Sunday, January 30, 2011
WHERE IGNORANCE IS BLISS 'TIS FOLLY TO BE WISE
Where ignorance is bliss, it's folly to be wise
But is a dumb boy and a parrot open my eyes
From the calypso Dumb Boy and Parrot by Lord Cristo
Recent conversations and correspondence made me remember the words of this popular calypso from my childhood. Thinking about the calypso also reminded me that until 2003 I did not know what the parrot meant when he said to the protagonist (possibly Lord Cristo himself?): "Look something pointed growing out from your forehead." I had never heard the term “getting horn” used in Guyana where instead the term would be “getting blow.” Ken Marlon Charles’ (KMC) 2003 soca hit I Don’t Want To Know If I Getting Horn wised me up. However, I am digressing; that would be a subject for some other discussion.
For those readers who may right now be thinking: "But that quote 'Where ignorance is bliss, tis folly to be wise' is not an original Lord Cristo quote, it was originally Thomas Gray, 18th century English poet who wrote those words in “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College.”
I know that, but I prefer Calypso to 18th century English poetry. So back to the correspondence I received that set me on this path. A self identified “white woman” wrote me an e-mail expressing her disappointment that I occasionally choose to write about the history of African people complete with the inclusion of the role white people have played in the oppression of Africans. Her reason for advising me to cease writing about our story is that she feels it is old history and we now live in a post racial society so we need to “let it go.” The proof she advanced to convince that we live in a post racial society is the election of America’s first African president. I am not sure how that proves we live in a post racial society in Canada. It is possible that she is one of those Americans who think that America won the War of 1812 and Canada is an American state. If this woman is not a misguided American who mistakenly thinks that Canada is part of the USA; obviously ignorance is bliss or this woman would have checked her facts and realised that there is no equivalent of Barack Obama on the Canadian political scene. She would have checked the levels of government and realised (if she lives in Toronto) there is one African at the city level of elected officials; one at the (Ontario) provincial level and one at the federal level.
Whether she is an American or a Canadian ignorance is definitely bliss for this woman because she has not been reading, listening to or watching the news in the USA or here in Canada. She would not be blissfully ignorant if she had been reading about the viciously racist behaviour and comments of white American Tea Party members directed to the American President and his wife.
I am recommending one of numerous sources for anyone who thinks that we are in a post racial society anywhere in the Americas. The February issue of Ebony Magazine has six interesting and thought provoking articles in their Race and Politics section which would certainly give the lie to any suggestions of this time being “post racial.”
Here are some quotes from the Ebony Magazine articles. Kevin Chappell senior editor: “racist undertones from groups including the Birthers, the Tea Party and numerous red-faced U.S. congressmen indicate to many that some Whites still have a palpable fear of losing power. Mob lynchings have been replaced by character assassinations.” From Jill Nelson, author and journalist (former professor of Journalism at the City College of New York): “Welcome to the New Confederacy. Other than the period of Reconstruction, it is difficult, if not impossible, to identify a time in American history when a White-supremacist agenda influenced American politics as virulently and effectively as today.” From Keith Ellison, three term Congressman representing Minnesota’s 5th District: “Not since the backlash of the Civil Rights Movement has America seen a more virulent wave of fear and intolerance after a progressive paradigmatic shift. Yes, the towering achievement of electing an African American to the presidency of the United States, a nation that formerly held Africans in slavery, has evoked deep fears in sections of the populace.”
Here in Canada with no distraction of African Canadian elected officials (not enough for white people to feel threatened anyway) we do have to contend with racial profiling or “breathing while black.” The Toronto Star did a series on racial profiling in October 2002 and again in February 2010. On December 9, 2002 the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) announced that it would conduct an inquiry into the effects of racial profiling. On December 9, 2003, the OHRC released the findings of its Inquiry in a report entitled: "Paying the Price: The Human Cost of Racial Profiling". The report was based on more than 400 accounts of racial profiling that individuals had shared with the OHRC. It took into account the human cost of racial profiling on individuals, their families and their communities and the detrimental impacts of racial profiling on the entire Canadian society.
Here are some recent cases (not ancient history): On October 6, 2007, a young African Canadian Crown attorney was arrested and strip searched by police in Toronto. This man's status as a lawyer and even his knowledge of the law was no protection against racial profiling and being subjected to a degrading strip search. In 2008 a young African Canadian woman was arrested brutalized and strip searched by police in Ottawa. On May 16, 2008, two young African Canadian lawyers and a law student were racially profiled in a lawyers’ lounge at the Brampton courthouse. They won their case of racial profiling in a decision from the OHRC in December 2010.
We cannot afford to live in blissful ignorance because regardless of our economic or educational achievements in this society we are at risk of racial profiling. This happens in the education system, the justice system, the health system, housing etc.,
Finally, the recent move by Federal politicians of all stripes to change the law “to make citizen's arrests easier” should concern all of us. This could easily become a similar situation to Reagan’s use of the African American “welfare queen” myth during his 1976 presidential campaign that helped to get him elected. In his 1988 campaign, George Bush senior capitalized on the image of convicted criminal Willie Horton using his image as the spectre of African American male criminality and that helped to clinch the election.
Ignorance can never be blissful for us because at some point reality in the form of a racist incident will boot us out of any kind of blissfully ignorant state. We can learn a lesson from Harriet Tubman who is credited with saying: “I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” Is there a lesson to be learned from the characters in Lord Cristo’s calypso where one of the allies, the parrot was cooked and eaten before the protagonist awoke from his state of blissful ignorance?
But is a dumb boy and a parrot open my eyes
From the calypso Dumb Boy and Parrot by Lord Cristo
Recent conversations and correspondence made me remember the words of this popular calypso from my childhood. Thinking about the calypso also reminded me that until 2003 I did not know what the parrot meant when he said to the protagonist (possibly Lord Cristo himself?): "Look something pointed growing out from your forehead." I had never heard the term “getting horn” used in Guyana where instead the term would be “getting blow.” Ken Marlon Charles’ (KMC) 2003 soca hit I Don’t Want To Know If I Getting Horn wised me up. However, I am digressing; that would be a subject for some other discussion.
For those readers who may right now be thinking: "But that quote 'Where ignorance is bliss, tis folly to be wise' is not an original Lord Cristo quote, it was originally Thomas Gray, 18th century English poet who wrote those words in “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College.”
I know that, but I prefer Calypso to 18th century English poetry. So back to the correspondence I received that set me on this path. A self identified “white woman” wrote me an e-mail expressing her disappointment that I occasionally choose to write about the history of African people complete with the inclusion of the role white people have played in the oppression of Africans. Her reason for advising me to cease writing about our story is that she feels it is old history and we now live in a post racial society so we need to “let it go.” The proof she advanced to convince that we live in a post racial society is the election of America’s first African president. I am not sure how that proves we live in a post racial society in Canada. It is possible that she is one of those Americans who think that America won the War of 1812 and Canada is an American state. If this woman is not a misguided American who mistakenly thinks that Canada is part of the USA; obviously ignorance is bliss or this woman would have checked her facts and realised that there is no equivalent of Barack Obama on the Canadian political scene. She would have checked the levels of government and realised (if she lives in Toronto) there is one African at the city level of elected officials; one at the (Ontario) provincial level and one at the federal level.
Whether she is an American or a Canadian ignorance is definitely bliss for this woman because she has not been reading, listening to or watching the news in the USA or here in Canada. She would not be blissfully ignorant if she had been reading about the viciously racist behaviour and comments of white American Tea Party members directed to the American President and his wife.
I am recommending one of numerous sources for anyone who thinks that we are in a post racial society anywhere in the Americas. The February issue of Ebony Magazine has six interesting and thought provoking articles in their Race and Politics section which would certainly give the lie to any suggestions of this time being “post racial.”
Here are some quotes from the Ebony Magazine articles. Kevin Chappell senior editor: “racist undertones from groups including the Birthers, the Tea Party and numerous red-faced U.S. congressmen indicate to many that some Whites still have a palpable fear of losing power. Mob lynchings have been replaced by character assassinations.” From Jill Nelson, author and journalist (former professor of Journalism at the City College of New York): “Welcome to the New Confederacy. Other than the period of Reconstruction, it is difficult, if not impossible, to identify a time in American history when a White-supremacist agenda influenced American politics as virulently and effectively as today.” From Keith Ellison, three term Congressman representing Minnesota’s 5th District: “Not since the backlash of the Civil Rights Movement has America seen a more virulent wave of fear and intolerance after a progressive paradigmatic shift. Yes, the towering achievement of electing an African American to the presidency of the United States, a nation that formerly held Africans in slavery, has evoked deep fears in sections of the populace.”
Here in Canada with no distraction of African Canadian elected officials (not enough for white people to feel threatened anyway) we do have to contend with racial profiling or “breathing while black.” The Toronto Star did a series on racial profiling in October 2002 and again in February 2010. On December 9, 2002 the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) announced that it would conduct an inquiry into the effects of racial profiling. On December 9, 2003, the OHRC released the findings of its Inquiry in a report entitled: "Paying the Price: The Human Cost of Racial Profiling". The report was based on more than 400 accounts of racial profiling that individuals had shared with the OHRC. It took into account the human cost of racial profiling on individuals, their families and their communities and the detrimental impacts of racial profiling on the entire Canadian society.
Here are some recent cases (not ancient history): On October 6, 2007, a young African Canadian Crown attorney was arrested and strip searched by police in Toronto. This man's status as a lawyer and even his knowledge of the law was no protection against racial profiling and being subjected to a degrading strip search. In 2008 a young African Canadian woman was arrested brutalized and strip searched by police in Ottawa. On May 16, 2008, two young African Canadian lawyers and a law student were racially profiled in a lawyers’ lounge at the Brampton courthouse. They won their case of racial profiling in a decision from the OHRC in December 2010.
We cannot afford to live in blissful ignorance because regardless of our economic or educational achievements in this society we are at risk of racial profiling. This happens in the education system, the justice system, the health system, housing etc.,
Finally, the recent move by Federal politicians of all stripes to change the law “to make citizen's arrests easier” should concern all of us. This could easily become a similar situation to Reagan’s use of the African American “welfare queen” myth during his 1976 presidential campaign that helped to get him elected. In his 1988 campaign, George Bush senior capitalized on the image of convicted criminal Willie Horton using his image as the spectre of African American male criminality and that helped to clinch the election.
Ignorance can never be blissful for us because at some point reality in the form of a racist incident will boot us out of any kind of blissfully ignorant state. We can learn a lesson from Harriet Tubman who is credited with saying: “I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” Is there a lesson to be learned from the characters in Lord Cristo’s calypso where one of the allies, the parrot was cooked and eaten before the protagonist awoke from his state of blissful ignorance?
Friday, January 21, 2011
HAPPY NEW YEAR! HERI ZA MWAKA MPYA!
Time does fly when you’re having fun! We are more than halfway through the first month of 2011, the International Year for People of African Descent and it seems as if it was just yesterday we left 2010. Some of us had an amazing 2010 and are looking forward to what this New Year will bring. Some of us had not such a good 2010 but not exactly an annus horribilis and are looking forward to what this New Year will bring while trying to forget last year. Some of us said Kwaherini (goodbye) to worries from the old year and Karibuni (welcome) to opportunities in the New Year in various forms.
We who attended the Kwanzaa karamu (feast) and celebration at the programming space of the Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students (APUS) at the University of Toronto on December 31, 2010 certainly had an enjoyable time at the standing room only event. The drummers Debbie Douglas, Ian Mc Rae, Nzingha Saul and Burt Smith provided the beat for the celebration as we prepared to enter the New Year.
We celebrated Kuumba (creativity) with a karamu prepared by Smiley’s Catering and a generous contribution of jollof rice from Amma Ofori. We sang popular African and Caribbean folk songs and Guyanese Kwekwe songs and enjoyed the sharing of history and culture in community spirit and creativity. Amma Ofori demonstrated her creativity with more than her culinary skills; she shared some amazing traditional Ghanaian dance moves which some of us tried with varying degrees of success and much hilarity. There were some people who were veteran Kwanzaa celebrants and those who were celebrating Kwanzaa for the first time including two month old Hassan. This celebration was especially enjoyable for the children who expressed their creativity by making Kwanzaa crafts with the very capable and artistic Sistah Afiya.
Karamu 2010 was the fourth year that the Board and staff at APUS have lent their support to this community event which began in St. Jamestown in 2003. The celebration has come a long way since 2003 when with the support of Sister Sherona Hall we celebrated Kwanzaa and in 2004 African Heritage Month, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Bob Marley Day in St Jamestown for the first time. Shortly after Sister Sherona Hall was transferred to another community we began to face a different reality in St Jamestown and the Kwanzaa Karamu had to seek a new home. With the United Nations designating 2011 the International Year for People of African Descent maybe there will be a revitalization of the same spirit as 2003 at the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) leadership level that led to the appointment of Sister Sherona Hall to work with the St Jamestown community. I live in hope.
Many people make resolutions for the New Year. I am not a New Year’s Resolution kind of person but this year I decided to make an exception and have planned some goals I want to achieve for 2011. I plan to learn more of the Kiswahili language and find people to practice my language skills on/with. I also plan to re-read several books beginning with Dr. Verene Shepherd’s 2007 published book I Want to Disturb My Neighbour: Lectures on Slavery, Emancipation and Postcolonial Jamaica. I am reading this book for the third time and had the pleasure of interviewing Dr Shepherd on Tuesday, January 11, for a radio program I host at CKLN 88.1 FM. She is a historian who makes history come to life, makes it fun and interesting to read about people who lived long before us. Her letter to Mary Seacole in chapter 13 “Dear Mrs. Seacole: Groundings with Mary Seacole on Slavery, Gender and Citizenship” is a delight to read. The letter was read as part of a speech Dr. Shepherd gave at the Institute of Jamaica's event to honour Mary Seacole on November 21, 2005, commemorating the bicentenary of Seacole's birth. Information from the National Library of Jamaica about Mary Seacole states: despite a letter of introduction to Florence Nightingale, she was not recruited to join the group of nurses going to the Crimea. She spent months in London, trekking from one war office to another, failing to find acceptance. Eventually, she decided to go on her own and cashed in the assets she had and set out to build her own "hotel for invalids" in the Crimea.
In her letter to Mary Seacole Dr. Shepherd writes in part: "I was surprised that you had only your little maid for a traveling companion; but admired you for defying the gender conventions of the time. Still you were lucky it was then: now, a single black woman roaming all over the world like Digicel and Cable and Wireless, and carrying herbs would certainly have attracted attention including a body scan! As an attractive Jamaican woman, brown or not, you would perhaps, have been mistaken for a drug mule, sniffed by colour-prejudice dogs and have your ample body 'feel-feel' up by strange men and women."
The final sentence of this excerpt from the letter to Mary Seacole probably comes from Dr. Shepherd’s own experience as a “Black Jamaican woman” traveling internationally. In the book’s preface she writes about her traveling experience: “It was particularly wonderful to meet Caribbean people settled in far-flung places and to benefit from the positive image that Jamaica has among some communities abroad, especially in Africa. Of course, this positive image is not shared by many immigration officers who construct, and act on, stereotypical images of the Black Jamaican woman--as I learned from encounters with some of these officers in Toronto, New Zealand and some countries in Latin America. As far as some of these immigration officers are concerned, the Black, female, Jamaican intellectual travelling to deliver guest lectures is an unfamiliar, even disturbing, phenomenon!” These are only some of the reasons why I Want to Disturb My Neighbour: Lectures on Slavery, Emancipation and Postcolonial Jamaica is a “must read.”
I may read this book again during 2011; however I do have a list of other books I plan to re-read. Here is a list of 15 books that I promise myself I will re-read in the next 12 months: Don't Play in the Sun: One Woman's Journey Through the Color Complex by Marita Golden, Black in school: Afrocentric reform, urban youth & the promise of hip-hop by Shawn Ginwright, Yurugu: An African-centered Critique of European Thought and Behavior by Marimba Ani, Afrocentricity by Molefi Kete Asante, Migrations of the heart: an autobiography by Marita Golden, Haiti the breached citadel by Patrick Bellgarde-Smith, Introduction to Black Studies by Maulana Karenga, Guide to Implementing Afrikan-centred Education by Kwame Kenyatta, Roll of thunder hear my cry by Mildred Taylor, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, Kemet, Afrocentricity and Knowledge by Molefi Kete Asante, The Afrocentric Idea by Molefi Kete Asante, No Crystal Stairs by Mairuth Sarsfield, Kemet and the African Worldview: Research, Rescue and Restoration by Maulana Karenga and Jacob H. Carruthers, How Europe underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney.
I may even try to fit in a re-read of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn now that Mark Twain’s favourite word, the “N word” (supposedly used 219 times in the book) has been replaced with “slave.”
How successfully are you adhering to your New Year’s resolutions so far? I am doing very well with mine. This is a bit late but better late than never. Happy New Year! Heri za Mwaka Mpya!
We who attended the Kwanzaa karamu (feast) and celebration at the programming space of the Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students (APUS) at the University of Toronto on December 31, 2010 certainly had an enjoyable time at the standing room only event. The drummers Debbie Douglas, Ian Mc Rae, Nzingha Saul and Burt Smith provided the beat for the celebration as we prepared to enter the New Year.
We celebrated Kuumba (creativity) with a karamu prepared by Smiley’s Catering and a generous contribution of jollof rice from Amma Ofori. We sang popular African and Caribbean folk songs and Guyanese Kwekwe songs and enjoyed the sharing of history and culture in community spirit and creativity. Amma Ofori demonstrated her creativity with more than her culinary skills; she shared some amazing traditional Ghanaian dance moves which some of us tried with varying degrees of success and much hilarity. There were some people who were veteran Kwanzaa celebrants and those who were celebrating Kwanzaa for the first time including two month old Hassan. This celebration was especially enjoyable for the children who expressed their creativity by making Kwanzaa crafts with the very capable and artistic Sistah Afiya.
Karamu 2010 was the fourth year that the Board and staff at APUS have lent their support to this community event which began in St. Jamestown in 2003. The celebration has come a long way since 2003 when with the support of Sister Sherona Hall we celebrated Kwanzaa and in 2004 African Heritage Month, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Bob Marley Day in St Jamestown for the first time. Shortly after Sister Sherona Hall was transferred to another community we began to face a different reality in St Jamestown and the Kwanzaa Karamu had to seek a new home. With the United Nations designating 2011 the International Year for People of African Descent maybe there will be a revitalization of the same spirit as 2003 at the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) leadership level that led to the appointment of Sister Sherona Hall to work with the St Jamestown community. I live in hope.
Many people make resolutions for the New Year. I am not a New Year’s Resolution kind of person but this year I decided to make an exception and have planned some goals I want to achieve for 2011. I plan to learn more of the Kiswahili language and find people to practice my language skills on/with. I also plan to re-read several books beginning with Dr. Verene Shepherd’s 2007 published book I Want to Disturb My Neighbour: Lectures on Slavery, Emancipation and Postcolonial Jamaica. I am reading this book for the third time and had the pleasure of interviewing Dr Shepherd on Tuesday, January 11, for a radio program I host at CKLN 88.1 FM. She is a historian who makes history come to life, makes it fun and interesting to read about people who lived long before us. Her letter to Mary Seacole in chapter 13 “Dear Mrs. Seacole: Groundings with Mary Seacole on Slavery, Gender and Citizenship” is a delight to read. The letter was read as part of a speech Dr. Shepherd gave at the Institute of Jamaica's event to honour Mary Seacole on November 21, 2005, commemorating the bicentenary of Seacole's birth. Information from the National Library of Jamaica about Mary Seacole states: despite a letter of introduction to Florence Nightingale, she was not recruited to join the group of nurses going to the Crimea. She spent months in London, trekking from one war office to another, failing to find acceptance. Eventually, she decided to go on her own and cashed in the assets she had and set out to build her own "hotel for invalids" in the Crimea.
In her letter to Mary Seacole Dr. Shepherd writes in part: "I was surprised that you had only your little maid for a traveling companion; but admired you for defying the gender conventions of the time. Still you were lucky it was then: now, a single black woman roaming all over the world like Digicel and Cable and Wireless, and carrying herbs would certainly have attracted attention including a body scan! As an attractive Jamaican woman, brown or not, you would perhaps, have been mistaken for a drug mule, sniffed by colour-prejudice dogs and have your ample body 'feel-feel' up by strange men and women."
The final sentence of this excerpt from the letter to Mary Seacole probably comes from Dr. Shepherd’s own experience as a “Black Jamaican woman” traveling internationally. In the book’s preface she writes about her traveling experience: “It was particularly wonderful to meet Caribbean people settled in far-flung places and to benefit from the positive image that Jamaica has among some communities abroad, especially in Africa. Of course, this positive image is not shared by many immigration officers who construct, and act on, stereotypical images of the Black Jamaican woman--as I learned from encounters with some of these officers in Toronto, New Zealand and some countries in Latin America. As far as some of these immigration officers are concerned, the Black, female, Jamaican intellectual travelling to deliver guest lectures is an unfamiliar, even disturbing, phenomenon!” These are only some of the reasons why I Want to Disturb My Neighbour: Lectures on Slavery, Emancipation and Postcolonial Jamaica is a “must read.”
I may read this book again during 2011; however I do have a list of other books I plan to re-read. Here is a list of 15 books that I promise myself I will re-read in the next 12 months: Don't Play in the Sun: One Woman's Journey Through the Color Complex by Marita Golden, Black in school: Afrocentric reform, urban youth & the promise of hip-hop by Shawn Ginwright, Yurugu: An African-centered Critique of European Thought and Behavior by Marimba Ani, Afrocentricity by Molefi Kete Asante, Migrations of the heart: an autobiography by Marita Golden, Haiti the breached citadel by Patrick Bellgarde-Smith, Introduction to Black Studies by Maulana Karenga, Guide to Implementing Afrikan-centred Education by Kwame Kenyatta, Roll of thunder hear my cry by Mildred Taylor, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, Kemet, Afrocentricity and Knowledge by Molefi Kete Asante, The Afrocentric Idea by Molefi Kete Asante, No Crystal Stairs by Mairuth Sarsfield, Kemet and the African Worldview: Research, Rescue and Restoration by Maulana Karenga and Jacob H. Carruthers, How Europe underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney.
I may even try to fit in a re-read of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn now that Mark Twain’s favourite word, the “N word” (supposedly used 219 times in the book) has been replaced with “slave.”
How successfully are you adhering to your New Year’s resolutions so far? I am doing very well with mine. This is a bit late but better late than never. Happy New Year! Heri za Mwaka Mpya!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent
On December 18, 2009, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly proclaimed the year beginning on 1 January 2011 the International Year for People of African Descent (IYPAD). The proclamation came out of an almost 10 year process which began in 2001 at the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban in 2001 (August 31 - September 7.) The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA) was adopted during the conference with a commitment by member countries (which includes Canada) to work to eradicate racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. Paragraph 7 of the DDPA requested the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) to “consider establishing a working group or other mechanism of the United Nations to study the problems of racial discrimination faced by people of African descent living in the African Diaspora and make proposals for the elimination of racial discrimination against people of African descent". The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent was established by the UNCHR resolution 2002/68 of 25 April 2002.
The Working Group made several recommendations including a “strong” recommendation “that the international community declare an International Decade for People of African Descent to “make the challenges they face more visible, to identify solutions, and to engage in a sustained campaign to eradicate structural discrimination against people of African descent.” It seems that from that recommendation we have an International Year for People of African Descent instead of the Decade the Working Group recommended. They also recommended that: “States examine and revise laws and practices that have a disproportionate impact upon people of African descent in the criminal justice system and lead to their overrepresentation in prisons and other places of detention.” The Working Group called for: “a UN interagency global study to collect data on people of African descent in their respective areas of work and to develop concrete recommendations that address the structural racism against people of African descent.” They also called for: “a UN interagency global study to collect data on people of African descent in their respective areas of work and to develop concrete recommendations that address the structural racism against people of African descent.”
The Working Group of five people included Dr. Verene Shepherd who on April 13, at the 3rd meeting of the Working Group made a presentation on structural discrimination in education. Dr. Shepherd emphasized that racism could masquerade as “classism” even in contexts where people of African descent constituted a majority. She pointed out that in many post-colonial societies problems did not arise from the formulation of legal measures but from the occurrence of insidious practices. The professor further emphasized that contents of textbooks and curricula were important for the empowerment, self-esteem and identity of people of African descent and other racialized peoples and stressed that it was essential to ensure that textbooks and other didactic materials were free from racism and sexism that perpetuate stereotypes and prejudices. She noted that knowledge of the past played an important role for mental liberation.
Dr. Shepherd, professor of social history and Director of the Institute for Gender & Development Studies (IGDS) at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) with oversight responsibility for the Mona, Cave Hill and St. Augustine Units of the IGDS is an activist scholar. In 2007 she was appointed Chair of the Jamaica National Bicentenary Committee. In 2007 Dr. Shepherd also published I Want to Disturb My Neighbour: Lectures on Slavery, Emancipation and Post-Colonial Jamaica. Thetitle of this book comes from Bob Marley's Bad Card (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk4RLyFNDi8) Dr. Shepherd is the author of several other books about the history of Africans and other racialized people in the Caribbean including: Slavery without sugar: Diversity in Caribbean economy and society since the 17th century, Emancipation and immigration: A pan-Caribbean overview, Women in Caribbean history, The ranking game: Discourses of belonging in Jamaican history, Working slavery, pricing freedom: Perspectives from the Caribbean and Africa and the African Diaspora.
Since this year is an opportunity for us to educate ourselves (or continue to) and others about our culture and history, reading some of Dr. Shepherd’s books would be a start. Involvement with organizations that are planning events for the year (attending or volunteering) is another way to celebrate/observe this year that recognizes Africans internationally.
African descendants in Nova Scotia, Canada and Linden, Guyana have already launched plans to involve their communities in a process to ensure that many of the hidden stories about Africans are publicized.
On November 19, 2010 in Linden, Guyana the Region Ten Organizing Committee for the 2011 International Year for People of African Descent launched its programme of activities which according to the chair Jonathan Adams will give effect to the UN Resolution that calls for “strengthening (of) national actions and regional and international cooperation for the benefit of people of African descent.” The group is dedicated to facilitating the nurturing of a wholesome African self identity with a theme for the year of “Commemorating the African past, Acknowledging the present, Creating the future.” The launch which took place at the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN) building’s Macaw Training Room was attended by students from several area secondary schools, members of youth and sports groups, representatives of regional government, business and religious communities. The launch was also attended by Pan-African historians Dr. Kimani Nehusi and Dr. Tony Martin author of Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
In a recent conversation with Adams, chair of the recently launched Region Ten Organizing Committee in Guyana, he shared that educating about African culture is a large part of the group’s plans. He feels that bringing African culture to the people will help to educate and also address mental slavery by relocating those of us who have been dislocated from our African roots. Adams also sees the year as an opportunity for: “commencement of remedial actions necessary to cure the regressive effects of African peoples of a more than 1,500-year long genocide against Africans.”
On December 15, 2010 Percy Paris, Minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs launched the International Year for People of African Descent in Nova Scotia. Representatives from the African Diaspora Heritage Trail (ADHT) Foundation and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) were at Province House to help Mr. Paris and Lt.-Gov. Mayann Francis with the official launch. During the launch Mr. Paris reportedly said: "In 2011, we will step up and lead the way in celebrating the International Year for People of African Descent. Not just in Canada, but in the world. I am very excited about this celebration." Mr. Edmond Moukala, a UNESCO program specialist based in Paris who attended the launch added: "It is wonderful to see Nova Scotia embrace this theme of celebrating heritage and culture of African descent. You have a rich history here that may not be well known around the world, but it will certainly become known in 2011."
As part of its celebrations, Nova Scotia will also host the ADHT Conference (September 22-24) in Halifax. The annual conference designed to educate visitors and safeguard the core values and creativity of African culture and history attracts hundreds of visitors including scholars who are focused on preserving and promoting important sites and stories throughout the African Diaspora and the movement of Africans and their descendants throughout the world.
Incidentally Dr Martin Luther King Junior would have been 82 years old on Saturday, January 15 (born January 15, 1929). His birthday will be celebrated with a National Holiday in the USA on Monday, January 17. Since January 20, 1986 his birthday has been a National Holiday in the USA on the third Monday of January. King is one of the Africans of the Diaspora whose story is well known. We need to ensure that the stories of many other Africans from the continent and of the Diaspora are heard throughout this year.
The Working Group made several recommendations including a “strong” recommendation “that the international community declare an International Decade for People of African Descent to “make the challenges they face more visible, to identify solutions, and to engage in a sustained campaign to eradicate structural discrimination against people of African descent.” It seems that from that recommendation we have an International Year for People of African Descent instead of the Decade the Working Group recommended. They also recommended that: “States examine and revise laws and practices that have a disproportionate impact upon people of African descent in the criminal justice system and lead to their overrepresentation in prisons and other places of detention.” The Working Group called for: “a UN interagency global study to collect data on people of African descent in their respective areas of work and to develop concrete recommendations that address the structural racism against people of African descent.” They also called for: “a UN interagency global study to collect data on people of African descent in their respective areas of work and to develop concrete recommendations that address the structural racism against people of African descent.”
The Working Group of five people included Dr. Verene Shepherd who on April 13, at the 3rd meeting of the Working Group made a presentation on structural discrimination in education. Dr. Shepherd emphasized that racism could masquerade as “classism” even in contexts where people of African descent constituted a majority. She pointed out that in many post-colonial societies problems did not arise from the formulation of legal measures but from the occurrence of insidious practices. The professor further emphasized that contents of textbooks and curricula were important for the empowerment, self-esteem and identity of people of African descent and other racialized peoples and stressed that it was essential to ensure that textbooks and other didactic materials were free from racism and sexism that perpetuate stereotypes and prejudices. She noted that knowledge of the past played an important role for mental liberation.
Dr. Shepherd, professor of social history and Director of the Institute for Gender & Development Studies (IGDS) at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) with oversight responsibility for the Mona, Cave Hill and St. Augustine Units of the IGDS is an activist scholar. In 2007 she was appointed Chair of the Jamaica National Bicentenary Committee. In 2007 Dr. Shepherd also published I Want to Disturb My Neighbour: Lectures on Slavery, Emancipation and Post-Colonial Jamaica. Thetitle of this book comes from Bob Marley's Bad Card (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk4RLyFNDi8) Dr. Shepherd is the author of several other books about the history of Africans and other racialized people in the Caribbean including: Slavery without sugar: Diversity in Caribbean economy and society since the 17th century, Emancipation and immigration: A pan-Caribbean overview, Women in Caribbean history, The ranking game: Discourses of belonging in Jamaican history, Working slavery, pricing freedom: Perspectives from the Caribbean and Africa and the African Diaspora.
Since this year is an opportunity for us to educate ourselves (or continue to) and others about our culture and history, reading some of Dr. Shepherd’s books would be a start. Involvement with organizations that are planning events for the year (attending or volunteering) is another way to celebrate/observe this year that recognizes Africans internationally.
African descendants in Nova Scotia, Canada and Linden, Guyana have already launched plans to involve their communities in a process to ensure that many of the hidden stories about Africans are publicized.
On November 19, 2010 in Linden, Guyana the Region Ten Organizing Committee for the 2011 International Year for People of African Descent launched its programme of activities which according to the chair Jonathan Adams will give effect to the UN Resolution that calls for “strengthening (of) national actions and regional and international cooperation for the benefit of people of African descent.” The group is dedicated to facilitating the nurturing of a wholesome African self identity with a theme for the year of “Commemorating the African past, Acknowledging the present, Creating the future.” The launch which took place at the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN) building’s Macaw Training Room was attended by students from several area secondary schools, members of youth and sports groups, representatives of regional government, business and religious communities. The launch was also attended by Pan-African historians Dr. Kimani Nehusi and Dr. Tony Martin author of Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
In a recent conversation with Adams, chair of the recently launched Region Ten Organizing Committee in Guyana, he shared that educating about African culture is a large part of the group’s plans. He feels that bringing African culture to the people will help to educate and also address mental slavery by relocating those of us who have been dislocated from our African roots. Adams also sees the year as an opportunity for: “commencement of remedial actions necessary to cure the regressive effects of African peoples of a more than 1,500-year long genocide against Africans.”
On December 15, 2010 Percy Paris, Minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs launched the International Year for People of African Descent in Nova Scotia. Representatives from the African Diaspora Heritage Trail (ADHT) Foundation and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) were at Province House to help Mr. Paris and Lt.-Gov. Mayann Francis with the official launch. During the launch Mr. Paris reportedly said: "In 2011, we will step up and lead the way in celebrating the International Year for People of African Descent. Not just in Canada, but in the world. I am very excited about this celebration." Mr. Edmond Moukala, a UNESCO program specialist based in Paris who attended the launch added: "It is wonderful to see Nova Scotia embrace this theme of celebrating heritage and culture of African descent. You have a rich history here that may not be well known around the world, but it will certainly become known in 2011."
As part of its celebrations, Nova Scotia will also host the ADHT Conference (September 22-24) in Halifax. The annual conference designed to educate visitors and safeguard the core values and creativity of African culture and history attracts hundreds of visitors including scholars who are focused on preserving and promoting important sites and stories throughout the African Diaspora and the movement of Africans and their descendants throughout the world.
Incidentally Dr Martin Luther King Junior would have been 82 years old on Saturday, January 15 (born January 15, 1929). His birthday will be celebrated with a National Holiday in the USA on Monday, January 17. Since January 20, 1986 his birthday has been a National Holiday in the USA on the third Monday of January. King is one of the Africans of the Diaspora whose story is well known. We need to ensure that the stories of many other Africans from the continent and of the Diaspora are heard throughout this year.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
I WANT TO DISTURB MY NEIGHBOUR
On Tuesday, January 11, 2011 I was very pleased and honoured to have the opportunity to speak with Dr. Verene Shepherd on a radio program (Tuesday Word of Mouth 7:00 to 7:30 p.m) I host at CKLN 88.1 FM. Dr Shepherd is one of those people who it is a delight to interview. She is extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic. It is not surprising that she is knowledgeable, of course, she is a scholar and a historian. However, her enthusiasm and her willingness to do an interview after a busy few days of traveling was very well appreciated.
Dr. Shepherd was one of five members of the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent. The Working Group was established in 2002 with a mandate to collaborate with respective countries to devise policies aimed at eradicating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance. As an activist scholar Dr. Shepherd was well suited to being a member of the Working Group and had much to contribute to its work. She was the representative for Latin America and the Caribbean on the Working Group.
She shared with me and my listeners that African descendants from South America were very involved with the Working Group and had urged a decade for people of African descent be recognized. It is indeed unfortunate that the UN has only designated one year (2011.)
Dr. Shepherd is the author of several books about the culture and history of Africans and we discussed some of her work. I am re-reading (third time) her 2007 published I Want to Disturb My Neighbour: Lectures on Slavery, Emancipation and Postcolonial Jamaica. Part of the title of the book comes from Bob Marley’s Bad Card released in 1980 on the album Uprising. One of many reasons for reading this book three times is the accessibility of the language of the book. Dr. Shepherd is an academic but the language she uses is not out of reach for non-academics even though the lectures in the book are for academics since they were mostly given at universities. I have shared parts of this book with children as young as junior high school age and they have been encouraged to read the book.
History becomes fascinating when historians like Dr. Shepherd write. Her letter to Mary Seacole in chapter 13 “Dear Mrs Seacole: Groundings with Mary Seacole on Slavery, Gender and Citizenship” is a delight to read. The letter was read as part the lecture delivered at the Institute of Jamaica's function to honour Mary Seacole on November 21, 2005, to mark the bicentenary of Seacole's birth. In her letter to Mary Seacole Dr. Shepherd writes: "I was surprised that you had only your little maid for a traveling companion; but admired you for defying the gender conventions of the time. Still you were lucky it was then: now, a single black woman roaming all over the world like Digicel and Cable and Wireless, and carrying herbs would certainly have attracted attention including a body scan! As an attractive Jamaican woman, brown or not, you would perhaps, have been mistaken for a drug mule, sniffed by colour-prejudice dogs and have your ample body 'feel-feel' up by strange men and women."
Mary Seacole was a woman born in Jamaica who as an adult left to live and work in several countries including Britain where she worked as a nurse during the Crimean War. Part of the advertisement for the 2005 released movie Mary Seacole: The Real Angel of the Crimea reads: Mary Seacole was a black contemporary of Florence Nightingale in the front line of the Crimea war. Her medical and mercantile endeavours made her a national hero in Victorian England but she was all but forgotten after her death.
Dr Shepherd makes an appearance in the movie.
In I Want to Disturb My Neighbour: Lectures on Slavery, Emancipation and Postcolonial Jamaica Dr. Shepherd addresses the struggle of enslaved African women and recognizes that she has benefited from their fight for freedom. In chapter 8 entitled “Petticoat Rebellion” Dr. Shepherd names several of those freedom fighting enslaved African women including Congo Sally, Minnetta, Whaunica and Phibba.
During the interview we spoke about Thomas Thistlewood’s diary where he documented his systematic sexual abuse of every female (women and children) on his Jamaica based plantation. Thistlewood’s diary is valuable as documented proof of the sexual abuse to which enslaved African women were subjected by white slave holders in addition to the back breaking physical work they were forced to perform to enrich their abusers.
A woman who believes in and lives up to the saying "putting your money where your mouth is," Dr. Shepherd has written: The primary responsibilities of the university academic are to teach and advise graduate and undergraduate students, attend to examination duties, conduct research and publish the findings of such research. However few confine themselves to their core mandate. Many assume leadership positions and administrative responsibilities (including sitting on committees, sub-committees and the inevitable task forces) engage in public and professional service and outreach activities and form links with the international academy through the delivery of conference papers and public lectures. Historians at the University of the West Indies (UWI) are among those who refuse to imprison themselves within the walls of academia, becoming heavily involved in public service, schools and community outreach; and delivering public lectures locally, regionally and internationally. Dr Shepherd has certainly done that as evidenced by the 21 public lectures contained in I Want to Disturb My Neighbour: Lectures on Slavery, Emancipation and Postcolonial Jamaica.
With her busy schedule and great responsibilities as professor of social history and Director of the Institute for Gender & Development Studies (IGDS) at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) with oversight responsibility for the Mona, Cave Hill and St. Augustine Units of the IGDS Dr. Shepherd is organizing a conference in Colombia, South America in March 2011 to commemorate IYPAD. Dr. Shepherd is the author of several other books about the history of Africans and other racialized people in the Caribbean including: Slavery without sugar: Diversity in Caribbean economy and society since the 17th century, Emancipation and immigration: A pan-Caribbean overview, Women in Caribbean history, The ranking game: Discourses of belonging in Jamaican history, Working slavery, pricing freedom: Perspectives from the Caribbean and Africa and the African Diaspora.
It was an amazing, delightful and enlightening experience speaking with Dr. Shepherd and I hope to speak with her again this year as we observe the United Nations International Year for People of African Descent (IYPAD).
Dr. Shepherd was one of five members of the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent. The Working Group was established in 2002 with a mandate to collaborate with respective countries to devise policies aimed at eradicating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance. As an activist scholar Dr. Shepherd was well suited to being a member of the Working Group and had much to contribute to its work. She was the representative for Latin America and the Caribbean on the Working Group.
She shared with me and my listeners that African descendants from South America were very involved with the Working Group and had urged a decade for people of African descent be recognized. It is indeed unfortunate that the UN has only designated one year (2011.)
Dr. Shepherd is the author of several books about the culture and history of Africans and we discussed some of her work. I am re-reading (third time) her 2007 published I Want to Disturb My Neighbour: Lectures on Slavery, Emancipation and Postcolonial Jamaica. Part of the title of the book comes from Bob Marley’s Bad Card released in 1980 on the album Uprising. One of many reasons for reading this book three times is the accessibility of the language of the book. Dr. Shepherd is an academic but the language she uses is not out of reach for non-academics even though the lectures in the book are for academics since they were mostly given at universities. I have shared parts of this book with children as young as junior high school age and they have been encouraged to read the book.
History becomes fascinating when historians like Dr. Shepherd write. Her letter to Mary Seacole in chapter 13 “Dear Mrs Seacole: Groundings with Mary Seacole on Slavery, Gender and Citizenship” is a delight to read. The letter was read as part the lecture delivered at the Institute of Jamaica's function to honour Mary Seacole on November 21, 2005, to mark the bicentenary of Seacole's birth. In her letter to Mary Seacole Dr. Shepherd writes: "I was surprised that you had only your little maid for a traveling companion; but admired you for defying the gender conventions of the time. Still you were lucky it was then: now, a single black woman roaming all over the world like Digicel and Cable and Wireless, and carrying herbs would certainly have attracted attention including a body scan! As an attractive Jamaican woman, brown or not, you would perhaps, have been mistaken for a drug mule, sniffed by colour-prejudice dogs and have your ample body 'feel-feel' up by strange men and women."
Mary Seacole was a woman born in Jamaica who as an adult left to live and work in several countries including Britain where she worked as a nurse during the Crimean War. Part of the advertisement for the 2005 released movie Mary Seacole: The Real Angel of the Crimea reads: Mary Seacole was a black contemporary of Florence Nightingale in the front line of the Crimea war. Her medical and mercantile endeavours made her a national hero in Victorian England but she was all but forgotten after her death.
Dr Shepherd makes an appearance in the movie.
In I Want to Disturb My Neighbour: Lectures on Slavery, Emancipation and Postcolonial Jamaica Dr. Shepherd addresses the struggle of enslaved African women and recognizes that she has benefited from their fight for freedom. In chapter 8 entitled “Petticoat Rebellion” Dr. Shepherd names several of those freedom fighting enslaved African women including Congo Sally, Minnetta, Whaunica and Phibba.
During the interview we spoke about Thomas Thistlewood’s diary where he documented his systematic sexual abuse of every female (women and children) on his Jamaica based plantation. Thistlewood’s diary is valuable as documented proof of the sexual abuse to which enslaved African women were subjected by white slave holders in addition to the back breaking physical work they were forced to perform to enrich their abusers.
A woman who believes in and lives up to the saying "putting your money where your mouth is," Dr. Shepherd has written: The primary responsibilities of the university academic are to teach and advise graduate and undergraduate students, attend to examination duties, conduct research and publish the findings of such research. However few confine themselves to their core mandate. Many assume leadership positions and administrative responsibilities (including sitting on committees, sub-committees and the inevitable task forces) engage in public and professional service and outreach activities and form links with the international academy through the delivery of conference papers and public lectures. Historians at the University of the West Indies (UWI) are among those who refuse to imprison themselves within the walls of academia, becoming heavily involved in public service, schools and community outreach; and delivering public lectures locally, regionally and internationally. Dr Shepherd has certainly done that as evidenced by the 21 public lectures contained in I Want to Disturb My Neighbour: Lectures on Slavery, Emancipation and Postcolonial Jamaica.
With her busy schedule and great responsibilities as professor of social history and Director of the Institute for Gender & Development Studies (IGDS) at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) with oversight responsibility for the Mona, Cave Hill and St. Augustine Units of the IGDS Dr. Shepherd is organizing a conference in Colombia, South America in March 2011 to commemorate IYPAD. Dr. Shepherd is the author of several other books about the history of Africans and other racialized people in the Caribbean including: Slavery without sugar: Diversity in Caribbean economy and society since the 17th century, Emancipation and immigration: A pan-Caribbean overview, Women in Caribbean history, The ranking game: Discourses of belonging in Jamaican history, Working slavery, pricing freedom: Perspectives from the Caribbean and Africa and the African Diaspora.
It was an amazing, delightful and enlightening experience speaking with Dr. Shepherd and I hope to speak with her again this year as we observe the United Nations International Year for People of African Descent (IYPAD).
Sunday, January 9, 2011
INTERNATIONAL YEAR FOR PEOPLE OF AFRICAN DESCENT (IYPAD)
Karibuni! Welcome! We are in 2011, the second decade of the 21st century and the United Nations (UN) designated International Year for People of African Descent (IYPAD.) This is a Pan-African commemoration, memorialization and an opportunity to do some serious education (learning and teaching) about African culture and amazing opportunity to tell our stories. As Peter Tosh sang in his popular 1977 released song African (from the album Equal Rights): “Don’t care where you come from as long as you’re a black man, you’re an African.” We also know that the beginning of human existence, scientifically proven, is from the African continent. The greatest civilizations, mathematics and science had their beginnings in Africa. However there are many, including Africans, who do not know of our glorious history and the contributions that our people, regardless of where they were born, have made to ancient and modern civilization.
The Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, considered the father of the modern Pan-African movement, said: “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” We know that a tree without roots is a dead tree, sometimes tumbleweed, moving in whatever direction it is blown by the wind.
There are plans by various organizations in recognition of the year and it is important that we co-ordinate as much as possible so that our energies are not depleted by duplicating the same initiatives. Part of the declaration from the UN states: The General Assembly encourages Member States, the specialized agencies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates and existing resources, and civil society to make preparations for and identify possible initiatives that can contribute to the success of the Year. Since the Canadian government is a member of the UN it should at least be supporting with resources initiatives that can contribute to the success of the Year. However, when considering the inaction of the government in 2007 for the commemoration of the UN recognized bicentenary of the abolition of the British slave trade and their refusal to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples there is faint hope that there will even be a recognition of the UN designated International Year for People of African Descent. On September 13, 2007, the UN General Assembly voted on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA voted against adopting the Declaration. It was not until November 12, 2010 (probably attempting to project a new international image after failing to be elected to the UN Security Council) that the Canadian government formally endorsed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
We must not let the past inaction of the Canadian government deter our movement to commemorate this year. It is vital that we ensure this year is not ignored by the government. We are Canadian, our labour and taxes continue to contribute to the wealth of this country. A large part of the education during this year must be dedicated to the decolonization of the minds of our people. During the four hundred years enslavement of Africans by white people and even the colonization of Africans on the continent there was a systematic colonization of the minds of Africans. Today there are Africans in the Diaspora and on the continent who embrace white supremacy. Deliberate, strategic methods were used to alienate Africans from tradition and from each other and to teach African inferiority and European superiority. Europeans first attacked African culture; then they denied that African culture ever existed. Stripped of their names and identities, our ancestors were no longer Africans; they were made "Negro" by white enslavers. The names many of us carry today reflect the nationality of the Europeans who enslaved our ancestors. Most Africans in the Diaspora cannot claim one particular country in Africa (since it was carved up for the convenience and greed of Europeans) as the country of their ancestors; our history of enslavement with the accompanying destruction of family units makes it impossible. The European enslavers knew that divided we were vulnerable so they designed a system to make us lose the basis of our collective identity. We were separated, and then our names, our language, our stories, our songs, our family structures, even our understanding of God -- the things that bound us together -- were beaten out of us. Then they had to make us believe in, protect and even demand white supremacy. We had to be taught to love and revere Europe and European culture more than life itself. We were also taught that Africans had contributed nothing to the world.
In the 1923 published book The Philosophy and opinions of Marcus Garvey: Or Africa for the Africans Garvey is quoted on the subject of the deliberate attempt to create division of Africans:
The approximately 360 days left of 2011 are not enough to do all the work that has to be done to address the concerns that come from centuries of oppression. There was trauma that has never been addressed and continues to plague our communities. This year of recognition is a beginning that needs to go forward further than 2011. We can all do our part. We all have a role to play.
The Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, considered the father of the modern Pan-African movement, said: “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” We know that a tree without roots is a dead tree, sometimes tumbleweed, moving in whatever direction it is blown by the wind.
There are plans by various organizations in recognition of the year and it is important that we co-ordinate as much as possible so that our energies are not depleted by duplicating the same initiatives. Part of the declaration from the UN states: The General Assembly encourages Member States, the specialized agencies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates and existing resources, and civil society to make preparations for and identify possible initiatives that can contribute to the success of the Year. Since the Canadian government is a member of the UN it should at least be supporting with resources initiatives that can contribute to the success of the Year. However, when considering the inaction of the government in 2007 for the commemoration of the UN recognized bicentenary of the abolition of the British slave trade and their refusal to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples there is faint hope that there will even be a recognition of the UN designated International Year for People of African Descent. On September 13, 2007, the UN General Assembly voted on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA voted against adopting the Declaration. It was not until November 12, 2010 (probably attempting to project a new international image after failing to be elected to the UN Security Council) that the Canadian government formally endorsed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
We must not let the past inaction of the Canadian government deter our movement to commemorate this year. It is vital that we ensure this year is not ignored by the government. We are Canadian, our labour and taxes continue to contribute to the wealth of this country. A large part of the education during this year must be dedicated to the decolonization of the minds of our people. During the four hundred years enslavement of Africans by white people and even the colonization of Africans on the continent there was a systematic colonization of the minds of Africans. Today there are Africans in the Diaspora and on the continent who embrace white supremacy. Deliberate, strategic methods were used to alienate Africans from tradition and from each other and to teach African inferiority and European superiority. Europeans first attacked African culture; then they denied that African culture ever existed. Stripped of their names and identities, our ancestors were no longer Africans; they were made "Negro" by white enslavers. The names many of us carry today reflect the nationality of the Europeans who enslaved our ancestors. Most Africans in the Diaspora cannot claim one particular country in Africa (since it was carved up for the convenience and greed of Europeans) as the country of their ancestors; our history of enslavement with the accompanying destruction of family units makes it impossible. The European enslavers knew that divided we were vulnerable so they designed a system to make us lose the basis of our collective identity. We were separated, and then our names, our language, our stories, our songs, our family structures, even our understanding of God -- the things that bound us together -- were beaten out of us. Then they had to make us believe in, protect and even demand white supremacy. We had to be taught to love and revere Europe and European culture more than life itself. We were also taught that Africans had contributed nothing to the world.
In the 1923 published book The Philosophy and opinions of Marcus Garvey: Or Africa for the Africans Garvey is quoted on the subject of the deliberate attempt to create division of Africans:
"This propaganda of dis-associating Western Negroes from Africa is not a new one. For many years white propagandists have been printing tons of literature to impress scattered Ethiopia, especially that portion within their civilization, with the idea that Africa is a despised place, inhabited by savages, and cannibals, where no civilized human being should go, especially black civilized human beings. This propaganda is promulgated for the cause that is being realized today. That cause is colonial expansion for the white nations of the world."While it is recognized that 2011 has been designated the International Year for People of African Descent by the UN it is also important to understand that the idea came from the work of people who attended the 2001 (August 31 – September 7) World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa. It was at that conference that delegates ensured the UN recognized and declared the brutality and horror of the Maafa (the slave trade and four hundred years enslavement of Africans) a crime against humanity. Reparations for the unpaid labour of enslaved Africans that enriched Europeans and Europe was also discussed at the conference and those discussions must form part of what we address during this year.
The approximately 360 days left of 2011 are not enough to do all the work that has to be done to address the concerns that come from centuries of oppression. There was trauma that has never been addressed and continues to plague our communities. This year of recognition is a beginning that needs to go forward further than 2011. We can all do our part. We all have a role to play.
Monday, January 3, 2011
TRAUMA AND VIOLENCE IN THE LIVES OF YOUNG AFRICAN CANADIANS
Nosa Idalu Iyirhiaro transitioned to be with the ancestors on December 5, 2010. He was a loving and beloved son, grandson, brother, uncle, cousin and friend. Nosa Idalu Iyirhiaro celebrated his 24th birthday on April 21st, 2010 and is one of the many young African Canadian men who have been the victims of violence in 2010. Nosa is an Edo (from Nigeria) name which means God has spoken. To deal with the grief and shock of the unexpected loss of this young life his loved ones have to grapple with the thought that God has spoken and that is why Nosa is no longer with us in the flesh. Nosa’s passing was noted in a few paragraphs in a Hamilton newspaper where he was identified as Hamilton’s 10th homicide of the year. According to the story in the newspaper one witness said “I heard a person hollering, ‘Help me, help me! I’m dying, I’m dying, call 911.” Those were probably the last words Nosa spoke because five hours later he had passed from this life. An article in a Toronto newspaper published in November said that of the 29 gun deaths in 2010, 26 were African Canadians. Nosa was not killed by a gun; he was stabbed several times in his upper body. On December 17th, he was laid to rest at St. James Cemetery (Parliament and Bloor Streets.) The sudden end to the lives of young men in our community due to violence has reached epidemic proportions. Week after week we read of these young lives and it seems that they are just faceless numbers to justify calls for more police and harsh law and order policies.
In his 2009 published book Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Trauma and Violence in the Lives of Young Black Men Dr. John A. Rich writes: The shooting of a young black male doesn't make the front page. It's most likely to appear inside the Metro section -- that is, if the victim dies. Even then, he's unlikely to receive more than a couple of inches of print. After all, it's the same old story: young black men killing other young black men. What's the big deal? The shooter and the victim are assumed to be drug dealers or gang-bangers doing their thing in a part of town where people of means and good sense would never venture.
Dr. John A. Rich could very well be speaking about Toronto or elsewhere in Canada, the situations are so similar. Incidents of violence against young African Canadian males and in many cases by young African Canadian males are alarming. The estimated 26 African Canadian males whose lives ended through gun violence are not faceless and nameless statistics to their relatives and friends. However when these shootings happen there is usually a call for more police and warnings of dangerous gangs occupying the city. Hardly ever is there an article that addresses the circumstances that led to the reasons why there is this level of self-hatred among our male youth.
Sometimes there are calls for programs that will keep children and youth occupied in social activities. In November 2005 the Coalition of African Canadian Organizations met with then Prime Minister Paul Martin and presented a plan that included calls for the federal government to create employment and training opportunities to bring more African Canadian youth into the workforce.
Earlier the same month (November 9, 2005) while attending a meeting of federal, provincial and territorial Ministers in Whitehorse, Yukon, Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada, Irwin Cotler announced: “The disturbing increase of homicides involving firearms in urban centres such as Toronto and Winnipeg have underscored the need to attack the problem of the illegal use of firearms on a number of fronts. What I am announcing today is a three-pronged strategy involving: first, legislative measures and enhanced punishments; second, initiatives to assist prosecutors and law enforcement officials in bringing the perpetrators of gun-related crimes to justice; and third, investments to prevent youth from following a life of crime and to provide them with hope and opportunity." Five years after the 2005 announcement, with a new federal government (elected January 23, 2006) in place only the first two of the three prongs seem to have been initiated in the African Canadian community.
Dr. John A. Rich is an African American physician, scholar and a leader in addressing the health care needs of African-American men in urban areas. He has linked economics, mental health, educational and employment opportunities to physical well-being and his work is influencing policy discussions and health practice throughout the United States. Rich has established the Young Men’s Health Clinic at the Boston Medical Center which provides primary care to men ages 17 to 29 many of whom are victims of violence. In Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Trauma and Violence in the Lives of Young Black Men he writes about the lives of several young African American men who were traumatized by the violence they experienced. He has gone beyond the numbers and statistics that appear in newspaper articles to delve into the lives, decipher reasons and act on his findings. Rich writes: “Even though large numbers of African American men have suffered from violent injury, little research attention has been paid to the impact of post-traumatic stress disorder and other trauma related symptoms on the lives of these young men.” Rich suggests that the hypervigilance that leaves these young men constantly feeling that their lives are in danger can lead to them being unable to feel and subjecting themselves to danger. Some may turn to alcohol or drugs to ease their pain and shame, especially if they had walked away from a dangerous fight that could have cost them their life.
Rich concludes that there is a right place and a right time to understand how violence affects the lives of young racialized men. He writes: The right place is the community, defined not simply by the neighborhoods where these men live but also the larger community of which all of us are residents. Now is the right time to hear the clear resonance of their voices and involve them as central participants in formulating the solutions.
The United Nations has designated 2011 the International year for people of African descent. Surely it is time to address in a concrete manner the trauma that many of our young men live with daily because of the violence from many sources that plague their lives. Dr. John A. Rich could have been writing about Nosa Idalu Iyirhiaro or Yannick Roache, an 18 year old who transitioned on Christmas Eve day 2002, when he wrote that the young men from urban neighbourhoods in the USA had “lives that were textured and complex” and “their struggles and their anger were counterbalanced by laughter and generosity.” His advice is valuable for the people in power, those who make the decisions that affect the lives of our youth: “Without any access to their voices, we could easily formulate solutions that are out of sync with the realities of their lives and that would be ineffective or outright destructive. This is why hearing their stories told through their own words is important. Not only does it reaffirm their basic humanity, it also points to a need to consider a different palette of approaches to violence and poverty and masculinity and non-violence that might eventually yield enduring results for change.”
I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Dr. John A. Rich on Tuesday, December 28, 2010 at CKLN 88.1 FM Tuesday Word of Mouth radio program (7:00 - 7:30 p.m.) He is doing an amazing job in addressing and documenting the effects of the violence on the health of those who live with it every day. The voices of those young men have been heard by all those who have read Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Trauma and Violence in the Lives of Young Black Men.
In his 2009 published book Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Trauma and Violence in the Lives of Young Black Men Dr. John A. Rich writes: The shooting of a young black male doesn't make the front page. It's most likely to appear inside the Metro section -- that is, if the victim dies. Even then, he's unlikely to receive more than a couple of inches of print. After all, it's the same old story: young black men killing other young black men. What's the big deal? The shooter and the victim are assumed to be drug dealers or gang-bangers doing their thing in a part of town where people of means and good sense would never venture.
Dr. John A. Rich could very well be speaking about Toronto or elsewhere in Canada, the situations are so similar. Incidents of violence against young African Canadian males and in many cases by young African Canadian males are alarming. The estimated 26 African Canadian males whose lives ended through gun violence are not faceless and nameless statistics to their relatives and friends. However when these shootings happen there is usually a call for more police and warnings of dangerous gangs occupying the city. Hardly ever is there an article that addresses the circumstances that led to the reasons why there is this level of self-hatred among our male youth.
Sometimes there are calls for programs that will keep children and youth occupied in social activities. In November 2005 the Coalition of African Canadian Organizations met with then Prime Minister Paul Martin and presented a plan that included calls for the federal government to create employment and training opportunities to bring more African Canadian youth into the workforce.
Earlier the same month (November 9, 2005) while attending a meeting of federal, provincial and territorial Ministers in Whitehorse, Yukon, Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada, Irwin Cotler announced: “The disturbing increase of homicides involving firearms in urban centres such as Toronto and Winnipeg have underscored the need to attack the problem of the illegal use of firearms on a number of fronts. What I am announcing today is a three-pronged strategy involving: first, legislative measures and enhanced punishments; second, initiatives to assist prosecutors and law enforcement officials in bringing the perpetrators of gun-related crimes to justice; and third, investments to prevent youth from following a life of crime and to provide them with hope and opportunity." Five years after the 2005 announcement, with a new federal government (elected January 23, 2006) in place only the first two of the three prongs seem to have been initiated in the African Canadian community.
Dr. John A. Rich is an African American physician, scholar and a leader in addressing the health care needs of African-American men in urban areas. He has linked economics, mental health, educational and employment opportunities to physical well-being and his work is influencing policy discussions and health practice throughout the United States. Rich has established the Young Men’s Health Clinic at the Boston Medical Center which provides primary care to men ages 17 to 29 many of whom are victims of violence. In Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Trauma and Violence in the Lives of Young Black Men he writes about the lives of several young African American men who were traumatized by the violence they experienced. He has gone beyond the numbers and statistics that appear in newspaper articles to delve into the lives, decipher reasons and act on his findings. Rich writes: “Even though large numbers of African American men have suffered from violent injury, little research attention has been paid to the impact of post-traumatic stress disorder and other trauma related symptoms on the lives of these young men.” Rich suggests that the hypervigilance that leaves these young men constantly feeling that their lives are in danger can lead to them being unable to feel and subjecting themselves to danger. Some may turn to alcohol or drugs to ease their pain and shame, especially if they had walked away from a dangerous fight that could have cost them their life.
Rich concludes that there is a right place and a right time to understand how violence affects the lives of young racialized men. He writes: The right place is the community, defined not simply by the neighborhoods where these men live but also the larger community of which all of us are residents. Now is the right time to hear the clear resonance of their voices and involve them as central participants in formulating the solutions.
The United Nations has designated 2011 the International year for people of African descent. Surely it is time to address in a concrete manner the trauma that many of our young men live with daily because of the violence from many sources that plague their lives. Dr. John A. Rich could have been writing about Nosa Idalu Iyirhiaro or Yannick Roache, an 18 year old who transitioned on Christmas Eve day 2002, when he wrote that the young men from urban neighbourhoods in the USA had “lives that were textured and complex” and “their struggles and their anger were counterbalanced by laughter and generosity.” His advice is valuable for the people in power, those who make the decisions that affect the lives of our youth: “Without any access to their voices, we could easily formulate solutions that are out of sync with the realities of their lives and that would be ineffective or outright destructive. This is why hearing their stories told through their own words is important. Not only does it reaffirm their basic humanity, it also points to a need to consider a different palette of approaches to violence and poverty and masculinity and non-violence that might eventually yield enduring results for change.”
I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Dr. John A. Rich on Tuesday, December 28, 2010 at CKLN 88.1 FM Tuesday Word of Mouth radio program (7:00 - 7:30 p.m.) He is doing an amazing job in addressing and documenting the effects of the violence on the health of those who live with it every day. The voices of those young men have been heard by all those who have read Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Trauma and Violence in the Lives of Young Black Men.
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