Blessed Earthday, Winnie Mandela

Bless Up, Winnie Madikezela Mandela... Blessed Earthday.
 Amandla! You meant so much to so many all across the African Diaspora and around the world.

We love you, Mama. Never Gone! Never Forgotten!




 

#WinnieMandela says ANC over-negotiated & lost the land in the process. Says she disagreed with Mandela on willing-buyer, willing-seller.#LandExpropriationRally#AllBlackWithADoek pic.twitter.com/UmBTsNLTWw

— Hloni Nyetanyane (@HloniNyetanyane) April 7, 2018

Perspectives From The African Diaspora: Seven Names in a Lifetime

African Diaspora: Seven Names in a Lifetime
written by Nana Kwabena Osei-Boadi (kongo wattu)

Akan culture says a human being lives to be called seven names in a lifetime.
1. Asukɔnoma - the water fetching bird. Feeds in fluids. Breastmilk, water, porridge, etc.
2. Abɔfra - just a part of creation and at peace and in harmony with nature. Crawling in all fours, eating earth does no harm. They tug on the dog's tail and the dog enjoys it.
3. Akoadaa - Always the slave. The being is up and standing and has learnt to walk and run. Enjoys running errands with the new abilities.
4. Aberaanteɛ (male) - the one who disobeys rules. Puberty and adolescence. Wɔ hyɛ mmra anaa wɔ bra no a ɔnnte.
Ababaawa (female) - the fashionable one. W'aba so. Fantse Akans refer to this stage as Akataasiewa. The one who should be covered and hid. At this stage the gender of the being is taken into consideration for the first time..
5. Opaanii - the worker. Odi paa.
6. Abansiriwa - the senior citizen who protects the walls from collapsing. The experienced one who is in a position to give help with wisdom or saved finances after a long working life.
7. Aberɛwa (female) - the tired one. Nea wabrɛ.
Akɔkora ( male) - the one who is indoors and out of sight. Wakɔ kora.
After having been called these seven names the person after death has a black stool placed in the family prayer room or shrine (nkondwadan mu). When prayers are said and ancestors are listed and called upon to carry the prayers into the spirit world and the creator, their names (akradin) are mentioned.
Food for Thought.
Ase
~ Nana Kwabena Osei-Boadi; Kongo Wattu

African culture is rich in traditions. Many of us in the African diaspora have retained and/or reclaimed many of our traditional customs. 


Sankofa - "Go back and get it"; reconnect with the past and learn from it

Tweet

Abeng Op Ed: Systematic Racism In America (Part 1)

Systematic Racism In America
written by Le'Bert A. Gordon; edited by @TheAbeng

Introduction

The term Systematic Racism, developed by Sociologist Joe Feagin, is both a theoretical and reality-based concept which has become a po­pular way of explaining the significance of race, both historically and socially, within today's social sciences and humanities. The de­velopment of this theory was influenced by other scholars of race, such as, Frederick Douglas, W.E.B. DuBois, Oliver Cox, Anna Julia Cooper, Kwame Ture, Frantz Fanon, and Patricia Hill Collins, among others. Systematic Racism is rooted in a foundation composed of in­tersecting, overlapping, and co-dependent racist institutions, po­licies, practices, ideas, and behaviors. 

Feagin used historical evidence and demographic statistics to create a theory which asserted that the United States was founded in racism. His theory noted that the Constitution classified black people as the property of whites, and that this legal recognition of slavery is a cornerstone of a racist social system - a system in which resources and rights are given to white people and unjustly denied to people of color. However, while Feagin developed his theory based on the history and reality of anti-black racism in the United States, it is now use­fully being applied to understanding how racism functions generally, both within the United States and around the world.

Tweet