Nile Valley Rush Productions

Junkanoo bird eye view

Junkanoo in my bones;
In my eyes,
lone colours
pouring slow like molasses
from the throat
of Bay street
and we
the masses,
we jus’ inhaling
this kiss.
This spirit.
Wailing,
we invite
the parade
like a complicit woman to her womb,
consumed
in the illicit night shade.
Emerging out
from Vendue house,
from a shadow-
from da Congo-
A boy beats a goatskin drum
Like we still fightin for freedom
We are.
Moving like mist,
The dance past parliament-
The black masses darkenin’
her pink colonial frills
with queen Elizabeth in stone,
still holding court-
A statue
to
rule
Us.
And da crowd sings!
‘Da Saxon!’; ‘Da Valley!’
I hear one lady say
‘Rawson carryin
on!’
Dis beat was sweet.
And this one dancer,
Boy he was giratin’,
Drippin’ rum-flavour sweat
into the sea.
The crowd was punctuatin
His complex footsteps,
The parade penetratin-
Deep deep
Like history,
Down the Middle Passage
of east Bay Street

by Naya Fyah

Greetings readers

The Dread team send out a special thank you to all for your continued readership and invite any input or points of view that you may have to offer.

Our present ponderings lead us to analyse the role of Western democracy in Afrikan society and government, especially given the recent interventions by the West in the diplomatic and sovereign affairs of Asian and African nations. The past three decades or so have seen the intensification in of the philosophy that often guides such 'interventions'; plainly put, this philosophy assumes that the West are at a more advanced stage of social (not just infrastructural) development. This assumption enables the war in Iraq to occur by "pre-emptive strike" in blatant disregard for international law, and worse, the economic sanctioning of already struggling states such as Zimbabwe and shockingly, now Kenya as she sizzles in potential strife.

In the Western press and analysis by which we are bombarded daily, there is little questioning of the underpinnings of the expansion of western democracy, ie the assumption that the western model is in fact a natural state of human society. Not only that, but also that this state is at a higher level of development than is those of the states that are subjected to interventions, military or economic.

So, today we at the Dread headquarters iditate over the presumptions of superiority of western democratic thought versus governments that are formed and informed by indigenous philosophy. These indigenous social philosophies are being thwarted by the oppressive ideals of neo-liberalism that also, to add insult to injury, continue to perpetuate violence and inequality. So we ask the question: is western democracy the only way, or is there some other, as yet unpronounced solution to war and strife in many nations rising now from the drudgery of colonialism?

The recent re-affirmation of Western hegemony by the NATO coalition voiced by David Cameron's
suggestion that the security and fate of the new world depended on the maintenance and strengthening of "Atlanticism", or of the link enjoyed by member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). While it is unsurprising that a UK Conservative Party Leader would espouse such an opinion, it is highly arrogant and politically imprudent to voice in is such a time as when the wars in Irak and Afghanistan bring deadly terror to the native populations of these countries already divided internally.

The philosophy that is behind these resurgance of unilateral imperialism puts Africa and Afrikan peoples in a position of having to justify any emergence from their current situation in the current world order. The only way out or up for them is to completely divorce themselves of the oppressive philosophy of Western hegemony and move toward empowerment, both nationally and regionally. The Western way of accumulating wealth has used us as slaves first and now as losers in the socio-political and economic game of national sel-determination.

To paraphrase a quote from Dr. John Henrik Clarke, African villages never had prisons because there was no need for them, no sanitorium because no one went insane, and no death penalty. Indeed, perhaps were it not for the precedential 'interventions' by the colonialist powers in Africa with their brands of oppressive governance, the African structure of society may have remained and developed into a beneficial and harmonious arrangement for all. Unfortunately though, there is little distinction between the mold of thought that gave rise to colonialist interventions versus that by the neo-liberals. Whereas before the colonialists had proclaimed the necessity of religious conversion of native, so called primitive populations, the new breed of imperialists now come to convert these resilient natives to liberalisation of trade, privatisation, and democratic elections within the sloppy post-colonial boundaries still staining the geopolitical landscape. Then, and now, the imperialists bear the farcical mask of moralistic insight to again rape and rob societies that, we argue, are better able to administer themselves using naturally placed insight.

The first observation that invites scepticism of any western insight into how governments and democracy is that western society is itself so rotten to te core with poverty, corruption, inequality, racism, war, and the list goes on. If this is the end result of their brand of democracy, then surely it must not be in our best interests to continue to take a page from these perpetrators of strife. Many would nevertheless argue perhaps that the west maintains a peaceful environment relative to African nations, so their tactic must be working.

But these proponents would be forgetting that Europe and America were, no so long ago, involved also in tribal war; in this case it was called world war II. This war was at least in part fought over the former colonies. European colonial power was and still is unsustainable without the continued usurpment of African/Asian resources; now, in the wake of their acceptance of a post-colonial era, they have now united in their advocacy of numerous policies and politics to maintain their cash cows. Now they are NATO. Now they are Atlanticists. Now they realise that if they can work together instead of fighting against each other, they can even mroe effectively drink their fill from nascent states, and thereby stablise their fragile economies. In light of this history, it is clearly ridiculous to lend any credence to the notion that the new imperialist converters come with any more enlightment or goodwill than their colonial predecessors.

Love

The violence-ridden Kenyan elections of December 27, 2007 represent a sad moment in the history of this proud nation, who has for some time been a beacon of hope in the quest for African models of democracy. Having largely maintained stability in the post-colonial years following its attainment of independence under the leadership of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya has been a multiparty state since 1997. Although Kenya's postcolonial history has not been without turbulence, an hopeful era began following the peaceful exit of President Daniel arap Moi after his magnanimous defeat at the polls by Mwai Kibaki in 2002. For the last five years, Kibaki's government has maintained peace and relative stability in Kenya despite a continuing trend of class inequality. Nevertheless, as one of the largest African economies, Kenya has been considered to be a model of African governance.

Last week, Kenya's electoral process was again put to the test. Sadly, however, this election of 2007 has been stained by claims of election rigging by Kibaki's government. Indeed, EU observers have condemned the election results, adding fuel to the fiery rejection of the election results by supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga. All of this has brought Kenya to the brink of civil war along tribal lines, between the Kikuyu largely represented by President Kibaki, and the Luo represented by Odinga. Scores have already been slain by record violence perpetrated by both opposition supporters and government forces as Africa and the international community at large scramble to avoid looming crisis.

Given that Kenya has for so long resisted tribal conflict on any massive scale, and given the forecasts of hope for this fledgling democracy, we at the Dread Team ask the obvious questions: Why Kenya? Why now?

The first point that has to be considered is taken from an historical perspective, beginning with the colonial boundaries laid out by Britain in the early to mid nineteenth century. As has infamously been the case in many regions, the summary grouping of disparate tribal entities has had disastrous consequences, in many ways contradicting traditional law and practice. In such contexts of subnational tribalism as is seen in much of Africa, the pluralistic presumptions of Western democratic thought are rendered inapplicable in the reality of non-European situations. The ensuing result of ill-informed, badly drawn colonial boundaries, it seems, is at its worst the eruption of mass brutality between forcibly confronted subnational groups.

But Kenya had for so long averted this fate, played out repeatedly elsewhere in world politics in this the dawn of the postcolonial era. So, why now? Indeed, any type of political unrest is often symbolic of a desperate populace, an impoverished populace. Despite Kibaki's progress in the last five years in tackling endemic corruption, increasing economic growth, and improving access to primary education, most Kenyans remain below the poverty line and the disparity between rich and poor continues to grow. Curruption remains endemic and Kenya continues to bargain from a disadvantageous position in world trade matters.

Given these facts, the Kenyan people appear to have been reasonably primed for a change and invested their faith in their young and hopeful democracy to effect this change. If Opposition supporters are correct in their assertions of impropriety in these recent elections, then Kibaki has done his country a great disservice for the small and costly reward of continued power. In any event, his actions following the disputed election have churned the widespread suspicions of fraud and so are non-conducive to progressive democracy in Kenya. Notably, it was most imprudent of Kibaki to resume the protocol of signing in minutes after the completion of the vote counting, even as rumours raged of election rigging.

Sadly, despite a largely peaceful run-up to election, ethnicity is being exploited in the aftermath of a suspicious election result for egoistic political gain, and the casualties are the Kenyan people. Therefore, while many Western commentators have attributed the recent violence in Kenya to deep tribal rifts, the matter seems to also be a case of a people who are tired of their will being thwarted. They, the aspirational model of the African future of governance, have tasted the sweet fruit of freedom since the defeat of Moi by Kibaki in the 2002 elections, and will accept no less than full accountability from their leaders. When these basic wants of a progressive society are unmet, existing tribal antagonism is ripe for eruption.

The best defeat of tribal discontent is in the attainment of prosperity across the board, at the national level. Why Kenya, now? Why this disturbance in the path of this beautiful nations' heralded success? Perhaps this recent chain of events represents the syndromic tribal unrest seen in her neighbours, Uganda, Rwanda, Somalia etc and directly attributable to the faulty colonial arangements left in place. Or perheps this is a different flavour, that of a people exhibiting defiant refusal of political opacity following a taste of progress. And the added exploitation of ethnic tension by politicians, itself a consequience of colonial interference. Perhaps this will be but a blip in the forward movement of Kenya's political process. Nevertheless, this represents a significant study in the difficulties still presenting obstacles to African progress: neo-colonialist capitalism that continues to deepen wealth disparity, tribal tension exacerbated by lingering effects of colonialism, corruption, the inappropriate superposition of Western democratic concepts. Let us hope that all contenders in this volatile matter are inclined toward the high road, toward the ultimate dream of Kenyan and African excellence. We at the Dread team express solidarity with our Kenyans brothers and sisters in these trying times.

Bless

Today, a page turns in history as a new year, 2008, is born, while another, 2007 expires. 2007 has been a year of interesting developments in the Afrikan world, of highs and lows and of trials and triumph. Africa has roared in her defiant refusal to submit to the neocolonial connotations of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) as laid out once again be the hungry European wolves. She has seen unprecendented economic growth rates at roughly 5% per annum. She, more and more, owns her own. There is increasingly reason to be hopeful about a glorious future that is of our making.

Despite this, Afrika and her diasporic offspring in the Americas, Europe, CAribbean and elsewhere continue to face enormous challenges that are historic in nature and difficult to crack. In 2007, this was particularly apparent in the violence that consumed electoral processes in several countries, the most recet of which is the violent riots in Kenya this past few days. There are other instances of violence in elections this year: Zimbabwe, Jamaica, Nigeria to name a few. Indeed, regional instability as initiated and sustained by a Western plot to nurture its waning civilisation is a recurring theme in world politics.

At the same time, Haiti has sustained peace following a smooth transition to the leadership of President Rene Preval in 2006 and the Bahamas has maintained a largely non-violent democratic process in its elections of summer 2007. Therefore, there is little doubt that although we are still mired in the wicked and one-sided system that has been constructed for the extraction of our God-given claims to justice and equality, we continue to move upward and out of a construct that is nary to our benefit.

2007 has also been a year of individual achievement for Afrikans the world over. 2007 saw the glorious rise of many young and dynamic athletic talents as highlighted for example by the IAAF world indoor championships. The show was taken by the Kenyan long-dsitance runners and by the Caribbean sprinters. 2007 is a particularly interesting year for Black individual achievement because of the contention of Barack Obama, an Africn-American, for the Presidency of the USA. That he has done so while still largely maintaining the overall respect of African Americans while remaining a attractive candidate to middle America is even more impressive.

We, the Dread Team have witnessed the unedifying spread of many common tropical diseases which have unleashed ill-health and poverty due to catastropchic changes in family relations due to the death of a young able working adult in the family. Of course, we are still in 2007 referring to the devastation of HIV/AIDS for the world, and for the Afrikan world in particular. We have made progress in 2007 but are we winning enough medical research battles to rescue the number of those who now face sure death?

Africa alone cannot answer these questions which trouble the minds of presidents and prime ministers, ministers and other elected officials, or at least of those who really have the progress of their countries and of the Black world in general. 2007 was the trumpeting event for the abolition of slavery in the British empire, one where the theme sanctioned by all (media, politicians, civil servants, everyone) in reference to the lesser position of Black in British society is through the prism of slavery and inferiority celebrated for finally disproving what the white masters in Whitehall deamed the natural superiority of the paler races. This 2007 was the year for rememberence of how our masters gave of themselves and of their good hearts to 'liberate' us from a system we could not free ourselves of alone (in their minds). Hence, Wilberforce, Jackson and cie.

The manipulation of the media in continuing to represent Africa and the Black world as impoverished jungles of tribal violence continue to hurt the economic prospect of Africa for attracting investments. Perception, still in 2007 was and is everything.

Part of that perception has to continue to be the flagrant exhibition of natural pride, despite what the media infiltrators may intend. The African Union has made significant strides in its development, having met for a conference on Science and Technology in January of 2007. Africa is looking to the future, and she is moving in the direction of her vision. These are indeed historic times.

Thus, we continue to be face with the dichotomous twins entities of political unrest, inequality, social deprivation and poverty on the one hand, and of the hopeful future as forecast by academics on the other. There is little doubt that we can only continue in the direction of development of our collective ideals only as long as we remain fixed on addressing each of these entities. Because equality is embedded in our natural birthright and thus we at the close of 2007 find ourselves in history in the making, asking the question of ourselves as to how we can avert the oppressive will of Western hegemony while maintaining a peaceful course of self development. A crowning moment in 2007, a Year in Black, has been the African continent's refusal to sign the EPA agreements. This demonstrates the capacity for Africa to demand her own destiny. We at the Dread Team dream of a day when Africa's children can rest again and rise to their rightful place in world order.

The future is Black

One

On 27th November 2007 The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released figures and statistics for the Human Development Index (HDI) as part of the 2007/2008 Human Development Report, which this year also reports on the climate change effects and responsibilities of individual countries.

The Dread Team wishes to emphasise that we understand how such statistics must be carefully used and interpreted in order to provide a balanced critical view of the results. Some commentators do suggest that the HDI is an imperfect measure of development for a variety of reasons we do not intend to review here.

While the usual quartet of Iceland, Norway (overtaken from position 1 this year), Australia and Canada remained on top, the US at 12 (slipping from 8 last year) and other high ranking industrialised nations show strong performances on real income levels (or GDP per capita), life expectancy, and educational attainment measured by the proportion of the population enrolled in primary secondary and tertiary education. However, the story for Africa has not particularly improved this time round.

South Africa remained at 121 this year, and stagnancy characterised the rest of 'sub-Saharan' Africa with all 22 countries in the low human development category. Sierra Leone scored 177, and therefore arrived last in the world race for governments to provide human living conditions conducive to development. For example, the last 12 countries in the list are in Africa. A combination of low income, low life expectancy and the destructive effects of HIV/AIDS on the basic resources and structures of these societies reveal a very worrying picture.

The picture is provisionally more cheerful for the Caribbean region, because Barbados scored as the NUMBER ONE developing country in the world with a global ranking of 31! In fact, the Caribbean Community has done relatively well considering the following performances:

31 Barbados
49 Bahamas, The
54 St Kitts Nevis
57 Antigua and Barbuda
59 Trinidad and Tobago
71 Dominica
72 St Lucia
80 Belize
82 Grenada
85 Suriname
93 St Vincent and the Grenadines
97 Guyana
101 Jamaica
146 Haiti

It has been noted that the strong performance of Caribbean nations places them above global leaders in economic and technological development such as Brazil, India and Nigeria. While it is clear that the size of the populations and political cultures of these countries cannot be compared to the Caribbean, small island countries may appear to be easier to steer on a course of economic and social reforms than other larger land-locked nations, although that might only be a perception rather than reality.

Nonetheless, the real progress being made regionally by independent Caribbean nations must remind us to also bring deeper into the fold of CARICOM initiatives, partnerships and agreements those countries in the group that are lagging behind for a variety of reasons, some political, some arising from financial mismanagement and the incredibly high debt servicing schedules of the IMF.

The Caribbean Community can also take a deep breath to realise how far it has come thus far in terms of economic and human progress in recent years, and pause to think for a moment how its peoples and governments imagine their lives and opportunities in the Caribbean of the future.

Perhaps the rest of the world is only awakening to something vibrant Caribbean nations have gradually been working on and preparing for since the massive independence movements of the 60s and 70s, and the creative nation building and re-construction efforts that ensued and continue up to this day with this release of a positive report on the collective Caribbean experience.

To avoid complacency, and perhaps even worse, a reversal of the recent HDI trend for progress, Caribbean nations must not begin to look at each other on the basis of rankings and economic fitness exclusively, but should also appreciate that the political as well as the economic futures of countries in the region are likely to be intricately linked, as increasingly is the regional labour force, internal migration patterns and the exploitation of productive industries.

On the basis of such a glowing report card for the Caribbean in the recent Human Development Report, the Dread Team takes the position that Afrikans everywhere must continue to support gaining greater influence in the international sphere, sign treaties and agreements that will contribute to effective governance of resources, and to the creation of rewarding life opportunities for the peoples of the region. The recent expression renewal of of political will and efforts to get Haiti out of the 'failed state' category in international relations--which category also includes the Sudan, Iraq, and Somalia--will have a stabilising effect on the region.

Looking at the HDI index might not tell us the full story of what is yet to come for the Caribbean Community of the future.

Indeed, perhaps the progressive and liberally-minded nations of the region are already planting the seeds for the next Caribbean Community Renaissance! We hope that you will stay tuned...the story has only just begun. We, at the Dread Team, continue to hope that entire chapters of progress and success are yet to be written...

Bless up

The Dread Team

In recent days, the European Union and African leaders met in Lisbon, Protugal to discuss a new trade deal and human rights. The theme of the talks were to forge a new partnership on issues including security, development, trade and good governance. This ambitious agenda arose from an imminent deadline set by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2000 asking the trade partners to fix anticompetitive and market distorting arrangements that put the other members of the WTO at a disadvantage.

The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) negotiated in the past have also angered developing country partners who felt that the power to decide on trade terms was in the hands of Europe, which still acted in authority based on its past colonial power and influence on Africa and its leaders.

This time round some of these leaders, like Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade are not keeping quiet and have expressed the view that the new trade deals--with individual African countries also having the power to sign on their own, which some 13 of the East African block of countries have already done on an interim basis-- will damage their fragile economies.

Europe's offer to the group of countries known as African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)nations, consisted mainly of some re-working of the terms of the former Cotonou Agreement, the original EPA granting preferential treatment to developing countries, which regulated trade in various areas of agriculture and manufacturing (particularly textile for example) between the EU and the ACP countries.

The recent rows emerged when African leaders realised that the deals proposed by German Chancellor and Chairman of the Summit, Angela Merkel and other leaders at the table in Lisbon, were to replace agreements which gave former European colonies preferential trade terms- to demand that African countries open their markets to European goods in order to keep tariff-free EU access for their own exports. This has a potential to raise tariffs that are now granted on a preferential basis and often not exceeding the average 2-8% duty levels on import goods from African countries into the EU.

The preferential system the EU currently has in place with the ACP has been ruled illegal by the WTO, and by 1st january 2008, the partners will have to trade on the basis of a new EPA which will open their markets to European goods gradually. For those who are already thinking like us that a simple solution for these beleaguered African leaders to come out on top as winners is to stay away from signing a new EPA that would effectively tie up their hands behind their backs.

The dangers of not signing the agreement, however, is quite serious and would include, for example, that Namibia's beef, grape and fish exports could virtually cease from next year as it loses preferential access to European markets. According to Jurgen Hoffmann, a trade advisor to the Agricultural Forum of Namibia, beef products, in the absence of a deal in place by 1st January 2008, would attract import duties of 63%-120%, as opposed to the average 8% duty paid now. What this means for ordinary Namibians producing or selling these products is that beef prices in Namibia are estimated to fall by 25% next year and by 50% the following year. Hunger, hardship and poverty would undoubltedly follow such events.

For a small country depending on its beef industry for national income and foreign currencies, it would also mean that fish, which entered the EU duty-free under Cotonou, will attract duties of up to 20%. The grapes products sector will suffer from raw open competition with the powerful South Africans and the Chileans who are producers on a much larger scale and can therefore flood the markets with their goods at lower prices considering large volumes, therefore undermining another industry for Namibians. But Namibia was still taking the position earlier in the year that it would still not sign the new deal!

Despite positive pronouncements from the current EC president Portugals's Prime Minister Jose Socrates that the Summit could be heralded as a 'summit of equals', he also surprisingly stated that he was satisfied in himself that the meeting had taken place at all. Well, the Dread Team believes that if a small developing country like Namibia decides to stay out of a deal that could damage its industries and increase unemployment for its peoples rather than ratifying it shows how much worse the consequences are to sign rather than not signing at all!

How, at the end the 7th year of the 21st century, can former European colonies still be able to dictate the terms of trade and tariff duties to sovereign independent nations who shook off the chains of colonial sugjugation and oppression during the feverish independence movement eras of the 1950s and 1960s?

For the most part, the position of power taken by the EU countries is an illusion, smoking mirrors because most of the 25 current members have never owned colonies or never had an empire to speak of. For instance the most recent members of the EU who joined on 1st January 2007, Bulgaria and Romania can speak of no colonial past or influence of their own proper yet are able to sit at a table with the other 25 EU countries facing the African leaders (include the true culprits of the Germans, Brits, French, Dutch and Portuguese for instance, to name a few)and determining the terms of trade on the 'principle' or assumption of past colonial influence, which in their mind really means that some form of tight leash should be maintained on these former colonies and ACP countries for a long while to come still.

How can this idiotic situation still prevail when African leaders, or no one in the ACP group for that matter, should no longer be told what to do like simple-minded children needing the paternalistic protection and edicts of its powerful masters?

Africa and Africans are tired of these summits created to be photo oppos for European leaders who temporarily escape the rigours of domestic political opposition and machinery for a weekend in order to act as great owners and dealers of the world's most precious commodities. Well, they also accuse the African leadres of the same, by the way. It is a chance for them to tell other nations, mainly the African ones such as Zimbabwe and its infamous President Robert Mugabe, how to govern and behave itself in this 'world of equals'.

The Dread Team denounces the hypocrisy and mean-spiritedness of these new trade deals which instead of agreement, will generate much more DIsagreement and conflict in future between the EU and Africa.

Africa is on its knees and asking for survival, Europe is handing it a very dry old bread which it is trying to persuade Africans tastes like a fresh new loaf.

We simply won't have it. The struggle for economic equality and prosperity continues, but can we Africans and ACP country members find a solution for us, by us? Why was the Summit not deemed an EU-African Union (AU) Summit, you will ask? Simply because it is still useful for our former colonial masters to divide us and rule us (and exploit us) in the confusion they create, rather than deal with the strength and eminent economic position of Africa that the AU should continue to grow towards and strive towards single-mindedly. We are our own masters now!

There is still time for, no, rather, IT IS time for Africa to rise up, stand up, look at Europe and the rest of the world straight in the eye! We are the masters of our own destinies; let us use that influence to built strong and proud nations that can feed, educate and care for their own while also exporting its useful resources to the rest of the world on an advantageous trading basis. We must exercise our own power and throw our own weight around in this global jungle full of bullies, the biggest of which remains the US, even in unilateral trade terms. Then maybe the rest of the world will notice, and finally start caring about us and the fate of our children, and of our children's children on this planet.

Poverty and subjugation to former masters of another era is not the legacy we want to leave them! Equality will never come from the generosity which Europe sees in its own hands to dispense, but rather from AfriKans taking concrete actions to demand, obtain and effect political and economic equality on the world stage. It is due time the rest of the world finally heeds the voice of Africa and its children.

Africa Unite

The Dread Team

Our modern understanding of African world spirituality needs to be revisited. It is untrue to pretend that we reside in the same mystical space as our ancestors did. They inhabited a place of deep spirituality and of connectedness with the natural and supernatural worlds. Every day's challenges were attributed to the wrath or lack of satisfaction of a god, and appeasement alone was the remedy, often at a high cost of life or liquor. Many Diasporans today find shame in remembering those practices which bear the authenticity seal of our traditions past.

The modern agony over the so-called uncivilised and primitive world view that gives rise to obscure and malevolent practices of retribution and vengeance, in truth a truly bloody scene, reveals a psychological disposition to reject self as other and undeserving of respect and regard for its differential attributes and qualities. In fact the Supreme God Olodumare of the Yoruba Pantheon is but one example of a diligent and sensual god who brings misery on his creation purely out of absent-mindedness and negligence, not malevolence per se, unless to conquer a mortal maiden, or at least so goes the oral tradition. And that in itself is the attack made on the authenticity of practices not registered or written anywhere and claimed to be part of folklore. How are countries like South Africa, Namibia, Australia (and the aborigines) determine what authentic religious practices need to be protected or exempted from the fist of the law when they are integral to cultural integrity and sacred practice?

The cosmogony of the Akan people of West Africa's Gold Coast, today's Ghana, demonstrates the generosity of a world order where gods and goddesses are genuinely interested in the lives, pains and challenges of humans. They coexist, co-habit and share the same fate as mortals in those stories, becoming vulnerable through love, jealousy, envy and ambition. These are gods made in the measure of humans, they truly are our partners in the destiny of time. Is our modern understanding of god and deity to be informed by the post-colonial emergence of African religiosity in the Black world, both on the continent of Africa and the diaspora?

The legacy of slavery has initiated some very novel philosophical insight into human existence. Afrikans, bearing the tremendous burden of systematic oppression, have been privy to certain revelations of spirituality. This has been facilitated by the persistence of an Afrikan cosmogonical insight even as Afrika's unfortunate children crossed the abyss of the Middle Passage.

For example, the Haitian Revolution was preluded by a Vodun ceremony (led by Boukman) which aided their handy defeat of the French Empire. This would have been altered form but not distinct from the ancestral African ritualism. Perhaps the most recent significant development in resistance theology in the Black diaspora is that of RAstafari, a world view that celebrates the often unmentioned Ancient Christian traditions in Ethiopia and resists the racist precepts of Eurocentric ideals. From these instances, it is easy to see that the Afrikan's resilience in the face of overwhelming obstacles has been founded on indigenous Afrikan spirituality and philosophy that we thought we had lost. Therefore, since Afrikan religiosity has in many ways enabled our liberation from the chains of oppression, it is clear that we must further understand and appreciate this indelibly etched aspect of our collective psychology.

For no people is distinct from its origin.

....(to be continued)....

One Love

Dread Team

There was a time, not too long ago, when Africa and Africans had great hope for their future. Ghana, led by Kwame Nkrumah, had become independent by 1957, and it appeared that the bonds of colonialism, brief but tortuous, had at last been broken. The great visionary Nkrumah saw three fundamental tasks to be carried out that would ensure a successful AFrican future: the freedom of all Africa, the unity of all Africa, and the technological advancement of all Africa. Indeed, 50 years later, though we have seen Africa freed from her colonial bonds, and we see the process in place to bring about political and economic unity, Africa still requires the re-development of a culture of science and technology. Anecdotal evidence from around the world and from our illustrious past informs us that an emphasis on innovation is an integral aspect of development and of dignity.

Indeed, recognising this, the African Union has recently formed a New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), and a part of this body is the African Ministerial Council on Science and Technology (AMCOST), whose mission is to provide a "high-level platform for developing policies and setting priorities on science, technology and innovation for African development. AMCOST provides political and policy leadership for the implementation of Africa’s Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action (CPA)." So it appears that the visions of Nkrumah may just become reality.

Perhaps the most important philosophical foundation for use of resources to facilitate African science, even in the face of burgeoning poverty, is that without the power of science we will always be in a position of prostration at the heel of the West. In other words, innovation is a necessary sacrifice and a potentially invaluable resource in an increasingly complex global economy. Moreover, and more to the point, pre-colonial African history indicates a natural cultural inclination towards innovation. The pyramids, mathematics and medicine are just a few examples. Colonialism has stolen our memory of this dignified culture of inquiry, and then sold it back to us as their own! This is why, paradoxically, Afrikans tend to be under-represented in science and technology despite being a great part of its origin. Reclamation and more emphatically improvement of the scientific and innovative tradition is not a choice but an imperative if we are ever to achieve justice.

Forward

Dread Team

The Dread Team is delighted to welcome you to the Dread Iditations Blog! As we celebrate our first month of publication online, we would like to have your suggestions on the types of contributions you would like to see on this blog as a regular user. All suggestions are appreciated.

The Dread Team

Zimbabwe: Putting Zim First - If Not Now, When?
by Bishop Trevor Manhanga
Published in The Herald (Harare)

TWO incidents took place this year, a couple of months and two
continents apart, yet interrelated in that they revealed the battle
we Africans, and indeed Zimbabweans encounter in the face of the
stereotypical, and downright racist attitudes and opinions some in
the white west have about us, as we strive for economic empowerment
and emancipation.

The first incident took place in Dakar Senegal on July 20 2007 and
relates to the speech given by the President of France Nicolas
Sarkozy at the Cheikh Anta Diop University.

In what can only be described as a most unfortunate revelation of the
inner feelings of a very high standing public figure, Sarkozy had
this to say of Africa and Africans, in part: "The tragedy of Africa
is that the African man has never really entered history.

"The African peasant who for centuries has lived according to the
seasons, whose ideal is to be in harmony with nature, has only known
the eternal renewal of time via the endless repetition of the same
actions and the same words.

"In this mentality, where everything always starts over again, there
is no place for human adventure nor for any idea of progress...this
man never projects himself into the future, it never occurs to him to
break free from the repetition and invent a destiny for himself.

"This, if you will allow a friend of Africa to say it, is Africa's
problem.

"Africa's challenge is to enter history more fully.... Africa's
challenge is to stop forever repeating and going over things, and to
free itself from the myth of the eternal renewal. It is to realise
that the golden age that it always harks back to will never return,
for the simple reason that it never existed.... Africa's problem is
that its present is permeated with nostalgia for the paradise lost of
its childhood.

"Africa's problem is that it judges its present according to a wholly
imaginary notion of original purity that no one could ever hope to
revive.

"Africa's challenge should not be to invent a past, however mythical;
to make the present more bearable, but to invent a future with the
means it has at its disposal.... For Africa has a right to be happy
just like all the other continents of the world."

The deafening silence from the African continent and its leadership
in allowing Sarkozy to make such a derogatory speech not only on
African soil, but also at an institution of higher learning, and get
away with it has been most disturbing.

How can the collective leadership of the African continent, have
remained silent in the face of this very provocative and insulting
opinion of Africans? Sarkozy's synopsis of Africa and its people is
without empirical validation, downright condescendingly racist, and
must be dismissed with the contempt it deserves.

One would have expected at the very least a rebuttal of Sarkozy's
racist remarks from none other than the AU, or other regional African
bodies such as Sadc or Ecowas. I have been surprised at the lack of a
groundswell of rebuke from continental and Diaspora Africans.

If there has been a response, then perhaps I have not seen it. Voices
of indignation against Sarkozy's racist diatribe have been few and
far between, and among the few I have encountered is one in the
October issue of New African magazine, where the editor Baffour
Ankomah in response to Sarkozy's speech said:

"I don't know about you just now, but I am doing my utmost to calm
down! For we are dealing here with a confused man with a confused
speech. Africa has no glorious past? What were our ancestors doing in
Egypt then? And Nubia? And all those glorious empires of yore right
across the continent? When our ancestors had built the great pyramids
in Egypt and Nubia (today's northern Sudan), Sarkozy's European
ancestors were still living in caves. They didn't know what a window
was! And he has the temerity to insult us and our ancestors?"

There is doubt that Ankomah is livid and rightfully so, because such
outright disdain for Africa and its people cannot be left
unchallenged.

What Sarkozy needs to ask himself is how many of the descendants of
these "African peasants who live by the seasons" were part of
France's World Cup winning team, when France hosted the soccer
showcase? If my memory serves me right, the team looked like a
typical African Cup of Nations team, with a couple of Caucasian
faces. So much for people who are supposedly locked in a time warp
and prisoners to the "seasons" according to the gospel espoused by
Sarkozy.

The second incident took place in the USA, and relates to an article
written by an eminent scholar and Nobel laureate James D. Watson.
Watson, who up until his retirement on October 25 2007, was the
chancellor of Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory on Long Island New York,
USA, resigned after controversy erupted over comments he made
suggesting black people are less intelligent than whites.

Watson (79) who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for discovering the
structure of DNA, joined Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory as director
in 1968 and helped build it into one of the world's leading genetics
research institutes. His problems, which led to his retirement, arose
from comments he was quoted as having said on October 14 in the
Sunday Times of London, that he is "inherently gloomy about the
prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the
fact that their intelligence is the same as ours -- where-as all the
testing says, not really."

To their credit, Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory through their
president, said Watson's comments have no connection with research
activity at the lab, whose faculty members "vehemently disagree" with
Watson's statements.

The lab moved swiftly to suspend Watson's administrative
responsibilities as chancellor leading to his subsequent resignation.

Why do I make reference to these two incidents that have taken place
on two continents by two different people, under two different
conditions?

Reference must be made to them, because they reveal the underlying
hostile and racist attitudes we face as Africans in dealing with the
global village of the 21st century. Sarkozy and Watson are not
ordinary run of the mill, intellectually challenged people. On the
contrary, one is the president of a key industrialised Western
European nation, the other an eminent Nobel laureate and respected
scientist.

The question must be asked then, if people of such high standing and
respectability in western society have such a deprecating opinion of
Africa and Africans, then the problem we face is much greater than we
ever imagined.

Theses were not off the cuff, slip of the tongue comments. On the
contrary, the comments were well thought out and delivered, and even
if there is ever an attempt to withdraw them, the intended damage has
been done, and cannot be retracted, no matter how vigorous an attempt
to do so.

I mention these two incidents in relation to Zimbabwe because it is
imperative that there is an understanding by all of us, that we
should work to prove that the two gentleman, and others who may share
their sentiments are wrong. We must not conduct ourselves in a manner
that provides them with ammunition, to buttress their racist
stereotypical opinions.

There are three things I believe we need to do as Zimbabweans that
will serve to counter Sarkozy and Watson's bigoted opinions.

The first is to ensure that the agricultural season currently upon us
yields the fruits we anticipate and desperately need.

It is not too late to make the clarion call to all those on
agricultural land whether they be beneficiaries of the land reform
programme, or have always been on the land, A1 or A2 farmers, to
fully use every inch of available arable land, and make this
the, "mother of all agricultural seasons." We must prove people
wherever they may be, who harbour the same thoughts as Sarkozy and
Watson wrong.

We must show that we can use the land we have. We can make use of the
farming implements that have just been delivered to some of our
farmers. We owe it to ourselves and indeed our African compatriots,
to show that we are not lesser mortals, that we are industrious,
responsible people.

We must be constantly aware that there are many more Sarkozy's and
Watson's who firmly believe that we are incapable producing the kinds
of crops, (both qualitatively and quantitatively), that the white
former farmers used to. It is for this reason that we must turn to
the rallying cry of the war of liberation, when those who fought for
the emancipation of the nation reminded each other in the face of a
well armed and intransigent enemy: "Iwe neni tine basa (we are duty-
bound)."

That is the reality we face today and every one of us must not flinch
from the task ahead.

The second is to ensure that the up coming national elections are
conducted in an atmosphere free of violence, and in an open and
transparent manner.

Those who cannot bring themselves to face the reality that
Zimbabweans can solve their own problems, (and we are well on our way
to doing that), will leave no stone unturned to find reasons to try
to isolate us.

For this reason every political party and candidate that will contest
next year's election must realise that the elections are more than
just electing a President, a Member of Parliament, a Senator, a
Councillor, it is about Zimbabwe.

It is about putting Zimbabwe first, and that means ensuring that we
conduct the elections in a manner that will unify the nation, give us
all the opportunity discover what unites us (and there is much more
that unites us than divides us), rather than add fuel to the fires of
division.

Not only must the elections be conducted in an atmosphere free of
violence, but there will also be a great responsibility on the
electorate to elect those who unite not those who divide, doers not
sitters, people who have a vision for a great and prosperous
Zimbabwe, not people who cannot see beyond tomorrow.

It is important therefore for all political parties that will present
candidates to the electorate, to assist the process by putting
forward credible candidates, who will be a credit to both their
party, and their nation if elected.

Zimbabwe has a plethora of intellectually astute, morally upright
people who have a well-documented track record.

These are the people who should be put forward before the electorate,
and that will give the electorate a group of topnotch candidates from
which to choose those who will spearhead the turnaround and take off
of our nation.

Finally, we need to unite, from all sectors in the nation, in a call
for the lifting of sanctions. We need to collectively begin the
campaign now for the lifting of sanctions, of whatever form,
currently imposed on the nation and some of our leaders.

Those who have imposed sanctions of whatever form on us need to be
told, we are of one mind on this issue -- they must be lifted.

The sanctions are neither smart nor targeted and have run their
course. We need not wait for the completion of the electoral process
next year, to begin the rebuilding of the nation and its economy, and
part of the rebuilding process starts with the lifting of the embargo
that has been placed on the nation.

Regardless of one's political affiliation, or of ones previous
position on the issue of sanctions, we must all agree that sanctions
have no use right now, other than to perpetuate the suffering of the
people of Zimbabwe.

The church community must speak for the lifting of sanctions, the
business community must do the same, those in civic society must join
the call, and finally the political parties must unite and pass a
resolution in both houses of the legislature for the lifting of
sanctions, so that the entire world knows that the people of Zimbabwe
are speaking with one voice, and that voice declares that sanctions
must be lifted.

If these three things can be done I have no doubt that we will be
well on the way for the take off we so desperately need.

The beauty of what needs to be done, is that it is all well within
our powers to do so. We can work the land and ensure a bountiful
harvest. We can prepare for, and conduct elections in an atmosphere
free of violence and intimidation.

We can unite as a nation, and present a common front to the world on
the issue of the lifting of sanctions. We can do all of these things.

The question is, will we rise to the challenge and do them? Only the
people of Zimbabwe themselves can answer that question, but I have
great faith, that reason will triumph over unreasonableness, hope
will triumph over despair and love will triumph over hatred. We can
do it, I know we can.

lBishop Manhanga is the Presiding Bishop of the Pentecostal
Assemblies of Zimbabwe and the Chairman of the Heads of Christian
Denominations. He writes this article in his personal capacity.
===

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