Cecile Emeke is still at it. The Young Black Voice.
The Strolling series by the young producer Cecile Emeke is, in
my opinion,
one of the best things to happen in Black media in recent years. Ms
Emeke is in the
act of combining the power of social media with her knack for video
storytelling
and presenting the voices of young articulate and efflorescent Black
people from
various localities (so far in Europe). She is giving them the
opportunity to
freely express their feelings with regard to the various cultures that
they find
themselves at once immersed in and excluded from. The series is not
only one of
the few outlets that allows these young people to vent their feelings
but at the
same time it demonstrates clearly their diversity. Each subject has his
or her
own unique story about their impressions and experiences in their
particular
society which, I feel, were very well told. I see that this is a work in
progress and I hope we will all recognize and support this effort for
the
valuable service that it brings to the people of the African diaspora
wherever
we find ourselves. I also hope that the series will stimulate others to
share
their talents with us while creating works that unify us to the same
degree as
Cecile Emeke is doing. I am so impressed with the work this young woman
is
doing. I hope we are sharing these videos to the max.
It looks like you will have a chance to experience this series on youtube.
It appears that she wants to relaunch the series.
:Go check out her new Youtube channel and more like the following
I've been finding quite a lot of material about and by dr. John Henrik Clarke the esteemed Afrikan historian on youtube lately, so I've been having the pleasure of sharing it with my blog readers. You don't have to wait for me to post it here, you can just go to youtube, do a search under his name and you will find enough to keep you busy for a long time if your are truly interested in the history of the people of Afrika.
As ususal I believe dr. Clarke's message in this video to be relevant and timely. This particular lecture is directed to Afrikans on the continent and throughout the world. He has some suggestions about how we might use awareness of some of the old ways in order to improve our circumstances in the world. Our relationship to a particular part of the globe does not change the fact of our being Afrikans dr. Clarke points out. Even in Afrika there is so much that needs to be done that the likelyhood of it happening will increase with the participation of all of us. None of us have been left untouched (in very similar ways), by the ravages of transatlantic slavery and colonialism He stresses economic unity, productivity and sacrifice throughout the diaspora, as a means to work our way to a more stable position among people of the world. I would suggest watching this and then taking a close look at the present day map of Afrika, then the news reports of the past year in Afrika and then your local news, about the people belonging to the Afrikan diaspora in your part of the world. What do you see?
Miss Lou Born September 7, 1919. Died July 26, 2006
Miss Lou, was a celebrated Jamaican comedienne, poet and cultural icon, her work, as was her life, was seen to be the essence of Jamaican expression.
Bennett was extremely well known for her radio programs -Laugh with Louise, Miss Lou's Views and The Lou and Ranny Show as well as the 1970s TV program Ring Ding which was popular with children across the island.
Miss Lou was loved and revered by Jamaicans of every social stripe.
This poem re-stages a tracing match (quarrel) between two Jamaican women. Common cuss-words like "boogooyagga" (low-grade) "heng-pon-nail " (bedraggled) are used. Gwan gal yuh fava teggereg, Ah wey yuh gwine goh do? Yuh an yuh boogooyagga fren Dem tink me fraid o' yuh? Goh wey, yuh fava heng-pon-nail, Is me yuh want fe trace? Me is jus de one fi teck me han An leggo pon yuh face. Fe me han noh jine chu ch an me naw Pay licen fe me mout', Me wi tell yuh bout yuh--se yah Gal noh badda get me out. Me noh know is wat kine o' chu'ch Fe yuh mout' coulda jine, Yuh lip dem heng dung lacka wen Mule kean meck up him mine. Gwan, me an yuh noh combolo, Yuh foot shapeless an lang Like smaddy stan far fiing dem awn An meck dem heng awn wrang. Fe yuh foot fava capital K, Koo pon yuh two nose-hole! Dem dis big an open out like Miss Tane outsize fish bowl. Goh wey, yuh kean bwile sof egg But still yuh want get ring, Noh man na gwine fe married yuh Wen yuh kean do a ting. Is grudge yuh grudgeful, me kean cook But me ben goh dah good school, Me got intelligency yuh Illiterated fool ! Me sorry fe de man yuh get De po' ting hooden nyam When you ackebus him salt-fish An bwilivous him yam....... Reference: Louise Bennett
The author of "QUILOMBISMO An Afro-Brazilian Political Alternative" expresses the need of Brazilian Black people to win back their memory of Africa. Then goes on to say that the same goes for people of African descent on the continent and throughout the Americas. Indeed we have our work cut out for us. This article is just one of many that accentuates the need for Africans on the continent and throughout the diaspora to to get in touch with our African roots and stop wandering around the world as if we haven't got a history that is every bit as consequential as any other. The fact is we must take possession of our own legacy and relate our story from the point of view and the facts surrounding the lives of our ancestors. The first step on the road to this happening will be for us as Africans to fully embrace and acknowledge our ancestry. Whatever admixtures we may have by race or by place we are still Africans and nothing is going to change that. The very strength of our DNA insures that we shall not be mistaken for anything else.
Contrary to what's been drummed into far too many of us - that's a good thing. Once we get beyond such obstacles we can begin the work of exploring our past with the same healthy curiosity that all offspring have about their forebearers, while simultaneously creating systems to ensure that our own progeny can keep and build on our efforts. We don't have to start from scratch either because those kindred souls named at the end of this following excerpt have already begun to dig, as well as organize systems for the study of and the preservation of our history. We do have to keep up the effort though and we must get the full attention of our youth, at this point in time I'd say their lives depend on it. Our young people need to see us extoll the exploits of our heroes and mentors as well as our kings and conquerors of which there have actually been many, in recent and ancient history. if they never hear about them then it's easy to assume that they never existed. Our situation of living in eurocentric cultures or euro-colonialized cultures has placed us in a position where African history and culture is a subject, that not only has not been taught but even worse has been treated as a source of shame, something to be shunned. As Malcolm X so eloquently pointed out if you hate the root then you gotta hate the tree. It's time for our roots to get lots of TLC. Web Prospector
The following is an excerpt from an article in
The Journal of Black Studies
edited by
ABDIAS DO NASCIMENTO State University of New York.
QUILOMBISMO An Afro-Brazilian Political Alternative
MEMORY:THE ANTIQUITY OF BLACK AFRICAN KNOWLEDGE
"I want to begin this text emphasizing the urgent need of the Brazilian Black people to win back their memory, which has been systematically assaulted by Brazilian Western-inspired structures of domination for almost 500 years. A similar pro- cess holds true with the history of Africans on the Continent and their descendants scattered through all the Americas. The memory of Afro-Brazilians, very much to the contrary of what is said by conventional historians of limited vision and superficial understanding, does not begin with the slave traffic or the dawn of chattel slavery of Africans in the fifteenth century. In my country, the ruling class always, and particu- larly after the so-called abolition of slavery (1888), has developed and refined myriad techniques of preventing Black
Brazilians from being able to identify and actively assume their ethnic, historical and cultural roots, thus cutting them off from the trunk of their African family tree. Except in terms of recent expansionist interests of the industrial elite, Brazil as a traditional norm has always ignored the African continent. It turned its back on Africa as soon as the slaver elite found itself no longer able to scorn the prohibition of commerce in African flesh imposed by Britain around 1850. A massive immigration of Europeans occurred a few years later, and the ruling elite emphasized its intentions and its actions in the sense of wrenching out of the mind and heart of slaves' descendants any image of Africa as a positive memory of nation, of motherland, of native home. Never in our educational system was there taught a discipline revealing any appreciation or respect for the cultures, arts, languages, political or economic systems, or religions of Africa. And physical contact of Afro-Brazilians with their brothers in the continent and the diaspora was always prevented or made difficult, among other methods, by the denial of economic means permitting Black people to move and travel outside the country. But none of these hindrances had the power of obliterating completely, from our spirit and memory, the living presence of Mother Africa. And even in the existential hell we are subjected to now, this rejection of Africa on the part of tle domindnt classes has functioned as a notably positive factor, helping to maintain the Black nation as a community above and beyond difficulties in time and space.
Diversified as are the strategies and devices arrayed against Black people's memory, they have recently undergone serious erosion and irreparable discrediting. This is due largely to the dedication and competence of a few Africans preoccupied with the secular destitution the Black race has suffered at the hands of European and Euro-American' capitalist civilization. This group of Africans, simultaneously scholars, scientists, philosophers, and creators of literature and art, includes persons from the African continent and diaspora. To mention only a few of their names: Cheikh Anta Diop, of Senegal; Chancellor Williams, Shawna Maglangbayan Moore, Haki Madhubuti, Molefi K. Asante and Maulana Ron Karenga of the United States; George G. M. James and Ivan Van Sertima of Guyana; Yosef Ben-Jochannan of Ethiopia; Theophile Obenga, of Congo Brazzaville; Wole Soyinka Ola Balogun and Wande Abimbola of Nigeria; these figure among the many who are actively producing works fundamental to the contemporary and coming development of Africa. In different fields, with diverse perspectives, the energies of these eminent Africans channel themselves toward the exorcism of the falsities, distortions and negations that Europeans for so long have been weaving around Africa, with the purpose of obscuring or erasing our memory of the wisdom, scientific and philosoph- ical knowledge and realizations of the peoples of Black African origin. Black Brazilian memory is only a part and particle in this gigantic project of reconstruction of a larger past to which all Afro-Brazilians are connected. To redeem this past is to have a consequent responsibility in the destinies and futures of the Black African nation worldwide, still preserving our quality as edifiers and genuine citizens of Brazil."
Town Hall Meeting Took Place Where Africville Once Stood
Building International Unity and Working Towards Economic Recovery in the African Nova Scotian Diaspora Community
Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus International (SRDC) and Ujaama
Building International Unity and Working Towards Economic Recovery
in the African Nova Scotian Diaspora Community
“Remember the Ant”: Town Hall Meeting Took Place Where Africville Once Stood
In recognition of the United Nations declaring 2011, the
“International Year for People of African Descent”, the Ujamaa
Association and the Sixth Region Diaspora International present,
Remember the Ant: An African Family Town Hall Meeting at Africville
Park, August 22, 2011; (click here to read more)
“You aren’t an African because you
were born in Africa,” he tells the town hall audience. “You’re African
because Africa was born in you.” - David Horne
To this day, Black families of Africville remember the razing . Even though this event took place over four decades ago, memorials, organizations, societies, stories, art works and more have sprung up as a result of this destruction. To me this demonstrates the intense will to survive as a community, found among Black Nova Scotians and is worthy of the highest praise. The presence of such people from the earliest time is one of the things that makes Canada a great country. Let's hope she can appreciate these illustrious founding citizens.
TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
I really enjoy snooping around itunes for informative podcasts.
I found this episode which was published in October 2009.
It's about 30 minutes long and packed with information.
« Episode 32: Africa and the Indian OceanPodcast Featured on American Historical Association Blog »
Episode 33: The African Diaspora in Britain
Marika Sherwood (senior research fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London) on the history of the African diaspora in Britain. She discusses aspects of her 2007 book After Abolition: Britain and the Slave Trade Since 1807, the 1945 Pan Africanist Congress in Manchester, and Pan-African biographies. Sherwood concludes by noting the inadequate treatment of black history in the UK school curriculum.
Linda Bellos introduced Black History Month to the UK in 1987, she was born to a white Jewish British mother and Nigerian father and grew up in London.
As a child she heard white people tell her mother that she had betrayed ‘our boys’ by marrying a black man after the sacrifices White people had made in 2nd World War.
Linda later discovered that her father had volunteered for the Merchant Navy to help the mother country.
She also discovered that during the 2nd World War 2.5 million Indian/Pakistani/Sri Lankan/Bangladeshi men and women where involved in the War efforts and 1.5 million during the 1st World War.
Linda Bellos, Part 1 of 3, Black History Month Opening Address
Trinidadian Claudia Jones was a civil rights worker, refugee and journalist. She set up the first ever weekly West Indian paper and in 1959 in response to the racist riots of 1958 created the first ever carnival. She also campaigned against racist immigration and for decent housing for immigrants from the Commonwealth who had been invited to Britain by Enoch Powell
In 1896, the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case determined that "separate but equal" was constitutional. The opinion of the Supreme Court stated, "A statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races -- a distinction which is founded in the color of the two races, and which must always exist so long as white men are distinguished from the other race by color -- has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races, or re-establish a state of involuntary servitude."
The Plessy v. Ferguson legitimized the numerous state and local laws that had been created around the United States after the Civil War. Across the country, blacks and whites were legally forced to use separate train cars, separate drinking fountains, separate schools, separate entrances into buildings, and much more. Segregation was the law.
On May 17, 1954, the law was changed. In the landmark Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision by ruling that segregation was "inherently unequal." Although the Brown v. Board of Education was specifically for the field of education, the decision had a much broader scope.
Although the Brown v. Board of Education decision overturned all the segregation laws in the country, the enactment of integration was not immediate. In actuality, it took many years, much turmoil, and even bloodshed to integrate the country.
“My decision to destroy the authority of the blacks in Saint Domingue (Haiti) is not so much based on considerations of commerce and money, as on the need to block for ever the march of the blacks in the world.”
‘Haiti did not fail,’ writes Hilary Beckles, ‘it was destroyed by two of the most powerful nations on earth, both of which continue to have a primary interest in its current condition.' Buried 'beneath the rubble of imperial propaganda', says Beckle, is 'the evidence which shows that Haiti's independence was defeated by an aggressive North-Atlantic alliance that could not imagine their world inhabited by a free regime of Africans as representatives of the newly emerging democracy.’
The University of the West Indies is in the process of conceiving how best to deliver a major conference on the theme ‘Rethinking and rebuilding Haiti’.
I am very keen to provide an input into this exercise because for too long there has been a popular perception that somehow the Haitian nation-building project, launched on 1 January 1804, has failed on account of mismanagement, ineptitude, corruption.
Buried beneath the rubble of imperial propaganda, out of both Western Europe and the United States, is the evidence which shows that Haiti's independence was defeated by an aggressive North-Atlantic alliance that could not imagine their world inhabited by a free regime of Africans as representatives of the newly emerging democracy.
The evidence is striking, especially in the context of France.
The Haitians fought for their freedom and won, as did the Americans fifty years earlier. The Americans declared their independence and crafted an extraordinary constitution that set out a clear message about the value of humanity and the right to freedom, justice, and liberty.
In the midst of this brilliant discourse, they chose to retain slavery as the basis of the new nation state. The founding fathers therefore could not see beyond race, as the free state was built on a slavery foundation.
"One of the best things about learning, is passing on what you discover to other people." Shingai Nyajeka."
A film about a group of Black Nova Scotian students and their quest for knowledge of self and their place in their own and the community at large.
In the face of racism and marginalization, they work to establish a Cultural Awareness Youth Group, a vehicle for building pride and self-esteem through educational and cultural programs. With help from mentors, they discover and share, the richness of their heritage and learn some of the ways they can begin to affect change. Shot on location in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada)
The Seaview African Baptist Church bulldozed in 1967
"Nova Scotia in black context:
People of African descent have been living in Nova Scotia for almost 300 years. In Acadia, from the early to mid 1700s, there were more than 300 people of African descent in the French settlement at Louisbourg, Cape Breton.
In Halifax in 1751 there were 15 Black people. Between 100 and 150 people of African descent were among the new settlers, now known as the Planters, who came from New England after the British gained control over Nova Scotia in 1763.
Over 3,000 Black people came as part of the Loyalist migration between 1783 and 1785.
In 1796, 550 people, known as the Maroons, were deported from Jamaica to Nova Scotia. In 1800 they were relocated to Sierra Leone.
Some 2000 escaped slaves came from the United States during the War of 1812, under conditions similar to those of the Black Loyalists. They had thrown in their lot with the British between 1812 and 1816 and were offered freedom and land in Nova Scotia. They moved into the Halifax area to settle at Preston, Hammonds Plains, Beechville, Porter's Lake, and the Lucasville Road, as well as the Windsor area.
In the early 1900s Black immigrants were actively recruited from Barbados, West Indies to work in Cape Breton for the Dominion Coal Company. This community survives to the present day in Whitney Pier, Glace Bay and New Waterford.
People of African descent continue to immigrate to Nova Scotia today."
BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA.ORG is an online destination for free video streaming and distribution of fresh factual and fictional media related to the global black experience. Here you can watch free full-length streams of select documentary and narrative shorts, purchase to own engaging downloads, DVDs, and engage with multi-platform public media projects.
I was so delighted to discover this site that I only watched a couple of videos and didn't really explore it very much before I decided to put it on the blog right away. Hopefully you'll explore it more carefully and return with some helpful feedback pro or con. I also hope to see you spread the news so that more of us can benefit from the effort that's being made here. It is productions such as this that will help to bring us to a place where we are able to see the potential we have to advance ourselves through cooperation and mutual understanding. We should do whatever we can to help ensure the success of this and other projects like it.
"How to drive more of the Black collective to the internet and the Black blogsphere?"
My feeling is with you, I never stop thinking about ways to reach the Black masses. One important way to get answers is to broaden the question. So we can add ----How to deliver the contents of the internet and the Black Blogosphere to the Black coillective?---- to the original question.
I think we shouldn't forget that while we have been many moons in America, we are still more of a verbal culture than a written one. Griots have always been an important factor in African communication, history and genealogy many generations of information was passed on unbroken by this means. Up until the point where many of us, in the diaspora, were hijacked and thus pulled completely out of the loop, this means of communication was working for us.
Even then, after several centuries our young folks are coming full circle with Rap. A rapper may be compared to a griot telling stories of the things that folks in the village want to know about. It is another spoken word means of communication which has proved to be very effective. So much, that millions have been spent in America to divert and circumvent the original form, in an attempt to subvert the output and once again minstralize our image while at the same time raking in tons of money.
Rap reaches so many people around the world, that it truly is a force to be reconed with. People of all cultures find it appealing but especially those of the African Diaspora . Outside the US I have seen quite a few progressive presentations and productions being utilized by young people to express their impression of how they perceive and are determined to respond to their sociopolitical environment.
African Underground: Hip Hop in Senegal
We have to work together to inform our people that Black folks around the world are ready, even sometimes a personal risk to speak out for the cause of liberty and justice. While we may appear to be separated, we are not alone.
Cuban hip hop group protests racism and injustice
Brazil Official Estilo Hip Hop Trailer
Closer to home People like DaveyD, Professor Jared BAll, Rosa Clemente, Sista Souljah and other Media Activists are working to bring us together. Black bloggers have to get on board and back these brothers and sisters up.
Media Activist Davey D on media consolidation ncmr 2005
http://www.voxunion.com/ VoxUnion.com is a fantastic site that IMO all Black bloggers would benefit plugging into. My favorite feature on this site is the Freemix Radio concept, that suggests we all create mixtapes of music, news, current events and such and listen then pass them on and if we have the resources create more add to it and pass that along too. I could see this model working for e-mail newsletters as well.
There are others also out there working and we all have to somehow communicate with one another in order to consolidate and or coordinate at least some of our efforts in order to take advantage of the fact that right now we have potential access to millions of people. In the last ten years I have seen a number of excellent productions come and fall by the wayside because of lack of support and the people producing them just couldn't maintain their level of output while working alone.
Blogging, youtube, podcasting, skype and more resources are available, in various combinations for those of us who will challenge our imaginations. Never before and (when this window closes) possibly never again, will we have such a fantastic opportunity. We have to talk about it, we have to learn real fast how to combine efforts for maximum use of input.
And yes, I think we have to do everything we can to drag the collective, (even if kicking and screaming) right along with us.
I'll close with this message from Davey D at the NCMR 2007
Total Black TV is a fresh, Web 2.0 venture directed at the Black Collective.
You can upload, download, watch, buy and sell your video productions.
Somewhere I've seen it compared to youtube but it is more than a copy of youtube.
This appears to be their mission statement;
Finally! That’s all I can say! Finally, there is a website that challenges the mind and our everyday perception of the world around us. Total Black TV allows me to express myself freely and without restriction. Within this productive atmosphere I feel I am understood, and supported. Total Black TV is a breeding place for thoughtful conversation and exciting yet controversial news. Log on to totalblacktv.com to share YOUR ideas on topics YOU care about. Don’t forget about our sister site totalblacktv.com/myview, for all your social networking needs.
Some comments I came up with doing a google search;
I say welcome, to another vehicule that has been made available for us to use to, tell ourstory. Total Black TV has the potential to be a very important tool in the unification of The Black Collective but potential is nothing unless it's put into motion. Use it or lose it! TotalBlackTV.com
