Haterology 101: The Expression of Self Hate in African Americans by Khalif ‘Ras’ Williams

Self Hatred (aka One Ya Self!)

We people of color in America live in a society that is consumed with the idea of hate and haters. The origins of this behavior is rooted in human nature more specifically the masculine ego and has been a particular thorn in the side for the creators of Hip Hop, African Americans who by virtue of their history and survival mechanisms that became necessary for our enslaved ancestors to get ahead in a society that held them as unintelligent, subhuman chattel to be exploited to the death and domestically terrorized. Next their captors systematically murdered them with religious and governmental sanction for 300 plus years. This and other issues come into play in the way this concept and mindset has permeated our so called “modern” society. click image for essay



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Ancient African Kings Of India

Images of Black Buddha showing pepper corn curl hair style. Pepper Corn Curls are the artistic stylization of kinky hair of people of African descent. This style has been utilized from the Nile Valley to the Far East to depict the hair texture of kinky haired people. Also see the image of the European Venus of Willendorf depicting Pepper Corn Curl hairstyle as well. This image hearkens back to the African Mother figurines that depict large voluptuous breasts a potent symbol motherhood and steatopygia (large buttocks) seen in the San people of South Africa. This genetic feature of Southern Africans was a natural adaptation to a hostile environment. San people being people of the Kalahari this adaptation is better overstood in this context. The large buttocks serve the same purpose for people as a camels hump does for camels. To store excess energy in the form of fat for the lean times when food is scarce in a desert environment. The camels hump is why they can go without eating for weeks at a time. The same applies for the San and Khoi Khoi people of South Africa

By Dr. Clyde Winters

Ethiopians have had very intimate relations with Indians. In fact, in antiquity the Ethiopians ruled much of India. These Ethiopians were called the Naga. It was the Naga who created Sanskrit.

A reading of ancient Dravidian literature which dates back to 500 BC, gives us considerable information on the Naga. In Indian tradition the Naga won central India from the Villavar (bowmen) and Minavar (fishermen).

The Naga were great seamen who ruled much of India, Sri Lanka and Burma. To the Aryans they described as half man and snake. The Tamil knew them as warlike people who used the bow and noose.

The earliest mention of the Naga, appear in the Ramayana , they are also mentioned in the Mahabharata. In the Mahabharata we discover that the
Naga had the capital city in the Dekkan, and other cities spread between the Jumna and Ganges as early as 1300 BC. The Dravidian classic, the Chilappathikaran made it clear that the first great kingdom of India was
Naganadu.

The Naga probably came from Kush-Punt/Ethiopia. The Puntites were the greatest sailors of the ancient world. In the Egyptian inscriptions there is mention of the Puntite ports of Outculit, Hamesu and Tekaru, which corresponds to Adulis, Hamasen and Tigre.

In Sumerian text, it is claimed that the Puntites traded with the people of the Indus Valley or Dilmun. According to S.N. Kramer in The Sumerians, part of Punt was probably called Meluhha, and Dilmun was probably the ancient name of the Indus Valley. (Today some scholars maintain that Oman, where we find no ancient cities was Dilmun and the Indus Valley may have been Meluhha).

Ancient Ethiopian traditions support the rule of Puntites or Ethiopians of India. In the Kebra Nagast, we find mention of the Arwe kings who ruled India. The founder of the dynasty was Za Besi Angabo. This dynasty according to the Kebra Nagast began around 1370 BC. These rulers of India and Ethiopia were called Nagas. The Kebra Nagast claims that ” Queen Makeda “had servants and merchants; they traded for her at sea and on land in the Indies and Aswan”. It also says that her son Ebna Hakim or Menelik I, made a campaign in the Indian Sea; the king of India made gifts and donations and prostrated himself before him”. It is also said that Menalik ruled an empire that extended from the rivers of Egypt (Blue Nile) to the west and from the south Shoa to eastern India”, according to the Kebra
Nagast. The Kebra Nagast identification of an eastern Indian empre ruled by
the Naga, corresponds to the Naga colonies in the Dekkan, and on the East
coast between the Kaviri and Vaigai rivers.

The presence of Meluhhaites/ Puntites in India may expain the Greek tradition of Kusites ruling India up to the Ganges. It would also explain the Aryan traditions of Mlechchas ( Sanskrit name for some of the non-Aryan people) as one of the aboriginal groups of India. Many scholars associate the name Mlechchas with Meluhha.

an Orissa Woman of India

The major Naga tribes were the Maravar, Eyinar, Oliyar, Oviyar, Aru-Valur and Parathavar. The Nagas resisted the invansion of the Cholas. In the Kalittokai IV,1-5, the Naga are described as being “of strong limbs and hardy frames and fierce looking tigers wearing long and curled locks of hair.” The Naga kings of Sri Lanka are mentioned in the: Mahawanso, and are said to have later become Dravidians, as testified to by the names of these people: Naganathan, Nagaratnam, Nagaraja and etc.

The major gift of the Naga to India was the writing system: Nagari. Nagari is the name for the Sanskrit script. Over a hundred years ago Sir William Jones, pointed out that the ancient Ethiopic and Sanskrit writing are one and the same.

William Jones, explained that the Ethiopian origin of Sanskrit was supported by the fact that both writing systems the writing went from left to right and the vowels
were annexed to the consonants. Today Eurocentric scholars teach that Indians taught writing to the Ethiopians, yet the name Nagari for Sanskrit betrays the Ethiopia origin of this form of writing. Moreover, it is interesting to note that Sanskrit vowels: a,aa,’,I,u,e,o, virama etc., are in the same order as Geez.

The Ethiopian script has influenced many other writing systems. Y.M. Kobishnor, in the Unesco History of Africa, maintains that Ethiopic was used as the model for Armenian writing, as was many of the Transcaucasian scripts. Dravidian literature indicate that the Naga may have introduced worship of Kali, the Serpent, Murugan and the Sun or Krishna. It is interesting to note that a god called Murugan is worshipped by many people in East Africa.

It is interesting that Krishna, who was associated with the Sun, means Black, this is analogous to the meaning of Khons of the Kushites. Homer, described Hercules as follows: “Black he stood as night his bow uncased, his arrow string for flight”. This mention of arrows identifies the Kushites as warriors who
used the bow, a common weapon of the Kushites and the Naga.

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Kumarinadu

The Naga or Ethiopians were defeated by Dravidian speaking people from Kumarinadu. Kamarinadu is suppose to have formerly existed as a large Island in the India ocean which connected India with East Africa. This landmass is mentioned in the Silappadikaram, which said that Kamarinadu was made up of seven nadus or regions. The Dravidian scholars Adiyarkunallar and Nachinaar wrote about the ancient principalities of Tamilaham, which existed on Kamarinadu.

Kumarinadu was ruled by the Pandyans/Pandians at Madurai before it
sunk beneath the sea. The greatest king of Kumarinadu was Sengoon.
According to Dravidian scholars the Pandyans worshipped the goddess Kumari Amman. This Amman, probably corresponds to the ancient god Amon of the Kushites.

The Kalittokai 104, makes it clear that after the Pandyans were forced to migrate off their Island home into South India, “to compensate for the area lost to the great waves of the sea, King Pandia without tiresome moved to the other countries and won them. Removing the emblems of tiger (Cholas) and bow (Cheras) he, in their place inscribed his reputed emblem fish (Pandia’s) and valiantly made his enemies bow to him”.

Another Article Speaks on the African / Indian Connecton:

The lost Africans of India

Africans in India
Music may provide a clue to the community’s origins
November 24, 2000
By: Andrew Whitehead

Long before the first slave ships started supplying labour to the cotton plantations of the American south, and many centuries before the first Africans were brought ashore to the sugar estates of Brazil and the Caribbean, Africans were being sold as slave-soldiers for India’s princely states.

Their descendants are the least visible part of the huge African diaspora.

But today in India, almost lost among the mosaic of different cultures and communities in that country, are tens of thousands of people of African descent.

They are known as Sidis.

Slavery

Mother and Child
Most have lost touch with their roots
Although they came at first as slaves, they were so successful as fighters that they at times usurped power from the rulers they were supposed to be serving.

Yet they are now struggling at the margins of Indian society.

“The Sidis are descendants of African slaves, sailors and servants, and merchants who remained in India after arriving through the sea trade with East Africa and the Gulf,” says Amy Catlin of the University of California, who is making a special study of Sidi culture.
“That was a process which began in the 12th century or before, and lasted until the late 19th century”.

Lost touch

Some Sidis are keenly aware of their past, and a few remain in touch with relatives in Africa.

India
But in the western Indian state of Gujarat – where most Sidis live – the community has lost touch with its roots.

The village of Jambur, deep in the Gir forest, is one of two exclusively Sidi settlements.

It is miserably poor.

The headman explains that yes, everyone in Jambur is a Sidi.

Their forbears came from Africa.

But they have lost any knowledge of African languages, and don’t know where exactly their ancestors came from or why they settled in India.

Music and dance

The only remnant they retain of their African lineage is their music and dance.

Women with Fish
Sidi community very poor
This is what Professor Catlin, an ethno-musicologist, hopes to use to fill in the story of the Sidis.

“In Gujarat, affinities with African music include certain musical instruments and their names”, she says, “and also the performance of an African-derived musical genre called “goma”.

In the nearby town of Junagadh, a smaller group of Sidis lives alongside the shrine of Bava Gor, an ancient Sufi Muslim holyman who was himself of African descent.

Their hold on their African past is a little more secure.

They say they know a few songs in an African language, but not their meaning.

And their dance is more obviously African.

But again, their music, song and dance are the only links with their African past.

Amy Catlin believes that the Sidis of western India came from coastal and inland villages in east Africa which were raided by slave traders.

But that’s far from certain.

Indeed, one legend has it that the Sidis of inland Gujarat originally came from Kano in northern Nigeria, and ended up in India after undertaking a Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

Music may be the only key that can unlock their past.

African Presence in Asia

Sidis African Indians

By Ayanna @.rootswomen.com

Why were there so many African-descended people the Indian subcontinent by the early 17th century and in what way did Malik Ambar reflect their significance to the region?

In Godfrey Higgins’ seminal work Anaclypsis, he relates a story of Herodotus giving an account of his travels to the lands of the Blacks: “And upon his return to Greece they gathered around and asked, “Tell us about this great Land of the blacks called Ethiopia.” And Herodotus said, “There are two great Ethiopian nations, one in Sind (India) and the other in Egypt”. Herodotus’ account of the great African civilizations that spanned both the African continent and much of South East Asia, was not the first nor would it be the last observation by travelers and historians alike, of the black civilizations in South East Asia. Arriving in several waves during the 16th century, many European adventurers wrote and marveled at the civilizations they had encountered. However, in light of European ethnocentrism, it would be the presence of a large number of Africans in the region that may have proved most startling. Europeans would later attempt to catalog and trace the origins of these Africans. In the aforementioned work, Higgins not only attempts to trace the paths of incursion of these Africans into Asia but additionally he classifies them into several groups based on variations in phenotype.

The rise of Pan-Africanism in the 20th century along with the increasing scope of revisionist scholars of African history and the history of African descended peoples, has given impetus to critical examinations of their achievements and contributions to civilizations the world over. The reign of the Ethiopian ruler Malik Ambar in the Deccan stands out as a dramatic assertion of African leadership in a hostile anti-black environment replete with incursions by hostile invading forces. However, we must note that Ambar’s rule, though significant was not an exception, but part of a long history of African power in the region from as early as over 100,000 years ago. It is these achievements by Africans and African descended peoples in India that have been long overlooked in European and Indo- European scholarship and have more recently been catapulted into the public eye by rising Pan-African and civil rights movements.

The African presence in South Asia by the time of major European contact in the 1500′s was a product of several waves of incursions into the region by African and Africoid-phenotype peoples. The first wave, starting some 100,000 years ago, were what is commonly termed as the “Negritos” or “Negrillos” who are spread over the region from parts of southern Pakistan to Polynesia and Melanesia. These include the Khyeng of Pakistan, the Jawawa and other Adamese in the Bay of Bengal and the Agta of the Phillipines. It is with the arrival of this group that the dawn of Indian history begins, “We have to begin with the Negroid or Negrito people of prehistoric India who were its first human inhabitants.” The Second Wave of African incursion was that of the Proto Australoid, described as having broad nose and widely separated nostrils. The combination of these two groups was responsible for the creation of the great Indus Valley civilizations of Mohenjo-Daro and Harrapa. Other historians disagree with this view, and putting a later date to the Indus Valley cities, state that it was the taller, racially mixed Dravidian population that were the creators of these civilizations.

Another incoming wave saw the incursion of a taller African who may have entered about 25,000 years ago just after the last ice age, occupying an area from the modern Middle-East to parts of Korea and Japan. They would eventually mix with other indigenous and some incoming groups and today comprise what has been termed the Indo-Dravidian race, which includes Tamils, Orissas and Cholas. This group of taller Africans continued to enter the region, crisscrossing and settling the Indian Subcontinent and Indian Ocean region as traders, adventurers and conquerors; a movement that continued well into the 19th century. The most noticeable Africans to European adventurers were the Habshis and Siddis; Habshis referring to Africans coming from the Read Sea region and Siddis referring Africans from further south along the East Coast of Africa . The Europeans observers often used the term Abyssinian or Negro for this group whose phenotype tended to resemble those of continental Africans than any other visible African descended group in the period.

African Indian Merchant

While many African descended people in South Asia have a more definitive African origin that can be traced through either invasion or slavery, it is often difficult to trace that of the earliest group, the so-called diminutive blacks. While these people have been commonly referred to as the “pygmies” and “negritos/negrillos”, historians Yoseph ben Jochannan and Basil Davidson both identify them as the “Twa”, the earliest humans whose birthplace along with their counterparts the San and Khoi Khoi are in Central and South Africa respectively. Many of the groups that have survived in India in isolated areas still retain their Africoid features and are hardly distinguishable from continental Africans in phenotype and genotype. Following Gladwin’s trail, we can trace the movement of these Twa or Twa-descended people from continental Africa across Asia and the Indian Ocean. Some of the early records of the Chinese speak of little black men who inhabited the land south of the Yangtze River . The records of the invading Aryans also attest to their early presence as one verse, which discusses the Nissada with whom the Aryans were warring as “having black skin, flat nose and blood-shot eyes” . The Dasyus or Dasas are also similarly described in the RgVeda as “having black skin, snubbed-nose and speaking a foreign language”.

The eastward invasion path of the Aryans partly explains why these Africans are found in such great numbers in parts of eastern South Asia such as East Bengal and South East Asia including modern day Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. Many, along with some Australoids, would also flee into the forested areas of Central India. Another important movement was the Munghal southward push c.700 A.D that pushed these Africans who were occupying parts of southern China farther south into northern India. American historian Runoko Rashidi also contends that they were able to reestablish themselves in south East Asia and eventually build other civilizations including Champa . Trade and interaction would continue with south Asia, where many of these blacks had fled. In 1999, Partha P. Majumder of The Indian Statistical Institute after conducting DNA tests on blood taken from thirty different ethnic groups in India concluded that the first populations had indeed arrived from Africa, having broken off from the larger genetic group just over 100,000 years ago .

The incursion of the taller Africans about 25,000 years ago, also added to the eventual number of Africans recorded by 17th century European visitors, explorers and traders. Indeed this must have been the most numerous group, a factor which caused a later observer to surmise that “there is clearly a Negro strain in the Indian population” . It is also this group, which is most often encountered in the religious and historical texts of the Hindus by the misnomer Adi Dravida, which the European would later term Dravidian, or Indo-Dravidian. The Dravidian phenotype most often reflects a history of race mixing. According to one group of Indian scholars the complexes at Majendro-Daro and Harappa contain skulls of Africoids, Mongoloids, Australoids and some Mediterranean races. One can assume Mediterranean to mean an African-European mixed group as proposed by Chandler . The Aryan invasion c. 2000 B.C.E. also pushed this group further east and south. The eventual triumph of the Aryans and the subsequent rise of Vedic Dharma were important elements in the survival of the race, including its phenotype and traceable aspects of culture, on the sub-continent. Ironically the rules of caste endogamy, which restricted cross caste marriage, especially to Africans left many to marry only within their group or to other tribal outcasts which were largely dark skinned Australoids. This factor coupled with the need for lower-caste labour ensured the survival of this group in such large numbers by the time of major European contact leaving revisionist scholars with proof of an undiluted African presence.

The large numbers of these Dravidians were also a result of a European classification based on phenotypic similarity. Many incoming Africans being racially mixed may have resembled the standard Dravidian phenotype to Europeans, however many were in fact not Dravidians at all, having arrived in many later incursions. In some instances, African descended persons were the product of the continuous contact taking place across the Indian Ocean from as early as 2000 B.C.E. which continued right up through the period of European expansion. The Cholas of southern India for example were traders who traded with and often took wives from the African populations in the Indian Ocean and mainland Africa. Chittick also informs us that many Africans, from both Africa and Southern Arabia, as traders and otherwise, also settled parts of South Asia including parts of what are today modern Pakistan and the Deccan . There was thus a constant mixing of populations from both areas, many of whom took up residence in South Asia.

Many Africans in 16th century South Asia were also descendents of African soldiers of invading armies. It was the customary that after conquest, the soldiers were allowed to take females from among the conquered, some of whom were raped while others were taken as wives and concubines by the invaders. The armies of “Alexander the Great” which invaded south Asia sweeping across what is today Afghanistan and Pakistan and stopping in central northern India, were made up of a considerable number of Africans. The same was true of the Roman armies that invaded some centuries later. One Indian historian has reported the development of the practice of Sati as a means of preventing this raping by armies . Incidentally, the practice was traditionally restricted to Brahmin women, although those of other castes eventually practiced it. This could have resulted in an increased rate of survival among groups including African women.

The most significant invasion would be that of Islam which arrived over both land and sea. The initial Islamic conquest was led by the African leader “Omar the Great” in the 8th Century A.D. sweeping across Bactria and into Hindustan. He used thousands of African soldiers, many of whom settled in the region and most probably took wives from among the local population. This group, who had conquered most of northwestern South Asia, would later be taken over by Muslim arrivals who established the Delhi Sultanate. As in the case of previous invasions, African communities fled east into areas such as east Bengal and the Deccan. Others remained to form substantial communities in what is today Pakistan. Other invasions had also taken place by the 13th century with the spread of Islam across south Asia as far east as Indonesia. This was however largely trade oriented and required one’s membership in Islam as a prerequisite to trade safely in the Indian Ocean. Islam would eventually come to dominate northern South Asia. Eventually the Dehli Sultante would be challenged and collapse under the pressure of the expanding Mogul empire which sought to conquer its predecessors old empire. The Portuguese would arrive by 1599 with the British and French following closely in the early 1600′s, all vying to control the riches of Muslim northern India.

The most noticeable Africans described by 16th century Europeans who visited India, the Deccan and Bengal in particular, were those who they described as Abyssinians and Negroes. Called Habshis or Siddis, some were descendents of soldiers of invading Muslim armies. The vast majority were descendents of Africans sold into slavery in the region. This trade was part of a broader Trans-Indian Ocean slave trade, which drew Africans primarily, but not exclusively from the East African coast who were sold to buyers in many parts of the region including Arabia, Indonesia and the Deccan. It is estimated that some 2-3 million Africans were sold into slavery across the Indian Ocean between 800 A.D. and 1900 A.D. . African women were particularly prized in Islamic controlled regions to fill the Harems of the political and economically powerful. African males served another, more traditional purpose, that of soldier. Slavery in many Islamic lands seemed to have been based on function, necessity and race. Africans were chosen as slave soldiers in part because of the belief that they were loyal, great fighters and most importantly, despised by the local population. It was this final element coupled with their foreign status which made Africans desired as slaves. The rationale held that they could hold a position of power, without being able to mount a coup d’etat as he would have no support from the general citizenry. Others were imported to provide sexual services to the women of the harems, as there was a common belief that Africans had insatiable sexual appetites. This reasoning in part explains why so many African men were imported into South Asia as slaves and why they often held such seemingly powerful positions.

While it can be argued that the rise of Islam in India had an unprecedented effect on the ability of Africans to rise to power, given the slightly more egalitarian attitudes of Muslims to race when compared to Brahmin Hinduism , one must note the presence of powerful African dynasties that reigned in the South Asia many centuries before. Many of Hindu India’s great ruling dynasties came from the lower castes, who in many cases were predominantly African-descended peoples such as the Nanda dynasty who were Shudras; the Mauryans of a mixed caste and the Kalingas of Orissa. Bengal had also history of Habshi rulers- Malik Andil from 1487- 1490; Nasiruddin Mahmud II, from 1490-1491 and Sidi Badr from 1491- 1493. Regional historians tell of the presence of Habshis in powerful positions in the Deccan states .The Golconda history tells of the power of the “Abbyssinia party” of the late 1580′s in Bijapur who brooked no opposition even from the rulers. Despite this, it is undeniable that although an African with considerable political power was not unprecedented in the region, the reign of Malik Ambar does indeed stand out as an excellent example of the many different contributions of African descended peoples in the region- their large numbers as well as the role they played in the formation of Indian civilization.

Little is known of the life of Malik Ambar before his sale into bondage in India. He was born around 1550 in Harar, Ethiopia and was sold several times around the Arab world in the Hejaz, Mocha and Baghdad where his intelligence, administrative potential and loyalty was observed and rewarded. He was educated in finance and administration, was renowned as a great warrior and was given charge over several Habshi warriors and servicemen whose loyalty he commanded. Ambar was sold to the King of Bijapur whom he impressed greatly with his skill and it was then he was given the title of Malik, “Like a King” because of the military prowess. His control over many of the Kings troops allowed him to take many of them with him under his own command when he eventually defected over a dispute. Ambar and his band of over 1500 Habshi and Arab mercenaries fought for the Ahmadnagar King in 1595 where he became a champion of the Deccans against the Munghal incursions. His astute political machinations, cunning diplomacy and cutthroat guerilla tactics in warfare, allowed for the inevitable; by 1602 he has seized full power in Ahmadnagar through his control of the military.

We must note the political and military situation in the Deccan at this time. Relations between Muslim and Hindu factions were hostile; Mughal incursions from the north by the 1580′s were in full effect, especially on Ahmadnagar, and noble houses were vying for power during the instability. Ambar’s seizure of power at this time was to have important ramifications in the era and provide a relatively stabilizing influence up until his death. One of the fist remarkable qualities of his reign was that he was able to seize power and amass such popular support at all. His reign defied the thought that slaves were safe holders of power as their alien status as well as their blackness would not allow them to attain popular support. Both Islamic and Hindu societies were hostile to Africans, both having a clear-cut preference for lighter shades. While in Islamic tradition persons were deemed more acceptable through “ascending miscegenation” where lighter skin accorded one further privileges , Ambar from all accounts was black skinned. The Mughal Emperor frequently referred to him as “that Ambar, the black fated one ( he was an Abissinian”), “the black faced” and “Ambar of the dark fate” Interesting to note is the fact that all public buildings erected during his reign and his tomb at his death were built of black stone. This seemed to be a deliberate action on his part and we can surmise from this that Ambar was indeed aware of the colour prejudice that existed around him and he used the back stone to reinforce the dignity in his Africanness and his black skin. When one examines the iniquity of the caste system in traditional Hindu India, the severe colourism that existed in both Muslim and Christian areas and the depressed state that many Africans in India suffered under these systems, Ambar’s rule becomes even more significant. In fact, it is certain that his Africanness was what would have won him much support from lower caste Muslims, some of them untouchables and Sudras.

Ambar was also credited with establishing an air of religious tolerance in the Deccan. He built Christian churches, patronized Hindu festivals and still kept his Muslim faith. His egalitarian land reform system also won him much support. Canals and irrigation schemes were developed to improve trade and agriculture and lower rates of taxation were applied to the poorer areas. In the eyes of the common people, he was elevated to hero status. Of critical significance in Malik Ambar’s reign is the fact that his 20-year stronghold on the Deccan checked the dreaded Munghal advance. His continued resistance, the strength of his armies and diplomatic skills and shifting alliances allowed him to check both the Mungal advance southward as well as the European advance westward checking the ascendancy of the British Raj across the whole of India. It was said that once Malik Ambar lived, the Munghals could not conquer the Deccan His death in 1626, however saw the collapse of this stability and African power in the Deccan.

Malik Ambar’s rule, did not only display the role of one African leader who distinguished himself in a severely hostile anti-black environment. We must note that his power base was African and many of his top soldiers and advisers were African. He was able to rally the low caste groups in the heterogeneous region of the Deccan and maintain Indian civilization in the face of the threats of both Munghal and Europeans. His reign is significant however, only when seen along a continuum of Africans as initiators, contributors and powerbrokers of South Asian civilization from its inception over 100,000 years ago. Like the role and achievements of Malik Ambar, the role of the African initiators of Indian civilization has only recently been receiving due attention by the academic community, with European and Indo-European apologists still endevouring to conceal the truth of Indian’s African origins. The reality is, that not only were there significant numbers of Africans in the Indian sub continent up to the 17th century and continuing into the present day, but it is these Africans that largely form the ranks of the Sudra/Untouchables and are outcasts in Hindu society, that are the builders and keepers of traditional Indian civilization.

Why So Angry Black Man? by Chantel Laurent

Brother Malcolm, the living embodiment of our shining Black Manhood.

“…there’s no sin in being angry. In fact if you’re not angry, there’s something wrong with you.” –Gil Noble

Professor Henry Louis Gates challenged police authority on Thursday, July 16. He was confronted by a policeman in his home who demanded his identification. Though the professor proved his identity to Jim Crowley it was not enough to appease the man. You see, Professor Gates insisted on proof of identity from Policeman Crowley. Apparently, he did not moderate his voice or attitude to suit policeman Crowley. In this culture, anger, if you are a minority is dangerous. If you neglect the well-known code of behavior familiar to most minorities who are stopped by the police, at a minimum you could pay with a night in jail or ultimately with your life.

For the record, there is nothing wrong with being angry. Anger is a basic human right. In a country which bills itself as the “Land of the Free” an American citizen cannot be faulted in believing that they have a right to express justifiable anger.

Frederick Douglass
First Prominent Angry Black Man in America

Truthfully, being a sheep never advanced anyone’s cause.

John Brown was angry.
He was an abolitionist who attempted to start a revolution to free the slaves by raiding Harpers Ferry. He was caught and executed along with his cohorts, but Union soldiers paid him homage by singing “John Brown’s body lies-a-mouldering in the ground…. His soul is marching on” as they marched off to fight the Civil War. That popular battle march inspired Julia Ward to write “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

Martin Luther King was angry.
His colleagues called his actions “unwise and untimely.” Reverend King wrote in his “letter from a Birmingham Jail” that they’re concern about the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham failed “to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city’s white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.”

Ghandi was angry.
It sustained him when he practiced civil disobedience in actively refusing to obey certain laws. Ghandi defied the British policy of prohibiting Indians from collecting or selling salt. In his boldest act of civil disobedience he led a defiant march to the sea at the head of tens of thousands where he picked up a small lump of natural salt–and broke British law ending up jail.

El Hajj Malik Shabazz or Malcolm X was angry.
It gave him the strength to endure the relentless castigation of a media that portrayed him as violent, criminal and racist. And it gave him the courage to face the fact that he would most likely not live to a ripe old age.

Gil Noble, the host and producer of the great New York institution and program “Like It Is” explains why Malcolm had so many powerful enemies and why he was assassinated.

“I realized that I’d been had [believed the media hype]. But when I heard Malcolm’s entire presentation everything fell in line and it was logical. And it made me understand that there’s no sin in being angry. In fact if you’re not angry, there’s something wrong with you.

Why do you think that Malcolm was killed?
I think there were a number of reasons why he was killed. He was a threat to America’s global ambitions. He had done a lot in Africa to awaken the African countries. And let them understand that they should not be victim of the courtship that American businesses were engaged in, the Peacecorps and all of these things. ‘Cause they don’t love you. They want your minerals. If they did… Look what they are doing to us and we’re your brothers and sisters. Look what they’re doing to us in, you know Mississippi and what not. And so many of them began to quote Malcolm on the floor of the United Nations ironically. So I think that is one dimension, that the State Department. And they tried to kill him when he was in Egypt. They tried to poison… they poisoned him, but he had his stomach pumped and he survived.”

Malcolm’s close aide and chief secretary James 67X, also known as Abdullah H. Abdur-Razzaq and James Shabazz was on “Like It Is” (a rebroadcast) this past Sunday with his personal photographer Robert L. Haggins. At one point, after describing the death of Malcolm, he began to weep openly. When Mr. Noble asked him what made him so sad. He said he thought they (Malcolm and his followers) could have made history. He said that he thought that in the United States young Black men are not allowed to grow up and mature. A very profound statement on many levels. Even as it relates to Michael Jackson and the way MJ was hounded, criminalized and ridiculed by the mainstream media.

A grown human being should not have to bow and scrape to an absolute authority figure–that is tyranny. He/she should have the right and privilege to express their justifiable anger if they choose to. After all, isn’t it their right as a Free, Black and 21 American citizen?

On “Countdown” today (07.27.09) the guest host Lawrence O’Donnell explains why the Gates arrest amounted to a false arrest and that “the president’s words were exactly right, it was ‘stupid.’”

UPDATE:

Questions on race aspect of Henry Louis Gates case show subtlety of racism
From an article in the NY Daily News:

“The word “black” comes only in the Cambridge Police Department Incident Report filed by the responding cop, Sgt. James Crowley. He describes in detail arriving at the scene and encountering a woman with a cell phone who identified herself as the caller.

“She went on to tell me that she observed what appeared to be two black males with backpacks,” the report states.”

The caller, Lucia Whalen, says through a lawyer that she said nothing to Crowley at the scene beyond, “I’m the one who called.”

She insists she never described the two men by race.

Just as Crowley insists everything in the report is true “or it wouldn’t be there.”

Officer Jim Crowley exaggerated the threat of the situation by citing two black males with backpacks in his police report.

Words of Wisdom from the Elders and Ancestors Part 1:

New Post

The Ankh is called the Key of Life. Knowledge is power. Knowledge is also the Key to this life. Gain it and prosper or ignore it and suffer. This image is a replica of the ankh found in Tut-Ankh-Imin’s Tomb.

STRATEGIES OF WAR

The Gospel According to
Dr. Anthony Browder

“You must be actively engaged in
the process of freeing your mind.
You have to begin the process of
freeing your mind by evaluating
everything that you have been
taught. Everything! And develop a
discriminating eye so that you can
ultimately learn what not to
believe. You don’t want to believe
everything everybody tells you.
The brain is a sacred instrument.
You don’t give everybody access to
this instrument. We all have been
lied to. We all have been miseducated
and we are trying to
reconstruct our consciousness.”

NUBIAN LEGEND

Anonymous Ancestor

“The Creative Essence multiplied
itself into a million, billion pieces
and sent it’s self out into the
universe, comprising the melanated
men and women of humanity.”
“The Beast (Devil) multiplied
itself into not so many pieces and
sent it’s color-less self out into the
universe, comprising what is kind
of like a man (mankind).”

CULTURE

The Gospel According to
Dr. Wade Nobles

“Culture is to humans as water is
to fish. Humans can’t exist outside
of culture. So you either in your
authentic culture which is Afrikan
or you are in some other culture.
Which could be an adopted culture.
Could be an adaptation of a culture.
It could be an aberrant culture.
When we borrow someone else’s
culture, we borrow their insanity as
well. We borrow their genius, but
we also borrow their insanity. And
depending upon who we borrow
from, the balance of genius to
insanity may not be to our
advantage.”

POWER

The Gospel According To
Dr. Wade Nobles

“The definition of power is a
psychological question. It is not a
military question. It is not a
economic question. It’s not a social
question. It is a psychological
question. Power is the ability to
define reality and to have other
people respond to your definition
as if it were their own. Our
dilemma, our problem is that we
allow other people to define the
meaning of who we are. And once
we accepted their definition we
gave them power.
“The most important reality to
define is the meaning of one’s
human being-ness. That’s nobody’s
conversation but ours. We can’t
even allow them to enter in the
possibility of engaging in
conjecture. They can’t even wonder
about what it means to be Afrikan
people unless you’re Afrikan.
That’s nobody’s business but ours.”

CHUMPS

The Gospel According to
Malcolm X

“The world pushes the African
around because we give the
impression that we are chumps, not
champs, but chumps, weaklings,
falling over ourselves to follow
other people rather than our own
traditions.”

BROTHERHOOD

The Gospel According to
Dr. Jacob Carruthers

“Brotherhood or equality cannot
exist between the Eurasian
mentality and the African, therefore
Africa cannot be dependent on
European or Asian powers. We
may play them against each other
as Toussaint and Dessalines did,
but history gives us no reason to
believe that we can sit down as
equals and negotiate a world order
that will result in true African
liberation.”

SHE DELIGHTS IN
MAKING WAR

The Gospel According to
Honorable Elijah Muhammad

“America loves meddling into
other people’s affairs. She just
cannot stay out of other people’s
business, whether they be a twocents
worth soap-box teacher or
presidents and kings of countries.”
“America goes abroad and makes
war against other people. Then she
charges them with making war
against her when she is the one
who is guilty of the war-making.”
“The Bible says Allah (God) will
destroy those who delight
themselves in making war.”

MIS-EDUCATION

The Gospel According To
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o

“A colonial or European
education…annihilates a peoples
belief in their names, in their
languages, in their environment, in
their heritage of struggle, in their
unity, in their capacities and
ultimately in themselves. It makes
them see their past as one
wasteland of non-achievement and
it makes them want to distance
themselves from that wasteland. It
makes them want to identify with
that which is furthest removed from
themselves”

RISE AGAINST
EXPLOITATION

The Gospel According To
Ologosun Obasanjo

“Africans had been globalized into
slavery, colonialism, poverty,
oppression and lop-sidedness of the
world’s economic situation.
Globalization being preached by
the West is “another form of
bondage for the black race.”

IMAGES

The Gospel According To
Dr. Anthony Browder

“We need to realize racism is an
unavoidable fact of life in America.
We need to understand how racist
images attack us constantly 24
hours a day. We need to understand
that whoever is responsible for
creating images will ultimately
determine your level of
consciousness. How you feel about
yourself is determined by how you
see yourself. And if the images that
are constantly projected about you
say that you are less than
human…then you will act less than
human. Others will regard you as
less than human.

I KNOW WHY THECAGED BIRD SINGS
Maya Angelou /Buckshot
LeFonque

The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

WAR

The Gospel According To
Dr. Anthony Browder

“We need to begin to prepare
ourselves for war. We need to
begin to understand that we have
been under attack the moment that
we set foot on this land. And the
war takes on different forms. You
have low intensity warfare. You
have psychological warfare. You
have germ warfare. Drug warfare.
Alcohol warfare. Spiritual warfare.
Mental and Cultural warfare. We
have been under attack.”

DOMESTICATED

The Gospel According To
Booty Adams

“Liberation starts in the mind’s
eye. Nobody can set you free but
your self. If you don’t develop a
picture of what free is like,
somebody can put you in a box and
you wouldn’t know you were in a
prison. Instead of free, you can
become domesticated like a mutt or
a Billy goat.”

AFRIKAN ORIGIN OF
ELECTROMAGNETISM

The Gospel According To
Nur Ankh Amen

“The most powerful tool of
modern technology is Electrons.
The cover up and denial of prior
electronic use in Afrika allowed
many inventions to be patented,
creating massive profit for the
inventors and the new industry”
“Discoverers of electronics like
Volta, Hertz and Ben-Franklin
were merely Columbuses of the
Electronic Frontier.”

GUN CONTROL

The Gospel According To
Tyrone Powers

“White supremacist groups are
increasing their weapons and Black
folks are trading their guns in for
tennis shoes and toys. I agree we
need to stop killing each other off,
but gun control can take on
different meanings. It has to mean
controlling the minds of our young
people so they know when to use it
and who to use it on.

NINA TAKA JINA LANGU LIRUDISHWE

(I WANT MY NAME BACK)

By Dr. Roberto Gibraltarik

I want my name back
Nwandi, Nfume, Amuchi, Njome
Matumbi, Mboya, Umoh,
Atundi, Kofi, Mahubuti

In a land ot griots families
and roots
I bask in the sun
and tall grass
remembering the Sasa and Zamani
admiring my slender body
of unblemished
ebony,
of coarse hair
and distinct phenotype
oblivious to internal intoxants,
external disease

I live off the land
and hunt as needed
for I am God’s creation,
an intelligent being
advanced in technology,
social and communal
attachments,
reasonably hospitable and
unfortunately susceptible
to deceit and bondage.

Shanghaied and sold
into servitude and slavery
I was,
devoid of everything that resembled me
even my pigmentation…but I can revolt
to get my name back.

I want my name back…
I’m not Irish Fitzgerald, Fitzpatrick
Smith, Brown, Murphy, O’Riley,
Kelly, O’Neil, McDonald

I ain’t English either,
Jones, Jackson, Johnson,
Williams, Washington,White,
King, Cunningham

I ain’t even French,
DuPree, DuVall, Beauchamps,
LaRue, Herbert, Broussard
Bourgeois, DuBois,

Neither am I Spanish
Rodriguez, Garcia
Hernandez, Martinez, Rojas, Gomez
Marquez, Reyes, Perez, Gonzalez,

Nor am I Portuguese
Andrade, Dos Santos
Do Nascimento, Rodrigues, Mendes
Gonsalves,

Nor German, nor Dutch
Taylor, Synder, Miller
Frazier, Goldstein, Goldsmith,
Van Housen
Rosenberge, Van Buren,
Andersen, Peterson

I want my name back
Kijan, Mtombo, Nkrumah,
Ngozi, Achebe, Sovinka
I want my name back,
I want my name hack
I want my name back from
the Slave Ship Jesus
that proudly embarked in America delivering
precious Black cargo,

I want my name back
from the thieves
dressed as employers with
promises of jobs, money
and other goods
with nothing but swords, whips
and chains
under their righteous hoods,

I want my name back
from the massa
who usurped my manhood
who raped
and raped
and raped
and raped my mother
my sister
my daughter
my grandmother;
who whipped my father
my brother
my sons
til their name flowed
like noble blood into a sea of stormy
whitecaps;

I want my name
back,
I want my name back,
I want
my NAME
back
from the priest
whose demonic and sadistic
oppression
forced my bondage
for over 400 years

I want my name back
from the misinterpretations
of Christianity,
and the brain-washing
of Catholicism

I want my name back
from the rejects
who stumbled
on this land,
who starved the native man,
and labeled him
Indian;

I want my name back
from the
ignorant bastards
who scrambled my tongue
with their broken
uneducated
utterances
only to
create a language
that their so-called mother country
won’t even accept;

I want my name back, I want
my name back
I want my name
back
from the
politicians
who categorize me Black
but not of Latin
origin,
who categorize me Hispanic
denying my African heritage
who categorize me
based on where he stuck his thang
for the past few hundred years,
who conveniently
categorize me
a n y w a y he wishes
to divvy up the
skinny bone of poverty;

I want my name back, I
said I want my name back
from the so-called
conservatives
who cringe at the name
Mohammed
or the word Muslim,

I want my name back
from the
John Waynes and Ronnie Ray Guns
who screw us
in the name of the law
’cause its the Amerikkkan
modus operandi

I want my name
back from
the slum landlord who
partitioned
a one bedroom apartment
into a flat
for
three families,
who added one bathroom
to the
brownstone,
two mail boxes
in front
and one on the
side
and rented
to three more families,

I want my
name back from
the corner store owner
with his
credit book
on the counter
feeding me hardship
and economic depression
every time I charge a
box of grits;

I
want
my
name
back
from the police
who recorded my pseudonym
the day I was born
preparing a place for me
and my male progeny
by the time we reach
sixteen;

I
want
my
name
back,
nina taka jina langu lirudishwe
who stole me MANDINGO,
YORUBA, IGBO, HAUSA,
ASHANTE, TUTU,
WATUSI, MAUMAU, IFE,
DAHOMEY,
BENIN, DAFUR,

I want my name back
I want my name back
I said
1 want my name back
from the uncle Toms
who say
that’s the way it suppose to be,

I want my name back
from the politicians
who are on my side
then violate me, I want
my name back
from
the street corner symphony
that rocked me to sleep
and robbed me of me.

Nina taka jina
langu lirudishwe
to give to my
progeny
to witness
a sensation of freedom
pulsating their
body,

Nina taka jina
langu lirudishwe
to sow
a new seed
in the bleeding hearts
of our ancestors

Nina taka jina
langu lirudishwe
para gritar al
mundo
que hemos llegado
en armas completas
I want my name back
to shout
to the world
that we have arrived
in complete regalia
and will vow
never to subject

our culture,
nuestra cultura

our lives,
nuestra vida

our heritage
nuestra herencia

to defamation again!

I want my name back
to hear
the sound
of my ancestors
offering me as sacrifice
to the only
supreme
greater than myself.

I want my name back
to hear
the African lullaby
that has been stored
by my ancestors
waiting for me to come home

I want my name back
to wear
the sacred robe,
to walk
the precious land,
to drink
the soothing water
and taste my natural sand.

Yo quiero
que me devuelvan
a mi
mi propia identidad!

Eu quero
meu nome original!

Je veux
retrouver
mon nom identite!

I want my name back!
NINA TAKA JINA LANGU LIRUDISHWE!

UN urges global move to meat and dairy-free diet

• Felicity Carus
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 June 2010 18.09 BST

An cattle ranch in Mato Grosso, Brazil. The UN says agriculture is on a par with fossil fuel consumption because both rise rapidly with increased economic growth. Photograph: Daniel Beltra/GreenpeaceA global shift towards a vegan diet is vital to save the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the worst impacts of climate change, a UN report said today.

As the global population surges towards a predicted 9.1 billion people by 2050, western tastes for diets rich in meat and dairy products are unsustainable, says the report from United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) international panel of sustainable resource management.

It says: “Impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth increasing consumption of animal products. Unlike fossil fuels, it is difficult to look for alternatives: people have to eat. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products.”

Professor Edgar Hertwich, the lead author of the report, said: “Animal products cause more damage than [producing] construction minerals such as sand or cement, plastics or metals. Biomass and crops for animals are as damaging as [burning] fossil fuels.”

The recommendation follows advice last year that a vegetarian diet was better for the planet from Lord Nicholas Stern, former adviser to the Labour government on the economics of climate change. Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has also urged people to observe one meat-free day a week to curb carbon emissions.

The panel of experts ranked products, resources, economic activities and transport according to their environmental impacts. Agriculture was on a par with fossil fuel consumption because both rise rapidly with increased economic growth, they said.

Ernst von Weizsaecker, an environmental scientist who co-chaired the panel, said: “Rising affluence is triggering a shift in diets towards meat and dairy products – livestock now consumes much of the world’s crops and by inference a great deal of freshwater, fertilisers and pesticides.”

Both energy and agriculture need to be “decoupled” from economic growth because environmental impacts rise roughly 80% with a doubling of income, the report found.

Achim Steiner, the UN under-secretary general and executive director of the UNEP, said: “Decoupling growth from environmental degradation is the number one challenge facing governments in a world of rising numbers of people, rising incomes, rising consumption demands and the persistent challenge of poverty alleviation.”

The panel, which drew on numerous studies including the Millennium ecosystem assessment, cites the following pressures on the environment as priorities for governments around the world: climate change, habitat change, wasteful use of nitrogen and phosphorus in fertilisers, over-exploitation of fisheries, forests and other resources, invasive species, unsafe drinking water and sanitation, lead exposure, urban air pollution and occupational exposure to particulate matter.

Agriculture, particularly meat and dairy products, accounts for 70% of global freshwater consumption, 38% of the total land use and 19% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, says the report, which has been launched to coincide with UN World Environment day on Saturday.

Last year the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation said that food production would have to increase globally by 70% by 2050 to feed the world’s surging population. The panel says that efficiency gains in agriculture will be overwhelmed by the expected population growth.

Prof Hertwich, who is also the director of the industrial ecology programme at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, said that developing countries – where much of this population growth will take place – must not follow the western world’s pattern of increasing consumption: “Developing countries should not follow our model. But it’s up to us to develop the technologies in, say, renewable energy or irrigation methods.”

Zimbabwe: Let’s Honour Our Own Prophets

Dalla Bill – 1 June 2010

Harare — YOU don’t know it till its gone . . . you don’t know what you have got . . .” or something like that sang one popular Western singer.

Many times we just listen to the song and we do not put meaning to its words or apply them to our everyday life but it aptly analyses what Zimbabwe has in President Mugabe.

This song was brought to my memory on my recent visit to Tanzania attending training.

The training was attended by participants from Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Africa, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi, Comoros, Liberia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal to mention a few.

It drew participants from all over Africa. We all analysed the role President Mugabe has played in Zimbabwe and found out that black citizens of many African countries, wished he was their president.

The training had participants from very diverse backgrounds and history. What struck me most was their common interest about the situation in my motherland, Zimbabwe.

This writer and my colleague (the only two participants from Zimbabwe) had a torrid time trying to update colleagues about the situation back home.

Issues that were of interest include the inclusive Government outstanding issues, indigenisation and empowerment and the land reform.

There is genuine interest about our welfare from our brothers and sisters in Africa. Some of the participants were knowledgeable about our current affairs. Some relied mostly on the media especially the Western media while others needed to hear it from the people on the ground.

This explains why I was never short of people on my table during lunch or any other break. My room after class was always occupied, people wanting to know and having debates about the current affairs.

These people were interested to know how we have managed to live this long under sanctions and still lived to tell the story. They wanted to hear how the economy managed to survive though mostly on its knees the onslaught of the imperialists.

In my interactions with the other participants it dawned to me that other Africans really admired us and the revolutions that we are going through. Some even wished there had a leader like President Mugabe.

One guy from South Africa actually said masses in South Africa wished they had their own Mugabe. Another colleague from Rwanda concurred and said if Africa had six leaders of President Mugabe’s calibre, then Africa would be different from what it is right now. This Rwandese guy had speeches of our President on his laptop that is how much he follows the president.

The way these guys were admiring and appreciating what our President and the party did for Zimbabweans first the land reform and now the indigenisation and empowerment drive was mind blowing.

When I pointed the challenges we had to go through the past decade they had one answer for me; these are the pains of a revolution, the sacrifices of the struggle.

Regardless of what they had heard or seen on the media they highly esteem President Mugabe as the best thing that has happened to Africa. I realise surely mapudzi anowira kusina hari here are foreigners appreciating Cde Mugabe and back home we still have some who hate him with a passion. I was proud of our leader and to be from Zimbabwe the only republic described as independent from colonialism.

President Mugabe was described as a fearless, principled, a visionary and dedicated leader whose only “crime” was to challenge and fight imperialists and their machinations. A true Pan Africanist, who loves Africa and Zimbabwe, is President Mugabe. A leader with a spine to stand up to Britain and her allies.

I could not agree with them more. Cde Mugabe has proved to be what the doctor has ordered for Africa in this phase of the struggle for independence and total emancipation of Africa.

A colleague from Liberia said its unfortunate that age is catching up with Cde Mugabe, Africa still wants the man to lead the fight against imperialism like what Kwame Nkrumah did as he led the fight against colonialism. He has proven to be the voice of many African leaders especially on international fora. How many African leaders can tell the West to go and hang? Many fear the sanctions and the withdrawal of aid. They dread losing their honorary degrees, but not Cde Mugabe, who does not suffer from a crisis of achievement, he has stood firm in the face of adversity all in the effort to totally liberate Zimbabwe.

I personally admire his love for the country, his patriotism and how he stands for his values, principles and beliefs. How many are changed by the love of donor funds?

As Zimbabwe is celebrating 30 years of independence and self-rule and commemorating Africa Day, I take this opportunity to remind my fellow Zimbabweans of a leader we have.

A leader in the model of the long gone fathers of Africa like Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba and others. As a people we need to appreciate what God has given to us.

A leader who put his reputation on the line for the masses. What more could we ask for — Cde Mugabe could have chosen the Mandela route, retiring quietly without stepping on the toes of uncle Sam, he would be still be pampered by the West, given awards, degrees and having statues erected in his honour in London square. But no he chose to fight for the people thereby making himself enemy number one of the West.

In the eyes of the West, Cde Mugabe was setting a wrong precedent for other Africans and he had to be taught a lesson, hence the sanctions.

The economic challenges we faced the past 10 or so years were meant to make the agrarian reform fail and thus discourage other Africans from following the route.

Thirty years on Cde Mugabe has not wavered, he has stood firm. In the colonial era, the colonialist knew that education leads to emancipation of a human mind. They had segregatory education policy; independence bought new educational policies and more schools for blacks were built. Many so called political analysts and politicians are beneficiaries of that policy.

I was once taught that a man, who rules, should control the means of production. There was never going to be total independence unless and until we controlled the means of production hence the need for land reform.

Some people shunned it thinking it was a Zanu-PF gimmick but how many of us are smiling all the way to the bank after selling tobacco today? Some of us might have missed the land but we will not allow the indigenisation to pass us as well.

We do not want a situation when our children and grandchildren ask, “where were you when others were empowered through the land reform?” In my case, it is the indigenisation and economic empowerment programme? To my fellow Zimbabweans I say this is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss.

As a youth I say let us control our resources. As young people we are the future and what future is there if we do not control our mines, companies etc. There is no future to talk about for as long as our resources are used to develop other people. For how long should we standby and look as our resources are being looted? De Beers did it in Chiadzwa in the name of exploration.

What exploration when the diamonds were used for bird shooting by the villagers? Forget what Maridadi said, this is not Junior 3 Maridadi its a matter of destiny of life and death, we used to enjoy together during Junior 3 back then but this is not funny.

We the youth and I for one refuse to continue to see white youths of my age enjoying what should be mine! Eating the crumbs when I should be having the cake! Aluta continua comrades!

Its high time Zimbabweans woke up from their slumber and claim what is rightfully theirs. The times to continue to sing for our supper in NGOs and as TV analysts are over. It should be known that anyone against the indigenisation and economic empowerment drive is against the people.

It is time to consolidate the gains of our independence and not to reverse it. At 30 years of independence, we have come of age. Many people were glad to hear the President saying there is no going back.

Again those among us criticising are left behind. Its time we all accept that Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans and we need to empower the people now for future generations.

The minority whites we have today were not there when their ancestors colonised this country.

They are where they are today because of what their fathers did for them, the policies they implemented, and the legacy they inherited.

So likewise we owe it to our children and the generations to come. We have to leave an inheritance for our children’s children like what the Bible says. But how can we if we are just mere workers who do not control the means of production?

A salary can never leave a legacy!

President Mugabe and Minister Kasukuwere and other champions of indigenisation should be commended and supported in this drive.

It was refreshing to hear that hundreds of companies have submitted their indigenisation plans. So you it should be clear to Maridadi that the wheels are already turning and there is nothing that can stop us. The challenge was after being in the civil society for some time I realise that what we have been made to believe we are good for nothing only writing proposals and reports; begging for money. It pains my heart to see some of our best brains being wasted all in the name of getting donor funding and being used as pawns in the agenda of imperialist.