The author discusses the use of slavery reparations as a strategy for economic development. Particular focus is given to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Reparations Commission, which was formed in 2013 in order to address the damages caused to Caribbean nations by slavery and racism. The author argues for the creation of a reparations commission in the U.S. The book "Britain's Black Debt" by Hilary Beckles is also discussed.
Using data on U.S.-born and Caribbean-born black women from the 1980-2000 U.S. Censuses and the 2000-2007 waves of the American Community Survey, documents the impact of cohort of arrival, tenure of U.S. residence, and country/region of birth on the earnings and earnings assimilation of black women born in the English-, French-, and Spanish-speaking Caribbean.
In Apr 2009, shortly after taking office, Pres Barack Obama signaled that he was open to a new dialogue with Cuba. At remarks delivered at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, the President said that the US seeks a new beginning with Cuba. Earlier that year, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had welcomed an offer for talks from Cuban President Raul Castro, who took over duties from his ailing brother Fidel Castro in 2006 and subsequently was elected president by the Cuban National Assembly in 2008. Castro reportedly said that he was willing "discuss anything" with the US Government. Here, the US-Cuba policy is discussed. Adapted from the source document.
Beszterczey,Dora (Author), Fernandez,Damian J. (Author), and Gomez,Andy S. (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
Aug 2010
Published:
Washington, DC: Latin America Initiative at Brookings
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
5 p., Last year, President Obama delivered the first step in his promise to reach out to the Cuban people and support their desire for freedom and self-determination. Premised on the belief that Cuban Americans are the best ambassadors for freedom in Cuba, the Obama administration lifted restrictions on travel and remittances by Cuban Americans; however, if US policy is to be truly forward looking it must further expand its focus from the Castro government to the well-being of the Cuban people. Tables.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
204 p., International adoptions are both high-profile and controversial, with the celebrity adoptions and critically acclaimed movies such as Casa de los babys of recent years increasing media coverage and influencing public opinion. Neither celebrating nor condemning cross-cultural adoption, the author considers the political symbolism of children in an examination of adoption and migration controversies in North America, Cuba, and Guatemala. The book tells the interrelated stories of Cuban children caught in Operation Peter Pan, adopted Black and Native American children who became icons in the Sixties, and Guatemalan children whose 'disappearance' today in transnational adoption networks echoes their fate during the country's brutal civil war. Drawing from extensive research as well as from her critical observations as an adoptive parent, the author aims to move adoption debates beyond the current dichotomy of 'imperialist kidnap' versus 'humanitarian rescue.'.
Don Fitz explains why quality health care does not have to be based on unending expansion of expensive medical technology. Adapted from the source document.
Cubans are wildly optimistic about the transformations that will occur once the United States lifts its long-standing embargo on Cuba. Overlooked in these discussions, however, is how Cuba's health-care industry may be harmed by any serious easing of trade and travel restrictions between the two countries.
53 p., Since 1996, Congress has appropriated 205 million dollars to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of State (State) to support democracy assistance for Cuba. Because of Cuban government restrictions, conditions in Cuba pose security risks to the implementing partners -- primarily nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) -- and subpartners that provide US assistance. GAO (1) identified current assistance, implementing partners, subpartners, and beneficiaries; (2) reviewed USAID's and State's efforts to implement the program in accordance with US laws and regulations and to address program risks; and (3) examined USAID's and State's monitoring of the use of program funds. Tables, Figures, Appendixes.
Lopez-Levy,Arturo (Author) and Lopez,Lilla R. (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2011
Published:
Washington, DC: New American Foundation
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
19 p., Explores the historic reform process currently underway in Cuba. It looks first at the political context in which the VI Cuban Communist Party Congress took place, including the Cuban government's decision to release a significant number of political prisoners as part of a new dialogue with the Cuban Catholic Church. It then analyzes Cuba's nascent processes of economic reform and political liberalization. To conclude, it discusses the challenges and opportunities these processes pose for U.S policy toward Cuba.
5 p., During most of the last half century, discussions aimed at normalizing relations with Cuba have been rare and mainly unproductive. Due to Obama's optimism for political change toward Cuba during his presidential campaign, there was considerable hope that policy would be altered in a more constructive direction, but after a year, it is argued that "change" in Latin America policy has been more in reverse than in fast-forward. Tables.
Argues that the bedrock of U.S. policy is an ideology of benevolent domination. Created at the time of the Spanish-American War, President Theodore Roosevelt captured this ideology perfectly in 1907 when he explained, "I am seeking the very minimum of interference necessary to make them good," and it is seen today in the 2004 report of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba. Adapted from the source document.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
230 p., For almost five decades, the United States has maintained a comprehensive economic embargo on Cuba. U.S.-based travel to the island is severely restricted, and most financial and commercial transactions with Cuba are illegal for U.S. citizens. In the 1990s the United States tightened the embargo further, seeking to promote change in Cuba by depriving the Castro government of hard currency revenues. And yet the stalemate remains. This book argues that the embargo has not been particularly effective in achieving its primary goal. The United States has not only been unable to stifle the flow of foreign investment into Cuba but has actually contributed to the recovery of the Cuban economy, particularly from the deep recession it entered following the demise of the Soviet Union.
Washington, DC: Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
39 p., Restrictions on travel to Cuba have been a key and often contentious component in US efforts to isolate Cuba's communist government since the early 1960s. Under the George W. Bush Administration, restrictions on travel and on private remittances to Cuba were tightened. Congress took action in March 2009 by including two provisions in the FY2009 omnibus appropriations measure (P.L. 111-8) that eased restrictions on family travel and travel related to marketing and sale of agricultural and medical goods to Cuba -- Subsequently, in April 2009, President Obama announced that his Administration would go further and allow unlimited family travel and remittances. Tables.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
178 p., By acknowledging that competing national identities, perceptions, and ideas play a major role in foreign policies, Perceptions of Cuba makes a significant contribution to our understanding of international relations. Contents: The exceptionalist and the Cuban other -- The independent international citizen and the other Cuba -- Exploring Cuba policy in tandem.
According to McPherson, Spenser has gathered a remarkable international ensemble of scholars who collectively ask what the East-West Cold War meant in Latin America
Bender,Thomas (Editor), Dubois,Laurent (Editor), and Rabinowitz,Richard (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Publication Date:
2011
Published:
London; New York: D Giles Ltd.
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
287 p, A season of revolutions : the United States, France, and Haiti / Thomas Bender -- Insurgents before independence : the revolution of the American people / T.H. Breen -- A port in the storm : Philadelphia's commerce during the Atlantic revolution era / Cathy Matson -- Atlantic revolutions and the age of abolitionism / David Brion Davis and Peter P. Hinks -- The achievement of the Haitian revolution, 1791-1804 / Robin Blackburn -- An African revolutionary in the Atlantic world / Laurent Dubois and Julius S. Scott -- Liberty in black, white, and color : a trans-Atlantic debate / Jeremy D. Popkin -- A vapor of dread : observations on racial terror and vengeance in the age of revolution / Vincent Brown -- One woman, three revolutions : Rosalie of the Poulard nation / Rebecca J. Scott and Jean M. Hébrard -- The 1804 Haitian revolution / Jean Casimir -- Curating history's silences : the Revolution exhibition / Richard Rabinowitz.; Explores, largely through illustrations, how three globally influential revolutions transformed politics and culture between 1763 and 1816, from the triumph of the British Empire in the Seven Years' War to the end of the Napoleonic Wars.; Time: Geschichte 1763-1815. 1700 - 1804
Argues that the emergence of hip hop in the South Bronx can be explained by the way in which several social-political factors dictated by the needs of the world economy converged with the resistance and labor of black people in the United States and the Anglo-Caribbean in the late 1960s and early 1970
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
223 p., "This collection is wide-ranging, moving from the Caribbean (Jamaica in particular) to Cambridge, England, and from poetry to sex to discrimination." -Library Journal
Uses data on both region and country of birth for black immigrants in the United States and methodology that allows for the identification of arrival cohorts to test whether there are sending country differences in the health of black adults in the United States. Results show that African immigrants maintain their health advantage over U.S.-born black adults after more than 20 years in the United States. In contrast, black immigrants from the Caribbean who have been in the United States for more than 20 years appear to experience some downward health assimilation.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
221 p, In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Hispanic Caribbean was fundamentally a plantation economy dominated mainly by the world sugar market. The politics were shaped by revolutions, political coups, wars, and elections, resulting in an end of Spanish power, independent states, and the domination of the region by the United States. These developments led to changes in social values. The author follows these developments throughout the main Hispanic islands and provides a fascinating picture of a region in turmoil.
Morgan,Gwenda Auteur (Author) and Rushton,Peter (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2013
Published:
London: Blooomsbury
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
309 p., This book places banishment in the early Atlantic world in its legal, political and social context. Contents: Part one. Diverse patterns of banishment in Britain and Ireland --Part two. Continuity and change: British North America and the Caribbean.
Nellis,Eric Guest (Author) and Canadian Historical Association (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2013
Published:
Projected Pub Date: 1307
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
About the origins, growth, and consolidation of African slavery in the Americas and race-based slavery's impact on the economic, social, and cultural development of the New World. While the book explores the idea of the African slave as a tool in the formation of new American societies, it also acknowledges the culture, humanity, and importance of the slave as a person and highlights the role of women in slave societies.
In her book Louisiana, Erma Brodber reflects on the alliances that should exist between the African American and Afro Caribbean peoples, symbolically repairing the fissures that exist between the two, while addressing an uncommon subject in Caribbean migrant literature. Brodber's literary themes toward the unification of the relationships shared amongst the black diaspora articulate the legal tensions and national differences that can impede these alliances. Although Brodber's novel approaches this by creating a reconnection of the African diaspora in a borderless and nationless transmigration, and sometimes through a spaceless spirit world, Page argues that in reality this reunification is affected by the rules of the state that simply cannot be ignored.;
The United States Virgin Islands (USVI) is a complex society with multiple diverse ethnic groups: Black Virgin Islanders, Eastern Caribbean islanders, Puerto Ricans, Spanish Dominicans, French Islanders, Americans (Continentals), Arabs and Asians. These ethnic differences as well as United States cultural imperialism have stymied any uniform Virgin Islands identity. Nonetheless, social identity in the USVI can be conceptualized into the bi-level structural analysis of national and trans-Caribbean.
Boston, Mass; Enfield : Publishers Group UK distributor], Projected Date: Beacon; 201203
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
After peaking at 27 percent of all major leaguers in 1975, African Americans now make up less than one-tenth--a decline unimaginable in other men's pro sports. The number of Latin Americans, by contrast, has exploded to over one-quarter of all major leaguers and roughly half of those playing in the minors. Ruck explains that integration cost black and Caribbean societies control over their own sporting lives, changing the meaning of the sport, but not always for the better. While it channeled black and Latino athletes into major league baseball, integration did little for the communities they left behind.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
52 p., Gottschalk traveled extensively. A sojourn in Cuba during 1854 was the beginning of a series of trips to Central and South America. He also traveled to Puerto Rico after his Havana debut and at the start of his Caribbean period. Taken with the music he heard on the island, he composed a work entitled Souvenir de Porto Rico; Marche des gibaros, Op. 31 (RO250).
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
306 p., Uncovers the long-forgotten story of the Hankey, a small British ship that circled the Atlantic in 1792 and 1793. From its altruistic beginnings to its disastrous end, describes the ship's fateful impact upon people from West Africa to Philadelphia, Haiti to London. It began with a group of high-minded British colonists who planned to establish a colony free of slavery in West Africa. With the colony failing, the ship set sail for the Caribbean and then North America, carrying, as it turned out, mosquitoes infected with yellow fever. The resulting pandemic as the Hankey traveled from one port to the next was catastrophic.
On Christmas Day 1521, in the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, the first recorded slave revolt in the Americas occurred. A group of African, likely Wolof, slaves came together with native Indians led by the Taino cacique Enriquillo to assert their independence. Beyond being the first slave revolt in the Americas, it was also one of the most important moments in Colonial American history because it was the first known instance when Africans and Indians united against their Spanish overlords in the Americas.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
449 p, During the presidencies of Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, the Caribbean was in crisis. The men responsible included, from Cuba, Fidel Castro, and his brother Raúl; from Argentina, Che Guevara; from the Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo; and from Haiti, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier. The superpowers thought they could use Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic as puppets, but what neither bargained on was that their puppets would come to life.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
505 p., During the presidencies of Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, the Caribbean was in crisis. The men responsible included, from Cuba, Fidel Castro, and his brother Raúl; from Argentina, Che Guevara; from the Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo; and from Haiti, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier. The superpowers thought they could use Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic as puppets, but what neither bargained on was that their puppets would come to life.
Dr. Ron Daniels, president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century and founder of the Haiti Support Project, has announced that the Pilgrimage of Hope Humanitarian Cruise to Haiti originally scheduled for Oct. 310, 2011 is being postponed until January of 2012. As originally stated, "For the Love of Haiti: Pilgrimage of Hope Cruise is envisioned as a "rollup-our-sleeves project," a heartfelt effort to lift the spirits of the Haitian people by making a contribution to building the new Haiti. HSP also hopes to link faith-based institutions and civic-minded organizations from the U.S. with various projects, organizations, and initiatives in Haiti to provide ongoing support for the reconstruction process after the Cruise.
Defender Staff Report Representing more than 1,400 McDonald's restaurants throughout the United States with annual sales collectively exceeding $3.2 billion, the National Black McDonald's Operators Association recently announced a $100,000 donation to the Red Cross for its continual Haiti relief efforts.
The head of Citizenship and Immigration Services, Alejandro Mayorkas, says his agency can't eliminate its fees, but it has the power to waive them for people who can prove they are poor. He has promised that his employees will treat applicants with a "generosity of spirit." This would be a refreshing change for an agency notorious for bureaucrats expert in finding a way to say no.
While helping applicants take their place on the line, Richard Champagne, current President of the Haitian Lawyers Association (HLA)stated, "This is an opportunity for the HLA and participating attorneys to give back to our community. Haitian immigrants have been suffering for a long time, and after the Obama administration granted TPS, it was our duty to assist. It has been a great opportunity to partner with the city of North Miami, given the concentration of Haitian nationals in the city.
A Congressional Black Caucus delegation, led by the CBC Chairwoman Carolyn C. KiIpatrick (D-Mich.), traveled to Haiti recently for a one-day visit as part of the group's ongoing effort to bring attention to the plight of starving Haitians.
"Congress has gone on record supporting debt relief for Haiti", the letter stated. "We now call on you, Mr. President, to use your influence to make sure that this struggling nation is no longer held captive to their past and is put on a sustained path to development". In urging [George W. Bush] to grant Haitian immigrants, currently residing in the U.S., TPS, the CBC said this would enable them to contribute to their nation's recovery and stability. Under Congressional rules, TPS may be granted when there is ongoing armed conflict, "posing a serious threat to personal safety". It is requested by a foreign state that "temporarily cannot handle the return of nationals due to environmental disaster" or when "extraordinary and temporary conditions in a foreign state exist which prevent aliens from returning". In February, Haitian President René Préval formally requested TPS for his compatriots living in the U.S. The CBC said while Haiti has made "considerable progress" in its efforts to recover from the physical and political damages of recent years, through its "commendable" rebuilding efforts and its recent democratic elections, its democracy "remains fragile.
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.
Bennie G. Rodgers left us recently. Bennie G. Rodgers, 86, longtime executive editor and columnist for the St. Louis American, one of the leading black community newspapers in America. Jean Leopold Dominique (1930-2000) was violently snatched from our lives. Jean Léopold Dominique was a Haitian journalist who spoke out against successive dictatorships. He was one of the first people in Haiti to broadcast in Haitian Creole, the language spoken by most of the populace.
This year's Miami concert is a continuation of this ongoing goodwill project, bringing together a host of internationally renowned celebrities, reggae, R&B, and hip-hop artists in an all-day Carnival event with food, arts, crafts, and a vast array of entertainment. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Wyclef Jean Foundation and be donated to charitable organizations. Proceeds from last year's Miami Carnival were given to VHI's "Save The Music" and Oeuvres de Petites Ecoles de P. Bohnen (through Fondation Artistes Creation, a not-for- profit Haitian organization). "Guantanamera," a single from "Wyclef Jean Presents the Carnival," featuring Celia Cruz and Jeni Fujita, was nominated for the Best Rap Performance By A Duo or Group. The following year, Wyclef Jean's single, "Gone Till November," was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Rap Solo Performance category.
BET's "SOS Saving Ourselves-Help for Haiti" benefit and concert telethon debuted live from the American Airlines Arena on Friday night. The event was hosted by Queen Latifiah, Sean "Diddy" Combs and Pharrell.
Denying Haiti credit where credit is due is an established tradition. In 1893, at the end of the century that started with Haitian Independence and the Slave Trade Act, the orator, statesman and emancipated slave Frederick Douglass told an audience at the Chicago World's Fair how Haiti "taught the world the danger of slavery and the value of liberty." He pointed out that: The world had a chance to recognize Haiti three years ago, during the celebration of Haiti's bicentennial. But once again, Haiti was penalized. On the big day, January 1, 2004, Thabo Mbeki, President of the most powerful African nation, South Africa, came to celebrate. But the former slaveholding nations, led by the United States, boycotted the events, and forced the less powerful countries of Africa and the Caribbean to stay away. Instead of sending congratulations to the Haitian people's elected representatives, the United States sent guns and money to those trying to overthrow the government. When the international spotlight came to Haiti in 2004, it was to witness the return to dictatorship rather than to celebrate freedom from slavery.
351 p., Explores the racial and gender decolonization of New York and Curaçaoan women in a select group of novels, paintings and performance text by women from Curaçao and New York City. The Curaçaoan novels are: Aliefka Bijlsma's Gezandstraald [Sandblasted] (2007); Loeki Morales' Bloedlijn Overzee: Een Familiezoektocht [Overseas Bloodline: A Family Search] (2002); Myra Römer's Het Geheim van Gracia [The Secret of Gracia] (2008). The Curaçaoan painters are: Jean Girigori (1948), Minerva Lauffer (1957) and Viviana (1972). The New York novels and performance text are: Black Artemis' Picture Me Rollin' (2005), Angie Cruz's Soledad (2003) and Nelly Rosario's Song of the Water Saints (2002) and Josefina Báez's Dominicanish (2000). The ways the women characters, figures, images and voices align to subvert gendered delineations as well as the stifling cultural and colonial imprints on their bodies and their selves in Curaçao and New York are central to the decolonizing project explored here.
Examines in the transnational conversation on the place of Afro-descendants in the republican nation-state that occurred in New-World historical literature during the 19th century. Tracing the evolution of republican thought in the Americas from the classical liberalism of the independence period to the more democratic forms of government that took hold in the late 1800s, the pages that follow will chart the circulation of ideas regarding race and republican citizenship in the Atlantic World during the long nineteenth century, the changes that those ideas undergo as they circulate, and the racialized tensions that surface as they move between and among Europe and various locations throughout the Americas. Focusing on a diverse group of writers--including the anonymous Cuban author of Jicoténcal; the North Americans Thomas Jefferson, James Fenimore Cooper, and Mary Mann; the Argentines Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and Eduarda Mansilla de García; the Dominican Manuel de Jesús Galván; the Haitian Émile Nau; and the Brazilian Euclides da Cunha.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
311 p., Focuses on conflict and convergence among African Americans, Cuban exiles, and Afro-Cubans in the United States. Argues that the racializing discourses found in the Miami Times, which painted Cuban immigrants as an economic threat, and discourses in the Herald, which affirmed the presumed inferiority of blackness and superiority of whiteness, reproduce the centrality of ideologies of exclusivity and white supremacy in the construction of the U.S. nation.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
661 p., Focuses on the diffusion of Cuban popular musical styles throughout the Americas as well as the creation of new hybrids in places such as Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Latin New York. Students, scholars and librarians will find Baila! to be an essential resource on Afro-Latin music and dance, language, literature, aesthetics, and more.
Reviews several books which focused on the social and political history of Haiti. Haiti in the New World Order: The Limits of the Democratic Revolution, by Alex Dupuy; Building Peace in Haiti, by Chetan Kumar; Haiti Renewed: Political and Economic Prospects, edited by Robert Rotberg; The Haitian Dilemma: A Case Study in Demographics, Development, and U.S. Foreign Policy, by Ernest Preeg.;
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
247 p., Describes how black Cubans experience racism on two levels. Cuban racism might result in less access for black Cubans to their group's resources, including protection within Cuban enclaves from society-wide discrimination. In society at large, black Cubans are below white Cubans on every socioeconomic indicator. Rejected by their white co-ethnics, black Cubans are welcomed by other groups of African descent. Many hold similar political views as African Americans. Identifying with African Americans neither negatively affects social mobility nor leads to a rejection of mainstream values and norms.
Hutchinson,George (Editor) and Young,John K. (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Publication Date:
2013
Published:
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
236 p., Always haunted by the commodification of blackness, African American literary production interfaces with the processes of publication and distribution in particularly charged ways. This collection ranges across the history of African American literature, and the authors have much to contribute on such issues as editorial and archival preservation, canonization, and the "packaging" and repackaging of black-authored texts. Includes "More than McKay and Guillén: The Caribbean in Hughes and Bontemps's The Poetry of the Negro (1949)."
In this issue, we'll see why [Frederick Douglass] believed Haiti not only worried but scared slave-holding Americans. We'll also discuss why he believed Haiti is a country of "firsts" and his answers to critics that the country is doomed due to its roots in voodo. His actual words will be in italics. While slavery existed amongst us, Haiti's example was a sharp thorn in our side and a source of alarm and terror.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
326 p., Part of a series listing materials on the history of North America and the Caribbean from 1492 to 1815. Organized thematically, the book covers, among many other topics, exploration and colonization; maritime history; environment; Native Americans; race, gender, and ethnicity; migration; labor and class; business; families; religion; material culture; science; education; politics; and military affairs.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
218 p, Contents: Origins of the divestiture trope in selected literature of the African diaspora -- Diaspora as a trope for the existential condition -- Resonances of the African continent in selected fiction and non-fiction by Zora Neale Hurston -- Orphanage in Simone Schwarz-Bart's The bridge of beyond and Alice Walker's The third life of Grange Copeland -- Polyphonic texture of the trope "junkheaped" in Toni Morrison's Beloved -- Sociological implications of female abandonment in Buchi Emecheta's Second class citizen and The joys of motherhood -- Success phobia of Deighton Boyce in Paul Marshall's Brown girl, Brownstones -- Madness as a response to the female situation of disinheritance in Mariama Bâ's So long a letter and Scarlet song -- Exile of the elderly in Beryl Gilroy's Frangipani house and Boy-Sandwich -- Conclusion: abandonment as a trope for the human condition;
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.
"I knew in some quarters that linking the virus to Haiti would potentially raise some concerns, but for the better part often years I have been tracking the virus from Central Africa to elsewhere-which is the roadmap for useful vaccines and other control methods," [Michael Worobey] said. "Whether it be Haitian men and women or homosexual men and women there is no sense in blaming a group of people for a virus we did not know existed. Instead we as a community should be extra sympathetic to those who are infected with the virus."
500 p., Explains the rise of a culture of racial silence in a time of heightening racial exclusion in Cuba at the turn of the twentieth century. Employing a case study of Cienfuegos, a port city on the south-central coast of the island, the author examines gendered articulations of inequality among Cuban separatists between the outbreak of the war of independence in 1895 and the inauguration of the Cuban republic in 1902. It is argued that Cuban struggles for political power in the wake of the American military intervention (1898) and military occupation (1899-1902) fundamentally transformed separatist visions of citizenship, increasingly restricting its boundaries along racial lines.
At the 32nd convention of Black Mayors, which was held in Memphis, Tennessee, from April 26 to 30, 2006, Minister of Interior and Territorial Collectivities Paul Magloire led the Haitian delegation. In the name of the interim government of Haiti, here is the speech he pronounced April 28, on the third day.
Acc-, After the earthquake, I knew that not much would change in Haiti precisely because of the people's resilience. It was almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy. I knew that people would soon be going about their business as if nothing had happened. That's what scared me most for the future of Haiti. Soon after they could circulate through the rubbles in Haiti, Haitians were walking down the streets to their neighbors, some street merchants, were trying to sell the little bit they had from their businesses, children were still trying to wipe-clean cars for a few half pennies, "tap-taps" were fishing for people, etc. And that was life as they know it. That's life as those who can afford better think the people deserve and that's why not much is being done to make things closer to equality in Haiti.
230 p., Carlos A. Cooks (1913-1966) was a pan-African leader, street speaker and is remembered as perhaps the most militant advocate of the racial-pride philosophies and self-help programs of Marcus Garvey (1887-1940). Cooks was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in a household where his father was a Garveyite. Cooks arrived in New York City in 1929, joined the ranks of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), and later formed his own organization, the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement (ANPM), after Garvey died in 1940. For the following two decades, Cooks struggled to materialize the original objectives of the UNIA, exhibiting the commitment that earned him distinction among Harlem personalities. By the 1960s, Cooks had kept the legacy of Garvey going, worked with leaders fighting for freedom in Africa and the diaspora, and organized cultural and economic activities that became part of the Black Power Movement. T
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
310 p., Relates current theoretical debates about hospitality and cosmopolitanism to the actual conditions of refugees. Examines literary works by such writers as Edwidge Danticat, Nikl Payen, Kamau Brathwaite, Francisco Goldman, Julia Alvarez, Ivonne Lamazares, and Cecilia Rodriguez Milans, Jacques Derrida, Edouard Glissant, and Wilson Harris.
637 p., Utilizes perceptions and attitudes towards the Haitian Revolution as a means to resituate party conflict and the boundaries of American nationalism in the Early Republic. The concept of nationalism is utilized in both the shaping of political culture and in the institutional formation of the state. As a result, the Haitian Revolution generated contradictory factional responses between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans to the emergence of revolutionary abolitionism in the Atlantic. On a more popular level, the ordeal of Haiti engendered a fear of black militant abolitionism that hardened American attitudes towards the possibility of further slave emancipation in the United States.
Dessalines became a lieutenant in Papillon's army and followed him to Santo Domingo, where at first he enlisted to serve Spain's military forces against the French then he joined the "real" slave rebellion that was inspired by Dutty Boukman, a voodoo priest, and led by Toussaint.
After independence, many of the newly formed nations struggle to maintain their hard fought freedom, though there were many lingering colonial attachments; hostilities; and the difficulties that came with growing pains. Around 1789, the French Revolution was raging in France; two years later, a rebellion swept the northern part of the island like a massive tidal wave.
According to historical records and stories passed down by the griots in Haiti, Christophe was born around October 6, 1767 in Grenada and brought to Haiti (then Saint Domingue) as a slave.
Dessalines became a lieutenant in Papillon's army and followed him to Santo Domingo, where at first he enlisted to serve Spain's military forces against the French then he joined the "real" slave rebellion that was inspired by Dutty Boukman, a voodoo priest, and led by Toussaint.
According to colonial records, he was granted his freedom, given 13 slaves and 15 acres of land and allowed to grow coffee and sugar cane, as a surrogate plantation owner. When this declaration of the rights of all men was denied to the slave population, they revolted and in 1791, the rebellion swept the northern part of the island like a massive tidal wave.
According to the United Nation, Haiti is the poorest county in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest nations in the entire world, and the people were experiencing unspeakable hardships before the earthquake.
As the CBC turns up the heat on the [Bush] administration, rebel leader Guy Philippe, who said his troops are ready to attack the Haitian capital, decided to "give a chance to peace" that is, to see if [Jean-Bertrand Aristide] will resign. "Given the fact that Haiti is so close to us, they have been treated very shabbily by our government and we have not exercised the kind of moral authority that we talk about and attempt to exercise even in other places when it comes to Haiti. That is unfortunate...," [Danny K. Davis] stated. "The current unrest may result in an exodus of refugees fleeing to our shores, thus placing the lives of many Haitians in danger. The political violence in Haiti is intolerable, and the U.S. cannot afford to allow a country in our own hemisphere to spiral further downward into a state of turmoil," said [Bobby L. Rush].
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
143 p., Exploring the mechanisms and strategies used in different cultures across Hispano-America and the Caribbean to narrativise, represent and understand HIV/AIDS as a social and human phenomenon, this book examines a wide range of cultural, artistic and media texts, as well as issues of human phenomenology, to understand the ways in which HIV positive individuals make sense of their own lives, and of the ways in which the rest of society sees them.
While at its inception, the revolutionary ideals of the newly formed nation called Haiti held great promise, the reality as understood today detracts from this plesant image . Still , our rituals and their symbolic associations mirror these revolutionary ideals. For example, soup joummou, the New Year's and Independence Day celebratory pumpkin soup, signifies the communion of equals through the consumption of the once forbidden delicacy reserved for the colonial masters. Today, as family and friends gather around the dinner table, we are clearly proud of our freedom and accomplishments, yet know that there are countless Haitians who are hungry, sleeping under tents. Two hundred and eight years after independence, many Haitians live in abject poverty and have no rights as humans.
He was born a slave. He was called a genius of the rebellion. He was an 18th century rebel named Toussaint Breda, also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture, and he led the Haitian Revolution to abolish slavery. By the way, translated, L'Ouverture means "the opening."
"The U.S. government would prefer to tell Haiti what to do and when and how to do it," said Eugenia Charles, the Haitian-born director of Fondasyon Mapou, a Washingtonbased group that seeks to improve the quality of life for Haitians. The group sponsors weekly demonstrations in front of the Haitian Embassy demanding that political prisoners be freed and democracy be restored in Haiti. Thomas Griffin, a Philadelphia attorney and human rights advocate who traveled to Haiti last year, presented details of his findings to members of the Congressional Black Caucus on March 2. His report, released by the Center for the Study of Human Rights at the University of Miami School of Law, found that "Haiti's security and justice institutions fuel the cycle of violence. Summary executions are a police tactic, and even wellmeaning officers treat poor neighborhoods seeking a democratic voice as enemy territory where they must kill or be killed." [Barbara Lee]'s Haiti TRUTH (The Responsibility to Uncover the Tuth about Haiti) Act would form a TRUTH commission to investigate United States involvement in [JeanBertrand Aristide]'s removal.
Who is it that speaks for our private face? Those of us who take communion at Mass on Sunday morning still intoxicated with the echoes of beating drums from the Vodun ceremony the night before. You know the saying: We are 95% Roman Catholic and 95% percent Vodun. What is it that makes a former Catholic priest more apt to run a country than say, a Vodun priest, a Hougan? To most of us, this would be an atrocity. The country would certainly fall into the wrath of hell if this were to take place. We are trying to move forward not backward, the voices of decency would say. And besides, you would not find a well-educated, well-traveled Vodun priest in the mountains of Ayiti. Ayiti's vision is found in Vodun. Not the religion that it has become, but the very essence of the spirituality. It is the essence of the Ayitian people. After all, these were the conditions under which Ayiti gained its independence. Our country was formed in a ritual - a ritual that called on the guidance and protection of our ancestors who survived the journey from Guinea, as they say in Vodun, and those who were indigenous to the land. The essence of Vodun is to give honor to those whose shoulders we stand on. It is a reverence to the unseen forces that truly determine our fate as a country and it is a time-tested method handed down to us to ensure a successful life.
[Dennis Johnson] received TJB's Pioneer Award and Johnson was recognized by the United States government as a Caribbean icon. He was presented with a U.S.
Thanks to the federal Freedom of Information Act, citizens were made aware of a program the FBI - under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover - enacted to "neutralize" Black leadership in America.
TWO-TIME Olympic relay gold medallist, Michael Frater, will be looking to keep Jamaica sprinting atop the podium in the 60 metre dash at the New York Road Runners Millrose Games on February 15, 2014. But the 31-year-old's task won't be easy as three young Americans - US Olympian Isiah Young, and 2013 NCAA champions D'Angelo Cherry, and Ameer Webb - will be in on the chase. 'The Armory is one of my most favourite places to race," said Cherry, who won 60m titles at the US and NCAA Championships last winter. "I'm in good shape and looking forward to running a great race at the Millrose Games."
The visas are distributed among six geographic regions, with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and with no visas going to nationals of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the period of the past five years, as in the case of Jamaica and Haiti.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, have been taking it on the chin in some quarters for a fact-finding trip to Havana, Cuba, to meet with that nation's president. Since the Kennedy administration in the 1960s in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the tiny island 90 miles off the coast of the U.S. has been embargoed and isolated.
"The election of President Barack Obama presents a great new opportunity to rethink U.S. foreign policy in many regions of the world," [Barbara Lee] said. "America's harsh approach toward our nearest Caribbean neighbor divides families, closes an important market to struggling U.S. farmers, harasses our allies and is based on antiquated Cold War era thinking." Thursday, Lee joined Reps. Bill Delahunt (D-MA), Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and other members in calling for the lifting of the ban on travel to Cuba from the United States through the passage of H. R. 874, the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act. Lee has led other delegations to Cuba in previous years. She has long supported an end to the travel ban to Cuba and has introduced legislation that would remove travel restrictions for students traveling to Cuba.
The State Department revealed that an estimated 30,000 undocumented Haitians face deportation to their homeland. [Hillary Clinton], however, said the U.S. will look closely at the issue "and try to come up with some appropriate responses to the challenges posed." A large number of legislators and immigration advocates have been calling on the Obama administration to grant TPS to Haitians as the U.S. has done for other countries, such as Honduras and Nicaragua. Last month, two prominent U.S. Democratic senators - Charles Schumer of New York, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border, and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote U.S. President Barack Obama, expressing deep concern about the status of Haitians here.
Two Florida Democratic congressmen have been pushing the [George W. Bush] administration to permanently cease deportation of Haitians because of the hardship being experienced in the impoverished country. Kendrick Meek and Alcee L. Hastings, strong Haitian cates, have assailed the istration's policy on Haiti, ing that Haitians have, for long, been victimized by Washington's "double standard" immigration policies. Meek, who represents Miami, said Haiti "over-qualifies" for TPS, bestowed when the U.S. government determines eligible nationals are temporarily unable to safely return to their home country because of ongoing conflicts, environmental disasters or other "extraordinary and temporary conditions."
"That's terrific news," she added. "We're hopeful that Haitians wont be sent back until the country has had a chance to recover." [Kendrick Meek], who represents Miami, said Haiti "over-qualifies" for TPS, bestowed when the U.S. government determines eligible nationals are temporarily unable to safely return to their home country because of ongoing conflicts, environmental disasters or other "extraordinary and temporary conditions. [Alcee L. Hastings], who represents the city of Miramar, north of Miami, said, in his letter to [George W. Bush], that Haiti can "hardly sustain the lives of those currently living within its borders. "How can we also expect it to contend with the repatriation of the very people who left Haiti in desperation and who, through remittances, can aid in the nation's recovery efforts?" he asked.
The first Africans came to America in August, so obviously, it's our entire history - in so far as the celebration or acknowledgement was. It has to do with [Jonathan Jackson], George Jackson and prisons. I believe in a time when the United States has more people in prison than any other industrialized nation, the prediction that if the current rate of incarceration stays the way it is now, one in three men will be incarcerated or on parole in 2020, which is not very far. I think it is contingent on us to look at that - the re-enslavement of African Americans continuing. I think this benefit for Haiti is important, because of what Haiti represents - a nearby island that had a successful slave rebellion, it has always suffered from intrusions from America from as far back as the 1800s, so I think joining together the national and international struggles is important. It is important for African Americans to look at themselves locally, nationally and internationally - to see ourselves in the world. Black August 2003 offers an opportunity to do that.
-, An editorial asserts that the Chicago Defender joins the Congressional Black Caucus, the Miami Branch of the NAACP and Rep Carrie Meek in denouncing a Bush administration directive requiring INS officials to arbitrarily detain Haitian refugees seeking asylum in the US.
An editorial asserts that petty politics and diplomatic one-upmanship should not play a part in a stated request by Dr Juan Carrizo Estevez, the director of Cuba's two-year-old Latin American School of Medical Sciences, to obtain a visa to the US to meet with black college officials and the Congressional Black Caucus to discuss a grandiose, gratuitous offer from Cuba of a free medical education to US students.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Originally published: Afro-American folktales. c1985., 327 p, These tales range from the earthy comedy of tricksters to stories explaining how the world was created and got to be the way it is, to moral fables that tell of encounters between masters and slaves. They includes stories set down in travelers' reports and plantation journals from the early nineteenth century, tales gathered by collectors such as Joel Chandler Harris and Zora Neale Hurston, and narratives tape-recorded by Roger Abrahams himself during extensive expeditions throughout the American South and the Caribbean.
Yes, we owe Haiti. Unfortunately, we have shown little appreciation. My generation has witnessed Haiti in a multi-decades long downward spiral. There have been the dirty Papa Doc regime; the dirty Baby Doc regime; the dirty Aristide regime and dirty everyone else who supposedly had the trust of the people. The United States has sent troops there on various occasions but it was not to strengthened or liberate the people. Preference should be given to Haitian owned businesses in this rebuilding. Partnerships with Haitian and African Americans should be allowed. The money generated from these contracts should stay in Haiti and be taxed by the Haitian government. All, I mean ALL jobs, should be offered first to Haitians with the first right of refusal. It is noble for the world to come to the aid of Haiti but there must be a strategy that will empower the people of Haiti during and afterwards. For the first time in history, we have a chance to make Haiti independent, self sustaining and free.
