92Y put on an excellent panel with pioneer women in television. In this day & age when we are once again debating the images of our nations globally, the words of Nichelle Nichols brought it all full circle as she described how the iconic character Uhura was devloped & how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the original trekky who kept Uhura alive  in orchestrating his dream in the image of our nation. I was mesmerized by the beauty of Nichelle Nichols, who like fine wine has grown old gracefully & beautifully. I was beyond impressed with this panel of pioneering women of television & their behind the scenes stories that add so much more  to the history & legacy that we know.

“They are the legendary women of television who strolled, sprinted, fought, laughed, cried and loved through worlds that took viewers to places past, present and future. They broke through barriers and glass ceilings to become much beloved and powerful television stars. Join 92Y as they share their compelling behind-the-scenes stories from their illustrious careers that are featured in PBS’s Pioneers of Television. Alison Stewart moderates the discussion“. via Fora.tv

Nichelle Nichols, Stephanie Powers, Linda Evans, Angie Dickinson, reminded me of  Maya Angelou’s phenomenal woman within Nina Simone’s Four women, representing the images of a nation beyond color, beyond sex & beyond fictional characters. They gave us hope, fantasy & vision in the possibilities in the freedom of powerful imagery.  As I watched these women, I wondered who are & will be the pioneers of television speaking on this panel decades from now. Will our progress be seen as going backwards or forward? These woman set forth that to whom much is given much is expected & why waste freedom in putting forth the lowest common denominators of our humanity. Each woman spoke about how they stood up for the integrity of their iconic characters- Linda Evans & Stephanie Powers fought for the image in the sanctity of solid loving marriages by refusing to be part of their characters if infidelity was scripted in &  Nichelle Nichols & Angie Dickinson stood up against doing things that were out of character for Uhura & Pepper.  I loved the joy & sisterly pride that exuded out of Angie Dickinson as she spoke of Regina’s King’s role in Southland being kin to iconic Pepper. She let out an “aww man they are great” as she spoke of the new generation of strong women characters who kick ass  as well thought out powerful characters instead of the focus just being on their beauty.

As we debate about the negative images of women & Black women in particular plaguing reality TV and the lack of substance in lead roles in films & television, these women remind us that we had & still have a voice to stand up for integrity  & to seek to be part of collaborations that showcase positive images of integrity instead of just being puppets for money. We all have a responsibility in creating the image of our nation.

I recently saw the cover of Nelson George’s upcoming film Brooklyn Boheme & just thought about the many stories of history, legacies & progress that lie behind the associations of these three men continuing the formulation of Dr. King’s dream in orchestrating the image of our nation. I thought about how through the hip-hop nation, our global connections & experiences with like minded people who may or may not look like us, but are of us as human beings who share the ideal that love is a verb in putting in the work collaboratively, as we formulate the image of the United of States of Africa, which we all as humans have interests & roots within.

There has been much talk & mediarized rhetoric led my leaders of American & European Nations who say China’s investments in Africa will lead to recolonizing Africa & how Dr. King’s statue was crafted by Chinese artist Lei Yixin, instead of an African-American one, taking away from the fact that there was a collaborative dream team of global people who brought this dream to fruition & that the face of Africa is changing in love & marriage . As our earth continues to shake us up with revolutions & quakes, Dr. King’s very image at this time reminds us all that global & local collaboration was part of the formula of Dr. King’s dream & his image for his nation.

“I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”

Today Mississippi & many nations all around the world seems to be going backward , but it is never too late to change course. Having a reminder in the symbol  & press around the monument of Dr. King being errected couldn’t have come at a better time. We need all of our Gene Roddenberrys, Lei Yixins & others all around the world collaborating with us to help see & build the image of our nation for the future.

I couldn’t help but recollected a conversation had with a friend about image, President Obama & Watch The Throne. His words rang prolifically as he mentioned how he can not see why Kanye West would ever want to be bragadocious in the friviality of the same Hollywood style materialism  & warped sense of of value in self that took his most precious gift -his mother- instead of just shunning it completely. He reminded me that Jay Z had always been about the floss & swag life & that someone who can sell crack to his people, look himself in the mirror & brag about it, lacks the conscience to care about the image of his nation, so as an OG instead of teaching his mentee to do  & be better he just teaches him to follow in his footsteps. At first I though his evaluation was a bit too harsh,  but all I could think of was “Ain’t no love in the heart of the city” & how much we do need to practice, give & receive more love in the hearts of our cities because sometimes the sensitive thugs do need hugs too. Too many cities, villages, towns & nations have lost their love for their people & humanity in general & it seems that all around the world is the same song.

My friend went on to wax poetic that as an African he had seen many Black presidents, so seeing President Obama’s rise to the presidency didn’t have the same all encompassing dream realized effect on him as others based solely on his Blackness, and that rather his actions spoke volumes to him as an African because he watched the first Black president of the United States make his first order as commander in chief  be the murder of Africans in Somalia when other nations in the same predicament refused to call for their murder & he watched as the same president led the way with NATO in moving to topple the Gaddafi presidency & perhaps the only modern day African president who has been putting his money & voice toward an independent United States of Africa- free of foreign aid & intervention, by orchestrating the same types of western backed coup d’états cloaked in the sham of aiding a people’s revolution that fell on past revolutionaries like Dr. Kwame Nkrumah – the man who gave voice to the words “United States of Africa“ with a Pan-African dream & image in mind.  The hypocrisy of the foreign policy of President Obama, NATO & the UN is clear when comparing Syria VS. Libya . Neither NATO nor the UN has moved to aid the citizens of Syria who are being massacred daily with visuals to show for it ,while we only had hearsay of imminent danger of Libyans to justify going all out in spending billions to bomb the hell out Libya in a push for regime change.

A pundent on American news spoke of how there seems to be little interest amongst Americans in the so called “Libyan Revolution” which was a much diffrent sentiment for Egypt , Tunisia & even the London riots because deep down inside perhaps whether we hate or love Honorable Louis Farrakhan, we are pressed to find any lies in his speech in Harlem denouncing NATO’s intervention & regime change tactics in Libya as the story unfolds as false mission accomplished media propaganda comes to light & Donald Trump  showcasing the core of American corporate policy & values in calling for all of Libya’s oil to be taken as compensation before the so called people’s revolution comes to a resolution.

As Black people debate amongst themselves on whether to criticize the president & to hold him accountable as he asked to be during his campaign for the presidency, he goes on a presidential pre-campaign bus tour to listen to & bring jobs to the rural mid-west while bypassing the needs of urban Blacks, who are disproportionately suffering from the loss of jobs & spiral into deeper poverty; yet somehow we are to blindly support, wait & believe that he has a master plan that is inclusive of bettering the health, wealth & image of our global African nation instead of just being yet another politician who would sell out his people in order to accomplish his personal agenda, as we have seen from many Black & White presidents world wide.

It seems many of us all over the world are waking up to the need to watch & be accountable for the image of our nations & the love for our nation & its image shown through concrete actions. I watch organizations like ImageNation, Society Hae , Young African Visionaries ,  Face 2 Face Africa & so many others  doing their part to make the image of our global African nation their mission in fulfilling the dream of the United States of Africa &  being the children of Uhura’s light. We should be giving these people, places & organizations  as much attention in their progress as we give those who set us backward. I was called to a meeting where a long time friend invited me on to his production team producing a show at Beijing Fashion Week in order to collaboratively put our global flavor into a bourgeoning global fashion industry  & possibly becoming future trail blazers. The same day I randomly bumped into Hype Williams a global African trail blazer in his own right, who will be directing new film entitled “Lust” , so many years after being the lauded creator who produced some of hip-hop’s ground breaking music videos & the cult classic Belly.  I  stand elated to see my cousin Coptic, an award winning music producer going back to his roots in bringing his global African expertise to formulating the new faces, sounds & images of the Black Star Line. The sense of duty & pride in the richness & greatness of our global African image is being reformulated, revised & reinvigorated today in the light, life & legacy of Uhura’s United States of Africa.  The stories and times behind our historical legacy  should always be recorded & passed down in the oral traditions of modern day griots, in order to give us all a bit of a reminder, particularly at times like today when we seem to have lost our direction in formulating the image of the dream.

There are great global fusions in collaborations that will be seen as groundbreaking legacy that future generations will also look to for inspiration decades from now. We have a choice in whether we will accept the call of Dr. King to stick it out , stand up , mold, create & revolutionize the image of our people & our nation. As we celebrate & honor Dr. King as the first person of color & non-president to be memorialized on the famous Washington National Mall, steps away from where he first told the world about his dream, how are we collectively & individually answering the call for creating & putting forth the image of our nations?

“The Time is always right to do what is right…Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation and this means we must develop a world perspective”Martin Luther King Jr.

Nichelle Nichols continues to play her role as the communications officer as the symbol & legacy for future Uhuras representing the United Sates of Africa 45 years after she introduced Uhura to the world. #AfricanGirls #RareGems @RealNichelle

May Angelou is a great  American poet, civil rights activist, dancer, film producer, television producer, playwright, film director, author, actress, professor, global treasure & champion of Ghana, so I know in debunking the myth of Ghana being the first African nation to attain independence, she was not trying to discredit Ghana’s legacy, but rather to allow generations to know & understand the full truth about a history that she was there to witness. Most African nations gained their Independence after WWII & Ghana has been heralded throughout the world as the first sub-saharan African nation to gain independence & to bring about the wind of change of independence that riddled through the continent after WWII.

When I saw this Maya Angelou video from 1985, I thought about the fact that Texas has made it a law to rewrite American history books & other states like Arizona have eliminated cultural studies classes/programs from their  public school curriculums, which leaves us all as individuals with the onus of the responsibility in teaching the next generations the full truth about our individual & collective history.  I am far from a historian, but I am a champion of seeking the truth particularly about my history because I truly believe  in James Baldwin’s words when he said “Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go” & I am also a firm believer in Marcus Garvey’s words in saying “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”

“By the beginning of World War I in 1914, all of Africa, with the exception of Liberia and Ethiopia, had been colonized, and initial African resistance had been overcome by the colonial powers. Over the next decades as colonial rule became institutionalized, African resistance to colonialism became more focused and intense. By the 1950s, there were organized nationalist parties that demanded political independence in almost every colony in Africa. Libya (1951) and Egypt (1952) were the first African nations to gain independence. Ghana (Gold Coast) in 1957 was the first country south of the Sahara to become independence. 1960 was the big year for African independence. As indicated on the attached map (Click on Map: African Independence), fourteen African countries gained their independence in 1960. By 1966, all but six African countries were independent nation-states…” READ MORE

I learned many years ago that Ghana was not the first African nation to gain Independence nor technically the first sub-Saharan African nation as the legacy has been proclaimed; however  I like the rest of the world & history books do maintain that legacy in tact  because as we once again address the Black African & Arab divide in Africa with the reporting of Egypt’s revolution, nations like Egypt(1952), Libya(1951), Tunisia(1956) & Morocco(1956), who gained their independence prior to Ghana’s 1957 Independence year had the same African identity problem back then as they do now, AKA the so called “Arab world” in Africa or “above the Sahara”. These nations hold their spot as members of the African Union with exception of Morocco who left in 1984. Egypt has set records in the past few years as the winners of the Africa Cup of Nations 7 times, so I say are these nations African & Arab by convenience or why can’t both Africans & Arabs accept the idea of being Arab & African as not being mutually exclusive identities?

Ethiopia is very much an African country & has never claimed otherwise, but when we speak of attaining independence, Ethiopia is one of  two African countries that never lost their independence even though they were briefly occupied by Italy in 1936 , which separated Eritrea from Ethiopia. Liberia was the other African nation which was never colonized,  but  rather was founded & colonized by freed American slaves much like Israel is a nation settled upon by American & European Jews who claim their birthright & history on land that was already occupied by its own natives upon their arrival.

In defense of Ghana’s legacy in the history books as being the first African nation below the Sahara to attain independence, one can see it as technically true because Ethiopia & Liberia were never colonized or taken over by European colonization & Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt & Libya are above the Sahara; however in honor of telling our history in totality & telling generations of Africans the truth about our history-we must lay out the full facts of our separations that continue to divide us as one Africa. There should be no sub saharan distinction or Arab & Black distinction for the purpose of accolades or political or social divisions, but the fact is there was & are these specific distinctions that only Africans alone can put an end to by telling the truth of our own stories.

Ghana may not have been the first independent nation in Africa, but there is no denying that its independence by far was one if not the most significant in terms of the total independence of Africa because Dr. Nkrumah  in gaining Ghana’s independence not only set a precedence of  ”yes we can” for Black Africa & her diaspora, but he also put his money where his mouth is by giving the educational leadership & financial support needed by the subsequent 17 African nations  who gained their independence 3 years after Ghana had declared its freedom from British rule. Ghana will always be heralded as that black diamond that shined its star throughout Africa & the world showing that Black Africa was a power to be reckoned with & Dr. Nkrumah’s call for African unity shot so much fear through Africa’s former colonizers of what could come if that dream came true that he & those  African leaders who fought for & shared his vision were deposed & assassinated one after the other until the spark & fire of the dream was extinguished.

When Dr. Krumah stood at Black Star Square  AKA Independence Square & proclaimed -“We have won the battle and we again re-dedicate ourselves … Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa“, he not only meant it, but set the example for the world to see a new face of African leadership that was Black, proud & demanded & received worldwide respect. Dr. Nkrumah set Africa & its leaders on a path to be globally recognized as significant & equal players in both the political & economic realms.

Today, many African & Diasporan leaders credit & give great gratitude to Dr. Nkrumah’s leadership & long lasting global legacy that was the first of its significance & magnitude toward the path to freedom & unification for Africa & her Diaspora that far outweighs the technicality of specific dates because African Independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa. This is his legacy that should never be forgotten, belittled or dismissed  in anyway by past or future generations as we enter a new wind of change for African liberation with our Arab brothers & sisters in Tunisia & Egypt leading the way once again.

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Today the African nation of Egypt started a new path to freedom by forcing  the resignation of the 30 year reign of yet another African despot who refused to leave & allow a democratic government for the people by the people! Today Africa’s freedom fighting angels President Nasser & President Nkrumah smiled upon Egypt’s people & allowed their spirits to lead them to reclaim the revolutionary fight for freedom that they had brought to their nations & to Africa as a whole. No matter what, Egypt is & will always be not only African, but directly linked to the greatness of Africa’s history of freedom from both pre & post colonialism. As many Africans cheered on Tunisia & Egypt’s revolutions as the new wind of change in Africa’s freedom, many others fell back to old divisions of race, religion, culture & tribalism that has been the bain of African unity between Black & Arab Africa long before & after Dr. Kwame Nkrumah called for a United States of Africa & became the physical symbol of unity between Black & Arab Africa with his marriage to Fathia Rizk of Egypt.

“Fathia Nkrumah (1932–2007; born Fathia Rizk; Arabic: فتحية رزق‎), was the Egyptian First Lady of the newly-independent Ghana as the wife of the Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, its first president. Fathia Nkrumah was born and brought up in Zeitoun, a district of Cairo to a Coptic family. She was the third daughter of a civil servant who died early and Fathia was raised by her mother single-handedly after her husband’s death…Nkrumah proposed to marry her. Her mother was reluctant to see another of her children marry a foreigner and quit the country, as Fathia’s brother had left Egypt with his English wife. Fathia explained that Nkrumah was an anti-colonial hero, like Nasser, yet her mother refused to speak to her or bless the marriage. Nkrumah married Fathia the evening of her arrival in Ghana: New Year’s Eve, 1957-1958…Fathia Nkrumah was a very young wife and mother of three very young children when her husband was overthrown in Ghana’s first successful military coup d’état on February 24, 1966. She had to take her children to Cairo, Egypt to be raised there while her husband went to exile.”READ MORE

From facebook to twitter, to blogs & in many homes throughout the world there are heated discussions amongst Africans & African descendants on Egypt’s so called “African identity problem” that sees today’s Egyptians as Arab invaders who committed genocide  & enslaved  Egypt’s original residents, much like many Arabs & others who sympathize with the plight of Palestinians have labeled Israel & its Jewish state. Many Black Africans & their descendants including some Egyptians do not count today’s Arabs in Egypt as Africans & the media completely dismissing the fact that Egypt is in Africa as they report on the revolution shows that we still have a long way to go in recognizing the dream of what President Gamal Abdel-Nasser of Egypt & Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana not only expressed but embodied for Africa.

“Whenever Arab-African ties come into question, one cannot help remembering the days when colonialism was the threat closer to home and one Arab leader was always at hand to lend support to those Africans who wished to throw off its yoke. That was the time of solidarity, of a common Arab-African dream, of nations taking their first steps to freedom. That was Nasser’s time. The solidarity between Arab and non-Arab Africans is not a historic accident. It is rooted in a common vision, drawn from a common cause. It all started in the late 50s and early 60s, when Africa’s leaders-to-be were still freedom fighters, and Nasser was their closest ally. For Nasser and his fellow African leaders, African liberation was a historic duty. They lived and died for the cause of national liberation. Few Arab leaders of Nasser’s stature were involved as intimately as he was in the struggle to liberate Africa from colonial rule. It was this dedication to the cause of African liberation that endeared him to like-minded African leaders. What they had in common was a radical agenda of social change, a task they knew would not be easy, a mission that remains, to this day, incomplete…” READ MORE

There is no denying the long fought turmoil & hatred passed down generation after generation between Black Africans & their Arab counterparts in Africa & specifically brought to the world stage by the modern day continued enslavement & genocide in nations like Sudan- who just came to finally win their freedom just months ago through secession, which separates the Black Sudanese in South & the Arab Sudanese in the North. What has been seen as religious infighting between Christians in the South & Muslims in the North goes deeper than religious infighting & can clearly be seen in the division between color lines because there are Black Sudanese who are Muslim just as well as Christians, yet they have still been enslaved & deprived of their freedom by Arab leadership dominance in Sudan. The stupidity in color division is that many of these so called fairer & superior Arabs are darker than the so called Black Africans, a perfectly idiotic ode to the internalization of the teachings & mental enslavement passed down by European & American slave masters & colonizers.

It seems all over Africa there is always a certain hatred or division targeting Northerners as outsiders of every nation, whether it is in free democratic Ghana or war torn Sudan or Cote d’Ivoire. Africa in moving forward to true freedom, justice & unity needs to not only address its “Arab issue”, but also its northern divisions & other “isms” that separate us on our shared homeland amongst color, religion, tribe, region & class lines. Arab or Black African, non of us have clean hands in the killing, suffering & enslavement of generations of Africans through the years & even in present time in some nations. We have to deal with the wounds of our past, specifically the past & present internalized degradation of slavery that has never been properly addressed or abolished in Africa by Africans Black & Arab alike.  In order to move forward to heal for our future, we must acknowledge & make amends with our collective past from Africa to her Diaspora. Africa must unite because it has been proven time & time again that “United We Stand , Divided We Fall“.

When will Africans collectively recognize that we continue to do the bidding of our former colonizers & current neo-colonialists through our continued infighting & desire for separation instead of finding intelligent solutions for unity?  African unity by design has always been the biggest fear of demagogues, slave masters, separatist, colonizers & neo-colonialists because a continent of people with unparalleled resources  & intellectual power will surely be an unparalleled  super power if it ever unified to recognize & exert its full power & potential. Africa, since slavery was never meant to be made whole by those of the world who saw its true potential & threat because the beauty, glory, power & worth of anything made whole is worth much more than the sum of its broken pieces. Dr. Nkrumah’s vision was so simple & was perfect for his time, this time & anytime, but when one is broken even a simple vision can not be recognized until one is made whole. It is time for Africa to be made whole !

We all have a part to play in our forward movement as a continent- individually & nationally.  The young people of Africa have shown time & time again in their everyday lives that they do not want to carry the divisionism & separations of their individual nations & their collective continent’s past into shaping their future! The world has watched the young people of Egypt bring a nation together across religious, age, sex, class & color lines in hope for true freedom that will define a new Africa, where we can come together to recognize the dream that Dr. Nkrumah’s life & legacy exemplifies along with the vision in freedom that both he & President Nasser fought to see come to fruition. The younger generation live in a world made border-less through technology &  have & will continue to use it to fight the powers of demagoguery & division locally & globally.

“Repressive regimes thrive on ignorance –the ignorance of their people, and the ignorance of the outside world. For too long, the image of Africa has festered under the haze of the Western world’s ignorance and its resulting apathy. A relevant example of this is the unofficial annexation of Tunisia, Algeria and the continent’s other northern nations, for reasons of race alone, to the Middle East. (Though the majority of Egypt’s land mass is in Africa, a portion of that nation, the Sinai Peninsula, is in the Middle East, making it transcontinental.) Africa is, and has been for the past several centuries, a continent of artificial boundaries and of divisions constructed along the lines of race, class, tribal and ethnic grouping — divisions cleverly constructed for the purposes of conquering. It is an infrastructure that, by design, lends itself to dictatorship, to the powerlessness of the masses…” READ MORE

Each one teach one & let’s hold our truths in our proclaimed desire for peace, justice & freedom for not only Africa but for humanity to be self evident as we take Ghandi’s words to heart , mind, voice, action & soul by becoming “the change we want to see in the world”!

“Kwame Nkrumah inspired other leaders to break the yoke of colonialism. He had a vision of Africa linked by road, bridges, rail and air transport, just like in America. He started a transcontinental high way from Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana and stopped after he was kicked out of office, in La Cote d’Ivoire. He funded a feasibility study that showed that the Congo river alone could supply all the continent’s electricity! (That is why he sent a Ghanaian Army Force to keep the peace after the democratically elected Patrice Lumumba was asassinated by the Belgians). The former colonial masters were concerned about the loss of ready markets for their goods, as these countries were now trading with Russia, China and the eastern European countries. America was interested in Africa for extension of its ideologies, markets and position as the only super power. Every African leader toppled after independence has CIA prints all over them! The Judas in the case of Nkrumah, was an African American named Brown who was his mate at Lincoln. Brown was made US Ambassador to Ghana, and he fed info back to the CIA who paid the Army officers who made the coup about $3m! (the 30 shekels was affected by inflation!:))You can check archival material that has been released 30 years after the 1966 coup in Ghana...”READ MORE

“At the age of ninety-three, Du Bois was invited to Ghana by President Kwame Nkrumah to assume editorship of the Encyclopedia Africana, a monumental project involving scholars from around the world. He assumed Ghanaian citizenship and lived in the land of his fathers until his death at the age of ninety-five on August 27, 1963– the day before the March on Washington that marked the climax of the civil rights struggle in the United States..” SOURCE

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“First Lady Fathia Nkrumah, the wife of Ghana’s first President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, with their daughter Samia reading her husband’s book, ‘Challenge of the Congo’ in 1967. If the prospective union between Ghana and Egypt was such a threat to the then dying British Empire, what more could we say of the then prospective union between all countries of Africa – the very vision Nkrumah symbolized? What can we say of the power that symbol still wields? Regardless of whether Samia Nkrumah is ‘her father’s daughter’ or ‘her own woman’ let us not forget about the symbolic power of her ‘Africa Must Unite’ becoming” READ MORE

“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. I made a point that we are going to create our own African personality and identity. It’s the only way that we can show the world that we are ready for own own battles..We have won the battle and we again re-dedicate ourselves …Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa…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.Forward Ever, Backward Never“- Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

IT’S TIME FOR AFRICA!

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

When the outrage & endless media coverage started about the BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast, all I could think about is nothing ever changes because no one seems to care that these recklessly ruthless oil spills brought on simply by greed has been occuring in the Niger Delta years on end with little to no press, governmental regulations and compensation for the many lives & livlihoods lost & now it has reached the almighty America & made the world take notice.

“The Niger Delta, where the wealth underground is out of all proportion with the poverty on the surface, has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years by some estimates. The oil pours out nearly every week, and some swamps are long since lifeless. Perhaps no place on earth has been as battered by oil, experts say, leaving residents here astonished at the nonstop attention paid to the gusher half a world away in the Gulf of Mexico. It was only a few weeks ago, they say, that a burst pipe belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the mangroves was finally shut after flowing for two months: now nothing living moves in a black-and-brown world once teeming with shrimp and crab. Not far away, there is still black crude on Gio Creek from an April spill, and just across the state line in Akwa Ibom the fishermen curse their oil-blackened nets, doubly useless in a barren sea buffeted by a spill from an offshore Exxon Mobil pipe in May that lasted for weeks…”READ MORE

“Capitalism is a development by refinement from feudalism, just as feudalism is development by refinement from slavery . Capitalism is but the gentlemen’s method of slavery.” Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for De-Colonisation -Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

America now has a government grand standing with tough talk in Congressional hearings saying never again to the wild wild west style of freedom to destroy, perpetuated by Oil companies, global banking institutions, pharmaceuticals companies & corporations in general who will continue to be the real governance in power all over the world until elected governments stop taking bribes, campaign donations, corporate gifts etc. No matter what you want to call it, it’s all the same pay to play campaign that allows very little separation between government & corporations , the same pay to play practices that allow those in power all over the world to turn a blind eye or look the other way , deregulate, not regulate and create a global environment where money talks & can buy you anything even the souls of any given leader & nation regardless if they tag themselves as a Democracy, Communist, Socialist, Conservative, Liberal, Independent, Christian, Muslim, Jewish or agnostic. All around the world is the same song as we all sit back & watch the grand standing with little to no substance toward any type of real change that any of us everyday people can believe in.

Most of the unrest, displacement & wars in Africa (Congo, Somalia, Rwanda, Nigeria, Sudan etc.) are all because of the same players who started & continue the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, but in this new era the commodity is no longer the physical trading of people but rather oil, diamonds, weapons and all of Africa’s natural resources which started the original scramble for Africa that created the Trans- Atlantic slave trade to begin with & still continues to be coveted by the Dutch, the English, the Americans with additional modern day players added from Europe and Asia. African governments & leaders still continue to conspire & be complicit in the selling out of their people & any hopes & dreams they may have for a better future in a new Africa that is peaceful, free, without corruption and beneficial to their personal & continental progress. African leadership has been a disgraceful failure for everyday Africans for far too long & it is time that Africa as a continent Wakes Up, revolutionizes, unites and demands our respect as a people from the world & from our leaders.

We can longer be the dumping ground for European garbage, our land & waters can longer be polluted to serve the economies of the world as our own economies are destroyed & forced into dependency on those who do not want to see us independently moving forward because that would mean they can longer stand on our backs,necks & shoulders to attain their wealth. We can no longer allow the world to perpetuate the idea of the African savage pirates without looking at the reason behind their desperation to defend & take back their waters. “Africa must wake up, the sleeping sons of Jacob. For what tomorrow may bring, may a better day come,Yesterday we were kings, can you tell me young ones. Who are we today? ” Those words from Nas & Damian Junior Gong Marley’s song “Africa Must Wake Up”  are the prophetic battle cry that must manifest to fulfill the modern day African personality that Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Jomo Kenyatta, Ahmed Sékou Touré & so many great global African leaders of the past who understood the need for independence , unity & real leadership as the only way to save Africa not only from our former colonizers but from ourselves. How long must we sleep, suffer & smile as more and more of our people die of helplessness & hopelessness? As we all gather together & wave our flags at the World Cup let us truly examine & question the state of the world & every individual nation’s position & truly call them on Substance!

Africa nations have been doing too much talk talk talk for far too long with no substance behind the talk. The leaders of Pan-Africanism put the blueprint in writing giving the direction for the future of Africa.  Africa must realize it is time that we open the books & take heed to the blueprint in order to build on the design. Africa is the Beginning & the Future & only Africans can determine what that future will be.

Just in Case We Forgot- Take heed to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s words below & adhere  & fulfill the blueprint in order to come out of darkness to enjoy our  light!

“By far the greatest wrong which the departing colonialists inflicted on us, and which we now continue to inflict on ourselves in our present state of disunity, was to leave us divided into economically unviable States which bear no possibility of real development.…”

“...We must unite for economic viability, first of all, and then to recover our mineral wealth in Southern Africa, so that our vast resources and capacity for development will bring prosperity for us and additional benefits for the rest of the world. That is why I have written elsewhere that the emancipation of Africa could be the emancipation of Man.” Speech OAU Summit Conference Cairo 7/19/64 can be found on pages 282-4 of Revolutionary Path

“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.” Neocolonialism The Last Stage of Imperialism

“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. ” Address to the National Assembly. 26 March 1965

“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.” Broadcast to the Nation. 24 December 1957

Is One Man’s life still worth less because of his Color?

We must break the circle of a life that keeps us in a repetitive circle that never allows us a way out of the maze to move forward in true freedom!

I made it quite clear that 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…you are to stand firm behind us so that we can prove to the world that when the African is given a chance he can show the world that he is somebody! We have awakened. We will not sleep anymore. Today, from now on, there is a new African in the world…We are going to see that we create our own African personality and identity. We again rededicate ourselves in the struggle to emancipate other countries in Africa; for our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

“For the rest of eternity, this will never change, the first African nation to win a game in a World Cup hosted in Africa is & forever will be- Ghana -Raise a fist Black Star…congratulations ..bafana bafana 3 points for Ghana “(Sam Murchison). This was the message I woke up to this morning from my paddy/friend from the Bay Area ( California). This is why I love this man because he has a way of bringing it home! I sat down for a moment & just said WOW! I had been so besides myself & on such an indescribable high for Ghana’s win that I had not even soaked in the historical significance of the win, not just in World Cup history but tied back to Dr. Nkrumah, Ghana’s independence & the Black Star Nation being the ones to lead the way toward the wind of change in Africa to freedom, Independence & forward movements for the entire continent!

As Asmoah Gyan said “Every African is behind us..I salute all you guys. We win this match for you“. The love I received from my global Africans from all over the world via every type of technology possible, let me know that on Sunday most of the world felt the shine of the Black Star in their hearts! There’s just something about the Black Star Nation’s spirit that has always & continues to captivate the world & at the core of that is the people & the love & pride that we have for our nation.

I am proud to be Ghanaian everyday all day, but today there’s a certain type of fire that burns in my soul with pride, one that makes me feel as if I was standing at Black Star Square as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah announced Ghana’s Independence and said “We have awakened. We will not sleep anymore. Today, from now on, there is a new African in the world…We are going to see that we create our own African personality and identity. We again rededicate ourselves in the struggle to emancipate other countries in Africa; for our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent.”

Ghana’s Independence will always be in the history books as the first sub-Saharan African Nation whose independence led to most of the continent also attaining their independence with a continental push toward a United States of Africa. As Dr. Nkrumah proclaimed “Forward Then To The United States of Africa“. This year alone marks  the 50th anniversary of independence for 17 African nations who were led to attaining their  individual independence after Ghana had attained hers & served as an example while aiding other African nations to attain their own.
Africa I salute You & Miss you! Ghana I am beyond Proud to be your loyal Black Star daughter! It’s Time For Africa!

Ghana VS. Serbia-Historical World Cup Win

Photo Credit: Luca Bruno/AP

Ghana’s former President Jerry John Rawlings pushed for the granting of free visa & ultimately dual citizenship for African-Americans during a meeting at the White House with former President Clinton. He proposed the right of abode in a form of dual citizenship whereas African descendants in the Diaspora would get the Sankofa stamp in their passport, eliminating the need for a visa. President Rawlings at the time encouraged Diasporan Africans to return back to Africa to help build the continent & Ghana in particular, calling it “The Joseph Project“. I remember President Clinton weirdly laughing & shrugging it off as some sort of joke as if the Black Americans would just get up & go to Africa as American Jews packed up & settled in Israel. President Rawlings proposal never came to fruition for Diasporan Africans, but it led the way to granting dual citzenship for Ghanaian ex-pats living abroad. Now the issue has come up again in 2010, which many are calling the new decade of Africa with the world cup in Africa for the first time & what seems to be a new global scramble for Africa.

As a Pan-Africanist, I would love to see this happen in order to unite global Africans in & out of the continent, but I also agree with Marcus Garvey’s quote : “Africa for the Africans… at home and abroad! I have no desire to take all black people back to Africa; there are blacks who are no good here and will likewise be no good there…”

“At the conclusion of an official visit to Ghana, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade announced his intention to introduce a legislation allowing members of the global African Diaspora to visit Senegal without need of a visa. The Senegalese leader was in Accra to participate in an International Colloquium honouring the legacy of Ghana’s first President Kwame Nkrumah. In addition, this historic legislation would include a provision allowing members of the Diaspora to acquire a special passport…” Source:Read More

Dual Citizenship
Excerpt taken from:The President’s News Conference With President Jerry John Rawlings of Ghana-February 24, 1999

Q. President Rawlings, I think I’m on the wrong side of the room. I apologize, but I have a question for you.

President Rawlings. I understand. Actually, I was actually briefed that most of the questions would be directed at the President. [Laughter] I was made to understand that, don’t be surprised if most of the questions are related to American domestic situations and not the fact that I’m here from Africa. Thank you. Carry on, please. [Laughter]

Q. Well, I’ve heard that Ghana is offering some sort of dual citizenship to African-Americans. Is that true? What does it mean, and what’s the reasoning behind it?

President Rawlings. It’s very true. Sorry, do you mind if I—is it something connected to the question?

President Clinton. Answer this one, and then if you want to call on him, it’s fine.

President Rawlings. Very soon, our Parliament will be passing the bill to grant black Americans their dual citizenship, as far as Ghana is concerned, and you’ll have the right of dual abode.

Q. What does it mean?

President Rawlings. What does it mean?

Q. Yes.

President Rawlings. You wouldn’t need a visa; you wouldn’t need whatever it is to enter my country. You will have the freedom to move around as any fellow Ghanaian, and that will not deny you your American citizenship, either.

Q. What’s the reasoning behind it?

President Rawlings. What’s the reason behind it?

Q. Yes.

President Rawlings. Do German-Americans, do Israeli-Americans—are they denied the right of their citizenship back at home? No, no, please, if I’m wrong, can you correct me?

Q. I don’t know. [Laughter]

President Rawlings. Quite frankly, I mean, I could go on and on. But the point is that, I mean, you’re our kith and kin. If others can refer to themselves as Jewish Americans or German-Americans or Irish-Americans, whatever it is, Italian-Americans, and you’re calling yourself African——

Q. Americans.

President Rawlings. ——whatever it is. [Laughter] I mean, where do you come from? After all, I mean, my continent is the mother of—what do you call it?—not all continents but humanity and civilization as we’ve come to know today. I mean, is there any reason why you should not have the right to enjoy the citizenship of where you come from?

President Clinton. I’m just sorry I can’t do it. [Laughter] I don’t qualify. [Laughter]

President Rawlings. No, no, wait a minute, sir. Hold on, Mr. President. [Laughter] No, no. You’re not going to explain this for me. [Laughter]

Let’s put it this way. I’m rather surprised that you’re asking me this question. I should be asking you, I mean, how on God’s possible— whatever it is—could you be asking me a question like this? [Laughter] Because, I mean——

Q. Would it be dual loyalty?

President Rawlings. Well, I guess that’s what we have a bit of—we don’t have any problem with that. I think—when I look into that issue, I have a problem with you, because you’re demanding loyalty to the American Constitution, and yet I cannot demand the same kind of loyalty to my country. And this is where I’m beginning to have a problem. But nonetheless, there’s no reason why I will deny my fellow black African the right to enjoy the citizenship as I enjoy as an African.

President Clinton. Let me just try to—the general rule is that dual citizenship laws are, by definition, controlled by the citizenship conditions of both countries. And it’s not unheard of for Americans to have dual citizenship.

Interestingly enough, after the fall of the Iron Curtain and the breakup of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, we’ve had American citizens who had roots, for example, in the Baltic States. One went home to his country and became the Ambassador. I don’t know if he had to give up his American citizenship, or not. It would be a function of the law. But there are— and the laws operate differently in different countries. But almost all countries allow some form of dual citizenship.

Now, second thing is, the President didn’t mention this, but if Ghana does this, it certainly won’t hurt in trying to get more Americans interested in Ghana, going to Ghana, and contributing to Ghana’s future. I thought it was quite a clever idea myself. [Laughter]

Thank you very much.

President Rawlings. No, no, no. Hold on, Mr. President. [Laughter] On one condition—that if you fall foul of the laws and regulations of my country, the—what do you call it?—the judiciary, the police, and the laws of my country will take their course without the American Government attempting to intervene, to say, this is a citizen of my country.

President Clinton. I think that’s what the rule is.

President Rawlings. Thank you, sir.

President Clinton. There’s a whole lot of law on that. I think that’s the rule.

Thank you.

Q. I want to say to you something.

President Rawlings. Yes, sir.

Q. You know, we the people——

President Rawlings. Yes sir.

Q. ——of African descent that are Latino, are ready, willing, and able to cooperate with Africa—[inaudible]—and our experience, the President of the Dominican Republic, and I, as a Cuban-American, reside here for—[inaudible]—are ready and willing to help you in the African initiative. And I guarantee you with my friend of the Republican Party is going to give me 100 percent support for the initiatives of the President of Africa—[inaudible]. So you have the cooperation of the Latinos, like the Jewish have for their people in Israel.— READ MORE

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.

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

When it comes to socio-economic issues, not only in her homeland Ghana, but across sub-Saharan Africa, Ms Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah, the only daughter of Africa’s first Patriot, is known for her compassionate stance.

Samia has staunchly supported issues that many politicians in Africa shy away from, including anti-corruption, killing of street children, youth unemployment, abuse of women and girl child, slum dwellers, rural folks and the urban poor, income inequality, poverty eradication and equal access to education, health and finance.

What many people don’t know however, is that while she was a student at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, like many migrant children, Yaba was closely following events in her homeland and across continental Africa, especially during the heady days of the late 1980s (Africa’s lost decade) when sub-Saharan Africa was declared bankrupt. This was also the period when many Africans died of hunger and inter-state wars. The 1980s had a profound effect on Samia especially the genocide in Rwanda.

As the daughter of the late President and founder of Ghana, Samia is no stranger to the difficulty and hardship many sub-Saharan African women face daily. After completing her studies in London, Samia relocated to Rome where she got married and had a son, yet she never lost touch with events on the continent.

Samia was all set for a life as a mother and journalist in Rome when she decided to return home in 2007. Recounting what she described as gross inequality and hopelessness among the poor in her homeland, she turned her back on journalism and other lucrative offers from the corporate world and sought public office instead. Out of the four Nkrumah children, the one least expected to follow Nkrumah’s foot steps into politics, emerged as the champion of the poor in sub-Saharan Africa. She has been hailed as the new Mandela of sub-Saharan Africa.

Having ran and won a seat in Ghana’s parliament as the only elected member of her father’s party, Convention Peoples Party, Yaba Christina Nkrumah has turn her attention to fighting poverty, promoting gender/child issues and leading the debate on African unity…. Source:Read More

There has been all this ridiculous made up controversary about Erykah Badu’s new video for “window seat”, off of her upcoming March 30th album release , NEW AMERYKAH (PART 2: RETURN OF THE ANKH. I really don’t understand all the controversy except to say it is just fueling the exact point she is trying to make in her video. A society that finds controversy in truth needs to take a window seat to look & reflect on the world in order to see that there is no freedom in group think. To me group think is the mindset of cowardly lie-ons who rely on lies & lie on others because they are afraid of the responsibilities of freedom. The type of freedom that frees one’s dome to be an individual who thinks for oneself & evolves! The group think of the slave threatened to derail Harriet Tubman’s underground railroad when slaves refused to take their freedom because they were conditioned by the type of group think that told them they were not deserving of freedom =individuals with choice! As Ms. Badu tweeted: Be yourself, think for yourself and embrace individuality. Break free of the mental, physical, and spiritual shackles.

I just went thru yet another debate on the never ending road to nowhere where so called naturalists feel that Black & African identity in respecting & embodying one’s African heritage is tied down to one’s choice of hair style in choosing to go natural as opposed to relaxers & weaves. The idiocy in the distraction of this constant debate is beyond me because I have never seen any real revolution, forward movement & building of a nation based on hair style. Who are you really when you are stripped of your accoutrements, whether they be natural or synthetic ? Why do we choose to get distracted by hair when what is underneath is what real, forward, lasting revolutions & evolutions are created from=FREE DOME=Brain! To me these so call naturalist also need to take a window seat in reflection in truly seeing the world because there is no evolving if under all that natural hair there is no substance. Naturalist are so quick to talk about African history, heritage & roots with little knowledge that wigs, weaves etc have been part of our African roots in style evolutions way before Angela Davis pumped her fist in the air. The art of hair styling has been part of African culture from ancient to modern day African cultural history. We are a people of many styles who are purveyors of the definition of style from hair to fashion, to dance, to music & everything in between. I hear so many people of color including naturalist say that the white women are stealing black culture since there is a plethora of them wearing weaves now & I must just shake my head in the hypocrisy of that statement when the same people say that people of African decent who relax their hair or wear weaves are trying to be white. This silly divisionist group think culture that disseminates misinformation & associates those people of color who choose a personal style of relaxers & weaves as somehow wanting to be White & delusional in their African heritage need to know that you can not define an African because a true African is free & defines him or herself!

“And as I pointed out… I made it quite clear that 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” Dr. Kwame Nkrumah -excerpt from Independence speech

Take A Window Seat to Free Dome & Evolve in Individuality!

POWER -OUT MY MIND JUST IN TIME

2010 Marks the 50th anniversary of Independence in 17 African nations, setting the stage for Africa as a continent to look deep within our history, to wake up & to make this decade Africa’s decade of fulfilling the change that was to come with independence. There was something in the air in 1960, a leap year where many in the continent of African leaped into their independence as British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, stood in independent Accra, Gold Coast (modern day Ghana) on January 10, 1960 & declared “The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.“.

1960 was also a time when America was experiencing its own wind of change, as an Irish Catholic named John F. Kennedy announced on January 2nd that he would be running for president of the USA & subsequently went on to win the presidency on Novemeber 8, 1960, becoming the youngest man to be elected as president of the USA , the first & only Catholic & the first Irish-American, something that most Americans at that time thought could not be done. The nation at the time was broken, divided & knew that they needed & had to accept change. The 1960’s also heralded in the wind of change toward the Black civil rights movement when four black students held a sit in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter on February 1st in Greensboro, North Carolina, paving the way for many more nonviloent protests against segregation resulting in the original four protestors sitting down at the Woolworth counter five months later on July 25,1960, becoming the first Black people to be served lunch at a Woolworth counter. 1960 was also the year after the victory of the Cuban Revolution led by Che Guevera & Fidel Castro when Castro began to nationalize all national & foreign property & businesses in a new socialist government seeking to end class & economic disparity by sharing the wealth amongst all of its citizens while shunning western democracy & capitalism. 2010 also marks the 50th anniversary of the Great Chilean Earthquake on May 2, 1960 which is to date the most powerful earthquake ever recorded, rating 9.5 & resulting in a tsunami. Today on February 27, 2010, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake, the strongest quake in South America since the 1960 great Chilean earthquake has hit Chile with the whole world sending out prayers & hope that a tsunami will not ensue as the wind of change continues.

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There is just something about 2010 in its mimicry & 50th anniversary of certain historical events worldwide, which brought about significantly historical changes in the 1960’s that seem to be resurrecting & forcing a new tide of change in this new decade. Whether planned by mortal man or not, I don’t think there is any coincidence in the fact that the World Cup (Africa’s sport) will be held on African soil for the first time in football’s professional westernized history at a time when all eyes are on Africa, a time when a large majority of the continent will be celebrating a half century of independence, a time when many of the most influential African players are leading the charge in western football clubs with relentless racism, a time when many of the world’s greatest players will be returning home to play for their birth & ancestral nations & a time when it is realistically possible for an African country to win the world cup on African soil. There is an erupting wind of change with new found freedoms in the world sparked in Africa & being pushed by yet another symbolic election for change with a new mindset & attitude toward the world in America where its citizens in their frustration of being tired of being sick & tired will determine the direction of the nation.

Ironically 2010 marks the 53rd anniversary of Independence of the African nation that started the wind of change toward independence in Africa with a dream of seeking independence for the entire continent consisting of 53 nations. Although Ghana became the first sub-Saharan Africa nation to attain Independence on March 6 1957, July 1st 1960 actually marked the day when Ghana became a republic asserting its full rights of autonomy with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as its first President & Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom ceasing her reign as the head of state. With this newly found freedom, autonomy & financial reparations from the United Kingdom, Dr. Nkrumah set out to create the United States of Africa, where all 53 African nations would gain their autonomy from their colonizers toward a goal of economic freedom & a vision of empowerment fortified in Pan-Africanism , with the Black star nation leading the march & setting the standard through leadership & financial assistance. Leading the charge with Dr. Nkrumah were fellow Pan-Africanist Patrice Émery Lumumba, Sekou Toure & Jomo Kenyatta, perhaps the most feared African leaders in the eyes of their colonizers. in hopes of symbolically fulfilling Dr. Nkrumah’s dream of uniting the 53 nations of Africa let’s look “Forward Ever, Backward Never” with hope that Africa’s unity on African soil does not start & end at the World Cup in South Africa.

The 17 African Nations who will be celebrating their 50th anniversary of Independence:

Cameroon – January 1st – President Ahmadou Ahidjo

Senegal- April 4th- President Léopold Sédar Senghor

Togo April 27th-President Sylvanus Olympio

Madagascar -June 26th-President Philibert Tsiranana

Democratic Republic of The Congo- June 30th -President Patrice Émery Lumumba

Somalia- July 1st- President Aden Abdullah Osman Daar

Benin -August 1st -President Hubert Maga

Niger -August 3rd -President Hamani Diori

Burkina Faso- August 5th- President Maurice Yaméogo

Cote D’Ivore (Ivory Coast) -August 7th-President Félix Houphouët-Boigny

Chad- August 11th- President François Tombalbaye

Central African Republic -August 13th- President David Dacko

Republic of Congo- August 15th-President Abbé Fulbert Youlou

Gabon- August 17th – President Gabriel Léon M’ba

Mali -September 22th- President Modibo Keïta

Nigeria -October 1-President Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe

Mauritania -November 28-President Moktar Ould Daddah