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.