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And just perhaps I may never find that great love that my soul craves. Yet, I find solace in knowing that I was first loved as daughter, sister, aunt, teacher and best friend~ Nora Til Firston

Model~Moniasse Sessou tattooed by Touka Voodoo, London

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30% (Women and Politics in Sierra Leone) from Anna Cady on Vimeo.

This film is a collaborative piece of work - made by Anna Cady (artist) Em Cooper (animator) and Jenny Cuffe (radio journalist) commissioned by Pathways for Women's Empowerment and Screen South. In this film three passionate women tell stories of kidnap, corruption and secret societies as they fight to improve the position of women in politics in Sierra Leone. Oil painted animation and live action present issues of gender and politics as compelling and thought provoking viewing. Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2013

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To Catch A Dream

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Lovely

Congratulations to the Massawe’s!!

Photos Credit: Abdul Mohamed

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An African-Centered Look at Intra-African Cultural Fusions within the Context of Intersectionality,  as Shaped by Western Black Privilege and White Gaze by Afidi Nomo

African Americans  are as much a nation (what some call tribe) as Mende, Yoruba, Eton..etc.  I don’t use Mandingo culture without knowing what it means…. and I certainly don’t fight for the “right” to do so if they say something about it (which could be for various reasons).   In the article “Can Black Americans Appropriate African Culture?”, the author Zipporah Gene uses the term “appropriate”  which ignores the fact that African Americans are not an oppressive agency with respect to the other different African nations based in various African countries.

Regarding borrowing: This is done with respect and conscious awareness. I have a Senegalese dress which is traditionally a dancing dress for woman griots. My ancestor is from that culture also, my mother bought the dress and I used Google to watch the dance and hear its music. Nevertheless, I wear it as Radikal Queen in my performances. The issue of disrespect (not appropriation) can arise when a person uses a djembe, for instance, and takes a few sentences from a variety of Drum Languages, then mashes them up into an abstract, almost jazzy ensemble.

The disrespect is NOT in the fusion….. but in the fact that the artist doing the mashup often has no idea that there are drum languages with various meanings. They often assume that the drums are slapped in rhythmic randomness, and the dances just move along on top. I was a member of an African troupe which was Pan-African. It took months to do, say, the Zulu welly dance. We researched the dress, the origin and the reason for the dance before it was performed. People outside of the continent have received the propaganda that African culture is primitive but fun, and they’re often unconscious of how that affects their interactions.

When I’m with my mother at a diasporaian show using continental African artistry, she has commented that they are often just people "jumping up and down like ants are biting them".  Drummer friends listen and ask why “the drums aren’t saying anything, just nonsense” and of course the outfits are often a mishmash as well. The only problem with this is lack of awareness, and lack of even the sensibility that there is anything to be aware of.

Lastly, let’s understand that the root cause of anti-Black sentiment is anti-Africanness. This informs colourism, and is part of the psychic disturbance brought about by forced indoctrination into white gaze. This is why people use terms like “African Booty Scratcher” and portray Africans in African Americans films as buffoons, not “cool”, rarely sexy, snobby and so on. It is why reading the comments in The Roots article about, say, the extreme oppression that African expats face in the USA, will make the average African cry.

And then there is the issue of western Black privilege. I have it. USians (people of the USA) have the most….. and yet are literally known for refusing to accept this fact. People who understand how intersectionality works, who are not known for literally DYING to get to Yemen or Eritrea….. refuse to see that in the hierarchy of Black experience they have the most privilege. THAT gets to me. So this privilege of mocking Africans, caricaturing African features (via your hurtful “coon” memes), making African characters the unpretty butts of jokes in movies, assuming there is no depth/intelligence to our ways, making fun of the need for migration to the USA (by employing american exceptionalism) and more. When this is not acknowledged by the same people who like bits and pieces because  they’re attracted to those parts: it is hurtful. The sum of those parts does not (by itself) form a whole of conscious familial connection.

Another thing: I remember when African Americans  protested that Lupita, an African woman, should not play the role of an enslaved African. The dissonance is there because many African Americans  don’t really see that WE have the same African ancestors. These were family members torn from home, and the anti-African propaganda will have people believe that “we sold our own”. The struggle for African liberation started on the continent and continued in those ships, at the other end, on the death camps (which people call plantations). Uprisings. Bloody battles. Resistance. Fucking with the crops, sabotaging them. Escape. Quilombo communities. Uprising after uprising. Retaining the cultures they thought they’d stripped away through torture, rape and decades of inhumanity and indoctrination. Still worshipping Orisha in Cuba and New Orleans (for instance). Fighting colonialism and the cultural genocide. Fighting colonial theft of our resources, and propaganda about WHY we are impoverished, etc.

The USian privilege is that African-Americans  often play “Africans” without researching the dress, accent or culture as they would other roles. Check out Ice Cube playing a South African freedom fighter. I still get nightmares. I’m not a fan of the article, but we can still have a nuanced discussion without just a “debate” on whether African Americans “should” wear dashikis.

This isn’t about what people from Africa-the-country think, because we are far from a monolith. It is NOT African-Americans versus Continental Africans. There is an enormous, interconnected diaspora of people within the Continent and in the various countries our family members were taken to and learned to make their lives in. African Americans often center themselves in such discussions because USian culture literally inculcates that perspective into the population. It is the main reason USians of any race receive criticism from other cultures, which they often interpret as jealous attacks.

Photo: Yinka Shonibare

Afidi Nomo  is a globalized African woman of the Beti and Mbetu Nations.  As Radikal Queen, she is a cultural activist,  poet,  musician and performance artist. She has performed across three continents,  as a featured artist in festivals,  theater productions,  fashion events and community creative activism. She brings a unique style and passion as diverse as collaborating with major recording artist to inspirational work with gang members in L.A.  Her focus is children and women of African heritage,  and specifically children who have slipped through the nets which protect most of the western populations. She currently resides in the North East of England, and works tirelessly to create communal connections with marginalized Black people all over the world. You can check her out@https://m.facebook.com/radikalqueen.

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I am a collection of broken hearted quotes, poems and songs. I've memorized all the cliches regarding moving on. I know all the break up lines by heart...It's not you, it's me. But it is me, it's me wondering why not me, why not a little bit longer, why can't we work it out? 

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Caption this Artwork by Marica Jones!

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There is nothing like being left alone again, to walk peacefully with oneself in the woods. To boil one's coffee and fill one's pipe, and to think idly and slowly as one does it. Knut Hamsun

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Vintage KIM

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rascal.

Fela Kuti and his Ladies, by ?

"It was when I was in a police cell … the cell I was in [was] named "The Kalakuta Republic" by the prisoners. I found out when I went to East Africa that "Kalakuta" is a Swahili word that means "rascal." So if rascality is going to get us what we want, we will use it; because we are dealing with corrupt people, we have to be rascally with them.”

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Cindy Crawford, better than ever in #V86. Order your copy at http://shop.vmagazine.com

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“Some women seem so voluptuous in every sense, richly bountiful and fertile with generous gifts of plenty, sensual and confident in their female strength that they are called "earth mothers."

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"You can gain a sense about someone by the type of person he/she has dated in the past but it shouldn't be limited to just that. Where a person was just 2 seconds may not be where they are in the next 5 min.  However the universe operates in accordance to order and sequence. People often operate in certain patterns that they can't break away from." BULLEH44

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OUR THEME SONG

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