Volume 5 Issue 25…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…June 28, 2002

Homo sapiens came out of Africa. They brought to the world the concept of individual worth and self-expression. Homo sapiens grasped and nurtured bonds of individuals working cooperatively as a key to group survival. Correspondingly, ideas emerged as the greatest force, and collaterally, one's ability to communicate the source of power. Essential to communal existence and group survival, individual sovereignty and self-expression aided stress reduction. In Europe, Neanderthal existence was predicated on the idea power was the ultimate expression of the will to survive. Freedom to express will produced brutish systems of eat or be eaten, survival of the fittest, and might makes right dominance. The individual was a means or source of survival and one's ability to dominate one's neighbors determined the magnitude of power. For the powerful, group survival is important only so long as it satisfies this goal.

"Reality Theory" postulates that both species merged and Homo sapiens' dominant genes determined modern humans. Although subdued, the Neanderthal nature of Europeans continued to express itself throughout history. Behaviorally, these tendencies are observed most clearly among those who believe it is possible to suppress true Homo sapiens nature. More so than the Roman Empire, Europeans introduced the industrialized exploitation of humans into Africa. Called slavery and colonialism, these systems reflected Neanderthal's dog-eat-dog view of human nature.

The reality is slavery and colonialism established the European belief that they had the right to take possession of people, their land and natural resources any place in the world. Valued solely as a commodity, Africans were denied any Homo sapiens birthright, then exiled from the human race. Defined as property, descendants of slaves are still chained to the 3/5 Compromise chasm of inequality imposed upon us by Neanderthals claiming to be more human than we are.

We will not be denied or suppressed! Poets for Peace is an expression of slave descendants cooperatively reclaiming our African humanity. The largest "stolen lives" population on the planet, this Diaspora views the restoration of Africa to a communal state of survival essential. Victims of slavery and colonialism, we demand the world address the death and devastation gripping the African continent. Stolen lives, we will not accept today's reality mirroring our future. John 2002

Before me I see the most beautiful

thing this side of heaven.

All of these wonderful

bright faces, radiate love and warmth.

Restoring my faith in tomorrow.

Filling me with the hope

we can go beyond this place

take with us the powerful

lesson that we are truly beautiful

people possessing exceptional character,

a rich heritage and incredible strength.

Through the unexamined phenomenon

of our supernatural will to survive in the face

of seemingly insurmountable odds,

we now understand

with the decision to live and love,

we are truly worthy of the life that rests within us.

Through the darkness,

we shine an undeniable light; it touches others

illuminating skin filled with melanin

and inspiring black pride!

Born in the Gold Coast, Kwame Francis Nwai Kofie left home in 1939 to study economics and sociology in America and England. He became active in Pan Africanism, which demanded independence for African colonies. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah returned home in 1947; he became Secretary General of the United Gold Coast Convention, which opposed British rule.

Nkrumah founded the Convention People's Party (CPP) in 1949, the first mass political party in black Africa. Imprisoned by the British in 1950, Nkrumah was released following the CPP's landslide election victory the next year. Nkrumah became the country's first Prime Minister in 1952. In 1957, the British colony of the Gold Coast and the Togoland trust territory merged to form Ghana, the first country in colonial Africa to gain its independence. As leader of the first black African country to shake off the chains of colonial rule, Nkrumah became an international hero and symbol of freedom. Ghana became a republic in 1960. Following the end of colonial rule, Ghana was beset with a host of external and internal economic and political problems.

Dr. Nkrumah worked to improve living standards for Ghanaians and to create a federal union of African states. In his 1961 book, I Speak of Freedom, Dr. Nkrumah explained his vision. "Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world. I believe strongly and sincerely that with the deep-rooted wisdom and dignity, the innate respect for human lives, the intense humanity that is our heritage, the African race, united under one federal government, will emerge not as just another world bloc to flaunt its wealth and strength, but as a Great Power whose greatness is indestructible because it is built not on fear, envy and suspicion, nor won at the expense of others, but founded on hope, trust, friendship and directed to the good of all mankind."

Ghana was one of 30 nations to form the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963, in part fulfilling Nkrumah's dream. Though few of the newly freed African countries were willing to give up power to a central continental parliament, the OAU became the leading voice of Africa. For Dr. Nkrumah, it fell short of the United States of Africa he envisioned.

Foreign powers working to disrupt the newly independent nation succeeded in overthrowing Nkrumah in 1966 while he was on a visit to China. A long series of coups followed. In 1981, Ghana's constitution was suspended and political parties banned. A new constitution, restoring multiparty politics, was approved in 1992. Lt. Jerry Rawlings, head of state since 1981, won presidential elections in 1992 and 1996, but was constitutionally prevented from running for a third term in 2000. John Kufuor, the current president of Ghana, succeeded Rawlings. Dr Nkrumah remained in exile and died in Romania in 1972. (Sources: CIA Fact Book at www.odci.gov/cia and http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk)

Disgruntled wants to know: At last week's GOP fund-raising, which raised an obscene $30 million in cash, Jean-Pierre Garnier, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical company, chaired the bash. The keynote address, given by President Bush contained his usual mundane talking points about the war on terrorism. If their contributions did not buy policymakers in Washington, would GlaxoSmithKline and other big businesses donate millions of dollars to political parties?

Disgruntled feels: Autumn in spring! Images from the raging wildfires out west are like autumn in spring. The leaves of trees turn bright orange and intense yellow in autumn. Only this is summer and flames are burning bushes and grass. Fire shooting hundreds of feet skyward devour trees, sucking oxygen from the atmosphere, creating terror on the ground for wildlife, and wreaking havoc for humans and their possessions. Autumn in spring is restoring nature's balance.

Disgruntled says: All this talk about fat and fitness leaves out the main culprit in American growing obesity. While high cholesterol fast food and a lack of exercise are relevant, the real nemesis is frankenfoods. An honest discourse must include genetically modified (GM) foodstuffs. For example, growth hormones used to bring cattle from feedlots to the dinner table in nine months affect more than cows. People consuming the by-products of these animals look like beef on the hoof. Let's get real and deal with the GM root of obesity.

Comments from the Bat Cave

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is free. School is out, but the learning continues. When asked for his comments, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro declared, "It's summer and I am going swimming.

Hood Notes

In an Atlanta Daily World article (June 17, 2002 www.zwire.com), Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) stated that despite the notable presence of black Americans in public office across the country, black leadership nationwide is in crisis. McKinney attributes the weaknesses in black leadership to CO-INTEL-PRO, an FBI surveillance program that employed subterfuge, spies and other tactics to undermine and, in some cases, assassinate blacks the government deemed "dangerous to national security" as far back as 1919.

In a June 5 interview with Chris Askew, host of "Unwrapped," a talk show which airs Monday-Friday, 6-9 PM, McKinney said, "It's not that our (black) people have not produced great leaders. Something else is going on. Our community is still reeling from the effects of CO-INTEL-PRO," an acronym for the Counter Intelligence Program. Created by former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, CO-INTEL-PRO has strategically worked to tear down authentic black American leaders and replace them with Eurocentric-minded "yes-men" in black skin. McKinney said, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., The Black Panthers and Leonard Peltier of the American Indian Movement, are just a few of the individuals and organizations targeted by the FBI.

After researching the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., McKinney said she received a CIA document dated May 11, 1965 that bluntly stated the need to use a black person close to King to bring him down. "And I quote," said McKinney, the CIA document reads "we need a clean Negro who can step into the chaos..." She continued, "That's why we're in the shape we're in. That is the legacy we have to overcome. Look what happens to any black leader who speaks for black people in this country."

Venue for an Artist

Declassified National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency documents found on the State Department's Web site at: www.state.gov provide compelling evidence of the United States involvement in overthrowing Ghana President Kwame Nkrumah. The documents appear in a collection of diplomatic and intelligence memos, telegrams and reports on Africa. Published in November 1999, they reflect the overt and covert actions of President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration (1964-68) and its complicity in the coup.

Organized by dissident army officers, the coup d'etat that toppled the Nkrumah government on February 24, 1966 was promptly hailed by Western governments, including the U.S. Allegations of American involvement in the putsch arose almost immediately because of the well-known hostility of the U.S. to Nkrumah's socialist orientation and Pan-African activism.

Nkrumah implicated the U.S. in the overthrow and warned other African nations about what he saw as an emerging pattern. "An all-out offensive is being waged against the progressive, independent states," he wrote in Dark Days in Ghana, his 1969 account of the Ghana coup. "All that has been needed was a small force of disciplined men to seize the key points of the capital city and to arrest the existing political leadership. It has been one of the tasks of the CIA and other similar organisations to discover these potential quislings and traitors in our midst, and to encourage them, by bribery and the promise of political power, to destroy the constitutional government of their countries."

After the coup, acting special assistant for national security affairs Robert W. Komer wrote Johnson a telling congratulatory assessment of Nkrumah, his successors and the coup. "The coup in Ghana is another example of a fortuitous windfall. Nkrumah was doing more to undermine our interests than any other black African. In reaction to his strongly pro-Communist leanings, the new military regime is almost pathetically pro-Western." (March 12, 1966- Document 260).

In this, Komer and Nkrumah were in agreement. "Where the more subtle methods of economic pressure and political subversion have failed to achieve the desired result," Nkrumah wrote from exile in Guinea three years later, "there has been resort to violence in order to promote a change of regime and prepare the way for the establishment of a puppet government."

About Me: Paul Lee is a historian, filmmaker, freelance writer and director of Best Efforts, Inc. (BEI), a research and consulting service specializing in the recovery, preservation and dissemination of global black history and culture. For more on BEI and documents on the Ghana coup d'etat email besteffortsinc@yahoo.com.

DISHing It Up Hot!

Flanked by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, President Bush delivered his long-awaited Middle East peace plan from the White House Rose Garden at 3:45 PM. Timed for maximum influence on an erratic stock market, the remarks were highly praised by Israeli spokespersons and members of Congress that generally back Israel and oppose the creation of a Palestinian state.

While the President may envision "two states, living side by side in peace and security" within three years, his plan will do little to change the dynamics of the Middle East quagmire in the short-run. Indeed, it gives Israeli occupation forces a green light to continue incursions into the West Bank. Effectively leaving Palestinians in a state of limbo, when and if a state is declared, it will be inferior to its Israeli neighbor.

As a first step, Bush is requiring a change in Palestinian leadership. Even if the leadership is changed, its borders and certain aspects of the new state's sovereignty will be provisional until resolved as part of a final settlement. The final borders, state capital and other aspects of sovereignty will be left to later negotiations. Uncannily, borders and the other aspects of sovereignty are the same sticking points in every peace talk to date, particularly questions concerning Jerusalem and the right of return of Palestinian refugees

Second, to secure US support for a state, Palestinian leaders must engage in a sustained externally supervised fight against groups identified as terrorists, i.e., Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah. If Palestinian leaders actively fight these groups, "embrace democracy, confront corruption and firmly reject terror, they can count on American support for the creation of a provisional state." Third, all Arab states will be expected to normalize relations with Israel.

With no specific timetable, Bush called on Israel to end its occupation. In effect, Bush's peace plan gives Israel everything it wants, while keeping Palestinians in a state of occupied limbo. Because the plan is so obviously skewed to favor Israel, peace could not be the underlying objective of Bush's proposal. If embraced, it simply stalls Palestinian statehood.

Email polaris@yahoo.com In the name of capitalism and under the guise of bringing civilization to the world's savages, the West raped Africa. Its people were enslaved and executed whenever they took exception to the invading hoard's avarice. The land was likewise exploited for its natural resources. With hubris and hypocrisy, they claimed to have a humanitarian purpose when in fact greed and disrespect shaped their acts of cruelty throughout the African continent.

Email www.guardian.co.un/pinochet Henry Kissinger may face extradition in connection with the United States' role in the 1973 military coup in Chile. The former secretary of state is wanted for questioning as a witness in the investigation into events surrounding the overthrow of socialist president Salvador Allende by General Augusto Pinochet. It focuses on CIA involvement in the coup, whether US officials passed lists of left-wing Americans in Chile to the military and whether the US embassy failed to assist Americans deemed sympathetic to the deposed government. Chile's Judge Juan Guzman is so frustrated by the lack of cooperation by Kissinger that he is now considering an extradition request to force Kissinger to come to Chile and testify in connection with the death of American film-maker and journalist Charles Horman, who was killed by the military days after the coup d'etat.

Email asame00@yahoo.com I wish our people would open their eyes to what is a circus, as foreigner's rape and pillage our lands with the help of traitors we refer to as "brothers." Our people are either totally taken in by the false promises of their weird and vaporous religious persuasions or otherwise fooled by the gloss of Westernization into believing the dangerous myth of the worthlessness of our collective African cultures-traditions, and therefore, our race. Bewildered, we are unsure of what is ours. Our homegrown Judases fill our ears with shallow sweet nothings. The cowed populace want a share of the Judases' spoils and are easily led by despicable and evil men wearing the toga of "leadership/intellectualism" or religion - their pockets well-lubricated with the money from the stolen sweat of the many. While the "leaders-intellectuals" form dubious opinions, religion is mind control. Until we can rise above living only to fill the belly and attack the words of our Judases with studied scrutiny, Africa will belong to those who pull the leaders' purse strings and form the shady ideology of our exploitative foreign religions.

THINC  || 2002 Issues || The DISH