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On Saturday, April 3, the Balanta B’urassa History and Genealogy Society in America (BBHAGSIA) President Siphiwe Baleka was invited and attended the Afrodescendant Nation Grassroots Unity Outreach: Self Determination Conversation held in Atlanta, Georgia. The event issued a CALL TO UNITY to all Blacks, African-Americans, Afrodescendants, and all the various formations, however you DEFINE YOURSELF, to
A Nine (9) day SELF DETERMINATION CONFERENCE is being scheduled, reminiscent of the seminal Universal Negro Improvement Association First International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World that convened from August 1 to August 30, 1920 and was attended by almost two thousand delegates.
BBHAGSIA President Baleka was asked to join the Steering Committee for the conference.
To help inform this committee, please complete the following
During a UN meeting on the issue of reparations, Silis Muhammad put forth a proposed definition of Afrodescendants, “for he knew that the prophecy concerning the ‘scattered’ children was in fulfillment. He also knew that a movement was afoot by Member States at the UN to include African immigrants in the same political/legal category as the descendants of enslaved Africans, thereby confusing the issues and undermining the legal basis for a reparations claim based on slavery’s lingering effects. The definition made it clear that Afrodescendants are descendants of enslaved Africans, suffering the lingering effects of slavery. The leaders agreed to discuss the definition at the next seminar, and the UN took note.” In his own words,
“The Term Afrodescendant
My name is Silis Muhammad and I am the CEO of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam and the Spiritual Son of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH). I have been fighting for my people’s right to self-determination for many years. I would spend many years out in the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland from 1998 until 2002 working to establish our identity.
Having been a member of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, I sought to classify us as Lost-Found Peoples and establish that name as our collective identity. I learned from several forums in the United Nations that a large contingency of our people mainly Latin Americans from the slavery diaspora were calling themselves Afrodescendant. As early as 2000 in Santiago Chile, the term was first heard at a United Nation forum.
In Durban, South Africa in 2001, we were still working on our identity; we were not working to define it yet. We did not have a clear-cut identity although the term, Afrodescendant was in the air. We had not decided collectively on an identity.
In 2002, at a United Nations Conference for the Rights of Minorities in La Ceiba, Honduras, nineteen (19) countries from North America, South America, Central America and throughout the slavery diaspora gathered. Most Latin American countries had already accepted this global identity and the Lost-Found Nation of Islam objected to it. During the Conference, a representative from Brazil, who has the largest Afrodescendant population in the slavery diaspora, stated that they too did not agree with the name Afrodescendant, but acquiesced to establish unity with the many descendants of the slavery diaspora that had already accepted and were using the term.
Feeling the weight of the term Afrodescendant in the atmosphere among the Latin American delegates, then we, the Lost-Found Nation of Islam decided to concur and use the term like the Brazilians had done. WE, Silis Muhammad, Misshaki Muhammad and the delegates of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, quickly sketched out a rough definition of Afrodescendant before having a meeting with the Cuban Chairperson and the other Latin American delegates. At that meeting, we shared the definition for the term Afrodescendant:
Were forcibly disposed of their homeland, Africa;
Were transported to the Americas and Slavery Diaspora for the purpose of enslavement;
Were subjected to slavery;
Were subjected to forced mixed breeding and rape;
Have experienced, through force, the loss of mother tongue, culture, and religion;
Have experienced racial discrimination due to lost ties from their original identity.”
Defining the term, gave power to the name Afrodescendant. We offer to you African Americans, Black people, a just people, the global identity ‘Afrodescendant’.
*Afrodescendants are experiencing #Ethnogenesis: “...the re-establishment of the mind or the “Resurrection” of a people who have lost the identity of ‘Self’ due to 400 years of “Slavery” (The Honorable Silis Muhammad, Muhammad Speaks volume 20, No 21)
Roberto Rojas Dávila
The historical process of recognition and its challenges
The incorporation of the theme of Afro-descendants in international human rights law is relatively new. Only 18 years ago, the issue was raised at the Regional Conference of the Americas held in preparation for the Third World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in the city of Santiago, Chile in the year 2000.
For the first time, the declaration from the said conference, known as the Declaration of Santiago, “Recognise[d] that the racism and racial discrimination from which the population of African origin in the Americas has suffered is at the origin of the marginalisation, poverty and exclusion in which the majority of these individuals in many countries on the continent find themselves and that, despite the efforts made, this situation persists to different degrees”. Furthermore, it “calls for measures to eliminate the inequalities that still persist due to the opprobrious legacy of slavery and to facilitate the participation of Afro-descendants in all aspects of political, economic, social and cultural life of society and in the progress and economic development of their countries; and to promote greater knowledge and respect for their heritage and culture”.
For millions of Afro-descendants, the 21st century marked the beginning of a new legal status – one that raises the level of protection for their human and collective rights.
In 2000, in the city of Santiago, Chile, the Regional Conference of the Americas was held, which was a preparatory conference for the Third World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. During the conference in Santiago, the states of the Americas defined Afro-descendant as the person of African origin who lives in the Americas and in the region of the African Diaspora as a result of slavery, who have been denied the exercise of their fundamental rights. In the Third World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance – known as the Durban Conference – the states ratified this definition, as well as most of the content of the Declaration of Santiago related to Afro-descendants.
From our point of view, the most important aspect of both declarations is that, in addition to defining the term Afro-descendant, they recognised people of African descent as subjects of international human rights law. This meant that they are able to acquire rights and obligations directly in the international arena, according to the provisions of these international instruments.
In the words of activists from the Afro-descendant movement in the Americas, at the Conference of Santiago, “We went in as blacks and emerged as Afro-descendants”. This meant that there was a before and an after the conference in relation to the promotion and respect of Afro-descendants’ rights. By adopting a legal definition and by recognizing them as subjects of international human rights law, it was possible to raise the level of protection for this vulnerable group.
There are approximately 200 million people of African descent in the Americas, yet, despite comprising one third of the region’s population, Afro-descendants are one of the most vulnerable minority groups in the hemisphere.
It should be noted that in the Declaration of Santiago and the Declaration of Durban, the American states recognized that people of African descent have to confront obstacles as a result of the social discrimination and prejudice that prevail in public and private institutions and also recognized that this is due to centuries of racism, racial discrimination and enslavement and of the denial by history of many of their rights This situation also results in a lack of recognition for the contribution of this group to the cultural heritage of the Americas.
We should draw attention to the fact that the Inter-American Democratic Charter recognizes that elimination of all forms of discrimination and respect for ethnic, cultural and religious diversity in the Americas contribute to strengthening democracy and citizen participation.
International Public Law provides several instruments against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. At the universal level the United Nations has driven substantial efforts to combat these scourges.
In the inter-American sphere, too, a number of mechanisms have been created to tackle this phenomenon and encourage respect for the rights of people of African descent in the Americas. Examples of this are the creation of the Rapporteurship on the Rights of Afro-Descendants and against Racial Discrimination of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the allusions to people of African descent in the Declaration of Mar del Plata in the framework of the Fourth Summit of the Americas in 2005 and in the Declaration of the Regional Conference of the Americas (Preparatory meeting for the Third World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance), held in Santiago, Chile, in 2000.
By the same token, a succession of mandates have come out of the [Summits of the Americas] and the General Assembly of the Organization of American States to combat racism and discrimination. The negotiation is at present under way in the framework of the OAS of a Draft Inter-American Convention against Racism and All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance.
It should also be noted that at both the regional and international level the majority of member states have signed, ratified or adopted, as the case may be, a variety of international instruments for the elimination of racial discrimination as well as for promotion and respect for the rights of persons of African descent.
On February 23, 2021, The Secretary of Tourism of Guinea Bissau sent the following message to the Balanta B’urassa History and Genealogy Society in America:
“Distinguished greetings,
Excellence,
It was up to me, as the maximum Responsible for this area and, WHEREAS the members of the Society of History and Genealogy Balanta Burassa in the United States of America, are now preparing to return to their origins, from 11 to 14 May and from 8 to 11 June, 2021 for a Welcome Celebration, something unprecedented in the history of our young nation; in this context, we would like to invite Your Excellency Illustrious Siphiwe Baleka, founder, to be present with his members at the referred event, which is of major importance for Guinea-Bissau.
Without another subject at the moment, please accept Excellency, best regards.
High regard
Ms. Nhima Sisse”
4 days/4 nights in Bissau - Single room $792; Double Room; $868; Suite $1164
4 days/3 nights at Bijagos Islands -$650
*FLIGHT and $75 PROCESSING FEE NOT INCLUDED
Arrangements are being made for return COVID testing to take place
Day 1 - May 11 & June 8: BISSAU
Arrival in Bissau at Osvaldo Vieira International Airport. Transport to the Hotel Ledger (4 km). Welcome to the motherland show and informal reception and food at Hotel Ledger.
Day 2 - May 12 and June 9: Bissau and Officials
7:00 am - Breakfast
8:30 am - 11:30 am - Bissau City Tour. - We will visit the statue of Honorio Barreto, then we move to Central Market and work up Mao de Timba “Hand of Timba” Monument commemorating the Pidjiguiti Massacre which would inspire Almicar Cabral to fight for liberation. Then we move to Bissau Velho ( former Portuguese’s architecture center). After that we go to Amura to visit Amilcar Cabral and other leader camp museum. We travel in a 35 seat air-conditioned van.
11:30 am - Lunch at Calistro Restaurant in downtown Bissau.
Afternoon - meeting with His Excellency Umaro Sissoco Embalo, President of Guinea Bissau and His Excellency Nuno Gomes Nabiam, Prime Minister of Guinea Bissau.
7:30 to 9:30 pm - Dinner at Restaurant Dona Fernanda in Santa Luzia.
DAY 3 - May 13 and June 10: CACHEU-CANCHUNGO AND BASSAREL KINGDOM
6:30 to 7:30 am - Breakfast at Hotel Ledger
8:00 am - Depart to Cacheu for a full day. Travel time to Cacheu is 2 hours and 15 minutes and the road is very bad. Be prepared for a bumpy ride! Cacheu town is one of earliest Portuguese settlement in Africa and the first navigators arrived in early 15° century. We will visit the Memorial Da Escravatura E Do Trafico Negeiro (Slave Museum). After Cacheu we will drive to the sacred Kingdom of Bassarel to be witness of MANJACO tradition, culture and history. By chance, the king of village will guide us to the sacred forest palace.
Lunch and rest - Canchungo Restaruant Silveste
Return to Hotel Ledger in Bissau and COVID return testing.
7:00 pm - Dinner at Restaurant Calliste
Day 4 - May 14 and June 11: Balanta Festival
6:30 am to 7:45 am - breakfast
8:00 am - Depart for Balanta festival in Bissun Naga. Another 2 hour journey (79 km) but a great way to see the country!
10:00 am to 7:00 pm - 1st Annual Bissum-Naga Cultural Festival 2021: Rescuing and Enhancing the Cultural Identity of the Nagas sponsored by the Association of Children, Descendants and Friends of Bissum-Naga. The festival will promote the art and culture of the Balanta Nagas.
7:00 pm -. Return to the Hotel Ledger for final night.
Day 5 - May 15 and June 12: Our departure to Archipelago will depend on sea’s high tide
We will have a full day to discovery the Archipelago. During our sail we will be in Marathon of Dolphin, which Is covered in a lush green forest in an exceptional nature reserve inhabited by enchanting birds which are part of unique wildlife specific to the remote ecosystem.
In the Afternoon will take a walk to explore the Rubane Island. It a haft day depending the time of arrive according to sea level. Lunch and dinner is at Restaurant Ponta Anchaca, Rubane Island.
Day 6 - May 16 and June 13: BUBAQUE-SOGA
- Breakfast then Short trip to visit Bubaque, capital of Bijagos region.
- Going to SOGA Island.
- Lunch at Ponta Anchaca.
- Return to Bubaque to attend traditional dance of young boys and girls called in CREOL DANÇA DE BACA BRUTA (BULL DANCE).
- Dinner and Overnight at PONTA ANCHACA.
Day 7 May 17 and June 14: RUBANE
Full day free enjoying Sea and sun of Rubane. All meals at the hotel
Day 8 May 18 and June 15: BACK TO BISSAU
- Breakfast
- Sailing back to Bissau and hotel to prepare the way back
- Transfer to airport.
NOTE: If you are the person sharing a DOUBLE ROOM and you will be continuing to the BIjagos, you must purchase both OPTION 1:4 and OPTION 2:4 Bijagos Separate
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Nicole Vaden or Nicky, as some family and friends call her, was born and spent much of her life in Indianapolis, IN. A mother of three, professionally Nicole specializes in medical coding billing, processing medical claims, and a range of other administrative activities that support health care administration. Nicole has a degree in Health Information Technology and a certificate as a registered administrative healthcare technician. She is also presently working towards a certification as a coding specialist. Nicole also recently began studying real estate investing. Additionally, she is studying the stock market and how to build wealth from investing in stocks. Nicole also has previous experience as a wedding and event planner.
In addition to her professional credentials and personal investment activities, Nicole would like to learn about traditional Balanta ceremonies and celebrations. She one day hopes to incorporate some of those cultural practices when coordinating and planning her events. Nicole's other hobbies include supporting her children's actives, including her daughters' dance, recitals, and performances. She also enjoys reading and traveling. Nicole plans to travel to her ancestral homeland of Guinea Bissau this year which will be the first of hopefully many trips outside of the country, exploring and learning about other cultures and people.
While Nicole's profession and hobbies are of great importance, she has been most intently focused for the better part of a decade on her spiritual journey. Around the year 2008, Nicole began to feel compelled to go deeper into her spiritual practices and understanding. She felt somewhat incomplete and that something was missing. Also that there was something more that she needed to understand and more that she needed to be doing with her life. She was convinced that her spiritual path is what needed to be addressed and where these answers would come from. After watching a documentary in 2010 with historian Skip Gates, it seemed for her as though a pathway to begin answering some of those questions had been revealed. This pathway would begin with her learning her ancestry. It was at that moment that she decided to take the African Ancestry test. After taking the test and before receiving the results, Nicole began receiving an inclination that her ancestry was somewhere in the country of Guinea Bissau. When the results were returned, her intuition was confirmed.
While living in Atlanta some years ago, Nicole received a reading. From that initial reading, she learned that a man would come along and teach her many things and guide her on her spiritual journey. In another reading shortly after her first one, she was instructed to set up an ancestral altar and that doing this would help her along her path. Soon after this reading and subsequently setting up her altar, she met a man who would eventually become her teacher and spiritual mentor.
Since becoming a student of her new teacher, she has learned much; she also hopes to combine what she has learned thus far with what she is learning about her Balanta Ancestry, customs, and practices. Nicole is eager to learn as much as she can about Balanta women and their role in Balanta culture, raising families, rearing children, and women's spiritual role within Balanta society.
When Nicole began learning about her ancestry, she most strongly resonated with the idea of resisting or being under the governance or control of others. While she does not have a problem with respecting authority, the concept of being controlled or forced into a way of thinking or being is not acceptable for Nicole. Another Balanta custom and practice that strongly resonates with Nicole is the Balanta custom of ensuring that a visitor informs their host well in advance of their arrival. Nicole has learned that in Balanta culture and from her own experiences, it is essential and proper to allow your host plenty of notice before arriving and having an expectation of receiving hospitality. The fact that this practice is shared across cultures is proof that we have retained many aspects of our culture.
Nicole understands the importance of every one of us in the African diaspora learning about our ancestry; she also understands how important this is for our families to repair completely. She recommends setting up an ancestral altar to help bring families together. She also feels this is a method to help families heal. Nicole has helped many of her family members set up altars in their homes.
Nicole believes that those who have been made fortunate enough to know where we come from have a certain responsibility. She believes that it is our responsibility to properly shepherd that information and make others in our families understand its importance. Nicole firmly believes that this knowledge will benefit individuals and unlock who you indeed are and your true purpose; this is the most authentic way for an individual to know thyself.
Finally, Nicole feels that regardless of one's spiritual or religious beliefs, everyone should honor and include their ancestor in whatever endeavors they undertake.
“THE STRUGGLE UNITES, BUT IT ALSO SORTS OUT PERSONS, the struggle shows who is to be valued and who is worthless. Every comrade must be vigilant about himself, for the struggle is a SELECTIVE PROCESS; the struggle shows us to everyone, and shows who we are. . . . It is not enough to say ‘I am African’ for us to say that person is our ally: these are mere phrases. We must ask him frankly: ‘Do you in fact want the independence of your people? Do you want to work for them? Do you really want our independence? Are you really opposed to Portuguese colonialism (American integrationism)? Do you help us? If the answers are yes, then you are our ally.”
- Amilcar Cabral, Unity and Struggle
Swearing-in of the First Government of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau. João Bernardo Vieira (Nino), Umaru Djaló, Constantino Teixeira, Carlos Correia, Paulo Correia, Vitor Saúde Maria, Filinto Vaz Martins, João da Costa and Fidelis Cabral d'Almada. Bissau, 1974
In the January 26th, 2015 issue of Sports Illustrated, Jon Wertheim a 1993 graduate of Yale University, penned an article about his Yale classmate, swimmer Tony Blake. He wrote,
“The recruits for the class of '93 were uncommonly strong, led by Anthony (Tony) Blake. At age 10, around the time he won an Illinois state championship, Blake declared his ambition to make the U.S. Olympic swim team. His distant cousin Hayes Jones had won a gold at the 1964 Tokyo Games in the 110-meter hurdles, and Blake figured, Why not me, too? His next decade comprised a string of successes—including state and regional titles—that suggested his goal was within reach. ‘Tony Blake was a superstar,’ says Frank Keefe, Yale's coach from 1978 to 2010. ‘A superstar.’ . . .
As a sophomore Blake finished fifth in the Eastern Seaboard Championship and became the first African American swimmer to be named All-Ivy. That season, thanks in no small part to Blake, Yale finished 10--3. His junior year the team was 9--1. Blake's college swimming career culminated in February 1993 when Yale hosted the first meet against both Harvard and Princeton. H-Y-P, as the ‘three-meet’ became known, has become a fixture in college swimming. . . .
The meet was held at Payne Whitney Gymnasium, the second largest gym in the world by cubic feet. While it was—and is—a dark and charmless place, its acoustics are akin to those of a basketball bandbox. During that H-Y-P meet, with 1,500 fans in the stands, the pool was rock-concert loud. Before the final event, the 400-freestyle relay, Yale trailed Princeton by a point. The Bulldogs' lead swimmer: senior Tony Blake. . . .
Payne Whitney decibel levels reached an all-time high as Blake raced to a healthy lead. His teammates didn't relinquish it. By winning the relay, Yale beat the Tigers 123--119 and earned a share of the Ivy League swim title. All those early-morning practices, trudging to the pool and then heading off to class with frozen hair? This was the payoff. The swimmers hugged and shrieked and poured champagne into the water, then swilled the rest. The celebration would continue until the sun came up. And that was pretty much the last anyone at Yale saw of Tony Blake. . . . After helping his teammates win an Ivy title, Blake reckoned, My work here is done.”
Since then, after reconnecting with my classmates at our 25th Class Reunion, many of them asked me, “why did you disappear from Yale with just two months before graduation?” I could not have explained it to them back then, and even if I could I don’t think they could have understood it. But now I understand and can explain all of it.
In my book, From Yale to Rastafari: Letters to My Mom, 1995-1998 I wrote,
“I consider my struggles a learning experience. Paying my dues. I remember back when I left school I said that in order to help those people who need the most help, I had to understand their problems. I felt that I needed to live with them, like them in order to be of some benefit later down the road. . . .Across from my desk are Ethiopian Emperor HIM Haile Selassie I’s words to me:
I am therefore preparing myself for such a task.”
This wasn’t the first time I had heard such a thing, that I, as a young, gifted and black boy, was destined to do great things. I had heard this from the time I was in elementary school. “You would make a great lawyer one day” I heard frequently. By the time I reached Yale and started studying their version of black history, I was introduced to W.E.B. Dubious who in his essay The Talented Tenth (published in 1903), wrote,
“The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. The problem of education, then, among Negroes must first of all deal with the Talented Tenth; it is the problem of developing the Best of this race that they may guide the Mass away from the contamination and death of the Worst, in their own and other races. . . . And so we come to the present–a day of cowardice and vacillation, of strident wide-voiced wrong and faint hearted compromise; of double-faced dallying with Truth and Right. Who are to-day guiding the work of the Negro people? The “exceptions” of course. And yet so sure as this Talented Tenth is pointed out, the blind worshippers of the Average cry out in alarm: “These are exceptions, look here at death, disease and crime–these are the happy rule.” Of course they are the rule, because a silly nation made them the rule: Because for three long centuries this people lynched Negroes who dared to be brave, raped black women who dared to be virtuous, crushed dark-hued youth who dared to be ambitious, and encouraged and made to flourish servility and lewdness and apathy. But not even this was able to crush all manhood and chastity and aspiration from black folk. A saving remnant continually survives and persists, continually aspires, continually shows itself in thrift and ability and character. . . .Can the masses of the Negro people be in any possible way more quickly raised than by the effort and example of this aristocracy of talent and character? Was there ever a nation on God’s fair earth civilized from the bottom upward? Never; it is, ever was and ever will be from the top downward that culture filters. The Talented Tenth rises and pulls all that are worth the saving up to their vantage ground. This is the history of human progress; and the two historic mistakes which have hindered that progress were the thinking first that no more could ever rise save the few already risen; or second, that it would better the uprisen to pull the risen down. How then shall the leaders of a struggling people be trained and the hands of the risen few strengthened? There can be but one answer: The best and most capable of their youth must be schooled in the colleges and universities of the land. . . . All men cannot go to college but some men must; every isolated group or nation must have its yeast, must have for the talented few centers of training where men are not so mystified and befuddled by the hard and necessary toil of earning a living, as to have no aims higher than their bellies, and no God greater than Gold. This is true training, and thus in the beginning were the favored sons of the freedmen trained.”
How could I not fail to to think that Dubious was talking about me? After all, here I was at YALE University, which, in 1989, U.S. News and World Report Ranked as the #1 university in the United States. It’s alums were serving as the President (George Bush), Secretary of Defense (Les Aspin), Supreme Court Justice (Byron White), Central Intelligence Agency officials, Ambassadors, and a host of Governors, Senators, Mayors, etc. Mind you, I was a state swimming champion at the age of ten and an Olympic hopeful by the age of 14. At Yale, I was the first African American on the All-Ivy League Swim Team. I had never been arrested (at that point). Had I not shown that not only was I among the best of my race, but among the best of all people?
My father, who graduated from Fisk University with a degree in mathematics, once told me when I was ten years old after I had a disappointing race, “never give them an opportunity to say something bad about you. Don’t give them any ammunition to use against you. You must always show good sportsmanship. Wish everyone ‘good luck’ and shake every hand after the race. If you need to have a temper tantrum or meltdown, wait until you get into the locker room where no one can see.” My father was already preparing me to be an ambassador of the sport and to understand my responsibility as one of the Talented Tenth. The responsibility for representing and saving my people was planted and nurtured within me.
But by the end of my days at Yale, I was reading Malcolm X, Frantz Fanon and Marcus Garvey, the latter who said,
“EDUCATION is the medium by which a people are prepared for the creation of their own particular civilization, and the advancement and glory of their own race. . . . Every student of Political Science, every student of Economics knows, that the race can only be saved through a solid industrial foundation. That the race can only be saved through political independence. Take away industry from a race; take away political freedom from a race, and you have a group of slaves. . . . For over three hundred years the white man has been our oppressor, and he naturally is not going to liberate us to the higher freedom the truer liberty the truer Democracy. We have to liberate ourselves. . . . Let us prepare TODAY. For the TOMORROWS in the lives of the nations will be so eventful that Negroes everywhere will be called upon to play their part in the survival of the fittest human group.
The evolutionary scale that weights nations and races, balances alike for peoples; hence we feel sure that some day the balance will register a change for the Negro.
The world ought to know that it could not keep 400,000,000 Negroes down forever. There is always a turning point in the destiny of every race, every nation, of all peoples, and we have come now to the turning point of Negro, where we have changed from the old cringing weakling, and transformed into full-grown men, demanding our portion as MEN. . . . A race without authority and power, is a race without respect. The only protection against INJUSTICE in man is POWER; Physical, financial and scientific. . . . Men who are in earnest are not afraid of consequences. . . . Any sane man, race or nation that desires freedom must first of all think in terms of blood. Why even the Heavenly Father tells us that “without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sins.” Then how in the name of God, with history before us, do we expect to redeem Africa without preparing ourselves, some of us to die. . . . LEADERSHIP means everything PAIN, BLOOD, DEATH. Let Africa be our guiding Star, OUR STAR OF DESTINY.”
Like Garvey, I asked, "Where (in America) is the black man’s Government? Where is his King and his kingdom? Where is his President, his country, and his ambassador, his army, his navy, his men of big affairs? I could not find them, and then I declared, ‘I will help to make them.’" Garvey shifted my thinking and gave my “talented tenth” sense of responsibility a clear, African-centered focus. No longer was my destiny as a member of the talented tenth to merely set an example for both white and black America of what black people could achieve in America. Now I had the responsibility of liberating black people from America and redeeming the whole race of African people. I’m not kidding - I internalized this and actually felt it is was my responsibility. To do this, I had to overcome any fear of death. Garvey also said that those of Dubious’ “Talented Tenth” who had been educated by their colonial masters required a “racial re-education” if they were ever going to be of any use to the race. Amilcar Cabral said the same thing in his speech on “National Liberation and Culture” delivered at Syracuse University, february 20, 1970:
“In the thorough analysis of social structure which every liberation movement must be able to make, by virtue of the imperatives of struggle, the cultural characteristics of each social category have a place of prime importance. For, while culture has a mass character, it is not uniform, it is not evenly developed in all sectors of society. The attitude of each social category towards the struggle is dictated by its economic condition interests, but is also profoundly influenced by its culture. We may even admit that the differences in cultural levels explain the differing behaviour towards the liberation movement of individuals within the same socio-economic category. It is at this point that culture reaches its full significance for each individual: understanding and integration in his environment, identification with the fundamental problemss and aspirations of society, acceptance of the possibility of change in the direction of progress. In the specific conditions of our country - and we should say of Africa - the horizontal and vertical distribution levels of culture is somewhat complex. In fact, from the villages to the towns, from one ethnic group to another, from the peasant to the artisan or to the more or less assimilated indigenous intellectual, from one social class to another, and even, as we have said, from individual to individual within the same social category, there are significant variations in the quantitative and qualitative level of culture. It is a question of prime importance for the liberation movement to take these facts into consideration. . . . It is true that the multiplicity of social and ethnic categories somewhat complicates the determining of the role of culture in the liberation movement. But it is vital not to lose sight of the decisive significance of the class character of culture in development of the liberation struggle, even in the case when a category is or appears to be still embryonic. The experience of colonial domination shows that, in an attempt to perpetuate exploitation, the colonizer not only creates a whole system of repression of the cultural life of the colonized people, but also provokes and develops the cultural alienation of a part of the population, either by supposed assimilation of indigenous persons, or by the creation of a social gulf between the aboriginal elites and the mass of the people. As a result of this process of division or of deepening the divisions within the society, it follows that a considerable part of the population notably the urban or peasant 'petty bourgesoisie' assimilates the colonizer's mentality, and regards itself as culturally superior to the people to which it belongs and whose cultural values it ignores or despises. This situation, characteristic of the manority of colonized intellectuals, is crystallized to the extent that the social privileges of the assimilated or alienated group are increased with direct implications for the behavior towards the liberation movement by individuals in this group. A spiritual reconversion - of mentalities - is thus seen to be vital for their true integration in the liberation movement. Such reconversion - re-Africanization in our case - may take place before the struggle, but is completed only during the course of the struggle, through daily contact with the mass of the people and the communion of sacrifices which the struggle demands. We must, however, take into consideration the fact that, faced with the prospect of political independence, the ambition and opportunism from which the liberation movement generally suffers may draw into the struggle individuals who have not been reconverted. The latter, on the basis of their level of education, their scientific or technical knowledge, and without losing any of their class cultural prejudices, may attain the highest positions in the liberation movement. On the cultural as well as the political level vigilance is therefore vital. For in the specific and highly complex circumstances of the process of the phenomenon of the liberation movements, all that glitters is not necessarily gold: political leaders - even the most famous - my be culturally alienated.”
I took this seriously to the point that I turned my back on Yale, a “good career path” and all the comforts and protections of mainstream society to go and get my “racial re-education” among the mass of my black people and to be found worthy. Ironically, Garvey - an opponent of the emerging Rastafari movement - led me to the Rastafari culture which taught me,
“Haile Selassie I the First, Conquering Man Lion of Judah came TO ORDER THE PEOPLE. The confused mentality that was fostered by Slavery had burned out and the mind had to be set on a course of HIGH ORDER . . . . When one looks at the first inspiration that came to I&I from His Majesty, it was an INSPIRATION through the establishment of IVINE ORDER. It was not an inspiration to create a mere RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. Neither was it an inspiration to create a mere social movement nor a political movement. The vision was to create an IVINE ORDER OF LIVITY that encompassed ALL aspects of life. . . . Without a Pan-African vision that has as its goal the establishment of Black Nationhood with a restored concept of BLACK ROYALTY AND DIVINITY, the root of the problems that now face Black civilization cannot be rooted out. THE TRUTH MUST BE FACED THAT THE PROBLEMS ARE NOT ONLY ECONOMIC, POLITICAL AND CULTURAL, but they are also SPIRITUAL in the sense of having been subjected to unnaturalness for so long that naturalness becomes an unwelcome stranger. TRAPPED, domesticated and tethered for centuries to the stake of unnaturalness the caged and domesticated creature is apt to lose its spiritual equilibrium and forget what is clean from what is unclean, what is right from what is wrong, and what is high from what is low. This is the condition of the ‘ex-slaves’ in this time, sorely in need of something more than a political movement, something that involves the reshaping of character in the similitude of ROYALTY. . . . If one were to put into one sentence THE MAIN GUIDELINE OF THE NYAHBINGHI ORDER upon which the whole of RASTAFARI IS FOUNDED, it is Resurrection of THE BLACK IDEAL FOR THE PURPOSE OF ACHIEVING BLACK LIBERATION. . .
Ras Jahaziel, delivered the following Words Of Inspiration To The House Of Iyabinghi, July 26, 2000
" . . . . the Ancients always made mention of THE THEOCRATIC GOVERNMENT OF HIS MAJESTY. It is not an invisible entity in the sky, it is a living ORDER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS manifesting itself at a particular point in time when a whole Nation reaches a stage of MATURITY where it is ready to submit to IVINE ORDER. This readiness is demonstrated by their manifestation of the INDWELLING AND ARISEN PRESENCE OF HAILE I SELASSIE I THE FIRST. From out of such a MATURITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS there are appointed Administrators who conduct the business of building THE CITY OF HABITATION and implementing ON EARTH the vision of HAILE I SELASSIE I THE FIRST. The fulfillment of such a vision represents the coming of age of a people who ARE READY TO ORDER THEMSELVES ALONG IVINE PRINCIPLES AND WILLING TO ABANDON NARROW SELF INTEREST AND MY-OWN-WAY-NESS FOR THE SAKE OF CREATING AN EDIFICE OF POWER THAT IS IN ACCORDANCE WITH IVINE WILL. The government therefore is not just a small group of people but A WHOLE CONGREGATION manifesting its will through APPOINTEES. To such appointees is to be delegated the authority to act as ambassadors"
It was the Rastafari community that told me to study the words of Ethiopian Emperor HIM Haile Selassie I, the Father of the modern African Liberation struggle.
In 1935, the Italians invaded Ethiopia. In 1941, Emperor Haile Selassie defeated the Italians, defending the last independent empire in Africa and preserving Ethiopian freedom. Emperor Haile Selassie’s victory over the Italians inspired African people everywhere to fight for their liberation. Meanwhile, since three out of four educated Ethiopians were killed in the war, Emperor Haile Selassie I began rebuilding his government. As a young, devout Rastafari brethren, I believed that the Emperor’s titles, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah indicated that Haile Selassie was the designated Christ that the Bible prophesied to return.. So to me, the words of Haile Selassie were the words of God himself. And this is what HIM Haile Selassie I said regarding my work and responsibility:
“Our concern is with the many and not the few.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 3, 1966
“The ownership of a plot of land must be brought within the capacity of everyone who so desires.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 3, 1966
“It is Our task and responsibility, as it is of Our Government, to transform these objectives into coherent, acceptable and realistic legislative and financial programmes and to see to their accomplishment. If this is done, the duty owed to the Ethiopian nation and people will be discharged. To succeed will require the single-minded, tenacious, and unselfish dedication of each one of us.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 3, 1966.
“In this noble task each one of Our people, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, able and disabled, has a role to play and We are sure Our Empire will march ahead towards prosperity and progress through united efforts of all Our citizens.” H.I.M Haile Selassie I, July 7, 1964
“Even assuming, however, that the will and the desire exist, there remains the immensely difficult and complex task of organizing the nation’s energies and resources and directing them in a well-conceived and fully integrated fashion to the achieving of carefully studied and clearly defined ends.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 4, 1967
“In Ethiopia, increased emphasis is currently being given to the concept and function of planning.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 4, 1967
“Planning ensures a simultaneous accomplishment of developmental projects with a view to achieving accelerated progress, thus avoiding wastage of financial resources, labour and time.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, March 23, 1966.
“As has already been manifested by your endeavours the people themselves must come to realize their own difficulties in the development of their community and try to solve them by collective participation following an order of priority and taking their potentiality into account.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, January 12, 1963
“When people express their felt needs, these have to be formulated into plans.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 7, 1964
“ . . . Any plan which does not have the proper personnel to execute it will remain a mere plan on paper.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 2, 1963
“We prepare development plans for our country with the understanding that our people will take an active and substantial part in carrying out the plans to successful conclusions.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, January 1, 1967
“Every Ethiopian has a social obligation to contribute as much as possible in financial, material or physical aid for road construction and other projects which add to the progress of the country.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, January 1, 1967
“Self help thus is the quintessence of community development programmes. It is, therefore, essential that initiative and desire for improvement should emanate from the people and not be superimposed from outside. It is of course the primary task of community development workers to motivate and stimulate the people to cross barriers of apathy and helplessness.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie, July 7, 1964
“The key to the attainment of any goal lies in one’s ability to learn to direct one’s objectives towards clearly defined ends and to pursue them in an orderly, rational and co-ordinated fashion. The means which modern economic philosophy have devised for the attainment of such goals is the preparation of long-term projects and plans and their execution to the extent possible.” H.I.M Haile Selassie I, November 3, 1968
“Our utmost interest now is focused upon economic development. It is quite necessary for those of you who have studied economics to be masters of your art in using both in private life as well as in the service of the government which you are serving.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, December 20, 1963
“Let us not, however, be misled. The preparation of an economic plan is only half the task, and perhaps not even that. The real test comes in the implementation, and here even the best of plans can be subverted and destroyed. Once an overall economic plan is adopted, the nation’s budget must be tailored to the implementation of the plan. Individual development projects must be fitted into the priorities established in the plan. Haphazard and ill-coordinated economic activity must be avoided at all costs. Investment must be controlled and directed as the plan dictates. And, most important, all of this must be accomplished in a coordinated and efficient fashion. The responsibility of the plan does not rest upon any single ministry or department; it is a collective responsibility, shared by all development ministries concerned with economic and social development, indeed by all departments and officials.” H.I.M Haile Selassie I, November 4, 1967.
“If Our aims and objectives are to be realized, each one of us must labour and assume his share of responsibility for the progress and prosperity of the nation. If We do so, We are satisfied that acceptable results will follow.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, March 23, 1966
“This is the new attitude which must be encouraged: the communal as opposed to the individual approach, the spirit of working together that all may benefit.” H.I.M Haile Selassie I, November 4, 1967
“What Our country needs now is an increase in the supply of trained and skilled manpower, men, of professional integrity.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 16, 1969
“We need well-qualified people who are proud of being Ethiopians; people who are proud of being Africans; people who are prepared to execute the plans that have already been envisioned.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 2, 1963
“How noble and great a deed is the act of sacrificing one’s wealth, land and money, to one’s needy community instead of for selfish purposes!” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, January 12, 1963
“Man desires many things, but it is the individual’s duty and responsibility to desire the proper things. Anyone who makes the wrong choices will be a burden, not only to himself but to future generations.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 2, 1963
“A qualified man with vision, unmoved by daily selfish interests, will be led to the right decisions by his conscience.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 2, 1963
“No elaboration is required to show that to dwell on idle thoughts and vain debate amounts to wasting one’s own precious time, as well as that of others, for it retards Ethiopia’s progress. The struggle to increase life expectancy and to eradicate disease and poverty, two of the main obstacles to progress and development, call for diligent, conscientious effort from the educated. What we expect of such persons is a serious sense of duty. Problems of need, rather than being used as topics of idle talk must create an impetus, a new driving force, towards progress.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 4, 1972
“But the man, whatever his task, who has spent his time in idleness, whose hand has been turned to little of profit or value during his waking hours, has earned only the scorn and disdain of his fellowmen whom he has thus cheated.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 17, 1965
“To place all responsibility upon the shoulders of one individual while all others sit idly by and seek only to criticize and find fault is, in our era, to act contrary to the movement for the progress and advancement of the country.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, March 23, 1966.
“One who does not contribute to his community and the coming generation remains to be a burden to his society and an object of ridicule to outside observers.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, January 12, 1963
“A hungry person cannot be appeased by merely being told about his hunger, similarly, what Ethiopia needs is not a person who can talk about her problems but someone who is determined to serve her with enthusiasm, re-inspired by her long and glorious history and spurred by the present gap. This can best be manifested not in words but in deeds. Your conviction to help the country must be demonstrated in your determination to work. To do that, you must, instead of working for personal ends, toil for the community and common results.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 6, 1970
“Laziness is the sole breeder of sin, poverty and discontent.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, June 12, 1963
“Simply watching other people’s achievements is a characteristic of the lazy man.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 2, 1963.
“The man who sets his goals too low and who accepts too little as enough, squanders the talents and abilities with which Almighty God and nature have endowed him.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 22, 1963
“If we ponder deeply on our situation today, We shall find that we lack for little. The resources are available; the nation’s youth are gaining knowledge and acquiring experience; it is only necessary that We resolve to work with determination and diligence.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, March 23, 1966
“Work and wealth are at your disposal.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, January 12, 1963
“. . . . All that We require is co-operation, mutual assistance and the profound consciousness that We are fulfilling Ourselves in the discharge of Our planned and assigned responsibilities.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, March 23, 1966
“We remind you, therefore that you utilize all your thoughts and knowledge to the ultimate objective of moral satisfaction and the pride of your countrymen, regardless of your personal interest. Your job takes care of you and there will not be any need to concern yourselves with your personal affairs.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, January 23, 1963.
“Each one of you must not only be prepared for the demands your country places on you, but you must also be prepared and willing to risk your life in the execution of your responsibilities.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, October 12, 1965
“You are being watched by the nation and you should realize that you will satisfy it if you do good; but if, on the contrary, you do evil, it will lose its hope and its confidence in you.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, Juy 2, 1963
“Nations and individuals alike are often more accurately judged not only by what they accomplished, but by what they attempted. A noble failure may be of more value than a petty success.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 22, 1963
“No one of you is free to act arbitrarily without considering the consequences, or irrationally, without ensuring that his actions contribute to the good of the Ethiopian nation.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 22, 1963
“There is no room for irresponsible action. There is no room for heedless or reckless decisions. There is no room for lawlessness or defiance of constituted authority.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 4, 1967
“Each one of you will be held directly and individually responsible for what you do.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 22, 1963
“ . . . . Failure at any step of the way will defeat the efforts of all.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, May 20, 1965.
“Greatness cannot be achieved without great accomplishments.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 8, 1966
“Our testimony shall remain valid when evidence of it is seen practically. Praise without any evidence of deed is of no value either to the giver or to the recipient.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, December 20, 1963
“Ethiopia is anxious to preserve and safeguard peace not only to herself, but she is also equally desirous that others enjoy it, and that men live in happiness and in a stable and better world. You should, therefore, always wait in readiness, aware of the fact that you may be called upon to represent Ethiopia in restoring law and order, wherever they may be in danger, side by side with the forces of other peace-loving nations of the world. If you so prepare yourselves, you would not be taken unaware by events.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, October 23, 1964
“Since it is only your conscience and your Creator who keep watch and closely control your various activities, We hope that those of you who are at present serving or will be serving or will be required to serve in this Foundation, will render your services and fulfill your assignments with complete and undivided devotion and conscientiousness.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, September 3, 1965
“The glory and honour which are your magnificent heritage as Ethiopians remain for you to seek and show. In this new epoch your energy and courage will be tested in new and unfamiliar ways.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, October 12, 1965
“Today, we require skill and techniques beyond Our present capacity to provide, and We look to the assistance of foreign experts and technicians to bridge the gap. So, too, do We look for foreign capital investment, and as a natural and normal concomitant, the managers and the professional personnel skilled in the ways of modern industry and business life.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 17, 1964
“Ethiopia today welcomes all who seek entry at her frontiers, and we seek the technology and expertise which others can bring to Our development.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 17, 1965.
“We require knowledge and assistance from abroad.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 17, 1965
“Today, We also accept as an undenied and undeniable part of modern Ethiopian life the principle that a man’s ultimate worth is determined by his ability and his achievements. Let us, from the greatest to the least, take pride in the performance of the tasks and duties assigned to us, whether or not we believe them worthy of our talents, whether we labour silent and alone, or in the crowd and illuminated by the glaring light of public opinion. The reward for the job well done is not in the recognition of others, nor in public praise. Neither is it to be measured solely by the monetary return earned by the workman. It comes, rather, in the inner satisfaction that accompanies the knowledge that the work accomplished represents the best of which we are capable.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 17, 1964
“No one is entitled to the enjoyment and the benefits of Ethiopia’s development who is not prepared to partake of the sweat and toil which have brought the nation to its present stage of advancement.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 17, 1965.
“The community development worker’s task is unique. We must be prepared to work late at night, on official holiday’s or any odd hour, if the need arises. A good community development worker is always as ready to learn as to teach . . . . If you are open-minded and ready to learn, there are many things which you can learn not only from books and instructors but from the very life experience itself. There are definitely many things which you can learn from the people. If you are guided by this principle, you will be surprised at how pleasant life can be even under trying conditions.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 7, 1964
“To those who contribute willingly, to the best of their abilities, who, in sweat and toil, work for the good of the nation with little thought of self, to them will much be given, even to the governing of the land.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 17, 1965
“We see in these programmes the realisation of years of effort, and We are sobered as We realise once more how long is the time between the recognition of the need and the attainment of the concrete possibilities to meet it.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 22, 1963
“Although you have approached the end of your goal, you have not finished it yer. You have to work hard in order to reach your goal.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, January 1, 1967
“What you have here begun, remains to be finished, and he who gives up before the whole task is accomplished reserves for himself not joy and reward, but despair and blame richly deserved. So today marks the end only of the first chapter in the book of your attainments, and your joy, like your achievement, is incomplete.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 1, 1967
“You have still far to go. Along the tortuous paths that now lie ahead, you will be exposed to the rigorous teachings of life itself. There you will find no ready reference books, no study guides. There, there is no going back. The lessons of life, if once they are missed, are missed forever.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, July 1, 1967
“You should act upon this proposal as a matter of urgency in order that this immense programme, so vital to every man, woman and child in Ethiopia, may proceed on schedule.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, November 3, 1966.
“We heartily thank Our people who first conceived the plan, who initiated it, who directed the work, and those people who voluntarily contributed their money.” H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, January 1, 1967"
The Father of African Liberation, HIM Haile Selassie and the Son of African Liberation, Kwame Nkrumah
Armed with Dubious’ sense of responsibility of the Talented Tenth, the vision of “Africa for the Africans at home and abroad” promoted by Marcus Garvey, the understanding that I must meet the demands through the personal sacrifices demanded of a royal priesthood of Pan Africanism, with role models such as Walter Rodney, Ken Saro Wiwa, and John Africa, and with the direct, clear instructions of God, I went out into the world renouncing all personal interest, to do the work assigned to me and to fulfill my destiny. As a symbol of this Holy Order of Commitment to African Liberation, I vowed not to cut my hair. My mission led me to cities like Chicago, Atlanta, Houston and countries like Ethiopia, Ghana, Togo, Benin, South Africa, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Honduras. All of this re-education and work is chronicled in my five volumes of COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE! 21ST CENTURY BLACK PROPHETIC FAITH AND PAN AFRICAN DIPLOMACY.
I was given exclusive access and permission by Ato Demeke Berhane, Director of Archives at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to publish the official photographs of HIM Halie Selassie I’s First Visit to the United States in 1954
Press Card for Resident Correspondent in Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia issued by the Ministry of Information & Culture Press and Information Department. This allowed me access to the African Union, the Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank and various events with African Heads of State. Like Malcolm X, who attended the Organization of African Unitey (OAU) in 1964, and Amilcar Cabral, I too, received my instructions in Ethiopia for the unfinished liberation struggle of African Americans.
In 1956, Amilcar Cabral launched the revolutionary party - the Partido Africno da Independencia da Guine e Cabo Verde (PAIGC) with five trusted companions and officially joined the African liberation struggle. In 1973 he was killed, but a year later, his liberation struggle achieved national independence. Meanwhile, by this time in America, the national liberation struggle had been largely defeated. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was used to counter the liberation struggle. Meanwhile, the COINTELPRO program of the FBI succeeded in murdering or imprisoning the various liberation struggle leaders in the Black Panther Party, the Republic of New Afrika, and other such organizations, and leaders such as Fred Hampton, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Geronimo Pratt and Mumia Abu-Jamal. COINTELPRO was followed by National Security Council Memorandum 46. While the violation of the human rights of the African Liberation movement in America have been placed before the United Nations repeatedly, and especially at the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in 2001, the trauma that resulted in the defeat of the Liberation struggle in America has caused the majority of the black population to accept forced assimilation in the United States. However, because of the advent of genetic testing and the company African Ancestry, a growing movement reclaiming their African ancestral identity and seeking Repatriation as a means of becoming liberated from America, is gaining momentum. However, the black nationalist ideal of establishing a separate black nation in the southern part of the United States of America where black people are the majority population, has largely been abandoned.
On September 28, 2010, I learned that my paternal ancestry is a 100% match with the Balanta people of Guinea Bissau. Amilcar Cabral organized the Balanta and the other ethnic groups to successfully defeat their Portuguese colonizers. So it is with particular interest that I began studying Amilcar Cabral and attempting to work with the Balanta diaspora in the United States and the Balanta community in Guinea Bissau..
The following was written by Amilcar Cabral in the 1960’s in reference to the liberation struggle being waged in Guinea Bissau, but the analysis is true of America today. I have added the American context in parenthesis (…).
“Of the African population of Angola, Guine and Mozambique, 99.7 percent are classified as ‘uncivilized’ by Portuguese colonial laws, and 0.3% are considered to be ‘assimilated’ called assimilados.
(Note: Prior to 1865, American colonial laws classified ‘chattels, slaves, negroes’ and ‘free black’. After the 13th Amendment, a category of ‘birthright citizens’ was created and the 14th amendment, following the principle of jus soli, offered citizenship to the newly freed slaves. They never made an informed rejection or acceptance of the offer, so, although most black people believe they are American citizens, they are actually prisoners of war colonized in America through forced integration.)
For an ‘uncivilized’ person to attain the status of assimilado, he has to prove his economic stability and a standard of living higher than that enjoyed by a large majority of the population of Portugal. He must live in the ‘European manner’, have paid all his taxes, have done his military service and know how to read and write Portuguese correctly. . . .
The so called ‘uncivilized’ African is treated as a chattel, and is at the mercy of the will and caprice of the colonial administration and the settlers. His situation is absolutely necessary to the existence of the Portuguese colonial system. He provides an inexhaustible supply of forced labor and labor for export. By classifying him as ‘uncivilized’, the law gives legal sanction to racial discrimination and provides one of the justifications for Portuguese domination in Africa.
The tiny minority of so-called ‘civilized’ Africans who are theoretically considered to be Portuguese citizens (middle class black Americans) do not enjoy the privileges reserved fro Europeans. Some find themselves in an isolated position between the mass of the African people and the settlers, and are discriminated against by the latter either in an open or a veiled manner. Most of them actually live in similar conditions to those which are legally imposed on the ‘uncivilized’ Africans.
Portuguese (American) ‘multi-racialism’ is a myth.
(In a 2019 article the authors state, “A whole web of federal, state, local and even private regulations over housing and land use ensure that low-income residents live far away from wealthier ones; that apartment buildings are rarely situated next to single family housing; and, as a result, that black residents and white residents largely live in different neighborhoods. The system is so deeply ingrained. . . . in cities all over the country, that it is essentially taken for granted. It has deep roots in racial animus, going back to the days of redlining and racially restrictive covenants. The after effects of those policies linger on in the 21st century. Today, the stated motivation for the existing arrangement is not race, but money. It’s why homeowners protest public housing projects or apartment buildings that could bring down their property values. It’s why subdivision developers sell homes with strings attached that keep neighborhoods homogeneous and unaffordable to lower-income residents. And it’s why rent, and the federal subsidies it generates, improve the bottom line for a multinational compan(ies). Regardless of the motivation, the effect is largely the same: Cities and, indeed, entire metropolitan areas, remain largely segregated along racial lines.” Scholars Strategy Network states, “By studying the connection between social mobility and identity among middle-class blacks – some who live in a majority white suburb, others in a predominantly black one, and still others in an upper-middle class subdivision nestled within the black suburb – I discovered something different. Middle-class blacks in all three suburbs . . . deliberately keep a foot in each world. . . . a phenomenon I call “strategic assimilation.”)
It really means complete racial segregation, except for contact through work, where it furthers the interests of colonialism. With very few exceptions, there is no social contact between Africans and European (American) families. It is only in the schools and other places outside the family environment that European (American) children come into direct contact with the few assimilado children who attend schools. The children mix together in innocence, but these relationships also contain prejudices and complexes. . . . .
After a overcoming innumerable obstacles, a few assimilados manage to acquire a reasonably decent home. This is only achieved by the handful of Africans who have been to university and by the ever-decreasing number who are able to gain public employment despite racialism. These people are always cited in colonialist propaganda. Most of the Europeans, however, live in vivendas - some of which are real colonial palaces comparable to the richest homes in Portugal.
A wise assimilado always carries his identity card which, when accepted by the authorities and settlers, is his only valid proof of being a human being. . . . The assimilado worker earns three or four times less than the European worker who does the same work. He is always a ‘second-class’ worker, even if skilled. With the exception of a few public employees and miserably paid workers, the assimilados are always fighting the threat of unemployment, and their adult children are mostly unemployed. . . .
This means: for the struggle against the colonialist enemy, let all the forces we can bring together come. But not blindly; we must know what is the position of each one in relation to the colonialist (America). . . . And what about us as Africans? Among the groups we might term petty bourgeoisie (the 3% upper class blacks, black politicians), with an assured living . . . there always appear three categories of persons. A minute but powerful group who are in favour of the colonialists (Americans), who do not even want to hear about this, about struggle against the Portuguese (Americans). Some of these persons went to my house in Pessube, high ranking, with good positions, eating and drinking well, who went on holidays, etc. They sat down and said: ‘Well, we want to talk to you. you the son of so-and-so, we know you well. You are mixing yourself up in matters, you are spoiling your career as an engineer. We want to give you some advice. We have nothing against the Portuguese (Americans), we are all Portuguese (Americans).’ For such as those there is no cure. The vast majority of the petty bourgeoisie (middle class blacks) are undecided, were undecided and certainly are still undecided today, because they think: ‘Cabral comes along with his schemes with his followers, and in fact it would be good if we could chase out the Portuguese, but….’ This is a group, a large group of petty bourgeoisie (middle class blacks), who have their pay packet at the end of the month. Their wish in fact is that the Portuguese (Americans) would go away, but they are afraid, because they do not know if we can really win. ‘Cabral comes along with his followers, with his schemes, but what if we lose?We lose our refrigerator,our pay at the end of the month, our radio, our dream of going to Portugal for holidays.’ Those holidays in Portugal are so that they can come back afterwards to boast about them, to brag. (Black Americans who go to places like Jamaica and the Bahamas for vacation but have little interest in the lives of the majority of black people on those islands). All this keeps them undecided, on the fence. But there is a smaller group who from the start rose with the idea of struggling against Portuguese (American) colonialism, and ready to die if necessary. And it is from this group that persons came who adhered to the Party. . . . And what about the salaried workers? The majority are sympathetic to the struggle, at least at the beginning. . . . But in this group also there are some who do not want to struggle, who are sympathetic to colonialism. And in the group who have nothing to do, who do not have jobs, we have not usually found elements for the struggle. Generally many of them serve as agents of PIDE, while others are moderate. In the case of Guine, specifically, it should be noted that there is a group who come between the petty bourgeoisie and the salaried workers, and I do not really know what name to give them. Many lads without steady work, who can read and write, who work here and there, and who often live at the expense of an uncle in the city but who are in permanent contact with the colonialist. Footballers, a little dazzled by the Portuguese, but also a little humiliated, because despite being good players they cannot go to the dances as the Bissau International Sports Union…. These folk came to the struggle very readily. And they have played an important role in this struggle, because on the one hand they are of the city and on the other they are closely tied to the bush. They had nothing to lose except their football playing or some measly job. but they scarcely even wanted that job because they well knew that it was not worth much in allowing them to live (to strut) alongside the Portuguese (Americans). They want to strut alongside the Portuguese, but they want Africa as well. These are folk who have learned in the city how agreeable it is to have fine possessions, but who, because of the humiliation they suffer, feel that the Portuguese are superfluous. And the Party helped them to deepen their consciousness of this situation. And what about the bush? In the bush it all depends: if it is our Balanta society, there is no difficulty. . . . Balanta society is like this: the more land you work, the richer you are, but the wealth is not to be hoarded, it is to be spent, for one individual cannot be much more than another. That is the principle of Balanta society. . . . Each one rules in his own house and there is understanding among them. . . .As we have said, the Fula society, for example, or the Manjaco society are societies which have classes from the bottom to the top. With the Balanta it is not like that: anyone who holds his head very high is not respected any more, already wants to become a white man, etc. . . . In this bush society, a great number of Balanta adhered to the struggle, and this is not by accident, nor is it because Balanta are better than others. It is because of their type of society, a horizontal society, but of free men, who want to be free, who do not have oppression at the top, except the oppression of the Portuguese. The Balanta is his own man . . . .
The experience of colonial domination shows that, in an attempt to perpetuate exploitation, the colonizer not only creates a whole system of repression of the cultural life of the colonized people, but also develops the cultural alienation of a part of the population, either by supposed assimilation of indigenous persons, or by the creation of a social gulf between the aboriginal elites and the mass of the people. As a result of this process of division or of deepening divisions within the society, it follows that a considerable part of the population notably the urban or peasant 'petty bourgeoisie", assimilates the colonizer's mentality, and regards itself as culturally superior to the people to which it belongs and whose cultural values it ignores or despises. This situation, characteristic of the majority of colonized intellectuals, is crystallized to the extent that the social privileges of the assimilated or alienated group are increased with direct implications for the BEHAVIOR towards the liberation movement by the individuals in this group.
Our struggle is not mere words but action, and we must really struggle. You will recall that in the early 1960’s, many folk persuaded themselves that struggle meant speaking on the radio (posting on Facebook). . . .[T]he opportunists never did anything against the colonialists. . . Those were the olden days when persons rushed to see who could be the first to speak on the radio [post on Facebook).. As if that were the struggle. . . . The struggle is not a debate nor verbiage, whether written or spoken. Struggle is daily action against ourselves and against the enemy, action which changes and grows each day so as to take all the necessary forms to chase the Portuguese colonialists out of our land. . . . The fact that PAIGC had established the principle that the struggle must be waged seriously and that everyone, no matter who, must struggle, drove many folk away from the Party. . . . THE STRUGGLE UNITES, BUT IT ALSO SORTS OUT PERSONS, the struggle shows who is to be valued and who is worthless. Every comrade must be vigilant about himself, for the struggle is a SELECTIVE PROCESS; the struggle shows us to everyone, and show who we are. . . . .We are making an effort for the unworthy to improve, but we know who is worthy and who is not worthy; we even know who may tell a lie. . . . There are others of whom some are afraid, because they know that their only merit is the power they wield. . . . Whether we like it or not, the struggle operates a selection. Little by little, some pass through the sieve, others remain. . . . Only those will go forward who really want to struggle, those who in fact understand that the struggle constantly makes more demands and gives more responsibilities and who are therefore ready to give everything and demand nothing, except respect, dignity, and the opportunity to serve our people correctly. . . But for a struggle really to go forward, it must be organized and it can only really be organized by a vanguard leadership. . . . Leadership must go to the most aware men and women, whatever their origin, and wherever they come from: that is, to those who have the clearest concept of our reality and of the reality that our Party wants to create. We are not going to look to see where they come from, who they are and who their parents are. We are looking only at the following: do they know who we are, do they know what our land is, do they know what our Party wants to do in our land? Do they really want to do this, under the banner of our Party? So they should come to the fore and lead. Whoever is most aware of this should lead. We might be deceived today, or deceived tomorrow, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, it is practical experience which shows who is worthy and who is not. . . . Our struggle demands enlightened leadership and we have said that the best sons and daughters of our land must lead. . . .So far as we are able to think of our common problem, the problems of our people, of our own folk, putting in their right place our personal problems, and, if necessary, sacrificing our personal interests, we can achieve miracles. . . . It is not enough to say ‘I am African’ for us to say that person is our ally: these are mere phrases. We must ask him frankly: ‘Do you in fact want the independence of your people? Do you want to work for them? Do you really want our independence? Are you really opposed to Portuguese (American) colonialism? Do you help us? If the answers are yes, then you are our ally. . . . We can only genuinely achieve what we want in our land if we form a group of men and women who are strong, able not to cheat their comrades and not to lie, able to look their comrades straight in the eye . . . .Our criterion for friendship, ‘matiness’ or camaraderie, should be the following: you are worthy, respect the watchwords of the Party correctly, you are my comrade, you are my friend. If you do not do this, you had better go and join the opportunists or join the lackeys of the Portuguese (Americans) But our passion for friendship is so strong that comrades of ours who know that someone is an agent of the Portuguese are able to spend their time in his house, to frequent his house, to eat in his house, to drink in his house. Tell me if this is right. But comrades say: ‘I have known that person for a long time’, or “He is a relative of my mother’. This shows a lack of political awareness, or even a lack of awareness of the sacrifices that our people are making for the struggle. . . .Then we have this example: everyone knows that a given comrade has made a serious mistake in the Party, inside or outside the land, and was sent for. We are waiting for him. He arrives and all the comrades stand up with hugs, kisses and so on as if he were the best comrade in the world. What is this lack of awareness? What is this lack of sense of responsibility? If someone is unworthy, we must show him that he is unworthy. There is no friendship, there is no consideration for him. He must be cast aside.The time has come for us to be friends with those who are worthy, but those who are worthless cannot be our comrades, or friends. Anyone who betrays the Party, who tries to divide us, who makes plans to sabotage the Party, who serves the enemy, who consorts with the enemies of our Party can no longer sit with us, cannot eat with us from the same bowl, cannot drink from the same glass or mug, cannot sleep in the same bed. Either we are able to distinguish the worthy from the unworthy or it is not worth our while going on with our struggle as we are doing, because sooner or later we shall drown in a sea of great confusion of our own making. . . . What is essential is that we should be capable and devoted to our Party. We must identify totally with the interests of our Party. The first condition for improving our political work is to improve our political workers. . . . They must be such as reflect their conscious willingness to die for our Party by working from morning to night every day for our Party, dedicating their lives, which is much easier than dying. . .
For events have shown that the only social stratum capable both of having consciousness in the first place of the reality of imperialist domination and of handling the State apparatus inherited from that domination is the native petty bourgeoisie.. If we bear in mind the unpredictable characteristics and complexity of the trends naturally inherent in the economic situation of this social stratum or class, we find that this specific inevitability in our situation is yet another weakness of the national liberation movement. The colonial situation, which does not admit the development of a native pseudo-bourgeoisie and in which the mass of the people do not generally reach the necessary degree of political consciousness before the launching of the phenomenon of national liberation, offers the petty bourgeoisie the historical opportunity of leading the struggle against foreign (American) domination. By virtue of its objective and subjective position (higher standard of living than that of the masses, more frequent humiliation, higher grade of education and political culture, etc.) it is the stratum that soonest becomes aware of the need to rid itself of foreign domination. This historical responsibility is assumed by the sector of the petty bourgeoisie that, in the colonial context, one might call revolutionary, while the other sectors retain the characteristic hesitation of this class or ally themselves to the colonialist (America) so as to defend, albeit illusory their social position. The neocolonial situation, which postulates the elimination of the native pseudo-bourgeoisie so that national liberation is achieved, also offers the petty bourgeoisie the opportunity of playing a prominent - and even decisive - role in the struggle for the elimination of foreign domination. But in this case, by virtue of the relative advances made in the social structure, the function of leading the struggle is shared, to a greater or lesser extent, with the most enlightened sectors of the classes of workers and even with some elements of the national pseudo-bourgeoisie inspired by patriotic sentiment. The role of the sector of the petty bourgeoisie that takes part in leading the struggle is all the more important as it is clear that, in the neocolonial situation too, it is the most ready to assume these functions . . . In this case still, it is important to stress that the mission with which it is entrusted demands from this sector of the petty bourgeoisie a greater revolutionary consciousness, and the capacity for faithfully expressing the aspirations of the masses in each phase of the struggle and for identifying with them more and more. But, no matter the degree of revolutionary consciousness of the sector of the petty bourgeoisie called on to undertake this historical function, it cannot free itself from an objective reality: the petty bourgeoisie, as a service class (that is not directly involved in the process of production) does not have at its disposal the economic bases to guarantee the taking over of power for it. In fact history shows that whatever the role (often important) played by individuals coming from the petty bourgeoisie in the process of revolution, this class has never possessed political power. And it never could, since political power (the State) has its foundations in the economic capacity of the ruling class. In the circumstances of colonial and neocolonial society, this capacity is retained in the hands of two entities: imperialist capital and the native classes of workers. To maintain the power that national liberation puts in its hands, the petty bourgeoisie has only one road: to give free reign to its natural tendencies to become ‘bourgeois’ to allow the development of a bourgeoisie of bureaucrats and intermediaries in the trading system, to transform itself into a national pseudo-bourgeoisie, that is to deny the revolution and necessarily subject itself to imperialist capital. Now this corresponds to the neocolonial situation., that is to say, to betrayal of the objectives of national liberation.
In order not to betray these objectives, the petty bourgeoisie has only one road: to strengthen its revolutionary consciousness, to repudiate the temptations to become ‘bourgeois’ and the natural pretensions of its class mentality; to identify with the classes of workers, not to oppose the normal development of the process of revolution. this means that in order to play completely the part that falls to it in the national liberation struggle, the revolutionary petty bourgeoisie must be capable of committing suicide as a class, to be restored to life in the condition of a revolutionary worker completely identified with the deepest aspirations of the people to which he belongs. This alternative - to betray the revolution or to commit suicide as a class - constitutes the dilemma of the petty bourgeoisie in the general framework of the national liberation struggle. . . . This dependence necessarily draws our attention to the capacity of the leaders of the national liberation struggle to remain faithful to the principles and the fundamental cause of this struggle. This show us, to a certain extent, that if national liberation is essentially a political question, the conditions for its development stamp on it certain characteristics that belong to the sphere of morals.”
Amilcar Cabral, Unity and Struggle.
Today's women's history month feature is Trimechiah Lynette Rogers. Trimechiah, or Meca as close friends and family call her, was given her name by her mother and maternal grandmother. While not directly a biblical name, the ending of her name, "iah" is frequently found in the Old Testament of the Bible. The literal translation of her name means three eyes. The third eye (also called the mind's eye or inner eye) is a mystical and esoteric concept of a speculative invisible eye, usually depicted as located on the forehead, which provides perception beyond ordinary sight. This literal meaning resonates deeply with Trimechiah. Professionally co-workers and colleagues refer to her by her last name, Rogers, which is her preference, depending on who’s addressing her.
Trimechiah currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland but was born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia. She has worked in Law Enforcement for the past fourteen years. Currently, she serves on a special operations team as a Certified Hostage Negotiator. Trimechiah views learning as a continuous, lifelong journey. Her formal education prepared her for a present career; this educational journey began at Baltimore City Community College, where she obtained an Associate of Applied Science Degree as a Microcomputer Specialist. She continued her studies and received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Special Education from Coppin State University. After a break, Trimechiah went back to school and obtained a Master of Science Degree in Criminal Justice also from Coppin State University. In addition, she has a post-graduate certificate in Business. Her academic and professional credentials are extremely impressive. However, she also dedicates equal time to serving others and serving the community.
While in college, Trimechiah became a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. She is still a highly active member of the organization and has served in various leadership positions. She is also a member of the Order of the Eastern Star and is involved in her faith community. Besides her employment and community service activities, she also runs a small business specializing in tax preparation, developing professional documents, editing, tutoring, and consultation.
For fun, Trimechiah enjoys playing and watching sports; a big-time basketball fan, the NCAA men's and women's tournaments, and the NBA playoffs are a fascinating part of the sporting calendar. In addition to watching sports Trimechiah enjoys travel and engaging in intellectual conversation. She also loves to learn new things, read and watch documentaries that expand her knowledge base.
Trimechiah has always wanted to know more about her ancestry. It happened that during a trip to Ghana in 2011, she had the opportunity to meet and speak extensively with Dr. Ericka Bennett of Washington, D.C. Dr. Bennett was at the time living in Ghana and serving as Director of the W.E. B. Dubois Center in Accra. During her meeting with Dr. Bennett, they discussed many things, but one topic that they discussed moved her into action. That topic was discovering exactly where in Africa Trimechiah’s roots were. Upon her return, she decided to take the African Ancestry DNA test and trace her maternal and paternal ancestry. She had her father take the paternal test, and she took the maternal test. When the results were returned, she discovered that her maternal ancestry was 100% Balanta and her paternal was Yoruba. Learning that she had Balanta ancestry on her maternal side was somewhat of a shock as Trimechiah had spent considerable time in Ghana and learned about some of their customs and traditions. However, she has since been on a path to discover all the information she can about her Balanta Ancestry. When asked what she has learned about her Balanta Ancestry so far Trimechiah states,
As one who has always identified with being African, Trimechiah rejects the labels of African American and Black and chooses to connect her identity with that of the African global community. She embraces the ideals of Pan-Africanism and desires to see them put into practice. Part of that involves breaking down any barriers between Africans on the continent and those in the diaspora.
Trimechiah looks forward to one day very soon making her pilgrimage to the land of her ancestors and is currently making plans to do so. In the meantime, she is learning all she can and finding as many ways as possible to contribute to work being done to support the Balanta people worldwide.
Spectra is a woman of many interests, skills, and talents; for years now, she has splendidly blended her passion with her intuitive gifts. She has helped people heal and grow into the best version of themselves as a Certified Hypnotherapist, Advanced EFT Practitioner, Kemetic Reiki Healer & Past Life Regressionist. The ability to help people overcome past traumas, break addictions, and develop healthy and productive habits versus destructive ones is something that her therapy provides. Spectra became interested in hypnotherapy after successfully utilizing hypnosis to break her addiction to clove cigarettes. While admittedly not an obsessive smoker, she did not like the idea of being bound to anything. To quit smoking, a friend suggested she try hypnotherapy, and after one session, she was freed from her addiction. After overcoming her habit, she decided to learn the art and science of hypnotherapy so that she could help other people. After dedicating herself to intense learning and study in one of the best therapy schools in the country, Spectra became certified to help others. Healing from traumas and breaking addictions is something that Spectra believes every person of African descent in America could benefit from as we are all victims of generational trauma. She believes that this healing modality could be utilized in our repair. In addition to her passion for helping others, Spectra enjoys travel, music, concerts, festivals, the outdoors, and connecting with nature.
Originally from Southern Illinois, Spectra has been living on the West Coast for most of her adult life. She enjoys the weather and the opportunities she has been afforded in her current locale. Like all of us, Spectra has always had a longing to know precisely where her African roots were. To learn that, she decided to begin by tracing her father's ancestry. However, taking the test and learning her ancestry was at the time bittersweet. As soon as Spectra ordered the test from African Ancestry, her father became ill. Soon after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He took the test while he was in the hospital undergoing treatment. Sadly, he would pass away a short time after taking the African Ancestry test. He would not live to learn the results. Once Spectra received her results and learned she was Balanta, she wanted to share with her paternal relatives. She unexpectedly found that many of her family were less than enthusiastic upon discovering their ancestry; she knew her father would have been overjoyed with the discovery. However, this did not discourage her from desiring to know everything she could learn about her ancestry. She has been on that quest ever since discovering her ancestry.
Spectra's name is derived from the concepts of the light spectrum, visible and invisible and from the Kemetic concept of Amun. Claiming and affirming yourself versus having someone else decide your path for you has been a hallmark or Spectra’s journey thus far, and something that connects her with her father and a trait that connects her with her Balanta family worldwide.
You can learn more about Spectra and her hypnotherapy practice by visiting, Transcendence Hypnotherapy .
