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Writings
of Runoko Rashidi
Introduction to African Civilizations /
African Presence in Early Asia /
Introduction to the Study of African Classical Civilizations
* * * * *
Runoko in
Papua New Guinea
Travel Writing by Runoko Rashidi
Notes from Papua New Guinea, in Paradise (?)
19 October 2008
Greetings Family,
I am in
Port Moresby—the capital of Papua New Guinea. It
is my first time here. I don't know how much
time I have on the Internet and so I will try to
write fast. First of all, Papua New Guinea is a
Black nation. The people are lovely. There is
a wide diversity of physical types and the
sisters are gorgeous. I have only been here for
a couple of hours but from the time that I
arrived in the airport I felt that I was in a
place that I always wanted to be. The reason I
put a question mark after paradise is that I am
afraid that it is almost too good to be true.
And if this hotel in the capital is this nice,
my goodness what must the rest of this country
be like?
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The people here give the impression
of being kind and gentle and humble
and a little shy. And they are
Black! I love the sisters and
brothers in Australia but, at the
risk of being offensive, they have
been so dispossessed that it is like
they are fringe dwellers in their
own country. I enjoyed much of my
experience in Australia. I went to
the Black community of Yarrabah
where I spent a lot of time with the
mayor, spent some quality time with
Professor Graceyln Smallwood and her
good friend Christine Howes, and had
a fascinating experience watching
and talking to people at an
Aboriginal rugby tournament.
But the energy between the people in
these two places, Australia and Niugini, is
like night and day. In Australia
white supremacy is clearly
dominant. So being here is like a
breath of clear fresh air. I love
it. I mean that these are really
wonderful people. |
On the one
hand, many of them look just like people I have
known all of my life. Others look like no Black
folks that I have ever been around. Does any of
this make sense or do I sound like the crazy man
that I oftentimes think that I am? The people
here actually act like they care about you!
So I am in
a very nice hotel with an Internet connection.
It is expensive but from what I can gather all
of the tourist hotels are expensive here. So I
am just going to have to deal with it. Besides,
I am only here for two nights before I fly to
the island of New Britain and perhaps New
Ireland.
And I asked
one of the questions that you asked me to ask.
I asked one of the sisters at the front desk
where do the people here say that they come
from. Her answer was short and direct. She
said that they come from Africa!!! And she said
it boldly and with a expression of pride on her
face. The vibe in northern Queensland,
Australia is vastly different. I asked a
prominent brother from Australia yesterday how
he felt about origins. I told him that I placed
the Aboriginal people of Australia within the
family of African people. He just smiled. And
then I got my courage up and asked him how he
would feel if I simply called the Australian
Aboriginals African and he expressed the
belief he would be deeply offended.
I don't
think that the sisters and brothers in Australia
dislike Africa. But, as the brother told me,
the tradition handed down from generation to
generation is just that the Aboriginal people
have always been in Australia and that was
that. He was firm about it and it did not seem
like there was much to say after that. I will
spend more time with that theme in another email
as it is nothing to be glossed over. I also
want to share a conversation that I had two
days ago with a Ugandan brother about the
similarities between sisters and brothers in
Australia and those in Africa. So at least we
are talking and I am asking a lot of questions.
So I am
happy and in love all over again. So far,
being here, is like my trips to Fiji and Palau,
only bigger and better. There is something
about the Pacific that I have found nowhere else
on earth.
I will
write when I can but at least you know that, for
at least the present, I am safe and sound and
most content.
In love of Africa,
Runoko
Rashidi Okello, in Paradise (?)
* * * * *
More Notes from Papua New Guinea
20
October 2008
Greetings Africans,
I finished
early today and these are probably my last or
next to last notes from Port Moresby (but don‘t
count on it!). It is now going on three o’clock
in the afternoon and it is hot and humid
outside. It has to be about ninety degrees
Fahrenheit outdoors and so I am back in my room
pondering and wondering and writing and
relaxing.
|
Today has been an easy day and I
spent quite a bit of time chatting
with a number of the hotel staff.
They are a most friendly and easy
going group and seem as interested
in answering my questions as I am in
asking them.
I just got to Port Moresby yesterday
but it seems like I have been here
for a long time. African-Americans
are pretty rare here and I know that
I am the only one in this hotel; for
all I know I may be the only one in
the entire town. People are curious
about me but not intrusive and I
seem to fit right in. English is
widely spoken and I think that the
people that I encounter tend to take
me for a local until they hear my
accent.
The literature that I read about
Port Moresby says clearly that it is
dangerous to walk about and that you
must be very careful where you go.
But I grew up in South Central Los
Angeles! |
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As long as
I understand the language I do not get
frightened or rattled very easily and feel like,
with a little common sense, that I could go just
about anywhere here without fear of being
bothered. I also went to the National Museum
today. It was officially closed until further
notice and the door was locked, but the brother
in charge had few qualms about me, as he put it,
"taking a quick look around." He seemed really
shocked but quite pleased when I gave him five
dollars for his trouble, and when I left he bade
me a fond farewell.
Then, after
a quick pass by the parliament building, I went
to a supermarket and got my lunch. I find that
shopping here, going to the market, like
shopping just about anywhere, is an education in
itself. The coin of the realm here is the kina
(pronounced keena) and I have spent quite a lot
of them. I am, as Barack Obama might say,
“spreading the wealth.” Nobody begs here but I
give very good tips! By the way, everybody that
I talk to here is pulling for brother Barack and
hoping that he gets elected president. I have
been asked my opinion quite a lot and they are
all happy when I tell them that I am a big
Barack Obama supporter. For better or worse I
have found that Barack Obama represents the
hopes not just of sisters and brothers in the
United States but of the entire African world.
At least that is my impression.
The
population here is very diverse. The national
population is about five million with the
greatest concentration in the Central Highlands.
Papua New Guinea (Niugini in the local dialect)
is made up of nineteen provinces and they all
seem interesting. I wish that I had the time and
money to visit all of them. I could stay here
for a very long time. Anyhow, here are a few
photos that I picked up for you. I think that I
am going to send you three or four of them in
separate emails. If you don’t have the daily
digest format of mail delivery you should be
able to easily open the attachments and view
them.
Enjoy. You
might hear from me later as I am scheduled to
meet a local anthropologist early tomorrow
morning before my flight to Rabaul in East New
Britain. From there I am going to try to go to
the island of New Ireland, maybe by ferry, if
only for a day, and then I head to Buka Island
and hopefully to the semi-autonomous province of
Bougainville before I return to Aboriginal
Australia and then to the United States late
next week.
In spite of
how gentle these folks seem, from what I have
read head hunting long existed here and
apparently even a number of European
missionaries were eaten in these islands until
relatively recently, and so I guess that I am
going to be right in my element! And I should
have some most interesting stories to relate as
long as I keep my head! So far, so good! What a
life!
In love of Africa,
Brother
Runoko, in a good mood and having a
blast in Papua New Guinea!
* * * * *
Last Notes from
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
21 October 2008
Greetings Family,
I will soon be checking out of my
hotel and so this is it for now. In just a short time I leave for the a
city called Rabaul in a place called East New Britain. I don't know what
to expect there but I am not the least bit afraid or apprehensive, but I
have found it so pleasant here and wanted to share just a few quick
observations.
In my first email from here I put,
in the title, the word paradise with a question mark behind it. I
remove the question mark now and tell you why.
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1. The people are
wonderful and I feel like I am treated particularly
special. They are proud Black people and I feel like I am
among family.
2. I have not heard the "n" word or
the "b" word one time.
3. I have seen no sisters (or
brothers!) in tight, revealing western clothes.
4. I have seen no weaves or artificial
hair. I have seen no one who looks like a pressing comb has
been in their hair.
5. I have seen nobody who looks like
they bleached their skin.
6. Most people are Christians but so
far I have seen no images of white Jesus.
7. No one has imposed their religious
and/or cultural values on me.
8. The people believe that they come
from Africa.
9. Nobody has asked me for anything.
10. There is a degree of humility and kindness among the
people that I have rarely seen anywhere at anytime at
anyplace. |
That is my criteria right now for Paradise.
I love you sisters and brothers. I am going to
what is for me something akin to the ends of the earth and hope to email
you from there.
Be a blessing and go Barack Obama!
In love of Africa,
Runoko Rashidi Okello
TravelwithRunoko-owner@yahoogroups.com
http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/runoko.html
* * * * *
Buka Island
27 October 2008
Greetings Family,
I am on Buka Island in the
Autonomous Region of Bouganville, Papua New Guinea, deep, deep in the
South Pacific. I am among the most heavily melanated people that I have
ever seen. I have been among black people in Southern Sudan, Senegal,
Uganda and parts of East India but I have never seen Black folks like
this. Some of these sisters and brothers are so dark that I dare say
that you might not be able to see them at night! Some of them are shiny
black; others are coal black and some of them are just plain black.
These are the Bouganvilleans—the Buka—the "black-skins" and I have been
with them for four days days now. I am wantok—that means that I
am family—I am one of them. They act like they really care about me and
with no pretense and no expectation of reward. They are special.
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Never been in an environment like
this. I have been on Buka Island most of the time but a couple of days
ago I was taken by boat across the body of water called the Buka Passage
and then by truck through the big island of Bouganville. It is called
cowboy country because people say that there is no law and order there.
Very friendly people; like we have known each other forever. They
identify with Africa more than any other place. And you should see the
photos that I have taken!
I am fine and well; with family.
Could stay in these islands indefinitely. Am healthy and pretty fit;
never nervous. Eating local food; chewed betel nut; drank my share
(with everybody else) of South Pacific beer; staying at a Black owned,
kind of mom and pop hotel. One bank in the city; two hotels in the
city; one cyber cafe and that one does not work. Extremely hot and
humid; tropical climate. A lot of flying and crawly things including
the biggest most beautiful butterflies I have ever seen. People walk
around with Tupac, 50 Cent, Bob Marley and Rasta t-shirts. Some of them
know about Barack Obama and are pulling for him.
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I am in another world! People very
Black nationalistic!
Tomorrow I return to Australia. I
go direct to Townsville, Queensland and from there to Palm Island--a
former Aboriginal penal colony. Am scheduled to meet the Aboriginal
Mayor. meet brother Lex Wooton, and do a lecture.
Will write when I can and when I
have words. Right now it is hard, even for a writer like me, to express
myself. I am just feeling it. It is pouring rain outside.
Am having another experience of a lifetime!
In love of Africa,
Runoko Rashidi Okello
TravelwithRunoko-owner@yahoogroups.com
http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/runoko.html
* * * *
* Runoko Rashidi is a historian, research
specialist, writer, world traveler, and public lecturer focusing on the
African foundations of world civilizations. He is particularly drawn to
the African presence in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, and
has coordinated numerous historic educational group tours worldwide.
Dr. Rashidi is highly sought after for radio, television, and newspaper
interviews, having been interviewed on hundreds of radio broadcasts and
TV programs. He has made presentations at more than 125 colleges,
universities, secondary schools, libraries, book stores, churches and
community centers. On the international circuit he has lectured in over
50 countries.
Dr. Rashidi is the author of Introduction to the Study of African
Classical Civilizations. He edited, along with Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, The
African Presence in Early Asia, considered "the most comprehensive
volume on the subject yet produced". Dr. Rashidi also authored The
Global African Community: The African Presence in Asia, Australia and
the South Pacific. In December 2005 Dr. Rashidi released his first text
in French, A Thousand Year History of the African Presence in Asia. He
is the author of the forthcoming work Black Star: The African Presence
in Early Europe.
As an essayist and contributing writer, Dr. Rashidi's articles have
appeared in more than seventy-five publications. His historical essays
have been featured in the Journal of Civilizations Anthologies, and
cover the global African presence.
Included among the notable African scholars that Runoko has worked with
and been influenced by are: John Henrik Clarke, John G. Jackson, Yosef
ben-Jochannan, Chancellor James Williams, Charles B. Copher, Edward
Vivian Scobie, Ivan Van Sertima, Asa G. Hilliard III, Karen Ann Johnson,
Obadele Williams, Charles S. Finch, James E. Brunson, Wayne B. Chandler,
Legrand H. Clegg II, and Jan Carew.
As a traveler, Runoko has visited one hundred countries, colonies and
overseas territories in a twelve year period beginning in 1999.
Dr. Rashidi believes that his main mission in life is to help make
Africans proud of themselves, to help change the way Africa is viewed in
the world and to help reunite a family of people that has been separated
far too long
* * *
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The Eyes of Willie McGee
A
Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim
Crow South
By
Alex Heard
The Slave Ship
By Marcus Rediker
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Salvage the Bones
A Novel by Jesmyn Ward
On one level, Salvage the Bones is a simple story about a poor black family that’s about to be trashed by one of the most deadly hurricanes in U.S. history. What makes the novel so powerful, though, is the way Ward winds private passions with that menace gathering force out in the Gulf of Mexico. Without a hint of pretension, in the simple lives of these poor people living among chickens and abandoned cars, she evokes the tenacious love and desperation of classical tragedy. The force that pushes back against Katrina’s inexorable winds is the voice of Ward’s narrator, a 14-year-old girl named Esch, the only daughter among four siblings. Precocious, passionate and sensitive, she speaks almost entirely in phrases soaked in her family’s raw land. Everything here is gritty, loamy and alive, as though the very soil were animated. Her brother’s “blood smells like wet hot earth after summer rain. . . . His scalp looks like fresh turned dirt.” Her father’s hands “are like gravel,” while her own hand “slides through his grip like a wet fish,” and a handsome boy’s “muscles jabbered like chickens.” Admittedly, Ward can push so hard on this simile-obsessed style that her paragraphs risk sounding like a compost heap, but this isn’t usually just metaphor for metaphor’s sake. She conveys something fundamental about Esch’s fluid state of mind: her figurative sense of the world in which all things correspond and connect. She and her brothers live in a ramshackle house steeped in grief since their mother died giving birth to her last child. . . . What remains, what’s salvaged, is something indomitable in these tough siblings, the strength of their love, the permanence of their devotion.—WashingtonPost |
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Incognegro: A Memoir of
Exile and Apartheid
By Frank B. Wilderson, III
Wilderson, a professor,
writer and filmmaker from
the Midwest,
presents a gripping account
of his role in the downfall
of South African apartheid
as one of only two black
Americans in the African
National Congress (ANC).
After marrying a South
African law student, Wilderson reluctantly
returns with her to South
Africa in the early 1990s,
where he teaches
Johannesburg and Soweto
students, and soon joins the
military wing of the ANC.
Wilderson's stinging
portrait of Nelson Mandela
as a petulant elder eager to
accommodate his white
countrymen will jolt readers
who've accepted the
reverential treatment
usually accorded him. After
the assassination of
Mandela's rival, South
African Communist Party
leader Chris Hani, Mandela's
regime deems Wilderson's
public questions a threat to
national security; soon,
having lost his stomach for
the cause, he returns to
America.
Wilderson has a
distinct, powerful voice and
a strong story that shuffles
between the indignities of
Johannesburg life and his
early years in Minneapolis,
the precocious child of
academics who barely
tolerate his emerging
political consciousness.
Wilderson's observations
about love within and across
the color line and cultural
divides are as provocative
as his politics; despite
some distracting
digressions, this is a
riveting memoir of
apartheid's last days.—Publishers
Weekly
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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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posted 20 October 2008
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