A year ago the Metropolitan Police (on an operation that they inexplicably and mystifyingly called ‘intelligence-led’) murdered Mark Duggan while he was travelling in a taxi at Tottenham Hale in north London. The police then ran to a gullible media and lied that Mark Duggan had shot at them and a brave officer was only saved from certain death by the fortunate fact that the bullet hit his police-issue radio.
It transpired the police had shot at each other as well as Mark Duggan, who had not fired any shots and had no gunshot residue on his hands. An unfired gun was found 14ft away wrapped in a sock on the other side of a wall. Mark Duggan’s prints were not on it. The IPCC, who had publicly backed the original police version of events, had to admit that they had acted unprofessionally and had been too close to the police to monitor the information passed to them objectively. The police lies and obfuscations led to rising tensions that resulted in outbreaks of violence across England, six deaths, over 3,000 arrests (including many innocent people abused and brutalised by the police), many businesses and homes destroyed and millions of pounds worth of damage. No officer has been charged for the ensuing chaos for which they were the primary contributors. We have yet to hear from the taxi driver.
Regardless of Mark Duggan’s background we do not know who appointed the Metropolitan Police - or any British police force, prison warden, mental health orderly or security outfit for that matter - as judge, jury and executioner. Yet it seems that within 10 seconds of contact with them many Afrikan men find their life at risk through malicious violence and the mysterious development of heart conditions that neither, they, their family or friends ever knew they had.
More than 1,000 people (of all cultures) have passed away in custody in Britain since West Yorkshire Police murdered the Nigerian David Oluwale and threw his body in the River Aire in 1969. No officer has ever been convicted of murder or manslaughter in any of these cases despite overwhelming verbal and visual evidence – an escape rate even Harry Houdini would be proud of.
Recently, an inquest found that ‘the Metropolitan Police used more force than required’ in the case of Sean Rigg who was beaten to death between being in a police and Brixton Police Station. One officer said he never saw any cause for concern even though Sean had a history of schizophrenia, had been held in a ‘restraint’ position for eight minutes, longer than is advisable if you want the suspect to survive.
Christopher Alder also passed away within a police station in Hull in 1998. His final moments were captured on the police station CCTV as were the racial abuse and total lack of concern of Humberside Police officers. He entered the police van alert and dressed when he was arrested following an altercation in the town centre. He was carried unconscious out of the van and dumped on the station floor with his lower clothes around his ankles and his private parts exposed. There has been no explanation how this situation came about and whether he was sexually abused by the officers in the police van. The Crown Prosecution Service decided no police officers had any case to answer. Unbelievably, adding to his family’s trauma they were then given the body of an elderly Afrikan woman to bury while Christopher’s body lay in a mortuary for over a decade. This was not revealed until the end of last year. His body was returned, the woman’s body was exhumed and Christopher Alder’s body was buried earlier this year.
Colin Roach was killed by a shotgun to the head inside the notorious Stoke Newington Police Station, in London. No-one was charged and no officer ever explained why an officer was allowed to point a loaded shotgun at somebody within a police station. Contrary to repeated police cliches of ‘a few bad apples’ in the following years 44 officers from the station were found to have engaged in assaults, running brothels, money laundering, protection rackets, drug dealing and the routine framing of suspects. Officers actually served time for some of their outrageous criminal behaviour. For decades many Afrikans victims of these police had their lives destroyed. The station was renamed and the police don’t like anyone referring to it as Stoke Newington Police Station because of its history.
In April 2005 Azelle Rodney was shot in the head seven times in another ‘intelligence-led’ police operation while the back-seat passenger in a car in north-west London. Azelle was not a ‘suspect’ in the operation and was only in the car as he was out for a birthday celebration with the driver and front seat passenger. The police have refused to say why he was targeted. This was less than three months before the cold-blooded murder of the Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes on a Tube train who was similarly shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder with extreme prejudice. As in many other cases the police rushed to the media and claimed he was an Ethiopian terrorism suspect, had jumped a barrier at Stockwell Tube station and was wearing ‘unseasonal clothing’. Aside from the fact that to the best of our knowledge no police officer has ever been nominated to be a member of the fashion police it transpired Mr Menezes was wearing a normal lightweight denim jacket, had walked down the escalator like a normal passenger and was guilty of what can only be described as a case of the police’s perception / paranoia that he looked like a suspect i.e. they didn’t like ‘the look’ of him.
In that case the police admitted that the operation was a shambles and eventually apologised but refuse to give the same degree of respect to Azelle’s family. When you hear the police and others talking about being able to give evidence to inquests in secret they say it is for military deaths while on operation, terrorist-related cases and for their own safety but it is in fact to prevent the details of Azelle Rodney’s murder coming to light.
Angolan Jimmy Mubenga passed away from what is classed as positional asphyxia i.e. he was strangled and held in deadly forced restraint. G4S, the Olympic fiasco security firm, who were deporting him on a British Airways plane ignored his screams and howls that he could not breathe because they thought he was faking it!!! No officers will be charged over this tragedy.
There are many more cases of all manner of people being killed. Ian Tomlinson, a newspaper seller was walking home when a police officer hit him with a truncheon and pushed him over even though he offered no resistance. Within minutes Mr Tomlinson was dead. The police rushed to the media and claimed they had no contact with him before his passing. Their lies were exposed when The Guardian showed a video of the assault which a court recently decided did not contribute to the death. It turned out the officer was a thug with a long history of complaints for assaults and misbehaviour against him. He left the police to avoid a disciplinary case and rejoined within weeks with a clean slate free to terrorise the population protected by his weapons, his body armour, his fellow officers who condoned or engaged in similar behaviour and the force of the British legal system behind him.
In the early 1990s when we were managing a community centre in south London the local ‘beat officer’ tried to recruit us to work on their community sports ventures. We declined saying that we didn’t want to get involved with them because Carter Street Police station, the nearest one to where we then lived, was a death station. We expected him to disagree and defend his confederates but he just looked straight at us and said, ‘I know, but we are changing it.’ Within a couple of years they moved the station round the corner and renamed it Walworth. Whether you are a suspect, witness or victim of crime we would still not recommend you spend a minute longer in that building than you have to.
The police always spin out their clichés that they are just a reflection of the societies they police. If so then their callous disregard for the welfare and lives of Afrikan men, their underrating of Afrikan men’s intelligence to figure out what is unjustified persecution and their denigration of Afrikan men’s achievements explains the environment within which Afrikan men have to operate, why many business and social ventures fail and why many relationships are dysfunctional. That ‘society’ repeatedly condones heavy-handed racist policing and many people see the police as their protectors from the supposedly dangerous Afrikan man. That same disregard for the lives of Afrikan men can be seen in the reporting of natural disasters where women and children’s plight is more regularly focussed on and in war zones news is reported in a manner that assumes that all men are combatants and thus justifiable victims of the slaughter.
If your first reaction to Afrikan men is to find the worst thing to think of or the most negative thing to say then why would you want to talk to us? How can you expect Afrika and the Afrikan diaspora to develop if that is how you view half the population? How can you expect Afrikans to be successful in business and professional employment if your prejudices prevent those outcomes? Why does an Afrikan male child get considered ‘cute’ then without reason although they are the same person but are just chronologically older they inexplicably become a threat to society? Regardless of whether they have their own upright moral code, have their own wealth, are not obsessed with material trappings, are pacifist, only use violence in self-defence, are ill or have more interesting things to engage in than other people’s egocentrism and over-inflated sense of self-importance.
When we were 12 we took a conscious decision, based on the prejudice and stupidity we had already faced, that where possible we would limit all conversation and interactions with people who without reason perpetrated and perpetuated the one-dimensional stereotypes of Afrikan men as being feckless, criminal, sexual predators. We will interact with people on the level that they approach us based on what we know or can reasonably expect from them. We are more than prepared to give all people the benefit of the doubt and the opportunity to exhibit what we regard as sensible behaviour. Where the initial behaviour of Afrikan, European and Asiatic men and women falls into what we regard as unjustifiably anti-Afrikan we are not duty bound to give them any explanation for reducing our contact with them. We did not grow up in a Christian household so we do not have to engage in the redemption of people who continually denigrate Afrikan men unless we choose to do so. Likewise, we are not 24/7 social workers so we do not have to engage in their rehabilitation unless we choose to do so.
To be continued…
FORTHCOMING NUBIART PROFILES
NUBIART: Focus on arts, business, education, health, political developments and the media.
AUG PROMOS
~ ‘AFRO-BEAT SOUL SISTERS: THE LIJADU SISTERS AT AFRODISIA, NIGERIA, 1976-79’ - Lijadu Sisters. [Soul Jazz – Out Now] This is an excellent compilation from the twin sisters – Taiwo and Kehinde Lidaju – who in the late 1970s were the top-selling female group in Nigeria. The tracks are culled from the four albums they recorded for the Afrodisia label, ‘Danger’ (1976), ‘Mother Africa’ (1977), ‘Sunshine’ (1978) and ‘Horizon Unlimited’ (1979).
The Lidaju Sisters recorded their debut album for Decca Records in 1969. They then joined up with the drummer Ginger Baker and members of what would become Blo in a band called Salt that gigged around and played at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The band members they met would then go onto co-write, produce and back them on their Afrodisia albums which features a range of styles from Afrobeat, Juju, Afro-rock to more disco-influenced tracks. The earlier albums had a stripped down rock band format drums, bass / synth, guitar and horns with most of the instruments and production by Biddy Wright. However, ‘Horizon Unlimited’ has an expanded percussion section and backing from the likes of Lemmy Jackson which fills out the sound and firmly stamps it in the Afrobeat camp.
Every track here is quality from the funky ‘Danger’, that sets the scene for the quality of song-writing, harmonies and musicianship that was the sisters’ hallmark. There are other powerful and militant political tracks such as ‘Orere-Elejigbo’, ‘Life’s Gone Down Low’ and ‘Cashing In’ condemning political cynicism and fake revolutionaries. Other stand out tracks include the insistent groove of ‘Erora’ and ‘Bayi L’ense’ which comes closest to Afrobeat. At the more lighter side are the soft rock stylings of ‘Sunshine’ and ‘Come and Dance’ which treads the disco / soul makossa landscape. Just when you think the sisters couldn’t be any more talented and versatile they sign off with the love tune ‘Not Any Longer’.
NUBIART LIBRARY – AUG MEDIA
We will only review books we have read and DVDs we have seen and that are available at reasonable prices online or in shops or libraries. However, given the nature and current state of Afrikan publishing and production there may be books and films on this list that are worth the extra effort to track down.
~ ‘CONTRAS’CITY’ AND ‘BADOU BOY’. Dir: Djibril Diop Mambety [Raro Video] The first two films by the late Senegalese director are available from an Italian-based film distribution company.
‘Contras’City (City of Contrasts)’ is a short film of a tourist being shown the contrasts in Dakar. The stone grandeur of the French imperial colonial buildings which the new political class inherits are contrasted with the homes and markets of the ordinary Senegalese. It highlights how things have started to go wrong and the contradictions with nominal ‘independence’. Contradictions include a speech to ‘Grant Senegalese women full access to culture’ juxtaposed against glossy western magazines and when the tourist asks about the Mourid followers of Cheikh Amadou Bamba and why Muslims have given up their piety the guide replies that is because the Catholic westerners set up breweries. Mambety uses minimal dialogue throughout and then plays on it within the film by ending with a call for greater dialogue among peoples. The music by Djimbo Kouyate includes a version of the timeless classic ‘Cherie’.
‘Badou Boy / (Bad Boy / Bandit)’, Djibril Diop Mambety’s second film, is longer but continues on his trope of examining the contradictions between the customs of the French, Senegalese and Internationalism. It is shot in a documentary verite style looking at the life of a youth who becomes a bus conductor. He ‘speaks truth to power’ as he highlights the police brutality and political machinations. Through it all he still sticks to his culture and maintains his working class and regional loyalty.
The extras are in French and Italian only and they include a short interview with film director Mohamed Challouf about his friendship with Djibril Diop Mambety. But the main extra is Mohamed Challouf’s hour-long documentary ‘Ouaga Capitale del Cinema’ which he dedicated to Djibril Diop Mambety. Narrated by Fadhel Jaibi it has footage from the 1979, 1985 and 1999 Fespaco Film Festivals in Ouagadougou looking at how the festival has developed over the two decades.
It contains a stellar line-up of interviewees and clips of the films that have made Ouagadougou the prime place to go for Afrikan cinema: There are speeches from Burkina Faso’s former Minister of Culture and former President Thomas Sankara, filmed in 1985 before he was deposed in a coup d’etat. There are contributions from the co-founders of Fespaco Francois Bassolet and Alimata Salembere, Baba Hamia, the Director of Fespaco and from Claude Prieux, ex-director of CCF di Ouaga. The directors and actors interviewed include: Ousmane Sembene, Gaston Kabore, Souleymane Cisse, Ola Balogun, Nakysy Savane, Ai Keita, Ferid Boughedir, Mahama Johnson Traore and Kahelo Attia. There is also footage of live performances of Alpha Blondy and other cultural groups. On display is the artwork of Rasmane Ouedraogo and the clothes of the designer Oumou Sy.
The clips come from films that may have only had a limited cinema run in most countries yet are considered influential in the development of Afrikan cinema covering themes of colonialism, tradition, good governance, gender politics, mythology and cosmology such as: Gaston Kabore’s ‘Wend Kumi’; Fanta Regina Nacro’s ‘Puk Nini’ and ‘Le Truc de Konate’; Abderrahmane Sissako’s ‘La Vie Sur Terre’, ‘Le Jeu’ and ‘Octobre’; Wagdi Kamel’s ‘Atfal Ashams’; Idrissa Ouedraogo’s ‘Yam Daabo’; Femi Lasode’s ‘Sango’; and Henri Despards ‘Bal Poussiere’. With film this engaging and thought-provoking there is a lot of Afrikan production that we need to support to ensure they get the widest viewing and Afrikans realise they don’t have to accept being forcefed a diet of films that have little relevance do not reflect Afrikan cultural values and have no solutions to the issues we face.
~ ALKEBU-LAN REVIVALIST MOVEMENT MOSIAH MONTH. Mosiah is 31 days of observance and celebration of the life and legacy of the Most Eminent Prophet & King His Excellency Marcus Mosiah Garvey. In 1998, The Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement renamed & designated the 8th month of the year as Mosiah, coinciding with the birth month of the prophet & the UNIA-ACL’s International Convention of The Afrikan People of The World. Below is a list of events:
- ‘Hidden Colours: The Untold History’. Film screening and discussion. On Tues 7 Mosiah at 6-10pm.
- ‘Spirited Sistahood, The UNIA Blackprint & Building the NBPP. On Tues 14 Mosiah at 7-10pm.
- Mosiah Children’s Day. On Thurs 16 Mosiah at 12-6pm.
- Mosiah Day: Birthday of Papa Garvey, Special Libation and Reflections. On Fri 17 Mosiah at 12-3pm.
- ‘Garvey’s Liberia Project, Sabotage and the Enduring Curse on Afrika and Afrikans’. On Tues 21 Mosiah at 7-10pm.
All events at Mama Afrikan Kulcha Shap, 282 High Road Leyton, London, E10. Adm: Free (Donations Welcome) Tel: 020 8539 2154 / 07908 814 152. E-mail: arm6227@yahoo.co.uk
~ BLACK HISTORY STUDIES IN ASSOCIATION WITH PCS LEARNING CENTRE have organised film screenings and a quiz night to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of Marcus Mosiah Garvey (17 Aug 1887) and the 100th anniversary of his first visit to Britain in 1912.
~ ‘Marcus Garvey: The Promised Ship’. On Mon 13 Aug at 7-9pm. ‘The Promised Ship’ is a documentary that follows the oral history of the Black Star Line, a maritime venture undertaken by Marcus Garvey, the leader of the first massive Black Power movement of the 20th Century. The Black Star Line was a steamship line intended to bring Black people across the Atlantic in search of their lost homelands. The old townspeople of Limon in Costa Rica recall the impact this adventure had on the banana barons and workers of the time.
- ‘Marcus Garvey’. On Wed 15 Aug at 7-9pm. The film traces Marcus Garvey’s early successes in organising West Indian contract labour, to the phenomenal rise of his Universal Negro Improvement Association, which took America by storm in the 1920s. Garvey was a victim of his own success - he threatened the establishment enough for the FBI to infiltrate the organization. After his imprisonment he returned to Jamaica, then went to London, where he died aged 53. A giant of Afrikan politics and the key philosopher of Afrikan pride, his story is told by activist Mariamne Samad, UNIA members Roy Carson and Ruth Prescott and commentators Vivian Durham, Beverly Hamilton, Prof Rupert Lewis, Prof David Garrow and Sam Clayton. The documentary has a specially performed soundtrack by the legendary Mystic Revelation of Rastafari band.
- ‘Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary’. On Wed 22 Aug at 7-9pm. Did you know that both Malcolm X’s parents were Garveyites? Did you know that Elijah Muhammed, the leader of the Nation of Islam from 1934-1975 was a Garveyite and was inspired by Garvey’s movement? ‘Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary’ is a documentary of Malcolm’s life as a child up to when he was murdered. The film features a mix of interviews and lectures. Malcolm’s life is well chronicled in this documentary.
- Quiz Night: ‘No one remembers old Marcus Garvey’. On Wed 29 Aug at 7-9pm. Come test your knowledge of the achievements and legacy of the Rt Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey and his United Negro Improvement Association. Marcus Garvey inspired millions of Black people to unite, believe in themselves and work together towards the upliftment of our people. In the spirit of Kwanzaa, teams will be created on the night to promote ujima (collective work and responsibility).
All events at 7-9pm at the PCS Headquarters, 160 Falcon Road, Clapham Junction, London, SW11 2LN. Adm: £5. Tel / Fax: 020 8881 0660. Mobile: 07951 234 233. E-mail: info@blackhistorystudies.com
~ BLACK HISTORY WALKS AND LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY PRESENT. A series of events in honour of Mosiah (Marcus Garvey) month, African Remembrance Day and Pan-African Women’s Day. (Womens Day was founded as a celebration of the first Pan-African Women’s Conference in Tanzania in 1962 to honour the tremendous achievements of African women, and advocate for greater gender equality)
- ‘Symbolic Violence and Images of Black Women’. On Wed 8 Aug. This event is about female representation and Afrikan female identity. Dr Nathalie Montlouis shares her doctoral thesis and highlights black women as ‘Anansy’ in the promotion and diffusion of their own interests by content sharing websites. Interactive, with short videos, photos and rare documents to illustrate and discuss what it means to be a ‘Black woman’ in the 21st century. This event is a preview of a major conference on Afrikan women titled ‘Rebellion and Compliance of Womanhood within the African Diaspora’ taking place in Mar 2013. Feedback from the pilot session has been incorporated and will cover: ‘The African Queen’; ‘The sketel’; The label of domestic violence; The diktat of the ‘strong black woman’; Religion, make up and long sleeve; and It’s not raining men.
- ‘Slave Catchers, Slave Resisters’. On Wed 15 Aug. This film details how Afrikans resisted US enslavement through open rebellions, running away, the underground railroad, poisoning slavemasters, burning buildings, learning to read, political lobbying and total defiance in the face of torture and death.
- ‘The Walter Rodney Story’. On Wed 22 Aug. Profile of the author of the essential ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’. Walter Rodney was murdered on June 13, 1980, when a bomb disguised as a walkie talkie, given to him by Sergeant Gregory Smith of the Guyana Defence Force, exploded. Interviews with researchers Horace Campbell and Robert Hill, people who knew and worked with him, as well as his daughter. Asha.
- ‘Black Women and the Apartheid Uprisings’. On Wed 29 Aug. The recent anniversary of the Soweto Uprisings (June 16 1976) passed unnoticed in most media. Afrikan women played a crucial part in South Africa’s liberation from Apartheid but like many women freedom fighters in Afrika, their role has been under-reported and under-valued. This presentation is hosted by Dr June Bam-Huchison, a Khoi woman from South Africa and resistance leader who lived through the Soweto Uprisings and survived dragnets and death threats to become a member of the post-apartheid government. She is the author of ‘Peeping Through the Reeds’, a semi-autobiographical book of life in South Africa. She will cover: Methods of resistance; Methods of oppression: birth control and experimentation; Male-female relationships; Life in prison for men, and what it means for women; The role of female sex workers in the struggle; and Love and Liberation music.
All events at 6.30pm in Rm T11-03, London Metropolitan University (Tower Building) 166-220 Holloway Road, London, N7 8DB. E-mail: m.asantewa@londonmet.ac.uk or michelleyaa@yahoo.com Web: www.blackhistorywalks.co.uk
~ AFRICAN WOMEN RESISTANCE LEADERS 1600 TO 2012. Out of respect for Fela Kuti’s mother (a feminist and Lenin Peace Prize winner who was thrown out of a window and later died) and in honour of Pan African Women’s Day, 3 hours of the Afrikan women who are normally left out of history. We detail the specific obstacles faced by Afrikan women from colonial times to now and illustrate how they fought and won battles using pens, protests or pistols. A fun-filled, informative, interactive event with more than 50 Afrikan women heroes from Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Australia, Haiti, French Guyana, Ethiopia, England, Congo, Barbados, Somalia, Ghana, and more. On Fri 17 Aug at 6.30-9.15pm in The Blue Room, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, London, SE1. Adm: Free. Web: www.bfi.org.uk
~ AFRICAN ODYSSEYS. ‘Fela: Fresh from Africa’ (2006. USA. Directed by Edward Jaheed Ashley. 90min), A portrait of the legendary Fela Kuti in his spectacular prime in the mid-80s. Filled with rare interview and performance footage, it offers insight into his philosophy and religion and his battles against political corruption. Fela Kuti’s former manager Rikki Stein will be attending and hopes to bring other special guests. Plus ‘Ancestral Voices: Esoteric African Knowledge’ (2011. UK. Directed by Verona Spence & Dalian Adofo. 73min). Perspectives on traditional African religion. On Sat 18 Aug at 2pm at BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, London, SE1. Adm: £5. Box Office: Web: www.bfi.org.uk
Water Cargo, 2012
~ OCTOBER GALLERY PRESENT ROMUALD HAZOUMÈ: CARGOLAND. ‘Cargoland’ is Beninois Hazoumè’s bringing together of two large-scale installations, masks and photographs that have never been seen before in Britain. His practice often engages deeply with local and international history to deliver incisive, sharp social commentary. Until 11 Aug (Tues-Fri) at 12.30- 5.30pm at October Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1N 3AL. Adm: Free. Web: www.octobergallery.co.uk
~ ‘JOURNEYS AND KINSHIP’ EXHIBITION. Is the face not currency enough? This display of face casts responds to the irony that members of the African Diaspora must pay to visit sites from which their ancestors were transported into enslavement. ‘Journeys and Kinship’ explores further the themes of the London, Sugar & Slavery gallery at the Museum of London Docklands through a project between the visual artist Jean Joseph and a group of young Londoners working together with Calypsonian, Alexander D Great, and Yvonne Wilson from Equi-Vison. Until 4 Nov 2012 at Museum of London, Docklands 1 Warehouse, West India Quay, London, E14 4AL. Tel: 020 7001 9844. Adm: Free. Web: http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Docklands/Whats-on/Exhibitions-Displays/JourneysandKinship.htm
Contact: Kubara Zamani, Afrikan Quest International, PO Box 35165, London, SE5 8WU. Tel: 07811 494 969. E-mail: afrikanquest@hotmail.com Web: www.southwark.tv/quest/aqhome.asp
External Links
Afrikan Quest International
It transpired the police had shot at each other as well as Mark Duggan, who had not fired any shots and had no gunshot residue on his hands. An unfired gun was found 14ft away wrapped in a sock on the other side of a wall. Mark Duggan’s prints were not on it. The IPCC, who had publicly backed the original police version of events, had to admit that they had acted unprofessionally and had been too close to the police to monitor the information passed to them objectively. The police lies and obfuscations led to rising tensions that resulted in outbreaks of violence across England, six deaths, over 3,000 arrests (including many innocent people abused and brutalised by the police), many businesses and homes destroyed and millions of pounds worth of damage. No officer has been charged for the ensuing chaos for which they were the primary contributors. We have yet to hear from the taxi driver.
Regardless of Mark Duggan’s background we do not know who appointed the Metropolitan Police - or any British police force, prison warden, mental health orderly or security outfit for that matter - as judge, jury and executioner. Yet it seems that within 10 seconds of contact with them many Afrikan men find their life at risk through malicious violence and the mysterious development of heart conditions that neither, they, their family or friends ever knew they had.
More than 1,000 people (of all cultures) have passed away in custody in Britain since West Yorkshire Police murdered the Nigerian David Oluwale and threw his body in the River Aire in 1969. No officer has ever been convicted of murder or manslaughter in any of these cases despite overwhelming verbal and visual evidence – an escape rate even Harry Houdini would be proud of.
Recently, an inquest found that ‘the Metropolitan Police used more force than required’ in the case of Sean Rigg who was beaten to death between being in a police and Brixton Police Station. One officer said he never saw any cause for concern even though Sean had a history of schizophrenia, had been held in a ‘restraint’ position for eight minutes, longer than is advisable if you want the suspect to survive.
Christopher Alder also passed away within a police station in Hull in 1998. His final moments were captured on the police station CCTV as were the racial abuse and total lack of concern of Humberside Police officers. He entered the police van alert and dressed when he was arrested following an altercation in the town centre. He was carried unconscious out of the van and dumped on the station floor with his lower clothes around his ankles and his private parts exposed. There has been no explanation how this situation came about and whether he was sexually abused by the officers in the police van. The Crown Prosecution Service decided no police officers had any case to answer. Unbelievably, adding to his family’s trauma they were then given the body of an elderly Afrikan woman to bury while Christopher’s body lay in a mortuary for over a decade. This was not revealed until the end of last year. His body was returned, the woman’s body was exhumed and Christopher Alder’s body was buried earlier this year.
Colin Roach was killed by a shotgun to the head inside the notorious Stoke Newington Police Station, in London. No-one was charged and no officer ever explained why an officer was allowed to point a loaded shotgun at somebody within a police station. Contrary to repeated police cliches of ‘a few bad apples’ in the following years 44 officers from the station were found to have engaged in assaults, running brothels, money laundering, protection rackets, drug dealing and the routine framing of suspects. Officers actually served time for some of their outrageous criminal behaviour. For decades many Afrikans victims of these police had their lives destroyed. The station was renamed and the police don’t like anyone referring to it as Stoke Newington Police Station because of its history.
In April 2005 Azelle Rodney was shot in the head seven times in another ‘intelligence-led’ police operation while the back-seat passenger in a car in north-west London. Azelle was not a ‘suspect’ in the operation and was only in the car as he was out for a birthday celebration with the driver and front seat passenger. The police have refused to say why he was targeted. This was less than three months before the cold-blooded murder of the Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes on a Tube train who was similarly shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder with extreme prejudice. As in many other cases the police rushed to the media and claimed he was an Ethiopian terrorism suspect, had jumped a barrier at Stockwell Tube station and was wearing ‘unseasonal clothing’. Aside from the fact that to the best of our knowledge no police officer has ever been nominated to be a member of the fashion police it transpired Mr Menezes was wearing a normal lightweight denim jacket, had walked down the escalator like a normal passenger and was guilty of what can only be described as a case of the police’s perception / paranoia that he looked like a suspect i.e. they didn’t like ‘the look’ of him.
In that case the police admitted that the operation was a shambles and eventually apologised but refuse to give the same degree of respect to Azelle’s family. When you hear the police and others talking about being able to give evidence to inquests in secret they say it is for military deaths while on operation, terrorist-related cases and for their own safety but it is in fact to prevent the details of Azelle Rodney’s murder coming to light.
Angolan Jimmy Mubenga passed away from what is classed as positional asphyxia i.e. he was strangled and held in deadly forced restraint. G4S, the Olympic fiasco security firm, who were deporting him on a British Airways plane ignored his screams and howls that he could not breathe because they thought he was faking it!!! No officers will be charged over this tragedy.
There are many more cases of all manner of people being killed. Ian Tomlinson, a newspaper seller was walking home when a police officer hit him with a truncheon and pushed him over even though he offered no resistance. Within minutes Mr Tomlinson was dead. The police rushed to the media and claimed they had no contact with him before his passing. Their lies were exposed when The Guardian showed a video of the assault which a court recently decided did not contribute to the death. It turned out the officer was a thug with a long history of complaints for assaults and misbehaviour against him. He left the police to avoid a disciplinary case and rejoined within weeks with a clean slate free to terrorise the population protected by his weapons, his body armour, his fellow officers who condoned or engaged in similar behaviour and the force of the British legal system behind him.
In the early 1990s when we were managing a community centre in south London the local ‘beat officer’ tried to recruit us to work on their community sports ventures. We declined saying that we didn’t want to get involved with them because Carter Street Police station, the nearest one to where we then lived, was a death station. We expected him to disagree and defend his confederates but he just looked straight at us and said, ‘I know, but we are changing it.’ Within a couple of years they moved the station round the corner and renamed it Walworth. Whether you are a suspect, witness or victim of crime we would still not recommend you spend a minute longer in that building than you have to.
The police always spin out their clichés that they are just a reflection of the societies they police. If so then their callous disregard for the welfare and lives of Afrikan men, their underrating of Afrikan men’s intelligence to figure out what is unjustified persecution and their denigration of Afrikan men’s achievements explains the environment within which Afrikan men have to operate, why many business and social ventures fail and why many relationships are dysfunctional. That ‘society’ repeatedly condones heavy-handed racist policing and many people see the police as their protectors from the supposedly dangerous Afrikan man. That same disregard for the lives of Afrikan men can be seen in the reporting of natural disasters where women and children’s plight is more regularly focussed on and in war zones news is reported in a manner that assumes that all men are combatants and thus justifiable victims of the slaughter.
If your first reaction to Afrikan men is to find the worst thing to think of or the most negative thing to say then why would you want to talk to us? How can you expect Afrika and the Afrikan diaspora to develop if that is how you view half the population? How can you expect Afrikans to be successful in business and professional employment if your prejudices prevent those outcomes? Why does an Afrikan male child get considered ‘cute’ then without reason although they are the same person but are just chronologically older they inexplicably become a threat to society? Regardless of whether they have their own upright moral code, have their own wealth, are not obsessed with material trappings, are pacifist, only use violence in self-defence, are ill or have more interesting things to engage in than other people’s egocentrism and over-inflated sense of self-importance.
When we were 12 we took a conscious decision, based on the prejudice and stupidity we had already faced, that where possible we would limit all conversation and interactions with people who without reason perpetrated and perpetuated the one-dimensional stereotypes of Afrikan men as being feckless, criminal, sexual predators. We will interact with people on the level that they approach us based on what we know or can reasonably expect from them. We are more than prepared to give all people the benefit of the doubt and the opportunity to exhibit what we regard as sensible behaviour. Where the initial behaviour of Afrikan, European and Asiatic men and women falls into what we regard as unjustifiably anti-Afrikan we are not duty bound to give them any explanation for reducing our contact with them. We did not grow up in a Christian household so we do not have to engage in the redemption of people who continually denigrate Afrikan men unless we choose to do so. Likewise, we are not 24/7 social workers so we do not have to engage in their rehabilitation unless we choose to do so.
To be continued…
FORTHCOMING NUBIART PROFILES
NUBIART: Focus on arts, business, education, health, political developments and the media.
AUG PROMOS
~ ‘AFRO-BEAT SOUL SISTERS: THE LIJADU SISTERS AT AFRODISIA, NIGERIA, 1976-79’ - Lijadu Sisters. [Soul Jazz – Out Now] This is an excellent compilation from the twin sisters – Taiwo and Kehinde Lidaju – who in the late 1970s were the top-selling female group in Nigeria. The tracks are culled from the four albums they recorded for the Afrodisia label, ‘Danger’ (1976), ‘Mother Africa’ (1977), ‘Sunshine’ (1978) and ‘Horizon Unlimited’ (1979).
The Lidaju Sisters recorded their debut album for Decca Records in 1969. They then joined up with the drummer Ginger Baker and members of what would become Blo in a band called Salt that gigged around and played at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The band members they met would then go onto co-write, produce and back them on their Afrodisia albums which features a range of styles from Afrobeat, Juju, Afro-rock to more disco-influenced tracks. The earlier albums had a stripped down rock band format drums, bass / synth, guitar and horns with most of the instruments and production by Biddy Wright. However, ‘Horizon Unlimited’ has an expanded percussion section and backing from the likes of Lemmy Jackson which fills out the sound and firmly stamps it in the Afrobeat camp.
Every track here is quality from the funky ‘Danger’, that sets the scene for the quality of song-writing, harmonies and musicianship that was the sisters’ hallmark. There are other powerful and militant political tracks such as ‘Orere-Elejigbo’, ‘Life’s Gone Down Low’ and ‘Cashing In’ condemning political cynicism and fake revolutionaries. Other stand out tracks include the insistent groove of ‘Erora’ and ‘Bayi L’ense’ which comes closest to Afrobeat. At the more lighter side are the soft rock stylings of ‘Sunshine’ and ‘Come and Dance’ which treads the disco / soul makossa landscape. Just when you think the sisters couldn’t be any more talented and versatile they sign off with the love tune ‘Not Any Longer’.
NUBIART LIBRARY – AUG MEDIA
We will only review books we have read and DVDs we have seen and that are available at reasonable prices online or in shops or libraries. However, given the nature and current state of Afrikan publishing and production there may be books and films on this list that are worth the extra effort to track down.
~ ‘CONTRAS’CITY’ AND ‘BADOU BOY’. Dir: Djibril Diop Mambety [Raro Video] The first two films by the late Senegalese director are available from an Italian-based film distribution company.
‘Contras’City (City of Contrasts)’ is a short film of a tourist being shown the contrasts in Dakar. The stone grandeur of the French imperial colonial buildings which the new political class inherits are contrasted with the homes and markets of the ordinary Senegalese. It highlights how things have started to go wrong and the contradictions with nominal ‘independence’. Contradictions include a speech to ‘Grant Senegalese women full access to culture’ juxtaposed against glossy western magazines and when the tourist asks about the Mourid followers of Cheikh Amadou Bamba and why Muslims have given up their piety the guide replies that is because the Catholic westerners set up breweries. Mambety uses minimal dialogue throughout and then plays on it within the film by ending with a call for greater dialogue among peoples. The music by Djimbo Kouyate includes a version of the timeless classic ‘Cherie’.
‘Badou Boy / (Bad Boy / Bandit)’, Djibril Diop Mambety’s second film, is longer but continues on his trope of examining the contradictions between the customs of the French, Senegalese and Internationalism. It is shot in a documentary verite style looking at the life of a youth who becomes a bus conductor. He ‘speaks truth to power’ as he highlights the police brutality and political machinations. Through it all he still sticks to his culture and maintains his working class and regional loyalty.
The extras are in French and Italian only and they include a short interview with film director Mohamed Challouf about his friendship with Djibril Diop Mambety. But the main extra is Mohamed Challouf’s hour-long documentary ‘Ouaga Capitale del Cinema’ which he dedicated to Djibril Diop Mambety. Narrated by Fadhel Jaibi it has footage from the 1979, 1985 and 1999 Fespaco Film Festivals in Ouagadougou looking at how the festival has developed over the two decades.
It contains a stellar line-up of interviewees and clips of the films that have made Ouagadougou the prime place to go for Afrikan cinema: There are speeches from Burkina Faso’s former Minister of Culture and former President Thomas Sankara, filmed in 1985 before he was deposed in a coup d’etat. There are contributions from the co-founders of Fespaco Francois Bassolet and Alimata Salembere, Baba Hamia, the Director of Fespaco and from Claude Prieux, ex-director of CCF di Ouaga. The directors and actors interviewed include: Ousmane Sembene, Gaston Kabore, Souleymane Cisse, Ola Balogun, Nakysy Savane, Ai Keita, Ferid Boughedir, Mahama Johnson Traore and Kahelo Attia. There is also footage of live performances of Alpha Blondy and other cultural groups. On display is the artwork of Rasmane Ouedraogo and the clothes of the designer Oumou Sy.
The clips come from films that may have only had a limited cinema run in most countries yet are considered influential in the development of Afrikan cinema covering themes of colonialism, tradition, good governance, gender politics, mythology and cosmology such as: Gaston Kabore’s ‘Wend Kumi’; Fanta Regina Nacro’s ‘Puk Nini’ and ‘Le Truc de Konate’; Abderrahmane Sissako’s ‘La Vie Sur Terre’, ‘Le Jeu’ and ‘Octobre’; Wagdi Kamel’s ‘Atfal Ashams’; Idrissa Ouedraogo’s ‘Yam Daabo’; Femi Lasode’s ‘Sango’; and Henri Despards ‘Bal Poussiere’. With film this engaging and thought-provoking there is a lot of Afrikan production that we need to support to ensure they get the widest viewing and Afrikans realise they don’t have to accept being forcefed a diet of films that have little relevance do not reflect Afrikan cultural values and have no solutions to the issues we face.
Afrikan Quest international
Nubiart Diary
~ ALKEBU-LAN REVIVALIST MOVEMENT MOSIAH MONTH. Mosiah is 31 days of observance and celebration of the life and legacy of the Most Eminent Prophet & King His Excellency Marcus Mosiah Garvey. In 1998, The Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement renamed & designated the 8th month of the year as Mosiah, coinciding with the birth month of the prophet & the UNIA-ACL’s International Convention of The Afrikan People of The World. Below is a list of events:- ‘Hidden Colours: The Untold History’. Film screening and discussion. On Tues 7 Mosiah at 6-10pm.
- ‘Spirited Sistahood, The UNIA Blackprint & Building the NBPP. On Tues 14 Mosiah at 7-10pm.
- Mosiah Children’s Day. On Thurs 16 Mosiah at 12-6pm.
- Mosiah Day: Birthday of Papa Garvey, Special Libation and Reflections. On Fri 17 Mosiah at 12-3pm.
- ‘Garvey’s Liberia Project, Sabotage and the Enduring Curse on Afrika and Afrikans’. On Tues 21 Mosiah at 7-10pm.
All events at Mama Afrikan Kulcha Shap, 282 High Road Leyton, London, E10. Adm: Free (Donations Welcome) Tel: 020 8539 2154 / 07908 814 152. E-mail: arm6227@yahoo.co.uk
~ BLACK HISTORY STUDIES IN ASSOCIATION WITH PCS LEARNING CENTRE have organised film screenings and a quiz night to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of Marcus Mosiah Garvey (17 Aug 1887) and the 100th anniversary of his first visit to Britain in 1912.
~ ‘Marcus Garvey: The Promised Ship’. On Mon 13 Aug at 7-9pm. ‘The Promised Ship’ is a documentary that follows the oral history of the Black Star Line, a maritime venture undertaken by Marcus Garvey, the leader of the first massive Black Power movement of the 20th Century. The Black Star Line was a steamship line intended to bring Black people across the Atlantic in search of their lost homelands. The old townspeople of Limon in Costa Rica recall the impact this adventure had on the banana barons and workers of the time.
- ‘Marcus Garvey’. On Wed 15 Aug at 7-9pm. The film traces Marcus Garvey’s early successes in organising West Indian contract labour, to the phenomenal rise of his Universal Negro Improvement Association, which took America by storm in the 1920s. Garvey was a victim of his own success - he threatened the establishment enough for the FBI to infiltrate the organization. After his imprisonment he returned to Jamaica, then went to London, where he died aged 53. A giant of Afrikan politics and the key philosopher of Afrikan pride, his story is told by activist Mariamne Samad, UNIA members Roy Carson and Ruth Prescott and commentators Vivian Durham, Beverly Hamilton, Prof Rupert Lewis, Prof David Garrow and Sam Clayton. The documentary has a specially performed soundtrack by the legendary Mystic Revelation of Rastafari band.
- ‘Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary’. On Wed 22 Aug at 7-9pm. Did you know that both Malcolm X’s parents were Garveyites? Did you know that Elijah Muhammed, the leader of the Nation of Islam from 1934-1975 was a Garveyite and was inspired by Garvey’s movement? ‘Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary’ is a documentary of Malcolm’s life as a child up to when he was murdered. The film features a mix of interviews and lectures. Malcolm’s life is well chronicled in this documentary.
- Quiz Night: ‘No one remembers old Marcus Garvey’. On Wed 29 Aug at 7-9pm. Come test your knowledge of the achievements and legacy of the Rt Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey and his United Negro Improvement Association. Marcus Garvey inspired millions of Black people to unite, believe in themselves and work together towards the upliftment of our people. In the spirit of Kwanzaa, teams will be created on the night to promote ujima (collective work and responsibility).
All events at 7-9pm at the PCS Headquarters, 160 Falcon Road, Clapham Junction, London, SW11 2LN. Adm: £5. Tel / Fax: 020 8881 0660. Mobile: 07951 234 233. E-mail: info@blackhistorystudies.com
~ BLACK HISTORY WALKS AND LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY PRESENT. A series of events in honour of Mosiah (Marcus Garvey) month, African Remembrance Day and Pan-African Women’s Day. (Womens Day was founded as a celebration of the first Pan-African Women’s Conference in Tanzania in 1962 to honour the tremendous achievements of African women, and advocate for greater gender equality)
- ‘Symbolic Violence and Images of Black Women’. On Wed 8 Aug. This event is about female representation and Afrikan female identity. Dr Nathalie Montlouis shares her doctoral thesis and highlights black women as ‘Anansy’ in the promotion and diffusion of their own interests by content sharing websites. Interactive, with short videos, photos and rare documents to illustrate and discuss what it means to be a ‘Black woman’ in the 21st century. This event is a preview of a major conference on Afrikan women titled ‘Rebellion and Compliance of Womanhood within the African Diaspora’ taking place in Mar 2013. Feedback from the pilot session has been incorporated and will cover: ‘The African Queen’; ‘The sketel’; The label of domestic violence; The diktat of the ‘strong black woman’; Religion, make up and long sleeve; and It’s not raining men.
- ‘Slave Catchers, Slave Resisters’. On Wed 15 Aug. This film details how Afrikans resisted US enslavement through open rebellions, running away, the underground railroad, poisoning slavemasters, burning buildings, learning to read, political lobbying and total defiance in the face of torture and death.
- ‘The Walter Rodney Story’. On Wed 22 Aug. Profile of the author of the essential ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’. Walter Rodney was murdered on June 13, 1980, when a bomb disguised as a walkie talkie, given to him by Sergeant Gregory Smith of the Guyana Defence Force, exploded. Interviews with researchers Horace Campbell and Robert Hill, people who knew and worked with him, as well as his daughter. Asha.
- ‘Black Women and the Apartheid Uprisings’. On Wed 29 Aug. The recent anniversary of the Soweto Uprisings (June 16 1976) passed unnoticed in most media. Afrikan women played a crucial part in South Africa’s liberation from Apartheid but like many women freedom fighters in Afrika, their role has been under-reported and under-valued. This presentation is hosted by Dr June Bam-Huchison, a Khoi woman from South Africa and resistance leader who lived through the Soweto Uprisings and survived dragnets and death threats to become a member of the post-apartheid government. She is the author of ‘Peeping Through the Reeds’, a semi-autobiographical book of life in South Africa. She will cover: Methods of resistance; Methods of oppression: birth control and experimentation; Male-female relationships; Life in prison for men, and what it means for women; The role of female sex workers in the struggle; and Love and Liberation music.
All events at 6.30pm in Rm T11-03, London Metropolitan University (Tower Building) 166-220 Holloway Road, London, N7 8DB. E-mail: m.asantewa@londonmet.ac.uk or michelleyaa@yahoo.com Web: www.blackhistorywalks.co.uk
~ AFRICAN WOMEN RESISTANCE LEADERS 1600 TO 2012. Out of respect for Fela Kuti’s mother (a feminist and Lenin Peace Prize winner who was thrown out of a window and later died) and in honour of Pan African Women’s Day, 3 hours of the Afrikan women who are normally left out of history. We detail the specific obstacles faced by Afrikan women from colonial times to now and illustrate how they fought and won battles using pens, protests or pistols. A fun-filled, informative, interactive event with more than 50 Afrikan women heroes from Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Australia, Haiti, French Guyana, Ethiopia, England, Congo, Barbados, Somalia, Ghana, and more. On Fri 17 Aug at 6.30-9.15pm in The Blue Room, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, London, SE1. Adm: Free. Web: www.bfi.org.uk
~ AFRICAN ODYSSEYS. ‘Fela: Fresh from Africa’ (2006. USA. Directed by Edward Jaheed Ashley. 90min), A portrait of the legendary Fela Kuti in his spectacular prime in the mid-80s. Filled with rare interview and performance footage, it offers insight into his philosophy and religion and his battles against political corruption. Fela Kuti’s former manager Rikki Stein will be attending and hopes to bring other special guests. Plus ‘Ancestral Voices: Esoteric African Knowledge’ (2011. UK. Directed by Verona Spence & Dalian Adofo. 73min). Perspectives on traditional African religion. On Sat 18 Aug at 2pm at BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, London, SE1. Adm: £5. Box Office: Web: www.bfi.org.uk
Water Cargo, 2012
~ OCTOBER GALLERY PRESENT ROMUALD HAZOUMÈ: CARGOLAND. ‘Cargoland’ is Beninois Hazoumè’s bringing together of two large-scale installations, masks and photographs that have never been seen before in Britain. His practice often engages deeply with local and international history to deliver incisive, sharp social commentary. Until 11 Aug (Tues-Fri) at 12.30- 5.30pm at October Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1N 3AL. Adm: Free. Web: www.octobergallery.co.uk
~ ‘JOURNEYS AND KINSHIP’ EXHIBITION. Is the face not currency enough? This display of face casts responds to the irony that members of the African Diaspora must pay to visit sites from which their ancestors were transported into enslavement. ‘Journeys and Kinship’ explores further the themes of the London, Sugar & Slavery gallery at the Museum of London Docklands through a project between the visual artist Jean Joseph and a group of young Londoners working together with Calypsonian, Alexander D Great, and Yvonne Wilson from Equi-Vison. Until 4 Nov 2012 at Museum of London, Docklands 1 Warehouse, West India Quay, London, E14 4AL. Tel: 020 7001 9844. Adm: Free. Web: http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Docklands/Whats-on/Exhibitions-Displays/JourneysandKinship.htm
Contact: Kubara Zamani, Afrikan Quest International, PO Box 35165, London, SE5 8WU. Tel: 07811 494 969. E-mail: afrikanquest@hotmail.com Web: www.southwark.tv/quest/aqhome.asp
External Links
Afrikan Quest International
Ligali is not responsible for the content of third party sites
Speak Out!
Click here to speak out or read (2) comments about this articleThe police always spin out their clichés that they are just a reflection of the societies they police. If so then their callous unjustified persecution of Afrikan men explains the environment within which Afrikan men have to operate.
See Related:
Get involved and help change our world