It’s been awhile since we heard a new album released from Carlton Errington Grant AKA Spragga Benz. Well it has been well worth the wait because after the death of his son in 2008 at the hands of the Kingston police, along with all the recent uproar & blood shed experienced in Spragga Benz’s hometown over the extradition to the United States of Christopher “Dudus” Coke & the “Don culture” that has taken over the Garrison communities of Kingston, Jamaica, you better believe that Kingston’s native son from the JamRock of Franklin Town has a lot to get off his chest! With his first single off of his album “Livitication” which is a special dedication in celebration of his beloved son Carlise, Spragga comes out heavy with “Shotta Culture” a reference not only to the cult classic movie which he starred in, but also an education on the Jamaican culture that he grew up in, part of which made headline news around the world last May! Spragga Benz is back better than ever bringing a new conscious vibe with hard hitting gritty dancehall beats to some fresh new music that we have all been waiting for, so Stay Tuned!

“Since that Event everything been so different…Leave all vengeance”..Bless up Carlise-Rest In Power! A Father celebrating the memory of his beloved son!

As Wyclef Jean continues his protest through music for being denied his much to do about nothing unconstitutional run for Haiti’s presidency, which seems as if it has taken over his ego & self importance along with taking up the spotlight & global interest in Haiti; Haiti’s Boys -Haiti’s under-15 youth football team- have risen to the occasion in true leadership as examples of the type of Haitian spirit that is unselfish, unwavering & never defeated regardless of the obstacles placed in its path when it comes to truly unifying for Haiti. Where was the leadership of Wyclef as Haiti’s global ambassador who cares so much for Haiti’s youth in bringing attention to this great Haitian acheivement by Haiti’s youth instead of focusing his twitter & media platform on the demise of his presidential aspiration when the focus should be on how Haiti is moving forward & firm solutions for forward movement?  Haitians, 8 months after the most devastating earthquake in Haiti’s history have not seen much change nor many displaced Haitians returning to their homes, much like New Orleans, 5 years after hurricane Katrina with millions to billions of dollars given in charitable aid.

Wyclef has kept the spotlight of Haiti on him by contesting the validity of Haiti’s constitution in not changing the laws to suit his eligibility to run for president as he decides to sing in protest to the people of Haiti in the Creole language that he can not speak directly to them in conversation, arrogantly singing that the youth of Haiti are the ones who have lost by him being denied the right to run for president. If Beyonce can make a Spanish album then don’t be so surprised that eyebrows are raised & lips are “stripsing” for that musical effort in protest of something that you seem to feel entitled to strictly based on your celebrity.  Mr. Jean, just in case you are unaware, the youth of Haiti have won & have shown that they will continue to win with or without your presidency, so let’s move on & do the work that you promised to do with or without a seat at the presidential palace.

“How are you gonna be an effective leader, how are you gonna be inspiring the youth, if you’re telling them to forget French, forget Creole, speak English? That’s in their blood, that’s 200 years of culture. It’d be like Obama coming in and telling people to speak Cantonese.” READ MORE

Haiti’s under -15  team was put together only 6 weeks before they went in to fight for their spot at FIFA’S Summer Youth Olympic Games. Haiti’s boys secured their spot in the finals hosted by Singapore, surprising the world with little media coverage of the hope & can do attitude that Haitian youth are creating for themselves instead of waiting for some sort of rock starlike anomaly to come to bring them “Change they can Believe in” after many governments locally & globally have failed them for most of their lives. We salute & honor the youthfully large & empowering spirit of the Haitian Boys as they raise up their Silver medal- showing their fellow Haitians that nothing is impossible if you put in the work, fight the good fight & Believe!

“Haiti’s footballers, who travelled here to the inaugural Summer Youth Olympics cloaked in tragedy and sadness, are riding a massive wave of sympathy to stand on the brink of winning the most unlikeliest gold medal of these Games. The country’s boy’s footballers brought some much needed joy to their earthquake-stricken nation as they remarkably defied the odds to book their spot in the boy’s final with a 2-0 win over Singapore at the Jalan Besar Stadium last night. The Caribbean country made global headlines at the start of the year after a devastating earthquake ripped it apart and left their sports system, along with everything else, in tatters. With such utter devastation hitting their homeland, Haiti were applauded for simply turning up at these Games. Little was expected of them, especially after they lost their opening match 9-0 to Bolivia…..” READ MORE

“Instead of people crying in Haiti, which is all that has been happening for the last eight months, I hope what our boy’s have done out here has finally bought some smiles to people’s faces. It has been so hard for us and my team fought so well and I am very proud of them for that. We have achieved so much here but we wanted to go one better and bring the gold back to our country. We gave everything we could for ourselves and for the people of Haiti but Bolivia were simply better tonight. They have been together 15 months while we have been together for six weeks but that is no excuse and they deserved it. We have a silver medal and for that, we very are grateful and grateful to FIFA for letting my players come here and away from the struggle they face at home.”

“Haiti coach Pierre Sonche says his side’s march to the boys football final has brought joy to a nation still suffering. ”We can’t give money to our people back in Haiti, but at least I know they are very happy with this result and our campaign here in Singapore,” Sonche said after his team’s 2-0 win over Singapore…” READ MORE

“August 25 – A brave Haitian team could not secure what would have been a fairytale finish at the Summer Youth Olympic Games as they were soundly beaten 5-0 by Bolivia in the boy’s football gold medal match at the Jalan Besar Stadium here tonight. Bolivia had beaten Haiti 9-0 in the first match of the competition before the heroic footballers from the earthquake-stricken nation defied all expectations by storming through to the final to set up a second encounter with their rivals. But, the footballers from the Caribbean island, who have captured the hearts of the world with their unexpected success story in Singapore, could not produce another shock and were forced to settle for a hard-earned silver medal as Bolivia were crowned boy’s football champions…” READ MORE

“Now there will, of course, be people who lose interest in the race, who feel that they have no dog in the fight. I hope Wyclef Jean is not one of them. What he has promised to do before — create jobs and educational opportunities and inspire young people who have already lost so much to the earthquake that inspired him to run — he can continue to do through a reformed version of his Yele Haiti foundation and his music. As our roving ambassador, he can now do this more freely, without the statesman straitjacket and forced political lingo. He can speak directly to us and from his heart. He can console his young supporters and urge them once again to remain calm. And he won’t have to do it en francais. That could be his most important contribution yet to a country for which he has proven his love and devotion over and over again. What could be more presidential than that……? READ MORE

DOES ANYONE ELSE NOT SEE THE IRONY IN TALKING ABOUT LAWLESS HAITIAN LEADERS, WHEN ONE IS ASKING TO CHANGE THE CONSTITUTIONAL LAWS IN ORDER TO BECOME THE NEXT LEADER-HMMMM?

The world seems to be reminded on a daily basis of the growing investment potential in Africa & at the top of the list is the agricultural sector. It is less irony than sheer greed & lack of true global governmental compassion that the continent which has suffered thru famines & lack of clean water for generations of its people will be seen as the new frontier of global agricultural investments. The frontier is nothing new for Africans who have never had fair opportunity for internal development until it becomes economically profitable for the rest of the world. There is a new scramble for Africa from natural resources like gold, to telecommunications, to agriculture- the world is looking to Africa & it is about time that Africa finds & understands its worth to the world  & finding African solutions to Africa’s problems instead of it always being the world seeing its worth to Africa &  implementing western & eastern solutions to Africa’s problems. We all have something to share & learn from one another, but we must give credit where credit is due in order to have real partnership instead of marginalized efforts. The west can not be credited in bringing to Africa a green revolution which we invented as the common way of life from inception, where there is harmony & balance between humanity & the earth.Do we really need our former colonizers to come in to train us on how to feed ourselves? Has colonization stagnated our growth in such a way that we have literally become babies learning how to feed ourselves? Why do we look to the west with their dismal environmental & food recall records to build our agricultural sector  instead of looking to our living elders who have tilled the land generation after generation, pesticide & chemical free?

Africa as a continent could be fully sufficient to feed itself, employ itself & raise itself, but the complacency & fear of everyday people, the corruption of our leaders & our addiction to foreign aid while not seeing our own self worth without foreign aid has kept us in the type of dependency that can never produce tangible large scale forward movement & change! We most look beyond our fears of what further obstacles true independence may bring & feed on the optimism of our youth who see the sky with no limits because of technological advances that have allowed them to influence & Africanize the world as much as the world has influenced & globalized Africa. In order for this forward thinking that will attain forward movement to take shape, the old way of thinking & doing the business of corruption must cease. As Liberian Activist,Kimmie Weeks says
“Imagine if every young person on the continent of Africa stood up against corruption, it would end and our lives would be better even without international aid or intervention. We can do it ourselves.”

“From now on – today – we must change our attitudes, our minds, we must realise that from now on, we are no more a colonial but a free and independent people. But also, as I pointed out, that also entails hard work.That new African is ready to fight his own battles and show that after all, the black man is capable of managing his own affairs. We are going to demonstrate to the world, to the other nations, that we are prepared to lay our own foundation. Our own African identity…. Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. Thy claim it as their own and none can keep it from them. We face neither East nor West: We Face Forward..THE SECRET OF LIFE IS 2 HAVE NO FEAR” Osageyfo Kwame Nkrumah

“Africa is turning into a fashionable post-crisis investment destination as investors regain their confidence and start to focus on the continent’s lack of direct involvement with the global market’s volatility drivers and trouble hotspots. Africa is benefiting not only from a resumption of international debt and equity flows; it is also a beneficiary of international efforts to maintain the flow of trade finance via multilateral guarantee programmes – 45 issuing banks from 27 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have joined the IFC’s trade finance programme, for example.At the same time, bilateral and multilateral development agencies are actively investing via an assortment of public and private-sector channels; the international capital markets pipeline is building – sovereign debt offerings on the docket for Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zambia with Libya believed to be looking – while the slew of private equity and hedge funds being raised this year for Africa are seeing healthy interest from public-sector and private LPs. Investors are focusing broadly on Africa’s relative political stability, improving governance, more conducive policy and regulatory environment, as well as more transparent foreign investment regimes. At the macroeconomic level, above-average growth and low levels of government and corporate indebtedness add to the appeal. What’s key to much of the capital flowing into Africa is that it is supplemented by a support network of capacity building, advisory services, training, technology transfer, and infrastructure benefits.” READ MORE

“Portugal, one of Europe’s ailing economies, is increasingly placing its hopes of recovery on Angola, a former colony that has established itself as one of the strongest economies in sub-Saharan Africa — thanks largely to oil and diamonds. The shift comes as competition is getting stiffer in Brazil, another booming former colony, and as Portugal’s traditional European trading partners, led by Spain, struggle under a mountain of debt and soaring joblessness. Angola has already become Portugal’s largest export market outside of Europe, accounting for 7 percent of Portuguese exports last year, compared with 1 percent in 2000, according to the Portuguese statistics institute and Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency..” READ MORE

I applaud Ms. Shirley Sherrod on refusing the position given to her after she was used as yet another political pawn within a government that bi-partisanly puts politics before the service of its people. Ms. Sherrod decided not to fall into the Obama “Change We Can Believe In” hero complex by coming into a completely broken situation that needs a complete overhaul, knowing very well that she will never be given the power & support to overhaul it because everyone is on the take & she has enough experience to know better. I applaud Ms. Sherrod for being fearless in refusing to sweep it under the rug & let the dirt build up again instead of facing it head on & cleaning it up in order to expose the beauty underneath or the beauty that could be in America. We need to take heed to the Shirley Sherrod story as Black people, as a nation & as a world at large that seems to play into the hands of those who continuously use us to divide ourselves so that they can conquer. Ms. Sherrod will probably serve the country better from the outside by being the one to watch over & call the USDA out on their own madness of corruption, kowtowing to big business & general lack of regulations & enforcement. I hope Van Jones will also continue to keep his eyes on BP & the environment by continuing his work after his own Fox news & its bi-partisan enablers ousting, in telling people the truth without political shackles, the same way I believe Shirley Sherrod will in her refusal to get sucked back into the same lions den.

“Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today that Sherrod will in the future work with the department in a consulting capacity to help it improve its civil rights performance. Sherrod said she was tempted to take the position in the Office of Advocacy and Outreach, but she could not accept it “at this point, with all that has happened.” READ MORE

In reading the piece quoted below on AOL’s Black Voices & their take on Ms. Sherrod’s job refusal, I am seeing more & more how we as local & global Black people need an overhaul in our reality check because we truly seem to see the global Black experience past, present & future completely differently & often refuse to see the other side until we are directly on the receiving end of the disrespect,struggle & carnage; As Black Republicans all of a sudden realize that Sarah Palin is no longer fit to lead in their Jack & Jill politics only after she co-signed on Dr. Laura’s “Nigger” explosion -letting them know that yes, America has come so far, but we have so far to go if we really want to see any semblance of the so called “post racial” utopian nation where you are just a “non-retreat & reload nigger” rant away from a reality check. This speaks to us when so called leaders like Russell Simmons think that having yoga in public schools & doing business with the same companies like DeBeers, who have benefitted the most from African suffering can somehow be the solution to the deplorable drop out rate amongst young Black Boys or a means to empower Africans. It speaks to us when calling for the boycott of Essence in the same month that we are accepting & celebrating the crumbs given by Vogue. It speaks to us when young Black men in Staten Island are committing hate crimes  against Mexican immigrants ,or our government continuing drone attacks on a flood ravaged Pakistan which the world seems to careless about because there is no media frenzy or celebrity telethon attached to it for it to have any importance, or the women continuously being raped in the Congo with little media attention to the fact that the act of female abuse , rape & torture is not illegal in the world enough for women to be allowed political asylum, yet our community & global leaders readily quote Dr. King’s words “Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere” without giving voice, marching or fighting feverishly in truly giving credence & credibility to mouthing the words of Dr. King. Sometimes we have a tendency to be our own enemy in progress & attaining our own power in our progress by bowing down & accepting whatever is given to us, so I am more than ecstatic when there are true leaders like Shirley Sherrod who refuse to fall for the “okie doke” in knowing that in situations like this there are no winners  until the the root of the problem is unmasked  & abolished instead of being covered over & patronized. I am esctatic that there are leaders like Ms. Sherrod who refuse to fall in line with compromising their integrity for some symbolic gesture of faux inclusion & praise by choosing to move Forward Ever, Backward Never!

Black Voices when are you going to be honest with yourself on whose voice you really represent in your AOL compromise?

“Sherrod is entitled to harboring some bruised feelings, but what else does she expect? She came out the hero in this story, while Breitbart has been unmasked as a dishonest fool. We all know she’s no racist. She won. If she were honest with herself, she would understand why she had to be let go after watching the edited tape. With the Obama Administration’s understandable hypersensitivity to all things racial, any official caught on tape talking about how they denied services to a citizen based on race would have to go. But they corrected the mistake the next day as soon as they found out they were tricked.” READ MORE

This is the USDA that so graciously offered Ms. Sherrod a position of faux power when the power rests with Corporations who pay to play. According to NYU Professor of Nutrition Marion Nestle “It’s the testing that really causes the problems.. nobody wants to test because if they test they might find something.” In going to the recall site I realized that there are more current recalls on our food than we have been made aware of in the media.

“There are rotten apples in every industry. Or perhaps I should say rotten eggs. One especially rotten egg is Jack DeCoster, whose commercial egg agribusiness, which goes under the homey title “Wright County Egg,” headquartered in Galt, Iowa, sends eggs all over the country under many different brands. Those eggs have now laid low thousands of Americans with salmonella poisoning, and may well infect thousands more. DeCoster is recalling 380 million eggs sold since mid-May. It’s not clear how recall rotten eggs are recalled. They’re not like Toyotas. They’re already in our food supply. But this is only the beginning of the story. Thirteen years ago when I was Secretary of Labor, DeCoster agreed to pay a $2 million penalty (the most we could throw at him) for some of the most heinous workplace violations I’d seen. His workers had been forced to live in trailers infested with rats and handle manure and dead chickens with their bare hands. It was an agricultural sweatshop. Several people in Maine told me the fine wouldn’t stop DeCoster. He’d just consider it a cost of doing business. Evidently they were right. DeCoster’s commercial egg business has a record that would make a repeat offender blush…”READ MORE

Our complacency in accepting powerlessness & in accepting things as they are is the reason why our government does not seem to feel an urgency in the need for them to work to protect us!

Definition: Independence or National Days are perhaps the most important day for a country to commemorate as a national holiday. For many nations the date is the country’s day of independence, often in hard fought battles to claim their freedom. Some national holidays commemorate a significant day in the history of the country, or the birth of a national hero who helped establish the day the country’s independence was declared.The following list signifies the month each country listed below celebrates Independence Day, National Day or other significant day.

There are many missing on this list so please add to it in the message thread so each one can teach one & we can all be Globally Fused in our celebrations in & of history!

“Lincoln was born Anna Marie Wooldridge on Aug. 6, 1930, in Chicago, the 10th of 12 children… She started as ‘a sexy young thing in a Marilyn Monroe dress’ before joining Max Roach on ‘We Insist! Freedom Now Suite,’ a landmark musical statement of the civil rights movement.Abbey Lincoln, an acclaimed jazz singer, songwriter and actress who evolved from a supper-club singer into a strong voice for civil rights, has died. She was 80. Lincoln died Saturday in a nursing home in New York, said Evelyn Mason, her niece. No cause was given, but she had been in failing health…..There was a passion to what she did,” said jazz critic Don Heckman, who noted that Lincoln’s songwriting made her a rarity among jazz singers. “She was not someone who was just singing a song. She had an agenda, and a lot of it had to do with civil rights…. She expressed herself in dramatic and impressive fashion in what she said and how she sang…” READ MORE

“We are the women who were kidnapped and brought to this continent as slaves. We are the women who were raped, are still being raped, and our bastard children snatched from our breasts and scattered to the winds to be lynched, castrated, de-egoed, robbed, burned, and deceived.We are the women whose strong and beautiful Black bodies were—and are—still being used as a cheap labor force for Miss Anne’s kitchen and Mr. Charlie’s bed, whose rich, black, and warm milk nurtured—and still nurtures—the heir to the racist and evil slavemaster.We are the women who dwell in the hell-hole ghettos all over the land. We are the women whose bodies are sacrificed, as living cadavers, to experimental surgery in the white man’s hospitals for the sake of white medicine. We are the women who are invisible on the television and movie screens, on the Broadway stage. We are the women who are lusted after, sneered at, leered at, hissed at, yelled at, grabbed at, tracked down by white degenerates in our own pitiable, poverty-stricken, and prideless neighborhoods…We are the women whose hair is compulsively fried, whose skin is bleached, whose nose is “too big,” whose mouth is “too big and loud,” whose behind is “too big and broad,” whose feet are “too big and flat,” whose face is “too black and shiny,” and whose suffering and patience is too long and enduring to be believed…Who’re just too damned much for everybody…” READ MORE

To all of our Champion Pan-Africanists who were & are the bridge over the troubled waters of the Atlantic, We Celeberate You & Vow to Keep the Spirits Alive! REST IN POWER QUEEN ABBEY LINCOLN!

The beat has a rich & magnificent history full of adventure excitement & mystery some of it bitter & some of it sweet but all of it part of the beat…the beat..the beat…they say it began with a chant & a hum & a black hand laid on a native drum……Bantu, Zulu, Watusi, Ashanti……

FREEDOM DAY!

I recently read an article speaking on the importance of Black Americans in particular to attain passports. This to me should be taken figuratively & literally because the American passport is by far the holy grail of passports because it allows you more free range without visas or the possibility of being rejected for a visa to many parts of the world  that many others in the world do not have free range & such easy access to & America itself is by far one of the most diverse nations on earth if one wants to have a global experience within their own borders outside of looking for it on the pages of Vogue & many other magazines that do not reflect that diversity. We often overlook all this in the limitations we put on ourselves, our  imaginations, our dreams, our abilities & our self worth.

“My point is not to say that African Americans don’t have significant hurdles. It is to say that by giving your kids a global perspective and exposing them to a variety of cultures, you are giving them a tremendous advantage in their professional and personal lives. Every black child should get a passport, and you should demand that your children use it. The more you see of the world, the larger your world seems to be…” READ MORE

It is sad that when you look at the comment thread in the NY magazine article covering Halle Berry’s Vogue cover, we have Black people fighting with one another about how Halle Berry is not fully Black but half White, how they would have preferred  a model instead of an actress & other endless foolish distractions from the real issues of racial divisions in & outside our race that has has kept our progress stagnant for far too long locally & globally. Stop jumping up & down in celebration & shucking & jiving every time Vogue decides to throw you a bone or  being outraged  & in shock when your go to Black magazine stops representing what they promised you & recognize that this era is the era of the information super highway, an era of Global Fusion, a time when the world is literally at your fingertips where money still talks & your individual & collective spending power is worth something somewhere- so reach out to your sisters in Lagos, San Juan, Port au Prince, London, Bahia, Kingston, Marseille, Accra, Paris, Amsterdam, Dakar, Harlem, Belmopan, Georgetown,Roseau, Port of Spain, Brooklyn, Nairobi, Jo’Burg etc. & see what magazines they have to celebrate Black women & get yourself a subscription online or print. When you support these magazines & the advertisers who advertise with them with the full force  of your spending power then eventually Vogue & others will take note & if they don’t who cares because you will be too busy happily being celebrated & catered to to worry about what they are & are not doing.

Vogue’s Black issue sold more copies in Vogue’s entire global history, to a point where it kept selling out & had to be re-issued about 2-3 different times to meet the demand for the very first time, but that wasn’t enough to show the relevance of the buying power  & support of  Black people enough to even have maybe 3 covers out of the 12 months in a year or to be included in editorial pages every other issue . Yes it got us a nice little website linked to Vogue Italia to make us  feel included & appeased for the moment, but not worthy enough to have a print magazine dedicated to global blackness in the form of Vogue Africa even though multiple European & Asian editions were quick to be introduced without any proven history of  audience buying power. The usual excuse used by Vogue & others is that Black covers & Black models don’t sell, but even when that myth is debunked they refuse to  accept the facts, so why keep throwing these celebratory parties as if there is progress being made instead of just patronizing gestures of inclusion? We’ve shown our buying power & debunked the usual excuses for exclusion, so what more is there to be done than to take our dollars & celebration to those who truly appreciate & respect it beyond patronizing gestures?

Black consumers keep falling for the cattle call to run & buy it each & every time to show their buying power as Vogue with ad sales down 36% without any Black inclusion laughs all the way to the bank using Black consumers to get in the BLACK literally & figuratively, while leaving our feelings hurt as they enjoy the spoils & go back to business as usual until the next time they need to get back in the Black. The deepest irony is that with all the current uproar & protest over Essence hiring a white fashion director many will refuse to buy their 40th Anniversary September issue, but will give their dollars to Vogue for having a Black woman on its coveted September cover without even thinking twice that Vogue has done more of a disservice to Black women in how they have thumbed their nose at Black inclusion more than Essence has ever done. No matter how insensitive & deplorable Essence’s decision maybe, they still employ more Black people than Vogue ever will, so think about that before you spend your hard earned dollars on Vogue’s September cattle call for the Black $. Wake Up Black People! There is a difference between being exploited & being celebrated! Vogue is not your Master Black Fashionistas -get over it , move on, explore & start your own liberation & celebration in Haute Couture! The Place is now the Time Is Here!

“Instead of the issue not selling, it became the highest selling issues of Italian Vogue ever, and had run out of print twice, which marked the first time in Condé Nast history that the magazine reprinted an issue to satisfy demand. The reprinted copies had the tag lines: “Most Wanted Issue Ever” and “First Reprint” banded across the front. However, even though the advertising pages went up 30 percent. There was a “glaring lack of black models” in them. The photographer for the issue Steven Meisel, said: “I’ve asked my advertising clients so many times, ‘Can we use a black girl?’ They say no. Advertisers say black models don’t sell.” With the immense success of this issue, the question isn’t is America ready for a black model, it is now are magazines and advertisers ready for one?” read more

These are some of  my favorite global magazines celebrating Black women from Europe to Africa & points in between -Tell me what are yours?

I have always understood that Jamaicans are descendants of enslaved Africans from West Africa & Ghana in particular, but I never realized just how similar our roots run hundreds of years after slavery. As Brazilians in Salvador de Bahia keep the Yoruba roots of tradition & language alive in modern day Brazil, Jamaican Maroons keep the Akan traditions & language alive in modern day Jamaica.

When Jamaica’s native son Marcus Garvey shouted for Global Africans to return to Africa, many chanted Haile Selassie I & found home  & Rastafari roots in Ethipoia while many others celebrated Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah & found freedom in Ghana. Today’s Ghana boast a significant Jamaican community brought & empowered by Rita Marley & the memory & foundation of Bob Marley & Marcus Garvey. Jamaicans & native Ghanaian Rastas have created their own governing & financial empowerment council that boasts a credit union called the black star line catering to the financial empowerment needs of Rastafarians in Ghana.

When you walk around Ghana you see Jamaica, from reggae music, to dreadlocks & the culture of Rastafari. I had heard about the Kromanti/Kramanti language in Jamaica which was supposed to sound similar to the Akan languages of Ghana, but I became a true believer when I heard it spoken & found many similar words in Ghanaian Akan languages. Jamaicans like Brazilians have never denied their African roots, but have rather embraced it & used it as a sense of power in knowing who they are & where they came from beyond Jamaica’s sugar cane plantations. With more & more talk amongst African nations about offering our Diasporan brothers & sisters free visas & dual citizenships to come back home to their ancestral roots, perhaps we will all get to learn more about our distant relatives.

Many Africans & Diasporans did not know of Haiti’s history of successful slave rebellion which led them to independence in 1804  even before slavery was abolished in 1807 until the earthquake that brought Haiti new found global press & historical interest, just as many do not know that Jamaican Maroons had their own successful slave rebellion to freedom 50 years before slavery was abolished & long before Toussaint L’Ouverture brought Saint-Domingue out of the the shackles of the French & renamed the new land of freed slaves,Haiti. The Maroons of Jamaica have been able to keep their identity & autonomy not only from their former slave masters, but also within Jamaica even til today.  The Maroons’ largest town Accompong even has a similar name to Ghana’s Akropong-which is home to one of Ghana’s oldest tribes, the Akuapims & both are ironically located in the hills/mountains of their individual nations. We can not wait nor allow others to tell us our history & to give it to us in small increments as they see fit when knowledge is power & information is available if we truly seek to be empowered by knowledge .

“I raved about how much African aesthetic is infused into Jamaican life. You’d think I was visiting the island for the first time, even though I was born here and have barely set foot anywhere else since that sun-hot Wenesday in 1972…The thing is this; African retentions in our culture sometimes get compartmentalized and thought of in ways that seem distant. Yes, over 90% of Jamaicans are black and are direct desendants of the people who came from West Africa, so when we look at each other we see our ancestry…” READ MORE

I remember the first time I went to Jamaica right out of college & met up with two Rasta men who befriended me & took care of me & my friend as community elders do in Ghana. The moment they heard I was from Ghana , I automatically became family & was blessed with eating the best jerk chicken I have ever tasted in my entire life even until today. I have eaten a lot of jerk chicken in Jamaica & other places in the world, but this was hands down the best because from the smell, to the serving of it, to the taste, you could see & feel that it came from the love of family in the way that a home cooked meal outshines even the best highly trained chef.

I did not understand back then why these two grown men were so fascinated with asking me every question possible about Ghana & why their desire to go there was so strong until many years later when I witnessed the Jamaican community & influence in Ghana & saw the love that Ghanaians, particularly the youth gave to Jamaican artists who visited & Jamaican citizens who returned back to Ghana to stay because these Ghanaian youth were just as enamored by them & wanted to know everything possible about them & our mutual ancestral global connection. It was truly as Nas & Damian “Junior Gong” Marley put it, distant relatives reuniting on two sides of the Atlantic & getting to know one another again. From Marley, to Tosh, to Sizzla, to Junior Reid, to Buju,  to the new generation Marley, Africa & Ghana in particular has always been in the forefront of their life never to take a backseat in heritage or unity! Akwaaba as we continue to keep it strictly Roots!

Nanny of the Maroons (circa 1700 – 1750), freedom fighter and hero.. READ MORE

With confidence & a plan anything can happen! Bunmi Olaye, the Nigerian born English designer of the Bunmi Koko label is the embodiment of that truth to power as she took the initiative toward her dreams instead of waiting for her dreams to come to her. She is not only the recipient of the ‘2010 International Emerging Designer of the Year given at the highly praised African Fashion Week in Johannesburg, South Africa, but also counts former Spice Girl Mel B. as the official spokesmodel for her collection , Nelson Mandela’s wife Graça Machel as a fan & there are rumors that Michelle Obama is a fan as well.  The entrepreneurial sense of Africans is innate & the hustle is immeasurable. All over the world we make due & leave our mark. We congratulate Bunmi Olaye on leaving her mark!

“Breaking into an industry as cutthroat and fickle as the competitive world of fashion was never going to be easy but the rise to prominence of a young fashion design graduate from West Africa via East London shows that, with talent, a stroke of luck and a contact as highly placed as Nelson Mandela or Michelle Obama, anything is possible.” READ MORE

“Bunmi Olaye, 27, who runs Bunmi Koko with her partner Francis Udom, was given the honour after sending a prospectus of her designs to the White House. Ms Olaye, whose company is based in Plaistow, first gained national exposure when former Spice Girl Melanie Brown asked her to make her a dress for this year’s Brit Awards. Pictures of the singer wearing the dress alongside former bandmate Geri Halliwell featured in newspapers the following day…Ms Olaye said: “It has been a really good relationship. Because of all the exposure we got, we’ve had a lot of interest from other people in the celebrity world.” READ MORE

“Bunmi’s collection, inspired by the mysterious, men-only Leopard Masquerade cult of the Efik tribe in the Nigerian province of Calabar, mixed with references to the high-collars, tight waists and voluminous sleeves of the Victorian era, was the “star” of the University of East London’s catwalk show..” READ MORE