Interesting to note that 100 Black Men agree with me - if you are a Black business owner, you need to consider going international. Click here for my blog on International Networking.
See also: 100 Black Men Convention Panelists Urge Black Businesses to Go International.
Here's to your success!
Showing posts with label 100 Black Men. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 100 Black Men. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Monday, August 24, 2009
Getting Past the Hate
Check out my blog at Ancestral Healing on Black Women, Men and Self-Hatred. For practical solutions, see Getting Past the Hate.
I will be leading a two-day course in Nonviolent Communication (NVC) in London in October.
I will be leading a two-day course in Nonviolent Communication (NVC) in London in October.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Black History Films
Spent Saturday afternoon watching another excellent Black history presentation by Tony Warner at the Imperial War Museum. To listen to my interview with him from last October, visit the Success Strategies Radio Show.
On Saturday, Tony showed a film of interviews with African Caribbean war veterans, talking about the way they were treated when they settled in Britain after the war.
He then screened another film, titled "Playing the Race Card", about how successive Labour and Tory governments brought in legislation to prevent immigration from Africa and the Caribbean in the '60s and '70s, but did nothing to support the Black people living here.
The film pointed out thtat there were not measures to slow down or curb immigration from Ireland, which was not a member of the British Commonwealth.
In the 1970s, many people who had originated from India but had been living in Kenya and Uganda settled in the UK after receiving pressure from Idi Amin and Jomo Kenyatta. Although they held British passports, many Kenyan Asans discovered that the law had suddenly changed to prevent them from settling in Britain.
Tony pointed out that, although there were huge labour shrtages at the time, African, Caribbean and Asian people were still being discriminated against in employment.
The presentation finished with a short film celebrating some of the many contributions African women have made. I strongly recommend it. Click here to watch it.
Tony's site, Black History Walks, lists future events he will be offering.
I made a decision that this year, I would focus more on the positive. Even though, oppression, discrimination and pain feature largely in our history, alongside this, it is important to focus on the positive. Hence, my article on Black History International.
I therefore add the following comments:
(1) Knowledge is power. I'm sure President Obama has told his children about the way his Kenyan grandfather was treated during Britain's occupation of Kenya. For more about this, see Obama's Inauguration.
Gloria J. Browne-Marshall told me that some of her students in New York from Caribbean backgrounds were not even aware that slavery had happened. Tony Warner told me on Saturday that he had encountered this himself. This kind of ignorance renders us more vulnerable to manipulation by those who would exploit and oppress us. To listen to my interview with Marshall, go to Success Strategies Radio Show.
(2) Tony Warner and I have both heard Black people (who should know better) say that too many immigrants are coming to this country now. These Black people need to be educated to know that they are behaving the same way white people behaved towards their ancestors one or two generations ago.
(3) Along with these stories of oppression and discrimination, there are always stories of courage, of resistance, of African brothas and sistas who have stood up against evil, and fought for their rights and the rights of others. These stories continue to inspire me.
(4) Most importantly, we need to remember that white people are not the enemy (although they often seem to be). The enemy is group mentality. Another example of vicious group mentality and its consequences is the Rwandan genocide as portrayed in Hotel Rwanda. A very small number of people were courageous enough to stand up to the group and behave as individuals in that situation.
I talk more about group mentality and the need for individuality in The Key to Confidence, and in my book What They Don't Want Us to Know.
On Saturday, Tony showed a film of interviews with African Caribbean war veterans, talking about the way they were treated when they settled in Britain after the war.
He then screened another film, titled "Playing the Race Card", about how successive Labour and Tory governments brought in legislation to prevent immigration from Africa and the Caribbean in the '60s and '70s, but did nothing to support the Black people living here.
The film pointed out thtat there were not measures to slow down or curb immigration from Ireland, which was not a member of the British Commonwealth.
In the 1970s, many people who had originated from India but had been living in Kenya and Uganda settled in the UK after receiving pressure from Idi Amin and Jomo Kenyatta. Although they held British passports, many Kenyan Asans discovered that the law had suddenly changed to prevent them from settling in Britain.
Tony pointed out that, although there were huge labour shrtages at the time, African, Caribbean and Asian people were still being discriminated against in employment.
The presentation finished with a short film celebrating some of the many contributions African women have made. I strongly recommend it. Click here to watch it.
Tony's site, Black History Walks, lists future events he will be offering.
I made a decision that this year, I would focus more on the positive. Even though, oppression, discrimination and pain feature largely in our history, alongside this, it is important to focus on the positive. Hence, my article on Black History International.
I therefore add the following comments:
(1) Knowledge is power. I'm sure President Obama has told his children about the way his Kenyan grandfather was treated during Britain's occupation of Kenya. For more about this, see Obama's Inauguration.
Gloria J. Browne-Marshall told me that some of her students in New York from Caribbean backgrounds were not even aware that slavery had happened. Tony Warner told me on Saturday that he had encountered this himself. This kind of ignorance renders us more vulnerable to manipulation by those who would exploit and oppress us. To listen to my interview with Marshall, go to Success Strategies Radio Show.
(2) Tony Warner and I have both heard Black people (who should know better) say that too many immigrants are coming to this country now. These Black people need to be educated to know that they are behaving the same way white people behaved towards their ancestors one or two generations ago.
(3) Along with these stories of oppression and discrimination, there are always stories of courage, of resistance, of African brothas and sistas who have stood up against evil, and fought for their rights and the rights of others. These stories continue to inspire me.
(4) Most importantly, we need to remember that white people are not the enemy (although they often seem to be). The enemy is group mentality. Another example of vicious group mentality and its consequences is the Rwandan genocide as portrayed in Hotel Rwanda. A very small number of people were courageous enough to stand up to the group and behave as individuals in that situation.
I talk more about group mentality and the need for individuality in The Key to Confidence, and in my book What They Don't Want Us to Know.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
We Need to Heal
Once again, I find myself involved with a Black organisation in which people are sniping at each other, launching personal attacks and generally undermining one another.
As people of African heritage, we were taught to hate ourselves. That's why we often find so much conflict within Black groups and organisations. It's why there is sometimes so much distrust between African people. When you see Black people tearing each other apart, and when we engage in that kind of behaviour ourselves, this is one of the reasons. We are very wounded and we need to heal these wounds.
To read the rest of this article, visit The Key to Confidence and Self-Esteem.
As people of African heritage, we were taught to hate ourselves. That's why we often find so much conflict within Black groups and organisations. It's why there is sometimes so much distrust between African people. When you see Black people tearing each other apart, and when we engage in that kind of behaviour ourselves, this is one of the reasons. We are very wounded and we need to heal these wounds.
To read the rest of this article, visit The Key to Confidence and Self-Esteem.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Do Black People Know Our History?
My guest on tonight's show is Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, founder of the Law and Policy Group and author of Race, Law and American Society 1607-Present. She has a lot to say about Black history and how the law has affected us in Britain and the U.S.A.
I had a fascinating conversation with Gloria last night. She lectures in law in New York City and she told me that some of her students from Caribbean backgrounds were not aware that slavery had even happened there - they thought African people were indigenous to their islands. They had never been taught about slavery. (These are NOT Jamaicans, she assures me.)
Similarly, I was told by a previous guest, Tony Warner, that people in African countries are not aware of their history because the education system does not tell them about it. Click here to read more about that.
Tonight's show is going to be lively, informative and thought-provoking. I hope you will join us at 8:00 p.m. UK time. Click here to join us.
I had a fascinating conversation with Gloria last night. She lectures in law in New York City and she told me that some of her students from Caribbean backgrounds were not aware that slavery had even happened there - they thought African people were indigenous to their islands. They had never been taught about slavery. (These are NOT Jamaicans, she assures me.)
Similarly, I was told by a previous guest, Tony Warner, that people in African countries are not aware of their history because the education system does not tell them about it. Click here to read more about that.
Tonight's show is going to be lively, informative and thought-provoking. I hope you will join us at 8:00 p.m. UK time. Click here to join us.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Kenya's Colonial Past
I recently watched two historical films about Kenya, in a showing by the 100 Black Men of London.
The first one, “A Country for White Men”, depicted what happened from the time the British arrived, in the early 20th century, until they left in the 1960s. Although I knew a lot of what the film depicted already, I didn’t know the details.
The British arrived and started grabbing the best –quality farmland for themselves, as the Europeans did in South Africa, Zimbabwe and presumably many other countries as well.
They massacred hundreds, if not thousands, of people in order to steal their land. At one point, Winston Churchill expressed concern about how many African people were being slaughtered. He also said that, if the House of Commons got wind of what was happening, the British plans for Kenya would have to be scrapped.
Kenyans who were interviewed in the film said that they only had spears against the guns of the British, so although they fought back, they could not win. One man said that if the British had come with swords rather than guns, it would have been a different story.
The attitude of the British was that they were bringing British values into what would become a ‘new country’, and they considered this to be a good thing.
Those Kenyans who were not massacred by the British were made homeless and forced to do menial jobs for the white settlers.
We heard one white person remarking that the Kenyans had never done any work a day in their lives until then. So what were they doing on their farmland for all those generations before the white settlers arrived?
This reminds me so much of what happened in the Americas. The white people arrived, slaughtered the original people and stole our land. My father, who is part Cherokee, told me this story from the time I was a young child. But although I knew it happened in many parts of Africa as well, it was useful to be given specific information about what happened.
Teddy Roosevelt, when he visited Kenya, described it as a ‘playground’ and said that the people who did well there were the same people who had done well in the Old West forty years earlier.
During the First World War, Kenyans were forced into the British Army where they again did menial jobs. Hundreds of them died of starvation and disease. They were told they were fighting the Germans, who were occupying a neighbouring country which bordered with Kenya, and that they were fighting to secure their own country. But after the war, they were still confined to menial jobs and continued to be ruled by the British.
For many years, the Kenyans formed political parties to fight the British, and petitioned the British government, but their needs were ignored by the colonial rulers. At one point, members of one Kenyan political party were slaughtered at an anti-colonial demonstration. The Kenyans’ political parties were outlawed by the colonials.
Eventually, after many years of trying to achieve their aims of independence and self-determination through nonviolent means, the so-called Mau Mau were formed, which used violence.
I have seen another film about the ‘Mau Mau’, in which one man explained that, if a Black man were walking down the street and saw a white man, the Kenyan was supposed to stop and say ‘good morning’ and tip his hat. If the Kenyan failed to do this, the white man would beat him. And if the Kenyan defended himself, he would be arrested.
At last, after more than 60 years of colonisation, the British left Kenya to independent rule.
The next film was called ‘Mau Mau’.
The first thing this film clarified was that ‘Mau Mau’ is a term that means nothing in any Kenyan language. It was a term that was made up by white people. The Kenyans called themselves the Land Freedom Army. Clearly, if that had been widely known outside of Kenya, there might have been a lot more international support for the Kenyans’ aims and criticism, if not condemnation, of the colonial rulers.
After many years of killing people and displacing Kenyan people into what were effectively concentration camps, there was a scandal when some of the people in the camps were taken out into the bush by British Army personnel who tried to force them to work, digging ditches. I had seen a film about this before. The Kenyans refused to do this work – their attitude was, “We are not slaves, why should we work for the British?”.
The soldiers were then ordered to beat the Kenyans with their rifle butts, which they did. Some of the Kenyans died as a result of their injuries, and others were badly injured. The British then put out the story that these Kenyans had died as a result of drinking bad water.
Charities sent helicopters to airlift out these Kenyans who were supposedly ill, and found that they had injuries which were not consistent with having drunk bad water. When what really happened came out, it was the beginning of the end of the British colonial occupation of Kenya.
After the second film showing, a Kenyan man gave some up-to-date information. He explained that the people who run the safaris and make a lot of money from tourism are white people who live in Kenya (as I have been told, these people consider themselves to be Kenyans).
Again, I thought what he was saying was obvious, but it probably is not obvious for some people, so it’s useful to be told this information. We see similar situations in South Africa and many other places that were colonised by European powers.
When we see these stories in the news of the instability and unrest in Kenya and the violence around the recent elections, it is important to have a historical perspective. The instability of the country can be traced back to the fact that it was invaded and occupied by the British for many years, and they took people off their land, which destabilised the local economy, displaced Kenyan people, killed them, forced them to do menial jobs and denied them any kind of political voice.
The first one, “A Country for White Men”, depicted what happened from the time the British arrived, in the early 20th century, until they left in the 1960s. Although I knew a lot of what the film depicted already, I didn’t know the details.
The British arrived and started grabbing the best –quality farmland for themselves, as the Europeans did in South Africa, Zimbabwe and presumably many other countries as well.
They massacred hundreds, if not thousands, of people in order to steal their land. At one point, Winston Churchill expressed concern about how many African people were being slaughtered. He also said that, if the House of Commons got wind of what was happening, the British plans for Kenya would have to be scrapped.
Kenyans who were interviewed in the film said that they only had spears against the guns of the British, so although they fought back, they could not win. One man said that if the British had come with swords rather than guns, it would have been a different story.
The attitude of the British was that they were bringing British values into what would become a ‘new country’, and they considered this to be a good thing.
Those Kenyans who were not massacred by the British were made homeless and forced to do menial jobs for the white settlers.
We heard one white person remarking that the Kenyans had never done any work a day in their lives until then. So what were they doing on their farmland for all those generations before the white settlers arrived?
This reminds me so much of what happened in the Americas. The white people arrived, slaughtered the original people and stole our land. My father, who is part Cherokee, told me this story from the time I was a young child. But although I knew it happened in many parts of Africa as well, it was useful to be given specific information about what happened.
Teddy Roosevelt, when he visited Kenya, described it as a ‘playground’ and said that the people who did well there were the same people who had done well in the Old West forty years earlier.
During the First World War, Kenyans were forced into the British Army where they again did menial jobs. Hundreds of them died of starvation and disease. They were told they were fighting the Germans, who were occupying a neighbouring country which bordered with Kenya, and that they were fighting to secure their own country. But after the war, they were still confined to menial jobs and continued to be ruled by the British.
For many years, the Kenyans formed political parties to fight the British, and petitioned the British government, but their needs were ignored by the colonial rulers. At one point, members of one Kenyan political party were slaughtered at an anti-colonial demonstration. The Kenyans’ political parties were outlawed by the colonials.
Eventually, after many years of trying to achieve their aims of independence and self-determination through nonviolent means, the so-called Mau Mau were formed, which used violence.
I have seen another film about the ‘Mau Mau’, in which one man explained that, if a Black man were walking down the street and saw a white man, the Kenyan was supposed to stop and say ‘good morning’ and tip his hat. If the Kenyan failed to do this, the white man would beat him. And if the Kenyan defended himself, he would be arrested.
At last, after more than 60 years of colonisation, the British left Kenya to independent rule.
The next film was called ‘Mau Mau’.
The first thing this film clarified was that ‘Mau Mau’ is a term that means nothing in any Kenyan language. It was a term that was made up by white people. The Kenyans called themselves the Land Freedom Army. Clearly, if that had been widely known outside of Kenya, there might have been a lot more international support for the Kenyans’ aims and criticism, if not condemnation, of the colonial rulers.
After many years of killing people and displacing Kenyan people into what were effectively concentration camps, there was a scandal when some of the people in the camps were taken out into the bush by British Army personnel who tried to force them to work, digging ditches. I had seen a film about this before. The Kenyans refused to do this work – their attitude was, “We are not slaves, why should we work for the British?”.
The soldiers were then ordered to beat the Kenyans with their rifle butts, which they did. Some of the Kenyans died as a result of their injuries, and others were badly injured. The British then put out the story that these Kenyans had died as a result of drinking bad water.
Charities sent helicopters to airlift out these Kenyans who were supposedly ill, and found that they had injuries which were not consistent with having drunk bad water. When what really happened came out, it was the beginning of the end of the British colonial occupation of Kenya.
After the second film showing, a Kenyan man gave some up-to-date information. He explained that the people who run the safaris and make a lot of money from tourism are white people who live in Kenya (as I have been told, these people consider themselves to be Kenyans).
Again, I thought what he was saying was obvious, but it probably is not obvious for some people, so it’s useful to be told this information. We see similar situations in South Africa and many other places that were colonised by European powers.
When we see these stories in the news of the instability and unrest in Kenya and the violence around the recent elections, it is important to have a historical perspective. The instability of the country can be traced back to the fact that it was invaded and occupied by the British for many years, and they took people off their land, which destabilised the local economy, displaced Kenyan people, killed them, forced them to do menial jobs and denied them any kind of political voice.
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