FILM REVIEW: ‘SELMA’
This powerful drama tells the story of the events surrounding the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965 that led to the passing of the Voting Rights Act later that year.
It was sobering watching a film about those events 50 years ago on the birthday of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, having just come through the last year of demonstrations and solidarity over police impunity for killings in Ferguson, New York and several other towns and cities across the US.
The director Ava Duvernay, who missed out on an Oscar nod but did see the feature nominated in the best film category probably never guessed just how relevant those scenes and stories of segregation, brutalisation, incarceration, police impunity, racism, poll tax without representation, disenfranchisement, and economic discrimination would be in 2015. President Lyndon B Johnson says in the film that it is not a race problem, or a southern problem but an American problem. However given that the US is a nation that includes many diehard racists, white supremacists and Afrikans who wish to collude in their own oppression it is a problem that keeps recurring and never goes away despite the best attempts of the American people to delude themselves with phrases such as ‘post-racial’ and Rodney King’s famous ‘can’t we all just get along?’ Many saw the march as a success over some of the worst excesses of racist police sheriffs, rednecks, mayors and state governors but those attitude seems ingrained in a country built on 500 years of ‘manifest destiny’, slavery, imperialism and the genocide that means that during that time virtually every inch of America can be considered a racist crime scene.
‘Selma’ opens with Dr King preparing to receive the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for his work, most notable the 1963 March on Washington when he delivered his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech at the prompting of the Queen of the Gospel singers Mahalia Jackson. Music plays a strong role throughout the film with a soundtrack that also includes: Sarah Vaughan, Rev Dorsey’s choir, The Staple Singers, Yusef Lateef and John Legend’s Oscar-nominated ‘Glory’, which has already seen success at the Golden Globes.
In the run-up to the march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge the film shows the splits in the Student Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC) and how the civil rights campaign led by the likes of Dr King’s Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) was soon to be superseded by the burgeoning influence of the Black Power Movement. Malcolm X, in his El-Hajj Malik Al-Shabazz persona, returned from Mecca and Afrika having set up the Organisation of Afro-American Unity is moving towards a wider alliance of anti-racist forces when he was assassinated on 21 Feb, 1965, just as Dr King was considering whether that broader alliance could be beneficial for the movement.
British actor David Oyelowo gives a powerful performance as Dr King and he is ably supported by a cast that includes Cuba Gooding Jr, Tim Roth, Common, Oprah Winfrey – who also co-produced the feature through her Harpo company with her friend Brad Pitt’s Plan B, Pathe, Celador Films and Ingenious Films. Playing ‘the wife’ of a major historical character is never the easiest acting role as you have to play support but don’t want to be invisible. Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott-King never achieves the on-screen magnetism of Noemie Harris as Winnie Mandela in the ‘Mandela’ biopic but she does manage to have a presence and reveal some of the influence she had in Dr King’s rise and the courage to endure all the political and verbal attacks and the later assassination, which is not included here.
A note should be made of the cinematography here - a lot of darkness, sepia tones, silhouettes and characters in profile. This moody tinge helps raise ‘Selma’ above the usual structure of biopics and makes it a very watchable as well as timely and relevant film. This year Mon 19 Jan was MLK Day and activists ran the #ReclaimMLK day hashtag running three days of protests, highlighting current racial disparities and the systemic problems still affecting minorities in America in the US hoping to inspire action like that taken by King during his days as a civil rights campaigner. Protests took place in Ferguson and St Louis in Missouri where unarmed Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer. In Oakland, California, people gathered outside the home of Mayor Libby Schaff who has defended a brutal police force and projected King’s quotes on to her garage door. Watch the Official ‘Selma’ Trailer: http://youtu.be/aVj9mdfthzk
CRIME SCENE AMERICA
In a continuation of the police’s murderous assault on Afrikans across America another unarmed man was killed as he exited with his hands raised a car that had been pulled over by police in Bridgeton, New Jersey ostensibly for going through a red light. Officer Braheme Days claimed he saw a gun in the car and removed it then threatened to execute the car’s two male occupants using expletive-laden language. The car’s driver Leroy Tutt put his hands out the window to show he was unarmed but when unarmed Jerame Reid got out the car with his hands raised Officer Days shouted that Reid had a gun and shot him at point blank range at least six times. All this was captured on the police car’s video which the Reid family lawyers had to go to court to get the footage released. The early police statements about the killing were just that a car had been stopped and a gun was recovered. It is suspected Reid was killed by the police in revenge for his previous conviction in an incident in which an officer was shot.
As well as the downplaying of the killing this also highlights a trend that makes giving every officer a camera to record their behaviour almost irrelevant as even when the police are caught on camera killing, assaulting and framing people they shout ‘for the camera’ that the ‘suspect’ is armed or being aggressive as a justification for summary executions, excessive violence and escalated charges. The police will also say when the visual evidence reveals their misdeeds that people haven’t seen the full interaction and therefore what is on camera is not the proper context to understand the incident but instead we must all rely on their malice, prejudice, paranoia and incompetence and support them unconditionally.
Officer Days, who had arrested Reid before, and his colleague Roger Worley have been suspended. Much has been made in the rabid US media about Officer Days being ‘Black’ but we have never fallen for the propaganda that having more Afrikan police officers would solve crime and reduce tensions between the police and citizens.
Police murders, assaults and framings all over the world prove that point. The problem is the troubled mindset of those who are recruited and retained as police officers. Officers from North Miami Beach were caught at a firing range using mock-ups of actual Afrikan male suspects for target practice. The six targets left behind by North Miami Beach Police were found by Sgt Valerie Deant, a band member of the Florida Army National Guard. The photo of her brother, Woody Deant, had been taken after his arrest many years ago as a teenager for drag racing. It had been shot several times. Police Chief J Scott Dennis said that his officers had used poor judgment but denied racial profiling and said that the department would no longer use images of suspects they had arrested.
A review of the New York police’s recent chokehold cases has found discipline recommended by a complaints board was very often not followed. In seven out of 10 cases studied, a prosecutor or the police commissioner imposed lesser punishments on officers who used chokeholds, which have been banned by the New York City Police Department since 1993. The report is in response to the death of Eric Garner, who was killed after being placed in a chokehold by police. Police Inspector General Philip Eure called the report “a deep-dive into cases involving this prohibited tactic to explore and demystify how these complaints are addressed internally”. A watchdog agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), investigates claims of officer misconduct and makes recommendations on whether to discipline an officer. The report found the CCRB had substantiated all 10 claims, occurring over five years, and recommended the highest disciplinary action to be taken against the officers involved in nine cases. But in seven instances the police department’s prosecution office or the former police commissioner himself imposed lesser action or no discipline at all. In the remaining three, one officer died before any final decision was made, one was found not guilty by the CCRB’s prosecution unit and one is still pending. The report also notes officers used chokeholds - “whether neck grabs or headlocks or some other contact with the neck or throat - as a first act of physical force in response to verbal resistance, as opposed to first attempting to defuse the situation”.
Officer Darren Wilson who killed unarmed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August will not face federal charges. Having escaped from state charges Wilson’s actions have been blessed by the highest judicial office in America reinforcing the cheapness with which Afrikan life is considered. A South Carolina judge has declared a mistrial in the case of a former police chief who killed an unarmed black man, with a jury deadlocked. Former Eutawville Police Chief Richard Combs shot and killed Bernard Bailey after an argument over a citation. Prosecutor David Pascoe said nine out of 12 jurors voted to convict Mr Combs and he would try the case again. The shooting in 2011 happened after Mr Bailey visited Eutawville town hall to complain about a traffic citation his daughter had received six weeks earlier for a broken tail-light. Mr Combs attempted to arrest Bailey on an obstruction of justice charge. Mr Bailey left the town hall and Mr Combs pursued him back to his vehicle and shot Mr Bailey three times as he simply backed out to escape an escalating situation. Ex-chief Combs frequently changed his story to match the evidence confident he would never be held responsible for the killing because he was an officer. The police chief was placed on leave after the 2011 shooting, and fired six months later. Mr Bailey’s family reached a $400,000 (£265,000) wrongful death settlement with the town last August.
HYPOCRISY & FREEDOM OF SPEECH
More than 100 people, including school children, have been arrested in France, Belgium and Germany in the wake of the killings of 17 people at the Charlie Hebdo offices over their inflammatory cartoons and at a kosher supermarket in Paris. A newly-recruited policewoman, Clarissa Jean-Philippe, was also shot in the mayhem that spread across central France from 7-9 Jan. The killers, Amedy Coulibaly and the brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, who were subsequently killed by the French authorities were given midnight funerals in unmarked graves with no advance warning to mourners.
The killings have been presented as an attack on ‘freedom of speech’ and ‘western civilisations and modernity’ yet the photos of the main Paris march on 11 Jan with 40 ‘world leaders’ in attendance looked like a rogues gallery of defenders of racism, exploitation, corruption, police brutality and shallow political and ahistorical analysis. While millions have attended protests against the killings in the past fortnight there have been several dissenters expressing their freedom of speech with pupils, especially at schools in the banlieus refusing to take part in the commemorations either because they consider the tone and content of Charlie Hebdo offensive or because they have experienced discrimination, marginalisation and criminalisation by French society. Speaker-activists like Dieudonne have also been arrested (again) and charged for even the most mildest comments on the situation. Some of those arrested have been fast-tracked through the courts with exemplary sentences of up to four years for non-violent offences classed as hate speech by the judicial system. In Toulouse three men in their early twenties have been jailed, two of them for 10 months, for shouting obscenities at police. There has been no Gallic shrug and passing it off as ‘satire’ for them.
A dozen people have been killed, over 200 injured, and 45 churches, a Christian school, an orphanage and the French Cultural centre in Niger attacked in the global reaction to the first edition of Charlie Hebdo printed after the killings again with a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad on the cover. Senegal’s bestselling newspaper, L’Observateur, described the ban on Charlie Hebdo as a bluff by President Macky Sall, who was widely condemned for taking part in the Paris march for press freedom only for his government to then ban the magazine in Senegal.
If you want to know the real contempt that the French have shown for freedom of speech look at their colonial empire and its remnants. You can watch Ousmane Sembene’s ‘Camp de Thiaroye’ about the massacre in 1944 of Afrikan conscripts recruited by the French for the Second Imperialist World War. They were treated better as PoWs by the Germans and when they were released the French refused to pay them their promised demob expenses and left them in poverty and subject to disease. French forces killed them when they protested. This film was banned for 10 years in France and was rarely shown even in Sembene’s Senegal homeland. There is Gillo Pontecorvo’s, ‘The Battle of Algiers’, considered among the most influential films in cinema history and the template for other anti-imperialist films such as ‘Soy Cuba (I Am Cuba)’. The film shows the racism and torture that the French practised in a failed attempt to deny freedom to the Algerians. A third excellent film to watch is ‘Nuit Noire (October 17, 1961). This is about the night when French police attacked a demonstration of over 30,000 pro-FLN Algerians and their supporters campaigning for independence and murdered over 200 in the centre of Paris by beating them and throwing them into the Seine. Bodies were turning up for months after. In that film you see the hovels in which Afrikans lived after the war and what led to most of them being moved outside the ring road to the banlieus. We saw the film on its release in 2005 at a festival in London but the DVD we came across in Paris had no subtitles and the shopkeeper told us the French did not want it to receive a wide distribution.
Like the racist white Americans who published collectable postcards of lynchings of Afrikans the French produced similar postcards showing their sadistic and perverted torture of Afrikans including mutilations, mass beheadings, exile and the denial of Afrikans’ right to earn a stable living. This is a small sample of the reality of what France’s much heralded ‘Freedom, Liberty and Equality’ means in practice.
Meanwhile, the same ‘world leaders’ have flocked to Saudi Arabia following the passing of its leader King Abdullah. Saudi Arabia is notorious for playing a double game – abusing the rights of its citizens and clamping down on dissent while funding and arming most of the jihadist and Wahabbist mass murderers across the globe yet still managing to be feted by ‘the Davos set’ who are so desperate for their oil and weapons sales that they ignore the lack of the freedom of speech they so cherish and the undemocratic nature of the House of Saud and the 7,000 princes who completely control the political, economic and religious life not just within the country but across the Middle East extending into the entire Muslim Umma. Most Muslims have no respect for the Saudi royal family, a group of ‘sand-pirates’ who lucked-out and found their trading routes happened to criss-cross a rich seam of oil 90 years ago. It has enabled them to inflict their arrogance over the Hajj pilgrims who have to visit Mecca and Medina as part of the Five Pillars of Islam which also just happen to be in Saudi Arabia. Traditional Afrikan spiritualists, Sufism which predominates among Afrikans, Shia Muslims, Ahmadiyyas, Ismailis, Copts, Orthodox Christians, Druze, Parsis, Kurds, Yazidis and migrants are all feeling the brunt of the terrorism funded by the Saudis. Where is their freedom of speech?
WEST AFRIKAN EBOLA UPDATE
The West Afrikan Ebola outbreak has officially infected 21,724 people and killed 8,641. Cases in Liberia stand at eight-per-week down from a peak of 509 its lowest weekly total since June. There have been days when no cases have been reported. Cases in Guinea stand at 20 per week down from a peak of 292. Cases in Sierra Leone stand at 117-per-week down from a peak of 748. The travel ban across the country has been eased including at the borders with neighbouring countries. We did hear a report from Sierra Leone that their numbers were not accurate and the Ministry of Health was looking at reclassifying a proportion of the reported deaths as being due to malaria or other causes. Mali’s Health Minister Ousmane Kone says the country is now free of the Ebola virus after 42 days without a new case. The last Ebola-infected patient in Mali recovered and left hospital in early December.
The first batch of an experimental vaccine against Ebola produced by British company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the US National Institutes of Health has reached Liberia. The shipment will be the first potentially preventative medicine to reach one of the hardest hit countries. Scientists aim to involve 30,000 volunteers in the trial in total, including frontline health workers. If all regulations are met, 10,000 volunteers will be given the GSK vaccine. And there are reports that a trial of an experimental drug called Zmapp might start in the next few weeks.
In Guinea, where the outbreak was first detected, schools and universities reopened after a five-month closure but in many attendance was only 10% due to fatalities, the short notice and children being away from home. Two policemen were killed by villagers who feared they had brought Ebola to the western district of Forecariah.
In Sierra Leone the eastern district of Kailahun, which first recorded Ebola eight months ago, has had no cases for 35 days and the other former hotspot of Kenema has had only four cases since November. The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has opened its first Ebola treatment centre specialising in care for infected pregnant women. It’s been erected at the site of one of the city’s most prestigious secondary schools, Methodist Boys High School, in Kissy and when it is fully operational it will have 80 beds. MSF says the death rate for expectant mothers is extremely high, and health workers treating them, particularly during childbirth or miscarriage, are especially vulnerable to catching the virus.
More than 10,000 children have lost one or both parents to Ebola in West Afrika’s current outbreak of the disease, according to UNICEF. Almost 8,000 of those children are from Sierra Leone. Britain has pledged £2.5m to help set up special care centres for Ebola orphans and re-unite children with their extended families. The government expects the outbreak to be over by mid-May and schools across Sierra Leone are to reopen in March, eight months after they were closed. Measures are to be taken to ensure that schools are a safe environment. Teachers are to be trained to use thermometers to take the temperatures and chlorinated water in buckets are to be made available in schools. Education Minister Minkailu Bah said that school fees would be subsidised for secondary school students to help parents. The ministry would also provide teaching and learning materials as well as ensuring schools were safe and disinfected. Liberian schools are expected to open next month.
UK nurse Pauline Cafferkey has recovered from Ebola and been released from the London’s Royal Free Hospital. She was diagnosed in December after returning from Sierra Leone where she had been volunteering with other NHS staff for Save the Children. Ms Cafferkey has been treated with experimental drugs and received blood plasma from another British nurse, Will Pooley, who recovered from Ebola last year.
TANZANIA CLAMPS DOWN ON HEALERS AFTER ALBINO KILLINGS
Mashaka Benedict stands by a statue
which promotes the rights of albino
people in Sengerema town
Tanzania has banned traditional healers who use potions containing human body parts in a move intended to stop attacks on people with albinism. Home Affairs Minister Mathias Chikawe said there would be a nationwide operation to arrest them and take them to court if they continued to work. More than 33,000 people in Tanzania have albinism, a hereditary genetic condition that causes an absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes and affects one Tanzanian in 1,400 and just one person in 20,000 in the west. Albinos are killed because potions made from their body parts are believed to bring good luck and wealth. More than 70 albinos have been killed over the last three years in Tanzania, with only 10 murder convictions, campaigners say.
Mr Chikawe said police actions would begin in the northern areas of Mwanza, Geita, Shinyanga, Simiyu and Tabora, where most of the attacks have taken place. The ban has emerged from the work of a special joint task force between police and the Tanzania Albinism Society (TAS). The task force will now review previous cases of albino attacks for new evidence and conduct further research on the motive of attackers. Ziziyada Nsembo, Secretary-General of TAS said: “It’s just a starting point. The government should understand it is an endless story from 2006 until this time. No action has been taken to stop the killings. We haven’t seen where these hands, legs and skin are taken. This is the big question. If the witchdoctors will tell us that they are taken to somebody, and what purpose they are used for, we will be in a better position. Through the witchdoctors we can reach the real culprits. That is our one demand: for the government to find these people.”
Ukerewe Island, which was once a sanctuary for a community of albinos, has seen attacks and attempted abductions. The TAS regional chairman Alfred Kapole, an Ukerewe native, was forced to flee to Mwanza, Tanzania’s second largest city three hours away. Body parts sell for around $600 in Tanzania, with an entire corpse fetching $75,000.
In Sengerema, 60 km from Mwanza, a monument has been erected at a roundabout in the middle of the town. It is a life-size metal statue, depicting a pigmented father holding his child with albinism on his shoulders while a pigmented mother puts a wide-brimmed hat on the child’s head to protect him from the sun. There are also 139 names of victims who were killed, attacked, or whose bodies were stolen from graves. A representative of the Sengerema Albino Society, Mashaka Benedict, said that even educated people still believe that albino body parts can bring wealth.
Mr Benedict alleges that prominent people are involved in the killing business and this is why very few people have been arrested, charged, convicted or jailed as parts were selling for $10,000 [£6,300].
Last month a four-year-old girl, Pendo Emmanuelle Nundi, was kidnapped from her home by men armed with machetes in the northern Mwanza region. Police have since arrested 15 people, including the girl’s father and two uncles, but she remains unaccounted for. In August, a UN rights expert warned that attacks against people with albinism were on the rise ahead of Tanzania’s October 2015 national elections, encouraging political campaigners to turn to ‘witchdoctors’ for good luck. Isaac Mwaura, a Kenyan MP with albinism, said Tanzanian gangs were also crossing into neighbouring Kenya to carry out abductions.
CONTACTS AND RESOURCES
Ernest Njamakimaya, chairman, Tanzanian Albinism Society (TAS). Web: www.underthesamesun.com
Mashaka Benedict, Sengerema Albino Society. Web: www.zippednews.com/sengerema-albino-society
Ramadhani Khalfan, chairman, Ukerewe Albino Society. Web:
Vicky Ntetema, Under the Same Sun. Web: http://www.underthesamesun.com/
‘In The Shadow of the Sun’ DVD
‘White Shadow’ DVD
FORTHCOMING NUBIART PROFILES
NUBIART: Focus on arts, business, education, health, political developments and the media.
JAN PROMOS
~ ‘GANDADIKO’ - Samba Touré [Glitterbeat Records - Out 2 Feb 2015] This is Samba Toure’s follow-up to the highly-acclaimed ‘Albala’ and although he sought a more uptempo feel than the previous album which was recorded in the aftermath of the 2012 coup and rebellion in the northern half of Mali this album has lost none of the power or relevancy. Samba had spent years honing his artistry including stints playing with Malian blues master Ali Farka Touré and Kora genius Toumani Diabate
The 10-track album opens with the title track ‘Gandadiko’, which means ‘Land of Drought’ or ‘Fireland’ in Samba’s native Songhai language. The drought in the north caused many economic problems and worsened the security situation. TV and Internet news often talk about wars, but all the human distress and consequences that ensue from it are rarely fully told. Other strong tracks include ‘Male Bano’, ‘Chiri Hani’ and ‘Touri Idjé Bibi (Black Fruits)’, where Samba begs forgiveness from the earth and the rivers for the offences and desecrations humans commit against them every day. ‘Gafouré’ is a powerful Holley (Djinn music) that he had been playing live for some time and has finally recorded. Our favourite track on the album is easily the Bo Diddley-influenced ‘Su Wililé (The Living Dead)’, a song about an old friend of Samba’s who was rarely ever seen sober. This song is a warning to the youth especially those who promote substance abuse in their music. The album closer ‘Woyé Katé (Come Back Home)’, beautifully sung together with his good friend Ahmed Ag Kaedi (from the Tuareg band Amanar), is a timeless plea for pan-ethnic understanding, the return of the refugees and a world where possibility trumps destruction.
~ ‘70S POP!’ – Slim Ali & The Hodi Boys [ARC Music – Out Now] This 15-track album is the companion to ‘70s Soul’ released by ARC Music last year and focuses more on the soul-funk and reggae-influenced songs from Slim Ali’s repertoire. By this time everybody was familiar with the styles of James Brown, Otis Redding, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, Toots and the Maytals and Jimmy Cliff and that infuses the tracks here with a wider appeal than any local market even when sung in Swahili. ‘You Can Do It’ was the title of their first hit single and album and many of the tracks here are taken from there and the less successful follow-up ‘Smile’. The themes range from relationships - ‘Your Cheating Love’, ‘I Need You’ and ‘Tell Me’ – to songs of encouragement – ‘There’s a Hard Time in Front of Me’ and ‘You’ve Got to Progress On’ – to dancing tunes – ‘We Gotta Dance’, ‘Sing A Happy Song’. For those who have never heard of Slim Ali this is a good place to start while for those who are aware you will relive some memories of one of the most popular singers across East Afrika and the Gulf states.
~ ‘DISCOVER WORLD MUSIC’ – Various Artists [ARC Music – Out Now] There are times when the phrase ‘World Music’ is a catch-all for any music that is unlikely to trouble western pop charts that are dominated by rock, pop, R’n’B, ‘dance’ and indie. But then there are those other rare occasions like with this ARC Music double-CD 35-track sampler when the term simply means good quality music with a social message from anywhere in the world. Our favourites tracks were always going to be those with Afrikan, Caribbean or Latin influences and some of the tracks such as from Rossy, Elemotho and King Selewa and his Calypsonians have featured on albums that we have previously reviewed as promos with high praise but the selection here contains traditional and contemporary music from over 30 countries and there is something for everyone who appreciates good music.
For the standout tracks - as well as those already mentioned - look no further than Egypt’s ‘Ambassador of Rhythm’ Hossam Ramzy (featuring Billy Cobham) on ‘Six Teens’; the Gnawa style of Nour Edinne’s ‘Bania’; Spanish singer / songwriter Ana Alcaide, whose music is known as the ‘Toledo Soundtrack’ kicks of proceedings with ‘El Pozo Amargo’; Latin Grammy Award winner Marta Gómez; Brazilian Ceumar’s ‘Girias do Norte’; Senegalese and Swedish kora players Maher & Sousou Cissoko; the Mozambican Marrabenta of Yinguica’s ‘Vou Morrer Assim’; Vusa Mkhaya’s ‘Schweinsbeuschel’; and two fado tracks from Custovio Castelo with ‘In-quietude’ and Maria Ana Bobone’s ‘Enigma’. This album will have you returning to for more to truly discover more of the quality sounds that the world has to offer.
NUBIART LIBRARY – JAN MEDIA
We will only review books we have read and DVDs we have seen and that are available at reasonable prices online or in shops or libraries. However, given the nature and current state of Afrikan publishing and film production there may be books and films on this list that are worth the extra effort to track down.
~ ‘WE ARE HEIRS OF THE WORLD’S REVOLUTIONS: SPEECHES FROM THE BURKINA FASO REVOLUTION 1983–87’ – Thomas Sankara [Pathfinder Press. ISBN: 978-0-87348-989-8] Thomas Sankara led the revolution of 1983 to 1987 in Burkina Faso when a group of military officers seized power and appealed for support from the Burkinabè workers and peasants. In the five speeches contained in this pamphlet, he explains how the peasants and workers of this West Afrikan country established a popular revolutionary government and began to fight the hunger, illiteracy and economic backwardness imposed by imperialist domination. In so doing, they have provided an example not only to the workers and small farmers of Afrika, but to those of the entire world. In her introduction, Mary-Alice Waters, the President of Pathfinder Press wrote: “Thomas Sankara has himself become a symbol for millions of workers, peasants, and youth throughout Africa especially, who recognize in the Burkinabe Revolution – and in its continuing political heritage – a source of political ideas and inspiration for the battles for genuine liberation on the continent.” (p23)
The first speech, ‘Building A New Society, Rid Of Social Injustice and Imperialist Domination’, is the Political Orientation Speech that outlines the programme for the revolution and was broadcast on national TV and radio. It reveals the grasp that the National Council of the Revolution had on the challenges facing them. They hoped to build a society that the young, educated and skilled would want to stay in and contribute to its glorious future. The population is now 18 million compared to seven million when the revolution took over but still today over 72% of adults earn less than $2 a day.
Giant steps were made under the revolution such as: dam construction, irrigation and reforestation projects spearheaded by voluntary labour brigades; access to healthcare was widened with a commitment to every village having a health centre with increased immunisation of children; school provision to challenge the 92% illiteracy rate they inherited; the government abolished tribute payments and compulsory labour services to village chiefs and land was nationalised; and the liberation of women by their mobilisation. “Emancipation, like freedom, is not granted, it is conquered. It is for women themselves to put forward their demands and mobilize to win them.” (p50)
In ‘Freedom Must Be Conquered In Struggled’ delivered to the UN General Assembly Sankara condemned the amount of money wasted on military hardware dedicated to preventing people from exercising their rights and access to resources.
He called for an end to the veto held by the nuclear powers and revealed his international solidarity: “Rather, we want to assert our awareness of belonging to a tricontinental whole and, with the force of deeply held convictions, acknowledge, as a Nonaligned country, there is a special relationship of solidarity uniting the three continents of Asia, Latin America, and Africa in a single struggle against the same political traffickers, the same economic exploiters.” (p61)
Thomas Sankara considered both the theories of ‘Negritude’ and ‘the African Personality’ outdated. Sankara was a strong advocate of international solidarity taking the Cuban, Nicaraguan and Vietnamese revolutions as examples for Afrikans to emulate if their efforts to develop and free themselves are to succeed. He always highlighted the causes of SWAPO in Namibia, anti-apartheid, Polisario Front in Western Sahara, Mayotte being returned to the Comoros, Madagascar’s right to the islands claimed by France, and the Palestinians in occupied Palestine. He also supported commemorations of 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in British territories: “We wish to be the heirs of all the world’s revolutions and all the liberation struggles of the peoples of the Third World. Our eyes are on the profound upheavals that have transformed the world.” (p70)
In ‘Imperialism is the Arsonist of our Forests and Savannas’ Sankara highlights the contradictions that in many countries there is money to drill oil wells 3,000m deep yet no money for even basic water wells less than 100m deep. He also reveals the environmental and ecological concerns that underpinned the revolution by planting ten million trees under the Peoples Development programme to combat deforestation and the desertification of the Sahara. Every Burkinabe village was mandated to have its own wood grove and implemented a plan for 7,000 village nurseries. “In the villages and in the developed river valleys, families must each plant one hundred trees per year.” (p87)
‘French Enables Us To Communicate With Other Peoples In Struggle’ highlights the possibilities to use the French language for international solidarity not only across Afrika and the Caribbean but also in Vietnam and with the Kanaks far away in New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean.
The final speech ‘You Cannot Kill Ideas: A Tribute to Che Guevara’ was given at the opening of an exhibition in tribute to the international revolutionary, doctor and strategist Che Guevara on 8 Oct 1987, who had been assassinated exactly 20 years earlier. Che had been a massive influence on Sankara who shared his love of motorbikes and is most famously photographed with a similar beret and star. Ironically, it was only a week before Sankara himself would be assassinated in a counter-coup on 15 Oct 1987 led by his former ally Blaise Compaore, who then stayed in power for 27 years until he was ousted in a popular uprising in October when he tried to extend his rule. Interim Prime Minister Isaac Zida is requesting the extradition of Compaore, who fled to Ivory Coast and then Morocco - the only Afrikan country not in the African Union after it left the OAU because of its refusal to accept independence for Western Sahara, a cause openly championed by Sankara throughout this book.
Thomas Sankara, changed the country’s name from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso meaning ‘the land of the upright people’ to inspire the population to strive to improve the country and oppose corruption. Having been a guitarist in a band he wrote a new national anthem and urged journalists, artists and musicians to put their talents at the service of the revolution. A legacy of this cultural awareness is the fact that the Burkinabe capital, Ouagadougou, holds the most respected Afrikan film festival.
We welcome feedback on any event you have attended that was listed in Nubiart Diary. It helps us with the selection of future listings and is also info we can pass on to the event organisers where appropriate.
~ WINDRUSH FOUNDATION PRESENTS EUROPEAN SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA. On Tues 27 Jan at 7.30-9pm at George Padmore Institute, New Beacon Books, 76 Stroud Green Road, London, N4 3EN.
~ BLACK HISTORY STUDIES PRESENTS ‘ELEMENTARY GENOCIDE: FROM PRIMARY TO PENITENTIARY’ SCREENING. ‘Elementary Genocide: “From Primary to Penitentiary” (2011)’ is a must see documentary, executive produced by award-winning journalist and filmmaker Rahiem Shabazz. It is a wake-up call to preserve the Afrikan-American community’s most valuable commodity, the youth.
The documentary addresses the social, cultural, political and personal ramifications of how the federal government allots money to each state, to build prisons based on the failure rate of 4th and 5th graders.
Elementary Genocide consists of candid interviews and voice-over narration culled from original interviews from professors, teachers, best-selling authors, children, parents, celebrities, etc. Interviews with: Dr. Umar Abdullah Johnson, Dr. Boyce Watkins, Supreme Understanding, Dr Torrence Stephens, Tracey Syphax, Killer Mike, Kadidra Stewart, Edward M Garnes Jr, Okorie Johnson and Sistah Iminah. On Wed 28 Jan at 7-9pm at the PCS Headquarters, 160 Falcon Road, Clapham Junction, London SW11 2LN. Adm: £5 / Under-16s - Free. A loyalty card event. E-mail: info@blackhistorystudies.com Web: http://www.blackhistorystudies.com
~ ROYAL AFRICAN SOCIETY PRESENTS ‘HOW TO FIX NIGERIA: THE 2015 ELECTIONS & BEYOND’. On 14 Feb Nigerians may head to the polls for what is expected to be the most fiercely contested elections since the country returned to civilian rule in 1999. With widespread dissatisfaction over the government’s failure to tackle the insurgency in the North-East, and two equally matched parties, the fear of a violent election is high if it is able to proceed at the time. A panel of experts will delve through the rhetoric that has dominated the election campaign and explore the issues that will continue to be important for the continent’s largest economy long after the elections. On Wed 28 Jan at 6.30-8.30pm at Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, London, WC1H 0XG. E-mail: ras_events@soas.ac.uk
~ ALKEBULAN REVIVALIST MOVEMENT EVENTS
- ‘Nommo Sessions: Women In The Garvey Movement’. On Fri 30 Jan at 7-10.30pm at Mama Afrika Kulcha Shap, 282 High Road Leyton, London E10 5PW. Adm: £3 / Under-21s – Free. Queen Mother Nzingha Assata is a veteran activist and organiser responsible for founding a range of Afrikan organisations including the Universal Afrikan People’s Development Association. In the tradition of Baba Martin, she published the groundbreaking book “Women In The Garvey Movement” in 2008 and has since worked tirelessly to illuminate a wealth of information on this crucial aspect of Papa Garvey’s legacy. As we continue to celebrate the Centennial Year of the Universal Negro Improvement Association & Afrikan Communities League (UNIA-ACL), we honour the foremost scholar on the life and Legacy of Papa Marcus Mosiah Garvey – Baba Tony Martin.
- ‘Omowale Malcolm X Observance: 50 Years Ago He Paid The Ultimate Price Today We Honour The Legacy’. On Sun 22 Feb at 1–8pm at Triangle Centre, 91-93 St. Ann’s Road, London, N15 6NU
Adm: Free (Donation Welcome). Every proud people pay tribute to the major contributors to their history! 2015 marks the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination (21st February) and the 90th Birthday (19 May) of Omowale Malcolm X – the ‘Godfather of Black Power,’ and most prolific Black Nationalist Pan-Afrikanist Leader and Organiser since The Most Eminent Prophet & King – His Excellency: Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Malcolm X rose, from a self-confessed “extreme delinquent” and street hustler, to a diehard Revolutionary, organising the same streets in the spirit of Black Liberation & Afrikan Pride. His work and impact thus stands as a prime example of the Power Potential of Black Manhood, the greatest threat against the forces of White Supremacy, which assassinated him. Today, the same forces continue to annihilate Black Manhood, as a means to destroy the Black Family and Nation. The legacy of OMX is the manifest Garveyite-Blackprint for how today’s Black Youth can resist this destruction and become a Revolutionary generation, capable of transforming the world. In this knowledge we honour the Life & Legacy of Omowale Malcolm X, as we declare: “Freedom! By Any Means Necessary!”
- ‘Powerfilms Screenings’. Every second Wed at 7.30pm at Mama Afrika Kulcha Shap, 282 High Road Leyton, London, E10 5PW. Adm: £3. Web: www.powersis.com
For all events tel: 020 8539 2154 / 07908 814 152. E-mail: info@alkebulan.org Web: www.alkebulan.org
~ HACKNEY MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
- ‘What A Journey! Retired Caribbean Nurses and the NHS’. Until 31 Jan 2015. E-mail: info@retiredcaribbeannurses.org.uk
- ‘The Slave Owners of Hackney’. Until 7 Feb 2015.
All exhibitions on Tues, Weds & Fri at 9.30am-5.30pm / Thurs 9.30am-8pm / Sat 10am-5pm at Hackney Museum, Technology and Learning Centre, 1 Reading Lane, London, E8 1GQ. Tel: 020 8356 3500. Web: www.hackney.gov.uk/museum Twitter: @hackneymuseum
~ TIWANI CONTEMPORARY PRESENTS ‘A THORN IN MY FLESH (MUNZWA MUNYAMA YANGU)’ EXHIBITION. Virginia Chihota’s first solo exhibition in Europe examines her recent experiences of marriage and motherhood, transforming her thoughts into body of prints and drawings of striking symbolic resonance, rife with allusions to everyday life, and religious and folkloric symbolism. Exhibition runs until Sat 7 Feb on Tues-Fri at 11am-6pm and Sat at 12-5pm at Tiwani Contemporary, 16 Little Portland Street, London, W1. Adm: Free. E-mail: info@tiwani.co.uk
~ V&A SOUTH KENSINGTON PRESENT ‘IN BLACK AND WHITE: PRINTS FROM AFRICA AND THE DIASPORA’. Essential exhibition covering four decades of campaigning and cultural printwork from some of the best exponents many of whom have had their own solo exhibitions in London in the last year: Faisal Abdu’Allah; Frank Bowling; Sonia Boyce; Nils Burwitz; William Cole; Emory Douglas, the Black Panther designer; Uzo Egonu; Ellen Gallagher; Joy Gregory; Margo Humphrey; Kerry James Marshall; Gavin Jantjes; Isaac Julien; Atta Kwami; William Kentridge; Glenn Ligon; John Lyons; the tender melancholy of the late John Ndevasia Muafangejo’s Biblical and political observations; Chris Ofili’s tributes to Stephen Lawrence; the New York collective PESTS challenging Afrikan representation in the art world; four of Tony Phillips etchings on the British theft of the Benin Bronzes; Adrian Piper; Tayo Quaye; the San artist Thomas Setshogo; Yinka Shonibare with his Afrikan material designs; Kara Walker’s pop-ups riffing on the Black image in America; Carrie Mae Weems; Sue Williamson redressing the lack of representation of Afrikans during apartheid South Africa; Diane Vitt’s charcoal drawings using Greek mythological themes transferred to Afrika; Llewellyn Xavier’s tributes to George Jackson and the Soledad Brothers;
- ‘Tartan’s Journey Through the African Diaspora’. With Teleica Kirkland, Founder of Costume Institue of the African Diaspora (CIAD). On Thurs 12 Feb at 2.30-4pm.
Exhibition runs until 6 July 2015 at 10am-5.45pm at Rms 88a & 90, V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7942 2211. Web: www.vam.ac.uk
~ CHI CREATIONS PRESENTS ‘THE GRIOT WAY STORYTELLING TRAINING’. On 13-15 Feb 2015 and 15-17 May 2015 at Etherly Farm, Dorking, RH5 6PA. E-mail: Info@shanti-chi.com Web: www.shanti-chi.com
~ FIND YOUR VOICE PROUDLY PRESENTS ‘HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE & HEALTHY EATING’
There will be a panel discussion with these experienced health practitioners: Vasco Stevenson, specialist in prostate cancer; Gillian Bolton, nutritional solutions for mental health & stress; Dr Khensu I-emhotep, lecturer on holistic health from Jamaica; and a look at the works of Dr Llaila Afrika. On Sat 28 Feb at 4–7pm at Park View Academy (West Green Learning Centre), West Green Road, London, N15 3RB. Adm: £5. Tel: Douglas on 07960 239 493 / 07882 403 871. E-mail:findyourvoice@hotmail.co.uk
~ BUNDU DIA KONGO (BDK). Afrikan cultural and spiritual group working towards the spiritual and psychological growth and development of Afrikans all over the world. Let us make a positive change now. Learn about Afrikan prophets, Afrikan history and Afrikan spiritual practices at our weekly Zikua.
- Sun at 1.30–4.30pm at PSCC, 1 Othello Close, Kennington, London, SE11 4RE. Tel: Makaba - 07951 059 853. E-mail: moyomakaba9@gmail.com
- Sun at 12.30–3.15pm at Malika House, 81 George Street, Lozells, Birmingham, B19 1Sl. Tel: Mbuta Mayala – 07404 789 329.
~ THE AUSAR AUSET SOCIETY GI GONG CLASSES. Every Monday at 7.30–9pm at Hazel Road Community Centre, Hazel Road, Kensal Green, London, NW10 5PP. Adm: £5 per class. Tel: 07951- 252-427. E-mail: Tauinetwork.europe@gmail.com
~ THE GREAT AFRIKAN BOOK SALE! Every book and CD is on sale at 50% off or more! There are over 5000 titles in the sale - never before have so many Afrikan interest books been offered on this scale in a sale. The finances raised will go towards the development of the MAA MAAT Project. On Fri & Sat at 5-10pm, Sat 12-8pm and Sun 12-5pm at Maa Maat Centre, 366a High Road, Tottenham, London, N17 9HT. Tel 07956 052 821.
~ BLACK CULTURAL ARCHIVES PRESENT ‘STAYING POWER: PHOTOGRAPHS OF BLACK BRITISH EXPERIENCE, 1950S – 1990S’. Inspired by Peter Fryer’s seminal text ‘Staying Power, The History of Black People in Britain’, this exhibition focuses on a period of time when photography served as an archival tool to capture historical moments. From documentary to portraiture to staged allegorical photographs, Staying Power documents experiences from post-World War II through to the 1990s, covering topics from mass migration to hip hop fashions of south London. Contemplate the narratives behind the iconic work of Dennis Morris, Charlie Philips’ visual record of city life and local heroes, and Neil Kenlock’s photographic journalism. Discover the work of acclaimed photographer James Barnor who captured many greats during the ‘swinging sixties’, self-taught Colin Jones and his infamous images of youth alienation, the powerful images of uprisings and protest captured by Pogus Caesar, and allegorical portraits by Ingrid Pollard. Through the lens of the photographers celebrate the moment of ‘The Specials Fans’ by Syd Shelton and Gavin Watson’s insight into the ska youth sub-culture. Explore representations of beauty and aesthetics through the work of Armet Francis, Jennie Baptiste, Al Vandenberg and Raphael Albert. The selected photographs are complimented by previously unheard oral history testimonies from the photographers and contributors. Until 30 June at Black Cultural Archives, Windrush Square, Brixton, London, SW2. Adm: Free.
Contact: Kubara Zamani, Afrikan Quest International, PO Box 35165, London, SE5 8WU. Tel: 07811 494 969. E-mail: afrikanquest@hotmail.com
External Links
Afrikan Quest International
This powerful drama tells the story of the events surrounding the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965 that led to the passing of the Voting Rights Act later that year.
It was sobering watching a film about those events 50 years ago on the birthday of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, having just come through the last year of demonstrations and solidarity over police impunity for killings in Ferguson, New York and several other towns and cities across the US.
The director Ava Duvernay, who missed out on an Oscar nod but did see the feature nominated in the best film category probably never guessed just how relevant those scenes and stories of segregation, brutalisation, incarceration, police impunity, racism, poll tax without representation, disenfranchisement, and economic discrimination would be in 2015. President Lyndon B Johnson says in the film that it is not a race problem, or a southern problem but an American problem. However given that the US is a nation that includes many diehard racists, white supremacists and Afrikans who wish to collude in their own oppression it is a problem that keeps recurring and never goes away despite the best attempts of the American people to delude themselves with phrases such as ‘post-racial’ and Rodney King’s famous ‘can’t we all just get along?’ Many saw the march as a success over some of the worst excesses of racist police sheriffs, rednecks, mayors and state governors but those attitude seems ingrained in a country built on 500 years of ‘manifest destiny’, slavery, imperialism and the genocide that means that during that time virtually every inch of America can be considered a racist crime scene.
‘Selma’ opens with Dr King preparing to receive the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for his work, most notable the 1963 March on Washington when he delivered his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech at the prompting of the Queen of the Gospel singers Mahalia Jackson. Music plays a strong role throughout the film with a soundtrack that also includes: Sarah Vaughan, Rev Dorsey’s choir, The Staple Singers, Yusef Lateef and John Legend’s Oscar-nominated ‘Glory’, which has already seen success at the Golden Globes.
In the run-up to the march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge the film shows the splits in the Student Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC) and how the civil rights campaign led by the likes of Dr King’s Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) was soon to be superseded by the burgeoning influence of the Black Power Movement. Malcolm X, in his El-Hajj Malik Al-Shabazz persona, returned from Mecca and Afrika having set up the Organisation of Afro-American Unity is moving towards a wider alliance of anti-racist forces when he was assassinated on 21 Feb, 1965, just as Dr King was considering whether that broader alliance could be beneficial for the movement.
British actor David Oyelowo gives a powerful performance as Dr King and he is ably supported by a cast that includes Cuba Gooding Jr, Tim Roth, Common, Oprah Winfrey – who also co-produced the feature through her Harpo company with her friend Brad Pitt’s Plan B, Pathe, Celador Films and Ingenious Films. Playing ‘the wife’ of a major historical character is never the easiest acting role as you have to play support but don’t want to be invisible. Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott-King never achieves the on-screen magnetism of Noemie Harris as Winnie Mandela in the ‘Mandela’ biopic but she does manage to have a presence and reveal some of the influence she had in Dr King’s rise and the courage to endure all the political and verbal attacks and the later assassination, which is not included here.
A note should be made of the cinematography here - a lot of darkness, sepia tones, silhouettes and characters in profile. This moody tinge helps raise ‘Selma’ above the usual structure of biopics and makes it a very watchable as well as timely and relevant film. This year Mon 19 Jan was MLK Day and activists ran the #ReclaimMLK day hashtag running three days of protests, highlighting current racial disparities and the systemic problems still affecting minorities in America in the US hoping to inspire action like that taken by King during his days as a civil rights campaigner. Protests took place in Ferguson and St Louis in Missouri where unarmed Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer. In Oakland, California, people gathered outside the home of Mayor Libby Schaff who has defended a brutal police force and projected King’s quotes on to her garage door. Watch the Official ‘Selma’ Trailer: http://youtu.be/aVj9mdfthzk
CRIME SCENE AMERICA
In a continuation of the police’s murderous assault on Afrikans across America another unarmed man was killed as he exited with his hands raised a car that had been pulled over by police in Bridgeton, New Jersey ostensibly for going through a red light. Officer Braheme Days claimed he saw a gun in the car and removed it then threatened to execute the car’s two male occupants using expletive-laden language. The car’s driver Leroy Tutt put his hands out the window to show he was unarmed but when unarmed Jerame Reid got out the car with his hands raised Officer Days shouted that Reid had a gun and shot him at point blank range at least six times. All this was captured on the police car’s video which the Reid family lawyers had to go to court to get the footage released. The early police statements about the killing were just that a car had been stopped and a gun was recovered. It is suspected Reid was killed by the police in revenge for his previous conviction in an incident in which an officer was shot.
As well as the downplaying of the killing this also highlights a trend that makes giving every officer a camera to record their behaviour almost irrelevant as even when the police are caught on camera killing, assaulting and framing people they shout ‘for the camera’ that the ‘suspect’ is armed or being aggressive as a justification for summary executions, excessive violence and escalated charges. The police will also say when the visual evidence reveals their misdeeds that people haven’t seen the full interaction and therefore what is on camera is not the proper context to understand the incident but instead we must all rely on their malice, prejudice, paranoia and incompetence and support them unconditionally.
Officer Days, who had arrested Reid before, and his colleague Roger Worley have been suspended. Much has been made in the rabid US media about Officer Days being ‘Black’ but we have never fallen for the propaganda that having more Afrikan police officers would solve crime and reduce tensions between the police and citizens.
Police murders, assaults and framings all over the world prove that point. The problem is the troubled mindset of those who are recruited and retained as police officers. Officers from North Miami Beach were caught at a firing range using mock-ups of actual Afrikan male suspects for target practice. The six targets left behind by North Miami Beach Police were found by Sgt Valerie Deant, a band member of the Florida Army National Guard. The photo of her brother, Woody Deant, had been taken after his arrest many years ago as a teenager for drag racing. It had been shot several times. Police Chief J Scott Dennis said that his officers had used poor judgment but denied racial profiling and said that the department would no longer use images of suspects they had arrested.
A review of the New York police’s recent chokehold cases has found discipline recommended by a complaints board was very often not followed. In seven out of 10 cases studied, a prosecutor or the police commissioner imposed lesser punishments on officers who used chokeholds, which have been banned by the New York City Police Department since 1993. The report is in response to the death of Eric Garner, who was killed after being placed in a chokehold by police. Police Inspector General Philip Eure called the report “a deep-dive into cases involving this prohibited tactic to explore and demystify how these complaints are addressed internally”. A watchdog agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), investigates claims of officer misconduct and makes recommendations on whether to discipline an officer. The report found the CCRB had substantiated all 10 claims, occurring over five years, and recommended the highest disciplinary action to be taken against the officers involved in nine cases. But in seven instances the police department’s prosecution office or the former police commissioner himself imposed lesser action or no discipline at all. In the remaining three, one officer died before any final decision was made, one was found not guilty by the CCRB’s prosecution unit and one is still pending. The report also notes officers used chokeholds - “whether neck grabs or headlocks or some other contact with the neck or throat - as a first act of physical force in response to verbal resistance, as opposed to first attempting to defuse the situation”.
Officer Darren Wilson who killed unarmed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August will not face federal charges. Having escaped from state charges Wilson’s actions have been blessed by the highest judicial office in America reinforcing the cheapness with which Afrikan life is considered. A South Carolina judge has declared a mistrial in the case of a former police chief who killed an unarmed black man, with a jury deadlocked. Former Eutawville Police Chief Richard Combs shot and killed Bernard Bailey after an argument over a citation. Prosecutor David Pascoe said nine out of 12 jurors voted to convict Mr Combs and he would try the case again. The shooting in 2011 happened after Mr Bailey visited Eutawville town hall to complain about a traffic citation his daughter had received six weeks earlier for a broken tail-light. Mr Combs attempted to arrest Bailey on an obstruction of justice charge. Mr Bailey left the town hall and Mr Combs pursued him back to his vehicle and shot Mr Bailey three times as he simply backed out to escape an escalating situation. Ex-chief Combs frequently changed his story to match the evidence confident he would never be held responsible for the killing because he was an officer. The police chief was placed on leave after the 2011 shooting, and fired six months later. Mr Bailey’s family reached a $400,000 (£265,000) wrongful death settlement with the town last August.
HYPOCRISY & FREEDOM OF SPEECH
More than 100 people, including school children, have been arrested in France, Belgium and Germany in the wake of the killings of 17 people at the Charlie Hebdo offices over their inflammatory cartoons and at a kosher supermarket in Paris. A newly-recruited policewoman, Clarissa Jean-Philippe, was also shot in the mayhem that spread across central France from 7-9 Jan. The killers, Amedy Coulibaly and the brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, who were subsequently killed by the French authorities were given midnight funerals in unmarked graves with no advance warning to mourners.
The killings have been presented as an attack on ‘freedom of speech’ and ‘western civilisations and modernity’ yet the photos of the main Paris march on 11 Jan with 40 ‘world leaders’ in attendance looked like a rogues gallery of defenders of racism, exploitation, corruption, police brutality and shallow political and ahistorical analysis. While millions have attended protests against the killings in the past fortnight there have been several dissenters expressing their freedom of speech with pupils, especially at schools in the banlieus refusing to take part in the commemorations either because they consider the tone and content of Charlie Hebdo offensive or because they have experienced discrimination, marginalisation and criminalisation by French society. Speaker-activists like Dieudonne have also been arrested (again) and charged for even the most mildest comments on the situation. Some of those arrested have been fast-tracked through the courts with exemplary sentences of up to four years for non-violent offences classed as hate speech by the judicial system. In Toulouse three men in their early twenties have been jailed, two of them for 10 months, for shouting obscenities at police. There has been no Gallic shrug and passing it off as ‘satire’ for them.
A dozen people have been killed, over 200 injured, and 45 churches, a Christian school, an orphanage and the French Cultural centre in Niger attacked in the global reaction to the first edition of Charlie Hebdo printed after the killings again with a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad on the cover. Senegal’s bestselling newspaper, L’Observateur, described the ban on Charlie Hebdo as a bluff by President Macky Sall, who was widely condemned for taking part in the Paris march for press freedom only for his government to then ban the magazine in Senegal.
If you want to know the real contempt that the French have shown for freedom of speech look at their colonial empire and its remnants. You can watch Ousmane Sembene’s ‘Camp de Thiaroye’ about the massacre in 1944 of Afrikan conscripts recruited by the French for the Second Imperialist World War. They were treated better as PoWs by the Germans and when they were released the French refused to pay them their promised demob expenses and left them in poverty and subject to disease. French forces killed them when they protested. This film was banned for 10 years in France and was rarely shown even in Sembene’s Senegal homeland. There is Gillo Pontecorvo’s, ‘The Battle of Algiers’, considered among the most influential films in cinema history and the template for other anti-imperialist films such as ‘Soy Cuba (I Am Cuba)’. The film shows the racism and torture that the French practised in a failed attempt to deny freedom to the Algerians. A third excellent film to watch is ‘Nuit Noire (October 17, 1961). This is about the night when French police attacked a demonstration of over 30,000 pro-FLN Algerians and their supporters campaigning for independence and murdered over 200 in the centre of Paris by beating them and throwing them into the Seine. Bodies were turning up for months after. In that film you see the hovels in which Afrikans lived after the war and what led to most of them being moved outside the ring road to the banlieus. We saw the film on its release in 2005 at a festival in London but the DVD we came across in Paris had no subtitles and the shopkeeper told us the French did not want it to receive a wide distribution.
Like the racist white Americans who published collectable postcards of lynchings of Afrikans the French produced similar postcards showing their sadistic and perverted torture of Afrikans including mutilations, mass beheadings, exile and the denial of Afrikans’ right to earn a stable living. This is a small sample of the reality of what France’s much heralded ‘Freedom, Liberty and Equality’ means in practice.
Meanwhile, the same ‘world leaders’ have flocked to Saudi Arabia following the passing of its leader King Abdullah. Saudi Arabia is notorious for playing a double game – abusing the rights of its citizens and clamping down on dissent while funding and arming most of the jihadist and Wahabbist mass murderers across the globe yet still managing to be feted by ‘the Davos set’ who are so desperate for their oil and weapons sales that they ignore the lack of the freedom of speech they so cherish and the undemocratic nature of the House of Saud and the 7,000 princes who completely control the political, economic and religious life not just within the country but across the Middle East extending into the entire Muslim Umma. Most Muslims have no respect for the Saudi royal family, a group of ‘sand-pirates’ who lucked-out and found their trading routes happened to criss-cross a rich seam of oil 90 years ago. It has enabled them to inflict their arrogance over the Hajj pilgrims who have to visit Mecca and Medina as part of the Five Pillars of Islam which also just happen to be in Saudi Arabia. Traditional Afrikan spiritualists, Sufism which predominates among Afrikans, Shia Muslims, Ahmadiyyas, Ismailis, Copts, Orthodox Christians, Druze, Parsis, Kurds, Yazidis and migrants are all feeling the brunt of the terrorism funded by the Saudis. Where is their freedom of speech?
WEST AFRIKAN EBOLA UPDATE
The West Afrikan Ebola outbreak has officially infected 21,724 people and killed 8,641. Cases in Liberia stand at eight-per-week down from a peak of 509 its lowest weekly total since June. There have been days when no cases have been reported. Cases in Guinea stand at 20 per week down from a peak of 292. Cases in Sierra Leone stand at 117-per-week down from a peak of 748. The travel ban across the country has been eased including at the borders with neighbouring countries. We did hear a report from Sierra Leone that their numbers were not accurate and the Ministry of Health was looking at reclassifying a proportion of the reported deaths as being due to malaria or other causes. Mali’s Health Minister Ousmane Kone says the country is now free of the Ebola virus after 42 days without a new case. The last Ebola-infected patient in Mali recovered and left hospital in early December.
The first batch of an experimental vaccine against Ebola produced by British company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the US National Institutes of Health has reached Liberia. The shipment will be the first potentially preventative medicine to reach one of the hardest hit countries. Scientists aim to involve 30,000 volunteers in the trial in total, including frontline health workers. If all regulations are met, 10,000 volunteers will be given the GSK vaccine. And there are reports that a trial of an experimental drug called Zmapp might start in the next few weeks.
In Guinea, where the outbreak was first detected, schools and universities reopened after a five-month closure but in many attendance was only 10% due to fatalities, the short notice and children being away from home. Two policemen were killed by villagers who feared they had brought Ebola to the western district of Forecariah.
In Sierra Leone the eastern district of Kailahun, which first recorded Ebola eight months ago, has had no cases for 35 days and the other former hotspot of Kenema has had only four cases since November. The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has opened its first Ebola treatment centre specialising in care for infected pregnant women. It’s been erected at the site of one of the city’s most prestigious secondary schools, Methodist Boys High School, in Kissy and when it is fully operational it will have 80 beds. MSF says the death rate for expectant mothers is extremely high, and health workers treating them, particularly during childbirth or miscarriage, are especially vulnerable to catching the virus.
More than 10,000 children have lost one or both parents to Ebola in West Afrika’s current outbreak of the disease, according to UNICEF. Almost 8,000 of those children are from Sierra Leone. Britain has pledged £2.5m to help set up special care centres for Ebola orphans and re-unite children with their extended families. The government expects the outbreak to be over by mid-May and schools across Sierra Leone are to reopen in March, eight months after they were closed. Measures are to be taken to ensure that schools are a safe environment. Teachers are to be trained to use thermometers to take the temperatures and chlorinated water in buckets are to be made available in schools. Education Minister Minkailu Bah said that school fees would be subsidised for secondary school students to help parents. The ministry would also provide teaching and learning materials as well as ensuring schools were safe and disinfected. Liberian schools are expected to open next month.
UK nurse Pauline Cafferkey has recovered from Ebola and been released from the London’s Royal Free Hospital. She was diagnosed in December after returning from Sierra Leone where she had been volunteering with other NHS staff for Save the Children. Ms Cafferkey has been treated with experimental drugs and received blood plasma from another British nurse, Will Pooley, who recovered from Ebola last year.
TANZANIA CLAMPS DOWN ON HEALERS AFTER ALBINO KILLINGS
Mashaka Benedict stands by a statue
which promotes the rights of albino
people in Sengerema town
Tanzania has banned traditional healers who use potions containing human body parts in a move intended to stop attacks on people with albinism. Home Affairs Minister Mathias Chikawe said there would be a nationwide operation to arrest them and take them to court if they continued to work. More than 33,000 people in Tanzania have albinism, a hereditary genetic condition that causes an absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes and affects one Tanzanian in 1,400 and just one person in 20,000 in the west. Albinos are killed because potions made from their body parts are believed to bring good luck and wealth. More than 70 albinos have been killed over the last three years in Tanzania, with only 10 murder convictions, campaigners say.
Mr Chikawe said police actions would begin in the northern areas of Mwanza, Geita, Shinyanga, Simiyu and Tabora, where most of the attacks have taken place. The ban has emerged from the work of a special joint task force between police and the Tanzania Albinism Society (TAS). The task force will now review previous cases of albino attacks for new evidence and conduct further research on the motive of attackers. Ziziyada Nsembo, Secretary-General of TAS said: “It’s just a starting point. The government should understand it is an endless story from 2006 until this time. No action has been taken to stop the killings. We haven’t seen where these hands, legs and skin are taken. This is the big question. If the witchdoctors will tell us that they are taken to somebody, and what purpose they are used for, we will be in a better position. Through the witchdoctors we can reach the real culprits. That is our one demand: for the government to find these people.”
Ukerewe Island, which was once a sanctuary for a community of albinos, has seen attacks and attempted abductions. The TAS regional chairman Alfred Kapole, an Ukerewe native, was forced to flee to Mwanza, Tanzania’s second largest city three hours away. Body parts sell for around $600 in Tanzania, with an entire corpse fetching $75,000.
In Sengerema, 60 km from Mwanza, a monument has been erected at a roundabout in the middle of the town. It is a life-size metal statue, depicting a pigmented father holding his child with albinism on his shoulders while a pigmented mother puts a wide-brimmed hat on the child’s head to protect him from the sun. There are also 139 names of victims who were killed, attacked, or whose bodies were stolen from graves. A representative of the Sengerema Albino Society, Mashaka Benedict, said that even educated people still believe that albino body parts can bring wealth.
Mr Benedict alleges that prominent people are involved in the killing business and this is why very few people have been arrested, charged, convicted or jailed as parts were selling for $10,000 [£6,300].
Last month a four-year-old girl, Pendo Emmanuelle Nundi, was kidnapped from her home by men armed with machetes in the northern Mwanza region. Police have since arrested 15 people, including the girl’s father and two uncles, but she remains unaccounted for. In August, a UN rights expert warned that attacks against people with albinism were on the rise ahead of Tanzania’s October 2015 national elections, encouraging political campaigners to turn to ‘witchdoctors’ for good luck. Isaac Mwaura, a Kenyan MP with albinism, said Tanzanian gangs were also crossing into neighbouring Kenya to carry out abductions.
CONTACTS AND RESOURCES
Ernest Njamakimaya, chairman, Tanzanian Albinism Society (TAS). Web: www.underthesamesun.com
Mashaka Benedict, Sengerema Albino Society. Web: www.zippednews.com/sengerema-albino-society
Ramadhani Khalfan, chairman, Ukerewe Albino Society. Web:
Vicky Ntetema, Under the Same Sun. Web: http://www.underthesamesun.com/
‘In The Shadow of the Sun’ DVD
‘White Shadow’ DVD
FORTHCOMING NUBIART PROFILES
NUBIART: Focus on arts, business, education, health, political developments and the media.
JAN PROMOS
~ ‘GANDADIKO’ - Samba Touré [Glitterbeat Records - Out 2 Feb 2015] This is Samba Toure’s follow-up to the highly-acclaimed ‘Albala’ and although he sought a more uptempo feel than the previous album which was recorded in the aftermath of the 2012 coup and rebellion in the northern half of Mali this album has lost none of the power or relevancy. Samba had spent years honing his artistry including stints playing with Malian blues master Ali Farka Touré and Kora genius Toumani Diabate
The 10-track album opens with the title track ‘Gandadiko’, which means ‘Land of Drought’ or ‘Fireland’ in Samba’s native Songhai language. The drought in the north caused many economic problems and worsened the security situation. TV and Internet news often talk about wars, but all the human distress and consequences that ensue from it are rarely fully told. Other strong tracks include ‘Male Bano’, ‘Chiri Hani’ and ‘Touri Idjé Bibi (Black Fruits)’, where Samba begs forgiveness from the earth and the rivers for the offences and desecrations humans commit against them every day. ‘Gafouré’ is a powerful Holley (Djinn music) that he had been playing live for some time and has finally recorded. Our favourite track on the album is easily the Bo Diddley-influenced ‘Su Wililé (The Living Dead)’, a song about an old friend of Samba’s who was rarely ever seen sober. This song is a warning to the youth especially those who promote substance abuse in their music. The album closer ‘Woyé Katé (Come Back Home)’, beautifully sung together with his good friend Ahmed Ag Kaedi (from the Tuareg band Amanar), is a timeless plea for pan-ethnic understanding, the return of the refugees and a world where possibility trumps destruction.
~ ‘70S POP!’ – Slim Ali & The Hodi Boys [ARC Music – Out Now] This 15-track album is the companion to ‘70s Soul’ released by ARC Music last year and focuses more on the soul-funk and reggae-influenced songs from Slim Ali’s repertoire. By this time everybody was familiar with the styles of James Brown, Otis Redding, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, Toots and the Maytals and Jimmy Cliff and that infuses the tracks here with a wider appeal than any local market even when sung in Swahili. ‘You Can Do It’ was the title of their first hit single and album and many of the tracks here are taken from there and the less successful follow-up ‘Smile’. The themes range from relationships - ‘Your Cheating Love’, ‘I Need You’ and ‘Tell Me’ – to songs of encouragement – ‘There’s a Hard Time in Front of Me’ and ‘You’ve Got to Progress On’ – to dancing tunes – ‘We Gotta Dance’, ‘Sing A Happy Song’. For those who have never heard of Slim Ali this is a good place to start while for those who are aware you will relive some memories of one of the most popular singers across East Afrika and the Gulf states.
~ ‘DISCOVER WORLD MUSIC’ – Various Artists [ARC Music – Out Now] There are times when the phrase ‘World Music’ is a catch-all for any music that is unlikely to trouble western pop charts that are dominated by rock, pop, R’n’B, ‘dance’ and indie. But then there are those other rare occasions like with this ARC Music double-CD 35-track sampler when the term simply means good quality music with a social message from anywhere in the world. Our favourites tracks were always going to be those with Afrikan, Caribbean or Latin influences and some of the tracks such as from Rossy, Elemotho and King Selewa and his Calypsonians have featured on albums that we have previously reviewed as promos with high praise but the selection here contains traditional and contemporary music from over 30 countries and there is something for everyone who appreciates good music.
For the standout tracks - as well as those already mentioned - look no further than Egypt’s ‘Ambassador of Rhythm’ Hossam Ramzy (featuring Billy Cobham) on ‘Six Teens’; the Gnawa style of Nour Edinne’s ‘Bania’; Spanish singer / songwriter Ana Alcaide, whose music is known as the ‘Toledo Soundtrack’ kicks of proceedings with ‘El Pozo Amargo’; Latin Grammy Award winner Marta Gómez; Brazilian Ceumar’s ‘Girias do Norte’; Senegalese and Swedish kora players Maher & Sousou Cissoko; the Mozambican Marrabenta of Yinguica’s ‘Vou Morrer Assim’; Vusa Mkhaya’s ‘Schweinsbeuschel’; and two fado tracks from Custovio Castelo with ‘In-quietude’ and Maria Ana Bobone’s ‘Enigma’. This album will have you returning to for more to truly discover more of the quality sounds that the world has to offer.
NUBIART LIBRARY – JAN MEDIA
We will only review books we have read and DVDs we have seen and that are available at reasonable prices online or in shops or libraries. However, given the nature and current state of Afrikan publishing and film production there may be books and films on this list that are worth the extra effort to track down.
~ ‘WE ARE HEIRS OF THE WORLD’S REVOLUTIONS: SPEECHES FROM THE BURKINA FASO REVOLUTION 1983–87’ – Thomas Sankara [Pathfinder Press. ISBN: 978-0-87348-989-8] Thomas Sankara led the revolution of 1983 to 1987 in Burkina Faso when a group of military officers seized power and appealed for support from the Burkinabè workers and peasants. In the five speeches contained in this pamphlet, he explains how the peasants and workers of this West Afrikan country established a popular revolutionary government and began to fight the hunger, illiteracy and economic backwardness imposed by imperialist domination. In so doing, they have provided an example not only to the workers and small farmers of Afrika, but to those of the entire world. In her introduction, Mary-Alice Waters, the President of Pathfinder Press wrote: “Thomas Sankara has himself become a symbol for millions of workers, peasants, and youth throughout Africa especially, who recognize in the Burkinabe Revolution – and in its continuing political heritage – a source of political ideas and inspiration for the battles for genuine liberation on the continent.” (p23)
The first speech, ‘Building A New Society, Rid Of Social Injustice and Imperialist Domination’, is the Political Orientation Speech that outlines the programme for the revolution and was broadcast on national TV and radio. It reveals the grasp that the National Council of the Revolution had on the challenges facing them. They hoped to build a society that the young, educated and skilled would want to stay in and contribute to its glorious future. The population is now 18 million compared to seven million when the revolution took over but still today over 72% of adults earn less than $2 a day.
Giant steps were made under the revolution such as: dam construction, irrigation and reforestation projects spearheaded by voluntary labour brigades; access to healthcare was widened with a commitment to every village having a health centre with increased immunisation of children; school provision to challenge the 92% illiteracy rate they inherited; the government abolished tribute payments and compulsory labour services to village chiefs and land was nationalised; and the liberation of women by their mobilisation. “Emancipation, like freedom, is not granted, it is conquered. It is for women themselves to put forward their demands and mobilize to win them.” (p50)
In ‘Freedom Must Be Conquered In Struggled’ delivered to the UN General Assembly Sankara condemned the amount of money wasted on military hardware dedicated to preventing people from exercising their rights and access to resources.
He called for an end to the veto held by the nuclear powers and revealed his international solidarity: “Rather, we want to assert our awareness of belonging to a tricontinental whole and, with the force of deeply held convictions, acknowledge, as a Nonaligned country, there is a special relationship of solidarity uniting the three continents of Asia, Latin America, and Africa in a single struggle against the same political traffickers, the same economic exploiters.” (p61)
Thomas Sankara considered both the theories of ‘Negritude’ and ‘the African Personality’ outdated. Sankara was a strong advocate of international solidarity taking the Cuban, Nicaraguan and Vietnamese revolutions as examples for Afrikans to emulate if their efforts to develop and free themselves are to succeed. He always highlighted the causes of SWAPO in Namibia, anti-apartheid, Polisario Front in Western Sahara, Mayotte being returned to the Comoros, Madagascar’s right to the islands claimed by France, and the Palestinians in occupied Palestine. He also supported commemorations of 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in British territories: “We wish to be the heirs of all the world’s revolutions and all the liberation struggles of the peoples of the Third World. Our eyes are on the profound upheavals that have transformed the world.” (p70)
In ‘Imperialism is the Arsonist of our Forests and Savannas’ Sankara highlights the contradictions that in many countries there is money to drill oil wells 3,000m deep yet no money for even basic water wells less than 100m deep. He also reveals the environmental and ecological concerns that underpinned the revolution by planting ten million trees under the Peoples Development programme to combat deforestation and the desertification of the Sahara. Every Burkinabe village was mandated to have its own wood grove and implemented a plan for 7,000 village nurseries. “In the villages and in the developed river valleys, families must each plant one hundred trees per year.” (p87)
‘French Enables Us To Communicate With Other Peoples In Struggle’ highlights the possibilities to use the French language for international solidarity not only across Afrika and the Caribbean but also in Vietnam and with the Kanaks far away in New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean.
The final speech ‘You Cannot Kill Ideas: A Tribute to Che Guevara’ was given at the opening of an exhibition in tribute to the international revolutionary, doctor and strategist Che Guevara on 8 Oct 1987, who had been assassinated exactly 20 years earlier. Che had been a massive influence on Sankara who shared his love of motorbikes and is most famously photographed with a similar beret and star. Ironically, it was only a week before Sankara himself would be assassinated in a counter-coup on 15 Oct 1987 led by his former ally Blaise Compaore, who then stayed in power for 27 years until he was ousted in a popular uprising in October when he tried to extend his rule. Interim Prime Minister Isaac Zida is requesting the extradition of Compaore, who fled to Ivory Coast and then Morocco - the only Afrikan country not in the African Union after it left the OAU because of its refusal to accept independence for Western Sahara, a cause openly championed by Sankara throughout this book.
Thomas Sankara, changed the country’s name from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso meaning ‘the land of the upright people’ to inspire the population to strive to improve the country and oppose corruption. Having been a guitarist in a band he wrote a new national anthem and urged journalists, artists and musicians to put their talents at the service of the revolution. A legacy of this cultural awareness is the fact that the Burkinabe capital, Ouagadougou, holds the most respected Afrikan film festival.
Nubiart Diary
We welcome feedback on any event you have attended that was listed in Nubiart Diary. It helps us with the selection of future listings and is also info we can pass on to the event organisers where appropriate. ~ WINDRUSH FOUNDATION PRESENTS EUROPEAN SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA. On Tues 27 Jan at 7.30-9pm at George Padmore Institute, New Beacon Books, 76 Stroud Green Road, London, N4 3EN.
~ BLACK HISTORY STUDIES PRESENTS ‘ELEMENTARY GENOCIDE: FROM PRIMARY TO PENITENTIARY’ SCREENING. ‘Elementary Genocide: “From Primary to Penitentiary” (2011)’ is a must see documentary, executive produced by award-winning journalist and filmmaker Rahiem Shabazz. It is a wake-up call to preserve the Afrikan-American community’s most valuable commodity, the youth.
The documentary addresses the social, cultural, political and personal ramifications of how the federal government allots money to each state, to build prisons based on the failure rate of 4th and 5th graders.
Elementary Genocide consists of candid interviews and voice-over narration culled from original interviews from professors, teachers, best-selling authors, children, parents, celebrities, etc. Interviews with: Dr. Umar Abdullah Johnson, Dr. Boyce Watkins, Supreme Understanding, Dr Torrence Stephens, Tracey Syphax, Killer Mike, Kadidra Stewart, Edward M Garnes Jr, Okorie Johnson and Sistah Iminah. On Wed 28 Jan at 7-9pm at the PCS Headquarters, 160 Falcon Road, Clapham Junction, London SW11 2LN. Adm: £5 / Under-16s - Free. A loyalty card event. E-mail: info@blackhistorystudies.com Web: http://www.blackhistorystudies.com
~ ROYAL AFRICAN SOCIETY PRESENTS ‘HOW TO FIX NIGERIA: THE 2015 ELECTIONS & BEYOND’. On 14 Feb Nigerians may head to the polls for what is expected to be the most fiercely contested elections since the country returned to civilian rule in 1999. With widespread dissatisfaction over the government’s failure to tackle the insurgency in the North-East, and two equally matched parties, the fear of a violent election is high if it is able to proceed at the time. A panel of experts will delve through the rhetoric that has dominated the election campaign and explore the issues that will continue to be important for the continent’s largest economy long after the elections. On Wed 28 Jan at 6.30-8.30pm at Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, London, WC1H 0XG. E-mail: ras_events@soas.ac.uk
~ ALKEBULAN REVIVALIST MOVEMENT EVENTS
- ‘Nommo Sessions: Women In The Garvey Movement’. On Fri 30 Jan at 7-10.30pm at Mama Afrika Kulcha Shap, 282 High Road Leyton, London E10 5PW. Adm: £3 / Under-21s – Free. Queen Mother Nzingha Assata is a veteran activist and organiser responsible for founding a range of Afrikan organisations including the Universal Afrikan People’s Development Association. In the tradition of Baba Martin, she published the groundbreaking book “Women In The Garvey Movement” in 2008 and has since worked tirelessly to illuminate a wealth of information on this crucial aspect of Papa Garvey’s legacy. As we continue to celebrate the Centennial Year of the Universal Negro Improvement Association & Afrikan Communities League (UNIA-ACL), we honour the foremost scholar on the life and Legacy of Papa Marcus Mosiah Garvey – Baba Tony Martin.
- ‘Omowale Malcolm X Observance: 50 Years Ago He Paid The Ultimate Price Today We Honour The Legacy’. On Sun 22 Feb at 1–8pm at Triangle Centre, 91-93 St. Ann’s Road, London, N15 6NU
Adm: Free (Donation Welcome). Every proud people pay tribute to the major contributors to their history! 2015 marks the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination (21st February) and the 90th Birthday (19 May) of Omowale Malcolm X – the ‘Godfather of Black Power,’ and most prolific Black Nationalist Pan-Afrikanist Leader and Organiser since The Most Eminent Prophet & King – His Excellency: Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Malcolm X rose, from a self-confessed “extreme delinquent” and street hustler, to a diehard Revolutionary, organising the same streets in the spirit of Black Liberation & Afrikan Pride. His work and impact thus stands as a prime example of the Power Potential of Black Manhood, the greatest threat against the forces of White Supremacy, which assassinated him. Today, the same forces continue to annihilate Black Manhood, as a means to destroy the Black Family and Nation. The legacy of OMX is the manifest Garveyite-Blackprint for how today’s Black Youth can resist this destruction and become a Revolutionary generation, capable of transforming the world. In this knowledge we honour the Life & Legacy of Omowale Malcolm X, as we declare: “Freedom! By Any Means Necessary!”
- ‘Powerfilms Screenings’. Every second Wed at 7.30pm at Mama Afrika Kulcha Shap, 282 High Road Leyton, London, E10 5PW. Adm: £3. Web: www.powersis.com
For all events tel: 020 8539 2154 / 07908 814 152. E-mail: info@alkebulan.org Web: www.alkebulan.org
~ HACKNEY MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
- ‘What A Journey! Retired Caribbean Nurses and the NHS’. Until 31 Jan 2015. E-mail: info@retiredcaribbeannurses.org.uk
- ‘The Slave Owners of Hackney’. Until 7 Feb 2015.
All exhibitions on Tues, Weds & Fri at 9.30am-5.30pm / Thurs 9.30am-8pm / Sat 10am-5pm at Hackney Museum, Technology and Learning Centre, 1 Reading Lane, London, E8 1GQ. Tel: 020 8356 3500. Web: www.hackney.gov.uk/museum Twitter: @hackneymuseum
~ TIWANI CONTEMPORARY PRESENTS ‘A THORN IN MY FLESH (MUNZWA MUNYAMA YANGU)’ EXHIBITION. Virginia Chihota’s first solo exhibition in Europe examines her recent experiences of marriage and motherhood, transforming her thoughts into body of prints and drawings of striking symbolic resonance, rife with allusions to everyday life, and religious and folkloric symbolism. Exhibition runs until Sat 7 Feb on Tues-Fri at 11am-6pm and Sat at 12-5pm at Tiwani Contemporary, 16 Little Portland Street, London, W1. Adm: Free. E-mail: info@tiwani.co.uk
~ V&A SOUTH KENSINGTON PRESENT ‘IN BLACK AND WHITE: PRINTS FROM AFRICA AND THE DIASPORA’. Essential exhibition covering four decades of campaigning and cultural printwork from some of the best exponents many of whom have had their own solo exhibitions in London in the last year: Faisal Abdu’Allah; Frank Bowling; Sonia Boyce; Nils Burwitz; William Cole; Emory Douglas, the Black Panther designer; Uzo Egonu; Ellen Gallagher; Joy Gregory; Margo Humphrey; Kerry James Marshall; Gavin Jantjes; Isaac Julien; Atta Kwami; William Kentridge; Glenn Ligon; John Lyons; the tender melancholy of the late John Ndevasia Muafangejo’s Biblical and political observations; Chris Ofili’s tributes to Stephen Lawrence; the New York collective PESTS challenging Afrikan representation in the art world; four of Tony Phillips etchings on the British theft of the Benin Bronzes; Adrian Piper; Tayo Quaye; the San artist Thomas Setshogo; Yinka Shonibare with his Afrikan material designs; Kara Walker’s pop-ups riffing on the Black image in America; Carrie Mae Weems; Sue Williamson redressing the lack of representation of Afrikans during apartheid South Africa; Diane Vitt’s charcoal drawings using Greek mythological themes transferred to Afrika; Llewellyn Xavier’s tributes to George Jackson and the Soledad Brothers;
- ‘Tartan’s Journey Through the African Diaspora’. With Teleica Kirkland, Founder of Costume Institue of the African Diaspora (CIAD). On Thurs 12 Feb at 2.30-4pm.
Exhibition runs until 6 July 2015 at 10am-5.45pm at Rms 88a & 90, V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7942 2211. Web: www.vam.ac.uk
~ CHI CREATIONS PRESENTS ‘THE GRIOT WAY STORYTELLING TRAINING’. On 13-15 Feb 2015 and 15-17 May 2015 at Etherly Farm, Dorking, RH5 6PA. E-mail: Info@shanti-chi.com Web: www.shanti-chi.com
~ FIND YOUR VOICE PROUDLY PRESENTS ‘HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE & HEALTHY EATING’
There will be a panel discussion with these experienced health practitioners: Vasco Stevenson, specialist in prostate cancer; Gillian Bolton, nutritional solutions for mental health & stress; Dr Khensu I-emhotep, lecturer on holistic health from Jamaica; and a look at the works of Dr Llaila Afrika. On Sat 28 Feb at 4–7pm at Park View Academy (West Green Learning Centre), West Green Road, London, N15 3RB. Adm: £5. Tel: Douglas on 07960 239 493 / 07882 403 871. E-mail:findyourvoice@hotmail.co.uk
~ BUNDU DIA KONGO (BDK). Afrikan cultural and spiritual group working towards the spiritual and psychological growth and development of Afrikans all over the world. Let us make a positive change now. Learn about Afrikan prophets, Afrikan history and Afrikan spiritual practices at our weekly Zikua.
- Sun at 1.30–4.30pm at PSCC, 1 Othello Close, Kennington, London, SE11 4RE. Tel: Makaba - 07951 059 853. E-mail: moyomakaba9@gmail.com
- Sun at 12.30–3.15pm at Malika House, 81 George Street, Lozells, Birmingham, B19 1Sl. Tel: Mbuta Mayala – 07404 789 329.
~ THE AUSAR AUSET SOCIETY GI GONG CLASSES. Every Monday at 7.30–9pm at Hazel Road Community Centre, Hazel Road, Kensal Green, London, NW10 5PP. Adm: £5 per class. Tel: 07951- 252-427. E-mail: Tauinetwork.europe@gmail.com
~ THE GREAT AFRIKAN BOOK SALE! Every book and CD is on sale at 50% off or more! There are over 5000 titles in the sale - never before have so many Afrikan interest books been offered on this scale in a sale. The finances raised will go towards the development of the MAA MAAT Project. On Fri & Sat at 5-10pm, Sat 12-8pm and Sun 12-5pm at Maa Maat Centre, 366a High Road, Tottenham, London, N17 9HT. Tel 07956 052 821.
~ BLACK CULTURAL ARCHIVES PRESENT ‘STAYING POWER: PHOTOGRAPHS OF BLACK BRITISH EXPERIENCE, 1950S – 1990S’. Inspired by Peter Fryer’s seminal text ‘Staying Power, The History of Black People in Britain’, this exhibition focuses on a period of time when photography served as an archival tool to capture historical moments. From documentary to portraiture to staged allegorical photographs, Staying Power documents experiences from post-World War II through to the 1990s, covering topics from mass migration to hip hop fashions of south London. Contemplate the narratives behind the iconic work of Dennis Morris, Charlie Philips’ visual record of city life and local heroes, and Neil Kenlock’s photographic journalism. Discover the work of acclaimed photographer James Barnor who captured many greats during the ‘swinging sixties’, self-taught Colin Jones and his infamous images of youth alienation, the powerful images of uprisings and protest captured by Pogus Caesar, and allegorical portraits by Ingrid Pollard. Through the lens of the photographers celebrate the moment of ‘The Specials Fans’ by Syd Shelton and Gavin Watson’s insight into the ska youth sub-culture. Explore representations of beauty and aesthetics through the work of Armet Francis, Jennie Baptiste, Al Vandenberg and Raphael Albert. The selected photographs are complimented by previously unheard oral history testimonies from the photographers and contributors. Until 30 June at Black Cultural Archives, Windrush Square, Brixton, London, SW2. Adm: Free.
Contact: Kubara Zamani, Afrikan Quest International, PO Box 35165, London, SE5 8WU. Tel: 07811 494 969. E-mail: afrikanquest@hotmail.com
Afrikan Quest International
External Links
Afrikan Quest International
Ligali is not responsible for the content of third party sites
Get involved and help change our world