BERBICIANGRIOT

THEY CAME BEFORE COLUMBUS by IVAN VAN SERTIMA

2012-01-26T21:40:00.000-08:00

We have come to reclaim the house of history. We are dedicated to the revision of the role of the African in the world's great civilizations, the contribution of Africa to the achievement of man in the arts and sciences. We shall emphasize what Africa has given to the world, not what it has lost.

Ivan Van Sertima, author of They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America published 1977.

Ivan Gladstone Van Sertima was born on January 26, 1935 in Kitty, Georgetown, Guyana. In 1935 at the time of Van Sertima’s birth Kitty was a village near the capital city of Georgetown, British Guiana which was then a colony possessed by the British Empire. Surprisingly British Guiana was the only possession of the British on the entire South American continent. Van Sertima who is considered one of the architects of the modern Africentric education movement received his primary and secondary education in Guyana before moving on to Britain and eventually the United States. After completing his secondary education Van Sertima worked as a Press and Broadcasting Officer in the Government Information Services in Georgetown from 1956 to 1959. He moved to Britain in 1959 and lived there until 1970. While living in Britain Van Sertima worked for the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) and worked towards a degree in African languages and literature at the London School of Oriental and African Studies. He received his B.A. degree, with honours, in 1969. In the meantime he compiled a dictionary of legal terms in Kiswahili based on field work he did in Tanzania in 1967 and wrote a series of essays on Caribbean literature Caribbean Writers: Critical Essays which was published in 1968.

Van Sertima immigrated to the USA in 1970 where he entered Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey as a graduate student. He began his more than 30 year teaching career at Rutgers when he was hired as an instructor in the school's new African Studies department in 1970. He completed his M.A. degree in 1977 and was hired as Associate Professor of African Studies in the Department of Africana Studies in 1979. In 1977 Van Sertima published his ground breaking study of African presence in the New World before Columbus and other Europeans. In publishing They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America Van Sertima acknowledged the support he received from another Guyanese scholar Jan Carew (born September 24, 1920 at Agricola, East Bank Demerara.) Carew, the author of more than 30 books including the 1994 published The Rape of Paradise: Columbus and the Birth of Racism in the Americas introduced Van Sertima to a 1920 published trilogy (Africa and the discovery of America) by Leo Wiener which piqued his interest in learning more about the history of Africans in the New World and led to his research and writing They Came Before Columbus. Van Sertima used his skills and training as anthropologist, historian and linguist in researching and writing this seminal work http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu2EoSA3TXY. His work has inspired African scholars internationally and is an invaluable contribution to African centred curricula. Because of people like Van Sertima, today African centred education is a viable option. Van Sertima contributed to the revolutionizing of academia from a Eurocentric point of view to not just including Africa and Africans but correcting misinformation. His book included the often ignored African history before any European set foot on the continent. He shared with all who read his book that Africa had a rich history which had been deliberately distorted, misrepresented and white-washed by European historians. The thought that African seafarers reached the Americas centuries before Columbus; during the ancient period congruent with the Olmec civilization period (1500BCE to 400BCE) and other meetings during the late medieval era of the Aztec Empire had not been widely known before Van Sertima’s book was published. He gathered evidence, from pictures of the now famous Olmec heads, religious symbols, agricultural sea crossings and favourable Atlantic Ocean currents to Mesoamerican writings, to prove his findings. Although scholars (mostly European archaeologists) before him had made the connection between the Olmec heads and their similarity to Africans, Van Sertima went further in gathering other evidence (including linguistic) to prove that Africans had lived in the Americas long before Columbus lost his way and stumbled upon this New World. Van Sertima writes about an encounter between Columbus and the native people he found on Espanola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) in 1496. The Indians gave proof that they were trading with black people. “The Indians of this Espanola said there had come to Espanola a black people who have the top of their spears made of a metal which they called “gua-nin,” of which he [Columbus] had sent samples to the Sovereigns to have them assayed, when it was found that of 32 parts, 18 were of gold, 6 of silver and 8 of copper.” According to Van Sertima, the word “guanin” could be traced to several “Mande languages of West Africa” including Mandingo, Kabunga, Toronka, Kankanka, Bambara, Mande and Vei.

In 1979 Van Sertima founded The Journal of African Civilizations which he described: "The Journal of African Civilizations, founded in 1979, has gained a reputation for excellence and uniqueness among historical and anthropological journals. It is recognized as a valuable information source for both the layman and student. It has created a different historical perspective within which to view the ancestor of the African-American and the achievement and potential of black people the world over. It is the only historical journal in the English-speaking world which focuses on the heartland rather than on the periphery of African civilizations.”

On July 7, 1987 Van Sertima appeared before a United States Congressional committee to give testimony that challenged the conventional wisdom that Christopher Columbus "discovered" America. In 1998 he published Early America Revisited with his meticulous research and attention to detail he again proved (adding to his earlier work) that Africans lived in the Americas and influenced the culture of this part of the world before any Europeans. Van Sertima who transitioned on May 25, 2009 was the author of 15 books including Blacks in Science: Ancient and Modern 1983, African Presence in early Europe 1985, Black Women in Antiquity 1988, Great Black Leaders: Ancient and Modern 1988, Egypt Revisited 1989, The Golden Age of the Moor 1992 and Egypt: Child of Africa 1994. During African History Month (February) do more than attend entertainment events, read and discuss the work of Van Sertima and other historians who have rescued our history from the margins of Eurocentric history books. For more information on African history during February visit www.radioregent.com on Tuesdays from 7:00 to 7:30 and Thursdays from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.

AFRICAN VILLAGE MOVEMENT IN GUYANA

2012-01-24T21:50:00.000-08:00

In 1803, during the Napoleonic Wars, the British imperial government conquered the Dutch colony of Berbice and took over the management of a number of presumed government slaves. These comprised persons on four estates and others – mainly artisans – in New Amsterdam, the colony’s capital who were known as winkel (that is “shop”) slaves. The Colonial office had sent a circular dispatch to the governors on January 24, 1831 ordering them to set free all escheated slaves immediately.

Excerpt from Unprofitable Servants: Crown Slaves in Berbice Guyana 1803-1831 by Alvin O. Thompson published 2002

The “escheated slaves” referred to in the January 24, 1831 circular dispatch were “owned” by the British government. Some of these enslaved Africans lived in what is now Winkle in New Amsterdam, Berbice. It is well known that slavery was finally abolished on August 1, 1838 throughout the British Empire after a four year “apprenticeship” in most of the Caribbean. What is not as well known outside of Guyana is that a group of enslaved Africans who were “crown property” and members of the winkel group gained their freedom 7 years earlier. Passing through Winkle, New Amsterdam on my way to Stanleytown during a recent visit to Guyana I remembered that as children we had heard stories of the “Winkel people.” That glimpse of Winkle also started me on a quest to learn more about the Village Movement that Africans began after they were freed from chattel slavery in Guyana. I visited the New Amsterdam public library and the Georgetown public library in search of information about the Village Movement of Guyana but there was not much to find in either library. In both libraries I found a booklet about Victoria Village on the East Coast Demerara and that seemed to be the extent of books about the Village Movement in both libraries. At the Georgetown public library, after some probing I unearthed a book I had read about on the Internet about Plaisance/Sparendaam on the East Coast Demerara: Plaisance From Emancipation to Independence and Beyond by Beryl Adams-Haynes published in 2010. Further investigation yielded information that the book was also available at the University of Guyana Berbice Campus Library located at Tain on the Courentyne and could not be taken out but was available for a two hour loan in the library. I am still puzzled and disappointed at the lack of books about the Village Movement in the Guyana public library system. It was in Toronto that I eventually found a copy of Thompson’s 2002 published Unprofitable Servants: Crown Slaves in Berbice Guyana 1803-1831 at the Toronto Reference Library. In spite of the fact that it is the only copy in the Toronto Public Library system, I was happy to have the opportunity to read the book since it yielded much information about the “Winkel slaves” and the area of Winkle, New Amsterdam.

The intriguing and little known history of this group of enslaved Africans includes the fact that they were highly skilled and a “versatile group of artisans, capable of working in iron, copper and brass.” The enslavers also described them as “decidedly the most intelligent body of Negroes in the Colony.” Their skill as artisans was exploited by government (through the Winkel Department) as well as private citizens because they were hired out to work on plantations while the British government pocketed the money they earned. In Unprofitable Servants: Crown Slaves in Berbice Guyana 1803-1831 Thompson writes: Payment for winkel work done for private individuals was made to the Colonial Treasury. This was under the charge of the Governor of the Colony who received a commission of 10 per cent. It was not surprising to read that: “Graft and corruption were the frequent bedfellows of several officials involved in the department.” I have to wonder how many families in Britain are still benefitting from the coerced unpaid work that came directly from the “winkel slaves” of Berbice and when we will receive reparations.

Although the Colonial office had sent a circular dispatch to the governors on January 24, 1831 ordering them to set free all escheated slaves immediately it was not until November 17, 1831 that the Africans of Winkle, New Amsterdam, Berbice were given their certificates of freedom. Lord Goderich, the secretary of state for the colonies sent a follow-up letter to Benjamin D’Urban who had been appointed governor of British Guiana on March 4, 1831 and would have missed the original dispatch of January 24, 1831. This letter directed D’Urban to set the winkel people free and give them land grants. D’Urban who disagreed with the concept of emancipating enslaved Africans resisted, even arguing that the Africans did not deserve freedom (imagine Durban Street in Georgetown is named after this character.) D’Urban also argued that the labour of the winkel slaves was too important to the public works department and high government officials. He doubted that they were capable of living on their own and he was concerned about disrupting “their happiness with the state of comfort they enjoyed.” Unfortunately D’Urban was not the only white person who thought Africans enjoyed being kept as chattel and working without pay to enrich white people. That was a popular thought that allowed white people to continue enslaving Africans under brutal and inhumane conditions for more than four hundred years.

This history unfortunately is not taught in the Guyanese public education system. It is very sad and disappointing that the history of Africans is not readily available to their descendants never mind non-African Guyanese. At what point did people stop caring or began suffering from group amnesia? It seems a long way from the days when elders passed on their knowledge to the youth. In this day and age when information is more readily available there is a puzzling lack of African history in the libraries and schools of Guyana. Maybe it is the lack of information about the history of their ancestors that has the descendants of those enterprising and hardworking Africans selling the land their ancestors sweated to buy. Some of the descendants of Africans whose blood, sweat and tears bought abandoned plantations and established scores of villages between 1839 and 1850 seem to have lost their way. Thankfully there is at least one organization in Guyana that is addressing the lack of African culture and history in Guyana. The African Cultural Development Association (ACDA) founded in 1993 and based in Georgetown, located at 9 Thomas Road, Thomas Lands opposite the National Park is valiantly filling the void. With a school on the premises (Centre of Learning and Afro-centric Orientation) ACDA is educating the next generation and indeed all Guyanese; they need the support of Guyanese in Canada. After attending the 20th Kwanzaa celebration hosted by ACDA in December I am in awe of the work this group has done. During the Kwanzaa celebration the Education Management Committee of ACDA presented scholarships to students who excelled in their educational achievements. ACDA is also the sponsor of Emancipation Day (August 1st) activities at the National Park, (Maafa) African Holocaust Memorial Day on October 12 and was heavily involved in activities to recognize the UN designated International Year for People of African Descent (IYPAD) last year.

Inspired by the work of ACDA members I have decided that my 2012 New Year’s Resolution is to learn more about the history of Guyana’s Village Movement, learn the names of the villages established by Africans in Guyana and how they have survived. I am off to a great start because both of my parents were born in such villages and during my trip to Guyana I did visit Courtland/Fyrish/Gibraltar, the village where my father was born.

This is a list of some of the villages in Guyana that were established by Africans after Emancipation:
1. Victoria
2. Buxton
3. Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara
4. Golden Grove, West Coast Berbice
5. Plaisance
6. Belladrum
7. Litchfield
8. Nabaclis
9. Den Amstel
10. Agricola
11. Hopetown
12. Friendship
13. Sandvoort
14. Gibraltar/Fryish Courtland
15. Beterverwagting
16. Baracara
17. No. 53 Union
18. Kildonan
19. Liverpool
20. Sisters
21. Ithaca
22. Prospect
23. Dingwall (No.40 village)
24. Joppa (No.43. village)
25. Phillipi (Corentyne coast 37 Km from New Amsterdam )
26. Seafield (No.42 village)
27. Kingelly (West Coast Berbice)
28. Lovely Lass, West Coast Berbice
29. No.41 village
30. Bagotville
31. Dartmouth Village
32. Eversham Village
33. Airy Hall Village
34. Calcutta Village
35. Recess Village
36. Weldaad Village
37. Anns Grove Village
38. Bachelors Adventure
39. Good Intent
40. Preseverance
41. Woodlands and Friends Retreat (No.10 village)

ADVENTUROUS GUYANA VISIT

2012-01-16T17:47:00.000-08:00

I recently had the nightmarish experience of being trapped in New York City with no American currency. This happened after I had enjoyed a fun-filled sun-soaked two weeks in Guyana and had to make a connecting flight from the USA to Toronto. Not being much of a traveler I did not realise that the travel itinerary should have been printed and kept close to my heart. After making it safely back home and reading the emailed information from the travel agency the information clearly stated that there was an airport change for my connecting flight from the USA to Toronto. Not having noted that information before the plane arrived at the New York City airport it took a precious few minutes for me to realise the connecting flight was leaving from the airport in New Jersey and that I needed to pay for transportation to get there from the airport in New York City. Americans are leery of accepting currency from other countries including their neighbour to the North (Canada) how much worse to try convincing them to accept currency from a South American country they had never heard of. Thanks to modern technology where money can instantly be transferred from country to country in the correct currency I was able to pay the exorbitant amount of money demanded by the taxi driver. The excruciating journey took three hours where I almost bit my fingernails to the quick and was tempted to pull off my headwrap and throttle the taxi driver (that is a joke, I am not a violent person.) As we swept through the Holland Tunnel on the way to New Jersey the good taxi driver informed me that I had to pay a toll of 18.00 dollars as well as the taxi fare and tip. Imagine the nerve of this man after I was already stressed from knowing I was going to miss my flight now telling me that I had to add more money to the exorbitant among of the fare. I was polite, after all he was in the powerful position of driving the taxi, it was dark and I did not have the phone numbers of my various relatives who live in that area. Some dreadful images flashed through my mind of what could become my fate. Thankfully, although I missed my connecting flight and had to be on standby for a later flight, I am back in Toronto, in my own home. While I was enjoying the warmth of the sun and being with family and friends in Guyana I dreaded coming back to the cold but just the thought of being trapped in an airport in the USA with no money makes me happy to be back.

My two week adventure began on a high note when my sister called and told me that my 7 siblings were giving me an early birthday present of a trip to Guyana. I was ecstatic since my last trip to Guyana was more than 12 years ago. The plan was for us all (now 8 since my brother Ras Kelly transitioned in December 2007) to be in Guyana at the same time (the first time since 1977 that we would all be in our homeland at the same time.) We did not all travel together which would have been ideal. Beginning on December 19, 2011 we left in groups (some accompanied by spouse, children and grandchildren.) I was a member of the final group to leave Toronto. There were 6 of us traveling on that day; my sister, my brother, his wife and child, my youngest sibling travelled later the same day. Our flight was delayed for a few hours which meant that my youngest sibling arrived at Timehri airport in Guyana just a few hours after we did. That was fortunate for my sister and I who were traveling to the East Coast Demerara while my brother and his family were travelling in the opposite direction to Linden. The drama began after my brother and his family left for Linden when the aggressive taxi and mini-bus drivers spotted two women waiting for transportation. Although we assured all comers that we had transportation arranged they would not give up in their efforts to convince us to travel with them instead. We had to wrestle our suitcases from a few enthusiastic people. We were thankful when my youngest sibling arrived at Timehri. The reaction from the mini-bus and taxi drivers underwent a change since my youngest sibling is male. There was none of the aggression displayed to which my sister and I had been subjected. Respect was the order of the day from then on and we safely made it to my father’s home. We did have a grand re-union when everyone travelled to my father’s home the day after we arrived. We visited some of the areas where we had lived on the East Coast Demerara before a group of us travelled to Berbice and some to Linden while others remained with Papa on the East Coast Demerara.

It was the first time that some of the spouses, children and grandchildren were visiting Guyana. There was some anxiety expressed by the people who had never visited Guyana before. One very young relative was distressed because she was not sure how she would communicate with Guyanese since according to her she did not “speak Guyanese.” We thought it was hilarious but her feelings were hurt that her concerns were not taken seriously. She did have a point though because while we were traveling in Guyana when I heard a young secondary school student declare “Ahbe deese na gat kinna” I knew that my young relative and the non-Guyanese among us could not translate that the young man was saying “We have no allergies.” Apart from the language challenges for our non-Guyanese kin, they had to deal with vicious hordes of mosquitoes that seemed to take especial delight in attacking defenseless children. The children all returned to Canada covered in mosquito bites from head to toe. Apparently the mosquitoes got to them when any part of their bodies touched the netting provided for protection. Since I never lost the art of sleeping carefully under mosquito netting the few times I was bitten happened outdoors when mosquitoes would sometimes settle quietly on your skin without the warning buzz. By the time you realized what was happening it was too late they had already done the dastardly deed and only the pain of the sting remained.

Apart from the nuisance of mosquitoes the two week stay in Guyana helped me to reconnect with my people and my culture. The family get-together hosted by one of my brothers at his home in Stanleytown included family who were visiting from Canada, the USA and various Caribbean Islands. Reconnecting with relatives I had not seen in at least three decades was well worth the visit. It was surprising to witness the changes in appearance of people who I knew when they were younger and are now middle aged parents and grandparents. One relative who I last saw when he was a whiny, cry-baby eight year old is now married with children and surprisingly a senior police officer. I thought about reminding him of his whiny, cry-baby eight year old self but did not want to embarrass the officer within hearing of his family and colleagues. There were connections and reconnections of family and friends. There were plans to remain connected through e-mail, phone calls and facebook.

HERERO STILL SEEKING REPARATIONS FROM GERMANY

2012-01-16T17:38:00.000-08:00

The first genocide of the 20th century took place in Namibia, Southern Africa and was perpetrated against the Herero people of Namibia. The perpetrators of this dreadful crime against humanity were the Germans who had colonised Namibia during the 19th century. The Germans (along with several other European tribes) had appropriated African land during the infamous Scramble for Africa where several white men representing 14 countries spent three months (November 15, 1884 - February 26, 1885) carving up and laying claim to the African continent. Following the Scramble for Africa, white men, women and children moved onto African land as though it was their right to occupy this land. Wholesale theft of African land was the order of the day. White people presumptuously took the best land (where they established farms or began mining for minerals) displacing the Africans who had lived there for generations. They stole African cattle, forced the Africans to work on "white owned" farms or in “white owned” mines and compelled the Africans to pay taxes to European governing bodies established in each European controlled African country. The Germans who occupied Herero territory in what is now Namibia not only stole the land and cattle of the Herero but as Herero leaders regularly complained, German men routinely raped Herero women and girls. In her 1994 published book "White Women and the dark continent: gender and sexuality in German colonial discourse from the sentimental novel to the fascist film" Marcia Klotz writes: "Although records show that Herero leaders repeatedly complained that Germans were raping Herero women and girls with impunity, not a single case of rape came before the colonial courts before the uprising because the Germans looked upon such offenses as mere peccadilloes."

Not only did the Germans in Namibia steal African land and cattle (the livelihood of the Africans) and rape African females, they also passed restrictive laws creating a dual system which relegated the Africans to second class citizenship in their own country. These laws were reinforced by the presence of large groups of German soldiers. The aim of these blood sucking colonizers was to dispossess the indigenous peoples of their land for the use of Germans as well as create a source of raw materials for a market of German industrial products. On January 12, 1904, the Herero people led by Chief Samuel Herero rose up against German colonial rule. The vicious and inhumane German retaliation included torture of Herero men, women and children, their confinement in concentration camps and the use of Herero girls and women as sex workers for German soldiers. German military leader Lothar von Trotha is considered the mastermind of the atrocities committed against the Herero people. Among the actions he directed was massacre of the Herero by machine gun wielding German soldiers, exiling the Herero people, forcing them into the Namib Desert and poisoning the few wells where they could have access to water thus causing most of them to die of thirst. It is estimated that more than 100,000 Herero were killed while about 15,000 escaped to live in neighbouring countries. Many of the Herero were used in inhumane experiments by German scientists during the four year period 1904-1908. The Nama people also challenged the German theft of their land only to suffer a similar fate. It is estimated that approximately 10,000 Nama (50% of the population) were massacred by the Germans. The genocide was characterized by widespread death by starvation and thirst.

In 1985 a Minority Rights Group published a report which included the following information: General Von Trotha issued an extermination order order; water-holes were poisoned and the African peace emissaries were shot. In all, three quarters of the Herero Africans were killed by the Germans then colonizing present-day Namibia, and the Hereros were reduced from 80,000 to some 15,000 starving refugees. See P. Fraenk, The Namibians (London, Minority Rights Group, 1985). In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report classified the aftermath of the German's vicious and inhumane attack on the Herero people as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South-West Africa, and therefore one of the earliest attempts at genocide in the 20th century. Although the German government recognized this and apologized in 2004, it continues to resist paying financial compensation to the Herero people.

In October 2007 members of the Von Trotha family travelled to Namibia where they apologized for the actions of their ancestor Lothar Von Trotha who was responsible for the genocide of the Herero from 1904-1908. Wolf-Thilo von Trotha spokesman for the Von Trotha descendants said: "We, the von Trotha family, are deeply ashamed of the terrible events that took place 100 years ago. Human rights were grossly abused that time, we say sorry, since we bear the name of General Lothar von Trotha. We however do not only want to look back, but also look to the future."

It is ironic that the Van Trothas do not want to look back at the atrocities their ancestor perpetrated against the Herero since the Germans continue to benefit from their colonization of the African continent. The riches they extracted from the continent continue to grow and none of it has been returned to the continent. Chief Maherero, descendant of the chief who led the uprising in 1904 used the occasion to draw attention to the unresolved Herero demand for reparations from the German government. He said: "We demand a dialogue with the present German government to obtain restorative justice." Another member of the von Trotha family, Ulrich von Trotha who emphasied that his family was on a private visit is reported to have said: "Our family cannot become involved in the demand for reparations from a government."

On August 16, 2004, Germany offered its first formal apology for the colonial-era genocide in Namibia. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's development aid minister officially apologized for atrocities committed by Germans. She admitted that the massacre was equivalent to genocide, without explicitly mentioning the concentration camps and slavery that also existed, both of which were well documented by the Germans. Wieczorek-Zeul ruled out paying reparations to the Herero people. She reiterated that the apology was for crimes committed by a previous government: "Everything I said in my speech was an apology for crimes committed under German colonial rule." A group of Herero has filed a case against Germany in the United States demanding $4 billion dollars in compensation. Chief Riruako, through the Chief Hosea Kutako Foundation, recently filed a lawsuit against three German companies in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, asking for $2 billion (U.S.) in reparations, asserting the companies were in a "brutal alliance" with imperial Germany in the Herero War. As we enter 2012, the Herero have still not received reparations from the Germans for the 1904-1908 atrocities committed against them by the colonizing Germans.

HERI ZA MWAKA MPYA! HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2012

2012-01-16T17:29:00.000-08:00

We are at the end of 2011, designated by the United Nations as the International Year for People of African Descent (IYPAD) The UN did not designate this year out of the goodness of their heart after experiencing an epiphany about the lived reality of Africans internationally. They were urged to designate an international decade for people of African descent by Africans in the Diaspora especially those whose ancestors were enslaved in Central and South America. The compromise was declaring 2011 the International Year for People of African Descent. Although Canada is a signatory of the declaration which was done in 2009, no level of government in this country bothered to recognize the year and none of the political parties acknowledged the year. We can see the level of respect that we are afforded by the powers that be. No wonder there is no acknowledgement that African Canadians suffer the highest level of incarceration compared to our numbers in this province. Many of us are brainwashed into thinking that these high numbers are warranted. However if you follow that thought then you are agreeing with the white supremacist xenophobic idea that our community is inherently criminal. Some organizations took the initiative to recognize the year with no government support. In any case it does not matter what happens in our lives, time marches on regardless and whether our year has been amazing or dreadful it does come to an end and a new year begins.

For some people the stress of last minute shopping and decorating for the festive season takes a toll by New Year’s Day. Some very organized people
begin planning in January or at least by June for December. As we approach 2012, is looking back to the past year really useful? Is making several New Year’s resolutions really useful? At the beginning of 2011 I made a list of goals I planned to complete before the end of 2011. I did a good job of completing those goals, reading the 15 books I planned to read and had conversations with people who spoke Kiswahili. Those were my goals and I was able to achieve success because they were not unreasonable. I even had time to read way more than 15 books and had the opportunity to meet and chat with a lot more African people than those who speak Kiswahili. Looking back at the past can be a good thing if we make changes to ensure that we do not repeat what we did not like about the past year. As you look back at 2011 think about what you would like to change and think about what you would repeat for 2012. So now you have looked back and seen some areas that you would like to improve. How are you going to improve those areas? Do you have a plan? Make sure it is one that will be realistic and will work better than the one from last year. If you make elaborate plans you may be disappointed by the end of January.

As 2011 comes to a close people will enjoy their holiday gifts, spend time with family and count down to midnight on December 31 to welcome 2012. The past year was certainly memorable as it has had its ups and downs but now it is time to open a new calendar for 2012. Some people are looking forward to graduating from school some will welcome new members into their family, start new friendships, renew or strengthen old friendships etc.,. I have been very fortunate to have wonderfully supportive family and friends encourage and help me through some rough and tough times this past year. Some incidents could be considered betrayals by people who are entrusted with power to make decisions that affect the lives of others. When these things happen you have to roll with the punches, pick yourself, dust yourself off and start all over again. Wow! That sounds like a serious boxing match! Anyway, one of the serious incidents of 2011 was the decision by the members of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to revoke the license of the campus community radio station CKLN 88.1 FM on January 28, 2011 and compel the end of broadcasting on April 15, 2011. CKLN had been licensed by the CRTC in 1983 as a Ryerson University-based campus-community radio station which broadcasted at 88.1 MHz on the FM dial. There were protests from the community and even support from mainstream media (http://www.torontosun.com/2011/04/19/crtcs-a-dinosaur-2) at the high-handed decision of the CRTC but it did not make a difference; they are all powerful. After almost 28 years of providing an alternative to mainstream corporate radio, giving a voice to traditionally marginalized communities, CKLN 88.1 FM was silenced. It was a shock to those of us who had been programmers at CKLN, some for the entire time CKLN has existed. As a relative new-comer in 1998 I began co-hosting Radioactive Feminism on Sunday mornings as part of a collective of women, did a short stint as co-host of The Unheard Voice of the African Woman and began hosting Tuesday Word of Mouth in August 2004. CKLN 88.1 FM is gone and those of us who remain have moved on from Ryerson University to Regent Park where we continue to broadcast on the Internet (for the foreseeable future) at www.ckln.fm and www.radioregent.com. As African American inspirational speaker Iyanla Vanzant has written in Acts of Faith: Daily Meditations for People of Color, her 1993 published book: People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which one it is, you will know what to do for each person. The same can be said for organizations or radio stations. I learned and grew from my experience as a broadcaster with CKLN 88.1 FM and had the opportunity to interview many of the people whose work I value including Professors/authors Rex Nettleford, Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, George Elliot Clarke, Afua Cooper, Verene Shepherd, David Hinds, Njoki Wane, George Dei, Molefi Asante, Danielle L. McGuire and many others.

2012 will be here in the next few days whether or not we are ready. We can make it as memorable as 2011. I intend to do so, learning from mistakes made in 2011. For the first time since 2003 I am not involved in planning a community Kwanzaa celebration. I enjoyed the experience and will miss doing that but after 8 years I think it is okay to take a break. I plan to welcome the New Year with family and friends (some I have not seen for three decades) and regardless of who complains I am sticking to sparkling cider, Cydrax or Peardrax while counting down to midnight to welcome the New Year 2012. Happy New Year!! Heri za Mwaka Mpya!!

MADAM C.J. WALKER

2011-12-22T23:43:00.000-08:00

For my 13th birthday I was subjected to what could be considered a rite of passage for African Guyanese females. Most of us looked forward to and welcomed taking part in this tradition. I had been looking forward to this event with great anticipation since some girls younger than I had already been initiated. This initiation could be painful and even traumatic depending on the skill of the person wielding the “pressing” comb. We had heard some of the horror stories and seen the evidence of incompetent “pressing” comb wielders. That evidence included burnt ears, foreheads, necks and scalps. In my case the “pressing” comb wielder was competent and in any case my 13 year old partly colonized mind probably would not have minded a singe or two to achieve the effect of having my naturally curly African hair “fried.” At that time we thought it was the height of fashion and sophistication to have our hair “fried” and lying flat to our scalps. Those who were “lucky” enough would get what was termed a “press and curl” which meant that the “fried” hair was not left to lie flat on the scalp but was curled with another heated contraption similar to today’s curling iron. My “lucky” and ecstatic 13 year old self was in seventh heaven because I was treated to a “press and curl.” There I was, 13 years old with a fabulous hairstyle, allowed to wear high heeled shoes for the first time (never mind I could hardly walk in the two inch heels) and wearing my first “grown up style” dress. To complete this rite of passage, with my new grown up hairstyle, dress and shoes, I sauntered off to the cinema accompanied by my cousin Joy who is 11 months younger than I. These many decades later I cannot remember anything about the movie but I will never forget the “press and curl.”

Almost 15 years ago I stopped straightening my hair. During my “press and curl” days there was always the fear that some dreadful medical calamity could befall if I was caught in the rain after a session. As an adult my friend Claire DeAbreu introduced me to another method of straightening African hair. As a Georgetown born and bred African Guyanese female she had advanced beyond the “pressing” comb and used a chemical solution to straighten her curls. Claire and I met when we both taught at St John’s School in Sparendaam on the East Coast, Demerara and soon became fast friends. She introduced me to Jaffrey’s Hair Straightener and that is when I experienced the first painful episode of straightening hair. In a do-it-yourself moment, probably not following the instructions to the letter I found that at the end of the experience along with dead straight hair there was also pain, pain and more pain! There was one difference from using the “pressing” comb, no more fear of catching pneumonia if I was caught in a downpour of rain.

I thought about those hair-raising experiences of my youth as I realised that Madam C.J. Walker’s 144th birthday was fast approaching. This African American woman who was born on December 23, 1867 just two years after her parents were freed from slavery, grew up to become the first African American woman millionaire. She was born Sarah Breedlove to Owen and Minerva Breedlove who both transitioned before she was 7 years old leaving her and her siblings orphans. The uncertainty of being shuttled between relatives after losing her parents is speculated as the reason Sarah Breedlove married Moses McWilliams in 1881 when she was only 14 years old. Four years later she gave birth to her only child, a daughter A’Lelia McWilliams and two years later at 20 Sarah Breedlove McWilliams was a widow and her two year old daughter fatherless. Many sources claim that Moses McWilliams was lynched by a white mob in 1887; however in the 2009 published book Harlem Renaissance lives from the African American national biography the authors Henry Louis Gates and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham write: “Although some sources say he was lynched, there is no credible documentation to justify such a claim.” In her 2001 published book On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker author A’Lelia Bundles writes: “With no death certificate and no dependable oral history from Sarah Breedlove herself, it is unlikely that anyone will ever know whether Moses McWilliams was one of the ninety-five people whose lynchings were documented in 1888.” The fact that Breedlove was never recorded speaking about her husband being lynched does not mean he was not lynched. If she had witnessed the lynching she may have been so traumatized that she could not speak of the horror of witnessing such an event. No death certificate for an African American lynched by a white mob is hardly likely to have concerned the white supremacist government. Whatever tragedy led to Breedlove McWilliams being widowed in 1887 she and her two year old child were left without a husband and father and she had to provide clothing, food and shelter for herself and her child. She moved to St Louis, Missouri where she worked as a washerwoman to support her family of two. Following a second marriage (John Davis) where she was subjected to domestic violence she married her third husband Charles Joseph Walker on January 4, 1906 and changed her name to Madam C. J. Walker. She traveled across the USA, the Caribbean and Latin America marketing and promoting Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower eventually establishing Lelia College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which trained women to sell her products door-to-door and provide hair-care for African American women. By 1910 she had more than 1,000 sales agents and had moved to Indianapolis where she established the headquarters of Madame C. J. Walker Laboratories to manufacture cosmetics and opened another training school to train her salespeople. As a pioneer of the modern cosmetics industry and an advocate of women's economic independence she provided above average wages for thousands of African American women who otherwise would have been relegated to working as farm labourers and maids. Although she is known as the woman who made a fortune encouraging African American women to straighten their hair, Walker was a philanthropist who gave back to her community including $1,000 in 1911 to build a new YMCA in Indianapolis for African Americans. Shortly after moving to Harlem in 1916 she contributed $5,000 to the NAACP’s anti-lynching movement. As a political activist, in July 1917 when a white mob massacred African Americans in East St. Louis, Illinois, Walker joined a group of Harlem leaders who visited the White House to present a petition advocating federal anti-lynching legislation. At her Madam C. J. Walker Hair Culturists Union of America convention in Philadelphia in 1917 considered one of the first national meetings of businesswomen Walker reportedly said to the gathering: “This is the greatest country under the sun, but we must not let our love of country, our patriotic loyalty cause us to abate one whit in our protest against wrong and injustice. We should protest until the American sense of justice is so aroused that such affairs as the East St. Louis riot be forever impossible.” The story of Madam C.J. Walker finding fame and fortune with a business plan encouraging African American women to straighten their hair began more than a hundred years ago when we felt compelled to confirm to a European standard of beauty. Not much about our hair has changed since then. In the 2001 published book Tenderheaded, bell hooks, one of the contributing writers reminds us: “Despite many changes in racial politics, black women continue to obsess about their hair, and straightening hair continues to be serious business. Individual preferences (whether rooted in self-hate or not) cannot negate the reality that our collective obsession with hair straightening reflects the psychology of oppression and the impact of racist colonization.”

HIP HOP AT UNIVERSITY

2011-12-20T20:13:00.000-08:00

The folks from the suburbs and the private schools so concerned with putting warning labels on my records missed the point. They never stopped to worry about the realities in this country that spread poverty and racism and gun violence and hatred of women and drug use and unemployment. People can act like rappers spread these things, but that is not true. Our lives are not rotten or worthless just because that’s what people say about the real estate that we were raised on. In fact, our lives may be even more worthy of study because we succeeded despite the promises of failure seeping out from behind the peeling paint on the walls of every apartment in every project.

Excerpt from the introduction by Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter to Dr. Michael Eric Dyson’s 2007 published book KNOW WHAT I MEAN: REFLECTIONS ON HIP HOP.

Dr. Michael Eric Dyson has done it again! As recently reported in Jet magazine and now splashed across the Internet, Dyson is teaching a class for undergraduate students at Georgetown University (Washington D.C) on the subject of Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter. This is not Dyson’s first attempt to lecture on the work of Jay-Z. He is quoted as saying: “I was originally supposed to give a series of lectures at Harvard back in 2008 about the influence of Jay-Z. But the night before I was supposed to speak, a certain young, black man became president of the United States, so the lectures ended up being about him instead.” Carter is the second rapper whose work Dyson has taught. He taught an undergraduate course on the life and work of the late Tupac Amaru Shakur and in 2001 published Holler if you hear me: searching for Tupac Shakur. In 2002 Dyson was a professor of African American studies at the University of Pennsylvania and taught about the life and lyrics of Shakur, examining the way Shakur's image and presence influenced the way listeners perceived his messages. Dyson saw Shakur as "perhaps the representative figure of his generation" and spoke about his upbringing and lifestyle which was similar to millions of disenfranchised African American youth. Dyson wrote of Shakur: "In his haunting voice can be heard the buoyant hopefulness and the desperate hopelessness that mark the outer perimeters of the hip-hop culture he eagerly embraced, as well as the lives of the millions of youth who admired and adored him." Dyson feels that for some young African Americans hip-hop has the same place in their affections as the church and civil rights leaders had for past generations. He has written: Where young black Americans once turned primarily to the church – and to the civil rights leaders that the church produced – to articulate their hopes, frustrations, and daily tribulations, it is fast becoming men like Jay-Z and Nas, and women like Missy Elliot and Lauryn Hill, who best vocalize the struggle of growing up black and poor in this country.

While some think Dyson has embarked on a mission that is long overdue others have criticized the professor’s zeal in introducing hip-hop as a worthy subject of higher learning. Those who laud Dyson’s efforts think it is high time that the culture of African Americans be given the same consideration as white Americans in academia. The offerings at most post-secondary institutions are Eurocentric with a few courses about racialized people, their culture and history thrown in as a sop. If a white professor decides to throw into their lectures some mention of African American culture it does not engender the kind of criticism heaped on an African American academic who brings in-depth analysis to the subject. This ties in with the kind of disregard white people have shown to African American culture where it is first mocked until white people claim and white-wash it. Youth from other cultures have embraced and some have even attempted to claim the hip-hop art form even though it is an African American creation. Some African American hip-hop purists have pushed back with what some consider essentialism when there is mention of authenticity (not surprising considering the history of jazz and the blues.) Dyson has addressed what is seen as essentialism in hip-hop. “When black people come up with forms of cultural expression that are narrow and rigid – essentialist – they’re often in response to the attempt to impose vicious, or racist, or stereotypical views of black life from outside our culture. Essentialism is often conjured by bigotry and attack. All of this stuff guarantees that hip-hop, more than any other form of AA cultural and musical expression, will obsess over who can produce it and record it.” In his 2011 published book Hip-Hop Redemption: Finding God in the Rhythm and the Rhyme Professor Ralph Basui Watkins wrote: There are camps in hip-hop. One camp is made up of the essentialists or purists like KRS-One, who contends that much of what masquerades as hip-hop doesn’t embrace the four basic principles of hip-hop. KRS-One traced the history of hip-hop from the blues, through Jamaica via DJ Kool Herc, and then to North America, where the next evolution of African American culture was born.

Dyson is not the sole African American academic who has written/taught about hip-hop. The September 29, 1997 issue of Jet magazine reported that the University of California at Berkeley was offering a course studying the poetry of Shakur who had transitioned the year before on September 13, 1996. The class, The Poetry and History of Tupac Shakur, reportedly drew more than 100 students. The course looked at the life and death of Shakur with an emphasis on his work; making connections between Shakur and politics, society, history and the soul of an artist. In his 2007 published book To the Break of Dawn: Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic, African American professor William Jelani Cobb who has taught at Rutgers and Spelman wrote: Hip-hop has in the course of three decades become the dominant form of youth culture on earth. It has ridden a tidal wave of American hegemony to the far expanses of the globe, carrying with it the complex, incomplete, and contradictory visions of those who created it as simultaneously the richest class of exploited people of the world. Hip hop is culture. Hip hop is politics. Hip hop is economics. Hip-hop has piqued the interest of many whether they love or hate the art form. Many older people who lived through the civil rights movement are taken aback by some of the lyrics that describe a culture which they see as setting the race back. They see the culture of hip-hop as crime ridden and rife with misogyny. Cobb addresses this: Before middle-aged pundits started lamenting hip hop’s “values,” before rappers became unpaid boosters for the booze du jour, before ice was anything but frozen water, there was this: two turntables and a microphone. While the commercialization of hip-hop may have caused a degeneration in the lyrics and attitudes of the performers, some of the early lyrics were conscious. Georgia Roberts who taught the 1997 class The Poetry and History of Tupac Shakur at the University of California at Berkeley commented: Much of today's hip-hop has been colonized by corporate America but there are elements within hip-hop that are fundamental to a political agenda.

In his 2005 published book Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement professor S. Craig Watkins writes: From its humble beginnings in the Bronx to its transformation into a multibillion-dollar global industry hip hop has stirred constant and contentious debate. Dyson’s decision to teach a class about Jay-Z has added fuel to the fire of that debate.

TANZANIA 50 YEARS INDEPENDENT

2011-12-13T13:09:00.000-08:00

On Friday, December 9, Tanzanians celebrated 50 years of independence from British colonization. On December 9, 1961 the country then known as Tanganyika lowered the British flag which had been flown by the occupiers for more than 40 years and raised a flag chosen by the people of the country. Independence from European domination did not come easily for the people of Tanzania. Tanganyika (now Tanzania) had first been colonized by the Germans during the infamous European Scramble for Africa where 14 white men met over a period of two months (November 15, 1884 to January 20th, 1885) and carved up the continent to exploit Africans. Ethiopia is the only African country that was never colonized by Europeans. While the mainland of Tanzania became part of German East Africa (which included modern day Burundi and Rwanda) in 1884, the Sultanate of Zanzibar became a British Protectorate in 1890. In 1963 Zanzibar achieved independence and a year later formed a union with Tanganyika under the new name Tanzania. Tanganyika was occupied by the British in 1918 following the first European tribal war known as the Great War or World War I. After Germany was defeated, the African territories it had occupied were parceled out to other equally covetous and greedy European tribes. Germany had occupied three other areas on the African continent, Cameroon, Togo and Namibia. The brutal, inhumane German exploitation of the Herero people of Namibia (1904-1908) has never been dealt with. After the German defeat from the 1914 – 1918 armed conflict; France got Togo, Britain and France divided up Cameroon and Namibia was snapped up by the British. So at the end of the 1914-1918 war, the British had three new colonies on the African continent (British Cameroon, Namibia and Tanganyika) courtesy of Germany’s defeat. German East Africa became Tanganyika under British rule.

The fact that Tanzania has a history which surpasses any European nation, was ignored as first the Germans then the British lorded it over the Africans. Archaeologists have uncovered proof of the oldest human settlement in Tanzania. Fossilized hominid remains prove that modern humans originated from the Olduvai Gorge area in northern Tanzania. It has been approximated that around the first Millennium CE the region was settled by Bantu speaking peoples who migrated from the west and north. This group formed city/states about 1500 years ago. The coastal port of Kilwa was established around 800 CE by Arab traders and at the same time Persians settled Pemba and Zanzibar. Many Africans participated in the second European tribal conflict of 1939-1945 and when they returned home began to agitate for independence from European domination. This surge of activism for independence from European colonization happened throughout the continent after the end of the war in 1945. In Tanganyika Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the first person from Tanganyika to attend university in Britain founded the Tanganyika African National Union, TANU, in 1954 to secure the country’s independence from British rule. Although TANU was founded in 1954 it was not until 1960 that the British agreed to “internal self-government” for the country which eventually led to full independence on December 9, 1961. The British seemed to have forgotten that Africans had been governing themselves for thousands of years before the first European ever set foot on the African continent. If not for the confusion Europeans introduced to the continent when they carved it up with no thought to the various groups they threw into living together there would have been no need for “gradual” self-government. At the time the British government had its hands full fighting the Africans in neighbouring Kenya who were also demanding independence. Nyerere became the first prime minister of the independent nation. The following year when Tanganyika became a republic he was elected president. Affectionately known as Mwalimu (teacher) Nyerere, he introduced ujamaa, a form of African socialism based on cooperative agriculture. His vision was to build an egalitarian society. On April 26, 1964, Tanganyika united with Zanzibar and was renamed the United Republic of Tanzania on October 29. TANU and the Afro-Shirazi Party of Zanzibar merged to become Chama Cha Mapinduzi(CCM) Revolutionary Party, in 1977. On April 26, 1977 the union of the two parties was ratified in a new constitution. President Nyerere stepped down from the presidency in 1985 and handed over power to President Ali Hassan Mwinyi. Tanzania is one of the few African countries where an African language (Kiswahili) is the official language. Most African countries have retained the language of their colonizer as the official language.

Although there was no armed struggle for Nyerere and his followers in their bid for independence from Britain, Africans in Tanganyika had mounted armed resistance against the Germans. Throughout the continent Africans had resisted European domination once they realised that was the plan. When the Europeans first arrived on the continent they pretended that they were there to trade and/or convert the Africans to Christianity. Their actions soon proved otherwise. Beginning with the Wahehe War which lasted from 1891 to 1898 there was resistance which was brutally suppressed by the Germans. The Wahehe people declared their independence from the Germans and led by their King Mkwawa they resisted German dominance for 7 years. Their resistance ended when the king took his own life rather than be captured by the Germans. The Germans took King Mkwawa’s head as a trophy. Professor David Pizzo writes in his 2007 published book "To devour the land of Mkwawa": Colonial violence and the German-Hehe War in East Africa c. 1884—1914:

“His head was taken and sent back to the Bremen Anthropological Museum as a final trophy of German victory. Specifically mentioned in the Article 246 of the Versailles Treaty on 1919 as a part of the reparations that Germany owed the victorious allies Mkwawa’s skull was supposed to be returned within six months of the ratification of the treaty but it was not brought back to Tanganyika until 1954.”

The Germans may have defeated one group of Africans in Tanganyika but that was not the end of African resistance to German domination. A two year armed resistance against the Germans was mounted from 1905 to 1907 (Maji Maji Rebellion) by Africans in Tanganyika after the Germans demanded that the Africans grow cotton for German export and pay taxes to enrich the Germans. The resistance was again brutally suppressed but the fight for independence through German and British occupation was ongoing, whether it was armed struggle or other means. The people of what is now Tanzania have been free from European colonization for 50 years. Tanzanians in Toronto celebrated on Saturday, December 10. Information about the celebration is available at http://www.facebook.com/mkijazi?ref=tn_tnmn#!/events/142841832485955/

ROSA PARKS SPEAKS (INTERVIEW)

2011-12-01T21:02:00.001-08:00

ROSA PARKS DECEMBER 1, 1955

2011-12-01T20:58:00.000-08:00

Fifty six years ago on Thursday, December 1, 1955 the actions of a 42 year old African American woman catapulted her into the pages of history books as it was one of the defining moments of the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks was a seasoned activist when she was arrested on that fateful Thursday night. She and her husband, Raymond Parks were actively involved in seeking justice for the wrongfully accused “Scottsboro Boys.” The infamous “Scottsboro Boys” case began in 1931 when on March 25, 1931 a group of 9 African American young men were accused of raping two white women. Despite strong evidence of their innocence, an all-white jury convicted the young men and sentenced eight of them to death. The accusation of rape came after a fight broke out between a group of young men white and a group of African American young men who were riding on a Southern Railroad freight train. The train was stopped by an angry posse in Paint Rock, Alabama and the African Americans were arrested for assault. Rape charges were added when two white women who were also on the train accused the African American youth of rape. It was speculated that the white women accused the African American youth of rape because they feared they would be arrested for vagrancy or for being hobos in the company of the African American youths. One of the women had been arrested for adultery and fornication just two months before in January 1931. Whatever their reasons for the accusations they both stuck to their stories until April 7, 1933 http://library.thinkquest.org/12111/scottsboro/rubybate.htm when under cross examination a different story was told. All the Scottsboro boys eventually gained their freedom but the process took almost 20 years. Meanwhile Parks became a member of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and was one of the driving forces in seeking to repeal the laws of segregation. Although the African American population of Montgomery, Alabama was the lifeblood of the Montgomery public transportation system they were disrespected by the drivers, forced to sit at the back of the bus and to relinquish their seats when the white section of the bus was filled.

When Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955 she had years of activism to call upon, plus the support of her community who knew her as someone who could go the extra mile when the going got tough. After all she had been instrumental in ensuring that incidents of white men raping African American women were not swept under the white supremacist carpet of the segregated government. In the 2011 published book At the dark end of the street: black women, rape, and resistance -- a new history of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the rise of black power her almost single-handed determination to seek justice when in 1944 Recy Taylor was brutally raped by 7 seven white men (armed with knives and shotguns) is well documented. Risking her physical safety Parks vigorously investigated and pursued the case to its conclusion and even though none of the 7 white rapists were ever convicted of the crime it received widespread attention. Parks recruited other activists and created the “Alabama Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor” which brought international attention to the crime committed against Taylor. Earlier this year, on March 30, the Alabama state legislature in apologizing for their refusal to prosecute the rapists of Recy Taylor passed a resolution which read in part: BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA, BOTH HOUSES THEREOF CONCURRING, That we acknowledge the lack of prosecution for crimes committed against Recy Taylor by the government of the State of Alabama, that we declare such failure to act was, and is, morally abhorrent and repugnant, and that we do hereby express profound regret for the role played by the government of the State of Alabama in failing to prosecute the crimes. Taylor now 91 years old received the news in her Florida home where she, her husband and baby daughter had been forced to flee after a fire bombing of their home and death threats from the good white citizens of Alabama following the widespread publicizing of the rape.

On Thursday, December 1, 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the back of the bus to a white man who could not find a seat in the white section of the bus she may have thought about the “Scottsboro Boys,” Recy Taylor or the many other people for whom she had advocated. One person she did think about as she sat on the bus waiting to be arrested was Emmett Till. Parks is quoted as saying: I thought about Emmett Till, and I could not go back. My legs and feet were not hurting, that is a stereotype. I paid the same fare as others, and I felt violated. Emmett Till was the 14 year old African American youth who had been brutally tortured and murdered by two white men who accused him of whistling at a 21 year old white woman. Till who was born in Chicago, the only child of Mamie Till Mobley had been spending the summer with relatives in Money, Mississippi when in the early hours of August 28, 1955 two white men arrived at his elderly relative’s home, woke him up and took him away. He was never seen alive again. Three days after his abduction the body of the 14 year old was found. The two white men had brutally beaten the child, gouged out one of his eyes, shot him through the head, tied a 75 pound cotton gin fan around his neck with barbed wire before disposing of his body in the Tallahatchie River. The authorities tried to quietly bury his body in Mississippi but his mother fought them to have his body returned to Chicago where the world could see the brutal face of the white supremacist culture that allowed the vicious murder of her child. The two men who murdered Till were found not guilty by a jury of their peers. Their confession was published in Look magazine in January 1956. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/sfeature/sf_look_confession.html

Remembering the kidnapping, torture and murder of 14 year old Till earlier that year Parks decided on December 1, 1955 that she would not move and the rest is history. Parks was a human rights activist and crusader for social justice whose life story is more than her actions on December 1, 1955. Her action on that Thursday night snowballed and eventually caused the desegregation of the Montgomery public transportation system. Sometimes all it takes to change the system is for one person to take action.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

2011-12-01T20:45:00.000-08:00

Tenants of a Scarborough, Ontario apartment building were traumatized at the sight of an 8 month old baby girl hurtling through the air, apparently thrown from a 4th floor balcony at around 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 5. She landed on the concrete pavement and was soon followed by her two year old sister who landed on grass and then by their mother also allegedly flung off the 4th floor balcony by a 27 year male. Some reports indicate the family had recently moved from a 12th floor apartment. Photographs of the apartment with a shattered window pane and a curtain caught on the jagged edges of the shattered window pane appeared in several Toronto newspapers. The shattered window pane has caused some speculation that the 8 month old was thrown through the window and not off the balcony like her sister and mother. The seriously injured mother and two babies were hospitalized. The man who allegedly threw them off the balcony, although he reportedly leaped off the same balcony, was uninjured. Newspaper reports indicate that when he was confronted by police he attempted to grab one of their guns. He was arrested and appeared in court charged with three counts of attempted murder, three counts of aggravated assault, one count of attempting to disarm a police officer and two charges of resisting arrest.

Growing up in Guyana many decades ago we were told: “A boy who hits a girl is a coward.” Many men understand that hitting people who cannot physically defend themselves against you (e.g. women and children) is wrong, some do not. What drives a man to physically abuse the woman who has borne his children and physically abuse those children? What goes through a man’s mind as he takes a helpless child and tosses her off a balcony or through a window? Did he see her little body hit the concrete pavement before he tossed the two year old and then their mother off the balcony? Do abusive men learn their behaviour from observing their fathers, other male relatives, men in the neighbourhood where they grew up? Do men who abuse their partners and their children deserve/need condemnation or help? Will these children recover from their physical injuries and if they do will they carry emotional scars? Domestic violence, abuse of women and children cuts across class, ethnicity, race, religion etc., However since artists’ sketches from the accused man’s court appearance has identified him as African Canadian the racists are online with comments including: ”This family lives in a rental apartment in Scarborough…isn’t that where most of our immigrants move to when they arrive?” and “Have you also taken a look at the drawn picture…looks like an immigrant to me.” What does an immigrant look like? Obviously these white supremacists do not know the history of this country (Canada.) There has been an African Presence in this Great White North since the 1600s. Many African Canadians can trace their family's history to the French occupation/settlement. Others can trace their family's history to the United Empire Loyalists entrance into what was called British North America after the British were forced to leave the USA in 1783 (following their defeat during the American War of Independence.)Some members of the United Empire Loyalists were formerly enslaved Africans who had been freed because they supported the British during that war. Many of the white United Empire Loyalists brought enslaved Africans with them and those Africans remained in bondage until August 1, 1834 when slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire (four years later in the Caribbean Islands colonized by the British.) Still others (African Canadians) are the descendants of those enslaved Africans who fled slavery in the USA to Canada especially after the second Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850 by the American government; after Britain had abolished slavery in 1834 and Africans living in Canada were no longer enslaved. So it is possible that this African Canadian family caught up in a public instance of domestic violence could very well be from a community that traces its ancestry back many generations in this country.

While this family is suffering and need help to cope with the trauma of domestic abuse which led to life threatening injuries, the white supremacists are out with knives drawn ready to inflict more pain. The many instances of white men inflicting horrific abuses on their families are forgotten. The lives of poor people especially poor and racialised people are always open to the scrutiny of white people who make judgments based on their white supremacist mindset. The recent case of the family court judge in Texas who mercilessly beat his 16 year old daughter unaware that she was videotaping the beating is just one example that domestic violence cuts across race, class, age etc.,. The judge viciously beat his daughter causing the video to contain a warning about graphic content. He cannot be charged because his daughter only recently released the video online and the statute of limitations has run out. Explaining why she remained in the home after her husband brutally beat their child the mother who in the video seems to condone the beating said: “I lived in an environment of dysfunction and it steadily got worse. I did leave him... but he shamed me into going back. I was completely brainwashed and controlled. I did every single thing that he did. When I leave the room he is telling me what to say, what to do.”

Many women remain in abusive relationships out of fear that the abuser is all powerful and they would never be able to escape or fear that they may not be able to survive on their own. Some African Canadian women live with their abusers for years fearing the involvement of government agencies like police, the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) and even Immigration depending on their status in the country. Women without status may face the choice of living with an abusive, dangerous man or involving authority figures with the power to separate them from their children either by seizing the children or deporting the mother.

Some of the abusers are so charming that the woman does not realise what is happening until she is deeply involved; living with the man, married, or has children with him. In many cases people outside the home are shocked when the abuse is made public because the charming face presented to the public is very different from the face seen by the woman and her children in the home. Women need to be aware of the warning clues that may identify an abuser before becoming irrevocably entangled and bringing children into a relationship. People who work with and support abused women agree that the controlling, jealous man is a potential batterer even as he professes love. The first slap or punch should never be ignored in spite of seemingly heartfelt apologies and promises that it will never happen again. Some of these predators are extremely cunning and can hide their “cloven hoof” (Guyanese expression for deceit) until it is too late. These two-faced creatures are adept at hiding their violent side until their victim is well secured; only then does their prey see the predator's true face. When the violence happens in the privacy of the home it is different from when it spills over into the streets, the workplace or the schools the children attend. In many cases it is not until the abuse spills over into the public realm that the victim is believed. The young woman in Texas who was brutally beaten by her father commented after the video was made public: “People are believing us now, instead of calling us liars like they have in the past."

Sometimes woman remain in abusive relationships because they think their “love” will rehabilitate the abuser. It is not the woman’s responsibility to rehabilitate her abuser who believes he is doing nothing wrong. In the case of the Texas judge; after the video was made public he shamelessly rationalized: "In my mind I have not done anything wrong other than discipline my child when she was caught stealing. I did lose my temper, I've apologized. It looks worse than it is." These abusers should be held responsible for their behaviour. An abuser could be a family court judge or someone who thinks that siring children with various women is proof of his “manhood” even though he is not financially capable of supporting them but contributes fear and stress when the children witness or are subjected to physical and verbal violence. Regardless of race, ethnicity, economics etc., abusers are bullying cowards and no one should be subjected to a violent partner. There are many signs that a relationship is abusive: the most obvious is if you live in fear that you may say or do the “wrong thing” which will trigger a violent episode where you and/or your children might need medical attention. If this is you, seek help!

NAKUMBUKA I REMEMBER

2011-12-01T20:35:00.000-08:00

On Friday, November 11 while a crowd gathered at Queens Park to celebrate/commemorate Remembrance Day, a handful of African Canadians gathered a few yards away to commemorate Nakumbuka (I Remember). Nakumbuka is the Kiswahili word used to remember our ancestors who perished during the Maafa (a Kiswahili word used to encompass the trans-Atlantic slave trade and enslavement of Africans.) The commemoration of Nakumbuka was the brainchild of Jomo Nkombe, a Tanzanian who lived in Toronto and pioneered the idea as a public ritual in 1990. Nkombe asked Charles ‘Mende’ Roach an activist lawyer/jurist to take the idea of Nakumbuka to the 1992 World Pan African Movement Conference which was held in Nigeria. At that conference it was resolved that the delegates would promote Nakumbuka to remember the millions of Africans who perished during the Maafa. In 1992 Nakumbuka was promoted in Nigeria by Naiwu Osahon of the World Pan African Movement. Baye Kes-Ba-Me-Ra and Adande Ima-Shema-Ra of the Pan African Associations of America established the Nakumbuka observance which was celebrated for the first time at San Diego State University, California on November 11, 1994. Roach has also led the Nakumbuka observance in Toronto since the 1990’s and in 2003 he went to Kingston, Jamaica and with Jamaican writer/educator Basil “Koosoonogo” Lopez, established the first Nakumbuka Ceremony at Mico College.

Nakumbuka is not about the glorification of war but we can definitely recognize those of our ancestors who perished fighting for their freedom and our freedom. Very different from the wars fought by Europeans as they battled each other in covetousness and greed to possess the lands of racialized people. Our ancestors in many cases had to wage what has now become known as guerilla warfare because they were invariably out numbered and outgunned by the white people who strove to keep them enslaved. The Maroons of Jamaica led by Nanny and others are an excellent example as are the Quilombolas of Brazil led by Zumbi and others, the various Africans who fought for their freedom against the Spanish throughout Central and South America, the Djukas of Suriname and Kofi, Akkara, Akkabre and Atta leaders of the 1763 Berbice Revolution in Guyana who fought the Dutch. Nakumbuka is a day to remember even those ancestors whose names we do not know who resisted in various ways as El Hajj Malik El Shabazz said “by any means necessary” and they did resist! Some ran away, others worked as slowly as they could, destroyed buildings, crops, livestock, tools etc., to cause the white slaveholders as much grief as they could.

On November 11 while there is much pomp and splendour in remembering and praising those who died during the great European tribal conflicts of 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 it is very instructional to observe the faces displayed in the newspapers and other media. The contribution of racialised people to these wars is not recognized. African Canadians have fought in every war in which this country has been involved even before it was known as Canada. In 1783 when Britain was forced to recognize American independence, there were Africans among the United Empire Loyalists who had supported Britain during the revolution and fled to Canada. Although the contribution of the Coloured Corps to defending Canada during the war of 1812 http://www.ontarioplaques.com/Plaques_MNO/Plaque_Niagara28.html is recognized with a plaque the entire story cannot be told in one small plaque and that history is usually ignored. There were more than 30 Africans defending this country during the War of 1812. When Canadians left these shores to do battle in other countries African Canadian men were always involved even when they had to fight the white power structure to be included. The myth that the war fought from 1939 to 1945 was a war for freedom is often touted on Remembrance Day. The fact that African Canadians who returned to Canada after fighting in that war were subjected to the same white supremacist oppression to which they had been subjected before certainly explodes that myth. Other well hidden secrets of that war are exposed in Trading With the Enemy: An Exposé of The Nazi-American Money-Plot 1933-1949 by Charles Higham. The cover blurb of the book states: “Here is the extraordinary true story of the American businessmen and government officials who dealt with the Nazis for profit or through conviction throughout the Second World War: Ford. Standard Oil, Chase Bank and members of the State Department were among those who shared in the spoils. Meticulously documented and dispassionately told, this is an alarming story. At its centre is 'The Fraternity', an influential international group associated with the Rockefeller or Morgan banks and linked by the ideology of Business as Usual. While Americans were dying in the war, McKittrick sat down with his German, Japanese, Italian, British and American executive staff to discuss the gold bars that had been sent to the Bank earlier that year by the Nazi government for use by its leaders after the war. Long and shocking is the list of diplomats and businessmen alike who had their own ways of profiting from the war.”

On November 11 during the Nakumbuka ceremony we commemorate the sacrifices our ancestors made. We must never forget, dismiss, minimize or simplify the five hundred years of horror and devastation of the Maafa. It is a day to remember the countless Africans who were kidnapped and taken away from their families and friends on the continent, never given the chance to say goodbye and never saw their loved ones again. Take time to read and talk with friends and family, children of all ages about the Maafa and how to ensure it never happens again. Those who do not know their history are at risk of having it repeated. We have not found a way to bring psychological, emotional and spiritual closure to the trauma we have experienced in the last five hundred years. The Maafa has been the least discussed human tragedy in the past five hundred years even among African people, yet this period of time has stunted the growth of a continent, its people and its children of the Diaspora. The inability of its victims to freely and openly express their grief and speak about the trauma has made this tragedy even more horrific. There has hardly been any discussion of the negative effects of the Maafa on the social, economic and cultural evolution of the African continent and the people that were lost due to the genocidal nature of an emerging European capitalism seeking free labour to build its empires. The European aggression against African people was extremely violent and brutal as centuries of the trade in human beings destroyed and erased the existence of villages, communities, empires, peoples, traditions, rituals, ceremonies, histories and languages. As a result of this barbarity it has been estimated that 60 to 100 million African lives were lost in the Middle Passage, on plantations in the Caribbean, Central America, South America, North America and households in European countries. African people were worked to death for the sole purpose of increasing the wealth and domination of white skin people at the expense of Africa and her people. Untold numbers of Africans also perished under various types of white domination, oppression and terrorism including colonialism, neo-colonialism, apartheid, segregation and cultural assimilation. This has resulted in many Africans being lost and disconnected, denying their Africanness, hating themselves and those who look like them as they can only see themselves reflected through the eyes of people who despise them. Just as some people have said Lest We Forget and others have vowed Never Again we say Nakumbuka I Remember!

EL HAJJ MALIK EL SHABAZZ INTERVIEW

2011-11-16T23:50:00.001-08:00

NOVEMBER 16-1972 TUSKEGEE EXPERIMENT

2011-11-16T23:36:00.001-08:00

On November 16, 1972 after 40 years of torture for a group of African Americans in Alabama, the US government brought a halt to the infamous syphilis experiment. This inhumane experiment using African American men, women and children as guinea pigs began in 1932 in Macon County, Alabama. The men involved thought they were receiving free health care from the US government instead they were treated as if they were laboratory animals. Some 600 African American farm workers and tenant farmers from Macon County, Alabama and their families were used in the Public Health Service syphilis study. For participating in the study, the men were given free medical care (actually kept under medical surveillance,) free meals on the days they met with the medical staff members of the study and burial insurance of up to 50 dollars each. However the wives and partners of these men also contracted the disease and many of their children were born with congenital syphilis. Children born with congenital syphilis suffer brain damage, blindness, deafness and several deformities. The families were never told they had syphilis, nor were they ever treated for it. In the 1940s the medical personnel involved in this horrific violation of human rights were well aware that penicillin was an effective cure for syphilis. By 1947 penicillin had become standard treatment for syphilis and was available to the medical staff involved with the study but penicillin was never offered to any of the men being “studied.” According to the Centers for Disease Control, the men were told they were being treated for "bad blood," a local term used to describe several illnesses, including anemia and fatigue. Even when the victims died of the disease, the families were not made aware of the cause. If these families had been white they would not have been victimised by such an experiment because the law in Alabama at the time required that physicians provide proper care for patients with communicable diseases. In 1927 the Alabama Legislature enacted a venereal disease law which stated in part: “The county health officer shall require persons infected with venereal disease to report for treatment to a reputable physician and continue treatment until such disease, in the judgement of the attending physician is no longer communicable” Not only did the architects of this study (Surgeon General Hugh Cumming and assistant surgeons general Taliaferro Clark and Raymond Aloysius Vonderlehr) withhold treatment from the unfortunate victims of the study they also prevented them from getting treatment elsewhere. In 1942 Vonderlehr was informed that some of the men were being called for medical examination prior to drafting into the Armed Forces and would receive treatment to cure them of syphilis. He ensured that they were excluded from the draft and that they did not receive treatment. In explaining why Macon County was chosen as the site for the experiment Taliaferro Clark wrote that the “rather low intelligence of the Negro population and the depressed economic conditions” made Macon County “a natural laboratory; a ready-made situation.”

On July 23rd 1973, eight months after the study ended, a $1.8 billion class action suit was filed by civil rights lawyer Fred Gray who demanded $3 million in damages for each survivor and the heirs of those deceased. In December 1974 an out of court settlement was reached. The government agreed to pay $10 million, where each survivor received $37,500 in damages and the heirs of the deceased received $15,000. In 1974 two years after the government was forced to end the study Congress passed the National Research Act and created a commission to study and write regulations governing studies involving human participants.

It took another 23 years for the victims to receive acknowledgement from the government that a wrong had been done. On May 16, 1997, President Bill Clinton formally apologized at the White House during a ceremony which 5 of the remaining 8 survivors attended. Clinton’s apology included acknowledgement that the study was racist: "What was done cannot be undone. But we can end the silence. We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye and finally say on behalf of the American people, what the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry ... To our African American citizens, I am sorry that your federal government orchestrated a study so clearly racist." In his 1993 published book Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment James H. Jones wrote: “As a symbol of racism and medical malfeasance, the Tuskegee Study may never move the nation to action, but it can change the way Americans view illness. Hidden within the anger and anguish of those who decry the experiment is a plea for government authorities and medical officials to hear the fears of people whose faith has been damaged, to deal with their concerns directly, and to acknowledge the link between public health and community trust. Government Authorities and medical officials must strive to cleanse medicine of social infection by eliminating any type of racial or moral stereotypes of people or their illnesses. They must seek to build a health system that will make adequate health care available to all Americans. Anything less will leave some groups at risk, as it did the subjects of the Tuskegee Study”

Unfortunately, the Alabama experiment using African Americans as guinea pigs is just one of such cases. The story of Henrietta Lacks an African American woman whose cells have been used since 1951 is a case in point. Lacks was 31 years old when she was diagnosed with cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951. Without her knowledge or permission medical staff took tissue from her body and used the tissue in various experiments. Although over the years the cells and tissue from this woman’s body have been used in countless experiments and medical research leading to groundbreaking medical advances (including polio vaccine and genetic mapping) and has led to fame/recognition for some and wealth for others, her descendants have lived in poverty and could barely afford medical coverage. In 2010 the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was published by Rebecca Skloot who is described by one reviewer as: “a young white, idealistic journalist with no connection to the Lackses apart from a fascination in the story instilled by a middle-school biology teacher, sought to right the wrongs of the past by telling the full story.”
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2011/jan/02/review-story-of-henrietta-lacks/

In her 2006 published book Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present African American professor Harriet A. Washington has documented many of the horrendous experiments done by white medical personnel (including government agencies) who have used African Americans as guinea pigs. The Tuskegee experiment which is the most publicized did not bring an end to the practice. Washington documents in her book that Columbia University between 1992 and 1997 conducted research using African American boys from 6 to 10 years old to establish a link between genetics and violence. The 126 boys from New York City were given the drug fenfluramine (reported to cause heart valve disease) http://www.rense.com/health/drugchildren.htm. An article published in the New York Times dated April 15, 1998 quotes Vera Sharav, the director of the New York patient advocacy group Citizens for Responsible Care in Psychiatry and Research: ''What value does the President's apology for Tuskegee have when there are no safeguards to prevent such abuses now? These racist and morally offensive studies put minority children at risk of harm in order to prove they are generally predisposed to be violent in the future.”

The experience of African Americans used as guinea pigs in medical experiments and the subsequent exposure has served to change laws but people who live in poverty, especially racialised people need to be vigilant.

MZILIKAZI KHUMALO OF THE NDEBELE NATION NOVEMBER 4, 1868

2011-11-03T22:29:00.000-07:00

King Mzilikazi Khumalo, founder of the Matabele Kingdom (Ndebele) was laid to rest in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe on November 4, 1868. Bulawayo was the capital of the Ndebele Kingdom. Mzilikazi established the Ndebele nation in the southwestern part of the Zimbabwean plateau in 1839-1840. Around 1821 Mzilikazi, who had been a leader of his people in Zululand, had a disagreement with the Zulu king, Shaka, when, according to Glen Lyndon Dodds in his 1998 book, The Zulus and Matabele: Warrior Nations, Mzilikazi declared to a group of King Shaka's messengers: "Messengers take these words to Shaka; say that Mzilikazi has no king. In peace he will meet Shaka as a brother, and in war he will find in him an enemy whom he cannot and will not despise. Depart! And tell your king it rests with him whether it be peace or war." Naturally, after sending those fighting words to the great Zulu king, Mzilikazi and his people left the area now known as South Africa and, crossing the uKhahlamba mountains (later named Drakensberg by Europeans), Mzilikazi and his people settled in the interior. Shaka and his warriors pursued and there were battles between the Matebele and the Zulu. However, Mzilikazi and his initial group had gathered strength and numbers as they travelled. Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, author of the 2009 book, Ndebele nation: reflections on hegemony, memory and historiography, writes: "The Ndebele were a formidable nation in the nineteenth century, with unique institutions of governance, distinct political ideologies, and a worldview that was shaped by their specific historical experiences. The Ndebele nation was a multinational one comprised of Nguni, Sotho, Tswana, Kalanga, Shona, Venda and Tonga ethnic groups. The national language was IsiNdebele. Its founding father was Mzilikazi Khumalo, a charismatic leader and a competent nation-builder." This new Ndebele nation was able to withstand the Zulu attacks, however, they were pushed out of the area when they were attacked by the Dutch Boers on their "Great Trek" to occupy areas in southern Africa. The attacks by the Europeans on one hand and the Zulu on the other, helped to push Mzilikazi and his people across the Limpopo River to settle in Zimbabwe.

Ndlovu-Gatsheni continues: "The migration and eventual settlement of the Ndebele in Zimbabwe is also part of the historical drama that became intertwined with another dramatic event of the migration of the Boers from Cape Colony into the interior in what is generally referred to as the Great Trek, which began in 1835. It was military clashes with the Boers that forced Mzilikazi and his followers to migrate across the Limpopo River into Zimbabwe." Even in Zimbabwe, the Ndebele were not safe from the covetous Europeans bent on occupying African land. Where, in the first Ndebele settlement the European interlopers had been the Dutch, the Ndebele were confronted with British greed in Zimbabwe.

On November 4, 1893, exactly 25 years after November 4, 1868 when Mzilikazi was laid to rest, the British settlers gained possession of Bulawayo. This was set in motion when on November 14, 1889 the British monarch, Victoria, approved a "Royal Charter" creating the British South Africa Company (BSAC.) This "Royal Charter", in the eyes of the British, gave the BSAC and Cecil Rhodes (in whose name the charter was granted) carte blanche and legitimacy to exploit Africans and their land. Rhodes and his partners claimed a monopoly of all the metals and minerals in the Ndebele Kingdom and the right for their mining companies to exploit the land. The Ndebele either had to accept this state of affairs or fight to protect themselves from the European hordes that descended on them. This led to what has become known as the first Matabele War.

Ndlovu-Gatsheni sums this up in these words: "In the end, the British imperialists, together with their local agents like Cecil John Rhodes, Charles Rudd, John Smith Moffat, Charles Helm and many others, reached a consensus to use open violence on the Ndebele state so as to destroy it and replace it with a colonial state amenable to Western interests and the Christian religion. The invasion, conquest and colonization of the Ndebele became a tale of unprovoked violence and looting of Ndebele material wealth, particularly cattle, in the period 1893 to 1897. The Ndebele warriors did not go quietly, but they were no match for the brutal, ruthless British armed with weapons that outmatched theirs. The Maxim machine gun was used for the first time by the British in this unequal war with the Matabele people. The Maxim gun was the first self-powered machine gun invented by Hiram Maxim in 1884 and has the dubious distinction of being recognized as "the weapon most associated with (British) imperial conquest." With this weapon giving them a distinct advantage over the Ndebele warriors, it is not surprising that the British, on November 4, 1893, were able to capture Bulawayo. Although the British evicted the Ndebele from their land which was then occupied by White people, the Ndebele were not defeated.

In 1896 the Matabele rose up against the British who coveted everything owned by the nation. The history of any African nation/people, when told from the point of view of White people, in many cases contains rumours and innuendo, so when reading it is important to be cognizant of the bias of the writer. Some writers label the second Matabele War "The Matabele Rebellion." According to author Dodds, Cecil Rhodes thought the Ndebele were happy with their lot (being evicted from their land which was given to White settlers). How delusional was Rhodes? Maybe he was just blinded by his perceived superiority! Dodds also writes: "In June 1895, all Matabele cattle and their offspring were officially declared to belong to the company. Then, in November, the Land Commission's chairman, Judge Joseph Vincent, declared that according to the Native Department, the number of cattle still in African possession was 74,500, far short of the number estimated as belonging to the Matabele prior to the war (according to one reckoning as much as 280,000.) Ndlovu-Gatsheni writes of the British during that period: "They arrogantly alienated Ndebele land, appropriated Ndebele property such as cattle, abused the Ndebele as tenants and labourers, were ruthless, brutal and unfeeling, rude and insensitive, and enthusiastically resorted to violence whenever the Ndebele raised their heads. It is not surprising that the Matabele rose up in 1896; their land and their cattle had been stolen, they were forced to work for and pay taxes to the thieves, how much more insult piled on top of injury could they take? However, as Ndlovu-Gatsheni added: "Even the occupation of Bulawayo by the Whites did not mean the total defeat of the Ndebele."

The history of the Ndebele and Matabeleland is part of the history of the African struggle against European domination. African writers have documented the brutality of European colonization of Africans from the African point of view. In expressing that point of view Ndlovu-Gatsheni argues: "The Ndebele state became a direct victim of imperial violence and destruction in the period 1893-1896 as the advocates of Victorian aggrandizement beat the colonial drums to a crescendo, arguing that the independent Ndebele state was a barrier to the advances of 'Civilization, Commerce and Christianity'. The violent conduct of the colonial conquest itself made it abundantly clear how hypocritical these ideas were, as the ruthless destruction of human life left a legacy of bloodshed rather than peaceful western civilization." We still see that mindset exhibited in the 21st century with the greed of the western powers for oil in lands held by racialized people.

MUAMMAR QADDAFI

2011-11-03T22:20:00.000-07:00

Two wrongs never make a right. Nor can you right a wrong by committing another wrong. You may be able to justify your actions politically or socially, but spiritually you will be held accountable for what you do - why you do it doesn’t count. The pendulum of life swings both ways and brings rewards at both ends of the spectrum. If you use your mind, time and energy to cause harm to anyone, the pendulum will sooner or later move in your direction. If your slate is clean, when it swings toward you, you will not have to worry about being knocked down.

From Acts of Faith: Daily Meditations for People of Color by Iyanla Vanzant published 1993

“We came, we saw, he died” are the words that American Secretary of State Hilary Clinton reportedly chuckled when she was informed that Muammar Qaddafi had been killed by his captors. The reports and images coming out of Libya of Qaddafi’s last minutes of life are no laughing matter. According to an article in the South African newspaper Mail and Guardian, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was moved to comment on Clinton’s behavior; saying that she could not be proud of calling for Gaddafi's killing. "Nor is killing a human being something to be celebrated."
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-10-21-sa-leaders-condemn-the-death-of-gaddafi The Archbishop condemned the killing in this reported statement: "The manner of the killing of Muammar Gaddafi on Thursday totally detracts from the noble enterprise of instilling a culture of human rights and democracy in Libya,... the people of Libya should have demonstrated better values than those of their erstwhile oppressor." The Archbishop probably took part of his statement from Proverbs chapter 3, verse 31: Do not envy the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.

Gaddafi who was killed on Thursday, October 20 after being captured by a group of his compatriots was killed after a brutal beating that was proudly recorded and distributed online. Then came the dreadful, sickening images of his bloodied, half-naked body on display under lurid headlines such as: Moammar Gadhafi's body is stored in commercial freezer at shopping center as it awaits burial. http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/10/moammar_gadhafi_is_stored_in_c.html

There are several articles in newspapers and posted on the internet about the murder of Gaddafi and some of his children. The articles are almost gleeful in reporting that a group of men captured, brutalized and killed another human being. Admittedly, many considered him a dictator, a tyrant and various other unsavoury names but he should have at least been given an opportunity to defend himself in a court of law. Maybe he did not give the same opportunity to some of his enemies but two wrongs do not make a right. Killing the man makes his killers just like him. They have committed the same acts of which he was accused. Gaddafi had his detractors and his supporters. Some considered the man a Pan-Africanist while others thought his plan was to eventually ensure the Arabization of the African continent. This is not to be confused with the colonization that the Europeans visited upon the continent where they eventually left and returned to Europe, but more like the European colonization and occupation of America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand where they in essence now own those countries.

Do the western powers that covet Libya’s oil really think that they will be able to easily control the group that paraded a wounded Gaddafi through the streets as they gleefully brutalized him? Do these western powers that turned a blind eye to the brutalization and murder of indigenous Africans in Libya (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/30/libya-spectacular-revolution-disgraced-racism) in spite of human rights groups like Amnesty International raising the alarm really care about more than getting their greedy hands on the oil in Libya? In spite of the fact that these so-called rebels labeled Africans “mercenaries” and "immigrants/migrants," the fact remains that Libya is on the African continent and Africans lived there for millennia before the first Arab set foot on the African continent. In the fight between the Arab Gaddafi forces and the Arab National Transitional Council (NTC) it seems that the world has lost sight of the fact that this is an African country and Africans not involved in the conflict have been brutalized and killed because of the colour of their skin. In an article published in The Guardian on Tuesday, August 30, 2011, Richard Seymour wrote: A rebel slogan painted in Misrata during the fighting salutes "the brigade for purging slaves, black skin". A consequence of this racism has been mass arrests of black men, and gruesome killings – just some of the various atrocities that human rights organisations blame rebels for.

This is what the world is celebrating as a victory, liberation, democracy? There are various anonymous quotes like this one from a Toronto Sun article http://m.torontosun.com/2011/10/21/moammar-gadhafis-final-hours published Friday, October 21: Another NTC official, speaking to Reuters anonymously, gave another account of Gadhafi’s violent death: “They (NTC fighters) beat him very harshly and then they killed him. This is a war.” If the western powers think that this bunch will welcome them with open arms and open the oil wells for their pleasure and plunder they had better think again. The European and North American media for the most part has written about the downfall of Gaddafi as the removal of a tyrant. There are others who see this as a removal of Gaddafi to ensure that the oil companies from countries such as the USA, Britain, France and Italy could control Libya’s oil.

Gaddafi has been accused of atrocities, so have several American and European leaders. Gaddafi was once "big friends" with some American and European leaders. Even former American President George W. Bush, the “anti-terrorist activist” and seeker of non-existent weapons of mass destruction embraced Gaddafi as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle in an article with the headline: Bush embraces Libyan terrorist Gadhafi, and all is forgiven. (Did someone say, “Oil”?). Then Boris Johnson mayor of London wrote in an article entitled “Gaddafi: first we fete them, then we bomb them – but that’s politics” partly about former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s sycophantic relationship with Gaddafi, published in The Telegraph on September 5, 2011: “It was only a few years ago that Tony Blair himself came out to his tent, almost snogged the Mad Dog, and proclaimed a new era of cooperation between Britain and Libya.” At the time these men could not seem to get enough of Gaddafi so how did it go from being his Best Friends Forever (BFF) to being his mortal enemies? The hypocrisy of all the players in this farce (all with their own agendas) is astounding. Now they are hunting his children and grandchildren (any guesses why?)

Whatever wrong Gaddafi has been accused of, the brutality to which he was subjected when he was captured and the eventual brutal and undignified end to his life was wrong. Those involved in taking the life of Gaddafi should heed the words of Iyanla Vanzant: “Two wrongs never make a right. Nor can you right a wrong by committing another wrong. You may be able to justify your actions politically or socially, but spiritually you will be held accountable for what you do - why you do it doesn’t count.”

REMINISCING

2011-10-21T22:58:00.000-07:00

I wrote this piece a few hours after Amma was born on Bob Marley's 60th birthday. The twins Taiwo and Kehinde were born almost three years later. We were still fighting to get the Toronto District School Board TDSB to establish an Africentric school. And what a fight it was!! There was resistance from the provincial government, there was resistance from white people who did not care that 40% of African Canadian students in TDSB schools were being failed by the education system. Then the racists came out of the woodwork with their vitriolic attacks. There was a dreadful white supremacist cartoon in one of the white newspapers and a senior police officer (Inspector) from the city of Barrie police force sent out an equally white supremacist e-mail to his colleagues with a math problem he thought would be appropriate for an Africentric curriculum. The subject line was: “Afrocentric math for Toronto’s new black only school” and the body resembled a math test with 10 “problems” based on firearms use, drug deals, pimping, theft and other crimes. In 2005 the school was still a dream. We kept fighting to get that school established. Today in 2011, the school is a reality, established in 2009, still suffering some growing pains but Amma, Taiwo and Kehinde are students at the school.

AFRICENTRIC SCHOOL written on February 7, 2005

There has been a great deal of discussion about how our children function in the public schools they attend. The suggestion of Black-focused or African-centered schools has been put forward as a solution to counteract the high dropout rate our children experience.

Black-focused schools, Afrocentric curriculum, African-centered schools, whatever term is used, we need these schools. These schools should have been a reality for at least 20 years now. However, better late than never.
For years, parents, grandparents, caregivers have advocated for schools where our children will learn about themselves and what their ancestors have contributed to the world and the society in which they live. In many of the schools in which our children are educated and often mis-educated, they are subjected to emotional and sometimes physical abuse. Many parents do not know where to go for help when this happens. Some determined parents eventually find the Organization of Parents of Black Children, the Black Secretariat, the African Canadian Legal Clinic, the Black Action Defense Committee or the many other advocacy groups that are either not funded or under-funded.

There are arguments against African-centered schools. Some schools claim that their staff recognize and respond to the multicultural makeup of their school. In many cases, however, the African presence is only recognized during the month of February. For this one month during the year it is acknowledged that we have done "something". In many cases, February is the time people choose to invite Africans to dance, share food and their stories. Sometimes the invited are instructed not to do anything "heavy". It is okay to watch us entertain, but just don't talk about slavery in Canada. Do not mention racism or White supremacy.
It is quite alright for our children to learn all about the exploits of White people. It is very wrong when we want our children to learn about what our ancestors have contributed. Our civilizations are well kept secrets. How many of our children know about Matthew DaCosta? How many know about the Sankore University in Timbuktu? How many know that Lucie and Thornton Blackburn started the first taxicab business in the city of Toronto in 1836? Children thrive in an environment where they are valued, respected, loved. They become withdrawn or belligerent where they are disrespected and abused, whether physically or emotionally.

In an African-centered school the students' culture will be taken into account in every subject and at every grade level. The curriculum will reflect the authentic voice and the lived realities of the students. The concepts in the history, science, mathematics and social studies lessons will reflect African consciousness and contributions. A positive environment reflecting the African-centeredness of the students will encourage them to strive for and achieve excellence. Pride in themselves will encourage the students to take pride in their environment. This will be reflected in the cleanliness of the school, and the images, artwork, posters etc. will be African-centered to reflect the student population. The entire school environment -- including each classroom -- will be an invitation to learn for each student and teacher.

In an African-centered school, discipline will be based on respect for knowledge that reflects and respects the students. The students will respect themselves, the teacher and the other students based on knowledge that they are respected as valued human beings capable of learning and excelling. An African-centered school will be a school where the African culture is respected and celebrated. Students in African-focused schools will understand the historical role Africans have played in world events.
While we label the schools that would be ideal for our students, we do not label the schools they now attend as Eurocentric, and in many cases, White supremacist. The curriculum that is taught in the public school system glorifies European culture, but it is done in a manner that says 'this is mainstream.' It has become so "normal" that we do not question why any culture that is not White is spoken about as the "other". Most illustrations in textbooks are of White-skinned people. The contributions of Africans in the fields of mathematics, science, etc. are not acknowledged.

In an African-focused school our children will learn who they are. They will learn what their ancestors contributed to the world. They will learn about the world travels of ancient African navigators. They will learn that excelling in mathematics and science is very African. They will know that their history is important and central to who they are and not a footnote to European history. These are just some of the reasons why we need African-centered schools, Black-focused schools and Afrocentric curriculum in schools that value our Africanness.
© Written February 7, 2005

GEORGE JUNIUS STINNEY JR.

2011-10-21T22:21:00.000-07:00

George Junius Stinney Jr. was born on October 21, 1929. He would have celebrated his 82nd birthday on Friday, October 21, 2011 but he did not live to see his 15th birthday. He was executed in South Carolina ’s electric chair on June 16, 1944. The 5 foot 1 inch 95 pound 14 year old African American male child was arrested on March 23, 1944 accused of killing two white girls (11 and 8 years old) with a rail-road spike.
His trial, including jury selection lasted one day. The authorities said that he confessed to killing the two girls although there are no written records of a confession. Stinney’s court appointed attorney was a tax commissioner preparing to run for office. There was no court challenge to the testimony of the three white police officers who claimed that the 14 year old had confessed although that was the only evidence presented. Three witnesses were called for the prosecution; a white man who “found” the bodies of the two girls and the two white doctors who performed the post mortem of the two girls. No witnesses were called for the defence. The trial lasted from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. One report about the trial stated: “The jury retired at five minutes before five to deliberate. Ten minutes later it returned with its verdict: guilty, with no recommendation for mercy”

No legal appeals were filed on Stinney’s behalf although the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP,) some church groups and labour unions appealed to the governor of South Carolina to stop the execution. No African Americans were allowed in the courtroom for the trial. Stinney’s father was fired from his job and his parents were given the choice of leaving town or being lynched. The family was forced to flee leaving the 14 year old child helpless with no support and in the clutches of a white supremacist system bent on his demise. According to the records it was standing room only in the courtroom (on April 24, 1944) with well over 1,500 white spectators. This was reminiscent of scenes where African American men, women and children were lynched for the entertainment of white men, women and children who gathered to watch the black bodies twitch as they swung from trees until the life left them. It may just as well have been a lynching with his body hanging from a tree. Instead this African American male child, small for his age, was made to sit on a stack of large books in the electric chair so that electrodes could be attached to his head. Stinney at 14 is the youngest person executed in the U.S. in the 20th century. It has been reported that during the electrocution, the electric shock that shook his small frame knocked the adult size mask off Stinney’s face while his executioners watched as tears streamed down the child’s face contorted in the death throes.

As in the case of Lena Baker who was executed by the state of Georgia in a dreadful miscarriage of justice and received a posthumous pardon in 2005; now 67 years after his execution there is a campaign to clear Stinney’s name. In an article published January 18, 2010 by the Associated Press the story of the attempt to exonerate Stinney included this information: “A community activist is now fighting to clear Stinney's name, saying the young black boy couldn't have killed two white girls. George Frierson, a 56-year-old school board member and textile inspector, believes Stinney's confession was coerced, and that his execution was just another injustice blacks suffered in Southern courtrooms in the first half of the 1900s.” South Carolina lawyers Steve McKenzie, Shaun Kent, and Ray Chandler, are supporting Frierson in the fight to obtain a posthumous pardon for Stinney.

In 2011 Canada , young African Canadian males may not be at risk of execution in the electric chair but they are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. Many African Canadian youth who should not have been captured by the system are trapped there because of their race. The recent case (August 12, 2011) of a 6ft tall 60 year old African Canadian man who was aggressively interrogated by a white female police who thought he fit the profile of a suspect described as “black, 20s and 5ft 6” illustrates this. Although the 60 year old showed the police officer the long scar from his recent (May 2011) heart transplant surgery she refused to believe he was not the suspect. If this is happening to a 60 year old imagine what the youth experience. Those in our community who work with youth trapped in the criminal justice system have told some horror stories of what they have witnessed. With this happening in 2011 imagine what happened to African Canadians at the time Stinney was executed in South Carolina and even before. While White Canadians believe the myth of a post-racial Canada and point accusing fingers at their relatives in the USA, the reality is very different for racialized people in Canada especially African Canadians. Even if Stinney had been born in Canada the chances are that he would have met the same fate on this side of the border.

In George and Rue, (published in 2005) Dr. George Elliot Clarke has written a novel about the execution of brothers George Hamilton (23) and Rufus Hamilton (22) in Fredericton , New Brunswick on July 27, 1949. The Hamilton brothers were found guilty of killing a white taxi driver as they robbed him. George and Rue is a fictionalized work about the lives of two young men who travel from their birth place in Nova Scotia and end up in Fredericton, New Brunswick a town that even though there were African Canadians living there was found to be “too suspiciously white to be trusted.” The character Rue was so disturbed by the whiteness of the town that he “schemed to apply black paint to the statue of Bobby Burns on the Green — either that or smash it to bits.” In telling the story of George and Rufus Hamilton in the novel Clarke humanizes the two young men whose lives were reduced to a criminal act and the revenge of the white society that surrounded them. At the end of the book Clarke writes of a similar crime committed by two white men in Quebec just 6 months (December 1949) after the Hamilton brothers were executed in New Brunswick. However these two white men went a step further, they bought guns and ammunition with the stolen money and went on to rob a bank. The two white men were not executed because as Clarke writes in George and Rue, “Ninety minutes before their hangings, word came their sentences’d been commuted to life in prison. George and Rue – black – had no such white luck.”

OCTOBER AFRICAN HISTORY MONTH IN BRITAIN

2011-10-21T22:08:00.000-07:00

During this month (October) Africans in Britain, whether they were born on the African continent, in the Caribbean, in Britain or elsewhere are celebrating African/Black History Month. There is much to celebrate, commemorate and remember because the history of Africans in Britain is lengthy. As quiet as it is kept, there has been an African presence in the British Isles at least since the Roman occupation of Britain in 43 AD. In the publication Antiquity which is a quarterly review of World Archeology an article written by five archeologists from Britain’s University of Reading published an article: A Lady of York: migration, ethnicity and identity in Roman Britain about an African woman who lived in York during the Roman occupation of Britain. These British archeologists through their research and after studying her gravesite have determined that this African woman was a member of a wealthy family. The young woman who they think was between 18 and 23 years old when she transitioned was not a servant as has been assumed whenever Africans are mentioned from those ancient times. The Ivory Bangle Lady as she was christened by the archeologists was buried in a sarcophagus made of stone which was a sign of immense wealth in Roman occupied Britain . The discovery of a perfume bottle, a mirror and jewellery buried with the young woman suggests that her family was “absolutely from the top end of York society” according to a quote attributed to archeologist Dr. Hella Eckardt, reported in an article published in the British newspaper The Sunday Times. Dr. Eckardt also reportedly said: “Multicultural Britain is not just a phenomenon of more modern times. Analysis of the ‘Ivory Bangle Lady’ and others like her, contradicts assumptions about the make-up of Roman-British populations as well as the view that African immigrants were of low status, male and likely to have been slaves.”

There is also evidence of African soldiers in the Roman army during the occupation of Britain. In Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain published in 1984, Peter Fryer a white British author wrote: “There were Africans in Britain before the English came here. They were soldiers in the Roman imperial army that occupied the southern part of our island for three and a half centuries. Though the earliest attested date for this unit’s presence here is 253-8, an African soldier is reputed to have reached Britain by the year 210.” Africans did not disappear with the end of the Roman occupation of Britain. Fryer also mentions John Blanke an African trumpeter who was a regular performer at the courts of British monarchs Henry VII and Henry VIII. Blanke is even listed as performing at the special tournament Henry VIII hosted at Westminster to celebrate the birth of his son in 1511. By the time Elizabeth I inherited the throne from her father (Henry VIII) the presence of Africans in Britain had increased to a level that made the monarch uncomfortable. Although she was happy to have Africans entertain and clean for white Britons, the thought that not all of them were in those subservient roles seemed to give the British monarch some heartburn.

In an "open letter" dated July 11, 1596, Britain’s Elizabeth I wrote to the Lord Mayor of London, aldermen, other Mayors, sheriffs and other public officers expressing that "there are of late divers blackmoores brought into this realme, of which kinde of people there are allready here to manie," and ordering that they be deported from the country. Apparently enough of the people she referred to as blackmoores were not deported out of her realm because in 1601, she complained again about the "great numbers of Negars and Blackamoors which are crept into this realm." The fact that by 1601 the British elite including her majesty had made a fortune buying, selling and working enslaved Africans to death in the colonies did not seem to bother her. In Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain Fryer makes the case that only a few Africans were deported and a number of Africans remained in Britain and by the middle of the 18th century were between 1 and 3% of the population of London . Africans were enslaved throughout the British Empire until August 1st 1834 (1838 in the Caribbean.) The famous decision by Chief Justice Lord Mansfield in 1772 in the case of enslaved African James Somerset Somerset v. Stewart against the slave holder Charles Stewart did not free enslaved Africans in Britain, that decision made it illegal for owners to forcibly remove enslaved Africans from England. It is estimated that at that time between 14,000 and 15,000 enslaved Africans lived in England most of them taken there as personal servants by white men and women who owned plantations in the British colonies.

In 2009 the number of Africans in Britain was 1,521,400 at 2.9 % of the population. This number includes those born in Britain and immigrants from the African continent, the Caribbean and elsewhere. The largest wave of African immigrants from the former British colonies in the Caribbean landed in Britain between 1948 and 1962 in what Jamaican poet Louise Bennett Coverly (Miss Lou) termed Colonization in Reverse immortalized in a poem of the same name http://louisebennett.com/newsdetails.asp?NewsID=8.

Britain also colonized several countries on the African continent before and after the infamous “Scramble for Africa” and Africans from those countries immigrated to Britain, many considering Britain the “mother country” and were shocked when they encountered a white supremacist culture and rabid racism. Sadly, although Africans have been living in Britain for centuries they continue to face racism. They are stopped, searched, arrested and imprisoned at an alarming rate. In an article published in the British newspaper The Guardian on Monday, October 11, 2010 Randeep Ramesh wrote: “On the streets, black people were subjected to what the report describes as an "excess" of 145,000 stop and searches in 2008. It notes that black people constitute less than 3% of the population, yet made up 15% of people stopped by police.” Ramesh was writing about an Equality and Human Rights Commission report How Fair is Britain? Ramesh also wrote: “The commission found that five times more black people than white people per head of population in England and Wales are imprisoned. The ethnic minority prison population has doubled in a decade – from 11,332 in 1998 to 22,421 in 2008. The problems may start at school. The commission points out that black children are three times as likely to be permanently excluded from education.”

Africans in Britain have every right to celebrate the fact that they have a long history in Britain and have contributed to the society (which is mostly ignored.) There are also plans to address other issues that concern Africans living in Britain . On Friday, October 14, the group National Afrikan People’s Parliament http://www.blackhistorystudies.com/ plan a community action including a demonstration at Downing Street (British Prime Minister’s residence) to address the unlawful killing of Mark Duggan and the resultant uprisings, ongoing ‘Black Deaths in Custody’ and the reactionary state assault on our Community, especially our youths (and the wider social, political and historical context).

It would seem that regardless of where we live Africans are subjected to the same oppression. That is why we need to know our history so that we can learn from those who went before us and struggled to get us to where we are today. The Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, father of the modern Pan African movement taught us to remember that we are a mighty people with this quote: "Up you mighty people! You can accomplish what you will!!!"

Written October 9, 2011

TROY ANTHONY DAVIS

2011-10-21T21:53:00.000-07:00

The lynching of black America is taking place in the criminal justice system where nearly one-third of black men between the ages of 18 and 28 are in prisons and jails, on parole, or waiting for their day in court. One-half of the two million people in prisons are black. That is one million black people behind bars, more than in colleges. Through private prisons, whites have turned the brutality of their racist legal system into a profit-making venture for dying white towns and cities throughout America. One can lynch a person without a rope or tree.

Excerpt from Strange Fruit: The Cross and the Lynching Tree

On October 19, 2006 James Cone, Charles A. Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary presented the 2006 Ingersoll Lecture at Harvard Divinity School, the title was "Strange Fruit: The Cross and the Lynching Tree." Although James Cone gave this lecture in October 2006 he could very well have been talking about the case of Troy Anthony Davis when he spoke about the similarity of the cross and the lynching tree http://www.hds.harvard.edu/multimedia/video/strange-fruit-the-cross-and-the-lynching-tree.

Troy Anthony Davis was born on October 9, 1968, grew up in Savannah, Georgia and executed by the state of Georgia sanctioned by the US government on September 22, 2011. He was a 20 year old youth on August 19, 1989 when the criminal act for which he was accused was committed. In 1991 Davis was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for the fatal shooting of a white police officer although he has maintained his innocence of this
crime since he was arrested. There was enough doubt about his presumed guilt to garner the support of celebrities, very important people, ordinary folks and human rights groups. Among those calling for a re-trial and/or clemency were Amnesty International, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) former President of the USA Jimmy Carter, Reverend Al Sharpton, Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Bob Barr a former federal prosecutor and a former member of the United States House of Representatives (Republican representing Georgia.) Davis’ case garnered international attention especially because of the obviously racially charged overtones. Here was an African American male who was accused of shooting a white police officer and found guilty even though there was no physical evidence to link him to the shooting. Of the nine witnesses from 1991, seven have recanted their statements citing police coercion at the time and at least one witness has confessed that he was illiterate and was forced to sign a document he could not read. A group of white men in power turned deaf ears to the pleas of the world to reconsider their determination to kill this African American male in what seems like a modern day lynching.

In an opinion piece published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on September 15, entitled Should Davis be executed No (http://www.ajc.com/opinion/should-davis-be-executed-1181530.html) William S. Sessions former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations FBI, former federal judge and federal prosecutor wrote: What the hearing demonstrated most conclusively was that the evidence in this case -- consisting almost entirely of conflicting stories, testimonies and statements -- is inadequate to the task of convincingly establishing either Davis' guilt or his innocence. Without DNA or other forms of physical or scientific evidence that can be objectively measured and tested, it is possible that doubts about guilt in this case will never be resolved. However, when it comes to the sentence of death, there should be no room for doubt.

Following the killing of Davis by the state of Georgia on Wednesday September 21, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that killing Davis may have violated international law, citing serious concerns that the rights of Davis to due process and a fair trial were not respected. Three independent United Nations human rights experts had called on the United States Government to stop the execution amid concerns that Davis did not receive a fair trial. UN Special Rapporteur on arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns; the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Gabriela Knaul; and the Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan Méndez – deplored that the case mainly relied on the testimonies of witnesses which contained “serious” inconsistencies. The US Government was reminded of its obligation to ensure that anyone under its jurisdiction receives a fair trial, as required under article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR.) The experts stated in their appeal to the US government: “Not only do we urgently appeal to the Government of the United States and the state of Georgia to find a way to stop the scheduled execution, but we believe that serious consideration should be given to commuting the sentence. We recall that the death penalty may only be imposed when the guilt of the person charged is based upon clear and convincing evidence, leaving no room for an alternative explanation of the facts. Given the irreversible nature of the death penalty, it is crucial that fair trial standards are fully respected in all judicial proceedings related to offences punishable with the death penalty.”
Davis is not the first African American killed by the state of Georgia whose
presumed guilt is in question. His story reminded me of a woman I wrote about in 2005 when she received a posthumous pardon from Georgia 60 years after she was killed in the electric chair. On March 5, 1945 Lena Baker became the only woman to be killed by Georgia in the electric chair. Like Davis whose reported last words were “those about to take my life, may God have mercy on your souls, may God bless your souls,” Baker who maintained her innocence to the end said: “What I done, I did in self-defence or I would have been killed myself. Where I was, I could not overcome it. I am ready to meet my God.”
Baker had been repeatedly raped by the white man (23 years older than she was) who was killed with his own gun during a struggle as he tried to rape her again. She had been hiding from this man who had kept watch at her house overnight and grabbed her when she went home the following morning to take care of her three children who had been left in their grandmother’s care overnight. It is a dreadful story illustrating the manner in which the lives of African Americans were constrained by white people. After dragging Baker over to a barn on his property where he raped her again, the white man went to a prayer meeting with his adult son, locking her in the barn. When he returned from his prayer meeting and attempted to rape her at gunpoint there was a struggle during which he was killed. Baker was sentenced to death by a white all male jury after a four hour trial. Although Baker was the victim in more ways than one her family was forced to uproot their lives and flee their hometown. Her community was refused the right to bury her properly and mourn her passing. They were terrorized by the white community. In 2001 Baker’s great nephew Roosevelt Curry began the campaign to clear her name and a pardon was granted by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on August 30, 2005.
Although Canada no longer has the death penalty, the rate at which African Canadian males are incarcerated is indeed alarming. The racial profiling of African Canadians is a reality in spite of the many studies that have been done, the many reports that have been written and recommendations that have been made to address this scourge. During this International Year for People of African Descent we need to recognize that the oppression continues and must be addressed.
Written October 2, 2011

NIGERIA 51 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

2011-10-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

On October 1, 1960 Nigerians gained their independence from Britain . Nigeria is one of the many countries from which our (Africans in the Diaspora) ancestors were taken (into enslavement in the West) during the Maafa. After centuries of enslaving Africans and profiting enormously from their labour the British abolished chattel slavery then began an exploitation of the Africans who remained on the continent, their land and whatever was found on and below the land. Nigeria had been colonized by Britain since 1885 after a group of white men carved up the African continent during the infamous “scramble for Africa” following the Berlin Conference (November 15, 1884 - February 26, 1885.) The British and members of other European tribes had been covetously eyeing the African continent way before the Berlin Conference. Since the Spanish and Portuguese began trading with Africans in the 15th century in the ports they named Calabar and Lagos the aim was to exploit the people. By the time the British became involved in what was to become the most egregious crime against humanity the Spanish and Portuguese were building their empires on the backs of enslaved Africans.

The British soon monopolized the brutal and inhumane practice of enslaving Africans and destroying their homes and communities. The following centuries saw the British building their empire on the coerced, unpaid labour of generations and millions of brutalized Africans. When the British eventually abolished chattel slavery on August 1, 1834 (August 1, 1838 in the Caribbean) they had caused untold emotional, physical and spiritual damage (still felt today) to Africans in Nigeria and elsewhere. Each group of Africans in Nigeria was touched by this barbaric European exhibition of greed and inhumanity. There are more than 200 groups of people living in Nigeria, the three largest groups are the Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, with smaller groups including the Edo, Ijaw, Kanuri, Ibibio, Nupe, Igala, Jukun, Itsekiri, Urhobo and Tiv. In her 1986 published book The Ibo People and the Europeans; the genesis of a relationship - to 1906 Elizabeth Isichei writes Iboland was one of the areas of West Africa most seriously affected by the slave trade. Ibos were exported as slaves throughout the whole period of the trade, from the first recorded Ibo slave – one Caterina Ybou, sent to San Thome – until the slave trade came to an end in the middle years of the nineteenth century. Over the centuries of the slave trade, Iboland lost large numbers of its strongest members, in their prime.

To their credit, the people of Nigeria resisted British occupation of their land when they realised the true intent of the interlopers. As usual with all the European occupation of other people’s lands, they had first sent in their missionaries to convert the African people to Christianity. Amazing that these good Christians could not seem to live “Christ like” lives! The people of the Aro Confederacy were one of the groups who resisted the British encroachment on their land. The British government had already annexed Nigeria using their tried and true methods for stealing and occupying land. They had done the trade thing, the Christianization thing and then finally on January 1, 1901 Nigeria became a British protectorate (just another word for thievery!) and part of the British Empire. However the Aro people in southwestern Nigeria refused to cooperate and become Christians, they were determined to preserve their culture and belief system. The good Christian white people from Britain were determined to beat the Aro into submission even if it meant murdering some of them. The British army populated by good Christian white men attacked the Aro people on December 25, 1901 while their countrymen, women and children back in jolly old England and the rest of the British Isles were probably singing in church or at home depending on their level of piety: Oh Come All Ye Faithful or Good Christian Men Rejoice. The Ayo people must have been very impressed at the level of dedication the British soldiers displayed in their determination to convert them away from their indigenous beliefs. Maybe the British soldiers even tried to coax the Ayo fighters into laying down their weapons and relaxing by singing “God rest thee merry gentlemen.” If they did, it did not work, the Ayo were determined not to surrender their belief and culture to live as British gentlemen, women and children. The British army and government displayed such amazing Christmas spirit that when the Ayo-Anglo War ended in 1902 the leaders of the Ayo Confederacy were hanged by the British.

It was not only the Africans who resisted British domination that were victimized; even those who cooperated with the British did not escape their treachery. King Jaja of Opobo had to learn about British treachery the hard way. After cooperating with them including signing treaties, he was betrayed when he was invited for a social evening on a British ship and instead was kidnapped and exiled to the Caribbean . This happened in 1887 so there was no fear that he would be enslaved unless he was sold to Brazil where slavery was abolished in 1888. However, from 1887 to the time King Jaja transitioned while he was held prisoner in Barbados on July 7, 1891 he was assured by the British government that he would be returned to his home. Instead the British transferred him from one Caribbean island to the next. According to Sylvanus John Sodienye Cookey, author of King Jaja of the Niger Delta: his life and times, 1821-1891 published 2005, King Jaja arrived in Barbados on the British warship HMS Pylades: When the warship docked in Barbados on March 1, 1891 and Jaja appeared the black population at the quayside gave him an enthusiastic welcome. Interviewed later he sought to make the best of the situation by disseminating information relating to his capture and deportation as well as the latest promise of release which had turned to his being transferred from one West Indian island to another. The governor of Barbados Sir Walter J. Sendal, was sufficiently apprehensive that Jaja’s story might lead to hostile demonstrations by the black population to warn that it was “not desirable to prolong his residence.”

In spite of the oppression of being under British occupation for 60 years Nigeria like every other colonized African country eventually gained their independence. On October 1, 2011 Nigerians will celebrate 51 years of Independence. Many of us in the Diaspora can also celebrate because even though we may not know definitively that our ancestors were Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba or some other group from Nigeria, the scattering of us throughout the West makes it very likely that at least one of our ancestors was taken out of that area during the Maafa.

Written September 25, 2011

ONTARIO PROVINCIAL ELECTION 2011

2011-10-21T21:23:00.000-07:00

The Provincial election is two weeks away and there are some people in our community who still do not know who the candidates are in their riding. This is one of the reasons that even though African Canadians have been voting in elections at least since 1837 we are still not a force to be reckoned with in 2011. Information from the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia states that: Although black men in Canada received the right to vote on March 24, 1837, it did not mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that they were equally involved or fully engaged in the electoral process. However having the right to vote in this country was not always a “right.” At one point it was a privilege granted only to rich white men. The privilege became a right after a series of struggle by various disenfranchised groups. Therefore the right to vote in elections and have a hand in choosing who will govern us for the next four years is not to be taken lightly. For centuries our ancestors did not have that opportunity and some of us now squander this hard-fought-for right. It did not come easily especially for our brothers and sisters in the USA and in South Africa.

To vote in any election, Municipal, Provincial and Federal you have to be a Canadian citizen at least 18 years old. There are many of our young people who were born in this country and are citizens by birth yet they are apathetic about voting. It is sometimes disheartening to observe the apathy of some members of our community during elections at whatever level of government is being elected. Even some of us who do exercise our right to vote seem to vote without educating ourselves about the candidates who are running for election. Recent conversations have had me shaking my head if not in despair at least on one occasion in “shock and awe.” I walked away wondering if I had just left a parallel dimension because I was told by a brethren that his reason for voting Conservative since becoming a Canadian citizen is the fact that when he immigrated to Canada in 1984 Brian Mulroney was Prime Minister and the Conservatives were in power. This poor misguided soul is convinced that Mulroney is personally responsible for his success in immigrating to Canada. It made no difference when I pointed out that he had never met Mulroney, the man would have no interest in meeting him even if he knew of his existence and that he needed to investigate the platform of the Conservative candidate and all the other candidates in his riding before making a decision on who to support in the election on October 6, 2011.

I was mostly surprised by this stance because when I immigrated to Canada many Caribbean people supported the Liberals because they were convinced that (former Prime Minister) Pierre Elliot Trudeau had been responsible for their success in immigrating to Canada. The fact that it was the previous Conservative government led by John Diefenbaker (1957-1963) who through the passing of the Canadian Bill of Rights in August 1960 opened the door to African, Asian and Caribbean immigration was lost on most immigrants. Canadian immigration policy had long discriminated against racialized people until Diefenbaker’s Canadian Bill of Rights reduced bars to most types of immigration on racial and ethnic grounds, making the skills of immigrants and family reunification the major criteria for admission. Canada then began accepting large numbers of African, Asian and Caribbean immigrants. People forgot or did not know that the previous Liberal governments led by William Lyon Mackenzie King (1935-1948) and Louis St. Laurent (1948-1957) were just as white supremacist as the Conservative and Liberal governments before them stretching as far back as John A. McDonald in 1867. There was not much to choose between these governments as far as having the interest of racialized Canadians at heart. Somehow Trudeau seemed to capture the imagination of the new immigrants arriving after he was elected. Similar to the descendants of enslaved Africans who for years sang praises to England’s monarch Victoria in the mistaken idea that she was responsible for the abolition of slavery on August 1, 1834.

Some political parties have begun their campaign with mud slinging instead of addressing the issues. When or if the candidates arrive at your door seeking your vote, ask them about their stand/platform on issues that affect you, your family and your community. The municipal government is bent on eliminating subsidized day care spaces and suggestions have been made that the provincial government should take up the slack. If the candidate in your riding is elected will they support giving money to keep those subsidies for lower income families? Ask about their stand on raising the minimum wage and on employment equity. While you may have habitually voted for a particular political party because you thought that party had served the interest of your community at some point in the past do some investigation and get the facts. Then ask like Janet Jackson in her popular 1986 released song: “what have you done for me lately?” Depending on their answers make a decision on which candidate you will support on October 6.

The numbers of African immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean joining the African Canadians who can trace their ancestry back several generations swelled our numbers but the increased numbers do not seem to make much difference in our influence on the politics of Canada. Maybe knowing of our history in this great white north might make a difference in this lackadaisical attitude to voting. We did not just arrive here although that history is not documented as much as it should be and that might be one of the reasons many of us feel we have no history and do not belong. In a recent conversation with Ms Wilma Morrison (African Canadian history activist and advocate) of Niagara whose ancestors arrived in Canada many generations ago about the first recognized African Canadian elected to political office in Canada (Burr Lockhart Plato) we acknowledged that it is unfortunate that there are no books written about this man. It was not until 1998 that Plato was honoured by the City government of Niagara Falls even though he was elected to the Council of the Village of Niagara Falls in 1886 and held the position until he retired in 1901.

Whether you are a recent naturalized citizen, a descendant of Africans who were enslaved in this country since the 1600s, a descendant of Africans who fled slavery in the United States during the 18th or 19th century and arrived here seeking freedom or a descendant of Africans who arrived here from the continent or the Caribbean after the passage of Diefenbaker’s Canadian Bill of Rights in August 1960, if you are over 18 years old, get out and vote on October 6 or earlier during the advance polls September 21-30.

Written on September 18, 2011

EDUCATING AFRICAN CANADIAN CHILDREN

2011-09-20T07:22:00.000-07:00

All children start off as 'gifted' and at risk! What diminishes these gifts are the lack of inspired teachers; classrooms that impose restrictions on who they are and what they learn; and parents who leave their children's potential and destiny to all of the above."

Michelle Brown-Stafford Parental Involvement Coach

Michelle Brown-Stafford is the African American woman whose son Stephen Stafford Jr entered university when he was 11 years old. Brown-Stafford and her husband Stephen Stafford Sr made the decision to withdraw their two children from the public school system and home school them. Brown-Stafford made the sacrifice with the support of her husband to leave her job and become the educator of her children. The family lived on the one income of Stafford senior, an electrical engineer to ensure that their children received the best possible education at home with mom as teacher. Today their 19 year old daughter Martinique Stafford who entered university at 17 is a member of Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society and their 15 year old son will graduate next year with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in psychology (major) and computer science (minor) and then he is off to medical school (at a mere 16 years old!).

Brown-Stafford and her husband decided that home schooling was best for their children after losing confidence in the education system. This is not possible for all parents who may only have one income to begin with or need both parents’ incomes just to survive. Brown-Stafford has advice for parents who by necessity must have their children educated in the public school system. She urges parents to work with child’s teacher to identify if the child is an auditory, a visual or a kinesthetic learner. Kinesthetic learners learn best by moving their bodies, activating their large or small muscles as they learn. These are the "hands-on learners" or the "doers" who actually concentrate better and learn more easily when movement is involved. Some kinesthetic learners are mistakenly labelled “hyperactive.” It is very unfortunate that some educators who do not have the training or the dedication needed to work with children do more harm than good when working with kinesthetic learners. This is especially true when the kinesthetic learner is an African American or African Canadian male child. In a June 2010 interview published in the St Petersburg Times when explaining that Stephen was homeschooled more than his older sister Brown-Stafford is quoted: "We had to keep track of Stephen because he is an African-American male, and we didn't want to lose him and we didn't want him to become a statistic."
The Stafford family and other African Americans are not alone in their disenchantment with the education system. In 2006 British educator Ken Robinson spoke about the lack of diversity in the education system which leads to the misdiagnosing of some children who are kinesthetic learners and the stifling of their creativity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY.

Parents also have a role to play in the education of their children. Some of the activities in which parents can engage with their children include taking them to the library to borrow books (to read with and to them) and educational DVDs and encouraging them to play educational games. You can choose to turn off the television or limit the time spent watching television shows that are not educational. Have regular chats with your child's teacher about his or her progress and address any concerns before it becomes a big deal. Document any concerns you may have and questions that are not answered satisfactorily must be addressed in writing. When attending formal meetings have an advocate or support person to take notes. Volunteer at your child's school whether on a regular basis or for special occasions, attend Parent Council meetings as often as you can and run for office on the Council if you have the time to commit. You and your child need to know the names of any one who works with your child including the principal, vice principal, class room assistant and volunteers, office administrative assistant and caretaker.

We pay taxes to fund, among other things, education and health care so we should expect that the education our children receive is appropriate to their learning style. We should expect and demand that the education system works for us, to educate our children effectively. If the system does not serve us appropriately then we need to hold the politicians and educators accountable. Make this an election issue.

Michelle Brown-Stafford hosts a website at http://www.gifted-spirit.com/ where she shares the knowledge she has gained from successfully homeschooling her two children. She encourages parents to be involved in their children's education. Her advice and the knowledge she willingly shares is invaluable because both of her children have done well under her tutelage. Her son Stephen Stafford Jr. will graduate from Morehouse, the alma mater of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who entered Morehouse (one of the USAs 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities HBCUs) as a 15 year old in 1944. On Sunday, August 28, the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington and his famous I Have A Dream speech King will be honoured when a monument is dedicated with a larger than life size sculpture of King. The memorial honouring King which includes the 9-metre-tall sculpture of King emerging from a 137-metre-long granite wall inscribed with 14 quotations from his speeches sits on the National Mall between memorials honouring Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. The monument is a fitting tribute to a man who dedicated his life to a worthy cause and lost his life in that struggle.

It is almost the end of the summer vacation and time spent away from formal education. What have you and your children been reading during the two month summer break? The summer is not over until after Word on the Street on Sunday September 25, 2011 at Queen's Park, from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm http://www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/toronto. It has been an amazing summer with glorious weather and many opportunities to visit festivals galore and learn about Toronto. Unfortunately there has not been much to learn about our history in this fast disappearing International Year of People of African Descent http://www.un.org/en/events/iypad2011/. However, not to despair we have the opportunity to educate the teachers in the schools our children attend when schools re-open on September 6. You still have about 10 days to either borrow books from the Toronto Public Library (TPL) about the history of Africans from the continent and the Diaspora or visit the bookstores and buy some books. Practice the 4th Kwanzaa principle Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) by buying your books from Accents on Eglinton, A Different Booklist, Nile Valley Books and any other bookstores whose owners support our community.

SEPTEMBER 15, 1963 BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

2011-09-20T07:08:00.000-07:00

The year I turned ten
I missed school to march with other children
For a seat at whites-only lunch counters
Like a junior choir, we chanted "We Shall Overcome."
Then, police loosed snarling dogs and fire hoses on us,
And buses carted us, nine hundred strong, to jail.

Excerpt from the poem Birmingham 1963 by Carole Boston Weatherford published 2007

On September 15, 1963 white American Christian terrorists bombed an African American Christian church, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham , Alabama . The bomb blast tore through the church basement killing four African children. The four African American girls whose bodies were shattered in that act of terrorism were Addie Mae Collins (1949-1963) Denise McNair (1951-1963) Carol Robertson (1949-1963) and Cynthia Wesley (1949-1963.) An estimated 22 other African Americans members of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church were injured in the bomb blast. It was Sunday morning and according to reports published at the time: At about 10:22 a.m., twenty-six children were walking into the basement assembly room to prepare for the sermon entitled “The Love That Forgives,” when the bomb exploded. This act of terrorism is considered one of the worst of the 20th century targeted at African Americans during the Civil Rights struggle. There were countless (many never made public) incidents of terrorism against African Americans including the massacre of African Americans in Tulsa , Oklahoma in 1921 (Black Wall Street) and Rosewood, Florida in 1923. Many were labeled “Race Riots” when in fact, in dreadful acts of terrorism, white people lynched African Americans, destroyed their businesses, churches, homes and schools in jealous rages that in spite of the oppression they suffered there were African American individuals and communities that managed to carve out contemporary successful existences.

When the terrorists are white Christians the religion of the perpetrators is ignored but every act of terrorism against African Americans has been carried out by white Christians. In some cases they are not recognized as acts of terrorism or the perpetrators identified as terrorists. However in the case of the September 15, 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham , Alabama even former US National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged that incident and the bombing of African American businesses, churches and homes were acts of terrorism. Rice was an 8 year old living in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 at the time of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing and in her 2010 published book Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family writes of the several incidents of bombing in Birmingham, Alabama: As terrorists still do today, bombers exploded the first device in hopes a crowd would gather. They detonated the second bomb filled with shrapnel and nails – in order to injure as many innocent onlookers as possible.

September 15, 1963 was not the first bombing incident or act of terrorism by white Christians to which African Americans were subjected that year. In her 2007 published book Birmingham 1963 Carole Boston Weatherford explains: In the 1960s, Birmingham , Alabama was one of the most racially divided cities in the United States . While Civil Rights protesters pressed for equality and integration, the staunchest racists resorted to violence to resist change. Racists had set so many bombs in Birmingham ’s black neighborhoods that the city was nicknamed “Bombingham.”

White Christian Americans were desperate to keep African Americans in a place of second class citizenship in the country which was built on the blood, sweat and tears of enslaved Africans. So desperate that on Good Friday, April 12, 1963 Dr Martin Luther King and approximately 80 other African Americans were arrested for taking part in a peaceful protest. Dr. King wrote his famous Letter from a Birmingham jail while he was incarcerated in reply to a group of white religious leaders (7 pastors and 1 rabbi) who exhorted Dr King and all African Americans to continue to wait for their Human Rights and Civil Rights to be recognized by white Americans. The mass arrests on Good Friday led to the Children’s Crusade on May 2, 1963 where over 1,000 children (many as young as 6) gathered at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church before marching to downtown Birmingham. They were all arrested and hauled off to jail in police cars and school buses. On May 3, more African American children gathered and as they left the church Commissioner of Public Safety Theophilus Eugene "Bull" Connor directed the local police and fire departments to use massive force to stop them. The world saw the evil of white supremacy when images of African American children being blasted by high-pressure fire hoses, clubbed by police officers and attacked by police dogs appeared on television and in newspapers internationally http://www.crmvet.org/images/imgbham.htm. The scene was repeated on May 4 and on May 6 almost 2,500 youth were arrested. By then the children were being held at the state fairgrounds because the jails were full. On May 10 after 8 days of unrest an agreement was reached with the City of Birmingham to desegregate drinking fountains, lunch counters and restrooms within 90 days and to release those in jail on bond or their own recognizance. However that was an agreement with City officials, the good Christian white people of Birmingham refused to treat African Americans as their equal and the terrorist activities against African Americans continued.

For African American families and communities there was the added trauma of being forced to live beside these terrorists. In the case of the murder of the four children on September 15, 1963, the terrorists continued to live in Birmingham , Alabama and were not brought to justice until the 21st century. Since 1963 an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had identified four white Christians as the terrorists responsible for the bombing of the African American church and the murder of the four girls. Robert Chambliss, Herman Cash, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry continued to live in Birmingham , Alabama where the African American community was forced to deal with the fact that these terrorists walked among them daily as free men. In September 1963 a witness had identified Robert Chambliss as the man who placed the bomb at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. He was arrested and charged with murder and possessing a box of 122 sticks of dynamite without a permit. On October 8, 1963 Chambliss was found not guilty of murder and received a hundred-dollar fine and a six-month jail sentence for possession of dynamite. It was not until the 1970s that the case against Chambliss was reopened. The then recently elected attorney general of Alabama requested the original FBI files on the case and discovered that evidence against Chambliss that might have led to a conviction had not been used in the original trial. In November, 1977 Chambliss was tried once again for the September 15, 1963 bombing, was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. By the time the FBI got around to pursuing action against the other terrorists on 18 May 2000, only two were still alive. Cash was dead (1994) but Blanton and Cherry were arrested, tried and convicted (Blanton 2001 and Cherry 2002.) Cherry’s trial was delayed because he was deemed mentally incompetent. However according to This Day in Civil Rights History published 2009 “The evidence against him, including testimony from his own granddaughter, painted a picture of an unrepentant former Klansman who was a close associate of Chambliss and Blanton and was linked to the bombing.”

Why did it take almost four decades for these white Christian terrorists who devastated the African American community of Birmingham , Alabama on September 15, 1963 to be brought to justice? After all we have seen how quickly the American government can move against suspected terrorists in other countries peopled by racialized people who are not Christian.

MIGRANT WORKERS IN CANADA

2011-09-20T06:58:00.000-07:00

When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run,
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun;
Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one,
But the union makes us strong.
Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite,
Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?
For the union makes us strong.
They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the union makes us strong.
Solidarity Forever
Solidarity Forever
Solidarity Forever
For the union makes us strong.

Excerpt from Solidarity Forever written for the International Workers of The World (IWW) in 1915 by Ralph Chaplin.

The Labour Day weekend has come and gone and what a weekend it was! The 1st Monday in September has been celebrated as Labour Day in Canada for more than 100 years. The weather on Monday, September 5, was a bit cooler than we have been experiencing during this summer but at least it was not 3.3 °C as The Weather Network shows was the record low in 1938. The annual Labour Day Parade in Toronto included thousands of workers who are members of several trade unions walking from University Avenue and Queen Street West to Exhibition Place. Not everyone walked; some marched to the sounds of bagpipes while others danced to the sound of popular music and some of us did wine and dingolay to the irresistible sounds of calypso and soca from Afropan Steel band and the Surefire Band which accompanied the Steelworkers group. As usual especially since there is a Provincial election just one month from now, the politicians were out in full force.

It was a completely different scene the day before, on Sunday, September 4 when a group of migrant workers and allies gathered at the British Methodist Episcopal Church on Geneva St. in St. Catharines , Ontario on the first stop of a "solidarity caravan." It was the same story at the various stops made by the "solidarity caravan" there was not a politician in sight. The migrant workers who come from several countries including Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, the Philippines, Trinidad and Tobago and Thailand to work on farms in southwestern Ontario rallied in Niagara this weekend to bring attention to some of the problems which they encounter as workers who are denied many of the rights other workers in Canada take for granted. These migrant workers could not join the workers at the Labour Day parade on Monday because they had to work. Because Ontario 's labour law does not allow agriculture workers to form unions these workers continually face the threat of being deported if they refuse unsafe work. Sometimes their jobs include operating machinery which they have not been trained to do safely and handling chemicals also without the necessary training. Thousands of migrant workers come to Canada to fill labour shortages through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker (SAWP) and Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP)

The Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) began in 1966 in partnership with Jamaica . Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados became part of the program in 1967. Mexico joined in 1974 and later members of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS.) The program is run by Human Resources and Social Development Canada and Service Canada.

Politicians of all stripes know that migrant workers are ill treated yet this does not seem to concern them. It is left mostly up to a group of dedicated volunteers like Chris Ramsaroop, Tzazna Miranda and others of Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW) to advocate for this group of racialized, vulnerable and exploited workers. On Friday, October 27, 2006 Ramsaroop spoke to the Federal government’s Standing Committee on Human Resources, Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities about the conditions under which migrant workers live and work on the farms in Ontario. As part of a very detailed presentation about the lived reality of the migrant workers for whom he has advocated fearlessly and tirelessly for several years, Ramsaroop said: “Many of these workers work 12 to 15 hours a day without overtime pay or any type of holiday pay. They use dangerous chemicals and pesticides with no safety equipment or protection and training. They live in substandard housing, which I have pictures of, with leaking sewage and inadequate washrooms. They have an inability to access most employment insurance benefits despite their contributions. They face various barriers to accessing adequate housing services. And they're prohibited from forming collective bargaining and joining unions. For actually taking a stand for anything they believe in, they could be sent home. As such, many workers are reluctant to stand up for their rights, since employers find it easier to send workers home at their own expense instead of dealing with their serious concerns. The lack of an appeal mechanism in the seasonal agricultural worker program forces many workers to remain silent out of fear of being expelled from the program.” In spite of this information none of the political parties seem to have an interest in attending to the dreadful human rights abuses the migrant workers suffer.

With a provincial election a month from now, Ramsaroop has embarked on the second year of raising awareness (building on last year’s Pilgrimage to Freedom) in the communities where the migrant workers toil in Ontario . Making a connection with the descendants of enslaved Africans in the communities and educating migrant workers about the history of the Underground Railroad and educating the communities about the suffering of the migrant workers has led to the "solidarity caravan." The British Methodist Episcopal Church in St. Catharines was the first stop. As the workers spoke about their working and living conditions, they also learned about the struggles of Harriet Tubman whose image is prominent at the church (built by African Canadians in 1855) as she worshipped there when she lived in St Catherines. The caravan made stops in Virgil, Niagara on the Lake and Niagara Falls to expose the differences that exist in the lives of the migrant workers who live in poverty, housed in places little more than hovels as they harvest the grapes that make the “wine country” successful and enrich the owners of the vineyards who live in mansions. In Niagara on the Lake, the migrant workers and allies distributed flyers and the Ontario produce which they (migrant workers) plant and harvest. Many people were willing to take the flyers and listen but soon the law was called to encourage the caravan to leave the area. At the Niagara Falls area the caravan visited the Nathaniel Dett Memorial Chapel a church built by the African Canadian community in 1836 where they learned some more about the history of African Canadians. Ms Wilma Morrison an African Canadian history activist and advocate hosted the group at the Nathaniel Dett Memorial Chapel and provided in depth education about the history of African Canadians in the area.

There will be caravans on September 25 and October 2, visiting other stops on the Underground Railway. According to literature from J4MW: The towns that we will be visiting, as part of the Underground Railroad, promised a land of freedom, hope and opportunities, but are now hubs of agricultural activity that are highly dependent on exploitative temporary migration programs for labour. The caravan will highlight the current labour laws, the restrictions of migrant worker programs, the profits of the agricultural industry and how Canadian society profits from the indentureship of migrant labour. While the community prepares to celebrate its annual wine festival and rejoices in the astronomical profits that have been achieved through the sacrifices of the migrant community, this tour is to celebrate workers' contributions, demand changes to our laws to reflect their realities and to expose the hidden realities of temporary foreign worker programs across Canada.
Even though migrant workers are prevented from unionizing they deserve support from unionized workers because they are part of the family. An injury to one is an injury to all! Solidarity Forever!

FROM RECY TAYLOR TO NAFISSATOU DIALLO

2011-09-20T06:23:00.000-07:00

Nafissatou Diallo will not get the opportunity to confront Dominique Strauss-Kahn former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief and billionaire in a court of law and officially tell the story of the traumatic sexual attack she suffered. This, in the 21st century, when some African women sexually brutalized by white men in the 19th and 20th century had that opportunity even if the men were never found guilty. At least there are court records where researchers from later generations could glean information and write books about that reality. The District Attorney of New York County in his infinite wisdom has decided not to bring the case to trial. African women have been the victims of white men’s brutality since these men made their appearance on the African continent seeking free labour. This happened whether the white men were British, German, French, Portuguese, Spanish or any other European tribe. The Jezebel myth was eventually created to rationalize these often brutal attacks. Enslaved African females (including children) were portrayed as corrupters of good Christian white men. In his 1859 published book The Roving Editor, or Talks With Slaves in Southern States abolitionist James Redpath wrote: “I am a white man and I know that mulatto women almost always refuse to cohabit with the blacks; are often averse to a sexual connection with persons of their own shade; but are gratified by the criminal advances of Saxons.” An amazing piece of self delusion coming from an abolitionist but at least he recognized that the sexual advances were criminal. The evidence does not bear out what this white abolitionist wrote because there are stories of enslaved African women resisting those criminal advances even though they knew they were endangering their lives and the lives of their loved ones. In the book Celia A Slave: A True Story published in 1999 (author Melton Alonzo McLaurin used information from Celia’s trial) the 19 year old enslaved woman is hanged after she is found guilty of killing her owner who had raped her on a regular basis for the five years he owned her. The fact that she was defending herself from a brutal beating and eventual rape for the umpteenth time (all this while she was pregnant with the owner’s third child) was not considered. Her lawyer put forward a case for self defence but Celia was property and her owner by law could do whatever he wanted with her including killing her if he had a mind to do so and she legally had no right to resist. This was no surprise in 1855 Missouri or most states in the USA. That may not have been the law in some of the Northern states but as can be deduced from the words of Redpath even those whites who thought that the enslavement of Africans was illegal also thought that enslaved African women welcomed the criminal sexual advances of white men. Given this mindset it is hardly surprising that the rape of African women continued even after the abolition of slavery. African American professor Deborah Gray White notes in Ar'n't I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South (published 1999):From emancipation through more than two-thirds of the twentieth century, no Southern white male was convicted of raping or attempting to rape a black woman. Yet the crime was widespread. Case in point is the brutal gang rape on September 3, 1944 of then 24 year old Recy Taylor, married mother of a two year old daughter. Taylor left church accompanied by two other church members (60 year old woman and her 18 year old son) when they were confronted by a group of 7 white men who kidnapped Taylor. The men drove out of town where they raped then blindfolded Taylor and after threatening to kill her if she told anyone about the rape, abandoned her on the highway next morning leaving her barely alive to walk home or die trying. She made her way home where her father, her husband and friends had been searching for her throughout the night. Unlike previous cases where the rape of African American women by white men had been “hushed up” this case did not die a “natural” death. Rosa Parks, then a 32 year old activist with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) took up the cause and ensured that there was widespread publicity to force the authorities to arrest the rapists. Meanwhile the Taylor family was under siege. Death threats and an attempt on their lives when their home was fire bombed forced Taylor and her husband to move in with her father and six siblings. The threats continued and each night Taylor’s father would climb a tree in his backyard and as reported by Earl Conrad in an article entitled “Death Threat made against rape victim” published March 17, 1945: “Cradling a double-barreled shotgun and a sack of shells, he guarded the cabin until the sun broke on the horizon and then went inside to sleep.” The men who raped Taylor claimed that she was a prostitute and even offered her husband $600.00 as compensation. Marvin White the lawyer representing the accused asked Willie Taylor, "N***er- ain't $600 enough for raping your wife?" Not surprisingly the grand jury returned no indictments and there was no trial. The Taylors were forced to move away from their family and community, settling in Florida where 91 year old Recy Taylor received the news in March 2011 that the Alabama House unanimously passed a resolution to express its 'deepest sympathies and solemn regrets.' Taylor ’s 74 year old brother who was a child of nine years old at the time said he still vividly remembers his father desperately searching for his daughter on the night of the rape. 'He came back by the house about three times, and each time, his shirt was wringing with sweat. Nobody slept that night.' Recy Taylor’s story is the first in Danielle L McGuire’s 2010 published book At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance -- a New History of the Civil Rights Movement From Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power and Joan Little’s story is the last. On September 7, 1974 Little was arrested for 1st degree murder in the killing of 62 year old Clarence Alligood, a white prison guard at Beaufort County Jail in Washington, North Carolina. The guard’s body had been found in the cell where the 21 year old Little had been incarcerated for two months. He was naked from the waist down. His yellow and white plaid shirt was caked with blood and a thin line of semen stretched down his leg. His right hand loosely held an ice pick and his left arm, dangling toward the floor clutched his pants. Little was declared an armed and dangerous outlaw with police ordered to shoot her on sight. With service dogs and high-powered rifles the police went door to door in the African American community of Washington, North Carolina. After hiding out for one week Little surrendered. At the trial the prosecution claimed that Little seduced Alligood and murdered him to enable her escape. Little testified that Alligood had forced her at the point of an ice pick to perform oral sex before she seized the ice pick, stabbed him repeatedly and escaped. Little was supported by many activists including feminist organizations: http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2002/davis.asp and was acquitted. Since Diallo’s accusation against Straus-Kahn some white newspapers have hounded the woman, preventing her from returning to work. Her past should have no bearing on whether or not she has the right to face her attacker in a court of law. She has been accused of being a prostitute and her life scrutinized as if she was the perpetrator instead of the victim. With the unfortunate decision to dismiss, the District Attorney seems to be sending a message to racialized women who suffer sexual violence at the hands of rich white men that they have to live perfect lives if they want to see justice done.

THE HELP: a novel written by Kathryn Stockett

2011-08-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

Aided by the unscrupulous adventurers who operated the Freedmen's Bureau and urged on by a fervor of Northern hatred almost religious in its fanaticism, the former field hands found themselves suddenly elevated to the seats of the mighty. There they conducted themselves as creatures of small intelligence might naturally be expected to do. Like monkeys or small children turned loose among treasured objects whose value is beyond their comprehension, they ran wild--either from perverse pleasure in destruction or simply because of their ignorance.

Description of African Americans in Margaret Mitchell’s popular 1936 published novel Gone With the Wind

In 1936 Margaret Mitchell published Gone With the Wind a white fantasy of the American Civil War and Reconstruction era complete with white supremacist portrayal of enslaved Africans and her vision of who they were after emancipation. These fantasy “darkies” had no lives, dreams or aspirations outside of serving their enslavers. Her view of slavery portrayed the enslaved Africans as being content, happy childlike creatures who were devastated when the South lost the war and wanted to remain living with their “owners” in slave like condition. The “bad negroes” were the ones who could not wait to leave the plantations, who took off to fight for their freedom, who tried to become politically engaged during Reconstruction. In Gone With the Wind the Ku Klux Klan are the “good guys” the saviours of the day, putting the “uppity negroes” in their place with dreadfully violent acts. The contempt and disdain in which she held African Americans comes through loud and strong when she wrote about the Africans who had recently been freed from slavery: They were, as a class, childlike in mentality, easily led and from long habit accustomed to taking orders. The former slaves were now the lords of creation and, with the aid of the Yankees, the lowest and most ignorant ones were on top. The better class of them, scorning freedom, were suffering as severely as their white masters. Thousands of house servants, the highest caste in the slave population, remained with their white folks, doing manual labor which had been beneath them in the old days. Many loyal field hands also refused to avail themselves of the new freedom.

In spite of the white supremacist language of the book peopled with one dimensional stereotypical portrayal of African Americans it is considered the most beloved Civil War novel. Mitchell was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 for Gone With the Wind. By the time the story was made into an equally popular movie released in 1939, more than 1.5 million copies had been sold. In spite of their popularity with white Americans the book and movie caused some distress in the African American community. Letters of protest were written by African American individuals and organizations including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Urban League. The demands and suggestions of African Americans were largely ignored by Hollywood and the rest is history.

Fast forward to the 21st century, more than 60 years after the release of Gone With the Wind and another wildly popular book written by a white woman (Kathryn Stockett) and made into a movie is causing anxious moments and dissatisfaction in the African American community. The book The Help published in 2009 (the movie released in 2011) tells the story of a group of white women and the African American women who work in their homes. According to Stockett her reason for writing the book is in memoriam of the African American woman who was her “family maid.” In the 1 ½ pages where Stockett reminisces about the woman who cooked, cleaned and raised two generations of her family she writes “Our family maid, Demetrie, used to say picking cotton in Mississippi in the dead of summer is about the worst pastime there is, if you don't count picking okra, another prickly, low-growing thing. Demetrie came to cook and clean for my family when she was twenty-eight. My father was fourteen, my uncle seven. Demetrie was stout and dark skinned and, by then, married to a mean, abusive drinker named Plunk. There were several years when I thought she was immensely lucky to have us. A secure job in a nice house cleaning up after white Christian people. But also because Demetrie had no babies of her own and we felt like we were filling a void in her life. I'm pretty sure I can say that no one in my family ever asked Demetrie what it felt like to be black in Mississippi working for our white family. It never occurred to us to ask. It was everyday life. It wasn't something people felt compelled to examine. I have wished, for many years, that I'd been old enough and thoughtful enough to ask Demetrie that question. She died when I was sixteen. I've spent years imagining what her answer would be. And that is why I wrote this book.”

Stockett would have been shocked out of her complacency by the answer Demetrie would have given her because it is obvious from the stereotypical characters of African American “maids” that people The Help that the author is clueless. The African American “maid” characters are contrived and caricatured especially their speech where the author struggles with the African American Vernacular (Ebonics.) If Stockett really wanted to write authentically about the lived reality of African American women working in the homes of white families during the 1960s then she would have read some books written by African American women telling their stories. Books including This Little Light of Mine, Memoirs of a freedom fighter, Coming of Age in Mississippi and From the Mississippi Delta are the stories of African American women who lived what Stockett has tried to write about.

African American women do not need their history rewritten to glorify white women with a fictitious young white writer charging in on her white steed to rescue a few hapless "maids" who idolise and rear the children of their “white families” as they silently suffer the abuse dished out from a handful of "bad egg" type employers. It borders on delusional for Stockett to retell the story with the mythical mammy peeping out from every corner of the book. Mammy came out of the imagination of white southerners determined to convince themselves that the enslaved African woman enjoyed her enslaved condition and loved her white tormentors and their children more than she loved herself. The mammy myth of the jolly, obese dark skin asexual woman was in contrast to the jezebel myth of the temptress enslaved African woman which was used to justify the rape of even enslaved female children. Stockett’s mammies are no threat to the white families who overwork and mistreat them until the young university educated white woman descends to the rescue. This in the 1960s when African Americans throughout the USA were sitting in, standing up and protesting. (Recommended reading From the Mississippi Delta by Ida Mae Holland published 1997)

The history of that period is well documented with African American sheroes like Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, Ida Mae Holland, Winson Hudson, Daisy Bates and countless others who suffered physical, mental and sexual abuse, emotional trauma and spirit injury but continued to fight the good fight. When those women and young girls were brutalized and traumatised by their employers (male and female) support came from their community, not from white women. The images that tell the stories of the role that white women played during that time including their resistance to 6 year old Ruby Bridges’ integration of William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana and 15 year old Elizabeth Eckford’s integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas as a member of the Little Rock Nine are available in books and on the Internet including: (http://meme527.wordpress.com/2007/05/07/elizabeth-eckford/, http://www.rubybridges.com/pictures.htm and http://www.xavierherald.com/news/ruby-bridges-endured-racial-epithets-hatred-1.2111235)

Of course if Stockett had followed the example of some white women who have taken the time to research and write books like Soul Sister: The Journal of a White Woman Who Turned Herself Black and Went to Live and Work in Harlem and Mississippi (by Grace Halsell published 1969) and At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance -- a New History of the Civil Rights Movement From Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power (by Danielle L. McGuire published 2010) her book would not have been as wildly popular as it is (279 copies at the Toronto Public Library and a “hold” list of 1,693) and most likely would not have been made into a movie.

In the book At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance -- a New History of the Civil Rights Movement From Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power some of the stories unknown outside of the African American community have been included. The author scoured the archives of African American newspapers, old court records and she also interviewed some of the African Americans who lived through the trauma, horror and terrorism visited upon them by white Americans. The book is not for the faint of heart. In the book The Help the author writes about one of the “maids” giving away her girl child because the child looked white. It would be hilarious if it was not so sad that this white woman does not realise that African American women and their communities did not abandon their children because they looked white (many of them the result of rape by white men.) To add insult to injury the author writes that this white looking child who returned to cause her mother much distress and her eventual demise was the biological child of the African American woman and her African American husband. If the author was going for authenticity that child would most likely have been sired by the white husband, father, uncle, grandfather, son or cousin of the African American woman’s employer. This reality is well documented. When white skin children were part of African American communities it was because there was a white man somewhere in the gene pool. It reminded me of the story of the white women during slavery who tried to convince themselves and everyone within hearing that the light skin children of the enslaved women on their plantations obtained their skin colour because they lived so closely with the plantation’s whites. Of course they knew very well what their male relatives were up to but “there are none so blind as those who will not see.”

The African American community has suffered this kind of indignity for generations where white people have told their stories whether it was dressing up and performing in blackface, making movies like Pinky and Imitation of Life or writing books like Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The Wind Done Gone written by Alice Randall published in April 2002 was an attempt to tell the story of the African Americans who were caricatured in Gone With the Wind. Hopefully it will not take 66 years for someone to tell the stories of the African American women in The Help.

DAY O! BANANA BOAT SONG

2011-08-16T22:48:00.000-07:00

Day-o, day-ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Work all night on a drink of rum
Stack banana till de morning come
Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana
Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
A beautiful bunch of ripe banana
Hide the deadly black tarantula
Day, me say day-ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Excerpt from the Banana Boat Song

The Banana Boat Song also popularly known as Day O tells the story of workers in the Caribbean who harvested bananas for a living. These obviously exploited workers are lamenting the fact they have worked throughout the night with nothing to eat and only a drink of rum. It is back-breaking work stacking large bunches of bananas and to make matters worse they will not be paid until the “tallyman” has “tallied” how many bunches of bananas they have stacked. There is also the danger of being stung and possibly killed by deadly tarantulas. The Banana Boat Song is in the tradition of the well known work songs and field hollers used by enslaved Africans and later on by African Americans forced into chain gangs as they struggled to find ways to alleviate the backbreaking, tedious work they were forced to perform. The Banana Boat Song sometimes described as a Jamaican folk song was first recorded as "Day De Light" in 1952 by Trinidadian Edric Connor and his group The Carribbeans (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfgmc1_edric-connor-day-dah-light-1954_music ). Over the years other versions by various performers have been recorded including the 1954 version Day Dah Light by Jamaica’s cultural icon the Honourable Louise (Miss Lou) Bennett Coverly (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km6QbVAnezE) However the most well known version of the Banana Boat Song was recorded in 1956 by Harry Belafonte on a Long Playing (LP) album Calypso and was so popular that it became the first LP album to sell a million copies. Belafonte born March 1 in New York City (Harlem) is the child of Caribbean immigrants. He spent 8 years from age 5 to 13 (1932-1940) living in Aboukir Village, St Ann, Jamaica before returning to New York City where he eventually became an actor and singer. Belafonte returned to Aboukir in 1980 to film the television special “Harry Belafonte: Back to Roots.” Belafonte is also a well known social justice activist who advocated for the Civil Rights of African Americans while working with Dr Martin Luther King Jr and other activists. He grew up in the days of segregation when African American entertainers traveling in the US South were forced to sleep in their vehicles if they could not find an African American owned hotel or motel.

The experiences of today’s generation of entertainers are different and this was brought home to me when I heard what I initially thought was a new version of Day O. This is not the Banana Boat Song. The chorus of the song contains the refrain Day-o, me say day-o, Daylight come but that is where any similarity with the Banana Boat Song ends. While the lyrics of the Banana Boat Song speaks to the history of exploited workers in the Caribbean, the lyrics of this new song that makes use of the refrain Day O, contains nothing about history. This is a song about partying, getting out of control drunk and even hinting at arson. An excerpt from the song is:
Check that out, what they playin', That's my song, that's my song.
Where my drinks? I've been waiting much too long,
And this girl in my lap, passing out, she's a blonde
The last thing on my mind is goin' home...
From the window, To the wall
This club is jumpin' Til tomorrow
Is it daylight? Or is it night time?
1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 4
We gon' tear the club until til, til-til-til-til...
Day-o, me say day-o,
Daylight come and we don't wanna go home.
Yeah so, we losin' control,
Turn the lights low 'cause we about to get blown.
Let the club shut down, We won't go, oh, oh, oh!
Burn it down, To the flo, oh, oh, oh!
Day-o, me say day-o,
Daylight come and we don't wanna go home.

The song is becoming increasingly popular and the 21 year old African American singer is probably very talented since he attended Dillard Center for the Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York. He is an actor, dancer and singer-songwriter who studied ballet, opera and theatre. Born in Miami, Florida he is a child of Caribbean immigrants like Belafonte who popularised the Banana Boat Song more than 50 years and a few generations ago. Unlike Belafonte and many African American entertainers of his time who felt the need to positively represent their people it seems the younger generation do not think they have the same responsibility. This seemingly talented young African American man may not feel that he has a responsibility to preserve the history of the Banana Boat Song and that it is appropriate to use the refrain Day O in a song that if not encouraging and promoting, then at least glorifying drunken and anti-social behaviour.

Do African American artists have a responsibility to represent their culture in a positive manner? Or is it that in this often touted “post racial” society they think that “we have overcome” and that is no longer necessary? Is this the freedom for which freedom fighters including Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, Dr Martin Luther King Jr and the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey sacrificed their lives? There are quite a few examples of this kind of behaviour and mind set including a very popular entertainer encouraging the bleaching of our beautiful ebony skin. Garvey (August 17, 1887 – June 10, 1940) who said “Up you mighty race you can accomplish what you will” would most likely be shocked and disappointed to see that some people seem to include the addendum “and when you have accomplished disrespect and disregard your culture, people and history.”

EMANCIPATION DAY AUGUST MONDAY 2011

2011-08-01T20:58:00.000-07:00

On Monday, August 1st Torontonians will celebrate Simcoe Day in honour of John Graves Simcoe, Ontario’s first Lieutenant Governor. When Simcoe was appointed to the position Ontario was known as Upper Canada and Africans were held in slavery throughout this country. Slavery in Canada and throughout the British Empire was abolished on August 1st 1834 but lasted in a different form (apprenticeship) in British Guiana (Guyana) and the British occupied Caribbean Islands (enslaved Africans in Antigua were not subjected to an apprenticeship period) until August 1st, 1838. As quiet as it is kept enslaved Africans fought for their freedom and it was not granted through the benevolence and kind heartedness of white abolitionists. Some of the African abolitionists whose names are not widely known include Jamaican Robert Wedderburn, Nigerian Olaudah Equiano (Gustavus Vassa), Ghanaian Ottabah Guoano and Ignatius Sancho (supposedly born on a British slave ship off the coast of Guinea.) Simcoe’s claim to fame in the abolition movement occurred in 1793 when he attempted to abolish slavery in Upper Canada. He was not successful in his attempt because many of his peers including William Jarvis, Peter Russell, Alexander Grant, James Baby, Richard Cartwright and Robert Hamilton were slave holders.

Simcoe was galvanized into action when on March 14, 1793 an enslaved African woman Chloe Cooley resisted mightily as she was beaten, tied up, thrown into a boat and rowed across the Niagara River and sold in America. Chloe Cooley did not go quietly, she resisted with everything she had. Here was a woman who although she was a slave in Canada was being sold away from everyone she knew. Life as she knew it was at an end so she had nothing to lose. She screamed and fought her enslaver William Vrooman and two other white men as she was being brutalized, bound and thrown into the boat and rowed across the river from Upper Canada to America. Chloe Cooley’s plight was documented when Peter Martin, a free African man who had witnessed the outrage, made an official report to Simcoe and the Executive Council of Upper Canada at a meeting on March 21, 1793. On July 9, 1793 An Act to Prevent the further Introduction of Slaves and to limit the Term of Contracts for Servitude was passed in the House of Assembly of Upper Canada. Although Chloe Cooley was not saved from slavery, her resistance was the catalyst that led to the first piece of anti-slavery legislation in Canada which even though it did not free any enslaved African immediately it at least gave them hope that their descendants would one day be free.

Even though life did not change for those enslaved Africans living in Upper Canada (Ontario) the passing of the Act to Prevent the further Introduction of Slaves and to limit the Term of Contracts for Servitude meant that any enslaved African who escaped slavery in the US and made their way to Ontario was a free person. Naturally as the word spread enslaved Africans fled the US to freedom in Ontario and a community of free Africans lived in Ontario alongside their enslaved brethren and sistren which made for some strange relationships. An example was the Pompadour family where Mr. Pompadour was a free man while his wife Peggy and their children were owned by Peter Russell and his sister Elizabeth. According to the law in every country where Africans were enslaved, regardless of the origin of the enslavers including British, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese etc., the children of enslaved African women shared the mother’s enslaved status even if the father was the white slave holder. In the case of the Pompadour family, Peter Russell placed an advertisement in a York (Toronto) publication dated February 10, 1806 to sell his property Peggy, 40 years old ($150.00) and her son Jupiter 15 years old ($200.00) the wife and son of a free African man, Mr. Pompadour. Peter Russell was the member of the Ontario Legislature appointed to replace Simcoe when he left Ontario in 1796. As a member of the Family Compact and of the Executive and Legislative Councils of Ontario Russell was a power to be reckoned with in the province so it is not surprising that Simcoe’s attempt to abolish slavery in Ontario in 1793 was a failure.

The enslaved Africans who fled to Ontario seeking freedom after the passage of the 1793 Act to Prevent the further Introduction of Slaves and to limit the Term of Contracts for Servitude were not the first group of enslaved Africans to cross the border in search of freedom from slavery. The movement had gone in both directions even before 1793. In 1777 when Vermont abolished slavery, enslaved Africans fled Canada to freedom in Vermont. Following the American Revolution enslaved Africans who fought on the side of the British retreated to British North America (Canada) as members of the United Empire Loyalists. White members of the United Empire Loyalists brought enslaved Africans with them as their property so there were free and enslaved Africans in Canada. The well known story of the Underground Railroad which features Canada as a safe haven for enslaved Africans has another side; that of enslaved Africans in Canada who were not freed until August 1, 1834. The entire story needs to be told because there are people whose names decorate streets and buildings regardless of their role in the brutality and misery that was chattel slavery. Jarvis Street and Jarvis Collegiate both bear the name of a slave holder while there are no streets or buildings named in honour of African Canadians who contributed to the development of this city. Where is the Lucie and Thornton Blackburn (owners of Toronto’s first taxi cab business in 1836) building, street or square? Where is the William Peyton Hubbard (first African Canadian elected to public office in Toronto in 1894) building, street or square? It is a shame that in 2011 the International Year for People of African Descent there is hardly any recognition of the contributions Africans have made and even as we recognize August 1st as a holiday most Canadians do not know that the unpaid coerced labour of enslaved Africans contributed to the development of this country.

MARY CHURCH TERRELL

2011-08-01T20:48:00.000-07:00

It is impossible for any white person in the United States, no matter how sympathetic and broad, to realize what life would mean to him if his incentive to effort were suddenly snatched away. To the lack of incentive to effort, which is the awful shadow under which we live, may be traced the wreck and ruin of scores of colored youth. And surely nowhere in the world do oppression and persecution based solely on the color of the skin appear more hateful and hideous than in the capital of the United States, because the chasm between the principles upon which this Government was founded, in which it still professes to believe, and those which are daily practiced under the protection of the flag, yawn so wide and deep.
Excerpt from Mary Church Terrell’s speech What It Means to be Colored in the Capital of the U.S. delivered on October 10, 1906, at the United Women's Club, in Washington, D.C.

On July 21, 1896, Mary Church Terrell became the first President, of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, Inc. (NACWC) which was organized in Washington D.C. at the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church. On Sunday, January 18, 2009, two days before his historic Tuesday, January 20, 2009 inauguration President – elect Barack Obama and his family attended services at the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, one of the oldest historically Black churches in Washington D.C.

The founding of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, Inc. (NACWC) was the result of a merger of two national organizations; The Colored Women's League and the National Federation of Afro-American Women. The launch of NACWC in 1896 just 31 years after slavery was abolished in the USA marked the beginning of a new era of activism for African American women. Mary Church Terrell (September 23, 1863 – July 24, 1954) the child of formerly enslaved Africans was born just 2 years before slavery ended in the USA (January 31, 1865.) As the oldest child of Robert Reed Church who has been frequently described as the first African American millionaire Church Terrell was fortunate to have access to education even to post secondary level. She received a Bachelor's degree from Oberlin College in 1884 and after a two year tour (she was a product of the education system of the 1800s) traveling throughout Europe she returned to Oberlin College where she received her Master’s degree in 1888.

Church Terrell was an activist and educator who taught at Wilberforce University in Xenia, Ohio and at the M Street High School, a secondary school for African Americans in Washington, D. C. As an activist she advocated for an end to the Jim Crow Law, lynching and the convict lease system. In the June 1904 issue of the North American Review in an article entitled "Lynching from a Negro's Point of View” she wrote: Before 1904 was three months old, thirty-one negroes had been lynched. Of this number, fifteen were murdered within one week in Arkansas, and one was shot to death in Springfield, Ohio, by a mob composed of men who did not take the trouble to wear masks. Hanging, shooting, and burning black men, women and children in the United States have become so common that such occurrences create but little sensation and evoke but slight comment now. This dreadful American plague had touched Church Terrell’s family when in 1866 her father was attacked by a mob of white people jealous of his success as the wealthy owner of a hotel, restaurant and saloon. He was shot and left for dead but recovered and remaining in Memphis, Tennessee despite continued rabid anti-African racism and violence eventually built Church’s Park and Auditorium which seated 2,000 people and was a cultural, recreational and civic center for African Americans.

Although today the name Mary Church Terrell is not well known she is one of my sheroes as an activist in the civil rights movement (during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) and the campaign for women's right to vote. In 1895 Church Terrell was the first African American woman appointed to the District of Columbia’s Board of Education and in 1949 (at age 86) she became the first African American woman admitted to the Washington chapter of the American Association of University Women. In her Address Before The National American Women's Suffrage Association on February 18, 1898 entitled The Progress Of Colored Women Ms Church Terrell is quoted: And so, lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go, struggling and striving, and hoping that the buds and blossoms of our desires will burst into glorious fruition ere long. With courage, born of success achieved in the past, with a keen sense of the responsibility which we shall continue to assume, we look forward to a future large with promise and hope. Seeking no favors because of our color, nor patronage because of our needs, we knock at the bar of justice, asking an equal chance. Her autobiography, A Colored Woman in a White World, was published in 1940 when she was 77 years old. The only copy of this book (which was reprinted in 1996) available at the Toronto Public Library (TPL) is a reference only copy at the Toronto Reference Library.

In 1950 Church Terrell launched a campaign to integrate restaurants in Washington D.C., after she and other African American colleagues were refused service at one of the restaurants of the John R. Thompson Restaurant chain. They filed a lawsuit against the segregated John R. Thompson Restaurant chain and during the three years pending a decision in District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co., Church Terrell targeted other segregated restaurants with boycotts, picketing and sit-ins. The campaign was eventually successful after a set-back in early 1953. The February 5, 1953 edition of Jet Magazine reported under the headline US Court Upholds D.C Cafe Jim Crow: “Barring of Negroes in Washington D.C., restaurants was ruled legal by the U.S Court of Appeals. By a 5 – 4 decision in a case involving a Thompson’s Restaurant, the court upheld segregation and said that laws of 1873 which bar Jim Crow are now invalid.” It was not until June 8, 1953, that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated eating establishments in Washington, DC were unconstitutional.

The following year, on July 24, 1954, (17 months before Rosa Parks began her journey into Civil Rights history on December 1, 1955) Mary Church Terrell transitioned to be with the ancestors after a life of almost 91 years many of which were spent as an activist and advocate for the civil rights of African Americans. Her life’s work has benefited millions who are unaware that she even existed. It is important that we recognize and remember our heroes and sheroes especially during this International Year for People of African Descent.

GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER

2011-08-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

On July 14, 1943, African American scientist George Washington Carver was honoured with a National Monument in recognition of his work in Biochemical Engineering. It was the first national monument dedicated to an African American and the first to an American who was not a US President. In his 1989 published book George Washington Carver Botanist Gene Adair writes: “On July 14, 1943 Carver joined US Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as the only Americans to have their birthplace designated as a national monument.” It was not the first honour Carver had received from the White House; in 1939 he received the Roosevelt Medal for restoring southern agriculture. The estimated year of Carver’s birth is 1864, one year before slavery was abolished in the US. He was born on a farm in Diamond Grove, Missouri. Carver, his mother Mary and his older brother Jim were owned by a white man and his wife, Moses and Susan Carver. The white Carvers had bought Mary in 1835 when she was about 13 years old and they owned her and her children even after slavery was abolished. There is no information about Carver’s father but there has been speculation that it was actually Moses Carver, the owner of Mary and her two surviving children. Not a far fetched speculation given the proliferation of rape of enslaved African women by the white families who were their owners and the owners’ relatives and friends.

The bill of sale Moses Carver received from William P. McGinnis when he bought Mary reads: “Received of Moses Carver seven hundred dollars in full consideration for a Negro girl named Mary age about thirteen years who I warrant to be sound in body and mind and a slave for life. Given under my hand and seal this 9th day of October AD 1835.” The historians tell us that when Carver was a baby, he and his mother were kidnapped by “slave raiders” and while the baby was recovered, Mary was never seen again by her children. This is the story Carver was told about the absence of his mother; the story he believed and repeated. Mary’s two children George and Jim Carver remained with the Moses Carver household as unpaid labour even though slavery was abolished.

Carver did not receive formal education until he was 12 years old. There were no schools in his neighbourhood that would accept an African American child so he moved to Neosho in Newton County, southwest Missouri, where he worked on a farm and attended school. He spent many years traveling and doing odd jobs including farming, cooking and laundering clothes. He was 15 years old in 1879 when he witnessed a white mob lynch an African American man in Fort Scott, Kansas. That traumatic incident caused him to flee the area even at the risk of not completing his education. After completing his high school education at Minneapolis High School in Minneapolis, Kansas he applied and received a letter of acceptance to Highland College in Highland, Kansas. In September 1885 when he arrived at Highland College he was refused entrance because the college’s administration had not known he was African American when they sent him the letter of acceptance. It was not until September 1890 that he gained acceptance to Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, where he was the first African American student. Carver studied piano and art because the college did not offer science classes. He later transferred to Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) in 1891, where he gained a Bachelor of Science degree in 1894 and a Master of Science degree in 1896. Carver then became the first African American faculty member at Iowa College. Carver left Iowa College at the urging of Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for Negroes (now Tuskegee University) one of the 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the US. Washington convinced Carver to travel south to Alabama and serve as the school's Director of Agriculture.

After becoming the institute's Director of Agricultural research, Carver devoted his time to research projects seeking to improve Southern agriculture. He conducted experiments in soil management and crop production and directed an experimental farm. At the time farmers in the Deep South mostly cultivated one crop – cotton- which had left the soil of many fields exhausted and almost worthless. Carver urged Southern farmers to plant peanuts, peas and soybeans to restore nitrogen to the soil. Carver developed the crop rotation method, which alternated nitrate producing legumes, such as peanuts, peas and soybeans, with cotton, which depletes soil of its nutrients. Carver developed 325 different uses for the extra peanuts, from cooking oil to printer’s ink. When he discovered that the sweet potato and the pecan also enriched depleted soils, Carver found almost 20 uses for the pecan, including making cheese, milk, coffee, flour, ink, dyes, plastics, wood stains, soap, linoleum, medicinal oils and cosmetics. He also found 118 uses for the sweet potato, including making flour, vinegar, molasses, rubber, ink, postage stamp glue, a synthetic rubber and material for paving highways.

In 1914, at a time when the boll weevil had almost ruined cotton growers, Carver revealed his experiments to the public and southern farmers soon began planting peanuts one year and cotton the next. Many southern farmers also began planting sweet potatoes and increased their income. The exhausted land was renewed and the South became a major new supplier of agricultural products. When Carver arrived at Tuskegee in 1896, the peanut had not even been recognized as a crop, but within the next half century it became one of the six leading crops throughout the USA; and in the South it was the second cash crop (after cotton) by 1940. Carver's efforts helped liberate the South from its excessive dependence on cotton. Carver received many honours in recognition of his work including election to Britain's Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce in 1916 and the Spingarn Medal in 1923.

Carver’s life story is documented in several children’s books available at the Toronto Public Library (TPL) and bookstores. While enjoying the dancing, drumming, food and other facets of African culture at Afrofest on Sunday, I was fortunate to find at Nile Valley Books a beautifully illustrated children’s book about Carver’s life, A Man for All Seasons; The Life of George Washington Carver by Stephen Krensky, published in 2008.

ENJOY SUMMERTIME IN TORONTO 2011!

2011-07-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

If you did not attend the Aretha Franklin concert on June 24 you missed a treat. Technically it was not an Aretha Franklin concert but the 18,000 people at Metro Square on June 24 were there to see and hear the Queen of Soul. Imagine people lining up at 10:00 in the morning for an advertised 8:30 concert. Those were some dedicated Aretha fans. I did not get there until 6:45 p.m. not being familiar with the rules of early arrival for concerts. I thought 6:45 was early for an 8:30 concert but I have learned my lesson. The Queen of Soul’s performance kicked off the TD Jazz Festival and the performance was free. It is not often that a concert by a world class performer like Ms Franklin is free. She lived up to her title Queen of Soul with a fabulous, flawless 90 minute performance that had people of all ages and abilities dancing and singing. Only a few hundred lucky people saw her perform in person, the other more than 17,000 of us had to be satisfied with viewing the performance on large screens. The performance began at a bit past 10:00 p.m. which meant that some of those dedicated fans had been waiting for 12 hours! I admire Aretha Franklin’s talent and love her music but not 12 hours of standing-in-line-waiting worth of admiration and love. I did sit on the ground for more than two hours though which is something I had not done since I was a ten year old member of Girl Guides in New Amsterdam, Berbice, Guyana. It was well worth the sacrifice though. The Queen of Soul treated us to some of the old classics including Natural Woman, Giving him something he can feel, Think, I say a little prayer and How Long I’ve Been Waiting one of her newest pieces from her 2011 album Aretha: A Woman Falling Out of Love. What a wonderful start to the summer!

The weather is cooperating beautifully so far and there is so much more to come. This weekend (for the final time if City Hall gets its way) Africa will be brought to Toronto, at Queens Park. Afrofest, the annual celebration of African culture which has brought thousands of Africa loving visitors to Queens Park, has received their walking papers from City Hall. Afrofest, which is the first ever festival held at Queens Park beginning in 1990, has been evicted from Queens Park. The July 9 and 10 Afrofest is supposed to be the last that will be held at Queens Park. In January 2011 the organizers of Afrofest were informed by the powers that be at City Hall that they would not be allowed to hold Afrofest at Queens Park in July. Music Africa the group that organizes Afrofest wrote to the city asking them to reconsider and received a letter from the City’s Parks Department in March informing them that they would not receive a permit to stage Afrofest at Queens Park. On April 22 a Support Afrofest Concert was held at the Centre for Culture and Arts, 918 Bathurst Street. It seems that one of the reasons for refusing the permit is the success of Afrofest. In an article published by CBC News on March 16, 2011, Richard Ubbens, the director of Toronto's Parks Department is quoted: "The number of people and success of the festival is partly working against itself in that the park is too small for such a huge, huge crowd." Wasn’t that the reason Caribana was moved from University Avenue to Lakeshore? Watch out now! Well it seems that Music Africa and its supporters have been able to convince the City politicians to permit this last staging of Afrofest at Queens Park. Since this will most likely be the final Afrofest staged at Queens Park make sure you attend this 2011 Afrofest and shake something.

As wonderful as the various summer festivals are, many of us do not attend festivals and prefer other ways of enjoying the summer. Reading is an excellent summer activity especially for our children and young people who are out of school and away from formal education for the next 8 weeks (back to school Tuesday, September 6.) Encourage them to read for fun and to learn about our heroes and sheroes, those well known, little known and unsung. One of those heroes Dr Daniel Hale Williams (January 18, 1856 – August 4, 1931) made history when he performed the first successful heart surgery on July 9, 1893. His achievements were extraordinary for an African American who was born before slavery was abolished in the USA on January 31, 1865. Dr Hale Williams received his medical degree from the Chicago Medical College in 1883 and established the Provident Hospital and Training School on May 4, 1891. I could only find two books written for children about Dr Hale Williams: Sure Hands, Strong Heart: The Life of Daniel Hale Williams by Lillie Patterson published in 1981 and Daniel Hale Williams: Surgeon Who Opened Hearts and Minds (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Inventors and Scientists) by Mike Venezia published in 2010. Unfortunately, neither book is available at the Toronto Public Library (TPL.)

Good news! The TPL has several children’s books about the little known history of Africans in Canada including The children of Africville by Christine Welldon published 2009, Last Days in Africville by Dorothy Perkyns published 2003, To stand and fight together: Richard Pierpoint and the coloured corps of Upper Canada by Steve Pitt published 2008, The kids book of Black Canadian history by Rosemary Sadlier published 2003, The Black Canadians: their history and contributions by Velma Carter published 1993, Viola Desmond Won’t be budged by Jody Warner published 2010, Crossing to freedom by Virginia Frances Schwartz published 2010 and John Ware by Ian Hundey published 2006. Enjoy the great summer weather and the summer festivals, read with your children and encourage them to read.

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD!

2011-07-13T12:11:00.000-07:00

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom, for me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

I see skies of blue, and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces, of people going by
I see friends shaking hands, saying, "How do you do?"
They're really saying, "I love you"

I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more, than I'll ever know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

Louis Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971) recorded What A Wonderful World in 1967, it was released as a single and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. What A Wonderful World was appropriately the song of choice at the recent Childcare Centre graduation ceremony that I attended. The Childcare Centre which accepts children from 2 ½ to 9 years old held their graduation ceremony on June 22. There were proud parents, grandparents and other relatives at the graduation ceremony and several excited and proud graduates. The 12 preschool graduates who will be starting Junior Kindergarten next year sang “Kindergarten Here We Come” with gusto. They all knew the words which is a testament to the excellent work of the staff who teach and care for these little ones. The 13 kindergarteners proudly recited the poem “I Know Numbers.” The seven school age students performed an African Caribbean dance choreographed by Ms Stacy-Ann Vassell-Whiteley, Artistic Director of Elite Dance Company Inc. I was there to cheer and take photographs of my little ones Jenaejah, Iiliyah, Taiwo and Kehinde.

There they were along with all the other children beaming proudly, dressed in their black trousers (the girls wore trousers too) and white tops. They all looked like they were ready to graduate from university with their mortarboards, complete with tassels, perched on their heads. As they stepped up one after the other to receive their certificates; parents, grandparents and other relatives were recording the historic occasion. That first graduation ceremony only happens once in a lifetime so it was important to record the event for posterity. There will be other graduation ceremonies but there can only be one first. The Spanish cellist (born to a Puerto Rican mother) Pau Casals (December 29, 1876 – October 22, 1973) is credited with this quote: And what do we teach our children? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work--we must all work--to make the world worthy of its children. How appropriate that the words of a man whose life spanned two centuries (1800s to 1900s) is relevant to the lives of our children in the 21st century, some of who may very well live into the next century. With the advances in technology it is very possible that many of those born in the 21st century will have the opportunity to live well into their 90s.

As African people living in North America in the 21st century we need to let our children know that they are marvels, unique, have the capacity to achieve anything and maybe when they grow up none of them will want to harm another who is also a marvel. We begin the process when we celebrate their achievements like the Childcare Centre did, supported by the parents, grandparents and other family members who attended the graduation on June 22. Every child felt appreciated and valued when they stepped up amid cheers to receive their certificate. These children of the 21st century will have a different life experience from the ones of their parents and grandparents. The words of What A Wonderful World brought to mind that the children graduating on June 22 are growing up in a world their ancestors could hardly have imagined. As recently as the 1970s there were no cell phones. Regardless of the fact that the first cell phone was invented in the 1970s the things were so big, clumsy and expensive that they might as well not have existed. Today cell phones can fit in the palm of our hands and our children born in the 21st century are so technologically savvy that a two year old can use a cell phone. This is the stuff of which 1950s science fiction was imagined.

Our children and grandchildren of the 21st century were born into a technological world and are comfortable with cell phones, computers, the Internet, text messaging, Gameboys, PlayStations, Ipods etc.,. To them, it is all a normal method of communicating, learning and playing. Research confirms that while children enjoy playing games on computers, they also develop skills in communications, creative writing and research. While adults born before the 1980s may feel that we live in a world where the use of technology is accelerating at warp speed, to our 21st century children and grandchildren cell phones, video games and social networks are a part of everyday life. On June 22 as the next generation; Jenaejah, Iiliyah, Taiwo, Kehinde and all the other children received their certificates at their Childcare Centre graduation ceremony Louis Armstrong’s words were very appropriate:
I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more, than I'll ever know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

ARETHA FRANKLIN IN TORONTO JUNE 24, 2011

2011-06-25T00:25:00.000-07:00

Aretha made me do it! That’s right “the” Aretha Franklin the Queen of Soul. The whole thing began innocently enough with an e-mail from one of the other programmers at CKLN 88.1 FM. That is who we were at the time (now www.ckln.fm). The e-mail informed me that the Toronto Dominion Jazz Festival would be headlined by a free concert with Aretha Franklin. Well! A free concert with the Queen of Soul performing! I knew that come hell or high water I had to attend. Now understand that I had never attended any Jazz Festival event in the many decades I have lived in Toronto but this was a not to be missed event. I thought about this for weeks and told everyone I knew about it. I was a bit concerned when I read a few days before the event that the organizers were expecting 10,000 people to attend the concert. Visions of overcrowding and people stampeding and knocking me over, trampling me in their rush to see the Queen danced through my mind. I gave myself a good talking to and decided I would risk it just to see the Queen herself.

Friday, June 24 dawned not so bright; rain and clouds ruled the morning. I was still thinking about those 10,000 people who might attend the concert and I also thought about the wet ground that would result from the intermittent showers. However by 5:00 p.m. I had made up my mind very firmly that I would attend the concert. Since the information I was given had put the start time of the concert at 8:00 p.m. I thought if I arrived at the venue before 7:00 p.m. I would be early enough to get a seat at the front (my preferred location whenever I attend any event.) When I arrived at Metro Square at 6:45 p.m. there was quite a crowd including a long line-up of people attempting to enter a large tent. As I looked at the line I knew there was no way I was joining that long line. I made my way over to where a group of people were sitting facing a stage with a photograph of Aretha Franklin displayed and information that identified the stage as the Toronto Star stage. There were no seats except those that several people had brought from home. Well being a very enterprising person, I gathered some copies of the free newspapers and spread them on the ground quite close to the stage and sat down to await the arrival of Ms Franklin. In conversation with a woman who was sitting in her brought from home chair I received the sad information that Ms Franklin would be performing under the large tent and those of us sitting in front of the Toronto Star stage would not see her perform live but we would see the performance on the big screen that graced the stage. I was disappointed but much as I love the Queen of Soul I was not getting up to join that long line. It would not have done me any good anyway because my new friend told me that people had been lining up since 10:00 a.m. and then they were allowed into the tent beginning at 4:00 p.m. Wow! There was no hope that I would get under that tent to see the live performance so I settled down to wait for 8:00 p.m.

At 8:30 p.m. we heard that the performance would begin at 9:30 p.m. Well, at 9:30 p.m. we were still waiting. Happily there was a young man who entertained us in the meantime. He was a good singer but we were there to see and listen to Aretha Franklin. Anyway, at 10:00 p.m. there she was! Yeah! The cheers, screams, people were standing up in front of me so I could not even see the performance on the big screen. I had to stand up also. The performance was amazing. I danced throughout the performance. I did not know that I would remember those dance steps from my teenage years but I did! Wow! What a night.

By now you might be wondering what as I mentioned at the beginning of all this did Aretha make me do. Well let me tell you. I had not sat on the ground in decades. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I do not do very well even at outdoor events where there are chairs because I am always looking out for creepy crawlies and at the first sight of one (or even if I imagine there is one) I have been known to begin screaming blue murder and running away from the sight and site. But there I was sitting with just some sheets of newspapers protecting my behind from the damp ground because of Aretha. The last time I sat on the ground I was a ten year old member of Girl Guides in New Amsterdam, Berbice, Guyana. Now many decades later I was willingly subjecting my behind to this mistreatment all because of Aretha.

That is not the end of the matter though. I had always prided myself and promised myself that I would never chase after a celebrity like some star struck fan. Never say never! When the performance finally ended there I was with my camera aimed in the direction that we all guessed (the presence of police and security was a dead give away) Ms Franklin would appear. In preparation I had deleted photographs of family members (I saved them on my computer) to ensure I had lots of room for the photographs I planned to take of the Queen of Soul. As she appeared in the buggy driven by her security people I did not have an opportunity to get a photograph of her because a young woman who was part of the event security pushed me aside (very rude) and spoiled the photograph. I had to delete it. Instead of leaving to go home (it was way past my bedtime) I found myself chasing after the buggy (I do not know what possessed me!) The buggy stopped in front of three trailers and there I was; me and a host of other people trying unsuccessfully to take pictures of Ms Franklin (thwarted by security.) Would you believe I stood there (with many other people) until almost 1:00 a.m. hoping that Ms Franklin would make an appearance so that I could get a proper photograph of her? When she did appear there was no opportunity to get a photograph of her because of the security people. I felt especially bad for a woman in a wheel chair who had been patiently waiting along with the rest of us. She was almost in tears because she did not get that photograph she wanted so badly. I found myself waiting for the subway train at 1:19 a.m and eventually got home at 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning. Still without a photograph of Aretha Franklin but the performance was amazing, she is a true Queen of Soul! I hope I have an opportunity to see her again and to get a photograph. I live in hope!

BLACK MUSIC MONTH 2011

2011-06-25T00:05:00.000-07:00

We are halfway through the United Nations’ designated International Year for People of African Descent and still not a word from any level of government here in Canada in recognition of the year. We are more than halfway through Black Music Month and although the month has been recognized with a proclamation by the Mayor of Toronto for more than 20 years, Rob Ford has not seen fit to continue the tradition. It would seem there is a message here for us. Not to worry, we have overcome way more than this seeming disrespect and neglect. As a people we survived more than four hundred years of brutal, horrific chattel slavery. We are here today because we are the survivors. As Robert “Bob” Nesta Marley sang in his song Survival (released 1979): We're the survivors, yes the Black survivors! Yes, we're the survivors, like Daniel out of the lions' den Black survivors. And music was used as a survival tool by enslaved Africans; whether it was chanting, singing work songs or religious songs. Whether Africans were enslaved by the British in Barbados, Guyana and Jamaica, the French in Haiti, the Portuguese in Brazil or the Spanish in Argentina, Colombia and Peru, our music comforted, encouraged and fired the imagination. Even in the midst of the brutality, horror and terror of slavery our music contributed to how we survived. The African traditions of the griot was transported on the slave ships and survived the many generations and hundreds of years of disconnect to give birth to calypsonians and dub poets. From Peru, the powerful poetry of Nicomedes Santa Cruz (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZoqLcWfsjc) and his sister Victoria Santa Cruz (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfQ-cJ6DTdE) is comparable to the poetry of Bob Marley as he urges us to “Chant Down Babylon” or Maya Angelou as she encourages us to understand “Why the Caged Bird Sings” or why “Our Grandmothers” would not be moved.

Recognizing the similarities of our experience (regardless of our birthplace) as African people who have used music to survive; in his May 28, 2010 proclamation for African American Music Appreciation Month US President Barack Obama wrote: Throughout our history, African-American music has conveyed the hopes and hardships of a people who have struggled, persevered and overcome. Through centuries of injustice, music comforted slaves, fueled a cultural renaissance, and sustained a movement for equality. Today, from the shores of Africa and the islands of the Caribbean to the jazz clubs of New Orleans and the music halls of Detroit, African-American music reflects the rich sounds of many experiences, cultures, and locales

Not everyone understands that this as a “Black thing.” In his 1999 published book A Change Is Gonna Come: Music Race & The Soul of America white American professor Craig Werner writes: “It’s not just a black thing. When West Africans confronted the nightmare realities of slavery, they improvised ways of surviving that have come down to us through the voices of Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke, the instruments of Jimi Hendrix and John Coltrane, and the communal explorations of Sly and the Family Stone and the Wu Tang Clan. While those strategies are grounded in the specific history of blacks in what Bob Marley called “Babylon,” they’re available to anyone who doesn’t call Babylon home. Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, and Steve Cropper have their place in the story.” Werner whose biography proclaims that he is a professor of Afro-American Studies and teaches courses on Black Music and American Cultural History follows a well known European tradition of claiming and renaming racialized people’s culture and history. Admittedly the good professor has named some names in his book and has received high praise from a couple of African American professors including Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. However, in spite of efforts to pretend that white people can understand or share in our history of brutal oppression where we were stripped of everything including our names and language, our experience is unique. Our music documents this horrific experience, whether in calypso by Slinger “the Mighty Sparrow” Francisco: I’m a slave from a land so far. I was caught and I was brought here from Africa or reggae by Bob Marley: Ole pirates yes they rab I, sold I to the merchant ships minutes after they took I from the bottomless pit. Who else has a history of gazing for the last time at the land of their birth after being brutally torn away from friends and family, forced en-masse onto slave ships and taken on a terrifying journey into the unknown at the mercy of strange looking people who would rip families apart by selling children away from parents? Many never completed that journey, murdered or starved to death on the voyage into hell; because hell is what the ones who survived encountered when they arrived at journey’s end. Many were unceremoniously thrown overboard to perish in the Atlantic and it has been said that if the waters of the Atlantic disappeared we could walk on the bones of our ancestors from here all the way back to Africa. Sharks followed those ships because they could be sure of a meal of African bodies. Countless others were worked to death within five to seven years, especially in the cane fields of Brazil and the Caribbean.

The music that comes out of that experience is black music which no other group can claim. Yes it is a black thing, it is black music. Others may offer a pale copy of black music but let us be clear that anything else (rock and roll, rock etc.,) offered by anyone else (Elvis Presley, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Eminem etc.,) is an imitation of black music regardless of what it is renamed or how it is repackaged. An article published the June 2003 edition of Ebony Magazine with the headline Why White stars are ripping off rap and R&B says it very well. “Al Jolson did it in the 1920s. Sophie Tucker did it in the 1930s. Elvis Presley did it in the 1950s, and the Beatles and Rolling Stones did it in the 1960s. This disturbed a number of people who said, with Langston Hughes, "You've taken my blues, and my jazz, and my gospel, and gone." And the taking is not over. For in 2003, White singers and performers are still looting the historically Black music sanctuary of hip-hop, R&B, soul jazz and the blues. Dwight Edwards, associate professor of music at Atlanta's Emory University, says it's shamefully ironic that throughout the annals of time, White artists with limited talent and vast resources have become fast millionaires by impersonating Black performers, whereas some of the greatest Black artists, performers and lyrical geniuses die practically penniless.”

It is almost the end of June but you can still celebrate Black Music Month by attending the free performance of the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin on Friday, June 24 at 55 John Street. For more on Black Music Month visit www.ckln.fm on Tuesday nights 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. throughout June.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY! 2011 HERI YA SIKU YA KINA BABA!

2011-06-25T00:03:00.000-07:00

When I was a child and even a young adult I never thought about the importance of my father’s presence in my life. I did take stock when as an adult attending an event in Toronto a few years ago I listened to a man speaking about the hurt and betrayal he felt at the lack of his father’s presence in his life. I recently read an essay on fatherhood written by US President Barack Obama and realised that I was fortunate to have had my father as a constant presence in my life from childhood to adulthood. Like the man who spoke about his father’s absence from his life, President Obama lamented the lack of his father’s presence also. He acknowledged that he has made efforts to be a presence in his children’s lives because his father was not there for him. In his essay President Obama expressed that he has grown to understand what his daughter's need from him as a father. He wrote: "Through my own experiences, and my continued efforts to be a better father, I have learned something over the years about what children need most from their parents. They need our time, measured not only in the number of hours we spend with them each day, but what we do with those hours. I’ve learned that children don’t just need us physically present, but emotionally available – willing to listen and pay attention and participate in their daily lives.” Sometimes men make various excuses for their non-presence in the lives of their children not realizing the hurt this causes to the children throughout their lives. There are also many men who are very involved in their children’s lives and even act as role models and father figures for fatherless children. There are fathers who feel that taking care of their children is a baby-sitting chore and there are fathers who take absolute joy in parenting their children.

This year we celebrate our fathers and father figures on Sunday, June 19. When we hear about men who are shining examples of fatherhood they are mostly famous fathers like President Obama, Bill Cosby, Samuel Jackson, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and Dr. Ben Carson. However, there are many men in our community whose names and faces might never appear on television, in a book or magazine who are very involved in their children’s lives and are excellent examples of fatherhood. These fathers spend quality time with their children and are caring, loving parents. There were several of these fathers attending the recent Muhtadi International Drumming Festival at Queens Park. One young father Kwabena was there with his wife and children, 7 year old Makeba and 4 year old twins Abena and Kwabena. It was obvious that Kwabena is a caring and loving father who is very involved in his children’s lives. The children were comfortable accessing Dad’s arms, back, lap and shoulders when they were tired of dancing and playing. On Saturday, June 11 as I was traveling to Kipling subway station I noticed a young African Canadian man who appeared to be in his late 20s traveling with his son who seemed to be about 3 years old. This young man was very patient with the antics of his child, answered his many questions and even allowed the little boy to play games on his cell phone. What a confident, happy child he was having the undivided attention of his father! At Kipling subway station as I was trying to find my way to the passenger pick-up area I spoke with a very helpful father and son team who steered me in the right direction. The very confident and chatty 7 year old Delano told me that he was planning to buy a Father’s Day gift for his Dad.

My father was a very young man (early 20s) and my mother still in her teenage years when they were married so when I was born they were both very young parents. As the first born child of my parents I had a very special relationship with my parents and grandparents. I heard many stories from relatives about the special relationship I enjoyed with my father when I was a baby and toddler. One of my favourite memories is of my father rescuing me from the flooded school yard of Kitty Methodist School on William Street, Kitty in Georgetown, Guyana. I was about 6 years old and although we lived next to the school on that day of the flood my mother with two younger children could not leave them at home to get me from school. The sight of all that muddy water which drove us to the top floor of the school was a scary sight for a 6 year old. Then there came my Papa, striding through the muddy water, still dressed in his police uniform, lifted me up on his shoulders and took me home. I cannot remember a time during my childhood when I was not proud of my very handsome, always nattily dressed father who in my estimation stood head and shoulders above everyone else’s father. A recent anonymous quote I read which made me chuckle may have been some people’s experience but was never mine: When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.

Children blossom when they are loved and feel loved by their parents and other adults in their lives but no-one however well meaning can replace the presence of a caring dedicated father in a child’s life. In the North American culture the ideal images of a family to which we are all treated is the nuclear family with a father, mother and children. Television sit-coms like The Cosby Show and other television images tell us that is the ideal. Growing up in Guyana where there were extended families and even blended families where children who were not related biologically were members of extended families it did not seem to have the same effect on children who did not have a biological father in their lives. Speaking with some of those people who now live in North America and are influenced by the television images, they cite the lack of a father when they fail to achieve the “North American dream” life.

At the recent birthday party my niece held for her son Ameen’s 5th birthday the family gathered (minus Papa) who decided to move back to Guyana to enjoy his retirement. I admired the younger generation of fathers in my family interacting with their children, their nieces, nephews and other young relatives. I realised how many years have passed because there was LeAndre our very first nephew, like me so many years ago, the first born of our family’s next generation. I commented: “It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating LeAndre’s 5th birthday now he is a father.” My nephew, like many of his generation, is a proud father, very caring, loving and involved. To all the fathers and father figures, Heri ya siku ya kina Baba! Happy Fathers Day!

MUHTADI DRUMMING FESTIVAL - A HEALING PLACE

2011-06-25T00:02:00.000-07:00

I had looked forward to the weekend of June 4 and 5 being a wonderful and enlightening weekend. It was the first weekend of Black Music Month 2011. Preparing to write this article I attended several music related events on the weekend beginning with the 12th Muhtadi International Drumming Festival on June 4. I got there too early and not much was happening so I went to the bookstore Accents on Eglinton (1790 Eglinton Avenue West) where there was an all day celebration of Afro-Peruvian culture. My main reason for going to this event was to learn more about the Afro-Peruvian singer Susana Baca. I first read about Susana Baca in 2002 when she won the Latin Grammy Award (from the Latin Recording Academy) for Best Folk Album for her Lamento Negro CD. There was much more to learn about Afro-Peruvian culture and the contribution of the Afro-Peruvian community to the culture of Peru. Much of the dance moves, music and some musical instruments of Peru have obvious but mostly unrecognized African roots. The history of Africans in the Americas is mostly ignored and so are the contributions except in sports, dance and music.
The celebration of June as Black Music Month began in June 1979 when then President Jimmy Carter signed the first proclamation. He did so at the urging of Kenny Gamble (of the famous songwriting team, Gamble & Huff) and Ed Wright who are the founders of the Black Music Association. In 2000, the United States government officially recognized Black Music Month after radio personality Dyana Williams and Congressman Chaka Fattah tirelessly worked to get the African American Music Bill (House Resolution 509) passed through legislation. On June 2, 2009 President Barack Obama declared June African-American Music Appreciation Month. Part of the proclamation reads: The African-American music tradition also reflects creativity and individualism. Blues, jazz, soul, and rock and roll synthesize various musical traditions to create altogether new sounds. Their novel chord progressions, improvisation, and mood showcase individual musicians while also creating a cohesive musical unit. During African-American Music Appreciation Month, we recall the known and unknown musicians who helped create this musical history.

I thought about President Obama’s words from his 2009 proclamation as I sat in a room at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) on Sunday June 5. I had read that there would be a discussion about jazz by a Jonnie Bakan who teaches jazz history at the University of Western Ontario and since I intended to write about “Black Music” which includes jazz I left Queens Park to the sounds of amazing drumming and walked over to OISE.

The topic of discussion was advertised as Jazz and the Popular Front: The Making of 'America's Classical Music' where this jazz “expert” (since he is teaching the subject he must have some expertise) would discuss “how the re-articulation of jazz as a respected form of American "Classical Music" was only made possible by, and mediated through, the growing working class movement of the depression era.” The discussion was also to educate us about the fact that although today jazz is considered a classical American Music genre “jazz did not always command this kind of lofty cultural status. On the contrary, in the early decades of the twentieth century the music that came to be called "jazz" was widely disparaged as a "lowbrow" form of entertainment, frequently associated with moral depravity, and openly feared as an expression of "the Negro influence" in American culture.” Even after reading all that I was not prepared for what I encountered (after all the presenter was an educator at one of Canada’s institutions of higher learning.) The good “professor” spoke about the role of communism and European labour activists in lifting jazz to where it is today as an American classical art form. He spoke about the dreadful images of minstrelsy when white people dressed in blackface and denigrated the culture of African Americans (he did not mention that all the while they were stealing the art form.) I was a bit alarmed when he showed some of those disturbing images. What finally caused me to leave the room in disgust and despair was; after mentioning a few times that he intended to show a video where Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong was dressed as a “jungle savage” the good “professor” proceeded to show the video. He explained that at the time the recording was done (1932) many African American performers played the stereotypical roles portrayed in the video including lazy, shiftless men complete with bulging eyes, making inarticulate sounds. After observing two white men in the room giggling at the images on the screen the good “professor” pointed out that even though the images might be funny the video showcased Armstrong’s talent as a musician. I commented that the images were not funny instead I found them disgusting. I was surprised that no one else in the room (of mainly white progressive, left leaning even some socialists) objected to the images. Ignoring my comment and obvious discomfort with the images the good professor carried on blithely showing the disturbing images. However those images were enough for me. I could not subject myself to more abuse and spirit injury. Instead I quietly left the room, desperately clinging to my temper; I was not going to lose it because I knew that just 10 minutes away the 12th Muhtadi International Drumming Festival was in full swing. That is where I returned to forget the nastiness and spirit injury I had experienced in that room at OISE.

The energetic, talented members of the Ngoma Dance and Drum Ensemble were performing when I returned to Queens Park. What an amazingly talented group of young people! The healing process for me had begun and continued as I allowed the spirit of the drum to move me. By the time the Muhtadi World Drummers finished performing Arima Tonight, Sangre Grande Tomorrow Night (a calypso first sung by Wilmoth Houdini in 1931) I was ready to relegate the dreadful spirit injuring experience to the back of my mind. I was too busy dancing to the healing power of the drumbeat to let anyone steal my joy of being alive and capable of moving to the beat of the drum. The upbeat mood and skilled performances by the Tivoli Drummers visiting from Grenada and the Baro Dununba drummers was icing on the cake (we were also celebrating Muhtadi’s birthday but somebody forgot the cake.) The annual drumming festival turned out to be more than a healing place for me it was also a family get-together with some of my sistren including Amma Ofori, Nzingha Saul and Sistah Afiya. We almost “mash up the place” but it was for a good cause.

That experience reminded me of the importance of self care. We as African people have to guard ourselves against spirit injury sometimes by leaving an injurious situation. Before I left that room at OISE I did think about waiting until the end of the presentation and fully expressing my feelings to educate people with white skin privilege about the injurious nature of their oblivion to spirit injury of racialized people. However I was not in the mood to educate when I weighed that against the opportunity to be in a space where I knew I could feel the healing power of the drums. This music helped the enslaved Africans survive the brutality of their enslavement by Europeans and it definitely helped me.

ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU's latest book entitled GOD IS NOT A CHRISTIAN

2011-06-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

On Sunday May, 1 as I boarded a Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) bus travelling a downtown Toronto route I was extremely distressed to witness an African woman being harassed by a white woman on a motorized scooter. I had previously witnessed this white woman harassing racialized passengers and TTC staff. The bus driver, a racialized man did not intervene probably relieved that he was not the target of the woman’s vitriolic attack. She seemed especially angry because the African woman wore a hijab and she went on at length about her superiority as a practicing Christian whose God is love. It was almost hilarious listening to this woman harangue everyone who was not white and Christian (who she identified by our headwraps and hijabs) as she spoke of her God’s love for his people (presumably white Christians.) Her professed love of God did not prevent the Islamophobic and racist rant she unleashed on all those she suspected of not being Christian. After listening to the insults being heaped on those of us she assumed were not Christians and beyond the pale of God’s covenant/interest/love I felt compelled to point out to her that Christians were not the only group of people who believed in God and left her in open-mouthed shock as I disembarked from the bus. She had not recovered her wits in time to make a comeback before I exited the bus. Okay maybe I could have recited the 23rd or the 91st Psalm and that may have shut her up but I doubt it.

After getting home with no further mishaps (no more religious challenges from strange white women) and settling down to read my recently purchased May 2011 edition of the New African Magazine I was pleasantly surprised to find that no less a personage than Archbishop Desmond Tutu agreed that God is not the purview of Christians, people of other faiths believe in God. In bold letters the headline screamed: Desmond Tutu ‘God is not a Christian’ Hurrying past the “letters to the editor” section and important and intriguing stories with such headlines as: Nelson Mandela The “family” showdown and Who are the people of Libya? and of course referring to Muammar Al Gathafi (that is how they spelled his name in the New African Magazine) Kissing him today, raining bombs on him tomorrow, plus Nigeria Chief Justice under Fire! There it was on page 86 almost at the end of the 90 page magazine! Accompanied by a photograph of the dear Archbishop, full head of grey hair, lips pursed, an intense look from behind rimless glasses, one hand outstretched as if determined to convince all who came in sight. On page 86 the full title of the book at last revealed: God is not a Christian – Speaking Truth in Times of Crisis with the further information that it was written by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and published on May 5, 2011 by Rider Books. Wow! Well if Archbishop Desmond Tutu could write a book with such a title, I had to read that book. The excitement kept me up late into the night reading the two page article several times, making notes and early the next morning I was off to the library in search of the book. I was a bit disappointed that although the Toronto Public Library (TPL) has ordered 21 copies of the book God is not a Christian: and other provocations they have not yet been delivered but I placed my name on the “hold” list. I was also surprised that the name of the book in the New African Magazine article was God is not a Christian – Speaking Truth in Times of Crisis and at the TPL it was God is not a Christian: and other provocations. I had to get to the source of this mystery of the changing names (When I was a child I dreamed of being a detective, not surprising because my Dad was a police officer) and off I went to solve the perceived mystery. Several weeks later I have some information from a mysterious source that a decision was made at the final printing to use the subtitle: And other Provocations. I cannot reveal my source but I assure you that there have been some very provoked Christians since the book was published. Oh they have lambasted the dear Archbishop (and naturally some of them had to comment on his race and make derogatory remarks about Africans in South Africa) for daring to write that Christians are not the only group that believes in God. Some of the good Christians who have access to post anonymously on the internet used some very un-Christian language calling the dear Archbishop everything except a child of God!

Not surprisingly there was not this much furor last year when a white Christian published a book with a similar theme (God Is Not a Christian, Nor a Jew, Muslim, Hindu...: God Dwells with Us, in Us, Around Us, as Us.) Just to give an example of the very innocuous remarks that have some Christians up in arms at what Archbishop Desmond Tutu has written. “God is clearly not a Christian. His concern is for all his children. To claim God exclusively for Christians is to make God too small and in a real sense is blasphemous. God is bigger than Christians and cares for more than Christians only. He also wrote, very sensibly, I mean who can argue with this rationalization: My God and, I hope, your God is not sitting around apprehensive that a profound religious truth or major scientific discovery is going to be made by a non-Christian. God rejoices that his human creatures, irrespective of race, culture, gender, or religious faith, are making exhilarating advances in science, art, music, ethics, philosophy, the law, apprehending with increasing ability the truth, the beauty, the goodness that emanate from him. In this day and age of rabid Islamophobia we need to think very carefully about these words from the dear Archbishop: We must not make the mistake of judging other faiths by their least attractive features or adherents. It is possible to demolish the case for Christians by, for instance, quoting the Crusaders, or the atrocities of the Holocaust, or the excesses of apartheid. But we know that that would be unfair in the extreme, since we claim them to be aberrations, distortions, and deviations. Honestly, how can any rational, right thinking person find anything to quarrel about when they read: I hope I have done enough to convince diehard exclusivists that the Christian cause is served better by a joyful acknowledgment that God is not the special preserve of Christians and is the God of all human beings, to whom he has vouchsafed a revelation of his nature and with whom it is possible for all to have a real encounter and relationship.

If you are looking to start your summer reading list this is as good a book as any to begin with. Good news! You do not have to wait until the TPL gets its 21 copies of the book it is available at bookstores in Toronto including A Different Booklist at 746 Bathurst Street. In this year of observing the International Year for People of African Descent we need to at least begin the practice of buying our books from African Canadian bookstores.

MURIEL COLLINS MAY 19, 1933

2011-05-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

Muriel Collins was born in Georgetown, (the capital city) Guyana on May 19, 1933 and has nine siblings. Collins arrived in Toronto, at Pearson International Airport on May 16 1963, from Guyana accompanied by her two small children. She now has four children after her twin boys were born in Canada. As a sole support parent she successfully raised her daughter and three sons while working as a city employee. She worked in several Homes for the Aged (including Fudger House and Kipling Acres) for more than 33 years before retiring in September 1998. She was an active member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 79 which represents inside workers in the City of Toronto. She was a founding member of the Rainbow Committee (which represented racialized workers) now the Racialized Workers Committee, at CUPE National.

In 1989 Collins was honoured with a YWCA Women of Distinction Award for her activism and advocacy in the labour movement. She also chaired CUPE’s National Task Force on Women and was a member of CUPE’s National Executive Board (NEB) representing southern Ontario. As a member of the CUPE Ontario Executive Board, Collins spent many years working on equity issues and contributed profoundly to improving the working lives of CUPE members and all working people.

She spoke at Queens Park before the Standing Committee on Resources Development - on September 01, 1992 making a presentation on behalf of 410,000 workers from coast to coast in the public sector, including approximately 220,000 women in public services.

Ms Muriel Collins, a worker from the Homes for the Aged, a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 79, which represents inside workers in the city of Toronto:

As a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees for the past 25 years, there's much that I have witnessed and many horror stories I could recount about the struggles working Canadian men and women face on a daily basis.
For the purpose of today's presentation, though, I'm going to concentrate on just one incident back in 1983. I was involved with CUPE Local 79 in what was to be a long and bitter fight to organize the part-time workers in Metropolitan Toronto's seven municipally run homes for the aged.
You may be wondering, "How many part-time workers could there be working in these homes? A hundred, a couple of hundred?" Would you believe it was close to 900? It may also be hard to believe that it was less than 10 short years ago that this very local became the first unionized group of part-time workers in the country.
We were faced with a situation in the homes where we basically had two classes of workers: The unionized full-time workers who enjoyed decent wages, benefits and job security, and non-unionized workers who enjoyed none of the above.
What this meant in the workplace for the residents of the homes was a dramatically high turnover of what were then called casual staff, many of them racial minorities and immigrant women who were being forced to live from day to day never knowing if they still had a job next week. For many of them, the uncertainty was too much and they moved on.
When we finally decided to organize these workers, we could not meet or talk to them anywhere near the workplace. We were forced to meet them in restaurants, at bus stops and so on. Many of the workers had been threatened with termination if they were seen talking with a union organizer such as myself. But we persevered and we were successful in getting the percentage of union cards signed. That turned out to be the easy part.
What followed was a full year spent at the bargaining table trying to negotiate a first contract, with the employer using all the stalling tactics in the book. Then we spent another two years going to an arbitration board. Two years these workers waited for their first contract after exercising their democratic right to form a union.
What has it meant for these part-time workers in homes for the aged? They have now moved a lot closer to having full equality with their full-time counterparts. They're by no means all the way there, but they're closer and they now have a level of job security which they had only dreamed of. More than anything, though, this unionization has stabilized the workforce in the homes, which now number 10 across Metropolitan Toronto. It has radically reduced the staff turnover rates, so the workers have benefited, but the residents have benefited in a big way and the employer has also benefited.
Looking back to 1983 and that organizing drive, I believe I can speak for those workers when I say all the headaches, all the intimidation and disruptions in their lives were worth it, because we were able to improve the quality of life for 900 working women and men. I thank you.

Collins was also part of a team from CUPE Local 79 making a presentation at Queens Park in opposition to the Ontario Provincial Tory government’s Bill 49 to the Standing Committee on Resources Development on September 10, 1996.
"Whereas Bill 49, the Employment Standards Improvement Act, introduced by the provincial Tory government, will make it more difficult for Ontario workers to get their minimum employment rights enforced by making it more difficult for workers to be able to make claims for moneys owed to them by bad bosses;
Collins was named to the Ontario Federation of Labour’s (OFL) 1999 Honour Roll and an OFL scholarship was awarded in her name. The scholarships are awarded each year to children of unionists who are starting their first year of college or university.

This is information from the CUPE National website:

Collins named to Honour Roll

Aug 31, 1999 08:00 PM
Muriel Collins – a former member of the National Executive Board and longtime activist and member of the executive of CUPE 79 – has one more accomplishment to enjoy in her retirement. She’s been named to the Ontario Federation of Labour’s 1999 Honour Roll.
As well, an OFL scholarship will be awarded in her name. The scholarships are handed out each year to children of unionists who are starting their first year of college or university.
Local 79 president Anne Dubas says, “Sister Collins may have retired in 1998, but after 33 years of public service and labour activism she continues to receive recognition and is very deserving of this distinction.”
Livingstone Holder, a member of the CUPE Ontario Executive Board who spent many years working with Collins on equity issues, organizing and more says, “this is a sister who understood the struggle instinctively. In her own quiet but determined way, she was able to contribute profoundly to the working lives of CUPE members and all working people.”
The OFL Honour Roll can be added to Collins’ long list of achievements including the naming of the Muriel Collins Housing Co-operative in honour of her years of dedication and service to the community, CUPE regional vice president, co-chair of the CUPE Ontario Women’s Committee and a YWCA Woman of Distinction award.
As for Sister Collins, she says she’s thoroughly enjoying her retirement, spending quality time with her grandchildren and tending to her garden.

In May 1995 the Muriel Collins Housing Co-op named in her honour was officially opened and will be celebrating 16 years of existence this year, 2011. The housing co-op was named for Collins in recognition of her fight against racism and oppression. This amazing African Guyanese woman is one of our many unsung sheroes. I have only seen her name mentioned in one sentence in one book. There will be a celebration of Muriel Collins’ life and achievements on Monday, May 23 at the Muriel Collins Housing Co-op. The plan is to include singing of Guyanese folk songs, Kwe-kwe songs and Guyanese National songs. We shall have a fine time, fine time that night!

EL-HAJJ MALIK EL-SHABAZZ MAY 19, 1925

2011-05-19T20:56:00.001-07:00

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. He would have been 86 years old on Thursday May, 19, 2011 but he was assassinated on February 21, 1965 three months before his 40th birthday. His parents Earl Little and Louise Norton Little met in Montreal at a United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) convention. The UNIA was the Pan-African organization founded by the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. El-Shabazz who at various times carried the names Malik Shabazz, Malcolm X and Omowale is an iconic human rights activist whose various name changes was a bid to rid himself of the “slave name” Little. Recognizing that the name he was given at birth was forced on his ancestors by the white people who at some point had owned his ancestors he choose African (Omowale) and Arab (Malik) names to distance himself from the European name he was given at birth. Omowale is a Yoruba name meaning “the child has come home” and Shabazz was given this name when he visited Nigeria. Jack Rummel and Heather Lehr Wagner write in their 2005 published book Malcolm X Militant Black Leader: “In Nigeria, students flocked to mass assemblies to hear the famed American activist speak, and they bestowed still another name on him: Alhadji Omowale Malcolm X.” Very fittingly, Malik is the Arabic word for king. For some African Americans Shabazz was as venerated as any member of royalty. The late African American actor Ossie Davis (December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) who gave the eulogy at the funeral on February 27, 1965, referred to El-Shabazz as “a Prince, our own black, shining Prince.”

Some of the horrific experiences of his family and his early life shaped the person that El-Shabazz eventually became. In the 1965 published The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Shabazz shared several of those experiences including one told to him by his mother.

When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, a party of hooded Ku Klux Klan raiders galloped up to our home in Omaha, Nebraska, one night. Surrounding the house, brandishing their shotguns and rifles, they shouted for my father to come out. My mother went to the front door and opened it. Standing where they could see her pregnant condition, she told them that she was alone with her three small children and that my father was away, preaching, in Milwaukee. The Klansmen shouted threats and warnings at her that we had better get out of town because "The good Christian white people" were not going to stand for my father's "spreading trouble" among the "good" Negroes of Omaha with the "back to Africa" preachings of Marcus Garvey.

In Malcolm X, The Man and His Times, published in 1990 Dr. John Henrik Clarke, African American scholar and historian states: The racist society that produced and killed Malcolm X is responsible for what he was and for destroying what he could have been. He had the greatest leadership potential of any person to emerge directly from the black proletariat in this century. In another time under different circumstances he might have been a king-and a good one. He might have made a nation and he might have destroyed one. He was a creation of the interplay of powerful and conflicting forces in mid-century America. No other country or combination of forces could have shaped him the way he was and ultimately destroyed him with such unique ruthlessness.

In 1929 when Shabazz was 4 years old a white supremacist group burnt the family’s home leaving the Littles with several small children, homeless. Two years later in 1931 when he was 6, his father suffered a particularly gruesome, racially motivated death. Louise Little, traumatized by the horrific murder of her husband, cheated of the insurance money she should have received at his death and unable to find work to support her children was further victimized when the government imprisoned her in a mental institution, seized and scattered her children into various foster homes. El-Shabazz spoke about his time spent in white foster homes where he was treated as if he was a pet. “What I am trying to say is that it just never dawned upon them that I could understand, that I wasn’t a pet, but a human being. They didn’t give me credit for having the same sensitivity, intellect, and understanding that they would have been ready and willing to recognize in a white boy in my position. But it has historically been the case with white people, in their regard for black people, that even though we might be with them, we weren’t considered of them. Even though they appeared to have opened the door, it was still closed. Thus they never did really see me.”

Given the history of his family’s involvement with the UNIA and the influence of the philosophy of the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, it is hardly surprising that El-Shabazz eventually became the iconic human rights activist whose words are quoted by all and sundry even today in the 21st century. The phrase “by any means neccessary” has been used and misused by individuals and groups whose actions and philosophies are in opposition to all that El-Shabazz represents. He continues to be an inspiration for oppressed people internationally, his name invoked in their struggle. It is also not surprising that he was under constant surveillance by the American government ageny the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which sought to destroy any and all African American individuals or groups working to address the unequal and oppressed position to which African Americans have been relegated since they were first taken to what is now the USA. In the preface to The Autobiography of Malcolm X, M. S. Handler commented: "No man in our time aroused fear and hatred in the white man as did Malcolm, because in him the white man sensed an implacable foe who could not be had for any price-a man unreservedly committed to the cause of liberating the black man in American society rather than integrating the black man into that society."

During this year of the International Year for People of African Descent as we remember those who have gone before us, our ancestors on whose shoulders we stand, on whose backs we crossed over it is also important to educate ourselves as much as possible about who these people really were. Reading several books about our ancestors (more than 40 books have been written about El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) and thinking critically about the biases of the authors or commentators is an excellent start. In his 1994 published Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary Walter Dean Myers reminds us: People do not just “happen” in history. They come along at a certain time, and in a certain place. They react to ideas that have come before them, and to people who have expressed those ideas. The man we know as Malcolm X was no exception.

ROBERT SMALLS AMERICAN CIVIL WAR HERO

2011-05-14T11:53:00.000-07:00

One of the most daring and heroic adventures since the war commenced was undertaken and successfully accomplished by a party of negroes in Charleston on Monday night last. Nine colored men, comprising the pilot, engineers and crew of the rebel gunboat Planter, took the vessel under their exclusive control, passed the batteries and forts in Charleston harbor, hoisted a white flag, ran out to the blockading squadron, and thence to Port Royal, via St. Helena Sound and Broad river, reaching the flagship Wabash shortly after ten o’clock last evening.

Excerpt from an article published in The New York Herald on May 18, 1862.

Very early in the morning (approximately 3:00 a.m) on May 13, 1862 an enslaved African man outwitted the Confederates and piloted one of their warships into the possession of the Union Navy. The 23 year old Robert Smalls executed this heroic feat at the height of the American Civil War and contributed to the eventual victory of the Union side of the conflict. Reports in some Northern newspapers referred to Smalls’ delivering of the Planter to the Union Navy as “the first trophy from Fort Sumter.” The article published in The New York Herald on May 18, 1862 included this information about “the first trophy from Fort Sumter”

The Planter is a high-pressure, side-wheel steamer, one hundred and forty feet in length, and about fifty feet beam, and draws about five feet of water. She was built in Charleston, was formerly used as a cotton boat, and is capable of carrying about 1,400 bales. On the organization of the Confederate navy she was transformed into a gunboat, and was the most valuable war vessel the Confederates had at Charleston. Her armament consisted of one thirty-two pound rifle gun forward and a twenty-four pound howitzer aft. Besides, she had on board when she came into the harbor one seven-inch rifled gun, one eight-inch columbiad, one eight-inch howitzer, one long thirty-two pounder, and about two hundred rounds of ammunition, which had been consigned to Fort Ripley, and which would have been delivered at that fortification on Tuesday had not the designs of the rebel authorities been frustrated.

Even Harper’s Weekly published a prominent article entitled “The Steamer Planter and Her Captor,” in their June 14, 1862 edition praising the heroic deeds of Smalls and the other African Americans. The two page spread complete with an illustration of Smalls begins: “WE publish herewith an engraving of the steamer Planter, lately run out of Charleston by her negro crew, and a portrait of her captain, ROBERT SMALLS-both from photographs sent us by our correspondent at Hilton Head.”

Although several books have been written about the exploits of Robert Smalls (including a children’s book by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) he remains a little known figure outside of South Carolina. Smalls’ heroic actions on May 13, 1862 are not as well known as lesser actions by white Civil War “heroes” because contrary to popular opinion the Civil War was not fought to end slavery in the USA. Northern white politicians, fighting men and women of the Union did not care if slavery continued into perpetuity because they did not consider Africans their equal. Some white people may have thought that it was wrong to hold people in slavery, exploiting their labour without pay, buying and selling them but even those abolitionists did not think that Africans were their equal. None of them would have been willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to end slavery. The Southerners or members of the Confederacy would have been willing to risk their lives to preserve slavery from which they benifitted enormously. Their very existence depended on holding Africans in slavery.

After 11 Southern states declared their secession from the United States federal government and formed the Confederate States of America "the Confederacy" war was inevitable. The U.S. federal government was supported by twenty mostly-Northern states and by five slave states that became known as the border states. These 25 states made up the opposing Union. The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. President Lincoln responded by calling for a volunteer army from each state to recapture federal property. This led to declarations of secession by 4 other states. The Union seized control of the border states early in the war and established a naval blockade that virtually ended the sale of cotton on which the South depended for much of its wealth. The Union Navy also blocked most imports into the Southern states. The American Civil War (1861-1865) was fought to prevent the South from seceding from the Union. The people whose sole focus was the end of slavery were the millions of enslaved Africans, like Smalls, who laboured without pay to enrich white people in the USA.

Smalls was born on April 5, 1839 in Beaufort, South Carolina to Lydia, an enslaved African woman. Smalls and his mother were both “house slaves” yet he seized this opportunity to flee slavery. Okun Edet Uya details Smalls’ life in his 1971 published book From Slavery to Public Service Robert Smalls 1839-1915 including this information: Lydia was born a slave on the Ashdale Plantation located on Ladies Island, about a half hour’s row across from Beaufort and five hour’s row across the river from Hilton Head at the entrance to Port Royal on the Sea Islands of South Carolina. Lydia’s son Robert was born on April 5, 1839, in the McKee slave quarters on Prince Street. Following the end of the Civil War, during the Reconstruction period when for a short period the federal government made an attempt to include rights for African Americans, Smalls was elected to office first as State Representative in South Carolina and eventually as a member of the U.S House of Representatives. He was a state representative from 1868-1870 and state senator from 1870-1874. In 1874 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In his 1995 published book Gullah Statesman: Robert Smalls from Slavery to Congress, 1839-1915 Edward A. Miller, Jr. writes: Smalls’s career in the legislature that began in 1868 spanned seven of the nine years of the reconstruction period. Ex-slaves made up 56 percent of the legislature.

In his 2009 published book Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families Andrew Billingsley describes Smalls’ absence from the history books. The South Carolina history books I grew up with contained no mention, not even foot notes, of Robert Smalls and his extraordinary contributions to our state’s history. South Carolina has done little to honor or remember this significant figure. Outside his native Beaufort County, I know of no towns or streets named in his honor. Yet Robert Smalls should rank among the most honored and recognized South Carolinians, but he does not simply because of the color of his skin.

In Canada we face a similar lack of recognition of African Canadians who have contributed to this country in various ways. There are no streets, buildings or schools in Toronto named for Lucie and Thornton Blackburn who established Toronto’s first taxi cab in 1836. Lucie Blackburn lived on Bleecker Street from 1890 to 1895 after her husband transitioned in 1890 yet there was great resistance from the Municipal government to naming what they eventually named the St Jamestown Library and the Wellesley Community Centre in honour of this African Canadian couple who made significant contributions to Toronto. Neither St James nor Lord Wellesley ever lived in Toronto. During this year designated by the United Nations as the International Year for People of African Descent we need to address this lack of representation and continue the education even after December 31, 2011.

ROBERT S. ABBOTT AND THE CHICAGO DEFENDER

2011-05-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

On May 5, 1905, a 37 year old African American man, Robert S. Abbott founded what would within a few years become known as the “The World’s Greatest Weekly.” The Chicago Defender began as a two-cent weekly published from the kitchen of Abbott’s landlady and eventually became the foremost African-American publication of its time. The African American entrepreneur started his venture with an investment of thirteen dollars and seventy five cents. In his 1955 published biography of Abbott, (The Lonely Warrior, The life and times of Robert S. Abbott, founder of the Chicago Defender Newspaper) Roi Ottley informs us that: The first weekly issue of the Chicago Defender appeared on the streets May 5, 1905, an appropriately balmy day spring day on which the thermometer reached 68° Fahrenheit. The initial printing was three hundred copies and cost $13.75.

Abbot was born on Nov. 24, 1868 on St. Simon's Island, Georgia to formerly enslaved Africans. Information confirming the date of Abbot’s birth comes from The Lonely Warrior, The life and times of Robert S. Abbott, founder of the Chicago Defender Newspaper: “He who was destined to become the founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender gave his first wail in his father’s absence, Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1868.” Ottley adds that “Robert S. Abbott believed he was born November 28, 1870, but the parish register (1868-1870) of St. Stephens Episcopal Church (now St. Matthews), Savannah, where he was baptized, records his birth as the above date.” Abbott attended Hampton Institute in Virginia and Chicago's Kent College of Law, from which he graduated in 1899. Finding it difficult to practice law because of racial discrimination, Abbott chose instead to publish a newspaper. For five years, he was the editor, salesperson and circulation director. Abbott hired his first employee in 1910. As the paper grew, regular contributors included scholar W.E.B. Dubois, writer Langston Hughes and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks. By 1920, the paper's circulation exceeded 200,000 and was widely read in the North and the South.

The Chicago Defender gave voice to an African American point of view at a time when white newspapers and other media would not. During World War I the newspaper advocated equal rights for African Americans in the U.S. military, a position so radical it led to an investigation of Abbott for unfounded allegations of sedition. Abbott frequently wrote about the Jim Crow laws designed to segregate African Americans and opposed the formation of a segregated Colored Officers Training Camp in Fort Des Moines, Iowa, in 1917. The newspaper frequently reported on police brutality against African Americans and the struggles of African American workers. The Chicago Defender also regularly reported on the numerous incidents of white mobs lynching African American men, women and children and the paper received national attention in 1915 for its anti-lynching slogan, "If you must die, take at least one with you."

The Chicago Defender was unique in its time for several reasons including the fact that the word Negro was never used to describe African Americans; instead they were The Race and members of The Race were Race men and Race women. Even though the newspaper was based in Chicago it was widely read in the southern states where it was distributed by African Americans employed as porters and waiters on the railroad. The newspaper was also distributed by African American athletes and entertainers and had to be smuggled into the south because groups such as the Klu Klux Klan tried to confiscate copies or threatened its readers. The Chicago Defender was passed from person to person and read aloud in barbershops and churches. It is estimated that at its height each paper sold was read by at least five African Americans, putting its readership at over 500,000 people each week. The Chicago Defender was the first African American newspaper to have a circulation over 100,000 and the first to have a health column.

The Great Migration of African Americans from the dangerous Southern US with its Jim Crow laws to Northern states like Chicago was encouraged by information in the Chicago Defender. During World War 1 (1914-1918) articles and editorials in the newspaper provided information for those African Americans living in the south willing to migrate. Determined to encourage African Americans to escape segregation, labour exploitation and white violence Abbott published not only articles and editorials but also cartoons, train schedules and job listings to convince Southern readers of the Chicago Defender to migrate. The Great Northern Migration, as it was called in the Chicago Defender, resulted in millions of African Americans migrating with a significant number going to Chicago, which incidentally was founded by an African man who was born in Haiti. Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable is recognized as the founder of Chicago by the city government of Chicago and the state of Illinois. He was also recognized with a US postal stamp issued on February 20, 1987. This information about DuSable was published in the March 18, 1996 edition of the Chicago based African American Jet Magazine: "Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable was born in San Marc, Haiti, in 1745. His mother, an enslaved African woman, was killed when he was about ten years old. His father, who was his mother's 'owner', sent Du Sable to be educated in France, then later employed him as a seaman. Du Sable was 20 years old when he was shipwrecked near New Orleans and had to go into hiding for fear of being enslaved on U.S. soil. He eventually made his way to the area now known as Chicago and was the first African settler as well as the first 'non-native' settler in that area."

In spite of Chicago being touted as a better alternative to living in southern states for African Americans, they were not welcome by white Chicagoans. Matters came to a head on July 26, 1919 when the city erupted in what has been described as a “race riot” after Eugene Williams, an African American teenager who was swimming in the designated “white” 29th Street beach area was murdered by a white man. When a white police officer refused to arrest the accused and even prevented an African American police officer from effecting the arrest things got ugly. Even in defacto “desegregated” Chicago, it was accepted practice for African Americans to swim in the waters of Lake Michigan off 25th Street beach and white Americans to swim in the waters of Lake Michigan off 29th Street beach and “never the twain shall meet.”

Rumours spread in the white community erroneously identified the victim of the July 26, 1919 murder as white and the perpetrator as African American but things had been simmering for a while. According to William M. Tuttle Jr. who wrote in his 1996 published book Race riot: Chicago in the Red Summer of 1919:

“Not long after Eugene Williams’ body had been raised to the surface of Lake Michigan, Chicago’s “athletic clubs” had mobilized for action. These gangs, composed of white teenagers and young men in their twenties, many of the roughest of whom were of Irish descent, had terrorized black people for years. For weeks, in the spring and summer of 1919, they had been anticipating, even eagerly awaiting a race riot. On several occasions, they themselves had endeavored to precipitate one, and now that racial violence threatened to become generalized and unrestrained throughout Chicago, they were set to exploit the chaos.”

When the dust settled after the four day (July 27-30) conflict it was reported that 23 African Americans had been killed, 537 wounded and 1,000 families left homeless. The Chicago Defender ceased its encouragement of African American migration to Chicago.

Unfortunately, nowhere in the USA was really safe for African Americans; Chicago was only one of several areas where they were subjected to racial violence. In his 2003 published book The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Richard Wormser asserts: The Chicago Riot was part of a racial frenzy of clashes, massacres, and lynchings throughout the North and the South. All were started by whites. In Washington, D.C., four whites and two blacks were killed. Whites were astonished that blacks were fighting back. The New York Times lamented the new black militancy: "There had been no trouble with the Negro before the war when most admitted the superiority of the white race."

No doubt leaders like Robert S. Abbott and his publication the Chicago Defender encouraged and contributed to the new assertive and “fighting back” spirit of African Americans many of who had returned from fighting in the European tribal conflict from 1914 to 1918. In the 21st century there remains a need for “ethnic press” to give voice to those voices not heard/represented in the white media.

JEAN BAPTISTE POINTE DU SABLE

2011-05-02T12:52:00.000-07:00

African American pioneer, Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable, was the first known settler to build a house and open a trading post in what is now known as Chicago. Du Sable was a most intriguing man. Born in Haiti, he was educated in Paris and later worked as a seaman for his father.
Fearful of being enslaved after being shipwrecked in New Orleans, he traveled north and settled in Eschikagou. There he married a Potawatami Indian and raised two children. During that time he became well known as a fur trapper. He also expanded his home and land into a major settlement that included a dairy, bake house, smokehouse, poultry house, workshop, stable, barn and mill.

The site of Du Sable's home is marked by a plaque on the northeast approach to the Michigan Avenue Bridge. On February 20, 1987, he was honoured on the 10th stamp in the U.S. Black Heritage Series.
From the March 18, 1996 edition of Jet magazine:
"Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable was born in San Marc, Haiti, in 1745. His mother, an enslaved African woman, was killed when he was about ten years old. His father, who was his mother's 'owner', sent Du Sable to be educated in France, then later employed him as a seaman. Du Sable was 20 years old when he was shipwrecked near New Orleans and had to go into hiding for fear of being enslaved on U.S. soil. He eventually made his way to the area now known as Chicago and was the first African settler as well as the first 'non-native' settler in that area."

It speaks volumes about the normalcy of a White supremacist culture that even among the indigenous people of the area Du Sable's presence was noted as: "The first White man was a Black man". In the years that the Du Sable family (his wife, Catherine, son Jean and daughter, Suzanne) lived there, they provided stability to an area that was primarily frequented by itinerant traders. People as far away as the east coast knew Du Sable as the only source of farmed produce in the area.

Du Sable's trading post was very prosperous with commercial buildings, docks, a mansion house, fruit orchards and livestock. The settlement later became a small community with a church, school and store. Settlers from Quebec came to Du Sable's post because of difficulties with the English who enforced strict rules regarding travel and free trade and heavily taxed the French Canadians. Many of them wanted to buy land from Du Sable but, instead of selling, he gave them some land.

It is somewhat of a mystery why this wealthy African-American and his Native wife in 1800 sold their prosperous holdings, including their land, to a White trader for a mere $1,200. Du Sable and his wife moved to St. Charles, Missouri and his wife died soon after they moved. When Du Sable transitioned on August 28, 1818, he had been living in poverty for almost four years. He is buried in the Borromeo Cemetery in St Charles, Missouri. Du Sable, although popularly known as "The Father of Chicago", for generations was not officially recognized until October 26, 1968 by the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago as the Founder of Chicago.

Du Sable is the first in an impressive line of African-Americans (from Ida Bell Wells-Barnett to Barack Hussein Obama) who have lived in Chicago. Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862-March 25, 1913) was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, but lived in Chicago from 1895 (following her marriage to Ferdinand L. Barnett) until 1913.

Wells-Barnett became the Rosa Parks of her generation when on September 15, 1883, the then 21-year-old Ida Bell Wells refused to obey a conductor's order that she leave the "ladies' car" which was for the exclusive use of White women, on a Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Line train.

The "coloured" car was used by men of any race because smoking, drinking alcohol and swearing was permitted and it was also the only place where African-American women travelers were permitted to sit. The conductor tore Wells' dress as he tried to remove her from the "ladies car." In spite of being an educated, well-dressed lady, she "determined not to be taken, hooked her feet under the seat in front of her, began scratching the conductor with her nails, and then bit his hands deeply enough to draw blood."
The conductor, with the help of a few passengers, pried Wells from her seat and dragged her off the train. She sued the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Line and, in December 1884, she won her case and was awarded damages of $500. The judge found that Wells was a person of "ladylike appearance and deportment, a school teacher and one who might be expected to object to traveling in the company of rough and boisterous men."
Wells did not enjoy her legal victory for long; the local court decision was overturned (1887) after the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway's successful appeal to the Superior Court. This incident moved Wells to begin writing about the plight of African-Americans and the daily injustices they faced. She became a journalist full time after her criticism of the racist practices of the school board led to her dismissal from teaching in 1891.
As editor and co-owner of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, Wells gained national attention when she launched an anti-lynching campaign. Three of her friends who owned a grocery store in Memphis were lynched in 1892 because the owner of the White grocery store was jealous of their success.

Wells wrote a scathing expose of the lynching and the office of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight was destroyed by a gang of White men. Wells left Memphis and, in 1892, published Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, in which she wrote that lynching was "an excuse to get rid of Negroes who were acquiring wealth and property and thus keep the race terrorized." She spent the rest of her life crusading against the White supremacist culture that allowed the routine lynching of African-American men, women and children.
When Du Sable settled in Chicago in 1773 he was the sole non-native inhabitant; when he and his family left in 1800, the settlers were White. Paula Giddings, an African-American historian, writes in Ida: A Sword Among Lions (published in 2008): "The first African American community emerged in the 1840s and was made up largely of fugitive slaves (Illinois was bordered by the slave states of Kentucky and Missouri) and free Blacks from the East. An important 'stop' on the Underground Railroad, a thousand Blacks lived in the city by 1860."
Since Du Sable, notable African-American Chicagoans have included Bessie Coleman (January 26, 1892 - April 30, 1926), the first American to gain an international pilot's license; John Harold Johnson (January 19, 1918 - August 8, 2005), owner and publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines; Gwendolyn Brooks (June 7, 1917 - December 3, 2000), poet; Richard Wright (September 4, 1908 - November 28, 1960), author; Louis Armstrong (August 4, 1901 - July 6, 1971), jazz musician; Harold Washington (April 15, 1922 - November 25, 1987), Chicago's first African-American mayor; Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson Sr.; U.S. Representative Jesse Louis Jackson Jr.; Oprah Winfrey and Barack Hussein Obama, the first African-American president.

MAY 1, LABOUR DAY

2011-05-01T00:38:00.000-07:00

Most countries celebrate Labour Day on the first day in May. Even in countries that do not recognize May 1 as Labour Day, there are celebrations by workers on May 1 (International Workers Day).

As a child growing up in Guyana, May Day was more than the celebration of workers; it was a day when the descendants of enslaved Africans and the descendants of indentured labourers imitated the antics of their former colonizers. Dressed in our new, special for May Day clothes, we gleefully danced around the Maypole during May Day celebrations as we plaited the colourful ribbons attached to the Maypole.

I remember that more than I remember any Labour Day parades that happened during my childhood. The crowning of the May queen was also a part of the celebration which was replicated across the country in various community centres.

Surprisingly, I can remember feeling very proud and pleased looking at the Maypole after we finished plaiting as I saw the intricate pattern we had formed on the pole with the brightly coloured ribbons. The plaiting of the Maypole and the crowning of the May queen are part of the pagan spring rites from the British Isles that became part of British Guianese culture and subsequently, Guyanese culture.

May Day, in countries where it is observed as Labour Day, usually is a public holiday to honour workers and celebrate the social and economic achievements of the labour movement. Britain is said to have the oldest trade union movement in Europe, supposedly beginning in the 17th century with the organizing of workers in skilled trades like printing. The idea apparently gained momentum in the early 18th century with more categories of skilled workers, including tailors, shoemakers, weavers and cabinetmakers. Of course, none of these workers saw the irony of them fighting for improved working conditions and wages while the enslavement of Africans was a British institution.

Similarly, in Canada, where the first trade union was founded by printers in Quebec City in 1827 White men organizing for better working conditions and wages did not see the irony of keeping a whole group of people working without pay. (Slavery was a Canadian institution until August 1, 1834.)

In the United States, where slavery was abolished on January 31, 1865 with the passing of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, the Mechanics' Union Trade Association organized skilled workers in 1827. White workers were so incensed at the idea of Africans competing with them for jobs that there were several incidents of African-Americans being lynched and their homes burned.

One of the worst cases occurred over a three-day period from May 1 to May 3, 1866 in Memphis, Tennessee. Eric Foner, a White American historian wrote of the Memphis Massacre in his 1988 book, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877:

"It is difficult to say which proved more threatening to local Whites - the large number of impoverished rural freedmen who thronged the streets in search of employment or the considerable group that managed to achieve modest economic success."

(Many of the African American victims were robbed of cash, watches, tools and furniture.)

The many documented sources of this period of domestic terrorism against African-Americans emphasize that the victims of these crimes could not expect any help from the White, mostly Irish, police force whose members were, in many cases, also the perpetrators.

On May 3, 1866 in the aftermath of the Memphis Massacre, it was documented that White Americans had raped and murdered many African-Americans and destroyed four churches, 12 schools and 91 homes of African-Americans.

There are fewer recorded incidents of White Canadian workers murdering African-Canadians and burning their homes. However, what they may have lacked in quantity, the Canadians made up for it in quality. Beginning on July 26, 1784, African-Canadians in Shelburne, Nova Scotia were attacked and had their homes destroyed by their White neighbours. Those who managed to escape the 10-day reign of terror by fleeing to nearby Birchtown, were still the targets of attacks from the White mob, which continued the racially motivated attacks up to one month later.

In his 1976 book, The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone 1783-1870, James W. St. G. Walker writes about the plight of David George who fled to Birchtown: "Along with others of his colour, George sought refuge in Birchtown, but even here they were unsafe. While the force of the riot continued in Shelburne for at least 10 days, incursions into Birchtown were reported for up to one month".

The attacks were blamed on the inability of White men to compete with African-Canadians in the job market as employers could exploit the Africans by paying them less than the White men were willing to take as wages.

Whether in Canada or the U.S., these attacks were erroneously called race riots when White people attacked communities of Africans. These were not riots when one group was trying to eliminate another group based on skin colour and especially when government forces were involved. Competing for jobs may have been used as an excuse but these were racially motivated attacks on clearly outnumbered and vulnerable African communities. Terrorism, ethnic cleansing or genocide might be more apt descriptions of these horrific acts.

If the White people were genuinely interested in fighting for jobs, they would have recognized that who they needed to fight were those who could withhold employment or exploit their labour. The Africans in their midst were not in positions of power and were also being exploited by those who held power.

The labour movement and worker solidarity has come a long way since those days when Africans in North America were brutalized and murdered because they dared to seek waged employment.

Today, Africans in North America are members of unions alongside White co-workers. Unfortunately, however, although we pay the same union dues and should have the same access to services and leadership roles in our respective unions, this is not the case. It continues to be a struggle for Africans and other racialized people in the labour movement; hence the need for organizations such as the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance (ACLA) and the Latin American Trade Unionists Coalition (LATUC.)

While working in unionized workplaces may offer more security for racialized workers than in workplaces where workers are not organized, racialized workers sometimes do not have the same access to services from their unions as White workers do. Looking at the leadership of the labour movement, from the individual locals to the national bodies, it is quite obvious that we still have a long way to go for equity and equality in the labour movement.

As racialized workers, it is important to be actively involved in our unions, to work and advocate for change and not be satisfied with token, lapdog positions.

BRITAIN'S SAVAGERY AGAINST KENYANS EXPOSED

2011-05-01T00:26:00.000-07:00

"One of them, a tall coal-black bastard, kept grinning at me, real insolent. I slapped him hard, but he kept on grinning at me, so I kicked him in the balls as hard as I could. He went down in a heap but when he finally got up on his feet he grinned at me again and I snapped, I really did. I stuck my revolver right in his grinning mouth and I pulled the trigger. His brains went all over the side of the police station. The other two Mickeys were standing there looking blank. I shot them both. When the sub-inspector drove up, I told him the Mickeys tried to escape. He didn't believe me but all he said was 'bury them and see the wall is cleaned up'."
From Histories of the Hanged: Britain’s Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire by David Anderson published 2005 (page 300)

“Mouth open, story jump out” was an expression Guyanese used when there was the exposure of an alarming, scandalous often salacious secret. Two books published in the 21st century have exposed the brutal, barbaric, viciously systematic campaign of the British government against the African freedom fighters of Kenya during the 1950s struggle for independence. In its bid to retain control of the land it had stolen from the Africans, the British government committed atrocities reminiscent of the Nazis of WWII infamy. Histories of the Hanged: Britain’s Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire by David Anderson and Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya by Caroline Elkins (both published 2005) bring to light some of the atrocities committed by the British. Both books are written by white authors. Anderson, who teaches African studies at Oxford University and has been described as a “Kenya expert” in the British press, used the documented material of the British colonial government. In this case it is more than “mouth open, story jump out;” when formerly secret documents have been exposed that detail some of the sadistic practices of the British government. Not surprisingly Anderson tries to make the case that both sides (Africans and Europeans) were to blame for the slaughter of Africans during the dreadful British clamp down on the rightful owners of Kenya fighting to regain their land. While hundreds of thousands of African men, women and children were killed (many tortured) during the decade long (1951-1961) struggle, in contrast, 32 white settlers were killed.

The British were not kind even to the Africans who collaborated with them. The records show that on 24 April 1954 more than 40,000 Africans were arrested by British forces, including 5000 Imperial troops and 1000 policemen, during widespread, coordinated dawn raids. The members of the Imperial troops and the policemen worked for the British. Even though the British slaughtered their people and occupied their land these Africans collaborated with the British. This is not surprising because wherever people are oppressed, without fail, there are always those who will collaborate with the oppressor. It is human nature. Ironically in the midst of the British government’s brutal crack down on the Africans’ bid for independence, their princess (now queen) Elizabeth and her husband arrived in Kenya (February 1952) on a royal visit. In 1953 when Elizabeth was crowned queen of the British Empire her government imposed the death penalty on anyone who was identified as a member of the African resistance movement.

Caroline Elkins, history professor at Harvard University, author of Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya has been roundly criticized by several white professors and journalists. This criticism is not surprising because for decades white people have perpetuated the myth of colonization being an attempt to civilize racialized people. They blithely characterize the oppressed people who resisted as “savage” instead of recognizing that the white settlers were beyond barbaric and savage in their treatment of the indigenous people of whichever land they happened to covet and occupy. This brutality of indigenous people happened whether the settlers were British, French, German or any other European tribe. This brutality was a fact of life for the victims whether they were in Africa, Asia or the Americas. As long as the Europeans coveted the property or bodies of racialized people they were brutally single-minded in pursuing their goal of occupation.

Some of the quarrel with Elkins is her documentation of first hand accounts of those Africans who survived the barbarity of the British even though she has also used (extensively) records the British have kept secret for decades. In an article published (April 14, 2011) in the British newspaper The Guardian Elkins wrote: “I used archival evidence collected in Kenya and Britain, along with witness testimony that I collected from hundreds of detention survivors. A number of former detainees told me that electric shock was widely used, as well as cigarettes and fire.” For decades the British maintained the myth of a civilizing mission even though Africans recognized the truth. Elkins addresses this in Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya where she writes: “In the face of incontrovertible evidence to the contrary – for instance, the castration of a Mau Mau suspect – the British and their loyalist supporters maintained the illusion that their actions were the epitome of civilized behavior. It was as if by insisting loudly enough, and long enough, they could somehow revise the reality of their campaign of terror, dehumanizing torture, and genocide.” All this happened after the Africans in Kenya answered the call of Empire and took active part in the second European tribal conflict (WWII 1939-1945) on the side of the British and their allies.

After decades of brutally resisting the Africans’ right to self-rule, Britain was forced to give Kenyans their independence on December 12, 1963. On Thursday, April 7, 2011 four elderly Kenyans, Ndiku Mutua, Paulo Nzili, Wambugu Wa Nyingi and Jane Muthoni Mara, now in their 70s and 80s, brought their case for reparations to Britain’s High Court. Elkins (author of Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya) was called as an expert witness. The trial continues amidst the preparation for the royal wedding. In a dreadful feeling of déjà vu the following gushing article appeared in the Toronto Star on April 22, 2011: Where will Kate Middleton and Prince William spend their honeymoon? Royal watchers, who speculate on anything Buckingham or Windsor, have an active pool on likely destinations. Bets on Africa were hot earlier this week. There’s logic at work, too — Wills proposed to Kate in Kenya, a place he has said “will hold a special place in my heart for the rest of my life.” Déjà vu: The British heir to the throne was on a visit to Kenya during the time her government was terrorizing Africans in Kenya. Her coronation with all the pomp and splendour took place in London while this was happening. Her grandson and eventual heir is getting married while four elderly Kenyans seek reparations for the devastation the British wrought more than 50 years ago and there is speculation that the site of his honeymoon will be Kenya.

Several newspapers articles have stated that: Britain's Foreign Office has admitted that some Kenyans were tortured and killed during an anti-colonial rebellion in the 1950s, but denies the current government has any responsibility for the survivors. That is not good enough after decades of the British government keeping secret Britain’s gulag in Kenya. The British government needs to admit their responsibility for the horror visited upon the Kenyans and as one Kenyan women is quoted at the end of Elkins’ book: “Maybe then there will be some peace once our people are able to mourn in public and our children and our grandchildren will know how hard we fought and how much we lost to make Kenya free for them.”

HAPPY EASTER

2011-04-25T19:17:00.000-07:00

THE WOMEN OF EASTER

Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday are all part of Holy Week and the most sacred time of the Christian calendar. Where does the Easter Bunny, chocolate eggs and fluffy yellow chickens come into this holy week? I will get to that.

Before 325 AD, Easter was celebrated on the Sunday immediately following the first full moon after the vernal (spring) equinox. Beginning in 325 A.D. with the Council of Nicaea, the Western Church decided to establish a more standardized system for determining the date of Easter. As astronomers were able to approximate the dates of all the full moons in future years, the Western Christian Church used these calculations to establish a table of Ecclesiastical Full Moon dates. These dates would determine the Holy Days on the Ecclesiastical calendar. The First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia (present-day İznik in Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in A.D. 325. The Council was the first effort to attain consensus in the church through an assembly representing all of Christendom.

Though modified slightly from its original form, by 1583 A.D. the table for determining the Ecclesiastical Full Moon dates was permanently established and has been used ever since to determine the date of Easter. Thus, according to the Ecclesiastical tables, the Paschal Full Moon is the first Ecclesiastical Full Moon date after March 20 (which happened to be the vernal equinox date in 325 A.D.). So, in Western Christianity, Easter is always celebrated on the Sunday immediately following the Paschal Full Moon. The Paschal Full Moon can vary as much as two days from the date of the actual full moon, with dates ranging from March 21 to April 18. As a result, Easter dates can range from March 22 through April 25 in Western Christianity. There is also an Eastern Christian Church whose members celebrate Easter using a different calendar resulting in different dates for their Holy Week.

All that aside, Easter is supposed to recognize/commemorate the crucifying of (Jesus of Nazareth) Christ and his resurrection 3 days later. According to the Christian Holy book, the Bible, Jesus was crucified by the Roman state, the government of the Roman Empire. Death by crucifixion was reserved for those convicted of treasonous acts against the state. The crucifixion reportedly took place in Jerusalem on April 7, 30 CE or April 3, 33 CE. It is recorded in all four gospels of the New Testament: Mark 15:22-32; Matthew 27:33-44; Luke 23:33-43; and John 19:17-30. The execution was ordered by the Roman government of Judea represented by Pontius Pilate (possibly the Governor) on the charge of sedition (treason) against the Roman Empire during the rule of the Roman emperor, Tiberius Caesar Augustus.

This information comes from the New Testament of the Bible from the books Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Even though Mary Magdalene was one of the earliest and most devoted followers of Jesus, was among the few who saw him die on the cross and was the first person to see him alive after his resurrection there are no books with her name. Not even one, the books are all male. The women really get short shrift here even though according to the New Testament books five women arrived at Jesus’ tomb before any of his male followers. These women did all the work of spreading the news and Jesus appeared to them before he did so to any of his male followers.
The reported sequence of events three days after the crucifixion: 1. Five women arrive at the tomb 2. They see the stone is moved 3. They go inside and see that Jesus' body is not there 4. The angels talk to them 5. They split into two groups to tell the disciples 6. Mary Magdalene runs to tell Peter and John 7. Peter and John run to the tomb 8. Mary Magdalene follows them to the tomb 9. They go into the tomb 10. They see and believe the tomb is empty (but not that Jesus rose) 11. Peter and John go to Bethany 12. Mary Magdalene weeps at the tomb 13. The angels talk to her again 14. Jesus appears to her 15. She sets out to Bethany to tell the disciples she saw Jesus 16. Meanwhile, Jesus appears to the other four women 17. They arrive in Bethany and tell the disciples they saw Jesus 18. The disciples do not believe the women 19 Mary Magdalene arrives in Bethany and tells them she saw Jesus 20. They do not believe her either. Somewhere along the line they were convinced because Easter is a time that is honoured by nearly all of contemporary Christianity and is used to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

With all that; how did it come to now when Easter is a holiday that often involves a church service at sunrise, a feast which includes an "Easter Ham", decorated eggs and stories about rabbits? From celebrating the day when Jesus arose from the dead to decorated eggs, chocolate eggs, rabbits, cross buns and ham we have to go back a bit to the goddesses Ishtar, Eastre, Eoestre, Oestre and Ostara. Or are they the same goddess with many names?

Ishtar was the goddess of romance, procreation and war in ancient Babylon while a similar Saxon goddess was known Oestre or Eastre and in Germany there was Ostara. Since these were fertility goddesses naturally there would be some eggs involved there. Eoestre is also considered the origin of the word estrogen the female hormone. Her symbol is a rabbit, which has a connection to the modern-day Easter bunny. The pagans worshipped the goddess Eostre by serving tiny cakes, often decorated with a cross at their annual spring festival.

The history of Easter as we know it today seems to be a mix of the Christian faith and some related practices of the early pagan religions. Easter history and traditions that we practice today evolved from pagan symbols, from the ancient goddesses to Easter eggs, the Easter bunny and hot cross buns.

Easter, the most important of the Christian holidays, celebrates Christ's resurrection from the dead following his death on Good Friday and a rebirth that is commemorated around the vernal equinox, historically a time of pagan celebration that coincides with the arrival of spring and symbolizes the arrival of light and the awakening of life around us.
The Easter of bunny rabbits and eggs is named for the Babylonian goddess Ishtar and/or the Saxon goddess also known by the names of Oestre or Eastre and in Germany by the name of Ostara. She was also a goddess of the dawn and the spring and words for dawn, the shining light arising from the east are also derivatives of her name.

Ostara was, of course, a fertility goddess. Bringing in the end of winter, with the days brighter and growing longer after the vernal equinox, Ostara had a passion for new life. Her presence was felt in the flowering of plants and the birth of babies, both animal and human. The rabbit was supposedly her sacred animal. Given their ability to produce up to 42 offspring each spring, it is not surprising that rabbits are a symbol of fertility.

Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny featured in the spring festivals of Ostara, which were also held during the feasts of the goddess Ishtar. Eggs are an obvious symbol of fertility, and the newborn chicks an adorable representation of new growth. Brightly colored eggs, chicks and bunnies were all used at festival time to express appreciation for Ostara's gift of abundance. The history of Easter Eggs as a symbol of new life should come as no surprise.

In ancient times in Northern Europe, eggs were a potent symbol of fertility and often used in rituals to guarantee a woman's ability to bear children. Rural "grannywomen" (lay midwives/healers in the Appalachian mountains) still use eggs to predict, with uncanny accuracy, the gender of an unborn child by watching the rotation of an egg as it is suspended by a string over the abdomen of a pregnant woman. Dyed eggs are given as gifts in many cultures. Decorated eggs bring with them a wish for prosperity and abundance during the coming year.

In anticipation that the arrival of spring with its emerging plants and wildlife would provide them with fresh food in abundance, it was customary for many pagans to begin fasting at the time of the vernal equinox, clearing the "poisons" (and excess weight) produced by the heavier winter meals that had been stored in their bodies over the winter. This practice of fasting might very well have been a forerunner of "giving up" foods during the Lenten season.

Easter eggs, the Easter Bunny, the dawn that arrives with resurrection of life, and the celebration of spring all serve to remind us of the cycle of rebirth and the need for renewal in our lives. In the history of Easter, Christian and pagan traditions are gracefully interwoven. The role and symbolism of the female during Easter is not widely advertised but it is very much a part of the history. Have a happy Easter!

GRANVILLE T. WOODS AFRICAN AMERICAN INVENTOR

2011-04-25T18:57:00.000-07:00

Granville T. Woods was born in Columbus, Ohio on April 23, 1856 and lived in New York from 1890 until he transitioned on January 30, 1910. In the 2003 published book Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation: Granville T. Woods, Lewis H. Latimer, & Shelby J. Davidson cultural historian of technology Dr. Rayvon D. Fouché describes Woods as the most prolific African American inventor of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. An apt description since Woods is credited with more than 60 inventions in 30 years. He received his first patent in 1884 and over the next two decades was granted patents for approximately 60 inventions. In spite of the white supremacist culture of the USA which prevented him from accessing much formal education after age 10, Woods contributed to the technological advance of American and global societies.

Forced to leave school and enter the work force at age 10, Woods worked as an apprentice for a machine shop repairing railroad equipment and machinery. In 1872 he left the machine shop in Ohio to work at the St Louis Iron Mountain and Southern Railway in Missouri, where he worked as a fireman and later as railroad engineer. A fireman working on the railroad at that time was responsible for shovelling coal into the train engine’s boiler while the engineer was responsible for the operation of the train. In 1874, Woods moved to Springfield, Illinois, to work in a steel rolling mill, an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel.

In 1876 because of his years of on-the-job training and independent study of mechanics and electricity Woods qualified to take courses in mechanical and electrical engineering at an eastern college. He left school in 1878 and signed on as an engineer aboard a British steamer, the Ironsides, where he worked for two years. In 1880 he returned to the United States to work as a steam locomotive engineer for the Danville and Southern Railroad in Cincinnati, Ohio.

On June 3, 1884 Woods registered his first patent (U.S. 299,894) for a Steam Boiler Furnace. Six months later on December 2, 1884 he registered his second patent (U.S. 308,876) for a Telephone Transmitter followed just 4 months after that (April 7, 1885) with a patent (U.S. 315,368) for an Apparatus for Transmission of Messages by Electricity. In 1884 Woods and his brother Lyates, established the Woods Electric Company in Cincinnati to produce and market his inventions. Over the next 5 years (1890) Woods patented 14 more of his inventions.

On August 4, 1890 when he moved to New York City, Woods was already an accomplished inventor who had invented several devices that dramatically improved railway communication. He believed that New York’s horse drawn streetcars and the coal powered steam engines running on New York’s railroads and elevated transit lines could be replaced with clean, safe, electric traction. On Saturday February 13th 1892 Woods’ Multiple Distributing Station System was tested by the American Engineering Company and demonstrated to the public at Coney Island, Brooklyn. Information from the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association about the Coney Island demonstration states: The demonstration amazed the crowd and made a very favorable impression with the electrical experts and surface railway magnates of that period. This system allowed for the wireless transmission of electric power, utilizing principles of electro magnetic induction instead of overhead wires, a 3rd rail or any physical contact point.

Woods could not benefit from this amazing invention because James S. Zerbe of the American Engineering Company went to extraordinary lengths including cheating and lying in an attempt to steal Woods’ patented invention. Woods did not fade quietly into the night. Fighting back in the media and the courts, Woods was even jailed for a few days (March 1892) during the heated battle to protect his invention against the crooks at the American Engineering Company. Woods’ many years battle with the American Engineering Company and others who tried to steal his inventions is documented in the 2003 published book Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation: Granville T. Woods, Lewis H. Latimer, & Shelby J. Davidson

Twice Woods successfully defended his right to his inventions against the white inventor Thomas Edison. The Edison Company then offered Woods a job, offered to buy his company and even offered him a partnership. Woods declined each offer preferring to remain independent. His independence cost him dearly since he did not make enough money to manufacture his inventions and was constantly fighting attempts to steal his inventions. He was forced to sell some of his inventions to large white owned companies like the American Bell Telephone Company, General Electric and the Westinghouse Air Brake Company. As an independent African American inventor, Woods spent the last years of his life in virtual poverty as he battled in court for control of his inventions.

In Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation: Granville T. Woods, Lewis H. Latimer, & Shelby J. Davidson Fouché writes of Woods: He was an exception among black inventors of this period in that inventing was his career. Woods’s life, however, was not that of a triumphant and heroic inventor. He spent the majority of his adult life marginalized as an inventor, desperately struggling to secure funding and gain a respectable reputation for his work. For Woods patents did not produce economic rewards; they only represented unfulfilled dreams. Woods life - at times closer to a nightmare than the American dream – clearly illustrates the harsh realities of being a black inventor at the end of the nineteenth century.

After suffering a cerebral haemorrhage Woods transitioned on January 30, 1910 and buried at Saint Michaels Cemetery, East Elmhurst, Queens County, New York. In 1969 Elementary Public School No. 335 in Brooklyn, New York (Granville T. Woods Public School 335) was dedicated to honour Woods. On October 11, 1974 Governor John J. Gilligan of Ohio issued a proclamation recognizing Woods’ achievements in science and as an inventor.

LIFE BEGINS AT FORTY

2011-04-25T18:49:00.000-07:00

I’ve often heard it said and sung
That life is sweetest when you’re young
And kids, sixteen to twenty-one
Think they're having all the fun
I disagree, I say it isn't so
And I'm one gal who ought to know
I started young and I'm still going strong
But I've learned as I've gone along

That life begins at forty
Yes, life begins at forty
And I've just begun to live all over again
Life begins at forty
And I'm just living all over again

Excerpt from Life Begins at 40, released in 1947, sung by Sophia Tucker.

The results from a recent (March 2011) British survey which concluded that women are “old” at 29 sent me on a path to find the lyrics of the song “Life Begins at 40” and the origin of the phrase. I found some interesting people and even more interesting quotes. I had to search far and wide to find the lyrics since I had never heard the song. Not surprising since the song was popular when my parents were children. Life Begins at 40 was a popular 1940s song, sung by Sophia Tucker who was born Sophia Kalish on January 13, 1884 in Russia but grew up in the USA. For several years Tucker played piano and sang burlesque and vaudeville tunes in blackface, performing African American songs. She hired some of the best African American singers of the time to give her lessons and hired African American composers to write songs for her act.

The title of the song supposedly came from the self-help book Life Begins at Forty published in 1932 by psychologist Walter Pitkin who reportedly wrote: “Life begins at forty. This is the revolutionary outcome of our New Era. Today it is half a truth. Tomorrow it will be an axiom.” Pitkin may have been the first person to write those famous words that are now being challenged by the results of the new British survey about when women become “old.” However, with further searching I found that someone else is credited with having the same idea since the 19th century. German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788 - September 21, 1860) is credited with this quote: "The first forty years of life give us the text: the next thirty supply the commentary." That idea is very close to the whole thinking around “Life Begins at 40.” It is a bit surprising that Americans embraced Schopenhauer’s idea since he also is credited with the quote: “The fruits of Christianity were religious wars, butcheries, crusades, inquisitions, extermination of the natives of America and the introduction of African slaves in their place.”

Anyway, back to the idea, book and song of Life Begins At Forty which America embraced in the 1930s including a March 1935, Fox Film Corporation released movie Life Begins At Forty. When did all that change to women becoming old at 29? It was not a sudden change the signs have been there for a while, at least since the turn of this century. In an article published in the British newspaper The Telegraph on December 20, 2000 there was a hint that all was not well with the idea of life beginning at 40. The article informed that a study by Professor Keith Wesnes, from Cognitive Drug Research Ltd discovered that people aged between 40 and 50 were 15 per cent slower at completing simple computerised tasks than those in their twenties. Now as far as I am concerned this could very well have been because the 40 to 50 year old people the good professor studied had less familiarity with the computer than people in their 20s. However, this quote from the article caused me some alarm: “A study of 2,282 people aged 18 to 87 found that hitting 40 was synonymous with forgetfulness, lack of concentration and poor focus. While general intelligence appeared to remain stable over time, psychologists concluded that everyday mental skills, such as remembering a telephone number or a person's name, showed a marked decline from the age of 40 onwards.”

The cause for my alarm is the fact that all of us who were born in the 1950s (1950 - 1959) are now in our 50s. Does this mean that I have to write my phone number on my arm everyday before I leave home? Do I now need to carry labelled photographs of my relatives and friends in my wallet so I remember their names? However by the time I read through the article I was less alarmed because there is hope. The article ended with this glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel of despair into which I had stumbled: A recent study found that the memory of people aged between 40 and 65 improved by 7.5 per cent after taking supplements containing ginkgo and ginseng.

I was thinking that I had to go hunting for ginkgo and ginseng supplements to avoid the harm of inking my arm with telephone numbers daily and fetching around labeled photographs of my relatives and friends. Just then I came across another article published in the British newspaper The Telegraph on November 17, 2000 which really lifted my spirits and put all my anxieties about aging to rest. Professor Richard Scase of Kent University and Professor Jonathan Scales of Essex University co-authored the report Fit and Fifty based on their study of 10,000 adults and concluded that Britons in their 50s are enjoying the happiest times of their lives. Now I had to decide which report to believe.

My decision is to ignore all the reports including the one that concludes that women are old at 29. When I was 29 I was definitely not old, I thought I was invincible. When I was a teenager I did not read or hear that I was supposed to be rebellious so I was not. The popular culture of North America urges teenagers to be rebellious (or at least disrespectful) through the sit-coms, movies and other medium. In my youth there were no television programs that mis-educated us about how we should behave so we were individuals. In the same manner the various reports that attempt to mis-educate us on how we should feel about aging or anything else about our feelings probably provide a good income for some people. We as individuals with minds of our own should make decisions about our lives without depending on pop-culture to do so.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

2011-04-11T10:14:00.001-07:00

What’s in a name? As a child growing up in the English speaking South American country Guyana we were required to have Christian names and surnames. As an adult living in the English and French speaking North American country Canada most of us have first and last names. The ethnicity of the vast majority of people in this country can be identified by their names, at least by their last names. Those of us who are the descendants of enslaved Africans cannot be identified in that manner. We bear the names of the Europeans who enslaved our ancestors unless as adults we have chosen African names. Some of our children and grandchildren have African first names that we chose as we became more aware of the importance of naming ourselves, expressing our kujichagulia (self-determination.) However, after centuries of bearing the European names that were forced on our ancestors, those names now identify who we are.

I came to this realization about a month ago when I “found” a relative in Toronto. I had attended an event to support one of my circle of sistren who was about to undergo major surgery. During the time of sharing stories one sistren who I had met at various events in the community but never knew her last name mentioned that her brother was working as an engineer in southern African countries including Botswana. I had always wanted to visit Botswana since Sir Seretse Khama visited Guyana many years ago during my youth. I was engrossed in listening to the sistren speak about her brother’s adventures when she mentioned that he had attended Queens College during his secondary school education. At that point I realised that like me, the sistren was Guyanese. Naturally I asked her where she was born and was greatly surprised when she replied that she was born at Rose Hall on the Courentyne. I shared that my father was born in Fyrish village on the Courentyne and she mentioned that was her father’s birthplace also. I knew that the likelihood of our being relatives increased by the minute if her father was born in the same small village as my father. The fact that we are related became evident when I asked her father’s last name and heard one of the names that I have been told since childhood proves blood relationship. The mere mention of the names Farley, Jonas, Liverpool and Paddy from the villages Courtland, Fyrish and Gibraltar on the Courentyne Coast of Guyana means I have found a blood relative. It may be a first cousin or a twenty third cousin twice removed but that is my relative. I exchanged contact information with my new found relative and we have been in contact since.

How often can this happen in one month? With me it seems more than once. On Sunday, April 10, I attended an information gathering excursion with a sistren who I have known for a few years. At the end of the event I overheard a conversation in which one person had a very distinctive Guyanese accent. I find that I cannot pass up an opportunity to connect with fellow Guyanese so I introduced myself (after a lull in the conversation) and asked the good gentleman if he was Guyanese. I have sometimes mistaken a Trinidadian accent for Guyanese (comes from spending decades living outside of Guyana.) Not only is the man Guyanese but we are related and I found another relative with the same last name as my relative of a few weeks ago and I am now thinking I should advertise in the local Caribbean newspaper and plan a family reunion.

What’s in a name? Sometimes it can be a connection with relatives you never knew you had. My next generation all have African names but I will ensure that they know the names of their relatives from Guyana and elsewhere who still bear the European names that were foisted on their ancestors. We lost contact with countless relations during the centuries of enslavement because our names were taken away from us. What’s in a name? Survival.

BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON

2011-04-11T10:13:00.001-07:00

SAYING KWAHERI (GOODBYE) TO ELDER DUDLEY LAWS

2011-04-11T09:09:00.000-07:00

Sammy plant piece a corn dung a gully
And it bear till it kill poor Sammy
Sammy dead Sammy dead Sammy dead O!
Sammy dead Sammy dead Sammy dead O!
Annuh teef Sammy teef mek dem kill him
Annuh lie Sammy lie mek dem kill him
But ah grudgeful mek, ah grudgeful mek dem kill him
Ah grudgeful mek, a grudgeful mek dem kill him
Who seh Sammy dead, E nah dead Oh!

This Jamaican folk song was one of several sung by Letna Allen at the wake held for Elder Dudley Zacharias Laws on Friday, April 1, at the Jamaican Canadian Association (JCA) Centre. “Miss Letna” as she was introduced by Kwabena Yafeu, a member of the Black Action Defence Committee (BADC) entered the hall dancing and singing in the Kumina tradition. Dressed in white with madras fabric tied around her waist and a glass of white rum balanced on her head with which she eventually blessed the gathering, Miss Letna’s enthusiasm soon encouraged a group of willing participants to accompany her in singing traditional “wake” songs. Accompanied by drummers playing African drums, after a change of skirt with the colours of the Jamaican flag, Miss Letna set up a table with bread, white rum, lime and salt for a feel of an authentic Kumina ceremony. Many of us joined her in a dance around the table to the infectious rhythms of the drumming and singing. There is documented research that the Kumina ceremony has strong links to the Congo. Interestingly enough the style of dancing around the table is popularly known as dancing in a “conga line”

The songs were sung in the Jamaican language (e.g., Sammy Dead, Bam bam, Mi Pupa dead and gone, Go dung a Manuel Road, Me no want no Milo) and are called “baila” songs, not considered as sacred as the “country” songs. An explanation of Kumina songs written by Dr. Olive Lewin in Rock it Come over: the Folk Music of Jamaica: With Special Reference to Kumina and the Work of Mrs Imogene "Queenie” Kennedy published in 2000, states: “Two types of songs are used at Kumina ceremonies: country songs and baila songs. Country songs are used for the more sacred sections of the rituals where communication with the spirits is sought and achieved and are primarily for attracting, entertaining and appeasing the spirits. They are linked to the ancestral homeland through their language texts. Scholars of Kongo have verified that the African language used in Kumina is Kongo/Kikongo based.”

The history of the indentured labourers to Jamaica from the Congo and their contribution to the Jamaican culture is documented in several books including “Alas, alas, Kongo”: A social history of indentured African Immigration into Jamaica, 1841-1865 written by Monica Schuler, published in 1980 and Jamaica and Voluntary Laborers from Africa, 1840-1865 written by Mary Elizabeth Thomas, published in 1974. An article published in the Jamaica Journal Volume 10 Number 1 in 1976 states: “Kumina is the most African of the [cultural expressions] to be found in Jamaica, with negligible European or Christian influence. Linguistics evidence cites the Kongo as a specific ethnic source for the ‘language’ and possibly the music of kumina. [Kumina] is to be found primarily in St Thomas and Portland and to a lesser extent in St Mary, St Catherine and Kingston. Kumina ceremonies are usually associated with wakes, entombments or memorial services but can be performed for a whole range of human experiences (births, thanksgiving, invocations for good [or] evil).”

The Kumina style of bidding farewell to members of the community who have transitioned is similar to ceremonies in other areas of the African Diaspora and on the continent. The songs Miss Letna sang were very similar to songs sung at wakes in Guyana. One of the popular “wake songs” in Guyana is “Me na dead yet, bam bam, me na dead yet” which is very similar to one of the songs Miss Letna sang at Brother Dudley’s wake. The joyous send off seen in the singing and dancing parades at funerals in some New Orleans African American communities is similar to the wake Miss Letna conducted at the JCA Centre. In Rock it Come over: the Folk Music of Jamaica: With Special Reference to Kumina and the Work of Mrs Imogene "Queenie” Kennedy Dr. Olive Lewin explains: The difference of status in people gathered for a Kumina meeting is quite clear. Participants gathered at Kumina events are, in order of importance: Queen/Leader, drummers and percussionists, singers and dancers, members of other Kumina bands, guests and the general public. Miss Letna was definitely the Queen/Leader because on Friday night when she commanded “rest” we rested. The command to “rest” is similar to “bateau” in a Guyanese wake night singing.

I interviewed Ms Letna on Tuesday, April 5 for Tuesday Word of Mouth at CKLN 88.1 FM in Toronto about the Kumina tradition which is unique to Jamaica. We also spoke about the similarities to other African Diaspora traditions like Kumfa in Guyana and our connections through common ancestors from the African continent. On Sunday, April 10, I interviewed Afua Asantewaa for Frequency Feminisms at CKLN 88.1 FM in Toronto about her experiences living four years in a shrine of traditional African religion in Ghana. We chatted about the similarities with African Diaspora traditions like Kumina and Kumfa. Afua Asantewa explained that in Ghana a funeral is a time of rejoicing because the transitioning of someone is seen as a celebration of that person’s life. The thought being that the dear departed was here for a while to do some work and their transitioning is not a time to mourn but to celebrate that they were here with us and have now returned to whence they came. Afua Asantewaa’s article on funerals in Ghana can be read at http://www.abengnews.com/2011/03/29/in-ghana-we-fancy-funerals/

An African Jamaican style wake for Elder Brother Dudley Laws, a Pan-African freedom fighter was a testament to the life he lived. On Saturday, April 2, the community honoured our hero and bid him kwaheri (goodbye) with spectacular drumming, singing, dancing and tributes befitting a leader, a warrior and a man of honour. Dudley Laws was a man whose name will live forever like his hero the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. The annual Dudley Laws Day for 2011 is planned for May 1.

APRIL 4, 1968-2011 REMEMBERING DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

2011-04-04T18:34:00.000-07:00

The Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 43 years ago on April 4, 1968. He was in Memphis, Tennessee supporting a group of sanitation workers who were on strike. In light of the erosion of workers rights by government officials like Republican Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and others of his ilk it is not surprising that labour organizations in the USA are remembering King on April 4, 2011.

On April 4, 1967 one year before King was assassinated he delivered a speech at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. In the speech entitled: Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, King voiced his reasons for speaking out against the Vietnam War. He spoke of the importance of recognizing that: "A time comes when silence is betrayal."

King’s words spoken more than four decades ago are still pertinent: These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light." We in the West must support these revolutions. It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries.

He could be speaking about the recent events in the Middle East and North Africa. His entire speech can be read at: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/058.html
Today, April 4, 2011 how much or how little have the lives of racialized people especially African Americans changed? Even with an African American President, the USA remains a country where; according to a December 2007 study of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), "Race and Ethnicity in America," as of 2006, the incarcerated population of the U.S.A was 46 percent white, 41 percent African American and about one out of every six African-American males had experienced imprisonment. There is overwhelming evidence that the overrepresentation of African Americans in prisons is mostly because of a racist criminal justice system. According to the 2007 ACLU study, African Americans were 11 percent of Texas’ population, but 40 percent of the state’s prison population. African Americans in Texas are incarcerated at roughly five times the rate of whites. In spite of the fact that African Americans represent less than 10 percent of drug abusers, in Texas 50 percent of all prisoners incarcerated in state prisons and two-thirds of all those in jails for "drug delivery offenses" are African Americans.

On Tuesday, February 22, I interviewed Doris Elaine Smarr author of Tyranny in America: the new African American holocaust (published 2010) for the radio program Tuesday Word of Mouth at CKLN 88.1 FM in Toronto. Ms Smarr spoke very passionately of the miscarriage of justice that victimizes African Americans as they are “betrayed by law enforcement, the federal prosecutors and judges.” She spoke of large numbers of African Americans whose lives were destroyed in the billion dollar prison industry.

I also interviewed Dr. Umar R. Abdullah-Johnson a school Psychologist who has written an article entitled: Psycho-Slavery: Black Boys, White Female Teachers & The Rise of A.D.H.D. To quote Dr. Abdullah-Johnson: It has become a travesty of epic proportions; Black boys are being sent in record numbers to the psychiatrist for mind-altering medications that come with a plethora of side effects. At the heart of the issue are allegations by classrooms teachers, many of them poorly trained at managing trivial off-task behaviors in the classroom, who assert that these African-American boys exude a level of inattention, hyperactivity and/or disruptive behavior that significantly interferes with their ability to learn. In many instances, an occurrence which increases with the decrease in the boy's socioeconomic status, 50% of the Black male student population in many classrooms are being sent to the psychiatrist for medication. Even by the most liberal of estimates, psychopathology should be limited to 15-20% of a given population.

As I chatted with Dr. Abdullah-Johnson about his observation of the mis-diagnosing of African American boys, I realised there was some similarity with the pseudo scientific diagnosing of enslaved Africans who were said to suffer from the mental disorder drapetomania. White men diagnosed enslaved Africans in America with this malady if they (enslaved Africans) did not understand that their natural state in life was to be a slave to white people. Any enslaved African who tried to escape slavery was thought to be suffering from the mental illness of drapetomania. The diagnosis of drapetomania was the brainchild of "psychiatrist" Samuel Cartwright. He also diagnosed those enslaved Africans who refused to work enthusiastically and happily to enrich their white owners, as suffering from dysaethesia aethiopica. Of course the good Dr. Cartwright thought that all formerly enslaved Africans who had managed to gain their freedom suffered from dysaethesia aethiopica.

Not much has changed since 1967 when King gave his speech Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. Racism, white supremacy is rife, in some ways different from the 1960s, like a many headed monster, it grows a new head each time one head is chopped off. The Tea Party Movement has replaced or is an extension of the Ku Klux Klan. African Americans are overrepresented in jails even though it costs more to imprison someone that to educate them at the post-secondary level. The reality for many African Americans, similar to the days of Jim Crow, is living in a state of hypervigilance. Dr. John Rich has documented this reality in his 2009 published book Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Trauma and Violence in the Lives of Young Black Men. While there are some African Americans who are paid large sums of money to entertain, many, many more live in dire poverty at the mercy of a white supremacist culture. Even the entertainers who sometimes seem as though they are the chosen ones are forced to live in a state of hypervigilance because the money they make does not protect them from racism. Today, April 4, 2011, forty-three years after the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a white supremacist culture, Bob Marley’s question “How long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look?” is still not answered because not all our prophets who have been killed were physically assassinated, some have had their physical health affected to the point where they cannot survive while others have suffered character assassination.

IT DREAD INNA INGLAN

2011-04-04T05:47:00.000-07:00

DUDLEY LAWS

2011-04-04T05:39:00.000-07:00

Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people; action, self reliance, the vision of self, and the future has been the only means by which the oppressed has seen and realized the hope of their own freedom.
From The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, Or, Africa for the Africans (published 1986)

This Garvey quote was a favourite of Pan-African, anti-racist activist Dudley Laws who transitioned to be with the ancestors on Thursday, March 24. Laws was a great admirer of the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey and often quoted Garvey. Like Garvey, Laws was born in Jamaica, lived in England and North America and was a tireless advocate for equity in the education system, health-care system, justice system, labour movement, housing etc., In 1972, a few years after moving to Toronto from England (1965), Laws became the President of the Universal African Improvement Association (UAIA) which was located at 355 College Street. In 1938 Garvey established the School of African Philosophy at 355 College Street, a site the organization had owned since 1919 according to the documented history of the Kensington area. The 8th International Convention of UAIA was held at their 355 College Street property from August 1 to 17, 1838. Laws would have been a four year old child living in Jamaica at that time. However like his hero Garvey, Laws was a freedom fighter and the founder of organizations that advocated for the civil rights of Africans from which other racialized and marginalized people benefited.

While living in England (1955-1965) Laws co-founded the Brixton Neighbourhood Association (the Executive Director was Mr. Courtney Laws) and the Standing Conference of the West Indies. These groups were necessary to combat the rabid racism to which Africans were subjected in Britain. Most of the Africans in Britain at that time were British subjects, citizens of countries colonized by Britain. The violent, white supremacist Teddy Boys were only part of the problems that many Africans who immigrated to Britain the “mother country” faced. They also faced systemic racism in the workplace, transportation system, health-care, housing etc., Dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson has written and performed several pieces (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq9OpJYck7Y, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls9pSdVFaJU&feature=related, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4QCYQfov6I&feature=related) about that reality.

In Toronto Laws co-founded the Black Youth Community Action Project (BYCAP), Black Inmates & Friends Assembly (BIFA) and the Black Action Defence Committee. The organization with which he was most familiarly associated is the Black Action Defence Committee (BADC), which he co-founded in 1988 (with Charles Roach, Sherona Hall and Lennox Farrell), after several African Canadian men had been killed by Toronto police. Laws served as its executive director until 2011.

Like his hero Garvey, Laws was persecuted by the authorities. Garvey had been under constant surveillance by the FBI because of his uncompromising stance that his people deserved to be treated as human beings, the equal of the white people who wielded power in every area. Garvey was the victim of FBI sabotaging of his work which eventually led to imprisonment and deportation from the USA. While the American government agency was successful in framing Garvey and obtaining a wrongful conviction, the Canadians did not enjoy the same success with Laws. Following the spate of police killing of African Canadian men Laws referred to them as "the most brutal and murderous in North America." In May, 1991 the Metro Toronto Police Association launched a multi-million dollar law suit against Laws for defamation. In April, 1994 the police dropped the suit even though a trial was set for May.

On October 15, 1991, Laws was arrested after a four-month undercover police operation that included video surveillance and phone wiretaps. The operation involved 30 staff of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Metropolitan Toronto Police with a budget of $400,000. In a February 1994 jury trial, Laws was found guilty of conspiring to violate U.S. and Canadian immigration laws and sentenced to a nine-month jail term. The evidence against Laws at the trial was presented by four undercover agents. During the trial documented evidence (compiled by the Metro Toronto Police Intelligence Services in April 1989) of police surveillance of 18 individuals including Laws and 13 groups who were active in the fight against police brutality, racism and apartheid in South Africa surfaced.

Even though the government and police secured a conviction against Laws in the trial, there continued to be widespread public support for Laws in his uncompromising stance as a Pan-African activist opposed to police brutality. The revelations of police spying on antiracist political activists seemed to weaken the government's case against Laws. On September 10, 1998 the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned the conviction of 1994 because Laws had not received a fair trial as the judge and prosecutors had three private meetings to discuss police wiretap evidence from which Laws and his lawyers were excluded. On October 14, 1998 prosecutors dropped the charges against Laws, who agreed to perform 200 hours of community service.

Laws and his supporters were convinced that he was the victim of an entrapment operation as part of a police attempt to intimidate and silence him because of his vocal opposition to police brutality. In the tradition of generations of African freedom fighters Laws was a warrior to the end. He attended countless meetings at schools with parents whose children had been subjected to racial profiling, he was a support to family members of marginalized people who were railroaded into the criminal justice system/prison industrial complex and he attended numerous wakes and funerals of people who were victims of violence whether from others in their communities or police violence. An outspoken critic of police brutality it is not surprising that he was victimized by police. With his trademark black beret and full beard (the beard gradually became white) Laws was a well known figure, always enthusiastically welcome at any demonstration or event for human rights. Only in photographs will we see Brother Dudley, black beret set “just so” and the white beard. Ricardo Keane (Brother Power,) Hewitt Loague and other members of BADC established Dudley Laws Day in May, 2001. Several Dudley Laws Day celebrations were held at Brother Power’s home before moving to the Northwood Community Centre and in 2010 to the Lawrence Heights Community Centre.

Like our late warrior sister Sherona Hall, Laws would chant down Babylon with this song that I will forever associate with him:
By the rivers of Babylon
Where we sat down
There we wept
When we remembered Zion

For the wicked
Carried us away captivity
Required from us a song
How can we sing the Lord’s song in a
strange land

So let the
Words of our mouths
and the meditations of our hearts
be acceptable in Thy sight
Oh Farai!

NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN

2011-03-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

TIM WISE ON WHITE PRIVILEGE

2011-03-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

WHITE SUPREMACY IN ACTION

2011-03-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

WHITE SKIN PRIVILEGE

2011-03-21T08:25:00.001-07:00

MARCH 21 - INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

2011-03-20T23:31:00.000-07:00

In 1966 the United Nations (UN) passed a resolution to recognize March 21 as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. March 21 was chosen to commemorate the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960. On 21 March 1960, in Sharpeville, Azania (South Africa) 69 Africans were killed and more than 300 were wounded (shot in the back) as they fled the murderous gunfire of white police. The Africans had gathered in a peaceful demonstration to protest the steady loss of their human rights, as white interlopers/settlers stole their land. The pass laws of the white supremacist settler group who had seized the African country decades before had become an unbearable burden for the Africans. African men and women were forced to carry the passbook, an identifying document that restricted their movement in urban areas where white people had settled and occupied exclusively.

On the morning of March 21, 1960 approximately 300 extra police and five (Saracen) armoured vehicles arrived at the local police station in Sharpeville as the marchers approached the police station. By 1:15 p.m. the approximately 5,000 strong group of protesters had dwindled to less than 400 when police opened fire without warning. The unarmed men, women and children were gunned down as they fled. The shooting finally stopped when there were no moving protestors in sight. When the smoke cleared there were 69 dead including eight women and ten children and 300 wounded, including 31 women and 19 children. The Sharpeville Massacre prompted worldwide condemnation of the minority white supremacist, illegitimate government of Azania. This led to international protests and calls for disinvesting in the white supremacist apartheid structure of South Africa. In spite of the brutality of the white supremacist government in South Africa, disinvestment did not happen on a large scale until the 1980’s.

On March 21, 1986, Canada’s Prime Minister proclaimed in the House of Commons, the country's participation in the UN call to all states and organizations to participate in the “Program of Action for the Second Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination.” In September, 1988, ministers attending a federal/provincial/territorial ministerial conference on human rights agreed to commemorate March 21 in all Canadian jurisdictions. In spite of the “official” Canadian stance on anti-racism, the practice leaves much to be desired.

Racism is misunderstood by many who organize events to recognize March 21 with calls and slogans to Stop Racism. Racism is not prejudice or discrimination. Prejudice is prejudgment of a person or a group of people. Discrimination is action based on prejudice. Confusing the definition of “racism” with prejudice and discrimination is widespread and many people mistakenly use these terms as synonyms. Racism, white privilege and white supremacy are synonyms. This is a definition of white supremacy from the Challenging White Supremacy Workshop group (established 1993): “White supremacy is an historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations and peoples of color by white peoples of European origin; for the purpose of establishing and maintaining wealth, power and privilege.” Another group: The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond defines racism as: “Race prejudice plus power” and they define power as: “having legitimate access to systems sanctioned by the authority of the state.”

One of the exercises the workshop uses to illustrate manifestations of racism is asking participants to choose a mainstream institution and “do a little power structure research.” They ask these questions: In a race constructed system, who owns or controls the institution? Who are the most privileged workers within it? Whom do the policies and practices of that institution primarily benefit? So my brothers and sisters, as we approach March 21, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination do your research on any mainstream organization (including labour unions, socialist organizations and so-called left leaning, liberal organizations) and ask yourself: Who owns or controls the institution/organization? Who are the most privileged workers within it? Whom do the policies and practices of the institution primarily benefit? Unlike the blatant, overt white supremacist culture of the USA, Canadian racism has been, for the most part, covert and subtle. One of the most famous cases of Canadian white supremacist culture at work is Viola Desmond’s trial in 1946.

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to speak with Wanda Robson, Viola Desmond’s sister on March 5 at the Ryerson University’s Viola Desmond Day event. I also interviewed Ms Robson on March 12 for International Women’s Day special programming on CKLN 88.1 FM. Ms Robson who has written Sister to Courage: Stories from the World of Viola Desmond, Canada’s Rosa Parks (published August, 2010) shared the story of her heroic sister who challenged Canada’s undercover Jim Crow law of segregation.

On November 8, 1946, Viola Desmond a successful African Canadian entrepreneur from Halifax, Nova Scotia was traveling on business when her car broke down in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. While the car was being repaired she decided to see a movie at the Roseland Theatre. She bought a ticket for the main floor of the theatre, went in and sat down. She was unaware of the theatre’s policy that the main floor was a “whites only” seating area because unlike the blatant white supremacist Jim Crow law of the USA, there were no “whites” and “coloured” signs posted and she did not know that African Canadians were relegated to the balcony. When Desmond was ordered to move she replied that she could not see from the balcony, that she had paid to sit on the main floor and that she would not move. The manager left the theatre and came back with a policeman. Together, the two burly white men dragged the 4’ 11” Desmond into the street, injuring her in the process.

She spent the night in jail in the same block as male prisoners. Next morning she was tried and found guilty of tax evasion. She was found guilty of not having paid the entertainment tax (one cent) that was the difference between the “white” section and the “coloured” section of the cinema. She was found guilty because the white woman who sold her the ticket did not sell her a ticket for the first floor which she had requested but instead had sold her a ticket for the balcony. The sentence was 30 days in jail or a fine of $20, plus $6 to the manager of the theatre, one of the two men who had injured her as he dragged her out of the cinema the night before. She paid the fine and then challenged the guilty verdict in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia.

The court upheld the guilty verdict. Desmond remained guilty of defrauding the government of 1 cent until April 15, 2010 when she was granted a pardon. A press release from the Nova Scotia Premiere’s office read in part: “The province has granted an official apology and free pardon to the late Viola Desmond. Mrs. Desmond, of Halifax, was an African Canadian wrongfully jailed and fined in 1946 for sitting in the white peoples' section of a New Glasgow movie theatre. Mrs. Desmond passed away in 1965. On the advice of the Executive Council, the lieutenant governor has exercised the Royal Prerogative of Mercy to grant a Free Pardon. A free pardon is based on innocence and recognizes that a conviction was in error. A free pardon is an extraordinary remedy and is considered only in the rarest of circumstances. This is the first time a free pardon has been posthumously granted in Canada.”

After 64 years, the government of Nova Scotia acknowledged what had been hinted at by one of the judges who dismissed Desmond’s appeal to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia in April 1947. Justice William Hall is quoted in April 1947: " One wonders if the manager of the theatre … was so zealous because of a bona fide belief there had been an attempt to defraud the Province of Nova Scotia of the sum of one cent, or was it a surreptitious endeavour to enforce a Jim Crow rule by misuse of a public statute." That is typical Canadian racism at work, instead of signs indicating segregated seats in the theatre, using the tax laws to disguise bona fide segregation.

In this year designated by the UN as the International Year for People of African Descent surely it is time to get past usual rhetoric and do some serious anti-racism work. While many people may think that racism of the overt act of individual white people telling racist jokes or parading through town dressed in white bedsheets, the most virulent forms of racism is the systemic entrenched white supremacist culture which circumscribes every area of our lives. The white supremacist culture that is hidden within Canada’s multicultural policy is an example. Dr. Sunera Thobani, professor at the University of British Columbia has criticized the discourse of multiculturalism in Canada: I think multiculturalism has been a very effective way of silencing anti-racist politics in this country. Multiculturalism has allowed for certain communities—people of colour—to be constructed as cultural communities. Their culture is defined in very Orientalist and colonial ways—as static, they will always be that, they have always been that. And culture has now become the only space from which people of colour can actually have participation in national political life; it’s through this discourse of multiculturalism. And what it has done very successfully is it has displaced an anti-racist discourse.
You know, I teach and I have young students of colour, they come, and they completely bought into this multiculturalism ideology. They have no language to talk about racism. They know that if they talk about racism, they will get attacked.
And multiculturalism is the dominant discourse now through which all of us have to, are forced to, articulate our politics. And I think multiculturalism has, in that way, it’s done a big disservice. Because it has just silenced anti-racist discourse and anti-racist politics in this country, which now has been defined as an extreme kind of politics. And meanwhile, the deeply-embedded racial inequalities in Canadian society continue to be reproduced. And multiculturalism masks them, it glosses them over, and it has become a policy of governing and managing communities of colour, so that those politics only get articulated in the name of culture, and culture is defined in highly patriarchal terms.
My position on multiculturalism is that multiculturalism exists in a very uneasy tension with bilingualism and biculturalism. So Canada defines itself as either officially multicultural, or officially bilingual and bicultural. And by bilingual and bicultural, what is meant is French and English. And so we have a kind of policy of white supremacy—which is what bilingualism and biculturalism really is—and multiculturalism. And multiculturalism, you know, how do we define what these multi-cultures are? They are different, diversity. Who are they different from? The multi-cultures that get defined are different from the English and French.
And so the centre of the nation still continues to be defined as English and French. So multiculturalism actually, from my perspective, upholds white supremacy. You know, I think that I would support a multicultural politics, if at the same time we were dismantling white supremacy, which we’re not, right? In fact, multiculturalism fits very nicely into, as I say, the “managing of ethnics and the coloureds” in a way that still allows the nation to define itself as really bilingual and bicultural.

It is unfortunate that in the 21st century racialized people are still colonized to the extent where some do not realize that fighting for the crumbs from the table of white supremacy is not an effective way to dismantle that system.

TRULY AMAZING GRACE

2011-03-20T16:29:00.000-07:00

IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL

2011-03-20T16:28:00.001-07:00

FOR MY SISTAH: IT IS WELL

2011-03-20T16:07:00.000-07:00

A very dear and beloved friend is battling breast cancer and is right now preparing for surgery. Her doctor has told her that the cancer is aggressive. African women contract breast cancer at a higher rate than white women. They have less chance of receiving treatment to deal with the cancer. Not surprisingly they die of this disease at higher rates than white women. My Sistah and her community have faith in the Most High, Jah Rastafari that she will not be one of the African women who succumb.

My dear Sistah friend has worked as African Heritage Instructor in the International Languages Program at the Toronto District School Board. That is how we first met many years ago. She is extremely hardworking and has a truly amazing collection of miniaturized objects that Africans have invented. Her library of African centred books, loving compiled and catalogued, is a thing of beauty. She is also an accomplished and tireless volunteer. Someone mentioned that her middle name should be "volunteer."

We held a gathering on Saturday night to be with our sister as she prepared to go to hospital. It was a truly spiritual experience. It is at such times that we realise how truly strong we are as African women. Things that would make other people’s knees buckle, make them give up, roll over and die. We rise to the challenge and we keep on living, keep on putting that one foot in front of the other but refuse to be defeated. Even when we are betrayed, stabbed in the back, we keep on going, refusing to give in to the sometimes mind numbing effects of spirit injury. It is an amazing strength we share as African women.

On Saturday night, we shared words of encouragement in a Sacred Sistahz Circle as we sent our Sistah off in the name of Jah Rastafari, the most high. We spent time with our children and grandchildren during the almost four hour communion of souls. It was a truly amazing, spiritually uplifting time and even strengthened me to deal with a dreadful situation in which I found myself the very next day, today, Sunday, March 20th, 2011 just a few hours before we observe the March 21, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It was a loving and spiritual gathering where we shared love and spiritual blessings to help her and us be in a good space for her surgery on Monday. We shared food, special prayers, blessings, songs, poems, oils and herbal tea to honour the occasion. We were and are a family who may not be connected by blood but still a family.

We talked about the aggressive cancer that afflicts many African Canadian women and I found some information about a similar situation in the USA. Many African-American women don't fit the profile of the average American woman who gets breast cancer. For them, putting off the first mammogram until 50 — as recommended by a government task force — could put their life in danger. "One size doesn't fit all," says Lovell Jones, director of the Center for Research on Minority health at Houston's M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Jones says the guidelines recently put out by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force covered a broad segment of American women based on the data available. "Unfortunately," he says, "the data on African-Americans, Hispanics and to some extent Asian-Americans is limited."

So while the recommendations may be appropriate for the general population, he says, it could have a deleterious affect on African-American women who appear to have a higher risk of developing very deadly breast cancers early in life. The deadly breast cancers in African American women reminded Jones of the higher infant mortality rate in the African-American community, which has yet to be fully explained. Researchers have the same difficulty determining what combination of factors causes low birth weights and infant deaths in African-Americans. For example, the age of child birth with the lowest infant mortality rate in white women is about 30. In African American women it is around the ages of 16 to 19. Jones suspects the stress that African-Americans experience in this society is contributing to premature aging. It is not a popular theory, but even after adjustments are made for education, poverty and other factors, infant mortality remains high.

My Sistah friend was born on the Caribbean island of Trinidad but grew up in Canada; however, we are African wherever we live and suffer the same kinds of oppression and stress. As my Sistah friend prepares to undergo surgery on Monday, March 21, I pray for a successful surgery and speedy recovery. I am including on my blog two inspirational songs sung brilliantly and touchingly by a man who like my Sistah friend was born in Trinidad and grew up in Canada. Pastor Wintley Augustus Phipps born January 7, 1955 in Trinidad is truly amazing as he explains the history and sings Amazing Grace. I have also included It is well with my soul.

For my Sistah, I hope you read this and feel comforted, hopeful, loved and strengthened. In the Name of the Most High; Jah Rastafari!