The Glory of Africa Part 7
Africa is beautiful and Black is Beautiful. We approach 2015 now. I have lived on the Earth for a little more than three decades now. It is a new era in my life. I know more issues about the world. I am a better person than a decade ago. I realize that life is complex, but that we have the duty to be vigilant against oppression. We have the right to care for our people and to defend our people. It is important to note that while we have a long way to go, we do see many Brothers and Sisters doing what is right. They are being involved in charities, in mentorships, in developing housing, in fighting poverty (as oppressed people have the right to have jobs and an income to improve the fabric of society), in dealing with criminal justice matters, and being involved in other programs that are helping humanity. Their work should be appreciated and acknowledged. It is very important to understand Africa, because learning Africa is about learning about humanity in general. Africa is the ancestral homeland of the human race. It doesn't matter if you live in the ghetto or in a palace. You are somebody. It doesn't matter if you are homeless or if you suffer illness. You are somebody. You have dignity and worth. Regardless of your age, your gender, or your nationality, you have purpose. Our heritage and our culture has great value, resiliency, strength, and beauty. We need to continue with the work, because we certainly have work to do.
We certainly need radical change in society. Years and centuries of oppression, inequality, and injustice should be opposed and not brushed under the sun. Also, we have to learn from our heroes. Cabral, Kwame Nkrumah, C. L. R. James, Fanon, Richard Wright, Fannie Lou Hamer, Toni Morrison, Malcolm X, Ella Baker, Septima Clark, Dr. King, and other Brothers and Sisters have great insights that we can read and utilize in our struggle for liberation as a people. We deserve both power and justice. Our people and the poor need more empowerment via self-determination, so our interests are addressed. The injustices done by militarized cops in Ferguson, the Supreme Court weakening parts of the Voting Rights Act, and the massive economic inequality in America ought to make us aware of the seriousness of the problems in our community. We not only need laws changed and police brutality fought against. We need our communities to be rebuilt via mobilization and organization of independent political organizations (whose main goal is to support the interests of the masses of the people). All black people are entitled to freedom, justice, and equality without asterisks. There is nothing wrong with a radical redistribution of economic and political power either, so humanity can be assisted and enriched. Internationally, we are anti-imperialist and we oppose neocolonialism as spoken about by Fanon and Nkrumah (Dr. King admired the Ghanaian revolution and we know that Malcolm X respected the black liberators of Africa as well). So, we are in solidarity with those who want the total liberation of Africa. Africa is the blessed land of our people.
To understand Africa fully, there must be an understanding of the strong black African women who fought for justice and freedom back then and now. People know the truth. The truth is that women should not bow down to a man or vice versa. The truth is that a woman has every right to be strong and to express her own self-determination just like a man. Historically, we see that women have had a very big role in liberation movements of Africa and stood up against oppression. Thousands of years ago in Africa, women had great ECONOMIC, political, social, and spiritual power. There were the Amazons or the Fon women of Dahoney. Historically, female leaders fought for justice like the Makeda of Ethiopia, Nzinga of Angola, and the Mnkabayi of Zululand. Therefore, we should oppose any oppression against black women and we should oppose any oppression against black men also. There were activists who fought for African female equality in the modern era. There was the Bantu Women’s League in South Africa, the Egyptian Feminist Union (the activist Huda Sharaawi formed it in the 1920’s), etc. The activist work of the following Sisters should be respected like from Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Wambui Otieno, Lilian Ngoyi and Margaret Ekpo. Women fought against not only imperialism and discrimination, but they fought against patriarchy as well. It is important to note that some of the patriarchy (though patriarchal societies did exist even in many parts of ancient Africa) has spread into Africa via Islamic extremists and Euro-Christian extremists too. The problem is not people having the right to believe in what ever religion they want peacefully. We should always respect religious freedom in the world. The problem is how some exploit, distort, and use religion as an excuse to oppress humanity. That is the point. Fundamentally, people want balance and the equal distribution of power among all genders (not the dominance by one over the other). In other words, both the masculine and the feminine should be respected and appreciated. There are many Sisters in Africa today who are fighting against poverty, violence, etc. They want democratic freedom to exist all over Africa. It is not about tensions. It is about all people in society respecting each other and treating each other with dignity and respect. We have every right to be fully educated on our history and our culture.
True education is key in establishing collective freedom. When I mean true education, it is an education that deals with black people growing their consciousnesses, understanding their true history including culture, and it involves building society constructively. We need not only personal advancement, but we need collective social liberation and freedom as well. One thing that we will do is that will be reject fascism. The corrupt police repressed the Panthers, and they have violated the human rights of the peaceful protesters including journalists found in Ferguson, Missouri recently. Racists used apartheid to oppress black people in South Africa. Also, we have the right to not only want the end of white supremacy and colonialism, but we want the end of oppression and exploitation in any form. I have no issue with a direct worker ownership of the means of production (or enterprises being owned jointly by all of its workers). There is nothing wrong with workers’ rights and I don’t believe that private businesses should oppress people at all. Human life is more important than property. Property has no personal being. It is no human, so property is not superior to human rights. I am against imperialism, I am against the War on Drugs, and I oppose CORPORATE corruption too.
It is important to note that there is nothing wrong with power if it is used corrected as the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has mentioned:
"...Power, properly understood, is the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political or economic changes. In this sense power is not only desirable but necessary in order to implement the demands of love and justice. One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites. …What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. …There is nothing essentially wrong with power. The problem is that in America power is unequally distributed.” (Dr. King's "Where Do We Go," on pg. 37).
Real African History and Culture
Another common ideology among many lovers of the status quo is of their unconditional love of laissez faire capitalism. For years and centuries, we have seen the destructive forces of predatory capitalism, and Stalinist Communism (which was bureaucratic, didn't go far enough in giving the workers true justice, and it is the opposite of what Trotsky plus others even wanted). Both systems deprived many democratic rights when all power should be for all of the people. Outdated, false, and white supremacist, and terroristic philosophies will not liberate our people. The Maafa, slavery, evil child labor policies, imperialism, and other evils have been the fruits of predatory, cut throat capitalism. Walter Rodney, and other Brothers and Sisters have documented this historical fact. Capitalism is not God. That is why Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X critiqued capitalism in strong, uncompromising terms, because capitalism readily leads into economic exploitation, inequalities, and social injustices. We need commerce, trade, and economic development as had been done for thousands of years in the Motherland of Africa. What we don't need is the workers' exploitation, starvation, wage suppression, and any form of corporate corruption (like resources being stripped from Africa benefiting multinational corporations and not the masses of the people of Africa) though. We have the right to express our self determination and to be free. Also, we have to ally with Brothers and Sisters internationally in an alliance as a means to make positive things happen. The late Professor Brother Jon Hope Franklin mentioned these great words on humanity:
"The very essence of the life of the mind is the freedom to inquire, to examine, and to criticize. But that freedom has the same restraints abroad that it has at home: to state one's position, if impelled by personal conviction, with clarity, reason, and sobriety, always mindful of the point that the scholar recognizes and tolerates different views that others may hold and that his view is independent, not official." (The American Scholar in 1968)
Consciousness
Our consciousness must be strong as a people and as a community. We can never learn about Africa without first respecting Africa. We’re Africans. All those of black African descent globally are one people. We are one people in the human family. Our ancestry is from Africa. We all share a common history and we have a great culture. Also, in order for us to establish solutions in Africa, we have to understand history as well. It is a historical fact that the oppression of Africa by many Europeans (via the Maafa, colonialism, neo-colonialism, etc.) has harmed Africa in many ways. Many European imperialists stole the resources of Africa to fund Western society. This is not just me typing these words. The economic exploitation of Africa by evil people has been fully documented by enumerable sources like Walter Rodney’s “How Europe Undeveloped Africa.” That is why revolutionaries back then and now seek a revolutionary change in the beautiful continent of Africa. There can be no liberation for the continent of Africa or for human life in general without the empowerment and the liberation of the working class including the poor. Society is judged on how it treats the poor, its working class, the elderly, the sick, and the oppressed. Therefore, we have to do actions as a means to help the human race. Civil rights are fine, but it is not enough. We need human rights and we have total solidarity with all people of African descent globally. We know how the ruling class uses the bourgeoisie as a means to contain and prevent true revolutionary change. One example deals with J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Nixon. Hoover (who once headed the FBI) used COINTELPRO as a means to try to end the black liberation struggle in America. One sign of a real revolutionary is a person who opposes imperialism. When Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Fred Hampton, and others linked the oppression of black people in the States with the oppressive war in Vietnam, then they were soon assassinated by reactionary forces. Also, the Sisters have made a huge contribution in the struggle for liberation like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Septima Clark, etc. Richard Nixon (who supported CIA-back coups globally) also used tactics to not only harm the Black Panther Party movement. He promoted “black capitalism.” He has done this to create a contained “black middle class” as a means to use that as a buffer between the bourgeoisie and the oppressed African people. This along with neo-liberal, predatory capitalism, the War on Drugs (including mass incarceration), and other evils have been harming many black people ever since the late 1960’s in America. Therefore, we want real freedom. The people in Ferguson make this call for freedom and justice that much more clear. Peace is fine with me. We can only have peace with us fighting evil and advancing goodness in the globe.
We should have revolutionary thinking. One basic point of revolutionary thinking is that we should always be opposed to fascism. Progressive forces defeated Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, and other enemies of humanity. Reactionaries exploit the blatant immoral actions of ISIS and other extremists as an excuse to PROMOTE chilling dissent and promote proto-fascist policies in the West. Many reactionaries want a more theocratic society when we need democratic rights protected in the world. I have with no issue with people advocating the formation of communes and cooperatives. Cooperative institutions, community banks, and other independent solutions are necessary to express the negation of capitalism even before capitalism is utterly vanquished. Democratic governance in our communities is a great means where people (who are poor, working class, and middle class) can have great access to political and economic power. Frantz Fanon was active in supporting the Algerian revolution against the imperialist French. Women were key members of the Algerian Revolution and revolutions throughout Africa. Fanon said that he had just been to Guinea, Mali, and Senegal where African women are to be found in the marketplace in public life operating quite freely. So, the point is that the liberation of women is key to the liberation of everyone in the human race in general. Many heroic people stood up for real causes. Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas fought against slavery. Marcus Garvey believed in black social consciousness. WEB DuBois opposed imperialism and economic injustice. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. disagreed with the Vietnam War and wanted justice for humanity. Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker fought for human rights. Angela Davis including George Jackson exposed the prison industrial complex. It is a fact that the evils of the prison industrial complex, poverty, racist violence, and economic exploitation are interrelated.
On learning our real HISTORY, the late John Henrik Clarke said it best:
"...If you expect the present day school system to give history to you, you are dreaming. This, we have to do ourselves. The Chinese didn't go out in the world and beg people to teach Chinese studies or let them teach Chinese studies. The Japanese didn't do that either. People don't beg other people to restore their history; they do it themselves."
Brother Marshall Conway (who was an ex-Black Panther Party leader and he has great insights on te realities that we face today) is right that it is not enough to eliminate legalized apartheid in America. There must be economic justice and the addressing of racist redlining, police brutality, and other evils in the ghettos of America. The BPP developed in 1966 in response to the horrendous conditions of urban communities (especially in the North, Midwest, and the West Coast). The Black Panthers did an excellent job in helping children (via their free breakfast program), advancing HEALTH CARE SERVICES, and using other community enrichment programs. We certainly have a long way to go in seeing not only the epidemic of police brutality fully eliminated, but we continue to face massive poverty including economic inequality. We have to condemn both domestic repression of the rights of citizens and the imperialism overseas. Yet, we can’t lose hope. We have to continue to be involved in our communities and stand up for the principles that our heroes lived and died for. The Brothers and the Sisters of the Black Panther Party inspire me every day for me to do what is right.
Malcolm X transformed his life. In real life, I have BOOKS ON Malcolm X that recorded his words. Before his Hajj and after his Hajj, he expressed a lot of truths about black history, culture, the evilness of white racism, and life in general. After his Hajj, he developed his spirituality more and wanted a stronger international coalition to make sure that America was made accountable for its mistreatment of African Americans. He knew what the source of racism was and exposed it publicly and privately. He legitimately exposed the abomination of white racism before and after his Hajj. Malcolm X supported the African revolutionaries and the movements of people of color globally who desired real revolution against oppression. He heroically exposed the hypocrites and the sinners that wanted to assault and kill him in public. Malcolm X was a brave man. He stood up to the evil designs of the FBI and the CIA. He supported the heroic Brother Lumumba and he exposed the political establishment in an uncompromising fashion. He was a brave man. We will continue to call out racism and call out those who spew it. Malcolm X has an ability to grow and to move forward. He did just that in his life. He broke away from some of the dogmas of Elijah Muhammad (Elijah Muhammad, regardless if people agreed with all of his views or not, was right to say a nation can't raise higher than its women, that Black is Beautiful, and that there is nothing wrong with self-determination. I agree with Elijah Muhammad on some issues and disagree with him on other issues. We can agree to disagree with people on many issues without demonizing that person in a vicious, inappropriate way) as a way for him to think for himself. Malcolm X was free to think for himself and he had the courage and honesty to admit where he was wrong about something (and he stood up for the convictions that he was right all along). After his Hajj, Malcolm X became more revolutionary and progressive. He became a Sunni Muslim. His Organization of Afro-American Unity organization was a secular, independent group that wanted the freedom of black people in the world. He saw that racism was not just rooted in racial or color differences. He saw it as also rooted in economic, political, social, and cultural exploitation.
Malcolm X called for the internationalizing the struggle for human liberation. Therefore, black people have the right to control our communities, but that is not enough. We should change society as a whole and reconstruct it only a truly non-exploitative basis (in order words, the whole structure of society must be radically changed, so justice can be a reality). Malcolm X was not a socialist, but he became was interviewed by socialists, he praised “The Militant,” (which was a socialist magazine paper), and he critiqued capitalism in a strong way. As Malcolm X said in January 18, 1965 (in the Young Socialist magazine):
"...It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck. Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it’s more like a vulture. It used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody’s blood whether they were strong or not. But now it has become more cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only suck the blood of the helpless. As the nations of the world free themselves, then capitalism has less victims, less to suck, and it becomes weaker and weaker. It’s only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse completely..."
Malcolm X was an international revolutionary without question. There is no question that Malcolm X was anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist. Treating your neighbor as yourself is just plain commonsense. We know what the fruits of the spirit are. These fruits represent strength, joy, peace, faithfulness, self-control, humbleness, altruism, love, truth, and wisdom. Malcolm X was right in believing that women should have a strong education. He was right to tell the truth on black history and to advocate black people to express self-determination. We are black and we are beautiful. He was right that brotherhood is important to promote, but we shouldn't ally with people who reject that brotherhood. Therefore, Malcolm X spoke enumerable truths that we can respect.
More Information on the African Diaspora
Too many people want to not only sanitize slavery, but to minimize how evil it was. We also have to know that black people rebelled too. Black people rebelled against the Maafa in Africa, in the slave ships, in the Americas, and in other places of the world. Black people fought back against oppressors constantly. We have to know about this history. We have to know about Charles Deslondes (who lead the 1811 slave rebellion), about Cinque (who was involved in fighting for freedom in Amistad), about Sam Sharpe, about Harriet Tubman, about Celia, about Gaspar Yanga, about Toussaint, and about other heroes. The courage, the strength, the resiliency, and the persistent of our ancestors should never be forgotten. White racism is a true scourge and it must be condemned and any injustice ought to be oppressed concretely. Our struggle for justice and freedom is sacrosanct. We certainly need revolutionary change in order for us to be free. That is monumental truism that I wholeheartedly accept in my mind, body, and spirit as a black man.
The Afro-Uruguayan people have been rarely discussed in many circles. Now, information about them should be readily known in the world. Afro-Uruguayans have made great contributions in the world. They have suffered unjust enslavement and now they are fighting for genuine equality and justice to this very day. They have formed organizations like Mundo Afro as a means for them to lobby the national government to recognize its black minority as an equal member of the national community. Afro-Uruguayans CONTINUE to face pervasive discrimination and racial prejudice. We know about the nations where the African Diaspora exists in Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, the United States, etc. Yet, we have to learn about the African Diaspora in the South American republic of Uruguay as well. Uruguay is a nation that had almost 600,000 European immigrants between 1880 and 1930. Most of its citizens consider themselves as white. Yet, like in many other Latin American countries, there has been an upsurge in black civic and political mobilizations. Organizations such as Mundo Afro (Afro World), the Asociación Cultural y Social Uruguay Negro, the Centro Cultural por la Paz y la Integración, Africanía, and others have demanded that the nation of Uruguayans acknowledge its black past and present. They want to work toward the full integration of its black and indigenous minorities into national life. There was the black mobilization occurring in the early 1800’s. There was the salas de nacion or the mutual aid societies organized on the basis of the members’ African origin. Montevideo is Uruguay’s capital. It was once a required port of call for slave ships brining African to the Rio de la Plata region. Most of those Africans continued on to Argentina, but during the late 1700’s and early 1800’s some 20,000 disembarked in Montevideo and remained in Uruguay. By 1800, the national population was an estimated 25 percent African and Afro-Uruguayan.
There is a list from the 1830’s of 13 salas de nacion in Montevideo that SHOWS 6 from West Africa, 5 from the Congo and Angola, and 2 from East Africa. The salas bought or rented plots of land outside the city walls, on which they built headquarters to house their religious observances, meetings, and dances. They collected money for emancipation funds to buy the freedom of slave members, lobbied public officials, and provided assistance in disputes and conflicts between slaves and their owners. Free and slave Africans including Afro-Uruguayans served in the independence wars of the 1810’s and 20s. They fought in the civil wars of the 1830’s, 1940’s, and the second half of the 1800’s. The Afro-Uruguayans fought for full civic and legal equality for centuries as guaranteed by the Constitution of 1830. Black journalists between 1870 and 1950 formed at least 25 newspapers and magazines in Montevideo and other cities. This compares to between forty and fifty black-oriented periodicals during the same period in Brazil, where the black population is today some 400 times larger than Uruguay’s; and fourteen in Cuba (black population twenty times larger than Uruguay’s). This strong journalism of the Afro-Uruguayan people caused their economic and educational achievements to grow. Uruguay grew its literacy and educational system. Still, discrimination and prejudice prevented black people in Uruguay to have true freedom. During the 1980’s and 90’s, Uruguay saw a new wave of black civil mobilization. Mundo Afro was created in 1988. The struggle continues and we are in solidarity of the Afro-Uruguayan people, their culture, and their human rights.
Real words about the events in Ferguson
The movement for social change is a long road. The protesters have every right to peacefully protest. We know that protesting is not enough. We need a plan and political including economic strategies developed in order for us to make justice a reality. We need not only signs showing legitimate outrage at police terrorism and mass incarceration. We need political action as a way to address our concerns and to stand up against injustices. Innocent life being killed is wrong. What happened to Eric Garner and so many other Brothers and Sisters are abominations. Their lives matter. Also, we should condemn militarism and imperialism. NATO has committed war crimes in Libya where they aided terrorists, who killed innocent black Libyan Brothers and Sisters. Plenty of black people have condemned unjust violence and murder of any kind for years and decades (as black organizations have condemned black on black violence along with police terrorism for decades. There have been vigils, protests, and other PROGRAMS now addressing the deaths of innocent black human life). We condemn the epidemic of police brutality in the world. People are entitled to economic justice (not neoliberal talking points) and an end to the War on Drugs. Brothers and Sisters in Ferguson suffered tear gas, LRAD sound weapons, police brutality, and other forms of oppression. Yet, they are still here and still strong. That strength comes from us and from our black African ancestry too. That strength ended the Maafa, overt apartheid in the States, and other injustices. Yes, the movement won't stop, because we can't stop. We won't stop, because the truth is infallible and the power of courageous human beings will not be denied permanently. So, we will CONTINUE to support the movement forever. The status quo doesn't work and it must be changed in a revolutionary fashion. In the final ANALYSIS, we can’t let up. We have to work in our communities, be involved in mentorships, volunteer, educate people on their human rights, boycott (in a righteous fashion), stand up for freedom, and oppose unjust laws. Yes, power should be to the people not to the oligarchy.
We are entitled to justice. One quote describing what justice is truly all about is the following from a late, very intelligent elder among our people:
“Justice requires not only the ceasing and desisting of injustice but also requires either punishment or reparation for injuries and damages inflicted for prior wrongdoing. The essence of injustice is the redistribution of gains earned through the perpetration of injustice. If restitution is not made and reparations not instituted to compensate for prior injustices, those injustices are in effect rewarded. And the benefits such rewards conferred on the perpetrators of injustice will CONTINUE to ‘draw interest,’ to be reinvested, and to be passed on to their children, who will use their inherited advantages to continue to exploit the children of the victims of the injustices of their ancestors. Consequently, injustice and inequality will be maintained across the generations as will their deleterious social, economic and political outcomes.”
-Amos Wilson
South Africa
The elections of May of 2014 came about in South Africa. We have seen 20 years since Nelson Mandela was elected as the first black President of South Africa. To this day, South African workers are fighting for a substantial wage increase. The bourgeois, nationalist, and reformist African National Congress had won the elections. We know about the massacre (by the police) of the South African striking workers at Marikana in 2012. Jacob Zuma is using the party’s 62 percent as a means to go ahead with the neo-liberal attacks as outlined in the National Development Plan or NDP. This is while secretary general Gwede Mantashe and other ANC leaders promptly convened a press conference to solemnly vow that they would “quickly restore investor confidence.” The police continue to resist the actions of the Associations of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) who want freedom. The mineworkers are fighting for a living wage of R12,500 [$1,143 per month]. The evil system of apartheid in South Africa was over and it has been replaced with bourgeois, neo-liberal government. The ANC, the SACP, and COSATU are allies. The August 2012 massacre of 34 black mineworkers should inspire anyone that more work has to be done in making South Africa a better nation. In e-mails to Lonmin’s chief commercial officer, Albert Jamieson, Ramaphosa reported on 15 August 2012 about the appeals he had made to mining minister Susan Shabangu and POLICE minister Nathi Mthethwa for government intervention against the wildcat strike.
One outcome was that a meeting of Zuma’s cabinet was held the same day, where Ramaphosa had urged Shabangu to brief the president and “get [Mthethwa] to act in a more pointed way” (“Deja Vu and Dirty Tricks at Lonmin,” 25 May, bdlive.co.za). Less than 24 hours later, the Lonmin strikers were gunned down in cold blood by Zuma’s and Mthethwa’s cop thugs. Several months later, Ramaphosa was rewarded by the bourgeois ANC when he was elected deputy president of the party at its December 2012 congress in Mangaung; after the 2014 elections, he was also made deputy president of the country. The IMF and the World Bank has aided South African capitalism during the 1990’s. Now, there are numerous ANC, SACP, and COSATU members who are sincere and want justice for real. So, I want to make that perfectly clear. The only way for true change in South Africa is for a revolution to occur where the government is worker-centered and people-centered. South Africa is strong and Bless Africa too.
African Music
Africa and real music are linked together. As I get older, I am learning more about the creativity, talent, and beauty of African music. African music is diverse in its composition, it is interesting, and it can of course make people dance continually. African music has such a vast history that it is immense. Music, Nature, and life itself are influenced by rhythm, sounds, and specialized beats. African music directly influenced the music and dance of the African diaspora. Many genres like soca, calypso, sambla, rumba, salsa, etc. have their origins from African music. African music heavily uses percussions, xylophones, drums, and tone-producing instruments like the mbira or the “thumb piano.” Many scholars and research do much a lot of homogeneity of sub-Saharan rhythmic music. African music deals with nature and the participation of the audience constantly. That is why when you look at African peoples wanting the crowd to join in song and dance celebrations. Polyrhythms (or two or more different rhythms existing at the same time or simultaneously) are found in sub-Saharan music too. Miriam Makeba once said that: "...I believe I can sing anything..." When she was alive, the Sister Miriam Makeba had a great voice and she was a proponent of social justice throughout her life. I love the music of the late great Brenda Fassie. She was not only a great musician. She was a real freedom fighter. Some of her famous songs are Vul’indela and Black President. There is even a life sized bronze sculpture of Brenda Fassie outside of Bassline, which is a music venue in Johannesburg, South Africa. Yvonne Chaka Chaka is a talented Sister too. Her song “Mamaland” is amazing. She has a powerful alto voice. Today, Fatoumata Diawara is a Sister who is a great singer as well. She is from Mali. She is a very conscious Sister too. She is young and she is beautiful. Her wisdom is amazing and the messages in her songs are inspiring. She wants peace and reconciliation in the Motherland of Africa. I love her many relevant songs. Her song called “Kele” is great too. On another note, there is another excellent African musician. Her name is Simphiwe Dana. She is a Xhosa singer and song writer in South Africa. She does an unique combination of Jazz, Afro-soul, rap, and traditional music. She is very vocal on political issues in South Africa. I wish her the best.
Conclusion
We as black people may live across the continents, but we are one people. African unity is important to embrace. That is why I have no problems with people advancing black African global unity socially, politically, economically, and romantically (as there is an increase of couples between Africans and African Americans. Black Love is so beautiful. :) ). That's fine. Some want to promote business development plans among Africans throughout the Earth. Now, any economic enterprises in Africa should never mimic or imitate neo-colonialism, imperialism, or predatory, parasitic capitalism at all. True economic development in Africa is based on meeting the needs and concerns of the masses of the people. The vast resources found in Africa (from cobalt to other minerals) belong to all of the people of Africa not the multinational corporations of the world (and not the 1 percent especially). What is called socialism today has been practiced by the peoples of Africa for thousands of years. The concepts of socialism or any other economic philosophy based on cooperation among communities is nothing new. Nothing is new under the sun. We need a transformation in society. We see how imperialism, capitalism, racism, and militarized are intricately interconnected. I have no issue with collective economics. We need a true revolutionary change in the world.
By Timothy
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