By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 03, 2011
If one opened the dailies the day after Emancipation Day one could not miss the photographs of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Arts and Multiculturalism sitting proudly in their African threads on either side of Kafra Kambon (Express, August 2nd) with a headline that proclaimed: “PM: No more last minute funding.” Just to reinforce her concerns, she cooed: “As a testimony to the recognition in the Emancipation Support Committee, I have requested a convening of an inter—ministerial team charged with the review of all festival—based commemoration to ensure matters of funding and production will no longer be matters of last minute intervention. We stand committed to the success of this intervention and the Minister of Multiculturalism Winston ‘Gypsy’ Peters will head this very special committee to ensure that you get the funding and support you need at the appropriate time.”
Newsday also reported that several of her Cabinet Ministers Prakash Ramadhar; Stephen Cadiz; Wade Mark; and Anand Ramologan were also “decked out in African attire. It was a festive occasion… The Prime Minister and her ministers also joined in the festivities, chipping to the rhythmic sounds as the procession made its way from Brian Lara Promenade to the Greens on Piccadilly Street” (Newsday, August 2). Surujattan Rambachan, decked out in his African attire, also learned some dance steps from an African sister.
The one negative note amidst all of this celebratory effusion was contained in a Newsday headline that read “Hundreds turn out for Emancipation Day Celebrations” which suggested that in spite of the pomp and ceremony, thousands of Africans voted with their feet and stayed away from celebrating the event publicly. In spite of news to the contrary, African people are much smarter than we give them credit for. They recognize mamaguy when they see it and usually act upon it.
So that while the PM and her party seek to impress us about her care and concern, black people understand that there can be no genuine friendship where there is demonstrated inequality between people. Even as the various ministers of government gambarged themselves in front of the public, African people realized that they were merely “playing themselves,” trying to convince black people that they cared when all of their actions suggest they care only for themselves and their people.
According to the Express, the PM said that the home that her government proposes for the Emancipation Support Committee—not for African people—”will preserve African cultural tradition and history but will serve also as a reminder that Trinidad and Tobago continues to lead the way not only in the celebration of emancipation but it is a place for human dignity for all.” I do not know what all this means but I do know that if the PM’s government is concerned about preserving the dignity of African people it should begin by respecting the dignity of each individual within the group.
I am a self—responsible African man who represents the continuation of a long African intellectual tradition that had its birth in the early nineteenth century. I work with the integrity and aplomb that characterized my foreparents’ speaking truth to power as God gives me the ability to speak and discern the truth.
In October of last year, I sent a letter via FEDEX to the Minister of Arts and Multiculturalism. I am yet to receive an acknowledgement or a response from him. In May of this year, I sent a letter to the Minister of Education with regards to a historical poster, “How the Caribbean Won Its Freedom,” that I developed with a young scholar from London. I await his response.
In July of this year, I was concerned with a particular trend that I saw in the result of the 2011 SEA Examination. I wrote the Minister of Education a letter expressing my concerns. I am yet to get a response from him which raises a central question. Can the PM and her Ministers be serious when they talk about respecting the dignity of African people when they cannot respect an individual within that group.
Is our PM serious when she states that “the heritage of all the ethnicities and the cultures must be preserved in our land where every creed and race must find an equal place?” (Express, August 2). How could we say we respect ethnicities when we show no respect for individual members of that race or ethnicity.
Can the PM and her ministers say they are concerned about African people when they seem concerned only with the ceremonial or the outside coating of a people’s culture rather than the inner essence of that culture which they leave to wither and die.
The PM can provide the most fabulous home for the Emancipation Committee but if her government does not water the inner resources that sustain that culture they would only be spinning top in mud. And while the people would be coming out in their hundreds to celebrate the most inspirational day in their lives the PM and her government will be making a mistake if they believe that we are taken in by their flattery and their ole talk.
Karl Marx observed that “If there were no difference between essence [reality] and appearance there will be no need for science” which suggestz that because appearance is not reality there is and always will be the need for science [systematic investigation] to discern the inner movement in all things. One can play oneself and say pompous things but if there is no respect for the group there can be no tranquility in the society.
Africans in this land need scholarship and science to probe and find out who we are. Let us begin to respect the individuals within the group who have devoted their lives to a study and preservation of the cultural traditions of this group. Without scholarship and science there can be no group knowledge. Without the individuals there can be no group. Therefore to speak of respecting the group without respecting its scholarly integrity and the people within the group amounts to stuff and nonsense.
We will not be fooled.
This man must have a monumental ego!
Do you think government ministers have the time or inclination to reply every divisive, confrontational letter sent to them from every Tom, Dick and Cudjoe, especially when these protestations are meant to provoke, complain and separate.
Try writing letters of the nature which you described in your article to senators and congressmen in the country in which you live, the USA, and see how many responses you will receive.
US Senators and congressmen respond to all letters they receive as a matter of course, and have paid staffs to help them do so.
Ministers of T&T government are likewise obliged as a matter of common courtesy to respond to letters they receive from citizenry, and they have whole ministries to help them do so. Party manifestos tend also to imply the same — transparency and good governance and all. There may also be legal obligation stemming from long established custom and practice.
In any case, some of these matters are of a nature that may lead to litigation, a la Sat Maharaj and some of his complaints he had against the previous Government. In such a scenario, the Ministers are actually well advised to respond to Prof. Cudjoe’s letters, even if only, respectfully and sweetly, to disagree.
In the case of the letter re SEA results, Dr. Gopeesingh’s response was intemperate and dismissive, and my expectation is he will live to regret it.
Shalom.
LET the T&T ‘Africans’ use scholoship and science to probe and find out who they really are…
…and when they do, they MUST(!!!) abandon PNM / PNM-ism and ‘black power’ and Selwyn Cudjoe!!!
Bacon172000.
Bacon 172000–your choice of blogging name, associated as it is with unclean creatures, ought not as your default button to be automatically swinish.
Quoting Prof. Cudjoe:
and
I for one stayed away. Mackandal Daaga and NJAC are a spent force. Khafra Kambon must also be likewise. This is the end of all failed ideologies; they are defeated by their own false assumptions and internal contradictions.
They breathe fire against Dr. Williams, and Patrick Manning, but they’re okay cozying up to the UNC? Anyone with discernment would see that UNC represents Babylon system far more than even the PNM at its most “Afro-Saxon” (Lloyd Best has a lot to answer for) and its most venal.
Therefore, I see the Emancipation Celebration as another PR opportunity, co-opted by the now-ruling party. And I am glad that thousands of other Afro-Creoles have awakened to the lie.
The first fact that we the Afro-Creole must embrace is the truth about our identity. We are Israelite … the true Israelites of the Bible.
The chain of facts and reasoning leading to that conclusion is as follows:
1) We know there are fake Israelites, from the scriptures that speak of the blasphemy of “them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 2:9, 3:9) and which speak of the “robbers of thy people, who shall exalt themselves to establish the vision, but shall fail” (Daniel 11:14).
2) We know further that we are not the fake Israelites, because we don’t claim to be Jews, and we certainly don’t worship in synagogues.
3) Meanwhile we, alone among all peoples on the planet, have lost knowledge of our true identity, a fate that was prophesied would befall the true Israelites (Jeremiah 17:4). This amnesia certainly facilitated the conspiracy of stolen identity, a conspiracy that also was attested to in scripture (Psalm 83:4). The ancient co-conspirators also were named (Psalm 83:6-8).
4) Finally, we as a people fulfill all of the curses that were to befall true Israel, as these are laid out at Deuteronomy 28:15-68, curses that in themselves would be a sign that would help us in the latter day come to find our true identity (Deuteronomy 28:46).
5) Therefore — like it or not, know it or not, and as a simple matter of fact and truth — we are of the ancient house of Israel.
We are Israelites of scripture, moreover set to “inherit the kingdom”, now that our over 2,500 years of woe are at an end.
Therefore, it is time to reject the false notion that we are “African”. Yes we came from Africa, the land mass, but we also came, scattered as prophesied we would, into Africa, that land mass now so defined.
Clearly we are phenotypically black, like Africans, and could be mistaken for the Hamitic tribes of Africa, in the same way that Joseph was mistaken for an Egyptian by his own brothers, and Moses could be raised in Pharaoh’s house as his own grandchild without Pharaoh suspecting his Israelite origins.
There are still many Israelite tribes scattered throughout Africa as prophesied would be the case (Zephaniah 3:10), who therefore are clearly “African” in that sense. But Africans define identity by tribe — Yoruba, Igbo, Akan, Luo, Kikuyu, Zulu, Lemba, Tutsi, etc. And the term “African” and even the concept, is alien to that tribal reality.
Therefore, the term “African” does not sufficiently define identity. And it is at best a way-station on the road to reclaiming our true, tribal, identity as the true Israelites of the book.
The matter is further complicated by the details of how we came to leave the shores of Africa. The truth is that we were sold into slavery by other “Africans”. Black Edomites, Hamites, and Ishmaelites sold black Israelites into slavery, and God allowed them to do it, as punishment for our sins in violating the law of the covenant. By all means we should be prepared to forgive their role in the slave trade, but just as the white Edomite (Jews) and white Gentiles are guilty of their role and participation in the slave trade, and slavery, so too are various black African tribes. They must be given the opportunity also to repent on their ancestors’ behalf, and as far as possible make amends. That opportunity is lost if all Africans are lumped together in a way that doesn’t even make sense from an African perspective.
The Ashanti — alone thus far, so far as I am aware — have formally, albeit weakly, apologized (ca. 2001 via Nana Oduro Numamapau) for their role in the slave trade, and sought to make amends through land grant.
So establishing our true, tribal, identity is necessary. It is necessary for our benefit, and it is necessary also for the benefit of those who need to make amends for their crimes against us.
Any apprehension that, due to mixing, most of us will not belong, should quickly be put to rest. We may not all have seedline descent from Israel (Jacob), but by virtue of fulfillment of prophecy, we the Afro-Creole are most certainly — all of us — of the house of Israel. As for the mixed multitude that came up out of Egypt, the sons of the stranger, i.e. those who are grafted in with the seedline Israelite, will have equal inheritance (Isaiah 56:6-7, Ezekiel 47:22), so the various combinations of “mixed-race” are also Israelite, if so identifying, and walking the walk of the Israelite.
Moreover, God tells us:
Amos 9:9
For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
From this we may be assured that he has even kept us together in Israelite tribal groupings — we in the West Indies are Benjamites. When we are regathered to the land of Israel, we will again be tribally sorted (Ezekiel, chap. 48).
I am saying all that to say, that “African Emancipation Day” is a misnomer.
By all means let us celebrate Afro-Creole culture, let us give thanks to our ancestors who suffered the Middle Passage, and slavery. But this is a chapter specifically of our Israelite heritage, not a chapter of an amorphous “African” heritage.
Especially, let not such a celebration morph into various kinds of idol worship, offensive to the God of our Covenant. And alongside a celebration of our emergence from slavery, we must adhere to the Law of the Covenant, under which we were punished in the first place.
We are to keep the sabbath, (“Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am Yahweh that doth sanctify you.” — Exodus 31:13). There are high Holy Days that we must keep, pursuant to the Law of the Covenant by which we are sanctified as God’s chosen people. These are necessary and must be reclaimed as our tribal practice even before we seek to celebrate emancipation, certainly before we seek to celebrate being amorphously “African”.
I am saying all that to say that “African” Emancipation Day rests on a false premise of identity. We are Israelite, and Afro-Creole, not “African”. And now, also, it rests on a false political foundation.
I am with Prof. Cudjoe that we will not be fooled.
Shalom.
Shalom.
“Can the PM and her ministers say they are concerned about African people when they seem concerned only with the ceremonial or the outside coating of a people’s culture rather than the inner essence of that culture which they leave to wither and die.”
By making such a statement it paints a proud strong people as victims of an unjust system. Let me say the African leadership in the Caribbean has been remarkable in this year of the African.
(1) Guyana produced Forbes who took a country that had enough resources to be the wealthiest in the Caribbean to being amongst the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Blinded by power and dedicated to his tribalist tendencies he remains the “Mbuto of West Indian politics”. To this day Guyana has not recovered from the Burnham blight.
(2) Haiti a proud African nation amongst the first to be liberated from slavery in the Western Hemisphere. African leadership saw Haiti become the poorest nation in Western Hemisphere. Sure there were factors but look at Cuba with a similar set of circumstances.
(3) Jamaican amongst the highest in single parenting and criminal behaviour in the Western Hemisphere. African leadership has not fully realise the Jamaican dream.
Can African leadership in the Caribbean bring about a great and wonderful eutopia. I would say no. We are all limited by our DNA. Like it or not.
So what is this culture the prof is talking about, naked people dancing to the drums of Kilimanjaro??? Time to move on from that cultural system, it is in past.
Mamoo, beware of drinking koolaid — including the one you make.
Your statements about Burnham, Haiti, Jamaica et al are replete with blind misunderstanding, uncontested lies, and historical cliche.
The vast maw of your ignorance, as deep and atavistic as it is, probably requires a brain re-wiring.
Nonetheless, here are some points, briefly put.
Haiti will never be forgiven by the European powers, in particular France, the US, (even Canada), and Britain for being the first slave society to successfully destroy a slave system by waging war.
In fact, to this day, they recall the following:
a) The Haitian revolution that created the state of Haiti alarmed and excited public opinion on both sides of the Atlantic. Its repercussions ranged from affecting the world commodity markets and helped destroyed the system of mercantilism indirectly preparing the world for Adam Smith’s Wealth Of Nations. This revolution resonated from the council chambers of the great powers to slave quarters in Virginia and Brazil and most points in between. It shared attention with such tumultuous events as the French Revolution and the Napoleonic War. In fact, Haiti’s fifteen-year struggle for racial equality, was a cornerstone in ending the British slave system thirty years later.
This revolution, and its international impact, affected the American Civil War, providing soldiers for the Northern states, for which Abraham Lincoln in 1862, exchanged diplomatic relations with Haiti.
b) There are other reasons why Europeans and America while they praise Toussaint as a diplomat, etc., and he was an extraordinary figure, still curse and abhor other leaders like Dessalines.
Who was Jean Jacques Dessalines?
Following one of le Clerc’s slaughter of Haitians (he was brother-in-law of Napoleon) in which le Clerc seized five hundred ‘negres’, and hanged them publicly to show the Haitian leadership what they faced, while Toussaint sent diplomatic letters of protest to France and America, Dessalines rounded up five hundred ‘blancs’ and hanged them, in public.
Dessalines, too, when writing the Haitian constitution and asked how a citizen would be described replied, ‘negre’. So, today, Haiti remains the only country in the world, refusing demands from America and others to change this distinction, where evcery citizen, regardlesss of colour is a ‘negre’!
c) Haiti while a slave state contributed to more than one-third of the French economy. Following its independence it fed itself and as well other countries. It was the leading exporter of coffee and chocolate. In fact, when the Turks under Garibaldi were fighting for their independence, thgey asked Haiti for assistance. Haiti sent them boat-loads of coffee … free!
You see, Europe will, and never can forgive Haiti, the first Black republic in history, and one that shaped the politics, even today from the support they gave to Simon Bolivar, in his war against an Imperial Spain.
Ironically, when all the European powers–including those then at war with France, like Britain–launched a blockade against Haiti, Bolivar joined them, even though they had saved his life, giving him medical assistance and weapons when he faced defeat.
Finally, what Black and other people should know is that Europeans never forget the past, neither theirs nor others, yet they are the ones most frequebnt in telling you to “let it go” etc.
Yet every European capital on both sides of the Atlantic: Paris, Berlin, London, Madrid, Washington, Ottawa … are all built in areas where they are surrounded by seven hills. They still resonate with the founding of Imnperial Rome, and also use all the Doric columns and Roman political structures as Senates, etc., by which to rule and influence ruling.
There is more, much more, even only about Haiti, and does not include how the US, advised by Kissinger destroyed Jamaica in the 1970s after Manley tried to form a Bauxite cartel like the Oil cartel formed by Saudia Arabia. Kissinger declared Manley’s actions as injurious to the US. This opened the door for israeli weapons to be obtained by drug barons in Jamaica who out-gunned the police. Read the following site for analysis by Dr. Horace Campbell on Jamaica’s dilemma between American influence on Jamaican politicians and the relationships between these politicians and the Drug Dons. It might help understand the crime wwars in T&T, also.
In the meantime, Mamoo, beware of koolaid, especially the political and historical kind you been drinking and probably giving your children to drink!
http://kanan48.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/gangsters-politicians-cocaine-and-bankers-by-horace-campbell/
All I read here is a lot excuses for Haiti. The question remains was Haiti truly liberated from France? Or did they still have to pay the French “protection money”. Nevertheless we must not make excuses for failure or else we will never succeed. The only way to survive in this world is to learn from your mistakes and embrace the ladder of success.
Neverdirty I always respect your opinion, but what I find here is a lot of excuses for failure. Was Haiti truly liberated from France. According to you and Triniamerican Haiti was a vassal of the French and Western governments, meaning they were never truly liberated and was always a subservient nation…
Please stop the excuses. Failure is failure. Let us learn from our failures not excuse it.
Mamoo. have you read the Black Jacobins, by CLR James? I’d recommend it on Haiti. Another tome worth reading is The Geography of Hunger. I forget the name of the author.
Shalom
Quoting mamoo:
This is the racists’ hypothesis.
The reference to DNA is of course a coded reference to race, and the suggestion that “we are all limited by our DNA” is a smarmy way of saying “you niggers, er.. Africans, are dumb … what else could we expect but failure from leadership by you. Therefore, we Indos and like-minded racists would never accept your rule.”
Let me address this hypothesis from a scriptural perspective.
In previous posts I have established, without fear of valid contradiction, that we the Afro-Creole of the Americas, are the Israelites of scripture. That is my first starting premise. (Premise 1)
My second starting premise is that the ancient Egyptians are an “African” people, black and woolly haired. There is plenteous evidence to support this, both scriptural and non-scriptural. (Premise 2).
From Premise 2, we may straightaway reject the racists’ hypothesis. For the ancient Egyptian high civilization succeeded brilliantly for over 6,000 years, with achievements still unmatched today in science and engineering. America, by contrast, is not quite 250 years old, and already on a swan dive into the dustbin of history. Therefore to advance the racists’ hypothesis is to be ignorant of history, or to take too short a view of it.
I had once to dismiss Mamoo’s attempt at making a logical argument thusly: “Your attempted proof of contradiction fails because you fail to consider the time dimension.” He is again making the same logical error.
By failing to consider the broad sweep of history he misses the simple fact that the whole of Western Civilization rests on Egyptian foundations, including accomplishments falsely attributed to Archimedes, Pythagoras, Aristotle, and other Greeks; they all traveled to Egypt to learn (and some of them, including Archimedes, to plagiarize) what they learnt.
Therefore, whatever racial failings Mamoo seeks to project onto black folk are nullified from the get-go. Therefore, the jibe as to the limits imposed by DNA would not apply to us genetically as black people. Ancient Egypt and its accomplishment puts the lie to that essential plank of the racists’ hypothesis.
I hasten to add that the predicate of race needed to advance the racists’ hypothesis is in any case problematic. Racists are deluded that skin color and hair texture are sufficient markers of “race”. Scripture lets us know differently:
2 Kings 5:27
The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee,
and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out
from his presence a leper as white as snow.
This shows us a mechanism — leprosy — by which white skin developed from the original black, and moreover was propagated within an affected seedline. This curse fell on Gehazi, Elisha’s servant and apprentice (2 Kings 5:20), who was therefore Israelite. Therefore today, we may expect to see, and do see, white Israelites. Elsewhere in scripture there is reference to how yellow hair (i.e. blond) may develop as one of the correlates of leprosy (Leviticus 13:30). Moreover, leprosy is not disabling, for Naaman was a “mighty man of valour” (2 Kings 5:1), and once it has covered all the skin, the leper is pronounced clean (Leviticus 13:13). In any case, if DNA analysis were performed on Gehazi, he would show genetic connection to Jacob, but on the racial predicates used in the racists’ hypothesis, he and his children would be classed as “white”, and of a different “race” altogether from his Israelite brethren.
Who are these white Israelites today? For one, the Scandinavians — SweDEN, DENmark, etc. — claim descent from the line of Dan, one of the tribes of Israel. The Irish, Scots, and other Celts also claim such descent. The DNA scientists are welcome to examine the DNA evidence for paternal relatedness. The Bible at least is internally coherent in its definition of race, which is seedline, paternal descent. Under this definition we are all of the race (root) of Noah, and all may be classed into one of three first-level races (roots), namely of Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Noah’s sons). Later races (roots) are defined for Yahweh’s prophetic purposes, hence Israelites are distinguished from Edomites, from Ishmaelites, from Elamites, Moabites, and etc., despite all of us being related at the very least at the root of Noah. (Science is still searching to find the root of the family tree, and suggests “Lucy” — whose bones appear rather old — but without having even the common man’s wit to ask, well who was Lucy’s mother and father.)
Be all that as it may, scripture is very clear that our limits are not imposed by DNA. That is an assumption, not a reality. The Most High God has let us know, not guess or speculate, that he is the one who raises up, and he is the one who casts down. He made Balaam’s ass to talk (Numbers 22:30). He raised up Nebuchadnezzar to terrorize a wayward Judah (Jeremiah 27:6). And after Nebuchadnezzar was king of all kings, he made him to eat grass in the field like oxen (Daniel 4:33), then returned to him his reason and his empire precisely to prove the point that it is not by might or lack, but by spirit, that these things happen (Daniel 4:34-35). He raised up Cyrus the Persian to bring down ancient Babylon, and prophesied his coming long before (Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1-4). And ancient Babylon was brought down after 70 years, exactly as prophesied (Jeremiah 25:11, 29:10, Daniel 9:2).
The simple matter, for those who will study diligently the evidence of scripture, and correlate it with the prophetic and historical record, is that the Most High lets happen, or makes happen, every blessed thing that happens; the assumed limitations imposed by DNA have got nothing to do with it. Moreover, the Most High lets us know through his servants the prophets what will happen before it happens, so that we may be of no doubt as to the authorship of events.
All that said, it is also necessary to acknowledge that, from ancient heights as rulers of the world, black people have come down rather low. That is a simple fact.
I never object to facts. And I embrace Truth whole-heartedly, knowing however as I do so that to get to where Truth resides one often as to fight past phalanxes of Lies. Those who fall for the racists’ hypothesis have not the intellectual equipment — ultimately a truth detector of one sort or another — to get past even the first rank of Lies. They are often further defeated by their own conceit — they think they are smart or they think they are rich, and always, they think they are smart-er or rich-er than black people — the very people that gave them whatever civilization, sciences or arts they glory themselves in — therefore better equipped to rule.
This brings us to Premise 1. This is needed, not to refute the racists’ hypothesis — that is already done by Premise 2 — but to explain how it is that black people have been brought so low.
The search may begin and end with scripture and prophecy. But it may of course widen also to embrace the fruits of historical, archaeological, and other related research.
Various white authors have advanced a slander against black people as part of the propaganda effort needed to accompany a system of chattel slavery in which black people were reduced to the status of moveable property — chattels. Those ideas permeated books, films, schools curricula, and infected social relations in a slave society such as ours.
Mamoo and his Indo brethren have been infected likewise, or more likely re-infected, given similar assumptions permeating the caste (caste = varna = colour) system of the homeland from which they came.
It is only in the last 100 years or so that sufficient black scholarship has arisen to defeat the Lies. J.A. Rogers started the ball rolling at the turn of the 20th century, and investigated the “Negro” in history, including for example their seedline contribution to European aristocracy. Cheikh Anta Diop (Civilization or Barbarism) rescued ancient Egypt from those who sought to put a white complexion on it. Chancellor Williams (The Destruction of Black Civilization) traced in time and space the movements of people from the upper Nile Valley of ancient Egypt south and west into Africa.
So ancient Egyptian influences, both genetic and cultural, may be seen today in tribes across the length and breadth of Africa, from Akan to Zulu.
That development is prophesied in scripture:
Ezekiel 30:26
And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
And specifically also:
Ezekiel 29:14
And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom.
The Egyptians came from the south (Ta-Meri) from the land of the foothills of the mountain of the moon (Kilimanjaro), and were to be dispersed back “into the land of Pathros” from which they originally came, and they shall be there reduced to a “base”, i.e. lowly kingdom.
So that was the fate of the greatest black civilization, and arguably the greatest civilization ever. Yahweh put black Africa into its present “base” condition. Historians may argue over the means and modalities. And heathen racists may delude themselves into acceptance of the racists’ hypothesis.
Return now to Premise 1: The Afro-Creoles are descended from black, woolly haired Israelites. We looked phenotypically little different from the ancient Egyptians. Scriptural evidence is, among others that: Joseph’s brothers mistook him for an Egyptian; the Canaanites mistook Jacob’s burial party for Egyptians; Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s household, passing for Pharaoh’s grandchild. There are many other biblical indications of the blackness of the Israelites. Even Christ was described as having woolly hair and skin the color of fine brass as though burned in a furnace (i.e. black) (Revelation 1:13-15).
Scripture also prophesied in extensive and precise terms the fate that would befall us. We would be scattered to the four corners of the earth. We followed behind the Egyptians who at the hand of God fled into Africa, south and west. We the Afro-Creole were further destined to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and affliction in the West. We were destined to, and have just completed 400 years of captivity (1611-2011), as prophesied, in a land that is not ours, where we have been cursed in our basket and store (i.e poor), built a house for another to live in, planted for another to enjoy the fruit, became always the borrower and never the lender, been cursed in the city and cursed in the field, etc. Among others, we have also suffered the prophesied fate that even the strangers in our midst (e.g. Indos) have risen up high above us (Deuteronomy 28:43).
Thus, even though the racists’ hypothesis is easily dispelled by the example of ancient Egypt, we see that scripture also prophesied that black Egyptian, and black Israelite, both, would be reduced to a base status.
That is all that has happened. We are in the condition we are in because the hand of God consigned us to that condition.
There is nothing wrong with our DNA, and indeed there is plenty right with it. We, the children of Israel, cursed as we have been, are nevertheless the children of God, and God’s Chosen People.
Psalm 82:6-7
6I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. 7But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
The simple scriptural truth is that our DNA is the DNA of “gods”, in contradistinction to the DNA of “men”. We are gods, having a human experience, for God’s own purposes and our own. And indeed we shall live like, and die like, mere men, most of us never to become the wiser.
The Indo however, as other heathens, are mere men, created by God to be earth-dwellers, unlike the children of God, i.e. the Chosen People, whose true habitat is among the stars. This is why the first death should hold no fear for us, nor likewise the second death, for as gods having a human experience, during which our assignment is to overcome evil, we shall be resurrected to eternal life, or resurrected to damnation if we fail the test (Daniel 12:2; Revelation 2:11, 20:6).
It is the heathen rather who should fear the second death (Revelation 21:8), which explains “why doth the heathen rage”, as well as its futility (Psalm 2:1-5). The rage of the heathen of course expresses itself in such vanity as the racists’ hypothesis. Scripture promises that in the latter end they will come to us on bended knee licking up the dust of our feet (Isaiah 49:23), and confessing their various blasphemies, vain and of no profit, such as the racists’ hypothesis (Jeremiah 16:19).
Even in our debased state, God has still blessed his Chosen with an abundance of grace and talent. That is why so much of what we do looks easy and effortless, from the way we move (our “hop and drop” swagger goes back to our patriarch Jacob, who “halted upon his thigh” (Genesis 32:31)), to the way we sing (Psalm 137), to the way we dance (2 Samuel 6:14), to the calypso tradition (1 Samuel 29:5), to the way we dominate in various sports, which traces back to our mighty men of valor (2 Samuel 23:8-39), to the way we generously give, and forgive.
Nor are our gifts limited only to the physical. We have not been given credit for our intellectual contributions and inventions, after all we have been a people in captivity. Hence our inventions have been intellectually appropriated by others, e.g. cotton gin, lawn mower, refrigeration, traffic lights, light bulb, critical parts of the personal computer, parallel processing, engine lubrication, automatic transmission, etc. etc.
So no, our DNA imposes no limits that should concern us.
The truth is quite the reverse. It is the heathen who is limited, not per se by DNA, but by God’s plan, like it or not.
It is the core reason for the racists’ hypothesis, which is but a kind of psychological projection, as Keith well argues; it is propelled by a sense of inadequacy. Starting with the Third Kingdom — Alexander the so-called Great — God has given the heathen the illusion of “racial” superiority over the Israelite and the Hamite both. That illusion has been fed for over 2,500 years, and it is about to collide with Reality.
Scripture is clear as to what shall be in the end. Our 400-year captivity (1611-2011) is now up, likewise the curses under which we have suffered. So the tables are in the process of turning (Deuteronomy 30:7), as the discerning may be able to see. Scripture says the nation that afflicted us will be judged, and we will come out with great substance (Gen 15:13-14). Then it will be our turn to rule, thereafter forever (Deuteronomy 26:19, 30:3-7; Isaiah 11:10-16, 14:2, 66:20, 40:9-10; Jeremiah 23:5-6; Revelation 12:5, 20:4; Ezekiel 34:23-28; Joel 2:17; elsewhere). Many of us will be purged for that to happen, for the requirement is that we rule in righteousness.
“Thy kingdom come, on earth, as it is in heaven”, is a reference to Yahweh’s kingdom on earth, under which it will be his children, black woolly-haired Israelites (Afro-Creole and African) prime among them, who will rule. That will be the final answer to the racists’ hypothesis. Until then, let the heathen rage (Psalm 2:1-5).
Shalom.
@ Mamoo,
I have two disagreements with your post
1) You have underestimated the impact of the “circumstances” you alluded to in your post on Haiti. The war indemnities crippled the Haitian economy at a critical stage in Haiti’s development. Additionally, the United States and France, along with other Western powers did not even extend diplomatic recognition to Haiti for a very long time. Additionally, the Duvalier regimes were backed by the West. Lastly, Aristide was overthrown by clandestine US interests. I would post the sources, but this forum does not allow me to.
2) Your characterization of “African” culture is patronizing and misinformed. Although there were great agrarian cultures, there were also civilizations as Nubia, Mali and Songhay in Africa, along with others. Please do the research.
@mamoo,
With all due respect, these are not excuses. They are realities. If you are going to write about Haiti, please get your facts straight. Did you even read my post or neverdirty’s post properly? There has been a concerted, yet clandestine, effort to keep Haiti where it is. Aristide had the true interests of the Haitian society at heart, and the majority of the Haitian population still supports him. Why is he not in power, despite the popular support that he has? Coincidence? I think not.
I am not going to contest your points on Jamaica and Guyana, because I do not know much about their history. However, your points on Haiti are simply not logical.
As for your last point, of course Haiti has found it difficult to escape the clutches of the global financial elite over all of these years. It is not a fair fight. It is Haiti by itself versus the organized might of entrenched Western world that wants to ensure Haiti stays poor. Think about T&T for example. Do you honestly believe that global corporate interests do not control our society? I suspect that you do not as you seem to be a reasonable poster, albeit the fundamental logical flaws in your post.
I would recommend that you read Paul Farmer’s account of the United States’ involvement in the ouster of Aristide. You say excuses, but Haiti is an island that has had contend with insurmountable economic and political odds. Thus, to describe neverdirty’s and my arguments as “excuses” is to ignore the facts and geopolitical realities of history. It is a wonder that Haiti has even survived as a state given these odds.
I hear your points about learning from mistakes and no doubt Haiti has made its share. However, you are ignoring the fact that there are still interests that are fighting to keep Haiti where it is. Again, your fairly to couch your comments on Haiti in its proper context reveals your incomplete knowledge and true understanding of Haitian history.
So again, please conduct honest and unbiased research.
“Aristide had the true interests of the Haitian society at heart, and the majority of the Haitian population still supports him. Why is he not in power, despite the popular support that he has? Coincidence? I think not.”
Triniamerican you forget to mention “papa doc and baby doc”. Papa doc was a voodhoo high priest who used the “mattoot” similar to Gary “mongoose” gang to get rid of opponents. So viscious was the “mattot” that the Haitian lived in horrible fear. A nation cannot prosper when it’s citizens are living in fear. Fear stifles all creativity and hope. So to blame the French, Americans and others who desires a poor Haiti is simply wrong.
In my previous arguments I referrenced Cuba a nation that is still under an American embargo. Yet if you visit Cuba and see how the Cubans are able to drive those Chevolet from the 1950s and basically still live a comfortable life, it is simply amazing. When they could not get buses, they converted trucks into these passenger buses.
They manage to live with a lot less than most nations but still produce the most doctors in Caribbean and have a well established health care system. Why is it Haiti remained behind. Triniamerican one answer “fear”. But fear could have killed Cuba and to some extent it did, however, they managed to survive and live a comfortable life.
Go to Haiti today and look at how they are depending on others to take them out of this earthquake disaster. (doh mean to beat up on them). Billions have been given in AID to Haiti more than any other nation, but 10 years into the future things will still be the same.
Then think of Japan the third largest economy in the world. After WWII totally devastated, suffering from two atomic blast that saw the instant incineration of over 80,000 of their citizens. They could have cried foul however, the Japanese people worked 16 hours a day to rebuild their nation. That my friend is what I meant when I say stop making excuses. Life throws your lemons make lemonade. Pull up your straps and get to it…
There is a US study in traffic accidents claiming that most accidents drivers tend to have occur near to where they live.
The solution?
Move!
This sounds silly, especially the ‘solution’.
My point, Mamoo is that simply because something sounds logical does not mean that is substantive.
Your statements are cliched, and insubstantive. For example your point on Papa Doc is useful only when contextualized by the fact that he was a an anti-communist pawn for the US. Unlike Aristide who the US removed, and has banned his party from contesting elections.
Think before you write and do some reading. Or you’re in more trouble than you know and think.
Regarding Castro and Cuba, while he is a giant among those who stand for justice and the poor, he will not be treated as a Black leader will, especially since not only is he white, but is also a descendant of the Marianos or Conversos, Spanish crypto-Jews or Jews who converted during the Spanish Inquisition to Catholicism.
Shalom
@ mamoo,
Papa doc and Baby doc had the support of the Western powers. Cuba has indeed succeeded against tremendous odds, but I am not sure that their circumstances can be compared to Haiti. The embargo against Cuba has been for fifty-one years; the political and economic seige against Haiti has been for well over two hundred.
Indeed, I understand the importance of personal responsibility. However, I am not sure if you have met any Haitians, since you seem to suggest from your posts that they are congentially irresponsible. That is not the case. The Haitians are an amazing people who have made despite tremendous odds. If Aristide had been allowed to stay in power, he would be to Haiti what Castro has been to Cuba. However, in order for Castro to realize his dream for Cuba, he had to rely on the Soviets for political and economic aid all of these years and had to run a socialist state. Haiti, for better or worse, opted for democracy.
In addition, Castro’s strong leadership has been the reason why Cuba is where it is. Haiti has had to deal with the instaleld puppets of the Duvaliers. Remember, that for all of its bleating about having the best interests of Haiti in mind, those in the political know better. The fact that Aristide was removed from power when he had the temerity to implement policies that would actually help the Haitian people, he was removed.
Also, as has been stated here, the French government has NEVER forgiven Haiti for the revolution and the United States military occupied Haiti for twenty-one years (1915-1934)
Lastly, it is not a matter of you “beating up on Haiti.”; Your arguments are only partially valid and does not present the whole context of Haitian history. Your ahistorical analysis is actually troubling and dangerous in that it fails to make links between the past and present. You may say Haiti should put its past behind it, but the problem is that there are interests that are NOT allowing it to. Thus, you see what you see in Haiti today. You really have be of African descent to understand the depth of the intense loathing that the European world has for people of African descent.
Related to this point, you say it’s “simply wrong” to blame European and American interests for Haiti’s troubles. Therein lies our difference of opinion. How can you say it’s simply wrong when Haiti could not even establish the necessary diplomatic and political relations to flourish as a country.
Your argument would be better applied to any number of African countries who have been overly dependent on others to solve their problems. Haiti is a special case because it did solve its problem; it vanquished the military might of Europe, which is nothing short of a military miracle. Toussaint and Dessalines were heroic, and the French crippled the Haitian economy.
The Haitian people are human and have understandably become dispirited. They have had to deal with weak leadership and the continued marginalization of leaders who did mean well. Make no mistake, Aristide would have done well in Haiti if he remained in power and was not removed by clandestine American forces.
So I am sorry, your “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” argument is only partially vaiid.
@ mamoo,
We will have to agree to disagree. Your argument would hold water if you talking about South Africa, which has made a mess of itself post-Apartheid. However, Haiti, while it has made mistakes, has had to contend with forces conspiring to keep it mired in poverty. I know that perception can seem like its reality, but that’s what it is. The European world woulf have you think, “the Haitians, like their ancestors, are incapable of self-government.”
All of this takes into account that subsidized American farm products drove Haitian farmers out of business and forced them to move to cities, thus resulting in the unsightly slums that you see today. But again, perception is reality. The Haitians made mistakes no doubt, but to discount the influence of western world is intellectually dishonest.
Actually, the only way out for Haiti is for the non-European world to pool its resources together to help it out. Given its imperialist history, I do not trust any European nation or majority white country to assist Haiti. As neverdirty suggested, read “Black Jacobins.” It offers a great insight into the European historical mindset.
Guyana’s economy was growing at a rate of 6% when the Indian Party came into Government. Like their kind, kleptomania and racist nepotism became the organs of administration.
Barbdaos is rated rated higher on Transparancy international index than either the Indian run Guyana, and our own T&T now transported into the kleptomania and racist nepotism mode.
Indian has more than 600 million people living in abject conditions of poverty where they are prostituting their kids to get by. If you wish to examine cultural decadency, focus your vision on a nation where incest is the order of the day, what part of the Hindu Gods’ body you are perceived to be born from the ordination of your destiny,and corruption so endemic that technnology companies have been demanding a stringent enactment of laws in order to safeguard their assets.
When those who have contributed very little to this world, and whose attitudes and backwardness reflect the genetic legacy of their neanderthal heritage, attempt to philosophize on other groups, whether they write or bray, what comes out is basic heehaw logic. But we have to understand the need for these ethnic masturbatory adventurisms. After all, what else is there to substitute for the testerone deficiency that reduces manhood to a joke, and have hens living in perpetual fear that their women will mate with a black man and then begin to look at them askance.
“Barbdaos is rated rated higher on Transparancy international index than either the Indian run Guyana, and our own T&T now transported into the kleptomania and racist nepotism mode.”
Barbados did what was right established a servant class of people who served foreigners for a price. You call that an economy? The Bajan economy is built on foreign goodwill and dollars.
The Guyanese dollar still stands at US 1 to 200 Guyanese dollars. However, the nation is getting better ecoonomically. Comrade Burnham raped, pillaged and set back Guyana for almost half a century.
Having said all of that I expect black appologist to continue to ignore these factors to their detriment.
I think you misunderstand what Forbes Burnham did in Guyana. And I will just point to the movement of the western forces (IMF/World Bank) into the country and where it is now.
@ mamoo,
I sincerely apologize for the two replies to your post. I thought the first one did not post, so I repposted.
My sincere apologies again.
To come back to the topic ‘With respect to all’ – Kamla should take a page from our deadbeat ‘father of the nation’ and wear dark shades even in the night and take off her hearing aid whenever the opposition leader starts speaking. Actually, put on ear-plugs. That’s respect, papa! You effing hypocrites!
One half of the island of Hispanola is lush green with strong agriculture and good economy. That’s Santo Domingo. The other half of the island with similar climate occupied by Haiti is deforested, little agriculture, a history of strongman ‘Israelite’ religious leaders and I don’t have to tell allyou about her economy. And I’m sure they and other folks are so proud of their revolution. VS Naipaul made that clear in one of his books on the Caribbean. Haiti, Africa and India missed out on the industrial rev. However only India seems to be making a go of it and there is still a far way to go for 1B people. But do you hear Indians complaining about Britain’s 300 year dominance? All they want back from England is the Kohinoor!
Keep on living in the past, folks! So what’s the next step for your people, Mr Israelite? Do you want to make TT & Guyana ‘Israelite’ countries like in the continent of ‘Isreal’?
Woe has been pronounced on “Asia” for “partaking of the hope of Babylon”, and apeing “he that is hated” in all his ways and inventions. God also hates his conceit (“he is the glory of his person”). See 2 Esdras 15:46-49.
This pronouncement falls also on India, and the Indo-Trini, as Asians, and because, as they say in the song, “who the cap fit, let them wear it…”.
There is a solution implied in the pronouncement. But you will not avail of it, because you are too wrapped up in your own conceit. Therefore, let the wicked be wicked still, and let the righteous be righteous still, and we shall see “judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24) punishing the wicked, and upholding the righteous.
As a servant of Yahweh, one of the things I am tasked to say is that we the Israelite have now fulfilled the prophesied 400 years of captivity (Genesis 15:13-14). The 1611 publication of the King James Bible marked the beginning, and the 400th anniversary of same celebrated earlier this year, marked the end; 1611-2011. It is another of Yahweh’s signs, that he made the U.N. to pronounce 2011 the Year of People of African Descent. (But of course those who are wise in their own conceit are also least able to read Yahweh’s signs.)
God has lifted both the captivity, and the curses (Deuteronomy 28:15-68), paving the way for us to “come out with great substance”, which otherwise would be inconsistent with Deuteronomy 28:17 (cursed in our basket and our store).
This ending of our “captivity” (which continued way beyond “emancipation”, obviously) triggers the start of a 42-month period of tribulation, during which, power is given to the “Beast” to “continue” (Revelation 13:5).
This is a grace period for the Beast to repent (fat chance!) and make amends, i.e. pay reparations (fat chance again!). Hence the tribulation, for the Beast knoweth he hath but a short time (Revelation 12:12).
The grace period is also a time for the children of Israel to repent our sins and the sins of our forefathers, and return unto Yahweh by obeying the Law of the Covenant — that handed down by Moses, not that handed down by miscellaneous popes of Rome, and Gentile “Christians”.
Some will hear, others will forebear. Scripture says that the wise will understand, but the wicked will not (Daniel 12:10).
Scripture also prohesies that two thirds of us will be cut off and die (Zechariah 13:8), and many of the heathen likewise (Isaiah 66:15, 66:20; Joel 2:11).
What’s next is we get ready to rule in Yahweh’s kingdom. The foolishness of heathen rule is close to an end:
Isaiah 14:2
And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Yahweh for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
Revelation 2:27
And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
We shall see then whether you will complain about Israelite dominance, the way you so magnanimously do not “complain about Britain’s 300 year dominance”.
You may hear or forebear.
Shalom.
@ Ramjit Gopaul,
Ignoring the racist vitriol that has been spewed towards both African and Indian descended peoples on this site, do you even understand the ethnic history of the Indian people? Your “black apologists” comment indicates that you don’t.
There is a reason why the dark-skinned “untouchables” are dark-skinned. Also the light-skinned Indian communities are the result of intermixing with the invading European powers in India, so the pure ethnic heritage of the Indians can indeed be found in the “untouchable” class derided by the dominant racist Hindu culture.
So do not be so quick to disassociate the dark-complected people of African descent from India. You may be in for a rude awakening if you just do a little research.
Ok, so Indians do not complain about the 300 year dominance by Britain.
A dominance that caused a descendant of low caste indentitures to be in T&T today chattin’ sh*t.
Yet characters like you, dumb as a bag of hammers, continue to gripe about Dr. Williams oppressing Indians in T&T for forty years.
I presume that, in your opinion, you are able to make sense to yourself and should even be allowed to walk about in public looking normal.
Thank God for T&T, even for those who look a gift horse in the mouth!
Backwardness is backwardness, and there is no way one can alleviate that condition. The Atlantic Slave trade was unique. British Colonialism was not. THe British colonializing of India was not unique to India, since the British did this to Africa as long it was done to India.
The struggle in the Caribbean is not against the British. It is against segments of the Indian Population who are strenuously attempting to introduce a caste system in T&T and Guyana. So your complaints about the British means little in the face of a reality that racism existed on the Indian Sub-continent even before it became fashionable among Europeans. In fact one can legitimately argue that the first nation to intruduce a social stratification system based on assigning people to inferiority and superiority castes was India. The vestiges of that cultural ambition is becoming more and more manifest in the attitudes and administration in two Indian regimes in the Commonwealth Caribbean.
Indian Guyanese are fleeing Guyana to find a better life in Majoritorian African Island nations like Barbdaos, St Lucia and Antigua. In addition, Indian Development is a product of the same white man bringing technological jobs to India. Prior that Bill Gates infusion, India was just another third world nation with almost a billion people living in the most abject of poverty, but hurrah, they had nuclear weapons aimed at their brothers across the border in Pakistan. Give me a break!
This is an excellent blog.I have received an educational pilgrimage in History,Economics,Slavery,Race,and Biblical intonations to name a few.There are a few pertinent questions which arise from these discussions.1)Is anyone old enough to remember what was the political atmosphere in TnT prior to the advent of “Party politics”?(aka colonialism).On one of her visits to TnT;the late Princess Margaret opened a hospital in San Fernando named after her.The then mayor of San Fernando (Donaldson)was a black man.For that”special” occasion he(the Mayor)was “deliberately” replaced by a white man (Montano)to act as the Mayor;simply to greet Her Royal Highness on that August occasion.2)Black people were never employed as Bank employees;until the PNM became the government.3)It is insane,and ridiculous to deduce that the present government did not receive the support of people of “all races.”4)The current debt crisis experienced by the USA is not because they have a”black”President.There are those who have blamed Obama for their present financial debacle.One of the bloggers on this article is correct..”white people never forget…etc etc’They always implement the word “forgiveness” to compensate for their mistakes.Everything changes,and that era approaches; when even the PNM will seek to coalesce with some of its adversaries of today.”Coalition Governments are the future of democracies.”