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AUSC president urges as well all Young Generation of this Continent wherever in the world , the Africa We deserve is not supporting this African Migrants Smuggled Into Libya Sold at ‘Modern-Day Slave Markets’.More related information is being disseminated, we need to become change makers to this process of re-colonizing Africa and enslavement of Africans.
References are here by published to allow easy control of what is happening and awaken these public on this crimes.
West African migrants smuggled into Libya are being traded and sold at what witnesses have described as modern-day slave markets.
Survivors who were able to either escape or buy their freedom told the U.N.’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) that the trade was so commonplace it took place in open public spaces.
“The latest reports of ‘slave markets’ for migrants can be added to a long list of outrages,” Mohammed Abdiker, IOM’s head of operation and emergencies told the Guardian.
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“The situation is dire. The more IOM engages inside Libya, the more we learn that it is a vale of tears for all too many migrants,” he added.
Read more: A senior Trump aide once drew a map of a partitioned Libya on a napkin
According to the report, traffickers transported one Senegalese migrant to a dusty parking lot in the capital of Libya’s southern Fezzan region, Sebha, which is a hub of Libya’s human trafficking network with migrants arriving across the Sahara from Niger and beyond.
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Men who he described as Arab in appearance sold the 34-year-old onto a makeshift prison. His captors held without pay and forced him to work on meager rations. They regularly forced him to call his relatives at home to ask for ransom money.
When he could not pay the fee of 300,000 West African Francs ($484) he was sold on to a larger prison, where the fee for his release was doubled.
Human rights abuses against migrants by traffickers and detention guards have been well documented in Libya, but the IOM says the crisis is deepening.
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The U.N. agency arranged the repatriation of 1,500 individuals between January and March in 2017—the same number for the whole of 2015.
“There are now more migrants coming back from Libya, so that’s also why all these stories are coming to the surface. And conditions are worsening in Libya so I think we can also expect more in the coming months,” said Giuseppe Loprete, chief of mission at IOM Niger.
The IOM has not yet replied to Newsweek's request for comment.
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Trump Aide ‘Drew Libya Partition Map on a Napkin:’ Report
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Link:https://www.yahoo.com/news/african-migrants-smuggled-libya-sold-093945906.html?soc_src=mail&soc_trk=ma
NOTE: Slavery returns to Afrika. Slavery never ended, in and out of Afrika. What we see here (slavery), is liken unto a Disaster. Disasters are suppose to awaken people. In these dispensations of knowing times, what we see here should not be happening. SEE why REPARATION NOW, REPARATION IS JUSTICE, IS VITAL AND ESSENTIAL.
Are the so called leaders, both genders, rich and wealthy in Afrika, can be blamed for what we see here?
Thousands of migrants have died while trying to reach Europe (AFP Photo/ARIS MESSINIS)
Geneva (AFP) - African migrants trying to reach Europe are being sold into slavery in Libya, including for sex, for as little as $200, international monitors said Tuesday, citing testimony from victims.
Having paid human traffickers in the hope of finding a better life many instead were held hostage and their families extorted for ransom.
The International Organization for Migration said "slave market conditions" and detention were increasingly common as criminal gangs sought to cash in.
"Selling human beings is becoming a trend among smugglers as the smuggling networks in Libya are becoming stronger," Othman Belbeisi, the IOM's chief of mission in Libya, told reporters in Geneva.
"Migrants ... are being sold in markets as a commodity" at a going rate of between $200 and $500 a head, he said.
While some migrants sold this way managed to escape, many wallowed in captivity for months before being bought free or sold on.
The UN agency could not provide statistics over how many people were affected, but relied on accounts provided to its staff on the ground.
In one case, a Senegalese migrant identified only as S.C., told IOM staff he had been held captive for months after he made the perilous journey to Libya.
After paying a trafficker more than $300 to arrange for him to be driven through the desert, he was apparently conned when he arrived in Libya, with a truck driver saying the trafficker never paid him the money.
- Sex slaves -
The driver had taken S.C. and other migrants to a parking area where a "slave market" was taking place, an IOM statement said.
"Sub-Saharan migrants were being sold and bought by Libyans," the statement said, citing staff in Niger who took the man's testimony.
S.C. described being bought and taken to a private home where more than 100 migrants were held as hostages.
They were forced to call their families back home, and were beaten while on the phone, to try and make sure they would get the money demanded for their freedom.
"When somebody died or was released, kidnappers returned to the market to 'buy' more migrants to replace them," the statement said.
"Women too were bought by private individuals ...(and) were forced to be sex slaves," it added.
An IOM staff member in Niger had spoken with a number of migrants in recent days who "all confirmed the risks of being sold as slaves in squares or garages" once in Libya, it said.
Some migrants, mainly Nigerians, Ghanaians and Gambians, were also "forced to work for the kidnappers/slave traders as guards in the ransom houses or in the 'market' itself," the IOM staff member said.
One migrant, whose name was not given, told IOM he and 25 other Gambians were taken to a "prison" in Libya, and was beaten every day for nine months before his father paid for his release by selling the family home.
When he was freed he weighed just 35 kilos and was suffering from severe malnutrition and numerous torture wounds.
much more at below link
Slavery Returns to Africa: Migrants Sold at Open Markets in Libya Links:
Boko Haram: Nigerian Terror Group Sells Girls Into Slavery ...
More important readings:
[SelfHelpNews] THEORY AND PRACTICE - A response to WADU's thrown gauntlet
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Afrika and Diaspora Institute via googlegroups.com
Apr 10 (6 days ago)
to amenelik, selfhelpnews, Valerie, Self-Help
Theory And Practice
Greetings Minister Menelik,
We saw the glint of your thrown gauntlet in the direction of UNIA-ACL Lady President, Valerie Dixon, in response to her discourse on the work of Marcus Mosiah Garvey, as provided below.
Minister Menelik, your subsequent discourse was most excellent. It exposes significant areas of general deficits, which Global Afrika faces today, the chief of which is apparent ineffectual Collective Leadership. This is in face of collective thrusts by foreign interests now penetrating the Continent of Africa, creating a new era, bringing with it, uncertainties for the indigenous inhabitants therein.
I am responding, being the Chairman of the Afrika and Diaspora Institute (Adi), an Arm of the Collective, of which the Lady President Valerie Dixon is part, like so many others across the world. Adi areas of work focus on education, research, policy and advocacy.
First, it must be clearly and forcefully announced that WE cannot be in competition in the process of constructing positive alternative to current Afrikan reality, legacy of the past five hundred years, which followed Afrikans to the 21st century.
In her discourse, Valerie Dixon presented cogent and reasonably argued points of view, based on her vast knowledge and expertise in her field. While it is not expected that the views expressed should be taken fully on board by all, in any event, we hope that you and others would respect them and make any counter argument to the same, equally cogent and reasonably argued.
Pragmatism demands that WE agree to disagree, without malice, in areas of apparent impasse. While WE are not homogenous, WE ARE ONE FAMILY WITH COMMON EXPERIENCES IN MANY REGARDS.
Our Global Pan-Afrikan Cause, which is driving Our Movement for Change, must equip us to reach a point of effective and lasting consensus, which synergises Our Collective knowledge and expertise, in the interests of Our Peoples’ Common Good.
It is a serious and real betrayal, when WE failed to reach that point of ‘unity in diversity’ in face of a common enemy. In this regard, WE are primary hindrances to achieving what WE professed in public to need and demand.
Realising, therefore, that none of us, on our own, has the panacea for obtaining Afrikan Unity, Our political maturity and wisdom – some say vision, informed us that WE MUST come together urgently and share all Our knowledge and expertise appropriately. WE MUST also engage actively in practical and worthwhile projects at the base to the capstone, as it were, in furthering Our Sacred Mission for Change, in our villages, districts, neighbourhoods, institutions, cities and nations.
In this process, as a matter of necessity, WE factor in Our active policies and practice, systems for working effectively and beneficially with other communities of good-will, in order to achieve Our Common Goals. One hand washing the other, as it were, for mutual benefits.
Having reached consensus toward a progressive path, laid Our theories for achieving change, WE apply all, during big, medium or small challenges, driven by solutions focus strategies - a way of life.
During the past one hundred and fifty years, foreigners penetrated Afrikan communities for the second time during the second millennium CE. The first was the vast depopulation of the Continent of Africa, driven by the Institution of Chattel Slavery up until 19thCentury. The second, colonisation, came missionaries, non-governmental organisations, International Institutions and Free Masonry, with controlling headquarters and command centres abroad, of which Afrikans have no significant influences on policy and practice. These individuals and institutions were and are basically Trojans. They took hold of many Afrikan minds, in addition to birth rights, lands and all therein, and WE are made poor, in spite of Our vast natural wealth bequeath to us by Nature for thousands of years.
Foreigners were able to gain Afrikan people’s hearts and minds partly by practical means. Foreigners brought gifts, including religious text – promises of everlasting life, salvation, religious redemptions. They forgot that Afrikans existed thousands of years before foreigners were ever in existence, and Afrikans had been in communion with THE SOURCE. Afrikans perfected their Cosmologies and understood Divine Principles of Balance, Harmony, Order, Justice, Truth, Reciprocity, Righteousness (right actions), and associated supporting truths.
They offered Afrikans new gods, and these new gods were not able to stop the kidnapping, enslavements and destructions of millions of Afrikans, underpinned by relentless and generational poverty.
Afrikan gods ‘provided’ enough fertile lands, enough for every Afrikan family to have shelter, food, clothes, if they needed them, and freedom to hunt and roam.
Afrikans bought into the Trojan notion. Then came foreign goods - pots, pans, knives, guns, clothing, medical clinics, foreign food aid, culturally bias education – schools, colleges, universities, which largely contributed to the erasing of the Afrikan Personality, including Afrikan languages. Foreign trade, foreign non-governmental organisations, mosques, churches, temples, synagogues, were some of the entries to Africa. Some of these competed with Afrikan traditional shrines and spiritual belief systems.
The important point is that Afrikan people believed that they were getting real, genuine and lasting offers for their well-being, including wealth creations.
Foreign players provided everyday practical and useful support for the ordinary people, with a focus on families, children and young people – ‘get to them while they were young’.
Foreigners provided support for orphans, the homeless, the hungry, the destitute. They healed broken bodies, and in doing all this, they created dependency and weakened Afrika’s micro-nations communal system. Some of the best young minds were sent abroad to be ‘educated’ in foreign institutions, many of whom returned home with notions that Afrikan ways were secondary to foreign ways.
Many ‘foreign educated Afrikans‘ now set about changing African society to imitate foreign societies, and the more that was done, the Afrikan Personality continued to be weakened. WE are now in a situation where WE lost our birth rights, and there had been a mass delivering of Our Minds to foreign domination – “neo-colonialism ”, with the active encouragements by many foreign educated Afrikans, now in leadership positions. We had the Afrikan liberation action during the 1960s-1990s, and here WE are today, struggling to hold Our Own against massive erosion by a new wave of foreign hegemony.
Foreign penetration was, and is effective, because foreign drivers offered practical bread and butter gift to a cross section of Afrikan society, in order to be able to gain foreign controlling influence over the people. ‘Soft power’.
In countering this unnecessary foreign hegemony on Afrikan lives, WE must learn the methods, which foreigners used to take Afrikan minds, lands and birth rights. Much of this is seated in pragmatism.
Pan-Afrikanism must become relevant to the ordinary Afrikan at all levels. WE must establish balance between theory and practice – reason and actualisation. Without this level of pragmatism, WE are at risks of becoming abstract and irrelevant.
WE must be seen to have created and/or creating conditions in order that people’s needs – real and imagined - are satisfied, based on self-help and non-dependency in substance. WE MUST get back to basics, working with the people, focusing on their everyday needs.
The Black Panther Party, led by grassroots Afrikans in America, during the 1970s, was mostly successful when members worked with ordinary people and establish community development initiatives, including feeding the hungry, clothed the naked, assist the homeless, established soup kitchens and food banks, provided supplementary education for local children, in addition to offering information, advice and guidance, relating to legal self-defence.
They called workshops and teach citizens about their constitutional rights. Visit inmates and carrying on one-to-one correspondence with them. This was a way for inmates to retain contacts with the outside world. These contacts were useful for the ex-inmates on their returned to society, having a group of people on whom they could call for help as required.
WE must become advocates, working with the people for ownership of lands, for build their homes and raising their families. WE must engage in safe outreach activities with the people, to assist beneficiaries to gain skills for employability, learn about entrepreneurships, money management, commerce and industry, trading, farming, marketing, good parenthood, zero domestic violence, healthcare, becoming active citizens, forming and managing community development groups and associations for community representations, at all levels of society.
The Panthers visited the sick in hospitals. In short, the Panther provided support to members of the community from cradle to the grave. The people grew to trust the Panthers. Thousands of young people became members of the Black Panthers, who became ‘a threat’ to an unjust society. That got to a level where America’s Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), under Edgar Hover’s leadership, established task force to take down the Black Panthers, as it did with Marcus Garvey and the UNIA-ACL during the 1920s. Many of the Panther leadership were framed, charged, tried and jailed for long prison terms. If the head of a movement is degraded or destroyed, that movement weakened and eventually crumbled.
What is important to learn here is that the ordinary people will always support those who are seen to be supporting them where it really matters.
This strategy of recruiting young people in prison to join community based groups is still in progress today. In the UK prison complex we hear complaints by the authorities about young prisoners are being radicalised and recruited to radical Islam.
Malcolm X, el Hajj Mailk el Shabazz, along with others, were recruited in prison by the Nation of Islam (NOI). Recruits were attracted to the NOI partly because that organisation offered tangible and pragmatic options, in addition to theological beliefs. NOI grew from an obscured group to a major international organisation.
Marcus Garvey and the UNIA-ACL, on which the NOI modelled itself, except the theological aspects, were able to recruit millions worldwide, based on its pragmatic black nationalist programme, dealing with self-identity, Afrikan liberation and enterprise.
Pan-Africanists are likely to get their message across to members of the community in need, with whom they sat, eat, inform, educate and entertain, rather than one who is homeless, hungry, unskilled, unemployed, lonely, ill, without a sense of purpose and belonging. In effect, Pan-Africanist must be prepared to compete for Afrikan hearts, minds and souls. Retrieved them and set Afrikans free again.
Pan-Afrikanist activists must ask, “what are we offering the people in practical terms? Why should they turn their backs on foreign dominations, to which they are accustomed for many generations? Why should the people, particularly Our Youth, support Pan-Afrikanism?”
A collective approach to the SWEP principles should help to simplify our answers to the above questions. Enshrined in modern Pan-Africanism is pragmatic approach to human development, where Sharing, Warning, Encouraging and Protecting one another are paramount. This approach is not a temporary gesture. This is essential, during times of plenty and times of scarcity, as we reject always, mendacity, larceny and slothfulness.
Academic education and eloquence are not enough, except when they are purposeful and put in the service of humanity. One of our daily companions must be ‘Humility’, for strengths and not subjugations.
There is no half measures in suing for real and generational change for Afrikan and Time-tested Friends. People who have been standing on Our Afrikan generational backs must be told by our actions that we have had enough. That we will not be allowing this to continue much longer. It must stop at all levels by all means necessary, because it is wrong. During the process of bringing a halt to this unreasonableness WE expect the active support of all reasonable and right thinking people, irrespective of colour, gender, class, nationality and creed.
In short, we are willing to work with WADU and others, in areas where there are common concerns and interests.
It is certain that there are many areas in that regard. And, if they are not readily recognised, WE should actively seek and find them. Our default position should be set on “unity in diversity”.
WE play down those areas of which WE might have potential disagreements and promote those areas with which we agree. Consensus and balance, ensuring always that these areas are sources of dynamism, creativities and productivities among us, for mutual benefits.
WE need one another, and so WE must help to create the optimal conditions, where WE can work effectively together, whatever the circumstances.
WE tolerated Our Nemesis for centuries. WE must now learn to tolerate one another differences in the interest of our Common Good. Let’s bury our super ego. It held us back much too long.
Afrika and Afrikans must unite. In the process, let us focus more on practical grassroots led actions, involving ordinary Afrikans of all ages and backgrounds.
Trust the people.
Dr Vince Hines
Chairman
The Afrika and Diaspora Institute (Adi)
Education, Research, Policy and Advocacy
Driven by SWEP Self-Help Principles
From: From IAM UBUNTU Na Uzulu (NY) to WADU (Ga) Minister P.D. Menelik, Co-Founder, Organizer... [mailto:amenelik@aol.com]
Sent: 04 April 2017 18:12
To: selfhelpnews@ubol.com; selfhelpnews@googlegroups.com
Cc: adi@ubol.com;
Subject: CLARIFICATION/Re: [SelfHelpNews] JAMAICA: Marcus Garvey's Work Transcends Tribes, Geography and Creeds
HUJAMBO: Thank you for this excellent reminder and reaffirmation of the Garvey legacy for a Union Government agenda. Now, I would like you to expound on several key points in terms of your work upholding the specific work of the Honorable Marcus Garvey in relationship to the broader Pan African agenda.
To subway in the questions, let me share with you that the greatest influences on Garvey based upon the concept of "Pan Africanism" are clearly Williams, Muhammad and Dubois as a result of the 1900 PAC in England. However, it is Love of the Bahamas (through his god-father and printer) who had the greatest influence on him on African nationalism which was his basic work and through this, he was introduced to the initiation of the Pan African Congress of which B.T. Washington wrote to the press (news) that it would be the most important meeting for Black people. Garvey heard the call from B.T. Washington, a key person of influence in the USA.
All should know that Nationalism was the dominant ideology in the 19th century but started as part of the Reformation in the 16th-17th century. In many ways, it became the first scramble for European tribal “nations” to compete for resources in the “new world” for their own glory. By the late 19th century, nationalism had begun to converge with a renewed concept of Greco-Roman civilization called Pan Hellenism (Europeanism).
Nationalism was particularly important in reshaping the unity of Europeans (after centuries of war) in their new vision to create a broad front for world domination via imperialism and colonialism based upon white superiority. Therefore, modern Pan Africanism is a direct rework of Pan Hellenism (Greco-Latin) which was a basic education for Europeans and the new Black elite of those like which Williams and Dubois were shaped (Greeks) by late 19th century. The Black Greek Movement came from this educational retraining of the Black elite to think and serve Europe as their center. We are still infected by this Eurocentric education --- Pan Hellenism.
Before “Pan Afrucanism”, Ethiopianism was our main ideology/theology and its high point in the 1893 and 1895 All Africa Conferences in the U.S. by Blyden and Turner (Nkrumah returned to this basic “All African” concept to initiate the African liberation struggle in the 1950's and his push for All Africa Government (OAU). Ethiopianism culmination was the Ethiopian defeat of Italy in 1895 by Emperor Menelik. These events and ideas set the tone and tenor for not only the PAC but the very Pan African ideology today. Again, one of the most vibrant people part of Pan Africanism is the Rastafari Ethiopianists. Anyhow, the emperor gave direct support to the 1900 PAC with B.T. Washington. Both were among the pivotal leaders of Africa and the Diaspora in promoting PAC #1 and so Pan Africanism. Be clear that those like Menelik, Nkrumah, Ture, Lumumba, or even Chaka (S. Africa) came from ancient and classical Pan African systems in Ethiopia, Ghana (Akan Empire), Guinea (Songhai), Congo (BaCongo empire), etc. and so it was not difficult for us to be Pan African. The original Diaspora core of the warrior system and spirit of Garvey’s Maroons background is pan African.
Now, Reverend Dr. Edward Blyden preceded the formal initiation of Pan Africanism and was more influenced by African nationalism based upon the religious philosophy of Ethiopianism, which started in the 18th century. Ethiopianism became part of our people in the Church pew --- our Homeland Africa was also classical Ethiopia. It was the dominant philosophy within the African nationalist Church Movement and especially the leaders who were concerned about Africa after our arrival and involvement in what would become the Black Church. It became the most important guiding ideal and theology used by these leaders for African freedom, historic dignity and African nationalism. Ethiopianists Blyden, Bishop Crummel and Bishop Turner became the dominant forces for African nationalism, repatriation and liberation until upstaged by the 1900 PAC. After the 1900 PAC, Pan Africanism coined by the new Black educated elite was adopted and adapted to Ethiopianism and African nationalism. Garvey’s UNIA continued the Ethiopianist/African nationalism as a people’s agenda. It is only by the 1960’s, Pan Africanism and African nationalism became a people’s language in Africa thanks to Nkrumah.
Now Sister Lady Leader and others, could you please share with us the significance of Pan Africanism, especially Garvey's influence on those like Dr. Nkrumah and President Khaddafi in liberation of Africa, and the recent insurgency led by Khaddafi for an AU Government. What about Cuba and the role of socialism? This was issue that drove many UNIA born Garveyites like Brath into the ANPM (Carlos Cooke) and then into Pan African revolutionary socialism, with others MX in NOI and MX and Kwame Ture (AAPRP) of the Civil Rights Movement. All three have had strong Garvey and Nkrumah influences and were pivotal for Pan Africanism and Garvey’s work in the Diaspora, for the last 50 years --- not the UNIA.
Second, leadership is about having the principle and a consistency in doing the greatest good for African through righteous and credible decision-making. You were involved in the major "educational" discussions on Garveyism, Negroism and anti-Nkrumahism led by Chinweizu with mainly those of the UNIA/Garvey related organizations which targeted Africans in UK and USA. During these re-education programs, Chinwiezu made some scathing attacks against those Pan Africanists supportive of Khaddafi's work for a Union Government. Further, he became a major propagandist supporting the invasion of Libya by the USA, EU, Saudia and Al Qaeda type mercenary forces. What was your position on the attack on Libya? Did you oppose Chinweizu's treacherous statements against Africans, especially calling for the death of Pan Africanists? Do you have a major press release or documentation for historical legacy of the UNIA on condemning the attack on Libya and Chinweizu?
Third, you should be aware that the UNIA and others of the Pan African Movement were targeted by operatives to compromise and neutralize us in the Diaspora and Africa from providing strong support for an AU Government and we were all infected by this, especially the UNIA. In Jamaica, the Rastafarians in Jamaica were most alert of the problem (Ras Nathanial of Chicago with the support of FDA/Black Neocons had targeted the Rasses) and so were able to minimize the damage to Jamaica… so far. What did you and others do in the UNIA in Jamaica to expose and then contain the contagion against us? Do you think these operatives mainly from Africa (Nigeria, UK, USA… have stopped their efforts to undermine the Pan African Movement in Jamaica knowing that other key African regions in the USA, EU-UK.. and Africa have been greatly compromised in related attacks and how what type of counter-plan would you suggest (do not be explicit)?
Finally, WADU is working to establish a council with some of the most trusted leaders who were not compromised in the last major attacks against us to help assess, identify and verify the credibility of those in leadership or posturing as leaders, in the African world and then to make recommendations in moving forward. As such, please make suggestions to me by May 25, 2017. We must learn the lessons of history, especially recent experiences and build counter-plan to safeguard and secure our agenda for the All African Government. Because some in the Ras Movement played a key role in pushing back on Jamaica becoming less compromised, relative to others, it is important to consult with them before any major decision and as such ensure it is not further compromised. Thank you for your sharing and await your kind response. Min. Menelik
The IAM Ubuntu led the organizing of the African Diaspora as a Pan African sacred force starting in 1999 by pulling together some of the most powerful leaders like Freedom Fighter Baba Elombe Brath, with the High Priest MLK Fellow Dr. Ndugu T'Ofori-Atta, and later, even the "legendary" Ambassador Dudley Thompson to create WADU. The mission is to support the AU united states of Africa AU government. WADU has since led the way, but with Africa under siege and the hijacking of major global organizations through weapons of mass deceptions, threats, lies and bribes, we must redouble our efforts to save ourselves. We are urging you who are sacred to join IAMU or any other with the authentic Pan African spiritual force essential to reinforcing the Pan African Movement. Family, the current situation calls for Pan African repatriation teams for the building of the All Afrikan government for our "second liberation" as called by Baba Brath (2005) and recently by Baba Mugabe. Minister Menelik of IAMU/Co-Founder WADU
From: Self-Help News <selfhelpnews@ubol.com>
Date: 4/2/17 12:03 PM (GMT-04:00)
To: selfhelpnews@googlegroups.com
Cc: adi@ubol.com
Subject: [SelfHelpNews] JAMAICA: Marcus Garvey's Work Transcends Tribes, Geography and Creeds
MARCUS GARVEY’S WORK TRANSCENDS TRIBES,GEOGRAPHY AND CREEDS
By Valerie Dixon
cid:image002.jpg@01D2ACBC.A83A2E20
Marcus Mosiah Garvey 1887-1940
Valerie Dixon
Marcus Garvey was 22 years old when Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah was born in Ghana, and so, Garvey could easily have been his father. Under the chapter heading “Africa for the Africans” in the book Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, Marcus Garvey is reported as saying that “…for five years the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) has been advocating the cause of Africa for the Africans those at home and those abroad – that is, that the Negro peoples of the world should concentrate upon the object of building up for themselves a great nation in Africa.
When we started our propaganda toward this end, several of the so-called intellectual Negroes who have been bamboozling the race for over half a century said that we were crazy, that the Negro peoples of the western world were not interested in Africa and could not live in Africa.”
He went on further to say that “…the old time stores of African fever, African bad climate, African savages have been repeated by these “brainless intellectuals” of ours, as a scare against our people in America and the West Indies taking a kindly interest in the new program of building a racial empire of our own in our Motherland.”
It is always best to begin at home before going abroad, which means we need to first look at how Marcus Garvey was treated with contempt by some Black people in his own country of Jamaica. As the Lady President of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) in Jamaica, I recently received as a gift, a folder that contains personal notes and many pages of quotations collected by the late Ken Jones, along with a booklet entitled “Marcus Garvey Said” and the foreword is by John Henrick Clarke.
In leafing through the pages I came across a heading which read ‘Colour Prejudice in Jamaica’. Garvey wrote “I really never knew that there was so much colour prejudice in Jamaica, my own native home until I started the work of the UNIA. The daily papers wrote me up with big headlines and told of my movement. But nobody wanted to be a ‘Negro’.
Now this is interesting – according to Garvey “Men and women as black as I am, and even more so had believed themselves to be “white” under the colonial West Indian order of society.” He went on further to say that he had to decide whether to please his friends and be one of the “black-whites” of Jamaica and become reasonably prosperous, or come out openly and defend and help improve and protect the integrity of the Black millions and suffer. This decision would be his downfall and was the greatest sin that he had committed against the “coloured-black-white” society in all of the West Indian colonies and in the United States of America. He said “I was openly hated and persecuted by some of these brown-coloured mulatto men of the island who did not want to be classified as ‘Negroes’ but as ‘white’”.
The brown ruling-class was not the only group of people who gave Marcus Garvey the ‘Trudeau salute’. In the book Philosophy and Opinions under the heading ‘Traitors’, Garvey laments that “in the fight to reach the top, the oppressed have always been encumbered by the traitors of their own race, made up of those of little faith and those who are generally susceptible to bribery for the selling out of the rights of their own people.”
He makes the point that “the traitor of the other races is generally confined to individuals who are mediocre or irresponsible, but unfortunately, the traitors among the Negro race are generally to be found among the men highest placed in education and society.”
It would appear that part of the problem why Garvey has been side-stepped and disrespected could lie in his continuous usage of the word ‘Negro’, as most of the Black race have been brain-washed into hating the Spanish word for the colour ‘black’ which is ‘negro’. One school of thought theorized that when the European conquerors first came to Africa they had never seen black faces before and did not know the name of the Black race which is ‘Alkebulan’.
According to the following resource: Kemetic History of Afrika; the definition of Alkebulan is as follows: “The ancient name of Africa was Alkebulan. Alkebu-lan"mother of mankind" or "garden of Eden". Alkebulan is the oldest and the only word of indigenous origin. Jun 28, 2011. Africa's True Name | Drive South Africa
https://www.drivesouthafrica.co.za/blog/africas-true-name/
To say that the majority of the grass-roots peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora have been shafted by so called mostly foreign-educated and trained Black leaders is putting it mildly, and it would appear that the same category of Black people who held Marcus Garvey in contempt during the early part of the 20th century is the same category that still holds him in contempt now, the early part of the 21st century.
Quoting from SELF HELP NEWS – “Giving Voice to the Voiceless” we should pay attention to what is said here “If we are to survive as a race, then Alkebulan or African peoples cannot afford to be left behind. We will be left behind if our minds, hearts and spirits are not equipped to join the power-chess game currently being played globally.” To evidence his early advocacy for Pan Africanism, Marcus Garvey eloquently asked “Where is the Black man’s government? Where is his President, his country and his ambassador, his army, his navy and his men of big affairs?” I could not find them and then I declared “I will help to make them”.
Let me state that Garvey was not the first to advocate for Pan Africanism. It is said that he was greatly influenced by Edward Wilmot Blyden. Blyden is declared as the father of Pan-Africanism, and was an educator, writer, diplomat, and politician primarily in Liberia. Born in the West Indies, he joined the free black immigrants from the United States who migrated to the region. Wikipedia
He too seems to have been side-stepped by a tiny minority who are now advocating for a Pan African Federalist Movement. So it appears that Blyden influenced Garvey and Garvey influenced Nkrumah.
In these present times our Black leaders have not yet been invited to the Games Table, partly because Africa’s and the Diaspora’s apparent state of dependency suggests that Africans, both at home and abroad, have little or nothing material to add value to the geopolitical power game being played.
A Pan African Federalist Congress has been slated to take place in the latter part of 2018. Among other things, this is what Prof. Kwaa Prah, A Ghanaian leader in the Global Pan African Movement said that should help to demystify the shroud of defeatism that seems to be engulfing many Black people, both in Africa and the Diaspora, due primarily to poor Black leadership, as many former Black colonies have not been able to show prosperity over the past 50 years since many gained their so-called ‘Independence’ from their European owners.
Prah said “Pan Africanism is more substantial than the occasional congresses that have in the last twenty years taken place. The tradition and organization of these congresses have lost the meaning they had in the colonial period. They have become jamborees invariably serving opportunistic interests.”
He went on “… The reason behind the struggle for a United Africa State is wholly to mobilize Africans under one Federal government with immense independence. This is not a struggle to be powerful nor famous but a struggle to attain wisdom over the oppressor The struggle for the United Africa State desires us to be committed, not for any other motive but for the goal-tagged unity and independence of the Pan African struggle.”
It seems that at the crux of Black peoples’ problems is the problem of poor or misguided education that our leaders seem to possess.
To those who may wish to declare that Garvey is no longer relevant and so can be side-stepped and be relegated to the footnotes of history, Garvey said “Not until we settle down as four hundred million people and let the men who have placed themselves in the lead of us realize that we are disgusted and dissatisfied, and that we shall have a leadership of our own and stick by it when we get it, will we be able to lift ourselves from this mire of degradation to the heights of prosperity, human liberty and human appreciation.”
Many Black People born on the Continent of Africa are naturally tribal, based on their traditional culture. Historical Afrikan Diasporans were tribal- orientated before members were kidnapped and taken to foreign and hostile lands, beaten, murdered and subjugated. Most Historical Diasporans are not like that today, because our natural tribal intents were forced out of us by our ‘Massas’ (name for slave-owners).
Our Alkebulan kith and kin on the Continent, though colonised and placed under the yoke of racism and apartheid and genocide in some extreme cases like in South West Africa (now Namibia) and the Congo, had not experienced the same consistent and protracted levels of oppressions as those in the Diaspora. Continentals were, unlike their kith and kin in the Diaspora, able to keep their languages, basic tribal structures and traditions. Later these deteriorated to current levels which progressive Africans now seek to address and arrest. Some of these deficits are still oozing from some backward looking African leadership, those at home and those abroad.
Many Africans now living on the Continent do not know about the basic history of their kith and kin in the Diaspora. Many don’t even know that these existed, except when they saw them on TV during international events – track and field – Olympics, boxing, football, big televised concerts, head lined by Africans like Muhammad Ali, Bob Marley, Michael Jackson, Burning Spear, etc. But most Continentals know about Ghana.
They might not know about Nkrumah, but when they are told that he was a Ghanaian leader, many easily warm to him and follow his teachings. This approach to Garvey is different, because, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah might have learnt from Garvey, but contemporary Afrikans on the Continent don’t know that and, probably, don’t care.
Some of those who know about the supreme work of Garvey are looking to create a different type of Continental collective identity. And Garvey, born many thousands of miles away in a foreign land, would not fit the bill as front runner for that position. Nkrumah fits this bill better in their minds.
True, we must educate and not castigate them. Many of them don’t know Garvey. We are required to teach them. After all, it is only recently when they learnt about the great work of Marcus Garvey, many of whom came to that realisation via by Dr Vince Hines, “VISISONS AND STRUGGLES WALK TOGETHER”, a comprehensive multi-media documentary, uploaded to YouTube, the Internet, during 2016.
His Excellency Marcus Mosiah Garvey is Jamaica’s National Hero - not the Continent of Africa’s; not even the Caribbean’s. And so, we should not be surprised that Continental Alkebulans gave their first attention to Kwame Nkrumah. This is likely to be the case in the future.
What Garveyites and the Pan-African Movement should seek to do is to ensure that Marcus Mosiah Garvey secures his historical seat among Global Africanists, including Pan Africanists. As writers, we should always write positive and not reinforce negative generalities that “Garvey is forgotten or disrespected”.
He is not. Garvey is more popular today than he might have been since 1940 after his death. It took the historical Jesus Christ almost 400 years before his great work came to the surface internationally. Two thousand years later, history speaks for itself.
We should not compare Garvey with his current critics. Garvey’s work should be able to withstand criticism motivated by envy and jealously and rigorous academic enquiries.
Garvey’s popularity continues to rise. His work is being known by various generations, and every time we speak of African Unity, we are quoting and parroting Marcus Mosiah Garvey. We must embrace Garvey because he is the link to the people of the Continent of Africa and the Historical Diaspora – the children of those kidnapped from Alkebulan.
What we need to say to the UAS organisers is that they are to ensure that in all their planning, Marcus Mosiah Garvey’s place is prominently displayed at all times, second to none, based on his great work, with regular and perpetual references and how it added value to the African Collective Personality, in the past, currently and likely to do in the future. We build on his intellectual and visionary legacy, as bequeathed to all Africans, those at home and those abroad.
Garveyism has become a driver for Global Africa and the Pan-African Movement. The progressive Global African Leadership active today recognise the power and substance of Garvey’s life long work.
In clarifying the Pan African Federalist Movement position on Garvey, Joomaay Ndongo Faye wrote, “When the United African States will be proclaimed; Pangool (Saint and Seer) Marcus Garvey will be listed as their FIRST PRESIDENT.
Everything that Pan African Federalists are DOING is GEARED toward making the dream of the First Pan African Federalist in History, Pangool Garvey, to materialize. For that Reason, Pangool Garvey's Legacy is a Common Property of ALL AFRICAN PEOPLE wherever they may hail from. Du Bois, Nkrumah, Diop and all those whom we are quoting on issues regarding African Unity, were singing the Pangool Garvey's song.”
Joomaay continued, “The Pan African Federalist Movement is ALMOST A COPY of Pangool Garvey's Political Strategy. I say ‘almost’ because we are trying to modernize it.” Joomaay Ndongo Faye, Harrambee Pan African Federalists! Africa can be united/L'Afrique peut etre unie.
Visions and struggles truly walk together.
Valerie Dixon
Lady President, UNIA-ACL, Jamaica
2 April 2017
Attachments area
Preview YouTube video VISIONS AND STRUGGLES WALK TOGETHER, BY Vince Hines
VISIONS AND STRUGGLES WALK TOGETHER, BY Vince Hines
Dav-E Yonah El
Apr 10 (6 days ago)
to Afrika, From, SelfHelpNews, Valerie, Self-Help
Family Members. This is Uncle B.U.C. I am the Family Elder Yonah EL
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Mr IRAGUHA BANDORA Yves, RN, BScN, (Hons),
Medical Student,Doc III,University of Rwanda,
President African Union Students’ Council (AUSC)"For The Better Africa We Deserve"
Rwanda Country Coordinator,Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassadors' Network(CYPAN),www.cypan.org
Africans can unite/Les Africains peuvent s'unir.
http://www.etatsafricainsunis. org
or http://www.unitedafrikanst ates.org
http://www.etatsafricainsunis.
or http://www.unitedafrikanst
Stop the new scramble for Africa by uniting the African States.
Arretons la nouvelle ruee vers l'Afrique en unifiant les etats africains.
Tel&Whatsapp:+250736196204
Skype:BandoraYves
Twitter: @AfricanUnionSC,
"A winner is a dreamer who never gives up" Nelson Mandela.
"Education is the key to Success" Nelson Mandela.
Commonwealth Young Achiever 2015,Book Page45,p51: http://www. commonwealthyouthcouncil.com/ index.php/news/35- commonwealth-youth-achievers- book-published
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