Emancipation celebrations this year, I suppose, will have added significance for those of the African diaspora who consider that their spiritual navel strings are buried on the continent of Africa, especially as the World Cup venture was a spectacular international success. Incidentally, the football extravaganza was conceivably Mandela’s parting gift to Africa as well as Africa’s final tribute to him.
One expects that they would be holding up their calabashes toasting their hereditary links, especially those who are aware of the old African folklore tale that, “humanity first set foot on the African continent” or, as suggested by anthropologists, “homo Sapiens” (that’s us) first appeared on African soil.
Be that as it may, We’ve been told that “They—Africans—came to the so-called New World before Columbus.” However, the bulk of African souls arrived in less auspicious circumstances and, as far as I know, were not welcome to their “new homes” or, more precisely, “holding bays” with enthusiastic cheers and the blare of trumpets.
Full Article : guardian.co.tt
I believe that Emancipation should NOT be just a celebration, it should be a recognition of how far the African slaves have come and how much there is still to go before he positions himself in comfort and respectability. Today, everybody is telling the African what he should or shgould not do why? Because the numbers that tell the story of how the African is fareing in modern society are not necessarily in his favour. When we take a look at the prison system we see too many young black men and women whose lives short changed by their inability to live within the confines of lawfull existense. The streets are littered with them drinking beers or just ‘liming’ with no goals in mind. The schools mare filled with them not knowing why they are there. There are few icons that the young black can look up to because those who have made it, chose NOT to sensitise their identities in any meaningfull way that would suggest that their success should be a model for the younger ones to follow. People like Ellis Clarke, Hudson-Phillip, Martineau et al, while successful and iconic in their own right shares no identity to their black brothers and sisters in terms of their cultural and societal identities. Class and social relations in the black communities are not cohesive and there is a huge gap for a meeting of the minds in this respect.
There is no shortage of Black role models in T&T and in the world at large.
How should they remake “their social and cultural identities” to be meaningful? I am not sure what you are getting at here.
Do you think that the diversity of religions and countries coming out of Africa are partly responsible for the lack of cohesiveness related to class and social relations in the Black communities? And to add to that, the White influences, and dispersal of Blacks all over the universe?
No T-Man white barbaric European slavery,along with blatant discrimination by other fringe groups that benefited in similar fashions,had absolutely no long term effects on Africans across the Diaspora-whether because 500 million were stolen from Africa,or said number suffered the direct,and indirect effects of slavery in the various colonies.
It is really something unwholesome in their DNA make up,as placed there by a loving and kind , blue eyed white God, that contributed to this disgusting state- which you in typical fashion described as “lack of cohesiveness, related to class…..”
It is Freudian slips like that which exposes the Trojan Horse motives and purpose of people like T-Man. There is a palpable denseness in their analysis and examination of anything African, no doubt residue from cultural nurturings designed to produce 100% Brahmins in a region of Majority African Peoples. After all, if they aspired to be Brahmins there had to be dalits.
If you guys had carefully read Kian’s comments, you would have noticed that I was simply quoting Kian and asking a legitimate question as a follow up to his comments.
Ruel Daniels in his typical judgmental style rushed to conclusions with an oversensitive keyboard, employing his usual predisposition to biased,defensive thinking.The only “slip” that was made here Mr. Daniels is your inability to do some analytical thinking.I guess that is too much to ask someone who seldom goes beyond the knowledge and comprehension levels.
Neal offers up his usual ascerbic wit, laced with sarcasm and again without carefully comprehending my attempted exchange with Kian.
The information highway is laced with misformation based on peoples’ inability to read properly and it is unfortunate that this malicious propaganda is being spread by people who know how to read literally.
And by the way, I really do not give a s*** about Brahmins or Dalits.
The African world is filled with “role models” and there is no shortage of achievers, be it academia, science, medicine, law, entertainment, politics, or sports. I’m sure Emancipation is a celebration of those achievements but almost all of it is individual in nature and do not have a collective foundation as a means of sourcing our achievements. The history in Trinidad and Tobago is rich with stalwats like Eric Williams, APT James, Uriah Butler, LC Hannays, CLR James, Hugh Wooding , Wilfred D Best, and many many more but ask a young black child about any of them any one is more likely to come up with a blank answer than an informative one. Emancipation should be an avenue whereby there is a gathering and collective means to keep the dreams of the forefathers alive and relevant so that the younger generations can have not only a source of learning but a source of reference, thereby creating the role model to whom they can look up to. In my earlier piece, I mentioned certain luminaries who excel in their profession but with all their learning and achievements, it is hardly likely thay any of them would have given of themselves free access or learnings to the less fortunate or those who are ignorant of their standings in society.