From SaharaReporters.com
Recently Reelected President of Nigeria Goodluck Johnathan will make a visit to the White House. Later on this week President Ali Bongo of Gabon
First Lady will be visiting South Africa to talk about health issues. What about the constant rape of African women, especially in the DRC (Democratic Republic of ytthe Congo)?
http://confusedeagle.livejournal.com
Read full post
Showing posts with label African affairs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label African affairs. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
Saturday, December 31, 2022
Friday, February 18, 2022
Saturday, February 5, 2022
Tuesday, June 13, 2017
US and Somlia use children in "War on Terror"
Monday, June 30, 2014
Africans and African Americans Must Unite!!!
""The size of your dreams must always exceed your
current capacity to achieve them. If your dreams
do not scare you, they are not big enough.” — President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf , the 24th and current President of Liberia
Fear friends,
Starting back in the 1960s, young people of African descent began shedding the forms of identity that had been placed upon us like "Negro" and "colored". The term "Black" became the most popular moniker, while "Afro-American" and "African American" were used to some extent as well, as some of us were beginning to embrace both our historical roots and cultural evolution. Also and unfortunately to a smaller extent, a few of us, in the spirit of Marcus Garvey and Dr. W E.B. Dubois, began and have continued to insist upon the necessity of all people of African descent worldwide to see, think, and act in a way that will promote love and prosperity among us (called Pan Africanism).
Note: By the way, there are some of us who now refuse to use the term "African-American" for self-description. Of course, these are the exact same people who along with some of their brainwashed descendents refused to use "Black" as a way of identifying themselves well into the 90s. I have even recently been told that there is an entire Facebook page/club dedicated to those who claim that they are not African American, although the silly people who relate to that page are unaware of the possibility that someone from the Ku Klux Klan, for example, probably created that page. And unfortunately, at least in one instance, I met a seemingly educated African-American woman who calls herself a Negro, refusing to identify herself as either Black or African American.
In any case, during the past decade or so, usage of "African American" has gained far more prominence in our society than it once had. This is a good thing! However, simply calling ourselves that means little, at least to me, if we are unwilling as a people to strip away all of the vicious and decadent behavior to which we have been exposed by the Europeans and their offshoots in the Americas.
To be sure, many of us have been battling for decades, and in recent years many have joined us. Let us continue to move forward!
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Fear friends,
Starting back in the 1960s, young people of African descent began shedding the forms of identity that had been placed upon us like "Negro" and "colored". The term "Black" became the most popular moniker, while "Afro-American" and "African American" were used to some extent as well, as some of us were beginning to embrace both our historical roots and cultural evolution. Also and unfortunately to a smaller extent, a few of us, in the spirit of Marcus Garvey and Dr. W E.B. Dubois, began and have continued to insist upon the necessity of all people of African descent worldwide to see, think, and act in a way that will promote love and prosperity among us (called Pan Africanism).
Note: By the way, there are some of us who now refuse to use the term "African-American" for self-description. Of course, these are the exact same people who along with some of their brainwashed descendents refused to use "Black" as a way of identifying themselves well into the 90s. I have even recently been told that there is an entire Facebook page/club dedicated to those who claim that they are not African American, although the silly people who relate to that page are unaware of the possibility that someone from the Ku Klux Klan, for example, probably created that page. And unfortunately, at least in one instance, I met a seemingly educated African-American woman who calls herself a Negro, refusing to identify herself as either Black or African American.
In any case, during the past decade or so, usage of "African American" has gained far more prominence in our society than it once had. This is a good thing! However, simply calling ourselves that means little, at least to me, if we are unwilling as a people to strip away all of the vicious and decadent behavior to which we have been exposed by the Europeans and their offshoots in the Americas.
To be sure, many of us have been battling for decades, and in recent years many have joined us. Let us continue to move forward!
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Maya Angelou writes a poem for Mandela
Dear friends, This poem on the link below from Maya Angelou is a gracious tribute to Nelson Mandela. However, to me, it misses mention of the South African people who maintained a connection with him, while continuing to fight and die, like Steven Biko, for example, during Mandela's time in prison. For if it had not been for them, Mandela would have gone mad, as 27 years in confinement always does. The black people of South Africa are still not free. The racists have simply replaced themselves with black stooges!
Amandla! (Power)!
G. Djata Bumpus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2w4UGKEffA&list=PLmpmr41LhUA-ploCCn_OO0JzK49hOoejF&index=1 Read full post
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Re-visiting THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN: An African Perspective
"...the most significant one being: People who are filled up with Western culture have no right to assume that their understanding of the problems of people from other cultures are even relevant, much less valid."
Dear friends,
Below, I am sharing a book review that I wrote in 1995, for the now-defunct African World magazine (publisher - Chinua Achebe, editor - Okey Ndibe). The book itself helps put the conditions and relationships of the people of the continent of Africa, as a whole, in a more realistic light.
Finally, Male Supremacy rules even in places where White Supremacy doesn't. And it was in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America long before Europeans, the babies of human civilization, knew little more than how to create a heap of garbage. We must end Male Supremacy! That is, if we are genuinely interested in liberation for all people.
One Love, One Heart, One Spirit,
G. Djata Bumpus
************************************
Book review, by G. Djata Bumpus
THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN: An African Perspective (102 pages)
by Florence Abena Dolphyne
Ghana Universities PressAccra, Ghana (1991)
Printed by Assemblies of God Literature Centre Limited, Accra
"What is Africa to me:
Copper sun or scarlet sea,
Jungle star or jungle track,
Strong bronzed men, or regal black
Women from whose loins I sprang..."
Countee Cullen, African American poet
************************************
In spite of its imperfections, this small book is quite important. For it introduces genuine dialogue as well as plans for action in its description and promotion of solutions to the plight of the female preservers of African cultures - that is, African women. With a good deal of the focus on Ghana, the author, Professor Florence Abena Dolphyne (University of Ghana), highlights the International Women's Year in 1975 and the United Nation's Decade for Women (1976-85) as the initial springboards that helped launch a movement that has been slowly making its way through Africa for the last 18 years. Undoubtedly, this publication is a tough "pill" for millions of African men to swallow.
Moreover, Emancipation does several things. They are: 1) It firmly establishes that Western feminists do not have a monopoly on theories pertaining to the oppression of women. 2) It asserts that African women have solutions to their problems within the context of their own cultural backgrounds. 3) It emphasizes action over pretense.
Dolphyne insists that the guiding force for African women, regarding issues relevant to their survival, should be action for change. Thus, she avoids succumbing to the cultural hegemony of fanciful Western feminists. Furthermore, Dolphyne maintains, "I never considered and still do not consider myself a 'feminist', for the term evokes for me the image of an aggressive woman who, in the same breadth, speaks of a woman's right to education and professional training - as well as a woman's right to practise prostitution and lesbianism." Many African American women too complain about the connection between Western feminism and lesbianism. Perhaps, Western feminists' lack of respect for the diverse sexual as well as other cultural practices of non-Western women explains why female circumcision (specifically, clitoridectomy) is their most prominent concern - even amongst many African American women - when analyzing the oppression of African women on the continent.
At times, Professor Dolphyne's perspective is confusing, however. For example, in the introduction (preface), she shares, "... there is the Palestinian woman who has to bring up her children in the violent environment of a refugee camp... Then there is the South African woman who has to cope with bringing up her children single-handed in a squatter camp...There is also the woman in an African village who watches helplessly while her child dies of malnutrition and preventable diseases...For all these women, the issue of women's emancipation cannot be separated from the politics that brought about their situation." Obviously, at least at this point of her work, Professor Dolphyne appears to be employing an inclusive writing style (later in the book she even mentions that young African boys need mandatory and free formal education as much as their female counterparts.) Yet, for whatever reasons, the author absolutely never draws a connection between African women on the continent and their sisters in the Diaspora.
Not surprisingly then, Dolphyne makes no mention of the relationship between Pan-Africanism and the worldwide liberation of all African people.
On top of that, although Professor Dolphyne herself represents the legacy of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, she deliberately took a swipe at the great statesman and philosopher by calling his government, on her first mention of it, a "regime".
Some of the problem seems to rest in the author's use of the "discipline" of cultural anthropology for her theoretical basis. Perhaps, this may help explain some of the book's shortcomings. For cultural anthropology, at least to me, is a euphemism for racial science. It recognizes trivial aspects of any given people's existence while ignoring the necessary relationships that folks must enter into in order to feed themselves. As a result, the culture of a people is defined (sophisticated or unsophisticated, that is, inferior or superior) within the context of its corresponding features or lack thereof with the "higher aspects" (i.e., visual art, music, religion, and so forth) relative to those fabrications that are identified as European cultures.
The subject matter of the text is divided into three chapters. In the first chapter, called "Traditional Practices," the author gives the reader an overview of the psycho-socio as well as economic factors of familial relationships between males and females in African cultures, revealing the status of most - but not all - women in African cultures as property. However, Dolphyne makes it clear that, unlike European cultures (which are not very old), African cultures are steeped in long traditions, many of which (for example, polygamy, child marriage and female circumcision) are quite acceptable to the practitioners. She, therefore, sees one of the real solutions for combating social inequality as, "...it is crucial that basic formal education be made available and accessible to both boys and girls in all (African) countries if any headway is to be made in eradicating, or even modifying the traditional practices that continue to keep women in subordination in Africa." Dolphyne also points out that many of the decisions that African women have made historically regarding their personal relationships have been based on economics. As a result, she sees it as pertinent to African women's emancipation that they have the "independent" ability to care for themselves and their children.
The second chapter, "Promoting Women's Emancipation through Specific Activities," details some of the methods and programs instituted - in this case, Ghana specifically - that have helped to raise "self-esteem and self-confidence" in many women. Moreover, Professor Dolphyne asserts that while there are some women with respected status in African nations, "Such hereditary position of authority is, however, not accessible to the majority of women." The author then continues to reiterate the need for formal education and economic independence for African women as a major step towards emancipation.
Unfortunately, Dolphyne does not provide readers with a clear understanding of certain concepts - such as role model, formal education, and economic independence - that she uses repeatedly throughout this chapter, particularly, and the book, generally. After all, the meanings of most social terms are not the same for everyone. That is, a member of a particular social, political, and economic class will necessarily have an entirely different understanding of or appreciation for a specific social concept than a member of another class, even though both persons live in the same society.
Anyhow, the final chapter, "The Way Forward," mainly identifies, uncritically, those organizations or groups that have participated in providing assistance to Ghanaian women in the past 15 years or so. One of the groups favorably mentioned (more than once in the book, regrettably) was US AID. To be sure, AID (Agency for International Development) - a U.S. government bureau - has not been good for Africa, either economically or environmentally (see America the Poisoned, by Lewis Regenstein). Yet, here Professor Dolphyne seems to be playing the role of being a "pragmatist" - one must suppose. Is it wise to attain "freedom at any cost"? In fact, is said freedom acquired at any cost, really desirable?
It may be instructive for us to refer to an article by Elizabeth Schmidt that appeared in a journal called Food Monitor-No. 5 (July/August 1978) during much of the same period that Dolphyne points to as being relevant to some African women's economic progress. The article is about the effects of OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation), another U.S. government "aid" agency. Created in 1969 by an amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act, according to its architects, OPIC was intended to "serve as an impetus to private investment in developing economies". Actually, their claim is misleading. As Schmidt recorded:
Although it would be unfair to write off all OPIC-sponsored projects as detrimental, their actual developmental impact is negligible. In 1976, an OPIC loan helped to establish the Pioneer Food Cannery in Ghana, a joint enterprise of Starkist Foods, Inc., and a Ghanaian businessman. The cannery, a renovated Russian mackerel cannery, has the capacity to annually produce 206,000 cartons of canned tuna and 67,000 cartons of tuna cat food. Nearly all of the tuna is exported to Western Europe.Sorry Charlie, but something here is not right. It looks as though the purpose of OPIC, judging by its actions as opposed to its rhetoric, has been to insure that Western "transnationals" maintain control in the so-called Third World. As the late Walter Rodney taught us some time ago in his classic, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, and Lloyd Hogan informed us in his equally important Principles of Black Political Economy, whether male or female, African peoples cannot possibly expect to have meaningful political or economic freedom, without control over the manner in which we acquire access to a food supply along with the "artificial" or human-created needs which result from the prolonged existence that adequate nutrition provides.
In summary, Professor Dolphyne has articulated the particularities of the African woman's often powerless condition. Also, THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN: An African Perspective is a healthy contribution to the current dialogue regarding this matter. Yet, the omissions mentioned earlier involving Dolphyne's lack of clarity when presenting certain ideas as well as her unwillingness to challenge the harm still being done by transnational corporations to the development of a united Africa should not be taken lightly.In other words, although this book is highly recommended, not only for Africans on the continent, but those in the Diaspora, as well, Emancipation does have a number of noticeable shortcomings. Nevertheless, there are some extremely important messages delivered in this work. Perhaps, the most significant one being: People who are filled up with Western culture have no right to assume that their understanding of the problems of people from other cultures are even relevant, much less valid. Read full post
Dear friends,
Below, I am sharing a book review that I wrote in 1995, for the now-defunct African World magazine (publisher - Chinua Achebe, editor - Okey Ndibe). The book itself helps put the conditions and relationships of the people of the continent of Africa, as a whole, in a more realistic light.
Finally, Male Supremacy rules even in places where White Supremacy doesn't. And it was in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America long before Europeans, the babies of human civilization, knew little more than how to create a heap of garbage. We must end Male Supremacy! That is, if we are genuinely interested in liberation for all people.
One Love, One Heart, One Spirit,
G. Djata Bumpus
************************************
Book review, by G. Djata Bumpus
THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN: An African Perspective (102 pages)
by Florence Abena Dolphyne
Ghana Universities PressAccra, Ghana (1991)
Printed by Assemblies of God Literature Centre Limited, Accra
"What is Africa to me:
Copper sun or scarlet sea,
Jungle star or jungle track,
Strong bronzed men, or regal black
Women from whose loins I sprang..."
Countee Cullen, African American poet
************************************
In spite of its imperfections, this small book is quite important. For it introduces genuine dialogue as well as plans for action in its description and promotion of solutions to the plight of the female preservers of African cultures - that is, African women. With a good deal of the focus on Ghana, the author, Professor Florence Abena Dolphyne (University of Ghana), highlights the International Women's Year in 1975 and the United Nation's Decade for Women (1976-85) as the initial springboards that helped launch a movement that has been slowly making its way through Africa for the last 18 years. Undoubtedly, this publication is a tough "pill" for millions of African men to swallow.
Moreover, Emancipation does several things. They are: 1) It firmly establishes that Western feminists do not have a monopoly on theories pertaining to the oppression of women. 2) It asserts that African women have solutions to their problems within the context of their own cultural backgrounds. 3) It emphasizes action over pretense.
Dolphyne insists that the guiding force for African women, regarding issues relevant to their survival, should be action for change. Thus, she avoids succumbing to the cultural hegemony of fanciful Western feminists. Furthermore, Dolphyne maintains, "I never considered and still do not consider myself a 'feminist', for the term evokes for me the image of an aggressive woman who, in the same breadth, speaks of a woman's right to education and professional training - as well as a woman's right to practise prostitution and lesbianism." Many African American women too complain about the connection between Western feminism and lesbianism. Perhaps, Western feminists' lack of respect for the diverse sexual as well as other cultural practices of non-Western women explains why female circumcision (specifically, clitoridectomy) is their most prominent concern - even amongst many African American women - when analyzing the oppression of African women on the continent.
At times, Professor Dolphyne's perspective is confusing, however. For example, in the introduction (preface), she shares, "... there is the Palestinian woman who has to bring up her children in the violent environment of a refugee camp... Then there is the South African woman who has to cope with bringing up her children single-handed in a squatter camp...There is also the woman in an African village who watches helplessly while her child dies of malnutrition and preventable diseases...For all these women, the issue of women's emancipation cannot be separated from the politics that brought about their situation." Obviously, at least at this point of her work, Professor Dolphyne appears to be employing an inclusive writing style (later in the book she even mentions that young African boys need mandatory and free formal education as much as their female counterparts.) Yet, for whatever reasons, the author absolutely never draws a connection between African women on the continent and their sisters in the Diaspora.
Not surprisingly then, Dolphyne makes no mention of the relationship between Pan-Africanism and the worldwide liberation of all African people.
On top of that, although Professor Dolphyne herself represents the legacy of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, she deliberately took a swipe at the great statesman and philosopher by calling his government, on her first mention of it, a "regime".
Some of the problem seems to rest in the author's use of the "discipline" of cultural anthropology for her theoretical basis. Perhaps, this may help explain some of the book's shortcomings. For cultural anthropology, at least to me, is a euphemism for racial science. It recognizes trivial aspects of any given people's existence while ignoring the necessary relationships that folks must enter into in order to feed themselves. As a result, the culture of a people is defined (sophisticated or unsophisticated, that is, inferior or superior) within the context of its corresponding features or lack thereof with the "higher aspects" (i.e., visual art, music, religion, and so forth) relative to those fabrications that are identified as European cultures.
The subject matter of the text is divided into three chapters. In the first chapter, called "Traditional Practices," the author gives the reader an overview of the psycho-socio as well as economic factors of familial relationships between males and females in African cultures, revealing the status of most - but not all - women in African cultures as property. However, Dolphyne makes it clear that, unlike European cultures (which are not very old), African cultures are steeped in long traditions, many of which (for example, polygamy, child marriage and female circumcision) are quite acceptable to the practitioners. She, therefore, sees one of the real solutions for combating social inequality as, "...it is crucial that basic formal education be made available and accessible to both boys and girls in all (African) countries if any headway is to be made in eradicating, or even modifying the traditional practices that continue to keep women in subordination in Africa." Dolphyne also points out that many of the decisions that African women have made historically regarding their personal relationships have been based on economics. As a result, she sees it as pertinent to African women's emancipation that they have the "independent" ability to care for themselves and their children.
The second chapter, "Promoting Women's Emancipation through Specific Activities," details some of the methods and programs instituted - in this case, Ghana specifically - that have helped to raise "self-esteem and self-confidence" in many women. Moreover, Professor Dolphyne asserts that while there are some women with respected status in African nations, "Such hereditary position of authority is, however, not accessible to the majority of women." The author then continues to reiterate the need for formal education and economic independence for African women as a major step towards emancipation.
Unfortunately, Dolphyne does not provide readers with a clear understanding of certain concepts - such as role model, formal education, and economic independence - that she uses repeatedly throughout this chapter, particularly, and the book, generally. After all, the meanings of most social terms are not the same for everyone. That is, a member of a particular social, political, and economic class will necessarily have an entirely different understanding of or appreciation for a specific social concept than a member of another class, even though both persons live in the same society.
Anyhow, the final chapter, "The Way Forward," mainly identifies, uncritically, those organizations or groups that have participated in providing assistance to Ghanaian women in the past 15 years or so. One of the groups favorably mentioned (more than once in the book, regrettably) was US AID. To be sure, AID (Agency for International Development) - a U.S. government bureau - has not been good for Africa, either economically or environmentally (see America the Poisoned, by Lewis Regenstein). Yet, here Professor Dolphyne seems to be playing the role of being a "pragmatist" - one must suppose. Is it wise to attain "freedom at any cost"? In fact, is said freedom acquired at any cost, really desirable?
It may be instructive for us to refer to an article by Elizabeth Schmidt that appeared in a journal called Food Monitor-No. 5 (July/August 1978) during much of the same period that Dolphyne points to as being relevant to some African women's economic progress. The article is about the effects of OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation), another U.S. government "aid" agency. Created in 1969 by an amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act, according to its architects, OPIC was intended to "serve as an impetus to private investment in developing economies". Actually, their claim is misleading. As Schmidt recorded:
Although it would be unfair to write off all OPIC-sponsored projects as detrimental, their actual developmental impact is negligible. In 1976, an OPIC loan helped to establish the Pioneer Food Cannery in Ghana, a joint enterprise of Starkist Foods, Inc., and a Ghanaian businessman. The cannery, a renovated Russian mackerel cannery, has the capacity to annually produce 206,000 cartons of canned tuna and 67,000 cartons of tuna cat food. Nearly all of the tuna is exported to Western Europe.Sorry Charlie, but something here is not right. It looks as though the purpose of OPIC, judging by its actions as opposed to its rhetoric, has been to insure that Western "transnationals" maintain control in the so-called Third World. As the late Walter Rodney taught us some time ago in his classic, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, and Lloyd Hogan informed us in his equally important Principles of Black Political Economy, whether male or female, African peoples cannot possibly expect to have meaningful political or economic freedom, without control over the manner in which we acquire access to a food supply along with the "artificial" or human-created needs which result from the prolonged existence that adequate nutrition provides.
In summary, Professor Dolphyne has articulated the particularities of the African woman's often powerless condition. Also, THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN: An African Perspective is a healthy contribution to the current dialogue regarding this matter. Yet, the omissions mentioned earlier involving Dolphyne's lack of clarity when presenting certain ideas as well as her unwillingness to challenge the harm still being done by transnational corporations to the development of a united Africa should not be taken lightly.In other words, although this book is highly recommended, not only for Africans on the continent, but those in the Diaspora, as well, Emancipation does have a number of noticeable shortcomings. Nevertheless, there are some extremely important messages delivered in this work. Perhaps, the most significant one being: People who are filled up with Western culture have no right to assume that their understanding of the problems of people from other cultures are even relevant, much less valid. Read full post
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Maintaining our African connection through a music video by our Youth
"During the period of servitude in the New World, the Negro race did not wholly forget the traditions and habits of thought that it brought from Africa. But it added to its ancestral stock certain new ideas." - Booker T. Washington
Dear friends,
In the past this blog has featured quite a bit of the work of scholar/educator/author Dr. Okey Ndibe, a Nigerian national who lives and works here in the US. Starting with the video on the link below, Djatajabs.org will be making a renewed emphasis on maintaining the connection between African peoples of all nationalities from the Continent to the Diaspora. After all, please remember the words of the great Booker T. Washington who insisted, "During the period of servitude in the New World, the Negro race did not wholly forget the traditions and habits of thought that it brought from Africa. But it added to its ancestral stock certain new ideas."
To be sure, there are many African Americans today who refuse to use that term, preferring to call themselves "Black". Yet, as recently as the Seventies, these same people and their families refused to call themselves "Black", instead using Negro and Colored. So people who argue about calling themselves "African American" are simply behind, as either themselves or their predecessors were. a few decades ago
Nevertheless, the crucial point to be made here is: African peoples who were forced to migrate to the Americas did not lose their African cultures. Instead, each cultural group merely took on a different developmental direction. In other words, African American captive workers (so-called “slaves”), for example, were still people. As a result, our forebears adapted to the new circumstances with which they were presented, within the context of their own cultural wisdom and experiences. Dig? Still, we are taught to hate ourselves, especially our African - ness.
One Love!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCCzugeSPPA Read full post
Dear friends,
In the past this blog has featured quite a bit of the work of scholar/educator/author Dr. Okey Ndibe, a Nigerian national who lives and works here in the US. Starting with the video on the link below, Djatajabs.org will be making a renewed emphasis on maintaining the connection between African peoples of all nationalities from the Continent to the Diaspora. After all, please remember the words of the great Booker T. Washington who insisted, "During the period of servitude in the New World, the Negro race did not wholly forget the traditions and habits of thought that it brought from Africa. But it added to its ancestral stock certain new ideas."
To be sure, there are many African Americans today who refuse to use that term, preferring to call themselves "Black". Yet, as recently as the Seventies, these same people and their families refused to call themselves "Black", instead using Negro and Colored. So people who argue about calling themselves "African American" are simply behind, as either themselves or their predecessors were. a few decades ago
Nevertheless, the crucial point to be made here is: African peoples who were forced to migrate to the Americas did not lose their African cultures. Instead, each cultural group merely took on a different developmental direction. In other words, African American captive workers (so-called “slaves”), for example, were still people. As a result, our forebears adapted to the new circumstances with which they were presented, within the context of their own cultural wisdom and experiences. Dig? Still, we are taught to hate ourselves, especially our African - ness.
One Love!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCCzugeSPPA Read full post
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Dr. Ndibe's lates t novel "Foreign Gods, Inc."
Dear friends,
I'm "posin' 'til closin'", with my longtime, dear friend and brother Dr. Okey Ndibe at a Barnes & Noble store, on this past Saturday. Okey's latest, just released, novel titled "Foreign Gods Inc." has been receiving rave reviews from the New York Times and other major media outlets. We had planned, a few weeks ago, for me to hang out with him and his family in Connecticut, for my birthday weekend, especially since the dates coincided with his brief break of book signings and lectures from London to Los Angeles.
A native Nigerian and close friend and colleague of the likes of Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka and the now late Chinua Achebe, Dr. Ndibe who is also an internationally-involved intellectual activist and scholar teaches a literature course at the Ivy League's Brown University in Rhode Island, among his many other varied activities. Pick up a copy of "Foreign Gods, Inc.". I sure grabbed a couple. Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
Read full post
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
To where has the leadership in ths country gone?
"The best form of leadership is one that weds imagination and action." - Dr. Okey NdibeDear friends,
Nigerian scholar/educator/writer, Dr. Okey Ndibe writes: The best form of leadership is one that weds imagination and action.
I would like to add to that wisdom from my dear friend and brother Okey that that "action" of which he speaks requires the aforementioned "leader" to also be willing to take the first blow of opposition, like Mandela did for scores of years.
Unfortunately, in this country - the U.S.A. (and most others), so-called "leaders" hide in offices and caves, surrounded by their threat capacity in the form of the police and military, never actually having to confront their own inadequacies and insecurities, much less vulnerabilities.
So how can one be a leader, if his or her value judgments are founded in him or her having no regard for anything other than satisfying himself or herself, as it pertains to receiving both social status and as many material benefits as possible, while, simultaneously, involving himself or herself in as little work/effort as possible?
Moreover, if one is to use his or her imagination to lead, then s/he must necessarily use reason in his or her actions along with the aforesaid imagination. That automatically makes using manipulative intelligence alone inadequate, and, instead, turns all three factors into either a plan or, at least, a progression of plans that will not only require the input needed that can only come from a large body of other people (democracy), but will benefit everyone involved. Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Remembering an Aging Warrior, Nelson Mandela (originally posted 111/11/09)
"Yet even as Mr. Mandela fades from view, he retains a vital place in the public consciousness here...He is the founding father whose values continue to shape the nation."
Dear friends,
On the link below is quite a warm piece, that as originally published in the New York Times back in 1999, that reminds us of one of the world's real heroes, Nelson Mandela. Enjoy!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/world/africa/09mandela.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp Read full post
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Long Love Mandela!!!...Long Love African People Everwhere!!!
Dear friends,
In 1983, I was the first person to ever bring the ANC (African National Congress) to Philly. The man I brought to lecture at Temple University was named David Ndaba, then. Several years later and to this day, Ndaba, now named Dr. Samuel Gulabe, is/was the personal physician of both Nelson Mandela and his successor as the president of South Africa Thabo Mbeki.
LONG LIVE AFRICAN PEOPLE EVERYWHERE!!!
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Long Live Stephen Biko!!!...Happy Birthday!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNmAcgdO2Ck
' Read full post
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Dr. Chika Ezeanya talks about US involvement in Africa under Obama
"Africans of the World must unite!!!" -Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
(originally posted 10/29/11)
Dear friends,
On the link below is a piece from one of Nigeria's premier journalists, male or female. Moreover, if we look at recent affairs going on throughout Africa, including the murder of Khaddafy that was brought about, so that the United States government and its multinational corporate bosses could install a puppet-leader in oil-rich Libya, we will see that the United States of America, now under the direction of the Obama administration, as it did under the Bush administration, continues to rape the Motherland.
"Africans of the World must unite!!!" - Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
G. Djata Bumpus
http://saharareporters.com/column/united-states%E2%80%99-looming-invasion-central-africa Read full post
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Cynthia McKinney on AFRICOM and Re-colonizing Africa
Dear friends,
Because the people of the continent of Africa, as well as the great continent itself, are always portrayed by the Western media as losers, quite naturally, albeit unfortunately, African Americans as a whole, tend to not want to be associated with either. This seems to make sense, at face value. After all, who wants to identify with a loser? And so, over three generations ago, Marcus Garvey wrote, "This propaganda of dis-associating Western Negroes from Africa is not a new one. For many years white propagandists have been printing tons of literature to impress scattered Ethiopia, especially that portion within their civilization, with the idea that Africa is a despised place, inhabited by savages, and cannibals, where no civilized human being should go, especially black civilized human beings." - Marcus Garvey (Philosophy & Opinions of Marcus Garvey, edited by Amy Jacques-Garvey). Moreover, will Africans in the Americas ever be respected, if our people on the continent are not?
In any case, initiated by the Bush Administration and continued by President Obama, AFRICOM (African Command) has invaded African nations, under the guise of lending "military training and support". However, as the brilliant stateswoman Cynthia McKinney points out in the video on the link below, there seem to be other motives for U.S. presence there.
"Africans of the world unite!" - Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezktVMOvTQs Read full post
Monday, May 13, 2013
South Africa still not free
"In 1983, I brought Dr, Gulabe (then David Ndaba) to speak at Temple University. It was the first time that the, then outlawed by US, Israeli, and South African governments ,ANC had come to Philadelphia. The struggle lives."
Dear friends,
"The struggle in South Africa is not over. There needs to be a revitalization of the Free South Africa Movement to rid genuine South Africans, as opposed to Afrikaners, of deprivation of economics and health, so that they can bevcome independent of colonial powers who continue to have economic domination over us," said Dr. Sam Gulabe.
Gulabe was known to a generation of anti-apartheid activists by the nom d'guerre David Ndaba when he was the ANC representative at the United Nations. Gulabe is currently a lieutenant colonel at One Military Hospital, charged with the medical care of the now former president Thabo Mbeki and his predecessor, former president Nelson Mandela. In 1983, I brought Dr, Gulabe (then David Ndaba) to speak at Temple University. It was the first time that the, then outlawed by US, Israeli, and South African governments ,ANC had come to Philadelphia. The struggle lives.
G. Djata Bumpus
http://news.yahoo.com/safrica-rules-against-youth-leader-hate-speech-094521756.html Read full post
Dear friends,
"The struggle in South Africa is not over. There needs to be a revitalization of the Free South Africa Movement to rid genuine South Africans, as opposed to Afrikaners, of deprivation of economics and health, so that they can bevcome independent of colonial powers who continue to have economic domination over us," said Dr. Sam Gulabe.
Gulabe was known to a generation of anti-apartheid activists by the nom d'guerre David Ndaba when he was the ANC representative at the United Nations. Gulabe is currently a lieutenant colonel at One Military Hospital, charged with the medical care of the now former president Thabo Mbeki and his predecessor, former president Nelson Mandela. In 1983, I brought Dr, Gulabe (then David Ndaba) to speak at Temple University. It was the first time that the, then outlawed by US, Israeli, and South African governments ,ANC had come to Philadelphia. The struggle lives.
G. Djata Bumpus
http://news.yahoo.com/safrica-rules-against-youth-leader-hate-speech-094521756.html Read full post
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Male Supremacy rules - in Nigeria/Africa too
"Why are males, of all ages, so insecure that they need to get their self-worth at the expense of females, of all ages?"
Dear friends,
On the link below is a 25 minutes-long video about human trafficking in the nation that has the world's largest Black population, Nigeria (Brazil is 2nd, the US is 3rd). The real problem, even more so than White Supremacy, is: Male Supremacy. It fosters both economic, physical, and emotional violence against females, literally, every second, of every minute, of every day. Moreover, it is a far bigger issue than " The Economy", Nuclear war, or Global warming.
Let's stop it! Why are males, of all ages, so insecure that they need to get their self-worth at the expense of females, of all ages?
G. Djata Bumpus
http://saharareporters.com/video/video-human-trafficking-prostitution-and-organized-crime-nigeria-nigerian-connection-film-part Read full post
Dear friends,
On the link below is a 25 minutes-long video about human trafficking in the nation that has the world's largest Black population, Nigeria (Brazil is 2nd, the US is 3rd). The real problem, even more so than White Supremacy, is: Male Supremacy. It fosters both economic, physical, and emotional violence against females, literally, every second, of every minute, of every day. Moreover, it is a far bigger issue than " The Economy", Nuclear war, or Global warming.
Let's stop it! Why are males, of all ages, so insecure that they need to get their self-worth at the expense of females, of all ages?
G. Djata Bumpus
http://saharareporters.com/video/video-human-trafficking-prostitution-and-organized-crime-nigeria-nigerian-connection-film-part Read full post
Monday, April 22, 2013
Dr. Ndibe briefly comments on the shaky murders of "terrorists in Nigeria (originally posted on 3/5/10)
"But Al Jazeera’s videos show soldiers and police sweeping through charred and still smoldering cities to arbitrarily round up targets. These “suspects,” some of them deformed men on crutches, were then ordered to lie face down and shot at close range. "
"Murder most foul"
by Okey Ndibe
Horror, that’s the word that came to mind as I watched Al Jazeera’s video documentation of Nigerian soldiers and police executing innocent civilians last year in the name of fighting Boko Haram. Last July and August, hundreds of Nigerians died in a fierce battle between the militant group, which denounced all western influences as corrupting, and Nigerian government forces. But Al Jazeera’s videos show soldiers and police sweeping through charred and still smoldering cities to arbitrarily round up targets. These “suspects,” some of them deformed men on crutches, were then ordered to lie face down and shot at close range.
Those who made a gruesome sport of killing their fellows should be identified and prosecuted. Any nation that would treat its citizens as if they were lower than cattle sows the seeds of its own destruction. Those who excuse the bestial extra-judicial execution on the grounds that the victims were rabid Boko Haram attack dogs are off the mark. For one, the soldiers and police had no way of proving who was Boko Haram or who wasn’t. Besides, a state that authorizes summary execution has cast itself as a jungle, not a community of humans.
At any rate, if Nigeria must adopt executions without trial, why not start with the politicians whose mindless looting creates hopelessness and fertilizes groups like Boko Haram? Read full post
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Chinua Achebe - a literary titan - has passed
"I met him, back in the late-Eighties, right before he had an horrific car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He was a professor at the University of Massachusetts then."
Dear friends,
The great Chinua Achebe passed yesterday.
I met him, back in the late-Eighties, right before he had an horrific car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He was a professor at the University of Massachusetts then.
It was during that time that he brought a then fairly young Nigerian writer/scholar named Okey Ndibe to America, for the purpose of the latter becoming Editor of an international, progressive magazine that changed names a few times, before becoming African World magazine@1995. I was one of several progressive intellectuals who, occasionally, had pieces published in that now-defunct, albeit important, periodical.
However, my lifelong friendship with one of Chinua's prize student, the aforementioned Dr. Okey Ndibe of Brown University, is still going strong more than two decades later.
Finally, my condolences go out to our beloved Chinua Achebe's family, and the Ndibe family (which includes his wife, Professor Sheri Ndibe, and their three wonderful progeny/my boxing students Chibu, Chiamaka, and Chidibe).
One Love!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/22/world/obit-chinua-achebe/index.html Read full post
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