I'm appalled at the ignorance of Africa on my

[Africanprince]

School's campus

How come Black Pan African Studies major can't tell me that there are 53 countries in Africa? Or Africa has Islands? And it's not a country?

It is the saddest thing

My friend loves to wear his African shirts (dashiki's) to campus and theirs a grip of these Black students when he walks by them that call him Kunta Kinte. The funny thing is that they all start laughing like they insulted him. Who are they really making fun of?

We just laugh and walk by these clowns

We had African night last semester at our school and no one showed up but a bunch of white kids who were open to learn about African culture.

We're having African week coming up soon, we're having a sympossium discussion about African and AFrican American relations.  The black students love to show up to these which is a great thing.

I will record the discussion on my digital recorder and let you guys hear with your own ears the crazy questions people will ask about Africa.

Last time I heard

"Why do African men hate African American women? Why do they choose white women over us?"

"Why do you guys hate us?"

Who implants this stuff into peoples head?

Not all black people are like this on my campus, but I haven't met any Pan Africans, Afrocentric students yet. I notice that the Carribean and Belizean girls on my campus always want to find out about the African student organization on our campus which is coo.

[Bantu_Kelani]

How many black Diasporas know anything about Africa apart from the negatives? Look around you see less and less blacks that have the spirit of Black African pride all over the Diaspora. Western worldview is way of life for them. Its aim is to offense and denigrate native African ancestral way of life. So, of course these blacks in your campus are all haters of what Africa the CONTINENT is and of black Africans. In terms of mindset black people definitively have problems.
 
B.k

[Oshun_Auset]

How many black Diasporas know anything about Africa apart from the negatives? Look around you see less and less blacks that have the spirit of Black African pride all over the Diaspora. Western worldview is way of life for them. Its aim is to offense and denigrate native African ancestral way of life. So, of course these blacks in your campus are all haters of what Africa the CONTINENT is and of black Africans. In terms of mindset black people definitively have problems.
 
B.k

What is sad about that is that means they hate, and are ignorant of themselves...Just how the Western imperialists like it too be.

Black studues in the Western school mis-education system is largely a joke. Especially if the students don't learn anything outside of the Western paradigm of thought concerning Africa...I can only speak for myself...everything I have learned about Africa I researched on my own, had to seek out from independant sources, and none of it was readilly available within the Western educational system... I can also take a pretty good guess this is the truth for most people on this board and in the African centered community in general.

I had the same irritation in school...Getting called names because of my garb and interests...and I went to a historically Black college! :-/ So you are not alone in your frustration.

[erzulie]

Peace all

while i can relate to the frustration expressed on this thread, i'd like add to few comments.

first the African continent has 54 nations. Eritrea being the latest to claim independance from Ethiopia, over a decade ago.

secondly, while academia is a bastion of white supremacy by design, i think its important and empowering to remember the incredible scholars and thinkers who have in fact revolutionized the western academy. from WEB DuBois to John Henry Clarke to Sonia Sanchez to Carole Boyce Davies to June Jordan to James Balwin to Dr. Ben to Robin Kelley to Ngugi wa Thiong'o to Obioma Nneameka, these scholars struggled and fought, worked and are working to smash western superiority and decolonize minds within the ivory tower. many of them taught in universities through out the nation and some still do. there are many Africana Studies departments, worldwide from San Francisco to Miami to Cambridge to Legon, that are staffed with scholars and teachers who are passionate and knowledgable about histories and cultures of Africa and the Diaspora. the struggle for Black Studies is no joke and is a yet another amazing aspect of the Black liberation struggle, and it continues.

i just graduated from Brooklyn College, CUNY, a most racist institutuion that paradoxically housed a wonderful Africana Studies dept from which i learned alot. now i came to that campus already awakened to the centrality of Africa and my African identity, however i was impressed breadth of knowledge my professors had and were happy to share with me. yes, we did not always agree and i was often the most radical thinker/activist (though not always) and yes universities make it most difficult for Black scholars to exist and prosper in those spaces but we must continue to demand change, question exclusion, and build on the work already done. as a Pan Africanist PhD candidate in another racist university, i think this work is extremely valuable, though of course its not the only means of activism.

now, as far as the students...well i know all about organizing on campus and highs and lows of that mission. Black students are highly unpolitizied like the rest of the population but there still exists a wonderful possibility for exchange and dialogue nonetheless. as activists we know the reasons for this self denial and self hatred, but we must continue to do our work. we must also challenge ourselves to find new ways of making these pro Black activities seem exciting and irreresistable. clearly using hiphop and other popular forms of black  global culture is a good mechanism for getting the folks to come through. as well as bombarding folks in the student centers and cafeteria and other hang out spots with info and performances. most importantly, keeping the conscious students strong and unified and open to other students who may not know as much, is crucial. reparations has been an issue that consistently pulled students. also making the links between Black struggles and other communities such as with the Middle Eastern and South East Asian students is good means of garnering support and creating coalition as well as contraversy which can be a means inspiring of the apathetic. and remember to ask others for help, that can transform a sideline spectator to a organizer.

lastly, African Prince, i think you should approach those brothers, introduce yourself, and inform them, briefly and earnestly, about Kunte Kinte, Roots, and the personal meaning behind wearing African clothes to school. ask them questions on why they think its funny or not. i think they'll at the least respect you for your attempt to include them in a dialogue about real sh*t, for a change. perhaps something magical will happen. remember Huey P. Newton met Bobby Seale at college, the two of them formed the Black Panther Party and the rest is his/herstory...

Power to the People!

[Africanprince]

Erzulie, thanks for correcting me

Their is no reasoning with these folks. I'm not going to preach to these guys because who knows what they might do. I'm not going to get kicked out of the campus because I got into a fight with some fools.

One semester in one of my friends classes one guy had to do an oral presentation on Burkina Faso.  He got in front of the class and had the nerve to say that Burkina Faso has 0% literacy in the country, everybody is illiterate. Now how can a black man stand up and say that?  Can you think so lowly of Africans to believe some stupid rubbish like that. When my friend heard that he rushed to the PAS dept and asked if he could call the Burkina Faso embassy, he got the statistcs and rushed back to the class and challenged the fool on his false report. The guy got so mad at my friend that he threatened him all last semester. The guy didn't do anything because I guess it was all talk. But man the ignorance is very strong and dissapointing.

I'm kind of done bitching about this, I can complain and complain and complain.

Luckily I have the opportunity to have a heavy say in the planning of African Week.

On one week I was thinking about doing a power point presentation on African myths and stereotypes. Like I would get a lot of my pics from my trip to Ghana and pictures from my other African friends so I could show people a different side of africa that they won't see. I may show them a picture of one common misconception like a picture of a hut  and then on the next slide show a beautiful house and explain that not all Africans live in huts.

You think thats a good idea or a waste of time?

Thanks for the responses it's really appreciated

[Bantu_Kelani]

Bro. Africanprince, the majority of black people are their own enemies. To many black Diasporas dislike their ancestral origins and the wonderful continent and peoples of Africa, and value themselves based on what others taught them. Nobody hates native Africans more than black Diasporas. Likewise, nobody hates black Diasporas more than native Africans. Black people are their own slave masters and their own slaves. It is for that reason that I do my best to push away this mental slavery away from me. I find positive blacks with open minds and I work with them to represent our people. I advise you to do the same.

B.K

[erzulie]

peace all.

as a Caribbean person who grew up mostly in the States who has spent significant time in several countries in Africa, i have often felt caught in the middle of the hatred and miscommunication BK has described. in many ways Haiti and Haitian culture is more like the West Africa then the U.S., and many African Americans were quick to express their disgust for my roots, but while i have also felt the anguish of double exile in the States, i have garnered strength from the his/hertory of Black resistance in the States and found joy in celebrating the wonderful cultures of Blackness as shaped in the US.

this given me an interesting insider/outsider view. because i try my best not turn away from my people in anger and despair, both African Americans and Africans have shared their hearts with me with regarding this painful issue.
ultimately, i have made it one of my priorities to share the stories, his/herstories of both communities with the other. i have approached people of the Diaspora and the continent with love and respect and heartfelt honesty and i can say that i feel that in these small circles, whether Rasta communities in Ghana, hiphop heads in Brooklyn or veterns in Eritrea new understandings of Black family were expanded.

AfricanPrince---i say all of this to say that i feel we must continue to dialogue with each other. many of us have been misinformed and abused so it will take several lifetimes of work to create a living, healing Pan Africa. we must remember the pain and loss many African Americans feel but do not articulate. it is complicated but try to remain patient and open while speaking your truth. have no fear in calling ignorance out. don't let one shady character stop you from sharing what you know is not only true but crucial information for Black people of the Diaspora. so yes, your presentation is a great idea. yes, some folks will indoubtably ask or say offensive and ignorant things. but some others will be informed and inspired.

Bantu is right we need our support systems of wise folks where we can unabashedly release our frustrations but don't forget that it is white supremacy and colonialism we despise, not each other. we can not claim Africa then say "forget you" to our kin. the ancestors we uphold did much better under worse circumstances.

[Bantu_Kelani]

Sister Erzulie,

I have always been an idealist, an optimist always searching for the good in everything but as time progresses; my idealism is turning into realism. It is sad to say, but black people are light years behind other progressive race, and for one reason and one reason only: we still have a slave mentality. I do not stand or support it. Therefore, I always limit myself to conscious blacks to realize my full potential. Don't get me wrong I am not saying I am rejecting my own, but the majority of blacks have a long way to go to follow me as a radical idealist and a pro-black visionary. We can do so much more with open-minded people, but not too many blacks want to actually be like that. In all seriousness, I am mentally exhausted trying to deal with them privately. Most of them are resilient, uncreative, lazy, and boring.  I no longer expect them to ever support me, or black people like me, even though I willingly choose to continue the uplift of the black race through creative visualization (using mental energy), hobbies and actions to improve health and prosperity of black people. So, I am not saying that Africanprince should stop his efforts to educate black people yet we shouldn't waste unnecessary time with the stanch uneducated and mis-educated blacks only inspired by whites, it will lower our outcomes.

As for Haitians, I am somehow acquainted with Haitian culture and I assume the Haitian people have not cultivated so much hatred/animosity towards the native African population. The dire conditions of Haiti and the Haitians, and the Haitians are being arrested to be deported just like African immigrants are arrested in the US and Europe.. In those countries we both suffer discrimination and injustice, often at the hands of people whom we share the same skin color with the only difference is a language barrier (see what happened in Bad Boys II, and those degrading stereotypes about Haitians in it). So I feel you, you can only support my point.  

B.K

[Oshun_Auset]

peace all.

AfricanPrince---i say all of this to say that i feel we must continue to dialogue with each other. many of us have been misinformed and abused so it will take several lifetimes of work to create a living, healing Pan Africa. we must remember the pain and loss many African Americans feel but do not articulate. it is complicated but try to remain patient and open while speaking your truth. have no fear in calling ignorance out. don't let one shady character stop you from sharing what you know is not only true but crucial information for Black people of the Diaspora. so yes, your presentation is a great idea. yes, some folks will indoubtably ask or say offensive and ignorant things. but some others will be informed and inspired.

Bantu is right we need our support systems of wise folks where we can unabashedly release our frustrations but don't forget that it is white supremacy and colonialism we despise, not each other. we can not claim Africa then say "forget you" to our kin. the ancestors we uphold did much better under worse circumstances.

Well said!

[ptaured7]

Well I might as well weigh in on this one from the respectfully curious white person perspective.

Americans of African descent are some of the oldest non-native immigrants to this land and have one of the oldest continuous histories of such relative new comers to the Americas.   Consequently, theirs is one of the most unique, if sometimes tragic, evolutionary cultural spirals to ever have constituted a unique people in the history of the human race.  

Such things have happened, are happening over all recorded human history and the new cultures created often acheive a singularity distinct, different and even a little condescending to the more remote aspects of the ancestral culture, often viewed as "old" or decadent.

This is the experience of Americans of European descent, who often (in my case certainly) simply don't like or trust those "snobby, arrogant Europeans", who don't seem to have much respect for our experiment and rely on old familiar icons and acheivments to define themselves.

I have noticed that many black people of African descent who are Americans feel a little the same way about Aficans, who can be fairly pridefull and a little snobby, just as Europeans are about whitey in America.

That's not to say that the cheap commercial crap propaganda machine that creates an anti - intellectual black consumer dupe, like the rest of us dupes regardless of race creed or color, is not a thing to be resisted and done away with.   but maybe we all need a little cajolling to have fun and discovery about cultural matters and not to put on airs.  

Despite all I have written and cømmunicated that might be construed as criticism of my country, I still get pissed when some pseudo intellectual European starts harranguing about us barbaric, violent americans with no culture, etc.   The AFricans we come into contact with are mostly influenced by the British and European University systems and share such continental sentiments and views and one suspects that the reaction of some African Americans to this is defensive.  On the other hand, you also meet and communicate with much more down to earth people from Africa and the Carribbean and one finds things different then.

It's all about having a sense of humor and inviting joint exploration while refraining from the ultra sincerity thing that was criticized in my days as a studen in the late seventies regarding women's rights and ethnic studies.

[preach]

The deterioration of ancestral cultures is not the result of an experiment in america to experience, find, or evolve into new cultures. It was/is a very strategic plan to undermine the very base of all culture, just as the river undermines the bank. Let's not forget that as water pushes further on land floods are evident, and floods cause destruction. The destruction of beautiful ideals, people, morals, spirituality, and progressive civilization. It is as I have learned that nothing progessive including thought is possible if a people don't do so in their own language. Language encompassing so much.

ptaured7 let me be criticized for being ultra sincere in grave matters as I see what has/is/will happen.  I don't need or want  to be cajoled to have fun and discover culture for the very method of cajoling is through flattery and deceit. I concur when intellectuals harangue about barbaric, violent america lacking culture.
seen.    

[ptaured7]

Preach, From your perspective i get the point and please excuse what may have sounded like a lecture?   But, every issue in human society is multi faceted.  Cultural and social evolution is happening in the Americas.    It cannot all be a plot to undermine "traditional" culture, although there is cultural as well as other forms of imperialism, but did I not make that point?   I am not a dialectical materialist, but things do change, including culture, and the changes come about for a variety of reasons.

Take one of the most tradition bound longest running singular cultures today....Japan.  Now in Japan, before wetern contact,  that seemingly isolated and refined culture viewed itself as distinct, pure and "advanced".   A mythology developed to fully explain this uniqueness.  People here in the west (wrongly) think of Japanese as a distinct singular race with a sort of radical homogeneity uncommon in the world today.  How far from the truth this is.   Japan shares a common bond through geographical determinism with England.   It is really an amalgamation of various peoples from the continent of Asia thrown together in all the myriad ways of human migration, conflict and exploration.   What developed out of all that was one ø? the most unique cultures on earth.   There are tremendous regional differences among the peoples of that curious archapeligo to this day based on the old migrations and conflicts of thousands of years ago.  

In fact, one could say, it is the multi ethnicity and cultural experimentation of this Asiatic diaspora that led to great enrichment and experimentation resulting in this interesting people and place.

Sort of like the Moorish invasion of southern Europe and the positive impact of that upon the people there, combined, one would guess, with the certainty that bloody conquest and "cultural undermining" came with it from the perspective of those poor barbaric Europeans who had lost their Romanized advanced culture, which itself was an amalgamation of Greek, via Egyptian, "cultural undermining" of its "tradtitions".

To simplify the American experiment as a broad negative flys in the face of all that is positive that mixes and interacts with the negative here.  

I am sure a Zulu would have something to say about a Bantu in this regard, or a Kikyu about a Luo, etc.  They fight and persecute each other, and not just because of the legacy of colonialism and imperialism.  

There are great cycles of history (Vico and Confucious interesting to read and Spengler), it flows foward, backward, sometimes even to the side.  Growth is painfull.  The universe is a chaotic and dangerous place and we occupy a few limited spaces inbetween cataclysms.  

Weren't you Africans masters of the world a long, long time ago?  

That doesn't mean at all that I disagree that there indeed is a certain scripted out plan of cultural annhilation going on .  The powerfull lobby behind this is far , far more than just the bad USA.

With regard to cultural exploration and experimentation ...... one supposes we all have different styles depending on experience and I apologize for being flippant about my own experiences.  

[Bantu_Kelani]

Why these irrelevant diversions ptaured7? I don't think talking about common cultural mutation of white (or mongoloid Asian) colonizer peoples has any relevance with the Black African race empiricism. What is totally naïve or hypocrite for you is to dismiss the fact that it was because Anglo-Americans ripped black Americans' ancestors from the only homes they'd ever known to bring them here like ANIMALS.. whipped, lynched and raped them like animals for centuries.. cast out and pea in their indigenous traditions soup as unworthy that black Americans today have serious problems and stereotypes about their ancestral origins and about the continent and peoples of Africa. I don't think a common cultural mutation has something to do with the fact that black people suffer from deep perverted and shallow ideas about their true identity and cultures. Colonial brainwashing is the seed of our problems!

Further, white Europeans do not class white immigrants, on this land (the USA) stolen from Indigenous people, as "sub culture", but they say so about your fellow black citizens and the peoples of Africa that itself constitute white privilege infested with racism. Blacks have a lot to be responsible, but the constant meddling of Anglo-Americans doesn't help black Americans solve our problem. Are you blind to the cultural confusion your people are causing to my people? Or you just feel like mingling your irrelevant beliefs in this thread, rather than forwarding the truth.

B.K

[Oshun_Auset]

Why these irrelevant diversions ptaured7? I don't think talking about common cultural mutation of white (or mongoloid Asian) colonizer peoples has any relevance with the Black African race empiricism. What is totally naïve or hypocrite for you is to dismiss the fact that it was because Anglo-Americans ripped black Americans' ancestors from the only homes they'd ever known to bring them here like ANIMALS.. whipped, lynched and raped them like animals for centuries.. cast out and pea in their indigenous traditions soup as unworthy that black Americans today have serious problems and stereotypes about their ancestral origins and about the continent and peoples of Africa. I don't think a common cultural mutation has something to do with the fact that black people suffer from deep perverted and shallow ideas about their true identity and cultures. Colonial brainwashing is the seed of our problems!B.K

How true this is. No other displaced group of people on the PLANET have a problem with identifying with their landmass(culture history and related peoples) of origin except Africans born in the U.S.(and other parts of the diaspora in varying degrees). I've never seen a Chinese born American fervently argue down someone that they are not Chinese but they are just plain old "yellow"....But if you tell the average African born in America that they are also African. Their brainwashed negative view of their homeland(and hence themselves) will have some deny it to no end. This is all a result of the peculiar circumstances of our mass forced "migration" that has no parallel in documented human history. To compair it to any other migration, colonization, exploration, historic strife, or the ebb and flow of any other peoples...to chalk it up to "change being painful"....is insulting and minimizes the horrific things done to our ancestors before us, and ourselves today, that we are currently feeling and living with the physical, psychological, emotional, and cultural/spiritual effects of.

ptaured7,

You mentioned a few "comparisons" that I think can be used as examples of the unique historical attrocitties imposed on Africans abroad and on the continent...

Take one of the most tradition bound longest running singular cultures today....Japan.  Now in Japan, before wetern contact,  that seemingly isolated and refined culture viewed itself as distinct, pure and "advanced".   A mythology developed to fully explain this uniqueness.  People here in the west (wrongly) think of Japanese as a distinct singular race with a sort of radical homogeneity uncommon in the world today.  How far from the truth this is.   Japan shares a common bond through geographical determinism with England.   It is really an amalgamation of various peoples from the continent of Asia thrown together in all the myriad ways of human migration, conflict and exploration.   What developed out of all that was one ø? the most unique cultures on earth.  There are tremendous regional differences among the peoples of that curious archapeligo to this day based on the old migrations and conflicts of thousands of years ago.  

In fact, one could say, it is the multi ethnicity and cultural experimentation of this Asiatic diaspora that led to great enrichment and experimentation resulting in this interesting people and place.

First off Japan doesn't have a "common bond" with England...It was colonized by England...People in the west think of Japan as a distinct singular culture and nation, not race. Asians in general are looked at as a distinct race. Just like Africans in general and Europeans in general. Just like their are tremendous regional differences within Japan(on the nation level), and Asia(on the continental level), there are those same differences among people in Africaon the continent, and of African descent that were forcefully moved abroad(on the nation and continental level) Old migrations(march of the Bantu) and conflicts among these people account for some of this....But forced migration to the Americas, and colonial division on the continent counts for most of this.(the current African national boarders are colonially defined respecting no historical homelands of the indigenous African peoples, leading to exasperated tensions...they were designed to be like this on purpose)  

Unlike the current continental African situation, the Japanese have self determination because neo-colonialsim is not still in effect. Africa would have developped similar regional national unification, and possibly continental unification had it not been and continues to be interupted by colonialism, imperialism, and neo-colonialism. Japan got rid of their invader....unlike us. The colonialsim it experienced was not as in depth as Africa has. There was no forced migration of millions of Asian inhabitants. This makes the African continental and diaspora situation unique.

The Asiatic diaspora came about voluntarilly, therefore they had a different socio-economic footing wherever they travelled to, unlike the African diaspora. This leads to a totally different outcome of "enrichment" of the Asian continent by the diaspora. The Asian person is respected anywhere he is because their home continent is independent of foreign political and economic powers controlling everything. The colonial monster has not been booted out of mother Africa...In other words we have unfinished buisiness. Our homeland does not have economic and political unity and self determination. Since their is no homebase of power that other world powers would have to recon with, the African personality globally is not respected. The brainswashing that has occured in the diapsora, as well as the political economic degredation of the deaspora exasperates this problem of unity.

We have a unique situation that cannot be truely compared with any other people. Any unfair comparison belittles our struggle.  

[preach]

ptaured7 no excuses needed I like lectures. The projections made about the practice and results of cultural exploration and experimentation in most cases are idealistic. The american experiment on paper may have been positive but in effect it is not. It can even be called a controlled conflict.
Let's also liken it to jazz fusion, where let's say folk is mixed with jazz and you get a sort of cool jazz, then you add some techno and you get Yanni. What has happened, Miles and Monk have been lost and you can't even classify the new music therefore stifling language and thought processes. The past is erased, and future is bleak. Dialectic Materialists hold fast to the idea of matter, its movements and modifications.Change isn't good if there aren't improvements, and only one party benefits, or a culture is lost, displaced and seemingly stymied for an uncalculated amount of time.

Dig it my peoples were once masters of the world, 10,000 years, 24 dynasties( excuse my math )
The new world, 2000 years and self destructing.