WHITE IRISH SLAVES:

THE IRISH SLAVES:WHAT THEY WILL NEVER, EVER TELL YOU IN HISTORY CLASS OR ANYWHERE ELSE....
White and Black Slaves in the Sugar Plantations of Barbados. None of the Irish victims ever made it back to their homeland to describe their ordeal. These are the lost slaves; the ones that time and biased history books conveniently forgot.





The first slaves imported into the American colonies were 100 White children. They arrived during Easter, 1619, four months before the arrival of a the first shipment of Black slaves.Mainstream histories refer to these laborers as indentured servants, not slaves, because many agreed to work for a set period of time in exchange for land and rights.
Yet in reality, indenture was enslavement, since slavery applies to any person who is bought and sold, chained and abused, whether for a decade or a lifetime. Many white people died long before their indenture ended or found that no court would back them when their owners failed to deliver on promises.Tens of thousands of convicts, beggars, homeless children and other undesirable English, Scottish, and Irish lower class were transported to America against their will to the Americas on slave ships. YES SLAVE SHIPS.
Many of the white slaves were brought from Ireland, where the law held that it was ?no more sin to kill an Irishman than a dog or any other brute.? The European rich class caused a lot of suffering to these people , even if they were white like them.In 1676, there was a huge slave rebellion in Virginia. Black and white slaves burned Jamestown to the ground. Hundreds died. The planters feared a re-occurence. Their solution was to divide the races against each other. They instilled a sense of superiority in the white slaves and degraded the black slaves. White slaves were given new rights; their masters could not whip them naked without a court order,etc. White slaves whose daily condition was no different from that of Blacks, were taught that they belonged to a superior people. The races were given different clothing. Living quarters were segregated for the first time. But the whites were still slaves.
In the 17th Century, from 1600 until 1699, there were many more Irish sold as slaves than Africans. There are records of Irish slaves well into the 18th Century.Many never made it off the ships. According to written record, in at least one incident 132 slaves, men, women, and children, were dumped overboard to drown because ships' supplies were running low. They were drowned because the insurance would pay for an "accident," but not if the slaves were allowed to starve.


Typical death rates on the ships were from 37% to 50%.In the West Indies, the African and Irish slaves were housed together, but because the African slaves were much more costly, they were treated much better than the Irish slaves. Also, the Irish were Catholic, and Papists were hated among the Protestant planters. An Irish slave would endure such treatment as having his hands and feet set on fire or being strung up and beaten for even a small infraction. Richard Ligon, who witnessed these things first-hand and recorded them in a history of Barbados he published in 1657, stated:"Truly, I have seen cruelty there done to servants as I did not think one Christian couldhave done to another."(5)According to Sean O'Callahan, in To Hell or Barbados, Irish men and women were inspected like cattle there, just as the Africans were.
In addition, Irish slaves, who were harder to distinguish from their owners since they shared the same skin color, were branded with the owner's initials, the women on the forearm and the men on the buttocks. O'Callahan goes on to say that the women were not only sold to the planters as sexual slaves but were often sold to local brothels as well. He states that the black or mulatto overseers also often forced the women to strip while working in the fields and often used them sexually as well.(6)The one advantage the Irish slaves had over the African slaves was that since they were literate and they did not survive well in the fields, they were generally used as house servants, accountants, and teachers. But the gentility of the service did not correlate to the punishment for infractions.
Flogging was common, and most slave owners did not really care if they killed an easily replaceable, cheap Irish slave.While most of these slaves who survived were eventually freed after their time of service was completed, many leaving the islands for the American colonies, many were not, and the planters found another way to insure a free supply of valuable slaves. They were quick to "find solace" and start breeding with the Irish slave women. Many of them were very pretty, but more than that, while most of the Irish were sold for only a period of service, usually about 10 years assuming they survived, their children were born slaves for life.
The planters knew that most of the mothers would remain in servitude to remain with their children even after their service was technically up.The planters also began to breed the Irish women with the African male slaves to make lighter skinned slaves, because the lighter skinned slaves were more desirable and could be sold for more money. A law was passed against this practice in 1681, not for moral reasons but because the practice was causing the Royal African Company to lose money. According to James F. Cavanaugh, this company, sent 249 shiploads of slaves to the West Indies in the 1680's, a total of 60,000 African and Irish, 14,000 of whom died in passage.(7)While the trade in Irish slaves tapered off after the defeat of King James in 1691, England once again shipped out thousands of Irish prisoners who were taken after the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
These prisoners were shipped to America and to Australia, specifically to be sold as slaves.No Irish slave shipped to the West Indies or America has ever been known to have returned to Ireland. Many died, either in passage or from abuse or overwork. Others won their freedom and emigrated to the American colonies. Still others remained in the West Indies, which still contain an population of "Black Irish," many the descendents of the children of black slaves and Irish slaves.In 1688, the first woman killed in Cotton Mather's witch trials in Massachusetts was an old Irish woman named Anne Glover, who had been captured and sold as a slave in 1650.
She spoke no English. She could recite The Lord's Prayer in Gaelic and Latin, but without English, Mather decided her Gaelic was discourse with the devil, and hung her.It was not until 1839 that a law was passed in England ending the slave trade, and thus the trade in Irish slaves.It is unfortunate that, while the descendents of black slaves have kept their history alive and not allowed their atrocity to be forgotten, the Irish heritage of slavery in America and the West Indies has been largely ignored or forgotten.


It is my hope that this article will help in some small way to change that and to commemoratethese unfortunate people.NOTES) John P. Prendergast, The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland, Dublin, ?, 1865(2) Ibid.(3) See, for example, Thomas Addis Emmet, Ireland Under English Rule, NY & London,Putnam, 1903(4) Prendergast, The Conwellian Settlment of Ireland(5) Richard Ligon, A True and Exact History of Barbadoes, London,Cass, 1657, reprinted 1976(6)Sean O'Callaghan, To Hell or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland, (Dingle, Ireland: Brandon, 2001)(6) James F. Cavanaugh, Clan Chief Herald(7) For Mather's account of the case, see Cotton Mather, Memorable Providences, Relating ToWitchcrafts And Possessions (1689)

Medieval Afrikan Kingdoms 4

Benin Empire
Once a powerful city-state, Benin exists today as a modern African city in what is now south-central Nigeria. The present-day oba (King) of Benin traces the founding of his dynasty to A.D. 1300. The Benin Empire was a pre-colonial Edo state. Until the late 19th century, it was one of the major powers in West Africa. According to one eye witness report written by Olfert Dapper, “The King of Benin can in a single day make 20,000 men ready for war, and, if need be, 180,000, and because of this he has great influence among all the surrounding peoples. . . . His authority stretches over many cities, towns and villages. There is no King thereabouts who, in the possession of so many beautiful cities and towns, is his equal.”
When European merchant ships began to visit West Africa from the 15th century onwards, Benin came to control the trade between the inland peoples and the Europeans on the coast. When the British tried to expand their own trade in the 19th century, the Benin warriors killed their envoys

Medieval Afrikan Kingdoms 3

The Ethiopian Empire
The Ethiopian Empire also known as Abyssinia, covered a geographical area that the present-day northern half of Ethiopia covers. It existed from approximately 1137 (beginning of Zagwe Dynasty) until 1975 when the monarchy was overthrown in a coup d’état. In 1270, the Zagwe dynasty was overthrown by a king claiming lineage from the Aksumite emperors and, hence, Solomon. The thus-named Solomonic Dynasty was founded and ruled by the Habesha, from whom Abyssinia gets its name.
The Habesha reigned with only a few interruptions from 1270 until the late 20th century. It was under this dynasty that most of Ethiopia’s modern history occurred. During this time, the empire conquered and incorporated virtually all the peoples within modern Ethiopia. They successfully fought off Italian, Arab and Turkish armies and made fruitful contacts with some European powers, especially the Portuguese, with whom they allied in battle against the latter two invaders.
Mossi Kingdoms
The Mossi Kingdoms were a number of different powerful kingdoms in modern-day Burkina Faso which dominated the region of the Upper Volta River for hundreds of years. Increasing power of the Mossi kingdoms resulted in larger conflicts with regional powers. The Kingdom of Yatenga became a key power attacking the Songhai Empire between 1328 and 1477, taking over Timbuktu and sacked the important trading post of Macina.
When Askia Mohammad I became the leader of the Songhai Empire with the desire to spread Islam, he waged a Holy war against the Mossi kingdoms in 1497. Although the Mossi forces were defeated in this effort, they resisted attempts to impose Islam. Although there were a number of jihad states in the region trying to forcibly spread Islam, namely the Massina Empire and the Sokoto Caliphate, the Mossi kingdoms largely retained their traditional religious and ritual practices. Being located near many of the main Islamic states of West Africa, the Mossi kingdoms developed a mixed religious system recognizing some authority for Islam while retaining earlier African spiritual belief systems.

Medieval Afrikan Kingdoms 2

Mali Empire
After the fall of the Kingdom of Ghana, the Mali Empire rose to dominate West Africa. Located on the Niger River to the west of Ghana in what is today Niger and Mali, the empire reached its peak in the 1350s.
The Mali Empire was founded by Mansa (King) Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa. He was the grandson of Sundiata’s half-brother, and led Mali at a time of great prosperity, during which trade tripled. During his rule, Mansa Musa doubled the land area of Mali; it became a larger kingdom than any in Europe at the time.
The cities of Mali became important trading centers for all of West Africa, as well as famous centers of wealth, culture and learning. Timbuktu, an important city in Mali, became one of the major cultural centers not only of Africa but of the entire world. Vast libraries and Islamic universities were built. These became meeting places of the finest poets, scholars and artists of Africa and the Middle East.
The Kingdom of Mali had a semi-democratic government with one of the world’s oldest known constitutions – The Kurukan Fuga.
The Kurukan Fuga of the Mali Empire was created after 1235 by an assembly of nobles to create a government for the newly established empire. The Kurukan Fouga divided the new empire into ruling clans that were represented at a great assembly called the Gbara. The Gbara was the deliberative body of the Mali Empire and was made up of 32 members from around 29 clans. They were given a voice in the government and were a check against the emperor’s (mansa’s) power. It was presided over by a belen-tigui (master of ceremonies) who recognized anyone who wanted to speak including the mansa. The Gbara and the Kurukan Fuga remained in place for over 40o years until 1645.
According to Wikipedia, Disney’s “Lion King” movie was based on the real life narrative of Mansa Sundiata Keita.
Songhai Empire
The Songhai Empire, also known as the Songhay Empire, was the largest state in African history and the most powerful of the medieval west African states. It expanded rapidly beginning with King Sonni Ali in the 1460s and by 1500s, it had risen to stretch from Cameroon to the Maghreb. In 1360, disputes over succession weakened the Mali Empire, and in the 1430s, Songhai, previously a Mali dependency, gained independence under the Sonni Dynasty. Around thirty years later, Sonni Sulayman Dama attacked Mema, the Mali province west of Timbuktu, paving the way for his successor, Sonni Ali, to turn his country into one of the greatest empires sub-Saharan Africa has ever seen.
Perhaps, it’s most popular leader was Muhammad Askia the Great. At its peak, the Songhai city of Timbuktu became a thriving cultural and commercial center. Arab, Italian and Jewish merchants all gathered for trade. By 1500, the Songhai Empire covered over 1.4 million square kilometers.

Medieval Afrikan Kingdoms 1

While Europe was experiencing its Dark Ages, a period of intellectual, cultural and economic regression from the sixth to the 13th centuries, Africans were experiencing an almost continent-wide renaissance after the decline of the Nile Valley civilizations of Egypt and Nubia.
The leading civilizations of this African rebirth were the Axum Empire, the Kingdom of Ghana, the Mali Empire, the Songhai Empire, the Ethiopian Empire, the Mossi Kingdoms and the Benin Empire.
Axum Empire
The Aksum or Axum Empire was an important military power and trading nation in the area that is now Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, existing from approximately 100 to 940 A.D.
At its height, it was one of only four major international superpowers of its day along with Persia, Rome and China. Axum controlled northern Ethiopia, Eritrea, northern Sudan, southern Egypt, Djibouti, Western Yemen, and southern Saudi Arabia, totaling 1.25 million square kilometers, almost half the size of India. Axum traded and projected its influence as far as China and India, where coins minted in Axum were discovered in 1990.
Axum was previously thought to have been founded by Semitic-speaking Sabaeans who crossed the Red Sea from South Arabia (modern Yemen) on the basis of Conti Rossini’s theories —but most scholars now agree that when it was founded it was an indigenous African development.

Kingdom of Ghana
Centered in what is today Senegal and Mauritania, the Kingdom of Ghana dominated West Africa between about 750 and 1078 A.D. Famous to North Africans as the “Land of Gold,” Ghana was said to possess sophisticated methods of administration and taxation, large armies, and a monopoly over notoriously well-concealed gold mines.
The king of the Soninke people who founded Ghana never fully embraced Islam, but good relations with Muslim traders were fostered. Ancient Ghana derived power and wealth from gold and the use of the camel increased the quantity of goods that were transported. One Arab writer, Al-Hamdani, describes Ghana as having the richest gold mines on Earth. Ghana was also a great military power. According to one narrative, the king had at his command 200,000 warriors and an additional 40,000 archers.

The Olmec civilisation

One of the first regions settled by ancient Africans for thosands of years before Columbus is the Choco Region of Colombia. In fact, in certain areas, such as San Agustin, one will see monuments with Negroid featured sculpture holding African shamanistic objects identical to those used by the ancient Oni or Priest-Kings of Nigeria (see the Essay, "African Civilizations of America."
Choco was one of the primary areas of Portugese and Spanish slave-raiding before Columbus' official trip to the Americas. The slaves were Africans who had been living on the coast of Colombia for hundreds of years before the arrival of the Europeans to the New World. In fact, some of the very first African slaves to reach North America were Africans captured on the Coast of South America by the Spaniards and Dutch, then sold to North America (the U.S.) (See the writings of Peter Matyr, Balboa, Ivan Van Sertima); see also the world-famous book, "A History of the African-Olmecs, pub. by 1stbooks Library, 2595 Vernal Pike, Bloomington, Indiana 47404 U.S.A

COMPARISON BETWEEN AN OLMEC HEAD FROM ANCIENT MEXICO AND A NUBA MAN IN SUDAN.
or the work, "Susu Economics: The History of Pan-African Trade, Commerce, Money and Wealth," by 1stBooks Library.)
SLAVERY, RACISM, EXPLOITATION AND GENOCIDE AGAINST LATIN-AMERICAN BLACKS
Slavery was abolished in Brazil in the late 1800's. That was one of the last places to abandon slavery, just after some of the Spanish-speaking nations. Yet, today in many Latin American nations, the conditions are no different from the days of slavery. Blacks are stil being oppressed at a level that is beyond anything in existence except the oppression of Black Untouchables (Dalits) in India.
MISCEGENATION AS A TOOL OF GENOCIDE
Oppression against Blacks in Latin America follows a very different pattern from that which existed in the U.S. during the Jim Crow and Civil Rights era or even the slavery era. In the history of people of Spanish and Portugese origins, the African/Blacks are not some strange, unknown race. Blacks ruled Iberia for 800 years and contributed to the technological and cultural development of Spain and Europe. These Blacks who came from an area stretching from Nigeria to Morocco were Africans who had converted to Islam and created an African version of Islamic culture in parts of West Africa and the Maghreb. That culture used Islamic religion but the African customs, family values, structure, architecture, military system and languages remained intact. In Egypt, that was not the case, Arabic customs and culture replaced the old Khemitic (Felahim and Black Egyptian/Nubian traditions).
Thus, the Blacks who entered Spain in 711 A.D. were Islamized Africans and we know them as Black Moors. The Arabs invaded in abot 1000 A.D. and with them came in Jews and others. When Queen Isabella and Ferdinand defeated the Moors, millions dispersed throughout Europe, including the one million who went to Southern France. Many returned to Africa, others were enslaved and shipped to the Americas. Many were eliminated.
So, people of Spanish, Italian, Portugese, French and other southern European origins have been interacting with Africans even before there was a large European (Caucasian) population in Southern Europe.
Hence, the application of racial integration and miscegenation with the objective of blending out the Black is part of the system of Latin American/Spanish genocidal racism called "The Spanish Experiment." It was applied in Spain to destroy the cultural and racial identify of the Blacks, Arabs and Jews in Spain after the takeover by the Spanish crown. This racist system is today applied in Brazil and Latin America, where the great mythology of "racial harmony" and "integration," is being promoted. Yet, Blacks in Latin America, who know better, do not accept this genocidal "utopia" that is being pushed by the Latins in these nations.
The reality for Blacks in Latin America is what occurred in Choco, Colombia, where Blacks are not even counted. With about 30 percent or more of Colombia's population being African descent, it is a matter of time that Blacks in that nation and the rest of Latin America, where the Black population is about 200 million, rise up in a struggle that is unlike any that the Americas has known.
BLACK UNIFICATION IN THE AMERICAS IS VERY IMPORTANT
The Organization of Africans in the Americas (O.A.A.), held a meeting in Venezeula about a year ago. That organization includes representatives of all Blacks living in the Americas, from Argentina to Canada. The objective of the OAA is to improve the lives of Blacks throughout the Americas whose suffering in some Latin American nations and elsewhere is becoming unbearable.
The newspaper "The Final Call," carried an article about the various forms of racism, neglect and genocide being carried out against Blacks in Latin America. This reality was crucial in pushing for the establishment of the Organization of Africans in the Americas. The aim of that organization is the protection and the development of Blacks throughout the Americas. With the attacks on Blacks in Latin America, including the elimination of Black children on the streets of nations like Brazil and others, the organization has a task on its hands that will one day extend beyond mere poitical solutions.
The attack on the Blacks of Choco, Colombia, a region with remnants of people of African slave origins as well as Africans who lived in the region for thousands of years before European colonialism in the area, is really an attack on Black people all around the world. What do Blacks world-wide do, when racism and genocide worse than anything that happened in South Africa is allowed to fester in Latin America. What does the Black world, particularly powerful Black neighbors like Black America and the Black Caribbean do when Black people in Latin America are being treated worse than animals? We unite and formulate a policy of Black Liberation and upliftment throughout the Americas. We form alliances with Black nations and other nations around the world and work to improve the lives of Blacks on a worldwide scale. That is what the Organization for Africans in the Americas is doing and it is an organization that should build its strengh among the Black nations and communities in every nation of the Americas. It is only through unity and strength that Blacks will not be treated worse than animals in Latin America. It is through close cultural, economic, military and physical unity, contact and unification of African religion, culture and values that Blacks in the Americas will move forward. Languages like Spanish, Portugese, English, French and Dutch were the languages the slave-owning elite of Europe imposed on Blacks in the Americas, but who are we as African people. We are Niger-Congo. Our linguistic pattern, which is still thriving in the accents as well as actual languages of some in Cuba, Brazil and elsewhere is the Niger-Congo pattern. We are Africans of the Negro race and the fact that we are Black people is the reason why we are not respected and ran over by others. We who live throughout the Americas should reject all colonial and slave ties and work to unify our people. Perhaps we should return to making Yoruba a common language among the three hundred million people of African descent of the Americas. We should return the religions of Shango, Mbanda, Vadu, Lucumi and the African metephysical and spiritualist religions as a tool of spiritual and cultural unity. Perhaps publishing companies like Ebony, Essence and others should work to create versions in Spanish and Portugese. BET (Black Entertainment Television) and other Black owned media should expand in Black Latin America, where the vast majority of Americas-Africans reside. After all, WHERE WAS THE INFORMATION ABOUT THE MASSACRE OF BLACK PEOPLE IN COLUMBIA ON WHITE LATIN TELEVISION???? Where is anything about Black culture on white Latin television and media, which is even more racist and exclusive than American television and media, when it comes to Blacks.
It is time for a change and that change will come when Blacks who speak Spanish, French, Dutch, Portugese, Yoruba and Arabic (in Sudan) realize that we are Black Africans first and foremost and no matter which colonial language we speak, RACE IS THE ISSUE, and in Latin America as well as Arabic-speaking North Africa, or even West Papua, its our Blackness and African being that pushes people to attack us. Furthermore, it is the use of religion as an excuse to commit genocide, along with racist ideas that adds to the attack on Blacks. It is time to come up with a religious, political, economic and military ideology and strategy based on Black World Nationalism that counters and defeats racist oppression of Blacks in Latin America, the Americas and around the world.


Pianke Nubiyang
SEE THE "AFRO-LATIN, AFRICAN-AMERICAN, AFRO-BRITISH, AFRICAN," page on the website below: Read more about Black Latin American, Black Brazilian, Black British, Black world issues, news, views, culture, music.

An Afrikan Princess Who Stood Unafraid Among Nazis

Fatima Massaquoi, Arthur Massaquoi, and Momolu Massaquoi, Hamburg, Germany, ca. 1924.
Collection of Vivian Seton

Between 1939 and 1946, Fatima Massaquoi penned one of the earliest known autobiographies by an African woman. But few outside of Liberian circles were aware of it until this week, when Palgrave McMillian published The Autobiography of an African Princess, edited by two historians and the author's daughter.

The book follows Massaquoi, born the daughter of the King of Gallinas of Southern Sierra Leone in 1904, to Liberia, Nazi Germany and the segregated American South, where she wrote her memoirs while enrolled at Tennessee's Fisk University.

She died in 1978, and her story could have died with her.

For the most part, it did. That is, until Konrad Tuchscherer, St. John's University specialist in African history and language, stumbled upon it on microfilm while conducting research.

"I just thought it was the most amazing piece I had ever seen. I was very interested in the history of the Massaquoi family because they had such an important role in spreading the Vai script," he told The Root.

Ultimately, his interest in the tale took on significance beyond the proliferation of that particular ancient West African written language. "It's evidence that not only was there this thriving literary tradition among African people, but it was one that included women," he says. "Fatima is a granddaughter of a queen, a literate and empowered woman."

Determined to share the story, Tuchscherer hunted for contact information for Massaquoi's only daughter, Vivian Seton, who lives in Maryland. "I told her, 'I read your mother's autobiography and I want to be part of having it to be published.' "

Seton immediately agreed, insisting that her mother had predicted, on her deathbed, that one day "a man would call" and would want to publish her story. She joined Tuchscherer and Virginia State University historian Arthur Abraham, helping to coordinate a transcription and translation of the original text, and to find a publisher, which Tuchscher says was the most difficult part of the process.

"People were reluctant to take it on, because they wanted to rewrite it. Even academic publishers didn't know the value of this story," he says.

What emerged when the book was published this week was a one-of-a-kind tale of a life lived on three continents, chronicling everything from insider views of traditional life and societies in Africa, to intense racism in other parts of the world.

(Continued from Page 1)

In the 252-page volume, Massaqoui attends boarding school, plays violin for royalty and presidents and even finds herself at Nazi rallies. (During this time, she writes that one classmate reassured her: “We are not against Negroes or our friendships towards them as such. How could we when we are striving to have our colonies back?")

Left to Right: Fatima Massaquoi, Editha Buch, Anne Starke, Ellen Spelling, and Traute Wichman, Hamburg, Germany, ca. 1928.
Collection of Vivian Seton

In Hamburg, Germany, her family hosted Marcus Garvey and his lieutenants while they attempted to secure visas for Liberia. She recalls entertaining him with her poetry.

"She speaks for herself, and gives a voice to African women and to the incredible experiences she's had. It defies some accepted ways of thinking," says Tuchscherer.

At Fisk, Massaqoui assisted Lorenzo Turner with his famous research on African linguistic retentions among the Gullah of South Carolina and Georgia. Later, with the help of the great African-American tenor Roland Hayes, she pursued a Ph.D. at Boston University.

In doing so, this "African princess" developed a unique point of view on the black experience in America.

In her final chapter, Massaquoi, writing in 1946, reflects on her experience in the United States:

“This vast country has everything good and evil. It has sympathetic men and women, who can be as selfish as they can be kind. There is, in the words of Goethe, 'much light,' but also 'much shade.' But in spite of all this, freedom here is incomparable; no wonder then that the Negro can be lynched, and yet a Negro can stand and sing 'My Country ’Tis of Thee.' There is very much to learn from the United States, if we can scratch the varnish off the surface and take the woodwork that is solid and not rotten."

Afrikan Market Fraud

Africa has enjoyed decades of political independence which in some countries came as a result of armed struggle and in some as a result of concessions. Very few of the sovereign nations have fully emancipated themselves to be able to stand on their own economically without the support of their colonisers.
The major reason why there is continued economic dependence on former colonisers is the absence of a viable value addition drive in Africa.
The trade arrangement between Africa and the rest of the world is not driven by forces of demand and supply but rather it is one of the horse and the rider, with Africa being the former.
Africa has remained a net exporter of raw materials such as crude oil, cocoa, coffee, tobacco and many other primary production commodities which also include minerals and timber.

Africa and Price Determination

African has been relegated to being price takers when it comes to trade with European, American and Asian buyers.
The continent has not been able to determine the price of its commodities yet there are factors that make up the price such as the cost of labour (human or machine effort), cost of power or fuel, cost of administration and any other costs whether direct or indirect.
The foreign buyers have been exercising the right to price determination ignoring the fundamental economic costs of production that would have been factored in the production of the goods that they have been looting or plundering from the continent.
Failure to add value to its output has resulted in Africa paying a heavy price. Many if not all African economies have recorded astronomic balance of trade deficit in past years.
The metals and other materials for production of machinery and other capital goods are being shipped or siphoned daily to other continents which would in turn produce products that are priced beyond the reach of African consumers.
This equation means that Africa has been relegated to the role primitive suppliers who could not negotiate prices on the world market.

The World Market Fraud

Who are the major players on the world market and who fundamentally drives the cogs that turn the wheels of the market?
Who sets the framework for participation on the bullion market and who regulates prices of platinum, copper, uranium and other precious metals?
Surely, it is not Africans who are producers of the products or else they would have vastly benefited from the so called world arrangement.
The world market prices of minerals and other agricultural products that are mainly produced in Africa are ever falling or they are always on a free fall.
For example, the price of copper which drives the economy of Zambia, has not been favourable since 2008.
Another good example would be the fall in the price of cotton on the world market which has forced many Zimbabwean cotton farmers to opt for tobacco.
Is the world market sensitive to the labour factored in the production of the commodities that are sold on its platform?
Why should the depth of the buyer’s pocket determine the prices? Why are the producing firms not playing a leading role in the pricing of their commodities?
Why are products of secondary production (manufacturing and processing) produced by developed nations not subject to the world market?

Price Mechanism Exploitation

Apple and Samsung, the leading mobile phone and computer producing firms in the world, use raw materials from Africa, Thailand and the rest of the world which follows in the case of metals that Germany uses for the Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and BMWs.
The input prices for production of goods enjoyed by Samsung and Apple in so-called developed countries have their prices determined on the world market.
Why is it that the output price is not determined on the world market and producers have the liberty to set prices for their smartphones and latest computers?
Output from Africa’s primary production is subject to prices set on the world market which is always subject to a free fall as the buyers catch a cold or is always tilted in favour of the buyers.
Why are the prices of the world market ever falling at a time that Africa is receiving economic illumination and when other countries are facing recession in the eurozone?
Prices of metals on the world market continue to take a nosedive yet the prices of metal dominated products such as plant and machinery and vehicles continue to go up for new models that would have been made using cheap raw materials sourced using low prices set on the world market.
Is the world market not being manipulated? Who really is behind the world market? Africa surely needs to wake up from the cocoon of primitiveness on the pricing floors.
Elementary economics dictate that if the price of raw material goes down then the price of the end product should go down and the opposite is true.
Why do the prices of new products continue to go up in the wake of weakening world prices? Surely, is Africa economically independent of its erstwhile colonisers?

Khazar and the Ashkenazi Jews

The 10th century Persian historian Ibn al-Faqih reported that “all the Khazars are Jews.”
Notwithstanding this statement, some scholars believe that only the upper classes converted to Judaism; there is some support for this in contemporary Muslim texts. Essays in the Kuzari, written by Yehuda Halevi, detail a moral liturgical reason for the conversion which some consider a moral tale.
Some researchers have suggested part of the reason for conversion was political expediency to maintain a degree of neutrality: the Khazar empire was between growing populations, Muslims to the east and Christians to the west. Both religions recognized Judaism as a forebear and worthy of some respect. The exact date of the conversion is hotly contested.
It may have occurred as early as 740 or as late as the mid-9th century. Recently discovered numismatic evidence suggests that Judaism was the established state religion by c. 830, and though St. Cyril (who visited Khazaria in 861) did not identify the Khazars as Jews, the khagan of that period, Zachariah, had a biblical Hebrew name. Some medieval sources give the name of the BLACK HEBREW rabbi who oversaw the conversion of the Khazars as Isaac Sangari or Yitzhak ha-Sangari.
The first Jewish Khazar king was named Bulan which means “elk”, though some sources give him the Hebrew name Sabriel. A later king, Obadiah, strengthened Judaism, inviting BLACK HEBREW rabbis into the kingdom and built synagogues. Jewish figures such as Saadia Gaon made positive references to the Khazars, and they are excoriated in contemporary Karaite writings as “bastards”; it is therefore unlikely that they adopted Karaism as some (such as Avraham Firkovich) have proposed.
Ashkenazi Jews are not descended from the historical Israelites of antiquity, but from Khazars, a Turkic people originating in and populating an empire north of and between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. Koestler’s hypothesis is that the Khazars converted to Judaism in the 8th century, and migrated westwards into current Eastern Europe (primarily Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Hungary and Germany) in the 12th and 13th centuries when the Khazar Empire was collapsing.
See
Ancient Poland @ http://www.ancientpoland.org/khazars.php

Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne – The Black man who brought Christianity to England –

Aidan, the Moors and England and Ireland
Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, the Apostle of Northumbria (died 651), was the founder and first bishop of the monastery on the island of Lindisfarne in England.
He brought the Christian ministry to England beginning with Northumbria. England was originally Christianized by the Romans but following the fall of the Roman administration it quickly became pagan again.
Meanwhile in Ireland, Christian monks from Egypt and Ethiopia, were busy establishing the basis of Irish monasticism, a direct export from the deserts of Egypt to the gusty land of Ireland. Any one who needs further information in this area can research on the Internet, “the origins of Irish Monasticism”.
Aidan was actually a Black Irish man. Even though the so-called white Irish of today would have you believe that Ireland has always been pale white, facts and history tell us otherwise.
In the annals of the Kings of Ireland, in the museums of Ireland, in the Churches of Ireland, there is preserved a living history of the dark brown race of Africans who first populated Ireland.
Their history, their culture, their music, their impact remain alive in today’s Irish culture.
For instance, the bag-pipe of Ireland, and its music comes from the traditions of the ancient Nomadic Black tribes of North Africa otherwise called the Moors in ancient times. Certain aspects of the Gaelic language of Ireland recalls its African roots. Certain parts of Ireland, even today still appear unusually dark, testifying to the genetic footprints of their ancestors.
The family names Moore, Marrow, are big in Ireland.
Aidan was one of those Black Moorish Irish. His paintings so testify.
After the wars of the reformation and the counter reformations, with the emergence of protestantism, the movement under which the so-called whites of Europe became prominent and dominant for the first time, many images of the ancient black saints were overlaid and re-painted white.
Yet despite all of those strange politics, many early 5th century A.D. Christian leaders and monks in Lindisfarne area of England, and in Iona monastery of Ireland were black people. Their depictions, descriptions and stories provide further corroboration.
The Black Irish Saint – Aidan
Aidan was possibly born in Connacht. He was a monk at the monastery on the Island of Iona in Scotland.
Aidan arrived in England from the Iona monsatry in Ireland as a result of a request by the then King of England Oswald for Chritian missionaries to convert the pagan English tribes to the ways of Christianity. He arrived England in 635 AD.
Aidan chose Lindisfarne, like Iona an island, and close to the royal fortress of Bamburgh, as his seat of his diocese.
From this seat of operation, Aidan and his monks slowly engaged the locals, and converted them to Christianity and the acceptance of the power of the English throne.
Also with an eye to the future, Aidan took in twelve English boys and trained them at the monastery, to ensure that the area’s future religious leadership would be English.
The Miracles of the Saint Aidan
Aidan was also a magic worker or a miracle worker depending on your perspective. Once must remember that one of the ways the priests and the monks subdued the less civilized tribes was through psychological inducements leveraged by the manifest or faked power of their deities.
Aidan was a known miracle worker and stories about him lingered for many years after his passing. Even Saint Bede the Venerable would later write Aidan’s biography and describe the miracles attributed to him.
For instance, in 651 a pagan army attacked Bamburgh and attempted to set its walls ablaze. According to legend, Aidan prayed for the city, after which the winds turned and blew the smoke and fire toward the enemy, repulsing them.
He reportedly healed the sick and tended the wounded. He made potent potions against poisons and venoms; and had strong talisman which protected against demons and bad luck.
Lasting Legacy
According to sources, even though Aidan was a member of the Irish branch of Christianity instead of the Latin branch, but his work won him the priase and the respect of the then Roman Catholic leader, Pope Honorius I.
The monastery he founded later grew other churches and other monasteries throughout the area. It also became a centre of learning and a storehouse of scholarly knowledge.
Aidan died, on 31 August, in the 17th year of his episcopate. His feast day falls on the 31 August of every year.

Dynamics of Domination: 6 Steps Arabs and Europeans Used to Establish Dominion Over Black People

1. Erase the Historical Narrative of African People
The act of erasing the historical memory of African people, according to Hilliard, was a psychological military operation that when completed disabled Black people psychologically as a group. This disabling act prevented African people from being able to properly filter, interpret and respond to social, political and cultural stimuli in the interests of their own culture . After this step in the process is completed, African people are effectively dispossessed of their own cultural narrative.
As was reported previously on Atlanta Black Star: “Without a coherent personal narrative, it is hard to find our footing in the world. Maryland psychologist May Benatar, Ph.D., says a surprising number of people actually don’t have a coherent story, something that hangs together, makes sense and has some internal consistency to it. The story may have large, important chunks missing or the narrative is fragmented and chaotic.”

2. Suppress the Practice of African Culture – Destroy group unity
By suppressing the practice of African culture, Europeans and Arabs prevented Africans from building and maintaining cultural institutions that would enable group unity, which then engenders economic and political power.
As a result of the discontinuation of the practice of African culture, despite having trillions of dollars in buying power and raw material resources, Black people around the world have been unable to unify and wield the necessary economic and political power to shape the world toward their natural benefit as a group.

3. Teach White Supremacy – Install the oppressors’ narrative
After the historical memory of the African population has been erased and replaced with a white supremacy narrative, the African population is placed in a position where it begins to reject its own image and becomes less African in conscious behavior.
African people who have been victimized by these processes tend to identify themselves primarily with European and Arab cultural institutions in religion, language, nation state, etc. These behaviors are passed down to their descendants, even though they may not have experienced actual physical oppression.
Amos Wilson (1941 – 1995) author and professor of psychology, said white supremacy myths continue to alter the consciousness of Black people today by giving us fabricated data: false history, false knowledge and false narratives. Therefore, our ability to think and act in our own interests has been impaired because we have become confused about what knowledge is, who it belongs to, and how it should be used.
4. Control the Institutions of Socialization – preventing African people from re-learning, teaching and practicing their own culture and cultural narrative
Since culture plays the role of gluing a group of people together, for the oppressors to maintain control over Black people they had to separate them from their own culture, Hilliard said.
In doing so, the European and the Arab were able to prevent group unity among enslaved or colonized Africans. This act weakened the African population and made them more controllable.
Chinweizu , author of “The West and the Rest of Us: White Predators, Black Slavers, and the African Elite,” wrote: “The central objective in decolonizing the African mind is to overthrow the authority that alien traditions exercise over the African. This demands the dismantling of white supremacist beliefs, and the structures which uphold them, in every area of African life. It must be stressed, however, that decolonization does not mean ignorance of foreign traditions; it simply means denial of their authority and withdrawal of allegiance from them.”


5. Control of Wealth – Prevent Black people from controlling the economic resources necessary to finance their own development
By controlling the natural resources and means of production, Europeans, Arabs and now Chinese are able extract the benefits of what would naturally be African people’s wealth. Black people are therefore unable to use their resources to build institutions and organizations that would develop and protect their interests at home and abroad. This relationship with non-Africans keeps the African population in a perpetual dependent role of beggar and borrower.
Today a new scramble for Africa marks the beginning of the latest chapter in the plunder of the continent. The United States, Europe, China and others are seeking to consolidate their grip on Africa’s oil, its minerals, and other resources, all worth more every day because of a massive boom in the price of oil and raw materials. Like earlier ventures, the new rush for Africa is not only about profits, but also control of strategic resources.
6.Physical Segregation – Prevent Black people from gaining access to developmental resources otherwise made available to the oppressors’ group
In societies where the oppressor lived in relatively close proximity with the African population, strategies were created to prevent the Black population from gaining access to the same quality of institutional benefits.
Racial segregation is generally outlawed today in most nations, however the practice still exists through social norms, even when there is no strong individual preference for it. Segregation is maintained today by means ranging from discrimination in school zoning and hiring, in the rental and sale of housing to certain races, to vigilante violence.

The Batwa people of Uganda

Batwa pygmy man with his bow from the endangered Batwa pymy tribe in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda. Batwa are believed to be God`s first homo sapien creation on earth.The Batwa were the original ancient dwellers of the forest. The first records of pygmies were made by the Egyptians over 4000 years ago. They described short st ature people living near the “Mountains of the Moon” extolling th...eir abilities as dancers and story tellers.Ancient Egyptian scripts named them as "Dancers of the Gods" for their great ability in dance.We know of a letter sent by a Pharaoh of ancient Reign to one of his governors in which he thanked the governor for donating a "Dwarf" coming from "the spirit land," the name with which Egypt named the lands in its southern territories.Homer and Aristotle also made mention of them. They survived by hunting small game using poison tipped arrows or nets and gathering various plants and fruit that the forest naturally supplies. Small temporary huts constructed with leaves and branches served as their dwellings, which are abandoned after a few months when they relocated to another part of the forest in search of fresh supplies of food. Their tools were remarkably pre-stone age. The Batwa were originally based around the mountainous forest areas around Lake Kivu and Lake Edward in the Great Lakes region. Since they were evicted from the forests, they live as squatters in various rural areas

Africa’s Last Colony: The Forgotten State

There’s one state that has been left behind. Ignored by the international media, failed by the UN, its people in refugee camps for 38 years.
The state is called Western Sahara, the people are called Sahrawis, and this is their story.
First, some history: In the mid 20th century states in Africa began to be granted independence from their colonial powers. Today, all African states are considered sovereign and face the long struggle to reinstate their position in the international hierarchy.
All but one.
Western Sahara is situated on the northwest coastline of Africa, bordering Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania. Despite being mostly comprised of desert land and lacking sufficient rainfall for most agricultural activities, the country does have fish-rich waters and large amounts of phosphate. It also potentially possesses a large amount of oil.
Unlike most African states, which, upon withdrawal of their colonial powers were offered a referendum on independence, Western Sahara was immediately laid claim to by its neighboring countries of Morocco and Mauritania. Spain, its former colonizer, rather than handing independence to the Sahrawis cut a deal with Morocco and Mauritania by signing the “Madrid Agreement,” in which Spain split the territory between the neighboring countries. In doing so, Spain both avoided a messy colonial war with their Moroccan neighbor, and gained access to the fish and phosphate in return for their favor.
In 1975 Morocco invaded and occupied Western Sahara.
A month earlier, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had ruled that neither Morocco nor Mauritania had any legal claim to territorial sovereignty over Western Sahara. Morocco went ahead and occupied them anyway.
This was an illegal occupation.
The Moroccan occupation did not come without resistance from the Sahrawi people, who had developed a strong sense of nationalism in the 1960s, which gave birth to the Polisario Front, who are the sole representative of the Sahrawis. This Front had successfully rid itself of Spanish power through guerrilla warfare, and now faced the task of doing the same to its neighboring powers.
War between the Polisario Front and Morocco began soon after the 1975 invasion.
In 1979 Mauritania withdrew its right to Western Sahara and Morocco secured effective control of most of the territory.
There are an estimated 500,000 Sahrawi people, of which an estimated 100,000 have been forced into refugee camps in Algeria. They have been there for 38 years and are completely reliant on foreign aid. Morocco has built a 2,700-kilometer-long wall scattered with millions of landmines to prevent those in refugee camps from returning to their country. This is the longest strip of landmines in the world.
So why, now that Morocco has been illegally occupying this country for 38 years and considering that under UN law “freely expressed self-determination is an unalienable right,” did the international powers not step in and demand a referendum on independence, akin to those that all other African states had been granted?
The answer is because other, more dominant world powers were at play. When Morocco first invaded Western Sahara, the Moroccan government had strong backing from Spain, France and the Reagan administration in the United States. All these countries saw Morocco as a key ally in the Middle East, and didn’t want to disturb their relationship by giving support for a referendum on independence, even if it was backed by international law. The UN is weak to powers such as these, and often don’t implement international law, if it contradicts an interest of a powerful country. This has been visible in the way the UN has failed to implement international law in the case of Western Sahara.
The UN has been attempting — in the broadest sense of the term — to find a solution to the question of sovereignty and self-determination since 1991. The worst failure of theirs is their refusal to implement human rights monitoring in Western Sahara, despite numerous amounts of reports of heinous abuse. Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights, said in their 2008 report on Western Sahara that:

“The government bans peaceful demonstrations and refuses legal recognition to human rights organizations; the security forces arbitrarily arrest demonstrators and suspected Sahrawi activists, beat them and subject them to torture, and force them to sign incriminating police statements, all with virtual impunity; and the courts convict and imprison them after unfair trials.”

Many people have never heard of this conflict. It is hugely under-represented in the news media, both by a corrupt censored Moroccan media, and by an internationally corrupt media who are unwilling to publish stories outside of a familiar narrative and that pose super-powers in a negative light.
I believe the path to the freedom of the Sahrawi people is through telling more people the story. I will tell this story, the story of the people, over and over again. I hope that after reading this you will too.

Project Afrika

BLACKS AROUND THE WORLD MUST UNITE TO ELIMINATE THE NEW COLONIALISM AND GENOCIDE OF BLACKS



It is very apparent that colonialism and racism is not over in Africa or in Indonesia, West Papua, SE Asia and Australia. Many Africans see those who migrated and invaded parts of North Africa over the centuries, looking for Black slaves, ravaging, destroying and converting to be in the same category as the European colonizers and in some instances worse. After all, the British had their warships on the Red Sea to stop these same Semites from continuing the enslavement of Africans. How many of the Semitic nations who are occupying and colonizing what were and still are Black African territory have done anything to stop the endlavement of Blacks in Africa?? Not a single one.

Hence, it is the duty of Africans in Africa as well as Africans in the diaspora to work together to stop and finally rid Africa of these colonizers and return all African lands to African rule. Instead of Africans allowing themselves to be devided over the religions of these occupiers and enslavers of Blacks, whose beliefs include the practice of sanctified racism and enslavement of Blacks ( eg, the curse of Ham lie found in their sacred books, or the demonization of the Black Rakshasa Kings of Black pre-Aryan India ), the time has come for a change in mentality.

One of the greatest exercises of hypocracy has been the use of belief to implement a racist, colonial policy in Africa. Nigerians and West Africans from Ghana, Guinea, Mali should know it very well, because while the Semites are talking about "brotherhood," with Black Africans, in places like Libya, they were rioting and lynching Blacks in the streets, while in Sudan, the mixed offspring of Arab invader and African captive woman are engaged in a war of genocide against the direct descendants of the Nubians and pre--invasion Khemites, who are now tribes like the Dinka, Nuba, Nuer, Anuak, Nagas, Masai and other Black Africans known as "Nilotes." Many of these Africans are also of the same religion as the invaders, yet, they are still violated and enslaved. Why because the invaders agenda is a racist agenda aimed at occupying African lands.
See the article, "The 1,400 Year War Against the Arab Invasion of Sudan." http://community.webtv.net/paulnubiaempire

Chancellor Williams the great African-American author of "The Destruction of Black Civilization," put it in the most profound terms, when he presented a long historical line of the destruction and genocide committed against Africans by the Semites and how they were able to occupy Northern Africa and Egypt, Sudan and elsewhere. At the same time, they were doing all they can to spread their religions and cultre on African Soil, occupying African lands and destroying the Sacred monuments, temples and sites of our ancestors in a conspiracy to wipe out our contributions and begin the world when they emerged on the scene.

As Pan-Africans (Pan-Negro since Blacks in India, Melanesia, West Papua and Australia are also victims of anti-Black racism and the theft of their lands), we must do what it takes to unite and build a Black world movement. This is already occurring, but today, half of the Black race living in Asia who are among the first people to suffer from color racism (Black Dalits/Untouchables of the Kushitic-Speaking Africoid people) are also part of that movement. So are Melanesians, West Papuans and Australian Aboriginals. The relization that the invaders and conquers implement the color and caste code as the first tool of devide and conquer among the related Negroid peoples on the planet has not gone by unnoticed. Hence, although in some parts of the world, particularly the Americas where the dominant media can fool some in believing they are not Black or Africoid, making them vulnerable to being on their own, in India, West Papua, Melanesia and Australia, as well as SE Asia, where racism and discrimination against Blacks is being carried out with genocidal objectives (such as Indonesia's "Asianization Program,") Blacks in these lands are not about letting themselves be fooled. They see themselves as Negroid people of African origins who are being oppressed based on their Africanness. Thus, the logical thing to do is to unite with other Africans around the world, unite political, economic, cultural and military assets and fight the oppressive class till freedom and independence is won.

BLACKS ARE SUFFERING ALL AROUND THE WORLD AND MORE SUFFERING IS DUE

There are many who sometimes say, if we were born during the slavery period, we would not have tolerated it. Well, that is very true because hundreds of slave rebellions occurred all over the Americas during the slavery period. In fact the world's greatest slave rebellion occurred in Bagdad where the Zanj (Africans) metted out destruction on their opressors for many years, according to Runoko Rashidi ( http://www.cow.com/~lucumi/runoko.html ).

Today, we have a serious problem, that problem is standing aside and doing nothing due to being mentally conquered by these colonizers, who began occupying African lands since about the 600's A.D.
The mental conquest of some Blacks in Africa has to do with the blind follow of the invaders religion and the refusal to recognize the invaders trickery and his genocidal agenda. In India, that trick was used to keep the Black Dalits at the bottom for three thousand years. They refused the invaders religions but the Shudra who are the lowest caste in the infiltrators' religion were relegated to the level of street sweeper and transpoter of dead animals, diggers of ditches and tillers of the soil. A great people, the Black Dalits of India who invented a great scientific and technological civilization as early as 4000 B.c. are today at the bottom and has been so from the time the infiltrators invaded India about 1700 B.c. (which is about the time the Hyksos invaded Egypt and tried to influence the Egyptian religion as the invaders of india influenced the ancient religions of India's Blacks and introduced the four tiered caste "varna" or color consciousness system.

A STRONG BLACK AFRICAN UNITY IS NEEDED TODAY

Africa has entered a stage of unity, but Black African unity is needed. In fact there should be none of the Berlin boundaries left in Africa, especially in Black African nations. It is ironic that while the Europeans are uniting to strengthen themselves, they are still in the dividing process, with the "Anglophone," "Francophone," and nations like Sudan and Somalia, under "Arabphone" occupation and cultural influence.

As one African leader made it clear, its time for A Bantuphone Africa. Yet, in order for that to happen, Black Africans will have to eliminate the exploitation of Africans, slavery, poverty and religious imprialism from the continent. Tribalism should also be eliminated, along with any residue of European racism. Blacks living in the occupied part of North Africa should organize to regain their lands. Blacks in Northern Africa have the same rights to their lands as the people who were forced out of Isreal by the Romans during the Christian Era, who returned to that land and are still returning.

Finally, both Mauritania and Sudan are cores of Black civilization. According to Blisshords Communication, "The History of the African Standard," Mauritania was part of the prehistoric Black Zingh Empire as early as 15,000 B.c. and the red, Black and Green flag was invented by one of that Kingdom's leaders. Sudan was the ancient Ta-Seti, where as recently as 1999 to 2000, archeologists found evidence of a great Black civilization there. Hundreds of remains of cities and monuments still exist all over Sudan (Nubia-Kush) to this day and are awaiting exploration.

There is no way any African should sit back and allow the attempt to commit genocide to continue in Mauritania and Sudan, or any where in Africa or the Black world. THE NEXT TIME THERE IS A PAN-NEGRO OR PAN-AFRICAN CONFERENCE, LET AFRICOIDS ALL OVER THE WORLD BE REPRESENTED, FROM BRAZIL TO AUSTRALIA...We will learn that the same agenda to eliminate Blacks is being carried out on a worldwide scale. It is about time we fought back and retake what is our birthright and our lands and occupied territories.

In The Lucky Country Of Australia Apartheid Is Alive And Kicking

Aboriginal elders playing cards in their camp near Alice Springs. "A typical, dilapidated house in an outback indigenous community must accommodate as many as 25 people. Families, the elderly and disabled people wait years for sanitation that works."

The corridors of the Australian parliament are so white you squint. The sound is hushed; the smell is floor polish. The wooden floors shine so virtuously they reflect the cartoon portraits of prime ministers and rows of Aboriginal paintings, suspended on white walls, their blood and tears invisible.
The parliament stands in Barton, a suburb of Canberra named after the first prime minister of Australia, Edmund Barton, who drew up the White Australia Policy in 1901. "The doctrine of the equality of man," said Barton, "was never intended to apply" to those not British and white-skinned.
Barton's concern was the Chinese, known as the yellow peril; he made no mention of the oldest, most enduring human presence on Earth: the first Australians. They did not exist. Their sophisticated care of a harsh land was of no interest. Their epic resistance did not happen. Of those who fought the British invaders of Australia, the Sydney Monitor reported in 1838: "It was resolved to exterminate the whole race of blacks in that quarter." Today, the survivors are a shaming national secret.
The town of Wilcannia, in New South Wales, is twice distinguished. It is a winner of a national Tidy Town award, and its indigenous people have one of the lowest recorded life expectancies. They are usually dead by the age of 35. The Cuban government runs a literacy program for them, as it does among the poorest of Africa. According to the Credit Suisse Global Wealth report, Australia is the richest place on Earth.
Politicians in Canberra are among the wealthiest citizens. Their self-endowment is legendary. Last year the then minister for indigenous affairs, Jenny Macklin, refurbished her office at a cost to the taxpayer of $331,144. Macklin recently claimed that in government she had made a "huge difference." This is true. During her tenure, the number of Aboriginal people living in slums increased by almost a third, and more than half the money spent on indigenous housing was pocketed by white contractors and a bureaucracy for which she was largely responsible. A typical, dilapidated house in an outback indigenous community must accommodate as many as 25 people. Families, the elderly and disabled people wait years for sanitation that works.
In 2009 Professor James Anaya, the respected UN Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, described as racist a "state of emergency" that stripped indigenous communities of their tenuous rights and services on the pretext that paedophile gangs were present in "unthinkable" numbers -- a claim dismissed as false by police and the Australian Crime Commission. The then opposition spokesman on indigenous affairs,Tony Abbott, told Anaya to "get a life" and not "just listen to the old victim brigade." Abbott is now the prime minister of Australia.

I drove into the red heart of central Australia and asked Dr Janelle Trees about the "old victim brigade." A GP whose indigenous patients live within a few miles of $1,000-a-night resorts serving Uluru (Ayers Rock), she said:

"There is asbestos in Aboriginal homes, and when somebody gets a fibre of asbestos in their lungs and develops mesothelioma, [the government] doesn't care. When the kids have chronic infections and end up adding to these incredible statistics of indigenous people dying of renal disease, and vulnerable to world record rates of rheumatic heart disease, nothing is done. I ask myself: why not?"Malnutrition is common. I wanted to give a patient an anti-inflammatory for an infection that would have been preventable if living conditions were better, but I couldn't treat her because she didn't have enough food to eat and couldn't ingest the tablets. I feel sometimes ... as if I'm dealing with similar conditions as the English working class at the beginning of the industrial revolution."

In Canberra, in ministerial offices displaying yet more first-nation art, I was told repeatedly how "proud" politicians were of what "we have done for indigenous Australians." When I asked Warren Snowdon -- the minister for indigenous health in the Labor government recently replaced by Abbott's conservative coalition -- why after almost a quarter of a century representing the poorest, sickest Australians, he had not come up with a solution, he said: "What a stupid question. What a puerile question."
At the end of Anzac Parade in Canberra rises the Australian National War Memorial, which the historian Henry Reynolds calls "the sacred centre of white nationalism." I was refused permission to film in this great public place. I had made the mistake of expressing an interest in the frontier wars in which black Australians fought the British invasion without guns but with ingenuity and courage -- the epitome of the "Anzac tradition."
Yet, in a country littered with cenotaphs, not one officially commemorates those who fell resisting "one of the greatest appropriations of land in world history," wrote Reynolds in his landmark book Forgotten War. More first-Australians were killed than Native Americans on the American frontier and Maoris in New Zealand. The state of Queensland was a slaughterhouse. An entire people became prisoners of war in their own country, with settlers calling for their extinction. The cattle industry prospered using indigenous men virtually as slave labor. The mining industry today makes profits of a billion dollars a week on indigenous land.
Suppressing these truths, while venerating Australia's servile role in the colonial wars of Britain and the US, has almost cult status in Canberra today. Reynolds and the few who question it have been smeared and abused. Australia's unique first people are its Untermenschen. As you enter the National War Memorial, indigenous faces are depicted as stone gargoyles alongside kangaroos, reptiles, birds and other "native wildlife."
When I began filming this secret Australia 30 years ago, a global campaign was underway to end apartheid in South Africa. Having reported from South Africa, I was struck by the similarity of white supremacy and the compliance and defensiveness of liberals. Yet no international opprobrium, no boycotts, disturbed the surface of "lucky" Australia. Watch security guards expel Aboriginal people from shopping malls in Alice Springs; drive the short distance from the suburban barbies of Cromwell Terrace to Whitegate camp, where the tin shacks have no reliable power and water. This is apartheid, or what Reynolds calls "the whispering in our hearts."

Slave Ship Jesus

Slave Ship Jesus

Slave Ship Jesus Coat of Arms

Slavery is a stain on the history of the British Empire. The Anglo-Saxons kept slaves, but although serfdom survived for many years, slavery had all but gone from England by the 12th century. Certainly the earliest colonies, the West Indies and Virginia could not have survived without slaves.

The British were not the first Europeans in the slave trade. The Portuguese had established themselves as traders a century earlier.

Our story, here in the sixteenth century, centres on three voyages of John Hawkins. Hawkins was the first established English slave trader. Between 1562 and 1567 he made such profits so lucrative that he was supported by the Queen who showed her investment by donating two of her own ships, the Jesus of Lubeck and the Minion.

The pattern was consistent. Hawkins sailed for the west coast of Africa and, sometimes with the help of other African natives, kidnapped villagers. He would then cross the Atlantic and sell his cargo, or those who survived the voyage, to the Spanish. The slave trade was better business than plantations.

Sir John Hawkins

For Hawkins, the trade ended in 1567 when his fleet, which included a ship commanded by Francis Drake, took shelter from a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. The Spanish were also there. In the chaos and fight that followed, many of his men were killed. The Queen's Jesus of Lubeck was lost. Hawkins escaped in one ship and Drake in another. He'd lost 325 men on that voyage but it still showed a financial profit.

That skirmish between the Spanish and English ships was partly a turning point in the naval confrontation between the two nations; it continued for two decades and was only partially settled by the 1588 English Channel battle with the Spanish Armada. However, slavery continued after Hawkins and, although banned in England in 1772, it continued in the colonies until the 19th century. (source: BBC)

Slave Ship Jesus of Lubeck

JESUS OF LUBECK

The Jesus Of Lubeck was a German-built carrack of 700 tons displacement built around 1544 as a Hanseatic trading ship, before being bought by Henry VIII of England and converted to a warship. In 1564 she was leased as an armed slave-ship to Captain John Hawkins who used her until she was sunk during an engagement with the Spanish at San Juan de Ulloa in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Jesus Of Lubeck had four masts, the fore and main masts were square-rigged, the mizzens lateen rigged, carried a crew of 300 and was armed with 26 guns. (source:

M23 & THE UNSEEN HIGH-TECH GENOCIDE

MORE CONGO PROPAGANDA:

M23 & THE UNSEEN HIGH-TECH GENOCIDE

keith harmon snow

8 November 2013

The western propaganda system is again trotting out the refrain that "rebels in Congo have been defeated." The latest so-called "rebels" -- the M23 forces -- are actually Rwandan government troops, not rebels. Reports appearing in the western mass media are that the "M23 rebels" have "surrendered in Uganda", or "turned themselves in" in Rwanda. This is nonsense.

Meanwhile, western multinational corporations operating in eastern Congo have deep ties to the criminal extortion, money-laundering, racketeering and theft behind the plunder and depopulation in the Great Lakes countries. John Bredenkamp, Billy Rautenbach, Dan Gertler, Philippe De Moerloose, Elwyn Blattner... we know who the "untouchables" are, the white collar war criminals behind the high-tech genocide, but they are never, ever mentioned by the western media system, unless they have built some wattle-and-daub school, insulting the African people, but pleasing their affluent sponsors....

The village of Bihambwe on "Chicko Mountain" in the verdent hills of North Kivu, DRC. Photo: Keith Harmon Snow.

The western propaganda system is again trotting out the tired refrain that "rebels in Congo have been defeated." The latest so-called "rebels" -- the M23 forces -- are actually Rwandan government troops, not rebels. (True Congolese "rebels" -- such as the Mai Mai [also spelled Mayi-Mayi] are always denigrated by the international corporate media system.)

Reports now appearing in the western mass media are that the "M23 rebels" have "surrendered in Uganda", or "turned themselves in" in Rwanda. This is nonsense, since these are Rwandan Defense Forces, most of them formerly National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) "rebels", formerly Congolese Rally for Democracy "rebels", formerly of the Rwandan Patriotic Army/Movement (RPA/RPF), formerly Ugandan People's Defense Forces (UPDF), formerly National Resistance Army/Movement (NRA/M) troops. (This is especially true of commanders, e.g.: James Kabarebe, Laurent Nkundabatware, and many others). The varying incarnations of "rebels" in eastern Congo have all and always been backed by Museveni (Uganda) and Kagame (Rwanda), in turn backed by the USA, UK and Israel. M23 is the same: another predominantly Tutsi army serving the Tutsi/Hema elites -- not the people of Uganda or the people of Rwanda/Burundi and the bain of innocent men, women and children wherever they go.

Meanwhile, in Kinshasa, Hippolyte Kanambe (alias Joseph Kabila) is showing his consistent treasonous betrayal of the people of Congo by calling for the M23 rebels to be included in the political process. How and why would the president of Congo be inviting "defeated" guerillas who have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Congo (1996-2013), Rwanda (1990-1995) and Uganda (1980-1985) to participate in the political process?

Hippolytte Kanambe is another tutsi elite (his uncle is James Kabarebe) and his goal as Trojan Horse (see, e.g, Yaa-Lengi Ngemi, "Kagame's Trojan Horse in Kinshasa," New York Times, November 29, 2012) is to further integrate/infiltrate Rwandan guerillas and politicians into the Congo. Remember that Kanambe accompanied Laurent Desire Kabila on the US-backed invasion of Zaire and he was there, under the direct tutelage of Col. James Kabarebe, when the hundreds of thousands of innocent Rwandan Hutu refugees were obliterated in one of the most -- if not THE MOST -- systematic cold-blooded genocides of modern times.

Further, western media reports have exaggerated the fighting between Congolese troops (FARDC) and their U.N. partner-army the Rapid Intervention Forces (RIF), against the M23: most M23 were warned in advance of an impending assault and they fled to Rwanda and Uganda. Exaggerating the "successes" of the UN and RIF serves to provide justification for the United Nations as an independent entity doling out justice for the world. Nonsense.

Meanwhile, multinational corporations operating in eastern Congo under the media radar, but soaked in Congolese blood, include Banro Gold, Casa Mining, Randgold, Mwana Africa, Loncor, Anglo-Gold Ashanti, Kilo Gold, and Moku Gold. These are U.S., Canadian, Australian, and European mining corporations and they benefit from having the Rwandan Tutsi in Kinshasa (Kanambe). They all have deep ties to the criminal extortion, money-laundering, racketeering and theft behind the plunder and depopulation in the Great Lakes countries, ties to Kagame and Museveni and their agents.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Forces (MONUC, MONUSCO) and the Rapid Intervention Forces (note the heavy presence of South African troops AND South African mining companies in eastern Congo!) serve the corporate agenda. Remember that almost half of the MONUC annual 1 billion budget went to Lockheed Martin subsidiary Pacific Architects and Engineers -- a private military (read: mercenary) company also involved in the US/Canada/UK/Israeli invasions of Zaire (1996-1997) and Congo (1998-onward).

Meanwhile, TIME Magazine this week (Nov. 11, 2013) ran a little propaganda clip by a white journalist Jessica Hatcher titled, "Saving Congo's Gorillas". In typical western media fashion, the furry primates are portrayed as the supreme victims of war in the Great Lakes region. The point is to manipulate public opinion to support further western/corporate intervention in Congo, but not for the people, rather ostensibly for the non-human primates, but really for other western corporate exploiters, including Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, Jane Goodall Institute, Conservation International, CARE, Save the Children, UNICEF, etc. Oh, and don't forget Ben Affleck and Eve Ensler's million-dollars money-making schemes in Congo (requiring complete Ugandan and Rwandan government-war-criminal support).

Journalist Jessica Hatcher providing field dispatches for TIME and other major propaganda venues.

The page-and-a-half Time story offers an interesting trail for anyone interested in understanding the nature of power and the political economy of the mass media. For example, if you haven't heard, former Massachusetts Senator John Kerry is now Barrack Obama's new Secretary of State (replacing Hillary Clinton). The gorilla story doesn't mention Kerry at all, though it might have, since Kerry traveled to Rwanda and has extensive ties to Kagame. Kerry also unveiled new diplomatic cooperation (PEPFAR) with South Africa (note those S. African mining companies and S. African troops in Congo!), Rwanda and Namibia (run by another criminal enterprise backed by Washington)(and, also, especially, by the world diamond cartels). PEPFAR is one of these corporate AIDS front efforts which are merely a few hops from covert operations.

Again, the short gorilla story does not mention Kerry. It does however mention a formerly mostly-unheard-of gorilla reserve, Senkwekwe Orphan Mountain Gorilla Center, described by Time as "a refugee camp for primate victims of war." Never mind the hundreds of thousands of human refugees in the region....or the ongoing genocide against Congolese peoples... And remember that the so-called "humanitarian" charity (so-called "not-for-profit") CARE INTERNATIONAL is "partnered" with BANRO GOLD Corp in the blood-drenched hills of South Kivu, DRC. This is humanitarian fascism.

So, let's follow the trail Time inadvertently lays for us. Senkwekwe Orphan Mountain Gorilla Center , it turns out, gets some funding from the capitalist Buffet enterprises -- in particular, the Howard G. Buffet Foundation. The gorilla story in Time doesn't tell you this.

Photo: John Kerry with Kagame and others for new PEPFAR photo-op.

Time doesn't tell us that Warren Buffet, Howard G. Buffet and their companies, Berkshire Hathaway, have been deeply tied to the plunder and depopulation in the Great Lakes countries, and in Sudan. The Howard G. Buffet Foundation claims to have donated over $US 1 million to the World Food Program. Any enterprising honest journalist who wanted to look into this would find a haven of tax breaks, rotten grains, and corporate profiteering all at the expense of US taxpayers, all under the guise of the World Food Program, and involving protectionist agribusiness. Corporations like ConAgra and Archers Daniels Midland -- both tied to the Buffets -- that reap huge benefits by dumping shitty "food" on the World Food Program with the help of U.S. politicians and some Christian right front organizations like BREAD FOR THE WORLD.

Looking at the MINERALS INVEST map of Africa (above) showing the mining companies like Barrick Gold Corporation and Anglo-American (partnered with Barrick Gold Corporation in Congo), remember that former U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young counts Archers Daniels Midland and Barrick Gold Corporation as clients for his Goodworks International PR firm. Young is also tight with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, and all of them are very tight with Kagame and Museveni.

Howard G. Buffet trumpets his African Great Lakes Peace Building Initiative, but this is window dressing for profiteering and pacification of the natives. Buffet also claims to have provided "capacity-building and operations support for Virunga's National Park rangers" and "Humanitarian support for counter-LRA efforts". Unpack these claims and you will find the ugliest realities of predatory capitalism. "Humanitarian support for counter LRA-efforts" ??? What "counter LRA-efforts" -- the LRA is the propaganda bogeyman Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army -- could possibly involve anything "humanitarian"?

War is Peace.

Let's dig a little deeper back in Time, though, and VOILA! see what we find (found). Warren Buffet is also on the Board of Directors of the H.J. Heinz Corporation. In fact, Berkshire Hathaway acquired H.J. Heinz in June 2013.

What does H. J. Heinz have to do with Congo?

Why did John Kerry really travel to Central Africa?

If the Congo is a "failed state" as the Foreign Policy establishment likes to pontificate, how does BANRO GOLD create such an orderly exploitation of minerals? Answer: This is "failed state" by design and proxy warrior.

What are the real Buffet interests in the region?

I will only offer a small tidbit of insight: John Kerry's wife is Teresa Heinz, of the H.J. Heinz fortune.

Bottom line: THERE IS NOTHING ABOUT ANY OF THE RECENT REPORTAGE IN ANY MAJOR WESTERN VENUE THAT TELLS ANYTHING CLOSE TO THE WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT THE ONGOING GENOCIDE AND DEPOPULATION IN AFRICA.

If you are consuming the western mass media (Time Magazine, New York Times, New Yorker, etc.) you are contributing to your own mental illness, and to the war against the people of Africa.