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Bio-Sketch
Aduku Addae, born in 1959, is
a Jamaican by birth and an internationalist freedom
fighter by choice and conviction. As a young boy
he roamed the hills of his rural village, Bohemia,
located at the southwestern tip of the "Garden Parish,"
St. Ann, dreaming about Maroons (the reputed ancestors
of his paternal grandmother) and fighting many shadow
(imaginary) battles against the British Army of colonial
times.
The ultimate "mental assassin" in his daydreams he
never lost a single conflict to the enemy, the "Red
Coats."
more bio
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* The idea that the working class
woman can choose what to do with her body is
inconsistent with the fact that the body of the worker
(man or woman) is both an instrument of production and a
commodity. The workers in the factories and
offices are merely extensions of the equipment in these
corporate environs, therefore, instruments of
production. Workers are even more dispensable than
the equipment! They are bought and sold on the
labor market in much the same way as bread and cheese
are bought and sold. Hence, they are commodities.
The actions of the working people are
determined not by choice but by necessity. Necessity is
the driving force behind the decisions that poor people make.
Rich women are pro-choice because in a practical sense they can
make choices. Workingwomen have to yield to necessity.
The feminist movement is interested in "rights" (read choices)
and privileges, which are buttressed on consumerist notions.
The movement's organizational and agitational efforts are not
directed to realize social equity. Feminism
and the Criminallization of Masculinity
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* * My father was a
“comrade” to the bone and in his 70 years of life never
wavered from that conviction up to his passing in 1997.
He was born, lived and died a “PNP man” and an
incorrigible Manley supporter.
Passion as strong as was my father’s belief
in the People’s National Party (PNP) touches everyone that comes
into contact with it. This passion affected us as children
without exception. To this day my siblings remain faithful to
the People’s National Party.
As intimated earlier, Manley was the Messiah,
the Christ redeemer in my father’s household. As such, he
exercised considerable influence over me during my formative
years. For about 5 years, between 12 and 17 years of age, I ran
around with the rest of the 'sheep' waving my fist in defiance
and shouting "Power!"
Manley's Legacy
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* * It must be pointed
out that women are as anti-homosexual as men are. If
this non-acceptance of homosexuality represents a
phobia, a fear, then women fear homosexuals just as much
as men do.
Extending the writers logic, women fear
masculinization
just as men fear
feminization. So homophobia for women is
masculinophobia
(if I may coin a word) as it is
femmephobia
for men. Homophobia is both femmephobia and
masculinophobia, not just the former as the writer
asserts. The writer’s theorization produces a lopsided
analysis that implicitly incorporates the fictive
non-analytical notion that “homophobia” is a male
affliction. So, even in this subtle manner, heterosexual
men find themselves under attack.
In any event, it is absurd to say that people
who are not pro-homosexual are homophobic.
Most people simply find this conduct abhorrent and are not
any more afraid of homosexuals than they are of heterosexuals
(men and women) who are profligate.
Gay women are the ones, who evidently need to
be fearful of the "repository of power," the punaany, for,
finding themselves subordinate to other women, they are the ones
who are conquered by it.
The men in this drama, of course, have something more repulsive
to fear – the overpowering penis. Homophobia (read, in the biased
language of the author of the Jamaica Gleaner articles,
fear of the phallus) is the appropriate response.
The DJs have properly identified this source of fear.
The academician is wrong. It seems, though, that all these
fears must be ascribed to homosexuals and not heterosexuals.
Reflecting
on Love Puny Bad
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* * Rhygin is the epitome of ghetto manhood.
"Single handedly and unaided, he had killed . . . armed
men, themselves intent on his life." (It is the ultimate
act of survival and this is the essence of life in the
ghetto – survival).
In the mind of the ghetto youth this is a hero of
legendary stature.
If the old rude boys had to invent or adopt (and adapt)
heroic figures for their roles in the ghetto drama the
new rude boys are able to find these in the folkloric
tradition of the ghetto.
The drama now unfolds as ghetto theatre on the dancehall stage.
Ninja Man is not Billy the Kid. He does not inhabit the Hollywood tale.
He is not walking in the blight of John Wayne’s shadow.
He is a dramatist, with a contemporary Jamaican voice,
cast in the role of Rhygin.
Even as Rhygin was standing at the gates of eternity he was not afraid.
In fact "[h]e had to fight the laughter that rose up in
him. . . . He realized with great astonishment that Babylon,
with all their long guns, were afraid of him."
Ninja Man boasted of his arsenal of “long guns”. The implication is
astounding.
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Michael Manley (1924-1997) was
Jamaica's fifth Prime Minister. He served two terms --
1972-1980; 1989-1992. He became leader of the People's National
Party (PNP) in 1969 at the death of his father. Considered
a man of the people, he often mingled among the people in causal
dress. Though white, he maintained an amiable relationship with
Jamaica's black majority. A socialist, he was a friend of Fidel
Castro. His economic programs had mixed success. Manley is
also credited with initiating a culture of political violence by
his party funding street gangs during elections to ensure
support and political success. The 1980s election was considered
extremely corrupt. |
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Edward Seaga, leader of Jamaica's
Labour Party, became the next prime Minister. The
1980 campaign left a 1,000 Jamaicans dead. Seaga
also supported with troops Ronald Reagan's invasion
of Grenada. Manley was returned to Prime Minister
1989, but retired in 1992 because of reasons of
health.
Percival James Patterson, then Deputy Prime Minister, succeeds Michael Manley as party leader
and prime minister.
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P. J. Patterson, born 1935 at St Andrew, Jamaica, was elected to a
fourth term in October 2002 as prime Minister of Jamaica. His
father was a farmer and his mother a teacher. He studied
University College of the West Indies and London School of
Economics.
Patterson is also a lawyer by training. He became an active member of the People's National
Party in the 1950s, nominated to the Senate when he was
32 and joined the House of Representatives in 1970. During 1972-80 he served in a number of
portfolios, including minister of finance and deputy prime
minister. |
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Paul Bogle, commemorated in song by
Bob Marley, was born a free man circa
1822 in the parish of St Thomas, during the height of Jamaican
slavery. He was an ordained Baptist deacon who sought reforms on
behalf of the black poor, believing that better governmental
polices could improve social and economic conditions.
On 11 October 1865 Bogle
organized a peaceful march that turned violent -- later called
the Morant Bay Rebellion. It resulted in the execution of over
five hundred persons and harsh punishment for countless others,
including Bogle, who was hanged on October 24, 1865. |
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African Revolutions
By
Mukoma wa Ngugi
Her womb
pressed against the desert to bear the
parasite
that eats
her insides like termites drill into dry
wood.
He is born
into an empty bowl, fist choking
umbilical cord.
She dies
sighing, child son at last. He
couldn't have known,
instinct
told him - always raise your arm in
defense of your
own
-Strike! Strike until they are all dead!
Egg shells
in your
hands milk bottle held between your
toes,
you have
been anointed twice, you strong enough
to kill
at birth
and survive. You will want to name
the world
after
yourself but you will have no name- a
collage of dead
roots,
tongues and other things. You will
point your sword
to the
center of the earth, duel the world to
split into perfect
mirrors
after your imperfect mutations but
you will be
too weak
having latched your self onto too many
streams
straddling
too many continents, pulling patches of
a self
as one does
fruits from an from an orchard, building
a home
of planks
with many faces. How does one look into
a mirror
with a face
that washes clean every rainy season?
He has an
identity for every occasion - here he is
Lenin
there
Jesus and yesterday Marx - inflexible
truths inherited
without
roots. To be nothing to remain
nothing, to kill
at birth -
such love can only drink from our
wrists. We
storming
from our past to Jo'Burg eating wisdom
of others
building
homes made of our grandparent's bones.
We
gathering
momentum that eats out of our earth, We
standing
pens and
bullets hurled at you, your enemies.
Comrade, there
are many
ways to die. A dog dies never having
known
why it
lived but a free death belongs to a life
lived in roots,
roots not
afraid of growing where they stand,
roots tapped all over
the earth.
Comrade, for a tree to grow, it must
first own its earth.
Source:
Zeleza |
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The Slave Ship
By Marcus Rediker
John Henrik Clarke—A Great and Mighty Walk
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Wild Women Don’t Have the
Blues
By Ida Cox
I hear these women raving 'bout their
monkey men
About their fighting husbands and their
no good friends
These poor women sit around all day and
moan
Wondering why their wandering papas
don't come home
But wild women don't worry, wild women
don't have the blues.
Now when you've got a man, don't ever be
on the square
'Cause if you do he'll have a woman
everywhere
I never was known to treat no one man
right
I keep 'em working hard both day and
night
because wild women don't worry, wild
women don't have no blues.
I've got a disposition and a way of my
own
When my man starts kicking I let him
find another home
I get full of good liquor, walk the
streets all night
Go home and put my man out if he don't
act right
Wild women don't worry, wild women don't
have no blues
You never get nothing by being an angel
child
You better change your ways and get real
wild
I wanna tell you something, I wouldn't
tell you no lie
Wild women are the only kind that ever
get by
Wild women don't worry, wild women don't
have no blues.
Born
Ida
Prather,25 February 1896 in Toccoa,
Habersham County, Georgia, United
States. Died 10 November 1967 (aged 71)
Genres Jazz, Blues Instruments Vocalist. |
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Hunger for a Black President /
Introduction I Write What I Like
Biko Biosketch
Biko Speaks on Africans
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Fourth World Essays
Afro-America
& The Fourth World
The
Black Middle Class & a Political Party of the Poor (essay)
Dark
Child of the Fourth World
The
Fourth World and the Marxists
The
Fourth World: In the Belly of the Beast
New
Orleans: The American Nightmare
On
the Fourth World: Black Power, Black Panthers,
and White Allies
Why I Support
the Latino Demonstrators
Other Fourth World Essays
African
America –
A Fourth World (Waldron H. Giles)
Dark Child of the Fourth World Reaches Out
(Dennis Leroy Moore)
Fourth World Introduction (M.P. Parameswaran)
Fourth
World: Marxist, Gandhian, Environmentalist
(M.P. Parameswaran)
The Fourth World Multiculturalism (Rose Ure Mezu)
Fourth World Programme
M.P. Parameswaran)
Neo-Liberalism Dictatorship of the Market
M.P. Parameswaran)
The Rise and Fall of the Socialist World
M.P. Parameswaran)
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless Mammy’s
behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to white folks’
domestic concerns, often at the expense of those of her
own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The White Masters
of the World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest / Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The
Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding
of Haiti
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ChickenBones Store
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update
5 January 2012
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