TAOBQ Press Release: Attendees Affirm We Are African

22/01/2012

Immediate Release

From being called Africans, Negroes, Moors, Blackamoores, Coloureds, Blacks, attendees at the first TAOBQ (The African Or Black Question) event declare: “We Are African”

At the first TAOBQ (The African Or Black Question) event held last Friday (Jan. 20), a motion moved by Southwark Cllr Martin Seaton asking the attendees to affirm they were African was carried unopposed.

This comes at a time when the issue of racism, racial identity and terms like “black community” have been in the media spotlight due to the recent court case regarding the murder of Stephen Lawrence, and Diane Abbott’s tweet controversy, which started with someone questioning the blanket expression “black community”.

The TAOBQ is a year-long campaign which focuses on three key points: People of African heritage to be referred to as African, or British African rather than black; African history to be made accessible and mainstreamed; and Africans without African names to consider adopting African names for easy recognition of their race/ethnicity.

The TAOBQ event, which consisted of the screening of ‘The African Or Black Question’, a guerrilla film examining the African racial identity by TAOBQ campaign co-ordinator Kwaku, and a discussion entitled ‘You Are African’, took place at Westminster City Hall.

The documentary film, which features randomly chosen subjects, including some well known figures such as former Brent South MP and junior minister Dawn Butler, defence lawyer Courtney Griffiths QC, political activist Lee Jasper, community activist Toyin Agbetu, and historians Dr Kimani Nehusi and Dr Lez Henry, examines not just racial identity. Each contributor also opines about the United Nation’s declaration of 2011 as the International Year For People Of African Descent, which passed by many unnoticed.

The well attended event facilitated by Kwaku, included Butler, Agbetu, Southwark Cllr Michael Situ, veteran community activists Eric and Jessica Huntley, NUS Black Students’ Officer Kanja Sesay, pan-Africanist journalist Mandingo, verteran photographer James Barnor, and Windrush Society founder Arthur Torrington CBE.

In a small way, this event links back to another meeting in which Africans convened in London to take charge of their identity and destiny – the 1900 Pan-African Conference, which took place at the nearby Westminster Town Hall (now Caxton Hall).

“Last year, I had to present a programme at Westminster City Hall marking August 23, which British institutions call Slavery Memorial Day, but which conscious Africans call the International Day Of African Resistance Against Enslavement on account of the UN having chosen that date because it was the start of the Haitian Revolution,” says Kwaku.

“A day or two before that event, I thought I’d film a documentary focused on asking Africans in London their thoughts on the UN initiative, and their views on whether they preferred to be called African or black?

“We’d planned on having a number of events discussing the African or black identity issue. But since Cllr Seaton, without prompting from us, brought forward the issue, which was carried unopposed, we’ve decided to move to the next stage. This includes workshops to examine what it means to be a global African. We expect to have some concrete outcomes from these workshops, to help move forward the African communities in Britain.”

Kwaku

jointheaobq@gmail.com

www.taobq.blogspot.com
www.taobq.eventbrite.com

ENDS

High resolution photos available upon request

TAOBQ background resources” www.taobq.blogspot.com

First TAOBQ press releases: http://www.taobq.blogspot.com/p/press-release.html

1.           TAOBQ campaign issues must be raised both within the African and host communities, particularly within the media, statutory, community and educational organisations.

2.           TAOBQ is meant to be a year-long campaign, ending December 2012, by which time it is hoped that the recommendations would have started a consciousness and debate in and outside the African communities in Britain.

3.           During the campaign period, TAOBQ will continue to engage using on and offline opportunities to highlight the core issues. Updates will be posted on www.taobq.blogspot.com, and social networks such as FaceBook, Twitter, and YouTube – follow us by searching on TAOBQ.

4.           Whilst we reject “black” as a race/ethnicity descriptor, we are not against “black” as a singular, unifying political descriptor

5.           The first offline event was January 20 2012 – we expect to do more events in 2012, and potential partners and media outlets are welcome to get in touch.

6.            We also want to use the medium of theatre to discuss the issues – so if you are a drama or theatre company, we are looking for a partner to produce a play based on a completed script.

7.           If we are unable to go the whole hog, like actor/playwright Kwame Kwei Armah (formerly Ian Roberts), having just one African name can make the same point. Despite the opportunities offered by DNA in tracing one’s genealogy, one does not necessarily need to go through the expense of tracing lineage to a particular area in Africa in order to find a name. If one accepts that one is African, then with the help of books or online searches, one can choose an African name one likes. An easy start may be to investigate the day names given based on day of birth in Ghana.

Engaging With The African Identity

An updated version of a Voice Opinion piece by Kwaku

I’d like to begin by looking back at last year. The United Nations (UN) declared 2011 the International Year For People Of African Descent (IYPAD). On August 23, I presented a programme at Westminster City Hall to mark International Day Of African Resistance Against Enslavement - as an Africanist, I don’t call it International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, as suggested by the UN, or Slavery Memorial Day, as favoured by British institutions.

After that programme ended, I began filming a guerrilla documentary motivated by the IYPAD initiative, which I thought provided a good opportunity to investigate the issue of the African identity. Each contributor was asked whether they were African or black, and if they knew about the IYPAD initiative. Sadly, IYPAD was a missed opportunity to address the issue of African identity.

If we lived in our motherlands, say, Ghana or Jamaica, perhaps the issue would not be so pressing. However, for those of us living in the diaspora, it’s something we need to deal with. Racial identity is crucial to a people’s psyche and progress, and it is for this reason that I believe we should address the issue.

Non-Europeans in this country have historically been called black. Between the 1960s to 1980s, politically active Africans and Asians came together under the political black banner to fight racism. Organisations such as Southall Black Sisters, and Labour Party’s Black Sections, were made up of Africans and Asians. Black Sections counted the Asian politician Keith Vaz among its crop of four black MPs from the 1987 general election.

But in recent years black organisations have launched under terms such as Black and Asian, and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic. The Asians, whether or not they were born in the UK, have claimed a separate identity. So why don’t these organisations just change Black to African?

Our African identity in no way devalues the battles that have been fought and won by Black organisations and movements. The African-Americans describe themselves as Africans without rejecting Black Power. And by the same token, I’m not against organisations that go under the political Black, so long as African members are not described as black.

Some of us prefer to be described as West Indian or Caribbean. One can argue that the West Indians are actually the Europeans who went to the Caribbean as planters, business people and enslavers, whilst the enslaved Africans there were called African or negro.

The term Caribbean does not necessarily refer to people of African heritage. Strictly speaking, it refers to the Carib people. But even if it’s widened to cover people living in the Caribbean, then that includes Asians and Europeans. So unless it is qualified, as in African Caribbean, it could mean anything.

There is the argument that Africans born in the UK are British. That can be correct with regards to nationality, but not ethnicity/race. An African born in China is still African, and not Chinese. As Malcolm X said, if a cat gives birth in an oven, it produces kittens, not biscuits.

I’ll highlight two groups who prefer to be called black, British, or anything else but African. The first group actually have parents who come directly from the African continent. The main reason for this dis-engagement with their African identity is rooted firstly in poor knowledge about Africa and its history, and secondly the negative imagery and stereotypes associated with Africa.

These reasons also apply to the second group, who have their antecedents located in the Caribbean. But it’s compounded by the notion that Africans sold their forebears into enslavement, they’ve never been to Africa, they don’t know which part of Africa they come from, they can’t speak an African language, or that they have European blood.

There are some Africans who live on the African continent who do not speak any African language. Does this mean they are not Africans?

Yes, some selfish and mis-guided Africans were involved in the enslavement of fellow Africans. But there are traitors within every ethnicity/race. For example, there were Jews who collaborated with the Nazis, but I wonder if there are Jews who disassociate from their Jewish heritage because of the behaviour of the Jewish collaborators.

Putting aside offsprings of relatively recent mixed heritage relationships, one wonders what’s so unappealing about the African identity that some people whose phenotype is unmistakably African, but have a drop or two of European blood rooted in enslavement, prefer to disassociate from their African identity, whilst clinging to the vestiges of enslavement/colonialism and questionable associations with the oppressors.

Racial identity should be tied to land, and there is no land called Blackland, Blackistan, etc.

Incidentally, it is worth remembering the National Front or other racists don’t distinguish between Africans born on the continent, Africans from the diaspora, or Africans born in the UK with British passports, or those with some European blood!

I’ll end by referring to the IYPAD. The expression “African descent” is beginning to fall out of favour. There are those trying out expressions such as “African ascendant”. Interestingly, Dr Runoko Rashidi states in the TAOBQ film that African descendants are the Europeans (and I imagine any other race/ethnicity  that’s come out of Africa). These days I choice plainly African, African heritage, or global African.

Kwaku is the founder of BritishBlackMusic.com/Black Music Congress and leads on The African Or Black Question (TAOBQ) campaign and its You Are African discussion and film screening on Jan. 20 2012 at Westminster City Hall.  www.TAOBQ.blogspot.com. 

22/01/2012 Update: Following the first TAOBQ event on January 20 2012, the campaign has moved past discussing whether or not one is African. For those at the event who passed unopposed the motion that they were African, and all other like minded people, the next step is to deal with TAOBQ: What It Means To Be A Global African? provisionally set for April 2012.

An African Name Asserts One's Africanness And Makes Racial Identification Easier

In my African history writings and teachings, I have always referred to Jamaican heroine and maroon leader as Nana, a good Ghanaian name befitting her status as an esteemed elder and leader, instead of the English corrupted version, Nanny.

Recently, I discovered that even students who had been taught about Chartist leader and workers' rights activist William Cuffy, were not aware that he was African. This is why I now spell his name Kofi, a typical Ghanaian name, instead of the better known corrupted version. This way there's no confusion that he's African.

This is why we recommend that Africans without African names should consider adopting an African name in order to assert their Africanness, and also make their racial identity obvious without the aid of a photo or a video.

Copied below is a letter I wrote to The Voice newspaper in response to the 'What's In A Name?' article by historian SI Martin, plus another letter I wrote responding to a number of issues, including a response to my first letter.

Kwaku

www.taobq.blogspot.com

'Embrace Your Roots'

November 17-23 2011, p.13

I read Steve Martin’s ‘What’s in a name?’ with interest, and would like to add to his query. I appreciate the fact that European or so-called “Christian” names were imposed on our diasporic brothers and sisters as part of the process of stripping them of their identity. What is however interesting from Martin’s piece, is the fact that after the abolition, when it would seem they had a choice because they were supposedly free, the number of people in Barbados, for example, who had African names actually fell, compared to during the period of enslavement!


Sadly, a similar situation has taken place on the African continent, where European colonisation, plus so-called “Christianisation”, meant Africans were either forced to or chose to adopt partially or fully European or “Christian” names. Hence it’s common for Africans, including present day presidents, to be called names like Goodluck Johnson or John Atta Mills. How many people from the Indian sub-continent, which was colonised by Britain, have European names such as John Patel, or Paul Gladstone, for example?



Names, and the correct spelling of names, are very important. During my African history presentations, I spell Jamaican national hero and Maroon leader not as the corrupted Nanny, but Nana, which befits her African royal roots in Ghana. Recently, I heard someone say that they learnt about William Cuffay, the British Chartist workers’ rights activist, but never realised he was African. It is for this reason that I now spell his name Kofi, the correct way of spelling the Ghanaian day name – the same goes for Nana’s brother who is better known by the corrupted spelling Cuffy.

I’m presently in the process of making a documentary focused on African identity, and have two questions especially aimed at my diasporic family: particularly in 2011, the UN Year For People Of African Descent, are you ready to embrace your Africanness, by calling yourself African instead of black, and like Kwame Kwei Armah, by either swapping your European names in favour of African names, or at least adding an African name to what you have?



Kwaku


BTWSC (Beyond The Will Smith Challenge) project designer

(Unpublished 12 December 2011)

I would like to briefly respond to three items in recent editions. Although the headline (Re: 'We're Not A Black Band - We're JLS!') was not from a direct quote from the band, I think it’s a bit naïve of them to think race does not play a significant role in the success of artists. For example, it does determine the level of marketing budget, and the openings available to an artist.

People may not say it to them directly, but I wonder what makes Oritsé Williams think that people seeing JLS do not think “that’s a black band”? Or has commercial success meant they’ve transcended the race issue, as opposed to their pre-X Factor days, when the same group, then known as UFO, were a “black band” involved in the Urban Voice competitions?

Interestingly, in the same paper, there was a piece on jazz musician Soweto Kinch (Re: We Shouldn’t Be Ashamed To Say ‘Black’). I concur with Soweto when he says “we can be very apologetic because the word ‘black’ is often seen as political and no one wants to rock the boat.” I have no problem with a music genre called “black music”, but I prefer people of African heritage to be called African, African British, or African Caribbean.

Finally, regarding Lorraine’s letter (‘Africans Unite’), which was in response to my letter (‘Embrace Your Roots’), despite the opportunities offered by DNA in tracing one’s genealogy, I do not think people necessarily need to go through the expense of tracing their lineage to a particular area in Africa. It’s important to accept that one’s African, then through books or online search, choose an African name which one likes. An easy start may be to investigate the day names given based on day of birth in Ghana.

Kwaku

BTWSC (Beyond The Will Smith Challenge) project designer

Short Excerpts On How 'Black' People In The Us Became 'African-Africans'

If we wish to move towards having Africans in Britain described not as 'black' but African, or African British or African Caribbean, we may want to see how the term 'African American' gained currency. These are some excerpts taken from online sources on the matter - please do read.

Regards

Kwaku Aobq

African American

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American#The_term_.22African_American.22

The term "African American"

Political overtones

Michelle Robinson Obama is theFirst Lady of the United States, the first African American to hold the position

The term African American carries important political overtones. Earlier terms used to identify Americans of African ancestry were conferred upon the group by colonists and Americans of European ancestry. The terms were included in the wording of various laws and legal decisions which some thought were being used as tools of white supremacy and oppression.^[150] There developed among blacks in America a growing desire for a term of self-identification of their own choosing.

With the political consciousness that emerged from the political and social ferment of the late 1960s and early 1970s, blacks no longer approved of the term Negro. They believed it had suggestions of a moderate, accommodationist, even "Uncle Tom" connotation. In this period, a growing number of blacks in the United States, particularly African American youth, celebrated their blackness and their historical and cultural ties with the African continent. The Black Power movement defiantly embraced Black as a group identifier. It was a term social leaders themselves had repudiated only two decades earlier, but they proclaimed, "Black is beautiful".

In this same period, a smaller number of people favored Afro-American, a common shortening (as is 'Anglo-American'). However, after the decline in popularity of the 'Afro' hairstyle in the late 1970s, the term fell out of use.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1980s the term African American was advanced on the model of, for example, German-American or Irish-American to give descendents of American slaves and other American blacks who lived through the slavery-era a heritage and a cultural base.^[150] The term was popularized in black communities around the country via word of mouth and ultimately received mainstream use after Jesse Jacksonpublicly used the term in front of a national audience. Subsequently, major media outlets adopted its use.^[150]

Many blacks in America expressed a preference for the term, as it was formed in the same way as names for others of the many ethnic groups in the nation. Some argued further that, because of the historical circumstances surrounding the capture, enslavement and systematic attempts to de-Africanize blacks in the United States under chattel slavery, most African Americans are unable to trace their ancestry to a specific African nation; hence, the entire continent serves as a geographic marker.

For many, African American is more than a name expressive of cultural and historical roots. The term expresses pride in Africa and a sense of kinship and solidarity with others of the African diaspora—an embrace of pan-Africanism as earlier enunciated by prominent African thinkers such as Marcus Garvey, W. E. B. Du Bois and George Padmore.

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Since 1977, in an attempt to keep up with changing social opinion, the United States government officially classified black people (revised to black or African American in 1997) as "having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa."^[151] Other federal offices, such as the United States Census Bureau, adhere to the OMB standards on race in its data collection and tabulations efforts.^[152] In preparation for the United States 2010 Census, a marketing and outreach plan, called 2010 Census Integrated Communications Campaign Plan (ICC) recognized and defined African Americans as black people born in the United States. From the ICC perspective, African Americans are one of three groups of black people in the United States^[153]

The ICC plan was to reach the three groups by acknowledging that each group has its own sense of community that is based on geography and ethnicity.^[154] The best way to market the census process toward any of the three groups is to reach them through their own unique communication channels and not treat the entire black population of the U.S. as though they are all African Americans with a single ethnic and geographical background. The U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation categorizes black or African American people as "A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa" through racial categories used in the UCR Program adopted from the Statistical Policy Handbook (1978) and published by the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce, derived from the 1977 OMB classification.^[155]

Follow up (as a new item) on #159775 - origin etc of "african/american" 
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=160000

My research indicates that the popularization of the term "African American" was largely accomplished by Jesse Jackson, who was influenced by Ramona Hoage Edelin, of the National Urban Coalition. This was a very intriguing search. I am an amateur student of linguistic trends; based on my own memory of the progression of self-referential terms used by persons of color, I started with the hypothesis that Jesse Jackson might have helped to facilitate the widespread acceptance of "African American." My investigations led me to Edelin, of whom I had no previous knowledge. Below are some of the landmarks that marked the trail of this quest: --------------------------- "When I think of 'African American,' it is so deeply a part of the American historical experience with African Americans and slavery, that you really can't extract it from some sort of racial understanding," said Professor Michael Lambert in the African and Afro American Studies Department. "For instance, a white individual from Africa would not fit the criteria for affirmative action basically because most people look at the term 'African American' and 'black' as the same." Lambert explained that the Rev. Jesse Jackson brought out the term in order to link black Americans to their African ancestry. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Black Ink Online/Racially Correct http://www.unc.edu/black_ink/feb02-raciallycorrect.html --------------------------- Afro-American, which gained rapid acceptance alongside black during this period, expressed a growing, sometimes defiant pride in black American culture and its African origins. Afro hairstyles and African dress became popular in many parts of the black community, while Afro-American studies programs proliferated on university campuses. But in the following decades Afro-American lost some of its popularity, especially in referring to people, so that today a phrase such as the election of two new Afro-Americans to Congress sounds somewhat dated. To a large degree its place has been taken by the similar term African American, popularized in the late 1980s by Jesse Jackson and other black leaders and quickly adopted by many columnists and commentators, black and white alike. The American Heritage® Book of English Usage: Names and Labels: Social, Racial, and Ethnic Terms http://www.bartleby.com/64/C006/002.html --------------------------- Then came the Black Power movement of the 1960s when a younger, more militant generation of blacks traded in "Colored" and christened themselves "Black," taking ownership of a term that had previously been used negatively by whites. Later waves of socially conscious blacks adopted the term "Afro-American" in the 1970s. Then the 1980s rolled around, with segregation safely tucked away in the shadows of the 1960s, but also ushering in the rising influence of the conservative right wing politics of the Reagan years. Jesse Jackson, at the apex of his political career, joined other black thinkers and leaders in suggesting that black Americans begin to use the term "African American" because it not only suggested that blacks had an ethnic history that predated slavery, but it also recognized a link to an ancestral motherland. "Some felt that the term 'black' was too strong and felt African Americans should follow the pattern of other immigrant groups -- Polish Americans, Irish Americans," said Newman. "The term 'African American' does not single out people on the basis of color but on the basis of ethnicity. It is not anti-American, not extra-American, and not quasi-American. I think 'African American' is here to stay." Africana: Black Labeling (Archived Cache) http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:laOdvnRT8qkC:www.africana.com/DailyArticles/index_20010315.htm --------------------------- The term African-American was coined during the 1960s and '70s, but it gained rapid acceptance alongside "black" later as an expression of a growing, and sometimes defiant, pride in black American culture and its African origins. Black leaders such as Jesse Jackson popularized the term in the late 1980s, and it quickly became accepted in mainstream society. The Cincinnati Enquirer: 'African-American': Pride to Some, Division to Others http://enquirer.com/editions/2001/04/22/loc_african-american.html --------------------------- As part of a timeline called "On This Day in African-American History," I found this interesting item: "12/21/88 Jesse Jackson urges Blacks to use the term African American to describe themselves because of its reference to both a land and cultural base." IMdiversity: December - On This Day in African-American History http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/african/Article_Detail.asp?Article_ID=3317 --------------------------- While searching for possible connections between Jesse Jackson and the term "African American," I found this, in a biography of Ramona Hoage Edelin, Chief Executive of the National Urban Coalition: Chief executive officer of action and advocacy organization. Joined faculty of Northeastern University, 1972; contributed to founding and naming of program in African American Studies, early 1970s, possibly originating term "African American" at that time; became program chairperson, 1974; moved to Washington, D.C., 1977, as executive assistant to president, National Urban Coalition; named director of operations, 1979; named vice president of operations, 1981; named vice president of programs and policy, 1982; became chief executive officer, 1988; promoted usage of term "African American" in meeting with Rev. Jesse Jackson, its key popularizer, 1988... African American Publications: Ramona Hoage Edelin http://www.africanpubs.com/Apps/bios/0467EdelinRamona.asp?pic=none And here are additional citations which connect Edelin to the popularization of the term: *AFRICAN AMERICAN: Ramona H. Edelin, president of the National Urban Coalition, proposed this term as an alternative to Negro and Black during an African American Summit in New Orleans in April 1972. The Rev. Jesse Jackson's subsequent endorsement probably did more to popularize the term than anything else. This has since been adopted by major newspapers and prominent political leaders, such as Mayor David Dinkins of New York. Arts & Sciences Network: The Challenge of Diversity http://www.asn.csus.edu/em-ncfr/down99/Baptiste1993b.htm "The shift in our self-concept that results from calling ourselves African-American" declares Ramona Edelin, "could be the beginning of a serious cultural offensive." The struggle over the (cultural) meaning of "African-American" is far reaching since, according to Edelin, "When a child in a ghetto calls himself African-American, immediately he's international. The change takes him from the ghetto and puts him on the globe. It helps us realize that we are not just former slaves living in the U.S. and makes it easier to change our children's dwarfed perceptions of themselves." The Alternative Orange: Politics, Deconstruction, Critique http://www.etext.org/Politics/AlternativeOrange/1/v1n4_pdc.html ...It is no wonder that during the period from 1966 to the present, Blacks began to use "African American" to reflect a new reality and Black language tended toward recreolization. Smitherman (1994) cites a 1988 proposal by Dr. Ramona Edelin, president of the National Urban Coalition to call the 1989 summit not the Black Summit but the African American Summit. According to Smitherman, Edelin felt that "Present-day Africans in America were facing a new reality . . . [and] the situation called for reassessment within the framework of a global identity linking Africans in America with those on the Continent and throughout the Diaspora." Georgia State University: Theorizing the Postcoloniality of African American English http://www.gsu.edu/~engmez/Theorizing.htm ---------------------------