 1954 with the Brown v Board of Education decision, New Orleans had not desegregated its schools even though in 1956, Federal District Court Judge, J. Skelly Wright, ordered the Orleans Parish School Board to design an effective plan for the desegregation of New Orleans' public schools. The Bridges (Abon and Lucille) were forced by the segregation law to send their child to Johnson Lockett Elementary School, for her kindergarten year, where the student body and staff were African American even though it was farther from their home than the all white William Frantz School.

During the spring of 1960, members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) informed the Bridges their child was one of the few to pass a test the school Board had administered to choose African American children to attend two all white schools and she had been chosen to attend the William Frantz School. Of the six children chosen to integrate the schools, two decided to stay in their old schools and the other three were assigned to McDonough 19 which left 6 year old Ruby Bridges the lone African American child to integrate William Frantz Elementary School on November 14, 1960. On November 14, 1960, four girls, accompanied by United States Marshals, integrated the two schools; Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost, Gaile Etienne entering McDonough 19 and Ruby Bridges entering William Frantz Elementary.

While Bridges’ mother believed this was an opportunity to make a difference, her father had some reservations including fear for his child’s safety. In an article published in a March 2000 edition of Guideposts, Bridges wrote: My mother was all for it. My father wasn't. "We're just asking for trouble," he said. He thought things weren't going to change, and blacks and whites would never be treated as equals. Mama thought I would have an opportunity to get a better education if I went to the new school - and a chance for a good job later in life. My parents argued about it and prayed about it. Eventually my mother convinced my father that despite the risks, they had to take this step forward, not just for their own children, but for all black children.

Bridges also remembered that on November 14, 1960, that first day of school, the Federal Marshals drove the car in which she and her mother travelled the five blocks to the new school. While in the car one of the Marshals explained that when they got to the school two of the Marshals would walk in front and two behind the mother and child for protection on both sides. She wrote that as the car pulled up to the school her mother said to her "Ruby Nell, don't be afraid. There might be some people upset outside, but I'll be with you." That was the only preparation she received before being confronted by a vicious mob of white men and women as she and her mother hurried up the stairs between the four Marshals. Walter Cronkite reported the incident for the evening news and Americans witnessed the horrible scenes of mostly white women in a murderous frenzy because one small child entered a school where their children attended but the words that were screamed at that child were muffled. In his travelogue Travels with Charley: In Search of America, John Steinbeck who witnessed the scene on November 14, 1960 at William Franz Elementary School wrote of the blood thirsty mob: I’ve seen this kind bellow for blood at a prize fight, have orgasms when a man is gored in the bull ring, stare with vicarious lust at a highway accident, stand patiently in line for the privilege of watching any pain or any agony.

Adult white men and women took time out of their days to terrorise a small African American child for the entire school year. Describing the scene he witnessed at the William Franz Elementary School Steinbeck also wrote:

The show opened on time. Sound of sirens. Motorcycle cops. Then two big black cars filled with big men in blond felt hats pulled up in front of the school. The crowd seemed to hold its breath. Four big marshals got out of each car and from somewhere in the automobiles they extracted the littlest Negro girl you ever saw, dressed in shining starchy white, with new white shoes on feet so little they were almost round. Her face and little legs were very black against the white.

The big marshals stood her on the curb and a jangle of jeering shrieks went up from behind the barricades. The little girl did not look at the howling crowd but from the side the whites of her eyes showed like those of a frightened fawn. The men turned her around like a doll, and then the strange procession moved up the broad walk toward the school, and the child was even more a mite because the men were so big. Then the girl made a curious hop, and I think I know what it was. I think in her whole life she had not gone ten steps without skipping, but now in the middle of her first skip the weight bore her down and her little round feet took measured, reluctant steps between the tall guards. Slowly they climbed the steps and entered the school.

From Steinbeck’s description, the white women were especially vicious in expressing their hatred of the six year old: No newspaper had printed the words these women shouted. It was indicated that they were indelicate, some even said obscene, On television the sound track was made to blur or had crowd noises cut to occur. But now I heard the words, bestial and filthy and degenerate. In a long and unprotected life I have seen and heard the vomiting of demoniac humans before. Why then did these screams fill me with a shocked and sickened sorrow?

Because of the angry mob Bridges did not get to class on the first day of school, November 14, 1960, she and her mother spent the day in the principal’s office where they witnessed furious white men and women taking their children out of the school. Bridges wrote of her recollections from that day and the following day: “We spent that whole day sitting in the principal's office. Through the window, I saw white parents pointing at us and yelling, then rushing their children out of the school. In the uproar I never got to my classroom. The marshals drove my mother and me to school again the next day. I tried not to pay attention to the mob. Someone had a black doll in a coffin, and that scared me more than the nasty things people screamed at us.” On the second day she did enter a classroom because one teacher agreed to teach her even though no white parents would allow their children to sit in the classroom with her. Bridges spent her entire grade one year protected by Federal Marshals, she was the only child in the classroom and she was never allowed to leave the class even for recess.

Meanwhile the white mob, mostly women, continued to riot outside the school, swearing, throwing objects and threatening death to the six year old http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBaReBh6sD4. It is almost unbelievable that the women, many of them mothers of children the same age as the then 6 year old Bridges, vowed to murder the child simply because she entered the same school as their children. One woman promised to poison Bridges which prompted the decision to not allow her to eat anything that was not prepared at home. The family suffered repercussions because of their decision to have their child integrate the all white school. Abon Bridges was fired from his job and his parents who were tenant farmers in Mississippi were thrown off the land by the white farmer/owner for whom they had worked for 25 years.

The family received a great deal of support from the African American community in their New Orleans neighbourhood. Speaking of the support the family received, during an interview aired on PBS Bridges said: “I don't think that my parents could have gone through what they did without the whole community coming together. We had friends that would come over and help dress me for school. Even when I rode to school, there were people in the neighborhood that would walk behind the car. I actually didn't live that far from school, and so they would actually just come out and walk to school with me.”

In 1999 Ruby Bridges Hall established the Ruby Bridges Foundation to “promote the values of tolerance, respect and appreciation through educational programs.” One of the projects she plans is the repair and restoration of the William Frantz Elementary School which was damaged in the Hurricane Katrina disaster. She hopes to re-open the school in 2012 with a Civil Rights Museum as part of it. As the Honourable Robert “Bob” Nesta Marley sang: We’re the survivors, the black survivors.




In defiance of the desegregation law, the white people of New Orleans did more than terrorize Ruby Bridges, Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost, Gaile Etienne and their families. The Knights of White Christians was a New Orleans group that published and distributed the following leaflet:

“Death Stalks Our Land With Black Plague,” Knights of White Christians, New Orleans, August 1960

We call upon the white Christian manhood and womanhood of our native southland to fight and prove your loyalty to your forefathers who created this country with their courage, work, sacrifice and blood. The purity of the white race must be protected and preserved—Our racial dignity, southern heritages, and traditions as well as our rights guaranteed by the Constitution of our country cannot and will not perish from this earth. No power on earth can bring death to our white race and the southern Legion of Honor cause which we love so well – more than life – enough to defy and fight communism, tyranny and persecution, spearheaded by the black plague of racial integration, without fear of personal sacrifice or death.

Almighty God created segregation and in his name we would prefer to die than submit to mulatto mongrelization and the indoctrination, regimentation and mental slavery of a government of tyranny.

You are born alone – must die alone – must face the King of Kings alone – so – make your own decision.

United we stand and lead on to victory – divided we fall victims to black plague and Communism. . . .

Our No. 1 plank in our battle for survival program is the weapon used by the N.A.A.C.P. – BOYCOTT NEGROES. Do not employ Negroes – Do not deal with or patronize stores, business places, restaurants, churches, T.V. advertised products, sporting events, etc., that sponsor or promote racial integration.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Numerous Letters to the Editor were sent to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, protesting the desegregation of the two public schools, including:


New Orleans Times-Picayune, November 21, 1960

To the Editor:
A day that will live in the archives of New Orleans as its “Black Monday” of the 20th century, engulfed this city of the historic South on the 14th of November.

In direct violation of the state and federal constitution, a federal judge has assumed dictatorial powers over the city as well as the state of Louisiana. Never in the annals of American history has a so-called governing body of the United States, in the representation of the federal courts, intervened themselves . . . as in New Orleans.

If this nation is to enjoy the liberty and freedom of a democracy, then first of all, its leaders should renew the ideology of a democracy. . . .

As Louisiana speaker J. Thomas Jewell, in deliverance of his classic piece of oratory before the House of Representatives, said on the 14th of November:

“The courts are traditionally the guardian of liberty. They have the right to pass upon the actions of the lawmakers of Louisiana and every other state. They can render opinions regarding the constitutionality of laws passed by Congress itself. But no power on earth – including the federal court – can assume unto itself the right to prejudge the actions of the Legislature.”

These words are symbolic of the very meaning of American democracy. This nation was built upon foundations of strength, faith and determination – not upon the whimsical theories of dreamers. The strength of a country lies first of all in the patriotic health and moral stamina of that nation, not in an idea of liberalistic philosophy.

Lloyd F. Fricke, Jr.
Metairie, LA
+++++++++++++++++++++++

Jack Howard, the mayor of Monroe, Louisiana, sent the following telegram to the legislative delegation from Monroe on Sunday, November 13, 1960. It was published in the Monroe Morning Herald on November 14, 1960


“Ouachita Men Strongly Back School Action”
Monroe Morning Herald, November 14, 1960
The white citizens of Monroe and Ouachita Parish are supporting you and the governor one thousand percent. Let’s battle the U.S. courts to the bitter end and learn once and for all whether the state of Louisiana, its legislature and its governor are going to run the affairs of our state or whether or not traitors like Skelly Wright and a Communist Supreme Court is going to take over, and run our state. We are supporting you all the way and ask that no stone be left unturned in this all important fight to preserve our traditional way of life. If we lose this fight then we have lost it all. Keep up the good work.

REMEMBRANCE DAY IN CANADA 2010

Colored men!
Your King and Country need you!
Now is the time to show your patriotism and loyalty.
Will you heed the call and do your share?
Your Brothers of the Colonies have rallied to the Flag and
are distinguishing themselves at the Front.
Here also is your opportunity to be identified in the Greatest
War of History, where the Fate of Nations who stand for Liberty
is at stake.

Excerpt from advertisement posted in the September 1916 issue of The Atlantic Advocate


The advertisement placed in The Atlantic Advocate encouraging African Canadian men to enlist in the military came after hundreds of African Canadians were turned away when they first tried to enlist in 1914. By 1916 the military higher-ups were ready to accept the services of African Canadians because the war had been raging for two years and the Allies had suffered heavy casualties. The authorities realised that they may have been a bit hasty when they told eager African Canadian men willing to enlist that the war was a “white man’s war” and there was no place for “coloured men” in what was essentially a European tribal conflict. In 1914 when the first major European tribal conflict of the 20th century broke out white Canadian recruiters turned away African Canadians and other racialized men who were eager to become involved in the battles raging throughout Europe.

The history books tell us that the cause of what became known as the Great War or the War to end all Wars was the killing of Franz Ferdinand (first in line to the Austro-Hungarian throne) and his wife. The unfortunate Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were killed on June 28, 1914 by a group of disgruntled Serbs and war broke out between Austria and Serbia. Apparently the disgruntled Serbs were part of a group opposed to the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and seized the opportunity to get rid of the next in line for the throne when the couple visited Sarajevo (capital city of Bosnia-Herzegovina.) After hostilities broke out between Austria-Hungary and Serbia other Europeans quickly picked sides (Britain, Russia and France on the Serbian side with Italy and Germany on the Austro-Hungarian side) and the war was on. By the conclusion of this “War to end all Wars” in 1918 there were more than 30 countries involved including the countries that had been colonized by the Europeans.

The advertisement urging “colored men” to enlist to serve King and Country is reproduced in the 1987 published book The Black Battalion, 1916-1920: Canada’s Best Kept Military Secret written by Calvin Ruck. Documenting the struggles to contribute as they faced white supremacist policies and the contributions of African Canadians to the War, Ruck writes: “From the onset of World War I African-Canadians began to volunteer to serve their country in the conflict overseas. Many who volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) were turned away at the recruitment offices. In November 25, 1915 Lieutenant-Colonel George W. Fowler, Commanding officer of the 104th Battalion, requested permission to discharge twenty black recruits on the basis of race. He wrote I have been fortunate to have secured a very fine class of recruits and I did not think it fair to these men that they should have to mingle with Negroes. This rejection was met with protest in the African-Canadian community.” The Canadian military was eventually forced to include large numbers of African Canadian recruits after enormous casualties among the white men fighting in Europe. However, these men served in a segregated African Canadian battalion where they were forced to serve under the jurisdiction of white officers.

Although African Canadians have been actively involved in every armed conflict in Canadian history there is no recognition of this fact. In The Black Battalion, 1916-1920: Canada’s Best Kept Military Secret, Ruck writes: “Black Canadians have a long and honourable tradition of patriotism, sacrifice and heroism in the British and Canadian armed forces. From the American Revolution (1775-1783) to the Korean War (1950-1953), Blacks fought, bled and died on behalf of Empire, King and Country.” As quiet as it is kept, Africans have been living in this country since the 1600s (enslaved and free) and many African Canadians can trace their family’s history in Canada back seven and eight generations. In 2001, members of the African Canadian population who could trace the history of their ancestors in Canada back several generations represented significant numbers in the overall African Canadian population in several provinces. In New Brunswick (41%), in Newfoundland and Labrador (22%), in Nova Scotia (57%), in Prince Edward Island (31%) and in Quebec (31%). In spite of this history it is disappointing how little is known about the history and contributions of African Canadians because that history is not included in the curriculum from which Canadian children are taught.

On November 11, when there are images of those who are remembered and praised for fighting to maintain democracy and liberty for the free world those images hardly include racialized people. There is usually no mention of the African Canadian men who Calvin Ruck wrote about in The Black Battalion, 1916-1920: Canada’s Best Kept Military Secret.


African Canadian men returned from fighting for Liberty, King and Country to find that their living conditions had not improved. They still were treated as third class citizens in the country of their birth where their ancestors’ blood, sweat and tears had contributed to the wealth and privileges that others could enjoy. In his book The Black Battalion, 1916-1920: Canada’s Best Kept Military Secret, Ruck acknowledges this by writing: “Following the signing of the Armistice on November 11, 1918, Black soldiers were sent home. They returned, without fanfare, to their homes in cities, towns and villages across the country – from Cape Breton Island in the East to Vancouver Island in the West. The Blacks who were prepared to serve and die in defence of freedom came home to many of the same restrictions they had left behind. The Great War did not end all wars, it did not make the world safe for democracy, and it did not signal an end to racial prejudice. Blacks were still subjected to segregated housing, segregated employment and even some segregated graveyards.”


On Thursday, November 11, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. we will once again pause to remember the men and women who served in various capacities and even lost their lives during the several armed conflicts in which Canada as a colony of the British Empire and as a sovereign nation were involved. Ruck wrote with great optimism: “The authorization on July 5, 1916, of a segregated Black battalion exposed the latent prejudice in this country. In all likelihood, such a discriminatory policy shall never again be repeated. The Human Rights Act of the late seventies and more recently, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which prohibit discrimination based on race, colour etc., apply to all facets of Canadian society, including the armed forces.”

Ruck who transitioned to join the ancestors on October 19, 2004, would have been very disappointed to see the recent image of a white man dressed as a member of the KKK leading another white man in blackface with a rope around his neck at an event held in a Legion Hall where they won first prize for their “costume.” The fact that people at the event did not understand that the “costume” was racist illuminates how far we have come since the days when African Canadians were relegated to third class citizen status in this country. The following quote from an African Canadian man who attended the event at the Legion Hall in Campbellford, Ontario which appeared in an article from one of the white daily newspapers speaks to the harm that we experience when subjected to such racist incidents: “When I saw it and put down my beer and left and was walking out — I never felt as alone as I have in my life,” Mark Andrade said of the troubling spectacle he witnessed at a Campbellford, Ont., legion on Saturday night.

WHITE SUPREMACISTS IN COURTENAY B.C

BABY GAP-COURTENAY-HALLOWEEN-CANADIAN-STYLE-RACISM

Canadians believe the myth that Canada is not a racist country or at least not as racist as the USA. In reality Canada is just as racist with Canadian racism being more subtle than the racism in the USA. White people in Canada prefer a more polite form of racism. It is less likely that in a big city like Toronto there would be a group of white men physically attacking an African Canadian man while taunting him with racist language than it would happen in a small town in Canada.

On July 3, 2009, African Canadian Jay Phillips was physically attacked by three white men hurling racist slurs. The video of the attack was posted on youtube and embarrassed the City Council of the small town in British Columbia.

According to the city’s website: The City of Courtenay is a culturally diverse, scenic city of approximately 22,500 people. Courtenay is on the east coast of Vancouver Island and located within the traditional lands of the K'ómoks First Nation. The Mayor and city council had just a few days before this racist attack was made public, refused to sign on to a protocol that would help fight hate crimes which apparently had been a problem in the city in recent years. After the attack was aired on youtube the police were forced to react to keep alive the myth of the non-racist Canada but one has to wonder what the reaction would have been if Jay Phillips had turned up at a police station bruised and bloodied to make a complaint about the attack.

According to a report in the Globe and Mail, one of Canada’s daily white newspapers: Mr. Phillips, who escaped with two stitches above his right eye and a couple of bruised ribs said Tuesday the incident is yet another example of the racism he's battled all his life, despite being a born and raised in B.C. He said he remembered being four years old in preschool and his teacher telling him to shut up, using a racial epithet.

In spite of the evidence from the video, many are defending this behaviour claiming it is not racist. I am just surprised that one of them did not claim to have a black best friend. No such reticence from the people in the next story.

A former police officer who donned blackface on October 31, 2010, for a Halloween party and was led around by a rope around his neck held by a friend dressed as a Ku Klux Klansman says it was a stupid mistake.

Terry Nunn, who was Toronto’s police officer of the year in 1981, said last week Thursday he is in “no way, shape or form” a racist and neither is his friend Blair Crowley.

“I don’t believe in the KKK. It was a Halloween mistake is what it was,” he told Toronto radio station AM640.

The pair won 1st prize for most original costume at the Royal Canadian Legion party in Campbellford, Ontario.

“Blair admits it was in bad taste and he should have thought more about it before he did it,” his wife Marsha Crowley said from their home in Hastings when interviewed on Thursday November 4, 2010.

Both she and Nunn, the ex-police officer in blackface, said no one at the party complained about the costumes. “It was just a last-minute ‘Well, what am I going to wear? There’s a bedsheet. Well I’m not going as a ghost.’ And we had a piece of bristol board and kind of rolled it up and that was his costume,” said Crowley.

Her husband who was dressed in KKK gear also wore a Confederate flag on his back. Crowley said her husband is not a racist, adding his best friend is black.

As an African woman living in the city of Toronto where the motto is: Diversity our strength: If I received money for every time I have been subjected to racism since I have lived in Canada I would be an extremely wealthy woman today. The most recent experience was last week Thursday November 4, 2010, at the Baby Gap store located at 80 Bloor Street West in Toronto. I was told by the cashier that I needed to provide photo identification to purchase an item that cost less than 17.00 when using my credit card which does not even need a signature but the use of a PIN number. I informed the young white woman that I had never been asked for photo ID when using a credit card although I had bought items from several Gap stores including the 80 Bay Street West location. She then began to jab her finger at my name on the card and said in a stern, scolding, patronizing tone: You cannot use someone else’s card.

In a state of shock I asked: Are you assuming that is not my card? She then blathered some remarks of being surprised at the name on the credit card at which point I asked for her name and told her that I needed to speak with a manager. To my surprise she said that she was a manager; however I asked to speak to another manager.

She left and a few minutes later another young white woman came and identified herself as a manager. I introduced myself, asked for her name (Shauna) and relayed the incident to which I had been subjected by Michelle. Shauna apologized and shared with me that while Michelle may have been wrong in the way she handled the situation she did it for my protection. Amazing that in trying to protect my credit, if someone had stolen my credit card and tried to buy an item for less than 17.00 dollars, Michelle had accused me of trying to use someone else’s credit card. I asked Shauna for a name and mailing address where I could send a complaint but she instead gave me two phone numbers and three coupons for 40% off regular priced Gap merchandise.

I left the Baby Gap store at 80 Bloor Street West feeling a bit shell shocked that I had been racially profiled by a manager of a department store in downtown Toronto where the motto is: Diversity our strength. Calling the 1-800-427-7895 number that I had received from Shauna, I spoke with Thomas who told me that it is the policy of Gap stores to ask all customers for photo ID if they paid for their purchases with a credit card. I informed Thomas that if I had the time and the inclination I could prove him wrong by visiting various Gap stores in the Toronto area and observing who if anyone was asked to produce photo ID if they paid for their purchases with a credit card. I later spoke with Lynsie from the corporate office in Ohio, because I was not satisfied with Thomas’ handling of the situation and needed another opinion. Lynsie apologized and promised that I would receive a call from their district manager within 10 days.

Michelle assuming that an African woman could not have a European name speaks to ignorance of the reality of Africans in the Diaspora. We bear the names of the members of the European tribes that enslaved our ancestors. Africans in the Diaspora bear names that were forced on them by the English, Dutch, French, German, Irish, Portuguese, Scottish, Spanish, Welsh etc., who enslaved Africans and stripped them of their belief systems, culture, language and names. Although this is also the history of white people because they were the enslavers there is a dedicated effort to ignore this history.

Then there is the white supremacist culture of North America that encourages people like Michelle to accuse racialized people of imaginary wrongdoing, with impunity because they feel it is their right to do so without consequences. The same mindset that encourages people like Terry Nun and Blair Crowley to think that they can dress in a “costume” that reminds Africans in North America of the four hundred years of slavery and the more than one hundred years of white people lynching Africans in North America. And in the case of Crowley’s wife claim a “black best friend” when confronted with public censure for white supremacist behaviour.

In the next two months we will be in the year 2011 designated by the United Nations General Assembly as the "International Year for People of African Descent." In the next three months we will be recognizing African Heritage Month (February) in North America. While in Canada the recognition of the month is usually superficial celebrations of food and dance, it is time that there is serious analysis of the white supremacist culture of this society and concrete plans to address and eliminate it.

TORONTO MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS 2010

The 2010 Toronto municipal election held on October 25, 2010 is over and we have a new Mayor and 14 new city councillors among the 44 city councillors who will occupy Toronto City Hall for the next four years. The position for mayor of Toronto was open for the first time since the 2003 Toronto municipal election because David Miller decided not to seek a third term; so there were 40 candidates running for that position. Very early in the race, the white media decided that there would be five white men and one white woman who were worthy of becoming Toronto’s next mayor. They did not consider any racialized mayoral candidate worthy of their attention. By the end of the campaign period there were three candidates who the media included in public opinion polls and mayoral debates: Rob Ford, Joe Pantalone and George Smitherman. Rocco Rossi, Sarah Thomson and Giorgio Mammoliti, who were considered major candidates when they launched their campaigns dropped out of the race. Rob Ford was endorsed by the Toronto Sun and the National Post while George Smitherman was endorsed by the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and the Torontoist.

Although the mayoral race seemed to be the only race on which the media concentrated, there was much drama in the campaign for city councillors and trustees in the various wards. Five incumbent councillors were ousted and in some of the wards where there were no incumbents there were between 12 and 15 candidates. Although 14 new councillors were elected only one is a racialized person in this city where the motto is “diversity our strength.”

The situation was not much better with the elected trustees for the four boards of education. Trustees were elected to the Toronto District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, Conseil scolaire de district du Centre-Sud-Ouest and Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud. The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is the largest school board in Canada and the 4th largest in North America. There are more than 270,000 students in the TDSB’s 558 schools. The 22 trustees of the TDSB are each responsible for schools in two city wards. Any candidate running for a position as TDSB trustee had to campaign in two city wards and some candidates running for trustee at the Toronto Catholic District School Board had to campaign in three city wards.

As a public school trustee candidate in the 2010 municipal election in ward 14 Toronto Centre-Rosedale I campaigned in city wards 27 and 28. There were some alarming moments, including a phone call from the campaign manager of another candidate encouraging me to “drop out” of the race. In hindsight the suggestion should not have come as an unpleasant surprise but since this was the first time I had ever been approached to “drop out” of a race I was alarmed. Visions of unsavoury characters lurking and confronting me at inconvenient moments ran through my mind, especially after I was told that another female candidate had been persuaded to drop out of the Ward 14 race. However, after noting the number of candidates who “dropped out” of this Municipal race for various reasons, I understand that this is nothing unusual.

Another slightly less alarming moment came when I was told by a security guard at a condominium building in the revitalized and gentrified Regent Park that the upmarket Cole street building was out of bounds to my volunteer and I because it was a private building. I explained that as we were distributing campaign literature for the upcoming October 25 Municipal election we did have the right to access the building but he insisted that we leave because those were his orders. Recognizing that the man was only doing his job we went over to the Daniels Corporation office just across the street from the condominium where we were told by the man at the front desk after he consulted with his boss that we could not go into the building to distribute campaign literature but we were welcome to go to the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) buildings nearby. My volunteer and I left but the next day I was at City Hall to clarify the situation where I was told that legally I had the right to canvass the building and distribute my campaign literature.

With the letter from the elections office at City Hall, I eventually returned to One Cole Street where I was pleasantly surprised to find that the security guard who was there did not try to prevent our entry. My volunteer and I distributed the campaign literature without hindrance.



On October 25, I eagerly followed the results as the ballots were counted and the numbers of votes for each candidate was displayed. By Tuesday morning when all the votes had been counted I knew that 5, 351 citizens living in ward 14 had cast their ballots in my favour.

My campaign was run on a budget of less than $2,000 and two dedicated volunteers Maria Garrick and Myrtle Rudder. I sincerely thank the other people who volunteered to distribute my campaign literature in buildings where they live and those people who volunteered an hour or two to help at various times but I cannot thank these two sistren enough. They were with me whenever I went out to campaign. We were like the three musketeers; Maria, Murphy and Myrtle. We walked for miles campaigning in wards 27 and 28, sometimes in buildings with 50 storeys, but never a word of complaint from Maria and Myrtle; even when dogs tore campaign flyers out of their hands as the flyers were pushed through mail slots. We also had fun during the campaign. At one point after campaigning for hours, tired and practically limping we went to Ritz Caribbean Food at Yonge and College to recharge with curry chicken. We did more than eat; ending up dancing to oldies but goodies (Michael Jackson, Anita Baker, Rick James etc.,) The DJ was in his element and so were we and we did leave recharged from the great food and music.



Maria went the extra mile as my temporary replacement (for the past two months) as co-host on Frequency Feminisms at CKLN 88.1 FM, every Sunday morning from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Myrtle went the extra mile storing my lawn signs at her home and helping to pull them up from where I had put them around wards 27 and 28. That was such joy! Driving around the neighbourhood trying to remember exactly where I had put all those lawn signs. It was an amazing learning experience because running for school board trustee is slightly different from running for city councillor or MPP. This experience will stand me in good stead for 2014. My election blog is still up and running at www.electmurphybrowneward14.blogspot.com

PEDRO ALBIZU CAMPOS

PUERTO RICAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS

October 30th was the 60th anniversary of the 1950 Jayuya Uprising in Puerto Rico. This armed struggle led by a 24 year old Puerto Rican woman began in the municipality of Jayuya and extended throughout Puerto Rico, as the people struggled for their national liberation. Members of the Nationalist Party, determined to make their dream of an independent republic come true, engaged in armed confrontations with U.S. trained police and the National Guard.

In October 1950, the Nationalist Party obtained information of a secret government plan to eliminate the independence movement. The tactics included banning the Nationalist Party, attacking offices and homes, arresting all members of the party, especially Pedro Albizu Campos, the Harvard educated African Puerto Rican leader of the movement. Using "seditious conspiracy" laws to imprison dissidents, Washington officials tried to silence the most militant individuals in an effort to destroy the independence movement.

Knowing of the government plan to repress its existence and keeping in mind the experience of the Massacre of Río Piedras of 1935 (The Río Piedras massacre occurred at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, Puerto Rico and involved a confrontation between local police officers and supporters of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party on October 24, 1935. Four partisans of the Nationalist party were killed and one police officer wounded during the shooting) and the Ponce Massacre of 1937 (On March 21, 1937 (Palm Sunday), a march was organized in the southern city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. The march, organized to commemorate the ending of slavery in Puerto Rico in 1873, was also planneed to protest the incarceration by the U.S. government of nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos on sedition charges. The peaceful march resulted in the death of 17 unarmed civilians at the hands of the Insular Police, in addition to some 235 wounded civilians, including women and children) the Nationalist Party then chose to take the initiative in striking the first blow.

On the morning of October 30, 1950, twenty four year old Blanca Canales Torresola (February 17, 1906 - July 25, 1996) led an armed contingency of Nationalists to the city of Jayuya where they attacked the headquarters of the colonial police. Once the Nationalists surrounded the police station, a brief gun battle ensued. The police were ordered to surrender their arms and leave the building with their hands raised.

The people of Jayuya welcomed the nationalists and surrounded by the residents of the town, the freedom fighters raised the Puerto Rican flag which was banned by colonial law. Blanca Canales Torresola addressed the crowd in the town plaza where she began her speech by shouting the fighting words of the struggle for Puerto Rico's independence, "Viva Puerto Rico libre!" She then declared the independence of the Republic of Puerto Rico.

The decision to liberate Jayuya first was because of its strategic location in the mountains at the centre of the island. It was thought that taking control of this municipality first and cutting the supply lines to the enemy would delay troop reinforcements to the western area of the island. Clashes between the police and nationalists also occurred in Utuado, Ponce, Mayagüez, Arecibo, Naranjito, Ciales, Peñuelas and several others towns. In San Juan, the police attacked the headquarters of the Nationalist Party. Pedro Albizu Campos, Isabel Rosado and others fought back until they were overcome by tear gas. The colonial government in San Juan imposed new repressive measures throughout Puerto Rico, including martial law. Military airplanes were deployed to bomb Jayuya in order to force the freedom fighters to surrender. 70 percent of the city was destroyed as a result of the aerial bombing. The National Guard immediately pushed to suppress the uprising and regain control of Jayuya.

Aware of the potential political impact news of the uprising would have in the court of public opinion throughout the world the U.S. government imposed a news whiteout of the situation in Puerto Rico. To silence the voice of the emerging struggle, there was a gradual but intense effort to distort the truth. Resorting to deception the hide the facts US President Truman characterized the uprising as a conflict "between Puerto Ricans."

Blanca Canales Torresola was arrested and accused of killing a police officer and wounding three others. She was also accused of burning down the local post office. Canales Torresola was sentenced to life plus sixty years. In June 1951, she was sent to the Federal Industrial Institution for Women in Alderson, West Virginia. Dolores Lebrón Sotomayor, another famous Puerto Rican freedom fighter was jailed there in 1954 after she opened fire in the House chambers (US House of representatives on Capitol Hill) as more than 240 US members of Congress debated an immigration bill. More about Dolores Lebrón Sotomayor shortly, who died at age 90 on August 1, 2010.

In 1956, Blanca Canales Torresola was transferred to the Women’s Jail in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. In 1967, Blanca was given a full pardon by Puerto Rican Governor Roberto Sanchez Vilella. She continued to be an active independence advocate throughout her life.

Canales Torresola, interviewed in her 80’s though living a quiet life in a government housing project, still under surveillance, her phone tapped, her every move checked by an undercover agent, still unafraid and a Puerto Rican patriot is quoted as saying: "We have to keep working even if it takes a hundred years."

Blanca Canales Torresola died July 25, 1996 in Jayuya, Puerto Rico. The house in which she was born and raised was turned into a museum by the City of Jayuya.

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Dolores Lebrón “Lolita” Sotomayor, born November 19, 1919 and passed on August 1, 2010 was an active advocate for Puerto Rican independence. She was born and raised in Lares, Puerto Rico, a town best known for a revolt, Grito de Lares, waged by Puerto Ricans against Spanish occupation in 1868. She was a leader of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party where she promoted ideals based on socialist and feminist principles.

In 1952, after Puerto Rico’s official status was changed to “Commonwealth”, the Nationalist Party began a series of revolutionary actions, including the Jayuya Uprising. As part of this initiative, Dolores Lebrón Sotomayor became the leader of a New York City based group of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, who took their grievances to the United States House of Representatives in 1954.

Lebrón Sotomayor had moved to New York in 1940, leaving her small daughter with her mother. In New York, along with thousands of other Puerto Rican immigrants, she worked as a seamstress in the garment district, living in grinding poverty. Her second child, a son was born while she lived in New York. As an admirer of the independence activist, Harvard educated African Puerto Rican Pedro Albizu Campos, who advocated armed struggle, she became a member of his Nationalist party in 1947, partly because of the anti-Latino racism she encountered in New York City. She never forgot the signs outside bars that read: "No blacks, no dogs, no Puerto Ricans". "They told me it was a paradise," Lebrón Sotomayor recalled in a 2004 interview. "This was no paradise." She and Pedro Albizu Campos corresponded and Lebrón Sotomayor began to take on more important tasks in the party's US branch. In 1954 Albizu Campos ordered her to organise an attack on "strategic targets". She settled on the US Congress and decided to lead the group herself.

Lebrón Sotomayor bought a ticket from New York to Washington on March 1, 1954. She and three other members lunched at Union Station and then walked to the Capitol. They made their way to the House gallery. A security guard asked if they were carrying cameras. They were not carrying cameras but they did have guns. In a crusade for Puerto Rico's independence that Lebrón Sotomayor saw as no different from the uprising by America's 13 colonies against England in the 18th century, the four nationalists opened fire in the House chambers as more than 240 members of Congress debated an immigration bill.

"Viva Puerto Rico libre!" Ms. Lebrón Sotomayor shouted as she unfurled a Puerto Rican flag. The four nationalists were eventually arrested, handcuffed and photographed outside the Capitol in an image splashed across the front pages of numerous newspapers. Police found a handwritten note in her purse which read: “Before God and the world, my blood claims for the independence of Puerto Rico. My life I give for the freedom of my country. This is a cry for victory in our struggle for independence . . . The United States of America are betraying the sacred principles of mankind in their continuous subjugation of my country . . . I take responsible for all.”

Ms. Lebrón Sotomayor was fearless in her efforts to draw attention to the cause of independence for her home island which had been claimed by the United States as spoils after the Spanish-American War and was claimed as American commonwealth in 1952.

The shooting and its aftermath was the talk of Washington for weeks.
Lebrón Sotomayor sat quietly during most of the subsequent trial, breaking her silence to tell the jury in a fiery 20-minute speech that she was "being crucified for the freedom of my country." She was sentenced to more than 50 years in prison. On the morning of July 8, 1954, Lebrón Sotomayor was notified of her son’s death, minutes before her sentence was handed down. The child, her second born, was barely into his teens and was living with his grandmother in Lares. The news threw Lebrón Sotomayor into a state of shock and she didn’t speak for three days. Her first child, Gladys, died in 1977, while her mother was in prison. This time Lebrón Sotomayor was allowed to return to Puerto Rico for her daughter’s funeral.

In a move widely suspected to have been part of a prisoner swap to release CIA agents jailed in Cuba, President Jimmy Carter granted clemency to Ms. Lebron and the other two jailed Puerto Rican freedom fighters. Released on September 10, 1979 after serving 25 years in prison, Ms. Lebrón Sotomayor embarked on a tour of areas with large Puerto Rican population in the United States. She was also received in Havana as a guest of President Fidel Castro.

The action she led gave Lebrón Sotomayor a place among the most famous of Latin American revolutionary figures, including Che Guevara and Pancho Villa. "I am a revolutionary," she said at the time. "I hate bombs, but we might have to use them." Lebrón Sotomayor in turn inspired other nationalists and between 1974 and 1983, Puerto Rico's Armed Forces of National Liberation continued the fight in Chicago and New York.

After returning home to Puerto Rico, Lebrón Sotomayor became a symbol of nationalist pride. She continued to protest U.S. involvement on the island. In 2001, at age 81 she was arrested while protesting the U.S. military's use of Vieques, Puerto Rico's smallest island. Two years earlier, David Sánchez, a civilian security guard had been killed by an errant bomb dropped during a U.S. Navy training exercise. After she and others cut through the fence of the naval base to protest its use as a bombing range, she was sentenced to 60 days in jail for trespassing. When freed, she walked from prison hand-in-hand with another protester, Hollywood actor Edward James Olmos. The bombing range was later closed down.

In 2005 when the FBI shot and killed Filiberto Ojeda Rios, the Puerto Rican leader of a pro-independence group Ms. Lebron spoke out. "She had a tremendous impact," Juan Manuel Garcia Passalacqua told the Chicago Tribune in 2006. "Young people were protesting in the streets, and there was talk of getting revenge. But Lolita told people, 'No violence!' -- and there was none."

She was a Puerto Rican nationalist and independence advocate who died on August 1, 2010. Her life has been detailed in books and a documentary.

PRICE OF PEACE

You stole my history destroyed my culture
Cut out my tongue so I can’t communicate
Then you mediate and you separate
Hide my whole way of life so my self I should hate
Took away my name put me to shame
Made me a disgrace as the world’s laughing stock
Think of me as show you jeer and to mock
But your time is at hand
From the shores of Africa to the mainland of Haiti
Caribbean and the Pacific, Central and South America
Brother what a price I’ve paid Sister what a price I’ve paid
Mother what a price I’ve paid Father what a price I’ve paid

Excerpt from Price of Peace by Jimmy Cliff from the album Unlimited (released August 1973)

Jimmy Cliff was born James Chambers on April 1, 1948 at Adelphi Land, a village in the District of Somerton in the parish of St James, Jamaica. He is currently the only living musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievement in the arts and sciences. The Jamaican government under Prime Minister P.J. Patterson honoured Cliff on 20 October 2003, by awarding him The Order of Merit, the nation's third-highest honour, in recognition of his contributions to the film and music of Jamaica.

Professor Ralston Milton “Rex” Nettleford used the lyrics of Jimmy Cliff’s Price of Peace as part of his address on the occasion of the United Nations Observance of the Commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, at the UN Headquarters in New York, on March 26, 2007. Nettleford, an African Caribbean griot and scholar was born on February 3, 1933 at Falmouth, Trelawny, Jamaica and transitioned to join the ancestors on February 2, 2010 the day before his 77th birthday. In his address Nettleford said:

“I come from that part of the Americas, the Caribbean, which is arguably the living laboratory of the dynamism of the encounters between Africa and Europe on foreign soil, and of both the Native American who had inhabited the real estate of the Americas, time out of mind, during periods of conquest and dehumanisation, along with the corresponding process of struggle and resistance.”

In 2007 when Professor Nettleford spoke about the African Presence in the Caribbean he included the lyrics of Cliff’s Price of Peace to illustrate the great harm that was done to Africans during the 400 years of enslavement which manifests itself in self-destructive behaviour today. This is the kind of behaviour that results from what African American Professor Dr Joy DeGruy Leary terms Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. All Africans were affected by the slave trade not only those who were kidnapped and dragged out of the African continent. The forced removal of millions of Africans who were transported across the Atlantic and enslaved caused the debilitation and destruction of African societies and civilizations and led to the eventual colonization of the African continent by European nations. As Guyanese historian Dr. Walter Rodney documented in his 1972 published book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa this also led to the impoverishment of Africa as the European nations’ parasitically accumulated wealth.

Nettleford also acknowledged that there was exploitation of indentured labourers who arrived in the Caribbean after slavery was abolished and their experience of labour exploitation, which although oppressive did not strip them of their language and culture. Although exploited the indentured labourers were not bought and sold as chattel as the enslaved Africans who had been treated as if they were not human. Nettleford said:

“The advent of later arrivants to the Caribbean after the abolition, first, of the trade in the enslaved Africans and, later, of slavery itself, did not save them from labour exploitation. But those new arrivants did enter as free men and women into a society which by then had the promise of decency and civility informing human, if not an altogether humane, existence. This has been made distinctive by the catalytic role played by the African Presence in social formation within a psychic universe, a great part of which has been plunged, wittingly and unwittingly, into subterranean and submarine silence, to mix a metaphor.”

The subterranean and submarine silence which existed for centuries after slavery was abolished was lifted somewhat at the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in 2001 when African descendants voiced the demand for reparations. Although it was not the first instance of Africans mentioning reparations for the centuries of inhumane treatment of their enslaved ancestors and the free labour that they were forced to provide which enriched Europeans and their descendants, it was the first global outcry.

In the USA formerly enslaved African Americans had been demanding reparations since they were freed. The Johnson v. McAdoo cotton tax lawsuit is the first documented African American reparations litigation on the federal level in the United States. In 1915 the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association filed the class action lawsuit in federal court for $68 million against the U.S. Treasury. The lawsuit claimed that this amount which was collected between 1862 and 1868 as a tax on cotton was owed to the appellants because the cotton had been produced by them and their ancestors during their "involuntary servitude." The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia denied their claim based on governmental immunity and the U.S. Supreme Court, on appeal, sided with the lower court decision.

We are still suffering the effects of the centuries of enslavement of our ancestors and reparations are overdue. As we approach the year 2011 which has been designated the International Year for People of African Descent by a proclamation from the United Nations General Assembly we need to remember the words of Professor Rex Nettleford and shatter the “subterranean and submarine silence” of the continued oppression of Africans.