I Write What I Feel!!!

Your AfroSpear Circle, will over the next little while, each drop a post telling a bit about themselves, share why they got into blogging and what they hope to see Afrospear accomplish. TheFreeSlave, who I refer to by his African name, Lubangakene, started with his post: Intro To The AfroSpear: TheFreeSlave. Here is mine. 

I was born in England, spent my formative years in Jamaica and grew up primarily in Toronto, Canada. I currently live in Ottawa, Ontario, the capital of Canada. I’m 40 something, married, expecting my first child, and work in the national security field. I am a born again Christian and regularly attend a Pentecostal church. I took the African/Spiritual name of: Asabagna Alatentou, during a pilgrimage to West Africa in 1997, where I journeyed to Senegal, The Gambia and Ghana.   

Looking back on my life, I have been blessed to have the opportunity to do and see a variety of things. I went to a drama school and worked as an actor for a number of years. During that period into the early 90’s, with a friend of mine (who was also the 2^nd Best Man at my wedding…lol…), I co-wrote and co-produced a hip-hop funk style album, which had some local radio play and sales. This interest in the arts also included an interest in writing, which I had never seriously developed or pursued. My other interests include politics, African/Black culture, history, economics and religion. So all my experiences and interests led me to have definite opinions, beliefs and views on a variety of subjects and issues. I saw blogging as an avenue to write down, develop and share these beliefs with others in the Blogospehere (at the time), in the hopes of engaging and exchanging ideas.  

The purpose of interacting with others for me has never been about arguing my beliefs, changing others’ opinions, showing how “intellectual” I am or being “right”. I read more than I comment. I listen more than I speak. It’s more beneficial to listen and learn from others’ experiences as well as their ideas, and to be open and humble enough to, if not accept or agree with, at least consider another “way” of doing or seeing things. So that is why I write what I feel. This term is a play on a couple of influential sources. There is a book entitled: “I Write What I Like”, on the writings of Steve Biko, a South African student activist who was murdered in 1977 by the apartheid regime. I once heard a speech by an African-American psychologist on the paradigms of white supremacy who stated that European society is more concerned about what you “think” (which is easier to control) than what you “feel”, and as people of African descent, what we “feel” about things is just as important as what we think. So, what I “feel” about any issue is a combination of what I know, believe, experience, read, heard, saw and what my inner voice (for me the voice of God)…. what all these factors has led me to hold as being “true”, in that moment of time. 

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Black Homicides Fuel Nation’s Murder Surge

I wrote this on February 26th, but I expect it to segue into another post I’ll make here adding a little context to the origins of “snitchin’ culture.” So bear with me! I’ll also include a couple of the comments from that post. It hurts my heart more when I notice well-to-do black intellectuals blaming problems with the African-American community on hip-hop than when I see white commentators do it. Perhaps I’m alone in feeling this way, or the sentiment isn’t warranted, but it bothers me to death. I tagged this R/WS among other things, which I take to mean “racism/white supremacy,” so if it secretly means something else, let me know. :-p

 

This morning on my local hip-hop station, the DJs interviewed Michael Eric Dyson, who attempted to infuse some wonder and poetry into interpreting rap lyricism. He invoked Tupac, Biggie, and Jay-Z — speaking about how Tupac was the hope, Biggie was the muse, and Jay-Z criticized the hustler as he eased through the rap game. Dyson also challenged this prevalence of misogyny’s unfair link to rap music and rap music only (he cited religion as one of the original culprits, and he emphasized how he wanted to redistribute the blame for the attitudes, not deny its existence), and he laughed at the idea of homophobia in hip-hop culture (with the baggy pants and the “bros before hos” mantras and the homoerotic nature of sports — yes, he cracked a little on Hardaway — how could homophobia have such a chokehold? That remark was obviously very tongue-in-cheek).

We have to be careful with blanket assumptions that black people live in a minstrel bitch culture. I can’t think of any way to describe it better, but the soundbyting of our experiences through corporatized rap that caters to an entirely different market — young white Americans — needs to slow the hell on down a little. Black-on-black crime is a problem, but is this culture informing the motive or the motive informing this culture? I’d say the former after reading this article on AlterNet by Earl Ofari Hutchinson:

Gimme Five!!!

We’ve Created The AfroSpear, Now What?

Consider this a public brainstorm – a global brainstorm within the Black Diaspora.  How can we who use the Internet change the world – OUR WORLD.

What strategies and tactics should we use to liberate ourselves?

What pitfalls do we need to avoid?

What should be our initial first steps?  Gimme FIVE!!!!!

Intro To The AfroSpear: The FreeSlave

Being black in America, being black anywhere is like swimming amongst piranhas while bound to an anvil. Some of us learn to swim these waters and stay intact simultaneously.  The miracles that black people are capable of.

I’m from DC originally. I go by a few aliases: TheFreeSlave, MaxJulian, Lubangakene. Who I really am is a black man in the process of becoming. Human. Caring. Feeling. Awake. We re-learn these human attributes all while in a culture that make us things, beasts of burden, walking dead.  Resistance to the system of Racism/White Supremacy begins here, in our minds.

I’m a writer, videographer by training, though much more by serendipity. I’ve been able to see parts of the world that I’d never dreamed of seeing: South Africa, Brazil, France, the Netherlands. There is a Higher Power.

I got into the blogging game back in late 2004 as a result of feeling locked out of opportunities to write truthfully in Portland, OR.   Where can one write truthfully in a den of thieves?  Thus, TheFreeSlave was born of resistance, defiance, rage, hope.

I’m forty something, so I’m a child of the sixties. At the same time, in order to actually live, I’ve found it essential to keep engaging with culture and youth. I have to continously look at the “underneath” in order to figure out what is going on.  So, I listen to some hip hop and enjoy some of it, too. Mos Def’s “Black On Both Sides.” Nas’ “Illmatic.” Tribe Called Quest’s “Midnight Mauraders.” Tupac’s “Me Against The World.” I’m a huge jazz fan, though, of Miles, Charles Mingus, Bobby Hutcherson, Shirley Horn, Billie, Holiday.

Some of my other s/heroes are Malcolm, Martin, Huey, Angela Davis, Ralph Ellison, Baldwin, bell hooks, Marimba Ani, Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, Ali, my grandfather.

These people are spiritual nutrients. I can return to them and be lifted out of a funk, be inspired to do more, push harder/back off, change, grow, help, extend myself in ways that I may not want to.

Hopefully, our AfroSpear page will inspire some of you, provide a place where you can feel at home, see a reflection of yourself, get support, drop and gain knowledge. Maybe it will be a place where you can “Drop the Rock” as some in recovery call letting go of the disease of addiction. Many of us are addicted to to our condition or our adaptation to our condition. Some of us can’t tell the difference between who we really are and what we’ve become. I pray that we all learn to tell the difference.

Let’s Get Free!

What’s in a name?

What is is with brothers named Thomas? I mean there must be some type of divine crystal ball at work here. Trust me, the irony isn’t lost on me that both Clarence Thomas, and Thomas Sowell, are….how do I say this; firmly in the Tom camp. These two brothers are embraced by the conservative movement, which doesn’t automatically qualify them as Toms. But then I stumble across some of the writings by Sowell-who is clearly regarded as the more intellectual of the two-I really have to wonder. Honestly, Mr. Sowell, have you lost your mind? I mean did you really say this in Capitalism Magazine? “Minimum wages in South Africa have been set higher than the productivity of many workers, so employers have no incentive to hire those workers…”

Sir, I know you are a die in the wool capitalist, but I think the poor workers in South Africa have the right to a living wage and an income to take care of their basic every day needs. Your type of thinking is what allowed the British to pay their colonies little or nothing for sugar cane, banana, and bauxite, thus creating poor Third World countries throughout the West Indies.

For you to suggest that you can minimize the productivity of these hard working people merely by giving them lower wages is absurd. If the capitalist in South Africa want to do the right thing, they will take a small hit on their bottom line for the greater good of the country. The last time I checked the crime rate in South Africa was spiralling out of control. Unfortunately, this is what happens when families are not given a decent wage for a days work. They turn to stealing and other nefarious activities to make a quick buck.

You try to suggest that the high minimum wage is why unemployment is so high in that country. That’s hog wash and you know it. I submit to you that the unemployment is high because the minimum wage isn’t high enough. Your supply side hog- wash may fly here in the good old United States, where we have a very strong middle class and jobs galore. But I guarantee you Thomas, it will never fly in a country as poor as South Africa. Too much poverty, and years of oppression under a racist regime. You do remember that don’t you? It was called Apartheid, and it was meant to keep people that looked like you from achieving economic or political power. How is that for irony? What a wonderful world we live in huh Thomas. Just be thankful you were born in the house Thomas, and not the mean fields of Soweto.

ACTION

Jared from “Lies Before Breakfast” submitted this post called “Action” in response to our Mission Statement: 

The Afrospear has the potential to be a powerful tool, which can be used to better our community. At the beginning of anything that is new, the possibilities of what I can do are in fact, limitless. However, there comes a time when a movement, social group, corporation, or faction must define its objectives, goals, strategic methods, and ideology. The primary purpose of this essay is to respond to some key questions raised in the Afrospear mission statement. The secondary goal is to begin a conversation or rather a process that will sharpen the spear. That is, from the cacophony of ideas and opinions that is the Afrospear, what core themes and actions will create the sharp, piercing point of change, which I believe these times and our mission call for. 

Francis L. Holland Response to Our Mission Statement

Asabagna, this is great! I just called my daughter in to show her the immense growth of the Afrosphere/AfroSpear in just the last two weeks!

And I described to her the artistic and conceptual development of the Afrosphere, some of which she already knows because I had to rely on her CorelDraw skills.

Take the Afrosphere logo above, for example. You proposed it in what I take to be a kind of divine vision. It was immediately adopted by me and Exodus Mentality, pretty much on the same day or two. When you first used the spear it was tall and vertical, which didn’t fit into my cramped layout over at the Francis L. Holland Blog.  So, I had to “import” it into Corel Draw and change it to a square logo. 

Once I had the square logo, it seemed logical to write “AfroSpear” on it, so that people would understand the relationship identity relationship between the logo you (Asabagna) developed and the name you gave it. So, I made those modifications and began using it at my blog. And now, to my absolute ecstatic delight, you’ve found it useful to that way and have adopted it above, square with a caption.

What is marvelous about this is that we are working as a virtual think-tank, with each of our computers being like a little cubicle in an enormous building full of beautiful, creative and  dilligent minds. I told my wife and daughter that the Afrosphere is like a sandwhich for which you provided the bread, I suggested and added some grapes, Exodus Mentality convinced me that we all needed to settle upon one name . . .

I’ve realized that what others of you told me is true: The Blackosphere is everyone who is Black and on the Internet whether or not we have anything in common besides out skin-color. On the other hand, the Afrosphere is a voluntary agglomeration of blogs, based on commonality of interests that are more important than our differences. Or, at least our differences are not enough to divide us in light of all of the compelling reasons we have to join forces and delight in our unity.

For the reasons you expressed above, we simply cannot afford the dubious “luxury” of laboring in isolation when there is so much that we only accomplish by surviving and thriving in unity.

There is absolutely no way that people with a principally capitalist and greedy mindset could ever collaborate so rapidly and thoroughly on a project so complex. The Afrosphere is like a sandwich that we can all make and partake of together. The more we make and partake, the bigger and better it gets. It’s really delicious!

Is Mugabe a real African?

The days of Rhodesia were over in 1980: the newly independent nation marched into the post-colonial world with the heraldic anthem ‘Zimbabwe’ by Bob Marley, a Jamaican whose country like Zimbabwe was a satellite of those British islands. 1980 was the year of Robert Mugabe. 2007 is the 27^th year of his reign. Africa’s political elite will never listen to Marley’s lyrics of ‘Africans a-liberate Zimbabwe’. It is up to the continent and her diaspora to speak.

The President’s infamous ‘go hang’ response to the international reaction to the arrest and beating of Morgan Tsvangirai cannot cover what his legacy has produced such as accusing Henry Olonga of treason and allegations of human rights violations. Tsvangirai’s double arrest in March is proof that Mugabe’s policies are not going anywhere, least of all down the road of evolution. His determination to reassert ‘African’ identity means that simple calls for his resignation are insufficient. Do something about it – we have elected these leaders to represent us. Why are they in their presidential palaces without trying to spur change?

Fortune favours the brave. The outspoken critics have suffered physically yet if he resigns, their fearlessness shall be synonymous with justice. Pinochet, Amin and ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier are part of a list of long dictators who had the rug pulled out from under them. Are Mugabe’s feet slipping? The following months shall reveal the answer; we just need our fingers to tighten grip.

Am I a BBC-ised African girl swallowing everything the former colonial masters are feeding me about Zimbabwe? Cynics can think what they like. What is clear is the post-colonial era is over. We just need to stop making excuses for a man who does not have Zimbabwe or Africa’s interests in his heart.