[Marcus Garvey] studied all of the literature he could find on African history and culture and decided to launch the Universal Negro Improvement Association with the goal of unifying "all the Negro peoples of the world into one great body and to establish a country and government absolutely on their own". In addition, Garvey started his own newspaper. He did not have a forum to express his philosophy in the white newspapers, so he started the Negro World. The Negro World was the U.N.I.A. weekly newspaper, published in French and Spanish as well as English. In it African history and heroes were glorified.
To honor our sacred heritage, to bear the burden and glory of our history, we must self-consciously resume our vanguard role in the midst of the liberation struggles of the world.
The daytime workshops will be complemented by evening community programs held at the Historic Lyric Theatre, 819 NW Second Avenue in Overtown. On Monday, June 18 at 5:30 p.m. a special "Maroon Double Feature" film showing will celebrate the Pan African spirit of resistance with a presentation of "Maluala" by Cuban filmmaker Sergio Giral and "Quilombo" by Brazilian filmmaker Carlos Diegues. Both have become modern classics. Based on historical fact, these powerful dramas depict the struggle of those who dared to escape from slavery and establish independent, fiercely defended Maroon communities. Time will be allowed for discussion after the films. June 19 is officially celebrated in several states as "Juneteenth," commemorating that date in 1865 when the last of the enslaved African American population in East texas received word of the Emancipation Proclamation at the end of the Civil War. Because "No one was really free until everyone was free," this date, shortened by custom over the years to "Juneteenth." was considered the true end of the institution of slavery in the United States.
"The initiative increases the visibility and presence of Black, African and Caribbean queers in Canada," says Akim Ade Larcher, Founder of Stop Murder Music (Canada) "It's the first of its kind in Canada and I'm proud to announce it during Black history month."
In creating Scourge, a full-length work of hip hop theater, Joseph digs into his ancestral roots to tell the story of Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere with a long and violent history. The piece's main characters are two Haitian-American kids who are torn between their Caribbean roots and urban America where they have grown up.
There are 38.9 million blacks in the United States. According to the 2000 census there are 75.9 million citizens of Brazil who would be classified as African American in the U.S. Since there are only 91.3 million Brazilian whites, who dominate the country, one wonders why so many blacks are living in poverty in favelas (slums).
On Saturday, February 24, at Artisan's World Art Gallery in Cambridge, Professor Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban of the University of Rhode Island, presented on Haitian anthropologist Anténor [Firmin]'s book, De l'Egalité des Races Humaines (Anthropologie positive) (Paris, Librairie Cotillon, 1885), a powerful refutation of the work of prominent 19th century French anthropologist Arthur de Gobineau, who had argued the "natural" inferiority of the black race in the The Inequality of Human Race.
The political awareness of Afro Cubans remains exclusively tied to the Revolution. "And [Fidel Castro] is the one sustaining the Revolution: the reason Cuba is so strong is because of Fidel," said a prominent U.S.-based Afro Latino journalist who preferred not to be named. "After Fidel, the Cubans in Miami will simply pounce on the island," this journalist contends. "They have connections in Cuba; they have their people in place in Cuba already. When they take over they're going to be opening up the political arena to the U.S. again. Cuba has ostensibly been "independent" since Dec. 10, 1898, following decades of fighting between the nation's independence army, the Cuba Libre, and Spain. By 1898, the war was between Spain and the United States, but Cubans had declared their independence as early as Oct. 10, 1868. At that time, they'd also called for the island to end its enslavement of Black people, but emancipation from slavery was not made law until Oct. 7, 1886.
The Caribbean branch of the Toronto-based Global Afrikan Congress (GAC) this week welcomed British Prime Minister Tony Blair's comments on the horrors of slavery, saying he has done much more for the cause than "our own" Black-led governments in the region on the issue. Maxie Fox, a spokesman for the GAC formed in Barbados in 2002, said the GAC and other Afro organizations have been trying for years to persuade regional governments to "have a discourse" on slavery, its effects on Blacks and even reparations, but only Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo, a Hindu, has seen it fit to acknowledge correspondence.
Launch of Caribbean Culture Week on January 18 at Savacou Gallery, NYC. Loris Crawford is Director of the Savacou Gallery, which hosted Caribbean Culture Week.
