Caribbean Thinkers Part 2

Further to the previous blog, another thinker we were introduced to on this course was Dr. Robert Love.

Born in the Bahamas, Love moved to Jamaica in the 1890s and founded a newspaper, the Jamaica Advocate, in 1894. In it, Love published many articles which Dr. Scholes sent him from Africa, in which he described the sophisitcation of African civilisations. These articles would have been seen as works of sedition, designed to agitate the masses.

Love argued that Black people in the Caribbean were capable of running their own affairs, and that they derived dignity and identity from identifying with their African roots.

Jamaican people probably more Akan-speaking (Ashanti and Fanti) people than any other island in the Caribbean, and a lot of their African traditions survived. This led to their having a rebellious spirit and a sense of superiority.

Traditionally, in some African societies, the griot, or storyteller, told stories that were meant both to instruct and to entertain. They used humour and a lightness of touch. The folk tradition was brought to bear in the Caribbean, where educated people in the villages would read the paper aloud to locals who could not read and write. In this way, the message was communicated to people in the rural areas.

However, the local education system in the Caribbean was based on what was dictated by the colonial authorities, and often on the education that was available in Britain. It did not reflect the culture and concerns of local people.

Everybody has his or her own unique story to tell. Black Success Stories celebrates people of African heritage in Britain today. Click here to order your copy of Black Success Stories today.

See also: Caribbean Thinkers

Keywords: Black history, African history, Caribbean, identity, education, Dr. Love, Dr. Scholes

Caribbean Thinkers

Last week, I attended a course entitled Black Thinkers in the Caribbean at the City Lit. It was brilliant.

The tutor, Clem Seecharan, from London Metropolitan University, spoke about Caribbean thinkers and academics dating back to the mid-19th century. I was very inspired by the fact that so many of them related their African heritage and antecedents to a sense of dignity and identity. Some of them travelled in Africa, and wrote about the societies they found there and how advanced and sophisticated those societies were. This was in stark contrast to the thinking of the time, which was that African people were backwards and had been ‘civilised’ by enslavement and colonisation. Many people in the Caribbean had been brainwashed by the educational system there to have a negative view of our African traditions, and we can still see remnants of these negative attitudes today.

I was particularly interested in Dr. Scholes, who wrote three books including Glimpses of the Ages, which was published in 1904. Unfortunately, all of his books are now out of print.

Scholes was born in St. Ann in Jamaica. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and also did a Doctorate of Divinity in Brussels. He then became a medical missionary and travelled in the Kongo.

Although trained as a Christian, Dr. Scholes had great respect for African traditional spirituality. He said that the traditional beliefs and spiritual practices were an expression of the reverence and respect that African peoples had for their environment.

Scholes wrote that African societies had great traditions in art and learning. Travelling in the area now known as Senegamia, he celebrated the people there including the Mandingos/Mandingas and the Fulani, and celebrated their physical attributes as well as their work with iron, gold, wood carving, ceramics and textiles, and their architecture. He also celebrated the crafts and skills of other African peoples.

In my book, Black Success Stories, René Carayol MBE states that he witnessed first-hand the effect that Roots, by Alex Haley, had on people of the African Diaspora, i.e. the Caribbean and the United States, in giving them a sense of their history and culture. Carayol, who was born in Gambia, also states that Roots was taken directly from his family’s documents, and he has copies of a great deal of correspondence on the subject between his father and Alex Haley. To read more, order Black Success Stories today.

Keywords: Black history, African history, Caribbean, Roots, Black success, Rene Carayol, Alex Haley

African American Leadership: Recovery for the New Millennium

Joseph Chapman of Columbus, OH (a former addict in recovery for more than 13 years) has developed in conjunction with a non-profit corporation Recoverlove.com, an Afrocentric recovery program called "Recovery for the new millennium." Mr. Chapman states passionately, "The 'Recovery for the new millennium' goes beyond the traditional 12 step approach and looks at the vestiges of deep seated inferiority complexes and how African American addicts are also simultaneously facing poverty, slave mentalities, poor education and a lack of marketable job skills."

Dr. Alvin Poussaint on a controversial PBS special commented, "Of the two million people in jail, about 45 percent are African-American, most have been males. Of the homicides in the country, about 45 percent are African-American males, mostly killing other black people and black males. So there is a crisis, and the dropout rate from high school is still very high. It's better, but it gets camouflaged in the statistics. In Baltimore again, 50 percent of 9th graders don't graduate from high school. Well, if you get pockets like that in urban areas like Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, there's a serious problem for the black community."

Joseph Chapman states discerningly, "The need for new African American leadership to address the above-mentioned problems in an unfeigned substantial way that does not continue in the blame game is imperative." Mr. Chapman has also created a recovery from dysfunctionality program that is designed to combat and alleviate the crisis in the African American community. Mr. Chapman has developed - through thorough exhaustive research and perspicacious insight - practical tools, CDs, DVD's, lectures, and workshops in order to facilitate the instituting of the necessary mental, emotional, and behavioral changes that need to take place in the African American community. Joseph Chapman goes on to say unwaveringly, "People need real workable tools in order to facilitate real workable change in their life situation."
CONTACT:Joseph Chapman AS, BS, MBA614-668-2075
now@recoverlove.com www.recoverlove.com

Taken from: http://www.blacknews.com/pr/recoverlove201.html

Success Strategies for Black People Order from Amazon

The Blood - African Heritage and the Arts

The next The Blood event will be held on Friday 20th October at 7:30 p.m. Click here for more details.

People were bought and sold like fax machines, cars and mobile phones, as if we were being traded on eBay.

Given our history of enslavement, how can we as artists of African heritage can uplift and inspire our community?

In popular, mass-produced depictions of Black people, where are we? Where is our experience? Click here to read more.

Black Visual Arts

I attended the Black Visual Arts course today at the V&A, on which there is a strong emphasis on the historical context, plus lively discussion. Click here to read more about it.

There are still places on this course, which runs for the next two Fridays, 13th and 20th October, 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Click here for more details and to book.

Click here for more BHM arts events.

Click here to read about Black British artists' responses to objects on display at the National Maritime Museum.

The Blood event

Arts Event - The Blood - Building Our Future

Given our history of enslavement, how can we as artists of African heritage uplift and inspire our community?

The next The Blood event will be held on Friday 20th October, 7:30 p.m., at Yaa Asantewa Arts Centre.

Panellists will include novellist Alex Wheatle, author of East of Acre Lane and often called the Brixton Bard.

For more info, click here.

Dancehall Queens

Queens of Sound– A Herstory of Reggae and Dancehall
Dir: Sandra Krampelhuber

This film explores the long neglected female side of Reggae and Dancehall music in Jamaica. Three generations of women in the Jamaican music business tell us about their roles, their first steps into the career, their struggle for acceptance in a male-dominated business, their life paths and success.

There are several showings during BHM. For this and other BHM arts events, click here.

Keywords: Black History Month UK, arts, films, reggae, dancehall, women

Sonia Boyce at Greenwich

This follows on from my previous post about the event at the National Maritime Museum last night. Click here to read it.

Sonia Boyce started out by saying that it has been said that political subject matter can never make good art.

One of the two objects she chose was a ladies’ whip. This was clearly designed to be decorative yet functional, and had a silver-plated, carved handle. Boyce then screened a short film she had made, part of which included her reading from the slave narrative of Mary Prince, an enslaved African Caribbean woman.

Prince described how familiar she became with the different types of pain inflicted by each of the different instruments used on her by her mistress, including fists used on her face and head.

Boyce had a white woman on screen describing each of the objects and her own responses to them. The second object Boyce chose was an iron ring designed to be worn around the neck, with a long iron arm and hand to be worn in front of the face. This was to serve as a constant reminder to the enslaved person of his or her status of subjugation to the white master.

The film concluded with a dance performed by young people in Carnival-type costumes. The dance celebrated and commemorated resistance by enslaved African people. We must always remember that the enslavement of our ancestors was met with constant, continuous acts of resistance by our ancestors and that our creativity was and is part of that resistance.

There followed a long discussion about the collusion of African people in their own enslavement, i.e. we were sold by other African people. Bonnie Greer pointed out that the situation is very complex and needs to be addressed. She asked whether this was the moment to address it.

I feel that this situation has been addressed for many years, in ways that are not that helpful. People say ‘I ain’t no African, I am Jamaican’. We hear our contemporaries from the Continent refer to us as ‘sons of slaves’. Greer mentioned that Ekow Eshun had stated that the Fanti people of Ghana, his ancestors, were unhappy when the Transatlantic trade ended.

One person in the audience pointed out that among the complexities we need to address – and possibly a higher priority than addressing the complexities of African people’s complicity in our own enslavement – was the complexity of the ways in which we resisted our enslavement.

Clearly, greed and exploitation occur in every society. The Buddha taught that greed, hatred and delusion are part of each and every one of us. However, we need to discuss these issues in our history and address them in ways that are going to heal us, heal our communities, heal our people and heal our species. This ongoing culture of blaming is destructive and must end. And our creativity is one way in which we can heal ourselves and each other.

See also: Poem - The Blood

Kuumba-Survivors

Keywords: Black Arts, African creativity, African history, Transatlantic trade

Carnival – A Deeper Rhythm

The establishment, the Powers that Be, have long tried to control, curb, limit or eliminate Carnival. When the veil between past and present, the dead and the living, grows thin, the divide between Black and white, rich and poor, narrows. Carnival awakens energies which are beyond anyone’s control. The authorities are right to fear them. These forces linger from ancient times and come to life once a year.

The dancers dress up in fantasy costumes which allow them to take on altered personae. They evoke other worlds, other realms, and a deeper rhythm beats beneath their feet.

Calypsonians’ tongues lick the politicians with their observations and their wit. They mock and taunt those in authority, reminding all of who has fulfilled his responsibilities, and who has ripped off, exploited or deceived the people. Those in power may duck, dive and dance, but they cannot escape the sting in the tongue. Those in power are right to fear them.

In 1881, riots erupted in Trinidad when the colonial police attempted to clamp down on the festivities, particularly the Canboulay (canne broulee). The rioting continued for a further two years’ carnivals.

The Notting Hill Carnival began after the African Caribbean community was put under ongoing racist attack in 1958. The Carnival was seen as a way to unite local people across the cultural divide, and it has grown to become the largest street festival in Europe.

In 1976, it was the turn of the Notting Hill Carnival to be the scene of riots. It was reported that the police were attacked by African Caribbean youth after arresting a pickpocket.

For many years since then, the police have clamped down on Carnival and the authorities have repeatedly called for the celebrations to be moved from their traditional home. However, Notting Hill Carnival is a tradition which belongs to the local people and will remain local for the foreseeable future.

The organisers do everything to protect public safety. However, the forces and energies of Carnival are drawn from ancient times. Taken from their homes in distant lands, the ancestors were forced to labour, to toil and to die. Ripped from their families and loved ones beaten, raped, bled and worked to death.

At Carnival time, they were allowed briefly to remember who they were, that they were human beings, with all the creativity humans possess.

These energies lie dormant, but not dead. Once a year they are awakened. The costumes, the colours, the songs, the dances, wake the sleeping energies of the ancestors. If you dance with them, sing with them, play with them, they will bless you, protect you, or at least let you be.

Dance and sing with them, enjoy them, dress up, play mas, but do not try to control or contain them, for within them moves a powerful force. Like placing a lid on a volcano – try to contain it and it will explode, either around you or inside of you.

Click here to read an interview with Shabaka Thompson, Artistic Director of Yaa Asantewa Arts Centre.

Keywords: Carnival, Notting Hill, London, Caribbean culture

The event at the National Maritime Museum last night was excellent. Bonnie Greer chaired a panel of artists, each of whom had chosen two objects from the museum’s collection.

It is interesting to see artists engaging with these objects because they tend to see things in a way the rest of us don’t, and to bring out points we might otherwise miss.

One of the objects chosen by Keith Piper was a clock which, apparently, has been described as the most important clock in the world. It even has a name – H4. It was invented by John Harrison in 1761 and was used to solve the problem of longitude so that ships could work out where they were in the world, horizontally, as well as vertically. Vertical navigation, i.e. latitude, had been worked out by the Moors centuries before.

In 1714, the Crown offered a huge prize, the modern equivalent of which would have been around £20 million, to the person who could work out how to calculate longitude. Harrison was eventually awarded a smaller prize, in 1773.

Piper pointed out that the reason why the British were desperate to solve the problem of longitude was completely tied up with the so-called slave trade – the Transatlantic trade in African people. This is never mentioned with reference to H4, even though a book – Longitude by David Sobel – was written about it and a film has been made about it.

H4 made it much easier to transport enslaved African people because the ships’ navigation became much clear after H4’s invention. The clock was even tested on two ships – the first, the Deptford, sailed from London to Jamaica.

Piper presented a chart which showed the markup on the price of African people. At one time the markup had been 975 percent, and from 1688 to 1692, I was over 600 percent. Between 1703 and 1707 – the height of the Transatlantic trade – the markup dropped to 197 percent. After the invention of H4, the markup dropped still further.

I find it disturbing to think that my ancestors not only had prices on their heads, they had a markup. But of course they would have done, as they were considered to be goods for sale.

The evening was moving and challenging. More later.

See also: Kuumba-Survivors

Keywords: slave trade, Transatlantic trade, Black history, African heritage, arts, museum

Reparations + Slavery Remembrance Week

Black Britain today publishes an excellent interview with Esther Sanford who states that “What colonialism and enslavement did was to take away the African psyche and replace it with a European mindset.” Click here to read this article.

This clearly continues to have a powerful impact on us as African people, our self-image, self-esteem and creativity.

Artists have a great deal to contribute to this discussion and one of the events of Slavery Remembrance Week will be a Freedom debate to be held tomorrow night at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. Click here to read more.

I am collecting interviews with artists on the subject of enslavement and emancipation. Click here to read some of them.

An African-Centred Success Story

An elementary school in Kansas City, Mo is using an African-centred approach to learning to support its students to achieve success.

Says Kevin Bullard, coordinator of African-centered education at several schools in the district. "With the African-centered model, we ... look at [slavery] as part of the context of our history and our struggle, but only a small piece." Their timeline includes the intellectual legacy of ancient African civilizations.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0608/p14s01-legn.html

Business guru René Carayol thinks we should be concentrating only 5% of our time on history, and 95% of our time on building our futures. He believes that concentrating on our history holds us back. You can read an interview with him in Black Success Stories Volume 1.

I agree with him to some extent: if we concentrate only on the history of enslavement, this may hold us back. It depends how it is taught, however. I was always taught the history of resistance alongside the history of enslavement, so I found my history very uplifting and inspiring, and I still do. My ancestors were survivors, heroes and sheroes, and I take inspiration from their example.

Of course, it is true that enslavement only forms a tiny part of our history as African people. But it is still having a devastating psychological, emotional and financial impact on us. In order to understand why we are in our current position in Western society, and why Africa is in its current state, we must understand the history of our enslavement.

Still, I agree that we also need to focus on building our future, starting from now.

Click here to order Black Success Stories Volume 1.

See also Kuumba-Survivors.

Buchi Emecheta Speaks of Women

London-based Nigerian novelist Buchi Emecheta OBE, author of over 20 novels including The Slave Girl and Second Class Citizen, talks to Zhana about her experience. Click here to read this interview.

See also:

International Slavery Remembrance Day

Course for Parents and Carers

The next Parents/Carers Personal Development event will be held on Saturday 12 August 2006 at Southwark Town Hall, from 11am - 3.30pm.

The event will include information on forming a focus group to influence policy and decision makers in:

• education,
• housing,
• race & crime,
• health,
• employment and
• poverty.

The organisers say state that "To effect change that our children will notice requires Vision, Intelligence and Courage to do what we know must be done. Come join us, together we can change the world".

See also: New Course for Black Parents;

African Caribbean Parents;

Black Success Stories

Henry Bonsu + African Identity

I have just been listening to Henry Bonsu on Colourful Radio. Of course, it is interesting listening to these things because one hears a whole range of different views, opinions and experiences.

One of Henry's guests is saying that we don't need to worry about our history or what happened 100 years ago. I completely disagree.

We need to have knowledge of our history and heritage as African people in order to be aware of our greatness and our potential. When we are clear about our identity, we know that that there are no limits to what we can achieve as people of African heritage. We live in a society in which we are constantly fed negative images of people of African heritage. Some of this conditioning is very subtle, but it is powerful all the same. It affects us and it affects our young people.

I have taught so many people in adult education who have told me that they 'can't' do such-and-such a thing because they have been fed these negative images all their lives, in the school system, through advertising, television programmes and so forth. This is why we need to celebrate our African role models and success stories.

We need to reinforce our own positive images. Our history tells us the truth about ourselves and the fact that we have contributed a huge amount to human civilisation in general, and to British society in particular, and we are continuing to do so.

Henry Bonsu is one of the interviewees in my new book, Black Success Stories.

Keywords: Henry Bonsu, Black Success Stories, African history, African heritage

How Does Buddhism Relate to the Black Man and Woman?

Check out these links to and about Black people and Buddhism.

I am going to be leading a meditation course specifically for people of African heritage, starting in September. Please join us - you don't even need to be interested in Buddhism to get the benefit of Buddhist meditation. Click here for more info.

I am also leading a workshop on Improving Relationships/ Improving Communication with our partners, children, friends, work colleagues. Again, you don't need to be interested in Buddhism, although I have found Creative Communication/NVC to be enormously beneficial to my life and my practice. Click here for more info.

Keywords: Meditation, Buddhism, Black people, African Caribbean, Creative Communication, Nonviolent Communication, NVC

African Caribbean Diversity

Still on the subject of me doing too much, on Wednesday night, I went to the launch of African Caribbean Diversity's new year. Every year, they take on a new intake of young people who will be mentored by people in major institutions such as the Bank of England.

The event was held at J.P. Morgan and, as usual, I arrived late. This is something I need to look at and probably tap on. Not just 'I arrive late', but also 'I feel guilty and ashamed'. Even though I arrive late, I deeply and completely accept myself.

For more about tapping, visit Emotional Freedom Technique.

When I arrived, Trevor Phillips OBE was speaking. He looked up and recognised me. This is starting to happen to me more and more - the person on the stage recognises me as I slip in. More guilt and shame.

He stressed the importance of the young people staying in touch with each other. He said, 'Yes, there will be rivalry among you. You will be upset because the other person got the job you wanted'. But, he said, it is important that you have a network of people who have been through the same experience you have had. Over the years, these friendships will be increasingly important to you.

Hearing him speak made me remember why I interviewed him for Black Success Stories. This is a man who cares deeply about the African Caribbean community, about our young people and about their future in this society.

He advised the young people to be grateful to their sponsors and mentors, 'but not too grateful', and he reminded them that they are doing these institutions a service. Every institution in the Western world is having to get used the fact that there are people working there who don't look like the Chairman. And these young people are helping them make this adjustment.

He said, 'You will learn things that nobody else knows. It will be like being a Martian'. And he reminded them that there will always be something they don't know, and that they should not be afraid to ask.

I may be doing too much, but I am getting loads of inspiration. I am having an amazing time.

One person in the audience asked why so few successful people are willing to share the secrets of their success. Trevor Phillips and Henry Bonsu, who presided over the evening, have both shared their secrets in my new book, Black Success Stories. For more information and to order your copy, click here.

Click here to visit African Caribbean Diversity

See also: Linton Kwesi Johnson

Keywords: Trevor Phillips, African Caribbean, Henry Bonsu, young people, Black Success Stories

Linton Kwesi Johnson

Having spent part of the day at a conference on HIV and sexual health in the Caribbean community, I went to the Arts Depot in North Finchley last night to see Linton Kwesi Johnson. North Finchley is so far away that, in the past, those of African American persuasion would have referred to it as 'North Hell'.

I first met LKJ at Brixton Art Gallery last year, where he was being interviewed by Henry Bonsu. LKJ informed me that he had once been on the Board of the gallery, which has now sadly closed. Lambeth Council suddenly raised the rents in Brixton Station Road to more than double their previous rate, and several small businesses, including the gallery, suffered. I think this is part of a government policy to raise these rents to 'commerical' rates. But I digress.

I got to the Arts Depot really late and felt very guilty and ashamed as I took my seat. Its Not My Fault!!! I kept silently reassuring myself. I had called a cab at 7 p.m. but it did not arrive until 7:40. The driver then told me he had been sitting around for two hours waiting for work.

It's not my fault!

I got home from the conference before six, plenty of time to get to North Hell for 8 p.m. But I decided to do something on the computer and it should only have taken five minutes, 15 minutes, etc., but it took far longer. Doesn't it always?

Of course, I kept saying 'I should switch off the computer and go now', but then my other voice would say 'This will only take another couple of minutes'. Yeah, right.

Okay, it is partly my fault. Serves me right for listening to the voices.

I know the real problem was that, having sat inside working all day when, outside, the sun was brightly shining, I just could not face the journey up to North Hell, so I distracted myself.

I am just doing too much these days.

I got there in time to here LKJ do three poems, including New Word Order, and to hear him say that the term 'ethnic cleansing' is 'very disturbing'. He made reference to Nelson Mandela, Chief Butelezi and the Holocaust, all in a few short minutes. That's a poet for you.

I spoke with him afterwards adn he remembered me from the gallery! Wow!

LKJ goes for quality, not quantity. Some say his output is small, but I say, who cares when his words have such power? Such weight? Such penetration? And he stands on the stage and delivers them - on an empty stage, just him and the podium - as if it takes no more effort than asking for a cup of tea.

Keywords: Linton Kwesi Johnson, poetry

African Health Forum

The African Health Forum is an African-led organisation of voluntary and public sector groups. Membership is steadily growing, facilitating effective networking, information sharing and partnership

We work in the area of health, particularly but not exclusively sexual health and HIV, amongst African people in Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham. We also promote research and evaluation which is leading to improved service provision and uptake amongst African communities.

Health workers in London are finding that HIV infection frequently occurs in Africa. The HIV-infected person comes or returns to the UK and is treated here. Therefore, as part of our work, we are liaising and working with workers within African countries to raise awareness around sexual health and prevention of HIV.

We provide opportunities for networking and information about funding and other resources.

If you are a healthcare worker based in Lambeth, Southwark or Lewisham, in the voluntary or statutory sector, you can join the African Health Forum. For more details, visit the African Health Forum or contact

Maria Loizou, Health Promotion Specialist - African Communities on 020 7188 2837 Ext. 82846

or Anna Aguma, Senior Health Promotion Specialist - African HIV and Sexual Health on 020 7188 2837 Ext. 82846

When We Ruled

When We Ruled is a new book by Robin Walker which has been described as by far "the best general work on the ancient and medieval history of Black people there has ever been".

The launch is tonight, 7.00 – 9.00 PM, at A.F.F.O.R.D., 31-33 Bondway, Vauxhall, SW8 1SJ, Vauxhall Tube (Victoria Line, Exit 2, 1 minute walk)

Call (07875) 186 695 or (07984) 759 506 to confirm that you are coming.

Meanwhile, Ligali's annual African Remembrance Day is next Saturday, 22nd July. Ligali remind us that "Whilst African history includes the injustice and travesty of enslavement, there are substantial and significant elements of our history that have occurred outside this era and it is essential and indeed respectful that the people and culture outside this element of history are also acknowledged and remembered".

Click here for more details and to register for this event.

See also: 2007 Commemoration

Keywords: African history, African heritage, Ligali, Robin Walker