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BLACK STUDIESThe Black Agenda Project Organization headed by Dr. David Muhammad is headquartered at the Black Agenda Building (Kwame Ture Centre), Success, Laventille, Trinidad. The movement comprises the 9 Ministries (Health, Agriculture, Education, Security, Culture, Business, Justice, Information and Science & Technology). A wide range of community services are offered for our people. Ideology forms a major part of our existence. In the introduction to Black Studies it says It is our humanity in the 21st century that now has to be rescued. Malcolm X said “We can never get civil rights until our human rights are first restored. We will never be recognized as citizens until we are first recognized as humans.” The enemy had no real knowledge of the true history and culture of their slaves and invested only in their usefulness as labour. And today we do not have sufficient knowledge of ourselves. We evolved from calling ourselves Negro to African, we evolved from calling ourselves coloured to now being Black, we protested for the right to vote and now we are being voted into offices that at one time we could not even set foot in and now there was a Black president of the United States of America. The word African represents consciousness, and linking ourselves to a tradition of strength, prosperity and mastery. However the word "African" (with any positive connotation) has been removed from our vocabulary, the consciousness of Africa has been removed from psyche, except it be related to bitterness, resentment and negativity. Many of us have sang; God save the English Queen, but who is going to sing to save the "African King" who is the man in the house, who is seeking to find himself. Even though people seek to deny black people as being African on the grounds that we were not born in Africa, in the same breath people are described as Indian, Chinese, Syrian, Lebanese and even Spanish, in the Caribbean even though they have never visited these places. Dr. Marimba Ani said, "You're not an African because you're born in Africa. You're an African because Africa is born in you. It's in your genes, your DNA, your entire biological make up.” Africa is the geographical location where God placed the first human being, who was made in his own image and likeness. Some Black people may say “I am not African, I am a West Indian or I am an American,” but Nationality is political, Race is biological and Ethnicity is cultural. Anyone with any recognisable African traits or features is an African and has just as must a claim and a link to the lineage of African heritage than any other African. We cannot logically deny our Africanism simply because we were brainwashed to despise it. And now the Diaspora has been recognised by the African Union as the Sixth Region of Africa after North, South, West and East.
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Think!!! |
How is it that most of the world’s wealth is in Africa, but most of the worlds money is in Europe? And African people are still not united because we are suffering an identity crisis. During slavery they would brand the slaves like cattle, now after emancipation we are still branded by the names of our former slave masters.
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Be Conscious |
If Africa is a state of mind and a system of consciousness, and it transcends the geographical continent, and is a process to restore African people to their former glory under the oneness of God, then we should not just want to go back to Africa, but we must advance forward to Africa. A large part of what is portrayed as African lifestyle, and African culture in the west is not Africa in the 21st century, but Africa about 500 years ago. So while seeing a group of African villagers dancing around a drum may be a beautiful sight to behold, it may not necessarily be the most accurate representation of modern progressive and productive Africa today. There are tall buildings and skyscrapers in Africa, major interstate super highways, the most up to date computer and communication technology to be found anywhere on earth, and also some of the most impressive and remarkable city infrastructure to be witnessed by anyone. But when the international media brings you images and news stories from Africa; they will show you Liberia; only if there is violent unrest there, Nigeria; only if there are election improprieties, Ethiopia only if there is widespread famine and starvation, South Africa; if there is a political crisis, Zimbabwe; only if there is a land dispute, and Botswana only if there is an AIDS crisis there. But on a good day, they will hardly show you; Liberia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa, Zimbabwe or Botswana. Because Africa in the west must be portrayed as negatively, repulsive and unattractive to Africans in the Diaspora so that our multi-billion dollar trade and spending potential would gravitate towards Europe and America instead of the motherland. "Billions of dollars a year are pumped into the propaganda machine to keep black people ignorant of the truth about their history and condition."
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