BlackMan Time

Posts Tagged ‘africa’

We don’t know what went on behind closed doors in the negotiations between singer Madonna to adopt another child from Africa and the adoption agency and/or government officials in Malawi.

We can only assume that whatever understandings they reached were sufficient to convince the singer to fly thousands of miles across the oceans to add a little girl called Mercy to her brood of adopted children from African orphanages.

Sadly, for Madonna, these hopes were dashed when a judge ruled she could not take the child as prospective parents must be residents of the country for a period of 18 – 24 months months beforehand. She has since filed an appeal in Malawi’s High Court challenging the judge’s ruling.

But surely both Madonna and the officials would have already known about the qualification period! As a music artist she’s obviously used to reading contracts and negotiating the small points in them. Thus, we can again assume that she must have been given assurances there would be no problem in sealing the deal.

Age Contrast

Whereas Madonna is within her rights to tell people it’s none of their business if she chooses to adopt an African child, many are concerned about her Western lifestyle and the fact that she’s now a divorced single parent. Her alleged dating a man less than half her 50 year old age is also a big problem.

The sincerity of the judge who also said he refused the request as a lesson to deter child trafficking in Malawi, is in question. And what of those who feel a Westerner (read white, First World individual) should not be allowed to adopt a black child and take that child out of their cultural comfort zone? They’ve got a point too.

But if we contrast Madonna with Angelina Jolie who has successfully adopted a number of children from Africa and other countries, we see a world of difference. Whereas Jolie’s adoption is framed around her humanitarian and good will work, Madonna is seen to be the epitome of a capitalistic, material girl minded, individual.

Just the kind of person you want to deal with if you intend to flaunt the rules and collect something under the counter in the process, providing there is no public outcry, of course…

I have great admiration for Robert Mugabe. I know that may shock you but maybe the Mugabe you know is a different one to the one I know.

If your view or vision of Mugabe is the one defined by Western media then, no doubt, you will hate the man who has just reluctantly agreed to share power with the opposition Zimbabwe.

The Western media serves a purpose in sensitising the public for or against anything: they are far from impartial, let alone fair or free from political interference.

They will seldom tell you about the Mugabe I know: the fearless freedom fighter whose Zanu party helped overthrow colonialism and gave the country its current name Zimbabwe where it was once called Rhodesia, named after a colonialist called Cecil Rhodes.

Even reggae superstar Bob Marley was well pleased with the Mugabe I know because he dedicated (make that livicated!) a song to Mugabe’s cause and country. The song was simply called Zimbabwe.

Western Media

So when the Western media starts running up its mouth about how terrible Mugabe is, ask yourself whose interest are they really serving? The people of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe’s or the colonialists?

And, it is good that in agreeing to share power with Morgan Tsvangirai who has promised to focus on hope, Mugabe has offered coded warnings to Tsvangirai’s party with whom he will share government that they’d better not be colonial stooges.

This is the Mugabe I know: a man who has lived, fought, killed for and ruled his African country; a man who cares for its cultural and political autonomy to be free from colonial puppeteering.

If it wasn

On Saturday, at the One Hand Can’t Clap reworking session I attended, we discussed in passing the reality that Black people never seem to value what they have until someone outside the culture, usually a European, exploits and profiteers out of it first! All in the room agreed with some sharing examples that represented the theme.

These included African/Caribbean hair care products and food businesses which seem to be operated predominantly by Asian vendors. Whereas a number of Black businesspersons have risen to fill the food/beauty products gap, the overall majority still tend to be outside the circle, so to speak.

These were just some of the thoughts sweeping through my head as I walked towards the O2 Arena in South London, to watch Andre Heller’s “Afrika! Afrika“, described in the brochure as “the magical circus adventure from the amazing content”.

High Quality

From the second we took our seats in the upper executive box section and the lights dimmed, we (being my middle sister, a sister-in-law and her son), our expectations were high.

For some two and a half hours the show did not disappoint as we saw a phalanx of various acts amaze with their physics-defying feats of acrobatics, contortion, illusion, dancing, singing and entertainment!

Everything about the production screamed quality and it made us feel proud to watch a joyous production like this showing many facets of live African arts and culture. Even the decided delicious North African food consisting of fresh cous cous, Rasta-coloured vegetables with a tasty spicy tomato salad, added to the ambience.

Afrikan Aide

The only rub, and this was an afterthought, was the fact that it wasn’t an African company which had organised this: it was a German one, led by the aforementioned Mr. Heller.

Any thoughts I had about Europeans making money off the backs of black people, was partly averted by the fact that one of the aims of the production was to raise money to support African artists and performers.

For each ticket sold a small donation is apparently made to a UNESCO organisation which subsequently passes the funds onto the Goethe Institute which sponsors projects by African artists.

Thus, in going to this event we were also helping fund the development of future African artists and performers. Just the very thought of that alone is music to my ears!

Can you hear it?

So, you pride yourself on being so very right on, Black Conscious and an unapologetic Pan Africanist, yes? So why oh why do you always start every sentence dealing with some aspect of your Black Experience: “That’s why I can’t stand Black people, you know…”

You profess to hate the bourgeoisie and all those do-good liberals who prance around issues, joining causes that make themselves look trendy and walk the line that heralds your political correctness, but why are you never at demonstrations protesting like grassroots campaigners who are genuinely concerned about stuff?

Why are all your campaigns conducted from around the computer and in internet chat rooms among people who all think the same as you do? Don’t you realise you are preaching to the converted and that real change don’t happen from within an internet chat room but on the ground when politicians are forced to recognise the legitimacy of a popular protest?

Do you really think keeping silent, not rocking the boat and uttering “oh, why can’t we all just get along?” to people and about issues is going to make people take you seriously? Have you not realised that it takes a revolution to make a solution and the biggest revolution starts with you liberating your mind from obvious mental slavery?

Freedom is not something anyone gives you. It is something you take or exercise. But in exercising your right to freedom you may have to fight for it because the powerful always want to control your right to be free.

Liberate yourself now and stop living like a freed slave who hankers after the better times he imagined he had under Massa’s foot…

At the moment every top Football Association English soccer club is moaning the fact their team selection is going to be disrupted because of the large number of African players who will be away playing in the Africa Nations Cup.

It’s funny to me because only a few short years ago no one in the West was really that interested in African football.

In fact African football was seen as a sick joke with people uttering phrases like: “what do Africans know about soccer?”

But thanks to the development of the African, the rise of certain teams like Ghana, Senegal and others in the World Cup, African football and footballers have now garnered much prestige to the point where they are missed from the English FA games.

Perhaps the biggest thing to have catapulted African footballers into the limelight is the initiative by managers like Arsene Wenger, Harry Rednapp and others to buy African players to boost their Premier League sides.

The benefits are usually huge for these clubs. Not only do they get big, strong players with natural ability with the ball, they also get them for a fraction of the cost of English (read white) players.

This formula has been so successful that other managers have followed suit leading to a situation where there are so many African footballers playing in key leagues that when their country calls them to play for their respective national side or when the African Nations Cup is on, their presence is missed.

Maybe this is reason to celebrate: that African skill and talent is in demand. But we hope we can also progress to see African managers, coaches and business heads also in at the top end of the game.

Now, that would be funny but only because we'd be laughing all the way to the bank!

NOTE: The African Cup of Nations event takes place in Ghana from Sunday 20 January to Sunday 10 February, 2008 and sees the best 16 teams from across the continent battle it out.

The word “Africa” does not exist in any of the 1,000 languages used by any of the 720 million people in the 50 countries that make up the so-called African continent. This is a fact.

Yet, people say “Africa” when they don’t remember the names of the countries and many people wrongfully believe there is a common language called “African”. They use terms like “African culture”, “African music” or “African religion” even though there is no single culture, music or religion for all of the countries/regions.

I put my hand up at being guilty of this same kind of ignorance but a huge part of my misunderstanding has now been corrected and refocused.

A major part of that realisation is the “discovery” that the area known as Africa consists of a huge number of religions, tribes and groups of people each with a very different history.

The origin of the word Africa, for instance, is uncertain. It is either Latin where it means sunny, Greek from the word Aphrike meaning not cold or Arabic where it means separated as the continent was from the rest of Asia and Europe. The Romans were the first to use the name since it covered Tunisia and the most northern parts of Algeria and Libya.

It is probably European ignorance of the region that led to the widespread use of the word Africa which they misappropriated to describe the entire continent. This is why we began to see Africa as one land with only one kind of people, even though we know differently.

To further reiterate their ignorance the Europeans coined the phrase “the Dark Continent” when referring to Africa. This made it easier for them to go on “safari” to somewhere far away with dark skinned people, having customs so different from our own: where fairytales or sometimes horror happens. A place where a white man wearing a loin cloth can call himself Tarzan, swing through the jungle and single-handedly overpower entire tribes of local people.

I wonder how many people still believe this European myth…

Apart from the obvious economic and political benefits, I never used to get why an African country like Morocco (Turkey and others) would want to align themselves more with Europe than to Africa, until I spent some time in Morocco.

Despite being a full-fledged North African country, Morocco has the feeling more of being a Mediterranean region. This is particularly the case in the southern parts in cities like Essaouira.

I wouldn’t say other Maroccan cities like Marrakech, Casablanca and Fez have a more traditional African feel either; they still feel Mediterranean and even European: a bit like London with desert! Maybe this account for why in Marrakech and Fez, for example, you have to be more streetwise and adept at haggling otherwise you feel harassed by the generally accepted way of ‘negotiating a price’.

The European way, of course, is to advertise a price and stick to that price without making concessions to any form of haggling.

Over the weekend I visited the dry cleaners and the assistant who served me was a very tall and attractive blond haired, blue eyed woman. She wore a Sterling silver Nerfetiti chain around her neck and it caught my eye because it’s not often I see white people wearing Black symbols like that.

I commented on the chain briefly by telling the assistant, who appeared approachable to me, by saying: “I like your chain: Nerfetiti, the African queen!”

Suddenly the warm, friendly smile disappeared from her face and the woman’s demeanour became ice. Almost in real time I could almost see the temperature air slow freeze to ice. What did I say wrong?

I can only surmise that the woman didn’t like my description of Nerfetiti. Surely she knew that Nerfetiti was formerly queen of Egypt which is located on the northern tip of Africa, right? Why wear the pendant and then get offended if someone comments on its factuality?

My conclusion is that the woman has got her own cross to bear. And she was wearing it around her neck, as far as I could see.

By the time you read this I’ll probably be in Morocco! This is my first trip to the Motherland, Africa, of course, and although it is northern – not West Africa which is where my original roots are, I am still excited.

At this moment I am filled with all the usual trepidation, excitement and buzz that come prior to any new adventure. Questions abound: What will I find? Will I be able to deal with whatever I find? What should I worry about?

The first casualty was expectations which I decided to abandon. I reasoned that since I have never been to Morocco before all or any expectations I had about would only be other people’s perception and if bought this then I would develop a bias one way or another. Then I jotted down all the images surrounding Morocco that I could think of so that I could then reject them!

These include the film “Casablanca” with Humphrey Bogart, images of Caucasian people being colonial in the region, any idea of the locals being primitive savages, or thoughts of the government led by the royal family being corrupt or inept. The one preconception it was hard to get rid of was the one where I imagine the woman would be beautiful!

Aw, a man has got to have at least one vice, right?!

You’ll no doubt see how my discoveries fare in this Blog. You may not see them immediately, for technical and/or security reasons, but keep reading nonetheless!