‘Come Back, Africa’ (1959) is an explosive film; a strongly political piece, its show the hardship, joy and pain of township life, otherwise closed to the world by the Apartheid regime’s strict hold. Enriched through Lionel Rogosin’s collaboration with the Drum writers Lewis Nkosi and Bloke Modisane on the script, the film possesses a ‘Kafkan sterility’ (Modisane 1990), and tells the archetypal story of the rural man forced toward the city through hardship and the prospect of a better life, something Modisane speaks of with bitterness in his autobiography Blame Me On History (published in 1963).
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via africasacountry:
Prof. Wole Soyinka’s Speech Speaking Truth To Powerful Gang Of Corrupt Nigerian Governors In Delta State
I must begin by thanking you for the honour of this invitation to address you. I am glad that I did not have to decline, pleading the truthful excuse that I am, unfortunately, still saddled with a heavy load of unfinished business elsewhere. In any case, I have come to accept that it is a condition of human existence to be saddled with this particular affliction - unfinished business – that sense of an incomplete mission. The difference between one individual and the next is perhaps that some know this, while others do not. With individuals, this distinction does not matter a great deal. We go into retirement with a sigh of mission accompli, convinced that one’s self-imposed, fortuitous, or mysteriously transmitted mission in life has indeed been fulfilled. Or perhaps we simply shrug our shoulders in resignation, saying, ‘Enough is enough, let others take over from here.’ No matter the variant, we are still buried with our own self-assessment, accurate or misconceived.
Before a seed germinates it must first decay. A mango tree grows out of a decaying mango seed. A new Africa may be germinating in the decay of the present one — and the ancestors are presiding over the process.
—Dr. Ali Mazrui
Cornell University
Africa Week 2012
Unity
Countless Shades of Africa***Brought to you by the Coalition of Pan-African Scholars, Ghanaians at Cornell, and the Nigerian Students Association ***
(Source: cornell-africa-week-2012)
RECOMMENDED DOCUMENTARY: We Will Not Lie Die Like Dogs
WE WILL NOT DIE LIKE DOGS profiles AIDS activists from Nigeria, Uganda, Burkina Faso, and Zambia. Honest and provocative testimonies of individuals living with the epidemic include two HIV-positive women fighting stigma and discrimination, a doctor working to care for HIV-infected children in rural villages, and a reggae artist using his status among youth and the media to bring awareness to HIV/AIDS. Conceived of by two African medical students at Yale who were tired of African portrayed only as victims to the epidemic and directed by international health specialist, Lisa Russell, WE WILL NOT DIE LIKE DOGS helped launch the National Black Programming Consortium’s new television series AfroPop that focuses on contemporary pop culture in Africa.
This Brother is so on point!! That’s knowledge right there. Please take a moment to imagine how many people we all can reach, inform and educate if we take more time to share our understandings. Now… let’s get to it!
I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.
—Muhammad Ali, 1975 (via bitsofrealpanther)
Interview with Robert F. Williams (Feb. 26, 1925-Oct. 15, 1996), president of the Union County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Monroe, N. C., 1959.
Williams, a former Marine, was the first modern African American leader to both call for and practice armed self-defense against white racist attacks, intimidation and threats. His articulation of this right anticipated by five years the more famous call made by his friend Malcolm X after the latter broke with Elijah Muhammad’s conservative Nation of Islam (NOI) on March 8, 1964.
(Source: freedc)
I am black, not because of a curse, but because my skin has been able to capture all the cosmic effluvia. I am truly a drop of sun under the earth.
—Franz Fanon ” Black skin white masks” (via safari-black)
I wish that they be told that the future of the Congo is beautiful and that it expects for each Congolese, to accomplish the sacred task of reconstruction of our independence and our sovereignty; for without dignity there is no liberty, without justice there is no dignity, and without independence there are no free men.
—Patrice Lumumba- His last letter to his wife. (via jolibilite)
“And in my own life, in my own small way, I’ve tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That’s why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us - no matter what our age or background or walk of life - each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.”
“I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them. I was surrounded by extraordinary women in my life who taught me about quiet strength and dignity.”
“My mother’s love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, her intelligence reflected in my daughters.”
“One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.”
Happy 48th Birthday, First Lady Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (b. January 17, 1964)
They don’t know nothing about black pearls, I will show them. Why the world sleeping on black girls? I don’t know man.
—Andre 3000 (via chocolatehighhh)
Ogaden (Silent Cry Full-Documentary)
The film Silent Cry is a documentary made by young British Somali students to raise awareness about the hidden genocide taking place in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, the film documents and interviews some of the many hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the hidden genocide being committed by the Ethiopian government in the Ogaden region. The Ogaden region, the heart of the Horn of Africa, has witnessed one of the worst crimes against humanity. The Ethiopian government has done everything in its power to conceal the suffering and the human rights abuses taking place in the region. The hidden genocide in the Ogaden has gone unnoticed by the international community because the meles zanawi regime has expelled all humanitarian, human rights, and media organizations from the region and has placed an economic and humanitarian blockade on the Ogaden, many people are dieing due to the man-made famine created by the Ethiopian government. This is a call to action for all of humanity to end the genocide in the Ogaden.
(Source: kellsinki)
NIGHTNIGHT by DEDDY
