Tag Archives: Africans

Africa, Egypt, England, General T&T

African presence in early England

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By Dr Kwame Nantambu
December 10, 2022

Dr. Kwame NantambuNow that England has ushered in its first modern-day, non-European Prime Minister in Rishi Sunak of Asian-Indian descent and the country’s first Hindu to hold that top office, indeed, it is a sine qua non to reveal and recount the role and presence of Africans in England’s early history.

In his treatise History of the Africans in Europe (1971), Dr. G.K. Osei postulates that “when Saint Patrick went to Ireland to convert the people he took one (African) with him. The (African) used to sing at the various meetings. Ireland had an African Bishop called Diman. He died in Ulster in 658 A.D. and is now a Saint.”
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Elections, General T&T, Labour, PNM, Politics, Russia, UNC

Show me your leader

By Raffique Shah
August 29, 2022

Raffique ShahIt’s not so much that we have little or nothing to celebrate on the 60th anniversary of our Independence from Britain, as so many who swear they are patriots, but whose patriotism swings with the pendulum of their political party’s fortunes, which almost always are linked to their personal fortunes.

It’s more that our democracy has been carved up into near-equal but uneven parts in such manner, to misquote Irish poet William Yeats in his near-prophetic masterpiece, “The Second Coming”, “…Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world/The blood-dimmed tide is loosed and everywhere/The ceremony of innocence is drowned/The best lack all conviction/While the worst/Are full of passionate intensity…”
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France, General T&T, Haiti, International, USA

Haiti, we are sorry

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 30, 2022

Haiti, I am sorry
We misunderstood you
One day we’ll turn our heads
And look inside you…

—David Rudder, “Haiti”

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAbout 22 years ago I was a part of a New England delegation that travelled to Haiti to demand that Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the first democratically elected president of Haiti after years of dictatorship, be allowed to assume the office he had won fairly and squarely.

We met with the United States Ambassador to Haiti, but nothing came of it. Our pleas, like so many others, were like voices crying out desperately in a wilderness of deceit and deception.
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General T&T, Racism Watch

Whiter shade of pale

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By Raffique Shah
May 23, 2022

Raffique ShahI have grown accustomed to watching a scene in front of me—teenage boys kicking what life there was in a long-expired football, others of similar age and background carrying on an animated discussion on a subject I could not determine from where I stood, and yet others glued to their communication devices, maybe “chatting” with friends, maybe conducting extensive research into issue—I don’t know.
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Africa, Christianity, General T&T, Religion

The Slave Bible

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 18, 2022

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn 1970 while I was a faculty member at Fordham University, New York, I taught a course on the development of Afro-American literature. One of the books I used was William Wells Brown, Clotel or the President’s Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States, published in England in 1853.

The novel told the story of Clotel, a daughter of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who fathered three children by his slave, Sally Hemmings. Although the white power structure denied this incident for two centuries, in November 1998 the truth of this claim was authenticated by DNA evidence.
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General T&T, International, Politics, Racism Watch, USA

Black Lives Matter

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 21, 2022

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIt is gratifying to see the United States Embassy in Port of Spain flying its flag atop its building together with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) flag in honour of Black History Month.

It has taken the US a long time to recognise the important role blacks have played in the making of its country. An accompanying statement to this event noted: “Raising BLM flags on US embassy and consulate flagpoles throughout the world calls attention to efforts to advance racial equity and access to justice in the US and worldwide.” (Express, February 16.)
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General T&T, International, Racism Watch, USA

When extraordinary isn’t good enough

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 08, 2022

“[In the United States] Black people have had to perform at a much higher standard simply to receive the rewards of being ordinary. For Black people, being ordinary is an extraordinary achievement.”

—Lewis R Gordon on Du Bois’s Political Thought

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeDuring his lowest ebb in his political career at the Democratic primaries in 2020, Joe Biden promised he would select a black woman to be a US Supreme Court justice if he were elected. About a week ago, Justice Stephen Breyer resigned from the court, allowing Biden the opportunity to fulfil his promise.
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Elections, General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch, UNC

‘These PNM cockroaches keep populating’; Ramsaran’s racist rant

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By Letters to the Editor
August 09, 2020 – wired868.com

PeopleNaila Ramsaran: ‘Let us the hardworking UNC supporters continue to pay taxes and mind the loafers that support the PNM… I hope [Prime Minister Dr Keith] Rowley starts putting contraceptives in their water supply yes because these cockroaches keep populating and the only thing they know to do is vote…’
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