Submitted by Ras Jahaziel
At this time in world history there is a renewed penetration of Africa in the search for land and wealth. Along with the nations of Europe, large nations like India and China now see the need to obtain a piece of that rich resource base that is the rightful inheritance of Blacks in Africa and Blacks in the west who were violently robbed of their birthright and their land-right.
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Ras J has made the excellent point that those who desire to “return” to Africa should not be discouraged. He has however failed to cover some very salient aspects like 1 where to settle in Africa? 2 Do Africans want peeps born in the Cbean infiltrating their borders?3 Africans will ask “where are your robes”? How do you answer and how do you back up your answer with other relevant info? I have interacted with many Africans, who are well educated and sadly they often hasten to differentiate themselves from Cbean peeps of African descent when they learn that I am Bajan.
This article makes it clear that Cbean Africans returning to the Mother Continent are going to be in a position to save Africa from interlopers from other regions. This is arrogant in the extreme and I would certainly advise against promulgating this view as a major positive in any immigration application, interview or negotiation. It does not seem to occur to Ras J that African Nations have many problems of their own, especially when it comes to leadership issues. Anyone espousing the view o economic saviour would be marked by all political factions for elimination!
Another interesting point made here is in the vein of several black leaders like NOI Louis Farrakhan, that black people “built the West”. Contributed to building the West would be far more believable. If this contention was totally correct then one would expect that more countries with Afrocentric leadership would have risen economically to global prominence, in the Cbean and Africa, nearly 50 yrs after Independence.
With the present generation of continental Africans it would be far, far easier for non Rastafari Diasporian-Africans to return and resettled than Rastafarians. Certainly certain communities will welcome Rastafarians but the majority, in my observation, won’t. The Rasta livity is not attractive to ostentatious material minded Africans who, at present, are the majority. (OVER)
@ you moneybrain
“Do Africans want peeps born in the Cbean infiltrating their borders?3 Africans will ask “where are your robes”? How do you answer and how do you back up your answer with other relevant info?”
Any Caribbean Africans (diasporian Africans) who are considering resettlement in Africa would have developed the mindset to cope with the situation. The fact that they arrived at the decision to do so suggest that they have evolved psychologically to undertake the enterprise.
It is not like being “barbadosed” where the criminals or Captives had no choice.
And what’s this about robes? The only robes in the picture seems to be the ones you are covering your head with; otherwise you would have noticed that the majority of Africans are NOT in robes.
@ Ya again mR. moneybrain:
“Another interesting point made here is in the vein of several black leaders like NOI Louis Farrakhan, that black people “built the West”. Contributed to building the West would be far more believable. If this contention was totally correct then one would expect that more countries with Afrocentric leadership would have risen economically to global prominence, in the Cbean and Africa, nearly 50 yrs after Independence.”
Nearly 50 yrs after INDEPENDENCE??? When were the African people in the Americas (or at home in Africa) DEPENDANT on the Europeans…wasn’t it not the EUROPTANS who were and are DEPENDANT on the Africans? WHAT was SLAVERY and COLONISATION about???
You seem very confident that any Cbean Africans would develop the right mindset before coming to a decision to settle there. It is actually far more likely that a few “leaders” might conduct the research and push on with the project while masking the detailed reality from the “innocent”. (typical of all peeps regardless of race).
Robes was meant both physically and figuratively. Most Cbean Africans know very little about the social, cultural, political situation in African countries. They would be seen as OUTSIDERS and likely ostracized in most regions. This was certainly evident in England when white Bajans have lived among English peeps. People of all races have a tendency to be suspicous, unmannerly and generally negatively disposed to migrants. I would agree that people leaving for Africa would have to be psychologically prepared to put up with much potential disappointment unless the plan developed was very thoroughly researched and organised. Have you seen the work of Prof Henry Louis Gates (Harvard) on Afrocentric Americans experiences in West Africa?
I like the way you are inadvertently letting white peeps off very lightly! Naturally, if white peeps are dependent on Africans as you infer and exploitation is not the key verb relevant, then many whites would feel much relieved. Slavery and colonisation, as practiced by every race both intra and inter racially, is obviously about exploiting others in order to build more wealth faster.
FT your effort on the Bdos economy was surprisingly good! Glad your robe was not over your head!
@ moneybrain
“Robes was meant both physically and figuratively. Most Cbean Africans know very little about the social, cultural, political situation in African countries. They would be seen as OUTSIDERS and likely ostracized in most regions.”
MOST Caribbean African, I don’t think, is interested in resettling in Africa. It must also be remembered that Africa is a continent, not an Island or a Country and there’s no such thing as a single African people or culture. Some African cultures are more akin to western or more precisely Barbadian culture than to other African Cultures. The problems that you speak of are not on Mars but can be found amongst, even the Hausa and the Igbo people who are both Nigerians.
It certainly wasn’t a piece of cake when our Ancestors arrived in the Americas shackled, they certainly weren’t Psychologically prepared for the hardship yet they survived.
As for Henry Gates, his problem is that he is more American than African-American. (Americans have always found it difficult to understand any other place but America)
I too went to West Africa and my experience was the nearest experience to the one I have in my dear Barbados…I take no one’s words but I trust my own experience.
Of course I knew ‘Robes’ was meant both physically and figuratively…same with me
i don’t know why all this talk about African. i too was once keen of settling there but i put that away after my collegues and i spent an afternoon touring barbados with a kenya. he told me point blank that i would never be accepted as an African as they would look at me right away and know that i was mixed. well i was dun with that
@ smooth chocolate
“i don’t know why all this talk about African. i too was once keen of settling there but i put that away after my collegues and i spent an afternoon touring barbados with a kenya. he told me point blank that i would never be accepted as an African as they would look at me right away and know that i was mixed. well i was dun with that”
Something is missing here…come again so I can coment on it
@ smooth chocolate:
Oh smooth chocolate, your language is not smooth a’taal
Let me go assuming again.
The Kenyan told you, you wouldn’t be accepted as an African and you translate that from Kikuyu, Kamba, Luo or whatever many cultures that Kenyan belong to, into Bajan, to mean that you would be rejected. In my many African-Bajan culture I would interpret it to mean that a …-skin person who speaks English as well as you, would be respected in a way that Africans are not…in the same way that we Bajans once refer to Asians a white (at least in my understanding that is what I found)
It a pity you saw it that way because Africans are made-up of all shades. An example is the Bajuns, of the Bajuni people, along the coast of Kenya, Lamu to be precise.
As my previous post to you indicated: perhaps there’s more to tell…so please, if you will.
THE SLAVE MASTER’S WILL IS NOT THE IMMUTABLE WILL OF GOD.
There are some who say that what the slave-master has done cannot be undone.
The barriers and divisions that the slave-owners strategically set amongst their slaves are believed to be as immutable as the will of God.
So they constantly repeat “those over there do not like us and those over there will not accept us.”
Little do they realize that their future well-being as a people depends heavily on their willingness to engage in the process of UNLEARNING THE SLAVE-MASTER’S INDOCTRINATION.
When they look within themselves they will see that the attitude that THOSE OVER THERE have is the same attitude that THOSE OVER HERE have, because they were all subjected to the same colonial process.
It is time to take a good look at the attitudes that Blacks in the Caribbean have towards each other and you will see that unlearning what has been learned is a necessary step towards Caribbean unity. The same holds for Blacks in Africa.
This is not something that can be left to chance. In the same way that a sinking ship desperately seeks to plug its leaking hole, so too must the global African peoples and their governments systematically work to correct THE MISEDUCATION OF THE NEGRO.
The main challenge of today is therefore that of DE-WHITENIZING the African mind so as to clear up our spiritual TV to allow bright visions to be broadcast again. When this is done, no obstacle or stumbling block shall appear to be insuperable.
THE SLAVE MASTER’S WILL IS NOT THE IMMUTABLE WILL OF GOD.
Ras Jahaziel
http://www.rastafarivisions.com
RE
”
This article makes it clear that Cbean Africans returning to the Mother Continent are going to be in a position to save Africa from interlopers from other regions. This is arrogant in the extreme”
TWO HANDS ARE BETTER THAN ONE HAND
When the strengths of Africans abroad are added to what is already in Africa there is bound to be a stronger African nation.
Ever wondered why America became so strong? America is the combined strength of many nations. First the strength of Africans and then the strengths of people from all over the world who migrated to America.
Therefore recognizing the potential revitalizing role that Africans outside of Africa can play in rebuilding Africa is not arrogance. It is mathamatical common sense.
@FrankTalk | June 19, 2011 at 2:21 AM |
i don’t know why but my statement was not complex. i will expand . in my line of work we meet many clients from around the globe. the guy from Kenya, he was a doctor and was very fluent in English. He was in the island for one week and my boss instructed myself and 2 collegues to take him to lunch, show him around town and help him with his shopping. at lunch we discussed our cultures. he proceeded to tell us that barbados is made of many mixed people. he went on to explain that many barbadians were light skinned, meaning they were not pure Africans to him. he told my 2 collegues that they would be accepted in Africa as Africans but he told me that even tho i was of darker shade than my collegues, i would never been accepted as an african as it was very obvious that i was mixed. he was absolutely correct but we were shocked. my collegues did not even know had asian ancestry but he that met me only 5 hours before saw it. he told my collegues about the facial structure, their eyes, forehead etc. often tho many asians would always come up to me and ask about my ancestry because i know that they too see my asian side too but this doctor shocked me because he was black like me not asian
RAs said’ever wonder why America became so strong? America is the combined strenghts of many Nation.
America first rolled out the welcome to people of other nations and built the statue of Liberty !as a sign of reaching out to others. Whereas most blacks of African decent are still waiting for that gesture from the Motherland!
Well yeah go back to Africa and take your children with you. Go to the Congo or the Niger Delta area etc… Sudan, Somalia, and any of those nice other places.
Hopefully you’ll end up with some nice child soldiers and other goodies. Hell you shoulda gone back when Rwanda, and all the other 90% of Africa was at civil war.
Black people in the islands are as much AFRICAN, as a white person is European. Meaning not one IOTA of your original culture left in you. You have your own culture, stop trying to leave it behind and go back in the past.
ac | June 19, 2011 at 7:17 PM |
– and built the statue of Liberty !as a sign of reaching out to others.
http://www.nps.gov/stli/index.htm
The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States and is a universal symbol of freedom and democracy. The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886, designated as a National Monument in 1924 and restored for her centennial on July 4, 1986.
@ Sayed
“Well yeah go back to Africa and take your children with you. Go to the Congo or the Niger Delta area etc… Sudan, Somalia, and any of those nice other places.
Hopefully you’ll end up with some nice child soldiers and other goodies. Hell you shoulda gone back when Rwanda, and all the other 90% of Africa was at civil war.”
Sayed MashaAllah you have a beautiful name but your mind is putrid. God’s earth is spacious and people may seek refuge wherever they wish.
Do we know where the next child-soldier will come from tomorrow or the next slaughterer…could be your progeny.
However America used the gift to serve a purpose which was an extended and outreached hand to other Nations,
@ smooth chocolate:
It sounds stupid and silly and it doesn’t worth the space. He must be a stupid man (EVEN THO A DOCTOR) look at the Somalis, (Not far from kenya) the Eritreans, the Tuaregs, and the Ethiopians aren’t they all Africans?. I am presuming you are a sensible woman can’t you see the stupidity in his argument. WHY would you let a stupid man rearrange your ‘thinking’? ‘One swallow don’t make a summer’
It seem to be YOU, who are obsessed with the issue of race, shades, colour etc…it’s even in your pet-name: SMOOTH CHOCOLATE
The following is yours posted.. In Case You Have Forgotten Your I-Story May 17, 2011
“• whites straighten and perm their hair, indians do the same. whites tan their skin, leading to skin cancer later in life. God has bless the black woman with the type of hair such as a diamond in the rough, it looks beautiful as is but has the potential to speak volumes with many varieties of styles. whether it is cut, straighten, texturize, has extension, corn roll, press etc. God has bless the black woman with many options of looking beautiful. if the sun darkens her skin and she wants to have the colour of her face as the same colour as her breast, why then do u assume she is trying to be white? i am mixed. i love my hair but i texturize it ’cause it is too thick and curly. i use sun block on my chocolate skin, so i won’t get any blacker. i love my complexion. if it looks as if i am shading, i use a bleacher for a few weeks, until i have my normal colour. u can say what u may but i have no inclination to be white. in fact i love chocolate complexion to the max or dark brown. my skin is very smooth and perfect to me. but i think some females, the black ones especially might tend to feel inferior because of all the hype people place on the brown skin or white girl. they go overboard in their desire to enhance their complexion the only way they know. i have no problem with drawing the attention of white, Indian (especially Indian) and black but i am only attracted to black men of mixed ancestry like me..”
The Divine Creator loves ya that’s why you are here…be Good
Here are some faces of Africa:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=african+ark&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=651&site=webhp&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=
@FrankTalk | June 19, 2011 at 8:43 PM |
correct, i am obsessed with race… i absolutely love the fact that i am mixed, why shouldn’t I? by chocolate complexion is testimony to that. my thick ebony black hair is testimony of my indian ancestor and my beautiful black ancestor. when i was younger, i hated being called ‘doogla’. never understood it, now i’m adult i am fascinated with the race that were created with a coming together of other races. i also find too, that some people seem to take offense to you when u are proud of the fact that you’re mixed, i have experienced this. yes, i am proud, very, very proud and totally obsessed with race. who won’t be? i take it you’re not mixed but proud of your race too.. why shouldn’t i, if not for my foreparents, i won’t be who i am. I choose to forget about returning to africa. why? i am mistaken for indian why should i now want to return to africa?
@ Ras J
While I agree that 2 hands/ brains are potentially better than one, the reality is that it would likely take along time for Cbean migrants to Africa to assimilate and then to be in a position to have their contributions accepted. The problems of economic might in Africa is not the lack of people or brain power it is the age old problem of in fighting and not working together for common good. Politicians all over the World tend to take advantage of their power to feather their own nests and keep their opposition muted. One only has to examine the oilfield problems in Nigeria, where the locals nearby hardly benefit at all, while the leaders in Lagos live at the “wellhead”.
@smooth chocolate
Do not let people such as Frank Talk make you think you should be ashamed of your rich heritage. i am blessed too, to be of mixed race. mine is white, black, indian. I will not return to African. if i do then i should be looking to return to India and new Zealand. i am creole, here is where i belong. i had the privilege of visiting all three countries but Barbados is my home. i too am obsessed with the colour of my skin, my eyes, my hair. we are special because we came about when the new world met the old world.
@ me
and @ Smooth chocolate
me | June 21, 2011 at 11:04 AM |
@smooth chocolate
Do not let people such as Frank Talk make you think you should be ashamed of your rich heritage. i am blessed too, to be of mixed race. mine is white, black, indian. I will not return to African. if i do then i should be looking to return to India and new Zealand. i am creole, here is where i belong. i had the privilege of visiting all three countries but Barbados is my home. i too am obsessed with the colour of my skin, my eyes, my hair. we are special because we came about when the new world met the old world
Me Please, please!!!
Read my ‘postings’ to ‘smooth chocolate’ and tell me if I am attempting to make her ashamed of herself. All I wanted to impart to her is that she should not take that Kenyan’s opinions but that she should embraced all that she IS
And on this matter of RACE, which living in Europe have forced me to confront, I have long, long, came to the conclusion that one should strive to embrace all that they are composed of. I embrace the African, the European and the Amerindian that I am made-up of; because it is impossible to reject part of oneself without winding-up with some form of self-hate…schizoid in other word.
Lastly one does not have to be obsessed with oneself; an ‘obsession’ is not a healthy state to be in and it means that you are short of consideration for others (Racially speaking).
If you are “special” others are NOT
I don’t have time to state here the meaning of the word ‘obsession’ but please look it up.
Visiting Africa on a holiday is the first step. You appreciate what you got and may feel inspired to help others in need not just build your own wealth. Repatriating and Living in Africa is another big step that needs to planned properly or you’ll end up coming back
Downbeat the Ruler
Ras Jahaziel’s posts always play the best roots rock reggae
@ Ras Jahaziel.
Focus your energy on the youth ,forget these old heads .
Don’t waste time with house negroes , black anglo-saxons and crackers .
“Our People of the Diaspora, know who you are. You are Nubians. Carry yourself with Pride. For within your name is your history, and there within the very root of your being, live not in the shadow of who you are.
My people, hear my voice ” it is not for you to follow your shadow, it is your shadow that must follow you. Learn from your past, for it will equipt you for the future, and it is the only metre from which you can attest where you are at present. So you will understand with unblemmished clarity where you are truly going to. Live not in the shadow of the past.
Use the past as a guiding light on the path to your future which is the now, in honour, and with respect to the all that made you who you are. If your path is heavy, know that your purpose is strong, for wisdom is not gain without self-sacrifice and toil. And to understand who you are, starts with your identity. It is the key.
You are a Nubian, you have the key now find the door to yourself. Listen, and understand the wisdom of ancient from your Kingdoms in Africa.”
-H.I.M Empress Shebah ‘Ra- Queen Shebah III – Nubian Nations Sovereign Imperial-Royal Kingdoms Imperial Matriarch and African Kingdom Federation-Leader/Head.
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