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Paul Kagame

Paul Kagame Visits Barbados

Paul Kagame the transformational leader of Rwanda is set to visit Barbados today after leaving Jamaica. In another blog post Rwanda was featured for its rapid transformation under his leadership following a brutal civil war. His arrival will be telecast – see link: https://youtu.be/PhLZtEhRouA Becoming the SINGAPORE of the Caribbean Posted on October 21, 2020 by David…

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Paul Kagame the transformational leader of Rwanda is set to visit Barbados today after leaving Jamaica. In another blog post Rwanda was featured for its rapid transformation under his leadership following a brutal civil war.

His arrival will be telecast – see link: https://youtu.be/PhLZtEhRouA

Becoming the SINGAPORE of the Caribbean

Posted on by David 122 comments

The pace at which Singapore has achieved so-called first world status- in a generation- has ensured mention in case studies to be found in any management volume of standing. By every account it is a well managed country directed by a relevant strategic plan, disciplined society, adequate workforce with required skill sets to execute plans, routine enforcement of laws etc. You get the picture. It is a country serious about effectively and efficiently directing its resources.

Read full text of the blog – Becoming the SINGAPORE of the Caribbean

149 responses to “Paul Kagame Visits Barbados”

  1. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ David @ WURA
    About three hundred years ago, I was doing some business in Tropical Village. A store owner had some wonderful posters. They were promoting Budweiser beer but they were all highlighting the great warriors of Africa. I acquired some on the spot.
    Believe it or not , that is when I started to research the great warriors of Africa and how many of their military strategies were still being used by the European armies.
    Schooled in Barbados educated about Africa via American Budweiser beer marketing literature.
    It doesn’t getting any worst than that !

  2. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    That should be Pelican Village not Tropical Village. Apologies.

  3. David Avatar
    David

    @William

    It seems obvious that the education found in old civilizations would be coopted and advanced by others.

  4. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    “Believe it or not , that is when I started to research the great warriors of Africa and how many of their military strategies were still being used by the European armies.”

    nothing escaped the notorious thefts….you will one day learn just how much more is still copied from our ancestors, and many times used AGAINST US…am still learning, still processing, mouth still hanging open at what was stolen….and the audacity..

  5. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    But who doan know dah?????????

    No civilisation is pure. Each borrows from those with whom they come into contact. Each is influenced by the other.

    The problem is that Europeans try to hide that fact.

    They fool who they can fool.

    But one does not need to read copiously to understand how a people are influenced by those with whom they come into contact.

    That can be gleaned from watching people in everyday life.

    A people is made up of individual people.

    Simple.

    So says the unread cunt.

  6. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    David,

    Our Ghanaian nurses have apparently stated an intention to participate in our Season of Emancipation. I remember suggesting that their service could extend to the cultural.

    Hopefully that should turn things up a notch or two.

  7. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    This thread is dead because nobody has research skills or access to material.

    Murdaaaaaaaah!

    Really!

  8. David Avatar
    David

    This is good news Donna, it shows how a commercial transaction done probably can have addon benefits.

  9. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ David
    The deeper we dig into the present and future malaise, we will discover a selfishness in ourselves that is our greatest enemy.
    The major problem in discussing issues here and elsewhere , is that some of us want to always count their personal lifestyles ahead of what is actually happening to the majority of those , who are on the verge of socio economic extinction.
    Like I have said recently every well known and researched position is considered to be wrong just because it is not happening in their households or in their immediate existence.
    Don’t complain about the price of vegetables get a kitchen garden;
    Don’t complain about the rips off at the big garages because I got a good local mechanic;
    Don’t say anything about the perilous state of the economy because you don’t live ‘ bout here
    And it goes on and on.
    The simple truth is that the world economy is in a very dangerous position right now. It does not mean that luxury cars are not being bought; it does not mean that mansions are not being built;
    and it certainly does not mean that we will all die tomorrow.
    But what it really means is that poor black people in Barbados and throughout the Caribbean will catch hell for another thirty years.
    It is called persistent poverty. That is where the focus should be. But to come here personifying everything to prove that people are just whining is the trick of the massa.
    We have a cultural problem and that’s why we don’t eat local priducecas we should and we have a major governance problem because two useless political parties and their collective foolishness go unchecked.
    We must accept that it’s time to move beyond self and get back to being our brothers and sisters keepers.
    This struggle is not about any individual it’s about a race of people who must now show solidarity and destroy everything that is out in their path even if it means eradicating the apologists and those who are determined to prop up the decadent establishment at all costs.
    Simple as that !

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @William

    The blogmaster is on the side of an active citizenry, growing a strong culture of consumerism. We will not always get it right but up to now the people have been too passive. You are aware of the blogmaster’s perspective. This is not to mean we are letting leaders off the hook but for our flawed construct to works ALL actors in civil society must be active.

  11. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    “The major problem in discussing issues here and elsewhere , is that some of us want to always count their personal lifestyles ahead of what is actually happening to the majority of those , who are on the verge of socio economic extinction.”

    that would be the “ignorant.”.

    “But what it really means is that poor black people in Barbados and throughout the Caribbean will catch hell for another thirty yearsthey will see wht hell is if they don;t get up and help themselves and turn away from useless politicians…\\”But to come here personifying everything to prove that people are just whining is the trick of the massa”

    massa don’t have to do anything…”the ignorant….do it all by themselves…their worse enemy…

    “This struggle is not about any individual it’s about a race of people who must now show solidarity and destroy everything that is out in their path even if it means eradicating the apologists and those who are determined to prop up the decadent establishment at all costs.”

    from your mouth to the ears of RA!!!…the only way to survive….but i have confidence in the intelligent….

    they need to start from scratch…and find the necessary information to move forward sans toxic politics and even moore toxic politicians…they survived without benefiting from either for the last half century…neither are needed…it has always been a scamto rip off..

  12. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    William…..people on the island are understanding their predicament much better, and are doing what is necessary, they know there are enemies all around them, including and particularly those who look like them, am impressed how they are standing up to the occasion…nothing and no one can stop them….

  13. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    I even got a chapter out of it for my next book….The Ignorant vs.The Intelligent…

    am never one to waste an opportunity..

  14. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    William…sorry i messed up your comment….corrected now…..

    “But what it really means is that poor black people in Barbados and throughout the Caribbean will catch hell for another thirty years”

    “they will see what hell is if they don’t get up and help themselves and turn away from useless politicians and keep away from the stinking politics……and stop listening to political pimps…

    ”But to come here personifying everything to prove that people are just whining is the trick of the massa”

    massa don’t have to do anything…”the ignorant”….do it all by themselves…their worse enemy…worth repeating, same ones who love to come and talk about white this and white that….they do all the dirty work for massa and then complain after….

  15. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ WURA @ David
    There is hope. There was a very interesting discussion on Brasstacks today re: how to deal with those who steal sugar cane.
    Peace

  16. David Avatar
    David

    Missed it. What was it in summary?

  17. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    “re: how to deal with those who steal sugar cane.”

    lol…those are the ones looking for fame and not serious about anything, the persistent yappers, love to hear themselves yammer on and on, they will wait until people are dropping from hunger to pretend they have solutions when we know they HAVE NONE….too caught up with their petty useless titles, they better look toward ancestral wisdom and not minority self seeking wisdom…or all will definitely go the way of the dodo bird…

    but to think William…there are people out there with the information to help them get on track, filling the gaps of the puzzle, but they are so ungrateful with their eurocentric minds, no one will bother.

    ..just like they have always been people capable of showing them the right path for the last half century, and they took the road to perdition instead, so, they can keep in that same direction…everyone is breaking for themselves..with what valuable knowledge they have to benefit themselves, no one needs the ungrateful….

  18. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Africa 2022

  19. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Good one. Already had a laugh at that one a few days back. A few sticks of cane sold by a few broke boys by the wayside.

    Not Barbados’ biggest problem at all.

    I am not in favour of theft but I prefer to examine the causes of these few broke boys hustling to sell a few sticks of cane in traffic.

  20. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    William….do you think this is why they are so lethargic to cut loose completely from the colonial political system itself…still house negros…

    https://abibitumitv.com/watch/malcolm-x-the-house-negro-and-the-field-negro-2015-cartoon_wPmc5lzx5KjdChm.html

  21. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    I have a serious problem with the likes of Ezra Alleyne claiming that “we” were the framers of the Oistin treat of 1652…who the hell is this “we” in the Afrikan descended population who drafted. framed or signed anything to do with our destiny….they still can’t draft their own constitution, still don’t have a handle on anything to drive their own financial and social progress, always waiting for or paying someone else to do it….but the “we we” crowd can’t see themselves..

    “The conditions of the surrender were incorporated into the Charter of Barbados (Treaty of Oistins), which was signed at the Mermaid’s Inn, Oistins, on 17 January 1652.”

  22. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ WURA
    Yep. A pretty close analogy. Sadly, too many of us still see the world through Massa”s eyes.

  23. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    William…still applicable today…

    “Ijiji na eweghị onye ndụmọdụ na-esoro ozu laa n’ili.”It is only the adamant fly that follows the corpse to the grave.” -Igbo proverb”

    and the “ignorant” say that our ancestors knew nothing…

  24. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    I thought the environs of Bridgetown was clean and all ready for inate change until I read this

    Mia trying to convince the diabolical entities, that she is about climate change and green spaces, to get more free money mean while, independence square look stink, don’t talk about the one to the top of broad Street, by courts, nasty, garbage every where,, in the middle of bridge town, the minister of health, certainly is not doing his job, or the city representative, queens Park looking shabby too, during elections she was doing optics, but she won, so nothing, then there is the river stand, bare rot, and stagnant water, , and garbage, no where poor ppl frequent, is enhanced, or even attempted to upgrade,

  25. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    They could learn the art of cleanliness from Rwanda….and how to keep PUBLIC SPACES CLEAN DAILY…the information is out there, they should do the research to find it…i have posted more than enuff information on that particular and on other Afrikan countries over the last 4 years…posting less and less about the continent.

    less information is more…and available.

  26. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    “Sadly, too many of us still see the world through Massa”s eyes.”

    and do all of massa’s dirty work too, voluntarily, without massa asking, sewing seeds of division among each other, so there will be no hope of cohesiveness….doing it publicly too, without any shame or remorse…then complain about massa too, just for good measure..the ones on BU are famous for that sideshow.

    got it all down pat in my book’s new chapter….don’t know how they expected or hoped to escape these dirty deeds being published for everyone to digest the info and know who the culprits are, by their actions…..

  27. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Start with yourself on the ignorant side. You are ignorant about yourself and how your constant self-promotion all day, every damn day mades you look like a person desperately in need of validation.

    DPD said it once. You seem to be accomplished enough to be satisfied with yourself. There is really no need for your constant attempts to elevate yourself artificially and denigrate all others as a profession. I have never seen or heard of such behaviour inspiring unity anywhere.

    More than likely that it runs some people off BU. Nobody wants to read that shit all day!

  28. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    “the ignorant” seem to think their opinions matter, i assure you they don’t, no one cares, now try contributing something to make a difference in the lives of the disenfranchised, in Barbados there are over one hundred thousand of such helpless people…….that would be something new to draw more people to BU..

    .attacking the “intelligent” daily is retrograde and seen as such…

  29. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    William…i stupidly, as usual….thought with all the recent big talk on here of forming some “faculty” to rival UWI, in educational OUTPUT, we would have seen some positive advancements by now…these things do not take long to put together. Some people do it within HOURS, if complex it could take DAYS…. and only fail when the REQUISITE WORK is not inputted …

    .but would you know it, after a week when they thought everyone forgot….back to the same OLD TRICKS again…

    had to tell someone recently about internet parasites…

  30. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    I read with great interest where a black man is asking for govt help maintaing a beautification project which he built by himself
    Now all and sundry knows that if a privately owned white establishment was involved in the building of such project govt would have opened the revenue tap and allowed the flow of money to reach that white establishment

  31. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    Donna April 20, 2022 7:22 AM

    I agree.

    That’s why I suggested David should rename Barbados Underground, the ‘WARU Show.’

    I’ll admit that her criticisms of Barbados’ political environment and race relations are often correct.

    But the question is am forced to ask is, since the goodly lady believes she has been “contributing something to make a difference in the lives of the disenfranchised” for the ‘past ten years,’ how come she has been unable to “draw more people to BU?”

    ‘In other words,’ if it hasn’t worked for her in 10 years, how ‘on earth’ would you, or anyone, achieve immediate success with a few days?

    But, Donna, why worry yourself? I’m happy she has now become a member of BU’s ‘selected few,’…… the ‘intelligent.’

    Remember, this is someone’s whose main sources of information were Jacky Stewart’s Facebook page and the gossip site, ‘Naked Departure.’
    And, who ADMITTED to “making up things just to make things interesting.”

  32. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    Angela…ya done know it’s a decades old evil habit from those who suffer from SNSyndrome to tear down Black creativity if they can’t tief it…and that’s why the island is in this position…and will not progress until they understand that CREATIVES make progress where others fail..

    .what did Rwanda ask for, not who passed the 11 plus or which high school they attended, they asked for CREATIVES….entrepreneurs……there is a reason…

  33. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    And the young…another valid reason..

  34. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    I posted a link to support my comment and so far the link does not show
    Wuh happen

  35. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    But look how quick govt would break.up.amd mash up small farmers thriving on govt land
    Rather than draw up a plan that would serve these budding entrepreneurs to a gainful livelihood
    Meanwhile govt would find a way anyway to transfer govt land to the high and mighty outside interest like Hyatt at tax payers interest
    Xxxxxx

    https://fb.watch/cvPQ7N4Nd0/

  36. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    Waru don’t pay the naysayers any attention
    Had not for your ongoing input BU would be like a broken shoe nevertheless a shoe string lol
    BU has become the lone voice of govt and their lackies
    Your voice irritates them because you are not singing from their hymn book
    Hence criticism Frustration and temper tantrums is their best mode of response

  37. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    Don’t know how they expect any of these things to hide, there are an overabundance of platforms out there..

    they don’t have control over any except what they own in terms of control….

    and some really high-tech forward moving ones can be found too…..can’t even find the time to peruse all…

  38. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    “BU has become the lone voice of govt and their lackies
    Your voice irritates them because you are not singing from their hymn book”

    not my style or flavor…don’t do the…. somebody own me thing, and i gotta say what THEY WANT…or i can’t survive……i burn fire on that….

    too independent minded, call own shots, craft my own destiny…don’t need a fella to like me, like i need a crutch…

    they love to show up primary school attributes, although people keep telling them it’s unbecoming of OLD PEOPLE……

  39. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    Angela….don’t know why they don’t come clean and be honest with themselves and everyone else…..it would take the pressure off them, but no, ah guess they have a close relationship with pressure…

    they would like to put the blame on me for people avoiding the site, when it’s old news what they are hiding, it’s even a running joke on FB and one or two other platforms…

    the least they could do is give up the facade, the charade, before it all goes SIDEWAYS.

    ..but dah is dem bidness, iz dem gotta go sleep wid dah dey and wake up wid it……not moi..

  40. David Avatar
    David

    If not comment on the subject move on.

  41. BAJE Avatar
    BAJE

    MUST SEE VIDEO BY ALL BLACKS IN 2022

    Chinese mine manager in Rwanda sentenced to 20 years in prison for whipping local workers

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1516952392683573248

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinese-mine-manager-rwanda-sentenced-235647279.html

  42. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    That is the outcome ya want…glad to see the beeche get what’s coming to him, one shot an 8-year-old boy in Ghana earlier this year, waiting to hear they sentence him big too….

    that’s the attitude they go to Afrika with, he owns no damn minerals on the continent…none..

  43. David Avatar
    David

    Praise for African ties
    By Tony Best As many Bajan scholars in Canada see the list of African leaders making the trek to Barbados, it is relatively short, but one that’s justifiably getting longer.
    Nairobi, Kenya’s capital; Accra, the largest urban centre in Ghana where four million souls live, work and play; and Kigali, Rwanda’s major governmental powerhouse that is home for 1.1 million, are the places from which the heads of state of major African countries have flown to Bridgetown for official trips that cement diplomatic, cultural and trading relations with Caribbean nations and coastal states.
    Now, the Bajans in Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton are asking who is next in line from the vast African continent to visit their birthplace.
    “I like what I see. It is an interesting and important strategy to link our homeland to the African states,” said Professor Andy Knight, a Fulbright scholar at the prestigious Yale University in Connecticut and a foreign affairs professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
    Dr Rinaldo Walcott, another Bajan academic in Canada, puts it differently.
    “The visits of the presidents from Africa are important and I am delighted, but they are largely symbolic,” said Walcott, associate professor at the Ontario Institute for studies in education at the University of Toronto. “I am extremely delighted when it comes to symbols but we need more than symbols.”
    Yet Bajan scholar and keen voice looking on from the distance of Montreal is Professor Myrna Lashley, an associate professor of psychology at McGill University in Montreal. Like Walcott and Knight, she is upbeat about the visits of Kenya’s head of state Uhuru Kenyatta, Ghana’s leader Akufo-Addo, and in recent days Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame.
    “People of the diaspora, Barbadians among them, need to have some understanding of their original identity because they don’t know it,” said Lashley, an adviser to national and provincial organisations when it comes to issues of race, gender and equality. “It (identity) was taken away from them and anything that helps them to get in touch with their core is a good thing.”
    She praised Barbados’ efforts to establish economic, cultural and other ties with Africa.
    “I think there is a lot of healing which has to take place between Africa and people of the diaspora, Bajans included. There is a lot of pain which has been left” as a result of slavery. “There is a lot of pain being felt by people who are trying to come to grips with their original roots, their tribal associations, not only in an economic way as trading partners but in a social way so that people feel a sense of original belonging. People need that sense of continuity.”
    Walcott, director of the Women and Gender Studies Institute of the University of Toronto, said that as the world’s newest republic, Barbados was demonstrating it wanted to set out on its own international course.
    “At a certain point, people also need something more than symbols, hence the question: what kinds of international alliances
    will countries like those in the Caribbean and Africa forge beyond the symbolic? What is also important is how they hold each other to account for alleviating the lives people lead in their respective nations.”
    He added that the presence of United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres in Barbados, the visits of Argentina’s leader Alberto Fernandez, as well as those of heads of state from Kenya, Ghana and Rwanda, all send an important global message.
    “Barbados has a Prime Minister in Mia Mottley who is at the level of a certain type of international politics and is being celebrated, is standing symbolically for the developing world and is being taken seriously,” Walcott said. “I say though, that we should be very cautious about that. We should be careful that the celebrations are not masking things that are not being addressed.”
    Knight, a former director of the University of the West Indies Institute of International Relations, described Mottley’s international initiatives, especially Barbados’ diplomatic, cultural and economic overtures to Africa, as ample evidence of the resurgence of Pan Africanism – unity among African people worldwide as championed decades ago by Ghana’s first President Kwame Nkrumah, Marcus Garvey, former Libyan leader the late Muammar Gaddafi, George Padmore, Bob Marley and Malcolm X.
    “Pan Africanism, reuniting people on the African continent with the diaspora in the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere, is coming back,” said Knight, adding that Mottley’s diplomatic, cultural and diplomatic moves were steps in that direction.
    “There is a sense there is a resurgence in Pan African thinking in recent years and I think that the Barbados leader in particular and others across the Caribbean are starting to realise that it is to the advantage of the Caribbean to have a relationship, whether trade, cultural or otherwise, with Africa.
    “It can only help but improve the tourism and other economic conditions of our countries if we tap into the resources, including cultural resources which Africa has to offer,” said Knight.


    Source: Nation

  44. David Avatar
    David

    Meaning of Emancipation

    ‘Tis the season of Emancipation.
    ‘Tis important to understand what that means. Or rather, ‘tis important to make some meaning from that.
    Because a meaning is not exactly the same as a definition.
    Asking how something is defined is not the same as asking what something means. To define something is to make it clear, visible and as objectively verifiable as possible. So when you define something or decide on a definition, there is a sense of concreteness and permanence in that definition.
    To ask what something means is not necessarily the same as asking for its definition. While a definition reaches for more concreteness and objectivity, there is always a sense of abstraction and subjectivity when talking about meaning. If I say to you “I am seeing red”, the definitions of the words in that sentence do not necessarily tell you what I mean. I could mean that I see the colour red in front of me. Or, I could mean that I am angry.
    To know how something is defined is simply a matter of checking the authority on the subject. For words, that is the dictionary. To understand what something means requires context and interpretation. The meaning of words includes their definition which is less contextual plus the context of their usage, situational and historical.
    Different contexts
    A word with a single definition can have different meanings in different contexts. For example, if I say “The food is hot” I may mean that it is hot with pepper or hot with heat.
    However, in the case of the word “hot” the various meanings have made their way into the dictionary so that “hot” has been authoritatively defined in more than one way. It has been used so often in the varying ways that both ways have been cemented.
    Consider the difference with a word like “bad”. If I say that Michael Jackson is “bad”, I could be referring to his musical genius or I could be referring to disturbing allegations made against him. You will not find a definition in the dictionary which speaks to “bad” in the first sense. But most of you would know what I mean, because you have context.
    Consider the case of “malicious”. It is defined as “intended to do harm”. It comes from the word “malice” which is defined as “the intention to do harm”.
    However, if a Bajan says that someone is “malicious”, this does not necessarily mean that the person intends to do harm. All the Bajans reading this know that in Barbados, a “malicious” person does not necessarily intend to do harm. They
    may just like knowing what is not their business for personal enjoyment. That is the meaning of “malicious” in the context of Barbados.
    The alternative meanings of “bad” and “malicious” both come out of diasporic African cultures. What we should note is that these cultures do not have or have not taken the authority to make their new meanings into authoritative dictionary definitions. This leads nicely into a discussion on the meaning of Emancipation.
    Emancipation is defined as “setting a person or people free”.
    But when we put the word in historical and situational context, new meanings emerge. The word “emancipation” comes from the Latin root “emancipare” which referred to the context of putting a son out of paternal authority, or giving up one’s authority over another. “Emancipare” is related to the word “mancipare” which is related to the idea of the transfer of property, a sale or changing of hands. This etymological look at emancipation brings new perspective or meaning to the word in the context of enslaved Africans.
    Informative
    This broader vision of the word “emancipation” is informative. Did European and American enslavers mean to imply that the relationship between themselves and the Africans they enslaved was akin to a parental relationship between father and son?
    Was the act of leaving the plantation similar to leaving the loving home of one’s youth? Was Emancipation really a transfer of property? Were enslaved Africans transferred from the hand of the plantation to the hand of colonial state?
    In the context of transatlantic slavery, was Emancipation simply a change in the terms and conditions of bondage? Do we have or have we taken the authority to change those terms and conditions? Do we have the will to define words, the world and reality for ourselves? Or do we simply wait for and accept what others put in their books?
    What does Emancipation really mean? For us?
    Adrian Green is a communications specialist. Email: Adriangreen14 @gmail.com

    Source: Nation

  45. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    “In the context of transatlantic slavery, was Emancipation simply a change in the terms and conditions of bondage? Do we have or have we taken the authority to change those terms and conditions? Do we have the will to define words, the world and reality for ourselves? Or do we simply wait for and accept what others put in their books?’

    powerful questions…that cannot be defined or answered accurately in a colonial context, had this same conversation on another forum some weeks ago, papers are already written on the subject from an Afrikan perspective…

  46. David Avatar
    David

    PM and her African mission

    by DR DAN C. CARTER T

    HE LANDING OF the private jet of President Paul Kagame of Rwanda at the Grantley Adams International Airport on Friday, April 15, represents a new era of African-Caribbean relations. One must credit the Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley with the foresight and boldness to seek to positively bring about an international marriage with our African brothers and sisters that had remained a dream ever since we in the Caribbean diaspora had been illegally and brutally shipped from our motherland.
    One remembers the visit to Barbados of Haile Selassie and the outpouring of love and interest that was invoked across the country for the Emperor. Barbadians still remember that nostalgic moment. In essence, however, it was one of those moments in history that was merely symbolic.
    Africa remained for us in the Caribbean a distant land with the Atlantic Ocean ensuring that we remain divorced from our black heritage. However, political developments on both sides of the Atlantic seemed to have destined that Africa and the Caribbean emerge as a single force within the global community of nations at this point in the 21st century. This present coming together has been marked by a process of decolonisation that is similar in scope.
    Outstanding names
    Both in Africa and the Caribbean, Britain had been a significant colonial power that has seen her former colonies either adopting revolutionary means to gain their independence or negotiating peacefully to achieve the same goal. Between the 1960s and the 1980s, several African countries, including Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanganyika, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe gained independence.
    Outstanding names such as Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda and Hastings Banda were to capture international attention as they fought to regain sovereignty of their countries.
    At this side of the Atlantic, the Caribbean was also in the throes of decolonisation. During a similar period, former colonies like Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Barbados, The Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda and St Kitts and Nevis were also securing their independence from Britain. We also had our outstanding political heroes in the name of Alexander Bustamante, Dr Eric Williams, Forbes Burnham, Errol Barrow, Vere Bird, Lynden Pindling and Kennedy Simmonds.
    With both Africa and the Caribbean almost now totally decolonised, the stark reality is that they both face the challenges of underdevelopment that have plagued post-colonial countries, and seek constantly to undermine their independence. Unemployment, the loss of preferential treatment for export staples, the slow pace of diversification, educational systems that impede rapid economic growth, the struggle to bring cultural change to reflect the aspirations of the native populations are just some of the impediments.
    Present day government policies are therefore needed to stimulate growth and to minimise the perennial debt problem. They are also needed to equip these countries with the human resource capacity and technological capability to survive in a world dominated by science. Of particular concern, too, is to find new trade markets and to open, in the case of Barbados, additional tourist markets.
    It is within this trans-Atlantic context that Mottley is charting new ground. Not known to attract any ideological labels, she has, nonetheless, demonstrated a clear vision as to the relationship that must be forged between Africa and the Caribbean.
    Not known for empty rhetoric, Mottley demonstrated her genuine commitment to improved relations with our African brothers and sisters by openly embracing visiting African Presidents and returning their visits.
    The year 2019 was special in this regard.
    In June of that year Barbados welcomed the Ghanaian President, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who dubbed the visit the “Year of Return”. A critical part of the dialogue between the two leaders was the proposal for the Ghanaian President to supply the
    Barbados health system with a significant number of nurses to ease our very acute shortage here. Ghana was experiencing a surplus of nurses.
    Here was a very tangible exchange of human resources beneficial to both countries. Some 95 nurses eventually arrived.
    Visit coming
    The Prime Minister, in November 2019, paid a return visit to Ghana which further cemented the bonds of friendship between the two countries. With the visit coming on the 65th anniversary of the country’s Independence, it was no surprise that the invitation to address their annual conference was extended to Mottley. Of particular interest to me was the Prime Minister’s visit to the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum. Nkrumah was a remarkable African leader who provided a socialist framework – the Arusha Declaration – that established the moral principles of Ghanaian sovereignty. Ujamaa: Essays On Socialism by Julius K. Nyerere should still make interesting reading.
    Following the Ghanaian President in August was the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, son of the legendary Jomo Kenyatta, whose Ma-Mau revolution helped to bring about that country’s independence.
    Mottley then made a state visit to Kenya in December at which she accepted, on behalf of her CARICOM colleagues, space in an ultra-modern business complex in Nairobi.
    This administrative centre is expected to be the hub of CARICOM/ Africa diplomatic and business relations. As not to be outdone by Mottley, Kenyatta again paid a state visit to Barbados which coincided with the UNCTAD15, which was held in Barbados.
    And for this year, Barbados was the host to yet another African leader, President of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame. Unlike the previous other African countries, Rwanda’s colonial master was Belgium and not Britain. However, colonialism did not discriminate as to the scourge of underdevelopment it left these countries. His reminder that it is never too late to make friends was very instructive.
    There is no doubt that Mottley has set in motion the diplomatic levers for bringing Africa and the Caribbean closer together. The several memoranda of understanding or bilateral engagements reached, reflected a common desire for both the peoples of Africa and the Caribbean to benefit from the enormous resources inherent in our countries. No doubt, the sharing of expertise in such areas as tourism and cricket, biotechnology and ICT, climate change, investment and concessional financing have been seen as critical topics of discussion.
    According to Mottley, underlying all of the above, however, is the urgency to put in place a transportation system that would make the transfer of persons and goods easier and more cost effective.

    Dr Dan C. Carter is an educational historian and author.

    Source: Nation

  47. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    “With both Africa and the Caribbean almost now totally decolonised,”

    obviously not living in the real world and only a propaganda mouthpiece….

  48. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    How could those claiming higher education with bits of paper from degree mills…..NOT UNDERSTAND what is really going on around them, but all ready to MISLEAD THE PEOPLE….with self-massaging fantasies and fairytales…not this time…

  49. David Avatar
    David

    Better when we do it together

    IN RECENT YEARS the Caribbean has been experiencing a trickle of African heads of states paying official visits to a number of Caribbean nations including Jamaica, Trinidad, Cuba, Guyana, Barbados, and St Vincent.
    The most recent African head of state to visit our region is President Paul Kagame of Rwanda. Official visits between African and Caribbean heads of state are long overdue and should be encouraged.
    Leaders from both sides of the Atlantic have waxed eloquently in their meetings about the need to build bridges to reconnect a Black family ruthlessly separated by the ghastly and inhumane trafficking in Black bodies and souls. Reconnecting the Diaspora with the continent of Africa is perhaps the most urgently needed development among people of African ancestry. This urgency is fuelled by the closing of ranks among people of European ancestry.
    The ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine should serve as stark reminders to African and Caribbean leaders that recess is over and that they need to roll up their sleeves and get down to the hard work of creating a future for the Black collective. Climate change, global financial instability, increased fuel costs and the disruptions in the supply chain will force most countries to go into a hoarding mode simply to survive.
    In his Press statement delivered on April 14 in Barbados, his President Paul Kagame complimented Barbados on the standard of living enjoyed by Barbadians. Kagame stated that this was the trajectory he wished to emulate in Rwanda. This simple statement by an African leader should serve as a reminder to Caribbean leaders that the Caribbean can set standards for Africa and the rest of the African Diaspora to mirror.
    The historically minded would be aware that it was Caribbean intellectuals and activists who crafted the philosophy which coalesced into Pan Africanism. Names like Henry Sylvester Williams, C.L.R. James, George Padmore, Edward Wilmont Blyden, Hubert Harrison, Marcus Garvey and J.A. Rogers may be forgotten today, but these men contributed significantly to the independence movement in Africa.
    The Caribbean may have missed a golden opportunity and may be continuing to miss the same golden opportunity to set an example of regional unity that can serve as a road map for the continent
    of Africa. Associations of sovereign independent states are doomed to failure from their inception. Implementation of agreements will always be a problem in such associations.
    Both CARICOM and the African Union are failed institutions and should be accepted as such by the leadership and citizens of Africa and the Caribbean. Africa and the Caribbean should be thinking of creating smaller regional federal political governing structures as precursors to a more inclusive federal structure.
    Individual Caribbean and African countries are too small or too weak to exert any real significant impact in the international arena. The West Indies cricket team has proven time and time again that when we combine our resources we can beat the world. In his report A time for action, the late Sir Shridath Ramphal reminded us that we do it better when we do it together.
    Pretty speeches, empty promises and free trips to Kigali, Nairobi, Accra, and other African capitals by Caribbean leaders may help boost their egos but do very little to build the kind of bridges needed to connect the people of Africa and the Caribbean. Millions of us were packed like sardines in the bowels of ships and brought crying and screaming to the shores of the Caribbean. If air travel is proving to be too costly and difficult then maybe it is time to resurrect the vision of Marcus Garvey and his Black Star Liner.
    Lastly, as Caribbean leaders dialogue with their African counterparts, the issue of the passage of a Law of Return by the African Union must be broached. Africans in the Diaspora are the descendants of Africans who were sold or kidnapped in Africa and forcibly transported to the lands where we now reside. The African Union must be commended for recognising Africans in the Diaspora as Africans living outside the continent of Africa. Representation must be made to the African Union to go one step further and offer a simple path to citizenship to any Africans in the Diaspora who desire to reconnect with a country in their ancestral homeland.

    – LENROD NZULU BARAKA


    Source: Nation

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