Marian's Blog

Remembering - 23 Aug, International day for remembrance of the slave trade and abolition

For the past 200 years millions of people all over the world have been erasing local history connected to the trafficking of African people into slavery. Families, communities, entire societies, local, national and traditional leaders and governments, all have permitted and some even encouraged personal and collective amnesia about a commercial trade comprised of capturing and carrying people away from Africa. This commercial trade included places, people and institutions in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Asia & the Pacific, and the Americas. Today in the 21st century we finally can more freely make choices to recover and heal public and private memories of this slave trade history. Our efforts to recover local knowledge will contribute to heal the history globally and the slavery that continues in and from Africa today. August 23rd is International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.

UNESCO chose this date because on the night of 22-23 August 1791 a slave rebellion began on the Caribbean island of Santo Domingo. Today Santo Domingo is shared by Haiti & the Dominican Republic. This rebellion of stolen Africans and their descendants marks a beginning to the protracted ending of the transatlantic commerce in people and enslavement of Blacks in the Americas. Not by accident, in some places enslavement has never totally ended - notably though not exclusively Mauritania, Sudan and certain areas of west Africa. From UNESCO: "International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition is intended to inscribe the tragedy of the transatlantic slave trade in the memory of all peoples. In accordance with the goals of the intercultural project "The Slave Route", it should offer an opportunity for collective consideration of the historic causes, the methods and the consequences of this tragedy, and for an analysis of the interactions to which it has given rise between Africa, Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean."

Pow Wow homeboys from Wisconsin

Wisconsin 'homeboys' by MarianDouglas

On the last day of the Smithsonian Indian Museum's DC powwow Sunday we ran into two nice young men from Wisconsin - the Upper Midwest. They said I could take their picture so I did! I told them I'd put the photo on the blog - so here it is. Megwitch, guys. Behave yourselves, and travel well.

NMAI pow wow, DC

Male dancer in red, by MarianDouglas

It was a nice pow wow. We couldn't make it the first two days but that's ok.

My Part of France: bonne fete la France (take 2)

This is in honor of le 14 juillet - France's national holiday a couple of days ago - and le tour de France. For those of you who caught my first, brief attempt to post that Google-generated map of my part of France, you know it came out goofy - it was a trip. Wow. I would've left it here but it covered the whole blog and made it look, well - weird. But it would've made an "interesting" background. Anyway use this link to check out my map of les Alpes de Haute Provence - Barcelonnette, Le Sauze, Praloup, Col de Larche, Gap - kind of southeasternish France; very near the Francia/Italia border (and Savoia). And go Lance Armstrong!! La France c'est aussi chez moi.   

Live 8 Philadelphia: "Black America for Africa" - What about Africa for African Diaspora??

Live 8's concert in Philly (Philadelphia, Pa USA) was like "Black Americans for Africa." That's my own term. Stevie Wonder (real name: Steveland Morris/Steveland Judkins), Philly's own 'Fresh prince' Will Smith (real name: Willard Christopher Smith II), Destiny's Child - with Beyonce back, and many, many more. Black performers at Live 8 London and Paris were not far behind. Now what we really need is something the other way around -- like "Africa for Blacks in the Americas" - and in the Mideast, and Asia, and Europe too.  Meanwhile, check the images at BBC 1xtra's "Live 8 in Pictures."

Al Qaeda, Africa, Diamonds: International News You Probably Never Hear

When I was a full-time journalist my special interest was international news. I'm proud to say I 'got the bug' from broadcast news pioneer, Pauline Frederick [married name Robbins], who covered the UN for NBC (the early Today show) in New York in the 1950s and early 60s. Today (and the past 25 or so years) the meme spreading mindlessly to and from most US television and radio newsrooms is: "Americans are not interested in international news." Our lives and those of others depend on us knowing and understanding what's going on in the world. I'm speculating for just a moment that al Qaeda may [or may not] be linked to the London explosions.  How does al Qaeda - and related entities- finance itself? In spite of events whirling around us daily in the world -- and in spite of the controversial facts of the United States' own global reach - the US remains an out-of-touch and overly insulated society. Sorry to have to say it. But we cannot afford to be, and this must change. This is not about fear and it's not really about further using the US army or other military either; it is about ordinary Americans being fully aware and participating in constructive ways in the world we are part of. We cannot afford to wait for more attacks - anywhere in the world - like these in London, and then as Americans give the briefest and purely self-interested glance at issues and crises going on in other parts of the world.  One question all of us need to consider is: What is the US's foreign policy? - What is our country's long-term foreign policy? There's got to be more to US foreign policy than "fighting" - whether it's terrorism or whatever. And I'm not even going get started about the war in Iraq. What about the various crises and armed conflicts in Africa that we ordinary people ignore? What is the reality of US policies and lack of policies in the conflicts in Africa? Meanwhile, is it true that al Qaeda is funding itself, or has funded itself, through buying, cutting and trading African diamonds from conflict zones?? If it's true then the trail of violence leads across the vast diamond network linking Africa to Antwerp and Belgium, and into the European Union. (FYI: Belgium has a history of 'transparency' versus corruption issues.) Were certain journalists warned off more reporting of these events? Two detailed articles from 2002: Doug Farah's Report Says Africans Harbored Al Qaeda: Terror Assets Hidden In Gem-Buying Spree, in the Washington Post; and Edward Harris in South Africa's Independent online, Al-Qaeda's diamond-studded reign of terror, quoted briefly in the extension below. Douglas Farrah's article has so much information, I just say: read the article.

The Tom and Katie show

Am I the only person who wants to know WHY Tom Cruise keeps grabbing that girl by the back of her neck? "Spirit Fingers" (I'm guessing SF is a "Western" blogger) based in Hong Kong has at least one blog entry on the TOM AND KATIE Show: "I Loved This Woman." [even if I did snap her neck]

Was he afraid she might turn her head?

"Africa Meets the Americas" - Global Black Women Leaders Meet in TEXAS Usa, October 2005

Ladies and gentlemen: "Africa Meets the Americas," the Houston Global Congress Unites Black Women Leaders. October 7-11, 2005 we will celebrate the Second Global Congress of Black Women Leaders, this year in Houston, Texas USA. Perhaps you or your organisation or someone you know can sponsor a Black woman leader to attend. The first Global Congress took place last July at UNESCO headquarters, PARIS, where pioneer African Brasilian woman political leader Benedita da Silva was outstanding, and was elected Speaker of the Congress by conference attendees. For more info on "Africa Meets the Americas," go to: www.gcbwl.org or www.globalcongressofBlackWomenLeaders.org. Register here in English. Global Congress founder & Organiser is Ms Sandrah Monthieux Pelage, native of Martinique, West Indies/le Caraibe; email: gcbwl at e-a-r-t-h-l-i-n-k dot net - don't forget to take out the dashes. The Honorable Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Member of United States Congress is the Host and Honorary Chair. Be part *Bring passion *Break paralysis *Be powerful. Honorary Chairs who will address the Congress: Dr Dora Akunyili, Director General, National Agency for Food & Drug Administration and Control, Nigeria; Dame Jocelyn Barrow, the first Black Woman Governor of the BBC & Honorary Chair of the Global Council of Black Women Leaders; la Senadora Piedad Córdoba, Member of the Senate of Colombia, South America, and Lecturer at the National University of Colombia, Bogota; the Honorable Joyce London Alexander, first Black Chief United States Magistrate Judge, Boston, Massachusetts USA; Her Excellency Barbara Masekela, first Black Woman Ambassador to Paris and to the USA for the Republic of South Africa; Ms Harriet R. Michel, president of the National Minority Supplier Development Council, New York, New York; Dr Deborah Prothrow-Stith, Associate Dean, Harvard University School of Public Health and Leader of the Global Congress' Health & Wellbeing Commission; Ministra Matilde Ribeiro, Government Minister for Promotion of Racial Equality, Brazil; Hon. Députée Christiane Taubira, Member of the Parliament of France and originator of the "Slavery, Crime against Humanity" legislation in France; Her Excellency Marina Valère, Ambassador of Trinidad and Tobago to the USA, and former board member of Trinidad and Tobago Airports Authority; and Ms Sandrah Monthieux Pélage, founder and president of the Global Congress and the Global Council of Black Women Leaders, Inc. Register here: www.gcbwl.org. Official conference hotel is Hilton Americas. Book your room now at Global Congress lower room rate; and for sure other Houston hotels also are available even if they aren't official conference hotel.

2004 Global Congress-UNESCO PARIS

Unlocking the Door of no Return: OTU People of African Ancestry Reunion, NYC 12 August

Deadria Farmer-Paellman, genetics scientist Dr Rick Kittles and others are planning the August 12 OTU ceremony in New York. On March 4 I posted an entry about Gina Paige's Atlanta, Ga lecture on Africa, DNA and Genetics. Now Farmer-Paellman and her colleagues are organising the first annual OTU African Ancestral DNA Ceremony: "Unlocking the Door of No Return." See below Dina Kraft's photo of the actual Door of No Return in Senegal, west Africa. Tens of millions of our African ancestors were forced out of Africa through those corridors and deported to the Americas. Scores of other African deportees met their deaths in "the middle passage" of the icy cold Atlantic Ocean. OTU - the Organization of Tribal Unity: Reuniting People of African Ancestry: www.theotu.com. With a keynote address by Dr. Rick Kittles, PhD geneticist and founder of African Ancestry DNA testing company. Dr Kittles did special research for the 2003 BBC tv documentary, Motherland: a genetic journey.

Dina Kraft photo. The haunting Door of No Return, Goree Island, Senegal, West Africa

August 12 performances by The Great Day Chorale, directed by Louvinia Pointer. Ceremony, 10 am to noon, reception, noon to 2 pm. Church Center for the United Nations, 777 United Nations Plaza, 1st Avenue at 44th St, New York. "Join us in recognizing those who have unlocked the "Door of No Return" through DNA testing. Learn more about these powerful tests and network with others who share our African ethnicity and nationality." Free admission but limited seating - rsvp by July 20. Co-Chair/Founder, Deadria Farmer-Paellmann; Co-Chair/Chief Genealogist, Antoinette Harrell-Miller; Chief Elder, Queen Mother Dr. Delois Blakely; Chaplain, Reverend Al Sampson. This takes place 11 days before annual 23 August International Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition, recognised by UNESCO.

Mapping California and Nevada earthquakes

What's shaking? California? On this map you see California and Nevada earthquakes - small and larger ones, both on land and offshore - plotted from the past hour to the past week. At the time I'm writing the map shows about 870 earthquakes. Incredible.