This journal was started in 1999 at the dawn of the 21st Century It was aimed at providing leading edge thinking on Africa and the diaspora issues at a time when a stale orthodoxy ruled the Black academy. At the time I had a full time role as partner in a City firm and the journeying around the world consequent on the launch of the first issue made a second issue impossible! However the need for an independent and…
This series by BBC based on novellas by Malorie Backman is an interesting challenge. There are those who may feel that heavy analysis of this work is more than it deserves, that it is in fact light entertainment. I seriously disagree. One must address the issue of production, context and reception for artistic creation as Stuart hall so well educated us. A fundamental issue is that the perspective on life presented here turns the political into the personal. To…
There is an interesting question that is seldom asked. After the collapse fo the Cold War there should have been a peace dividend, winding up of NATO and a reduction in armed conflict in the world. In fact armed expenditure by US has increased and wars have expanded. Conflict with China has been described as a ‘new’ cold war. However the obvious question is: if the consequences of the collapse of Soviet Union and end of ‘cold war’ were…
Where were Western philosophers when the following questions were asked? Should we torture to save many lives? Which cricket/sports team should you support? One of the fundamental tasks of philosophy has been to identify the correct question. If the correct question is asked often the bias of the incorrect question is exposed. Norman Tebbit posed the ‘cricket test’ complaining that many immigrant communities still support their country of origin in sports against England. This is simply the wrong question….
Richard Dawkins and the Western philosophy establishment Why is there such silence from the western philosophy establishment about Dawkins ridiculous arguments? Philosophers know how trash Dawkins arguments in minutes but remain silent? Is this because they are in the main followers of Kant who made just the same recommendations as Dawkins is espousing and they feel conflicted? We have discussed this elsewhere. See: (https://african-century.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Charles-W-Mills-on-Kant%e2%80%99s-Untermenschen-b-revisited-Part-2_.pdf)
Every Prince deserves a courtier or schlepper to scrape and bow at their every whim. We can only endorse Richard Dawkins application for the role of courtier to the Prince of Darkness. Seldom has such a well qualified candidate presented themselves for such a post. Richard Dawkins tweeted on 16 Feb 2020: ‘It’s one thing to deplore eugenics on ideological, political, moral grounds. It’s quite another to conclude that it wouldn’t work in practice. Of course it would. It…
exhibition title: «when a stone cracks we don’t stitch.» -5 Oct 19 artist: larry amponsah gallery: 50 Goldbourne Went to Larry Amponsah’s latest exhibition at 50 Goldbourne on Saturday 5 Oct 2019. This exhibition covered works done in the past year which show considerable development in his artistic trajectory or his practice as he prefers to call it. His command of visual language has increased remarkably. What we have now is beautiful, layered images suffused with a quality of…
Strolled along to Zak Ove’s exhibition at Somerset House. It was advertised as ‘A major new exhibition celebrating the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond.’ Zak who curated the exhibition described it as: ‘a review and a celebration of our Caribbean and African culture that has permeated and contributed to British society». His publicist describes it as: ‘taking its starting point as the radical work of his father Horace Ové,’ Somerset House wrote:” Beginning with the…
We have received, dated 12 July, a warm reply from the director of Boston MFA, Matthew Teitelbaum. A clear and concise explanation of the appropriate steps being taken to remedy matters and a clear statement that the audio track was unacceptable. It is not always we can say an effort was worthwhile but also a great thank you to Matthew for taking these matters seriously.
Attended the unveiling of a blue plaque to Phyllis Wheatley. This famous African poet had to come to London from the US in 1773 to find a publisher for her poetry. She was born in The Gambia and by the age of 15 was fluent in Latin, Greek and English and was publishing her poetry in her teens. No publishing house in US would touch her work. She met Granville Sharp among many British dignitaries and also Benjamin Franklin….
Michelle Goa writes in Harvard Crimson: ‘It bemuses me that some absolve non-white people of racism. They declare point-blank, “It’s literally impossible to be racist to a white person.” “Racism against white people doesn’t exist.” “Because there’s no scenario in which racism is not a bad thing. If some extremists won’t engage in good faith, we can’t force them. But at least among the rest of us, we can do better. We shouldn’t need to compare how a possible…
