Global African Quad Flag: A Visual Signifier Of African-Related Matters

Global African Quad Flag: A Visual Signifier Of African-Related Matters

Update: Click here for details of related 2018 events

December 17 2017
By Kwaku
TAOBQ co-ordinator

2021 Update: At the 2020: Marcus Garvey @ 80: Moving Towards A Unifying African Identity meeting  decided upon use of the Global African Quad flag with 4 stripes as the final version:

Final version of the Global African Quad flag/colours

As we enter the 4th year of the UN's IDPAD (International Decade For People Of African Descent) 2015-24 initiative, a new symbol aims to provide a quick, short-hand, visual representation of all things African, be it good or bad!

Global African Quad Flag. Earlier version by TAOBQ (c) 2017

 NOTE: As of June 10 2020, the 4 band version was adopted as the Global African Quad flag.

The Global African Quad (GAQ) Flag was officially launched on November 18 2017 at the BTWSC/African Histories Revisited organised African History Month UK Network Conference at Unite The Union's headquarters in Holborn, London.

It combines the four common colours of the two pan-African tri-colours - the Ethiopian, Ghanaian and Rastafarian green, gold and red, and the Universal Negro Improvement Association/African Communities League's red, black, and green.

TAOBQ co-ordinator Kwaku unfurls GAQ flag at the conference, whilst book-seller Emmanuel Amevor is the first to publicly wear a GAQ badge. November 18 2018 @ Unite The Union HQ, London

In an age where logos and other visual symbols are meant to provide instant meaning, it is hoped that the GAQ colours will come to be recognised as representing African-related interest and issues, be it expressing African pride, Afriphobia*, or atrocity, such as the recently revealed incidents of Africans being enslaved in Libya or protests against African deaths in state custody.

For background and the development of the flag, click here to read 'August 31 Declared African History Reflection Day', and click here to read 'Colours For African Pride And For Marking Atrocities Against Africans?' Although ideally there should be a single black stripe representing all Africans, when the two black stripes version representing Africans of the continent and the diaspora was shown at the 2017 African History Reflection Day event, it was favoured by a small majority. It's a small compromise to make and one hopes we'll reach a time when we'll revert to a single black stripe because most diasporan Africans will recognise that they are African, period.

* Africans For and TAOBQ define Afriphobia as: The prejudice or discrimination against; fear, hatred, or bigotry towards people of African heritage and things African.

It is also racism specifically against Africans. For more, click here to read 'Call It By Its Name: Afriphobia Is Racism Against African People'.

For more information or merchandising enquiries: jointheaobq @ gmail.com.

The AFJCV Bullet Points For Corbyn Supporters & Labour Party Activists

The AFJC Values (Africans For JC Values) Bullet Points for Corbyn Supporters & Labour Party Activists

Also accessible at www.bitly.com/AFJCVBulletPoints

·      See what you can do on the eve of and on polling day – contact your local Labour Party office, local CLP, unions like Unite, or supporting organisations, such as Momentum

·      Remember, the work continues after June 8 2017 – see David Randall’s vox pops at: www.bitly.com/DMPostJune8

 

·      Spread the word and attend the Jeremy Corbyn/John McDonnell Celebration/MSF Lake Chad Emergency Fundraiser on  Sunday June 11, 3-6pm at location in central London, by Russell Square. Book at www.bitly.com/GE2017MSFLC

·      NOTE: Remind voters that unless their constituency is Islington North, they will NOT see Jeremy Corbyn’s name on the ballot – they are supposed to vote for the Labour candidate on their ballot paper.

·      When canvassing or during your routine engagement with people, you must focus on what their interests are. Such as health, education and housing, and how Labour policies will make a positive impact e.g. Privatisation of the NHS or public ownership?

·      Most importantly, encourage your contacts to go out and vote on June 8th. Supporting a Jeremy Corbyn-led Laour Government, but not going out to vote on 8th June will not help Labour win the general election.

·      To counter Jeremy Corbyn is not a string leader – remind them that the popular Labour Manifesto would not have been passed without Corbyn's leadership.

·      Counter arguments about what makes a strong leader. Is it a person who has no qualms about pushing a nuclear button or one who invests in peace? Is it one who does U turns or one who has strength of character, has consistently been on the side of the marginalised, supported anti-apartheid movement when it was not popular and Margaret Thatcher described Mandela as a terrorist? A person who has been resilient and not abandoned socialist values in spite of negative onslaught from the media and undermining from members of the Parliamentary Labour Party and Labour Party, and has increased the membership of the Labour Party is a strong leader.

·      Regarding Foreign Policy. There is a link between foreign policy and 'extremism'. Links to Conservatives making some of the points Corbyn has made: www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/six-times-tories-said-exactly-10511011

·      Highlight May's weaknesses. Is she strong and stable, or one who makes U turns?

·      Financial Literacy. Explain that Bonds are not just Government debt when used to buy income generating assets. They can be a safe way of buying back assets.

·      Check alternative media, such as The Canary, Evolve Politics and Morning Star online for positive news about Corbyn and Labour.

Draw attention to videos by Lowkey, JME, Stormzy, Akala and other artists and community activists, such as Toyin Agbetu, and the NME interview with Jeremy Corbyn, which can be found on Youtube, or check list at AFJCV Mail out at: www.bitly.com/CorbynVideosPlus.

 

Jeremy Corbyn For PM On June 9 2017 links

Here are links to help with theJeremy Corbyn For PM On June 9 2017 campaign!

Africans For JC (Jeremy Corbyn) Values  is an inclusive, African-led socio-political movement that supports the Jeremy Corbyn 10 Point Pledge and is working to bring about a Jeremy Corbyn/John McDonnell-led Labour Government on June 9 2017

 

Join us for the Jeremy Corbyn/John McDonnell Successful Campaign Party & Medecins San Frontieres Lake Chad Emergency Fundraiser on Sunday June 11, 3-6pm in central London. Come and support, buy raffle tickets and auction items, enjoy Ghanaian meal & kelewele (diced fried plantain). Complimentary bubbly on arrival. For more details: africansfor@gmail.com.

AFJCV (Africans For JC Values) presents in association with TAOBQ (The African Or Black Question) and BBM/BMC (BritishBlackMusic.com/Black Music Congress): AFJCV GE2017 Celebration & MSF Lake Chad Emergency Fundraiser OK, you've been consumed by the GE2017 elections, worked hard canvassing, etc. So join us on the first weekend after the general elections! All welcome - come and unwind, and celebrate hope over fear, and help us raise awareness and funds for Medicins Sans Frontieres' Lake Chad Emergency Appeal. Book at www.bitly.com/MSFLC by donating whatever you can afford. Event takes place in Russell Square, central London - address provided after booking. The afternoon consists of: Music + Videos + Ghanaian refreshments + Raffle + Auction including signed bottles & souvenir NME + Networking + Talks + Free bubbly for early arrivals + MSF fundraiser

British Black Music Month (BBMM) 2017 events includes a Rock Against Racism presentation by Faithless guitarist and ‘Sound System’ (Pluto Press) author Dave Randall on Monday June 5, 6.30-8.30pm. Free. Event details:
www.BBM.eventbrite.com

Africans For JC Values Campaign Bullet Points for activists or supporters:

·  Zone in on people’s interests, be it health, education and housing,  and remind them whose policies will make a positive impact e.g. Privatisation of the NHS or public ownership? 

·  Jeremy Corbyn is not electable or a strong leader? The popular Labour Manifesto would not have been passed without Corbyn's leadership.

·  Counter arguments about what makes a strong leader. Is it a person who has no qualms about pushing a nuclear button or one who invests in peace?

Is it one who does U turns or one who has strength of character,  has consistently been on the side of the marginalised, supported anti-apartheid movement when it was not popular and Margaret Thatcher described Mandela as a terrorist? A person who has been resilient and not abandoned socialist values in spite of negative onslaught from the media and undermining from members of the Parliamentary Labour Party and Labour Party, and has increased the membership of the Labour Party – these arew signs of a strong leader!

·  Foreign Policy: There is a link between foreign policy and 'extremism'. Will post links on June 1 at www.bit.ly/JCGE2010

Culled from AFJCV (Africans For JC Values)/TAOBQ (The African Or Black Question) mail out via BBM/BMC:

Unite The Union is certainly unequivocal about its support for the Labour Party, as evidenced by the giant banner on the side of its London HQ in Holborn.

Street marketing reminder of some of the events happening this week and next. Click here to book for the Captain Ska Wednesday June 7 Brixton Jamm gig, and here to watch band member and 'Liar Liar' composer Jake Painter and others discuss 'Media Bias: Why Won't The BBC Play "Liar, Liar #GE2017"?' Incidentally, a segment of the video is played on the Victoria Derbyshire-fronted BBC TV prog, as part of the discussion on editorial policy, balance and newsworthiness. Also click here to watch Akala hold his own defending his position of the general media bias against Jeremy Corbyn on BBC TV's This Week prog. You can fast-foward past Andrew Neil and co,'s preamble to 5.58 to first catch Akala's filmed The Take segment, which precedes his in-studio discussion.

Click here to watch the TAOBQ Liar Liar GE2017 Remix For Labour Supporters And Activists By Kwaku, featuring "very angry" 5 year old Brooke Blair. Whilst you can consume the music for free, and the record was the highest chart entry at no. 4 (way better than the modest top 40 aspirations of band and its supporter The People's Assembly Against Austerity), if you haven't already bought a copy, do consider buying one, to make a political statement and to help the food bank programme in "austerity Britain".

Jeremy 'Stormzy' Corbyn - 'Shut Up Remix In Under 40 Seconds.' Click here to watch MC JC!

Click here to read NME editorMike Williams' interview with Corbyn, which includes a lot of youth-orientated questions by the mag's readers covering topics such as tuition fees, and the quintessential NME question: Oasis or Blur? Click here to watch the NME Meets Jeremy Corbyn interview in an east London eatery. Judging by where JME's interview took place, it would seem if you want to interview JC for a youth audience, get him into an eatery!

JME encourages his fans to register in order to vote. Note the importance of the youth vote for Labour, if only they can be made to a) register and b) go out and vote! See below to watch and read about JME's interview with Jeremy Corbyn. Again, the importance of the under-25s and under-50s for Labour and Corbyn is highlighted in the George Osbourne-edited Evening Standard.

Well, not much choice here, almost all the artists highlighted in this NME article are voting Labour! Click here to read.

Boy Better Know's JME doesn't simply endorse Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party, and encourage the youth to register. He meets the party leader in a north London eatery to quiz him about issues relevant to young people. Click here to watch i-D's 'When JME Met Jeremy Corbyn' video, and below to read the NME coverage, in which JME tells Corbyn he's "so genuine it feels like I'm about to meet my mum's friend".

How often do you find statistics that prominently show Jeremy Corbyn in the lead? Here is one for the "Jeremy Corbyn is NOT electable brigade"!

The AFJCV's home-made 'Afriphobia' banner attracted the attention of some media and Labour staff, who photographed it (see below for more on identity and language) at the Labour Party's launch of its 'Race & Faith Manifesto' last week in Watford. Photographed is moi and Brent Central MP candidate Dawn Butler, who also facilitated the launch, which had Labour bigwigs such as Diane Abbott, Keith Vaz, John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn in attendance. Click here to watch launch.

Politically conscious rapper Lowkey urges young people to register and vote Labour June 8. “Tory policies have led us to the stage where you have nurses in the NHS using foodbanks. But when you have somebody coming forward saying he will raise the wages of nurses, saying he will abolish tuition fees, he will raise the minimum wage, build one million homes, half of them social housing: this is significant, and this is significant to everyone. Previously, the idea had been that these people are not speaking to us, about us or for us. Jeremy Corbyn is a clear exception to that rule.” Click here to read the full Evolve Politics article, and here to watch Lowkey's on-point Double Down News socio-political analysis.

Another socio-politically aware rapper, Akala, is not only voting Labour, it's the first time he would have ever voted. And it's all because of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party. But he has not come to this decision wearing rose tinted glasses. He recognises the imperfection of Corbyn, and the imperialist history of the Labour party. Nevertheless Corbyn and Labour are our best choise, he opines. Click here to read Akala's Facebook post.

A year ago, before he became an album chart-topping act, Stormzy endorsed Jeremy Corbyn, rhyming: “My man, Jeremy! Young Jeremy, my guy. I dig what he says. I saw some sick picture of him from back in the day when he was campaigning about anti-apartheid and I thought: yeah, I like your energy." Click here to read the NME article.

OK, so we now know that grime artists do not just rap about their endz, being on road, and shanking. Some are politically aware. And so too is the fanbase who recently set up the grime4corbyn.com website, @grime4corbyn Twitter handle, and the #grime4corbyn hashtag. They are encouraging grime fans to register and vote Labour. Those who register will have a chance of winning tickets to a 'secret party' in London. The date and venue is yet to be confirmed. Click here to be kept in the loop. And if you thought reggae sound system MCs were loud, incoherent people, whose job was to hype the selector and the crowd, then you'll be surprised at the political exhortations from these sarf London MCs Lorna Gee, Papa Levi and Papa Benji, who were politicking within the dancehalls of the early to mid-1980s. The slides are provided courtesy of Dr William Henry a.k.a. Leslie Lyrics, who spoke to the contents of the slides during his Reggae Research Network presentation last Friday in Liverpool.

Performance poet and story-teller Grace Quansah a.k.a. Akuba puts her frustrations against 7 years of Tory rule into a "long poem", for which her son has created a video and music bed. Click here to watch.

When educationalist and community activist Bro Toyin Agbetu, who has not voted since the Blairite Labour government of twenty years ago, decides to ditch his political party and support Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party, then you know there must be compelling reasons. Click here to find out from the Ligali video. And for those making "white man survivor" accusations, note that it's only the Conservative Party that's fixated on the Corbyn personality, based on the focus of their ads, etc. Majority of those Africans supporting Corbyn and the Labour Party do so either because of Corbyn's 10 Point Pledge, click here, and/or the party's manifesto, click here!

We aren't sure whether 5 year Brooke Blair would vote Conservatives or Labour, if she had the vote. But we're certain her politics isn't Blairite! Although she might be prone to a wee bit of exaggeration, for a 5 year old, not only is she articulate, she's forthright about her politics - if only she had the vote! Click here to watch angry Brooke give Theresa May a piece of her mind, as she asks for more homes to be built (no doubt targeting the Conservatives' austerity ideology), and a cessation of wars. This RT.com version is part of its news item on homelessness, and has Brooke's mum giving context to how Brookes ended up making her videoed appeal.

Identity politics can not be avoided once certain peoples or discriminations are separated and highlighted on their own. Take for instance BEM (Black, Ethnic Minority), once the over-arching identifier mainly used for non-Europeans. Today, there's a proliferation of terms, such as BAME (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic). Some of us say, if the Asian have extricated themselves, what does the amorphous 'Black' stand for? If, as we believe, it stands people of African heritage, let's be identified by our name. Hence the AAEM (African, Asian, Ethnic Minority) terminology. For more on terminology, click here to read TAOBQ Responds: We Wouldn’t Write ‘Afro-Caribbean’ Today, But Is ‘People Of Colour’ OK Now?

30 years since its launch in the UK, and particularly as we're in the UN's International Decade For People Of African Descent, some of us have moved from talking about Black History Month, and use African History Month (or Season).

BHM UK Conceiver Addai Sebo's Message To African History Month UK NetworkLaunch Click here for video       here for TAOBQ blog post   and here for  press release And, what's missing among those "ism"s and "bia"s is Afriphobia! It's about time 'race' equality organisations and activists, unions, political parties, politicians and journalists, start calling anti-African racism by it's name: Afriphobia, spelt with an "i"!

It's almost 1 year since we submitted an Africans For JC Values-led letter to the Chakrabarti Inquiry, which at least mentioned Afriphobia in the same breath as anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in its report. Click here to read Call It By Its Name: Afriphobia Is Racism Against African People open letter.