If Africa is a country, then Fidel Castro is one of our national heroes

By Sean Jacobs  

On 25 November 2016

Fidel Castro passed away. To many Africans Fidel was a hero, playing a central role in their liberation from colonialism.

If Africa is a country, then Fidel Castro is one of our national heroes.  This may come as a surprise to many oblivious of Africa’s postcolonial history and Castro’s role in it – especially the fate of white regimes and former Portuguese colonies in southern Africa.  In the west, Castro’s legacy is usually dismissed as an authoritarian, and Cuba as a one-party state with few freedoms. Despite the many achievements of Cuba under Castro (high quality public healthcare, as well as life expectancy, child immunisation and literacy systems parallel to those of first-world nations, and even surpassing the US), at various times the country became renowned for economic crisis, media repression, exiling and imprisoning dissidents, and discriminating against gays and people with AIDS.  Those things were a betrayal of the revolution, and it is important to acknowledge that. But history has absolved Castro when it comes to Cuba’s foreign policy, especially its Africa policy.

READ MORE....

A History of Africa by Hosea Jaffe

A History of Africa

Hosea Jaffe and preface by Samir Amin

https://www.zedbooks.net/shop/book/a-history-of-africa/

A masterful study spanning over two thousand years of African history, and which stresses the unique character of the continent's historical development.

Spanning more than two thousand years of African history, from the African Iron Age to the collapse of colonialism and the beginnings of independence, Hosea Jaffe's magisterial work remains one of the few to do full justice to the continent's complex and diverse past.  The great strength of Jaffe's work lies in its unique theoretical perspective, which stresses the distinctive character of Africa's social structures and historical development. Crucially, Jaffe rejects all efforts to impose Eurocentric models of history onto Africa, whether it be liberal notions of 'progress' or Marxist theories of class struggle, arguing instead that the key dynamics underpinning African history are unique to the continent itself, and rooted in conflicts between different modes of production.  The work also includes a foreword by the distinguished economist and political theorist Samir Amin, in which he outlines the contribution of Jaffe’s work to our understanding of African history and its ongoing post-colonial struggles.

Preface by Samir Amin    
Part One: African Communism and Despotism    
Part Two: European Colonialism – Resistance and Collaboration    
Part Three: Africa in the Inter-National Class Struggle    
Part Four: Imperialism – African Emancipation

Faces of Africa - Jomo Kenyatta : The Founding Father of Kenya

Where is the ‘African’ in African Studies?

By Robtel Neajai Pailey 

African Arguments - June 7, 2016

We need to put the ‘African’ in African Studies, not as a token gesture, but as an affirmation that Africans have always produced knowledge about their continent.

Last week, I was invited by Eritrean-Ethiopian masters student Miriam Siun of Leiden University’s African Studies Centre to give one of two keynote lectures on the topic, “Where Is the African in ‘African’ Studies?” I took a long-range view, declaring that Africans have always produced knowledge about Africa, even though their contributions have been “preferably unheard” in some cases and “deliberately silenced” in others.

For those who question what constitutes an ‘African’ in the heyday of multiple citizenships and transnational flows of goods, ideas, and people, an ‘African’ has birthplace or bloodline ties to Africa, in the first instance. More importantly, however, an ‘African’ has a psychological attachment to the continent and is politically committed to its transformation.

For those who might wonder about the purpose of African Studies as a field of scholarly inquiry, it is to constantly interrogate epistemological, methodological, and theoretical approaches to the study of Africa, inserting Africa and its people at the centre of that interrogation as subjects, rather than objects.

READ MORE.....

Steve Biko speaks on The Black Consciousness Movement

Stop Trying To 'Save' Africa

By Uzodinma Iweala

The Washington Post - Sunday, July 15, 2007 

Last fall, shortly after I returned from Nigeria, I was accosted by a perky blond college student whose blue eyes seemed to match the "African" beads around her wrists.  "Save Darfur!" she shouted from behind a table covered with pamphlets urging students to TAKE ACTION NOW! STOP GENOCIDE IN DARFUR!  My aversion to college kids jumping onto fashionable social causes nearly caused me to walk on, but her next shout stopped me.  "Don't you want to help us save Africa?" she yelled.  It seems that these days, wracked by guilt at the humanitarian crisis it has created in the Middle East, the West has turned to Africa for redemption. Idealistic college students, celebrities such as Bob Geldof and politicians such as Tony Blair have all made bringing light to the dark continent their mission. They fly in for internships and fact-finding missions or to pick out children to adopt in much the same way my friends and I in New York take the subway to the pound to adopt stray dogs.

READ MORE......

Notes on the History of Modern Africa

1960: Robert Mangalso Sobukwe, with 21 other leaders of the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), was put on trial in Johannesburg for organising the Positive Action Campaign against Pass Laws that resulted in the ruthless Sharpeville-Langa massacres

[Walter Rodney] was assassinated in Guyana in 1980, at the age of 38 and remarkably, he accomplished so much in so little time. It is a very central feat that Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Bob Marley, Frantz Fanon, none of whom reached the age of forty." — Horace Campbell

Biko's Quest Theatre Production

Patrice Lumumba: the most important assassination of the 20th century

The US-sponsored plot to kill Patrice Lumumba, the hero of Congolese independence, took place 50 years ago today

Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja

The Guardian – Mon 17 Jan 2011

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/17/patrice-lumumba-50th-anniversary-assassination

 

Patrice Lumumba, the first legally elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was assassinated 50 years ago today, on 17 January, 1961. This heinous crime was a culmination of two inter-related assassination plots by American and Belgian governments, which used Congolese accomplices and a Belgian execution squad to carry out the deed.
Ludo De Witte, the Belgian author of the best book on this crime, qualifies it as "the most important assassination of the 20th century". The assassination's historical importance lies in a multitude of factors, the most pertinent being the global context in which it took place, its impact on Congolese politics since then and Lumumba's overall legacy as a nationalist leader.
For 126 years, the US and Belgium have played key roles in shaping Congo's destiny. In April 1884, seven months before the Berlin Congress, the US became the first country in the world to recognise the claims of King Leopold II of the Belgians to the territories of the Congo Basin.

READ MORE.....

Garvey's Ghost By Geoffrey Philp

Garvey's Ghost

By Geoffrey Philp

https://www.bookfusion.com/books/116198-garvey-s-ghost

When Kathryn Bailey's teenaged daughter disappears from their home in Miami, the single Jamaican woman pursues every possible angle to find her. Kathryn's search leads her to a meeting with Jasmine's college professor, Jacob Virgo, a devout Garveyite and Rastafarian. Although their initial encounter is unpleasant, they must join forces to find Jasmine before it is too late. Through the teachings of Marcus Garvey, they learn to break down subtle barriers and find an unexpected bridge to new understandings and love.

Recommended African Movies - DO NOT WATCH HOLLYWOOD MOVIES ABOUT AFRICA

 Life, Above All Official (2010)

Goodbye Bafana - Trailer (2007)

LUCKY - Trailer (2011)

Mother of George - Trailer (2013) 

LITTLE ONE - Trailer (2012)