NIGERIAN PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN ON BOOK HARAM
FW: [AFRICANWORLDFORUM] NIGERIAN WEST / SAUDI ELITE W/ JONATHAN - PAWNS FOR THE WAR ON AFRICA
Sent: Sun, May 18, 2014 3:57 am
Subject: [africanworldforum] Boko Haram started in 2002 and it insurgency in 2009 - President Jonathan
Boko Haram has killed over 12,000 Nigerians, plans to take over country, Jonathan says
“This unconventional war has so far claimed over twelve thousand lives, with more than 8, 000 persons injured or maimed, not to mention the displacement of thousands of innocent Nigerians,” he said.
President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday said the Boko Haram insurgent’s ultimate plan is to “destabilize the country, and take over Nigeria.”
Mr. Jonathan said this at the “Regional Summit on Security in Nigeria,” held in France and attended by leaders of some of Nigeria’s neighbours including Benin, Chad, Niger Republic, and Cameroon; as well as the French President, Francois Hollande, U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, and other world leaders.
The Nigerian president told his audience that the Boko Haram is “hostile to democracy.”
“it uses every means to indoctrinate its members; its ultimate objective is to destabilize the country, and take over Nigeria in order to turn it into a base of operation in West Africa and the entire continent,” Mr. Jonathan said.
The president also spoke on the abduction of over 250 girls from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 14; and the government’s efforts to free them.
“The major challenge that we have faced in our search and rescue operation so far has been the deluge of misinformation about the whereabouts of the girls and the circumstances of their disappearance,” Mr. Jonathan said. “We have deployed about 20,000 troops to the area, intensified aerial surveillance, and strengthened local intelligence resources.
“We shall spare no effort, we shall explore every avenue; we shall turn every stone, to ensure the return of the girls to their families and that the terrorists are defeated.”
Mr. Jonathan sought the assistance of the international community in defeating the Boko Haram, saying the group has caused the death of over 12,000 Nigerians since its insurgency began in 2009.
“This unconventional war has so far claimed over twelve thousand lives, with more than 8, 000 persons injured or maimed, not to mention the displacement of thousands of innocent Nigerians,” he said.
Read Mr. Jonathan’s full presentation below:
ADDRESS By PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN, GCFR President Federal Republic of Nigeria AT THE REGIONAL SUMMIT ON SECURITY IN NIGERIA PARIS, FRANCE – SATURDAY 17TH MAY 2014
PROTOCOL:
1. It gives me great pleasure to attend this Special Summit to deliberate on the current security situation in Nigeria.
2. Let me start by first expressing my deep thanks and appreciation to the President of the French Republic, His Excellency, Mr Francois Hollande, for convening this Summit. This is the second time within a year that we have come to Paris to discuss what are essentially African security issues. This present Summit further underscores President Hollande’s commitment to Africa’s stability, peace and development.
3. I also wish to thank my colleagues and brothers from Nigeria’s neighbouring countries, namely, His Excellency President Boni Yayi of Benin Republic, His Excellency President Idriss Deby Itno of Chad, His Excellency President Paul Biya of Cameroon and President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger Republic, for their solidarity and friendly disposition in attending this Summit at a very short notice. Let me also thank the European Union, the United States Secretary of State, Senator John Kerry, and the Rt. Hon. William Hague, the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary of the United Kingdom for honouring this invitation. You have borne with my country, the huge burden of our counter-insurgency operations, sometimes with collateral damage. I thank you for your support and cooperation.
4. Without doubt, your concern and empathy with the government and people of Nigeria is a clear demonstration of true solidarity and brotherhood in ensuring that the current security challenges facing our country are addressed in a definitive and conclusive manner.
5. But let me state clearly from the outset that what started as a local insurgency in North Eastern Nigeria has now evolved into the new frontier of the global war of terrorism against our civilization, our way of life, and against the many prospects of stability in our region. This is not anymore a challenge to Nigeria alone; it is a threat to each and every one of us in this room.
6. The Boko Haram Sect emerged in 2002 while its insurgency phase started as far back as 2009. Officially known as the Jamaa’tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’wati Wal Jihad, which in English means “people committed to the propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad”, the group is more commonly identified with its motivating principle, and referred to as Boko Haram which literally means, Western or non-Islamic education is prohibited.
7. The group is hostile to democracy; it uses every means to indoctrinate its members; its ultimate objective is to destabilize the country, and take over Nigeria in order to turn it into a base of operation in West Africa and the entire continent.
8. Since 2009, we have had to contend with many attacks and killings, which have now developed into a full-scale war targeting the stability and integrity of our Nation. Boko Haram has launched a vicious guerrilla-style campaign against the government and the people of Nigeria. It has attacked schools, slaughtered students in their dormitories, destroyed villages, communities and government infrastructure and has wreaked havoc on the economic and social life of our people.
9. This unconventional war has so far claimed over twelve thousand lives, with more than 8, 000 persons injured or maimed, not to mention the displacement of thousands of innocent Nigerians.
10. We have developed intelligence, which indicates clearly that global terrorist networks are deeply involved in the recent activities of Boko Haram, which has now turned into an integral part of the Al Qaeda network as the West African Branch. More tellingly, the group runs an international network of training and incubation centres in such places as Gao and Kidal areas of Mali, the Diffa, Maradi and Maina Soro areas of Niger Republic, Maroua and Garoua areas of Republic of Cameroun, the Zango and Ridina quarters in Ndjamena, Chad, the Ranky-Kotsy area of Sudan, and also some cells in the Central African Republic.
11. As a responsible Government, we felt compelled to declare a State of Emergency in three of Nigeria’s North Eastern States of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. This became necessary to give the security forces the required scope and authority, to enable them operate more efficiently in the affected areas in order to gain victory.
12. They were directed to adhere strictly to clearly spelt out rules of engagement and avoid any excesses that may amount to a violation of human rights. Careful regard for human rights has always been central to our counter-terrorism strategies, resulting in the adoption of rules and procedures to protect the civilian population from excessive collateral damage.
13. Last year, I had ordered the release from detention of women and under-aged persons who had been involved with terrorists and also, persons against whom prima facie cases could not be established. Proven incidents of human rights violation which may have involved our security forces are always promptly investigated and dealt with in accordance with our laws.
14. In addition to military operation, our administration has adopted what we have termed “a soft approach” to combatting the insurgency. This includes short, medium and long-term measures to mitigate the impact on the people and the entire country. Our focus along this line, has been mainly in form of the introduction of a robust educational programme in the Northern states, to reduce the number of out-of-school children and empower the youths.
15. We have launched economic recovery programmes to create jobs, while also providing infrastructure, which unfortunately is heavily threatened by the terror attacks. Other measures include the introduction of de-radicalization programmes for convicted terrorists and suspects awaiting trial, and the promotion of opportunities for dialogue and collaboration with critical stakeholders from the region.
16. Nonetheless, Boko Haram has continued to attack innocent Nigerians without regard to religion, ethnicity and gender. Christians have been killed; churches have been destroyed, Muslims have also been murdered and mosques destroyed.
17. The reprehensible abduction of innocent school girls in Chibok, Borno State is another manifestation of this criminality.
18. We believe that it is the success of our administration’s Transformation Agenda, evident in the growth of our economy and increasing opportunities for our people, that has prompted the terrorists to intensify the war against Nigeria, because our success is their failure.
19. The activities of the terrorists have also been felt across Nigerian borders particularly in Chad, Niger and Cameroon. Border and cross-border attacks have taken place with Boko Haram terrorists seeking refuge in our neighbouring countries. So many Nigerians, fleeing from terror attacks, have also become refugees in our neighbouring countries creating additional burden (security and financial) in those countries.
20. It is the regional and global character of the terrorists’ campaign that makes it imperative that we explore and adopt a regional and global approach to addressing this insurgency and menace. Indeed, in the spirit of collective regional security, it is important that we accept that an attack on one country is an attack on all of us, and our common humanity.
21. It is equally important that we accept the principle of hot pursuit of terrorists in the context of joint border patrols and cooperation in order to deny them sanctuaries and make it impossible for them to take refuge in each other’s territory. I note with satisfaction that some mechanisms for joint border patrols including customs and immigration administration have commenced.
22. But we need to do more to restore security along our common borders, focussing especially on the actualisation of the mandate of the Multinational Task Force on the Lake Chad Basin.
23. In addition, we have intensified the exchange of intelligence and information on cross-border movements of goods and services of illicit origin, especially small arms and light weapons as well as human trafficking.
24. At the multi-lateral level, we are developing a regional strategy to win the war against terror within the region. The importance we attach to combating terrorism informed our decision to invite African leaders during our Centenary celebrations to deliberate on ‘Human Security, Peace and Development: Agenda for 21st Century Africa.’
25. We have signed bilateral agreements with our neighbouring countries on security and are engaged in Joint Operations with Benin Republic, Chad and Niger. In this regard, we welcome the support and assistance of all our partners from the region, the continent and around the world in providing technical expertise, training programmes and support for border-area management programmes.
26. At the international level, we should take concrete steps to designate the Al Qaeda in West Africa, alias Boko Haram, as a Terrorist Organisation on the basis of the Proscription Order that my government has already imposed on the organisation.
27. We should also accelerate the implementation of other international sanctions, particularly under the auspices of the United Nations, on Boko Haram, Ansaru and their principal leaders.
28. We are already making thorough intelligence efforts to identify their sponsors and their sources of funding and arms supply. I have no doubt that with the cooperation of Nigeria’s neighbours, it would be possible to rein in these organisations until this scourge is ultimately eliminated and defeated. We will not succumb to terrorists and their dangerous tactics. Terrorists will not be allowed to define who we are or instil fear in our people and cause destruction and mayhem. The time has therefore come for all peace-loving peoples of the world to unite against this new threat to global peace and stability.
29. The abduction of young innocent school girls in Chibok represents a watershed, and a turning point, in the global terrorist war against human civilization. The escalation by the terrorists should not go unanswered by us. The world is entering a new stage and we must stand firm to protect our civilization.
30. I will like to seize this opportunity to express the gratitude of the Government and the people of Nigeria to all countries who are actively participating, side by side, with our country, in seeking the rescue of these school girls. I must commend the efforts of countries like France, the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel, among other partners who have offered technical assistance to my Government in our joint efforts to rescue these innocent children.
31. The major challenge that we have faced in our search and rescue operation so far has been the deluge of misinformation about the whereabouts of the girls and the circumstances of their disappearance.
32. We have deployed about 20,000 troops to the area, intensified aerial surveillance, and strengthened local intelligence resources. We shall spare no effort, we shall explore every avenue; we shall turn every stone, to ensure the return of the girls to their families and that the terrorists are defeated.
33. Once again, I wish to thank all participants for your attendance at this Conference.
34. I am confident that the outcome of our deliberations will go a long way in assisting us to address both the immediate challenges and root causes of Boko Haram insurgency in order to restore enduring peace and stability, not just to Nigeria but also to our sub-region.
35. This latest attack is a wake up call for all of us. A line has been drawn in the sand; a test is put to each one of us. Nigeria will rise up to this challenge and will prevail. I call upon each one of you to stand up and be counted with us in this fight.
36. I thank you all.
Boko Haram has killed over 12,000 Nigerians, plans to take over country, Jonathan says - Premium Times Nigeria
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/160942-boko-haram-killed-12000-nigerians-plans-take-country-jonathan-says.html
RESPONSE
From: Min. Menelik, Ubuntu na Zulu (A Divine World Community) Support- http://www.wadupam.org/ [mailto:amenelik@aol.com]
Sent: 18 May 2014 13:18
The current Nigerian government in collusion with Western governments and Saudia played a critical role in promoting the Bush “War on Terror” in Africa as planned. BH is clearly another Al Qaeda “brother from another mother” in Africa, sponsored as a bait for Western war, destruction and re-colonization of Africa. Again, the Nigerian with some other members of the African continental wealthy governing elite class are directly responsible for this mayhem in Africa because they are extension of white interests to be masters of Africa and African people.
Your President Jonathan continues to be a tool of Western-Saudi interest against Africa. The Western objective was to use Nigeria’s leadership to help destroy Libya and so to neutralize the African Union from establishing a strong African continental system that can protect and advance all Africans. Not just Nigerians. Their collusion resulted in the greatest sabotage in the history of African humanity (worse than Mobutu) in the long attempt to build a strong and powerful Africa. The West and Saudia were dead set against any attempt to establish an African Union Government that would check the West and Saudia’s long wars in Africa to continue controlling Africa. Both have had for centuries experimented and collaborated in conducting campaigns against Africans in wars leading to slavery and colonization.
As clearly noted in the past, Obama (Black Moorish Mulattoes of Spain and arabs were also selected as fronts and intermediaries to enslave and colonize Africa with other Blacks like Rice) and the Clintons (white liberals) were selected for the mission to soften Africa for the next war on Africa for resources. As the Western troops complete the destruction of Western Asia, these soldiers are being redeployed to the African Continent to conduct similar warfare against Africa. The Western “war on “terror” in Asia was mainly to counter communism (promote capitalism) with the help of the Saudi sponsored Muslim terrorists - A Crusadist-Jihadist military campaign against socialists international.
This military combined force of the West and Saudia is now being used to neutralize and defeat high priority targeted African nations to submit to Western governments as their “new partnership for democracy and development”. The war to dominate Africa like the one centuries before to “civilize pagan Africa” will result in the recolonization of Africa by another name and form and is especially waged now to counter and defeat the recent bold push for the Garvey-Nkrumah AU agenda by Khaddafi. The EU / USA plan is already bearing harvest for Europe as their economy improve from the great recession with cheaper, free and greater access to our resources, as Africa is subsumed into chaos.
Their effectiveness in Africa is mainly due to the following: Lessons learned from West Asia’s military (Crusadist / Jihadist) campaign against socialism (Afghan, Iraq, Syria...); Extremely weak to no major African Continent system (AU) of protection for Africans; A tribalized, pliant, compromised and easily manipulated African (and Diaspora) leadership; And for the most part an African people made gullible through white media and mis-education to embrace the dreams of American democracy, capitalism and freedom as the white saving grace for Africa, and other foreign doctrine, against their own heritage.
What now? The EU / USA plan is neutralize all efforts to establish the a Union Government of Africa by 2017 and so all Africans across the world must be ready to formally establish an All African Government by 2017. This Government then should be the vision and beacon to wage our struggles and work for the next 50 year as an all Africa campaign to establish Africa as a powerful and respected Pan African global governing system. This means to immediately begin Organizing our people under the banner of said All African government against the present and dangerous threats to African survival and advancement; Ridding Africa of those in the elite class who are betraying Africa – starting with Nigeria; and Ridding Africa of these foreign military bases and occupying armies and their partnering institutions from Africa.
Without direct actions to restore our greatness as a globally ORGANIZED people, we as African people are especially doomed to be dominated and so to be decimated by the global imperialists’ class.
Min. Menelik Harris
amenelik@aol.com
~ Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement
Freedom Begins with the Freeing of the Mind and Soul
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We are very pleased to announce that we were able to pay off the required arrears, before 5:00pm yesterday. This is largely due to your positive responses to our appeal and there are simply not enough words to adequately express the depth of gratitude we feel.
Whilst all offerings were gratefully received, no matter how small or large, it has to be said that there were some amazing gestures of generosity from some individuals and organisations, especially PASCF, Moyo wa Taifa and iNAPP. Tatenda, Medaase pa pa pa (Many, many, many thanks).
Many have expressed concerns about sustainability in the longer term and a desire to maintain ongoing support. We will be writing to you soon regarding our community sponsorship programme. We also warmly invite you to a ’Thank You Reception’ on Kuumba-day (Fri), 30th May, 6:00pm-late, at our HQ (see address above – further information to follow soon).
To those who have made further pledges, please do feel free to make your contributions, which will go towards the next mortgage payment - end of month (Please see details below). As you know every penny will come back to you, with interest, in our Afrikan-centred life-sustaining / life-enhancing community services. Your contributions are therefore investments which will serve to collectively empower us all.
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NUBIART: Focus on arts, business, education, health, political developments and the media.
~ 2 June: Review of ‘Jahtigui: The Life and Music of Ali Farka Toure’, by Corey Harris.
MAY PROMOS
~ ‘WE TEACH THEM’ - Junior English [International English – Out Now]
“Dear Fans,
“I am honoured to let you know that through the spiritual Upliftment of the most high I listened to great teachers like The Honourable Marcus Garvey, Doctor Henrick Clark, Professor Walter Williams and Ashra & Marira Kwesi. By listening to these teachers I have learnt about my history, so I began writing songs about life, People, History and Government. When I look around the world today I wouldn’t want to be remembered only as a Lovers Rock singer but also as a conscious man.
“So that when my journey is completed I will leave behind enough information for the next generation so please listen to this CD thoroughly and you will get a full understanding of what I am trying to convey.
“Yours Truly
“Junior English”
As we are in Afrikan Liberation Month we felt it proper to start this review with the sleevenotes Junior English himself wrote for this 20-track album. While there are a few of Junior’s trademark lovers in the selection the album definitely veers strongly towards the cultural with some penetrating analysis on top of top-notch rhythms provided by the Ruff Cutt veterans. One track that really stood out lyrically was ‘Beauty’ - “A make your hair so long when your parents are not Indian? / A make your hair so long when your parents are not Chinese? / A make your hair so long when your parents are not European? / Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder / Time for you know yourself / Time for you love yourself / You can’t spend the rest of your life trying to be someone else /…Stop support the man who a sell the hair piece and the bleaching cream / ...Like you no like what you see when you look in the mirror.”
There are powerful titles like ‘Contention’ and ‘Share It’. On ‘False Teachings’ Junior intones: “We’ve been too long down in the valley / We must get out somehow / If we have to climb, fly or use a rope / We must get out somehow / We must take the blindfold from our eyes / So we can see the way / …We don’t need no more false teaching / No more false preaching / We must know that nature is the source of life.”
He returns to that theme again on ‘Nature Don’t Play’ on the ‘Smile’ rhythm. Junior condemns the hypocrisy and ineffectiveness of those who consider themselves leaders and members of the self-appointed ‘international community on ‘Calling’. “Dem claim dem don’t have no money to spend but yet them a purchase arms fighting in Afghanistan / While there are people on the street can’t find no place to stay / I’m calling on the President / Calling on the government / Calling on the leaders / Calling on the United Nations.”
He gets to the crux of the matter of the long-standing theft and ongoing mismanagement of the earth’s resources on ‘Bad Mind’. “Bad mind ting a noh we start it / Red eye ting a noh we who start it / Grudgeful ting a noh we start it / But dem blame we for everyting / We used to live up in a peace and tranquility / Until they invade we. / Oh yes dem come like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. / And they stole everything. / …Same ting dem gwan with from a long time ago / A the same thing dem a gwan with now / They cause destabilisation among the people and their leaders / And then they step in and pretend to solve their problems.”
While on ‘Piece of Africa’ he wonders how comes everyone has a piece of Afrika when Afrika belongs to the Afrikans? Junior recounts the story of the sabotage of the UNIA’s shipping company, the Black Star Line, in ‘Marcus Garvey’ on Dennis Brown’s evergreen ‘Have You Ever’ rhythm. “They should have left Marcus Garvey alone / By now we would have been home / Down there in Afrika. / If they did leave Marcus Garvey / I know he would a free we / If they did leave Marcus Garvey / He would have take us home to the Motherland. / …Marcus Garvey, he never failed because of negligence / But because of the oppressors.”
The same rhythm gets a reworking on the closer ‘Hard Ears’. “Babylon teachings lead us astray / Until now we can’t find our way. / …Dem say hard ears pickney will feel it.”
The title track, ‘A We Teach Them’, is a straightforward statement of historical facts and injustice. “We civilised the whole of Europe / And don’t take the praise / What’s going on down there in Afrika / Who do you think they blame / Mathematics, a we teach them / Science, a we teach them / Reading, a we teach them / Writing, a we teach them / …They came and mash up our plans / Sold us to Mr Smith, Mr James and Mr Brown.”
On ‘Honour Them’ Junior urges us all to learn history and to remember and honour our ancestors and icons. His soulful falsetto gives us ‘Why Must They Be Like This’ and ‘It’s Not Too Late’ which are both straight out of the classic Curtis Mayfield school of consciousness. While the front cover artwork is of images related to western educational attainment the images on the back cover, inside sleeve notes and sleeve casing are of the pyramids, hieroglyphics and representations of the Kamitian deities and life-affirming principles. Junior English has self-produced and delivered an uplifting roots album that not only can he be proud of it but it deserves to be widely heard.
~ ‘YOUTHMAN - THE LOST ALBUM (ERROL BELLOT MEETS JAH BUNNY & RAS ELROY INA 80’S STYLE)’ - Errol Bellot [Reggae Archive Records – Out Now] The reggae industry is littered with records that should have been massive but stayed parked in the vaults on the master tapes never seeing the light of day and artists who should have been better known and rewarded for their talent. Errol Bellot has been one of our favourite singers on the British reggae scene for three decades. He is often underrated and his career has been punctuated by false starts and periods where he has kept a low profile but we were glad to see that he has come back strong both as a singer and producer in the last few years under his own name and also as Gideon Zinger. Having started out with the S&G label his career really took off after he left there and especially when he started moving with Unity sound who had access to some of Prince Jammy’s top digital rhythms in the mid-80s just as he was conquering the world and becoming King Jammy.
This 17-track album - which includes disco mixes or dubs to most tracks - was recorded in the run up to the digital explosion and most of the tracks were unreleased until this outing but they chronicle how the reggae music scene changed in the period 1983-85. Using musicians from the east London camp around Black Slate and the Cimarons it kicks off with Errol’s first self-production ‘The Wicked Them’ trying to fight the sufferers down. The first half continues in that vein while the rhythms in the second half are more in the dancehall style that was sweeping all comers by the time the album was originally due for release. ‘Rootsman’ is the only other track from the set to be released and that was two decades later in 2006. As the sleevenotes say this is ‘an essential slice of British reggae history featuring many of the key players from the scene’.
NUBIART LIBRARY – MAY 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 film production there may be books and films on this list that are worth the extra effort to track down.
~ ‘THE ORCHARD OF LOST SOULS’ - Nadifa Mohamed [Simon & Schuster Ltd. ISBN-13: 978-1-47111-529-8] This novel is set in Hargeisa in the late 1980s just as the regime of General Mohamed Siad Barre is approaching its downfall as the rebels move their main base of operations from London to inside Somalia. Since the country shook of British and Italian colonialism and merged it has faced drought, famine, mismanagement and wars against its neighbours, Ethiopia and Kenya, as it tries to ‘reunite’ the five points of the star on its flag – Somalia, Somaliland, Djibouti, the Ogaden in Ethiopia and northern Kenya.
‘The Orchard of Lost Souls’ starts as a rally is planned to mark Siad Barre’s 18 years in power. Mohamed’s focus is on the lives of women and how the changing circumstances impact them. The public are harassed into attending the rally in a sports stadium under the watchful eye of the military police and the Guddi, the local neighbourhood watch organisation. The three main characters are nine-year-old Deqo, an orphan and refugee camp ‘veteran’ who attends the rally to perform in the celebrations but eventually escapes from that brutality to face many others. Kawsar is an elderly widow confined to her bed following a brutal police beating. Filsan is a soldier from Mogadishu who, like many, considers Hargeisa unsophisticated and can’t wait to deal the rebels a decisive blow so she can return to her beloved capital city by the sea. None of them could have foreseen the conflict that nearly three decades on has led to the secession of Somaliland and left Somalia as a byword for failed states, sea piracy, internecine warfare and warlordism and a homeland for Islamist terror and brutality affecting all the neighbouring countries.
It was only since ‘independence’ that the Somali language was fully formalised in written form for the first time and school books produced in the language. However, the glee of becoming a modern part of the ‘world community’ is soon undermined by the reality of the inadequacy of central government to manage a land where as one person told us ‘every Somali is his own government and thinks he can do the job better than anybody else’. The regime’s brutality is revealed in its treatment of protestors, sweeps through towns to press gang the youths into the military and the ‘bleeding’ of children and opponents to death in order to supply blood for injured soldiers. Mohamed’s writing captures the ongoing trauma of Somalis both inside the country and in the diaspora.
~ FRINGE SAINT LUCIA FESTIVAL! (BRIGHTON, LONDON & ST LUCIA)
- ‘Lime Cocktail: The Launch of Fringe Saint Lucia’. Saint Lucia on the Fringe - Come limin’ at The Waterbar, the ‘official’ Fringe Saint Lucia venue to celebrate the launch of the first Fringe Saint Lucia festival! Visiting poets, performers and filmmakers from Saint Lucia and UK come together to produce a mini-festival within the Brighton Fringe Festival. Meet the artists, hear Victor Romero Evans sing from his new album. The evening also features renowned flautist Keith Waithe and local acapella girl group Embrace! Carnival Queens, jugglers and lime cocktails!! Plus a chance to win a hamper! Courtesy of the Saint Lucian Tourist Board. On 19 May at 7.30pm at Limin’@The Waterbar, Thistle Hotel, King’s Road, Brighton, BN1 2GS. Adm: Free (RSVP). Web: http://liminatthelaunch.eventbrite.com
- ‘Limin’ @ Fringe St. Lucia’. Listen to a range of Saint Lucian and Brighton voices read and perform poetry, prose and have a lime cocktail in between. Writers appearing from Saint Lucia include Adrian Augier, Alphonse ‘Fish’ George, Kendel Hippolyte and Vladimir Lucien. Writers appearing from the UK include John Agard, Grace Nichols, Umi Sinha, Dean Atta, Jacob Ross and Monika-Akila Richards. Films made by Davina Lee based on the short stories and poetry of Saint Lucian writers. Each evening is split into ‘Early Lime’, starts at 7.30pm and ‘Late Lime’, starts at 9pm. On Tues 20 / Wed 21 / Thurs 22 May at TheWaterBar, Thistle Hotel, Kings Road, Brighton, BN1 2NG. Adm: £10 – whole lime / £6 - half a lime. (Group booking discounts apply).
- ‘Saint Lucia Lime’. A night of Saint Lucian talent sponsored by the Saint Lucian Tourist Board featuring dramatist George ‘Fish’ Alphonse plus other artists to be confirmed. On 24 May at 7.30pm
at Limin’@TheWaterBar, Thistle Hotel, Kings Road, Brighton, BN1 2NG. Adm: Free (RSVP). Web:
http://stlucialime.eventbrite.co.uk
- ‘A Bowl of Limes’. Caribbean Broast: Lunch / Brunch Buffet with the Saint Lucia Fringe artists. Followed by a Creative Mash Up: Discussion and networking session on UK, Saint Lucia, and West African opportunities in the Creative Industries led by Adrian Augier with Kadija George, chaired by Nigel Allyson Ryan. On Mon 26 May at 1pm at The Writer’s Place, 9 Jew Street, Brighton, BN1 1UT. Adm: £10 - Caribbean Broast and discussion / £5 discussion only. Web: http://bowloflimes.eventbrite.co.uk
- ‘Under The Lime Tree’. Vladimir Lucien launches his new book, ‘Sounding Ground’ at the Fringe Saint Lucia End of Festival Party! Plus Kendel Hippolyte re-launches ‘Night Vision’ in the UK. Both books published by Peepal Tree Press. On Wed 28 May at 6.30pm at the Saint Lucia High Commission in London, 1 Collingham Gardens, London, SW5 0HW. Adm: Free (RSVP). Web: https://underthelimetree.eventbrite.co.uk / http://www.fringestlucia.com/programme/other-uk-events/
Web: www.fringestlucia.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fringestlucia Twitter: @fringestlucia
ink361.com/fringestlucia
~ THE LIGALI ORGANISATION PRESENT ‘BEAUTY IS...’ SCREENING AND DISCUSSION. This film by community educator and guerrilla film maker Toyin Agbetu asks ‘what is beauty?’ and examines the answer from a philosophical position through discussions on hair, skin shade, body image and character. “Every time you get a hair burn it is evidence of something going wrong, something getting into your skin” – Toyin Agbetu at ‘Beauty Is’ screening premiere. On Fri 23 May at 7pm at Black Cinema Club, The Phoenix Centre, 73 Oxford Street, London, W1D 2EP. Web: www.ligali.org/beautyis Twitter: @beautyIs_film Facebook: facebook.com/beautyisfilm or https://www.facebook.com/BlackCinemaClub
~ THE AFRICAN SOCIETY OF CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY (ASCU) PRESENT ‘AFRICA TOGETHER’ AFRICA DAY. Africa Day marks the annual commemoration of the founding of the African Union (AU), which consists of 53 African states and aims to establish a platform through which African countries can address challenges on the continent together. Speakers include: Sir David King, the Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Climate Change and Science Advisor to the President of Rwanda; Amadou Mahtar Ba, Chief Executive of the African Media Initiative; Adama Ndiaye, award-winning fashion designer; and Lanre Akinola, editor of ‘This is Africa’, the Financial Times Magazine. On Fri 23 May at the Cambridge Union Society, Cambridge University. Web: http://www.africatogether.org.uk Booking: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/africa-together-tickets-11355028195
~ ‘A FUSION OF WORLDS: ANCIENT EGYPT, AFRICAN ART AND IDENTITY IN MODERNIST BRITAIN’ EXHIBITION. An exploration of the ways in which modernist artists – Jacob Epstein, Edna Manley and Ronald Moody – have been inspired by Ancient Egypt. The exhibition places these artists’ reworking of Egyptian art in context of their political, spiritual and gendered expressions of identity. Drawing on the influence of the Harlem Renaissance and ‘discovering’ African Art, this display repositions the work of artists, such as Jamaican born Ronald Moody, in the public memory. Until Sat 24 May at 1-5pm (Tues-Sat) at Petrie Museum, UCL, Malet Place, London, WC1. Tel: 020 7679 4138. Adm: Free. E-mail: events.petrie@ucl.ac.uk
~ PAN-AFRICAN CONGRESS MOVEMENT ALD 2014. The theme is ‘Africa, the Issue of Culture’, & ‘UNIA 100th Year Anniversary’. Speakers include: Prof James Small, Ekua ‘Esther’ Stanford-Xosei, Petronilla Mwakatuma, Cecil Gutzmore, Tafadzwa ShakaRa Mbandaka, Dr Makeddah Idawah and Chipo Sibanda and Clarrie Roots. On Sun 25-Mon 26 May at the Light House, 100 Alma Way, Aston, Birmingham, B19 2LN. Tel: 0121 554 2747 / 07940 709 311. E-mail: ald.birmingham2014@gmail.com
~ KWAME NKRUMAH AFRIKAN LIBERATION DAY STREET PARLIAMENT. On Sun 25 May at Peki Adzokoe New Town, Ghana.
~ BLACK HISTORY WALKS GUIDED WALKS ON THE 3500 YEARS OF AFRIKAN HISTORY IN LONDON. The walks cover World Imperialist and Colonial Wars 1 and 2, ancient Afrikan civilizations, gentrification, Sou Sou / Partner, Sus, the National Front, Afrikan troops of the 18th century, freedom fighters, Afrikan revolutionaries, Afrikan inventors, education, architecture, finance, politics and more.
- Fitzrovia / Soho Walk. On Sun 25 May at 12pm
- Elephant & Castle Walk. On Bank Holiday Mon 26 May at 11am.
- St Pauls / Bank Walk. On Bank Mon 26 May at 2pm.
For all events e-mail: info@blackhistorywalks.co.uk Web: blackhistorywalks.co.uk
~ BBM / BMC, AKOBEN AWARDS, BTWSC & TAOBQ (THE AFRICAN OR BLACK QUESTION) PRESENT TALKING MARCUS GARVEY / UNIA @ 100 SESSION 10 – ‘EXPLORING LONDON’S BLACK MUSIC HISTORY’. Facilitated by Akoben Award’s Kwaku, and hosted by Harrow Mayor Cllr Nana Asante. On Mon 26 May at 6.30-8.30pm at the Mayor’s Parlour in Harrow Civic Centre 1, Station Road, Harrow, HA1 2XY. Adm: Free. Dress code: Smart casual. No trainers, track suit or leggings. Tel: 020 8450 5987. E-mail: editor@britishblackmusic.com or akobenawards@gmail.com Booking: www.XtraHistory and eventbrite.com booking page.
~ ‘AFRICA AT SPITALFIELDS’. Festival of “music, food, fashion, art, dance, games, and everything in between celebrating the diversity and vibrancy of Africa” is back. On Mon 26 May at 10am-4pm at Spitalfields Market, Brushfield Road, London, E1W 6AA. E-mail: info@africaatspitalfields.co.uk.
~ ALKEBU-LAN REVIVALIST MOVEMENT ‘THANK YOU RECEPTION’. On Kuumba-day (Fri) 30 May at 6pm-late at 282 High Road, Leyton, London, E10 5PW. Tel: 020 8539 2154 / 07908 814 152.
~ FIND YOUR VOICE PRESENTS ‘THE TRUTH ABOUT CANCER PT 2’. Looking at the works of Dr Llaila Afrika and others there will be a panel discussion with experienced health practitioners and networking. On Sat 31 May at 4.30–7pm at Park View Academy, West Green Road, London, N15 3RB. Adm: £5. Tel: Douglas on 07960 239 493 / 07882 403 871. E-mail: findyourvoice@hotmail.co.uk
~ BLACK HISTORY STUDIES
- Sankofa Saturday film screening: ‘Why We Laugh – The History of Black Comedy’. On Sat 31 May at 5-8pm at the Marcus Garvey Library, Tottenham Green Centre, 1 Phillip Lane, Tottenham, London, N15 4JA. Adm: Free. Experience the laughter that has influenced generations! Why We Laugh features performances, insights and interviews from some of the most celebrated and outspoken comedians of our time, including Dave Chappelle, Whoopi Goldberg, Katt Williams, Chris Rock, Steve Harvey, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory, Robin Harris, Eddie Griffin, D.L. Hughley, Redd Foxx and more.
- ‘Black Paris: Race and Culture in the City of Light’ Screening. On Mon 9 Jun at 7-9pm at the PCS Headquarters, 160 Falcon Road, Clapham Junction, London, SW11 2LN, Adm: £5 / Under-16s - Free. Presentation on the Afrikan-Americans who left America to create the Jazz Age in Paris between the First and Second Imperialist and Colonialist World Wars. Many Afrikan-Americans preferred to stay in Europe than return to the racist brutality of America. They formed an expatriate community of musicians, entertainers and entrepreneurs congregating around Paris’s Montmartre neighbourhood.
Both events tel / Fax: 020 8881 0660. Mobile: 07951 234 233. E-mail: info@blackhistorystudies.com Web: http://www.blackhistorystudies.com
~ WISDOM & VITALITY NATURAL HEALTH EVENT. Speakers on the day will be Israel Ajose, Lekia Lee, Nkechi Aligbe-Abeng, Malvia Kenlock. The talks will focus on balancing masculine and feminine energies to bring about healing, self-love and positive self-image. Workshops will provide the audience with effective tools to achieve spiritual harmony and emotional healing. Moyo will inspire with poetry. On Sun 1 June at 12-7pm at School 21, New Mount Street, Stratford, London, E15 3PA. Adm: £10. Early bird ticket online only at £7.50 until 10 May. Stalls are available. E-mail: adwoa@wisdomandvitality.com Web: www.wisdomandvitality.com or facebook.com/wisdomandvitality
~ LEIGHTON HOUSE PRESENTS FROM ‘JAMAICA TO NOTTING HILL, RUDI PATTERSON’S VISIONS IN COLOUR’. For over forty years, following a career as an international model and actor, Rudi Patterson dedicated himself to painting. From the three successive council flats he lived in around Notting Hill he produced a vast body of work, exhibiting widely in London, the UK and internationally – from New York to Melbourne - throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Following his death last year, this exhibition explores a single theme; Rudi’s extraordinarily potent and vivid representations of his native Jamaica. Including many works never previously exhibited these depictions of mountain landscapes, plantation villages, luxuriant tropical vegetation, rivers and beaches conjure a compelling sense of place, intuitively made from the vantage point of a West London window. Until Fri 13 June at Leighton House Museum, 12 Holland Park Road, London, W8.
~ CELEBRATING SANCTUARY LONDON PRESENT REFUGEE WEEK UK
- On Sun 15 June at 2-7pm at Bernie Spain Gardens, Upper Ground, South Bank, London, SE1 9PH. Adm: Free. The UK’s largest free outdoor festival celebrating the arts by, with and about refugees will return to London’s South Bank launching Refugee Week UK 2014, a UK-wide programme of cultural and educational events which celebrate the contribution of refugees to the UK, and aims to encourage better understanding between communities. The music line-up includes South London / Nigerian Grime MC Afrikan Boy; Somali Party Southall featuring award-winning percussionist Kuljit Bhamra MBE and British Somali singer Abdulkarim Raas; and a collective of talent called Rafiki Jazz whose members have roots in Brazil, Gambia, Mauritius, Senegal, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and the UK. This year’s event also features a number of exclusive collaborations, including the inspired meeting of sounds and voices between Anglo-Polish songbird Katy Carr and Ethiopian born singer Haymanot Tesfa. Comedy will come from Somali-born stand-up comedian Prince Abdi. Web: http://www.celebratingsanctuarylondon.org.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CelebratingSanctuaryLondon Twitter: @cslondonfest #refugeeweek
- New Voices. On Sat 21 Jun at 12–7pm at V&A Museum of Childhood, Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9PA. Adm: Free. Forming part of Refugee Week and Celebrating Sanctuary London, Praxis and New Voices will be taking over the V&A Museum of Childhood with a programme of live music from around the globe - including Family Atlantica, Shane Solanki aka Last Mango in Paris and London Lucumi Choir - as well as interactive activities for all the family. A photographic exhibition developed by young refugees and Simona Aru - a world renown photographer - will tell the story of the often dangerous journey young people have to make to find sanctuary within the UK. Web:
http://newvoicesfestival.org.uk/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/271038713079115/
Twitter: @Praxis_Projects #NewVoices2014
~ ‘THE SPIRITUAL HIGHWAY: RELIGIOUS WORLD MAKING IN MEGACITY LAGOS’. A photography project by Akintunde Akinleye and Marloes Janson. The 120km Lagos-Ibadan Expressway that connects Nigeria’s economic hub with the city of Ibadan is considered the most important and busiest road in Nigeria. It was opened in 1979 at the peak of the oil boom but while it has failed as the artery linking the north and the south of Nigeria, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has succeeded as a stage for the performance of public religiosity to the extent that it can be described as a ‘Spiritual Highway’. Since the late 1980s numerous Christian and Muslim movements have cropped up along the highway. Akintunde and Marloes explore and record these ‘prayer cities’ concentrating on the Christian Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries or MFM Prayer City and the Muslim Nasrul-Lahi-Fatih Society of Nigeria, which translates as ‘There is no help except from Allah’ (abbreviated to NASFAT). These prayer cities have congregations of tens of thousands, competing with each other for new converts by offering a range of facilities and services from faith healing to education and health care. Challenging conventional assumptions of Christianity and Islam as bounded and distinct traditions, this project focuses instead on the convergence between Pentecostal Christianity and revivalist Islam. Until Sat 21 Jun on Tues-Sat at 10.30am-5pm at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7898 4046. E-mail: gallery@soas.ac.uk Web: www.soas.ac.uk/gallery Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Soas.Brunei.Gallery
~ ‘CHRIS MARKER: A GRIN WITHOUT A CAT’ EXHIBITION. Widely credited with inventing the essay film, Marker brilliantly treads the line between documentary and personal reflection. This long overdue retrospective screens seminal sci-fi short ‘La Jetée’ - with an alternative intro - and excerpts from his hypnotic meditation on memory, ‘Sans Soleil’. One of the most powerful films here is ‘Statues Die Also’ which explores the denigration and commodification of Afrikan cultural and spiritual traditions. The title film is a three-hour examination of the role of radical politics in France. There are also photos, texts, his cover art, and a guided tour of Marker’s Second Life museum led by his cat. You should put aside a whole day for the exhibition or schedule a return visit. Until 22 June at Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7QX. Tel: 020 7522 7888. E-mail: info@whitechapelgallery.org Web: http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/chris-marker-a-grin-without-a-cat
~ NATIONAL AFRICAN RELIGION CONGRESS / NARC WORLD INTERNATIONAL PRESENT THE ‘ELEVENTH AFRICAN RELIGION CONFERENCE AND WORLD CEREMONY OF CEREMONIES: SPIRITUALITY IN WORLD CONNECTION - HEALTH, FAITH & WEALTH’. Within the United States, Afrikan-based religions are poorly understood and are often subjected to persecution and prejudice. The National African Religion Congress / NARC World International certifies priests and priestesses to assure that they have been properly trained according to the traditions of their respective religions and that they uphold the moral and ethical standards of their religion. The Afrikan-based religions represented are: Lucumi / Regla de Ocha / Santería (Cuba / Puerto Rico), Candomble (Brazil), Orisa (Trinidad & Tobago), Voodoo (Haiti), Ifa / Isese / Yoruba (Nigeria) and the Akan (Ghana). On 26–29 June at Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA. Registration: $325 - NARC Members / $350 – Non-NARC Members. Contact: National African Religion Congress / NARC World International, 5104 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19141, USA. Tel: 215 455 0815. Fax: 215 455 0818. E-mail: narcworld@aol.com Web: www.narcworld.com
~ BUNDU DIA KONGO (BDK). Afrikan cultural and spiritual group working towards the spiritual and psychological growth and development of Afrikans all over the world. Let us make a positive change now. Learn about Afrikan prophets, Afrikan history and Afrikan spiritual practices at our weekly Zikua.
- Sun at 1.30–4.30pm at Chestnuts Community & Arts Centre, 280 St Ann’s Road, Tottenham, London, N15 5BN. Tel: Makaba - 07951 059 853.
- Sun at 12.30–3.15pm at Malika House, 81 George Street, Lozells, Birmingham, B19 1Sl. Tel: Mbuta Mayala – 07404 789 329.
~ THE AUSAR AUSET SOCIETY GI GONG CLASSES. Every Monday at 7.30–9pm at Hazel Road Community Centre, Hazel Road, Kensal Green, London, NW10 5PP. Adm: £5 per class. Tel: 07951- 252-427. E-mail: Tauinetwork.europe@gmail.com
~ EXHIBITION APPEAL: RETIRED CARIBBEAN NURSES IN HACKNEY / NEWHAM / EAST LONDON. Hackney Museum is working with Black Women in the Arts Project on an exhibition about Retired Caribbean Nurses to take place in Sep 2014 at Hackney Museum. Do you know of any retired Caribbean Nurses in Hackney / Newham / East London area? Contact: Cheryl Bowen, Community Education Manager, Health and Well Being, Hackney Museum Technology and Learning Centre, 1 Reading Lane, London, E8 1GQ. Tel: 020 8356 2658 / 2545. E-mail: cheryl.bowen@hackney.gov.uk
Web: www.hackney.gov.uk/hackneymuseum
Contact: Kubara Zamani, Afrikan Quest International, PO Box 35165, London, SE5 8WU. Tel: 07811 494 969. E-mail: afrikanquest@hotmail.com NB: Nubiart Diary can also be read at www.ligali.org
External Links
Afrikan Quest International
FW: [AFRICANWORLDFORUM] NIGERIAN WEST / SAUDI ELITE W/ JONATHAN - PAWNS FOR THE WAR ON AFRICA
Sent: Sun, May 18, 2014 3:57 am
Subject: [africanworldforum] Boko Haram started in 2002 and it insurgency in 2009 - President Jonathan
Boko Haram has killed over 12,000 Nigerians, plans to take over country, Jonathan says
“This unconventional war has so far claimed over twelve thousand lives, with more than 8, 000 persons injured or maimed, not to mention the displacement of thousands of innocent Nigerians,” he said.
President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday said the Boko Haram insurgent’s ultimate plan is to “destabilize the country, and take over Nigeria.”
Mr. Jonathan said this at the “Regional Summit on Security in Nigeria,” held in France and attended by leaders of some of Nigeria’s neighbours including Benin, Chad, Niger Republic, and Cameroon; as well as the French President, Francois Hollande, U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, and other world leaders.
The Nigerian president told his audience that the Boko Haram is “hostile to democracy.”
“it uses every means to indoctrinate its members; its ultimate objective is to destabilize the country, and take over Nigeria in order to turn it into a base of operation in West Africa and the entire continent,” Mr. Jonathan said.
The president also spoke on the abduction of over 250 girls from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 14; and the government’s efforts to free them.
“The major challenge that we have faced in our search and rescue operation so far has been the deluge of misinformation about the whereabouts of the girls and the circumstances of their disappearance,” Mr. Jonathan said. “We have deployed about 20,000 troops to the area, intensified aerial surveillance, and strengthened local intelligence resources.
“We shall spare no effort, we shall explore every avenue; we shall turn every stone, to ensure the return of the girls to their families and that the terrorists are defeated.”
Mr. Jonathan sought the assistance of the international community in defeating the Boko Haram, saying the group has caused the death of over 12,000 Nigerians since its insurgency began in 2009.
“This unconventional war has so far claimed over twelve thousand lives, with more than 8, 000 persons injured or maimed, not to mention the displacement of thousands of innocent Nigerians,” he said.
Read Mr. Jonathan’s full presentation below:
ADDRESS By PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN, GCFR President Federal Republic of Nigeria AT THE REGIONAL SUMMIT ON SECURITY IN NIGERIA PARIS, FRANCE – SATURDAY 17TH MAY 2014
PROTOCOL:
1. It gives me great pleasure to attend this Special Summit to deliberate on the current security situation in Nigeria.
2. Let me start by first expressing my deep thanks and appreciation to the President of the French Republic, His Excellency, Mr Francois Hollande, for convening this Summit. This is the second time within a year that we have come to Paris to discuss what are essentially African security issues. This present Summit further underscores President Hollande’s commitment to Africa’s stability, peace and development.
3. I also wish to thank my colleagues and brothers from Nigeria’s neighbouring countries, namely, His Excellency President Boni Yayi of Benin Republic, His Excellency President Idriss Deby Itno of Chad, His Excellency President Paul Biya of Cameroon and President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger Republic, for their solidarity and friendly disposition in attending this Summit at a very short notice. Let me also thank the European Union, the United States Secretary of State, Senator John Kerry, and the Rt. Hon. William Hague, the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary of the United Kingdom for honouring this invitation. You have borne with my country, the huge burden of our counter-insurgency operations, sometimes with collateral damage. I thank you for your support and cooperation.
4. Without doubt, your concern and empathy with the government and people of Nigeria is a clear demonstration of true solidarity and brotherhood in ensuring that the current security challenges facing our country are addressed in a definitive and conclusive manner.
5. But let me state clearly from the outset that what started as a local insurgency in North Eastern Nigeria has now evolved into the new frontier of the global war of terrorism against our civilization, our way of life, and against the many prospects of stability in our region. This is not anymore a challenge to Nigeria alone; it is a threat to each and every one of us in this room.
6. The Boko Haram Sect emerged in 2002 while its insurgency phase started as far back as 2009. Officially known as the Jamaa’tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’wati Wal Jihad, which in English means “people committed to the propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad”, the group is more commonly identified with its motivating principle, and referred to as Boko Haram which literally means, Western or non-Islamic education is prohibited.
7. The group is hostile to democracy; it uses every means to indoctrinate its members; its ultimate objective is to destabilize the country, and take over Nigeria in order to turn it into a base of operation in West Africa and the entire continent.
8. Since 2009, we have had to contend with many attacks and killings, which have now developed into a full-scale war targeting the stability and integrity of our Nation. Boko Haram has launched a vicious guerrilla-style campaign against the government and the people of Nigeria. It has attacked schools, slaughtered students in their dormitories, destroyed villages, communities and government infrastructure and has wreaked havoc on the economic and social life of our people.
9. This unconventional war has so far claimed over twelve thousand lives, with more than 8, 000 persons injured or maimed, not to mention the displacement of thousands of innocent Nigerians.
10. We have developed intelligence, which indicates clearly that global terrorist networks are deeply involved in the recent activities of Boko Haram, which has now turned into an integral part of the Al Qaeda network as the West African Branch. More tellingly, the group runs an international network of training and incubation centres in such places as Gao and Kidal areas of Mali, the Diffa, Maradi and Maina Soro areas of Niger Republic, Maroua and Garoua areas of Republic of Cameroun, the Zango and Ridina quarters in Ndjamena, Chad, the Ranky-Kotsy area of Sudan, and also some cells in the Central African Republic.
11. As a responsible Government, we felt compelled to declare a State of Emergency in three of Nigeria’s North Eastern States of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. This became necessary to give the security forces the required scope and authority, to enable them operate more efficiently in the affected areas in order to gain victory.
12. They were directed to adhere strictly to clearly spelt out rules of engagement and avoid any excesses that may amount to a violation of human rights. Careful regard for human rights has always been central to our counter-terrorism strategies, resulting in the adoption of rules and procedures to protect the civilian population from excessive collateral damage.
13. Last year, I had ordered the release from detention of women and under-aged persons who had been involved with terrorists and also, persons against whom prima facie cases could not be established. Proven incidents of human rights violation which may have involved our security forces are always promptly investigated and dealt with in accordance with our laws.
14. In addition to military operation, our administration has adopted what we have termed “a soft approach” to combatting the insurgency. This includes short, medium and long-term measures to mitigate the impact on the people and the entire country. Our focus along this line, has been mainly in form of the introduction of a robust educational programme in the Northern states, to reduce the number of out-of-school children and empower the youths.
15. We have launched economic recovery programmes to create jobs, while also providing infrastructure, which unfortunately is heavily threatened by the terror attacks. Other measures include the introduction of de-radicalization programmes for convicted terrorists and suspects awaiting trial, and the promotion of opportunities for dialogue and collaboration with critical stakeholders from the region.
16. Nonetheless, Boko Haram has continued to attack innocent Nigerians without regard to religion, ethnicity and gender. Christians have been killed; churches have been destroyed, Muslims have also been murdered and mosques destroyed.
17. The reprehensible abduction of innocent school girls in Chibok, Borno State is another manifestation of this criminality.
18. We believe that it is the success of our administration’s Transformation Agenda, evident in the growth of our economy and increasing opportunities for our people, that has prompted the terrorists to intensify the war against Nigeria, because our success is their failure.
19. The activities of the terrorists have also been felt across Nigerian borders particularly in Chad, Niger and Cameroon. Border and cross-border attacks have taken place with Boko Haram terrorists seeking refuge in our neighbouring countries. So many Nigerians, fleeing from terror attacks, have also become refugees in our neighbouring countries creating additional burden (security and financial) in those countries.
20. It is the regional and global character of the terrorists’ campaign that makes it imperative that we explore and adopt a regional and global approach to addressing this insurgency and menace. Indeed, in the spirit of collective regional security, it is important that we accept that an attack on one country is an attack on all of us, and our common humanity.
21. It is equally important that we accept the principle of hot pursuit of terrorists in the context of joint border patrols and cooperation in order to deny them sanctuaries and make it impossible for them to take refuge in each other’s territory. I note with satisfaction that some mechanisms for joint border patrols including customs and immigration administration have commenced.
22. But we need to do more to restore security along our common borders, focussing especially on the actualisation of the mandate of the Multinational Task Force on the Lake Chad Basin.
23. In addition, we have intensified the exchange of intelligence and information on cross-border movements of goods and services of illicit origin, especially small arms and light weapons as well as human trafficking.
24. At the multi-lateral level, we are developing a regional strategy to win the war against terror within the region. The importance we attach to combating terrorism informed our decision to invite African leaders during our Centenary celebrations to deliberate on ‘Human Security, Peace and Development: Agenda for 21st Century Africa.’
25. We have signed bilateral agreements with our neighbouring countries on security and are engaged in Joint Operations with Benin Republic, Chad and Niger. In this regard, we welcome the support and assistance of all our partners from the region, the continent and around the world in providing technical expertise, training programmes and support for border-area management programmes.
26. At the international level, we should take concrete steps to designate the Al Qaeda in West Africa, alias Boko Haram, as a Terrorist Organisation on the basis of the Proscription Order that my government has already imposed on the organisation.
27. We should also accelerate the implementation of other international sanctions, particularly under the auspices of the United Nations, on Boko Haram, Ansaru and their principal leaders.
28. We are already making thorough intelligence efforts to identify their sponsors and their sources of funding and arms supply. I have no doubt that with the cooperation of Nigeria’s neighbours, it would be possible to rein in these organisations until this scourge is ultimately eliminated and defeated. We will not succumb to terrorists and their dangerous tactics. Terrorists will not be allowed to define who we are or instil fear in our people and cause destruction and mayhem. The time has therefore come for all peace-loving peoples of the world to unite against this new threat to global peace and stability.
29. The abduction of young innocent school girls in Chibok represents a watershed, and a turning point, in the global terrorist war against human civilization. The escalation by the terrorists should not go unanswered by us. The world is entering a new stage and we must stand firm to protect our civilization.
30. I will like to seize this opportunity to express the gratitude of the Government and the people of Nigeria to all countries who are actively participating, side by side, with our country, in seeking the rescue of these school girls. I must commend the efforts of countries like France, the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel, among other partners who have offered technical assistance to my Government in our joint efforts to rescue these innocent children.
31. The major challenge that we have faced in our search and rescue operation so far has been the deluge of misinformation about the whereabouts of the girls and the circumstances of their disappearance.
32. We have deployed about 20,000 troops to the area, intensified aerial surveillance, and strengthened local intelligence resources. We shall spare no effort, we shall explore every avenue; we shall turn every stone, to ensure the return of the girls to their families and that the terrorists are defeated.
33. Once again, I wish to thank all participants for your attendance at this Conference.
34. I am confident that the outcome of our deliberations will go a long way in assisting us to address both the immediate challenges and root causes of Boko Haram insurgency in order to restore enduring peace and stability, not just to Nigeria but also to our sub-region.
35. This latest attack is a wake up call for all of us. A line has been drawn in the sand; a test is put to each one of us. Nigeria will rise up to this challenge and will prevail. I call upon each one of you to stand up and be counted with us in this fight.
36. I thank you all.
Boko Haram has killed over 12,000 Nigerians, plans to take over country, Jonathan says - Premium Times Nigeria
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/160942-boko-haram-killed-12000-nigerians-plans-take-country-jonathan-says.html
RESPONSE
From: Min. Menelik, Ubuntu na Zulu (A Divine World Community) Support- http://www.wadupam.org/ [mailto:amenelik@aol.com]
Sent: 18 May 2014 13:18
The current Nigerian government in collusion with Western governments and Saudia played a critical role in promoting the Bush “War on Terror” in Africa as planned. BH is clearly another Al Qaeda “brother from another mother” in Africa, sponsored as a bait for Western war, destruction and re-colonization of Africa. Again, the Nigerian with some other members of the African continental wealthy governing elite class are directly responsible for this mayhem in Africa because they are extension of white interests to be masters of Africa and African people.
Your President Jonathan continues to be a tool of Western-Saudi interest against Africa. The Western objective was to use Nigeria’s leadership to help destroy Libya and so to neutralize the African Union from establishing a strong African continental system that can protect and advance all Africans. Not just Nigerians. Their collusion resulted in the greatest sabotage in the history of African humanity (worse than Mobutu) in the long attempt to build a strong and powerful Africa. The West and Saudia were dead set against any attempt to establish an African Union Government that would check the West and Saudia’s long wars in Africa to continue controlling Africa. Both have had for centuries experimented and collaborated in conducting campaigns against Africans in wars leading to slavery and colonization.
As clearly noted in the past, Obama (Black Moorish Mulattoes of Spain and arabs were also selected as fronts and intermediaries to enslave and colonize Africa with other Blacks like Rice) and the Clintons (white liberals) were selected for the mission to soften Africa for the next war on Africa for resources. As the Western troops complete the destruction of Western Asia, these soldiers are being redeployed to the African Continent to conduct similar warfare against Africa. The Western “war on “terror” in Asia was mainly to counter communism (promote capitalism) with the help of the Saudi sponsored Muslim terrorists - A Crusadist-Jihadist military campaign against socialists international.
This military combined force of the West and Saudia is now being used to neutralize and defeat high priority targeted African nations to submit to Western governments as their “new partnership for democracy and development”. The war to dominate Africa like the one centuries before to “civilize pagan Africa” will result in the recolonization of Africa by another name and form and is especially waged now to counter and defeat the recent bold push for the Garvey-Nkrumah AU agenda by Khaddafi. The EU / USA plan is already bearing harvest for Europe as their economy improve from the great recession with cheaper, free and greater access to our resources, as Africa is subsumed into chaos.
Their effectiveness in Africa is mainly due to the following: Lessons learned from West Asia’s military (Crusadist / Jihadist) campaign against socialism (Afghan, Iraq, Syria...); Extremely weak to no major African Continent system (AU) of protection for Africans; A tribalized, pliant, compromised and easily manipulated African (and Diaspora) leadership; And for the most part an African people made gullible through white media and mis-education to embrace the dreams of American democracy, capitalism and freedom as the white saving grace for Africa, and other foreign doctrine, against their own heritage.
What now? The EU / USA plan is neutralize all efforts to establish the a Union Government of Africa by 2017 and so all Africans across the world must be ready to formally establish an All African Government by 2017. This Government then should be the vision and beacon to wage our struggles and work for the next 50 year as an all Africa campaign to establish Africa as a powerful and respected Pan African global governing system. This means to immediately begin Organizing our people under the banner of said All African government against the present and dangerous threats to African survival and advancement; Ridding Africa of those in the elite class who are betraying Africa – starting with Nigeria; and Ridding Africa of these foreign military bases and occupying armies and their partnering institutions from Africa.
Without direct actions to restore our greatness as a globally ORGANIZED people, we as African people are especially doomed to be dominated and so to be decimated by the global imperialists’ class.
Min. Menelik Harris
amenelik@aol.com
~ Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement
Freedom Begins with the Freeing of the Mind and Soul
c/o 282 High Road, Leyton, London, E10 5PW
Tel: 020 8539 2154 / 07908 814 152
Good News - We’ve Done It!!!
ARM - Determined to Continue Serving You!
We are very pleased to announce that we were able to pay off the required arrears, before 5:00pm yesterday. This is largely due to your positive responses to our appeal and there are simply not enough words to adequately express the depth of gratitude we feel.
Whilst all offerings were gratefully received, no matter how small or large, it has to be said that there were some amazing gestures of generosity from some individuals and organisations, especially PASCF, Moyo wa Taifa and iNAPP. Tatenda, Medaase pa pa pa (Many, many, many thanks).
Many have expressed concerns about sustainability in the longer term and a desire to maintain ongoing support. We will be writing to you soon regarding our community sponsorship programme. We also warmly invite you to a ’Thank You Reception’ on Kuumba-day (Fri), 30th May, 6:00pm-late, at our HQ (see address above – further information to follow soon).
To those who have made further pledges, please do feel free to make your contributions, which will go towards the next mortgage payment - end of month (Please see details below). As you know every penny will come back to you, with interest, in our Afrikan-centred life-sustaining / life-enhancing community services. Your contributions are therefore investments which will serve to collectively empower us all.
Please make direct payments to: Mama Afrika – Nat West PLC – Acc No: 23503351 – Sort Code: 56-00-17; or call Bro Omowale on 07939 292 720 or 020 8539 2154 to make arrangements.
Unite Organise Now or Perish!
Rise You Mighty People!
FORTHCOMING NUBIART PROFILES
NUBIART: Focus on arts, business, education, health, political developments and the media.
~ 2 June: Review of ‘Jahtigui: The Life and Music of Ali Farka Toure’, by Corey Harris.
MAY PROMOS
~ ‘WE TEACH THEM’ - Junior English [International English – Out Now]
“Dear Fans,
“I am honoured to let you know that through the spiritual Upliftment of the most high I listened to great teachers like The Honourable Marcus Garvey, Doctor Henrick Clark, Professor Walter Williams and Ashra & Marira Kwesi. By listening to these teachers I have learnt about my history, so I began writing songs about life, People, History and Government. When I look around the world today I wouldn’t want to be remembered only as a Lovers Rock singer but also as a conscious man.
“So that when my journey is completed I will leave behind enough information for the next generation so please listen to this CD thoroughly and you will get a full understanding of what I am trying to convey.
“Yours Truly
“Junior English”
As we are in Afrikan Liberation Month we felt it proper to start this review with the sleevenotes Junior English himself wrote for this 20-track album. While there are a few of Junior’s trademark lovers in the selection the album definitely veers strongly towards the cultural with some penetrating analysis on top of top-notch rhythms provided by the Ruff Cutt veterans. One track that really stood out lyrically was ‘Beauty’ - “A make your hair so long when your parents are not Indian? / A make your hair so long when your parents are not Chinese? / A make your hair so long when your parents are not European? / Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder / Time for you know yourself / Time for you love yourself / You can’t spend the rest of your life trying to be someone else /…Stop support the man who a sell the hair piece and the bleaching cream / ...Like you no like what you see when you look in the mirror.”
There are powerful titles like ‘Contention’ and ‘Share It’. On ‘False Teachings’ Junior intones: “We’ve been too long down in the valley / We must get out somehow / If we have to climb, fly or use a rope / We must get out somehow / We must take the blindfold from our eyes / So we can see the way / …We don’t need no more false teaching / No more false preaching / We must know that nature is the source of life.”
He returns to that theme again on ‘Nature Don’t Play’ on the ‘Smile’ rhythm. Junior condemns the hypocrisy and ineffectiveness of those who consider themselves leaders and members of the self-appointed ‘international community on ‘Calling’. “Dem claim dem don’t have no money to spend but yet them a purchase arms fighting in Afghanistan / While there are people on the street can’t find no place to stay / I’m calling on the President / Calling on the government / Calling on the leaders / Calling on the United Nations.”
He gets to the crux of the matter of the long-standing theft and ongoing mismanagement of the earth’s resources on ‘Bad Mind’. “Bad mind ting a noh we start it / Red eye ting a noh we who start it / Grudgeful ting a noh we start it / But dem blame we for everyting / We used to live up in a peace and tranquility / Until they invade we. / Oh yes dem come like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. / And they stole everything. / …Same ting dem gwan with from a long time ago / A the same thing dem a gwan with now / They cause destabilisation among the people and their leaders / And then they step in and pretend to solve their problems.”
While on ‘Piece of Africa’ he wonders how comes everyone has a piece of Afrika when Afrika belongs to the Afrikans? Junior recounts the story of the sabotage of the UNIA’s shipping company, the Black Star Line, in ‘Marcus Garvey’ on Dennis Brown’s evergreen ‘Have You Ever’ rhythm. “They should have left Marcus Garvey alone / By now we would have been home / Down there in Afrika. / If they did leave Marcus Garvey / I know he would a free we / If they did leave Marcus Garvey / He would have take us home to the Motherland. / …Marcus Garvey, he never failed because of negligence / But because of the oppressors.”
The same rhythm gets a reworking on the closer ‘Hard Ears’. “Babylon teachings lead us astray / Until now we can’t find our way. / …Dem say hard ears pickney will feel it.”
The title track, ‘A We Teach Them’, is a straightforward statement of historical facts and injustice. “We civilised the whole of Europe / And don’t take the praise / What’s going on down there in Afrika / Who do you think they blame / Mathematics, a we teach them / Science, a we teach them / Reading, a we teach them / Writing, a we teach them / …They came and mash up our plans / Sold us to Mr Smith, Mr James and Mr Brown.”
On ‘Honour Them’ Junior urges us all to learn history and to remember and honour our ancestors and icons. His soulful falsetto gives us ‘Why Must They Be Like This’ and ‘It’s Not Too Late’ which are both straight out of the classic Curtis Mayfield school of consciousness. While the front cover artwork is of images related to western educational attainment the images on the back cover, inside sleeve notes and sleeve casing are of the pyramids, hieroglyphics and representations of the Kamitian deities and life-affirming principles. Junior English has self-produced and delivered an uplifting roots album that not only can he be proud of it but it deserves to be widely heard.
~ ‘YOUTHMAN - THE LOST ALBUM (ERROL BELLOT MEETS JAH BUNNY & RAS ELROY INA 80’S STYLE)’ - Errol Bellot [Reggae Archive Records – Out Now] The reggae industry is littered with records that should have been massive but stayed parked in the vaults on the master tapes never seeing the light of day and artists who should have been better known and rewarded for their talent. Errol Bellot has been one of our favourite singers on the British reggae scene for three decades. He is often underrated and his career has been punctuated by false starts and periods where he has kept a low profile but we were glad to see that he has come back strong both as a singer and producer in the last few years under his own name and also as Gideon Zinger. Having started out with the S&G label his career really took off after he left there and especially when he started moving with Unity sound who had access to some of Prince Jammy’s top digital rhythms in the mid-80s just as he was conquering the world and becoming King Jammy.
This 17-track album - which includes disco mixes or dubs to most tracks - was recorded in the run up to the digital explosion and most of the tracks were unreleased until this outing but they chronicle how the reggae music scene changed in the period 1983-85. Using musicians from the east London camp around Black Slate and the Cimarons it kicks off with Errol’s first self-production ‘The Wicked Them’ trying to fight the sufferers down. The first half continues in that vein while the rhythms in the second half are more in the dancehall style that was sweeping all comers by the time the album was originally due for release. ‘Rootsman’ is the only other track from the set to be released and that was two decades later in 2006. As the sleevenotes say this is ‘an essential slice of British reggae history featuring many of the key players from the scene’.
NUBIART LIBRARY – MAY 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 film production there may be books and films on this list that are worth the extra effort to track down.
~ ‘THE ORCHARD OF LOST SOULS’ - Nadifa Mohamed [Simon & Schuster Ltd. ISBN-13: 978-1-47111-529-8] This novel is set in Hargeisa in the late 1980s just as the regime of General Mohamed Siad Barre is approaching its downfall as the rebels move their main base of operations from London to inside Somalia. Since the country shook of British and Italian colonialism and merged it has faced drought, famine, mismanagement and wars against its neighbours, Ethiopia and Kenya, as it tries to ‘reunite’ the five points of the star on its flag – Somalia, Somaliland, Djibouti, the Ogaden in Ethiopia and northern Kenya.
‘The Orchard of Lost Souls’ starts as a rally is planned to mark Siad Barre’s 18 years in power. Mohamed’s focus is on the lives of women and how the changing circumstances impact them. The public are harassed into attending the rally in a sports stadium under the watchful eye of the military police and the Guddi, the local neighbourhood watch organisation. The three main characters are nine-year-old Deqo, an orphan and refugee camp ‘veteran’ who attends the rally to perform in the celebrations but eventually escapes from that brutality to face many others. Kawsar is an elderly widow confined to her bed following a brutal police beating. Filsan is a soldier from Mogadishu who, like many, considers Hargeisa unsophisticated and can’t wait to deal the rebels a decisive blow so she can return to her beloved capital city by the sea. None of them could have foreseen the conflict that nearly three decades on has led to the secession of Somaliland and left Somalia as a byword for failed states, sea piracy, internecine warfare and warlordism and a homeland for Islamist terror and brutality affecting all the neighbouring countries.
It was only since ‘independence’ that the Somali language was fully formalised in written form for the first time and school books produced in the language. However, the glee of becoming a modern part of the ‘world community’ is soon undermined by the reality of the inadequacy of central government to manage a land where as one person told us ‘every Somali is his own government and thinks he can do the job better than anybody else’. The regime’s brutality is revealed in its treatment of protestors, sweeps through towns to press gang the youths into the military and the ‘bleeding’ of children and opponents to death in order to supply blood for injured soldiers. Mohamed’s writing captures the ongoing trauma of Somalis both inside the country and in the diaspora.
Nubiart Diary
~ FRINGE SAINT LUCIA FESTIVAL! (BRIGHTON, LONDON & ST LUCIA) - ‘Lime Cocktail: The Launch of Fringe Saint Lucia’. Saint Lucia on the Fringe - Come limin’ at The Waterbar, the ‘official’ Fringe Saint Lucia venue to celebrate the launch of the first Fringe Saint Lucia festival! Visiting poets, performers and filmmakers from Saint Lucia and UK come together to produce a mini-festival within the Brighton Fringe Festival. Meet the artists, hear Victor Romero Evans sing from his new album. The evening also features renowned flautist Keith Waithe and local acapella girl group Embrace! Carnival Queens, jugglers and lime cocktails!! Plus a chance to win a hamper! Courtesy of the Saint Lucian Tourist Board. On 19 May at 7.30pm at Limin’@The Waterbar, Thistle Hotel, King’s Road, Brighton, BN1 2GS. Adm: Free (RSVP). Web: http://liminatthelaunch.eventbrite.com
- ‘Limin’ @ Fringe St. Lucia’. Listen to a range of Saint Lucian and Brighton voices read and perform poetry, prose and have a lime cocktail in between. Writers appearing from Saint Lucia include Adrian Augier, Alphonse ‘Fish’ George, Kendel Hippolyte and Vladimir Lucien. Writers appearing from the UK include John Agard, Grace Nichols, Umi Sinha, Dean Atta, Jacob Ross and Monika-Akila Richards. Films made by Davina Lee based on the short stories and poetry of Saint Lucian writers. Each evening is split into ‘Early Lime’, starts at 7.30pm and ‘Late Lime’, starts at 9pm. On Tues 20 / Wed 21 / Thurs 22 May at TheWaterBar, Thistle Hotel, Kings Road, Brighton, BN1 2NG. Adm: £10 – whole lime / £6 - half a lime. (Group booking discounts apply).
- ‘Saint Lucia Lime’. A night of Saint Lucian talent sponsored by the Saint Lucian Tourist Board featuring dramatist George ‘Fish’ Alphonse plus other artists to be confirmed. On 24 May at 7.30pm
at Limin’@TheWaterBar, Thistle Hotel, Kings Road, Brighton, BN1 2NG. Adm: Free (RSVP). Web:
http://stlucialime.eventbrite.co.uk
- ‘A Bowl of Limes’. Caribbean Broast: Lunch / Brunch Buffet with the Saint Lucia Fringe artists. Followed by a Creative Mash Up: Discussion and networking session on UK, Saint Lucia, and West African opportunities in the Creative Industries led by Adrian Augier with Kadija George, chaired by Nigel Allyson Ryan. On Mon 26 May at 1pm at The Writer’s Place, 9 Jew Street, Brighton, BN1 1UT. Adm: £10 - Caribbean Broast and discussion / £5 discussion only. Web: http://bowloflimes.eventbrite.co.uk
- ‘Under The Lime Tree’. Vladimir Lucien launches his new book, ‘Sounding Ground’ at the Fringe Saint Lucia End of Festival Party! Plus Kendel Hippolyte re-launches ‘Night Vision’ in the UK. Both books published by Peepal Tree Press. On Wed 28 May at 6.30pm at the Saint Lucia High Commission in London, 1 Collingham Gardens, London, SW5 0HW. Adm: Free (RSVP). Web: https://underthelimetree.eventbrite.co.uk / http://www.fringestlucia.com/programme/other-uk-events/
Web: www.fringestlucia.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fringestlucia Twitter: @fringestlucia
ink361.com/fringestlucia
~ THE LIGALI ORGANISATION PRESENT ‘BEAUTY IS...’ SCREENING AND DISCUSSION. This film by community educator and guerrilla film maker Toyin Agbetu asks ‘what is beauty?’ and examines the answer from a philosophical position through discussions on hair, skin shade, body image and character. “Every time you get a hair burn it is evidence of something going wrong, something getting into your skin” – Toyin Agbetu at ‘Beauty Is’ screening premiere. On Fri 23 May at 7pm at Black Cinema Club, The Phoenix Centre, 73 Oxford Street, London, W1D 2EP. Web: www.ligali.org/beautyis Twitter: @beautyIs_film Facebook: facebook.com/beautyisfilm or https://www.facebook.com/BlackCinemaClub
~ THE AFRICAN SOCIETY OF CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY (ASCU) PRESENT ‘AFRICA TOGETHER’ AFRICA DAY. Africa Day marks the annual commemoration of the founding of the African Union (AU), which consists of 53 African states and aims to establish a platform through which African countries can address challenges on the continent together. Speakers include: Sir David King, the Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Climate Change and Science Advisor to the President of Rwanda; Amadou Mahtar Ba, Chief Executive of the African Media Initiative; Adama Ndiaye, award-winning fashion designer; and Lanre Akinola, editor of ‘This is Africa’, the Financial Times Magazine. On Fri 23 May at the Cambridge Union Society, Cambridge University. Web: http://www.africatogether.org.uk Booking: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/africa-together-tickets-11355028195
~ ‘A FUSION OF WORLDS: ANCIENT EGYPT, AFRICAN ART AND IDENTITY IN MODERNIST BRITAIN’ EXHIBITION. An exploration of the ways in which modernist artists – Jacob Epstein, Edna Manley and Ronald Moody – have been inspired by Ancient Egypt. The exhibition places these artists’ reworking of Egyptian art in context of their political, spiritual and gendered expressions of identity. Drawing on the influence of the Harlem Renaissance and ‘discovering’ African Art, this display repositions the work of artists, such as Jamaican born Ronald Moody, in the public memory. Until Sat 24 May at 1-5pm (Tues-Sat) at Petrie Museum, UCL, Malet Place, London, WC1. Tel: 020 7679 4138. Adm: Free. E-mail: events.petrie@ucl.ac.uk
~ PAN-AFRICAN CONGRESS MOVEMENT ALD 2014. The theme is ‘Africa, the Issue of Culture’, & ‘UNIA 100th Year Anniversary’. Speakers include: Prof James Small, Ekua ‘Esther’ Stanford-Xosei, Petronilla Mwakatuma, Cecil Gutzmore, Tafadzwa ShakaRa Mbandaka, Dr Makeddah Idawah and Chipo Sibanda and Clarrie Roots. On Sun 25-Mon 26 May at the Light House, 100 Alma Way, Aston, Birmingham, B19 2LN. Tel: 0121 554 2747 / 07940 709 311. E-mail: ald.birmingham2014@gmail.com
~ KWAME NKRUMAH AFRIKAN LIBERATION DAY STREET PARLIAMENT. On Sun 25 May at Peki Adzokoe New Town, Ghana.
~ BLACK HISTORY WALKS GUIDED WALKS ON THE 3500 YEARS OF AFRIKAN HISTORY IN LONDON. The walks cover World Imperialist and Colonial Wars 1 and 2, ancient Afrikan civilizations, gentrification, Sou Sou / Partner, Sus, the National Front, Afrikan troops of the 18th century, freedom fighters, Afrikan revolutionaries, Afrikan inventors, education, architecture, finance, politics and more.
- Fitzrovia / Soho Walk. On Sun 25 May at 12pm
- Elephant & Castle Walk. On Bank Holiday Mon 26 May at 11am.
- St Pauls / Bank Walk. On Bank Mon 26 May at 2pm.
For all events e-mail: info@blackhistorywalks.co.uk Web: blackhistorywalks.co.uk
~ BBM / BMC, AKOBEN AWARDS, BTWSC & TAOBQ (THE AFRICAN OR BLACK QUESTION) PRESENT TALKING MARCUS GARVEY / UNIA @ 100 SESSION 10 – ‘EXPLORING LONDON’S BLACK MUSIC HISTORY’. Facilitated by Akoben Award’s Kwaku, and hosted by Harrow Mayor Cllr Nana Asante. On Mon 26 May at 6.30-8.30pm at the Mayor’s Parlour in Harrow Civic Centre 1, Station Road, Harrow, HA1 2XY. Adm: Free. Dress code: Smart casual. No trainers, track suit or leggings. Tel: 020 8450 5987. E-mail: editor@britishblackmusic.com or akobenawards@gmail.com Booking: www.XtraHistory and eventbrite.com booking page.
~ ‘AFRICA AT SPITALFIELDS’. Festival of “music, food, fashion, art, dance, games, and everything in between celebrating the diversity and vibrancy of Africa” is back. On Mon 26 May at 10am-4pm at Spitalfields Market, Brushfield Road, London, E1W 6AA. E-mail: info@africaatspitalfields.co.uk.
~ ALKEBU-LAN REVIVALIST MOVEMENT ‘THANK YOU RECEPTION’. On Kuumba-day (Fri) 30 May at 6pm-late at 282 High Road, Leyton, London, E10 5PW. Tel: 020 8539 2154 / 07908 814 152.
~ FIND YOUR VOICE PRESENTS ‘THE TRUTH ABOUT CANCER PT 2’. Looking at the works of Dr Llaila Afrika and others there will be a panel discussion with experienced health practitioners and networking. On Sat 31 May at 4.30–7pm at Park View Academy, West Green Road, London, N15 3RB. Adm: £5. Tel: Douglas on 07960 239 493 / 07882 403 871. E-mail: findyourvoice@hotmail.co.uk
~ BLACK HISTORY STUDIES
- Sankofa Saturday film screening: ‘Why We Laugh – The History of Black Comedy’. On Sat 31 May at 5-8pm at the Marcus Garvey Library, Tottenham Green Centre, 1 Phillip Lane, Tottenham, London, N15 4JA. Adm: Free. Experience the laughter that has influenced generations! Why We Laugh features performances, insights and interviews from some of the most celebrated and outspoken comedians of our time, including Dave Chappelle, Whoopi Goldberg, Katt Williams, Chris Rock, Steve Harvey, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory, Robin Harris, Eddie Griffin, D.L. Hughley, Redd Foxx and more.
- ‘Black Paris: Race and Culture in the City of Light’ Screening. On Mon 9 Jun at 7-9pm at the PCS Headquarters, 160 Falcon Road, Clapham Junction, London, SW11 2LN, Adm: £5 / Under-16s - Free. Presentation on the Afrikan-Americans who left America to create the Jazz Age in Paris between the First and Second Imperialist and Colonialist World Wars. Many Afrikan-Americans preferred to stay in Europe than return to the racist brutality of America. They formed an expatriate community of musicians, entertainers and entrepreneurs congregating around Paris’s Montmartre neighbourhood.
Both events tel / Fax: 020 8881 0660. Mobile: 07951 234 233. E-mail: info@blackhistorystudies.com Web: http://www.blackhistorystudies.com
~ WISDOM & VITALITY NATURAL HEALTH EVENT. Speakers on the day will be Israel Ajose, Lekia Lee, Nkechi Aligbe-Abeng, Malvia Kenlock. The talks will focus on balancing masculine and feminine energies to bring about healing, self-love and positive self-image. Workshops will provide the audience with effective tools to achieve spiritual harmony and emotional healing. Moyo will inspire with poetry. On Sun 1 June at 12-7pm at School 21, New Mount Street, Stratford, London, E15 3PA. Adm: £10. Early bird ticket online only at £7.50 until 10 May. Stalls are available. E-mail: adwoa@wisdomandvitality.com Web: www.wisdomandvitality.com or facebook.com/wisdomandvitality
~ LEIGHTON HOUSE PRESENTS FROM ‘JAMAICA TO NOTTING HILL, RUDI PATTERSON’S VISIONS IN COLOUR’. For over forty years, following a career as an international model and actor, Rudi Patterson dedicated himself to painting. From the three successive council flats he lived in around Notting Hill he produced a vast body of work, exhibiting widely in London, the UK and internationally – from New York to Melbourne - throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Following his death last year, this exhibition explores a single theme; Rudi’s extraordinarily potent and vivid representations of his native Jamaica. Including many works never previously exhibited these depictions of mountain landscapes, plantation villages, luxuriant tropical vegetation, rivers and beaches conjure a compelling sense of place, intuitively made from the vantage point of a West London window. Until Fri 13 June at Leighton House Museum, 12 Holland Park Road, London, W8.
~ CELEBRATING SANCTUARY LONDON PRESENT REFUGEE WEEK UK
- On Sun 15 June at 2-7pm at Bernie Spain Gardens, Upper Ground, South Bank, London, SE1 9PH. Adm: Free. The UK’s largest free outdoor festival celebrating the arts by, with and about refugees will return to London’s South Bank launching Refugee Week UK 2014, a UK-wide programme of cultural and educational events which celebrate the contribution of refugees to the UK, and aims to encourage better understanding between communities. The music line-up includes South London / Nigerian Grime MC Afrikan Boy; Somali Party Southall featuring award-winning percussionist Kuljit Bhamra MBE and British Somali singer Abdulkarim Raas; and a collective of talent called Rafiki Jazz whose members have roots in Brazil, Gambia, Mauritius, Senegal, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and the UK. This year’s event also features a number of exclusive collaborations, including the inspired meeting of sounds and voices between Anglo-Polish songbird Katy Carr and Ethiopian born singer Haymanot Tesfa. Comedy will come from Somali-born stand-up comedian Prince Abdi. Web: http://www.celebratingsanctuarylondon.org.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CelebratingSanctuaryLondon Twitter: @cslondonfest #refugeeweek
- New Voices. On Sat 21 Jun at 12–7pm at V&A Museum of Childhood, Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9PA. Adm: Free. Forming part of Refugee Week and Celebrating Sanctuary London, Praxis and New Voices will be taking over the V&A Museum of Childhood with a programme of live music from around the globe - including Family Atlantica, Shane Solanki aka Last Mango in Paris and London Lucumi Choir - as well as interactive activities for all the family. A photographic exhibition developed by young refugees and Simona Aru - a world renown photographer - will tell the story of the often dangerous journey young people have to make to find sanctuary within the UK. Web:
http://newvoicesfestival.org.uk/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/271038713079115/
Twitter: @Praxis_Projects #NewVoices2014
~ ‘THE SPIRITUAL HIGHWAY: RELIGIOUS WORLD MAKING IN MEGACITY LAGOS’. A photography project by Akintunde Akinleye and Marloes Janson. The 120km Lagos-Ibadan Expressway that connects Nigeria’s economic hub with the city of Ibadan is considered the most important and busiest road in Nigeria. It was opened in 1979 at the peak of the oil boom but while it has failed as the artery linking the north and the south of Nigeria, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has succeeded as a stage for the performance of public religiosity to the extent that it can be described as a ‘Spiritual Highway’. Since the late 1980s numerous Christian and Muslim movements have cropped up along the highway. Akintunde and Marloes explore and record these ‘prayer cities’ concentrating on the Christian Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries or MFM Prayer City and the Muslim Nasrul-Lahi-Fatih Society of Nigeria, which translates as ‘There is no help except from Allah’ (abbreviated to NASFAT). These prayer cities have congregations of tens of thousands, competing with each other for new converts by offering a range of facilities and services from faith healing to education and health care. Challenging conventional assumptions of Christianity and Islam as bounded and distinct traditions, this project focuses instead on the convergence between Pentecostal Christianity and revivalist Islam. Until Sat 21 Jun on Tues-Sat at 10.30am-5pm at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7898 4046. E-mail: gallery@soas.ac.uk Web: www.soas.ac.uk/gallery Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Soas.Brunei.Gallery
~ ‘CHRIS MARKER: A GRIN WITHOUT A CAT’ EXHIBITION. Widely credited with inventing the essay film, Marker brilliantly treads the line between documentary and personal reflection. This long overdue retrospective screens seminal sci-fi short ‘La Jetée’ - with an alternative intro - and excerpts from his hypnotic meditation on memory, ‘Sans Soleil’. One of the most powerful films here is ‘Statues Die Also’ which explores the denigration and commodification of Afrikan cultural and spiritual traditions. The title film is a three-hour examination of the role of radical politics in France. There are also photos, texts, his cover art, and a guided tour of Marker’s Second Life museum led by his cat. You should put aside a whole day for the exhibition or schedule a return visit. Until 22 June at Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7QX. Tel: 020 7522 7888. E-mail: info@whitechapelgallery.org Web: http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/chris-marker-a-grin-without-a-cat
~ NATIONAL AFRICAN RELIGION CONGRESS / NARC WORLD INTERNATIONAL PRESENT THE ‘ELEVENTH AFRICAN RELIGION CONFERENCE AND WORLD CEREMONY OF CEREMONIES: SPIRITUALITY IN WORLD CONNECTION - HEALTH, FAITH & WEALTH’. Within the United States, Afrikan-based religions are poorly understood and are often subjected to persecution and prejudice. The National African Religion Congress / NARC World International certifies priests and priestesses to assure that they have been properly trained according to the traditions of their respective religions and that they uphold the moral and ethical standards of their religion. The Afrikan-based religions represented are: Lucumi / Regla de Ocha / Santería (Cuba / Puerto Rico), Candomble (Brazil), Orisa (Trinidad & Tobago), Voodoo (Haiti), Ifa / Isese / Yoruba (Nigeria) and the Akan (Ghana). On 26–29 June at Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA. Registration: $325 - NARC Members / $350 – Non-NARC Members. Contact: National African Religion Congress / NARC World International, 5104 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19141, USA. Tel: 215 455 0815. Fax: 215 455 0818. E-mail: narcworld@aol.com Web: www.narcworld.com
~ BUNDU DIA KONGO (BDK). Afrikan cultural and spiritual group working towards the spiritual and psychological growth and development of Afrikans all over the world. Let us make a positive change now. Learn about Afrikan prophets, Afrikan history and Afrikan spiritual practices at our weekly Zikua.
- Sun at 1.30–4.30pm at Chestnuts Community & Arts Centre, 280 St Ann’s Road, Tottenham, London, N15 5BN. Tel: Makaba - 07951 059 853.
- Sun at 12.30–3.15pm at Malika House, 81 George Street, Lozells, Birmingham, B19 1Sl. Tel: Mbuta Mayala – 07404 789 329.
~ THE AUSAR AUSET SOCIETY GI GONG CLASSES. Every Monday at 7.30–9pm at Hazel Road Community Centre, Hazel Road, Kensal Green, London, NW10 5PP. Adm: £5 per class. Tel: 07951- 252-427. E-mail: Tauinetwork.europe@gmail.com
~ EXHIBITION APPEAL: RETIRED CARIBBEAN NURSES IN HACKNEY / NEWHAM / EAST LONDON. Hackney Museum is working with Black Women in the Arts Project on an exhibition about Retired Caribbean Nurses to take place in Sep 2014 at Hackney Museum. Do you know of any retired Caribbean Nurses in Hackney / Newham / East London area? Contact: Cheryl Bowen, Community Education Manager, Health and Well Being, Hackney Museum Technology and Learning Centre, 1 Reading Lane, London, E8 1GQ. Tel: 020 8356 2658 / 2545. E-mail: cheryl.bowen@hackney.gov.uk
Web: www.hackney.gov.uk/hackneymuseum
Contact: Kubara Zamani, Afrikan Quest International, PO Box 35165, London, SE5 8WU. Tel: 07811 494 969. E-mail: afrikanquest@hotmail.com NB: Nubiart Diary can also be read at www.ligali.org
Afrikan Quest International
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Afrikan Quest International
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