ONE MORE NIGHT - KAPPO

 

DADDY - QUEEN IFRICA

ABRANTEE - OKOMFOUR KWAADEE

OTOOLEGE - OFORI AMPONSAH

THE FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST - NORMA FRASER

AKI SPECIAL - PRINCE NICO MBARGA (PERFORMED BY WAGADUDU)

AKI SPECIAL - PRINCE NICO MBARGA & ROCAFIL JAZZ

EXPENSIVE SHIT - FELA KUTI

WAR - BOB MARLEY

MUCHANA - KANDA BONGO MAN

WATCHING THE WHEELS - JOHN LENNON

MANY RIVERS TO CROSS - JIMMY CLIFF

JAMMING - BOB MARLEY

BELOW THE WAIST - QUEEN IFRICA

THE WEAKNESS IN ME - JOAN ARMATRADING

HOW BLACK IS RACISM?

Richard Chang fell to his death from the 5th floor of Abbey National PLC headquarters in Triton Square, Central London, on 13th July 2004. The incident occurred shortly after a two-and-a-half hour interrogation by Kroll (corporate detectives) who were investigating a whistle-blowing document sent to the Abbey National PLC management.

Despite a Coroner’s Inquest (which did not allow the Chang family to call vital witnesses), the full facts surrounding Richard Chang’s death have never been satisfactorily explained. A claim at the Employment Tribunal has also been blocked because it has been adjudged “out of time” – due to the fact that family members were in too much distress to lodge a claim in the period immediately following the tragedy; in such situations, a tribunal may allow a late claim if it adjudges there to be good reasons for the delay.

The Chang family is also unhappy with the police investigation – which they consider to be biased and improperly conducted.

Details of this case and an on-line petition can be found at:

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/truth-and-justice-for-richard-chang.html

and

http://justice4richard.co.uk

The interesting aspect of this story is the failure of Black organizations to take up the Chang family’s case. Was Richard Chang not black enough to be a victim of racism?

AFRICANS VS JAMAICANS (A WHITE MAN'S INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT OF THE PERENNIAL SLANGING-MATCH) OR 'GET MAD' VS 'GET EVEN'

Some of my best friends are black people! To be more precise – they are Jamaicans and Africans. So how, you may ask, has this white man learnt to tell these black people apart?! Easily enough really, because they’re always fighting one another with a vengeance - and I could never help wondering why? After all, aren’t there enough white people with whom black people could justifiably pick arguments?

In fact, this dispute is very important because it revolves around the vital question of how black people should deal with white people and the distinct difference between the African approach and the Jamaican - due to seismically different experiences of the same white racism. Jamaicans often feel embittered by the fact that they were the ones to have been completely enslaved whilst Africans were not - and feel that this raises them above Africans on the podium of racial suffering. On the other hand, Africans feel that Jamaicans have been infected by the white man’s immorality and are, therefore, in a cultural sense, lapsed (ie inferior) Africans. But who has suffered more pain? The black man who has suffered, abduction, followed by direct enslavement, rape and murder in the white man’s house, or the black man whose house has been forcibly invaded and occupied by the white man and who has suffered the rape, murder, abduction and enslavement of his family (not to mention the theft of his material valuables)? This is impossible to say, of course - especially so, when both sets of people continue to suffer such suppression to this very day.

But it should not be a question of ‘quality’ of suffering-by-white-man (who seriously wants to be viewed the more emotionally disturbed?), and nor should it be a question of African cultural credential - when, to-date, African cultural credential has been severely degraded by an historical continental subjugation at the hands of white men (or to put it another way, I’ve never put details of ‘when I got mugged’ on my CV). Surely, the question should be one of degree of black people’s success rather than black failure. But how should this success be measured?

The adage goes ‘Don’t get mad, get even’ and this is where the black reaction to racism differs so much - because Jamaicans tend to concentrate on ‘getting mad’ (emotionally angry) whilst Africans tend to concentrate on ‘getting (financially) even’. This outcome is not surprising, since Jamaicans have no period of ‘normal’ cultural history to which they can equate an experience of ‘even’, whereas Africans do - also, given that, these days, white people do not directly, physically suppress black people in Africa (they pay other Africans to do this) and the exploitation is for monetary gain, ‘getting even’ makes sense only on a monetary basis and the violence of ‘getting even’ is between Africans. Exploitation of white people’s economy by Africans (and other non-white UK immigrants who are far more industrious and have far keener business minds than white people) is inevitably leading to white economic decline and white people suppressing and fighting each other over the remains. On the other hand, despite being more commercially aware than the average white man, Jamaicans, never having known the loss of cultural wealth and freedom, and generally not therefore inclined to think as ‘big’ as African businessmen, have largely sought to ‘even’ matters up on an emotional basis - by making white people feel as guilty as Jamaicans feel angry about having been enslaved.

Black/African politics are divided into the same two camps as general global politics - those who support white power (racism) and those who do not; it is a consciousness of the guilt associated with aiding and abetting white racism, which causes the antagonism between Jamaicans and Africans. Africans see Jamaicans as working mainly in white government departments, white corporations (striving for promotion from white people) or unemployed and engaged in violent street-crime, whilst they themselves are more commonly to be found in self-employment, working for African businesses, or unashamedly making a fool of the white man by defrauding his stupidly inefficient bureaucracy (without any apparent fear of being sacked or imprisoned); Jamaicans see Africans as being too ‘soft’ on white people and treating them with undue courtesy, whilst they themselves are openly expressive of their hatred of white people; Africans see Jamaicans as too culturally close to white people, whilst Jamaicans see Africans as too emotionally close (although, I must add that I find black people, as a whole, to be far more (positively) emotional than white); both groups see each other as collaborating with white people and a mutual hatred for each other’s collaboration derives from each group’s unwillingness to come to terms with its own collaborative behaviour. I do not, of course, ignore the fact that there is a prevalence of violent white crime and fraud in the UK - much of which is committed by white people who wear suits and uniforms; in the end, a violent criminal is a violent criminal, whether he be from Europe, Africa, the Caribbean or the Far East.

It’s a shame, but just as it took deaths in Birmingham (as a result of clashes between black and Asian people) for many of us to be incited to examine the futility of such (unjustified) racism, so it has taken death on London streets (resulting from hostility between Africans and Jamaicans) for me to be roused into examining this particularly desperate intra-racial hatred.

Ultimately, getting ‘mad’ and getting ‘even’ must both be wrong decisions which resolve nothing, because, in either emotional or material terms, both strategies require black people to measure themselves against white - and when white culture is in complete decay, such measurement is worthless. Playing by white people's immoral rules will take black people to the same destination as white - nowhere. Like any other member of the human race, black people must measure their success individually against their own individual human standards, for success to have any meaning.

For personal inspiration, I would like to meet a black person (well any colour person, frankly) who has worked vengeful motivations out of their emotional system and is motivated to perform their white institutional job from a sense of professional satisfaction alone - although, I’d reckon that a black person who manages to ‘fit in’ fearlessly to a white governmental department, and meantime still be motivated by a genuine love of that job, not by revenge, would definitely be a rare gem…Should I place this paragraph as a lonely hearts/contacts add?!

The manner in which many black people parade the same material status-symbols as white is evidence enough of how black people buy into white culture and is the reason black people continue to be exploited by white racism. If gold had not been the base of white people’s currency (and diamonds so highly valued by white men), would Africa perhaps have been less attractive to white colonialists. Without wishing to belittle the devastation to African human resources caused by the slave trade, were Africans (who did not originally value the shiny elements to the extent that white people did) really robbed of their material resources? Well, the answer is “Yes,” of course, but the theft would not have been immediately noticed – in the same way as the general population of a country like Nigeria could never have realized the significance of its oil reserves at the point when they were first being siphoned off by Western companies, in collusion with a small number of powerful Africans.

Africans and Jamaicans should choose ‘something else’ on which to base their currency and ‘something else’ on which to base their cultural values - ‘something’ which white people do not value...?


Traditional African Currencies:

http://www.standsforart.com/artefacts.html


(*Or How A White Man Can Make Himself Extremely Unpopular By Lecturing Black People About Their Own Business!)

NIGERIAN BUSINESSMAN DIES IN UK POLICE CUSTODY

To read this story, see:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/
uk_news/story/0,,1883384,00.html

That the police have killed Nigerian businessman, Frank Ogboru, in full view of witnesses is further evidence of racism in the UK transforming into utterly unashamed racism - something encouraged by constant prime-ministerial and ministerial speeches which demean the status of 'migrants', the new governmental term for 'immigrants'.

Although, these days, the police are often to be seen wearing plastic gloves whilst handling their 'customers' (an indication of how much police wish to separate themselves from the public they 'serve', especially in terms of race and class), in reality, of course, the gloves are now well and truly off.

Recently, Western leaders such as Bush and Blair have also been completely unabashed in taking the Israeli side in the Lebanese/Palestinian/Israeli conflict and have unashamedly continued their justification for Western military intervention in the Middle East - despite the increasingly obvious failure of this immoral venture; soldiers selling guns for drugs should be enough to tell us that members of the armed forces themselves cannot justify the West's military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan - but, nevertheless, the racially and religiously charged rhetoric of Bush and Blair becomes stronger by the day.

The story of Frank Ogboru's death in police custody is barely making the local london news - even the Black Information Link (http://www.blink.org.uk) has not, as yet, reported this horrific case and, symptomatically, prefers to concentrate upon black people fighting one another in Lambeth (thus keeping step with the news agenda of white-dominated media organisations), instead of focussing upon one of the main causes of insecurity amongst black people ie. black people's inability to deal with white racism - and, in particular, white police racism.

I should add that Black Britain (http://www.blackbritain.co.uk/news/details.aspx?i=2293&c=uk&h=Nigerian+man+on+holiday+in+UK
+is+latest+death+in+custody+victim) reported this story yesterday and it remains their top news item today.

AFRICAN MUSIC

Quite frankly, Western musical audiences are largely ignorant and musically undernourished (if not starving). In terms of African music, Westerners generally have no idea on what they are missing out and appear to be afraid to find out.

Many people would, no doubt, not wish to hear about Africa at all, but the aim of the Live8 concert was to promote the discussion of African issues - both at the G8 conference and amongst the general populace. These type of concerts are supposed to appeal to as wide a Western audience as possible - including UK ethnic Africans and other people who enjoy African music.

When was the last time Elton John and Paul McCartney appeared on Top of the Pops? They made the bill despite current failure to make Top of the Pops - lack of chart success does not mean that an artist lacks an audience. There were even attempts to sideline contemporary stars such as Ms Dynamite and Dizzie Rascal - probably because their dynamic music is naturally political and would show up the musical inanity (and the contrived political stance) of the 'chosen' musicians.

These concerts attempt to employ positive musical forces to help resolve problems - but these problems are the concern of both Africans and Westerners and the music should reflect this fact; just as Africans must humbly accept aid from Westerners in order to promote African causes so must Western musicians humble themselves and accept that Western music needs the truly superior positive force of African music.

The current African problem is essentially a problem of free trade and, to improve the current situation, Western musicians must set an example and open up their market-place to African musicians - after all the Western participants reaped huge personal publicity by supporting Live8, but, as usual, Western music promoters left African musicians in the shadows. It's about time that Western musicians acknowledged the contribution of African music to Western music - without African music there would be no Jazz, no Funk, no Rap and no Rock......there might even be no Grunge!! (what a thought!) This is not about about charity, it's about paying Africa its dues - both for its musical power and its enslaved muscle power.

Although I recognise that Bob Geldof has tried harder than most to change our world, he is, at heart, an utterly miserable fucker and, as such, will always lack the positive force required to succeed. Rather than seeking to solve problems by drawing sour water from the negative pool of Western music, Bob Geldof should replenish his soul by taking time to enjoy the sweet vibrant bouquet of African music - and accepting that Africans can help him.

Live8 should not have been a showcase of African inadequacy (soulless Western music interpolated by clips of starving dying Africans), it should have been a showcase of African creativity (African music mixed with shots of an emotionally enlivened Western audience). Let's not pretend that Africa's existence and culture depends on the charity of Western civilisation - it's actually the other way round...

Or are Western musicians and audiences afraid of the African comparison? Africa is the powerhouse of Western culture and the West should pay its bill.

BLACK MEDIA ORGANISATIONS

Here, the problem is not that journalism has been conceived and published by racists (this is inevitable), but that other branches of the media (ie. Black and Asian ones) are exactly that - branches! They have not developed their own roots in this country as independent organisms with enough stature to cast their seeds over a wide area (including the large white domains). Truly independent Black and Asian media organisations are too parochial, and have too narrow a vision, to reach the wider national audience and thus acquire the volume and punch required to counter the racism inherent in White organisations. Asian and Black media must become stronger, taller and louder without the help of White money.

Of course, a paradox evolves when taking this course of action: to gain a universal constituency one must have a universal appeal - and this means becoming less focused on minority-based issues and, instead, addressing issues from a universal moral perspective (Right & Wrong); to be successful one must issue black and white views - but not have Black or White vision!

When the current minorities have developed stronger voices, they will no longer have to resort to stifling the voices of others - because they will gain confidence from hearing their own messages and making their own mistakes.

Until Black & Asian media can mature and communicate on a larger scale they will not (as organisations) establish that there are White people who are not racist and evil - and that White people could be potential customers.

This process of development needs time, effort and energy - but, bear in mind, that the cost of freedom for the minority is freedom for the majority (and that evil can come in packages of any size - or colour!).