Much of the history of Africans in the Diaspora has been of struggle against and triumph over chattel slavery. In every location where Africans were enslaved they resisted in various ways including in some instances, armed struggle. Some of those struggles are well documented, the names of the leaders are known. In other cases the struggles to be free of chattel slavery are not well known and the names of those who waged battles for their freedom have long been lost or even distorted. An African proverb states that until the lion has his own historian the story of the hunt will always be told from the point of view of the hunter. It is important that we tell our stories of our heroes and sheroes. We should not discount the information that was handed down to us by the griots of our childhood. Many of us were fortunate to grow up in communities where our elders were steeped in African culture and history. We heard the stories of those heroes and sheroes who were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom of their people.
One such hero is Kofi (Cuffy), Guyana’s National Hero, whose name has been Anglicized and the meaning of his name which identifies him as an Akan male born on Friday was for many years not acknowledged because the British colonizers wrote that story. In many communities across what was British Guiana and then later Guyana, we heard the truth from our elders. The story as told in many of the history books identified the Africans as “rebels” instead of freedom fighters and identified their struggle as a “rebellion” instead of a revolution. It is interesting to note the words used by Henry G. Dalton, a British author, who in 1855 published two volumes of The History of British Guiana comprising general description of the colony. Writing of the Berbice Revolution which started on February 23, 1763 and lasted until March 1764, Dalton notes: “1763, a terrible insurrection burst out, which convulsed the whole colony, and threatened its very existence.”
Some writers have tried to position the freedom fighters of the Berbice Revolution as a group of disorganized Africans who were forever squabbling with each other. However, even Dalton in his telling of the story acknowledges that “the negroes had organized themselves into a regular government, had established a complete system of military discipline, and had chosen Cuffy, a young slave of courage and judgment, as their governor.”
The Africans in Berbice eventually failed in their bid to establish a permanent free state because they mistakenly trusted the Dutch who agreed to negotiate a settlement of hostilities. The Europeans had no intention of negotiating to allow the Africans to live as free people. According to Dalton, as early as May 8th 1763 a proclamation was posted at plantation Dageraad with a 500 guilder reward for the capture of Kofi and a reward of 400 guilders for the capture of Akkara. While the Africans were negotiating in good faith the Europeans were biding their time, waiting for the arrival of European military aid from other colonies and even from the Netherlands. Kofi and his lieutenants Akkabre (Accabre), Akkara (Accara) and Atta were not expecting the treachery of the Europeans and were caught by surprise. There were also collaborators among the enslaved Africans who were tempted by the rewards that the Dutch offered and betrayed their own people. Dalton writes that the Dutch “called upon the loyal slaves to join the whites and offered the following premiums: for every living negro rebel, the sum of 50 guilders. For every right hand of one (rebel) slain, the sum of 20 guilders.”
The freedom fighters continued their resistance even after the arrival of the large force of European military. “On January 24, 1764 information was received that Atta and the other ringleaders were in the neighbourhood of Creek Wikkie.” With the arrival of the re-enforcements, the Europeans went on a murderous rampage. On March 16, 1764, 23 Africans were hanged, 16 broken on the wheel and 15 burnt.
Although Dalton does not include information about Kofi’s fate he does write about Atta’s capture. “The rebel chief Atta, was discovered and seized by some of the negroes who had joined the Dutch, and, along with several other ringleaders, was most cruelly tortured, and then tied to a stake and burnt, without one word of complaint. In fact, it was remarkable how callous and indifferent the rebels had become, not a sigh or groan escaping from them under the terrible vengeance of the victorious Dutch.”
Clearly, in spite of the many European written stories to the contrary, the enslaved Africans of Berbice and other places in the Diaspora were not pitiful beings with no history or agency. The names (allowing for the possible Anglicized spelling) of the leaders of the Berbice Revolution identify them as people from west Africa, most likely Akan from Ghana. The enslaved Africans of the Berbice Revolution who are symbols of perseverance, strength and courage are celebrated in the history of Guyana although they may not be well known outside of Guyana. The Cuffy Monument (sometimes mistakenly regarded as a statue), erected in the Square of the Revolution located in Georgetown (Guyana’s capital city) honours not only the leader Kofi but all the freedom fighters of the Berbice Revolution. February 23, Republic Day, when Guyana officially became the Co-operative Republic of Guyana in 1970 and the Mashramani celebration, also honour the memory of Kofi, Akkabre, Akkara, Atta and the many other nameless freedom fighters of the Berbice Revolution.
tiakoma@aol.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KTHLBpN7SM
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
KUNTA KINTE'S HOMELAND TODAY
On September 29th, 1767 a 16 year old African male who had been kidnapped in the village of Juffure, Gambia, West Africa arrived in Annapolis, Maryland, USA. He was one of 98 Africans who had spent 86 days of a brutal trans Atlantic voyage in the filthy hold of a ship, the Lord Ligonier. When the ship left the Gambia on July 5th there were 140 captured Africans in its hold. When it arrived in Annapolis Maryland 86 days later 42 Africans had died from the horror of that journey. Further misery awaited those captive Africans on arrival in America when they were separated and sold. On October 1st 1767 an advertisement in the Maryland Gazette advised white Marylanders that there would be a sale of the captured Africans on the following Wednesday, October 7th.
On September 29th 1967, two hundred years later a 46 year old African American male stood at the site where the Lord Ligonier had docked in 1767 and wept. He was the great-great-great-great-grandson of the 16 year old who had been captured in Juffure, Gambia and landed in Annapolis on September 19th 1767. Alex Haley described that moment in September 29th 1967 as the most emotional moment of his life. He had been on a quest for several years to discover his family’s African “roots.” As one of the more fortunate African families in the Diaspora, Haley’s extended family contained griots who relayed the knowledge, the stories of the family’s history to seven successive generations over a few hundred years. From Kunta Kinte (the 16 year kidnapped in Juffure, Gambia) to Alex Haley, some seven generations in America remembered words and phrases that helped in the search that eventually led to the publication of the ground breaking “Roots: The Saga of an American Family” that was published in 1976.
With the publication of “Roots: The Saga of an American Family,” Alex Haley brought the world’s attention to the fact that Africans in the Diaspora specifically African Americans have a direct connection with the African continent. The name Kunta Kinte became known in every household that possessed television during the eight day period 23-30 of January 1977 when Haley’s book was converted to the television miniseries “Roots.” Americans of all stripes watched the painful “conversion” of the African Kunta Kinte to “Toby” and his family’s morphing into Americans. A veritable who’s who of African American actors brought the fascinating story of one African man’s sojourn in America to life. Life in Africa, the lives the Africans led during their enslavement in America was brought into the homes of all Americans via television for eight days in January 1977. Many Africans in the Diaspora felt the urge to trace their ancestry back to Africa. Not many were as fortunate as Haley, my aunt’s husband born in Guyana, tried tracing his African ancestry but since the only information he had was his last name (McLeod) which is not an African name his search ended in Barbados, he was happy to find some relatives.
Most Americans had never heard of the Gambia before Alex Haley’s book was published and made into a successful television miniseries. Since the success of Haley’s book and the subsequent miniseries Juffure became a tourist attraction for African Americans and other Africans in the Diaspora. Haley’s book was translated into 37 languages and 6 million copies were sold in the hard cover version with millions more sold in paperback. Africans and non-Africans worldwide have read Haley’s book which has led to the popularity of the Roots Homecoming Festival in the Gambia. In 1996, the International Roots Homecoming Festival was instituted and Africans from the Diaspora travel to the Gambia for this summer celebration.
Today, in the 21st century, the Republic of the Gambia which gained its independence from Britain on February 18th, 1965 is a developing country recovering from years of colonization. The Gambia is one of the smallest countries in Africa, roughly 4,000 square miles with a population of approximately one and a half (1.5) million making it the fourth most densely populated country on the African continent. Most of the labour force of the Gambia (75%) work in the agricultural field as farmers. Manufacturing, which accounts for approximately 5.5% of the labour force is primarily agriculturally based. Tourism may be booming (employing 5% of the labour force) but does not do much for the farmers who are the mainstay of the country’s economy. The farmers live in villages in rural areas where many of them struggle to make a living with outdated and inadequate farming equipment. Many of the farmers are women who have to walk distances to fetch water because of lack of wells to provide clean drinking water in their villages.
A group of University of Toronto students in collaboration with farmers in the Gambia have founded an organization to assist the farmers in the Gambia. Two of the students were born in the Gambia, but unlike Alex Haley’s celebrated ancestor Kunta Kinte they did not arrive in North America in the hold of a ship, they came by airplane. Lamin Jarju who holds a B. A and Bakary Gibba who has a B. A an M. A. and is a Senior PhD candidate at the University of Toronto are passionate about the work they are doing to assist the farmers of The Gambia. This dedicated group of volunteers which includes Trinidadian born Paula Budhall Jarju also a University of Toronto graduate (B. A, M. A) are seeking the assistance of Canadians in their quest to help the farmers in villages similar to the village in which Alex Haley’s ancestor was born. The Penyem Jamorai Relief Organization is dedicated to bettering the lot of the people who live in the Gambia, one village at a time. I interviewed the members on CKLN 88.1 FM and was impressed with their enthusiasm and dedication to this project. On their web site www.pjro.net the group describes their organization.
“The Penyem Jamorai Relief Organization is a non-profit relief organization with headquarters in Toronto Canada, that aims to help the rural farmers of Africa with food, medicine, and clothing to individuals, children and families who lack these essentials due to famine, and poverty. PJRO is dedicated to providing food to the agrarian people and creating sustainable development. A key goal is to help needy families move past needing help and into becoming self-sufficient members of their community, through long-term, self-help development programs. PRJO is a Canadian non-governmental organization (NGO) with the desire to helping the poor rural agrarian communities in the Gambia West Africa to attain sustainable livelihoods. Working, in partnership with the rural villagers to attain self-reliance in food production and clean drinking water.”
The members of the organization in Toronto can be contacted at lamin.jarju@pjro.net, 416.406.1045 or Penyem Jamorai Relief Organization, 10 Boultbee Avenue, Unit 1010, Toronto, Ontario, M4J 1A6
tiakoma@aol.com
Written in September 2007
On September 29th 1967, two hundred years later a 46 year old African American male stood at the site where the Lord Ligonier had docked in 1767 and wept. He was the great-great-great-great-grandson of the 16 year old who had been captured in Juffure, Gambia and landed in Annapolis on September 19th 1767. Alex Haley described that moment in September 29th 1967 as the most emotional moment of his life. He had been on a quest for several years to discover his family’s African “roots.” As one of the more fortunate African families in the Diaspora, Haley’s extended family contained griots who relayed the knowledge, the stories of the family’s history to seven successive generations over a few hundred years. From Kunta Kinte (the 16 year kidnapped in Juffure, Gambia) to Alex Haley, some seven generations in America remembered words and phrases that helped in the search that eventually led to the publication of the ground breaking “Roots: The Saga of an American Family” that was published in 1976.
With the publication of “Roots: The Saga of an American Family,” Alex Haley brought the world’s attention to the fact that Africans in the Diaspora specifically African Americans have a direct connection with the African continent. The name Kunta Kinte became known in every household that possessed television during the eight day period 23-30 of January 1977 when Haley’s book was converted to the television miniseries “Roots.” Americans of all stripes watched the painful “conversion” of the African Kunta Kinte to “Toby” and his family’s morphing into Americans. A veritable who’s who of African American actors brought the fascinating story of one African man’s sojourn in America to life. Life in Africa, the lives the Africans led during their enslavement in America was brought into the homes of all Americans via television for eight days in January 1977. Many Africans in the Diaspora felt the urge to trace their ancestry back to Africa. Not many were as fortunate as Haley, my aunt’s husband born in Guyana, tried tracing his African ancestry but since the only information he had was his last name (McLeod) which is not an African name his search ended in Barbados, he was happy to find some relatives.
Most Americans had never heard of the Gambia before Alex Haley’s book was published and made into a successful television miniseries. Since the success of Haley’s book and the subsequent miniseries Juffure became a tourist attraction for African Americans and other Africans in the Diaspora. Haley’s book was translated into 37 languages and 6 million copies were sold in the hard cover version with millions more sold in paperback. Africans and non-Africans worldwide have read Haley’s book which has led to the popularity of the Roots Homecoming Festival in the Gambia. In 1996, the International Roots Homecoming Festival was instituted and Africans from the Diaspora travel to the Gambia for this summer celebration.
Today, in the 21st century, the Republic of the Gambia which gained its independence from Britain on February 18th, 1965 is a developing country recovering from years of colonization. The Gambia is one of the smallest countries in Africa, roughly 4,000 square miles with a population of approximately one and a half (1.5) million making it the fourth most densely populated country on the African continent. Most of the labour force of the Gambia (75%) work in the agricultural field as farmers. Manufacturing, which accounts for approximately 5.5% of the labour force is primarily agriculturally based. Tourism may be booming (employing 5% of the labour force) but does not do much for the farmers who are the mainstay of the country’s economy. The farmers live in villages in rural areas where many of them struggle to make a living with outdated and inadequate farming equipment. Many of the farmers are women who have to walk distances to fetch water because of lack of wells to provide clean drinking water in their villages.
A group of University of Toronto students in collaboration with farmers in the Gambia have founded an organization to assist the farmers in the Gambia. Two of the students were born in the Gambia, but unlike Alex Haley’s celebrated ancestor Kunta Kinte they did not arrive in North America in the hold of a ship, they came by airplane. Lamin Jarju who holds a B. A and Bakary Gibba who has a B. A an M. A. and is a Senior PhD candidate at the University of Toronto are passionate about the work they are doing to assist the farmers of The Gambia. This dedicated group of volunteers which includes Trinidadian born Paula Budhall Jarju also a University of Toronto graduate (B. A, M. A) are seeking the assistance of Canadians in their quest to help the farmers in villages similar to the village in which Alex Haley’s ancestor was born. The Penyem Jamorai Relief Organization is dedicated to bettering the lot of the people who live in the Gambia, one village at a time. I interviewed the members on CKLN 88.1 FM and was impressed with their enthusiasm and dedication to this project. On their web site www.pjro.net the group describes their organization.
“The Penyem Jamorai Relief Organization is a non-profit relief organization with headquarters in Toronto Canada, that aims to help the rural farmers of Africa with food, medicine, and clothing to individuals, children and families who lack these essentials due to famine, and poverty. PJRO is dedicated to providing food to the agrarian people and creating sustainable development. A key goal is to help needy families move past needing help and into becoming self-sufficient members of their community, through long-term, self-help development programs. PRJO is a Canadian non-governmental organization (NGO) with the desire to helping the poor rural agrarian communities in the Gambia West Africa to attain sustainable livelihoods. Working, in partnership with the rural villagers to attain self-reliance in food production and clean drinking water.”
The members of the organization in Toronto can be contacted at lamin.jarju@pjro.net, 416.406.1045 or Penyem Jamorai Relief Organization, 10 Boultbee Avenue, Unit 1010, Toronto, Ontario, M4J 1A6
tiakoma@aol.com
Written in September 2007
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
KWAHERI 2009 KARIBU 2010
The end of 2009 and also the end of the first decade of the 21st century. Wow! I have to take a deep breath, exhale slowly and think about what we have lived through since December 31st 1999. Some events brought great joy and some were horrendous and traumatic but they are mostly in the past, history and merely memories. However as African American singer and song writer Johnny Bristol sang in his popular 1974 song: Memories don’t leave like people do, they always stay with you. Whether they’ve been good or bad, they’re never something that you had.
The first day of 2000 was horrendous and traumatic as just minutes after midnight on December 31, 1999/January1, 2000, Henry Hidaya Masuka, a young African Canadian father was gunned down by police at St Michael’s hospital. Masuka had taken his infant son who had reportedly suffered an asthma attack at home and when the promised medical aid failed to arrive at the family’s home, the 26 year old concerned father took his three month old baby to the emergency department of St Michael’s hospital. As the fireworks celebrating the New Millennium exploded so did the head and chest of the 26 year old Masuka when Toronto police (at least 10 members of the Emergency Task Force were present) opened fire on the young father. The three month old baby witnessed police killing his father but of course could not give evidence at the subsequent inquiry.
Greeted by that news on the first day of the New Millennium was traumatic especially after the anxiety of waiting for the non-existent Y2K disaster. Already in the throes of the Mike Harris Conservative government and their Commonsense Revolution the year did not get any better after our neighbours to the south had George Bush foisted on them. Bush was sworn in as president on January 20, 2001 after a month-long controversial vote recount in Florida that ended with the U.S. Presidency being awarded to Bush by an officially sanctioned 537 votes. Eight months later on September 11th 2001, I arrived at work to witness the surprising sight of staff and students huddled around a television set watching what I thought was a movie, only to discover that they were watching the destruction of the World Trade Centre. The fall out of which affected the world but especially us here in Canada because of our close proximity to the USA. Former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau reportedly said to the Press Club in Washington, D.C. on March 25, 1969: Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt. The paranoia that gripped the USA resulted in Bush being given carte blanche by Americans to attack other nations under false pretences sanctioned by Canada and other developed nations. The Weapons of Mass Destruction were a figment of Bush’s overactive imagination but American lives are still being lost in the bogus war on terror in Iraq. On October 7, 2001 Afghanistan was invaded and we are entering the new decade 2010 as Canadian lives continue to be squandered in Afghanistan.
Some of the not so great events of the past decade that touched my family, friends and community may not have had international recognition but did span several continents. We said goodbye to a warrior sister who transitioned on December 30, 2006. Sister Sherona Hall was a social justice activist whose work spanned from her birthplace (Jamaica) across the Caribbean, North America and the African Continent. Our sister was a champion for the marginalized and the voiceless of all races and faiths. The accolades continue even three years after she transitioned and there are community plans to honour her memory in a very significant way.
My family was devastated when my brother Ras Kelly (the fifth of my parents’ nine children) transitioned in Rome, Italy on December 4, 2007. My brother and his family had left Canada for Italy in 2003 and that was the last time we had seen him alive. In the midst of commemorating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade I left Toronto and arrived in Rome in December 2007 just in time to say a final goodbye to my brother. Looking at that beautiful face that I had known for little more than forty years was traumatic especially when I knew that if one of the people who hurried by him as he collapsed at the busy Stazione di Roma Termini in Italy’s capital had stopped to call for help he would quite possibly be alive today. We still wonder what could have caused a young healthy man (a Boboshanti Rasta who was very particular about diet and exercise) to collapse of a massive heart attack. My brother was an intelligent, educated, lavishly handsome man with such a peaceful and beautiful spirit that he easily made friends wherever he lived (I met the members of the Rasta community and friends who had become his family in Rome) and it was extremely difficult to come to terms with the manner of his passing.
There were other disasters and losses during the past decade including the New Orleans disaster when the levies broke and African Americans were shamefully neglected by the Bush administration. My soul mate Isaac Hayes transitioned on August 10, 2008. I admit we never met, but I could have sworn that when he sang Come live with me it was a personal invitation. However I had to refuse because I did not hear any sense of long term commitment and my overprotective family members would have been up in arms if I had accepted the invitation.
As I look back I have to count my blessings because the past decade has not been all doom and gloom. I am fortunate to have lived in a time when an African American with an African name was elected President of the USA, a country where Africans were enslaved for centuries, suffered horrendous brutality and inhumane treatment. It was so satisfying to watch the inauguration and witness an African American woman, the descendant of enslaved Africans, getting ready to live in the White House (built by enslaved Africans) as First Lady. During the past decade I also experienced the overwhelming joy of seeing and holding the child of my child and I enter 2010 with three gorgeous grandchildren.
tiakoma@aol.com
The first day of 2000 was horrendous and traumatic as just minutes after midnight on December 31, 1999/January1, 2000, Henry Hidaya Masuka, a young African Canadian father was gunned down by police at St Michael’s hospital. Masuka had taken his infant son who had reportedly suffered an asthma attack at home and when the promised medical aid failed to arrive at the family’s home, the 26 year old concerned father took his three month old baby to the emergency department of St Michael’s hospital. As the fireworks celebrating the New Millennium exploded so did the head and chest of the 26 year old Masuka when Toronto police (at least 10 members of the Emergency Task Force were present) opened fire on the young father. The three month old baby witnessed police killing his father but of course could not give evidence at the subsequent inquiry.
Greeted by that news on the first day of the New Millennium was traumatic especially after the anxiety of waiting for the non-existent Y2K disaster. Already in the throes of the Mike Harris Conservative government and their Commonsense Revolution the year did not get any better after our neighbours to the south had George Bush foisted on them. Bush was sworn in as president on January 20, 2001 after a month-long controversial vote recount in Florida that ended with the U.S. Presidency being awarded to Bush by an officially sanctioned 537 votes. Eight months later on September 11th 2001, I arrived at work to witness the surprising sight of staff and students huddled around a television set watching what I thought was a movie, only to discover that they were watching the destruction of the World Trade Centre. The fall out of which affected the world but especially us here in Canada because of our close proximity to the USA. Former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau reportedly said to the Press Club in Washington, D.C. on March 25, 1969: Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt. The paranoia that gripped the USA resulted in Bush being given carte blanche by Americans to attack other nations under false pretences sanctioned by Canada and other developed nations. The Weapons of Mass Destruction were a figment of Bush’s overactive imagination but American lives are still being lost in the bogus war on terror in Iraq. On October 7, 2001 Afghanistan was invaded and we are entering the new decade 2010 as Canadian lives continue to be squandered in Afghanistan.
Some of the not so great events of the past decade that touched my family, friends and community may not have had international recognition but did span several continents. We said goodbye to a warrior sister who transitioned on December 30, 2006. Sister Sherona Hall was a social justice activist whose work spanned from her birthplace (Jamaica) across the Caribbean, North America and the African Continent. Our sister was a champion for the marginalized and the voiceless of all races and faiths. The accolades continue even three years after she transitioned and there are community plans to honour her memory in a very significant way.
My family was devastated when my brother Ras Kelly (the fifth of my parents’ nine children) transitioned in Rome, Italy on December 4, 2007. My brother and his family had left Canada for Italy in 2003 and that was the last time we had seen him alive. In the midst of commemorating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade I left Toronto and arrived in Rome in December 2007 just in time to say a final goodbye to my brother. Looking at that beautiful face that I had known for little more than forty years was traumatic especially when I knew that if one of the people who hurried by him as he collapsed at the busy Stazione di Roma Termini in Italy’s capital had stopped to call for help he would quite possibly be alive today. We still wonder what could have caused a young healthy man (a Boboshanti Rasta who was very particular about diet and exercise) to collapse of a massive heart attack. My brother was an intelligent, educated, lavishly handsome man with such a peaceful and beautiful spirit that he easily made friends wherever he lived (I met the members of the Rasta community and friends who had become his family in Rome) and it was extremely difficult to come to terms with the manner of his passing.
There were other disasters and losses during the past decade including the New Orleans disaster when the levies broke and African Americans were shamefully neglected by the Bush administration. My soul mate Isaac Hayes transitioned on August 10, 2008. I admit we never met, but I could have sworn that when he sang Come live with me it was a personal invitation. However I had to refuse because I did not hear any sense of long term commitment and my overprotective family members would have been up in arms if I had accepted the invitation.
As I look back I have to count my blessings because the past decade has not been all doom and gloom. I am fortunate to have lived in a time when an African American with an African name was elected President of the USA, a country where Africans were enslaved for centuries, suffered horrendous brutality and inhumane treatment. It was so satisfying to watch the inauguration and witness an African American woman, the descendant of enslaved Africans, getting ready to live in the White House (built by enslaved Africans) as First Lady. During the past decade I also experienced the overwhelming joy of seeing and holding the child of my child and I enter 2010 with three gorgeous grandchildren.
tiakoma@aol.com
AYITI
Over the course of the past decade, Canada's leading officials and most prestigious commentators have learned how to approach Haiti in the spirit of cynical power politics and racist condescension (or worse) while maintaining a posture of national self-flattery. With attention again riveted on Haiti following the horrific tragedy inflicted by Tuesday's earthquake, this ugly mixture is once again on display. The need for emergency aid is, without question, urgent. But established patterns of "help" for Haiti need to be overcome if the destructive impact of this catastrophe is to be somehow limited.
From the article: Relief Efforts in the Shadow of Past "Help": Moving from crimes-as-charity to actual support for Haiti by Dan Freeman-Maloy
For the past 10 days since January 12th we have been inundated with heartbreaking images of a devastated Haiti, the result of a massive earthquake. The lurid headlines and many skewed articles about Haiti and Haitians in the white newspapers are not surprising given the history of Haiti. The Globe and Mail in its January 13th editorial described Haiti as the "basket case of the Western hemisphere." Haiti was once known to the international white community as the “pearl of the Antilles” when the labour of enslaved Africans provided untold wealth for France and the French. Since the Africans in Haiti successfully seized their freedom and declared their home a free Republic (January 1, 1804) the international white community has never forgiven them. It has been more than 200 years since the Africans in Haiti overthrew the sadistic French plantation owners and slave holders and defeated the French army.
Haiti’s history as recorded by the Europeans who invaded, settled and colonized the island began on December 24, 1492 when Christopher Columbus having lost his way attempting to reach India, stumbled upon the island Ayiti, home of the Taino. Although he found people on the island, Columbus claimed the island for Spain, renaming it La Isla Española (Hispaniola.) Many scientists believe that the Taino were living on the island since around 5000 BCE. There were five caciquats (kingdoms) on the island; Magua, Marien, Xaragua, Maguana and Higuey governed by a cacique and a council of elders called the Nytaino. It is estimated that when Columbus landed on Ayiti the Taino population was close to a million. Within 50 years of the arrival of Columbus and his cut-throat crew the Taino population was almost extinct. Apart from infecting the native population of the island with European diseases including smallpox and tuberculosis to which they had no immunity, the bloodthirsty and covetous Spaniards, slaughtered, enslaved and worked the Taino people to death in their quest for gold.
There was Taino resistance including the Battle of Santo Cerro in 1495 and the resistance of the famous Taino warrior Anacaona, queen of Xaragua who was murdered by the Spanish in 1503. In A Voyage long and strange: rediscovering the new world published in 2008, Tony Horwitz writes: “In 1503, Anacaona called together eighty of her principal subjects to entertain Hispaniola’s Spanish governor. After three days of dancing, feasting and games he ordered his men to surround a building where the Taino leaders had gathered. The governor had heard rumours of an impending revolt, and was determined to crush Taino resistance once and for all. The Spanish set fire to the place burning alive everyone inside. Queen Anacaona was hanged.”
After decimating the indigenous population the Spanish resorted to enslaving and transporting Africans to provide free labour in their mines and on their plantations. Beginning in 1501 the Spanish brought Africans to provide free labour on Hispaniola (modern day Dominican Republic and Haiti.) The Africans were taken from the great African empires of West and Central Africa including Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu, Ghana, Angola, Benin and Kongo. Many of these Africans were skilled trades people and farmers and their knowledge and labour were exploited to enrich the Spanish and later the French who began to settle on the island in the early 1600s and gained control of the western part of the island in 1697 with the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick. The French named their part of the island Saint-Domingue; where the enslaved Africans grew sugar, coffee, cotton, indigo and cocoa on 8,500 plantations. By 1789 approximately 4,100 ships were registered leaving and entering the ports of the French colony carrying the fruits of the labour of the enslaved Africans to Normandy, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Dieppe and Orleans in France. Two-thirds of the French colonial wealth, estimated at 400 million francs in the late 1780s, came from the free labour provided by enslaved Africans on Saint-Domingue (Haiti.)
Ironically, today Haiti is considered the poorest country in the western hemisphere and we need to know the history of why that has happened. In his 1973 published book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Guyanese scholar Walter Rodney includes a quote from a presentation made in 1791 by Cardinal Maury, a member of the French National Assembly:
If you were to lose each year more than 200 million livres that you now get from your colonies; if you had not the exclusive trade with your colonies lo feed your manufactures, lo maintain your navy, lo keep your agriculture going, lo repay for your imports, lo provide for your luxury needs, lo advantageously balance your trade with Europe and Asia, then I say it clearly, the kingdom would be irretrievably lost.’
Bishop Maury (of France): Argument against France’s ending the slave trade and giving freedom to its slave colonies. Presented in the French National Assembly, 1791.
With the devastation of the capital of Haiti by an earthquake and the subsequent media feeding frenzy which morbidly concentrates on the poverty of the Africans living in Haiti, they have lost sight of the role that Europe and Europeans including those living in the USA and Canada have played in the state of Haiti today.
tiakoma@aol.com
From the article: Relief Efforts in the Shadow of Past "Help": Moving from crimes-as-charity to actual support for Haiti by Dan Freeman-Maloy
For the past 10 days since January 12th we have been inundated with heartbreaking images of a devastated Haiti, the result of a massive earthquake. The lurid headlines and many skewed articles about Haiti and Haitians in the white newspapers are not surprising given the history of Haiti. The Globe and Mail in its January 13th editorial described Haiti as the "basket case of the Western hemisphere." Haiti was once known to the international white community as the “pearl of the Antilles” when the labour of enslaved Africans provided untold wealth for France and the French. Since the Africans in Haiti successfully seized their freedom and declared their home a free Republic (January 1, 1804) the international white community has never forgiven them. It has been more than 200 years since the Africans in Haiti overthrew the sadistic French plantation owners and slave holders and defeated the French army.
Haiti’s history as recorded by the Europeans who invaded, settled and colonized the island began on December 24, 1492 when Christopher Columbus having lost his way attempting to reach India, stumbled upon the island Ayiti, home of the Taino. Although he found people on the island, Columbus claimed the island for Spain, renaming it La Isla Española (Hispaniola.) Many scientists believe that the Taino were living on the island since around 5000 BCE. There were five caciquats (kingdoms) on the island; Magua, Marien, Xaragua, Maguana and Higuey governed by a cacique and a council of elders called the Nytaino. It is estimated that when Columbus landed on Ayiti the Taino population was close to a million. Within 50 years of the arrival of Columbus and his cut-throat crew the Taino population was almost extinct. Apart from infecting the native population of the island with European diseases including smallpox and tuberculosis to which they had no immunity, the bloodthirsty and covetous Spaniards, slaughtered, enslaved and worked the Taino people to death in their quest for gold.
There was Taino resistance including the Battle of Santo Cerro in 1495 and the resistance of the famous Taino warrior Anacaona, queen of Xaragua who was murdered by the Spanish in 1503. In A Voyage long and strange: rediscovering the new world published in 2008, Tony Horwitz writes: “In 1503, Anacaona called together eighty of her principal subjects to entertain Hispaniola’s Spanish governor. After three days of dancing, feasting and games he ordered his men to surround a building where the Taino leaders had gathered. The governor had heard rumours of an impending revolt, and was determined to crush Taino resistance once and for all. The Spanish set fire to the place burning alive everyone inside. Queen Anacaona was hanged.”
After decimating the indigenous population the Spanish resorted to enslaving and transporting Africans to provide free labour in their mines and on their plantations. Beginning in 1501 the Spanish brought Africans to provide free labour on Hispaniola (modern day Dominican Republic and Haiti.) The Africans were taken from the great African empires of West and Central Africa including Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu, Ghana, Angola, Benin and Kongo. Many of these Africans were skilled trades people and farmers and their knowledge and labour were exploited to enrich the Spanish and later the French who began to settle on the island in the early 1600s and gained control of the western part of the island in 1697 with the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick. The French named their part of the island Saint-Domingue; where the enslaved Africans grew sugar, coffee, cotton, indigo and cocoa on 8,500 plantations. By 1789 approximately 4,100 ships were registered leaving and entering the ports of the French colony carrying the fruits of the labour of the enslaved Africans to Normandy, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Dieppe and Orleans in France. Two-thirds of the French colonial wealth, estimated at 400 million francs in the late 1780s, came from the free labour provided by enslaved Africans on Saint-Domingue (Haiti.)
Ironically, today Haiti is considered the poorest country in the western hemisphere and we need to know the history of why that has happened. In his 1973 published book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Guyanese scholar Walter Rodney includes a quote from a presentation made in 1791 by Cardinal Maury, a member of the French National Assembly:
If you were to lose each year more than 200 million livres that you now get from your colonies; if you had not the exclusive trade with your colonies lo feed your manufactures, lo maintain your navy, lo keep your agriculture going, lo repay for your imports, lo provide for your luxury needs, lo advantageously balance your trade with Europe and Asia, then I say it clearly, the kingdom would be irretrievably lost.’
Bishop Maury (of France): Argument against France’s ending the slave trade and giving freedom to its slave colonies. Presented in the French National Assembly, 1791.
With the devastation of the capital of Haiti by an earthquake and the subsequent media feeding frenzy which morbidly concentrates on the poverty of the Africans living in Haiti, they have lost sight of the role that Europe and Europeans including those living in the USA and Canada have played in the state of Haiti today.
tiakoma@aol.com
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
SHIRLEY ANITA ST. HILL CHISHOLM LED THE WAY
The United States was said not to be ready to elect a Catholic to the Presidency when Al Smith ran in the 1920's. But Smith's nomination may have helped pave the way for the successful campaign John F. Kennedy waged in 1960. Who can tell? What I hope most is that now there will be others who will feel themselves as capable of running for high political office as any wealthy, good-looking white male.
Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (1924-2005)
On January 25, 1972, when Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm formally announced that she would seek the Democratic presidential nomination, she was paving the way for Jesse Jackson in 1984, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton in 2004 and now Barack Obama in 2008. Barack Obama seems to stand a chance of becoming president of the United States of America even though he is not a “wealthy, good-looking white male” because of Shirley Chisholm’s foresight, sense of pride and confidence. In the public address following her announcement to seek the Democratic presidential nomination Chisholm said, "I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States. I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or special interests. I am the candidate of the people." In her book “The Good Fight” published in 1973, Chisholm wrote: “In this country everybody is supposed to be able to run for President, but that's never been really true. I ran because most people think the country is not ready for a black candidate, not ready for a woman candidate. The next time a woman runs, or a black (person), a Jew or anyone from a group that the country is 'not ready' to elect to its highest office, I believe he or she will be taken seriously from the start. The door is not open yet, but it is ajar." If the African American contender, Obama was not taken seriously when he entered the race he is definitely being taken seriously now, especially since the Iowa state upset.
Shirley Anita St. Hill was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 30th 1924. Her father was Guyanese and her mother Barbadian and as immigrants to the USA faced some financial hardship which prompted them to send their children to Barbados. In 1927, the St. Hill children were sent to Barbados to live with their maternal grandmother and returned to live with their parents in Brooklyn seven years later. When Chisholm became a politician, her parents being immigrants was an issue for some African Americans who thought that she was not “black” enough. Obama whose father was Kenyan has faced similar challenges from some sections of the African American community. An article written by a “black American” defines being black in America as someone who is the descendant of enslaved West Africans in America (she even excluded people who immigrated from the Caribbean). The esteemed journalist and author who has written articles and books about “blackness” appeared on a television program where she defined Obama’s status in America as an “African African American.” Not surprisingly the white host of the television show made her theory the brunt of his jokes for the few minutes she appeared on the show. Enslaved Africans were not only taken from West Africa, many of us in the Diaspora, including the USA have ancestors who were from the Congo, Angola and many other places on the continent. The first enslaved African whose presence in Canada is documented was a six year old child (who was given the name Olivier Le Jeune) kidnapped from Madagascar and sold in Canada in 1628. The trading (selling and buying) of kidnapped Africans taken anywhere, whether it was the Caribbean, South America, Central or North America and even Europe makes it nonsensical for anyone to declare that to be “black” in the USA one has to be a descendant of enslaved West Africans.
Like Obama, Chisholm was 47 years old when she sought the nomination of the Democratic Party in her bid to become president of the USA. They were both virtually ignored by the established African American organizations and some of the people who are considered leaders of the African American community. In Obama’s case some of those “leaders” are supporting Hilary Clinton and one was brazen enough to claim that Bill Clinton has as much claim to being “black” as Obama. The elderly African American leader reportedly said; "Bill is every bit as black as Barack. He's probably gone with more black women than Barack.” What a shame that Bill Clinton is being given “black” status in 2008 by an elder in the African American community based on how many African American women he may have “gone with.” One would think that this kind of debasement of African American women which was rife during slavery would have no place in the conversation of a leader of the community in the 21st century. Since this comment was made there has been a deafening silence from the leaders of the community, even those who have been very vocal questioning Obama’s candidacy. Obama has proven that he is the better person and has not responded to the provocation.
Bill Clinton and by extension his wife may be considered “black” by some in the African American community because of some dubious criteria but those same people have either forgotten or have chosen to ignore some of the racist policies of the Clinton administration. A Justice Policy Institute study showed that through both of Clinton’s terms as President the rate of incarceration for African American men (which was 2,800 per 100,000 as Reagan left office) increased to 3,620 per 100,000. Clinton also adopted law-and-order rhetoric to pass laws that negatively impact on the lives of racialized people, “Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). “The Effective Death Penalty Act” limits appeals in death penalty cases and expanded the number of crimes that could lead to a death penalty sentence. “The Anti-Terrorism Act,” the forerunner of Bush’s USA PATRIOT Act prohibits fundraising for vaguely defined "terrorist" organizations and made it easier for the American government to deport legal immigrants. The Clinton administration aggressively expanded their economic power globally at the expense of racialized people in developing countries by using free trade and international institutions like the World Trade Organization, World Bank and International Monetary Fund. During his 1992 campaign for the Democratic nomination, Clinton was quoted in the Miami Herald: "I think the president (George Bush) played racial politics with the Haitian refugees. I wouldn't be shipping those poor people back." After being elected President, Clinton said in a radio address to the Haitian people: "Those who do leave Haiti for the United States by boat will be stopped and directly returned by the United States Coast Guard."
While some of the elders in the community may consider the Clintons “black” some of the youth are aware of the hypocrisy and are not shy about speaking out. Author, activist rapper Sista Souljah speaking on the Today show said about Clinton. "I think he is like a lot of white politicians -- they eat soul food, they party with black women, they play the saxophone, but when it comes to domestic and foreign policy, they make the same decisions that are destruction, destructive to African people in this country and throughout the world."
As a presidential candidate, Chisholm had to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission in order to participate in a televised debate with McGovern and Hubert Humphrey. Barack Obama did not have to file a complaint with the FCC to participate in debates with other presidential hopefuls because Shirley Chisholm won that fight more than thirty years ago. However, Obama and other African Americans were reminded that the door is still not wide open for an African American seeking the highest office in the USA and that the pre Civil Rights era has not disappeared. When she reacted to Obama’s victory in Iowa, Hilary Clinton proved that she knows she is not black and she is well aware of her power as a white woman in America. She proved that a white woman’s tears in the USA can still spell trouble for an African American man even if he does not end up as “strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.”
tiakoma@aol.com
Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (1924-2005)
On January 25, 1972, when Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm formally announced that she would seek the Democratic presidential nomination, she was paving the way for Jesse Jackson in 1984, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton in 2004 and now Barack Obama in 2008. Barack Obama seems to stand a chance of becoming president of the United States of America even though he is not a “wealthy, good-looking white male” because of Shirley Chisholm’s foresight, sense of pride and confidence. In the public address following her announcement to seek the Democratic presidential nomination Chisholm said, "I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States. I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or special interests. I am the candidate of the people." In her book “The Good Fight” published in 1973, Chisholm wrote: “In this country everybody is supposed to be able to run for President, but that's never been really true. I ran because most people think the country is not ready for a black candidate, not ready for a woman candidate. The next time a woman runs, or a black (person), a Jew or anyone from a group that the country is 'not ready' to elect to its highest office, I believe he or she will be taken seriously from the start. The door is not open yet, but it is ajar." If the African American contender, Obama was not taken seriously when he entered the race he is definitely being taken seriously now, especially since the Iowa state upset.
Shirley Anita St. Hill was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 30th 1924. Her father was Guyanese and her mother Barbadian and as immigrants to the USA faced some financial hardship which prompted them to send their children to Barbados. In 1927, the St. Hill children were sent to Barbados to live with their maternal grandmother and returned to live with their parents in Brooklyn seven years later. When Chisholm became a politician, her parents being immigrants was an issue for some African Americans who thought that she was not “black” enough. Obama whose father was Kenyan has faced similar challenges from some sections of the African American community. An article written by a “black American” defines being black in America as someone who is the descendant of enslaved West Africans in America (she even excluded people who immigrated from the Caribbean). The esteemed journalist and author who has written articles and books about “blackness” appeared on a television program where she defined Obama’s status in America as an “African African American.” Not surprisingly the white host of the television show made her theory the brunt of his jokes for the few minutes she appeared on the show. Enslaved Africans were not only taken from West Africa, many of us in the Diaspora, including the USA have ancestors who were from the Congo, Angola and many other places on the continent. The first enslaved African whose presence in Canada is documented was a six year old child (who was given the name Olivier Le Jeune) kidnapped from Madagascar and sold in Canada in 1628. The trading (selling and buying) of kidnapped Africans taken anywhere, whether it was the Caribbean, South America, Central or North America and even Europe makes it nonsensical for anyone to declare that to be “black” in the USA one has to be a descendant of enslaved West Africans.
Like Obama, Chisholm was 47 years old when she sought the nomination of the Democratic Party in her bid to become president of the USA. They were both virtually ignored by the established African American organizations and some of the people who are considered leaders of the African American community. In Obama’s case some of those “leaders” are supporting Hilary Clinton and one was brazen enough to claim that Bill Clinton has as much claim to being “black” as Obama. The elderly African American leader reportedly said; "Bill is every bit as black as Barack. He's probably gone with more black women than Barack.” What a shame that Bill Clinton is being given “black” status in 2008 by an elder in the African American community based on how many African American women he may have “gone with.” One would think that this kind of debasement of African American women which was rife during slavery would have no place in the conversation of a leader of the community in the 21st century. Since this comment was made there has been a deafening silence from the leaders of the community, even those who have been very vocal questioning Obama’s candidacy. Obama has proven that he is the better person and has not responded to the provocation.
Bill Clinton and by extension his wife may be considered “black” by some in the African American community because of some dubious criteria but those same people have either forgotten or have chosen to ignore some of the racist policies of the Clinton administration. A Justice Policy Institute study showed that through both of Clinton’s terms as President the rate of incarceration for African American men (which was 2,800 per 100,000 as Reagan left office) increased to 3,620 per 100,000. Clinton also adopted law-and-order rhetoric to pass laws that negatively impact on the lives of racialized people, “Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). “The Effective Death Penalty Act” limits appeals in death penalty cases and expanded the number of crimes that could lead to a death penalty sentence. “The Anti-Terrorism Act,” the forerunner of Bush’s USA PATRIOT Act prohibits fundraising for vaguely defined "terrorist" organizations and made it easier for the American government to deport legal immigrants. The Clinton administration aggressively expanded their economic power globally at the expense of racialized people in developing countries by using free trade and international institutions like the World Trade Organization, World Bank and International Monetary Fund. During his 1992 campaign for the Democratic nomination, Clinton was quoted in the Miami Herald: "I think the president (George Bush) played racial politics with the Haitian refugees. I wouldn't be shipping those poor people back." After being elected President, Clinton said in a radio address to the Haitian people: "Those who do leave Haiti for the United States by boat will be stopped and directly returned by the United States Coast Guard."
While some of the elders in the community may consider the Clintons “black” some of the youth are aware of the hypocrisy and are not shy about speaking out. Author, activist rapper Sista Souljah speaking on the Today show said about Clinton. "I think he is like a lot of white politicians -- they eat soul food, they party with black women, they play the saxophone, but when it comes to domestic and foreign policy, they make the same decisions that are destruction, destructive to African people in this country and throughout the world."
As a presidential candidate, Chisholm had to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission in order to participate in a televised debate with McGovern and Hubert Humphrey. Barack Obama did not have to file a complaint with the FCC to participate in debates with other presidential hopefuls because Shirley Chisholm won that fight more than thirty years ago. However, Obama and other African Americans were reminded that the door is still not wide open for an African American seeking the highest office in the USA and that the pre Civil Rights era has not disappeared. When she reacted to Obama’s victory in Iowa, Hilary Clinton proved that she knows she is not black and she is well aware of her power as a white woman in America. She proved that a white woman’s tears in the USA can still spell trouble for an African American man even if he does not end up as “strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.”
tiakoma@aol.com
DR KING REMEMBERED
On January 1st 1863 when U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s (written on 22nd September 1862) Emancipation proclamation became official it was not meant to free all enslaved Africans in America. The language of the proclamation specified freedom for all “slaves” residing in states that were considered rebel states by the federal government. The rebel states named in the proclamation were Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. This Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to enslaved Africans who were toiling in states that were loyal to the Federal government. If the leaders of those ten states named in the Emancipation Proclamation had not rebelled against the Federal government, Lincoln would not have signed that proclamation and perhaps another generation of Africans in America may have had to endure the brutality of chattel slavery. All enslaved Africans in America were finally freed when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was passed on December 18, 1865
On January 2nd, 1863, one day after Lincoln’s proclamation, a male child was born to Willis and Lucretia Williams, an enslaved African couple in Georgia. According to the Federal government, this child had been born free because he lived in one of the rebel states. So depending on whose laws are used, the maternal grandfather of Martin Luther King Jr. was the first of his (MLK’s) ancestors born in America who was a free person or he was the last to be born a “slave.” Adam Daniel Williams the maternal grandfather of Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 2nd 1863 in Penfield, Greene County, Georgia and lived until March 21st 1931.
Martin Luther King Jr. is recognized as one of the leaders of the modern Civil Rights movement. The third Monday of January is recognized by law in the USA as Martin Luther King Jr. Day or Martinsday. Martin Luther King Jr Day is recognized by many people internationally even though the country in which they live might not legally endorse the day. The stories of Dr. King’s non-violent response to the terrorism and violence of white southerners determined to deny African Americans equal rights, are legendary. King did not come by his oratorical skills, his activism, or his dedication to working for the freedom of his people, accidentally. His maternal great grandfather (Willis Williams) although born during the time Africans were enslaved in American, was a preacher to other enslaved Africans in Georgia. Following in the footsteps of his father, Adam Daniel Williams, (King’s grandfather) became a preacher also. He left Greene County, Georgia and traveled to Atlanta in 1893, 28 years after the abolition of slavery in the USA. When Williams arrived in Atlanta in 1893, he became a minister at Ebenezer Baptist church. The congregation of the church was 13 members strong. Using the pulpit to preach the gospel as well as collective work and responsibility and cooperative economics, the Reverend Williams increased the membership of Ebenezer Baptist church to 750 by 1913. Williams expanded his advocacy and activism in September 1895 when he became a delegate, joining two thousand other delegates who met at Atlanta's Friendship Baptist Church when three groups united to organize the National Baptist Convention of the United States of America, considered one of the largest African American religious organizations. In February 1906, A.D. Williams took the lead (in response to W. E. B. Du Bois' call for civil rights activism) by joining five hundred other African Americans in Georgia to form the Georgia Equal Rights League. In 1917, Williams became one of the founders of the Atlanta branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). On becoming the second president of the local chapter of the NAACP in 1918, he mobilized a voter registration campaign to register African American voters (a dangerous undertaking in 1918). The membership of the local NAACP grew to 1400 members within five months under his leadership. In a speech to the NAACP national convention the following year, he convinced the delegates to meet in Atlanta in 1920, the first national NAACP convention to meet in a Southern state. Williams’ activism and leadership led to the city eventually building the Booker T. Washington High School, a secondary school for African American students which Martin Luther King Jr. attended.
Given his ancestry, it is not surprising that Martin Luther King Jr. graduated from high school when he was 15 years old, an age when most students are entering their second year of secondary school. He graduated from Morehouse College at age 19 in 1948 (his grandfather A.D. Williams had attended Morehouse). Morehouse College, founded more than 140 years ago is one the many Historically Black Colleges and Universities that still exist today. It is unique in that the student body is all male and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the many prominent African American men who have been educated at Morehouse. Black Enterprise Magazine has ranked Morehouse as the best school for African Americans for undergraduate study and its prestigious standing has led to its favourable comparison to Harvard. King came to national attention as the young minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama who was elected leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). As leader of the MIA, King was also leader of the Montgomery bus boycott which not only brought him international attention but endangered his life and the life of his family. King’s life work reflected the work of many of our ancestors who risked their lives for their community. King recognized the role of ancestors like the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey as pioneers in the struggle for African human rights. In June 1965 he visited Garvey’s grave, laid a wreath and spoke of Garvey’s activism which gave Africans a "sense of personhood, a sense of manhood, a sense of somebodiness.” On December 10, 1968 King was the posthumous recipient of the first Marcus Garvey Prize for Human Rights issued by the Jamaican Government.
In the tradition of Garvey and other freedom fighters, King was harassed and even imprisoned for his work on behalf of his people. In the same tradition, he refused to be silenced. When he was imprisoned in Birmingham in April, 1963 he wrote his famous “Letter from a Birmingham jail” in response to criticism from a group of white religious leaders (Bishop C. C. J. Carpenter, Bishop Joseph A. Durick, Rabbi Hilton L. Grafman, Bishop Paul Hardin, Bishop Holan B. Harmon, the Reverend George M. Murray. the Reverend Edward V. Ramage and the Reverend Earl Stallings) who thought that African Americans should “wait” and not be in such a hurry to have their human rights recognized. Dr King’s letter to the group of white religious leaders detailed why African Americans could not continue to “wait.”
Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 while he was in Memphis Tennessee to support striking African American sanitation workers. His life ended while he was working to improve the lives of his people. On Monday, January 21st, America will observe a public holiday to celebrate the life of Dr. King. Many of us here in Canada will celebrate Dr. King’s life in various ways. We can all observe that day by reading some of his words, especially his thoughts on reparations. In his book, “Why we can’t wait” published in 1964, Dr. King writes; “No amount of gold could provide an adequate compensation for the exploitation and humiliation of the Negro in America down through the centuries. Yet a price can be placed on unpaid wages. The ancient common law has always provided a remedy for the appropriation of the labor of one human being by another. This law should be made to apply for American Negroes. The payment should be in the form of a massive program by the government of special, compensatory measures which could be regarded as a settlement in accordance with the accepted practice of common law.” Keep in mind that Africans were also enslaved in Canada.
tiakoma@aol.com
Written January 2008
On January 2nd, 1863, one day after Lincoln’s proclamation, a male child was born to Willis and Lucretia Williams, an enslaved African couple in Georgia. According to the Federal government, this child had been born free because he lived in one of the rebel states. So depending on whose laws are used, the maternal grandfather of Martin Luther King Jr. was the first of his (MLK’s) ancestors born in America who was a free person or he was the last to be born a “slave.” Adam Daniel Williams the maternal grandfather of Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 2nd 1863 in Penfield, Greene County, Georgia and lived until March 21st 1931.
Martin Luther King Jr. is recognized as one of the leaders of the modern Civil Rights movement. The third Monday of January is recognized by law in the USA as Martin Luther King Jr. Day or Martinsday. Martin Luther King Jr Day is recognized by many people internationally even though the country in which they live might not legally endorse the day. The stories of Dr. King’s non-violent response to the terrorism and violence of white southerners determined to deny African Americans equal rights, are legendary. King did not come by his oratorical skills, his activism, or his dedication to working for the freedom of his people, accidentally. His maternal great grandfather (Willis Williams) although born during the time Africans were enslaved in American, was a preacher to other enslaved Africans in Georgia. Following in the footsteps of his father, Adam Daniel Williams, (King’s grandfather) became a preacher also. He left Greene County, Georgia and traveled to Atlanta in 1893, 28 years after the abolition of slavery in the USA. When Williams arrived in Atlanta in 1893, he became a minister at Ebenezer Baptist church. The congregation of the church was 13 members strong. Using the pulpit to preach the gospel as well as collective work and responsibility and cooperative economics, the Reverend Williams increased the membership of Ebenezer Baptist church to 750 by 1913. Williams expanded his advocacy and activism in September 1895 when he became a delegate, joining two thousand other delegates who met at Atlanta's Friendship Baptist Church when three groups united to organize the National Baptist Convention of the United States of America, considered one of the largest African American religious organizations. In February 1906, A.D. Williams took the lead (in response to W. E. B. Du Bois' call for civil rights activism) by joining five hundred other African Americans in Georgia to form the Georgia Equal Rights League. In 1917, Williams became one of the founders of the Atlanta branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). On becoming the second president of the local chapter of the NAACP in 1918, he mobilized a voter registration campaign to register African American voters (a dangerous undertaking in 1918). The membership of the local NAACP grew to 1400 members within five months under his leadership. In a speech to the NAACP national convention the following year, he convinced the delegates to meet in Atlanta in 1920, the first national NAACP convention to meet in a Southern state. Williams’ activism and leadership led to the city eventually building the Booker T. Washington High School, a secondary school for African American students which Martin Luther King Jr. attended.
Given his ancestry, it is not surprising that Martin Luther King Jr. graduated from high school when he was 15 years old, an age when most students are entering their second year of secondary school. He graduated from Morehouse College at age 19 in 1948 (his grandfather A.D. Williams had attended Morehouse). Morehouse College, founded more than 140 years ago is one the many Historically Black Colleges and Universities that still exist today. It is unique in that the student body is all male and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the many prominent African American men who have been educated at Morehouse. Black Enterprise Magazine has ranked Morehouse as the best school for African Americans for undergraduate study and its prestigious standing has led to its favourable comparison to Harvard. King came to national attention as the young minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama who was elected leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). As leader of the MIA, King was also leader of the Montgomery bus boycott which not only brought him international attention but endangered his life and the life of his family. King’s life work reflected the work of many of our ancestors who risked their lives for their community. King recognized the role of ancestors like the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey as pioneers in the struggle for African human rights. In June 1965 he visited Garvey’s grave, laid a wreath and spoke of Garvey’s activism which gave Africans a "sense of personhood, a sense of manhood, a sense of somebodiness.” On December 10, 1968 King was the posthumous recipient of the first Marcus Garvey Prize for Human Rights issued by the Jamaican Government.
In the tradition of Garvey and other freedom fighters, King was harassed and even imprisoned for his work on behalf of his people. In the same tradition, he refused to be silenced. When he was imprisoned in Birmingham in April, 1963 he wrote his famous “Letter from a Birmingham jail” in response to criticism from a group of white religious leaders (Bishop C. C. J. Carpenter, Bishop Joseph A. Durick, Rabbi Hilton L. Grafman, Bishop Paul Hardin, Bishop Holan B. Harmon, the Reverend George M. Murray. the Reverend Edward V. Ramage and the Reverend Earl Stallings) who thought that African Americans should “wait” and not be in such a hurry to have their human rights recognized. Dr King’s letter to the group of white religious leaders detailed why African Americans could not continue to “wait.”
Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 while he was in Memphis Tennessee to support striking African American sanitation workers. His life ended while he was working to improve the lives of his people. On Monday, January 21st, America will observe a public holiday to celebrate the life of Dr. King. Many of us here in Canada will celebrate Dr. King’s life in various ways. We can all observe that day by reading some of his words, especially his thoughts on reparations. In his book, “Why we can’t wait” published in 1964, Dr. King writes; “No amount of gold could provide an adequate compensation for the exploitation and humiliation of the Negro in America down through the centuries. Yet a price can be placed on unpaid wages. The ancient common law has always provided a remedy for the appropriation of the labor of one human being by another. This law should be made to apply for American Negroes. The payment should be in the form of a massive program by the government of special, compensatory measures which could be regarded as a settlement in accordance with the accepted practice of common law.” Keep in mind that Africans were also enslaved in Canada.
tiakoma@aol.com
Written January 2008
AFRICAN CHILDREN RESCUED
French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut unhappy with the manner in which the French colonization of Africa is being taught, expressed his dismay when he was interviewed for a newspaper article in November 2005. In this excerpt from that interview he said; “But in France, they’re actually changing the teaching of colonial history and the history of slavery in the schools. Now they teach colonial history as an exclusively negative history. We don’t teach anymore that the colonial project also sought to educate, to bring civilization to the savages. They only talk about it as an attempt at exploitation, domination and plunder.” His interview came on the heels of the youth protest which began on October 25th 2005 when two youth, Ziad Benna and Bouna Traore were electrocuted as they hid from police in an electric transformer. The two children were part of a group of youth being chased by police, terrified of being caught and brutalized, they hid in the transformer where they were electrocuted and burned to death. Like many racialized youth living in white dominated societies, they had fled at the sight of police. Racialised people living in any country where they are the target of overpolicing usually have a fear of police brutality because of their lived experience.
There have been long-standing tensions between the French mostly white police force and members of racialised communities mostly living in low income neighbourhoods. Many of the youth who protested are the children and grandchildren (most of them born in France) of the 5 million African and Arab immigrants in France who are warehoused in segregated neighbourhoods on the outskirts of major cities. This is a direct result of employees of low income housing agencies practicing segregation along racial lines when placing clients into public housing. Racism and police brutality are the norm in these communities and in a November 4th statement, the Movement Against Racism and for the Friendship of Peoples (MRAP) described their lived reality as a “territorial, ethnic and social apartheid.”
The protest in October and November of 2005 against racism, poverty and police brutality was sparked by the words of then Minister of the Interior, (now France’s President) Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy, describing the racialized youth as "scum" had for several months beforehand been promising to "pressure clean" the largely racialized neighbourhoods with a "Kärcher," (a well-known brand of industrial-strength pressure-washer which is used to clean dog excrement off the streets). His words had already created an extremely toxic and explosive atmosphere and the deaths of the two youth triggered an outpouring of mass anger which led to thousands of disenfranchised young people pouring into the streets of more than 300 cities and towns across France to express their rage. The situation facing the affected communities in France today is a result of the French colonization of Africa.
On November 8th, 2005, the French government declared a state of emergency, invoking an April 3rd, 1955 law passed to oppress supporters of Algerian liberation from France. The “state of emergency” declaration in 2005 evoked memories of the October 17th, 1961, massacre of approximately 400 Algerians peacefully protesting in Paris. Hundreds of protesters were shot or beaten to death and their bodies dumped in the Seine River. Many demonstrators died when they were violently herded by police into the Seine River, with some thrown from bridges after being beaten unconscious. Other demonstrators were killed within the courtyard of the Paris police headquarters after being arrested and driven there in police buses. In 2005, Sarkozy’s referral to demonstrating youth as “scum” would have been a reminder of France’s brutal and barbaric response to the October 1961 protesters. The deaths of Ziad Benna and Bouna Traore ignited many pre-existing tensions. Protesters quoted in newspaper articles said that the protest was an expression of frustration with high unemployment and police harassment and brutality. Ten percent of French workers are unemployed, according to official statistics but for young people in the suburbs, largely populated by African immigrants, the rate is as high as 50 percent. Sarkozy promised to deport anyone rounded up by the police who might be involved in the protest movement. By November 12th, close to 2,500 people had been arrested, including 450 youths under 18 who were rushed through emergency juvenile court proceedings.
Two years later, speaking at the Cheik Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal on 26 July 2007, as France’s President, Sarkozy is quoted: “The problem of Africa, and allow a friend of Africa to say it, is to be found here. Africa’s challenge is to enter to a greater extent into history. Africa’s problem is to stop always repeating, always mulling over, to liberate itself from the myth of the eternal return. It is to realise that the golden age that Africa is forever recalling will not return because it has never existed.” He described the French who colonized Africa as; “men of goodwill, men who thought they were carrying out a civilizing mission...They thought they were bringing freedom. They thought they were breaking the chains of obscurantism, superstition and servitude.”
On Sunday, November 25th 2007 at 5:00 p.m. an eerily similar situation to the one in October 2005 occurred when two youth riding on a motorbike were hit by a police car and were left for dead. Some witnesses to the collision between the motorbike and police car say the officers left the scene without helping the victims. Larami Samoura, 16 and Moushin Souhelli, 15 were killed on November 25th, 2007. Media use of the term “involuntary homicide” infuriated residents of the area, many of whom were convinced the collision was deliberately provoked by the police. According to one newspaper report, the 16 year old had been threatened by police the previous week. As minister of the Interior in 2003, Sarkozy had championed a policy of permanently stationing riot police and mobile police divisions in neighbourhoods of largely racialized populations, capable of rapidly mobilizing great numbers of police to raid these poor neighbourhoods. With the openly racist policies of the government, racialized people in France have found themselves targeted by police. This racist trend in France is not surprising given the disrespect that the President of the country and influential figures like philosopher Alain Finkielkraut have openly expressed towards Africa and Africans.
It was into this white supremacist French society with its proven anti-African racism that a group of white men and women who had lied their way into communities in a North-Central African country, were planning to take 103 kidnapped African children. Chad, once colonized by France was the scene of this act of international terrorism with the attempted kidnapping in October 2007 of some of its most vulnerable citizens. The children aged between one and ten years old were covered in fake blood and bandages in an attempt to obscure their identity. When the children were rescued they were found to be severely traumatized, many of them weeping for their mothers. When the news of the capture of the kidnappers hit the French airwaves there were angry white people in France who had paid handsomely (between 2,800 and 8,400 euros) to lay claim to the African children.
Given the recent spate of white pedophiles roaming the globe in search of victims from developing countries it was not surprising that Idriss Déby, the Chadian president feared the children were in the hands of an international gang of pedophiles. The gang of white kidnappers included one Belgian, seven Spanish and nine French men and women. The Chadian government arrested the kidnappers but eventually allowed the seven Spaniards, the Belgian and three of the French people to leave the country. On November 4th, 2007 ten days after the October arrest, Sarkozy, Africa's "big friend" was in Chad to take seven of the gang of kidnappers home. On November 10th, six days later, four other members of the gang were allowed to leave Chad. The remaining six French people, apparently the masterminds of the kidnapping plot were tried, found guilty and sentenced to eight years hard labour. On Friday, December 28th, two days after the trial and sentencing, the six French kidnappers were back in France, courtesy of Sarkozy. Great concern was expressed about the health of the kidnappers who had spent two months in a Chadian jail. Not surprisingly, no one in France seemed to care about the trauma of the kidnapped children who have not yet been reunited with their families.
tiakoma@aol.com
Written in January 2008
There have been long-standing tensions between the French mostly white police force and members of racialised communities mostly living in low income neighbourhoods. Many of the youth who protested are the children and grandchildren (most of them born in France) of the 5 million African and Arab immigrants in France who are warehoused in segregated neighbourhoods on the outskirts of major cities. This is a direct result of employees of low income housing agencies practicing segregation along racial lines when placing clients into public housing. Racism and police brutality are the norm in these communities and in a November 4th statement, the Movement Against Racism and for the Friendship of Peoples (MRAP) described their lived reality as a “territorial, ethnic and social apartheid.”
The protest in October and November of 2005 against racism, poverty and police brutality was sparked by the words of then Minister of the Interior, (now France’s President) Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy, describing the racialized youth as "scum" had for several months beforehand been promising to "pressure clean" the largely racialized neighbourhoods with a "Kärcher," (a well-known brand of industrial-strength pressure-washer which is used to clean dog excrement off the streets). His words had already created an extremely toxic and explosive atmosphere and the deaths of the two youth triggered an outpouring of mass anger which led to thousands of disenfranchised young people pouring into the streets of more than 300 cities and towns across France to express their rage. The situation facing the affected communities in France today is a result of the French colonization of Africa.
On November 8th, 2005, the French government declared a state of emergency, invoking an April 3rd, 1955 law passed to oppress supporters of Algerian liberation from France. The “state of emergency” declaration in 2005 evoked memories of the October 17th, 1961, massacre of approximately 400 Algerians peacefully protesting in Paris. Hundreds of protesters were shot or beaten to death and their bodies dumped in the Seine River. Many demonstrators died when they were violently herded by police into the Seine River, with some thrown from bridges after being beaten unconscious. Other demonstrators were killed within the courtyard of the Paris police headquarters after being arrested and driven there in police buses. In 2005, Sarkozy’s referral to demonstrating youth as “scum” would have been a reminder of France’s brutal and barbaric response to the October 1961 protesters. The deaths of Ziad Benna and Bouna Traore ignited many pre-existing tensions. Protesters quoted in newspaper articles said that the protest was an expression of frustration with high unemployment and police harassment and brutality. Ten percent of French workers are unemployed, according to official statistics but for young people in the suburbs, largely populated by African immigrants, the rate is as high as 50 percent. Sarkozy promised to deport anyone rounded up by the police who might be involved in the protest movement. By November 12th, close to 2,500 people had been arrested, including 450 youths under 18 who were rushed through emergency juvenile court proceedings.
Two years later, speaking at the Cheik Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal on 26 July 2007, as France’s President, Sarkozy is quoted: “The problem of Africa, and allow a friend of Africa to say it, is to be found here. Africa’s challenge is to enter to a greater extent into history. Africa’s problem is to stop always repeating, always mulling over, to liberate itself from the myth of the eternal return. It is to realise that the golden age that Africa is forever recalling will not return because it has never existed.” He described the French who colonized Africa as; “men of goodwill, men who thought they were carrying out a civilizing mission...They thought they were bringing freedom. They thought they were breaking the chains of obscurantism, superstition and servitude.”
On Sunday, November 25th 2007 at 5:00 p.m. an eerily similar situation to the one in October 2005 occurred when two youth riding on a motorbike were hit by a police car and were left for dead. Some witnesses to the collision between the motorbike and police car say the officers left the scene without helping the victims. Larami Samoura, 16 and Moushin Souhelli, 15 were killed on November 25th, 2007. Media use of the term “involuntary homicide” infuriated residents of the area, many of whom were convinced the collision was deliberately provoked by the police. According to one newspaper report, the 16 year old had been threatened by police the previous week. As minister of the Interior in 2003, Sarkozy had championed a policy of permanently stationing riot police and mobile police divisions in neighbourhoods of largely racialized populations, capable of rapidly mobilizing great numbers of police to raid these poor neighbourhoods. With the openly racist policies of the government, racialized people in France have found themselves targeted by police. This racist trend in France is not surprising given the disrespect that the President of the country and influential figures like philosopher Alain Finkielkraut have openly expressed towards Africa and Africans.
It was into this white supremacist French society with its proven anti-African racism that a group of white men and women who had lied their way into communities in a North-Central African country, were planning to take 103 kidnapped African children. Chad, once colonized by France was the scene of this act of international terrorism with the attempted kidnapping in October 2007 of some of its most vulnerable citizens. The children aged between one and ten years old were covered in fake blood and bandages in an attempt to obscure their identity. When the children were rescued they were found to be severely traumatized, many of them weeping for their mothers. When the news of the capture of the kidnappers hit the French airwaves there were angry white people in France who had paid handsomely (between 2,800 and 8,400 euros) to lay claim to the African children.
Given the recent spate of white pedophiles roaming the globe in search of victims from developing countries it was not surprising that Idriss Déby, the Chadian president feared the children were in the hands of an international gang of pedophiles. The gang of white kidnappers included one Belgian, seven Spanish and nine French men and women. The Chadian government arrested the kidnappers but eventually allowed the seven Spaniards, the Belgian and three of the French people to leave the country. On November 4th, 2007 ten days after the October arrest, Sarkozy, Africa's "big friend" was in Chad to take seven of the gang of kidnappers home. On November 10th, six days later, four other members of the gang were allowed to leave Chad. The remaining six French people, apparently the masterminds of the kidnapping plot were tried, found guilty and sentenced to eight years hard labour. On Friday, December 28th, two days after the trial and sentencing, the six French kidnappers were back in France, courtesy of Sarkozy. Great concern was expressed about the health of the kidnappers who had spent two months in a Chadian jail. Not surprisingly, no one in France seemed to care about the trauma of the kidnapped children who have not yet been reunited with their families.
tiakoma@aol.com
Written in January 2008
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