A TAOBQ Open Letter: Why I Say No To “Slavery Memorial Day”, “Slavery Remembrance Day” And Similar Terminology

A TAOBQ Open Letter: Why I Say No To “Slavery Memorial Day”, “Slavery Remembrance Day” And Similar Terminology

August 23 2012

By Kwaku

TAOBQ (The African Or Black Question) co-ordinator

Today and in the next few days, there will be a number of events across Britain marking “Slavery Remembrance Day”, “Slavery Memorial Day”, and another terminology I came across a few days ago, “Slave Remembrance Day”. I believe these terminologies to be misnomers, and do not do justice to the spirit of what they purport be commemorating. The preferred terminology ought to be the International Day of AfricanResistance Against Enslavement.

Hence this open letter, and for those that like their commucations in bite-size form, the conversations can continue on Twitter using hashtags  #NotSMD or #NotSRD.

The marking of August 23 is an initiative of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), which was adopted in 1997. If you have not heard of this national commemoration, it’s not surprising. Member states are merely “invited to give this international day all due prominence and to mobilise their educational, scientific, artistic and cultural communities, youth and, in general, civil society”.

Re-wind to 2007, which was the bicentennial of the 1807 Abolition Of The Slave Trade Act. This Act, championed in parliament by William Wilberforce, did not, and was not intended to end chattel enslavement. But many people were not to know that, as numerous publications and commentators, either directly or implicitly talked about the Act in terms of having abolished chattel enslavement.

During that period of self-congratulatory, back-patting commemorations of Britain having taken the moral high ground by abolishing the vile “trade”, which was the trafficking of African people, the Government initially wanted an annual commemoration of the trafficking and abolition to be on March 25 – the date the Act was passed 200 years ago.

Many grassroots organisations, conscious pundits, and indeed the then London Mayor Ken Livingstone, opposed this. They suggested that the August 23 date be adopted. It was not until the end of the bicentennial year, in December that the Government finally announced its adoption of August 23.

Whilst the Government used the UNESCO’s Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition terminology, some organisations, including trade unions and anti-racist organisations, decided to opt for “Slavery Remembrance Day” or “Slavery Memorial Day”.

But before then, among the first libraries and museums that took up the challenge of commemorating August 23 in Britain is the National Museums Liverpool (NML), which began its “Slavery Remembrance Day” events in 1999, the year the city of Liverpool “apologised” for its prominent role in the so-called “slave trade”.

NML, and now through its specialist wing, the International Slavery Musuem (ISM), which was inuagurated in 2007, has continued to regularly put on a range of August 23 activities. Whilst its programmes are perhaps one of the best on offer – reasons which will be explained later – the museum is one of the institutions that have popularised the “Slavery Remembrance Day” terminology in Britain.

NML states on its website that “the date has been designated by UNESCO as Slavery Remembrance Day, a reminder that enslaved Africans were the main agents of their own liberation.” The first part of the statement is erroneous.

This is how UNESCO described the initiative in 1998, when it first marked August 23: “By its decision to proclaim 23 August each year as the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, UNESCO sought to pay tribute to the tireless struggle of the slaves for their freedom.”  And UNESCO has been consistent in using its official terminology ever since.

As embracing as the UNESCO terminology may seem, some pan-Africanists have an issue with the kind of focus the terminology so easily lends itself to. So at a meeting of the Recovered Histories London Regional Network in 2008, a new terminology was adopted: International Day of African Resistance Against Enslavement.

This terminology, which I implore all Africanists and true African supporters to use, underscores the significance of August 23 1791, which heralded the start of the Haitian Revolution - the first successful revolution by enslaved Africans in the so-called New World, and which partly led to the abolition of the trafficking of Africans.

The Haitian link puts the focus on the activism of Africans. The other terminologies so easily lend themselves to Wilberfest type programming, where the focus is often on European abolitionists like Wilberforce, the ‘magnanimity’ of the British for abolishing chattel enslavement, whilst the Africans are usually seen as poor, pathetic enslaved people, and their determination in fighting for their own freedom seldom highlighted.

Using the International Day of African Resistance Against Enslavement terminology does not necessarily mean locating every event around the narrow focus of Haiti, August 23 and African resistance. What it offers is a great opportunity to highlight and re-tell African histories of resilience and overcoming against great odds across the diaspora and over the ages.

This can help empower Africans, particularly young people who are disconnected with their African roots, whilst also highlighting some of the less well-known histories and counter-balancing some of the mis-information about chattel enslavement and its abolition.

Personally, I have been using the oportunity to deliver programmes that use the Haitian revolution as a springboard to highlight a range of global African histories with a connection to August, which incidentally has been re-named by a Garveyite organisation as Mosiah month in honour of the great pan-Africanist icon, Marcus Garvey.

Garvey, who is one of the NARM role models (African British male role models spanning 1907-2007), was born 125 years ago on 17th August and his UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) organisation offers a number of historical markers in August.

This year, the guest speaker at one of the NLM/ISM events is Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of African-American civil rights leader Dr King. In addition to delivering a memorial speech, he will also unveil a plaque on one of the museum’s buildings to be named after his father.  Another talks programme is ‘We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For’, where the topic for discussion is not just on historical and contemporary African heroes and heroines, but crucially, it welcomes the inclusion of community grass roots heroes.

Talking about grass roots heroes, there is no doubt that next year being the 50th anniversary of Dr King’s ‘I Have A Dream Speech’, there will be a surfeit of King/‘I Have A Dream Speech’ related events.

But how many of the historians, programmers and organisers of those type of events will look at highlighting some of the local heroes I highlight in the NARM book? For example, Paul Stephenson, the leader of the Bristol Bus Boycott, which officially ended on August 28 1963, the same day Dr King made his famous speech.

If we don’t know of Stephenson or the Bristol Bus Boycott, we should take the opportunity to acquaint ourselves with what ought to be an important part of African British history, instead of forever harking back to the United States, as if we do not have  any African-driven civil rights activism in Britain.

Incidentally, if you decide to make the effort, please do not rely on the New York Times website, where there is a feature on the international influence of Dr King. It has an aside, which mentions Stephenson and the bus boycott. Sadly, in  spite of my pointing out an error to the editorial department and the author, who is an Oxford University history tutor, the esteemed newspaper’s website continues to declare “Mr. Stephenson’s bus boycott was actually a strike by drivers seeking better working conditions rather than a copy of Montgomery’s passenger boycott.”

Anyone who’s read anything about the Bristol Bus Boycott would know that it was a fight against the colour bar practised by the bus company and a trade union, which discriminated against non-Europeans by not allowing their employment as bus drivers or conductors.

Last year, I selected some NARM role models, like Asquith Xavier, CLR James, Dr Harold Moody, Henry Sylvester Williams, and Ladipo Solanke, to tell a range of AfricanBritish civil rights histories across London during African History Month (25 years after its introduction to Britain, it’s time to ditch the now meaningless Black History Month terminology).

Another NARM role model, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, is the subject of an August 23 event at London’s National Portrait Gallery, where his images are part of an on-going exhibition until March 2013. This is how the gallery’s website promotes the event highlighting the African British composer who died 100 years ago: “On Slavery Remembrance Day celebrate the remarkable life of a composer who rose from humble beginnings to international celebrity. With biographer Charles Elford.”

Upon first reading this blurb, I wondered about the relevance of linking this event to August 23. Coleridge-Taylor was born in London in 1875, well after the abolition of chattel enslavement. His father was a London-trained doctor who came from Sierra Leone’s middle class.

If this event was merely going to focus on the great achievements of one of Britain’s most famous composers of the early 1900s – his ‘Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast’ was a major hit, which had numerous performances at prestigious venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, and whose fame was such that he went on three tours of the US, where he became the first African to conduct an all European orchestra and was feted at the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt – it could have been done any other day.

However, I know Elford is passionate about Coleridge-Taylor and as the author of the novelised biography ‘Black Mahler’, I expect he will also highlight Coleridge-Taylor’s activism as a pan-Africanist, the aplomb with which he dealt with racism, the challenges and the doors he opened as an African within the Western musical world and beyond in the late 19th/early 20th century. This is what would make August 23 relevant, as it highlights the spirit and connection to the global African histories of struggles and resistance.

Going back to the International Slavery Museum. I must confess I had never been keen on visiting it. Thankfully earlier this year, I took the opportunity offered by a guest speaker engagement at the Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts to pay a visit. The more I saw during my guided visit, the more I dropped off the baggage I had come in with.

My last Open Letter in 2009 was entitled ‘African (Black) History Month Aim Not Achieved/African History Is Wider Than Enslavement’. In it, I advocated that our history was much wider than just the enslavement period, which was what the Government had managed to get into the school’s history curriculum starting in 2008. It also advocated using the International Day of African Resistance Against Enslavement terminology, and that the August 23 date “must be used to focus on the resistance led by Africans.”

I had imagined that the ISM was simply a Wilberfest time capsule. Looking at the exhibits, reading the captions and engaging with the various audio-visual resources, I was amazed at the fair representation of the issues in terms of language and focus, and there was no over-emphasis of the European abolitionists.

Also, surprisingly, it was not as its name might have implied, focused on just enslavement, rebellions and the abolition – it actually covered a much wider area, and in language that showed respect and sensitivity. Issues that link to contemporary times, such as racism, colonialism, African nationalism, civil rights, reparations, and popular culture have some prominence. This includes a highly recommended video show that tells centuries of global African history within a few minutes.

I later discovered the museum’s stance is in part due to its having input from clued up people from Liverpool’s African community throughout the process, from its inception, to acquisitions, installations and its on-going programming.

My only issue, which I pointed out to staff was one caption which stated that in 1772, Lord Mansfield declared enslavement illegal. Lord Mansfield’s judgment in the Somersett case did not definitively pronounce on the legality or illegality of enslavement.

Which leads me to one last point. Among the museum’s facilities is the Campaign Zone, where organisations like Liverpool’s anti-human trafficking group Stop The Traffik (STT) use for meetings. The STT cause is of course laudable, and deserves all the support and publicity it can get. However, my view is that modern day slavery and chattel enslavement must not be mentioned in the same breadth, as if the former is simply a continuation of the latter.

It is not. Whilst they both keep people in servitude, today’s slavery or human trafficking is illegal. The victims have human rights, and when the traffickers are caught, they do face the law. In the case of chattel enslavement, victims were deemed to be “property”, and had no rights whatsoever. This perverse notion meant that an enslaver could torture or kill an enslaved African, without facing criminal prosecution.

This is shown in the Zong massacre, which involved 132 Africans being thrown overboard during the Middle Passage on the orders of the ship’s captain, and the subsequent insurance claim for loss of property (chattel). Lord Chief Justice Mansfield in his 1783 summing up of the jury's verdict, echoed the prevalent view of the time, which was that what happened to those Africans was “the same as if horses had been thrown over board.” None of the Zong’s crew were charged for the killing of over 100 people!

This is why the kind of servitude I’ve just illustrated should be distinguished from other forms of servitude and be described as “chattel enslavement” – language is very important in dealing with these matters.

In 1937, William Prescott, a former enslaved African in the United States said: “They will remember that we were sold. But they won’t remember that we were strong. They will remember that we were bought. But not that we were brave.” This is what terminologies like “Slavery Memorial Day” and “Slavery Remembrance Day” invariably leave us with.

No to “SlaveryMemorial Day and "Slavery Remembrance Day”, yes to International Day Of African Resistance Against Enslavement!

© 2012 Kwaku

www.TAOBQ.blogspot.com

Thinking about language in teaching African history - the TAOBQ Primer

By Kwaku

TAOBQ co-ordinator

As we are in August (also known by Africanists as Mosiah month), and before the so-called Slavery Memorial Day and Black History Month comes upon us, I thought I’d post this piece, which hopefully should engender some (re-)thinking or discussion on the way we use language to tell, teach or perpetuate history.

Caution, especially for African and Africanist historians:

a) History is not neutral, no matter how much some academics may pretend that it is

We ALL have baggage and an agenda, which impacts to some degree upon the way we interpret, teach (or regurgitate) history. This African proverb underscores the point: “Until the lions tell their tale, history shall always glorify the hunter.”

b) Do not be fooled by the supposed notion of neutrality in telling history.
Or else, you will in the main be regurgitating a Western view of African history. Do tell the truth, including uncomfortable truths. However, be guided by an Africanist eye or viewpoint. 

c) David Livingstone discovered Victoria Falls

So until Livingstone came along, there were no Africans living around that region in present day Zambia and Zimbabwe, and did they not know of the falls they call Mosi-oa-Tunya?

d) Christopher Columbus discovered America

Does that mean the Native Americans and all who came before Columbus to the Americas (such as the African Olmec civilisation, which pre-dated the Columbus “discovery” by thousands of years) had no idea where they were?

Here are some terms that one needs to be mindful of:

1) Who is a person of African descent?

If it’s accepted that Africa is the cradle of civilisation, then every human -  European, Asian, etc is of African descent! Hence, the best terminology ought to be African, African people, or people of African heritage (the present evolution of the human race shows various distinct heritages).

2) Black or African?
African, European, Asian – these represent groups of people linked to a land mass of their “recent anthropological development”. If you can find a land mass known as Black, Blackland, Blackistan, etc, then you are welcome to describe its people as Blacks. Until then, the terminology ought to be African, African people, or people of African heritage. See the TAOBQ blog for further arguments and resources.

3) Caribbean or African Caribbean?

A Caribbean is a person whose antecedents are located in the Caribbean. As such a person can be of Carib, European, Asian or African heritage. The word Caribbean should not be assumed to refer to a person of African heritage. The correct terminology ought to be African Caribbean (or African, where geo-specificity is not important).

4) African Caribbean or West Indian?

It seems older folks, especially those steeped in the colonial era, are used to the West Indian terminology. Whilst the younger generation, particularly conscious Africanists, prefer the African Caribbean terminology. Some don’t relate to the West Indian terminology firstly because that area got its name from Columbus’ mistaken belief that he had reached the Indies, and secondly as one African Caribbean remarked: Do I look Indian? In spite of institutions such as the University of the West Indies or the West Indies cricket team, West Indian is today not the best terminology to describe an African Caribbean.

5) African Caribbean, African or African/African Caribbean
There is no doubt that the African presence in Britain has in the last few decades been dominated by the African Caribbeans, be it in numbers within the country’s population, music or sports. However within the last few years, the profile of those of continental African backgrounds has risen as they have made great strides across population size, music and sports. Hence there’s now a need to use the correct terminology to identify the precise grouping: African Caribbean represents only Africans with Caribbean antecedents; African represents all peoples of African heritage, irrespective of whether they were born in Britain, the Caribbean or Africa; African/African Caribbean highlights, especially where cultural inclusiveness needs emphasis, continental Africans, and Africans with Caribbean antecedents.

6) Black And Asian, BAME etc or African And Asian?

There was a time when every non-European was described as “black”. For example the first 3 “black” MPs were not those elected in 1987, but rather those who straddled the late 19^th to early 20^th century, who were all of Asian heritage! In the 1960s/70s, “black” was adopted as an all-embracing political term mainly for non-Europeans (and some marginalised or discriminated peoples of European heritage). Since the 1990s, we’ve seen terminology such as Black And Asian, Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) etc creep into our vocabulary. Who does the “Black” represent, besides Africans? Hence, if one can’t use the singular political “black” to include Africans and Asians, then one should be more precise by using the African And Asian terminology.

7) Who are "people of colour" or "coloured"?
No one! These meaningless colour-focused terminologies presuppose that some people are different because either they are "not of colour" or superior. When you go to the paint shop, you have the choice of numerous colours, such as white, black, yellow, red, brown, green - so who then is or isn't a person of colour? Is white not also a colour?

8) Black History Month or African History Month?

When Black History Month (BHM) was first introduced in Britain in 1987, it was in a climate of heightened anti-racism activism, Leftist politics, and pride and solidarity in embracing the political term “black”. Although it was championed by European, Asian and African politicians, BHM was premised on the African Jubilee Year Declaration. The Jubilee year run from August 1987, marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great pan-Africanist icon Marcus Garvey, who was born on August 17 1887, right through to 1988, marking the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Organisation Of African Unity on May 25, and the 150th anniversary of the end of chattel enslavement in the British Caribbean, which was on August 1 1838. The Declaration aimed to combat racism towards Africans by enjoining statutory bodies such as Councils to promote programmes that highlighted the contributions of Africa(ns) to the economic, cultural and political life of London and Britain. Sections of the 1976 Race Relations Act were used to buttress the demands. However 25 years on, with most Councils and other statutory bodies either having abandoned or reduced support for BHM, it is now time for individuals and community organisations to take the lead in funding programmes and giving them a global African history focus. Hence, the legacy of BHM ought to be the adoption of the unambiguous terminology: African History Month (AHM).

9) Slavery Memorial Day, International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition or International Day of African Resistance Against Enslavement?
Some Africans object to the colloquial term Slavery Memorial Day and UNESCO’s International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, because both terms focus negatively on enslaved Africans (constantly labelling them as ‘slaves’) and not highlighting their fight for their own freedom. The preferred term is International Day of African Resistance Against Enslavement, because it underscores the significance of August 23 (1791), which heralded the start of the Haitian Revolution, the first successful revolution by enslaved Africans in the so-called New World, which directly led to the abolition of the trafficking of Africans.

10) Slave or Enslaved?
The preference is for enslaved, simply because it conjures up a connection of someone else, the enslaver, who put the victim into the state of enslavement.

11) Slavery or Chattel Enslavement (Slavery)?
All human groupings over the ages have had some form of servitude within their societies, with varying degrees of brutality and lack of human rights. However what is popularly referred to as the "trans-Atlantic trade", or the trafficking of Africans, was the most extreme, in that Africans were reduced in the eyes of European enslavers and sympathisers to non-human beings, equal to inanimate property.  They had no human rights whatsoever - check the Zong massacre. This form of servitude is incomparable to most forms, and certainly should not be linked to "modern day slavery". Which is why one needs to make the distinction by using either "chattel enslavement" or "chattel slavery".

12) Africa Is A Continent not a Country!
Africa is a continent with over fifty countries. So it's not proper to make statements like I went to Germany, India and Africa. It begs the question, where in Africa?  Ditto: They do x in Africa. Better state the country or countries, or else the impression left is that x takes places across all parts of Africa.
 

© 2012 Kwaku
If you would like to use information, please cite www.taobq.blogspot.com. To contact: jointheaobq@gmail.com.

Kwaku is a history consultant and TAOBQ co-ordinator.

African businesses haven’t had their share of the 2012 Olympics bonanza, claims BAME groups

This article was initially written months ago for an African business publication. With Olympics 2012 almost upon us, and in light of the recent last moment but spirited campaign to get African British newspaper The Voice an Olympics 2012 media accreditation, I've reproduced it here for wider circulation.

African businesses haven’t had their share of the 2012 Olympics bonanza, claims BAME groups

Kwaku

This summer, the world’s eyes will be upon London, as it hosts the Olympic games from 27 July to 12 August. As it will be the first city to host it for a third time, having been Olympic city in 1908 and 1948, the expectations are especially high for London to get it right.

But whilst Britain will no doubt be showing its best PR face for the world
to see, and expecting its contingent of athletes, which includes African Brits such as long distance runner Mo Farah and triple jumper Phillips Idowu, to win some precious medals, there are rumblings within London’s African and ethnic minority communities even before the first start pistol has been fired.

Some of London’s small African-led businesses, which are lumped under the so-called Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) category, claim they have hardly had the share of the Olympics contracts and other business opportunities they had expected. A lot was promised to small and ethnic minority-led businesses from 2005, when London won the Olympics bid.

Indeed, the London 2012 Olympics bid was won on the diversity and equal inclusion ticket. Even Nelson Mandela endorsed London’s bid, citing the diversity of London's communities for providing the ideal setting for the Olympics. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) talks about how central this was within its strategy. It states in one of its documents that “during the bid process diversity was a key reason why London, one of the most multicultural cities in the world, was chosen to host the 2012 Games.”

In order to cater especially for small suppliers, CompeteFor was created. Described as a “business dating” agency, its developers include London Development Agency (LDA), LOCOG, the Olympic Delivery
Authority (ODA), and London Business Network. It’s a free website dedicated to helping small and medium-sized (SME) businesses find and apply for contracts, by providing a brokerage service between buyers throughout the London 2012 Olympics supply chain.

It was meant to provide a transparent and level-playing field whereby
businesses with the required capabilities are offered appropriate contracts to bid for.

Good idea, except that the majority of African and ethnic minority-led
businesses are actually micro businesses, which the EU defines as one with less than 10 employees and less than 2 million euros (£1.7 million) annual turnover. Whereas a small enterprise is one that has under 50 employees staff and an annual turnover of up to 10 million euros (£8.4 million), whilst a Medium Enterprise is one that that has 50-249 employees and an annual turnover of 50 millio euros (£41.7 million). Hence, many BAME-led businesses in this category seem to be excluded from the procurement process because of the SME threshold.

It's no wonder there’s a perception that CompeteFor is little more than window dressing to tick the diversity and inclusion boxes. Many of the BAME SMEs that do qualify and have registered on the CompeteFor website are simply not satisfied, according to Engage Enterprise, a London organisation founded in 2006 to deal with diversity issues within the supply chain on behalf of small and BAME-led businesses.

“You bid for it and never hear anything from them,” says Engage Enterprise boss Craig Cordice, who actually did feed into the beginning of CompeteFor, which was created in 2007. “We were just put on there  just to make up the numbers,” he adds, saying he’s got evidence from his organisation’s contacts. CompleteFor was giving an opportunity to respond, but had not done so by the time this article was submitted.

Some within London’s African and ethnic minority business community feel they’ve been “carved out of the Olympics contracts”, and have teamed up with Engage Enterprise to launch the Burning Injustice petition (engage-enterprise.com/burning-injustice.html).

It’s an on-going process aimed at producing “a level-playing field”, and the results are to be used to explore any last minute Olympic opportunities and feed into the post-Olympics evaluations. Also, Cordice feels lessons learnt from this Olympics procurement investigation can be used to give African and ethnic minority-led businesses a fair chance of getting their share of other large-scale developments across London, such as Crossrail, which with a £15.9 billion budget, is Europe’s biggest construction project.

Bearing in mind their disadvantage in winning contracts directly, Cordice tried to get small businesses to look at sub-contractor opportunities. But from his experience, a lot of the big businesses that won contracts stating they would be using small, local businesses as sub-contractors, simply have not done so. And there are neither proper monitoring nor sanctions to compel the big businesses to use small sub-contractors, claims Cordice.

CompeteFor was created specifically to address a long-known fact, which is that small businesses have difficulties achieving any meaningful stakes in large-scale public developments. One of the reasons, apart from not having long and proven track records, is that they are usually too small with poor prospects for growth.

As if it was worth pointing out, last December, Leicester-based Minority Supplier Development UK (MSDUK) published research showing that lack of access to finance for ethnic minority SMEs is a major barrier to growth. “Ethnic minority business owners would like to grow their business, but lack of sufficient finance opportunities currently stand in their way,” says the report of a survey of over 300 businesses in which 1 in 2 respondents said that they had applied for bank finance in the last 18-24 months, and of which 60% had been unsuccessful.

Interestingly, last November, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg spoke about the discrimination against ethnic minorities by British banks in the way they distribute loans and set interest rates. “If all black entrepreneurs and businesses could borrow, compete and grow on equal terms, our whole economy would grow faster. Jobs would be created in every community,” said the minister, adding: “So now is the moment to unleash black talent, ethnic minority talent, for the good of us all.”

For Cordice, not seeing Clegg’s sentiments being translated in the way the
Olympics’ £9.3 billion budget has trickled down to small and BAME-led businesses, isn’t something new.

Engage Enterprise has had former prime minister Tony Blair and London Mayor Boris Johnson lend their support to his organisation in the past with fine words about the “highly significant contributions” made to the British
economy by the BAME community, which is projected to rise from 40% to 80% of London’s working age population by 2014.

But figures revealed thus far do not match the fine words, especially as London’s Olympics bid was won on a commitment to diversity and inclusion. According to a CompeteFor souce, nationally, around 74% of contracts made available via CompeteFor have been awarded to SMEs, with approximately two thirds going to businesses located outside of London.  Crucially, only around 6.2% nationally (15.9% within London) of these contracts were awarded to BAME-led businesses.

45,000 are London-based  out of over 157,000 businesses have so far registered on CompeteFor, of which around 27,000 businesses have been anonymously shortlisted for over 10,700 contract opportunities. The budget through CompeteFor is around £2 billion. There are two other sources for procurement – LOCOG, which is expected to generate the £750 million needed to host the Olympic games, and ODA, which with a budget of over £6 billion, is responsible for the delivery of the venues and physical infrastructure for the games. However, this are not viable routes for most small businesses, simply because they offer mainly high tier contracts.

For the developers of CompeteFor, this “businress dating” agency has been a success. This is what LDA’s chief executive Lurene Joseph had to say: “From the start, we wanted to open up London 2012 contracts to competition and, through CompeteFor, thousands of small businesses are now benefitting from the opportunities brought by 2012 and the regeneration of east London.”

However, the Olympics is not just about the sports events that take place over a few weeks, and what businesses want out of it. A whole raft of regeneration and employment projects have come before it, and a positive lasting legacy has been planned for long after the last strains of
victory cheers.

According to official figures, LOCOG estimates that around 7,000 direct contracts, with the potential for 25,000 supply chain opportunities would have been created by the Olympics. ODA planned for around 10,000 contracts dealing with the majority of the contracts for the infrastructure, transport and construction of the Olympic parks.

The LDA announced a £9 million funding package to support employment and skills in the run-up to the Games. It launched an £11 million Opportunities Fund aimed at ensuring Londoners were able to  take advantage of Olympics employment opportunities. It also also set up the Olympic Park Legacy Company to transform the Olympic Park site after 2012, to ensure a lasting physical legacy from the Olympics.

Additionally, over 6,200 residents of one of the five host boroughs have received employment support via LDA programmes, and almost 2,300 have secured employment. Over 12,000 people from across  London have benefited from construction training, directly funded by the LDA and its partners. Of those trained, 5,722 have been residents of the five host boroughs.

A total of 25,000 previously unemployed Londoners have been assisted into jobs through the London Employment & Skills Taskforce for 2012. Of these, more than 50% are residents of the five host east London boroughs.

Finally, there are some Londoners who are simply not interested in the
Olympics, but they still have to pay for it, whether directly or indirectly. Like this writer, who recently had parking restrictions put on his street, simply because it’s a few miles from Wembley stadium, which is one
of the Olympic locations. He now has to pay to park in front of his house.

 

© 2012 Kwaku

Africa Day, Africa Liberation Day, Global Diaspora Summit Primer

May 25 is supposed to be an important date within the global African calendar. But what do we know about its significance? Here is a bite-sized primer culled from various sources to give you an overview of the key points.

May 25 is known as Africa Day or Africa Liberation Day (ALD). Its importance is likely to be even more important in the light of the fact that the door has been opened for diasporic African-led countries to join the 54 nation African Union, following Haiti's move from observer nation status to full membership applicant. Haiti may be some 5000 miles from the African continent, but it holds a pre-eminent position within global African history, in that in 1804, it became the first African led independent nation following a 12 year revolution against several European imperial powers.

It is Africa Day on May 25, marking the 1963 founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now known as the African Union (AU). On that day, leaders of 30 of the 32 independent African states signed a founding charter in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 1991, the OAU established the African Economic Community, and in 2002 the OAU established its own successor, the African Union.
The name and date of Africa Day has been retained as a celebration of African unity. This year’s theme of Africa Day is “Africa and the Diaspora.” Africa Day is observed as a public holiday in only three African countries; Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. However, celebrations are held in some African countries, as well as by Africans in the diaspora.

Africa Day 2012 coincides with the Global Diaspora Summit which is slated to take place in South Africa on 25 May. The summit comes at a time when many African leaders face harsh economic and social challenges. Citizens continue to leave their countries in search of a better life and almost fifty years after the first African Liberation Day, Africans are still not at peace in their own countries. Click to read the full 'Africa Day and the hidden treasures outside the continent' article.

Perhaps it's not by accident that Haiti has applied for full African Union membership.  And the Global Diaspora Summit is the acceptance of drawing the African diaspora closer to the mother continent. This was made plain in the speeches and comments made during the Summit in South Africa, which drew a wide constituency from the diaspora - click here to read the Report Of The African Union Diaspora Conference.

You may want to check out David L Horne's The global activities surrounding the African Diaspora Summit in South Africa - A People's Report, which uses a What, When, Where and Significance format.


Before I go any further, I must give thanks to Tony Tafari Thomas of the Rastafari Global Council for some of the links highlighted below. This starts with Tony's own piece published earlier on this blog, followed by a fantastic, almost poetic speech by the then South African President Thambo Mbeki. And just in case, you are tired of reading, there are a few more videos to take further the global African notion of solidarity with diasporic Africa.


'I Am African' speech by Thabo Mbeki



As an aside, I'd like to point 'I Am An African' an edu-tainment track Akoben Awards/Music2Causes created with rapper Kimba. This video with moi talking about Music4Causes includes Kimba dropping some rhymes from 'I Am An African', etc.

The African Union Global African Diaspora Summit took place on May 25th in South Africa. It was the first diaspora summit and was attended by representatives of African, Caribbean and South American states and representatives from CARICOM. African-Americans were represented by former mayor of New York David Dinkins. The summit ended with the formulation and commitment to a programme of action and 5 key proposals.  Click to read the full Overview of African Union Global African Diaspora Summit report written by Tony Tafari Thomas on behalf of Rastafari Global Council.


Global African Diaspora Summit In South Africa 2012 news item


Global African Diaspora Summit In South Africa 2012 President Jacob Zuma speech


Global African Diaspora Summit In South Africa 2012 by British blogger Niaomi Sesay



Global African Diaspora Summit In South Africa 2012 Rev. Dr Marcia O. Stewart aka Queen Mother Moses of Almighty Rastafari Kingdom


Global African Diaspora Summit In South Africa 2012 comments by Ugandan Minister of Foreign Affairs Henry Oryem

For details of World Afrikan Diaspora Union Summit - Organizing the Power of the African Diaspora, which takes place in Washington DC on July 20-21 2012, click here.

Global Afrika Surviving Modern ‘Progress’

by Dr Vince Hines

Afrikans on the Continent of Afrika and in the Afrikan Diaspora have largely neglected their interests over the past five hundred years, partly through trickeries and subjugations by others. While we, too, need to say ‘NEVER AGAIN’, we can only move on when we fully recognised the consequences which the distortions of Afrika’s history generated and impacted  Afrikan peoples today.

Afrikans interests have been, and are still being, substituting for foreign interests. This should not be the case -  time for rapid change. The late Wangari Maathai, (1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011), in her book,  “THE CHALLENGE FOR AFRICA: A NEW VISION” – [William Heinemann. ISBN: 978-0-434-01981-6], erected “a mile stone” on our current Afrikan Journey.

Maathai reminded us that  Culture is the means by which a people expresses itself, through language, traditional wisdom, politics, religion, architecture, music, tools, greetings, symbols, festivals, ethics, values, and collective identity. Agriculture, systems of government, heritage, and ecology are all dimensions and functions of culture…without culture, a community loses self-awareness and guidance, and grows weak and vulnerable. It disintegrates from within as it suffers a lack of identity, dignity, self-respect and a sense of destiny. People without culture feel insecure and are obsessed with the acquisition of material things and public displays, which give them a temporary security that itself is a delusional bulwark against future insecurity. (p160-1).

Afrika has been the victim of endless inappropriate financing. Money given in aid is sent back to Europe and America in corruption and money laundering schemes only to be re-loaned at higher interest. We then saw the implementation of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) and the Washington Consensus without any noticeable benefit to the majority of Afrikans on the ground. This led to aid dependency, economic devastation and the continued widespread dissemination of negative images of Afrika and Afrikans. Only a handful of industrialized nations have reached the benchmark they set in 1992 to provide 0.7 percent of their gross national products as development assistance. (p75).

Yet all the lowest 22 countries in the UN Human Development Index were Afrikan. In spite of having only 5 percent of the developing world’s income, Afrikan still has about two-thirds of the world’s debt. …According to the United Nations, in 2007, Afrika’s debt burden stood at $255 billion. (p92)

The Challenge for Afrika’ is a call for genuine leadership that puts peoples’ welfare first, places the environment at the center of development, and maintains a vision of the future founded on justice and sustainability. (p291).  

The African Family reveals many stories of activism and positive expressions of culture such as the demand for the reintroducing the Afrikan man back into his family. Wangari Maathai wants a return to the influence of the traditional medicine man / healer. This could be seen as controversial at a time when Christian evangelists and radical Islamists are sweeping the [Afrikan] Continent and there are widespread reports of ‘witch burnings’ and brutal ‘exorcisms  -  Afrikan Quest International

The Afrikan moral compass has been interfered with. The unnatural and malicious mass transportation of Afrikans as chattel slaves from one geographical area, where there had been no natural disaster or cause for concerns, to Western Hemisphere and elsewhere, continues to impact us.

Global call for Reparations for past wrongs perpetrated against our great Afrikan peoples must be one of all Afrikan nations’ primary mission statements during the Twenty First Century. It must be like a very bright torch extinguished only when our global reparations campaign successfully concluded.

Our campaign for reparations must go from generation to generation, if necessary, because chattel slavery, colonisations and imperialism went from generation to generation. The call for ‘REPARATIONS NOW’ must be our ‘new cultural rituals’, taught to the young and echoed throughout our lives until we succeed.

Success will have been the final recognition by those who “transgressed” against Afrika and Afrikans, that Afrikans had been, and are, peoples with rights, 5000 years ago, 500 years ago, 50 year ago,  5 years ago, 5 days  ago and today.

Linked to our Afrikan reparations claims must be a system developed to help us survive current “Modernism”.

Dr Vince Hines, Chairperson of the Afrika and Diaspora Institute (ADI), introduces and promotes “four essential principles of modern communal self-help. That is - to “Share, Warn, Encourage and Protect – SWEP,” influenced by MAAT fundamentals.  That is, “Balance, Harmony, Truth, Justice, Order, Reciprocity and Righteousness - right actions.”

Both Self-Help Essential Principles and MAAT teachings are antithesis to modern corporate and individual greed, envy, jealousy and arrogance. 

It is Dr Hines’ teaching that Afrikans have a global duty to do everything possible to work with others to bring back the world into Balance, from the edge of destruction. Balance is a crucial part of Afrikan Reparations Campaign. If the world is destroyed, a call for  ‘Afrikan reparations’ is meaningless.

Armed with the Four Essential Principles of Self-Help, we need to educate the masses, starting from inside our homes, villages, neighbourhoods - ‘the hoods’, regions, states, nations and the world.

WE  must learn to Share again; to Warn those among us to embrace high morals and personal codes, which respect and uphold the rights of the individuals; to Encourage those who are doing and endeavouring  to  do right; and to Protect our Global Family from rapacious actions by those who are currently addicted to their arrogance,  greed and associated consequences,  leading to our devastations.

If nothing else, the world is governed by universal principles of ‘right and wrong’. The Afrikan global campaign for reparations - repairing of heinous wrongs perpetrated against Afrika and Afrikans continuously over several centuries, is one which all members of a civilised world should recognise their responsibilities to participate in order to ensure a successful conclusion.

 It is in the interest of all nations to assist in creating conditions for the Afrikan peoples to gain claimed reparations and so encouraged a culture of forgiveness, compassion, individual and collective responsibilities to our common inhabitants.

If the world and its homo sapiens inhabitants have not understood the importance and necessity to assist in correcting wrongs perpetrated against Afrikan peoples, it is a world that harbours potentials for a repeat of the same wrongs against Afrikans and others in the future.

Overall,  Afrikans cannot be expected to forgive,  when perpetrators - and their beneficiaries, individuals and institutions - had never recognised fully past and current wrongs against Afrikans, asked for forgiveness and moved to satisfying our Afrikan call for reparations, including the perpetrators and their beneficiaries, changing their ways permanently for the good.

“Afrikans  on the Continent of Afrika and in her Diaspora, who are reminding ourselves of the past, should never be self-serving. These collective reflections should be ways of developing and sharpening our resolves to triumph and excel.  We must avoid being defined negatively by our past. Our strengths and weaknesses must always be in focused as we learn to create collective opportunities, mindful always that our productive development is based on our creating conditions for communal self-help. Dependency is our enemy; self-help our friend.”

Editorial Collective
Self-Help News – “Giving Voice to the Voiceless”
Website: www.ubol.com

African British: If You Aren't Being 'De-selected' Or Stereotyped, They Remember To Honour Some Of Your Lot!

With the London Olympics 2012 and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations just round the corner, we can expect to hear the sound of jingoism. African British athletes are bound to be well represented in the Olympics publicity, whereas Africans will generally be invisible in mainstream publications highlighting Britain.

Indeed, on Sunday June 17 2012, I breezed through the Alkemi African market in Willesden, where I met co-organiser Bro Ra. Pretty much the first thing he said to me was that we had been “deselected”, before explaining by showing me a multi-page spread in Sunday’s Observer newspaper looking at the issue of Britishness. What he meant by being "de-selected" was that not one African or part African was among the 5 subjects highlighted. 

"It is a summer for celebrating Britishness, but in many ways our identity has never been more complex. In the wake of the Queen's diamond jubilee and before the Olympics, we asked five young people to debate the issue." That's how Yvonne Roberts' article starts off. Click to read:  'What does it mean to be British - and does it matter?'.

 

Interestingly, on the same day, the Voice Online provided a counterpoint with  'Great Britain...?' 

With “Rule Britannia, Britannia, rule the waves! Britons never, never, never shall be slaves!” ringing in his ears, Nelson Abbey got his friend and acquaintances to give their take on Britain

"The self-congratulation was intoxicating. The air was thick with patriotism and there was little room for dissenting thought. It was one hell of a terrible weekend for ‘fans’ of democracy and meritocracy.

"Almost everyone who spoke to the roaming reporters on the endless broadcast of the Diamond Jubilee had something lovely to say about Britain and, of course, the Queen. It was a very polished affair. As a result of this, I was left wondering what would happen if one of these reporters canvassed opinion from people other than the traditional flag-waving, celebrity-worshiping monarchists."

One of the responses reads as follows: "Great Britain - A country where black Americans are treated like royalty whilst black Britons are treated like servants."

The day before, the Voice Online published  'More than gangsters', in which Elizabeth Pears highlighted "The rise of black online shows offering positive alternatives to mainstream TV." This is happening as an antidote the mainstream media's predilection for offering a fare of stereotypical African images. She began by revealing some of the damaging effects of this portrayal: "New US research suggests extensive television watching can damage black children’s self-esteem – thanks to mainstream productions that rely on lazy stereotypes of black people."

In spite of being generally ignored, and stereotyped, a few do get the Establishment honours. In the Queen's Birthday Honours List published last weekend, the likes of singer-songwriter Omar and actor/playwright Kwame Kwei Armah, were respectively honoured with an MBE for sevices to music and OBE for services to drama.   

Well, it's something to think about.

Regards

Kwaku                                                     

Overview of African Union Global African Diaspora Summit

Written by Tony Tafari Thomas on behalf of Rastafari Global Council, May 10^th 2012

The African Union Global African Diaspora Summit took place on May 25^th in South Africa. It was the first diaspora summit and was attended by representatives of African, Caribbean and South American states and representatives from CARICOM. African-Americans were represented by former mayor of New York David Dikins.
The summit ended with the formulation and commitment to a programme of action and 5 key proposals.
The plan of action was organised into 3 categories,

1.     Political cooperation

2.     Economic cooperation

3.     Social cooperation

Political cooperation
The key points in the category of political cooperation include,

1.     Establishment of formal relationships between states

2.     Support of the AU as diaspora focal point

3.     Development of diaspora task force

4.     Encouragement of diaspora to organise regional networks and mechanisms that will enable increased participation in AU affairs.

5.     Creation of a conducive environment to invest, work and travel in Africa.

Economic cooperation
The key points in the category of economic cooperation include,

1.     Mobilisation of capital using financial instruments

2.     Listing of African diaspora companies in African stock exchanges

3.     Regular meetings between national chambers of commerce

4.     Promotion of development of institutions dedicated to innovation, invention and social and economic development

5.     Support the development of fibre optic cabling

Social cooperation
The key points in the category of social cooperation include,

1.     Design and development of a platform for Africa and diaspora educators and scholars

2.     Development of African-centred institutions and programmes

3.     Promotion of education as a basic condition for achieving human development

4.     Prioritise the coordination and funding of cultural exchange programmes

5.     Encourage and disseminate information on African diaspora projects such as the Museum of Black Civilisation, an African Remembrance Square, the African Renaissance, the Joseph Project and slave monument

6.     Support and encouragement of global observance days as symbols of solidarity, Africa Day, African Union Day, Black History Month and Emancipation day

7.     Rebranding of Africa – Good governance and rule of law to strengthen image of Africa

The 5 key proposals are as follows,

1.     Skills database

2.     African Diaspora Volunteer Corps

3.     African Diaspora Investment Fund

4.     African Remittances Institute

5.     Create incentives for investment and foster more conducive business environment

The next phase of the AU diaspora project is focused on agreeing multi-stakeholder working groups made up of AU, CARICOM and representatives from the diaspora in the following areas,

1.     Economic cooperation including infrastructure, sea and air links, trade and investment and travel and tourism

2.     Science and technology including low earth orbit satellite, research in agriculture, biotechnology, renewable energy solutions, infectious and non-infectious diseases

Rastafari Global Council Response
Rastafari Global Council proposes that we adopt the programme of action and the 5 key proposals as the fundamental work of the Rastafari Global Council and the Rastafari community. We believe that the summit and the proposals that are a product of it offer the only realistic mechanism through which Rastafari can constructively engage with Africa. We believe this summit is a historically important step towards the integration of Africa’s diaspora into Africa.
Rastafari Global Council short term plan of action

1.     Make official contact with the AU and CARICOM and the state representatives from Africa, the Caribbean and South America

2.     Organise working groups to work on the 5 key proposals

3.     Formulate 3 committees to work on political, economic and social cooperation.

4.     Offer RGC as diaspora representatives in the multi-stakeholder working groups in the areas of economic cooperation and science and technology