Black books, African heritage books, mind/body/spirit, The Ancestral Energies Blog by Zhana, author of Success Strategies for Black People and Black Success Stories. African diasporic healing, health and wellness, and success.
I shall be leading the next Griot Workshop, on The Role of the Modern Griot, in London on the 12th of March 2013. This workshop will be hosted by Black History Studies. With special guest, photographer Charlie Phillips. I hope you will join us. Click here for more information.
The Griot Workshops use storytelling and creativity to help us to discover and explore our cultural inheritance. We reinforce a positive sense of cultural identity through celebrating our African ancestors, heroes and sheroes.
Black History Studies recently screened the documentary "Sweet Crude", about the Niger Delta.
I am going to say up front that I was upset by this film, although I was aware of the situation in the Niger Delta, having seen a film produced by the BBC a few years ago which covered much of the same ground.
It is vitally important that Black History Studies continue to screen these kinds of films and provide us with the information we need about the experience of African people all over the world.
It is equally important that we remember we can transform the situation. More about this later.
Oil was discovered in the Niger Delta in 1956. Once international oil giants Shell and Chevron moved in, they devastated the region, with the complicity of successive Nigerian military regimes. For more about modern Nigerian history, see Naij: A Film History of Nigeria.
The natural life expectancy in the Niger Delta is in the sixties; today, the life expectancy is 40. Forty. Four-zero.
During the enslavement period, the Niger Delta was known as the "slave coast". Many thousands of people were taken down the river in chains, to be sold in the West.
There is a long history of resistance in the region.
Today, because of the constant illegal burning of natural gas released by the oil drilling, toxic chemicals are released which pollute the air and the water and destroy the wildlife. The rain that falls in the Niger Delta is toxic enough to destroy metal roofs.
There are few, if any, schools in the Niger Delta. The Nigerian government and the oil companies want to drive the locals off their ancestral lands.
You can view the trailer below.
One of the most disturbing episodes covered by Sweet Crude was when Director Sandy Cioffi, having cultivated a relationship with MEND (The Movement to Emancipate the Niger Delta), arranged for a member of MEND to be interviewed on Nightline.
MEND wanted the international media to cover the situation. A member of MEND courageously agreed to be interviewed on camera, but the interviewer repeatedly asked him if he was a terrorist and if M\END were holding hostages. When the MEND member answered "no", the interviewer appeared bored and looked at his watch, and when the MEND spokesman began to explain the situation, the interview was terminated.
The subject was broadcast with a screaming headline about "Africa's New Terror Crisis" and references to a threatened increase to the price of oil for Americans.
Although we know the media often manipulate stories, and manipulate us, it was still shocking to watch this.
The Joint Task Force (JTF), a branch of the Nigerian military, maintain a presence in the region with brutal violence. The U.S. government under George W. Bush agreed to supply intelligence about activists in the region to the Nigerian government. Thus, in a way, we are all complicit in this scenario.
The author and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was imprisoned and killed because of his involvement in the Niger Delta protests.
Sweet Crude is heartbreaking. As I said above, it is vital that we remember that we can transform the situation. We have amazing energy inside of us and we can use it to transform situations like these. For more about this, see Your Inner Wisdom. Thank you once again to Black History Studies for screening Sweet Crude. For more information and to buy a copy on DVD, visit Sweet Crude.
Saw this awesome Black history film screened by Black History Studies last week.
"The Black Wall Street" was the name given to the thriving community of Greenwood, Oklahoma, which boasted several millionaires. In 1921, Greenwood was attacked and destroyed by white people envious of its success.
Some of those who were children at the time, and saw their homes and community destroyed, are still alive now. "Before They Die" is the title of a documentary about the elderly survivors' fight for justice.
The attack on The Black Wall Street was a horrible atrocity. But we can help the survivors to get justice. We can bring about positive change. We have the power to transform the situation.
We can learn from history. The ancestors want us to heal these terrible, terrible wounds from the past and create the future we deserve.
This week, Film Four is screening a series of films made in Africa, by and about African people.
Last night, they screened Johnny Mad Dog, which depicts the experience of child soldiers during the Liberian civil war. Click here to read more and watch the trailer.
Tonight, Film Four will screen A Screaming Man, a drama from Chad about guilt, betrayal and intergenerational father/son conflict. A Screaming Man also touches on the effect the Chinese takeover of African countries is having on the lives of ordinary African people. Check out the trailer above.
I have posted this blog to acknowledge and to celebrate African American entrepreneurs who made their names in the entertainment field, and achieved great success at a time when few opportunities existed for Black people.
People who provided employment and training for African Americans, helped Black performers to forge successful careers, and contributed to the financial prosperity of the Black community.
Don Cornelius, producer and presenter of Soul Train, was one of the first African American entrepreneurs whose business operated without white backing.
People from Africa often talk about the corruption in their countries, the corrupt governments. But they rarely mention the fact that it was European intervention that allowed corrupt governments to rise and flourish.
People from the Diaspora talk about slavery and the effects of Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome. But we are often unaware of what happened in Africa.
How many people know that the first German death camp was built in Namibia in 1905?
Or that the British in Kenya slaughtered thousands of people, stole their land, and relegated the remaining Kenyans to menial jobs? Or that Teddy Roosevelt said that the same people who did well in the old West would do well in Kenya?
How many people know that people in Nigeria were enslaved and forced to work for the British armed forces during the Second World War?
On Saturday, I attended a screening of two erly anti-apartheid films at the BFI.
"Come Back Africa" is an extraordinary film set in Johannesburg and Sophiatown in 1950. It features a cameo by Miriam Makeba.
The documentary "The End of the Dialogue" was made in 1959. We were fortunate to have two of the filmmakers at the screening.
These were the two earliest anti-apartheid films. "Come Back Africa" was made at a time when no one outside of South Africa was interested in apartheid.
Both of these films were made in secrecy and exposed the evils of apartheid to international audiences.
These films broke my heart. They didn't really tell or show me anything I didn't already know about apartheid. But seeing how Black people were treated, the patronising attitudes of the white people, the abuse, the poverty, the sense of helplessness as Black people tried to live normal lives under this appalling system, made this a very strong experience.
One thing that particuarly struck me was the level of resources, in terms of time, money and energy, the apartheid regime was willing to invest in breaking up African families.
These films remind us that not only were we stolen from Africa, Africa was stolen from us.
I recently saw this excellent PBS documentary about the Haitian Revolution, which was screened by Black History Studies. 
was chock full of factual information, as was the subsequent presentation by Charmaine at Black History Studies. 
was mentioned by Panyin on What U Need to Know. Click here to read more and listen to the show. 
The documentary Motherland
was described by The Sowetan as "The Best Documentary on Africa". Directed by the makers of 500 Years Later
, Motherland will be screened in London tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday. Click here for details of these and other BHM events.
