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There is an African
saying that when an elder dies a library is burned. It
is an apt description of what the African World has lost
in the transition of Dr. John Henrik Clarke into the
realm of the ancestors. No other paradigm of the essence
of a Pan-Africanist has there been, except in the guise
of John Henrik Clarke. Throughout a life spanning over
80 years, he sought to define what it is to be an
African in the world. His lifelong task had been to find
the African, be he man or woman, in the respectful
commentary of history. His journey began by searching
through the Bible onward to delving into the pages of
the history of early man into to the 21st century to
find and document that record for the world to see. He
was an activist organic scholar, and would engage in
grounding with anyone that truly sought to know who they
were as Africans.
Africa World Press,
publisher of books on and about Africa, has released
Pan-African Nationalism in the Americas: The Life And
Times Of John Henrik Clarke by Julius E. Thompson
and James L. Conyers, Jr. They attempt to capture, in
capsule view, a publishing history of Dr. Clarke. They
record his writings as a journalist, short story writer,
world traveler, biographer and historian. While it is
commendable, it lacks the wholeness of Dr. John Henrik
Clarke’s lifelong efforts. They fail to include his
treatise on Pan-Africanism published by Presence
Africaine. Dr. Clarke's published articles on a Funeral
Wake celebration among the Ga people are not mentioned.
His treatise on Ancient Nigeria and the Sudan is not
given the light of day. John Henrik Clarke's work as a
researcher and writer for Freedom Newspaper,
founded by Paul Robeson, is not featured, along with
their mistakenly mentioning that Dr. Clarke founded
Freedomways magazine. He was one of the founders.
Mistakenly it is stated that he founded the African
Heritage Studies Association.
The AHSA was
founded in 1968 after the Black members of the ASA
(African Studies Association) walked out of the
Montreal, Canada meeting. There were previous protest
meetings at the African Studies Association meetings in
Los Angeles and later at Federal City College in
Washington, D.C. John Henrik Clarke was elected as
AHSA’s first president. Dr. Clarke spearheaded the
protest. Dr. Clarke felt that it was time for Africans
to speak and write their own history for themselves. No
record of his participation in the Committee Against the
Name Negro is recorded. His participation on the Fair
Play For Cuba Committee is emphasized.
John Henrik Clarke
attended many important conferences in African and
African-American studies, often reporting on the
proceedings. Where are those reports? He was also a
curriculum consultant in Black Studies before it became
popular in academia. Along with Vincent Harding, John
Clarke hosted the CBS series, Black Heritage. He
was the Dean of the Black Studies movement. He offered
solace and direction to many future scholars and
activists in the field, such as Charshee McIntyre,
Marimba Ani, Jacob H. Carruthers, James E. Turner,
Shelby Smith, Leonard Jeffries, Iva E. Carruthers, and
others. He is mistakenly cited as having translated
Cheikh Anta Diop’s
African Origin Of Civilization: Myth Or Reality.
Dr. John Henrik Clarke was instrumental in getting
Lawrence Hill publishers to publish it in the English
speaking world. It was Mercer
Cook who translated the book. John Clarke championed
Diop’s work and sought to make Diop familiar to the
African worldwide.
During 1997 after
an illness, a Testimonial was given in Atlanta, Georgia,
celebrating his lifelong dedication in Africana studies
and his love and commitment to African people. Scholars
throughout the U.S. attended, yet it is not mentioned.
Some of those tributes should have been included. Four
generations of his family were present at the affair.
Attorney Percy Sutton fondly speaks of John Henrik
Clarke’s Left years as a radical in Harlem. Clarke, in
many settings, tells of his membership with the Young
Communist League and his 60 year relationship with the
Communist Party although never a member of the CPUSA.
Clarke raised monies for the Italian-Ethiopian War and
participated in events coordinated by the Council on
African Affairs. Clarke spent years in Ghana as a
feature writer for the Ghanaian Evening News,
researching and documenting the lives of African leaders
in order to give the black world positive views of what
African or black leadership would look like. The black
world anxiously watched the reign of
Osaygefo Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana as many African
nations began to become independent.
John Henrik
Clarke’s relationship with
Malcolm X is not given full
treatment. John Clarke often would recommend and give
Malcolm books to read while posing questions for him to
answer in his quest to know the history of the African
world. Who was more apt to perform such a task other
than Dr. John Henrik Clarke. John Clarke also gave
monies to support the struggles of
Robert F. Williams in Monroe, North Carolina and was
a member of the Monroe Defense Committee.
John Henrik
Clarke’s legacy cannot be truly recorded until we do the
necessary research which captures his journey toward
Africa and her peoples in the affairs of the world.
Speak truth to power and show the world that
John Henrik Clarke
was indeed True of Voice.
© August 2005
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Baba Obadele
Williams
Africana Research Specialist/Photo
Journalist/African-American Curriculum
Consultant/Author/Conference Coordinator
For over 30 years
Baba Obadele has been active in researching African and
African-American historical studies as a lecturer,
curriculum consultant, journalist and archivist. He was
a correspondent for the international journal Africa
Must Unite, published by the Arusha-Konakri
Institute under the astute editorship of Ruwa Chiri. In
his student years as a student at the University of
Chicago, he was active in the Black Student Union and
editor of the Black student newspaper, Black Rap.
He also attended classes taught by the late pioneering
Black psychologist Dr. Bobby E. Wright, author of The
Psychopathic Racist Personality and Dr. Anderson
Thompson at the Black Communiversity in Chicago,
Illinois during the 1970s. He further came under the
tutelage of the Pan-Afrikanist activist, Ruwa Chiri
founder of the Arusha-Konakri Institute and the journal
Afrika Must Unite.
From 1973-1978,
Baba Williams was instrumental in organizing local
Atlanta Marcus M. Garvey celebrations along with Akiba
Adande and Khusu Wanzu. As a Photo Journalist he has
covered both African Liberation Day Celebrations and the
1st M.L. King, Jr. National Holiday March and Birthday
celebrations. During 1976-78, Obadele served as a staff
volunteer at the Institute of the Black World. In 1978
thru 1980, he became a member of the Shrine of the Black
Madonna of the Pan-African Orthrodox Christian Church
and tutored Basic Training members in African history.
During 1983. he
coordinated the Return to the Source Conference
featuring Dr. Charles B. Copher, Asa G. Hilliard III,
Charles S. Finch III, Runoko Rashidi, Walter Palmer and
Charlyne Harper-Bolton sponsored by the Bennu Study
Group and Morris Brown College. As a writer his articles
have appeared in the Journal of African Civilizations,
Fast Forward, the Atlanta Voice newspaper, Return to the
Source, History, the Bible and Blackman magazine, IFA
News, the Atlanta Inquirer newspaper, Kwanzaa Resource
Guide and RAW magazine.
In 1984, Obadele
was co-convener of the historic Nile Valley Conference
held at Morehouse College that brought over 2500
attendees. Its central theme was to highlight the
African origin and contributions to early civilization.
Scholars such as Cheikh Anta Diop, Ivan Van Sertima, Jan
Carew, John Pappademos, Asa G. Hilliard III, Beatrice
Lumpkin and Hunter H. Adams were presenters. In 1985, as
a photojournalist he documented Cheikh Anta Diop’s 1st
visit to U.S. soil and is the ket archivist and
co-editor of the definitive treatment of Diop’s work on
the African Origin of Civilization titled,
Great African Thinkers, Vol. 1: Cheikh Anta Diop.
As a warrior
activist in Africana studies and research in 1986 along
with Dr. Asa G. Hilliard III, he founded the Atlanta
Chapter of (ASCAC) the Association for the Study of
Classical African Civilizations. Through his organizing
expertise the Atlanta chapter hosted the 1986 Southern
Regional ASCAC Conference, the 1988 ASCAC Education for
Liberation Mini-conference in Miami, Florida. As a
co-editor with Nia Damali and Asa G. Hilliard III he
published
The Teachings of Ptahhotep: The Oldest Book in the World,
To Be African with Kwado Burnett Gallman and
Marimba Ani and The Struggle To Bring True African
History into Being with Asa G. Hilliard III an ASCAC
Critical Commentary. In 1987, Baba Obadele Williams
traveled to Egypt to present the paper, “The Kemetic
Origins of the Greco-Roman Gods And Goddesses,” later
published by the University of Sankore Press in
Reconstructing Kemetic Culture edited by Maulana
Karenga.
With increased
interest and efforts to create an African-centered
curriculum in elementary and High Schools Baba Obadele
served as a curriculum consultant in the Portland and
Atlanta Public School’s African-American Curriculum
programs. A 10 Volume set of Videos titled,
African-American Culture: A Second Look was produced
through the collaborative efforts of Obadele Williams,
Asa G. Hilliard III and Marti Chitwood. As an outgrowth
of national efforts to infuse African-American History
into School Curricula, Mr. Williams was selected along
with Herman L. Reese, Asa G. Hilliard III and Lucretia
Payton-Stewart to coordinate the National Infusion
Conferences of 1990-1992. Obadele was the chief force
behind the publication of
Proceedings of the National Infusion Conference,
1990 published by Aaron Press and republished by Third
World Press.
In conjunction with
Nancy Harris, Charlyn Harper-Bolton and Asa G. Hilliard
III, Obadele co-authored the Portland Public school
monograph, From Ancient Africa To African-Americans
Today. He served as African-American curriculum
consultant for In-Service training for teachers at the
Atlanta Public Schools from 1992-1995. During that time
he edited the publications, the Atlanta Public Schools
African and African-American Curriculum Content Program
Guide along with compiling the Supplemental
readings/Support For The African-American Curriculum
Infusion Project(1990). As a photojournalist and
archivist in Africana studies his work has been featured
in South Carolina E-TV’s internationally acclaimed
program “For The People” hosted by the late Listervelt
Middleton.
The award winning
documentary of Dr. John Henrik Clarke, “Great And Mighty
Walk” featured video and slides from Baba Obadele’s
private archival collection of African history of 40
years. Baba Williams has one of the world’s most
extensive collections of articles, books, photos,
audio-tapes and videos of Dr. John Henrik Clarke.
Obadele as a bibliophile has researched the created
bibliographies of leading scholars in African and
Africentric studies--Cheikh Anta Diop, Wade W. Nobles,
Na’im Akbar, Frances Cress Welsing, Charles S. Finch
III, Ivan Van Sertima, Runoko Rashidi, Jacob H.
Carruthers, Chancellor Williams, Hubert H. Harrison, J.A.
Rogers, etc.
As an African
research specialist he was the co-founder of the Bennu
Study Group and the coordinator of the ASCAC Study Group
of Atlanta. He was appeared on WLIB’s Night Talk with
Bob Law, WRFG’s Round Midnight, Spoken Expression and
WAOK’s Chris Askew Show. As a result of the airing of
the Shaka Zulu series, Baba Obadele led a challenge to
TV-36’s airing of the program with a 10 myth rebuttal
with community scholars and activists. Obadele has been
a member of the Board Of Directors and Southern Regional
President of the Association for the Study of Classical
African Civilizations. He is the recipient of the ASCAC
Presidential Award(1989) and the Positive Image
Award(1990). Baba Obadele recently was honored by being
selected as an elder in the Jegna Collective of the
Metro-Atlanta area.
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The State of African Education
(April 200)
Attack On Africans Writing Their Own
History Part 1 of 7
Dr Asa Hilliard III speaks on the assault of academia on
Africans writing and accounting for their own history.
Dr Hilliard is A
teacher, psychologist, and historian.
Part 2 of 7
/
Part
3 of 7 /
Part 4 of 7
/
Part 5 of 7 /
Part 6 of 7 /
Part 7 of 7
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John Henrik Clarke and the Power of Africana
History
Africalogical Quest for Decolonization and
Sovereignty
By
Ahati N. N. Toure
Under Clarke s formulation liberation was
defined not simply as freedom from European
domination, but fundamentally as the
restoration of Afrikan sovereignty. He
explored history’s utility in moving an
oppressed and subordinated people from a
position of subjugation on multiple levels
to full status as a self-sustaining,
self-defining, self-directed, free, and
independent people on a global stage.
Further, the study examines the influence of
indigenous Afrikan intellectualism in the
United States in Afrikan cultural and
intellectual history. Although a leader
among European academy-trained Afrikan
intellectuals who join the European academy
largely beginning in the 1970s, Clarke s
education and training were the product of a
movement for the indigenization of Afrikan
academic intellectualism in Harlem of the
1930s that can be traced back to the early
nineteenth century. It is the first
extensive critical examination of Clarke as
an exemplar of indigenous intellectualism in
Afrikan culture in the United States |
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A Critical Biography
Julius E. Thompson and James L. Conyers, Jr.
Pan-African Nationalism in the Americas
The Life
And Times Of John Henrik Clarke /
John Henrik Clarke—A Great and Mighty Walk
YouTube Lectures
Dr. John Henrik
Clarke—Christopher Columbus 1 of 7
/
John Henrik Clarke talks about Farrakhan
Dr. John Henrik Clarke on organized religion vs
spirituality /
Part 2 /
Part 3
/
Part 4
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The Persistence of the Color Line
Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency
By Randall Kennedy
Among the best things about
The Persistence of the Color Line
is watching Mr. Kennedy hash through the
positions about Mr. Obama staked out by
black commentators on the left and
right, from Stanley Crouch and Cornel
West to Juan Williams and Tavis Smiley.
He can be pointed. Noting the way Mr.
Smiley consistently “voiced skepticism
regarding whether blacks should back
Obama” . . .
The
finest chapter in
The Persistence of the Color Line
is so resonant, and so personal, it
could nearly be the basis for a book of
its own. That chapter is titled
“Reverend Wright and My Father:
Reflections on Blacks and Patriotism.”
Recalling some of the criticisms of
America’s past made by Mr. Obama’s
former pastor, Mr. Kennedy writes with
feeling about his own father, who put
each of his three of his children
through Princeton but who “never forgave
American society for its racist
mistreatment of him and those whom he
most loved.” His father distrusted
the police, who had frequently called
him “boy,” and rejected patriotism. Mr.
Kennedy’s father “relished Muhammad
Ali’s quip that the Vietcong had never
called him ‘nigger.’ ” The author places
his father, and Mr. Wright, in
sympathetic historical light. |
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The Price of Civilization
Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity
By
Jeffrey D. Sachs
The Price of Civilization is a book
that is essential reading for every
American. In a forceful, impassioned, and
personal voice, he offers not only a searing
and incisive diagnosis of our country’s
economic ills but also an urgent call for
Americans to restore the virtues of
fairness, honesty, and foresight as the
foundations of national prosperity. Sachs
finds that both political parties—and many
leading economists—have missed the big
picture, offering shortsighted solutions
such as stimulus spending or tax cuts to
address complex economic problems that
require deeper solutions. Sachs argues that
we have profoundly underestimated
globalization’s long-term effects on our
country, which create deep and largely unmet
challenges with regard to jobs, incomes,
poverty, and the environment. America’s
single biggest economic failure, Sachs
argues, is its inability to come to grips
with the new global economic realities.
Sachs describes a political system that has
lost its ethical moorings, in which
ever-rising campaign contributions and
lobbying outlays overpower the voice of the
citizenry. . . . Sachs offers a plan to turn
the crisis around. He argues persuasively
that the problem is not America’s abiding
values, which remain generous and pragmatic,
but the ease with which political spin and
consumerism run circles around those values.
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posted 8 April
2007
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