Arts & Entertainment in the African Diaspora

February 5th, 2010

trinidad flagI’m always excited to discover another good blogger or writer away from the shores of the U.S. Happy to say I’ve found another one to share with you. Today over at Global Voices, I read about Trinidadian Journalist and Blogger, Andre Bagoo. If you want to know more about arts & entertainment in Trinidad & Tobago, he blogs from both Tatoo and newly launched, Pleasure.

For his day job, Andre writes for the Trinidad & Tobago Newsday paper and has earned a reputation as being quite fearless in his approach to political reporting, nearly earning a ban for the media gallery of Parliament. I’m always intrigued by a writer who is unafraid to write the truth, challenging the establishment (particularly the government), when the possibility of significant backlash looms near. In addition to newspaper writing, Andre is also a poet and fiction writer. Check out the interview here.

Doing Our Own Thing

February 3rd, 2010

I was reading a story about the top 10 black characters in science fiction the other day. The real fun in articles like this comes from the comments. The author states their view and the commenters weigh in with choices of their own – debate ensues. Only, as I trolled the comments nodding yes to some and raising an eyebrow at others, one comment stood out. Why do we need a black list?

This question, in one form or another, is one I imagine many of us have heard before. Why do we need black colleges? Why do we need black charities? Why do we need black ________ (fill in the blank).

I don’t think the folks who ask these questions are totally blind, they know why, they just don’t want to accept it. In any place, where one is a minority, the majority population becomes the standard. This is why in the U.S. 95% of tv, movies, and books feature the majority population. And consequently why in Nigeria, Nollywood movies feature, you guessed it, primarily Nigerians. With me so far?

I do think the majority group loses out when they neglect (either via insensitivity or purposefully) to give sufficient billing to the other groups that make up their society. How sad a world it would be if the only stories we ever read, the only food we ever ate, the only movies we ever saw, only featured one race. We aren’t there yet, but we’re darned close.

So this is why we, probably like Asian, Latino, Indian and Pacific Islanders, celebrate when we see something of ourselves made available to the masses. It is because of the rarity (and also history), that things like black colleges, black lists and black organizations, were born. Maybe one day that need will cease to exist, but we certainly aren’t there yet. And maybe we shouldn’t be. After all, what is wrong with a list citing the best books by black authors? I certainly wouldn’t shun a list of the best Italian restaurants – I love Italian food and would greatly appreciate someone doing the legwork for me.

Because the majority still rules, often with scan inclusion of the minority, we’ve sometimes decided to do our own thing. This, is why we still need black _____ (fill in the blank).

The MyAfricanDiaspora.com Short Story Contest Winners

February 1st, 2010

During the last quarter of 2009, we launched our first ever, short story contest, spanning the entire African diaspora. In addition to the many hats we’ve worn and still wear, my partner and I are both writers. And though for our own sanity, we constantly remind ourselves of the success of other black writers, we know, in truth, how difficult the road is when your stories may not appeal to the majority population.

It is because of this and our love for the written word, that we decided to give a voice to writers who have a different story to tell. I’m proud to announce the winners of our contest today. They are listed below, but click here for excerpts and bio’s. Their stories, and 1 or 2 others, will be published in a forthcoming Short Story Collection – stay tuned. I would like to congratulate our winners and especially thank everyone who entered.

contest winners

Roots of Music

January 29th, 2010

I remember being in the band, hating, then coming to love my flute (I thought I was more of a pianist). Though I can’t recall his name, I can still see the face of our drummer – talented, even then. That first day, I perched my long, slender fingers upon the keys, pursed my lips and filled the flute with a breadth I’d thought would cause it to sing. But stubbornly, it remained mute. The director came over and told me to keep at it. I can’t say I ever mastered the instrument, but I did coax a few not so terrible notes from it.

It saddens me that so many of these programs have disappeared in U.S. schools. The vehicles that helped shaped our musicians is drying up – perhaps that’s why much of today’s music has become a series of similarly inauthentic, machine produced drivel.

The Roots of Music program is stepping in where our school system has failed. Based in New Orleans, Louisiana, the program currently serves 100 students, teaching music history, theory and instruction. From their website:

Today the program serves almost 100 students, making up a full marching band that is successfully parading the city since Mardi Gras 2009.

The program provides music education in history, theory, instrumental instruction and ensemble performance. Furthermore, academic tutoring is offered to ensure the students maintain at least a 2.5 GPA in school.

Participation in the Roots of Music is free for the students but attendance is mandatory. Program hours are Tuesday through Friday 4-7pm and Saturdays 10am-2pm at the Louisiana State Museum in the Cabildo.

RoM students arrive at Roots of Music and go directly to tutoring for the first half of the program. Our children then break up into his/her musical section; working hands-on with their music instructor. We also provide our students with a hot meal – thanks to our wonderful parents and the Conwill Family Foundation for the delicious dinners. The children are then dismissed by 7pm. Students are walked to the buses provided by Roots of Music and safely brought home.

The program has become so popular that we currently have a waiting list for new students.

What Makes Someone a Friend?

January 27th, 2010

friendshipI’ve resisted suggestions that I join Facebook – yet another social networking site. The benefit they say? Reconnecting with old friends, making new ones, the ubiquitous networking. I thought about all of the Ning’s, Forums, Yahoo Groups and other sites I’ve joined, and many of which, I’ve long forgotten. I knew that I couldn’t and in fact, simply don’t have the time (or energy) to create and maintain one more account on any other site in the name of friendship.

While I have made a few connections on these sites, I wonder if I can fully qualify these people as friends. A trickle, yes, other’s – no. Since standards and definitions of friends are as varied as the personalities setting them, maybe others have fared better than me. Admittedly, my own standards seem to be out of line with the mainstream.

So I made a list of the qualities that I look for in a friend:

  1. Show interest in you – it strikes me as odd when someone goes on about themselves and ask nothing of you
  2. Communicate regularly – email and phone count, we don’t always live in the same place
  3. Be supportive – able to share in good and bad news
  4. Never exhibit jealousy, Never engage in competiton
  5. Never sugarcoat – I appreciate the truth
  6. Trustworthy – Do not tell others, what a friend tells you in confidence
  7. Any others qualities that should be added to the list? As we make new friends across the African diaspora, does this list change? Does geography alter the nature of friendship?

Black History Moment – Ganga Zumba

January 22nd, 2010

ganga zumbaDuring the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the largest number of African slaves were taken to Brazil. Throughout much of this time, though largely ignored by our history books, we rebelled, we fought and we escaped. In our continuing tribute to little known black history, we’ll take a look at Ganga Zumba.

Brazil’s slave population came primarily, but not solely, from Angola. Escaped slaves (called maroons) settled into the harder to reach mountainous region of Pernambuco and formed communities called mocambos. As several mocambo settlements cropped up, they formed the larger community called a quilombo. Palmares was the first quilombo. Zumba,
was a slave on a sugar plantation, who escaped and became the first leader of Palmares. He ruled the largest of the mocambos – Cerro dos Macacos, and nine others were ruled by male members of his family.

As is usually the case, internal disagreement would bring Zumba’s rule to an end. When, in 1678, he accepted a peace treaty offered by the Portuguese that required the quilombo to relocate, Zumba’s own nephew Zumbi balked. Zumba was poisoned (rumored, by a family member) while many of his followers who’d already relocated to Cucau Valley were re-enslaved.

A 1963 movie, Ganga Zumba, chronicles his story.

Black Like Me

January 20th, 2010

black like meIn my trolls of the African diaspora blogsphere, I came across an excellent blog post on Bernos about an African American woman dating an Ethiopian man.

She chronicles quite an interesting tale of the challenges of dating a black man from another country. I really suggest you read it, the comments are particularly enlightening. The post did make me think about how differences in culture, regardless of skin tone, do have to be taken into account. In the quest for a united African diaspora, our similarities and commonalities are obvious, yet we cannot overlook our differences. Pretending they don’t exist is akin to not telling a dear friend their zipper is open – you may not want to address it, but still the zipper issue remains.

The key is to acknowledge and discuss our differences. The goal should not be one of conversion to one side or another, but to recognize each individual’s right to embrace their own culture. Learning about each other’s beliefs, customs, food, etc. is the fun part. Once we’re past that, then the healing can begin.

Haiti, France and The Cost of Independence

January 18th, 2010

First, I’d like to wish everyone a Happy Martin Luther King Day.

Many of us are familiar with African and Caribbean nations struggles for independence from their European rulers. But what many of us may not know, is what the cost of independence was.

Some of these countries are still walking the long road to recovery, and Haiti is one of them. Today on author Zetta Elliott’s blog, she points to an article that provides shocking detail on France’s extortion of millions of dollars from Haiti – in exchange for their freedom.

Check out the article here.

Haiti’s chronic impoverishment began at its birth in 1804, when, having overthrown its French rulers in a bloody, 12-year slave revolt, the newborn nation was subjected to crippling blockades and embargoes. This economic strangulation continued until 1825, when France offered to lift embargoes and recognize the Haitian Republic if the latter would pay restitution to France—for loss of property in Haiti, including slaves—of 150 million gold francs. The sum, about five times Haiti’s export revenue for 1825, was brutal, but Haiti had no choice: Pay up or perish over many more years of economic embargo, not to mention face French threats of invasion and reconquest. To pay, Haiti borrowed money at usurious rates from France, and did not finish paying off its debt until 1947, by which time its fate as the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country had been well and truly sealed.

If One Finger Touches Palm Oil, It Spreads to All The Other Fingers

January 15th, 2010

This Igbo proverb so accurately speaks to a disturbing part of human nature, it bears a bit of discussion. I interpret this to mean that if one part of a group does something, then the entire group (or hand as it were) is subject to the benefit or consequence.

A dangerous thing, this concept. Yet the consequence part bothers me most. Human beings have an undeniable tendency to group: by race, by gender, by club, by country, even by age. Understandable I guess, but this tendency makes it easy to fall into the trap expressed by the proverb. If one black man commits a robbery, then even the black man on the subway, in an Armani suit, toting a briefcase, becomes a suspect.

Nigerians in particular are feeling this pain. Recent media negativity about the country was only heightened when 23 year old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, nearly succeeded in detonating explosives on a Northwest Airlines flight between Amsterdam and Detroit. Eremipagamo Amabebe over at Global Voices talks about the Nigerian reaction to this over at her .

It amazed me to find out that the young man’s father had tried to warn the US embassy and other security organizations about his son, yet the appropriate action (i.e. adding him to the no-fly list) wasn’t taken. Yet, in a knee-jerk reaction, the U.S. has condemned the entire nation of Nigeria, by adding them to a 14-country watch list. Nigerians flying to America will now have to undergo extra security checks.

It appears the palm oil has indeed spread to the other fingers.

Help for Haiti

January 13th, 2010

I’m sure by now, everyone has heard about the earthquake that hit Haiti. There is reported significant damage in terms of lives and infrastructure. Wyclef Jean, whose work I’ve highlighted before on the website, is asking for a $5 donation to help the victims of the earthquake. Donate via his nonprofit Yele.org.

You can also TEXT “Yele” to 501501. They will charge the donation to your phone and send you a text to verify your donation.