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.

Black Moses Seh: More Quotes from Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Today is Marcus Mosiah Garvey's 125th Earthday.  Blessed Earthstrong Black Marcus, my Prophet. As relevant now as he was then. Don't say that you understand, until yuh hear the man.

"This propaganda of dis-associating Western Negroes from Africa is not a new one. For many years white propagandists have been printing tons of literature to impress scattered Ethiopia, especially that portion within their civilization, with the idea that Africa is a despised place, inhabited by savages, and cannibals, where no civilized human being should go, especially black civilized human beings. This propaganda is promulgated for the cause that is being realized today. That cause is COLONIAL EXPANSION for the white nations of the world."
~ Philosophy & Opinions of Marcus Garvey,

 

"I stand before you this afternoon as a proud black man, honored to be a black man, who would be nothing else in God's creation but a black man."~ 1928

"If I die in Atlanta my work shall then only begin, but I shall live, in the physical or spiritual to see the day of Africa's glory. When I am dead wrap the mantle of the Red, Black and Green around me, for in the new life I shall rise with God's grace and blessing to lead the  millions up the heights of triumph with the colors that you well know. Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God's grace, I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life."

~ in a letter from prison, 1925

"Before we can properly help the people, we have to destroy the old education... that teaches them that somebody is keeping them back and that God has forgotten them and that they can't rise because of their color.. we can only build... with faith in ourselves and with self-reliance, believing in our own possibilities, that we can rise to the highest in God's creation."

"Intelligence rules the world, ignorance carries the burden."

"Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself."

"Among some of the organized methods used to control the world is the thing known and called PROPAGANDA. Propaganda has done more to defeat the good intentions of races and nations than even open warfare. Propaganda is a method or medium used by organized peoples to convert others against their will. We of the Negro race are suffering more than any other race in the world from propaganda... propaganda to destroy our hopes, our ambitions and our confidence in self." 

"Rise up Black Men, and take your stand. Reach up black men and women and pull all nature’s knowledge to you. Turn ye around and make a conquest of everything North and South, East and West. And then we you have wrought well, you will have merited God's blessing, you will become God's chosen people and naturally you'll become leaders of the world."

Please help spread the word to Exonerate Marcus Garvey: http://bit.ly/KqUrGh
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Martyrdom: Patrice Lumumba (To Divide and Rule Was Their Only Plan...)

We must canonize our own saints, create our own martyrs, and elevate to positions of fame and honor black men and women who have made their distinct contributions to our racial history. ~ Marcus Garvey






I only gave voice to words of freedom and brotherhood, words they couldn't accept. Just words. ~ Patrice Lumumba

 A whole heap ah lessons can be learned from ourstory, Black stories, African stories. Anytime I think 'bout Patrice Lumumba, the Divide and Rule concept bounce 'round mi brain  and I can hear Jah Cure chant 'bout how it "is their only plan...." I, Kaya, done say it already: the so-called Cold War was actually fought in the Third World amongst poor people. The so-called Super Powers only postured and plotted, and is we in the Caribbean and Africa and Asia who actually bust we gun, killing we own people, in the name of Capitalism, Socialism or Communism. "We sick an tired of yuh ism, schism."

Patrice Lumumba was charismatic and warm, and at the time the only Congolese leader who  genuinely stood firm for anti-tribalism, anti-regionalism, anti-imperialism,  and African Unity. Like Walter Rodney, he was quick to speak out 'gainst fuckery- that is, exploitation and oppression. The man proudly wore the robe of African Nationalism. But you done know, the powers that be couldn't stand to see a strong, fully independent Congo, united and  in control of her own natural resources.

Patrice Hemery Lumumba was born on July 2, 1925 in Onalua, in Kasai, Congo. In a country made up of a couple hundred tribes/ethnic groups, he was the son of farmers who belonged to one of the smallest- the Batetela ethnic group. Back in them days Congo was a colony of belgium and Lumumba was mostly Western-educated, he attended Christian primary and secondary schools. He became a postal clerk and was an active member of the évolués (Western educated Africans and Asians). He wrote essays and poems for Congolese publications and press. Just reading about his earlier life, one could think Lumumba woulda been the perfect colonial puppet, once Congo became independent in 1960. But nah, man. The belgians flung him in prison twice, first for embezzlement of post office funds and later for inciting an anti-colonial riot.
He helped found the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC)* in '58, and eventually became president of this organisation. In December that said year, Lumumba and a team of MNC members attended the All-African Peoples' Conference in Accra, Ghana. Hosted byKwame Nkrumah of Ghana and this event served like steel sharpening steel- Lumumba honed his Pan-Africanist focus and his tone grew into militant nationalism after attending this conference.

                                    Image via Wikipedia

Leading up to independence in 1960, belgium knew it had a problem with Patrice Lumumba's popularity amongst his people. He was staunchly nationalist and was against tribal division, conflict and war. In other words, he was against Divide and Rule. He fire-burned the cloak of neo-colonialism. When the belgians held a round table conference in brussels to stage who and who would run Congo, which leaders were "suitable" to protect belgian interests- especially the resource-rich Katanga and South Kasai states/provinces, it was really a ploy of picking puppets.
Lumumba at the time was in jail on the riot charge**, but his MNC party members and supporters in brussels refused to participate without Lumumba, they demanded his freedom. 

Babylon released the chains and Lumumba was flown in to brussels. The man stepped in to the conference room hours after sitting in a cell.

Elections were held in May. Over 120 mostly ethnic or regional parties participated.  But the MNC united across ethnic lines and regional divisions and triumphed. The party named the thirty-four year old Lumumba the country's first Prime Minister.  Joseph Kasavubu of Abako (Alliance des Ba-Kongo, organ of the Bakongo, one of the largest ethnic groups in the Congo) was made President. 

Then came Independence Day, June 30th. The ceremony in which the belgians "handed over" the Congo to the Congolese deliberately excluded Patrice Lumumba. In fact, leading up to the ceremony, king baudouin paraded around the capital in a car with Joseph Kasavubu. (The newly formed constition named the prome misnister the supreme power and the president the ceromonial leader)  During the ceremony, Prime Minister Lumumba was excluded from speaking and sat quietly observing. But after the belgian king's paternalistic speech about how "...The independence of the Congo is the crowning of the work conceived by the genius of king leopold II, undertaken by him with courage and continued by Belgium with perseverance...", Lumumba could restrain himself no longer. He rose, took the podium and delivered his famous Tears, Blood and Fire speech, reminding the world:
"... no Congolese worthy of the name will ever be able to forget that it was by fighting that it has been won, a day-to-day fight, an ardent and idealistic fight, a fight in which we were spared neither privation nor suffering, and for which we gave our strength and our blood. We are proud of this struggle, of tears, of fire, and of blood, to the depths of our being, for it was a noble and just struggle, and indispensable to put an end to the humiliating slavery which was imposed upon us by force..." Read Prime Minister Lumumba's Independence Day Speech in full (AKA The Tears, Blood and Fire Speech"

It was this speech that sealed Patrice Lumumba's fate.

In the days and months that followed, the country descended into chaos. Divisions formed along ethnic and regional lines. Other Congolese political leaders exploited their associations and ties, but Patrice held on to his Nationalist conviction, determined that one, undivided nation would be the best approach. "The more closely united we are, the better we will resist oppression, corruption, and those divisive maneuvers which experts in the policy of 'divide and rule' are resorting to."
When the mineral-rich province Katanga seceded under General Moïse Tshombe, it was done with belgium's support. After all, belgium had economic interest in the Katanga region and was nervous of Lumumba's nationalist views. Since it was newly independent nation with an inexperienced army, Lumumba appealed to the UN and even America for assistance in keeping Congo unified. When neither helped, Lumumba asked the Soviet Union for planes to help move troops to the Katanga region. This further alarmed belgium and America. Kasa-vubu, with his more moderate tone dismissed Lumumba as Prime minister. Patrice in turn announced the dismissal of Kasa-vubu from presidency. So now you had two seperate governments claiming legitimacy. Now up comes Colonel Joseph Mobutu with his CIA- backed coup d'etat, taking advantage of the weak, divided government. Mobutu deposed both leaders and placed Lumumba under house arrest. 

Lumumba then briefly escaped but Mobutu's troops quickly tracked him down and put him on a flight to Leopoldville. They paraded him, beaten and humiliated, in front of journalists and diplomats. Then at Mobutu's villa the Prime Minister was further humiliated when he was beaten in front of TV cameras for the world to see.
Still, belgium wanted more blood and demanded that Lumumba be delivered to General Moïse Tshombe of Katanga. Mobutu complied and Lumumba was again beaten savagely during the flight to Elizabethville where he was seized by Katangan soldiers led by belgian commanders. On January 17, 1961, Patrice Lumumba was killed by firing squad commanded by a belgium officer. His body was then chopped up, dismantled and dissolved in sulfuric acid to hide evidence.

When I analyze the stench, Mobutu was backed by the CIA because he screamed anti-communism. Tshombe was backed by the belgians because he did their bidding and could be manipulated. Kasavubu was a moderate. But Patrice Lumumba was just too independent/non-aligned for the Europeans and Americans. Remember, this was the Cold War era. African nations were gaining independence from the colonizers, who were determined to install puppets. Lumumba stood firm and refused to be controlled. 
So babylon used their brains, divided and conquered. And though they may taint Lumumba every chance they get, it is up to us to uphold his legacy.
Never gone, Never forgotten!

Congo! Lumumba! Uhuru!

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* Congolese National Movement

** The belgian government planned a five-year program that would eventually grant Congo independence. The program was to begin with elections in December 1959, but the MNC cited, and sighted, this as a deliberate plot to place belgian puppets in the government before independence. The nationalist declared they were boycotting the elections. The belgians fired back with oppression and persecution. On October 30 there was a clash in Stanleyville and thirty people died. 


Patrice Lumumba Speaks:
“Slavery was imposed on us by force! We have known ironies and insults. We remember the blows that we had to submit to morning, noon and night because we were Negroes!”

"We are neither Communists, Catholics nor socialists. We are African nationalists. We reserve the right to choose our friends in accordance with the principle of positive neutrality."

"Who will ever forget the massacres where so many of our brothers perished; the cells into which those who refused to submit to a regime of injustice, oppression and exploitation were thrown?" (referring to atrocities committed against the Congolese people by the belgians since the time of the time of the Congo Free State)

Question: "Some of your political opponents accuse you of being a Communist. Could you reply to that?"
Lumumba's Answer: "This is a propagandist trick aimed at me. I am not a Communist. The colonialists have campaigned against me throughout the country because I am a revolutionary and demand the abolition of the colonial regime, which ignored our human dignity. They look upon me as a Communist because I refused to be bribed by the imperialists."
(From an interview to a "France-Soir" correspondent on July 22, 1960)


Your favorite revolutionary's favorite revolutionary:
“...the greatest black man who ever walked the African continent. He didn’t fear anybody. He had those people [the colonialists] so scared they had to kill him. They couldn’t buy him, they couldn’t frighten him, they couldn’t reach him.”
~ Malcolm X (speaking about Lumumba at an Organisation of Afro-American Unity rally in 1964)


“We must move forward, striking out tirelessly against imperialism. From all over the world we have to learn lessons which events afford. Lumumba’s murder should be a lesson for all of us.”
~Che Guevara 
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Brother Wally: Walter Rodney's Groundings With My Brothers

"We must understand that we are still locked in struggle. And 

we are reaffirming our commitment to struggle, and we are

saying we are ready to proceed. We are moving forward, we are

not intimidated, we recognize the pressures, but we are far

from bending under those pressures." 

-- Walter Rodney, June
6, 1980, Georgetown, Guyana

In Groundings With My Brothers, Walter Rodney called Rastafari bredren, "the leading force of the expression of black consciousness in the Caribbean."  In an introduction to the work, Richard Small reflected on how fast in the 1970s the young Guyanese-born scholar had gained popularity in Jamaica and in the entire Caribbean as "the man who knew about Africa ... and who would talk to anybody who wanted to hear him ..." 

Although a well-respected professor of African Studies at the University of The West Indies at that time, Dr. Rodney preferred grass roots reasonings with Rasta and poor people in Kingston rather than mixing and mingling with socialites at the university.

"There is no continuity in my life in respect of old acquaintances. We meet;I try to be pleasant; and I move on. For our generation too is adding its quota to the frightening sterility of the society. Living off campus is a great boon, for it reduces my contact with rum-sipping soul selling intellectuals of Mona..." 

Having come from a modest background in Georgetown, Guyana,  he emphasized the need for Black intellectuals to attach themselves to the plight of the masses.

  

"I would go further down into West Kingston and I would speak wherever there was a possibility of our getting together. It might be in a sports club, it might be in a schoolroom, it might be in a church, it might be in a gully. (Those of you who come from Jamaica know those gully corners.) They are dark, dismal places with a black population who have had to seek refuge there. You will have to go there if you want to talk to them. I have spoken in what people call ‘dungle’, rubbish dumps, for that is where people live in Jamaica. People live in rubbish dumps."

“The first essential was to operate outside of the petty bourgeois University campus and outside of the 'respectable' middle class suburb where I resided. My background in Guyana was working class, but after the alienation produced by the educational system, it was up to me to retake the initiative to rediscover my brothers and sisters. I sought them out where they lived, worked, worshiped, and had their recreation. In turn they 'checked' me at work or at home, and together we 'probed' here and there, learning to recognize our common humanity. Naturally they wanted to know what I stood for, what I ‘defended’. I never gave anyone money or bought them drinks; that one must leave to the political gangsters’ of the two-party system. At some point I ceased to be Dr Rodney and was addressed as 'Brother Rodney' or better still ‘Brother Wally’ That simple change meant I was no longer a tool of the establishment, but was readmitted into the moral and cultural brotherhood of the Black man.”

"So long as there are people who deny our humanity as blacks, then for so long must we proclaim and assert our humanity as blacks. That is why our historical and cultural heritage is so important, and that is why we must proceed to live our culture because culture is a way of life. We must recover what was taken away from us and we must adapt in order to survive and keep on growing as a section of humanity."

Note~ Groundings/reasonings are communal discussions,lectures or exchanging of ideas, information and opinions

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More on Dr. Walter Rodney
Methodmecca.com: Who is Walter 
Roots and Culture Media
The Signifyin' Woman (Charmaine Valere) 
A June 13th Tribute: Walter Rodney, the Rastafari and ‘dungles’ everywhere

Seeking Makeda II: (Journey InSight)

Seeking Makeda II: (Journey InSight)

copyright 2011 K. Omodele

(Empress Makeda...)

Skin glistening like a rippling river's dark sheen

eyes glittering, dancing- two black diamonds gleam

nose gently-molded, rounded from Iteru's* clay

plum-passion lips kissed silt scooped from Ṭiqūr ʿĀbbāy**

Makeda's smile illuminates as moon-bright beams

reflecting Lake Tana*** deep in Nubian Queens

*the KMT (ancient Egypt) name for the Nile River 
** Ethiopian name for The Blue Nile (Ge'ez  ጥቁር ዓባይ; Ṭiqūr ʿĀbbāy is literally Black Abbay)
***source of the Blue Nile (location Ethiopian Highlands)

copyright 2011 K. Omodele

Found on
http://weheartit.com:8080/tag/dark%20skin

Found on
http://www.warwicksaint.com/photographer/gallery

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Marcus' House

(Photo By Jennifer Poyser 2009)

©2010 K. Omodele


Why does Marcus’ house lean
with dilapidated beams
and neglected, time-cracked posts?
Surrounded by rambling goats
hurry come latelys who don’t overstand
the glorious essence Mosiah’s stance
not religion rather Community
uplift… One Aim, One God, One Destiny.

How could we not carry the Trumpet’s Sound
Self reliance, pride: no national bound
until the whole of Africa is free
reciting the words “Self Identity”

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• Top Seventeen Sayings and Quotes by Marcus Mosiah Garvey (consciouspen.blogspot.com)