Nile Valley Rush Productions

World statistics today place independent African and Black states at the bottom of rankings for a great majority of human development indices known to humankind. Year after year, again and again we expect the verdict that states in the developing world (and therefore led by non-white or dark-skinned people) cannot self-govern or even at a minimum take care of their own countryfolk. These leaders are powerless and corrupt, fixated on personal gains and self-gratification. Almost like guests at a massive party thrown on behalf of, and at the expense and credibility of the same people to whom great disservice is rendered. It is a massive orgy or misorganisation and short-lived reactionary policies headed for destruction and unsustainability.

Here the Dread Team dares to ask in the face of so much evidence and failed political experiments: if conceivable or achievable, what is the shape of the ideal Black state?

Although there are many examples from the previous centuries which lend much credit to the myth that there is no such thing as the ideal Black state, we have a wealth of pre-colonial instances of Black hegemony and statehood. The historical transition from a notion of an empowered Black state vis-a-vis Egypt and Ethiopia to the present condition of the Black state is one of desperation and corruption. We are therefore of the view that a Black state in its ideal format, that is one in which its people are well-fed, well-educated and employed, can never exist or survive within the present colonial framework.

The ideal Black nation would be free. This means ideally not only from the shackles of slavery and its legacy, but also from internationally imposed restrictions on trade, aid and the means through which their people can accumulate wealth and prosperity. The stark realities existing in countries where debt payments amount to a significant portion of GDP remind us that we are enriching the few while the many are starving to death. So therefore, in an ideal Black state, people will eat to their heart's content, at least we hope not beyond the point where they become a chronic burden on the nationally-based and run health system of that ideal Black state. There would be basic infrastructures and energy resources would be wisely administered, there would be well-performing school to form the minds of the young for the development of freedom-loving, inquisitive, critical and creative minds.

The ideal Black state is created in the image of the natural Black identity and can never be a superimposition of a foreign
ideology. This is where our present-day dilemma of Black nations has come from. The pressures of globalisation have forced us into a box that time has told can only be shattered by revolution. However, those who have dared this feat have suffered dire consequences from their former colonial masters. These examples have paved the way for a docile, diminished and diminutive Black state. This of course simply won't do for the generations of Afrikans to come the world over. In the face of a suppressive system and given the retaliatory and reactionary tactics of the global imperialist, it seems that the first step on our journey to realise the ideal Black state which we have just described, is to do what Black people have always done, which is to beat them at their own game. A shining but somewhat still flawed model of this type of tactic is that of communist China. The implication is not to mimic China's tactic per se, but the point is that it shows what is possible for non-Western countries in an increasingly global environment. Black culture and ideology provide the opportunity for a as-yet-unseen perspective on global and economic trade. We have only to articulate this and apply it in the sense that will enable the enrichment of Black states, thereby providing the required capital for us to eventually thrive.

Our duty is for one of responsibility TODAY in our nations, each man and woman, every breathing voting citizen to stand up and be counted on the way to building the democratic Black states that will be ground breakers, beacons of light for others to emulate and seek inspiration from. We have the great joy today of a free South Africa for example, but much remains to be done for its people to be really free from inequality and violence. We need more and better South Africas on the way to realising the ideal Black state. We must reacquaint ourselves with the idea of self ownership and be active seekers of our rightful destiny toward the higher and mightier goals of humanity. This earth is also ours and the power of innovation is not new to us.

One Love

The Dread Team

This is Black History Month. In these parts it means that the month of October at various Colleges, Universities and City Councils around the UK will have an event, public talk or debate on offer. 2007 has so far been marked by an emphasis put on the Anti-Slavery Act of 1807 to end slavery in the British Empire. For the Dread Team, it is overdue and appropriate that the Western world takes ownership of its oppressive past and realise that the destructive powers of slavery are still with us today.

But Black History does not need a constant reminescing of Afrikan bondage, still existing today through racial discrimination and the inequality of economic opportunities for our peoples and nations. As a people, we agree, we need to stay connected to our common narrative of enslavement. However, together we must also rise above our current circumstance through unity and action. We must OWN our God-given right to unquestioned equality. We must positively assert the most beautiful tenets of humanity, because this was the Ancestors' way. We must KNOW our Ancestors, their history and customs, BEFORE they passed through the cold rock of one-way slave forts in Western Africa.

Black History month celebrations for some are synonymous with sad stories of persecution, death and dying repeated over and over again, making a few martyrs heros. But Black History month could mean more. Even in conscious places of higher learning like universities, Black students will often avoid participating in events organised whose focus is slavery or some related topic. At some level this position may be myopic, but it is the way some of us have learned to deal with feeling shame of belonging to a defeated, oppressed and impoverished race of man and women. Let us reassure them that while more empowering and forward-looking events and programmes can and will be organised, pride on who we are and in where we come from is the first step. Looking away won't show the full reflection.

Black History month is also the celebration, for instance, of unity of purpose and partnership. We often hear of men and women who come together powerfully in peace time or times of crisis to unite under the banner of truth and rights. Afrikans have the iconic figures of Solomon and Makeda (Queen of Sheba), Martin Luther King Jr and Coretta Scott King, Nelson and Winnie Mandela and there are many others. Black History month should be given to a celebration of such partnerships that consolidate the foundations of our future prosperity as a race, and also brings great minds together in a unity of purpose. We should not refrain from uncovering such themes of partnerships and accomplishments whatever the field of excellence.

Because, we must remember that the patriarchal and misogyistic culture to which we belong is not our original or true culture. Like the symbolic Egyptian Ankh, bearing the symbols of both the male and female to equal the completeness of Life, we cannot be complete until the gasping chasm of male-female disparity is finally sealed. Until the historic scars of slavery, the pressures that emasculated our men and super-sexualised and denigrated our women, are finally acknowledged and resolved. Therefore the theme of gender equality and the restoration of healthy romantic BLack relationships is thoroughly intertwined with our ultimate struggle for liberty.

So, we ask you, how should Black History month be celebrated?

BLessed love

Dread Team

Watching the news tonight, we note that the president of the Black Police Association has endorsed the expansion of race profiling, the systematic stop and search procedure that haunts young Black brothers daily. It reminds us of what the Nazis used to do to the Jews right before the Holocaust set full steam ahead. Therefore, wonder why a Black British man, an accomplished officer, would advocate that this racist and repressive policy be not simply continued but EXPANDED! Some in our Dread team say this guy must be blind, others are saying that this exemplifies the self hatred that we Black people of accomplishment are encouraged to feel...Is he just then, a victim of an oppressive system?

Whatever the case, this brother has done a great disservice to the race at large and I certainly hope he doesn't speak for the entire National Black Police Association(NBPA), which has traditionally fought against race profiling.

Keith Jarrett has stated that he didn't care how this whole issue went down with the Black Community although he knows many of them strongly disagree. This statement alone indicates the frame of mind of a man who would prefer to go against his own constituency and makeup to take a position that is not reconciliable with his own freedom and that of his children. As a departing president of the NBPA, Jarrett is indicating a need for attention for his organisation. That was the worst way to do this. He has simply shown his irresponsibility and lack of judgement. May he be remembered forever in the history of Afrikans as a defeatist blunder of a man. Those who sought the opinion of an underexposed unpopular president of the NBPA clearly had other goals. They confirmed it through the mouthpiece of David Blunkett who basically endorses Jarrett's untenable position, by saying that if the Black community is asking for this and want to cooperate than the police should not back off when dealing with Black-on-Black crime. They have found another champion for their racist irresponsible policies that will further reinforce the second class citizen status of Black Africans. It reads like a failed play script: Jarrett: "I want fewer freedoms for me and my people!" Blunkett:"This guy says he talks for the whole Black community; He says they want this, so let them have it!"

Yes, in this yet another comedic act of media infiltration by the Neo-Nazi forces upon whose shoulders this system is built, the BBC has caricaturised Jarret by giving great publicity to his views. Surely, if he, one of 'them', agrees that the police need to be stopping 'them', this excuses the entirely racist pretext for the system of race profiling. So much so that the BBC can call good old Home Secretary David Blunkett, who, true to form, then proceeds to open his clumsy grill in support of what amounts to a Neo-NAzi policy. All facilitated and rendered appropriate by Jarrett's statements. Inch by inch, the line that demarcates common humanity is blurred; it is now appropriate, even necessary, to demean this 'troublesome' impoverished Black class that has been created in the wake of failed colonial hegemony.

So, now that it took a Black man who is prepared to say what the white man wouldn't say, they feel 'safe' in saying too. We note that it always takes a weak conscience to awaken that of the majority prejudice. Jarrett is only one of a group representative of our collective shame at the very face, appearance, language and fashion of our youth. What would it take to have good old white folks regard us as ok, safe, acceptable? In truth, to those amongst us who would never admit to having such thoughts, ever, would nonetheless never unleash, through the seat of borrowed power, voiced opinions of racial segregation and cleansing. Because, let us make no mistakes, just as Black men are 6 times more likely to be stopped and searched already, the proportion of those who will also die in custody will also increase as much as the policy advocated by Jarrett will deliver sure death for all young black youth, by sight.

With new laws in the UK allowing ever-longer holding times in prison without charge for terror suspects, and now Blunkett, a major policy maker's, public endorsement for the systematically racist intimidation of the Black British population (who are paying taxes and contributing to society at large), New Labour is smelling ever-more like Apartheid South Africa. It should serve as no surprise since the same forces are at work in both instances; Britain in many ways both initiated and facilitated the massacre and disenfranchisement of Black South Africans in their own land. Now they seek to do the same in Britain. Nazism was an important and destructive force in 20th century history, and now we fear it is rearing its hideous head, and with a vengeance.

We are reminded of the wise words of Brother Bob Marley: "Give them an inch they take a mile..."

One in the struggle

The Dread Team

Blessed love!

Our Dread team greet you from the gut of Babylon, where we agitate daily to give dem belly ache! Our blog is concerned with Truth dissemination in the face of the lies of our oppressors. We have come to expose and defeat the disingenious manipulations of Afrikan consciousness in the world today. Our position is one of resistance to oppression in the various forms visited on Afrikans the world over, and of demanding liberation now!

Dread Iditation is a revolutionary state of consciousness to re-instate a place of honour to critical observation, rigour and persuasion to our understanding of the Afrikan experience. It is the basis for concrete action. "Dread" is the state of defiant Dignity, as we reach back into the luminous passages of time to reclaim our lost and glorious History! Iditation is known in English as "meditation". We now replace the "me", which is indicative of the ego, with the "I", which represents the All, the Id. When we are at One in our iditative process we will defeat this system which is designed for our demise.

Dread Iditations is a collective statement of resistance and a movement of the people forward! We denounce bigotted ideas of racial and cultural imperialism divorced of their real assumptions and intentions to enslave the minds of Africans. We re-assert our natural rights to freedom and self empowerment which our forefathers and foremothers have handed us down for generations. It is right time to advance the bases of our prosperity in this generation. It is our duty to raise the level of debate as we promote dread iditation as an organ of change.

So, this blog will offer well-researched perspectives on the state of the war that began 500 years ago with the advent of the Transatlantic slave trade, and that continues today in the form of worldwide oppression of Afrikan peoples. We will feature regular articles that are geared towards building Solidarity and Enlightenment. Please feel free to contribute as we seek to create an environment of Truth-seeking and are eager to hear your perspectives.

In the name of the Ancestors,

The Dread Team
Inna Babylon