African fractals

Eglash greeted many African families while researching the intriguing fractal patterns he noticed in villages across the continent. He talks about his work exploring the rigorous fractal mathematics underpinning African architecture, art and even hair braiding.




-------

Namibia shark island- concentration camp

Namibia's island of death: Shark Island, off Namibia's coastal town of Luderitz, was the venue of a brutal concentration camp during German colonial rule.



Luderitz's forgotten Concentration camp
Jeremy Silvester & Casper Erichsen

On the 16 February 1907, Cornelius Fredericks died in a prison camp on a rocky, wind-swept outcrop off the coast of Luderitz known locally as ''Haifisch'' (Shark) Island. Cornelius Fredericks is still remembered and revered as one of the most prominent guerrilla leaders of the 1904 - 1908 war. But the camp where he was held in captivity, and where so many of his contemporaries shed their blood, is now largely forgotten.

Forming part of Luderitz harbour and laying host to the Luderitz campsite, Shark Island carries few clues to its murky past. Between 1905 and 1907 the island was used by the German military as a prisoner-of-war camp. Only a few years earlier, in the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa, the British had introduced what was referred to as ''concentration camps''.

The cruel concept was adopted by the German military, who interned prisoners-of-war in concentration camps in Swakopmund, Windhoek, Okahandja and Luderitz. With soaring high death rates, the concentration camps in South Africa were brutal and merciless and today are commemorated by memorials to those who died.

Shark Island was little different than its South African predecessors, and yet it is as if the history of the Shark Island concentration camp has been erased from the Namibian memory. The Shark Island camp contained the captured survivors of the guerrilla units that had been led by Cornelius Fredericks and Hendrik Witbooi (after Witbooi`s death in 1905, Samuel Isaak took over the command of Witbooi's people). When these 1 795 prisoners arrived in Luderitz on 9 September 1906 they found several hundred Herero prisoners already there.

The Herero prisoners had been brought down from Windhoek and Okahandja earlier in the year, as labourers for the construction of the railway line to Aus. There were therefore more than two thousand prisoners in the camp towards the end of 1906. The six months that followed the initial arrival of the people of Samuel Isaak and Cornelius Fredericks could only be described as horrific. In the annual report for Luderitz in 1906, an unknown clerk remarks that the ''Angel of Death'' had come to Shark Island.

Huddled together in tents on the far end of a cold and barren island, suffering from malnutrition, the prisoners soon began to die. According to a report by the local German commander, von Estorff, 1 032 of the Nama prisoners alone had died by April 1907. Of those that were still alive it was reported that another 123 were in such poor health that they were likely to die soon. Samuel Isaak, who was one of few survivors, was described as too weak to walk. Such statistics suggest that as many as 80 % of the prisoners sent to this concentration camp, were never to leave the island again.

The following statement was made by Edward Fredericks, the son of Joseph Fredericks (who had signed an agreement with Adolf Luderitz) in 1917.

In 1906 the Germans took me a prisoner after we had made peace, and sent me with about a thousand other Hottentots to Aus, thence to Luderitzbucht, and finally to Shark Island. We were placed on the island, men, women, and children. We were beaten daily by the Germans, who used sjamboks. They were most cruel to us. We lived in tents on the island; food, blankets, and lashes were given to us in plenty, and the young girls were violated at night by the guards. Six months later we went by boat to Swakopmund, and thence by train to Karibib. Lots of my people died on Shark Island. I put in a list of those who died. (Note. This list comprises 168 males, including the chief, Cornelius Fredericks, 97 females, 66 children, and also 18 Bushman women and children) ... but it is not complete. I gave up compiling it, as I was afraid we were all going to die. We remained at Karibib for a six months, and were returned to Shark Island for a further six months, when we were again removed by sea to Karibib and thence to Okawayo, where we remained till 1915, when the British sent us back by train to Bethany.

Unfortunately a copy of the list of names compiled by Edward Fredericks has not yet been located.

Ongoing research by the History Department at the University of Namibia shows the extent to which the early development of the town of Luderitz can be linked to the prison camp on Shark Island. Despite the fact that German business interests in the coastal port dated back to the negotiations carried out by Vogelsang in 1883, the town only really expanded during the 1904 - 1908 war. One visitor reported that, as late as November 1904, the ''town'' consisted of just five buildings. As the port became an important supply centre for German military operations in southern Namibia it grew rapidly.

The forced labour of the prisoners on Shark Island was used to build the growing harbour town. Prisoners worked on the construction of the railway line from Luderitz to Aus and then to Keetmanshoop. A new harbour, started by prison labour, was built on the eastern side of Shark Island. However, the Annual Report from 1907 remarked the use of prison labour had to be abandoned in April as there were only twenty-three people left in the camp who were still fit enough to work.

Fred Cornell, a hopeful British diamond prospector, found himself in Luderitz shortly after the closure of the camp and spoke to local residents. He wrote: "Cold - for the nights are often bitterly cold there - hunger, thirst, exposure, disease, and madness claimed scores of victims every day, and cart loads of their bodies were every day carted over to the back beach, buried in a few inches of sand at low tide, and as the tide came in the bodies went out, food for the sharks." Cornell's comments add a sinister new twist to the name of Shark Island. The token funeral of the Shark Island dead was but one way that the people of Luderitz disposed of the dead. In Europe bodies and body parts of people were in demand as the racial ''sciences'' sought to prove their Eurocentric theories. In 1912 a study on the ''racial anatomy of 17 Hottentot heads'' was published in a German morphology and anthropology journal.

These heads were all taken from the bodies of Shark Island prisoners ranging from a baby of two years old to a forty five year old women. Beyond the morbid nature of the study it added further insult by comparing the decapitated heads with those of apes.

It is difficult to say whether any graves from the Shark Island camp still exist in or around Luderitz. In Swakopmund, although apparently not officially acknowledged by the Swakopmund municipality, a huge area of unmarked graves bears silent testimony to the many Herero prisoners-of-war who died in the local camp. One can speculate that the Swakopmund graves still exist because of their close proximity to the more official (former all-white) Swakopmund cemetery. In Luderitz the town's first cemetery was removed, erasing all traces of a prisoner-of-war cemetery - if indeed it ever existed. Notably, the graves of German soldiers who died locally during the 1904 - 1908 war were also relocated. Ironically a memorial listing their names now stands at the point where the Shark Island concentration camp once lay.

As the centenary of the 1904-1908 war approaches, it seems that now would be a good time for Namibians to reflect on a national heritage - in the form of monuments and memorials - that still celebrates the colonial conquest of Namibia by German forces and forgets the sacrifices of those that led the anti-colonial resistance.

The Boer War camps have their memorial, the concentration camps of the Holocaust have theirs; where are the commemorations of the Namibians who succumbed to man's most terrifying invention, the concentration camp?

Sugar plantation

BIG SUGAR

PLEASE WATCH ALL VIDEOS FROM 1-10...below is Part 1




This is still going on....


The Discovery of Sugar
It's believed that cane sugar was first used by man in Polynesia and from there it spread west towards India. Westerners first encountered sugar cane in the course of military expeditions. Nearchos, one of Alexander the Great's commanders, described it as "a reed that gives honey without bees."

It spread to other areas of the world through trade and arrived in Europe during the Crusades in the 11th Century AD. Crusaders returning home talked of this "new spice" and how pleasant it was.
cane workers Workers continue to harvest sugar cane on many Caribbean islands.

A New Fortune in the Caribbean
In 1493, the explorer Christopher Columbus introduced sugar to the New World when he took some sugar cane cuttings to the Caribbean island of Santa Domingo (now Haiti) for trial plantings. The crop flourished in the hot sunshine, heavy rainfall and fertile soil, growing faster there than anywhere else in the world.

Soon the Caribbean became the world's largest source of sugar - producing ninety percent of Western Europe's supply. The entire economies of islands such as Santa Domingo, Guadeloupe and Barbados were based on sugar production.

As Europeans established huge sugar plantations in the Caribbean, prices on the continent fell. What had previously been a luxury good was now affordable to all. Large sugar plantations like the Codrington estate in the Barbados amassed their British owners huge profits.

But historian Adam Hoochshield, author of Bury the Chains, says that it's worth remembering that behind many a great fortune is a great crime.
Lisa Coderington Toronto writer Lisa Codrington travelled to Barbados and discovered that she is a descendent of slaves who worked on the Codrington estate.

Sugar and Slavery
In this case, he says, the crime was slavery. Most of the sugar cultivation in the Caribbean was done by slaves working under the most horrible conditions of almost anywhere in the Americas.

Many slaves were worked to death at an early age simply because it was easy to buy new ones. The cheap labour increased the world's supply of sugar and made sugar producers very rich.
freed slave Freed slave Olaudah Equiano wrote a book and gave slavery a human face.

The Fight Against Slavery
In 1785 Thomas Clarkson, a divinity student at Cambridge University, researched sugar slavery for a Latin essay championship. He became impassioned with the cause. Clarkson won the contest and vowed to bring an end to slavery in the British empire.

He and several Quakers formed the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade and devoted the next fifty years to the anti-slavery movement. Many of the political organizing techniques used today; posters, slogans, petitions and campaign buttons were pioneered by them.

In 1789 freed slave Olaudah Equiano wrote a book documenting slavery's horrors giving the cause a human face. His readings became one of the first book tours in history.
button One of the first anti-slavery campaign buttons. It reads, 'Am I not a man and a brother?'

Sugar is Blood
One campaign struck a cord with the British public. Its slogan, 'sugar is blood' started a debate on the issue of sugar slavery.

Then in 1838 four black slaves in Barbados were accused of murdering a white man. Most people on the island knew that it was a set up and that the murderer was, in fact, a white man. Still, the slaves were found guilty and executed. This event caused on uproar across the British empire.

Finally, on July 31st 1838, slavery was abolished.

Today's Sugar Slaves
Today activists question whether slavery really is over. The lush sugar cane fields in places like the Dominican Republic are still tended by men who are expected to cut a ton of sugar a day in stifling 50 degree heat for a mere $2.

Video journalist Mark Ellam traveled to Central Romana, the largest sugar corporation on the island, owned by the Fanjul family in the U.S. According the Jose Pepe Fanjul, "Central Romana has a very high and good reputation ... it's the largest taxpayer, the largest employer and the most progressive employer in the Dominican Republic."
plantation Workers at the Central Romana plantation claim to work in the fields all day without food. When they no longer can afford food at the company store they chew on the sugar cane.

Conditions at Central Romana
When Ellam visited the 240,000 acre spread he found shantytowns full of Haitian sugar cane workers who were lured over the border to work with promises of a good job. Once they arrived they were trapped, kept stateless and forbidden to leave. Central Romana hires 90,000 of the 650,000 Haitian workers on the island.

Workers told him that they were barely paid enough to buy food from the company store - at twice the cost available elsewhere. They could be deported if they left the property to buy goods in town and weren't they allowed to grow vegetables to supplement their diet.

There were no doctors and little medical attention for injured cane workers. Men on horseback wearing pith helmets rode through town regularly to ensure that everybody was kept in line.

Pepe Fanjul defends his operation saying that it's unfair to use a North American standard to measure working conditions in the Dominican Republic and that Central Romana provides jobs for Haitians who would otherwise have none.

"What I saw was straight out of a book before the Industrial Revolution. I felt like I had stepped back 200 years," says Ellam.

RESIST AFRICOM

Resist AFRICOM is a campaign comprised of concerned U.S. and Africa-based organizations and individuals opposed to the new U.S. military command for Africa (AFRICOM).

With the establishment of AFRICOM, the Pentagon attempts to increase access to Africa's oil and to wage a new front in the Global War on Terror without regard for the needs or desires of African people. Enabled by oil companies and private military contractors, AFRICOM serves as the latest frontier in military expansionism, violating the human rights and civil liberties of Africans who have voiced a strong "no" to U.S. military presence. We reject this militarization of foreign engagement. Instead, our vision is a comprehensive U.S. foreign policy grounded in true partnership with the African Union, African governments, and civil society on peace, justice, security, and development.




Visit the Africom website and do your part and take action against Africom

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1552/t/5717/signUp.jsp?key=3094

Africa Addio

The images are taken after the film their was an audience discussion.
Also as we left down the road was a protest to stop violence in Zimbabwe and get Mugabe out of power..!!


I recently went to see Africa Addio at the BFI in Waterloo yesterday to be exact. I was and still am in shock with what I saw, I didn't realise how much it affected me until I got home and tried to close my eyes but couldn't sleep as every time I did I would see the horrific things shown in the film.

This is a eye opener and a reminder that the struggle may not be so much for us in the western world as we have fallen comfortable with our society we are now sleeping, while Africa is suffering 50 years later Africa Addio still haunts.

I do no want to go into too much details so if you choose to watch it I want your understanding and experience to be your own.

Please be warned it is highly graphic.

Dr. Julia Hare speaks the truth

This is Dr. Julia Hare speaking at the State of the Black Union (2007) on education, destruction of the Diaspora African family in America, incarceration, and other issues.


--------

George Fraser on Diasporic African Economic Empowerment.

Watch the video and see for yourself something I always talk about and some people you know who are know exactly what I am talking about..ASCSunited!!!

How Black People See White Culture

This is a must see documentary, I have never laughed so hard but it's also an eye opener..

A semi-humorous look at Europe through African eyes. Not entirely a spoof, it makes sometimes very accurate observations about origins and deeper meaning of white habits.

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3




Part 4




Part 5

African tribe lost in India

Deep in the jungles of Gujarat state in western India, a forgotten tribe of Africans has quietly lived for the past 1,000 years. Little is known about their origins and many now fear their unique heritage may already be lost.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCo78Jthymo

Ghana

From the " Anthony Bourdain No Reservations" Show on the Travel Channel.

No reservations is a travel show which shows the beauty of the people, lifestyle and their food, please watch the following about Ghana.


Part 1




Part 2



Part 3



Click on the video links for part 4 and 5.

-----------------

Discussion

Voxafrica-Who is African?

http://www.voxafrica.com/modx/en/ShootTheMessenger/who-is-an-african

History walk

Art from www.kimathidonkor.net

Black History Walks

Next Walk in the St Pauls/Bank area

Bank Holiday Monday 4th May 2pm

Sunday 17th May 11.15am and 2pm

In 100 minutes your guide will take you through hundreds of years of the African presence, and contribution, to London’s way of life. Discover secret alleyways and enormous buildings all connected to Africa and the Caribbean in ways which the owners do not want you to know. Find out about black loyalists and African revolutionaries. Uncover the submerged links between racism, trade, religion, slavery and politics which are still evident in the very streets and buildings of the oldest part of London

Next Walk in Trafalgar Square:

Bank Holiday Monday 4th May 11am

Millions of people walk through WC2 (Trafalgar/Leicester Square area) every day and have no idea of the centuries of African history under their feet. In 2 hours your guide will uncover the black presence and influence in the area. African Princes, Generals, Resistance Fighters, Civil Rights Leaders, Pilots, Nurses and Sailors all make an appearance. We will also highlight the links between Africa, China, India and the Caribbean and explain how history was whitewashed and racism institutionalised


There is now a huge emphasis on the 200th anniversary of the British ‘abolition’ of the human trade in 1807 but did you know African freedom fighters in the Caribbean island of Haiti defeated the French, Spanish and British armies and had already declared their independence in 1804?

£6.00 adults £3.00 children.

Group bookings possible. Walks last approx 2 hours.

mail to:info@blackhistorywalks.co.uk with number of places. You will then receive confirmation and joining instructions

Conference

Sickle Cell and Deaths in Custody Conference

A sudden death in police, prison or military custody is an important point of scrutiny for the powers of the state, especially when such a death is someone of minority ethnic descent.

Sickle Cell is a multi-system disorder that in the UK, predominantly but not exclusively, affects those of black and minority ethnic communities, but is not widely understood.

Join us at this exclusive conference and examine the health, justice and human rights issues surrounding Sickle Cell disorders and deaths in custody.
Sickle Cell and Deaths in Custody Conference 2009


Enquiries: 08459 45 46 47 Switchboard: +44 (0)116 255 1551
Wednesday 10th June 2009
9.30am - 4.00pm
De Montfort University, Leicester
£130 (inc VAT)

You will receive a FREE copy of the groundbreaking new book Sickle Cell and Deaths in Custody Dyson, SM and Boswell, GR (London: Whiting & Birch 2009) worth £50!

Somali pirates

K'Naan on Somali Pirates -There is a reason why this started



------

Brazil-News

Brazil spends to transform slums

The headlines concerning the group of favelas or shanty towns in Rio de Janeiro known as the German's Complex or Complexo do Alemao have frequently been grim in recent years.

On one day in 2007, police pursuing drug traffickers killed 19 people here in circumstances that are still bitterly contested.

For the tens of thousands of people who live here, in one of Rio's poorest areas, daily life has sometimes involved treading a fine line between the drug gangs and the police.

But the geography of at least parts of this troubled area has been changing in recent months, as the result of a major investment programme by the state and federal authorities.

Click on the following to read the rest..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8003829.stm

Growing your own food!!!

This option maybe easier from some than others but getting the knowledge is never a bad thing...

Watch Najaface do her thing

Currently reading

Esther Armah-Can I be

Absolutly loving this book right now, I think I am hooked so engrossing...

Esther Armah is a black British journalist, with a troubled soul and a questioning mind. She’s an addict. Addicted to the need for approval, the desire for applause, bright lights and struggle. She’s also on a quest. Hungry for a place of belonging, a place of comfort and acceptance of her identity; black, British, Ghanaian and Afrocentric. That need becomes intertwined with her chosen profession – the media. Can she find a place of refuge in her travels and her profession? Esther decides to fight her fix and come clean. Getting clean means spilling the beans. So starting with her family all the way into the sometimes murky world of the British media, Esther spills with abandon. Brutally honest, blackly humorous, emotionally revealing and at times painful; CAN I BE ME? is a universal story. Who would you be without your daily addictions? How did you get addicted to your drug of choice? Who would you be if there were no applause, disappointment, injustice, discrimination or rejection?

Historian

Historian Basil Davidson outlines the overt and covert racism that has frame the European view of African history. This series seeks to open the eyes of those who have been lied to.

In order to help bolster the wholesale dehumanisation of Africans (i.e. the Atlantic Sslave Trade), Europeans in the 1600s and 1700s began to re-create history - surpressing that which was commonly known for centuries before - that Africa was the home to great ancient civilisations, societies and kingdoms.









Please check the rest of Torahrevival channel for more videos..

--------------------------

Caribbean-News

UK Air Passenger Duty planned to increase by £100 per person on flights to the Caribbean

Follow the link and sign the petition

http://www.socanews.com/sol/articles/news/3892.shtml

Caribbean music

Fuluma is a original Suriname song, below is the Soca Mix - Square One - Faluma (Ding Ding Ding)

Big tuuunnnnnnnnnnne!!!! Get ready to wine!!!!



The original faluma ding ding ding performers
language is remainance of African slaves which fled into the Amazon jungle in south American where these people kept the language from African and traditions music by "sisa agie"(sister agnes) with "ai sa si" (eye will see)orchestra


--------------------------------------------

Caribbean

Jamaica

This makes me miss the Caribbean, just simple and beautiful. The weather, the people, the beaches and the food!!!

Playing my tuunnnnnnnnne!!!

See the ladies hard at work at "Country Style Cooking", in the famous Faith's Pen rest stop in St. Ann, Jamaica(where Marcus Garvey was born). The video shows baisting fish, slicing breadfruit and chopping Jerk Pork. Country Style Cooking also does Jerk Chicken, Curried Goat, Oxtail, Ackee and Saltfish and many more dishes.

African music

It's Friday!!!!! time to enjoy the weekend and listen to good music, eat good food and spend time with your family..

Loving this!!! Enjoy....

Fefe Gnalen - Kameremba- coming to you from Genuine Conakry





Conakry, Guinea

Conakry is the capital of Guinea - a country sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from the neighboring Guinea-Bissau.

Guinea was once a part of the great Mali Empire. Later it became a part of French West Africa. Conakry, also spelt Konakry, became the capital of French Guinea. Guinea finally achieved independence in 1958, and Conakry remained the capital.

The city has a population of well over 1 million. About 3/4th of Guinea's population consists of Malinke, Fula and Susu. There are several other ethnic groups. The official language is French whereas many African languages like Malinhe, Fula etc. are also spoken. The Malinhe (or Mandinjo) and Fula are famous for their music.

Conakry contains industries like fruit canning, fish packing, printing, automobile assembly, and the manufacture of aluminum utensils and plastics. It is also the educational center of the country, and the University of Conakry is located here, among other schools. Other important institutions and structures include the museum, library, and national archives, Palais du Peuple (National Assembly building), the sports stadium - Stade du 28-Septembre.

African Instrument

Afro Peruvian Instruments.


Slaves that were brought to Peru from Africa were forbidden by their slave owners to play their instruments, this was in order to keep them silent.

Afro Peruvians would then use the quijada de burro, literally the jawbone of a donkey. They take an old jawbone from a dead donkey, let it dry out, and loosen the teeth. Then, when it is struck with the palm, it produces a wonderful shhhhh-tshhhhhh sound. Running a stick along the teeth allows it to double as a scraper. While Peru isn't the only place that uses the quijada, it is the place most strongly associated with this unusual scraper and shaker.

Please watch the video


------------------------------

Cinema-coming soon

Africa Addio

Leading examples of 'mondo' from the directors of Goodbye Uncle Tom

Sat 25 Apr 14:00

Shockumentary depicting the turmoil following the fall of colonialism. A cause of outrage, decide yourself whether it's the work of devious and dangerous film-makers or a brave experiment in documentary.A panel discussion with Colin Prescod of the Institute of Race Relations and Mark Goodall, 'mondo' historian, will follow this screening.Tickets £5
------------------------------------------------------------------
Africa Addio is a famed 1966 Italian documentary film about the end of the colonial era in Africa. The film was released under the names "Africa Blood and Guts" in the USA (which was only half of the entire film) and "Farewell Africa" in the UK. The film was shot over a period of three years by Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi, two Italian filmmakers who had gained fame (along with co-director Paolo Cavara) as the directors of Mondo Cane in 1962. This film ensured the viability of the so-called Mondo film genre, a cycle of "shockumentaries"- documentaries featuring sensational topics, which classifications arguably characterize "Africa Addio". It is included in the "Mondo Cane Collection" currently being distributed by Blue Underground.

The film contains evidence of cynical treatment of humanity to itself, as seen during the first wave of what became endemic African revolutions. The film includes gruseome evidence of the Zanzibar revolution- which included the massacre of approximately 5000 Arabs in 1964.[1], as well authentic footage of the 'Mau-Mau Rebellion's aftermath. The latter includes scenes of damage at the scenes of massacres on white Highland farms, the mutilation of British livestock (and, apparently, wild animals including baboons), participants' sentencing in colonial British court, & their re-appearance at the popular celebration of Jomo Kenyatta's pardon of all Mau-Mau 'heroes' of anti-colonial resistance.

The film has been hailed as a masterpiece by some but has also been criticized as being racist, misleading, exploitive, or staged. The film arrived at the height of the Cold War, and well-before the popularity of 'de-contextual' reconsiderations of Colonialism.

Cinema

GOODBYE UNCLE TOM

Goodbye Uncle Tom (Italian: Addio Zio Tom) is a 1971 Italian film directed by Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi and features music by Riz Ortolani.

Addio Zio Tom is a pseudo documentary where the filmmakers go back in time and visit antebellum America, using period documents to examine, in graphic detail, the racist ideology and degrading conditions faced by Africans under slavery. Because of the use of published documents and materials from the public record, with actors playing the role of the historical figures, the film labels itself a documentary, and portrays slave life as a non-stop orgy of violence, rape and torture committed by Whites against their Black slaves.

The Directors' cut of Addio Zio Tom draws parallels between the horrors and slavery and the rise of the Black Power Movement, represented by Eldridge Cleaver, LeRoi Jones, Stokely Carmichael, and a few others. The film ends with an unidentified man's fantasy re-enactment of William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner. This man imagines Nat Turner's revolt in the present, including the brutal murder of the whites around him, who replace the figures Turner talks about in Styron's novel as the unidentified reader speculates about Turner's motivations and ultimate efficacy in changing the conditions he rebelled against. American distributors felt that such scenes were too incendiary, and forced Jacopetti and Prosperi to remove more than thirteen minutes of footage explicitly concerned with racial politics for American and other Anglophone audiences.

Community Organisations

LEAP

Banjoko (formally Victor Johnson) is the founder and chief executive of LEAP (Local Employment Access Projects), a registered charity which aims to increase the employment chances and self-esteem of people from disadvantaged communities.

LEAP was established in 1996 and is loosely based on the American STRIVE model. It uses workshops to teach students the right attitudes and behaviour to succeed in the job market. People who finish the programme have a 70% chance of securing a job compared with a 30% chance for those completing the government's new deal initiative.

Be an inspiration - Tunde Banjoko OBE

Historians

Ivan Van Setima

His 1976 book They Came Before Columbus was a bestseller and achieved widespread fame for his claims of prehistoric African influences in Central and South America. It did not receive much professional attention when published, and has been criticized by academic specialists.

Van Sertima also treated the topic of African scientific contributions in his essay for the volume African Renaissance, published in 1999. This was a record of the conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa in September 1998 on the theme of the African Renaissance. His article is titled The Lost Sciences of Africa: An Overview. In it he presents early African advances in metallurgy, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, engineering, agriculture, navigation, medicine and writing. He notes that such higher learning, in Africa as elsewhere, was the preserve of elites in the centres of civilizations, rendering them very vulnerable in the event (as happened in Africa) of the destruction of those centers.

On July 7, 1987 Van Sertima appeared before a United States Congressional committee to challenge giving credit for the discovery of America to Christopher Columbus.

See video below Dr. Ivan Van Sertima - Africans In Science Pt.1 video







--------------------

Poetry

MutaBaruka

Listen to "Dis Poem"



Mutabaruka (formerly Allan Hope) was born in Rae Town, Kingston on 26th December, 1952. After primary education he attended Kingston Technical High School, where he was a student for four years. Trained in Electronics, he left his first job after about six months and took employment at the Jamaica Telephone Company Limited. During his time at the Telephone Company he began to examine Rastafarianism and to find it more meaningful than either the Roman Catholicism of his upbringing or the political radicalism into which he had drifted. Click to continue reading http://www.mutabaruka.com/

Voxafrica lastest video

Capitalism and free trade: is Africa for sale?


http://www.voxafrica.com/en/ShootTheMessenger/

African News

Cash for key African trade routes

Lusaka - More than $1bn (£675m) has been pledged by international donors for the upgrade of transport links across East and Southern Africa.


The North-South Corridor initiative aims to get goods to market faster and cheaper with improved infrastructure and more efficient border crossings.

The project aims to raise the living standard of millions of people.

The money will come from the World Bank, international development agencies and the private sector.


The UK has also committed £100m to the project at a conference in Zambia.


In order to speed up the transportation of goods from Tanzania, via Zambia to the ports of South Africa, the project will remove red tape and oversee the upgrade of 8000 km of road and 600 km of rail track.


The project aims to cut waiting times to two hours by streamlining procedures, she says, which should also reduce HIV transmission rates as truckers will have less time to spend with sex workers at the border.


The estimated total cost of improving transport and trade links in the region is $12bn to be spent over two decades.


The cooperation of eight African countries - Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa - is needed for the project to be successful.

African Caribbean British- Actor spotlight

Eamon Walker

Eamonn Walker (born 12 June 1962) is an English film, television and theatre actor. In the United States he is perhaps best known for playing Kareem Said in the HBO television series Oz, for which he won a CableACE Award, and as Winston, the gay, black thorn in Alf Garnett's side in In Sickness and in Health and John Othello in the 2001 ITV1 production of Othello.

Walker was born in London to a Grenadian father and a Trinidadian mother.Raised in Islington in London,Walker lived in Trinidad for six months when he was nine years old. He attended Hungerford School in Islington and began studying social work at the University of North London. He trained as a dancer and later joined the Explosive Dance Theatre Company in London.However, an abscess on his calf muscle forced him to give up dancing. He also studied at the New York Film School in the United States.

Quote for the day

"I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves". -Harriet Tubman

The quote still applies today!!!

A truly amazing she-ro..!

Artist-Spotlight

Carlinhos Brown I am in love with his music stage presence and passion..Find out more click on the link and enjoy his music an infusion of African beats and reggae rhythm..

http://www.rootsworld.com/rw/feature/brown.html

Ghanaian Pan-africanist

Kwame Nkrumah

A mass movement led by Kwame Nkrumah won Ghana its independence 50 years ago. Ghanaian socialist Gyekye Tanoh looks back at those inspiring struggles – and draws the lessons for today

On Tuesday 6 March Ghana, the first sub-Saharan African country to achieve its freedom, commemorated 50 years of independence from Britain. In 1957 Kwame Nkrumah, the man who led the nation’s freedom struggle, declared, “The independence of Ghana is meaningless until it is linked with the total liberation of Africa.”------
--------------------------

Civil Rights activist

Dick Gregory


Leaders in education, public policy, religion, and black communities discussed the state of the Black Union in America. In part 2 of this panel discussion, Dick Gregory shares his thoughts on...a variety of things in a way that only he can.

"The State of the Black Union 2008: Reclaiming Our Democracy, Deciding Our Future" took place in the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Conference Auditorium in New Orleans.

Artist Spotlight

Gist aka Essence-Young gifted and Black

Old School

Say it loud

Barbadian Recipe

Bajan Salt Fish Cake

Recipe

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 4-5 minutes
Country: Barbados

INGREDIENTS:

* 2 tbsp oil
* 1 cup onions, finely chopped
* 1 cup flour
* 1 tsp baking powder
* Salt to your taste
* 1 egg lightly beaten
* ¾ cup milk
* 1 tbsp butter, melted
* 2 tbsp eschalots (finely chopped)
* ½ lb, salted cod fish, cooked and flaked
* 1 large fresh hot pepper ( finely chopped)

METHOD / DIRECTIONS:

1. In a heavy frying pan, heat the oil and saute the onions until they are just wilted.
2. Place flour, baking powder and salt in bowl.Make a well in center and pour egg, butter and milk.
3. Mix together lightly, then add the onions, eschalot, salted cod fish, salt and pepper.
4. Stir well. Drop by tablespoon full into hot oil, but do not crowd them in the pan.

RECIPE NOTES:

Serve hot!!!

Quote of the day

Thought for the day,night and forever!!!!

Apocalypse Africa: Made in America

Brothers and sisters, the following video is one we all need to watch...


Apocalypse Africa: Made in America

"There is blood on America's hands." - Randall Robinson, Former Director of TransAfrica

---

Secret recordings. Once classified films. Hidden documents. From inside the archives of the United States government comes a story of racism and manipulation that reveals how the actions of a nation ultimately brought about the collapse of a continent: Africa.

With powerfully haunting images, this controversial new film exposes the story of Africa's collapse and will fill you with an intense passion for the importance of human life.

Quote of the day

"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.-Confucius "

Food for thought.

Blacks Without Borders Teaser & Clips
Please watch the following clip regarding black Americans making it in South Africa

From filmmaker Stafford U. Bailey, who directed such critically acclaimed
documentaries as A Laugh, A Tear; The Other Side of Victory; and The Black Road to
Hollywood, comes BLACKS WITHOUT BORDERS an emotional story about hardship,
sacrifice and great rewards. This film plunges into the lives of a group of
African Americans who have come to South Africa to find the American dream. These
ex-pats have discovered that America is not the only land of opportunity. The
boundaries that many of them faced in the United States dont exist in South
Africa. Everyone knows about the deplorable conditions in parts of Africa, but
this film captures the wonderful lifestyle South Africa has to offer. We follow
these modern day globetrotters all over the country and tour their amazing homes.
From an 11,000 sq ft. house that overlooks the Indian Ocean to a 35,000 sq ft.
mansion that sits on 700 acres. This film is funny, heart-warming and passionate.
It will take you by surprise and leave you deeply moved.

Weekly events

Event:

Mahogany

Marketplace

Oxford circus

Sundays

FREE

Telephone:

020 7079 2020

Info:

Mahogany returns to Marketplace with a twist...Amplified plays host to friends and family, as some of London's best DJ collectives takeover, so expect something fresh and interesting every Sunday. First Sunday every Month: Collabo with DJ Bemi (Amplified) Second Sunday every Month: Mahogany presents: Definition: Music Definition: Third Sunday every Month: Mahogany presents: Manvswife & Phoenix Black Fourth Sunday every Month: Mahogany presents: QueRhythmic Venue: 11 Market Place London W1W 8AH Off Great Portland St Nearest station: Oxford Circus 6pm-11pm Admission: Free

Up Coming events

Poetry in motion


Every last Sunday of each month..

Progressive Entertainment is proud to launch Poetry n Motion; a collaborative effort of music, poetry and spoken-word.

The "Soul nurturing the soul" Poetry n Motion is for EVERYBODY!

UPSTAIRS: DJ'S SPINNING RARE GROOVES, OLD SKOOL Rnb & US HOUSE!

DOWNSTAIRS: SPOKEN WORD, OPEN MIC & POETRY JAM!
(The first of it's kind in London)

The aim of Poetry n Motion is to introduce the beautiful spoken-word art form to the masses in an uplifting and more creative way. The Motion Bar's upscale décor, central location and 2 story floor plan makes it ideal to host an event of this magnitude!

Location:
Motion Bar, adjacent emankment tube
www.motion-bar.co.uk

Date: The Last Sunday of Each Month!

Time: Doors open at 7pm, Show starts at 8:30 until 10:30pm; party until 1:00am

African Diaspora-Brazil

Our fellow Africans in Brazil