Mutabaruka Speaks on Black History on Cutting Edge 1-31-2018

I was listening to Mutabaruka's Cutting Edge radio show on January the 31st, previewing Black History Month which would begin the next day. The Bredren reasoned in depth about the brainwashing that plagues African people and how we get caught in European interpretations and philosophy. Basically, how as black people we just accept European culture, embrace it and defend it as we own. I think its because many of us are lost, especially when it comes to history and culture. Many of us accept European culture, religion and mannerisms without even understanding how these things developed and how they became ingrained in our day to day lives as black people. 

Mutabaruka said:

"Issa mad thing. Is mad we get mad. All a we get caught in it; all a we, there's no exception to the

rule.... Valentine's day a come, most people get caught inna that. Easter a come, it bigger get caught inna because that is the most auspicious 

Mutabaruka

time of the Christian calendar. That nuh have nothing to do with Africa; that nuh have nothing to do with blackness. All when you hear a man talk bout him a read Bible and a try switch the characters in it to black, him thinking is white. Is not the color of the characters, is the mindset that drives the characters in the Bible. So you could a paint Moses black little more, and Jesus Christ black little more, it don't make no difference if what is there yet still wallow inna the same thinking that in the first place tell you they white. We need fi search fi a new understanding, 'cause Planno did say a new faculty of interpretation. Even Rasta get caught inna it. We get caught inna it to the point where now that we all Jews, heh-heh, and we love say it too, and 'we are Christian soldiers, onward Christian soldiers marching on.' Our reference is always in the context of European understanding. So we define and we use logic that is determined and decided by western thinkers, western philosophers, and we don't know how to decipher what is ours and what is not ours..."

Now I can guess that many readers are thinking, So what? Jamaica (or any other Caribbean country) is a Christian society. 

Yeah, but how did it get so? And, if we know that it was forced upon our forefathers, then why black people so quick and ready to defend it? And worse, if you tell some of we that Shango is we thing, is our culture, some of us going to get vex and tell you that you working obeah. 

Now, get this straight: I am not a follower or practitioner of any form of obeah or voodoo. But those things are our own African thing and I acknowledge them as such. I even embrace the knowledge, knowing full well that just because Europe says that these things are inequity and idolatry, doesn't make them less important or less-than anything for that matter. Black history and culture is our story, its rich and we need to learn to embrace our African selves.

Mutabaruka stated:

"African sensibility don't prevail inna the Jamaican society. We celebrate almost 360-odd days of white history and tomorrow is the first day of February, which is Black History Month. But most people will not, and I'll repeat, most people will not even think of commemorating Black History Month. As one, young politician say, 'Black History Month is irrelevant to Jamaica. It was started in America because of the need, and because of how white people was treating black people in America so that was the necessary in America but here it don't necessary.'

But it more necessary yahso. Because the slave master left all of him thinking here and it embedded and pinned down inna we. That all when him no deh yah (when he's not here) we are living out the slave masters ideas and philosophies. And we even implement it and institutionalize it inna we politics, inna we religion, inna we social order..."

Another point I thoroughly agree with. We uphold Christmas, which is a lie, and turn our noses at Kwanzaa? And give all kind of reasons why we won't support it; bout how that is an American thing.

But Ethiopian Orthodox (one of the oldest Christian churches) doesn't celebrate the 25th as Christ's birthday. You know who instituted the 25th as Christmas? Rome. So, in fact we following the Romans. So, we following Rome, but can't see the goodness in a Pan-African concept like Kwanzaa? Or, Black History Month?

Because these are American holidays that have nothing to do with us. But we celebrating Halloween!? Stop the madness.

Abeng Interviews Clairmont Mali Chung from Roots Culture Media (Part 1)

Greetings. This is an exclusive Abeng interview with the CEO of Roots and Culture Media, Clairomont Mali Chung, who is a film maker, which is only one of his creative talents. Roots and Culture Media is the producer of the documentary Walter Anthony Rodney Stories (or W.A.R. Stories). This is Part 1 of  2

Kaya @TheAbeng +The Abeng World-wide: Bro. Clairmont, how you doing, Man?

Clairmont Mali Chung: I'm doing good, Kaya. How are you doing?

@TheAbeng: Beautiful, Man, Beautiful. Its good to talk to you. It's good to finally have you here with The Abeng. Been a long time in planning. Could you first tell the readers whats the concept behind Roots and Culture Media?

CMC: Well, it started out really as a gallery that had began in Guyana by a group of artists back in the early Eighties. And ah, many of them had migrated and the group that had sort of loosely arranged and I suggested that we have an extension of it in North America. And...when I set all of that up I realized that the medium, we needed more access to a wider range of audience, And so, I began to think of producing other kinds of media and writing also.

So Roots and Culture Media is really an attempt, then, to consolidate all aspects of the arts and provide a forum that people can express themselves.

@TheAbeng: Can you tell us who some of those artists were?

CMC: Well you have people like Dudley Charles, people like Gary Thomas; one of the benefactors was Camo Williams- a pan player; Omowale, Lumumba, and bout four or five others... Winston Strick was an important figure in that, Ras Ita, but those were the core of it.

@TheAbeng: How did you get into film making?

CMC: Well it, its not exactly clear, its more by default 'cause I'm not really trained. I did do a course in college on film and another course on television. And then many, many years later, almost twenty years later, I had helped produce a local TV program for the public channels. And I realized the power of it, or it reinforced the power of the media; and then I decided to do the Rodney project which had been languishing for thirty years and no one seemed to either be inclined to do it and so I decided that would be one of my first.

"Money can't save us..." ~ Clairmont Mali Chung

#TheAbeng: What was one of the biggest challenges you faced?

CMC: I think most people you ask that question to, including myself, people would say the money...right... 'cause the money answers a lot of questions. But at the same time, if money is the thing keeping you back, then you'll never get it done, because you'll never get the money; you'll never have enough, even if you get money. So, yes the biggest problem is the money, but if the money is gonna stop you then perhaps this is not the thing for you.

Artists on the whole, and I don't really consider myself an artist even though, you know, I'm in the arts, they don't produce work because of the money, they produce because they have to, and they can't exist any other way...

@TheAbeng: They have to get their voice out.

CMC:..Right, they have to produce or they'd just wither and die. And so, right, ordinary people are concerned with money, people who are serious are not concerned with money.

@TheAbeng: That's a very true statement, Man, that's a very true statement, especially for us writers...

CMC: Money can't save us is the final analysis. And it wouldn't save the arts, the arts exist in our genetic, historical memory and make up. And that cannot be purchased. People try to buy it but it defies a valuation, you know, we just loan our creations to the society because nobody could really pay for what people create.

@TheAbeng: So let's talk about one of my favorite documentaries of all time, which is W.A.R. Stories, aahm, Walter Anthony Rodney Story. When did you first decide on that project?

 CMC: Well it was around...well thank you first of all for the compliment... sometime around 2006 I was still producing the local television show and I was toying around with the idea of what to do with this new tool. And being, you know, a little familiar with what had happened to Walter Rodney, the importance of Walter Rodney to Guyana, to the Caribbean, to the Africa, to the World, it seemed like a project that would be important to the entire planet.

 "Since the government itself has taken over so many facets of economic life, has nationalised the bauxite, has nationalised sugar, has nationalised a number of private firms, justifiably so, it has taken up a position as the principle, far and away the largest, single employer in the country. Consequently, the ground is really set for utilization of this device of the party card, of political control by means of denying the right to work." ~ Dr. Walter Rodney (see at 5:55 of this video clip W.A.R. Stories)

The African Diaspora: Scenes From Kingston - Maxfield /Whitfield Ave. Area

Scenes From Kingston, Jamaica

(Maxfield, Whitfield areas)

Throughout the African diaspora, in communities where poverty persists, reliable water for drinking, cooking and washing can be a major problem. Outdated water-works systems contribute to mainline leakage and water shortage. Water pressure is often low and water cuts can last for days

at a time.

 

Standpipe

The Abeng Interviews Javere Irie: Art Imitates Life

 Javere Irie: Art Illustrates Life

                            .@TheAbeng 

   
                   

Artist Javere Irie is a cartoonist with a keen eye for the dramatic. His art invigorates and propels the imagination. The artist has a knack for capturing moments in popular culture and making the images reflect his own narrative.
Javere was born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica and now resides in Brooklyn, NY.

Abeng:  So, Javere, how old were you when you first began drawing/painting? What led or drew you to art? Where are you from?

I’m not sure exactly when, but my parents say all my life. I’ve be drawing since I could hold a pencil. 

Which Jamaican or Caribbean or Black artists have inspired you?

Basquiat in terms of raw expressive-ness and Bob Marley for his ability to use his art to unite people, elevate Jamaica and fight injustice world-wide.

Which is your favorite medium or style? 

Illustration! Nothing beats a pencil, and recently illustration markers have been my latest obsession. 

Where do you draw I inspiration?

I would say exploring cultures. The brightness and colors of Jamaica in general definitely inspires me. I’m also intrigued by pop culture and the influence Africa and Jamaica has on it, (from fashion to music), as well as exploring how we view Black culture. 

Have you done any exhibits? 

Yes, I’ve participated in 7 group exhibitions, 5 in New York, 1 in Washington, DC, and 1 in Connecticut.

Have you met any interesting people or visited any intriguing places through your art?

Not personally, but while in college I won an art contest to have my work exhibited in Gov. Cuomo’s Washington DC Office. 

What would you say has been your strongest muse or meditation?

Music (reggae, hip hop and r&b), and animated series like The Proud Family, Teen Titans and Avatar: The Last Airbender always inspire me.

Is your family artistic? Where do you derive your talent?

Yes, my mother is an overall creative being, and her side is very creative as well. Ex. I have an aunt who is a celeb makeup artist in NYC, and an uncle who danced/ choreographs for the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica and is a university professor of dance in the US and JA, 2 cousins who have designer cake businesses, and many more who are creative, but recreationally. 

Where do you want your art to go? What are your aspirations?

In the long term I’d like to move into animation. I want to create projects that challenge and re-conceptualize the black narrative. I want people to see my work and see beyond the stereotypes they have of Black people. We are too multifaceted to be seen through the limited lens that stereotypes provide. Just like any other group of people we are more than that. I think expanding the narrative allows other people to relate and see our humanity. I think a lot of social issues feed on how easily we dehumanize those who are different from us. If we start to break that down, maybe we can relate a little more over our similarities, and not feel threatened by our differences. 

Finish this sentence:

My love is .....

My love is learning. I consume through my art, and share what I learn visually. 

Thanks, Kaya! You provided some very thoughtful questions. 

Abeng Interviews Garvey's Ghost Author Geoffrey Philp

Garvey’s Ghost, written by Jamaican author Geoffrey Philp, was launched on Wednesday, August 16, 2017 at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, accompanying the birthday celebration of Jamaica's first national hero, the Right and Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

Garvey’s Ghost follows the ordeal of a single Jamaican woman, Kathryn Bailey, living in Miami, Florida, whose teenaged daughter suddenly disappears. Kathryn’s search leads her to her daughter’s Black History professor who is not only a Jamaican, but also a devoted Garveyite. Although having little in common, the two join forces to find her daughter before it is too late. The teachings of Marcus Garvey serve as the dismantling of barriers between the two, and a bridge leading to new understandings and unexpected love.

So, Geoffrey, Marcus Garvey as a literary muse is such an intriguing and revolutionary concept. What did you hope to achieve by intertwining Garvey's principles in your story theme and plot?

I grew up listening to the lyrics of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Culture, Steel Pulse, Fred Locks, and Burning Spear, who used the life and work of Marcus Garvey as an inspiration for their
songs. I would also like to think that I am following in the tradition of writers such as Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ralph Ellison, whose poems, novels, and short stories were influenced by Garvey's message.

What do you think it is about Garvey that continues to captivate us 130 years after his birth?

Garvey's work continues to captivate us because of his message of redemption. Even a cursory reading of The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey will reveal the genius of
Garvey and his message of hope.

How was the writing process different for this book?

Revisions and revisions and revisions. It took me twenty years and one million rewrites before Garvey's Ghost was finally published. I've never had to go through such a long wait for any of my books to be published.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of writing and publishing Garvey's Ghost?

During the launch in Jamaica, it was good to see the reactions of friends that I've known since primary school, and new readers of my work. Marcus Garvey opened those doors for me and
I give thanks.

What has been the general response to your book?
The response has been tremendous--better than I had expected because I thought that only Garveyites I would be interested in the novel.
I was wrong.
Because the plot revolves around
a mother’s search for her missing daughter and is told primarily form her point of view, I think I have gained a few more female readers of my work. The audience at the launch confirmed that for me.

Any parting words?
I have been getting hints from the publisher that they are trying to get Garvey’s Ghost into the schools in Jamaica. I hope they will be successful because Garvey's message of hope and
his strategies for our “emancipation from mental slavery,” are needed now more than ever.

 Born in Jamaica, Geoffrey Philp is the author of the novel, Garvey’s Ghost and the children’s book, Marcus and the Amazons. His work has been published in the Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories and the Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse. A graduate of the University of Miami, Geoffrey teaches English and creative writing at Miami Dade College.



Garvey’s Ghost is the first book under Carlong’s newest imprint, Expressions, that responds to the need for quality reading material written by Caribbean authors for teens and young adults.
Additionally, this year is the 130th anniversary of the birth of Marcus Garvey and, to mark this milestone, Liberty Hall: The Legacy of Marcus Garvey and the Jamaica Music Museum (JaMM), departments of the Institute of Jamaica, collaborated to host a series of events under the theme, “Garvey as Literary Muse”.

The Expressions series was conceptualized with the aim of capturing the interest and imagination of youths (ages 14-20 years) across the
Caribbean. It is Carlong’s response to the need for more wholesome reading material that is written by Caribbean authors and focuses on Caribbean life, morals, values and attitudes, as well as other themes.
Carlong Publishers publishes, markets and distributes textbooks that support Caribbean curricula at the early childhood, primary, secondary and post-secondary levels.

BUY #GarveysGhost, NEW suspense novel by Jamaican author Geoffrey Philp: 

📍 Sangster's Book Store (Jamaica)
📍 Kingston Bookshop (Jamaica)
📍 Online - http://ow.ly/uGoB30f9OKS

Culture and Tradition are Key to Agricultural Development

Culture and Tradition are Key to Agricultural Development

Copyright 2017 Kentake Malopenza

"You measure a people's potential for liberation based on how different their culture is from their oppressors." 

~Amilcar Cabral

The root cause of trauma and sickness comes from ones commitment to defending a culture that is not their OWN. Living a foreign and alien culture while you despise and condemn your own is simply MENTACIDE (mental insanity). We have been running away from the truth for so long that many of us now think the lies we have been telling ourselves are actually true. But any philosophy that teaches a nation of people to reject their own ancestors and heritage in favor of those who oppress them is a mindset that will surely destroy them and their future generations. We can look at our global Afurakan nations today, all over the world, from the Continent to the Caribbean as well as South and Central America, and we will see that we share a similar lifestyle, culture and value system. We are also facing the same challenges, conflicts and issues regardless of where we may be in the world, or what language we speak in the country of our residence. This tells us that melanated people are truly one divine family and it is our ignorance of that fact that leaves us as easy targets for others to be able to manipulate and control, both us and our resources.

The greatest wealth we have is our indigenous land and it is interesting as well that the term agriculture, which speaks directly to the cultivation and care for ones' land, has the term culture within it. Agriculture is properly defined as:
The practice of tending and caring for the land is slowly becoming an abandoned way of life because we are on the road to fully embracing westernization and capitalism; we are chasing an unrealistic dream that we ourselves know is not real. Our ancestors passed down many ancient spiritual and social values and principles to us that provide rules and regulations of how we must tend and care for our land, but if we don't have any awareness of what those values are then how can we enforce them? 

Many of these codes of morality and social values of communal responsibility are considered law and order within the traditions of our ancestors. But many of us look down upon our indigenous traditions with disgust and shame, as if those ways of life are useless and un-necessary to us now because we feel we have 'arrived' and we have 'moved up' the ladder of success in the mainstream european world. 

Sounding The Abeng

Many of us accept this and end up unknowingly studying information that has been written by Europeans on our traditions, not even realizing that the information is not authentic. In fact, it is these same people who run to the four corners of the Earth to learn at the feet of our elders while we reject learning from one another because we have ego issues.

Then these same yurugu come back to the west and write books on our culture and traditions with the help and assistance of the elders they learned from and we buy those books not knowing that we are financing our own oppression.

As much as we condemn Europeans for their systematic cultural appropriation, we have to look at our own reflection in the mirror and come to terms with the ways in which we assist and encourage our own oppression, by standing idly as others steal our culture and laugh in our face as they are doing it. All the while we are downgrading ourselves calling our heritage and tradition "archaic", "primitive", "evil", "wicked", "outdated" and "backwards". 

Meanwhile they are running all over the Continent, especially Nigeria and Benin as well as the Caribbean and South America learning and studying everything that we were taught to reject and they are paying millions of dollars for it too.

But yet many of YOU will say that our traditions are archaic and have no value in a modern world. Please also remember that our collective honorable ancestors utilized the power within our "outdated" and "backwards" traditions in order to free us from the bondage of slavery and colonization. Please also don't forget that next time you decide to condemn your ancestors for fighting for you to be free from mental and physical bondage. We must all keep in mind: that which we don't claim as our OWN can easily be stolen from us and given a new name and identity. Then, our children will have been robbed of their heritage, which is happening right now in many parts of the world.

Will we only value our traditions when they are open and welcoming to all other races?  Or after they have been stolen and recreated to suit another image and identity?? And if so what does that say about what we really think of ourselves? There is no greater enemy to us than the sickness of self hatred. We must always remember that. Ase ooo.

"the science or practice of farming, including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, wool, and other products."

Prosperity and wealth have always been tied to land ownership, agriculture and the passing down of ancestral tradition and family heritage for generations. This is the true meaning of success:  people must know how to maintain economic and state power. No one with common sense would willingly abandon the traditions of their own ancestors, knowing that these are tied to their future success and prosperity. So why do Afurakan people do that? Do we lack common sense?

We must remember that the aspects of our cultural heritage that many of us reject and disdain are those parts of our reality that europeans love to study, research, write books and thesis papers on; then, they turn around and claim that they are experts in our culture and sell our own knowledge back to us.

But interestingly enough, the european doesn't think so at all. They desperately want to claim and take full ownership of the parts of our culture, tradition and heritage that they know we are ashamed of because they taught us to reject it and now we follow their orders centuries later with no need for it to be reinforced.

Sista Kentake Malopenza is an Afurakan centered 

advocate, mother, writer and entrepreneur who enjoys doing in depth study and research on ancient Afurakan cosmology, precolonial Caribbean culture, Maroon history. Afro-Caribbean spiritual traditions and ancestral philosophies from around the global melanated world. She has travelled extensively from West Afuraka to the Caribbean, in order to reconnect with her heritage and extended family. She is also the founder and director of Akoma Ntoaso Tours which is a grassroots tours incentive that educates people about the Jamaica's indigenous culture and ancestral heritage.
You can contact Akoma Tours at www.akomatours.yolasite.com

Caribbean Poet Cicely A. Rodway's Worlds Away From Home

Worlds Away From Home (from her book Sunstreams and Sunsets)

by Cicely A. Rodway

Looking out at snow-capped trees

in the heart of Queens, Jamaica,

worlds away from home

yet home

the heartmind trembles,

rails at the ceilings

lowered by the

for whom the Lady's torch

does not shine bright.

In the heart of Jamaica

worlds away from home,

glimpses of possibilities

sporting chances

level fields

equal odds

dreams of undeferred dreams

fuel the need to challenge

the rigid ceilings

erected for the hounded

lowered on the shadowed

the old new prey

crouched

cramped

manacled

confined by carefully erected

low ceilings

in this new world

where the Lady's lamp shines

shines brightly

only on the chosen.

Cicely A. Rodway, Ed. D, LCSW, CASAC, is a retired English Professor of the Percy E. Sutton SEEK Program at Queens College, CUNY (City University of New York). Currently she functions in two roles: Coordinator of the SEEK Program's Academic Learning Center and the Coordinator of Vocational and Higher Education at HANDS ON Health Associates, an outpatient clinic for people in recovery in East New York, Brooklyn. A daughter of the Caribbean, she was born in St. Lucia, West Indies, and grew up in Guyana.

Sunstreams and Sunsets was published by African World Press, Inc.

The African Oral Tradition of Storytelling in Dancehall: Early B, The Doctor

        The African Oral Tradition of Storytelling in Dancehall: Early B, The Doctor

                    by Kaya Omodele 

(first published in Method Mecca Magazine for @ZigZee)

"When an old man (griot) dies, it is as if a library has burnt down." 

- African proverb

When it comes to storytelling, Early B - The Doctor had lyrics by the bag, plus style in his delivery. I've said it before, I rate a dancehall artist first and foremost by his/her lyrical content - I rate highly the artistry in spoken word. I love it when a lyricist communicates message, experience, and cultural relevance in song. And so, Earlando Arrington Neil was a modern-day griot the way he brought past events to life for his audience.

I first heard him chat back in The Eighties on one of my bredren's dancehall cassettes and I still remember how he related the story of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I's visit to Jamaica in 1966. Since I hadn't even been born back then, my only knowledge of the emperor's visiting Jamdown came from Early B because up to that time I hadn't read any account of the event.

I will never forget the year because the griot sang

"It was the year nineteen sixty-six/ when Selassie I made a visit..."

The artist's words sketched and painted the scene for me.  I saw, vividly,  the rain dripping that day, then easing up once the Emperor's plane landed. I could hear the roar of tens of thousands of people. Early B's words painted the flock of wild birds flying down, then pitching on the plane's wing before Selassie stepped out

"...with him lion an' him stick

inna him military clothes with the sword 'pon him hip..."

Later on in life when I read the details of His Imperial Majesty's visit, the written account only affirmed my mental image which was first created by the storyteller's artistry. Early B, The Doctor, had many songs I will never forget because his descriptions and timing were colorful and exciting.

Other Early B songs that tell stories:

One Wheel Wheely - Early B heralds David Weller and Xavier Miranda (Jamaican National Team Cyclists) and give drama about a crew of youth cyclists riding through town

Sunday Dish - help Early B cook his Sunday dinner; he lists every delicious thing on his menu.

Caribbean Culture: Where Does Winding Come From?

Where Does Winding Come From?

by Kaya Omodele .@The Abeng (first published in Method Mecca @ZigZee)

     A while ago, I stumbled across a website where someone was asking "How do you wine dance?" (you know, winding, wineing, wining, however you want spell winding your waistline) Then in the comments/replies, X-amount of people jumped in with they own answers, without thinking, knowing or even considering logic before opening their mouths. ;-)

     Trinis, Yardies, Bajans, GTs, people from the biggest to smallest islands, everybody claiming is they island, and their island alone, that invented winding. And what's more, nuff of them insisted their island wind the best.

     Then, somebody interjected, writing how "Africa is where the dance originated." But, that comment just sat there, unnoticed, midst the bag of noise that surrounded it. So, make me set the whole controversy straight:

     Winding didn't start with dutty wine (dutty wind) nor go-go wine nor dollar wine nor even tiny winey. There's a reason every island knows it, from Jamaica to Trinidad, down to even Bahia in Brazil; even if people perform it with different styles and in different fashions. And it's because of the one thing we all have in common, but nuff of we choose to forget.

     Africa. Africans. Yes, them - the ancestors.

African Dance

     You see, from the earliest times, dancing has played significant roles in African societies. In day to day tribal life, dances were used to ward off evil, express emotions, display fertility, ask for blessings in peace and in war, and even worship in rituals. Not to mention, dance throughout the continent was also used in celebration ceremonies such as marriage, birth and harvest. In other words, dancing affirmed life.

     African dance is distinct in some ways from dancing in other parts of the world where a dancer's entire body acts as a single unit (you ever see people waltz?). In most areas around the world, dancers are taught to keep strict lines in body flow and movement. Not so in African dancing, where the dancer is almost always moving different sections of his/her body to different counts within the rhythm itself. The movement in African dance is much more complex as the various segments of the dancer's body move in conjunction with each other.

Caribbean Dance

     Now compare this to Caribbean dancing. Notice how in dancehall a woman will move her waistline in a different timing than her shoulders and arms. Just like in soca and calypso.

      Now except for spiritual dances like Nyahbingi and Shango, the dancing most of us do here in the West is celebratory and not so much spirituality. But you can still see Africa in the winding skill Caribbean women possess.

     Some things are just imbedded in the genes. Know thyself and recognize!

A Traditional Zambian Dance

Traditional Mapoka

CARIBBEAN POETRY: If We Must Die by Claude McKay (Jamaican Poet and Novelist of The Harlem Renaissance)

If We Must Die

by Claude McKay

Strange Fruit

If we must die - let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die - oh, let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
Oh, Kinsmen! We must meet the the common foe;
Though far outnumbered, let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

More about Claude McKay

Jamaican Claude McKay: Writer of the Harlem Renaissance

Caribbean Writer Claude McKay: Poet Laureate of the Harlem Renaissance

by Kaya Omodele @TheAbeng

Writer Claude McKay was a pre-eminent poet and novelist of the Harlem Renaissance. His experiences coming up in Colonial Jamaica in the late 1800's to the early 1900's heavily influenced McKay's writing; and his encounters with racism in America affected him deeply, just check out his defiance in "If We Must Die", one of my all-time favorite poems.

Claude McKay was born to farmers in the Jamaican countryside in 1889. In 1912 he published two books: Songs of Jamaica and Constab Ballads; both are volumes of poetry written in patois (Jamaican dialect patwa) and reflected McKay's belief in the resilience, self-sufficiency and strong community values shared by people of his rural Jamaica.

Claude McKay Comes to Harlem
Although migrated from Jamaica to the United States in 1912 to study agriculture at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, by 1914, he had move north to Harlem, like tens of thousands of African-Americans from the South, and immediately began writing poetry again. In 1919, he wrote the sonnet "If We Must Die"- a call to arms for African Americans to stand up to the violence being unleashed on blacks in that post World War I era. In that same year, Claude McKay became contributor and editor at The Liberator magazine.

McKay in Europe (Turns to Communism)
McKay grew angry , rebellious and increasingly more radical in his views against the oppression of blacks.  He attended the  Fourth Congress of The Third Communist International in Moscow in  1922 and by 1923 was living in Western Europe and Tangiers. But soon, he grew disillusioned by, and then became critical of, American, British and Soviet communists. By the 1930's, he abandoned communism altogether. In his vocal criticism of international communism, he never wavered in his championing of the cause of working-class blacks and never stopped bigging up the need for community development. By 1934 McKay was back in Harlem, USA, where he continued to write and publish.
The Claude McKay died in Chicago in 1948.

On June 2, 2016, in a proclamation that June had been declared National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, President Barack Obama stated "...the legacy of Caribbean Americans is one of tenacity and drive... and by carrying out Jamaican-American poet Claude McKay's call to 'strive on to gain the height/ although it may not be in sight', we can enable more young people, at home and in the Caribbean, to reach for the change that is within their grasp."*

* The Weekly Star (June 9-15, 2016 North American Ed., p.19): June Declared National Caribbean-American Heritage Month

Sources
Cooper, Wayne F.. Claude McKay: Rebel Sojourner in the Harlem Renaissance: A Biography. Baton Rouge, LA, 1987

Claude McKay's Works

Poetry
Songs of Jamaica (1912)
Constab Ballads (1912)
Spring in New Hampshire and Other Poems (1920)
Harlem Shadows (1922)

Novels
Home to Harlem (1928)
Banjo (1929)
Banana Bottom (1933)

Collections of Short Stories
Gingertown (1932)

Memoir
A Long Way from Home (1937)

Collection of Essays
Harlem, Negro Metropolis (1940)

Was Marlon James' Review of "The Blacker The Berry" on Point?

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Black History: The Haitian Revolution (The Revolt That Birthed a Nation-Part I)

  Black History: The Haitian Revolution (The Revolt That Birthed a Nation-Part I)

                                          by K. Omodele 2016 @TheAbeng

Introduction- Slave Revolts In the African Diaspora

There have been hundreds of slave revolts in the history of the African Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Africans resisted captivity in slave forts, on ships and plantations. In St. John and Guyana, slaves took over whole colonies, tasting freedom temporarily, before being re-conquered and re-enslaved.* Maroons in Jamaica, Surinam and Brazil, and Black Caribs in St. Vincent, fought colonial masters and militias to establish independent/sovereign societies that existed autonomously within individual slave colonies. However, the slave insurrection that is distinctive in achieving an ultimate level of success (freeing the whole slave colony AND forming an independent nation) is the epic Haitian Revolution.

"The revolution is made by ordinary people, not by angels, made by people from all walks of life." ~ Dr. Walter Rodney

The Haitian Revolution was the most successful slave revolt in the history of the so-called New World (i.e. The Western Hemisphere). This revolution significantly affected dynamics in the histories of the West Indies, both Americas, the African Diaspora and Europe. Its events gradually formed a nation, but the revolution's leaders didn't learn their tactics in military academies studying the art of war or political science; nor were they propagating a new economic system or faith. These revolutionaries emerged off fields and fled plantations, first brandishing cutlasses, machetes, hoes and fire; then, with guns, cannons, more fire and cries of freedom, they executed revolts that became a revolutionary war that gave birth to Haiti** - the second independent republic in the Americas and the first nation formed by former African slaves.

Saint Domingue In The 1700s

In 1697, Spain ceded the Western third of Hispaniola to France. The Spanish called their colony Santo Domingo, the French called theirs Saint Domingue. In the 1700s, Saint Domingue was the most prosperous colony in the world and the richest in the entire French Empire. Africans slaved on highly profitable plantations where sugar was the chief crop, but others included tobacco, coffee, cocoa, indigo and cotton. By the end of the century, estimates have the population in Saint Domingue at:

-  30-40,000 Frenchmen (grand blancs and petit blancs)

-  22-27,000 Mulattoes and free Blacks (gens de coleur)

-  500,000+  Black/African slaves

"Nowhere in the West Indies in 1789 was there a greater hell on earth than the French Colony of Saint Domingue..." ~ Dr. Eric Williams

These various classes/castes within the society resented, often despised, each other. Being outnumbered over 10 to one, the Frenchmen, the plantation owners, were constantly on edge to hold on to the balance of power and so kept their African slaves in line by brutalizing them for slight offenses and beheading and racking them for insubordination. But these Whites themselves were divided by class: the grand blancs were the planters and merchants, while the petit blancs were the lower-class workers and laborers.

The Mulattoes and free Blacks had the right to own property but resented the fact that they had little or no legal rights.

Of course, slaves had no rights and so they despised the other classes.

*some leaders and members of these rebellions committed suicide rather than be taken alive and forced back into slavery.

** Haiti ~ Ayti was the Taino Arawak name for the island Columbus "claimed" for Spain, calling it Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Ayti ,means "Land of high mountains"

The Haitian Revolution Part 2 - Leaders of the revolution: Boukman, Touissant, Dessalines, Christophe, et.al.

References:

Fick, Carolyn E. The Making of Haiti: The Revolution from Below. Knoxville, Tenn., 1990.

James, C.L.R. The Black Jacobins: Touissant L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. 1938. Reprint. New York, 1963.

Williams, Eric. From Columbus to Castro- the History of The Caribbean 1492-1969

Williams, Eric. History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago. Reprint.

A Birthday Letter to Marcus Garvey

                                                  Earthday Letter to Marcus
                                                  Copyright 2015 K. Omodele

Most Right and Honorable Marcus Mosiah,
Greetings I bring on your 128th Earthstrong*. May the Most High, Jah, shower you infinitely with eternal blessings. Your message has lived on and your impact on the lives of millions all over the Earth illustrates brightly that word - sound is power. Before you ascended, humbly, seventy-five years ago, you told us we could find you in the whirlwinds...Some of us may have wondered whether waves of time might wash away your gigantic footprint.

Emphatically I say, this is not so. Many of us have not forgotten, will never forget. History strung up a lynching but ourstory absolves you. We, the People, trumpet your sound through the ages- even this one of information. Avenues and schools, world-wide, bear your name. We write and sing songs about you; read and write books that convey your story- ourstory (you said we should uplift and celebrate our own heroes). Marcus Mosiah, in Ghana (the former Gold Coast) the flag and the national football team are called the Black Star**; in Jamaica you are the first National Hero; in Rasta you are Prophet, complementing Priest and King.

We herald the principles for which you stood on-square. You uplift us still, inspiring us to see in ourselves the image of God. You shouted that there's nothing the mind can imagine that man cannot accomplish- did you ever imagine the U.S. could elect a Black president, one with an African name at that? And now there's an African Union, but Jah knows we could use your leadership there. Oh, did you see your beloved West Indies when we tried the Federation? Petty minds got in our way but you done already know how that goes. Now Caricom is our feeble response to your call for regional unity.

It's not an easy road we've travelled and we still have a mighty long way to go. But rest assured, Ababa Mose, your sons and daughters stand firm, work proud, walk with our heads high; as we trod Jah Earth your spirits breathes within us. Have a most blessed earthday.

Sincerely,

Kaya Omodele

Spoken Word Griots: African Oral Tradition in Caribbean Music (Second Part)

In Africa, oral tradition was the primary means of teaching a people's history and culture. Griots were adept  storytellers, teachers and historians. African music was almost always pragmatic and functional-it did something. From keeping timing to farmers wielding their tools to announcing a birth. So integrating the spoken word and music was steeped in oral tradition practicality.

African oral tradition survived the slave ship and thrived in spite and despite the institution of slavery. As a matter of fact, slave holders' codes that prohibited slave literacy worked in the favor of oral tradition as Africans continued to rely on storytelling and spoken word as a way of teaching family/community history, morals and brought-up-cy (values). Throughout the Caribbean, African oral tradition was kept alive in stories like Br'er Anansi*, in Africanized/African-themed proverbs, and folk tales and songs.  Cultural knowledge and values were passed through word of mouth from generation to generation, reinforcing family, community and clan. This is most evident in speech and customs still found in maroon communities throughout the Caribbean today.

That African oral tradition exists in Caribbean music is undeniable, especially when recalling components and characteristics that define African music: functionality, audience participation, its ability to relate and preserve culture through storytelling. Elements of oral tradition that are readily identified include the call and response melodies in Caribbean folk songs like "Day-O", which is a Jamaican mento song originally sang by dock workers loading bananas on ships. A few examples of Caribbean music that display oral tradition: Calypso, mento, pocomania and zouk. 

* the word Anansi in Akan means spider

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Spoken Word Griots: African Oral Tradition in Caribbean Music (Part 3) -Calypso

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