If this isn’t the time for the legacy of Fela Anikulapo Kuti to shout out Africa for Africa & to come out of Africa With Fury & Rise, then I don’t know when it will ever be the right time for the the Kalakuta Republic’s heirs, Seun Anikulapo & Femi Kuti to make like generation Marley & keep the Afrobeat name & legacy forever in a global fusion expansion that credits their father & carries on a legacy for many generations to come. This my friends is the difference between riches & wealth! Riches can always be taken away, but wealth is forever!

What the world  & generations over know as Reggae can never be separated from the name Bob Marley & Bob Marley can never be separated from Reggae ! What the world & generations over know as Afrobeat can never be separated from Fela Kuti  & Fela Kuti can never be separated from Afrobeat . From  Kingston to Lagos the roots of global  soul continues to grow & rise in its exclusively inclusive formations!

“Afrobeat has to go from stage to studio, not studio to stage,” he says.  “I don’t believe in going into the studio to write songs.  You create music in the world, outside, in the environment.  You create music with nature, not in the studio.  You go to the studio to record, that’s it.  Music created in the studio is commercial music, music that only wants to sell, that has nothing to do with the world.”..Read More

“At the time I made the album, I felt Africa was losing its grip on the issue of Africa,” he says. “We are getting to where we are not addressing the main problems in Africa and I wanted Africans to focus on what our true issues are. We are forgetting that Africa is really a colonial structure at this point. We are forgetting our history, forgetting our brothers and sisters. And we need to care. I was thinking about the war in Rwanda,” he continues. “When they told us about that, I didn’t know about anything. The national media was not informing the rest of Africa. They did not tell me in Nigeria. CNN was not telling me what was going on. So as Africans we don’t care about Africa. We need to care..” Read More

I see Ziggy & Femi reflected through Stephen & Seun as they pass the baton of the legacy to a new generation upholding the heart, movements & spirit of Bob & Fela! Seun Kuti & Stephen Marley represent the new generation global fusionist, eerily authentic in the sound & experience of their father’s words & soul with a re-evolution that says this time we’re going to get it right because their elder brothers before them embraced being their brother’s keeper & having Africa for Africa. The legacy of the M.OP. came to CONQUER Not to Bow & they used music as a weapon because once it hits you, you feel no pain.

Seun continues to show his endless & effortless global reach with his new project with famed DJ/Producer- Gilles Peterson. Damn Gilles Peterson your music just turns me on….don’t hurt em’…I am loving the tracks ..”U got me feeling like …breath”! Thanks for taking us all worldwide!

As our Cuban & Malian brothers said in the documentary AfroCubism “La Musica Es Universal..no tiene frontera…Music Is Universal..It Has No Boundaries” – Eliades Ochao guitarist/vocalist, Musician/Cuban/global fusionist

“Music is its own language..I say it’s “music” that we speak in this project” -La musique est sa propre langue .. je dis que c’est”musique”que nous parlons dans ce projet“

Toumani Diabte -Musician/Artist/Kora player/Malian/Global Fusionist

Support our global African musical legacies & global fusions…support the new generations of musical greatness..Generation Marley..Generation Kuti…this summer will surely be filled with global African musical brilliance with all these new works coming out right in time for the global African re-evolution of the revolution!! It’s Time for us All To Wake Up!

“Over the course of a one-hour interview, Seun Kuti talks – engagingly, entertainingly, animatedly, often hilariously – about a range of subjects. He talks about religion (“Do I believe in God? Of course not! Don’t be stupid!”), about his love of Arsenal (“We need a few taller players”), about working with Brian Eno (“A musical genius. He is not Brian Eno for nothing”), about spending time in Paris (“Can I speak French? Not much. Enough for the ladies”), and about events in the Middle East (“The west will make fools of themselves in Libya, mark my words”)….He also, inevitably, talks about his father. Seun (pronounced Shay-oon, an abbreviation of Oluseun), is the youngest son of the late, great Fela Kuti, and the one seen as Fela’s anointed successor. He first guested on stage with his father aged eight (at the Harlem Apollo, of all places) and inherited Fela’s Egypt 80 big band at the age of 14 when his father died.” READ MORE

“The wind of change is blowing through this continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact, and our national policies must take account of it.”...READ MORE

Africans Must Love Africa..Africa For Africa Is The Way!!!

“Fela has risen again. FELA! cast member Abena Koomson wrote in again from Lagos, where the performances have officially begun with a first show at Fela’s New Afrika Shrine. She emailed this skin-tingling report:

“The performance at the Shrine was unbelievable. It felt like that performance was the sole reason why this play was every created: to pay homage to Fela in his home, to give an offering and to receive a blessing. It’s such a remarkable thing that the entire Broadway cast had a chance to experience it. I was talking to Femi (Kuti) backstage during one of our rehearsals and he was wowed. He said first of all, that the Shrine audience does not clap. That he had never seen that happen. And even during our rehearsals we were getting uproarious applause. By the time we got to the actual tribute, it was tenfold. The people I talked to were proud of us. It was a homecoming.” READ MORE

GENERATION NEXT :FUTURE LEGENDS OF LEGACY

It seems Nina Simone’s words “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times. how can you be an artist & not reflect the times?”,  needs to be heralded more than ever because there are way too many stories that are not being told. The world is in a massive mash up of class wars globally, being turned into racial, religious & regional wars. Our leaders have become unaccountable for their treacherous treasonous actions against we the people, we the everyday citizens of  nations, we who they call their own people, as the people bare the brunt of the suffering from their lies & deeds for greed & power masked in the tainted cloak of freedom & democracy.

We need a generation of artists who speak for the people as their mouth piece to let the world know the global trials & tribulations of the everyday man that you may not see or hear in the propaganda that is fed to the people to pacify them in complacency. Stephen Marley is surely one of those artists who will lead us & the music back to conciousness. How many artists in good times & bad times will stand up & offer up their homes to bailout their felow man? So many have lost the spirit of botherhood , but there are so many more of us who will not let the world  forget our humanity. Bob Marley’s seeds will continue to plant trees of righteousness & humanity.

There is a global need for our artists to become a reflection of the times in enlightening, educating & mobilizing the people to true peaceful revolution. None but ourselves can free our minds! Where are our Bob Marleys, Nina Simones, Marvin Gayes, Peter Toshs, John Lennons & Buju Bantons to take the baton in taking the music to new heights..the world needs them more than ever now to tell those often UNTOLD STORIES…

May the roots soul & power of Buju’s Maroon ancestors guide & protect him through his current tribulation! I hope we all take heed to the the lyrics of the 3 songs below, Destiny, Politics Time Again & Untold Stories- as we go through our global massive tribulations in making sure that the truth about our untold stories see the light of day!

Verse 1:
The rich man’s wealth is in the city
Destruction of the poor is his poverty
Destruction of your soul is vanity
Do you hear
I and I, I wanna rule my destiny
I and I, I wanna rule my destiny

Chorus:
Destiny, mama look from when you call me
Destiny, mama look from when you calling
I wanna rule my destiny
yeah, yeah oh help I please Jah Jah mek mi rule

Verse 2:
I’ve been blessed I’ve been touch
I love Jah so much
They keep fighting me I’m not giving up
May the realms of Zion fill my spiritual cup
Wisdom overstanding can never be too much
Give I protection Day and night

Chorus:
Cast away their cords from us
you have them in the region in the valley of decision
Restraining the heathen with a rod of iron
you know not the destiny of a next man
Why hold him set him free too long

Verse 3:
My destination is homeward bound
Though force try to hold I down
Breaking chains has become the norm
I know I must get through no matter what a gwaan

Why my people suffer so bad ?
Who is it that should really be sad ?
Is it… Is it the misplaced melancholic ?
Whoa…

[Chorus:]
Well is’t politics time again
Are you gonna vote now ?
My people you ah talk
It’s politics time again
Are you gonna vote now ?

My god…

[Verse 1:]
Rise up falling suffer
Rise and take your stands again
He who fights and run away
Will live to fight another day

[Chorus]

Make love and not war

[Verse 2:]
It’s the time to duty
Haffi see the chance to vote
Fire bun dem constitution
Long time we need ah choose
Fed up with promises
And hopeless hope
Why the box must be empty
For those clothes
No one harm no one
True the color of the clothes, now
But some just plain greedy
No matter how we teach them
For get easy… yaw

[Chorus]

It’s the rasta them talkin’
New gear, new gear

[Verse 3:]
Bloodshed…
From rema-a-and
Down in the valley
Can them hear ya-a-ah
Crack down…
(it’s) Has become ah gunman compound
Now bless all people who has seen this shit
Lord
Dem cry reliclesly yeah
You keep on moving
Every minute every hour
Gunshot fall like shower
Whoa like new clear power

[Chorus]

[Verse 4:]
And the likkle want, we want
And the likkle preach, we preach
Selcter buzz thier big on the street, lord
Kill people
What dem really seek?
Who is it that I man speaking?
Who is it that is controlin’ the system?
Three parties and I’m not dancing
Who is it then?
Who is she then?
Now who is the Mr. In?
Yeah, it is the pain time
Again now… Whoo

[Chorus]

[Verse 5:]
Everything race
But we won’t live in fret
But the air we breath becomes thick with dead
Then we know Jah ah guide
We will never fret
When ever you ready ready
No more sparge
Whenever you light or heavy
Ah pure respect, lord lord lord lord
Now war, now war

While I’m Living
Thanks I’ll Be Giving
To the Most High You know,

[Chorus: ]
I am living while I am living to the father I will pray
Only he knows how we get through everyday
With all the hike in the price
Arm and leg we have to pay
While our leaders play

[Verse 1:]
All I see people a rip and a rob and a grab
Tief never love fe see tief wid long bag
No love for the people who a suffer real bad
Another toll to the poll may God help we soul
What is to stop the youths from get out of control
Full up of education yet no own no payroll
The clothes on my back have countless eyehole.
I could go on and on the full has never been told

[Repeat Chorus]

[Verse 2:]
Who can afford to run will run
But what about those who can’t…they will have to stay
Opportunity a scarce, scarce commodity
In these times I say… When mama spend her last and send you go class
Never you ever play
It’s a competitive world for low budget people,
Spending a dime while earning a nickel
With no regards to who it may tickle
My cup is full to the brim
I could go on and on the full has never been told

[Repeat Chorus]

[Verse 3:]
All I see people a rip and a rob and a grab
Tief never love fe see tief wid long bag
No love for the people who a suffer real bad
Another toll to the poll may God help we soul
What is to stop the youths from get out of control
Full up of education yet no own no payroll
The clothes on my back have countless eyehole
Could go on and on and the full has never been told
(On and On)
Though this life keep getting me down
Don’t give up now
Got to survive somehow
Could go on and on and the full has never been told

[Repeat Chorus]

[Verse 4:]
Who can afford to run will run
But what about those who can’t…they will have to stay
Opportunity a scarce, scarce commodity
In these times I say… When mama spend her last and send you go class
Never you ever play
It’s a competitive world for low budget people,
Spending a dime while earning a nickel
With no regards to who it may tickle
My cup is full to the brim
I could go on and on the full has never been told
I could go on and on the full has never been told
I could go on and on the full has never been told
I could go on and on the full has never been told
I could go on and on the full has never been told
I could go on and on the full has never been told
I could go on and on….
The full has never….

Been…..
Toooooold.
SOURCE :Lyrics on Demand

“The opening shot of the film will feature a tour of Cape Coast Castle, a fortification in Ghana that contains the infamous “Door of No Return” through which many Africans passed before being shipped into slavery. I want to suggest the idea that his ancestors passed through this door and that his music is trying to come home again spiritually, psychologically, politically…He’s universally revered and looked up to as an inspiration. But we’ve never seen anything that gets to the root of who he is as a man..The aim of making any film about the artist is to get people to go back to the music” READ MORE

Jamaica & Ghana have a special bond in history that still prevails in modern day Jamaica through the kept cultural heritage of Jamaican Maroons, so I am not at all surprised, but I am overjoyed & enthusiastically awaiting not only the opening scene of the life story of global musical legend Bob Marley that will start with the opening scene in my homeland of Ghana, but also waiting to learn more about the beautiful mystery that was & is Bob Marley. Bob Marley made his love for Africa & his determination to do more in & for Africa very clear after his Zimbabwe concert tour.

Bob Marley’s wife, Rita Marley has kept that promise of his legacy alive  as a humanitarian & resident of Ghana, West Africa for the past decade & has even gone as far as to build a modern day Ghanaian solar powered version of the legendary Studio One, the Kingston,Jamaica recording studio that was responsible for Jamaica’s musical legends like Bob Marley. Not only has Rita Marley kept Bob Marley’s link & fire burning in Africa, but she has clearly passed the torch onto the Marley children who keep Africa in their hearts & lyrics. Not only did the Marley family come together in Ethiopia to celebrate Bob Marley with the Africa Unite concert, but Damian “Junior Gong” Marley got together with Nas on the critically acclaimed “Distant Relatives” project to specifically take it back to Africa, to unite & pay homage to the roots of not only the Black Diaspora but humankind.  A film on Bob Marley’s life has been long awaited by his legions of global fans spanning multiple generations & what better way to look into the life, the man, the father, the husband,the artist & the prophet than by starting off from the roots! Yes Iyah- We Await Your Return!

STUDIO ONE IN THE AKAUPIM MOUNTAINS OF GHANA

“Making a movie about Bob Marley hasn’t been easy. A Martin Scorsese attempt failed. So did one from Jonathan Demme. Now producers of a new documentary about the Jamaican reggae pioneer confirm that Kevin Macdonald is directing the film, a point that had been rumored online since the fall. The director has secured permission of the Marley family and will be free to include material from the archives of the spiritual-minded singer-songwriter…”READ MORE

update
“Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to Marley, the first documentary about iconic musician Bob Marley made with the support of the Marley family. The film will open in theaters and on VOD and digital platforms April 20, after its world premiere at the Berlin film festival. VH1 also has partnered to license the first TV window of the film as part of its Rock Doc franchise.” READ MORE

When Bob Marley sang “I’m a soul rebel”, he literally meant it in the fact that his early recordings with the Wailers leaned toward the sound of Soul, Jazz,Blues & Ska more reminiscent of the heyday of Motown or better yet the 1960’s heyday of UK’s Skinhead culture of music & style, more than the classic reggae sound & style that he popularized globally. From is low cut pre-dreadlocks hair to the staple black suit & tie uniform reminiscent of The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight & the Pips & Little Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley & the original Wailers band was Jamaica’s classic soul group.

Most people have no idea about Bob Marley’s early recordings which brought out the bluesy Al Green type of hot like fire gritty soul in his angelically powerful voice. Yes yall, Bob Marley was a blues & soul singer who introduced the world to Reggae music much like Fela Kuti was a Hi-Life musician who introduced the world to Afro-beat. If you don’t already know, get to know Bob Marley & The Wailers early soul recordings at Studio 1 because you will find yourself falling in love with the man named Robert Nester Marley in a whole new way. Bless Up!

“Skinhead is a member of a subculture that originated among working class youths in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, and then spread to other parts of the world. Named for their close-cropped or shaven heads, the first skinheads were greatly influenced by West Indian (specifically Jamaican) rude boys and British mods, in terms of fashion, music andlifestyle. Originally, the skinhead subculture was primarily based on those elements, not politics or race. Since then, however, attitudes toward race and politics have become factors by which some skinheads align themselves…” READ MORE

“I don’t have prejudice against meself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don’t dip on nobody’s side. Me don’t dip on the black man’s side nor the white man’s side. Me dip on God’s side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.…” READ MORE

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 Ethiopia 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

“life is one big road with lots of signs so when u riding thru the ruts don’t u complicate ur mind..wake up & live y’all -wake up & live now..rise oh rise mighty people ..wake up & live”

Billions have been raised so far in charitable donations for Haiti, but more & more Haitians are dying every day after surviving being buried alive in years of poverty & the rubble of the earthquake, having only their sheer will to live to hold onto. International bureaucracy & power struggles of people with invested interest more in economy than humanity is becoming the continued cause of many Haitians being handed their final death certificates.

We need to be diligent & aware about keeping up with who is controlling the purse strings of all the humanitarian aid & the future sovereignty of Haiti. We can raise all the money we want to help Haiti, but Haiti will still be in the same condition & possibly worse, with an achieved loss of sovereignty if Haitians & Pan-Africanists at large do not come to the aid of their brothers & sisters in attaining & retaining economic empowerment & sovereignty. We have seen throughout the history of the world that a nation’s power & health rests upon its economic power & health; however for many African nations & Diasporans, genuinely fighting to attain this reality has been less & less of a priority because it has been easier & less work to collect foreign aid in return for resources, to leave the health & upliftment from poverty of their citizens to NGO’s & to just silently exist without much fight nor change within broken systems of governance, as long as the few in power continue to hold their titles as beneficiaries.

“Something in the nature of an economic revolution is required. Our development has been held back for too long by the colonial-type economy. We need to reorganize entirely, so that each country can specialize in producing the goods and crops for which it is best suited…..We have the blessing of the wealth of our vast resources, the power of our talents and the potentialities of our people. Let us grasp now the opportunities before us and meet the challenge to our survival. ” Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s First President

We need to be diligent about not turning a blind eye to where all the Haitian relief funds are going when there are so many still begging & waiting for relief. Where is all that money being allocated to? Who is watching over the money & making the decisions on how it is spent? These are the questions we should never stop asking as we give of ourselves in charity because what is the point of charity when the situation of the people is never helped, but rather seems to get worse than better? This is the question we should be asking the Red Cross & the 10,000 + NGO/charities that were in Haiti prior to the quake & the numerous more that are in Haiti now.

“We shall measure our progress by the improvement in the health of our people; by the number of children in school, and by the quality of their education; by the availability of water and electricity in our towns and villages, and by the happiness which our people take in being able to manage their own affairs. The welfare of our people is our chief pride, and it is by this that my Government will ask to be judged.” Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

February honors Black History month in America- we should not & can not allow the history of Black people throughout Africa & her Diaspora to be written in the same way in the next decade as it has been written in the past because that only will show the lack of forward movement & the acceptance of stagnation amongst Black people globally. If this decade is going to be diffrent than the last decade for Haiti & Black people globally, then we must recognize our common struggle, the same struggle that became the catalyst for the movement of Pan-Africanism.

We need this new decade to be a revival of Pan-Africanism with new, young, intelligent, concerned, enlightened, awake, aware, unabashed,unbought, unbossed, pride filled Black people in the likeness of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, W.E.B Dubois, Jomo Kenyatta, Marcus Garvey,Patrice Lumumba, Edward Wilmot Blyden, Ahmed Sékou Touré ,Gamal Abd El Nasser,Haile Selassie,Bob Marley, Fela Anikulapo Kuti etc. -everyday people turned leaders who knew,understood & accepted that although they have been spread all over the world, their legacy empowerment & economic freedom is intertwined in the legacy, empowerment & economic freedom of Africa-the spiritual birthplace of home. The type of feeling of home where one always comes back to pay homage while seeking the guidance & comfort of mama Africa’s bosom -the only true mother of our blood & roots regardless of our adopted mother nations.

There are the Kimmie Weeks of Africa & the Wyclef Jean’s of the Diaspora, who need to join forces with the likes of people like Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah, daughter of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who has decided to take on the mantle of her father by starting a new intelligent revolution toward real resolution. There needs to be a new era/new decade of Pan-Africanism with a Pan-African summit based on the original teachings & goals of empowerment & health through our collective economic freedom at the forefront.

“She is emerging as the new face of the current crop of selfless continental African leaders who think more about the development and prosperity of sub-Saharan Africa, first and foremost than looting from the continent.” Ghanaweb.com.

Sami Nkrumah & the growing crop of new thinkers & leaders are the only way to make this new decade, a decade where Africa & the Diaspora truly gets our house in order in efforts to write our own history in the manner that we would like to be recognized & heralded. We can’t rest on touting the legacy & greatness of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah or Toussaint L’Ouverture when there has been little to no forward movement created by the generations after them, in terms of the level of global respect & conditions of Africans & her Diasporans.

“Achieving political and economic liberation, social justice and national and continental unity including the African Diaspora are yet to be realized.” Samia Nkrumah

Pan-African movement
“Movement dedicated to establishing independence for African nations and cultivating unity among black people throughout the world. It originated in conferences held in London (1900, 1919, 1921, 1923) and other cities. W.E.B. Du Bois was a principal early leader. The important sixth Pan-African conference (Manchester, 1945) included Jomo Kenyatta and Kwame Nkrumah. The first truly intergovernmental conference was held in Accra, Ghana, in 1958, where Patrice Lumumba was a key speaker. The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) was founded by Robert M. Sobukwe and others in South Africa in 1959 as a political alternative to the African National Congress, which was seen as contaminated by non-African influences. The founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU; now the African Union) by Julius Nyerere and others in 1963 was a milestone, and the OAU soon became the most important Pan-Africanist organization.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60U0IV20100131

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/haiti/story/1455459.html

http://mashable.com/2010/01/13/haiti-red-cross-donations/

http://open.salon.com/blog/ezili_danto/2009/10/13/oil_in_haiti_-_economic_reasons_for_the_unus_occupation

“When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.” — Jomo Kenyatta, Pan-Africanist & first president of Kenya

“It is said, of course that we have no capital, no industrial skill, no communications, no internal markets, and that we cannot even agree among ourselves how best to utilize our resources for our own social needs…Yet all the stock exchanges in the world are pre-occupied with Africa’s gold, diamonds, uranium, platinum, copper and iron ores. Our CAPITAL flows out in streams to irrigate the whole system of Western economy. Fifty-two per cent of the gold in Fort Knox at this moment, where the USA stores its bullion, is believed to have originated from OUR shores. Africa provides more than 60 per cent of the world’s gold. A great deal of the uranium for nuclear power, of copper for electronics, of titanium for supersonic projectiles, of iron and steel for heavy industries, of other minerals and raw materials for lighter industries – the basic economic might of the foreign Powers – comes from OUR continent.” Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

http://ghanaianoracle.wordpress.com/the-history-of-ghana/

The Achievements and Failures of President Kwame Nkrumah
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/history/cia_nkrumah.php

Richard Helms (CIA) file on Nkrumah
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/history/cia_nkrumah.php

“Countrymen, the task ahead is great indeed, and heavy is the responsibility; and yet it is a noble and glorious challenge – a challenge which calls for the courage to dream, the courage to believe, the courage to dare, the courage to do, the courage to envision, the courage to fight, the courage to work, the courage to achieve – to achieve the highest excellencies and the fullest greatness of man. Dare we ask for more in life? ”
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah -Address to the National Assembly. 12 June 1965

Happy New Year Globalnistas & Global Fusionistas!
Salute 2 a New Decade & New Beginnings! AFIHYIA PA , felice anno nuovo, gelukkige nuwe jaar, Boldog Új Évet!, an nou fericit, سنة جديدة سعيدة, glückliches Neues Jahr, ハッピーニューイヤー, manigong bagong taon, feliz año nuevo , Καλή Χρονιά, feliz ano novo etc.! Let’s Conspire Globally for ONE LOVE-LET’S GO!

10 Years Later How Far Have We Come-New Decade, New Beginning 2 Get It Right!

http://www.economist.com/theworldin/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14742683

The ultimate power of the world wide web for Africa & her descendants is that it allows us to be able to interact globally & to closely see that the fight for mental emancipation & renewed dignity is not a battle for Africans alone, but rather a collective battle being waged on Africa & all of her descendants spread throughout the world. The degradation of Africa & her descendants continues in the world economy, in media, in sport & in the everyday lives of those who carry the brand of slavery so deeply that the power of mental slavery has sustained a bondage that has not superseded nor reconciled with physical emancipation. I read the note below on “Zwarte Piet” posted by Simone from Amsterdam, discussing the continuation of images of degradation of the descendants of slaves in the Netherlands by utilizing the same formula with new/old names in the same Black face for the pursuit of entertainment, greed & power by those whose livelihood & existence depend on these images of degradation to exist.

With all the renewed interest in Africa & her resources to power & empower the world’s economy, I am hoping we have awaken from our slumber, learned from the past & CHOOSE to not repeat the parts of history that has failed Africa & Africans globally for generations. First, we actually have to acknowledge the mistakes & reconcile with the past. We must be able to say “never again” & truly mean it, not only in words but through action- talk, talk, talk & apologies can longer suffice! The resurrection from mental enslavement & lost dignity of Africa & her descendants is riding on having a good outcome with this new lure of Africa & everything/everyone African.

Simone Zeefuik: Zwarte Piet –or- How a huge clan of Dutch folks continuously keeps losing their mind (part 2)

Why are people still talking about Zwarte Piet?” For me this question is so far beyond any form of common sense that for a split second it gave me hope. The hope that in that one day I didn’t read the paper it finally happened. Oh joy! Could it be that while I was working on my Free Zwarte Piet!-article the blackface-lovers finally manned up to their madness and collectively said ‘NO!’ to Holland’s longest running minstrel show? Ofcourse not. Nothing changed but this maggot, whose anonymity is solely based on the fact that she doesn’t deserves to be acknowledged, felt the need to question the relevance of the problem we call Piet.

Apparently when it comes to ignorance the possibilities of arrogance are infinite. Let’s break it down to the point that even the lazy can just sniff it up and hallucinate their way to an epiphany. Until people stop singing songs with lyrics like: “Eventhough I’m black as soot I mean well” and “Sinterklaas please come in with your servant” it’s relevant. Until the magic chimney allows white folks to act like they’re auditioning for Bamboozled II it’s relevant. When a white kid points at a Black person and calls him or her Zwarte Piet you can just see the kid’s parents dying of embarrassment. Unless those parents can stand there with there heads high and that “Now what?!” look on their face you know our issue is relevant..

That inglorious blackfaced bastard is a splinter in our eye and until we actually take it out we will keep looking for a way to get rid of it! “Madam, we know it hurts but we really need you to stop complaining about the dagger in your chest.” The longer folks keep talking the harder they will have to pray that they’re not standing too close when we finally yank out the blade.

Spread the word. FREE ZWARTE PIET!!
http://www.facebook.com/notes/simone-zeefuik/zwarte-piet-or-how-a-huge-clan-of-dutch-folks-continuously-keeps-losing-their-mi/215421582645

Bless,
Simone

I had never heard of Zwarte Peit and I just found out that Mexico has its own Zwarte Peit named Black Pedro. It seems Black face is all the rage again in entertainment for art or laughs, grabbing headlines in letting people of African descent know just how far we have not come globally. The prevalence & branding of black face globally in all its inferences & provocations all come from the same root of our global confusion within what was & is our global fusion. I knew about Uncle Ben’s, Aunt Jemima, minstrel shows & the shucking & jiving history of Black America that was used as a form of entertainment as well as a tool for marketing & advertising in the past, but never really knew that modern day minstrel shows were still being celebrated & even government sanctioned globally. Even today there are many blatant & covert forms of new era minstrel shows utilized as a global publicity campaign in the showcasing of Black contribution to the world, often brought about or assisted by our own self-imposed bondage of mental slavery & loss of dignity.

African descendants rally against the institutionalized implications of Black face in some instances while perpetuating it in other instances. At a time when the entire world seems to once again be looking to Africa for its resources, we really need to reconcile with the transatlantic slave trade & its global fall out, which in one way or the other still holds its tight grip on the continuation of lost dignity & mental enslavement amongst African descendants globally. We continue to sit aside & accept the foolishness without question because of the loss of dignity that breeds helplessness in our situation. When one is fighting for their daily bread, often there is no energy left to seek education, to get political or to question their condition, but at some point we have to uprise & up-lift through the leadership of people like Harriet Tubman, who gave her fellow slaves no choice in the pursuit & right to their freedom! I was just watching a documentary on the Brazilians of African decent (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZctDfysuhg), the words that captured me the most was when the commentators said:

“The brand of slavery remains so deeply etched in the memory of Black people that even today shanty town dwellers rarely question their lot, rarely challenge their role at the bottom of Brazilian society. Driven by the demands of daily survival, few Blacks in the favelas have time for political
organizations.”

I am sure the slave owners couldn’t believe their own power & bravado in being able to control millions of able bodied strong men & their entire families just thru the bondage of mental enslavement & lost of dignity. They must have had a laugh in the fact that in reality their slaves had full control over their entire livelihood & life as they knew it -without them -no money, no enterprise, no one to run the house, no one to raise their children to be obedient & fearful of power, while showing them the advantages of drunken power, which they would eventually inherent as their birth right in the enslavement of the children of the slaves who raised them to become their children’s masters. Even today many of those in power who are considered amongst “the haves” completely fall apart without their black & brown nannies at their beck & call to maintain house & home. These nannies much like the mammies of old often make the ultimate sacrifice which keeps them away from their own duties of keeping their own house & home in order, leaving yet another generation to be checked in the category of Zwarte Peits & “have nots”.

The slave masters were probably dumbfounded about how long it took for the slaves to realize that they cleaned, organized & controlled the libraries of their master’s households, so if the day came when they decided to open those books & become mentally emancipated with revived dignity, the gig would be up! They would lose their livelihoods & even their lives because nothing could be more dangerous or feared than a self aware, confident & educated Negro; therefore they had to do everything possible to maintain the power of mental bondage & lost dignity amongst their slaves in order to maintain their supremacy & survival!

This blueprint of drunken power from the past continues globally because for the small minority to continue their supremacy, they must maintain a large majority with eyes wide shut in lost dignity & with no hope in mental emancipation that can catalyze an uprising for true mental, physical & economic emancipation! From slavery, to the holocaust, to Jim Crowe, to apartheid, to Sharia law in Sudan, to priests & prophets utilizing religion to teach & perpetuate inequality, to global corporations built on the backs of the poor without a human living wage, to the aftermath of hurricane katrina, to favelas, to ghettos globally, to Palestine, to Iran, to Mexico, to China, to North Korea, to Haiti, to Colombia, to Brazil, to Nigeria, to Jamaica, to Zimbabwe, to America, to welfare, to Dick Cheney, to haliburton, to genocides, to Idi Amin Dada, to Tony Blair, to George Bush, to Kim Il-sung, to Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, to Hitler, to Bernard Madoff, to AIG, to the world bank -same formula with the same ultimate results; just different places, faces, institutions & plays on human ignorance in the pursuit of greed + power!

It’s great to see many everyday people from Africa & her Diaspora along with artists from all genres following in the footsteps of Fela, who for love of continent, nation, music, art & CONFINDENCE in the fact that everyman/woman had a right & ability to use his/her voice in exposing the world to global injustice by exposing Africa, her conditions & conditioning -the good, the bad & the ugly! I love the entrepreneurial spirit that is rising amongst young people in Africa, who make up the majority of the continent’s population. They are finding their MIGHT through mental emancipation & uprising for dignity by utilizing their voices & organizing in the knowledge that Made in Africa shall be the ultimate in physical emancipation & re-evolution of Africa’s dignity & the dignity of her descendants globally! The blueprint started 52 years ago at Independence/ Black Star Square & erupted from Guinea to America, to Jamaica & much of the Diaspora, & now back to America in the form of Barack Obama, who is seen by many African descendants as some sort of prophecy or symbol of a new era of reconciliation in renewed dignity with a call for mental emancipation/education at the forefront of what the future will hold in the true global physical emancipation of Africa & her descendants, as well as the ultimate taboo in betrayal & disobedience of the slave owners blueprint (a Caucasian woman creating a child with an African man). Prophecy & Prayer alone without continued action, responsibility & true reconciliation can never bring true freedom!

As Jomo Kenyatta, former President of Kenya, African Nationalist and leader of the Mau Mau rebel group, once said:

“When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the Land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught us how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible”

Nations such as China,India, & Brazil who were once at the bottom of the global economic power structure are now being recognized as power players. Attaining power & economic freedom from the bottom up has been shown to be possible generation after generation, but do we ever learn from the past- do we ever mean it when we say “Never Again!”, or do we just continue to use the same formula of our former master’s supremacy to build upon our own supremacy?

“It has also given Brazil new swagger, providing it, for instance, with greater leverage to push for a tougher bargain with the United States and Europe in global trade talks. After seven years, those negotiations finally broke down this week over demands by India and China for safeguards for their farmers, a clear sign of the rising clout of these emerging economies.” Strong Economy Propels Brazil to World Stage By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/world/americas/31brazil.html

The scary part of all this is that many young & old Africans have no clue about their global connections nor do they relate the struggle & upliftment of descendants of slaves in the Diaspora to their own & vice versa. We don’t seem to see that as African descendants our history in its good, bad & ugly all stem from one place which globally fused us throughout the world. Black face whether in Amsterdam, Australia, London, Brazil, India, China, Mexico or Mississippi has the same root of origin as a symbol of degradation that has been made acceptable through the stripping & rewriting of history much like the word “Nigger” despite abbreviations, different languages & new reasoning. We have reasoned & found acceptance for racism & the perpetuation of racial stereotypes-self imposed or not- for basic entertainment, for sport, for art, for economics etc. thru our sense of helplessness & in the comfort & tolerance of these words & images in our everyday lives as global citizens. We have all once again as global citizens, despite our global history, become compliant in our complacency in perpetuating the ultimate PR/Marketing/Advertising campaign with images & taglines putting people of African descent in their “rightful place” as the consummate ignorant powerless workers building nations & institutions which they can never take full ownership of, or ever claim as their own -free from mental emancipation & shackled by lost dignity.

http://www.blackvoices.com/black-history-month-2009/vintage-racist-ads
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33540065/ns/entertainment-access_hollywood/

Modern Day Advertising for Sugar Across Africa

http://grammarpolice.net/archives/000717.php

From the Texas State Library and Archives Commision:
“The enslavement of African Americans was the curse of early American life, and Texas was no exception. The Mexican government was opposed to slavery, but even so, there were 5000 slaves in Texas by the time of the Texas Revolution in 1836. By the time of annexation a decade later, there were 30,000; by 1860, the census found 182,566 slaves — over 30% of the total population of the state.”

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.Freedom, Freedom, NOW, Freedom, Freedom, Now!
May God Bless You!
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

03 Place is now , time is near

Donahue Jarrett -All I’ve Got To Give -Song for the times

Beres Hammond/BUJU BANTON : Give it all you go today

Marvin Gaye: what’s going on 

 
Che Guevara Memorial video- Gil Scott Heron The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Fela Kuti: Music Is A Weapon
Anthony Hamilton’s “Cool”

Bob Marley –wake up & live

The Revolution Will Be Televised