Sunday, October 17, 2010

Preview #17, Journal of Pan African Studies, Poetry Issue

DR Congo: Africa's sleeping giant? - Africa... States of Independence - Al Jazeera English

Film Review

Patrice Lumumba

A Film by Raoul Peck

Reviewed By Marvin X
© 2002 by Marvin X

Note: We send out this review on the 50th anniversary of independence in the Congo. Lumumba said he was fifty years ahead of his time, and so it is. But even fifty years later the same problems of poverty, ignorance and disease remain, the Europeans are still there stealing the wealth, although the Chinese have entered the drama. Hopefully, with the Chinese, in exchange for precious minerals, there shall be construction and reconstruction, although we don't understand with a population of seventy million mostly unemployed why Chinese laborers are needed. There seems little jubilation among the population. One Congolese said, "After fifty years of independence, happiness has come to the man in charge and those around him--they eat well and are well paid."

--mx

My African consciousness began with the murder of Patrice Lumumba. After high
school graduation, I enrolled at Oakland's Merritt College and found myself in the midst of the black revolutionary student movement. Students Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Richard Thorne, Maurice Dawson, Kenny Freeman, Ernie Allen, Ann Williams, Carol Freeman and others were rapping daily on the steps at the front door of Merritt College. Some of them wore sweatshirts with Jomo Kenyatta's picture, sold by Donald Warden's African American Association, which held meetings on campus, and sometimes Donald Warden, renamed Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al Mansour, rapped. The theme was often the African independence struggle, especially the Mau Mau's in Kenya.

But a frequent topic was the 1961 brutal murder of the democratically elected Congolese Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba. The brothers were well read and in their raps they documented the facts and figures of the African liberation struggle. They gave reference to such books as Kwame Nkrumah's Neo-Colonialism: the final stage of imperialism, where he documented the riches of Africa, especially the Congo, that the West coveted and committed mass murder to maintain. Patrice Lumumba was the first African leader I'd known about who was assassinated, and the brutal way he was eliminated helped expedite my African consciousness, especially learning how his so-called comrades betrayed him to continue the Western world's plunder of the Congo's vast mineral riches.

On one level, it was hard to believe, since I was attempting to get blackenized and didn't want to face the reality of black treachery. As students, most of us were Black nationalists, not yet the revolutionary black nationalists we would soon become, that allowed some of us to employ a class or Marxist analysis to the Pan African struggle, which Nkrumah's writings brought to the table.

The brothers leaning in the Marxist direction were Ken Freeman, Ernie Allen, and maybe Bobby Seale, all of whom were associated with SoulBook magazine, a revolutionary black nationalist publication featuring the writings of LeRoi Jones, James Boggs, Max Stanford, Robert F. Williams, Sonia Sanchez, Askia M. Toure', myself and others, although I was a budding writer, just out of high school and knew nothing about Marxism.

If I had, it would have helped me understand the class nature of Lumumba's final days. I couldn't comprehend how Mobutu, Kasavubu, and Tshombe could be so wicked to conspire with the white man to kill their brother. It would take the black hands of Malcolm's murderers for me to begin to understand.

Actually, I wouldn't fully understand until years later after reading a monograph by Dr. Walter Rodney, himself the victim of assassination in Guyana, South America, entitled West Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade, in which he carefully deconstructed African social classes and their role in the slave trade, detailing how the political, military, judicial, and even religious institutions became corrupt and expedited our removal from the Motherland.

Amiri Baraka sings to us:

My brother the king
Sold me to the ghost
When you put your hand on your sister and made her a slave
When you put your hand on your brother and made him a slave
Watch out for the ghost
The ghost go get you Africa
At the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean
Is a railroad of human bones
the king sold the farmer to the ghost....

It is hard to believe it has been forty years since the death of Lumumba, maybe because in the interim we've had innumerable cases in Africa and even in America of similar acts of treachery. Supposedly black ministers were involved in the death of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Black elected politicians have been selling out the black community for at least the past thirty years, especially since the 1972 Gary Convention of the Congress of African People. We have no choice but to see our struggle as class struggle, race being incidental.

We cannot have any illusions that a black face will save us, only black hearts. Those who study the Bible and Qur'an know the history of all men is the story of treachery, deceit, lust, greed, jealousy, envy and murder -- but the glass can be seen as half full: the history of man is also about good transcending evil, liberation defeating oppression, ascension after crucifixion, joy after sorrow, victory over defeat. Yet, how many prophets survived? How many righteous people survived and continued in their righteousness, rather than succumb to iniquities?

Men of Lumumba's character are rare upon the stage of history, men dedicated to the liberation of their people, men who are confident that no matter how great the odds, freedom will come soon one morning.

Raoul Peck's film was depressing because it showed a leader in a Indiana Jones snake pit full of vipers and cobras of the worse sort, snakes who danced to the rhythm of Western drums, not those of the mighty Congo, for Lumumba's mission appeared doomed from the start, he said himself that he was fifty years ahead of his time. This may have been the truest statement of the movie, for only ten years remain before the half-century mark in the modern history of the Congo or Zaire. Maybe in the last ten years of his prophecy, the people of Zaire will become truly free.

What the movie failed to give us were the deep structure motivations for the behavior of men like Kasavubu, Tshombe and Mobutu. Yes, the Europeans were there, had been there stealing the wealth, especially of Katanga Province which held 70% of the nation's riches, but we needed to see the very beginning with Belgium King Leopold's butchery, including his role in the European carving up of Africa at the 1890s Berlin Conference. We need to know the custom of chopping off limbs so en vogue today with diamond seeking armies in Zaire, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and elsewhere originated with King Leopold. Only then can the unaware and unread understand what demonic forces created such inhuman beings as the three main characters that surrounded Lumumba and ultimately brought about his downfall. From the movie we are tempted to say his own people did him in, but we know better, we must know better-think of diamonds, chrome, uranium, plutonium, cobalt, zinc and other minerals.

Look at Zaire today with several competing armies from neighboring countries (Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, et al) warring over the same minerals for the same European masters who instigated the treacherous actions of Kasavubu, Tshombe and Mobutu. Their names have a poetic ring that we should remember forever as the sound of death in a people, the sound of condensation and the lowest rats in creation, but understand they represent class interests and their class mates are visible throughout Africa and the world, even in the American political landscape: we have Clarence Thomas, Ward Connelly and Colin Powell -- new world rats, but rats none the less, who are every bit the measure of the Congo Three.

And let us not forget the reactionary behavior in the black liberation movement, the murder by incineration of Samuel Napier in the Black Panther fratricide, the assassination of Bunchy Carter and John Huggins by the US organization in the BSU meeting room on the campus of UCLA, the Muslims setting a prostitute on fire in San Francisco and other terrorists actions such as the Zebra killings.

Even the Black Arts Movement had its psychopathic shootouts with the wounding of Larry Neal and other acts we need not list. Shall we neglect to mention the hip hop generation also has its catalogue of madness such as the east coast/west coast killing of rap giants Tupac and Biggie Small. Let Lumumba be a lesson for us all. Let's learn from it and move to higher ground. Some of our madness is simply that -- we cannot attribute all evil acts of man to white oppression, although white oppression in inexcusable. We must take responsibility for Black Madness.

We are happy the director created a screen version of this historic drama. The actors made us feel the good in Lumumba and the evil in his associates, black and white, for the whites performed their usual roles as arrogant, paternalistic colonial masters whose aim was to hold power until the last second as we saw when they released Lumumba from prison to attend independence talks in Belgium. We saw the stark contrast of character in the speeches of Lumumba as prime minister and Kasavubu as president. Lumumba was strong, Kassavubu capitulating even on the eve of freedom, signaling his intent to remain a colonial puppet.

For those who came away like myself, and one could sense the sad silence in the audience as they departed the theatre, a friend remarked that we must not give up hope because the enemy will never tell you when you are winning.

For more writings and/or information on Marvin X go to

www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com

www.parablesandfablesofmarvinx.blogspot.com

Sermon for Sunday October 3, 2010: Remember Me

When Mike Wallace asked Sister Thea Bowman how she would like to be remembered, she replied, “I want them to say: She tried.”

How do you want to be remembered?

It is your last testament; the way you are remembered, if you are remembered.

If you are not then the silence will be your testament.

Will you be remembered? How will you be remembered?

Remember Me: Sermon for Sunday October 3, 2010

I want to be remembered.

I want my name said.

Remember I was the daughter of Ernestine,

who was the daughter of Nettie,

who was the daughter of Connie,

whose mother I do not know,

but still remember to remember.

I want to be remembered for remembering.

I want to be remembered as a bridge.

Remember I tried to help us get there.

I want to be remembered for being a shelter.

Remember me for building and sharing.

I want to be remembered for being a loyal friend.

Remember I loved you

even when you were an imperfect vessel.

I want to be remembered for my loving black heart.

Remember how I loved unconditionally

until it was impossible.

I want to be remembered for saying the words whispered in my ear.

Remember me swinging nouns and verbs like swords.

I want to be remembered for my courage.

Remember me standing in the valley of the shadow

with truth in one hand

a desert eagle in the other.

I want to be remembered as being a part of the paradigm shift.

Remember me as a mother of lions.

I want to be remembered as a warrior.

Remember me as a guerilla in your midst.

I want to be remembered as a fierce enemy.

Remember I am Nzinga, born again,

Nat Turner & Harriet, used to be me.

I want to be remembered for acting up.

Remember me setting fires on stages.

I want to be remembered for the words.

Remember me crying over the news.

I want to be remembered like Garvey.

Remember to forgive my sins

look for me in the whirlwind.

I want to be remembered for my love of nation.

Remember us from doors of no return

spread like ocean seed from shore to shore.

I want to be remembered for my determination.

Remember that if I can

I’ll come again

a warrior still

rising again and again

my love won’t sleep.

Remember me.

--Ayodele Nzingha

October 2010

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Preview #16, An Afro-Arab Dialogue on Arab Slavery

Preview #16, Journal of Pan African Studies, Poetry Issue
Guest Editor, Marvin X

A Dialogue Between Poets Rudolph Lewis, Sam Hamud and Kola Boof

This dialogue follows the apology for Arab Slavery by Col. Qaddafi of Libya, North Africa (see Preview #15). It is good that we can reason together, especially in light of so much ignorance on the planet, along with propaganda and revisionist history. We think our Sudanese sister writer, Kola Boof, makes the most persuasive argument in defense of Black Africa. Elijah tried to warn us about the Arabs, but we want to be so right that we are wrong, as Sun Ra taught me. How much progress have we made when we give up the white man for the Arab?

We oppose oppression everywhere, especially in Africa, the Middle East and most especially in America, whether by the white man or the Arab man in the hood who sexually exploits our women and short changes our children.

Arab slavery in Africa and the Middle East is going on as we write, just as the sex trade is flourishing on the streets on America, so we must not be starry eyed about Muslims or Christians, both peoples have the propensity to do good and evil. Ancestor Betty Shabazz said find the good and praise it!
--Marvin X
Guest Editor, Journal of Pan African Studies, Poetry Issue

Rudy

Qaddafi's apology follows on the heels of that by the United States for its plague visited upon the Guatemalians. By that of the Congress of the United States for its exploitation of the African Americans who built the Capitol at slave wages.

Qaddafi's statement is indeed more remarkable than the latter two apologies. The United States of America has yet to apologize to its kidnapping and enslavement of the sons and daughters of Africa.

Nor has it apologized to Mexico for its theft of much of what we call the Southwest, including California, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Nor has it thanked the Haitian people for its aid in acquiring the Louisiana Territory, which makes up much of what is the Midwest and the Northwest sections of the present-day United States.

For those with an interest, you may like to read Chinweizu's take on Arab slave trade:

http://www.nathanielturner.com/blackenslavementarabeuropean.htm

I challenge Saudi Arabia and Iraq to make similar apologies. Of course apologies without payment is little or no apology at all.

Loving Africa and Africans madly, Rudy

Sam to Rudy

hello rudy,
we are on the same page about qaddafi's apology; he has always been forthright and from meeting him back in the 80s when reagan was lying about "libyan hit squads," to today,he is a true muslim, not one who pretends or stands on ritual.

but as to some of the materials you quoted from bernard lewis, i would not take him as anhonest scholar, because he was an economist and knew little of Islam, and made up a lot of things and exaggerated others;no true scholars of islam or arab history trust his work because of his use as a zionist propagandist against islam and the arabs. i knew bernie lewis before i went to teach at princeton,and often argued with him while here in princeton; true arab and muslim historians, many of them jews, abhored his bad scholarship on arabs and islam,and often slanted and biased writings against islam and the arabs.

do not get me wrong, thereis, and has been, a lot wrong in the ara ban dmuslim worlds, but the prophert muhammad tried to help correct that. but, as with all religions, not all of it takes.
for instance, in one of the earliest of arab classical poems, there is "Antar," that deals with a black member of the tribe who desires the hand of teh chief's daughter, the chief andhis family ar white. the chief says, "no." but later, when antar proves himself in battle, the chief says, "yes, to the marriage" and antar becomes the leader of the tribe in t ime. this showed racial discrimination at that time, but certainly not slavery as we had it in the west.

but let us go on to other matters that i hope will clarifiy matters a bit more. i know this is a touchy subject and some would not dare touch it, but ishmael and marvin both know that i am willing to go where others fear to tread. but this also to let you know that i agree with qaddafi, and an apology is owed,as, it must be in from america and from other arab and muslim countries, and they must also apologize to Allah for their misdeeds,then and today, if necessary.

but also, malik al shabazz, malcom x, was not fool. he saw some things tha the'd never seen, but he saw the real islam, not that which was culture bound in the arab or islamic world where p eo ple do ritual instead of the real practice of the faith.

1. there was, and still is, discrimination in the arab and muslim worlds; but, you must understand, the Qur'an is against it.
2. slaves in the muslim world, were like indentured servants in the west, but bernard lewis, one of my former colleagues at princeton, was a notorious creater of materials, especially against the arabs and islam. he was one of those whose task was to split islam and the african americans in america and the world with his books. he also had dual citizenship with israel and america, so u can see where his sympathies lay.
3. slavery in america was always brutal, with no sense of human relationships or human respect; in the muslim world, from what i have read from other scholars in history, was, as i said, more like indentured servants, and families were not split up as happened in america and europe. slaves were often prisoners taken in warfare. until the europeans came, we hve no record of them being "sold" as chattel, which was, and is inhuman, but after the europeans came, there is no doubt that many went for the money or whatever. this was against qur'anic law, to "sell" another human being. if u have that person as a, as in western term, "slave" you must treat him or her with respect, feed , house, and clothe them and let them do their prayers, etc, and they do the work you assign them. after a certain amount of time, they may leave if they wish; they are not bound for life. this is not to justify this matter, but to make clear that the term "slavery" doesn't have the same meaning in arabic as it does in english, and islamic and arab types of slavery, though not good, were not at all like slavery in europe and the americas.
BUT BERNARD LEWIS AND HIS FRIENDS NEVER EXPLAINED THIS DIFFERENCE BECAUSE THEY HAD THERI OWN AGENDA.
4. qaddafi always comes out with the truth, as he did in other matters in the past. i didn't see this quote, but he has always been forthright on behalf of africans, african americans and native americans (what he termed, "the red indians", so as ot distinguish and make clear that they were not indians at all, for to be an indian, u had to have been from india!)

i'd say more, but i hope this helps clarify some matters. this is not that i disagree with you, but that there are matters here that i felt needed clarification.
unfortunately, bad discrimination exists and has existed for too long in the world; rememeber spike lee's, School Daze--it showed among african amerians discrimination based on light,tan,brown, black and blue blacks at an african american college; i taught at howard univ, and it was evident there while i was teaching there from 1988-95.
we hve to do away with all discrimination of that sort; the qur'an speaks against discrimination, but what alleged "muslims" do may be the opposite, but that is not the fault of Islam,nor good muslims,no matter what their color.
peace, salaam,

Sam to Rudy

rudy,
i'd also like to add something important that i wrote ishmael about, and will send it as an added essay for marvin's blackbird jrnl; the americans and europeans fed the muslim "slaves" pork intestines, who were among the earliest "slaves" brought to E and Am, from Sierra Leone and Mali. yes, the only meat they would give them, or only food they would give them was pork, and the intestines, full of shit, as their food.

this was to help break them from islam, and to insult them and their religion, in order to help break their spirits.
that's why, as i told ishmael, it's ironic that chittlins is a big food among african americans, when it was the food the white men used to break the spirit of those from africa. bernard lewis and others never mention this; but this comes from some of my own research and reasoning, knowing the history of the early people who were brought from africa (as i said, most were muslim).

the next step was the get them to become christians; they would often reward those people with better food, etc. those who did not give up islam were more brutalized by the europeans and americans (that is if can measure degrees of brutality, when all brutality is wrong!)

again, this is not an apologia for arabs or muslims in the middle east, but rather, an atte mpt to clarify matters so that though there were many, too many, w rongs, some of the matters needed to be clarified. i also agree, more than just words should be given. as a muslim, born and raised in america, from lebanese parents, i know there was, and is, still discrimination among arabs and muslims, and among xian arabs toward others,black, tan and white, but if they followed Islam and a proper Christianity, they would not have discrimination based on race, color, ethnicity, religion, or whatever.
peace, salaam,

Kola to Sam

Excuse me,

But this APOLOGY is meaningless considering the fact that
SLAVERY has not ended in Sudan, Mauritania or any of the
Arab nations that import them. Even in Libya, Khadafi's own
country, Black slaves can be found toiling on Arab farms and
homes.

Arab enslavement of Blacks, not mention genocide, is nowhere
near over.

And what the hell is an apology worth?? What does it do really?

Is that what you want for everything your ancestors suffered
500 years in America----Words?

And as an African mother from Sudan...I completely rebuke
this drivel written by SAM at Princeton. The irony of hatred
in the Afro-Arab world is much more diverse & much more
dimensional than what you have boiled it down to.

I relinquished my Muslim faith years ago; I try to speak Arabic
as little as possible. I do not feel in any way...sympathetic to
Khadafi's words (especially since I was once employed by the
man at White Bride, Tripoli) or to yours.

Kola Boof
Sam to Kola

hello kola, i hear what you are saying. the imam at your mosque was obviously a lying fool, who knew nothing about islam; thus, u can't condemn the religion for his abuse of u and others or the lies he spread.
as to the history u speak of, these are matters you know more of, beng on the ground, than i. as to palestinians sterilizing women to keep them as slaves, etc. this is something i know nothing about so cannot say if it is true or propaganda against islam.
as witih all peoples, there are some good ones and bad ones, not just among the arabs, but among all people. but, as with stereotyping of all sorts, it may apply to some, but not to all.
may Allah/God bless you, and help you find peace,
sincerely,
dr.hamod

Kola Boof to Sam Hamud

I'm not condemning the religion Sam Hamond.

I'm saying....why should we give a damn about the
Arab Muslim populations period???

The people being Genocided in Darfur....ARE MUSLIMS.

Many of these victims are MUSLIMS...but their skin is Charcoal
Black. THAT is the issue; not religion.

Your conversation is irrelevant. We should be concerned
about OUR AFRICAN SLAVES...and what OUR ancestors
would want us to do.

Not about the "feelings" of the Arab Muslims or Muslims
in America.

All this whining & "poor baby" Head-Patting that the Muslims
are receiving is a disgrace when we're doing NOTHING AT ALL
to save, defend or highlight the suffering the Black Slaves
and the Genocide targeted tribes in Africa!!

The whole conversation about "Islam" should be totally irrelevant!!
Would we care that the German Nazis were Christians or Catholics?
NO.

What we should care about are Black Africans.

Kola Boof
Rudy to Sam

Sam, I have a sliding scale of concern and concerns. First and foremost are the people of my birth, that is, African Americans. They are my family and I will defend them to the death.

Second, some of my like minded Americans (of all colors). Third, the African Diaspora and black Africans of like minds. And then others slide down my ladder of concern and concerns.

I have a concern for Islam as well in that some of my ancestors who came to America were Muslim and many of my friends are Muslim and have taught me much about Islam so that I have prayed with my palms and my forehead to the ground turned toward the rising sun. My interest is thus attached to its Spirituality rather than its rituals and theological concerns.

I have a keen interest and concern for the sufferings of all people, whether Jew or Palestinian. I have never been a fan and upholder of callousness toward the sufferings of others.

I do appreciate and respect the remarks and views of both Sam Hamod and Kola Boof. I am not an authority on the Quran or an historian of Islam and the Middle East. But they are among my intellectual interests.

As one involved in the struggles of my people since a teenager, I indeed find this new Arab development of noteworthy interest so much so that I have published the news on ChickenBones.

My concerns about Darfur and Sudan are such that I have corresponded with Bankie Bankie and have web pages dedicated to the happenings in South Sudan:

I favor a separation of South Sudan and await anxiously the vote. As far as Gaddafi I trust him as far as I could throw hi. He is too self serving for my comfort.

Loving yall madly, Rudy

Kola Boof

FACTS & HISTORY:

East & North Africa have been enslaved by Arab Muslim
Invaders (now Arab Imperialists) for 1,000 years.

Today, 2010, in Sudan...

Today in Sudan...we have slavery & genocide and it is
based on "Skin Complexion"...Colorism....the "Blackest/Purest"
must be wiped out and obliterated to break down Black blood
(authentic Africans) and MASS PRODUCE the Arab Rape Baby
who then in turn embraces more &more Arabization and
mixing until the White Arabs have conquered Sudan the same
way they conquered the rest of North Africa.

This is how they destroyed EGYPT and gradually "whitened"
and "whitened" it.....Queen Cleopatra's Intermarriage Law
(making it ILLEGAL for an Egyptian to marry an Egyptian)
being the 1st salvo in Cesar's quest to conquer the Blood,
not just the land.

When I was a child in Omdurman, Sudan...THE MOSQUE taught
us that the "Blacker you were"..the less loved by Allah you were.
That blackness was Allah's curse & that we should feel nothing
about slaughtering & pillaging the "Charcoal" original people.

In Mauritania, the Arabs "raise/breed" a Slave Class of Africans
from birth. These particular slaves believe they were born to
be nothing more than slaves & love their Arab master fiercely.

There are no PLANTATIONS in Sudan.

Dinka girls sell for $14. They are taken at ages
6, 9, 12 and kept in the homes as "bed slaves" and
maids.

Black Boys are chained to the back of Arab homes
& fed from doggy bowls. When it's time to do labor,
they unleash and work the Boy slave, beating him
if need be.

Even Palestinians have Dinka girl slaves. They sterilize these girls
so they can rape them w/o producing more Black males.

Jordan...Syria...Lebanon...Saudi Arabia...Iraq....Palestine
....Egypt...

In each of these nations you will find TODAY (RIGHT NOW)
Black women working in the kitchens with their tongues cut
out of their heads---you will find Black Sex Slaves, MALE &
female; you will find Blind African Men in the streets living
on 3 cents a week for "slave" work.

I am not surprised that MANY Colorstruck Black Americans don't
immediately notice this "trick" or that they identify with their
"Brown Brothers" (light skin, slick hair, brownish)....totally
preferring to look like these Bastardized Arabs and disassociate
with the Authentic Cushitic Peoples; the real true Black Africans.

I am not surprised that Black Americans "Make Excuses" for why
we should identify with KHADAFI and sell out the never ending
suffering of our own ancestors---whether they be West African
Slave Trade or the East/North African Slave Trade.

THE WHITE DEVIL in America....don't have shit on the Arab
Islamic MONSTER still pillaging & destroying true African culture.

Swahili is not an indigenous "African" language...but an Arab
Slave language combining African Bantu with dominant Arab
language and then FORCED on Eastern Africa nearly 1,000 years
ago through INVASION.

_______________

THESE are Facts & History of the Afro-Arab world
...and these abuses & horrors are CURRENT.

This is what needs to be discussed if it's truly KNOWLEDGE
you're claiming to seek.

Kola Boof

Friday, October 15, 2010

Gaza tunnels used to export goods - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

Preview #15, Journal of Pan African Studies: Arab Apology for Slavery

Preview #15, Journal of Pan African Studies, Poetry Issue

Guest Editor Marvin X

News, Views, Reviews

Reply to Qaddafi, et al.

on Apology for Slavery

WE must appreciate the Arab apology for their role in the slave trade. The French also apologized for slavery and colonialism, although they insist on citing the positive aspects of colonialism, indicating a residue of white supremacy and their need for further recovery. Australia apologized for genocide of the Aboriginal people. America has yet to apologize in her hard heartedness and determination to maintain absolute domination and exploitation of North American Africans and to remain the last bastion of white supremacy on the planet.

Throughout the Americas, we see a majority of nations trying to establish progressive governments, some with indigenous people in power, such as Morales in Bolivia. There are left of center governments in Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile and elsewhere. These nations are attempting to shake Yankee imperialism and develop a socialist or more humanistic form of free market economics, rather than the blatant system of USA naked capitalism (aka Globalism) with wage slavery and robbery of the natural resources of the indigenous people.

In harmony and unity with the peoples of the Americas, it is incumbent on North American Africans to make a similar paradigm shift and move to a more radical agenda in their political economic philosophy. In short, we must jump out of the box of American white supremacy ideology. We not only demand apologies, but reparations for past indignities, including slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism, including the present era domestic colonialism.

There must be an immediate redistribution of wealth from centuries of capital accumulation by Euro-Americans. Without this redistribution or sharing of wealth, we see a second civil war on the horizon. North American Africans were recently scammed and robbed of their basic wealth (home ownership) with the sub prime loan scheme. Thus their perennial abject economic condition has worsened, approaching the abyss while the bandits were rewarded and replenished for their robbery and naked exploitation of the middle class and poor. Because this scam was partly orchestrated by a Black president, who bailed out the Wall Street bandits who put him in office, we are not under the delusion hope is still alive, for we have a plethora of white presidents in black face throughout Africa and the Caribbean, no better than the colonialists who preceded them.

Obama is proving he is in the tradition of these African or black men with white hearts! He is a neo-colonial Negro in the best tradition of those who have preceded him throughout American history. We know the sound of a duck when we hear it. The sound is unmistakable and we are not fooled. How can he offer jobs, housing and education to terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, if they lay down their guns, but not implement the same for brothers and sisters in the hood who are suffering from the same poverty, ignorance and disease?

Finally, as per apology for slavery, we await apology from our African brothers, especially those who still benefit from the accumulation of wealth from the slave trade. To date, only one African brother has said to me, "Brother, I am sorry for my people selling your people into slavery." Only until this has occurred on a mass level, perhaps in some gigantic ritual of healing, will relations between Africans and North American Africans reach closure on the matter of slavery.

But on the general condition of slavery and especially the oppression of women that persists to this present moment, including the sexual exploitation on the streets of America by socalled pimps, especially those in black face, along with the global exploitation of women in sex traffic (no matter that I support legalized prostitution), and the mass rape of women throughout Africa and the world, honor killings, clitoris mutilation and partner violence, whether physical, verbal or emotional, these abominations must be eliminated totally and absolutely.

--Marvin X

Qaddafi apologizes for Arab involvement in slave trade Oct 12th, 2010 | By

Sallie Pisch

CAIRO: Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi apologized for the slave trade on behalf
of Arabs at the second Afro-Arab summit in Libya on Sunday. It may be the first
time an Arab leader has admitted – much less apologized for – enslaving
Africans.While completely unprecedented, the statement falls in line with Qaddafi’s
decade-long policy of aligning himself with African nations. “I regret the behavior of the Arabs… They brought African children to North Africa, they made them slaves, they sold them like animals, and they took them as slaves and traded them in a shameful way. I regret and I am ashamed when we remember these practices. I apologize for this,” Qaddafi was quoted as saying.

A number of African leaders, including Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, were in attendance at the summit which
covered topics ranging from the Palestinian issue to Sudanese separation.
Gaddafi continued his statement by saying, “Today we are embarrassed and
shocked by these outrageous practices of rich Arabs who had treated their
fellow Africans with contempt and condescension.” Gaddafi’s statement was
broad, leaving a time reference open for debate.

There is very little documentation about the African enslavement in the Arab
world. Most documentation and research focuses on the trans-Atlantic slave
trade, but until the turn of the 19th Century, Arab slave traders dealt in a
lucrative business in African slaves from the Congo, Rwanda, and particularly
East Africa. In the middle of the ninth century, a revolt of the Zanj, African
slaves held in modern-day Iraq, lasted for nearly fifteen years.

The Arab slave trade was also excuse used by Europeans, including King Leopold
II of Belgium, to move into Africa during the age of European colonization.
There is some documentation of Arab enslavement up until the mid-1900s.
According to a report by the United Nations in 1957, as much as 20% of the
population of Saudi Arabia consisted of slaves. The report listed the worth of
a girl under 5 years of age to be between 200-400 British pounds on the Jeddah
slave market, while a man under 40 averaged 150 British pounds.

It is plausible that Gaddafi’s statements referenced modern enslavement by
Arabs, from the era of European colonization to the present day. “We should now
recognize this issue, denounce it vigorously and place it in its true
dimension,” Ghaddafi said in his statement.

In September, UK Channel 4 released a film version of the story of a Nubian
woman named MendeNazer. The film, titled “I Am Slave,” tells the true story of
a girl who was abducted from the Nuba mountains and was eventually sold into
domestic servitude with an Arab family in London.

In 2000, Nazer’s story made international news when she managed to escape.
Although the numbers of people living in such circumstances are difficult to
determine, an August article in the UK’s Telegraph estimated around 5,000
people are currently working as domestic slaves in the UK.

Either way, the Libyan leader’s statement is remarkable, even for a man who
likes to make headlines.
BM

A Dialogue Between Poets Kola Boof, Sam Hamud and Rudolph Lewis

Rudy

Qaddafi's apology follows on the heels of that by the United States for its plague visited upon the Guatemalians. By that of the Congress of the United States for its exploitation of the African Americans who built the Capitol at slave wages.

Qaddafi's statement is indeed more remarkable than the latter two apologies. The United States of America has yet to apologize to its kidnapping and enslavement of the sons and daughters of Africa.

Nor has it apologized to Mexico for its theft of much of what we call the Southwest, including California, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Nor has it thanked the Haitian people for its aid in acquiring the Louisiana Territory, which makes up much of what is the Midwest and the Northwest sections of the present-day United States.

For those with an interest, you may like to read Chinweizu's take on Arab slave trade:

http://www.nathanielturner.com/blackenslavementarabeuropean.htm

I challenge Saudi Arabia and Iraq to make similar apologies. Of course apologies without payment is little or no apology at all.

Loving Africa and Africans madly, Rudy

Sam to Rudy

hello rudy,
we are on the same page about qaddafi's apology; he has always been forthright and from meeting him back in the 80s when reagan was lying about "libyan hit squads," to today,he is a true muslim, not one who pretends or stands on ritual.

but as to some of the materials you quoted from bernard lewis, i would not take him as anhonest scholar, because he was an economist and knew little of Islam, and made up a lot of things and exaggerated others;no true scholars of islam or arab history trust his work because of his use as a zionist propagandist against islam and the arabs. i knew bernie lewis before i went to teach at princeton,and often argued with him while here in princeton; true arab and muslim historians, many of them jews, abhored his bad scholarship on arabs and islam,and often slanted and biased writings against islam and the arabs.

do not get me wrong, thereis, and has been, a lot wrong in the ara ban dmuslim worlds, but the prophert muhammad tried to help correct that. but, as with all religions, not all of it takes.
for instance, in one of the earliest of arab classical poems, there is "Antar," that deals with a black member of the tribe who desires the hand of teh chief's daughter, the chief andhis family ar white. the chief says, "no." but later, when antar proves himself in battle, the chief says, "yes, to the marriage" and antar becomes the leader of the tribe in t ime. this showed racial discrimination at that time, but certainly not slavery as we had it in the west.

but let us go on to other matters that i hope will clarifiy matters a bit more. i know this is a touchy subject and some would not dare touch it, but ishmael and marvin both know that i am willing to go where others fear to tread. but this also to let you know that i agree with qaddafi, and an apology is owed,as, it must be in from america and from other arab and muslim countries, and they must also apologize to Allah for their misdeeds,then and today, if necessary.

but also, malik al shabazz, malcom x, was not fool. he saw some things tha the'd never seen, but he saw the real islam, not that which was culture bound in the arab or islamic world where p eo ple do ritual instead of the real practice of the faith.

1. there was, and still is, discrimination in the arab and muslim worlds; but, you must understand, the Qur'an is against it.
2. slaves in the muslim world, were like indentured servants in the west, but bernard lewis, one of my former colleagues at princeton, was a notorious creater of materials, especially against the arabs and islam. he was one of those whose task was to split islam and the african americans in america and the world with his books. he also had dual citizenship with israel and america, so u can see where his sympathies lay.
3. slavery in america was always brutal, with no sense of human relationships or human respect; in the muslim world, from what i have read from other scholars in history, was, as i said, more like indentured servants, and families were not split up as happened in america and europe. slaves were often prisoners taken in warfare. until the europeans came, we hve no record of them being "sold" as chattel, which was, and is inhuman, but after the europeans came, there is no doubt that many went for the money or whatever. this was against qur'anic law, to "sell" another human being. if u have that person as a, as in western term, "slave" you must treat him or her with respect, feed , house, and clothe them and let them do their prayers, etc, and they do the work you assign them. after a certain amount of time, they may leave if they wish; they are not bound for life. this is not to justify this matter, but to make clear that the term "slavery" doesn't have the same meaning in arabic as it does in english, and islamic and arab types of slavery, though not good, were not at all like slavery in europe and the americas.
BUT BERNARD LEWIS AND HIS FRIENDS NEVER EXPLAINED THIS DIFFERENCE BECAUSE THEY HAD THERI OWN AGENDA.
4. qaddafi always comes out with the truth, as he did in other matters in the past. i didn't see this quote, but he has always been forthright on behalf of africans, african americans and native americans (what he termed, "the red indians", so as ot distinguish and make clear that they were not indians at all, for to be an indian, u had to have been from india!)

i'd say more, but i hope this helps clarify some matters. this is not that i disagree with you, but that there are matters here that i felt needed clarification.
unfortunately, bad discrimination exists and has existed for too long in the world; rememeber spike lee's, School Daze--it showed among african amerians discrimination based on light,tan,brown, black and blue blacks at an african american college; i taught at howard univ, and it was evident there while i was teaching there from 1988-95.
we hve to do away with all discrimination of that sort; the qur'an speaks against discrimination, but what alleged "muslims" do may be the opposite, but that is not the fault of Islam,nor good muslims,no matter what their color.
peace, salaam,

Sam to Rudy

rudy,
i'd also like to add something important that i wrote ishmael about, and will send it as an added essay for marvin's blackbird jrnl; the americans and europeans fed the muslim "slaves" pork intestines, who were among the earliest "slaves" brought to E and Am, from Sierra Leone and Mali. yes, the only meat they would give them, or only food they would give them was pork, and the intestines, full of shit, as their food.

this was to help break them from islam, and to insult them and their religion, in order to help break their spirits.
that's why, as i told ishmael, it's ironic that chittlins is a big food among african americans, when it was the food the white men used to break the spirit of those from africa. bernard lewis and others never mention this; but this comes from some of my own research and reasoning, knowing the history of the early people who were brought from africa (as i said, most were muslim).

the next step was the get them to become christians; they would often reward those people with better food, etc. those who did not give up islam were more brutalized by the europeans and americans (that is if can measure degrees of brutality, when all brutality is wrong!)

again, this is not an apologia for arabs or muslims in the middle east, but rather, an atte mpt to clarify matters so that though there were many, too many, w rongs, some of the matters needed to be clarified. i also agree, more than just words should be given. as a muslim, born and raised in america, from lebanese parents, i know there was, and is, still discrimination among arabs and muslims, and among xian arabs toward others,black, tan and white, but if they followed Islam and a proper Christianity, they would not have discrimination based on race, color, ethnicity, religion, or whatever.
peace, salaam,

Kola to Sam

Kola Boof

FACTS & HISTORY:

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Preview #14, Journal of Pan African Studies, Poetry Issue

Preview #14,

Journal of Pan African Studies, Poetry Issue

Guest Editor, Marvin X

Deadline for submissions November 15

Send submission to jmarvinx@yahoo.com,

Include bio, pic, MS Word attachment

Neil Callender, Boston MA

The Maroon is Dead! Long Live the Maroon!

On the night Malcolm died, tough men, hewn from

Louisiana's woodlands and paper mills, and from

the battlefields of Europe and Korea gathered in their

town of Bogalusa. Our Maroon King, our Zumbi, lay cut down

in Harlem as these Maroons of the Sword, these Deacons for Defense,

accepted the quest to slay the Klu Klux dragon.

Weeks later, Maroons of the Pen, ascended

to Harlem, the crown city of Afro-modernity, to feed Africans

words of resistance and self-knowledge, to feed Africans

the manna of their own greatness, reconnect the African body

to the African mind and the African soul, quilt together what was

ripped apart in coffles, and in pest houses off Charelston, and in the barracoons

of Savannah.

From the wastelands of the Maafa--these barren and humiliating centuries,

precincts of death and apathy, the Maroon arises as redeemer.

He is opener of the way, she is the destroyer of illusions-- invincibility

of the Klan, superiority of Greece, ... ... . The Maroon is

keeper and maker of memory, the link between Imhotep and Lewis Latimer,

Queen Tiye and Ella Baker, between what was and what must be.

--Neil Callender

Neil Callender is a poet who is committed in his work to the rebirth of African Civilization. He believes that the erasure and falsification of the African past is integral to the project of oppressing African people and denying their humanity. The terrain of culture is central to telling the truth about the drama of the African story. He lives in the Boston area and teaches writing at Roxbury Community College. He is published in the antiwar anthology, Poets Against the Killing Fields.

Benicia Blue, Chicago IL

No Whammies No Whammies

No Mommy No Mommy

I am home by myself

Older sister isn't home yet

I am 8 or 9 or so

Me being home must be illegal

Must be a crime

Must be bad for Mommy

The police sure don't like it

The neighbors sure don't like it

I sure don't like it

Mommy going to the boat

With cash in hand

The dollars go afloat in the currents of

Mommy sailing away

Mommy stranded on her island of chance

Chances are I won't see her till morning

I Am 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20...

I am still home waiting

Her Boat of No whammies No whammies

This house of No Mommy No Mommy

Part 2

It’s just a release

I'm free when I'm there

It’s only me when I'm there

No responsibilities

No two girls

No two little girls

No two grown girls

I don't need them on my back

I don't need them checking my pockets

I need money in my pockets

Cha-Ching another hit on the slot Machine

This is my Fulfillment

This is my new void

This is my no worries

This is my no stress

This is my no tears till later

This is my destruction

This is my no Husband

This is my bankruptcy

This is my moving

This is my eviction notice

This my single parenting

This is my two daughters

This is my vulnerability

This is my bills to pay

This is my debt to make

This is my escape from life

This is my problem to solve

This is my addiction to crack

These are some reasons to go

These are some excuses to make

These are some issues I know

Gambling

Can take

--Benicia Blue

I am a Chicago native, a class of 2011 undergraduate at Columbia College Chicago. My major is in poetry. My work has been published by Girlspeak webzine and Mad Licks Zine. My poetry has also been featured on Young Chicago Authors website and Chicago public radio.

Tanure Ojaide, Nigeria

Songs from Across the Ocean Divide

There

you watch African Magic

an hourly addiction for many

or Super Story

on Thursday nights with light

here

I am racked in fantasies

of the interdependence of men and women

and the complementarity of light and dark

a human narrative

and when you switch channels

to Chelsea or Real Madrid

scoring fabulous goals

with hat tricks

I will still be staring at your photo

an untiring sport

waiting for you medicine-woman

to turn here your magical attention.

Over here, it’s neither dream nor vision

the sort in which the sokugo possesses you

to be a wanderer on an unending road

nor the sort in which the more water you throw

at the fire-engulfed the more irate the flames;

no, it’s not launching into a compulsive storm

that the rest of the world sees as a suicidal venture

but to you proffers only solace rather than peril.

It’s not the warring waves into which the swimmer

hurls himself to be helplessly lost in cosmic rage;

what transpires here is neither dream nor vision

of a fantasy that belies life as one knows it

in which in protest for denial of one’s desire

one takes the inevitable path to self-immolation—

either all or nothing; supreme peace or total war.

This is not a dream or vision of flight

on the back of a falcon coasting the skies

over a shark-infested ocean and singing

a lullaby for unborn virtues to come to life.

This is a spell of unknown proportion whose

words only the medicine woman can chant

to bring the world to the normalcy of ecstasy;

only she possesses the power to calm the waves,

put out the voluptuous flames, bring to an end

the civil war that ravages the entire polity,

and make love a dividend of freedom fighters.

This is not magical realism in which a man bleeds

out of love, a woman holds a man on a leash;

residence in an island of light or dark

in which it is forbidden to sneeze and throw

greetings across a fence to a neighbor;

a colony of mute parrots, even signs banished

with tongues and eyes sick from disuse.

A minstrel cries from a devastating fever

to the medicine woman out there gathering

her chants from weeds, forest herbs, garden

and daring to heal one not given a chance

and so cocksure of her curative craft.

A Fellow in Writing of the University of Iowa, Tanure Ojaide was educated at the University of Ibadan, where he received a bachelor's degree in English, and at Syracuse University, where he received both M.A. in Creative Writing and Ph.D. in English. He has published sixteen collections of poetry, two collections of short stories, a memoir, three novels, and scholarly work. His literary awards include the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the Africa Region (1987), the All-Africa Okigbo Prize for Poetry (1988, 1997), the BBC Arts and Africa Poetry Award (1988), and the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Award (1988, 1994, and 2003). Ojaide taught for many years at The University of Maiduguri (Nigeria), and is currently The Frank Porter Graham Professor of Africana Studies at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He received a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship in 1999, a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award in 2002/2003, and The University of North Carolina’s First Citizens Bank Scholar Medal Award for 2005.