The journey from Emancipation to Enlightenment, when put in a time sequence may appear to be a long and arduous journey, an almost impossible task. But is it really that impossible? I want to share why it is quite a possibility and how we of African Descent can prove it to be so. To do that I must go back to the beginning.
Jefferson Davis monument being removed in New Orleans. Photo by Abdul Aziz, courtesy of Abdul Aziz. On December 17, 2015, the New Orleans City Council voted to remove four monuments to white supremacy. Several depict slave-owners, including Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy during the Civil War. The ongoing removal of the monuments—done at night by city workers in bulletproof vests following threats of violence—has largely been credited to…
IT is now thirty-seven days away from the date of the 200th anniversary of the phenomenal “BUSSA REBELLION” ! The Government of Barbados has gone to great lengths to heighten public awareness of and to count down to the 50th anniversary of Barbados’ attainment of Independence, but they seem to have forgotten that a similar effort needs to be made to highlight the impending 200th anniversary of the “Bussa Slave Rebellion” of…
A recent survey found that almost half of Britons were “proud” of the British empire, prompting some commentators to remark that it’s difficult to be proud of something they know so little about.
Sir Hilary Beckles lecture on reparations at Oxford University
It’s a question faced time and again by educators and authors on a regular basis. And it’s a debate we need to continuously have, especially as some of the most popular books released are presenting critical, uncomfortable narratives like slavery in a whitewashed light. One such book is A Fine Dessert: Four Centuries, Four Families, One Delicious Treat by Emily Jenkins and featuring illustrations by Sophie Blackall. The “well-intentioned” book tells the story…
By Diescho’s Dictum Most world civilizations have either their own version of God with a special connection between themselves and that God, or a name for the religion that connects their being to their God of the past, the present and the future, or both. It would appear that the people on the Afrikan continent are the only group that does not have either a God of their own or…
Over the years, I have had dozens of conversations on the question of whether Caribbean history “really matters” and for whom it matters. I’ve heard the region’s history dismissed due to the relative size of Caribbean societies, historians’ supposedly excessive preoccupation with slavery, and a questioning of what lessons can be learned from such allegedly dysfunctional societies.
Activists say move to keep activists in jail is step back for a country that became last to outlaw slavery 34 years ago. A Mauritanian court has upheld a two-year prison sentence against three anti-slavery activists who were arrested during a protest against bondage in the west African nation. In an open letter from prison published on Wednesday, one of the accused, Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid, vowed to continue his…
Slavery Fact Sheets Geography 1. Enslaved Africans came primarily from a region stretching from the Senegal River in northern Africa to Angola in the South. 2. Europeans divided this stretch of land into five coasts: Upper Guinea Coast: The area delineated by the Senegal and Gambia Rivers Ivory (or Kwa Kwa or Windward) Coast:Central Liberia Lower Guinea Coast: Divided into the Gold Coast on the west (Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana),…
