Of "Holy" healing sessions and all that crap

I often wonder why people have so much faith in God, and in holy revelations, and miracle cures etc.
As I pondered over this today, I remember a small story that was told to me a while ago that pretty much mirrors what happens each time there is a genuine and not "made for TV" attempt to heal the sick via spiritual intervention.



It usually goes like this..

An ordinary working  man or a woman will go down with a perfectly curable afliction but due to their faith, rather than do what most sensible people do and go and consult a medical practitioner, they usually send for their churches most powerful preacher or pastor. If one so happens to be in that area, they will request the services of whoever the "in fashion" prophet at the time is. Its funny how the genuinely well to do or reasonably educated in life seldom sink to this level but I digress.

The preacher or prophet will arrive wearing either in a shiny handsome looking suit that the majority of their followers or congregants cant afford, or enrobed in "white as driven snow" and holy looking garments. He will then piously enter the house, and after a few niceties ask all present to gather round the sick man close their eyes and pray.

Once the prayer session is over he will then sprinkle some holy water over the poor man, look up to heavens, and then bellow out at nothing in particular demanding that the illness depart from his patient in the name of the Lord.

In many instances a collection then takes place which the bamboozled are led to believe will be used either to help the pastor enhance and improve his ministry, or the prophet to buy a few provisions for his latest trek to some desolate spot in the woods to do battle with the dangerous spirits of the devils army which doubtless would have played a role in the deterioration of the health of his patient
That done, he goes off and waits for his prayer to "work its magic".

As is almost always the case, It turns out that the prayer did not work and that the patient has taken a turn for the worse and so the cycle is repeated; this time with ever more powerful prayers and spiritual murmuring , and the sprinkling of even more powerful holy water.

The patient groans and then feebly lifts his hands up and joins in in the now almost mystical chanting and , on cue, the preacher presses his well used bible viciously down on his chest and commands this bad Lucifer inspired illness to flee in the name of Jesus and his many saints. Hallelujah!
The patient collapses back onto the bed and his eyes start to roll and hs body starts to shiver. This is a good sign to those gathered around his bed. That it might be the beginnings of pre mortem euphoria or delirium does not at any point cross their minds and the "session" is declared a success. Some even permit themselves a triumphant glass of wine after the smug looking Preacher departs after having recommended a few inspiring verses for the relatives to read to his patient throughout the coming days.

Then the patient dies in agony in the middle of the night.




Are the prophets and preachers ever blamed? No, they are not. After they complete their commissions by presiding over the funeral of the departed they are completed exonerated and in some instances, praised for their "hard work". The death of the patient, predictably, is put down to the departeds lack of suffiecient faith, or to Jehovahs fury at the collapse of the morals of modern day people.
 How on earth could Jehovah have shown mercy in a world where gays and lesbians have the nerve to get married.  Didn't the bible recommend execution somewhere in the bible for such activities? And then there is the issue of inter racial marriage. After Ham's appalling sin against his father, this should have been banned for good but still people keep on doing it. There is too much lying in the world will be the opinion of yet another congregant. Others still will blame low church attendances and rampant adultery. And so on and so on.

No, the patient didnt stand a chance.... but at least Jehovah saw how pious and God fearing they, the witnesses, were. This will be good for when they themselves keel over and are asked to give an account of their righteousness to the rulers of the next world.
Not a single one of them will stop to wonder whether they might have been better off taking their ill friend or relative to the doctor, and the preacher and prophet, totally absolved of any wrong doing, will continue to ruin the lives of people with their never ending hucksterism.

Afritude

Where did it go wrong children of the mother continent?

Painting by brotha Vanness Johnson

Greetings family.

I have one question for you all today. It is an on-going question - and one that troubles me, if I may put it that way, and you will see why in a few moments.

When our recent ancestors like Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba, MLK, Steve Biko and so on, take time out from their undoubtedly busy schedules in the next world, and look down at us as a community that they fought so hard for what do they see?

Are they happy with what they see?

Lets look at what they fought and stood for – at great peril to themselves, and for no monetary gain in every instance.

They fought for our right to self determination and freedom.

They fought for our dignity as a people.

They fought for us to be respected as human beings.

They fought for us to have access to a decent education and to be able to define our futures.

They fought to help us free our minds and to learn to think clearly and positively.

They sacrificed their lives, often painfully, abjectly, and brutally, for these causes; they were prepared to die in prison; they were prepared to be ridiculed through anti black propaganda by the dominant forces in the world just to see their descendants get a chance to get ahead and make progress in this harsh world.

What do they see?

They see an over-sexualised youth dressed like pimps and hoes, and, apparently, proud of it. They stay out late at night, and some don't even have the decency to sit down at the dinner table with their parents and general family. They don't study in the evening but, instead choose to spend time on the plantations that this new generation know as play stations. Knowledge of self appears to have died.

They see an increase in single family households caused by irresponsible fathers who run away from their responsibilities the moment a woman gets pregnant. Who will then give guidance and advice to our seeds if their parents couldn't care a hoot about them?

They see black on black violence at levels never seen in living memory. It seems fashionable to gang-bang and kill each over something as petty as an area code or a color and splash bundles of money all over social media when these men would, and did, teach us to stay humble, save money, not to be vain and flashy if we were to proceed and improve as a community. This saddens me.

They see poorly governed communities, cities and countries in which we live  where we appear to have abandoned ubuntu and mutual kindness, and to have let avarice, cruelty consume us. Something that almost never used to happen before we were "disturbed".

Where did it go wrong?

We are the authors of our own destiny, and we have the tools we need bequeathed to us through the sacrifices of our elders, despite the odd pot-holes here and there, to write our story positively and yet we seem not to be be willing to live our lives productively and inspirationally.

Shall all their hard work and sacrifice be in vain?

Brotha Afritude.

The reality of life for some

Greetings family.

This is a picture I found on face book somewhere. It hit home because for me it is true in so many ways. I have no more to add.






Thoughts.

Stay safe.

Thoughts on the concept of black on black crime

Picture the scene. A newspaper reports that someone has been stabbed or assaulted in “Sarf” London. Another grimly reveals that someone has been shot in Tottenham, North London; or maybe in Aston, Birmingham. One common denominator that I have noticed in these articles is that these papers who run the stories, and the journalists who print them are, doubtless in the interests of a warped form of political correctness, always quick to add that “the crime is believed to be currently under investigation by Trident”.  These are all heavily black areas. In the whiter and equally impoverished areas of London, Birmingham, Liverpool etc white on white crime is simply known as ....crime.. with little, if any, emphasis put upon the race of the victim or the perpetrator.

For those who do not know, Trident is the section of the Metropolitan Police in London that investigates gang crime. It was formed in 1998 to combat a spate of shootings that broke out in Brixton, London that primarily involved “Yardie” Gangs which were comprised, chiefly, of drug dealers of Jamaican origin (Posses)in the United States).

You may read a bit more about Trident here

These days, despite this department having since widened its scope to include all gang related criminality regardless of the racial composition of the individual gangs, the term is basically used as a euphemism for what is commonly described as “black on black” crime. So each time some outrage happens in the black community, in the interests of politeness, the papers decline to nakedly mention the race of the perpetrator or, more accurately in many instances, the alleged perpetrators, they throw the Trident thing into the mix as a sort of dog whistle to let their often right wing readers know what race the prime suspects are.

This concept, once sneeringly guffawed at by those of Middle Eastern and North African origin and who, to be blunt in my experience, have a nasty habit oflooking down on black people, appears to have begun to visit them too. Each time there is a shooting, or an explosion somewhere there is always some sort of mention of Mosque attendance, or discarded Koran's, or that “the suspect/s is or are thought to be of “Mediterranean appearance” They sneer no more.

More here on this often "swept under carpet" issue of the virulent nature of Arab Anti black racism

However, my main concern here is that there appears to be some sort of “racialising” of crime as if to suggest that should a certain type of crime take place it can be reasonably presumed that that crime was committed by a black man, or by an Arab or Middle Eastern looking person. Well, looking at the statistics, this appears to be a inaccurate despite the media coverage. Not all terrorists are Arabs as past events in places in Northern Ireland and past and present ones in the United States will show. The same goes for gang related activity. Not all gangs are black as one might notice when one takes the time to consider the Mafia, who are often portrayed as romantic, Robin Hood style criminals rather than the soulless murderers that they truly are.

Some other non black gangs below

Hells Angels

Aryan Brotherhood. 

Believe me, the above two gangs, like all other racially exclusive gangs murder way more of their own kind than other races, often over money, betrayal, or for "racial treachery". The incineration of the hapless Jessica Chambers is a case in point.

To compartmentalise crime and general evil-doing on the basis of race is dangerous and in my view, more than just a little dangerous as it leads to generations of children growing up with it hard wired almost innately in them to believe that a black man is someone you should flee, and always view with a healthy suspicion, rather than judge based on the individuals character as opposed to the entire race - as often seems to be the case from what I have learned over a life time of putting up with stereotypes.

Shall we judge an entire race because of the actions of a few?

It is a wrong way to approach life and I blame the media who, ironically, we ll look up to for guidance and a sense of morality, for perpetuating and propagating these myths. Evil is evil and should be confronted and reported upon fairly and with sincerity and integrity. The media is a powerful and widely influential institution which society looks up to and should not be used as a tool with which to shape society through a bigoted prism as often appears to be the case even within certain sections of the so called liberal media.

No black people don't all dance and listen to rap music, we don't all set out from our houses in the evening with the intention to mug and rob innocent people. We don't all play sport well, we are not all rapists and irredeemable drunks. We are just the same as other people and have the same, proportionally, inclinations to do either good or bad. Don't judge me because of what I wear, how I talk, how I cut my hair, how I choose to follow my own cultural norms as opposed to yours. If I have an Afro that is my business. If I choose to wear dreads that is my business too. Its how I choose to live. You don't know me to judge me. Neither do I know you to judge you either.

Frankly speaking I don't care what you do or how you live your life unless you wish to do me harm.

Complete Economic Independence means complete freedom.

Greetings family.

We often talk about “not being free”. I happen to agree with this and my pondering of this issue leads me to a singular conclusion for our current state as a people. The reason we are not free is because, like children, we are way too dependent on the goodwill of others in our endeavours to survive and make a proud living in today's world. What we need is complete economic freedom even though fighting, or working towards this end can be dangerous as you shall see below.

Let me explain why.

Freedom is nothing unless, and until, you become completely economically independent and thus become able to take complete control of your own destiny and to shape it positively for both yourself and your family, as well as for your community. Having the fetters of slavery and colonialism removed from you doesn't make you free. Economic independence though does, as it releases you from all the shackles that hold you back in life both as an individual and, for the purposes of this blog, as a people It instils in you a sense of achievement and grows your confidence as a human being. It also makes you proud of who, and what, you are.

Affirmative action, civil rights legislation; self-governance in some instances, and the evolving of racial tolerance have all played a positive part in raising us out of our past impoverished and feeble position compared to other races but that is only on the outside. As a people the truth remains that we are still the ward of someone else in the broader sense.

You see, being given good jobs on merit does not necessarily make us, as a collective, free. Sure, it improves our financial well being but the fact remains that we remain dependent on the good graces and kindness of those of the dominant races who make those jobs available to us. True freedom for us as a people can only come through ownership of the mode of production and using that ownership to provide jobs and the corresponding economic security for our own.

It pains me to see us, as a race, always negatively portrayed in Oxfam and Red Cross adverts whenever they appeal to people to donate to provide clean water, decent food, and so on, to deprived regions of Africa, or decent housing in the “inner cities” (euphemism for impoverished, often black, neighborhoods) in the developed world. The filming always seems to take place in some grim backwater in the worst places of the given area - which is then promoted as the true representation of how we all live and propagates the theory that we can not survive without the kindness of others.

The harsh truth is that we should be able to survive and progress on our own and in fact we, as as a people, should be doing all of that charity fund raising for ourselves by developing ourselves economically. To do this, and to improve our own areas and countries we need to focus on ourselves as a collective to do so. Not everyone will become rich but what we can certainly do to raise ourselves a notch or two upwards on the economic charts is to pool resources and create viable companies, and firms, and partnerships, that will create job opportunities for our children and spare them from the indignities of being denied employment on the basis of the names and of course, on their skin texture.

Trickle down economic improvement based on community support and unity, and a sense of purpose and drive amongst our own is how I would describe this in a nutshell.

People will always respect, and often times adore, an independent man or woman. More so if they know that that man or woman requires nothing from his admirers to get ahead in life. This, in a sense, is why whenever a black man preaches economic emancipation, the current global economic powers at the given time will do whatever they need to do to remove them as an influence as they understand very well the consequences of no longer being able to dictate terms to those that they consider to be beneath them. The control factor dissipates.....

This is something that has been preached about for ages by luminaries of the black cause like Booker T Washington, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, and more recently, by people like Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba and so on. So important is economic freedom some of our former rulers resorted to the facilitation of murder and the creation of false criminal charges to suppress its rise within the black community. The last two leaders mentioned, Lumumba and Nkurumah were toppled at the behest of Western Intelligence agencies due their eagerness to reduce their peoples dependency on the master upon the attainment of independence of their respective countries. Garvey was imprisoned in 1923 on what are widely believed to be trumped up mail fraud charges, and Malcolm was gunned down in February 1965 as he gave his final speech in a ball room in Harlem New York with, it is believed, the complicity of the FBI under its leader, J Edgar Hoover - the same man believed to have been behind the downfall of Garvey

These examples given above, for me, serve to illustrate the power and importance of economic freedom as well as the importance of securing it for our children and for their children afterwards.

I will leave you first with a link to one the first tangible efforts at developing economic freedom for black folk which was funded via modest contributions from within the community. It failed in the end but it remains as an excellent example of what can be achieved via unity.

Marcus Garvey's BlackStar Liner company.

I will also leave links to some modern day success stories below; people who not only have, through innovation and dogged determination succeeded but who have also done something to improve our embattled community. Stories that should serve as inspirational and as a push towards a better life and condition for our people.

Strive Masiyiwa

John Johnson

Mo Ibrahim

Just think about it..... and act!

In love of Pan Africanism

Afritude.

Right wing outrage at the Islamic State. Where is this rage at Christianity's own evil past?

Perhaps some warped form of retrospective good may yet come out of the global outrage, particularly among Right wing at the recent cremation, in a cage, of the hapless and unfortunate Jordanian pilot, Muath Al-Kasaesbeh, by his sinister captors from the forces of the Islamic state, or ISIL as they are sometimes known.

He was captured at some point in December last year (2014), dragged half naked out of the Sea, after he was forced to eject from his aircraft after it was said to have been shot down by a heating seeking missile by fighters from ISIL during a failed bombing mission he was carrying out as part of the US led coalition against the same group. 

I was particularly amazed by American right-wingers who almost went berserk in their condemnation of this hideous act. Islam was denounced without qualification and they swore, at least on internet boards, and doubtless in the privacy of their dining rooms; indeed in public too that, given a chance, they would volunteer themselves to service of their country and gone and “educated” those Arab “barbarians”. All Arabs are equally evil in their view.

In the midst of their collective fury, President Obama, gave a measured speech that touched on religious extremism at a recent national breakfast prayer meeting held in Washington on February 5.

In this speech, he reminded many of those very same self righteous right-wingers of the role that their own professed religion, Christianity, played in similar acts of barbarity. Below is some of what he said.

“Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history, and lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”

The response of these  Conservative “good folks of the Lord” was staggering to say the least. Rather than embrace the undeniable even if uncomfortable truth of what the President was talking about and engage in debate and so on, they chose to go on the offensive. After all, this type have never been the sort to face up to their own evil, past and present, as well as their long held prejudices against those of a darker shade. 

Instead they and their followers tend go to extraordinary lengths to avoid these issues wherever their own kind is involved. They will furiously say to the black man "get over it!, It was not me who did this!" when you try to discuss slavery and America's long standing troubles with racism with them. So why blame all Muslims in their entirety when it is clear to any fair minded person that it is not all of the Muslims who are responsible for this act of wickedness? Muslims could easily come back with retorts couldn't they?

Here is former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore who makes no attempt to actually debate what President Obama said. He is just angry that Christianity's dirty linen was aired in public it would seem.

“The president’s comments this morning at the prayer breakfast are the most offensive I’ve ever heard a president make in my lifetime. He has offended every believing Christian in the United States. This goes further to the point that Mr. Obama does not believe in America or the values we all share.”

Huh?....  Below we shall see some of the "American values" that persisted in the South and indeed in Virginia not so long ago.

The same goes for Russell Moore the head of the Southern Baptists and Ethics and Religious Liberty commission, who described the speech as ...

“An unfortunate attempt at a wrongheaded moral comparison.” and went on to say that 

"What we need more is a “moral framework from the administration and a clear strategy for defeating ISIS,” 

Its worth noting that before Pastor Moore assumed the Presidency of this Southern Baptist organisation, it was led by a man called Richard Land who vacated, or rather, was forced to vacate, the position in the wake of these comments about the Trayvon Martin case

Anyway, moving on, lets leave aside for a moment the medieval brutishness inflicted upon by their ancestors by the "Christian" church at the rack, and the many unfortunate souls who perished in agony at Europe's stakes for not believing sufficiently in God and in his alleged son Jesus, and take the time to look at what used to happen in their very heartlands in the South and in the Mid west.  

Lets meet Henry Smith who was accused of murder and tortured and incinerated to death without the decency of a trial in Texas

You may read about Jesse Washington's case here too... another cremation

The retrospective good I refer to in first paragraph; indeed in its opening line, is that perhaps, with the passage of time, and when the current emotions, real of imagined, have dimmed a bit, these right wing warriors might just take the time to examine themselves, and their past as well as the past of their very, very, recent ancestors, in as far as the value of life is concerned. I never see any condemnation of the lynchings that used to take place in America by these people and, in fact, what I more often see are twitter posts from their kind mocking the brutality and agony our black forebears went through at the lynching stake.

All life is precious regardless of race or creed and these would be crusaders would do well to get to grips with their own behaviour, past and present before they go poking their judgemental and chubby, tobacco stained fingers into the behaviour of others.

Brotha Afritude.

Welcome to Great Zimbabwe. The most powerful civilisation ever in Souther Africa

Greetings family.

Today, I would like to take you all on a journey to a place called Great Zimbabwe in the heart of Southern Africa.  It was designed as a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1986.

This city, with a population of 25 000 at least at its zenith, and which existed from the 11^th to the early 16^th century extending over 800 hectares, eventually grew to become the seat of the fabled Munhu Mutapa empire founded by Nyatsimba Mutota (pictured below)  which was the successor of the original Kingdom of Zimbabwe and which itself is also a World Heritage site. It is generally acknowledged as the third most powerful African Empire ever. What remains of this city can be found in the present day city of Masvingo in Zimbabwe which is about 200 miles South East of the Zimbabwean capital Harare.

A painting of Nyatsimba Mutota

Its original name was Dzimba DzeMabwe (the mighty house of stone) and it was constructed, over a period of centuries, by the members of the Shona tribe. At its glorious peak it was the administrative centre of an empire ruled by kings known as Mutapa's, or Mambo's before them, and covered most of modern day Zimbabwe and a large portion of present day Mozambique. 

The Mutapa's controlled all international and domestic trade routes along the present day Mozambican coast, and imposed taxes of up top 50 percent on all traders who did business within the boundaries of this empire. Trade was carried out in ivory, gold, copper, salt, livestock and agricultural produce, in exchange for fabrics, pottery, glass and beads from countries as far afield as China, Persia and Portugal. There also existed a thriving trade with bordering tribes within Africa itself.

The city generally housed the nobility, religious leaders, and the elite soldiers and their families, and its most famous section is the Great Enclosure which is where the king himself, and his wives and children lived.

The Great Enclosure

The valley complex housed the military top brass along with the kings special regiments who were tasked with the king, and the noble classes personal protection.

The religious leaders; the high priests, known as Mhondoro lived within a section known today as the Hills complex. 

They were the keepers of the eight holy Zimbabwe birds which survive to the this day and which were believed to bring luck, wisdom, and battlefield glory to the Munhu Mutapas who ruled at the given time . The birds are representations of the Bateleur eagle (Chapungu in the Shona language).They were carved out of soapstone by the original high priests of the site and served as the national symbols of the Great Zimbabwe and Munhu Mutapa empires A depiction of the Zimbabwe bird can be found on today's Zimbabwean flag and indeed they are the emblem of both Rhodesia and Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwe Bird

With walls as high as 15 metres in some places and, incredibly, built without any mortar at all, Great Zimbabwe is one of the most impressive structures anywhere in the world. Its very existence and durability is testament to the outstanding masonry skills of its founders and builders, the Shona tribe. 

It should be noted here that the Smith regime in the thenRhodesia (the fore runner of present day Zimbabwe), as well as their colonial forebears went to great lengths in their attempts to discredit the African builders of this magnificent city and try to attribute its construction to either Arabs or Europeans. They even went as far as to commission quack “researchers” to write pseudo-intellectual books, long since discredited, challenging the truth about this cities construction. However all respectable and reputable research indicates that the city was indeed constructed by the ancient Bantu ancestors of the Shona.

The demise of this once thriving civilisation is thought to have been due to a severe and continuing drought which made it impossible for the area to maintain human and animal populations (the Mutapa's controlled vast herds of cattle, goats and so on) as well as the exhaustion of gold and other mineral reserves within the cities outer areas which led its inhabitants to leave the area for pastures new. In addition to this  factional fighting in between the various sections of the polygamous royal households each time a Mutapa passed on progressively weakened the kingdom to a point where the eventual successor no longer had the national unity and loyalty required to fend of would be usurpers.

This link gives a more in-depth hypothesis on the cities decline.


You can read a bit more about Great Zimbabwe here and here.



In love of Africa.

Brotha Afritude

Oh Slavery days! Lest we forget.

Greetings family.




This photo is a sculpture of men and women were drowned by the slave master of the coast of Greanada as they were not deemed fit enough to complete the transatlantic crossing


It is often said, by those who fear facing up to a darker and crueller past in inter human relations, that black people should "just get over it" whether it be slavery or colonialism.

It is disheartening that there are so many people out there who have this mentality while at the same time insisting that we never forget the holocaust or various other acts of atrocity perpetrated against those whom, it would appear to feel, are "proper" humans rather than a sub human species as darker skinned people are often considered to be.

I, for one, will not forget, and will not "get over it" and in fact, in my small little way,  will continue to post my own mini memorials dedicated to those who suffered so much during that time.

I am not demanding reparations nor am I demanding special treatment for black people. I am not even requesting an apology. After all, is it not true that all people alive today were not responsible for slavery - or at least the transatlantic slave trade, even though some of them wish it still existed? An example is this man below, Scott Terry.




All I ask is that we all remember these injustices; and the repression faced; as well as the accompanying wanton brutality that so many went through,  and learn from this in order to ensure that this sort of thing never happens again.

Wishing you all a peaceful and contemplative day, on behalf of myself and of those who came before me.



Brotha Afritude

Movement in, and approach to, life.

Greetings family.

This is the shortest blog that I will ever write but I would like to share these few, humble, words with you.

To make it in life, and indeed to be successful no matter who you are, one must be confident and in order to be confident you must....

Know yourself.

Love yourself.

Be proud of yourself.

Continue to educate yourself – try to spend at least an hour each day learning new things.

Dress well.

Eat well, and healthily.

Have an open, and welcoming, and yet discerning mind.

Most importantly, be humble, as you go about the above.

That is all.

In love of my friends and my people.

Afritude.

Cry the African continent

The first President of Ghana which was the first former colonially ruled state in Africa to gain independence and the right to self governance from the Colonial master was the late Kwame Nkrumah.

Nkrumah was a notable Pan African and intellectual and he greatly influenced and moulded the political thought processes of other African leaders who would go on to lead the Independence movements within their own countries. Examples include Patrice Lumumba, Abdel Gamal Nasser, Robert Mugabe, Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela, Amilcar Cabral and so on.

Mr Nkrumah himself was in turn deeply influenced by the earlier voices among those of African descent in the diaspora and who fought in whatever way they could for self determination, dignity and freedom for African people. Most notable among those voices was Marcus Garvey, a man I consider to be the true Godfather of Pan Africanism.

In fact the book Mr Nkrumah said influenced most was one called the Philosophies andopinion's of Marcus Garvey which was, and is, a compilation of the great man's articles and transcribed speeches. Marcus Garvey was the Malcom X and Nelson Mandela combined of his time. It goes without saying that he greatly influenced those titans of black self determination too, both directly and via their civil rights forebears who came in between the period of Garveys fall and their own rise to prominence..

Within this book, if we unite the various alpha points he made in the various speeches and articles contained within it, we find a rudimentary set of values which, in my view, should be the template for how independent Africa should be governed, and how the black man should live.

In short he wanted the below as a means of improving and governing the collective in each country

i)Independence and freedom and fairness for all former colonies and their inhabitants.

ii)Economic self sufficiency as a means to improve the living standards of Africans.

iii)Collective self love and self pride

iv)Education and independent technological development

v) An appreciation of our true history as well the will to learn and to improve ourselves from it.

One not so practical item on his agenda, and the only one I disagree with, was complete separation from other races. This can, however, be understood if we were to place ourselves in the position that Garvey, and blacks in general, were in at the time that Garvey lived.

Many of these ideals, if not all, were at the root of the charter of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) which was formed on the 25^th of May 1963 and which, in its current form is known as the African Union after the original versions disbanding by South African President Thabo Mbeki in 2002, and whose meetings I see, relatively speaking, as little more than a series of fora at which National leaders congress nod wisely in agreement that certain current events are bad and then shout out a few ear catching slogans and do nothing. .

But back to the topic.

Why is it that Africa seems to have failed the vision of Nkrumah, Garvey, Lumumba and others?

My own view is that at the root of this, is a failing of the aggregated African psyche, or mindset, as well as an unwillingness to learn from our long, and often glorious history. It seems to me that we have been cowed by a century of absolute colonialism into being too timid to take complete control of our destiny now that we have our freedom to live with others as equals in this global world. We seem to have had it so successfully ingrained within us that we cannot succeed without help from outside. This is a dangerous mentality to have and an exceptionally destructive one.

We remain unnecessarily deferential and obsequious to our former masters who do not have our best interests at heart, and who seek to exploit rather than to improve us, and the galling thing is that many of these uncle Tom leaders who should, both in the past, and in the present, have worked to instil a sense of nationalistic pride beneficial to progress similar to that of countries like Japan, are the very same “leaders” that preached those very same values espoused by Garvey, Nkrumah on their way to office.

Given that many ancient civilisations were situated in Africa; civilisations that promoted knowledge and enlightenment, fairness and improvement, it is difficult to see how almost all our leaders fail to recognize this and to understand that something that has been done successfully before can be done successfully again. How are they unable, educated as they all are, to learn from their glorious past and also from what we see going on in the world today.

The black man is viewed as being at the bottom of the pile. They see this, we see this, and yet, instead of working to correct this notion, and instead of trying to solve our own problems we ignore these problems and, as a priority, march with others rather than convening with our own to deal with our problems. Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria is one such example. 

This man sprinted to Paris with almost indecent haste for his photo-op with Mr Hollande in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo incident which killed 14 while failing to address the murder of over 200 – 2000 according to some – of his own citizens by Boko Haram for close to 3 days.  

Would Mr Hollande, or any of the other “outraged” western leaders have travelled to Nigeria to dance in the street with their fists in the air and chanting defiant slogans had the situation been reversed? These thugs have since invaded Chad and Cameroon with the leaders of those countries doing little, if anything at all, about it.

I think we all know the answer to that.

In the midst of all the yelling and shouting by our leaders as they mourned people they never knew roads remain in the same state that they were in in the 1960's when most countries in Africa became independent. In Ghana I believe, no new ones were constructed since the fall of Nkrumah until its present government. Health delivery is literally in the intensive care unit. The very freedoms that Mr Jonathan and others went to march for are pretty much non existent among their own people. Manufacturing has collapsed, corruption is endemic and GDP relatively speaking has seldom exceeded that of the pre-colonial days.

True, a few improvements were made here and there each time a new leader came to power but after 5 years or less, without fail, and with a few exceptions, it seemed like they all sank shamelessly into the unhealthy pool of regression.

Cry the cursed continent. We must learn to own our problems and to embrace a true spirit of self determination and self improvement. If we don't do it who will? Why do we still seem to have this sense of waiting for for others to show us the way rather than create that “way for ourselves?

It is up to our leaders to ensure that this happens but why, I ask, do they behave like stupid poodles who are so swift to forget the very Garveyite/Nkrumah style platforms that got them into power in the first place?

In love of Africa.

Where are the tears for the victims of Boko Haram?

In brief.

Last week practically all we saw on the news channels were the unfolding, and tragic events in Paris, France where a pair of mindless extremist Muslim brothers, Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, murdered 10 staff members at the headquarters of the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine.Two policemen were killed too.

This, the brothers were alleged to have said, was in retaliation for the magazine posting blasphemous images of the Prophet Muhammad. They then went on the run, and whilst on their thankfully brief time on the lam, another mindless extremist believed to have had sympathy for their actions, a man called Amedy Coulibaly, murdered another police officer and took a number of people hostage at a Jewish supermarket in Paris saying he would kill them all if the Kouachi brothers were either apprehended or killed by the Police.

This gunman was killed by French police commandos, known as the GIGN, in a shoot-out but not before he had killed four of his unfortunate hostages. Shortly afterwards the brothers were sent to their maker too, and this brought the blood soaked mayhem and madness to a conclusion.

May all the victims of this atrocity rest in peace.

In light of all this, and quite understandably, all through the past week we had professional cartoonists, and fellow media practitioners, correctly, standing in solidarity with their departed brothers from the journalism community, and condemning, emphatically,these barbarians and those who think like them. We also saw a torrent of similarly themed cartoons on twitter and on various media websites which were drawn in solidarity with the departed. The message was clear. Freedom of speech is sacred to most fair minded people and we will not allow ourselves to be cowed by the fascism of religious fanatics.

This Freedom of speech is, of course, relative depending on who is exercising that freedom. Even the most self proclaimed fearless of them of all do not always "dish it out equal" as they like to claimAs some of you may recall there was an almost universal outcry, along with lethal rioting, among Muslims globally when a similar set of cartoons was published back in 2005 by the Danish magazine Jyllands-Posten . Danish and other European Embassies were attacked, flags were burned, and around 200 innocent people lost their lives. The very same magazine left me a little puzzled when they opted not to publish some satirical cartoons featuring Jesus Christ. 

Make of it what you will.

I have a question to ask.

Between the 3^rd and the 7^th of January, the Nigerian based, and thuggish, Muslim extremist group, Boko Haram, attacked and ransacked the town of Baga in Northern Nigeria which is situated close to Nigeria's border with Chad. Upwards of 2000 people, mainly children and the infirm and the elderly, are said to have lost their lives so far there at the hands of these cruel militants and it would seem that the government of the somewhat inappropriately named Goodluck Jonathan is powerless to act.

It is amazing to many though not to me how so little media attention is being paid to this continuing tragedy. The attack started well before the Parisian one and yet the media seemed to have ignored this only to begin to shriek and scream about Islamic extremism after the Paris attack commenced. A casual stroll through social networking sites – on a global level - will reveal an almost infinite numbers posts by people, rightly, mourning and lamenting the loss of lives in France. Strangely though, outside of Nigeria, and some parts of Africa, there are very few that have mourned the deaths of these children as if they do not exist in the minds of most.

Shall we not shed tears for these poor souls too? Or are some lives more valuable to others when it comes to globally covered atrocities?

Some may not think these people worthy of tears but I do.

Interesting African Landmarks. Timbuktoo, an historic center of learning

Greetings.

This is the first in a series of blogs that I will post highlighting some fascinating places in Africa. Not everyone will get a chance to travel and see them but should some of you be able to visit some day, these will be places that I think that most people will find interesting to visit.





Just a short little post with links pertaining to its history...... Above is a picture of the ancient city of Timbuktoo in Mali which is about 20 hours drive from its present day capital Bamako though it is also accessible by air and which is home to one of the worlds longest continuous learning center's, Sankore University.

It was designated as a UNESCO world heritage site in 1988.


Older even than Cambridge and Oxford Universities as an academic institution, it was Africa's greatest intellectual center in the middle ages. It was first established as a Madrassa in circa 988 under the prominent Muslim scholar Al Qadi Aqib ibn Mahmud ibn Umar, who became its first dean, and later extended to its present size during, first, the reign of Mansa (Emperor/King) Kankou Musa and then by the fabled Mansa Musa after him (pictured below).



In its medieval heyday the University catered for upwards of 20 000 students at any given time and courses were taught in law (Islamic), geometry, mathematics, geography, history and philosophy, with four stages of qualification equivalent, relatively speaking, to today's undergraduate degrees to PHD level - relatively speaking that is.


It would go on to become host to one of the largest intellectual libraries, if not the largest ever, in Africa with around 600 000 to 700 00 manuscripts.





Sadly though, many of the original manuscripts are no longer housed there and are now in the hands of private collectors, and even worse, thousands of these splendid ancient scripts were burnt to ashes by mindless Al Quaeda terrorists in 2013 who set fire to two of the libraries specifically established to house them, one of which was off campus and was only constructed in 2009 with South African funding, and the other which was on site.

Still, many more of those manuscripts remain and I would recommend a visit to that ancient city and university, even if only only to marvel at one of the worlds most majestic places.





Wishing you all the best.

Afritude.

Be proud of your natural looks.

Beauty, so the saying goes, is in the eye of the beholder but my personal observation though is that our eyes perception of beauty is unduly influenced by the media and as a result we begin to view that beauty within the rigid parameters that the controllers of the media set. As a result, over the years Black people have been psychologically conditioned to view the lighter races as being more attractive than themselves and to be the true representatives of human beauty.

For instance on the cover of any widely distributed fashion or beauty magazine we always have a white woman, or a white man, on the cover and it therefore follows that, in the mind of the reader, the benchmark for beauty is essentially Caucasian. Because we constantly read these magazines this concept, over a period of time' begins to sink into you as a truth, false though that “truth” actually is.

The square jaws, straightened blonde hair, blue eyes, thinly shaped hips and so on become the benchmark against which beauty is defined, and slowly and subconsciously we learn to hate our appearance. Of late there have been people of color on the covers of these magazines but those deemed as being worthy of a cover shoot often see their complexions photo-shopped to become lighter, their noses and lips thinned and wherever possible, the hair is permed, and straightened.

Sadly even our own black owned magazine's seem to go with this concept. You seldom see a woman of colour with an Afro or with her naturally kinky hair adorning the cover of Jet or Ebony (publications that should really know better) unless the main story that month is about a black power advocate or a normal woman who has been the victim of some crime that has outraged the black community or indeed the nation at large..

This is why, subconsciously, black folk seem to think that the light skinned among us are more attractive than those with a darker complexion. Our women wear weaves in their hair which are often manufactured from horse tail hair and God knows what else, and bleach themselves blonde resulting in an alien look that I find to be dismaying to look at.

This is what led to (in many instances by some of our own misguided black people) the development of harmful and cancerous skin lightening creams and all sorts of strange hair straightening concoction's, and dubious powders and potions all in an effort to emulate the current global beauty standard. I even heard somewhere that some Asian women have even begun to seek out expensive plastic surgeons to break in their jaws and straighten them to give themselves a more Caucasian look (as in the pictures below) - and with disastrous results in a few instances.

It is an unhealthy mentality for our people, and indeed any people, to have. It promotes self hatred and erodes one's sense of dignity and pride in who they are and what they are. Being inspired by someone to do something positive is always a good thing but when you aspire to a change prone abstract standard at the expense of your dignity and pride then there is something seriously wrong with you psychologically.

What's so wrong with being who you are? There is always someone out there who will appreciate you for what you are naturally despite what the media may influence you to think.

It is interesting to note isn't it, that in today's hip hop age and with all the videos we see, that some younger generation white women have begun to discard some of the “values” associated with attractiveness and to have taken on board new ones. We read about some having work done on their lips to make them fuller, that they are comfortable with fuller “booty's”and so on. A reversal of values? Not quite, but I am sure that you get the point.

The media makes you want to be what you are not. All you have to be.... is you.