Volume 5 Issue 10…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…March 15, 2002

by John Burl Smith

Born in Port-au-Prince, Raoul Peck's family fled the Duvalier dictatorship of Haiti for the newly independent Republic of Congo in 1961. Peck received an international education beginning in Leopoldville, then Brooklyn, NY, Orleans, France and finally, he obtained degrees in economics and industrial engineering in Germany. His toughest lessons came driving a taxi in New York City the year before attending the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB) in Berlin.

Though he held important positions in and out of government, as love or fate would have it, filmmaking proved Raoul Peck's true calling. His greatest achievement to date is "Lumumba," a film detailing the CIA and Belgium government's assassination plot that not only ended Lumumba's brief sojourn to power as President of the Congo in 1961 but how America and Belgium killed the hope of freedom for the Congolese people. Relying on the three R's, recollections, research and reviews, Peck gave Patrice Lumumba his props.

Even after 42 years, a stolen life, Lumumba remains a tragic figure. By all accounts a hero, Lumumba was the lone man standing in the breach against the awesome might of European colonialism and American imperialism. Lumumba personified David Walker (Walker's Appeal), an American anti-slavery martyr, who refused to flee from slave bounty hunters. In the face of certain death, Walker's courage reflected the notion that freedom comes at such a high price, some must purchase it for others with their lives. Whether in life or on film, Lumumba was a leader among those he led. He placed their interests above his own. On these points, all reviewers attested to Raoul's fidelity. They were also unanimous regarding his portrayal calling it brilliant, authentic and impassioned.

There are many reasons to recommend this film, but its most outstanding contribution to humanity is its celebration of the indomitable spirit of those who truly desire freedom and are willing to sacrifice all in its quest. Lumumba the movie lives up to Lumumba the man. (Sources: www.zeitgeistfilm.com and www.afrikaleidoscope.net). John 2002

by Yohannes Sharriff Smith

A part of the eternal soul,

it is the essence of life.

The undying will to survive is the human spirit.

In most, it lies dormant,

like the sleeping giant,

a shadow lurking in the corner of the soul.

When darkness begins to close in

and the flame of hope has all but burned out,

that is when the sleeper awakens.

That is when

this seldom used power shines brightest.

In the middle of the darkness,

this force begins to emit a luminous glow

so blinding no star can compete.

The human spirit is man's saving grace.

For in the final hours,

when the world has grown still,

we shall survive on sheer will.

It is the human spirit.

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro scored one hundred (100) percent on his mathematics test. He came home jubilant. Beaming, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro declared, "Nothing beats perfect."

Africa is a classic study in imperialism. The exploration of Scottish missionary David Livingstone, who traversed Africa from the Cape of Good Hope to Lake Tanganyika, aided its exploitation. Beginning in 1853, he mapped much of what Europe called "the Dark Continent." After his 1873 death, British explorer Henry Stanley continued to document Africa's vast wealth.

In 1876, Belgium King Leopold II formed the International African Association and hired Stanley. Composed of scientists and explorers, its public aim was humanitarian. Leopold sent Stanley to the Congo, where he made treaties with several chiefs; by 1882 he had 900,000 square miles of land. Europeans used deceptive means to acquire land from ignorant chiefs. In return, they got gin, trinkets and red handkerchiefs.

As Leopold acquired Congo land, Great Britain, after quelling a bloody rebellion, occupied Egypt. The Egyptian occupation and Leopold's acquisitions were early efforts to acquire African land. In 1884, Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) convened a conference in Berlin to discuss Africa. Paying lip service to humanitarianism, conferees condemned the slave trade, banned the sale of alcohol and firearms in certain areas, and expressed concern that natives receive proper religious instruction.

With the superficialities aside, the Berlin Conference established formal ground rules for acquiring African colonies. Leopold secured agreement that Belgium controlled the Congo. No nation could claim an area without first notifying the others. No territory could be claimed unless it was effectively occupied, and all disputes were to be settled by arbitration. The greedy competitors ignored the rules when it was convenient to do so, and on several occasions barely avoided war.

After the Berlin conference, Leopold's African holdings became the Congo Free State. To exploit this treasure trove, he granted concessions to private companies and reserved an area ten times the size of Belgium and rich in rubber for his enrichment. During his reign, an estimated ten million people died from forced labor, starvation and outright murder. When accounts of the atrocities of the Free State 'civilization' process became known, Leopold (1908) was forced to turn over its management to the Belgian government, which renamed the Free State the Belgian Congo. But, Belgium's brutal exploitation continued until a wave of nationalistic riots in the 1950s prompted it to abandon control and grant the Congo independence in June of 1960. (Source: Civilization: Past & Present 4^th Ed.)

Hood Notes

Kidnaped in 1810, a member of the Khoi San or Hottentot tribe of South Africa, Saarjite Baartman was twenty when she was taken to London, where women wore bustles. A freak show attraction, voyeurs gawked at her genitalia, breasts and buttocks. In 1814, she was taken to France, where she was subjected to racist experiments that killed her in 1815. Her corpse was dissected; her sex organs and brain removed and placed in jars for display in the Musée de L'homme in Paris.

An email from ebontek@earthlink.net announced the legal battles over her remains might soon be over. The fight to free Sara spans decades, and until the late 1970s, anyone could view her brain and sex organs. For more on Saarjite's saga, a documentary directed by Zola Maseko, "The Life & Times of Sara Baartman - The Hottentot Venus" (www.frif.com) - is highly recommend for its haunting narration of her pain and humiliation.

Mysteriously, her flesh disappeared from storage, so only her skeleton remains. We must assume that the same racists who publicly displayed her now host freak shows in private. But, as one sister stated, "Sara's spirit soared far beyond her flesh long ago." The return of her bones to Africa will give her people all they need to properly lay Saarjite to rest and celebrate her homecoming.

As Alicia Banks' "Eloquent Fury" poignantly states, it is not without a sense of irony that so many women today eagerly volunteer for pornographic films and magazines and degrading music videos. Video/film directors, magazine editors, strip club owners, toxic diets/drugs and plastic surgeons have replaced Sara's captors. Like her, women are still on display, trying to please the voyeurs who judge us, mercilessly and endlessly. (Sources: Sister Alicia Banks' Eloquent Fury at www.geocities.com/ambwww/sara2.htm and www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/Exhibition.html.)

Disgruntled says: Whenever America needs to hype an immoral, destructive and unethical position, it puts black women out front to advocate the untenable. Hence, we have Haile Berry and Condaleeza Rice. Haile shows her tits to keep the loose black woman stereotype alive, and Condie uses her wits to justify dropping nukes.

Disgruntled wants to know: After the USA dropped atomic bombs on Japan, ending WWII, mutually assured destruction (MAD) kept the dogs of war at bay. With wholesale Democratic defection and Bush's selection, MAD no longer holds sway. Rabid, Bush wants to increase nuclear energy production, when the US cannot safely dispose of its current nuclear waste. Today, it dropped nuclear bunker-busting bombs to level Afghan mountains so oil companies can lay pipes to extract oil from this impoverished nation. Who let the dogs out?

Disgruntled feels: Assaulted! When Clinton was president, the media dissected his personal peccadilloes and policies from the rooter to the tooter. Now, when there is much of substance to be examined, investigative reporting and independent opining are nonexistent. Following Bush's marching order under a cloak of phony patriotism and propaganda, there is no free press in America, only an attack against rational thinking.

At age thirty-five, Patrice Lumumba reached the pinnacle of leadership. Africa was emerging from under the boots of colonialism, and he was one of its brightest stars. A protégé of Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, he was devoutly Pan African. Following an armed struggle for independence, the Congo won its freedom from Belgium in 1960. After only two months in power, Belgium troops and CIA mercenaries launched an invasion of the Congo. The news media described them as special forces fighting to restore democracy, but the incursion was a thinly veiled plot to assassinate Lumumba.

Completely averse to facts, like those allegedly responsible for the 9-11 attacks, most people did not believe the official story offered by Brussels and Washington, D C. Africa’s evolution from its "Dark Age" of tribalism, which had been cultivated by European slave traders, was complicated by colonial domination. Colonial powers such as Belgium, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Portugal depended on Africa's abundant mineral deposits and cheap labor, riches they were determined never to relinquish to the continent's indigenous savages. Perceived as their rights, like Americans see a buck a gallon gasoline and driving big SUVs, Europeans were dedicated to keeping Africa subjugated. Belgium and the United States used the press to keep the truth hidden. Anyone willing to ask questions and report the truth was branded "soft on communism." The CIA destroyed careers and some people died trying to tell the truth.

Finally, more than forty years later, the Belgium government admitted, it and the United States assassinated Lumumba. For two years, a Belgium commission investigated Lumumba's assassination. It substantiated what a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence headed by Sen. Frank Church found. "The assassination could not have happened without Belgian officers backed by the CIA." Lumumba was one of many young brilliant African leaders killed during those treacherous and turbulent times. Europe and America robbed Africa of her future, her best and brightest leaders. What is the value of an apology, balanced against the lost of a Lumumba? His leadership may have avoided mother Africa's rape; the scourge of HIV/AIDS and endless poverty may not have been fait accomplis.

Today, Africa is reaping the whirlwind sowed by Europe and America in the 1950s and 60s. They killed or drove from power all leaders who expressed real concern for their people and replaced them with dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko. This is America's plan for Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, the Middle East and the entire Diaspora. Look to Africa to learn the lesson in Lumumba's tragedy and the truthful intent of American foreign policy. Survey the death, disease, destruction and debt heaped upon an impoverished sub-continent and judge whether America and Europe have been foes or friends of Africa. Has America extended the same "CARE" or shown a similar desire and commitment to Africa's recovery, as it did in Europe after WWII? However, the most telling example of America's true concern for Africans is reflected by the lack of concern shown descendants of America's African slaves, with whom it still refuses to discuss reparations. John 2002

Email: alarkam@webtv.net Ex-President Carter and Bill Gates are no more interested in helping Africa overcome its AIDS problem than Count Dracula would be in helping hemophiliacs. Proof the U.S. government intentionally developed AIDS has been established by several noted scientists, including Dr. Boyd Graves (www.boydgraves.com). Of the 40 million people infected with AIDS, 28 million live in Africa. That is by design. As long as Africans look to Americans and Europeans for guidance, they will are asking to be exploited.

Email: ahuguley@ix.netcom.com Sex is a tool of power and control. Worrisome examples include the vampire movie about "Kasha: Queen of the Damned," a lustful Sister after some Euro male vampire. An episode of "The Invisible Man" shows a Sister coming on to the Euro male character at a newsstand; she invites him back to her place, where she makes it clear she just wants sex. The most blatant example is a dating show featuring an interracial date involving a Sister who says she is wild and willing and always wanted to have a mixed baby.

Whereas sex with Euro males had been a forced situation for more than 400 years (1441-1888), now it is promoted as craved by Sisters. Those most willing to feed this stereotype are the ones being promoted as the norm in the media. Thus, the psychic trauma continues as descendants of rapists are portrayed as being the most desirable lovers. I doubt the NAACP, Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton will protest this, so the lynching goes on.

Email http://www.truthout.com Turkish Daily News 03/07/2002...U.S. military deployment in Georgia is tied the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. The oil and insurance companies demand a security guarantee for the pipeline through Georgia, which is the short-term route for Caspian oil reserves, while Afghanistan is the long-term one. Authorities state that every step taken in these states is linked to oil-politics. The most important mission of the U.S. military will be the enhancement of the security of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan route. British Petroleum (BP) and British insurance companies are involved in the Baku-Ceyhan project and have put pressure on governments to lift barriers to the pipeline.

Coltan is columbite-tantalite, an ore found in abundance in the Congo. Refined coltan is metallic tantalum, a heat-resistant powder that can hold a high electrical charge. It is a vital component in creating capacitors, the electronic elements that control current flow inside miniature circuit boards. Tantalum capacitors are used in most cell phones, laptops, pagers and other electronic devices. The recent technology boom caused the price of coltan to soar as high as $400 a kilogram.

Mined through a fairly primitive labor-intensive process similar to California gold mining during the 1800s, good workers produce one kilogram of coltan a day. In the Congo, where average workers make about $10 a month, coltan miners make $10 to $50 a week.

Controversial U.N. reports allege forces from Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi smuggle Congo coltan to finance their wars. These countries deny the charges, yet large areas of Congo's forests and national parks have been stripped. Poverty and starvation, exacerbated by war, have driven miners and rebels to hunt endangered elephants and gorillas for food.

The path coltan takes from the Congo to the world market is difficult to trace. Many electronics companies have publicly rejected African coltan, instead they rely on Australian supplies. American-based Kemet, the world's largest tantalum capacitor maker, has asked suppliers to certify their coltan does not come from Central Africa. However, much of the stolen Congo coltan is already in laptops, cell phones and electronics. (Source: Coltan: Link Between Cell Phone and Congo by Imtiyaz Delawala http://www.ABCNEWS.go.com)

Last year at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, normally well-behaved tennis fans showed their butts by taking their ire against Venus Williams out on her sister, Serena. Plagued with injuries, Venus pulled out of a semi-final match due to tendinitis. White fans, wanting to see a match between the sisters, went berserk; they booed and hissed Serena as she played and won the final. For observers familiar with American history, it was a case of 'blacks cannot be too sick to perform when whites want to see their parlor tricks.' This year neither played at Indian Wells, and the tournament is all the poorer for it. Kudos to them!

In late February, with little fanfare, Venus Ebone Star Williams became the first African American ranked number one by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). The California native, who lives in Florida, turned pro in 1994. She is the 2000 Olympics gold medal winner, reigning back-to-back U.S. Open and Wimbledon champion (2000 and 2001), and she holds 20 other titles. No other tennis pro on the circuit can match her record.

There is no ticker-tape parade for Venus. Media critics question her ranking. Why? The answer is self-evident. Unlike Davenport, Capriati and Seles, Venus is black. So, while the WTA computer ranking system finally caught up to her achievements, tennis critics treat it like a freak of nature. Far more than fashionable, Venus is a strong woman, who seems secure in her African attributes and athletic abilities. Kudos to Venus!

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