Category: Uncategorized

There was a Bristol Museum Winter Lecture by Egyptian ‘Egyptologist’ Ms Heba abd el Gawad on 10 Feb 2022. Her dialogue is between Europe and Egypt but involves no dialogue with the rest of Africa. A very fashionable presentation playing cleverly to British guilt over colonialism and presenting herself as a modern ‘revealer’. But is this honest or sincere? There is an amazing element of misuse of words. Serious issues can be concealed by such misuse of words. The…

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Generally one considers European strategists  to be among the smartest there are. So it is with some disappointment that I notice that they are  way behind the curve. Standard concerns are: Gas Russian containment According to this view, US motives are to encourage Europe to  switch to US gas from Russian gas. Alternatively, the US is seeking to mortally wound Russia. Or both. Then some criticize the US strategists because they are taking on Russia and China at the…

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Andrew Jaggs has done important work in his PhD. I only have had access to an abstract (note 1) and a video interview. (Note 2). His thesis is about the relationship between ancient Egypt (Kemet) and Yoruba religion. Previously African scholars have focussed on archaeology and linguistics. But the heart of the matter is culture. It is culture that binds Africans together not skin tones. A second issue in the past has been a visible reluctance of some African…

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Sometimes it may be hard to understand cultural genocide, to get a handle on it. When something has become as pervasive as this is it begins to appear normal. One of the consequences of this cultural genocide is that Black people occasionally recognise something is wrong but locate it in their own skin and seek to get out of their skin. They hypothesise that if I cease to be seen as ‘Black’ I will be free. But this prison…

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 Angela Davis appeared on Democracy Now on 28 December 2021. It is with some hesitation that I seriously criticise Angela Davis. She was asked about the younger generations’ lack of interest in the struggles of the past and dismissals of her as irrelevant.  Of course, she is not irrelevant.  I still remember my first days at Clare College, Cambridge and choosing how to decorate my room. A poster of ‘FREE ANGELA DAVIS’  was placed in the most prominent place….

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Mishra is a celebrated author and journalist. He is the winner of many prizes and additionally writes for The Guardian. If he reviews a work by Fanon in the New Yorker (6 Dec 2021), there must be some anticipation of interesting observations. Is our anticipation rewarded? It is a little unedifying that he begins the review by quoting Sartre and then a review by Hannah Arendt before even mentioning anything by Fanon. He states that Fanon’s renown was based…

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Confucius was asked what would be the first thing he did if he was ever granted power. He answered: ‘rectify words’. It is neither Rittenhouse nor the jury verdict that is a sign of US cultural collapse. Matters like that have a long history in the US. We need only reference Rodney King.  What reveals the decline is the loss of correct word usage. Anders Walker (Note 1) describes the events and refers to the specific local law in…

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There was an impressive talk by Jim Downs about both the African contribution to epidemiology and its forceful elimination from the Western historical record. Apart from its own matter of interest Jim Down’s presentation thoroughly reveals a serious issue with contemporary Black scholarship. Many of the presenter’s at ASWAD talk of themselves as the first of a new generation of Black scholars inhabiting the halls of the Academy. This is a serious matter. It conceals two great and profound…

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During ASWAD conference there was constant reference to Walter Rodney almost as a sanctified person. There was uncritical adulation. This is entirely unsatisfactory, particularly from an academic environment. There is an element of irresponsibility here: what do we have to learn from his life? What did he do/say/write that was wrong and what was right? These are fundamental questions that people avoid asking. I attended a memorial for Rodney many years ago and during the question time I raised…

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ASWAD held  a significant conference 4-6 Nov 2021 on contemporary African and Diaspora thought. One of the panel focusses was on: ‘Transgressive Bodies and Sexualities in Black Diaspora.’   The panelists were: Bruno Santana, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brasil Megg Rayara, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brasil Andrea Allen, University of Toronto Joshua Reason, University of Pennsylvania Strangely they made no effort to seek historical origins or to find historical echoes in ancient Africa. While objecting to a current framing they…

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