Black Economic Empowerment

I am now offering free jobsearch workshops to people who have read Success Strategies for Black People.

If you are looking for work, or know someone who is, click here for more details.

Click here to read about Our True Power.

Click here for my Success Workshops in Finding Creative Solutions. Please note, these workshops are open to everyone.

Plus, if you haven't already, click here to listen to the recording of the March edition of What U Need to Know, where we focused on Black business success.

Click here to listen to a short recap.

Plus, click here for more free advice for Black-owned businesses.

Here's to your success!

Black Women Hair Skin & Beauty, The Black Image

London Black History Walks presents:

Black Women Hair, Skin & Beauty
Sunday 24 April 2-6pm
Lost Theatre, 208 Wandsworth Road SW8 2JU
Tube: Stockwell. Entry:£7.00. Book in advance with London Black History Walks

A visual exploration of how history, mis-education and "race" affect fashion, self-esteem, employment and education of black women and men. This film montage features Black women from all over the world talking about their hair, their skin and how they learned what is beautiful. This is event is often oversubscribed.

See also: Next Black History Events, which lists more events.
London Black History Walks - my interview with Brother T.

Liberia Is Open for Business

Click here to watch this video - Liberia Is Open for Business.

On What U Need to Know in April, we will be focusing on African Networking. Click here to listen on Saturday the 9th of April, 2 p.m. EST/7 p.m. UK time. I hope you will join us then. If you miss it, you can listen to the recording.

Click here for more free advice for Black-owned businesses.

Here's to your success!

Images of Black Women International Film Festival

The 7th Edition of the Images of Black Women International Film Festival (IBW) continues across March and April for a double celebration: the 100th anniversary of International Women's Month & the United Nations' announcement of 2011 International Year for African Descent people.

Click here for details.

Want to raise money for your arts event? Click here to download Shaking the Money Tree.

Click here for more Black cultural events.

See also: Africa and Africans on Film.

Sundiata Black Arts fest 2011

Festival Sundiata presents the 31st Annual Festival Sundiata, June 11-12, 2011.

This event will include music, dance, arts, food, gifts, spoken word, childlren's activities and more.

Festival Sundiata's aims include year-round promotion, encouragement and support of public interest in traditional and contemporary African America Heritage, culture, arts and history. Such promotion, encouragement and support includes, but is not limited to, the annual production of Festival Sundiata, a cultural art festival.

For more cultural events, see: Black History/Cultural Events.

Want to raise funding for your arts event or business? Click here to download Shaking the Money Tree.

Black Talk Radio Recap: Black Business Success What U Need to Know

I have recorded a recap of the March edition of What U Need to Know, which focused on Black business success. You can listen below.

Click here for more free advice for Black business owners.

In April, we will be focusing on African Networking. Tune in on Saturday 9th of April, 2 p.m. EST, 7 p.m. UK time. Click here to listen. If you miss the live broadcast, you can still listen to the recording.

Listen to internet radio with Zhana21 on Blog Talk Radio

Trade Corridors Will Boost African Marketplace

South Africa is helping neighbouring countries to develop trade corridors in order to create a larger market for Africans.

To read more, see National Nubian Networking April 2011.

In What U Need to Know in April, we are focusing on African Networking. Click here to listen on Saturday 9th April, 7 p.m. EST, 2 p.m. UK time.

See also: Strong Black Business Community: News by, for and about Business Owners of African Heritage.

Remembering Sharpeville and Sophiatown

According to the UN, "The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed annually on 21 March. On that day, in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa, against the apartheid "pass laws". Proclaiming the Day in 1966, the General Assembly called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination (resolution 2142 (XXI))".

Thank you for this information, Aberjhani.

On the 21st of March 1960, 5,000 or more South African people gathered in Sharpeville. As an act of passive resistance, they did not carry passes. This demonstration had been organised by the Pan African Congress, who reasoned that the police could not arrest that many people.

South African police fired on this group of unarmed African people, killing 69 and wounding more than 200. It was later shown that the police had shot people in the back who had been running away.

The Sharpeville massacre was just one shameful day in the shameful history of racism, racial discrimination and apartheid.

The culture of Sophiatown was very rich and vibrant. In 1960, the film Come Back Africa was secretly filmed in apartheid South Africa. It depicted daily life in Johannesburg and Sophiatown. To read more, see Come Back Africa. See also: The End of the Dialogue.

Beginning in 1955, the apartheid government began forcing the people of Sophiatown to relocate to Soweto. The authorities piled people's belongings into trucks and sent people off to live in Soweto, as was depicted in the BBC's recent film about Winnie Mandela.

The struggle continues.

I have recently added several South African museums to my list of African museums.

Death of Smiley Culture

Those of us who are old enough can recall the death of Colin Roach. In 1983, a Black man felt suicidal, so he went to his local police station in East London, stuck a shotgun in his mouth and blew his brains out.

Of course, if one should feel inclined take one's own life, one would automatically head to the local police station to do so. It's natural, isn't it?

According to Wikipedia, the gun with which Roach was killed could not fit into his bag, and the position of his body was inconsistent with suicide.

Those of us who are old enough can recall the death of Steve Biko, a freedom fighter and founder of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa. He died in a prison cell in 1977. The coroner ruled that he had committed suicide by banging his head repeatedly against the wall of the cell. Of course, that is the preferred, highy popular and effetive method of committing suicide.

No one was ever prosecuted for Biko's death because, although it was proved that he had been subjected to beatings and torture which caused severe head injuries, there were no witnesses to his treatment - at least, none who would testify.

Smiley Culture is one of the latest and highest-profile suspicious deaths of a Black person in police custody. Click here to watch a recent press conference about Smiley Culture's death.

Lest we think this problem affects the brothas alone, let us recall the name of Joy Gardner. Joy Gardner was a sista from Jamaica who died in London in 1993. Surrounded by police officers in her flat, it was claimed that she removed her t-shirt in order to confuse the officers (because that is what you do, right?).

Charged with overstaying her visa, Gardner was put in restraint, whence she died.

Let us recall the name of Cynthia Jarrett, an African Caribbean sista who died when police entered and searched her home in Tottenham, North London following the arrest of her son, allegedly for having an out-of-date tax disc. Her death later sparked a riot on the Broadwater Farm Estate in Tottenham.

See also: Black People 26 Times More Likely to Be Stopped by The Police.

Even Matthew Wright has stated that when a white person is killed by the police, it is front page news, but when it's a Black person, we don't hear about it again.

(When a white journalist says this, you know it must be obvious.)

It is time to put an end to this killing of Black men and women. Let us recall them and let us call their names. Let their names be remembered.

But most importantly, we must put an end to this roll call of death. It is time for Black lives to be treated as just as valuable and precious as anyone else's life. Justice must prevail.

Lenny Henry in the Slums

Comedian Lenny Henry has done a great deal of work for charity over the years. Through Comic Relief, he has travelled to some of the poorest parts of Africa to help raise money for those living there.



This time was different, though. He found himself in Kibera, one of the largest and poorest slums in the world, near Nairobi, Kenya.

Kibera houses approximately one million people in a one and a half square miles. Most of these people live in extreme poverty.

The slum is appallingly filthy, but Kiberans somehow manage to keep their homes spotlessly clean. They mostly live in corrugated iron shacks, and one toilet may be shared by anything up to fifty families.

Along with three other celebrities, Henry went to live in Kibera to raise awareness for Comic Relief. He stayed with a family of orphans who were looked after by their 16-year-old brother, the eldest of five.

Henry started by saying he had seen places like this many times before, but having spent the night there, said he had never seen anything this bad. He described it as "hell".

The children lived in one room, next door to an open toilet which regularly overflowed, causing raw sewage to flow through the children's room.

Henry broke from the rules of the documentary to use his own funds to buy the children another house to live in.

It was very moving to see Lenny Henry crying at the sight, and smell, of the children's living conditions. However, shame on Comic Relief for finding them and leaving them there to film. Why didn't Comic Relief move those children out of there? This is very exploitative.

Shame on you, Comic Relief. Shame.

I have never been a fan of reality TV, and this show did not make a fan of me.

In the end, all four celebrities helped the people they were staying with, and I found this very inspiring.

Black Talk Radio: Black Business Success

I hope you will join us today for What U Need to Know at 2 p.m. EST, 7 p.m. UK time. If you miss the broadcast, you can still listen to the recording.

Click here to listen.

We will be talking about how to have a successful Black-owned business.

We will be joined by two Londoners, Sonia Meggie of Inspirational YOU and Charmaine Simpson of Black History Studies.

Click here for free advice for Black business owners.

More Black Success Volume 10 will focus on Black business success. Coming soon - watch this space.

Here's to your success!

400 Years of Black Women Resistance Leaders

This month sees several events this month in London celebrating the contribution of African women.

Black History Studies are continuing their series of films Celebrating International Women's Day through Film. Last week, they screened a film about an awesome woman, Ida B. Wells, a tireless anti-lynching campaigner from the 19th and 20th centuries, last week. More about this soon.

For the next films in the series include:

* Wednesday 16th March 2011- Zora Neale Hurston: Jump At The Sun

* Wednesday 23rd March 2011- Sisters In Law (a great film about women lawyers and judges in Cameroon challenging domestic vilence)

* Sunday 27th March 2011- Assata Shakur: A Biography

Click here for more information.

See also, African Superheroes Day.

We will be joined by Charmaine Simpson from Black History Studies on What U Need to Know tomorrow night, 2 p.m. EST, 7 p.m. UK time. We will be discussing Black economics. Click here for a preview.

Friday 25 March 7.30pm-10.30pm
400 Years of Black Women Resistance Leaders @ Positive Mental Attitude Community College, 26 Reginald Close (off Admiralty Square) Deptford SE8 4SS Tube: New Cross, Deptford Bridge www.pmacc.co.uk Entry £8.00 waged £5.00 unwaged

Biographical details of black women from all over the world who have resisted slavery, colonialism and racism . Women do not get the historical credit they deserve, this event will provide video and documentary evidence of the who, what and why of 45 female leaders who used pistols, pens or placards to fight for equality.

Women include: Queen Amina, May Jemison, Dora Akunyili, Dame Jocelyn Barrow, Leyla Hussein, Una Marson, Hawa Taako, Lt. Sanite Belair, Althea Gibson, Carlota, Mavis Best, Fawzia Hashim, Dr Beryl Gilroy, Edna Ismail, Benadita Da Silva, Charity Adams, Janet Alder, and many more.

Tag Your Book on Amazon

Getting tagged on Amazon can help you to attract more readers and more sales. This is free. To find out more, go to Tag My Book on Amazon. There, you can submit details of your book and ask others to tag it.

To tag my book, go to Success Strategies for Black People.

To read interviews with Black writers, click here for your free copy of More Black Success Volume 9. For more details, see Black Author Interviews.

Here's to your success!

Black Business Success: What U Need to Know Preview

I recently recorded a preview of March 12th's edition of What U Need to Know, which will focus on Black business success. To listen to it, see below.

I talked about a recent interview with Cathy Hughes in which she described how people will try to discourage business owners, even when these people have our best interests at heart. She said,

In my case it was my mother, I can’t tell you…my mother would
cry, she would beg me, “Please get a government job, you’re in
Washington D.C. You’re smart and people like you, Give Up!
You’re sleeping on a floor in a sleeping bag. Cathy, people
think you’ve lost your mind; they think you’ve had a nervous
breakdown, what’s wrong with you. Go get a good Government job and stop trying…”

My mother was not trying to stop me from being a successful Entrepreneur, she was worried about me, and she was scared for me. I had lost everything to try to hold on to this business and she was ready for me to throw in the towel out of love and
protection. But guess what? It was also so discouraging.

To read the rest of the Cathy Hughes interview, click here to download Conversations with Black Millionaires.

Click here for free advice for Black business owners.

Listen to internet radio with Zhana21 on Blog Talk Radio

Black People's Day of Action Tomorrow (2nd March 2011)

London Black History Walks and Black History Studies are among the organisers of the 30th anniversary of the Black People's Day of Action tomorrow. They say:

A collective of community groups will mark 30 years of Black resistance in the UK with events throughout 2011 to recognise the significant civil rights events of 1981 ( New Cross Fire: 13 Dead and Nothing Said , "Black Peoples Day of Action", Brixton Uprisings ). This is the first of a series of events.

Black Peoples Day of Action: 30 Years On
Wednesday 2 March 7pm-10.00pm
Lewisham Civic Suite, Catford SE6 4RU.
Entry: Free. First Come, First Served

This event will be broadcast live on U STREAM:
http://www.ustream.tv/user/lcptv.com

To read more about the Brixton uprisings, click here for my interview with Alex Wheatle, the Brixton Bard.

See also: London Black History Walks, African Superheroes

Mark Simpson of Black History Studies was our guest recently on What U Need to Know. Click here to listen.