""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
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Showing posts with label women's activism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label women's activism. Show all posts
Monday, June 30, 2014
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Obama and African American Spirituality
"Please remember that our spirituality should be a vitamin - not a drug."
(originally posted 9/14/08)
Dear friends,
According to almost all of the agencies of the mass communications media, if he is successful, which I believe he will be, Senator Barack Obama will become our nation's "first Black president". I do not like that moniker though. I find that notion bothersome, because, at least to me, it trivializes both the historical and present contributions made by African Americans to both the development and continued proliferation of the United States as an advanced world power.
In other words, to imply that Barack Obama winning this election is the greatest achievement of our cultural group, ignores the fact that the active protestations of African Americans have been at the lead, in enhancing both freedom and democracy, at every historical stage in this country, for all citizens. This includes the time when a "6-2' mulatto" man named Crispus Attucks, standing in the front of a group of English colonists, against British troops, on the Boston Commons, was the first one shot and killed that special day. That confrontation, of course, was the catalyst for the official start of the War of Independence that turned thirteen colonies into the nation in which we now live - and love.
African Americans are an African people, from many different African cities and villages, who were forcibly made part of an enterprise that initially began amongst Arabs and Eastern Europeans (from where the word "slave" came), about a thousand years or forty generations ago as the International Slave Trade. However, it deteriorated into being what Dr. W.E.B. DuBois described as the "hunting of black skins" not long after Christopher Columbus' famed voyage across the Ocean Sea, renaming that enterprise the Atlantic Slave Trade.
Yet, the institution now known as the "Black Church" did not begin when European enslavers used red-hot iron brands and scarred captive African workers, so-called slaves, while reading the latter verses from the Holy Bible, in a process called seasoning. Rather, the Black Church started in the holds of the aforementioned enslavers' hideous vessels. Again, people from different cities and villages, speaking different languages and having varied customs, were now forced to embrace that which they shared as Africans - their religiosity.
But when we talk about our "souls"/spirituality it seems to mean different things to different people. And so, in his work called After Many a Summer Dies the Swan, Aldous Huxley offered, "Our 'souls' are so little 'us' that we cannot even form the remotest conception how 'we' should react to the universe, if we were ignorant of language, or even of our own language. The nature of our 'souls' and of the world they inhabit would be entirely different from what it is, if we had never learnt to talk, or if we had learnt to talk Eskimo instead of English. Madness consists, among other things, in imagining that our 'soul' exists apart from the language our nurses happen to have taught us."
Huxley makes an observation here that helps to explain the photo above, which shows Senator Barack Obama, literally, surrounded, in a very private situation , by a group of fellow African Americans - engaging in a group prayer. To be sure, they are not concerned with whether or not he belongs to a particular religious denomination. There is something much deeper happening there. For African peoples have appreciated their spirituality, long before they had ever heard of Europeans, or even Asians, for that matter.
In his book African Religions and Philosophies, John Mbiti reveals, “Wherever the African is, there is his religion: he carries it to the fields where he is sowing seeds or harvesting a new crop; he takes it with him to the beer party or to attend a funeral ceremony; and if he is educated, he takes religion with him to the examination room at school or in the university...Traditional religions are not primarily for the individual, but for his community of which he is a part...What people do is motivated by what they believe, and what they believe springs from what they do and experience. So then, belief and action in African traditional society cannot be separated: they belong to a single whole.”
Up until the end of 19th Century America, religious institutions were largely community-oriented, among both African Americans and European Americans. Today, however, for the most part, in this possession-oriented society, the individual as a "believer", as opposed to his or her membership in a community of believers, is what is promoted as the greatest importance to the commonweal.
Still, the congregants of Black churches have always been at the forefront of our cultural group's social progress, by engaging in activities that deal with our outer as well as our inner liberation, such as church folks helping to free captive workers (so-called slaves) during the period of chattel slavery to organizing then leading protest marches and providing facilities for breakfast programs for school children, as they did in the Sixties and Seventies - to helping to lead the fight against apartheid in South Africa, during the Eighties.
Unfortunately, too often today, a lot of concentration is on “being saved” and using the word “God” in every other sentence as some type of password to have membership in "the herd". Many folks are even using religion as a narcotic - like heroin or cocaine; a common refrain from them is: "I'm high on Jesus!".
Also, having “fellowship” is another term that is being bandied about these days. I went to a church, quite recently, whose Sunday program sheet read at the bottom, after the hymns and prayers listed: Worship ends, Service begins. Unfortunately, and shamefully, this was NOT in a Black church.
Black preachers must imitate the life of the historical Jesus who fed the hungry and healed the sick - physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. The latter did not just sit around and pray. S/he "worked" for change. During 1963, in his now famous Letter From a Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King wrote, in part:
"There was a time when the church was very powerful in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators"' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide. and gladiatorial contests.
Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an arch-defender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.
Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ekklesia and the hope of the world. But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom, They have left their secure congregations and walked the streets..."
While Dr. King's "letter" was largely directed towards "white" clergy, today, these words, very much, apply to most African American clerics across the nation, as well. That is a fact that should bring a feeling of shame to many who call themselves ecclesiastics. The Black Church has the power to change things! It is not up to "God" to make this world better. After all, if it is, then why does "He" need clerics?
Finally, to be sure, African peoples of the Americas, have a lengthy history of identifying with spiritual things. Had we not, then there would have been no way for us to have endured the long voyages crunched up beside - and stacked up on top of - one another in our mutual stench, for months at a time, much less being able to sustain ourselves, for centuries, in chattel slavery, as well as the continued impropriety directed towards us, even at this present date, by many of our fellows citizens, at all levels of society. Therefore, the real "spirit" of African American people is reflected in our legacy - a lengthy struggle for equality, dignity and justice. Friends, the power of love and its goodness will overcome the weakness of greed and injustice.
Moreover, please remember that our spirituality should be a vitamin - not a drug.
One Love, One Heart, One Spirit,
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Elaine Brown - A Woman of the People!!!
Dear friends
My old comrade Elaine Brown always keeps it real, unlike Angela Davis, the former Communist Party member (she was never a Black Panther) who, although it's kept real quiet these days, along with Jim Jones of the People's Temple cult group, by giving the latter strong support, helped lead hundreds of African American people to their slaughter in Guyana, Elaine Brown, on the other hand, has consistently fought for both the empowerment and enrichment of life for African American people, for a half-century. As you'll see on the link below, she has never either made excuses or apologized for that!
Liberation!
G. Djata Bumpus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NmT2hCqv-Q Read full post
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Dr. Maya Angelou - Still I Rise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqOqo50LSZ0 Read full post
What is Courage? - a quote from Dr. Maya Angelou
“…this beautiful and incredibly powerful quote, below, from Dr. Angelou says it all.”
Dear friends,
It seems, at least to me, that the issue of courage comes to mind, when analyzing so much of what happens in our society daily. I help people discover the power that is called courage. And, although I have been doing it for a living, for the past twenty-five years, I have been doing it generally, for almost all of my life - literally.
Moreover, while courage seems to usually relate to how humans confront either unfavorable or even violent people, things, or circumstances, it is far more significant as an exercise of one’s many inner strengths (powers).
In any case, not long ago, I was scanning through some old computer files and found a quote from the great Dr. Maya Angelou. Of course, I am a little more assertive about the origin of courage in a person than she seems to be, due to my expertise in this area . That is, humans are not born with courage. Period. Rather, they acquire that power through careful nurturing. Otherwise, this beautiful and incredibly powerful, although brief, quote below, from Dr. Angelou, says it all.
Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
*************************************
"One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest."
MAYA ANGELOU, in USA Today, 5 March 1988 Read full post
Monday, May 26, 2014
Our Fighting Women!
Dear friends,
On this Memorial Day holiday 2014, please do not let us to get that there have been women, especially African Americans ones, who have truly served as militant liberators in the history of Our country.
Lately, there has been a cry by Western feminists regarding all women being allowed to join active fighting units in the military. Of course, African American women have a long history of taking part in North American warfare, long before names like Harriet Tubman became widely known, and ever since, in groups like the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army.
A generation ago, during the early 90s,in the Amherst, Massachusetts area, Ingrid Askew and Nefertiti Burton, were two remarkable local performing artists who remind Us that African American women have never been pushovers. The duo's uplifting portrayals of African American liberators such as former Pioneer Valley resident Sojourner Truth and their popular dramatization of the life of Ida B. Wells stress the need for all people to take personal responsibility for fighting against their own oppression.
While the name of Sojourner Truth is fairly recognizable, few are familiar with the story of Ida B. Wells. She was a genuine gun-toting liberator (in fact, she carried two guns.) After the lynching of three African American businessmen in her native Memphis, Tennessee, 100 years or two grandmothers ago, Wells began a personal crusade of justice for her people that included lectures, rallies and other forms of protest. Additionally, readers should be reminded that Ida received a great deal of support from her African American sisters. She was no lone nut. Her fight lasted for decades (see When And Where I Enter by Paula Giddings)
While African American women have proven to be unafraid of physical confrontation, one of their greatest contributions to Our country has been their generations of pioneering efforts to make feminism a relevant movement, in spite of the negative actions by most European American feminists to exclude them.
It was around 185 years or not quite five grandmothers ago, when a woman named Matilda wrote to the "Freedom's Journal", an African American newspaper: "Messrs. Editors...Will you allow a female to offer a few remarks upon a subject that you must allow to be all important? I don't know that in any of your papers, you have said sufficient upon the education of females. I hope you are not to be classed with those, who think that Our mathematical knowledge should be limited to 'fathoming the dish-kettle,' and that We have acquired enough of history, if We know that Our grandfather's father lived and died...I would address myself to all mothers - it is their bounden duty to store their daughters' minds with useful learning. They should be made to devote their leisure time to reading books, whence they would derive information, which could never be taken from them. ( A Documentary History of the Negro People in the U. S. edited by Herbert Aptheker)
And The Struggle continues!
G. Djata Bumpus
Read full post
On this Memorial Day holiday 2014, please do not let us to get that there have been women, especially African Americans ones, who have truly served as militant liberators in the history of Our country.
Lately, there has been a cry by Western feminists regarding all women being allowed to join active fighting units in the military. Of course, African American women have a long history of taking part in North American warfare, long before names like Harriet Tubman became widely known, and ever since, in groups like the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army.
A generation ago, during the early 90s,in the Amherst, Massachusetts area, Ingrid Askew and Nefertiti Burton, were two remarkable local performing artists who remind Us that African American women have never been pushovers. The duo's uplifting portrayals of African American liberators such as former Pioneer Valley resident Sojourner Truth and their popular dramatization of the life of Ida B. Wells stress the need for all people to take personal responsibility for fighting against their own oppression.
While the name of Sojourner Truth is fairly recognizable, few are familiar with the story of Ida B. Wells. She was a genuine gun-toting liberator (in fact, she carried two guns.) After the lynching of three African American businessmen in her native Memphis, Tennessee, 100 years or two grandmothers ago, Wells began a personal crusade of justice for her people that included lectures, rallies and other forms of protest. Additionally, readers should be reminded that Ida received a great deal of support from her African American sisters. She was no lone nut. Her fight lasted for decades (see When And Where I Enter by Paula Giddings)
While African American women have proven to be unafraid of physical confrontation, one of their greatest contributions to Our country has been their generations of pioneering efforts to make feminism a relevant movement, in spite of the negative actions by most European American feminists to exclude them.
It was around 185 years or not quite five grandmothers ago, when a woman named Matilda wrote to the "Freedom's Journal", an African American newspaper: "Messrs. Editors...Will you allow a female to offer a few remarks upon a subject that you must allow to be all important? I don't know that in any of your papers, you have said sufficient upon the education of females. I hope you are not to be classed with those, who think that Our mathematical knowledge should be limited to 'fathoming the dish-kettle,' and that We have acquired enough of history, if We know that Our grandfather's father lived and died...I would address myself to all mothers - it is their bounden duty to store their daughters' minds with useful learning. They should be made to devote their leisure time to reading books, whence they would derive information, which could never be taken from them. ( A Documentary History of the Negro People in the U. S. edited by Herbert Aptheker)
And The Struggle continues!
G. Djata Bumpus
Read full post
Saturday, May 24, 2014
War - To Proselytize, Murder, and Rape
Dear friends,
Many ordinary people, especially those who have never served in any kind of military capacity, are unaware of the acts of rape and murder combined as being "traditional" behavior in human warfare. Of course, it is well-documented that around 2500 years ago, Hebrew/Jewish armies murdered and raped people, and burned the books of the villages that they attacked, then forcibly converted their victims to Judaism.
The "believers" of Christianity - a religion that grew out of Judaism - which itself influenced the birth of Islam, always acted in the same way that their Hebrew predecessors did. Therefore, raping and proselytizing those who survived the heinous assaults is the rule, rather than being the exception.
Even worse, such victims/new converts, sometimes, became the next group of conquerors themselves. As a matter of fact, during wars, considering the amount of rape victims who are not killed and become pregnant, the lunacy of Adolph Hitler with his fantasy about there being an "Aryan race" is totally exposed. After all, if one simply goes to the literature, s/he will find that the dark-skinned Mongolian Huns, who were originally led by a man named Attila, raided much of the area now known as Europe, for centuries, murdering the male inhabitants and raping women and little girls, in the process, making "mixed" children.
Of course, Amer-Asian children from the Vietnam war era are proof of the continued savagery of some American soldiers and others who keep the incredibly despicable murder/rape tradition intact, now followed by troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet, while it is not always rape, per se, unfortunately, we see the results of this same type of inhuman and vicious sexual impropriety here-to-mentioned, from politicians, actors, athletes, musicians, and other "celebrities" who have both broken the hearts of and abandoned women and their children, spread around our country - and the world.
Finally, rape happens right here in the states to women in the armed forces, perpetrated by their own male "comrades" - all of the time. Not just when they are in a war. Again, please go to the literature. I challenge you. If you are unaware of that simple fact, then you may have a different view of how this country has been run,, since its inception. To be sure, this says a great deal about the overall direction that we need to be heading. President Obama's signing, and subsequent re-authorization of, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is an important start.
One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus
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Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Dr. Barbara Love on Hollywood and media negative images of African Americans
Dear friends,
In the paragraph below, My longtime, dear friend Dr. Barbara Loveb comments about Hollywood and media negative images of African American people...She writes:
The negative images that we hold about ourselves did not originate with us. We internalized the false images that were created to support and justify racism. Several things are true: bad images hurt us; we did not create the bad images that hurt us. When we internalize the negative images created about us to justify the oppression of us, we act out and reflect those negative images. Because we act out and reflect those negative images does not mean that we create the negative images. The negative images existed before we internalized them. And yes, we can say with certainty that if Zimmerman lived more than one day in U.S. society, then he was exposed to negative messages about Black people. If he lived more than two days in U.S. society, he internalized negative messages about Black people without ever having met or interacted with a Black person. Every person in U.S. society- Black, white and all others- are taught by the daily socialization of U.S. society to hate Black people. That is the foundation and sustenance of racism. To our credit, so many of us, black and white and others, resist the message to hate Black people. to our credit, many of us, not only resist the message to hate Black people, but manage to love and cherish Black people. To our credit, many of us figure out how to help other people become aware of the messages of hate and use that awareness as a shield against the daily assault on our minds about Black people. And to our everlasting credit, many of us are trying to heal from the damage done to our minds and to our hearts by the messages we receive to hate Black people. 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
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Re: "Beauty Standards" for Women, an African American male perspective
1994 - with Dr. Mae Jemison at UMass-Amherst
2007 - w/sister Tia (MD/PhD candidate) on right
2011
2009
Dr. Namandje Ne'fertiti Bumpus
2007
"...especially females of African descent whether in the Americas, or on the great continent of Africa, need to appreciate their hair length and its texture, along with their complexions and bodies of whatever size, of whom those skin colors just mentioned have the honor of representing."
Dear friends,
From wanting their hair “long”, as opposed to short, to their dress and pants sizes, using terms like “petite” on one end, but “plus-size” and “full-figured” on the other, at least to me, these terms that most females use are done so in order for them to be a part of the “personality market” that is so ubiquitous in this market-driven, possession-oriented society. Additionally, I never hear males use the above-mentioned terms for self-description.
Yet, it's not just the snickering at females, because of their looks, that is most harmful. Rather, the rejection also trivializes women and girls to being mere "objects" of desire. Oddly enough, the objectification of females also is directly responsible for the murder and rape of women and girls, and has far more to do with devastating the confidence of female individuals than issues of vanity do. To be sure, confidence provides the soil from which self-esteem grows. Consequently, a woman or girl's inner beauty, that is, obviously, based upon her (or anyone's) having a genuine "sense of self", is compromised, if not totally damaged, .
Still, many African- and Asian-print designs, from body wraps (outfits) to hairdos, are gorgeous, if not stunning. And so the issue goes deeper than fashion. Does it not? It is about far too many people accepting what purports to be “European” beauty standards. The real laugh about all of this is: starting back as long as several millennia ago, all the way to the present, African and Asian women, particularly, knew and have known about everything from hygiene to dress, long before European females or their male mates knew much about anything other than how to make a heap of garbage. That is correct. We are talking about a stolen legacy. Please refer to the literature!
In any case, especially females of African descent whether in the Americas, or on the great continent of Africa, need to appreciate their hair length and its texture, along with their complexions and bodies of whatever size, of whom those skin colors just mentioned have the honor of representing. Besides, as it has been said, "You cannot control what others think of you; rather, only YOU can control what you think of you."
Finally, in my opinion, any male who really loves females should appreciate any female within the context of her distinct aura of femaleness - physically, intellectually, and spiritually, regardless of her hair length, skin complexion, or body size. For, at least to me, it is only then that males are able to appreciate females as equals. Otherwise, if a male is unable to appreciate females as such, then he really has issues about his own lacking of a "sense of self - and being". In other words, why would a male who actually has both dignity and self-respect need to find his self-worth at the expense of someone else? Ya dig? Peace.
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
2007 - w/sister Tia (MD/PhD candidate) on right
2011
2009
Dr. Namandje Ne'fertiti Bumpus
2007
"...especially females of African descent whether in the Americas, or on the great continent of Africa, need to appreciate their hair length and its texture, along with their complexions and bodies of whatever size, of whom those skin colors just mentioned have the honor of representing."
Dear friends,
From wanting their hair “long”, as opposed to short, to their dress and pants sizes, using terms like “petite” on one end, but “plus-size” and “full-figured” on the other, at least to me, these terms that most females use are done so in order for them to be a part of the “personality market” that is so ubiquitous in this market-driven, possession-oriented society. Additionally, I never hear males use the above-mentioned terms for self-description.
Yet, it's not just the snickering at females, because of their looks, that is most harmful. Rather, the rejection also trivializes women and girls to being mere "objects" of desire. Oddly enough, the objectification of females also is directly responsible for the murder and rape of women and girls, and has far more to do with devastating the confidence of female individuals than issues of vanity do. To be sure, confidence provides the soil from which self-esteem grows. Consequently, a woman or girl's inner beauty, that is, obviously, based upon her (or anyone's) having a genuine "sense of self", is compromised, if not totally damaged, .
Still, many African- and Asian-print designs, from body wraps (outfits) to hairdos, are gorgeous, if not stunning. And so the issue goes deeper than fashion. Does it not? It is about far too many people accepting what purports to be “European” beauty standards. The real laugh about all of this is: starting back as long as several millennia ago, all the way to the present, African and Asian women, particularly, knew and have known about everything from hygiene to dress, long before European females or their male mates knew much about anything other than how to make a heap of garbage. That is correct. We are talking about a stolen legacy. Please refer to the literature!
In any case, especially females of African descent whether in the Americas, or on the great continent of Africa, need to appreciate their hair length and its texture, along with their complexions and bodies of whatever size, of whom those skin colors just mentioned have the honor of representing. Besides, as it has been said, "You cannot control what others think of you; rather, only YOU can control what you think of you."
Finally, in my opinion, any male who really loves females should appreciate any female within the context of her distinct aura of femaleness - physically, intellectually, and spiritually, regardless of her hair length, skin complexion, or body size. For, at least to me, it is only then that males are able to appreciate females as equals. Otherwise, if a male is unable to appreciate females as such, then he really has issues about his own lacking of a "sense of self - and being". In other words, why would a male who actually has both dignity and self-respect need to find his self-worth at the expense of someone else? Ya dig? Peace.
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Thursday, March 27, 2014
The Baddest Warrior in North American History was a Woman - Harriet Tubman
"Throughout North American history, we've always heard of men as the best warriors. In fact, it was a woman who was the real "baddest" warrior in North American history. Her name was Harriet Tubman."
Dear friends,
Throughout North American history, we've always heard of men as the best warriors. In fact, it was a woman who was the real "baddest" warrior in North American history. Her name was Harriet Tubman.
For years, with a death warrant and reward on her head, she traveled back and forth, hundreds of times, into the antebellum South, and brought her/our brothers and sisters out from there to freedom. Then she served as both guide and nurse with the Union Army, during the North American Civil War, before finally dying as an old woman.
Liberation!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.tracingcenter.org/blog/2013/06/harriet-tubman-and-the-combahee-river-raid/ Read full post
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Dr. Julianne Malveaux on a variety of issues.
"
"Despite the prominence of Oprah Winfrey, the profound wisdom of poet Maya Angelou, the gentle grace of businesswoman Susan Taylor and the small, but powerful influence ofAfrican-American women in an array of occupations, we are virtually invisible in the policy context and demeaned and distorted in popular culture..." - Dr. Julianne Malveaux
Dear friends,
Dr. Julianne Malveaux is a distinguished scholar and now Bennett College president emeritus who never seems to shy away from providing thought-provoking analysis and biting critique, regarding any number of social issues. Moreover, at least to me, she reminds, especially many men, that things that women see as in their best interests are not always what men seem to think as being in the interests of all. Recall clueless Steve Harvey's moronic notion, Act like a lady - think like a man"?
At any rate, on the link below, is a page from her Website that shows a host of short interviews and the like. Enjoy!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.juliannemalveaux.com/latest_columns.html Read full post
"Despite the prominence of Oprah Winfrey, the profound wisdom of poet Maya Angelou, the gentle grace of businesswoman Susan Taylor and the small, but powerful influence ofAfrican-American women in an array of occupations, we are virtually invisible in the policy context and demeaned and distorted in popular culture..." - Dr. Julianne Malveaux
Dear friends,
Dr. Julianne Malveaux is a distinguished scholar and now Bennett College president emeritus who never seems to shy away from providing thought-provoking analysis and biting critique, regarding any number of social issues. Moreover, at least to me, she reminds, especially many men, that things that women see as in their best interests are not always what men seem to think as being in the interests of all. Recall clueless Steve Harvey's moronic notion, Act like a lady - think like a man"?
At any rate, on the link below, is a page from her Website that shows a host of short interviews and the like. Enjoy!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.juliannemalveaux.com/latest_columns.html Read full post
Monday, March 17, 2014
Women's History - When Black suffrage and Women's suffrage Collided in the 19th Century
Dear friends,
Historically, woman suffragettes were usually abolitionists first. One such person who began as an abolitionist and later became a renowned speaker for women's rights was Susan B. Anthony. Yet, Anthony seemed to have questionable qualities regarding her feelings about human liberation. You see, suffragettes like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were, in fact, vigorously opposed to Lincoln's version of the Emancipation Proclamation and the succeeding Constitutional amendments, because they would give only African American men - and no women - the right to vote. Even worse, much of her public life, at least at one point, was financed by a man, George Francis Train, a white supremacist ideologue and spokesman.
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had responded to what they considered to be a Republican "betrayal" by agreeing to share the lecture platform with a flamboyant Democrat, George Francis Train. An effective if eccentric speaker, Train scandalized abolitionists and suffragists alike by his frequent recourse to racial slurs and by his advocacy of woman suffrage as an alternative to Black suffrage. Despite mounting pressure from their fellow reformers, Anthony and Stanton refused to dissociate themselves from Train, the only man willing to provide them with consistent strategic and financial support. He not only took it upon himself to pay the two women's expenses when funds ran low, but also offered to bankroll Anthony's dream of a pro-suffrage journal in exchange for their continued presence on his return lecture tour to the East. In what seems like an obvious victory of expediency over principle, both women accepted the offer, insisting on their 'right to accept proffered aid without looking behind it for the motive.' It was not the last time they would have to engage in such a defense - (The Isabella Beecher Hooker Project, edited by Anne Throne Margolis)
G. Djata Bumpus
Read full post
Historically, woman suffragettes were usually abolitionists first. One such person who began as an abolitionist and later became a renowned speaker for women's rights was Susan B. Anthony. Yet, Anthony seemed to have questionable qualities regarding her feelings about human liberation. You see, suffragettes like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were, in fact, vigorously opposed to Lincoln's version of the Emancipation Proclamation and the succeeding Constitutional amendments, because they would give only African American men - and no women - the right to vote. Even worse, much of her public life, at least at one point, was financed by a man, George Francis Train, a white supremacist ideologue and spokesman.
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had responded to what they considered to be a Republican "betrayal" by agreeing to share the lecture platform with a flamboyant Democrat, George Francis Train. An effective if eccentric speaker, Train scandalized abolitionists and suffragists alike by his frequent recourse to racial slurs and by his advocacy of woman suffrage as an alternative to Black suffrage. Despite mounting pressure from their fellow reformers, Anthony and Stanton refused to dissociate themselves from Train, the only man willing to provide them with consistent strategic and financial support. He not only took it upon himself to pay the two women's expenses when funds ran low, but also offered to bankroll Anthony's dream of a pro-suffrage journal in exchange for their continued presence on his return lecture tour to the East. In what seems like an obvious victory of expediency over principle, both women accepted the offer, insisting on their 'right to accept proffered aid without looking behind it for the motive.' It was not the last time they would have to engage in such a defense - (The Isabella Beecher Hooker Project, edited by Anne Throne Margolis)
G. Djata Bumpus
Read full post
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Dr. Barbara J. Love on Sexism and Equality
Dear friends,
Just the other day, I emailed a dear friend, Dr. Barbara J. Love, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Social Justice (U-Mass, Amherst), about some ideas from Facebook posts that I had shared recently on my Timeline. The two-parts question was
Djatajabs.org: Barbara, what do you think about my assertion that equality and sameness are NOT the same thing!...That is, all men are not the same, yet, far too many men brag about what women can't do (for example, jump as high as men or run as fast or think as smart), as if the aforementioned men's sorry butts can do anything themselves other than hide among the herd of other men and talk trash...Moreover, does any of that have anything to do with men and boys insulting other males by asking, "Come on man, why are you acting like a bitch?"
Her response appears below.
***********************
Dear Djata:
Not sure what you are asking me to comment on.
As you have noted, sexism and male domination serves purposes of oppression, domination and subordination, all of which are rooted in greed, the desire for power and control of resources.
Equality is not the same as equity. Most liberation workers are seeking equity, not equality. (if we both get a size 10 shoe, that would serve the purposes of equality, but might not serve our individual needs very well. The purposes of equity would be served if someone found out what size shoe would work best for each of us, and then provided that size shoe that fits each of us.)
While the biology of men and women is different, there is nothing about the current construction of gender roles that is actually justified by that difference in biology. Biology has been used as an excuse to legitimize oppression and systems of domination and subordination, power and control.
Both men and women are hurt by sexism and male domination. Violence and the threat of violence is used to maintain systems of oppression.
Your statement: " Come on man, why are you acting like a bitch?" is a very good example of the psychological violence enacted toward men to keep them "in their place", that is to keep them playing the roles of domination required of men to maintain the patriarchal society.
That statement represents the devaluing of women, clarifying that the status of women is pretty much equal to that of a dog, and sends a clear signal that a man would not want to be identified with that lower status.
All the Best,
Barbara
http://www.barbarajlove.com/#%21about-us/cjg9 Read full post
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Girls and Young Womem Need Mentoring too
Dear friends,
We constantly hear talk about both African American boys and young men needing mentors. In fact, there have been various degrees of attempts to bring grown men, especially African American ones, into contact with Our male youth.
Yet African American girls, as well as young women, need mentoring too. After all, there are far more females than males, of every ethnic and cultural group, who are interested in contributing to their communities, Our society, and the world. Unfortunately, too often, beginning at an early age, instead of developing a "sense of self", these same young women just mentioned are deliberately distracted by the exploitative and oppressive notion of Male Supremacy/sexism that their real purpose in life should be to get married and start a family.
To be sure, only females can bear children. And the experience of building a family and raising your children to adulthood can be rewarding beyond words. However, although you would never be able to tell by the way that most American families are structured, your children are not your property; rather, they are your legacy. Therefore, with the intention of raising your children, from the very outset, in a way that allows them to become their own parents one day, also makes it possible for the elder parent(s) to continue a meaningful life outside of raising children, so that s/he/they can continue to constantly try to become fully human, by physically, intellectually, and spiritually engaging with his and/or her inner powers, until death. This will also make the aforementioned elder parents the most valuable resource for their adult children, whenever the latter need advice.
But then, of course, within the context of mentoring there is the ever present problem of female self-hatred, the other half of Male Supremacy. That is, just as "racial" self-hatred is the other half of White Supremacy/racism all females are constantly made to internalize their oppression by way of the schools, churches, and mainstream media, to name a few.
What is worse, is the unfortunate reality that this affects the way that older women interact with their younger counterparts, especially with professional women whether in academia or the private sector. On a side note, it also points to how paradoxical Male Supremacy can be, since it rewards psychotics like Bradley Manning and his ilk who claim to be "a woman living inside of a man's body", when none of these very sick, sexist men have even the slightest notion of what it is like to be a little girl who grows up to be a woman in this Male Supremacist world.
In any case, let's now imagine that the same young women and girls mentioned earlier had been mentored by both older women and men for years, not just in their private lives, but in their academic and work lives as well. Additionally, what if the mentors themselves were people who have a genuine interest in seeing all children grow up to be independent but cooperative, thinking yet imaginative, competent, and caring adults?
Do you think that the females of any particular community who have had years of being mentored, and not simply by one individual but many people, would then not only mentor their younger sisters and brothers, but as well teach their charges how to prepare to replace them, while planning for the future for those who have yet to come?
In building genuine communities, as opposed to simply creating more consumers for "the market", at least to me, it is essential that we begin to embrace value judgments that will allow all of Our youth to be able to set goals for the future and for the future of Our communities. One love!
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
We constantly hear talk about both African American boys and young men needing mentors. In fact, there have been various degrees of attempts to bring grown men, especially African American ones, into contact with Our male youth.
Yet African American girls, as well as young women, need mentoring too. After all, there are far more females than males, of every ethnic and cultural group, who are interested in contributing to their communities, Our society, and the world. Unfortunately, too often, beginning at an early age, instead of developing a "sense of self", these same young women just mentioned are deliberately distracted by the exploitative and oppressive notion of Male Supremacy/sexism that their real purpose in life should be to get married and start a family.
To be sure, only females can bear children. And the experience of building a family and raising your children to adulthood can be rewarding beyond words. However, although you would never be able to tell by the way that most American families are structured, your children are not your property; rather, they are your legacy. Therefore, with the intention of raising your children, from the very outset, in a way that allows them to become their own parents one day, also makes it possible for the elder parent(s) to continue a meaningful life outside of raising children, so that s/he/they can continue to constantly try to become fully human, by physically, intellectually, and spiritually engaging with his and/or her inner powers, until death. This will also make the aforementioned elder parents the most valuable resource for their adult children, whenever the latter need advice.
But then, of course, within the context of mentoring there is the ever present problem of female self-hatred, the other half of Male Supremacy. That is, just as "racial" self-hatred is the other half of White Supremacy/racism all females are constantly made to internalize their oppression by way of the schools, churches, and mainstream media, to name a few.
What is worse, is the unfortunate reality that this affects the way that older women interact with their younger counterparts, especially with professional women whether in academia or the private sector. On a side note, it also points to how paradoxical Male Supremacy can be, since it rewards psychotics like Bradley Manning and his ilk who claim to be "a woman living inside of a man's body", when none of these very sick, sexist men have even the slightest notion of what it is like to be a little girl who grows up to be a woman in this Male Supremacist world.
In any case, let's now imagine that the same young women and girls mentioned earlier had been mentored by both older women and men for years, not just in their private lives, but in their academic and work lives as well. Additionally, what if the mentors themselves were people who have a genuine interest in seeing all children grow up to be independent but cooperative, thinking yet imaginative, competent, and caring adults?
Do you think that the females of any particular community who have had years of being mentored, and not simply by one individual but many people, would then not only mentor their younger sisters and brothers, but as well teach their charges how to prepare to replace them, while planning for the future for those who have yet to come?
In building genuine communities, as opposed to simply creating more consumers for "the market", at least to me, it is essential that we begin to embrace value judgments that will allow all of Our youth to be able to set goals for the future and for the future of Our communities. One love!
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Sojourner Truth's 1851 speech asking "Ain't I A Woman?"
Dear friends,
On the link below, said to be 6'2" tall, this incredible African American woman, Sojourner Truth, in only a few hundred spoken words, defined the plight of all women in both a nation and world where Male Supremacy - euphemistically called sexism or patriarchy, rules.
Liberation!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/sojtruth-woman.asp Read full post
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
First Lady Michelle Obama is of a different breed
Dear friends,
On the link below is a short piece, regarding an incident that occurred in an earlier presidency, in 1929. It is interesting how Michelle Obama represents a far more classy and dignified First Lady than this country has ever known. Moreover, such an incident would never happen in the Obamas' White House. Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3031544?uid=3739696&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=47698897053767 Read full post
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Nina Simone - a Portrait and a Poem
This is a breathtaking painting NOT a photograph! Portrait: "Nina Simone" by Reggie Duffie
Poem: "Nina Simone - a poem" by G. Djata Bumpus
Naughty
In the
Nicest
Aspect
She
Is the
Mother
Of
Numerous
Ears - and eyes. Read full post
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Stagecoach Mary was another version of Harriet Tubman as Badass Black women go!!!
Dear friends,
I'm sure the "white crow" nonsense that is mentioned in the link below was made up for today's so-called "white" readers, but the story is amazing.
G. Djata Bumpus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Fields Read full post
Saturday, March 1, 2014
In Honor of Women's History Month
"ONLY A FOOL WALKS OUT OF HIS HOUSE WITH HALF OF HIS BRAIN" (pun intended)
Dear friends,
For the remainder of the month of March, this blog will feature female authors, in most of the pieces. Many of the articles and columns have appeared at an earlier time here. Moreover, at least to me, it is interesting that what men see as equality for themselves is actually not equality at all, when it comes to what they view as equality for women. Unfortunately, sexism's other half, i.e., female self-hatred, has many women seeing their equality as whatever men see fit for it to be. This must end! Period.
Finally, sexism or Male Supremacy is a bigger problem in our society and all others throughout the world than racism, for example. The reason is: It affects more people than, say, racism. Additionally, it is not simply a matter of "equal pay or equal work". To be sure, many men suffer that injustice too, for example union versus non-union workers. What makes sexism so unjust and, in fact, inhuman, is that, just as racism, it does not allow the insulted ones to be fully human. Instead, they must always lower their output of integrity, in order to satisfy the whims of men.
It is time for all men to wake up and stop defending this atrocity. It is senseless! After all, since women make up half of the human population, then that means that they also own half of both our total intellectual and physical powers. Therefore, it seems to me that it would benefit humanity - all around, if men stop hiding behind their insecurities and inafequacies that make sexism proliferate. Besides, if you think about it: Only a fool walks out of his house with half of his brain (pun intended).
Peace,
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Dear friends,
For the remainder of the month of March, this blog will feature female authors, in most of the pieces. Many of the articles and columns have appeared at an earlier time here. Moreover, at least to me, it is interesting that what men see as equality for themselves is actually not equality at all, when it comes to what they view as equality for women. Unfortunately, sexism's other half, i.e., female self-hatred, has many women seeing their equality as whatever men see fit for it to be. This must end! Period.
Finally, sexism or Male Supremacy is a bigger problem in our society and all others throughout the world than racism, for example. The reason is: It affects more people than, say, racism. Additionally, it is not simply a matter of "equal pay or equal work". To be sure, many men suffer that injustice too, for example union versus non-union workers. What makes sexism so unjust and, in fact, inhuman, is that, just as racism, it does not allow the insulted ones to be fully human. Instead, they must always lower their output of integrity, in order to satisfy the whims of men.
It is time for all men to wake up and stop defending this atrocity. It is senseless! After all, since women make up half of the human population, then that means that they also own half of both our total intellectual and physical powers. Therefore, it seems to me that it would benefit humanity - all around, if men stop hiding behind their insecurities and inafequacies that make sexism proliferate. Besides, if you think about it: Only a fool walks out of his house with half of his brain (pun intended).
Peace,
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
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