₦airaland Forum

huxley:
This post will resonate better (methinks) to people who have lived or are living outside of Africa or in areas of diverse ethnic backgrounds.

If you are Black or African do you sometimes get the feeling that some other Black or African person is representing you or speaking or acting on your behalf, sometimes unbeknown to this individual that they are carrying the whole weight of an entire "race" or continent on their shoulders? For instance Colin Powell or Condeleeza Rice or Koffi Aman - do you feel that these individuals are speaking for or representing their "race" or ethnicity in the course of their public appearances or duties?

Do you also feel that when you are out in the wider whole you are representing your entire race, ethnicity or tribe? How well does that responsibility rest on your head?

I think people don't want to feel that they are but you are in the States to a certain extent.

As far as the responsibly, I think I handle it fine when I am at work and when I went to school. I know I got tired of it when I grew up because I went to grade school and highschool in an area where there weren't many Black people. I was known as the Smart "Black" guy? Like many Black people aren't smart. (UGH!!! people need to stop watching so much T.V.) However, that is how it was. I think that was one of the reasons why I choose to go to an HBCU. (also because both my parents, older siblings, and just about all of the older professionals I grew up knowing went. LOL!) I just wanted a break from Race for 4 years where I wasn't the Smart "Black" guy but rather just a Smart guy. I have the rest of my life to deal with Race. LOL!!

Race is just another way of categorizing human beings just like we categorize people by nationality (ie Nigerian, Canadian, etc). Scientifically it is garbage but it is a reality. When someone wants to describe someone, they will say he/she was a "Black" person, "White" person, or whatever.

tpia:
he doesnt let facts get in the way of his delusions.

I am going to have to agree with you on this.

Hero:
and set straight the fact of that we AA are of very little if any Yoruba ethnicity while letting all know that we are extensively of Igbo descent, doesn't mean that I hate the Yoruba.

Why do you keep on putting this out as fact When I continue to give you facts and sources for you to find this information that it is impossible, based on the data that we know today, that AA's are extensively of Igbo descent.

When are you going to respond to my last post on the topic you started and named after me: "To Lazy and Others"?? You always seem to disappear when someone brings facts to the table. The point of discussions is to learn and grow. You have no credible sources to back up your assumptions.

"Lawd hav' murcy. Colored folk be hatin' to admit when dey be wrong" LOL!!!

janami:
@lazy
ok. i don't know myself, that is y i asked.

Oh that is cool. I thought you might have had some information. I have talked about it with people and after those discussions. That aspect is pretty much just tradition.

janami:
hmmm, smtg intellectually stimulating for once.
@lazy
that thing about xtian burials . . . . r u then sayn xtian burial never existed?

I don't know what one is personally? Is their scripture that states how a Christian should be buried? If so, I stand corrected.

huxley:
On thing that characterises humans as oppose to other animals (some other higher primates are thought to also construct cultural millieus) is the possession of culture. Broadly speakly, culture defines the relationship humans have with one another, how we occupy our time, the artifacts we create and appreciation of reality. Almost all human cultures display various forms or elements of this multi-facetted kaleidoscope of culture.

Until recently most of human history was plagued by abject cultural isolation occasioned either by fear and distrust of the foreigner (xenophobia) or by natural barriers such as language differences, deserts, mountain, river etc; or by pure and simple ignorance of lands beyond one immediate borders.

Societies developing in a region of cultural isolation have a tendency to stagnate technically and intellectually. There is hardly a society that does not think that its own local culture are not superior to other cultures. Every culture hold is mores and tradition up as being the best and tries to perpetuate this to succeeding generation.

If this is true, why is there today more cross-cultural fertilization (or contamination) than there was 200, 1000, 2000 years ago?

Where would Africa be today if African had not adopted some of the European & Middle Eastern cultural heritage (such as Christianity, I-slam, formal education, writing scripts and alphabets, etc, etc)?

Where would Western Europe be today if the Europeans had not learntr and adopted aspects of Middle Eastern culture, Greek and Roman Culture.

Where world the world be today if we had not adopted the concept of the number "zero" from the Indian culture?

How does a formally isolated culture decide on which elements of the new culture to adopt and which of its own local cultures to abandon? For instance, infanticide was common in some parts of the Nigerian culture (ritual abandonment of twins in the forest). The Nigerians who practised this at the time most have thought highly of their culture. If they did, why did they abandon the practice.

. . . . more to follow.

Very interesting topic.

Where should I start. I agree with your premise that cultures should not live in isolation and that should take positives from other cultures to better themselves. I think this has been going on since the beginning of time to a large degree. Now you are correct that many places were isolated from other because of certain factors but for the most part when they weren't, culture transfers happened. I think if we look at Southern Europe, Southwest Asia, and Northern Africa historically you will see cultures that transferred knowledge between each other since the early times.

The thing we have to also realize is most cultures when they brought other cultural aspects into their society, they made those ideas their own and didn't try to zerox (make a copy). Meaning that when Europeans adopted Christianity, sure the Old Testament was in Afro-Asiatic language (Hebrew) but New Testament (the New Covenant which is essential to Christianity) was in an Indo-European language (Greek). They used their own languages to convey their spiritual beliefs and thoughts. They also brought many of their own cultural practices into the faith that are not even in the Bible (ie Burial Practices). That are now look at as de facto means of laying someone to rest (I don't know how many times I have heard of a Christian Burial when it doesn't exist).

girl22:
@ lazy

researching our own history rather than leting biased,racists tell it
black owned businesses.
strong family units
creating our own educationsl systems

That is a good post. Now we can discuss each topic if we wanted. That would actually be productive because we are focusing on solutions and hopefully do more than talk. I am tired of hearing the same things over and over again. People want to only talk about the past and not focus on future. The past is good to know and use, if helps you make positive changes for the future.

girl22:
how are my statement inaccurate?

i already said the civil war didn't free all slaves.

only some, very few.

the majority freed themselves.

there were approximately 700 slave revolts annually.

I already showed you the technical inaccuracy of you statements when I responded to you post. I will repost my responses below:

lazy:
No one said that revolts weren't successful and the resistance that Africans gave Europeans is the reason that African Enslavement in the Western Hemisphere ended. However, we need to be technically accurate when stating things. Some revolts were more successive than others. Obviously, Haiti is the most successful and the only one where the entire country (even more because they controlled the whole island of Hispaniola) was freed from that action.

Ultimately you are correct but the way you state things are sometimes hard to understand. Yes, we all know that there were free Maroon communities led by Queen Nanny in Jamaica and that they successfully fought the British. However, they were not able to free the entire country.

What research have you done? I would love to read whatever books or materials you are looking at. I enjoy learning more.

There is no need to talk negative about Europeans. The facts will speak for themselves.

No one credits Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson for inventing Democracy. It is usually credited to Ancient Greece from a historical stand point. You are correct that the Iroquois had an influence on the creation of the democracy in the United States but that is not what you statement above says. You are saying Democracy in general and you might be right but I would like to see your documentation.

girl22:
american negor slave revolt

slavery by another name

are two books

you can google. slave revolts, lincoln, civil war did not end slavery.

Cool.

Like I said before, your gist is correct but many things are technically inaccurate. That is what makes your statements incorrect.

girl22:
japaense can get over the concentration camps because didn't endure 450 years of

lynched for entertainment.
tarred and tied to a tree and set on fire. they didn't have their genitals cut off and shoved down their throats or were forced to to eat their own genitals.
tied to horeses and had the horeses gallope in different directions aripping their bodies apart in front of their wivesand children.
sold and never saw their families again. .
being lynched and have it put on a postcard.
having their body sold for money as souveniers.
being under niggerhunts and being murdered for no reason other than your black
having fish hooks stuck up their vaginas.
having fishhooks stuck in the roof of their mouths and pushed through their front teeth and then hung like that
being raped both men and women
being raped and forced to have that person's child
having their eyeballs gauged out,ears cut offf and other body parts cut off.
havng a stick put in the ground and then being forced to sit on top of it damaging your anus and insides
being worked until your fall out and die.
picking cotton until your hands bust open.
being ate by dogs.
being skinned alive
coming on a boat filled with maggots,feces,menustration blood
having your thumbs put in metal finger sharpeners if you refuse to have sex with the master/white man
being gang raped by the klu klux klan/white men
being spit on/beat up just because you black
forced to eat feces/utine
fighting in the vietnam,world wars and stiil couldn't vote,sit on the back of the bus and stiil beoing lyched.
and being discriminated against in the military.

oh and did you know it was well know than abe lincoln raped men slaves and gave tghem syphiliis.

christopher columbus tortured slaves for entertainment and murdered indians and made their women sex slaves.
thomas jefferson said blacks were only 3/5 human.


but the japanese got reparations.

We understand the history and it needs to be discussed but can we get a list of what needs to be done today because there is a "cultural crisis" with AA's. I hope that it would be as long as the one you listed in this post above.

girl22:
that it also a myth that revolts didnt wasn't successful.

No one said that revolts weren't successful and the resistance that Africans gave Europeans is the reason that African Enslavement in the Western Hemisphere ended. However, we need to be technically accurate when stating things. Some revolts were more successive than others. Obviously, Haiti is the most successful and the only one where the entire country (even more because they controlled the whole island of Hispaniola) was freed from that action.

girl22:
the slaves in jamaica freed themselves not britain.

Ultimately you are correct but the way you state things are sometimes hard to understand. Yes, we all know that there were free Maroon communities led by Queen Nanny in Jamaica and that they successfully fought the British. However, they were not able to free the entire country.

girl22:
that is what i am sayig do research.

What research have you done? I would love to read whatever books or materials you are looking at. I enjoy learning more.

girl22:
not read flawed european bullshit they teach you in school.

There is no need to talk negative about Europeans. The facts will speak for themselves.

girl22:
the iroqouis indians inveted a democracy government. not jefferson,benjamain franklin,.
they styled their government after them.
history is really HIS STORY.

No one credits Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson for inventing Democracy. It is usually credited to Ancient Greece from a historical stand point. You are correct that the Iroquois had an influence on the creation of the democracy in the United States but that is not what you statement above says. You are saying Democracy in general and you might be right but I would like to see your documentation.

manmustwac:
@gril22

The American Civil War was fought to end slavery and keep the United States together. Most of the blacks in the USA at the time were living in the deep South and were slaves. After the war they were all freed. Its only in the West Indies that slaves fought for their freedom not America ok

This is half true.

1) The US Civil War was not to free enslaved Africans but to keep the Union together. Slavery was a by product and that is all.

Abraham Lincoln quote:

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause."

2) The only Successful Slave Rebellion was in Haiti. Other Slave Revolts and Rebellions happened everywhere in the States, Jamaica, Brazil, etc, but they were only somewhat successful or not at all. Some allow a few to live free in Maroon communities while others were squashed by the European Power.

@Negro_Ntns

I know the last statement wasn't for me but I would participate. Are there any specific aspects that you want to discuss?

For instance, did you want to talk about Resistance in terms of Active(Rebellions and Revolts in the Western Hemisphere or Wars on the African Continent) or Passive (Self Mutilations, Suicide, Wall erected on the African Continent to protect their people)?

Did you want to get into the beginnings and how it started?

Did you want to get into the aftermath?

girl22:
the civil war was about the union. the states that were apart fo the union wanted the independent states to join the american union. abraham lincoln was pro slavery not an abolitionist. slavery was actually stilll praticed up until the 1890's. so we could not have been freed by lincoln,the thirteenth amendment,emancipation of proclomation or the civil war.

slaves freed themselves by revolting,forming militias,poisoning their masters,burning the down plantations or escaping.

I am inclined to agree with you that the US Civil War was about preserving the Union and that the enslaved Africans freed themselves because enslaving people became too much of a hassle to deal with. The Haitian Revolution was the turning point for ending African enslavement in the Western Hemisphere and the rest came falling down afterward.

With all that being said, is there a discussion you are trying to have, Debate something, or just make a statement?

@onyinye2 and lucabrasi

What both of you are talking about is changing a mentality because both of you are right about Black people. That is difficult work but I commend you both in doing that.

girl22:
when president lincoln signed the proclamation in January 1st 1963 he declared all slaves in the rebellious slave states to freed men but actually in reality they wouldn't be free for at least another two years because the American Civil War was not over yet.

no. black people were still enslaved after the civil war. i am going to post info on it.

they had to revolt to be free.

Lincoln himself used to return escaped slaves beack to their masters.

If you have more information, please post it. It seems your post are not complete with all the information you want to convey, so it is hard to understand your points.

@onyinye2

The same can be said for people here in the States for the most part. Being that I am an AA, people just complain about the music (Hip Hop) or complain about whatever. They fail to realize the music is the way that it is because of underlying realities that are going on in the community. We are dealing with kids that were born "AC" as Tupac put it "After Crack". The whole family structure was destroyed and the after effects are just reverberating thus you really don't have a solid foundation to raise kids. The music is just reflecting that reality.

Then when people are trying to do something to help. People talk a great game about yeah I will volunteer my time to do this or whatever. When it is time to do something, they are busy or don't have money to do anything.

Many people just want to complain and have intellectual orgies.

@onyinye2

"You aint said nothin' but the truth!"

It is about the people and organization. Organization is key. People are so individualistic but you sited the Civil Rights Movement. An Example of organization was the Montgomery Bus Boycott when people (not just leaders) walked, got a ride with a person with a car, the people with cars charged a cheap fare or gave rides for free, etc for over a year. They did it together and were organized.

onyinye2:
Personally i feel that we as black people are not on the sense of corrupt but more lost. we as people wait for leaders to do everything. we wait say "oh it's such and such responsibilty" but it is all of ours. how did the Civil Rights happen in the States?? It just wasn't leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., it was the people. the people took the intiative. we need to stop waiting and saying that nothing is ever going to change. in stead of waiting to build better roads, use some of that money you use to ship foreign cars and start an organization. All of us as black people just wait for controversy to simulate us to take action. when you see things are bad in your community, take charge. don't wait for the next generation to deal with what you could have put an end to.

Thank you! This is probably the best answer I have seen in thread. Most of the time it is a bunch of bickering about this or that without talking about the topic. That is also the reason why "Black Folk don't be gettin' nowhere".

I totally agree with what you are saying. I really think if people feel the need to complain about something, they should ask themselves what are they doing to change the situation.

I wish more people would do that instead of using time online to complain and fight when you could actually make contacts with people that could help in whatever you are trying to do. You might even find out another idea on how about to go and make that change.

It is so much easier to communicate and organize with people globally than any other time in history.

Hero:
They believe that having sex with Albinos will keep you from getting AIDS and that having sex with a baby will cure you of AIDS.

Come on. What does this have to do with the topic? I see you still haven't responded with sources on the other topic.

khai_khai:
Your absolute stupidity preceeds you.
The topic is about south African women. The women have sex with babies? ?
What a dumb dumb fellow you are.

I agree with you. This topic has nothing to do with that but Hero wanted to put his two cents of negativity in. It makes him look so ignorant. <shaking my head>

EXPONENT:
You are not a bright woman.

It's PLAINLY CLEAR what my objective is.


ALL-AFRICANS LAST GOT ALONG IN AMERIKKA.

*******************************************

If you look at AA's you'll see Africans from ALL PARTS of Africa.

Now we are classified as ONE.

It's a beautiful thing.

1) ALL-AFRICANS LAST GOT ALONG IN AMERIKKA is not an objective. It is a statement. That is not a goal.

2) You can make all the negative comments about me and others you want but it only shows your ignorance.

3) If you want to breed unity, the way you go about is not going to work

khai_khai:
we are talking about races getting along. so I mentioned races. subraces, major-races they may be.
So, do not get yourself confused if I mention a major race or a subrace. they still are not getting along.
the aboriginal people of australia are refered to as black by some. We could include them in this dumb topic.
There are people in the same family who don't get along.

I feel you and I agree.

The aboriginal group in Australia you mention would fit in Australoid not in the Negroid (Congoid) classification. Sure some may call them "Black" or Negrito by looks but they are genetically different from Africans. So they wouldn't be a sub group of Negroids (Congoids) they would be a sub group of Australoid.

This is a dumb topic and I cannot argue or debate that! LOL!

bebure:
When I say successful, I mean at the same level as other nations around the world. Success to me is a situation whereby you are an economical power. Where your policies and actions affect the rest of the international community in a very significant way. You also have to look at things like life expectancy, in Botswana it is currently 51 years old for men and 49 for women (not exactly good), 37% of the population is infected with HIV. To be fair though the country has a high level of literacy (about 80%), economic growth is one of the highest in the world, the GDP per capital is about $15,000 (Nigeria's is $2000 big big shame). On a worldwide scale Botswana does quite well in some areas such as GDP/capital, economic growth and literacy but in areas such as HIV it has about the highest infection rate in the world. Overall though it fairs much better than other African countries but being the best of the worst does not make a country successful.

I understand what you mean by successful now.

EXPONENT:
Where in my opening posts is this thread about Nijans v. AA's.

ITS ABOUT AFRICANS - no wonder your name is lazy,

I see you only read one line of my post. That is fine.

What are you trying to accomplish with your post?

naijacutee:
Botswana is successful - No?

I guess it is up to the poster how they define success when they thought of this topic

@poster

Good topic. I wish I had an answer.

khai_khai:
We do not have to all get along.
when was the last time all Caucasians got along??
Or try, all Arabs.
Or all Mongoloids??

Worthless people start worthless topics.

You kind of had me a little confused because Arabs are Caucasians as well. They are a sub groups just like many northern Europeans are in the Nordic group of Caucasians.

@ Exponent

This air of superiority that it seems you carry does nothing. What are you trying to accomplish with your post? What is your end game?

Why does every post have to be AA's vs. Nigerians?

The other thing about this post is also silly. How can you compare a group of 500,000 Africans that were enslaved in the States that now represent maybe 40 million to the continent of Africa where you have over 750 million Black people?

For instance, I am in software development. There is huge difference working with a group of 10 developers that are all in the same building here in the States. It is easy to work together and handle logistics. Now try that with that group of 10 developers also working with 10 developers in India, Australia, South Africa, and the UK. Keeping a group like that on track is a lot harder to do.