AFRICANDO Arts and Culture Festival, a collaboration between the Foundation for Democracy in Africa and Miami-Dade County, is a one-day event that will feature contemporary African, Afro-American, Caribbean & Afro-Latino cultures. MDCC and the Black Heritage Museum will display masks, statues and murals from the Caribbean, South America, Brazil and Cuba. A special "Children's Activities Village" will feature traditional African and Caribbean folk tales, puppet shows, African mask and instrument making, African textile weaving, Miami Metrozoo's exotic animal show and more. The festival, which is the closing event for AFRICANDO 2001, will be promoted in Africa, AFRICANDO organizers say. A trade delegation from Miami and Washington, D.C., will conduct trade seminars promoting the conference and festival in Nigeria, Mali, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania.
Very few people have ever heard of the war between the Blacks and Mulattoes in Haiti. This was a war between light-skinned Blacks and dark skinned Blacks. Interestingly, outsiders who had a stake in dividing Haiti's victorious army engineered this war. The old adage of divide and conquer that was used and is still used. If the students at Howard University who devised the paper bag test had only read of the war between mulattoes and black in Haiti they would have been ashamed of their actions. Other African Americans immigrated to Haiti, stayed, and became prominent members of Haitian society. Hezekiah Grice was an Afro American leader, and a supporter of emigration by Blacks to Haiti. He was convinced that there would never be full emancipation for Blacks in this country. Outraged at the treatment of his people in America, he immigrated to Haiti, and became the director of Public Works in Port-Au-Prince.
According to MercoPress, an independent online news agency, Afro-Brazilians represent the largest ethnic group in Brazil, making up more than 49 percent of the population.
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.
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CAFTA is also a step backward for labor rights. Under CAFTA, Central American countries are only obligated to uphold their own labor laws, which have been judged inadequate by the International Labor Organization in more than 20 ways. What's more, the enforcement of these deficient laws cannot be encouraged through the use of dispute settlement, fines or trade sanctions. Even putting labor conditions aside, CAFTA is bad the health of people of co south of the U.S. border. The countries of Central America have high rates of infection of HIV/AIDS and other diseases, rates that go up even more if you look at just the Afro-Latino communities. Provisions in CAFTA would actually delay or limit the introduction of cheaper, generic drugs to combat or cure many diseases and other health conditions. The result? Many of the 275,000 Central America living with HIV/AIDS will not be able to afford antiretroviral drugs. This impact will hit especially hard on Afro-Latinos, who make up a third of Latin America's population but represent 40 percent of Latin America's poor Maybe that's why Doctors Without Borders, the American Public Health Association and many others have come out strongly against CAFTA.
Gazing at the amalgam of rich Caribbean artistic expression - bold colors intertwining on canvas, delicately woven wire sculptures, sheer pieces of cloth with intricate handmade designs - one might think she was roaming the corridors of the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the prestigious Guggenheim rather than viewing the one-bedroom Harlem apartment of Caribbean art dealer Anderson Pilgrim. "One of the reasons that Caribbean art has yet to penetrate the New York scene is that it has yet to be fully explored even among Caribbeans", Pilgrim said. "Because of the colonization of the Caribbean islands, and the stifling post-colonial effects, many native Caribbeans didn't begin to explore their abilities until the 1970s, which was a period of real artistic revolution on the islands". A few of the artists he represented were medal winners at the prestigious Biennial Caribbean Festival, held in the Dominican Republic and featuring artists from the Caribbean and Countries in Central America which border the Caribbean.
"They were walking toward me on the street, then they pulled up their locks, shook them back in, and smiled," she recalled, with a laugh. "I shook my locks at them, too. They would go, 'Yo!' And I'd say, 'Yo!' It was fun to get that type of acknowledgement. It showed how we are connected as Africans. There's nothing that can make that go away." [Russo], she added, also discussed now Cubans might benefit from a more open relationship with the U.S.A., even though it may change Cuba's moral character. While [Linda Jennings] hopes better communication is achieved through the blockade's elimination, she is worried that America's dominant influence would alter Cuba's innocence. It seems like today, in our communities, the lack of material items makes Black people feel inferior. Cubans don't, seem to have that problem, Jennings said. Black people have propelled themselves to a more material, individualistic society, which has made too many of them forget who they truly are to themselves. Having seen Cuba's society in person I don't understand why a Cuban would want to defect here."
"Black in Latin America" (NYU Press), by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: This spring, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. produced a four-episode series for PBS tracing the legacy of the slave trade in six Caribbean and Latin American countries. "Black in Latin America" is the book companion to the television series of the same title.
We must continue to support one another for the future of our community. We need to see more African American leaders coming into the Haitian community, not just during election time but throughout the year. We need to see more solid commitment on the part of the Haitian community also to join different causes in the African American community. These are the only ways we can overcome in this struggle for equality. If we continue to treat our political interests as separate entities, we will never get to partake of the ftuits of democracy. Concerned citizens and political officials in both communities need to let people know that we don't have a Haitian/African American problem. I would hope that the Haitian community can realize that just because Mr. Duke, an African American, was defeated by Mr. [Joe Celestin], a Haitian, that Haitians are not "better" or "tougher" or "stronger" than the African American community. Likewise, the African American community needs the growing Haitian vote in the future. Haitian and African American people are one race, living through different cultural lifestyles. It's okay to have different lifestyles, as long as we respect each others' differences, without animosity or violence. For instance, the Latin community is comprised of Spanish-speaking people from different countries: Cuba, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, etc. Does anyone think that these groups are in complete harmony with one another? The answer is no. The different Spanish-speaking groups do not like one another that much but, in reality, when it comes to standing up for a common cause you see them marching side by side, taking pictures with each other and voting for each other.
