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.
Monday, January 16, 2012
HERERO STILL SEEKING REPARATIONS FROM GERMANY
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.
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
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!!
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!!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
MADAM C.J. WALKER
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.”
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.”
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
HIP HOP AT UNIVERSITY
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
TANZANIA 50 YEARS INDEPENDENT
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:
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/
Thursday, December 1, 2011
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