Blackbright News - Black History Edition

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The Past and the Future is Now...

(The Black History Edition) No. 56

15 things you may not know about Black History

Is Justice Thwarted by Racism?

haten), Tutenkamen, Nefertiti, Tuthmose, Cetewayo, King Hannibal and King Mansa Musa 1, to name a few.

I think the media wants Black History to conjure up images of slaves, which is why it is important that we put our history into perspective, and associate ourselves with our regal ancestors.

EDITORIAL Why do I squirm with unease when films like Roots, Django Unchained, 12 years a Slave, Amistad, Goodbye Uncle Tom or Birth of a Nation are broadcasted on TV, when other people can watch it, completely unmoved by violent interjectors, lynchings, rape and other forms of cruelty?

I am constantly reminded “…it’s only a movie” but is it ‘only a movie’ to someone who is threatened by it? Maybe it takes me back to a period I once lived in, otherwise, why would I get such an adverse physical reaction to it, and why do the sensations feel so real?

For those who scoff: “it’s just a film”, they might want to remember that slavery films are based on true accounts and that film directors use their imagination, biographies and other writings to step into the psyche, soul and body of the slavemaster and the slave, in order to produce a catalogue of events that ridicule and demoralise while creating a superiority or inferiority complex depending on the mindset of the person watching.

I find it difficult to disassociate myself from the pain of slavery. While a rational person could argue that I have a strong sense of empathy and compassion, my karmic memory tells me that I lived among predators, perpetrators and ancestors at one point in time, which is why I have an emotional response to replays of the event.

At this juncture, I find myself imagining how I would behave if I lived in the 1400s. I sense I would have felt indignation whenever my ancestral status was challenged, which makes me believe that I would have been in the realm of female freedom fighters like Harriet Jacobs (a Black feminist writer who was born a slave and escaped to become an abolitionist writer and speaker); Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (the Nigerian Feminist activist and mother of Fela Anikulapo Kuti); Ella Baker (who revolutionalised black leadership and dedicated her time and energy to empowering people); Assata Shakur (a Freedom fighter with the Black Liberation Army and the Black Panther Party); Rani Velu Nachiyar (the first queen to fight against the British in India); Nanny of the Maroons (who led slaves from the plantations) or Nana Yaa Asantewa (who challenged the Ashanti Chiefs and said ‘if you won’t fight for our dignity, I will get all the women together and we will fight them”).

I know I would have revolted and rebelled against slavery and other forms of exploitation. My arm would have been outstretched similar to the arm on the statue of liberty, symbolising forwards, onwards and upwards.

“Logic will take you from A to B, but the imagination will take you everywhere” – Albert Einstein When I look at my reflection in the mirror, I admire my long regal neckline. I find myself unconsciously lifting my chin up with pride because I feel unique and beautiful, but then conditioned response reminds me that holding my head up is unbecoming and arrogant.

This begs the question, does the constant intrusion on the psyche of black people make us feel an affinity with our ancestors, or do we self-protect by disassociating themselves from them?

I have glimpsed occasions when I have had an air of austerity. I have made commands without realising it and have had to apologise for speaking with authority, because voices in my past remind me that ‘I should know my place’.

Throughout our dark history where limp shadows lured beneath the masters’ hand, we were not allowed to acquaint ourselves with the traits of Kings and Queens like Amenhotep IV (aka Aken-

Sometimes, I recognise traits of nobility, but then I recall being told that my gait must be submissive, deferential and respectful when I stand in front of white people, and anyone else of a higher

status than me.

(Painting taken from Google Images - www.maliciouz.com)

What s Inside...

Is Justice Twarted

by Racism?

(Cosby v Kavanaugh and Donald Trump)

There are times I feel a empowered, until subconscious reminders of insults and criticism during adolescent years, disempower me and I convince myself that professional development is inappropriate and a waste of time.

However, despite the media and historical attempts to mask our greatness, it is my belief that since we all come from a long lineage of African Kings and Queens, we have the right to denounce any claims that do not celebrate our greateness and lineage, and act accordingly.

Black history means different things to different people - the truth about our history as slaves, and more importantly, our reign as influential Kings and Queens.

Myrna Loy

15 Things you may not know about Black History Black History Under Focus (by Steve Stephenson) The Bronze Woman

A ROCK BETWEEN A HARD PLACE (Racism Plays a Large Part in the Justice System) Black History Month brings about reminders of slavery, only now, in 2018, it is not physical slavery in the western world, so much as it is mental slavery through subliminal messages and mind conditioning.

For those of us who live in the UK, news from the USA reminds us that racism is still rife in many places. Botham Jean, a 26 year old man was shot by a white female police officer in his own home this year. It is alleged that they were having an affair, but regardless of the reason, she shot him because she believed she could, and she probably did not think there would be repercussions because he was black.

Bill Cosby (aka Cliff Huxtable), a man who was the role model father in the Cosby Show, and who lived during the free love movement when the alleged assaults took place in the 1960s; a time where casual sex and taking drugs was

the norm, who is now accused (and has been convicted) of sexual assault of over 40 women, who claimed he gave them the drug Quaaludes and had sex with them.

During the Beatnik era, when the alleged assaults took place, passing around Quaaludes (or Mandies as they were called) was the equivalent to a Marijuana joint now, only they were known as ‘disco biscuits’.

A joint and casual sex in the FREE LOVE era was an expectation by those who enjoyed this environment. Yet 81 year old Cosby, now legally blind, was fined $25,000 and sent to jail for 10 years, for alleged offences that took place in 1960 - 1970s, but where no concrete evidence was given, and where a jury of public opinion sympathised with the alleged victims.

Conversely, President Donald Trump, openly admitted to grabbing a woman by her p***y, because of his position and kissing

them without consent, but is allowed to continue as president, with no repercussions.

We do not know if Cosby is innocent or guilty, but we live in a justice system that is tainted, and if he is not guilty, this is another example of extreme racism, where a man is treated unfairly and ridiculed because of the colour of his skin.

Brett Kavanaugh, candidate for Supreme Court of Justice, a white upper-class male, is accused of sexual assault, but instead of the victims being sympathised with (like in the Cosby case), they are shamed, spurned, and are made to feel like criminals. How can excuses be made for Brett Kavanaugh and Donald Trump, and not for Bill Cosby, unless race is a factor? For Brett Kavanaugh and Donald Trump, the excuse is “it happened so long ago..” but that excuse is not applied to Bill Cosby.

We currently have three men, all accused of the same crime (two white, one black), yet treated differently. The public see the best in the two white accused, but see the worst in the black accused.

Amy Guyger (a white female police officer) shot 26year old Botham Jean in his own house, so when Colin Kaepernick knelt against police brutality, we can see why. You could well say “that it is happening in America”, but statistics show that blacks are stopped 6% more than their white counterparts; police brutality affects black males more than it affects white males, more black males are locked up; more black males are institutionalised in the UK, so while racism in the UK is more subtle, it still exists and more dangerously so!

It is no wonder black people feel targeted, and then when we react, we are made to feel that we have a chip on our shoulder.

The impact of racism also seeps into romantic relationships in the way black people relate to each other; how they view each other and how they relate and view themselves, which is usually ‘less than’.

( Above newspaper article produced by The Christian Chronicle)

Black people are known to have a poor self-image; many are full of self-hatred, and the few who ‘arrive’ and temporarily break free from the mental chains and “make it”, are quickly brought to their knees once their job of en-

tertaining white folks has been completed. If the system doesn’t find something to charge them with, they will find a false allegation so they spend most of their money on legal fees, and still can’t win against a bent system. If they don’t get them one way, they get them another.

So how far have we moved on since since slavery was abolished in 1833?

In material terms, many will say, I am doing well, I can work, I have my home, I have a car, I can go anywhere I want and do what I want.. but does it matter that a black person is limited to how much he can earn, how far he can go before the system crashes down on him or her?

We have more sleep walkers who do not understand what is going on. It is only by the grace of God why sometimes we have thus far escaped the wrath of overt racism in the UK, but with young people forsaking God, and going their own ways, we cannot expect divine intervention indefinitely.

We are witnessing racism creeping back stealthily. If the President of the United States can be overtly racist, he is giving licence for the people under his rule to be racist too.

People aren’t afraid to say how they truly feel about black people. There are still many white people who feel intimidated by black people, and who want to bring them down in one way or another.

Mind conditioning is why black people continue to be colonialised and happy to be keeping in line with the

status quo. However, there are a few agitators who might upset the applecart, and these are the ones that white people are afraid will make a difference, but I believe, white people have done such a great job at indoctrination and colonialisation, that they have a long wait before black people wake up, stand up and make a difference.

15 Things You May Not Know about the History of Black People in London before 1948

By Charmaine Simpson

Black people came from all over Europe and Africa and settled in London where their presence is significant but little known. The presence of Africans in England dates back to at least the Roman period when African soldiers who served as part of the Roman army were stationed at Hadrian’s Wall during the 2nd century AD.

Septimus Severus, the emperor who was born in Libya, spent his last three years in Britain before he died in York in 211AD. Charmain presents 15 facts aimed at raising the level of knowledge and uncovering the hidden histories of people of African and Caribbean descent who have contributed to London before 1948.

The earliest known record of a Black person living in London is of “Cornelius a Blackamoor” whose burial on 2nd March 1593 was recorded in the parish register at St Margaret’s Church in Lee. Olaudah Equiano (1745 -1797) was one of the most prominent Africans involved in the British movement towards the abolition of the enslavement of Africans. He was a prominent member of the ‘Sons of Africa’, a group of 12 Black men who campaigned for abolition. In 1789, he wrote his autobiography ‘The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African’ which depicted the horrors of slavery and helped influence British lawmakers to abolish transatlantic enslavement through the Slave Trade Act of 1807. However, no enslaved people were freed by the Act - so the struggle continued.

Ignatius Sancho (c1729-1780), the composer, actor, writer and businessman was the first Black person known to have voted in Britain in 1774 and 1780. Sancho was also the first African prose writer whose work was published in England.

William Cuffay (1788 - 1870) was a Black tailor who lived in London. He was one of the leaders and martyrs of the Chartist movement, the first mass political movement of the British working class.

In 1773, Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) is the first African-American woman to have her book published ‘Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral’. The book was published in London with the help of the Countess of Huntingdon.

Mary Prince (1788 - c.1833) was the first Black woman to write and publish an autobiography ‘The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave,’ an account of the horrors of life on the plantations enslavement, published in Britain c.1831. Mary Prince was also the first woman to present an anti-slavery petition to Parliament.

J.S Celestine Edwards (1858-1894) was the first Black man to edit a White-owned newspaper Lux (1892-1895), the weekly Christian Evidence Newspaper. He was also the editor of its monthly journal ‘Fraternity (1893-1897)’ which reached a circulation of more than 7000.

The ‘Africa Times and Orient Review’ is the first political journal produced by and for Black people ever published in Britain. Duse Mohamed Ali, an Egyptian Nationalist and Pan Africanist Journalist founded The African Times and Orient Review in London in July 1912. It was printed in Fleet Street in London. Marcus Garvey was a staff writer at the newspaper.

In 1931, Dr Harold Moody (1882-1947) founded the League of Coloured Peoples (LCP) in 1931, the first Black pressure group and the largest British Pan-African organisation in the 1930s and 1940s.

Una Marson (1905-1965) was the first Black female broadcaster at the BBC from 1939 to 1946. Una Marson, born in Jamaica in 1905, was a poet, publisher and activist for racial and sexual equality. She was a secretary to the League of Coloured Peoples as well as many other organisations including the Women’s International League for Peace.

Henry Sylvester Williams (1869-1911) helped to found the African-Association, which lobbied for human rights in the colonies and was instrumental in holding the first PanAfrican Conference in London (1900).

John Richard Archer (1863-1932) became London’s first Black Mayor on 10th November 1913 aged fifty years old when he was elected mayor of Battersea.

Amy Ashwood Garvey (1897- 1969) was a playwright, lecturer and Pan-Africanist who founded the Nigerian Progress Union in London in 1924. She became an important figure in the anti-racist movement in England. In 1959, she chaired an enquiry into race relations following the racially motivated murder of Kelso Cochrane in London. In the wake of the Notting Hill riots in 1958, she co-founded the Association for the Advancement of Coloured People The West African Student Union (WASU) was one of the most important political organisations in Britain from the 1920s until the 1960s. Members included Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Joseph Appiah who played an important role agitating for an end to colonial rule in Britain’s West African colonies Elisabeth Welch (1904-2003) was one of the first Black people to have her own BBC radio series in 1935, Soft Lights and Sweet Music, which made her a household name in Britain. http://www.blackhistorystudies.com/resources/resources/15-facts-about-black-londoners-before-1948/

BLACK HISTORY UNDER FOCUS Steve Stephenson MBE is a former Principal Equalities Officer in Local Government.He is the Author of “Cold Arrival Life in Second Homeland” He has been actively involved in numerous projects in the Black Community for the past 30 years.

Steve Stephenson

Steve has a tale or two to tell to about the Black Contribution to history.

Steve has been teaching Black History for the past 30 years, long before Black History Month became the norm in 1987.

Steve said “I first became interested in teaching our history when I worked as a Voluntary Youth Worker in Luton in the early 70s. He taught his first course in 1976 at the Starlight Youth Club, after attending a course that was taught by Black History pioneer Sam Morris from Grenada. At the time many Black youngsters with whom, I worked, were alienated and marginalised and appear to have an identity crisis. The vast majority of these youngsters were aspiring to be Rastafarians.

In addition Steve background gave him a good understanding of the issues. He was born in Kingston and was lucky to be taught Caribbean History at O level. He went to school with and was in the same class as Robbie Shakespeare of Sly and Robbie fame. He played football in the same park as Bob Marley. “I had friend in the band, Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rasta Fari and I used to visit Count Ossie’s home as well as listening to Rastafarian reasoning in Wareika Hill.

Steve tells the following tale: For instance, he points out that a Black man who was able to go to school only because his parents was bought out of Slavery, he helped plan the layout for Washington DC, his name was Benjamin Bannekar and he lived from 1731-1806.

Steve said, “Bannekar is best known for his part in planning the lay –out of Washington DC, the capital of America. Disaster struck when the chief planner return to France after a row, taking all the plans with him. But, lucky for America, Bannekar was able to draw them again from memory.

“He even chose the site for the White House. In 1791 he wrote a famous letter to the President of USA. It said, however variable we may be in so-

ciety or religion, however diversified in situation of colour, we are all the same family and stand in the same, in relation to god. But for luck this man would have been a slave.

Steve adds, it is generally accepted that Commander Robert Peary was the first man to reach the North Pole in 1909, but this is not true, it was a Black man American Matthew Alexander Henson. Peary lost nine toes and could not go on any longer, so Henson plant the American flag on the North Pole.

Another slice of Black history Steve talks about, reveals that, a West African people discovered the star Sirius B before Western Scientist new of its existence.

He said the Dogon people lived in Mali, West Africa.

In 1931 two French Scientist went to live with the Dogon. Sixteen years later the Dogon began to reveal their secrets about the stars and planets. The dogan knew about the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter and that the earth’s moon was dry and dead.

It was a surprise to the European that these socalled primitive people had such scientific knowledge. But what really shocked them, was that the Dogon also knew of a star called Sirius B, because the star is not visible to the naked eye.

The Dogon knew more about the movement of the invisible star than Western scientist.

“What was more Dogon scientist had known about it for seven hundred years. Western scientists only discovered Sirius B in the 1890’s”.

Black History Quiz Africa suffered the twin effect of Slavery and Colonisation that still affect the continent today.

The seeds of this were sown in the year 1441, when the Captain of European Country and his crew land on the West African coast and capture two African a man and woman.

They return and raid two Villages and 12 Africans were captured and brought to Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal. Before the Slave Trade started, this incident contributed to the enslavement of African people. What was the name of the Captain?

Steve Stephenson MBE BA CQSW DM

Cecile Nobrega, spearheaded a 15 year campaign for England’s first permanent public monument to black women. Cecile Nobrega was born June 1 1919, and died 19 November 2013 aged 94. Cecile Nobrega was the driving force behind the first statue of a black woman to go on permanent display in England.

I have taken extracts from the Telegraph so as I can relay her story and achievements in short. Please enjoy the read as we continue to celebrate our icons and their achievements. The likes of Cecile Nobrega needs to never be forgotten,for they have fought for Black people to be recognised in England and have left a lasting legacy.

THE BRONZE WOMAN

The Bronze Woman - a 10 ft-tall monument to motherhood, showing a black woman holding aloft her baby- was unveiled in October 2008 in Stockwell Memorial Gardens, south London. The original artist was to have been Ian Walters, creator of the statue of Nelson Mandela in London’s Parliament Square, but he died after completing only the clay maquette. The project was taken on and completed by Alex Barbat, then still a student at the Heatherley School of Fine Art in Chelsea.

Cecile Nobrega - a Guyana born teacher, poet and playwright - had campaigned for “The Bronze Woman Project” since 1994. Although she did not describe herself as a feminist, she felt that women - particularly women from the underdeveloped world and those descended from the victims of the transatlantic slave trade - received insufficient recognition for their contribution to the family and to society in general.

She launched the project as a charitable organisation and set about raising the money needed, subsequently enlisting the help of an organisation called Olmec, originally set up as a charitable subsidiary of a south London housing association.

The unveiling of the statue, on October 8 2008, came shortly after the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Slave Trade, and the 60th anniversary of the arrival at Tilbury of the first Caribbean immigrants in the steamship Empire Windrush.

Cecile Elise Doreen Burgan was born in Guyana (then a British colony) on June 1 1919 to Canon William Burgan and his wife Imelda; In 1949 the Canon would become the first black man to preach at Westminster Abbey.

At Bishops High School in Guyana, Cecile showed herself a gifted child - she had composed classical music and written poetry from an early age, and later produced a choral work called Twilight which was performed by national choirs in Guyana and Cuba.

In Guyana she started two schools - a kindergarten and a vocational school for teenage girls. She also wrote plays, one of which, Stabroek Fantasy (also known as Carib Gold), was particularly successful.

In 1969, however, she found herself professionally at odds with the Guyana government and emigrated to Britain, where she retrained as a specialist teacher, working in Hertfordshire and Brent. She was active in the National Union of Teachers and in the Adult Literacy Programme, and campaigned for children with severe learning difficulties.

Her work with the International Alliance of Women (IAW) and the Commonwealth Countries League gave her the opportunity to travel, and it was at IAW conferences in New York, Kenya, Greece, Japan and India that she began to shape the idea for her sculpture The Bronze Woman.

A resident of Lambeth south London, for her last 22 years, Cecile Nobrega slowed down towards the end of her life, giving up driving, her computer, and playing the piano; but she remained active in her local pensioners’ group and in t’ai chi classes.

Her husband of 52 years Romeo Nobrega an accountant died in 1994, and she is survived by their two sons and one daughter.

(Anonymous)

BRONZE WOMAN Find me a place In the sun In the sea On a rock near an Isle, In the Caribbee: There I will set her, honoured ... Free!

Written by Cecile Nobrega

Free... To be kissed and petted by the wind; Free.. To be washed with the brine of sweet and bitter Sin: Free... To be stubborn and steadfast as night, Dark is her Destiny, Wrong her right. Woman of Bronze!

Symbol of Slavery Free.. Strength... Sweat and toil Who can toil.. Your quest For best . To give your child?

One night a woman Says the Book, went to Him late, Late in the gloomy darkness of the night; Went to Him,the light For places for her sons the left, the right To sit beside Him. Chide her not !

Mother instinct is the same today as then for evermore however mild She seeks the betterment Of her child.

Bronze Woman!

You were no different When you laid with massa boss, Free or forced you knew there was no loss of favours, Food :

Food for the black and hungry brood, Mulato-Eurasian child money, subsidised economy .. guaranteed A step away from want and need: a step away From toil and sweat in the heat of day: Pray Feel no hurt. With those who talk of illegitimacy and illiteracy ... Social stigmas - Language Craft; Feel proud that you have done your part: Stained your skirt With water-mark waist deep, Paddy beds, cane fields to keep stinted stomachs hungry mouth, salt and rice such sacrifice as those passed on many know of Death!

Consumptive death, Malarial death, visited troolie huts clean earthen floor the same as Overseer, Manager before Promotion to driver, extortion, child labour, all this you bore.. Feel hurt no more.

Feel joy with those who served the mine, today your sons and daughters shine like the bright gold you bartered for, in great professions, Music, Medicine, Law.... White Man’s purse has no curse His seed, No need: but Men, poor Men, they run away after the night.. the day is done... they’re gone through need disown their seed then you are left alone, Bronze Woman, father-mother, Caribbean Woman to play a dual role. Stalwart woman-man With the sun in your bones And the bloods in your veins; strenght in your heart and love in your limbs, Your buxom breasts hang down, Like juicy brown mangoes, In the mouth of your child, Your eyes are determined...

Yet gentle and mild, who can help but set you Bronze Woman above!

Who can help but cherish this monument of Love Then find me a place in the sun, in the sea, on a rock, near an Isle In the Caribbee: There I will set her Bronze Woman Free Honoured for shaping Our Destiny.

by Cecile Nobrega