100 Things You Didn’t Know About Africa 50-75

Here’s 25 more jewels for you all.

50. The Songhai Empire of 16th century West Africa had a government position called Minister for Etiquette and Protocol.

51. The mediaeval Nigerian city of Benin was built to “a scale comparable with the Great Wall of China”. There was a vast system of defensive walling totalling 10,000 miles in all. Even before the full extent of the city walling had become apparent the Guinness Book of Records carried an entry in the 1974 edition that described the city as: “The largest earthworks in the world carried out prior to the mechanical era.”

52. Benin art of the Middle Ages was of the highest quality. An official of the Berlin Museum für Völkerkunde once stated that: “These works from Benin are equal to the very finest examples of European casting technique. Benvenuto Cellini could not have cast them better, nor could anyone else before or after him . . . Technically, these bronzes represent the very highest possible achievement.”

53. Winwood Reade described his visit to the Ashanti Royal Palace of Kumasi in 1874: “We went to the king’s palace, which consists of many courtyards, each surrounded with alcoves and verandahs, and having two gates or doors, so that each yard was a thoroughfare . . . But the part of the palace fronting the street was a stone house, Moorish in its style . . . with a flat roof and a parapet, and suites of apartments on the first floor. It was built by Fanti masons many years ago. The rooms upstairs remind me of Wardour Street. Each was a perfect Old Curiosity Shop. Books in many languages, Bohemian glass, clocks, silver plate, old furniture, Persian rugs, Kidderminster carpets, pictures and engravings, numberless chests and coffers. A sword bearing the inscription From Queen Victoria to the King of Ashantee. A copy of the Times, 17 October 1843. With these were many specimens of Moorish and Ashanti handicraft.”

Barack’s Not in Memphis, and I can’t say I Blame Him…

As Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and several other black luminaries gather today in Memphis to commerate the 40th Anniversary of MLK’s assassination, two of the three people still vying for the opportunity to be President will be there, but not the two you would expect. That’s because Hillary Clinton and John McCain will be marching with Al Sharpton today, but the African-American Candidate, Barack Obama, who gave a speech at King’s old church on Martin Luther King’s Birthday by the way, will not. At first I was a little bothered by that, just like when he did not attend Tavis Smiley’s “Black State of the Union” Broadcast, but after a little introspection, I said to myself, you know what? He is right not to go.

Why you ask? Well, because he would have to answer too many questions. Questions that he shouldn’t have to answer. Can you imagine what our friends at the Fox Network would do if they got a hold of some video with Barack and Al Sharpton? The Rev. Wright Marathon that they showed 24 hours a day would pale in comparison to the Al Sharpton sequel. No one holds White People’s feet to the fire more than Al, and any association between Sharpton and Obama would spark a disinformation campaign that would end up with Obama as a card-carrying member of the Black Panthers. Do you remember what people said when Farrakhan endorsed Obama? Well let me tell you, for a certain segment of the population, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are just as much the “jew-hating” “Anti-Americans” that Farrakhan is. The sad part is, that FOX network’s own Sean Hannity, John McCain, and Hillary Clinton will be there and no one will question their patriotism, or call them a racist. As a matter of fact, they will be praised for “remembering” Martin Luther King’s legacy, and “Building Bridges” with the black community. Why don’t they have to answer the same questions that Barack would if he showed up? Do you think that Barack should have gone to Memphis? Speak Out!

Poll Watch: 3/4 of Americans Think we are Ready for a Black President…

The results of a new CNN/Essence poll were released today,

and one of the questions that they asked was “Do you think America is ready for a Black President?” As far as I am concerned, the results were quite positive, with 76% of those polled responding in the affirmative. (That’s an increase of 14 points from a poll taken in December 2006) While this poll doesn’t give us the percentage of individuals who say they would vote for a black president themselves, a number that I would really be interested in seeing, it is good to see that more people see it as possible.

Right now, in the major presidential “On Deck” positions, which I would designate as a State Governor, U.S. Senator, or Vice-President, there are only three African-Americans, one Senator, who is Barack Obama of Illinois, and two Governors, Deval Patrick of Masschusetts, and David Paterson of New York, who gained his post via a scandal. So because we have so few people in positions that traditionally win the White House, the fact that we even have a Black candidate with a real chance to win the Presidential nomination and quite possibly the Presidency, is remarkable.

The reason I mention that, is because there is no doubt that the Obama campaign has given people a new attitude towards the prospect of a black president, even in the black community. When Barack’s campaign first began, a good amount of African-Americans would not even allow themselves to think about him winning, for fear of another letdown in a series of seemingly perpetual disappointments. However, when he won the Iowa contest, and several others following that one, people started to believe, and the possibility of what many wanted all along seemed to be more tangible. I know that an Obama in the White House would not solve all the issues of race in this country, in fact like Rep. Cleaver said, it may create new ones, but it’s something that I think we are definitely ready for, for a whole host of reasons.

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Victim Takes Mugger To Dinner

I saw this on NPR’s website and thought I should share. Sometimes *especially in this day and age* it’s nice to see GOOD NEWS for a change.

Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.

But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.

He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

“He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, ‘Here you go,’” Diaz says.

As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, “Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.”

The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, “like what’s going on here?” Diaz says. “He asked me, ‘Why are you doing this?’”

Diaz replied: “If you’re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me … hey, you’re more than welcome.

“You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help,” Diaz says.

Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.

“The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi,” Diaz says. “The kid was like, ‘You know everybody here. Do you own this place?’”

“No, I just eat here a lot,” Diaz says he told the teen. “He says, ‘But you’re even nice to the dishwasher.’”

Diaz replied, “Well, haven’t you been taught you should be nice to everybody?”

“Yea, but I didn’t think people actually behaved that way,” the teen said.

Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. “He just had almost a sad face,” Diaz says.

The teen couldn’t answer Diaz — or he didn’t want to.

When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, “Look, I guess you’re going to have to pay for this bill ’cause you have my money and I can’t pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I’ll gladly treat you.”

The teen “didn’t even think about it” and returned the wallet, Diaz says. “I gave him $20 … I figure maybe it’ll help him. I don’t know.”

Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen’s knife — “and he gave it to me.”

Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, “You’re the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch.”

“I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It’s as simple as it gets in this complicated world.”

Produced for Morning Edition by Michael Garofalo.

MLK, and Nappy Headed Hoes..

 

Take heart, Mr. Spitzer, If Don Imus can get his job back after calling our sisters “Hoes”, then maybe you can get your job back after calling a Hoe…don’t laugh now, It could happen! Probably not as fast as it happened for Imus, but it could happen. Did you know that tomorrow will make it a year since Don Imus called the Rutgers Women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos” on his radio show? Ironically, it also coincides with the 40th anniversary of the MLK assassination. At the time, it was decried as such a travesty,that he was fired by CBS, and all of his big time sponsors started dropping his show. I heard a lot of people talk about how he may never work on radio again, and the huge price that he was paying since he just signed a 10-million dollar per year contract extenstion.

But as usual it looks like the joke was on us…no sooner than Imus was fired, it seems like WABC was knocking down his door offering him a new radio contract, and Imus’ punishment amounted to no more than a eight month vacation. When it was officially announced in December that Imus was going back on the air, the WABC radio president was even quoted as saying “He is rested, fired up, and ready to do great radio.” Not too long after that, his big sponsors like Bigelow Tea and Net Jet started signing back on, taking him off the proverbial “naughty chair” and allowing him to come out and play again.

I know that people deserve a second chance, I mean hell, even that pitbull in a suit Al Sharpton said so, but I bet he didn’t expect for him to be back on the air just months later. So what did it all mean? He claims that his meeting with the Rutgers Ladies (during which he made an apology) was a “Life Changing” experience, but he also said at the time that “he was fighting for his life” since he lost his job. So did he really change in eight months? Did the attitude that allowed him to say those words and think it was funny magically disappear in that short period of time? Did his time in the “Time Out” corner, really show him the error of his ways? Maybe, but just like my two year old after time out, it’s probably only a matter of time before he gets caught with his hands in the cookie jar again…

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Mugabe making power play in Zimbabwe…

 

Just as I suspected, It looks like “President” Mugabe is not ready to give up his power, election loss or not. According to a report from the AP, Mugabe ordered a raid on the opposition party’s offices in Harare today, ransacking the hotel rooms that they were using. According to the staff at another hotel where the foreign press was staying, several members of the press were rounded up and taken away. Even though I admit that I don’t know anything about the opposition party and wether they would be any better that the current regime, I was hopeful that Zimbabwe would be able to have meaningful elections and that the wishes of the people would be respected. This crackdown however cast many doubts on that type of resolution, with the only hope being that Mugabe caves in to the pressures of the international community. Doubtful…

100 Things You Didn’t Know About Africa…25-50

 

Part 2 in my continued effort to highlight history.

26. West Africa had walled towns and cities in the pre-colonial period. Winwood Reade, an English historian visited West Africa in the nineteenth century and commented that: “There are . . . thousands of large walled cities resembling those of Europe in the Middle Ages, or of ancient Greece.”

27. Lord Lugard, an English official, estimated in 1904 that there were 170 walled towns still in existence in the whole of just the Kano province of northern Nigeria.

28. Cheques are not quite as new an invention as we were led to believe. In the tenth century, an Arab geographer, Ibn Haukal, visited a fringe region of Ancient Ghana. Writing in 951 AD, he told of a cheque for 42,000 golden dinars written to a merchant in the city of Audoghast by his partner in Sidjilmessa.

29. Ibn Haukal, writing in 951 AD, informs us that the King of Ghana was “the richest king on the face of the earth” whose pre-eminence was due to the quantity of gold nuggets that had been amassed by the himself and by his predecessors.

30. The Nigerian city of Ile-Ife was paved in 1000 AD on the orders of a female ruler with decorations that originated in Ancient America. Naturally, no-one wants to explain how this took place approximately 500 years before the time of Christopher Columbus!

The Youth Vote: “Like A Storm”

By Leon Walker-Freelance Writer  leonwalker@cox.net

I am amazed at what I have seen among young voters in this country. I am equally amazed that this is being ignored or overlooked in the media in favor of such nonsense as passports and preachers.  These snacks of political mischief that our media continues to serve us.  Something I like to call “the devil’s Hors d’oeuvres”.  Of all of the political stories of this campaign season, the story of America’s youth activism and participation is both awe inspiring and historically significant. 

The other day I was watching a live news report from the campus of a small college in North Carolina as I lay in bed.  At that moment I felt as if I was actually watching a Saturday pregame sports rally.  As a backdrop for the news commentators, there were several hundred excited students with signs, cheering in support of Senator Barack Obama and anticipating his forthcoming speech on their campus.  Now get this… It was 11:57 PM here in the Panhandle of Florida where I was resting comfortably.  Meaning of course, that it was nearly 1:00 AM in North Carolina!  Let me say this a different way.  When a bunch of college kids are hanging out at 1:00 AM awaiting a political rally I find that striking.  They were not at home studying, or partying or surfing the internet.  They were organizing and participating politically!  Perhaps this is not particularly significant to you.   So let me delicately suggest that you start paying attention.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews asks: Does Obama connect with “Regular People” or just African Americans and College Grads?

During last night’s edition of “Hardball” (Apr.1st) Chris Matthews asked his guest the following:

“Let me ask you about how he — how’s he connect with regular people? Does he? Or does he only appeal to people who come from the African-American community and from the people who have college or advanced degrees?”

At the beginning of the show he teased his Obama segement by saying the following:

“[C]an Obama woo more regular voters — you know, the ones who actually do know how to bowl?”

The night before he had this to say:

“[T]his gets very ethnic, but the fact that he’s good at basketball doesn’t surprise anybody, but the fact that he’s that terrible at bowling does make you wonder.”

What makes me wonder, is how he equates the sport of bowling with “regular people.” I guess that “regular people” don’t play basketball either…I also wonder if he is going to ask Barack about bowling tonight when he appears on his show? Hmmm…

Reference: MediaMatters (Includes video of the broadcast quoted)

Clinton camp continues the “Wright-Wash”

MSNBC is reporting that Harold Ickes, a Senior Aide to the Clinton campaign has admitted to pushing the Jeremiah Wright issue with undecided superdelegates. While it probably would be naive to think that they wouldn’t, it just lends more creditability to the idea that the Clinton backers are waging their own version of the GOP’s old “Southern Strategy.” I just hope that the superdelegates see through this and realize that the Wright issue will not be very valuable to the GOP, due to Obama’s skillful handling of the issue. Unfortunately, we can’t say the same about Hillary and her “Sniper Fire” story.

Reference: MSNBC