Marian's Blog

Summer reading? Britain, the Slaves & U.S. Revolution - "Rough Crossings"

We'd like to recommend a book for those interested: Simon Schama's Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution. Here's a video - Schama discussing this huge, terribly obscured chapter of Black American & U.S. history, with staff of Google. This history is growing serious legs. 

Will this ever stop? The propoganda since 2006, at least

Enough already. As a Black woman whose U.S. family was enslaved in the USA, hearing solely people interviewed over and over, in every medium, talk about someone as though he were one of us, a slavery descendant -- as if he, who in honest, accurate reality, is the descendant of several white slaveowner families and not of enslaved Black people - as if he and his own family - not Michelle Robinson's family - ever lived through even a fraction of centuries'-long suffering, torture, exploitation and alienation endured by members of my family and our whole community; and even as if this person were God. In the faith in which I was raised this is blasphemous. All this feels like being raped, over and over, and then having people you know - even some family and longstanding friends - repeatedly come and ask why you keep protesting, why you refuse to lie back, be "grateful" and enjoy. 

"We will bury you" - Old words, new context in a new century

I remember a conversation last summer with a woman who told me she grew up in Czechoslovakia. It is now two countries: the Czech and Slovak republics. She grew up in Czechoslovakia before the end of the Communist system. She asserted to me that there's more brainwashing in the U.S. than there was in her Soviet-linked homeland. In turn this made me think of my life in proximity to U.S. politics, especially during and before the 2000, '04 and 2008 presidential elections. I feel we are not out of the woods. 

People and media are chattering about making history with installing Barack Obama. Just one of the funny things is, the rationale only seems to go back to "the Civil Rights movement," the early 1960s, or the '50s if people are particularly "knowledgeable" about "the past." But Black American history goes back to the 1850s and 1750s; and no one is talking about how or even if Barry Obama represents something from back then, and if he does, what it is.

In fact, what Mr. Obama actually represents is not Black America, but various slaveholding families of white America. But why bog down events or confuse anyone with facts? Rather than work to elect the United States' first Native American or Black American president, here we are today. It feels as though someone is trying to bury Black America - who we are and our history - alive. This in turn makes me remember the words of Khrushev in 1956. 

In November 1956, then-Soviet ruler Nikita Khruschev addressed Western diplomats, as recounted at the time by TIME magazine:  

At the final reception for Poland's visiting Gomulka, stubby Nikita Khrushchev planted himself firmly with the Kremlin's whole hierarchy at his back, and faced the diplomats of the West, and the satellites, with an intemperate speech that betrayed as much as it threatened.
  
"We are Bolsheviks!" he declared pugnaciously. "We stick firmly to the Lenin precept—don't be stubborn if you see you are wrong, but don't give in if you are right." "When are you right?" interjected First Deputy Premier Mikoyan—and the crowd laughed. Nikita plunged on, turning to the Western diplomats. "About the capitalist states, it doesn't depend on you whether or not we exist. If you don't like us, don't accept our invitations, and don't invite us to come to see you. Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!" 

BBC snubs Cynthia McKinney: U.S. third-party candidates

The election may be over yet BBC has forever altered my perception of it as a relatively balanced source of international news. I was watching BBC TV News last Monday evening, Nov 3, as the announcer chirpily announced there actually were other candidates in the U.S. election. Surprise! He proceeded to name and show photos, first Ralph Nader (independent), ex-Republican, now Libertarian Bob Barr (a U.S. Afrodescendant who seems to self-identify as "white"), and the third candidate? I was pretty well waiting for the newsreader to note Cynthia McKinney, the U.S. Green Party candidate. Was I wrong. Instead the Beeb names... Gene Amondson. Gene Amondson?? Have you heard of Gene Amondson? Has he, like Cynthia McKinney, been a six-term (or even a one-term) member of the U.S. Congress? I don't recall BBC bothering to mention Mr. Amondson's party affiliation (perhaps more obscure than his name, if that's possible). And so Tuesday, election day, I looked it up on the Net. Apparently he belongs to the "Prohibition Party." Prohibition? I thought that failed in the 1930s. Thanks to BBC News, Cynthia McKinney out, Gene Amondson in. Here's a deeper, bitter irony: Cynthia McKinney bears a British surname; like almost all Black Americans, probably linked to slavery. She carries a family name of British origin and yet, so uncharacteristically, the BBC had not even the slightest desire to acknowledge her, let alone brag about her, on the basis of UK ties to this U.S. presidential candidate and her almost certain British slave-trade family history. How sad; how racist.

Greens' McKinney and Clemente: Helping us learn to overcome

This will be one of my last blog posts before Tuesday's U.S. presidential election. Borrowing from our sisters over at Document the Silence blog (on violence against women of colour), I feel the need to quote my Caribbean-American lesbian sister, Audre Lorde: “When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.” You said a mouthful, Audre.

Like myself, writer/activist Barbara Smith and many, many others who (through our people's spiritual, physical and political evolution rather than random, superficial "change") over and over again, daily - cumulatively - over three long centuries in & of what is now the U.S.A., the veteran and former Democratic congresswoman from Georgia, CYNTHIA MCKINNEY, is yet another Black American woman who not only has understood, intuitively & explicitly, but repeatedly - so often virtually fearlessly - has ACTED UPON this deep mantra on (social) environmental- and self-knowledge. This evolution and regular willingness to take action in spite of fear are just part of the experiences and ethnic/cultural characteristics of Black Americans, and of Black American women in particular, that have been ridiculed, censored and 'disappeared' in the course of this 2006-2008 U.S. presidential election cycle. Martin Luther King affirmed, "We shall overcome." And yet, noting the endemic sexism toward Black women over three centuries (not one election cycle) of the Black Liberation Movement that is native to what is now the USA (as well as in the current presidential selection process), it is entirely possible that Dr. King may have got this phrase from someone else, much like "I HAVE A DREAM" actually came from the lips & mind of Mississippi native daughter FANNIE LOU HAMER. In addition to being a member of the Black ethnic population of the USA, Mrs. Hamer was not MALE, and like most Black Americans, nor did she have a PhD or any kind of college/university degree. And yet she was an eloquent, timeless, courageous and effective leader. Unlike almost all of his Movement Sisters whom I will call the "Movement Women Elders" and the "Movement Young Sistas," Dr. King is consciously and constantly remembered, enshrined, re-enshrined and re-interpreted, even as hundreds and thousands of incredible Black American women remain obscured and unknown, and too often even ridiculed, derided, discounted, and finally left behind; most often quite deliberately. In this context it's worth noting that this contempt and disrespect which Black American women encounter comes from all around us: from White women & men alike (regardless of nationality), from people coming from other countries & societies, from more than a few Black men, again of varying ethnic & national backgrounds, and, most sadly and most intimately, often from some of our own sister Black women whether of U.S. or other backgrounds. Some of us know exactly whom I'm talking about. And yet, in spite of the course of Election 2008, following this most historic 2008 U.S. Green Party presidential ticket of CYNTHIA MCKINNEY AND ROSA CLEMENTE, the obscurity, derision and media whiteout will NOT be the enduring characteristics of this campaign nor of these two sistas and all the People who are choosing to support them at the polls on Tuesday, 4 November. (Power to the People 2008 - www.runcynthiarun.org) This dual candidacy not just of two women (which is significant), not only of two women who both are women of colour, but more precisely and most historically both are Afrodescendant Women of the Americas, is at least three (3) centuries overdue for the Black people of what today is the United States of the Americas (i.e., Black Americans) and for all the Afrodescendants of the Americas. It is also high time that on Tuesday, November 4 (as opposed to an essentially empty promise to "some day" vote for someone like ourselves (another Black woman, another Black American woman) in a non-specific, non-existent future) seemingly discounted but significant numbers of Black women voters will actively choose to put ourselves first, go to the polls and vote for ourselves. The 2008 U.S. presidential election is time for everyone to vote in favour of our own most deeply held values (as opposed to a common "logic" of voting the lesser of various "evils"). For more and more of us, our values - no matter how much money a candidate raises or how he smiles and speaks in chosen tones - do NOT include either so-called "Clean Coal" (i.e., Mountaintop Decapitation/Removal) or "nuclear power" (i.e., Uranium Mining, Uranium tailings, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, massive amounts of lethal, radioactive nuclear waste, groundwater contamination, radiation - including contamination of the Navajo Nation (and other Indigenous communities) and uranium miners suffering from uranium-induced cancer). The original quote about needing to exploit coal & nuclear power was made by the 2008 Democratic candidate.

In 2008, simply by choosing to work together, Cynthia McKinney, Rosa Clemente and the U.S. Green Party have modeled for us all that not only is it better, it's now imperative (to quote Rosa), for us to run for office, participate in society, to vote, and also to speak.

Coping with public fear: "Bailouts only add to sense of panic," O'Grady, The Independent (London)

We're reading Sean O'Grady's article in today's Independent: "... no amount of taxpayer money, no vote in Congress or the Commons and no speech by a president or prime minister can now fully restore the confidence that has been drained from the system during a year of brutal capitalist "creative destruction." Confidence is the magical ingredient that makes our system work, the thing that allows Keynes' "animal spirits" to take off, and create businesses and wealth. And, as we have seen from the billions wiped from the stock markets yesterday, it is simply beyond price. Without it, there is merely fear."

I'm not convinced about needing to emulate "animal spirits" but our next post recalls the words of U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Seeking Our Families in White folks' wills & slavery records

Below, in sharp relief, are details of the constant, intimate and deeply disturbing interaction of U.S. "business" and "commerce" with Black American genealogy and history, and our ongoing attempts to save, locate, help and protect ourselves and each other (including family formation). It is illustrative of Afrodescendant history throughout the Americas and in the eight key western European slave trafficking, slaveholding countries. Dare I utter that you won't find Barack Obama's family here, at least not among the enslaved.

To measure the full scale of Black enslavement in the US & the Americas, details including those below must be multiplied by tens of millions. My thanks to Wanda for transcribing parts of the Nelson County, Kentucky (USA) Will Book #2. Originally, Kentucky, too, was part of Britain's first colony, i.e., Virginia.

Kentucky: NELSON COUNTY Will Book "2"

PAGE 257 (Excerpt) (Name of slaveholder followed by information about the enslaved person or persons)

JOSHUA HOBBS-1 NEGRO DINAH $450
POLLY LOWBER-MAN THOM $750
PEGGY HUMPHREY-ONE NEGRO JACK $700
WM. HOBBS-WOMAN JAMES (?) $750
SALLY HUMPHREY-A BOY CHARLES $500
SAMUEL HOBBS-MAN....$750
SUSAN MURPHY (?) RACHEL & GIRL $425
ELIZABETH-MAN....$625
THE DIVISION OF LAND AND SLAVES WAS RETURNED TO COURT AND RECORDED 11 DEC 1837.

PAGE 278

12 FEB 1838. WILL OF THOMAS HUMPHREY, WRITTEN 27 NOV 1837, MENTIONS
WIFE LOUISINA, CH: SONS ROLLEY, STROTHER, GEORGE, DAVID, WILLIAM,
DAU'S. REBECCA HADEN, MARY HAMILTON.  IT IS A LONG WILL & MENTIONS
MANY SLAVES, INCL. THE FREEING OF NEGRO JOSEPH AFTER 2 YEARS IS[F] HE
BEHAVES HIMSELF.  WIT: ISAAC MARKS & JAMES PROCTOR.  EXECUTORS GEORGE
HUMPHREY AND FRIEND WM. M. FOSTER.  PRODUCED & RECORDED 12 FEB 1838.

PAGE 282

10 JAN 1838. LIST OF SALES OF BASIL HAYDEN, DEC'D., TOTAL $6,624.00.
HENRY GORE ADM. WIFE HENRIETTA HAYDEN INHERITS IN WILL A NEGRO BOY
NAMED JOHN WHO HAS A DEFORMED HAND FROM A BURN AND HAS A BE[A]D
DISPOSITION. SHE WISHES THE BOY JOHN TO BE APPRAISED AT A FAIR PRICE
AND SOLD WITH REST OF THE ESTATE. APPRAISERS LOIS HAYDEN, STANISLAUS
HAYDEN, WM. HAYDEN, HENRY MOORE AND EDWARD C. HAYDON.

PAGE 319

14 MAY 1838.  SETTLEMENT OF ESTATE OF MICHAEL TEWELL, DEC'D., APRIL
COUNTY COURT 1838. SALE OF SLAVES OF MICHAEL TEWELL, DEC'D., AMOUNT
$1,681.00. HEIRS: PATRICK TEWELL, CHARLES TEWELL, PHILIP TEWELL,
MARGARET TEWELL (INFANT WARD OF PATRICK TEWELL), THOMAS WELSH. EACH
RECEIVED $336.00. RETURNED AND RECORDED.

PAGE 323

11 JULY 1837.  DIVISION OF LAND AND SLAVES OF ESTATE OF ISAAC RUBLE,
DEC'D., BY COMMISSIONERS STEPHEN MAY, ISAAC WILSON AND HENRY RUSSEL.
ISAAC RUBLE OWNED LAND ON CANEY FORK OF SIMPSON CREEK AND SALE OF
SLAVES WAS $2,339.00.  HEIRS MENTIONED WERE CATY NORRIS, BETSY DUGAN,
SILAS TITCHENOR, ROBERT BATSEL, LYDIA BATSEL, ELIZABETH DUGAN,
JONATHAN COTTON, SARAH COTTON, CATHERINE BATSEL, ANN PENCE, JACOB
PENCE, ELHANNAH (?) BRYANT, HANNAH BRYANT AND SUSANNAH TITCHENOR.
RETURNED AND RECORDED 14 MAY 1838.

Katrina: 29 ways you can help @ katrinaaction.org

Katrina Information Network has a list of 29 things you can do right now to assist the displaced and victimised citizens of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. They have some beautiful New Orleans local music on their site. More soon.

Greens' Rosa Clemente on WAMU.org Radio, 26 Aug

Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney's running mate Rosa Clemente did a very informative interview earlier today with Kojo Nnamdi of WAMU-fm (part of American University). Great interview, Rosa. You can hear it online here. It seemed a bit strange when Clemente referenced history of the Young Lords political party and compared them to the Black Panthers. Nnamdi said most people were more familiar with the Panthers. I'm thinking this would depend on whom you talk with. Was Kojo being disingenuous? Also about the radio call-in from a Black American man who pointed out, accurately, the gulf of historical difference between Barack Obama's identity in and toward the U.S. (and the U.S. toward him) and that of the entire indigenous U.S. Black population, i.e. Black Americans.) Meanwhile, not only is Kojo Nnamdi himself "Black," he's a native of Guyana, and I'm happy for him. Guyana's a fascinating case. It's a South American country yet historically, culturally and demographically, identifies greatly with the societies and countries of the Black, English-speaking Caribbean. As a child of Guyana's Afrodescendant, Caribbean-identified people, is it that Kojo isn't really that familiar with the history of the Young Lords? Maybe or maybe not. In the end of all this, there's as much historical, cultural, geographic and blood heritage difference between Barack Obama and Black Americans as there is between Mr. Obama and the Afro-Guyanese. Ain't nothing really 'easy' or 'user-friendly' about the histories, peoples and realities of the Americas, especially we Black folks. In a more honest, transparent world Kojo could reflect a bit on this, think of his family, country and sub-region of his origin and its peoples, as distinct as the Black Americans, and then go and do a truly informative radio show on all the above.

August 7, 1998: Julian Bartley and many other lives

I will never forget that August 7, 1998 was a Friday. In Croatia I finished a report for work. My colleague-friend Melinda and I had taken a day of leave and arrived on Croatia's beautiful, rocky, pine-scented Dalmatian coast to spend a weekend away from our human rights work with OSCE. We unlocked the door to our little hotel room. Which of us happened to turn on the TV? We saw the images of devastation and knew something dreadful had occurred. Then the little lightbox told us that what we were observing had taken place in the city centre of Nairobi, Kenya. Something told me I'd soon learn more about this tragedy. So many paths in my life eventually seem to converge. In August 1998 and in spite of my family's distinctive African ancestry, I had never yet had the opportunity to venture anywhere in Africa other than northern Africa. Back in Washington I did have an acquaintance named Julian who, like Melinda and many of my friends, shared my affinity for the world. While on loan from his State Department career, I'd met Julian Bartley when he was doing foreign policy work on the congressional staff of U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson. A few years later, ten days after my trip to the Croatian coast with Melinda, the other piece of news arrived from my friend "A" back in Washington.