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I am very disappointed with what I have seen and read on this tread. How can you Igbos support and defend shambles, be it in Imo, Anambra, Abia, and other south east states. You Igbos have totally forgotten how we came to this point. Even after all that happened to us, so the best we can do is to compare failures with failures. Shame. Other Nigerians do not feel comfortable seeing us in other parts of Nigeria and we come here to compare shit with shit. |
Despite all the suffering Africans have past through starting from the destruction of Egypt to slavery, to colonialism, imperialism and again to neo-colonialism, I thougth African governments will at a point in their life promote programmes that will uplift the pride of the black race. But i was wrong. African Governments rather than come up with ideologies and philosophies which will help the african people to promote and strengthen the pride of the race making them economic and political independent, African governments continue to perpetuate misery on thesame race whose psych have been damaged. And I wonder what it means other than African Governments with a SLAVE MENTALITY. In Nigeria, there is no independent construction company of repute which can carry out any major construction work without the help of a foreign company. Even if there is one, the SLAVE MENTALITY in government will never allow that to happen. I know that the pride of a race does not lie on a single individual but whole. May be I am wrong. |
Pathetic |
What does freedom means to Nigerians and Africans in general? Is the blackman free? We are not yet free when we kill ourselves because of foreign tools of manipulation disguised as religion. The blackman is not interested to know his history and learn how religion was used to divide and conquer his race but will go further to perpetuate the bondage of slavery through religion upon his very own kind. |
It is written in the bible that God created the first man and woman called Adam and Eve. Anthropologist have shown that the earliest remains of man was discovered in Africa ![]() |
A very good topic. When most parts of Africa is affected by the symptoms listed by the poster, the end of africa is almost at hand. There is no continent in the world that can survive such devastating symptoms unless the study of the past is made a priority. The climax of the symptoms will be when 100 percent of the continent become slaves in their own land without even having a clue. I think the biggest problem of Africa is not knowing our history. How can one be proud his\her culture without history. History will help Africa a lot and when i say History I mean the History of pre-history dating back 3500 b.c. Those who were part of the destruction of our history claim to be the masters of the world and today they are the champions and teachers of African history There was a black Civilised and developed city known as Nowe, older as the greek and roman empire. Africans have the right to know what happened to that ancient and civilised city, how, why, what and when it happened. The symptoms listed by the poster was the order of the day after the fall of Nowe. I refuse to see the problems or any other problems listed elsewhere as problems but symptoms that will pave the way for the ultimate destruction of the black continent. To know the true knowledge of our history africans must take the bull by the horn. Africans have a lot of research to do on their own and only on their own, though a very difficult task, but the will to do it is the most important that Africans much search for. Africans who are interested to know what happened to that ancient city of Nowe must read the THE DESTRUCTION OF BLACK CIVILISATION by Chancellor Williams. I have tried my best by posting the whole work of this impeccable blackman and american on this website. It is left for Africans to discover the truth about their history. There is nothing in this world that is happening today that have never happened in the past. Nothing is new under the sun for the ancient blacks were sun worshipers. |
Lewis Spence, Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt, New York, 1915 . Benjamin Tucker Tanner, The Negro in Holy Writ, Philadelphia, 1902 . Bayard Taylor, A Journey to Central Africa : Life, and Landscapes from Egypt to the Negro Kingdoms of the White Nile, New York, 1867 . Arnold J. Toynbee, The Study of History, London, 1934 . John Spencer Trimmingham, Islam in Ethiopia, New York, 1952. Jan Vansina, Kingdoms of the Svanna, Madison, 1964 . , "Recording the Oral History of the Bakuba," Journal of African History, Vol . 1, No . 2, 1960 , G .A . Wainwright, "Iron in Napatan and Meroetic Ages," Sudan Notes and Records, Vol . XXVI, 1945 . John Ward, Pyramids and Progress, London, 1900 . Arthur Weigall, A Guide to the Antiquities of Upper Egypt, from Abydos to the Sudan Frontier, London, 1910 . , The Glory of the Pharaohs, New York, 1923 . J.G. Wilkinson, The Ancient Egyptians, London, 1878. Frank Willet, Life in the History of West African Art, London, 1969. Chancellor Williams, The Rebirth of African Civilization, Washington, 1961 . Problems in African History, Washingtort, 1965 . "Teaching of African History," in The Teaching of History, J .S . Roucek, ed ., New York, 1967 . , "The Empire of Mali," "Songhay," in International Encyclopedia, New York, 1969 . , Notes and Records of Field Studies in 26 African States, (unpublished), 1956-63 . Eric Williams, Capitalism and-Slavery, Chapel Hill, 1944 . Edgar V . Winans, Shambala : The Constitution of a Traditional State, Los Angeles, 1962 . Carter G . Woodson, The African Background, Washington, 1936 . African Heroes and Heroines, Washington, (reissue), 1969 . |
Harold Alfred MacMichael, A History of the Arabs in the Sudan, Cambridge, 1922 . Kurt W. Marek, Gods, Graves and Scholars : The Story of Archaeology, New York, 1951 . Gaston C.C . Masperu, Egyptian Archaeology, New York, 1887 . G . Massey, A Book of the Beginnings, London, 1881, Vol . 1 . Samuel Alfred Broune Mercer, The Religion of Ancient Egypt, London, 1949 . G.S. Mileham, The Churches in Lower Nubia, Philadelphia, 1910 . E.D . Moore, The Ivory Scourage of Africa, New York, 1951 . Alexander Moret, Kings and Gods of Egypt, New York, 1912 . George P . Murdock, Africa : Its Peoples and Their Culture, New York, 1959 . Ibn Al-Khafif Murtadi, The Egyptian History : Treating of the Pyramids, London,1672. Otto Neubert, The Valley of the Kings, London, 1957 . Charles Francis Nims, Thebes of the Pharaohs, New York, 1965 . Frederick Norden, Travels in Egypt and Nubia, London, 1757 . Rufus Lewis Perry, The Cushites, Springfield, 1893 . Walter Scott Perry, Egypt the Land of the Temple Builders, Boston, 1898 . W .M . Flinders Petrie, A History of Egypt, London, 1905 . (It was while wading through this voluminous work that I first learned about a black Egypt .) Pre-Historic Egypt, London, 1926 . Hyksos and Israelites and Cities, London, 1908 . Corpus of Pre-Historic Pottery and Palettes, London, 1921 . Albert Postel, The Mineral Resources of Africa, Philadelphia, 1943 . Robert S . Rattray, Religion and Art in Ashanti, Oxford, 1927 . G .A. Reisner, Kerma, Harvard African Studies VI, VII, 1923 . , "Outline of the History of the Sudan," Sudan Notes and Records, 1918. J . Rouch, Les Songhay, Paris, 1954 . Samuel Schieffelin, The Foundation of History: A Series of First Things, New York, 1863 . Elliot P . Skinner, The Mossi of Upper Volta, Stanford, 1964 . P.L. Skinner, Meroe, London, 1967 . , "The Fall of Meroe," Kush, Vol . III, 1960 . Grafton Elliat Smith, Egyptian Mummies, London, 1924. Frank M. Snowden, Some Greek an Roman Observations on the Ethiopians, New York, 1960 . |
William Leo Hansberry, Sources for the Study of Ethiopian History, Washington, 1931 . , "Ancient Kush, Old Aethipia, and the Balad es Sudan," Reprinted, from the Journal of Human Relations, Vol. 8, 1960. J.E. Harris, "Bring in Africa," New England Social Studies, Fall, 1965 . Alfred E . Haynes, Man-Hunting in the Desert, London, 1894 . Arnold Heeren, Historical Research into the Politics, Intercourse and Trade of Carthegian, Ethiopian, and Egyptian, (tr . from German), London, 1667 . Robert Smythe Hichens, Egypt and Its Monuments, New York, 1923 . Peter Malcolm Holt, A Modern History of the Sudan : From the Funj Sultanate to the Present Day, London, 1961 . G.A . Hoskins, Travels in Ethiopia Above the Second Cataract of the Nile London, 1835 . Willia Huggins, An Introduction to African Civilizations, New York, 1937 . Hilmy Ibrahim, The Literature of Egypt and the Sudan from the Earliest Times to the Year 1885, London, 1886 . H.C. Jackson, Ethiopia and the Origin of Civilization, New York, 1939 . Otto A . Jager, Antiquities of North Ethiopia, Stuttgart, 1965 . Leland Jenks, The Migrations of British Capital to 1875, New York, 1937 . Harry H . Johnston, Comparative Study of the Bantu and Semi-Banut Languages, Oxford, 1919, Vol. 1 . Journal of Semitic Studies, Special Issue, Vol . 9, No. 1, Ethiopian Studies, Manchester, 1964 . Robert W. July, A History of the African People, New York, 1970 . D.P. Kirwan, "The Decline and Fall of Meroe," Kush, 1960, Vol . VIII . Martin Wells Knapp, Out of Egypt into Canaan, Boston, 1887 . Thomas Legh, Narrative ofa Journey in Egypt and the Country Beyond the Cataract, London, 1816 . Michel Leiris and Jacqueline Delange, African Art, London, 1969 . Richard Lepsius, Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia and the Peninsula of Sinai, London, 1853 . Herbert Lewis, A Galla Monarchy, Madison, 1965 . Jeronymo Lobo, A Voyage to Abyssinia, London, 1735 . Alfred Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, London, 1934 . Hiob Ludolf, A New History of Ethiopia, London, 1682 . M.F .L. Macadam, The Temples of Kawa, London, 1949 . , The Inscriptions, Oxford, 1949 . |
Philip D . Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade : A Census, Madison, 1968 . Henry Algernon Darley, Slaves and Ivory in Abyssinia, New York, 1935 . Basil Davidson, Africa in History, New York, 1969 . , The Lost Cities of Africa, New York, 1960 . ,Angola, New York, 1961. Maurice Delafosse, The Negroes of Africa, (tr . from the French by F . Fligelman), Washington, 1931 . Ralph Delgado, Historia de Angola, 1482-1836, 4 Vols ., Benguela, 1955. Marcel A. Dieulafoy, L'Acropole de Suse, Paris, 1893 . W.E.B. DuBois, The World and Africa, New York, 1946 . James Duffy, Portugal in Africa, Baltimore, 1963 . J .H . Dunbar, The Rock Pictures of Lower Nubia, Cairo, 1941 . Dows Dunham, The Royal Cemeteries of Kush, Cambridge, 1950. , "Two Royal Ladies of Meroe : Report on Some Results of Excavations," The Harvard University Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1925 . Adolf Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, London, 1894 . Abdurahman Es Sadi, Tarikh-Es-Sudan, Paris, 1901, Vols . I,11 . Brian Fagan, "Pre-European Ironworking in Central Africa," Journal of African History, Vol . 11, No . 2, 1961 . James G . Frazer, The Golden Bough, New York, 1940 . Leo Frobenius, Histoire de la Civilisation Africaine, (tr . from the German), Paris, 1936 . The Origins of African Civilizations, Washington, 1898 . Alan Gardiner, Egypt of the Pharaohs, New York 1966. John Garstang, Meroe, the City of the Ethiopians : Being an Account of a First Season's Excavation on the Site, London, 1911 . Al Arbah: A Cemetery of the Middle Kingdom, London, 1901 . Romolo Gessi, Seven Years in the Sudan: Being a Record of Exploration Adventures, and Campaigns Against the Arab Slave Hunters, London,1892 . F.L. Griffith, Karanog : The Meroitic Inscriptions of Shablul, Philadelphia, 1911 . "The Oxford Expedition in Nubia," Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology, VIII, XV, 1921-1928 . |
Edward Blyden, Africa and the Africans, London, 1903 . Franz Boas, "Old African Civilizations," Atlanta University Leaflet, No. 19, May 31, 1906 . E.W. Bovill, The Golden Trade of the Moors, London, 1958 . T. Bowdich, The Discoveries of the Portuguese in the Interior of Angola, London, 1824 . James Henry Breasted, A History of Egypt from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest, London, 1906. Ancient Records of Egypt I, II, Chicago, 1906 . A History of Egypt, New York, 1912 . The Monument of Sudanese Nubia: Report of the Work of The Egyptian Expedition, Chicago, 1908, p . 110 . Mary Brodrick, A Concise Dictionary of Egyptian Archaeology, London, 1902 . James Bruce, Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile, Edinburgh, 1790, 5 Vols. Guy Brunton, "The Badarian Civilization and Pre-Dynastic Remains Near Badari," London, British School of Archaeology in Egypt, 1928 . John Bucholzer, The Land of Burnt Faces, London, 1955. Ernest Budge, The Egyptian Sudan: Its History and Monuments, London, 1907, 2 Vols . G. Caton-Thompson, The Zimbabwe Culture, Oxford, 1931 . F. Chabas, Etudes Sur l'Antiquite Historique d' Apres les Sources Egyptiennes et les Monuments Reputes Pre-Historiques, Paris, 1873 . Walton Claridge, History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti, London, 1915 . J . Desmond Clark, "Early Man in Southern Rhodesia," Northern Rhodesia Journal II, Vol . 11, No . 4, p . 954 . Chapman Cohen, Christianity, Slavery and Labour, London, 1931 . William Cooley, The Negroland of the Arabs : An Inquiry into the Early History and Georgraphy of Central Africa, London, 1841 . , The Negroland of the Arabs Examined and Explained, London, 1841 . Leonard Cottrel, The Lost Pharaohs, New York, 1951 . Reginald Coupland, East Africa and its Invaders, Oxford, 1938. A. Crawford, Ethiopian Itineraries, Circa 1400-1524, Cambridge, 1958 . J .W. Crowfoot, The Island of Meroe and the Meroitic Inscriptions, London, 1911 . |
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY D.P. Abraham, "Maramuca : An Exercise in the Combined Use of Portuguese Records and Oral Tradition," Journal of African History, Vol. II, No . 2, 1961 . Leo Africanus, History and Description of Africa, London, 1896. Thomas George Allen, "Egyptian Stelae," Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, 1936 . A.J. Arkell, Early Khartoum, London, 1945 . A History of the Sudan, London, 1945 . Edward Ayrton, Pre-Dynastic Cemetery at El-Mahasna, London and Boston, 1910 . James Baikie, A Century of Excavation in the Land of the Pharaohs. New York, 1924 . , Egyptian Antiquities in the Nile Valley, London, 1932 . , The Life of the Ancient East, New York, 1923 . Sir Samuel White Baker, In the Heart of Africa, New York, 1884 . Edward G. Balfour, "Negro Races," Cyclopedia of India, London, 1885, ed . by Joseph W. Widney, Race Life of the Aryan Peoples . Abu Abd Batuta, "The Travels of Ibn Batuta," (In Egypt, Syria, Persia, Zanzibar, Tartary, Hindostan, Ceylon, China, Spain, and Africa ; between 1325 and 1353), tr . from the Arabic abridged manuscript copies preserved in the Public Library at Cambridge, London : 1829, p . 243 . Grace Beardsley, The Negro in Greek and Roman Civilization, London, 1929 . Giovanni Battista Belzoni, Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs and Excavations, in Egypt and Nubia, London, 1822 . |
[b]It is also rewarding, though in an unhappy way, to see no end to the accumulation of examples that further confirm viewpoints I actually wish were untrue . But as the final chapters here were being written, Professor Robert W . July's big 650 pages of A History of the African People came off the press as the latest justification of my indictment of Western historians . I recommend it for reading because it is a 1970 edition of scholarship skillfully carrying out its traditional work on the Blacks . Part One : "Ancient Africa" rearranges, omits and misrepresents many of the well-known facts in order to fit the main racial theory . The large number of pictures, like the mass of factual data in the book, can easily disguise its main thrust and theme : The black race is inferior . In the Bibliography that follows I left out quite a number of secondary works used because so many of them seemed to be little more than repetitions of those selected . My decision to eliminate almost all of the periodical literature used was not easy, especially as regards the special studies in professional journals ; however, there is a point where an enough-is-enough conclusion is reached . Those who have a mania for the latest works published as their guide will miss the boat here, for some of our most valuable sources were the oldest publications . Some can be seen only in libraries and special museum collections, others are microfilmed . Research sources are no longer a problem . During the last few years there have been many large and comprehensive "Africana" bibliographies published in Europe and America . The new interest and work in the field of Oral history are among the most significant developments in recent times . My own field studies were largely involved with oral tradition . This fact should be repeated finally in connection with the discussion of sources because the oral records played an important role in many aspects of this work. ********[/b] |
[b]If it had been my purpose to mention the early historians on Africa in order of importance, Manetho, the African historian, would have headed the list ; for the records of this Greek-speaking native son of the 4th century B.C., are authoritative sources which no scholar on Egypt ignores . His Annals differ in many respects from other records, e.g ., those of the great Jewish historian of the period, Josephus, the King-lists, the Turin Canon, etc . These differences in names, spelling and dates about which so many scholars sweat and wrangle never did seem to me to be of earth-shaking importance . Quite the .contrary, it would have been strange if all of these different chronologies had been uniformly the same . It should be remembered that all Qf these 4th and 5th century historians were covering events extending back from four to six thousand years before their time . The numerous discoveries of relatively recent archaeology have substantially confirmed their work . Examples are the inscriptions found on numerous palettes, stelae, the walls of tombs and temples and the Palermo and Rosetta Stones . Some of the best histories of the earliest periods were written by archaeologists such as Petrie and others appearing in the formal Bibliography below . Coming on the scene over two thousand years after Manetho, Herodotus, Diodirus, Strabo, et al ., they supplemented the works of these first scholars with the additional evidence that had been left in the keeping of the long-since dead and forgotten or recovered from the sands . Petrie headed a line of investigators and writers without whose works the world would be intellectually poorer-Breasted, Budge, Arkell, Africanus, Baikfe, Boas, Delafosse, Garstand, Griffith, Nims and others . The illustrious role is long . The Bible is one of our richest sources for many different sidelights on the black world . With the spread of Islam in Africa and the entrance of France, Arab and French writers dominated the scenes up to and through the 19th century . French and Arab sources, therefore, became indispensable in African research . Indeed, the same may be said of investigators and writers from all the invading countries . The fact that I reject many of their unspoken pre-suppositions and the inevitable conclusions they reach therefrom has nothing to do with the usefulness of their works or the brilliance of their scholarship . Even some of the authors with whom I most bitterly disagree, nevertheless, led me to rewarding sources I had neither seen nor had been aware of .[/b] |
[b]Both Herodotus and Diodorus were outstanding in setting forth for posterity the attitude of the white world of their day toward the black world-the extreme reverse of what it is today . The reason is plain : The early Blacks were the most advanced of all the peoples known to them . This they did not hesitate to declare, and to acknowledge that their own European civilization had borrowed heavily from Africa, and borrowed even more heavily in the field of religion . For this later Western historians have never forgiven them . Pliny, the Elder, is a fair example of writers on Africa, referred to above, where one must wade through a mass of irrelevant matter to find the bits and pieces of data scattered throughout large volumes . Yet these fragments are often of the highest importance, as they are in the case of Pliny's Historia Natural . In this regard Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are in a class by themselves . Like many other works that give insights into the early history of Africans, they also have no such purpose . Moreover, the Iliad and Odyssey are "non-history history," a myth combining fantasy with facts . Homer's importance in African history, however, has little to do with the precise truth of any particular story . Rather, as in the case of the works of Herodotus and Diodorus, Homer mirrors the very high status of the black world of his day and the unmistakable deference of the white race to that world . In my studies under Professor Hansberry, I had read the works of the writers discussed above and most of those mentioned in this section below . But the adverse criticism of a whole school of eminent modern scholars led me back for a more painstaking re-study and critical analysis of all the questions under attack . Interestingly enough, almost all of the statements made by the ancient historians that have been challenged concern, directly or indirectly, the role of the Blacks in history . My second approach to Herodotus and the others was with the certainty that I was just as competent to evaluate their works, see "exaggerations," and as capable of separating facts from fiction as Sir Alan Gardiner or any of the members of his school of thought. Among other writers who made noteworthy contributions in varying degrees was Strabo, whose Geographica included history along with its main subject matter . Plato and Plutarch are reference sources, the latter's De Iside et Osiride being more directly relevant . Quite a number of the historians and geographers near the end of the B .C. era drew heavily on the works of such early writers as Hecataeus, Argatharchides, Herodotus and Manetho.[/b] |
[b]BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Standing alone and isolated in the field for over thirty-five years, William Leo Hansberry was the teacher who introduced me to the systematic study of African history and, of equal importance, to the ancient documentary sources . His massive documentation of early Greek and Roman historians and geographers of Africa covered several years of labor, leaving one to wonder how the utterly false teaching that Africa had no written history spread over the world . For, entirely apart from the remarkable contributions of archaeology in the 19th and 20th centuries, there have always been more than sufficient written records to reconstruct the history of the Blacks from the earliest times . And I am fully aware that most of the written records have been lost . The works of Hecataeus, for example, were lost . He was one of the first Greeks to study and write in Egypt . While much of the most significant data are fragments scattered here and there throughout many larger works, as though they were thrown in incidentally, there were some works devoted wholly to ancient Egypt and Ethiopia . The one to whom we probably owe the greatest debt is the "Father of History" himself. Herodotus' History was comprehensive in a sense not equalled by any of the other early writers . Diodorus, however, if not quite the equal of the Master, ran a close second . His General History may not have equalled that of Herodotus in lucidity and style, neither of which is a matter of too much concern for the researcher, but it is replete with the kind of historical data without which we would not have the additional sidelights on the darkened pages of black history .[/b] |
[b]All talk about "Black Power" is empty until we begin to make Black Power a reality in the only way it can be done, and that is by building, step by step, a race organization so great that it will not only be the voice of a united people but will carry on efficiently an economic development program to assist their advance on all other fronts . The organization-for-unity PLAN presented in this final chapter is an effort to answer the question, "Which way, you still enshackled Blacks?"-to answer in specific terms and in some detail . It sets forth rather clearly one way out . It will be simply great if someone comes up with an even better plan for racial unity through action . Whatever is proposed must be a grand design . Nothing else will serve . It must be bold, daring ; an effort of unheard-of audacity by Blacks, and one that will bring forth the enemy's scream of "Utopian," "too unrealistic," or "just another grandiose dream ." This enemy, and let us not forget it for a single minute, is deeply entrenched within the race as well as outside . This means that we must face up to the fact that we have problems of a kind and obstacles to overcome which no other people have . The tasks we now face will test this genius of the black race . The Blacks in the United States are in the best position as a lead-off example for the rest of the African race . For such a movement would further change the course of history and inspire black youth everywhere, along with their elders, with a new vision, a sense of direction, and the kind of outlook that gives meaning to study as the source of inventions and new discoveries . The challenge to the Blacks on this continent is to overcome the centuries of their own American version of tribalism and disunity . It is their greatest challenge in this era of perpetual crisis. They will accept it if they have come to understand at last that equal rights and equal justice will never come from appeals to the mighty, and granted as an Act of Grace, but only from their own position of power and influence which develop from a united people engaged in great and vast undertakings of their own . If we fail to accept this challenge at this critical turning point in our history, we will have proved ourselves unworthy of having any descendants, and our very names should be forgotten by them-or cursed by the farthest generation .[/b] |
[b]The final great issue, then, involves the African race alone . The dismal "View from the Bridge" was reached after a long journey through the centuries . The outlook is distressing because somewhere back down the line of time the effort to advance toward a higher order of life, in something called Civilization, by ever widening the gap that separates men from beasts-this effort failed . And it failed because in his sudden and amazing successes in science and technology man outsmarted himself, concentrating almost entirely on his mind power at the expense of his humanizing spiritual power, becoming not the master of his machines but their servant ; and, in the process of acquiring seemingly limitless power, this segment of the human race became as soulless as its machines and began to destroy or conquer other peoples, seizing their lands and their wealth while reducing them as nearly as possible to a state of perpetual dependency . In all this the black people of the world still find themselves in the worst situation of all . The question of today, now, is what are the black people themselves going to do? Those who make a pfofession, and money, by playing on the emotions, screaming utterly futile invectives and denunciations, these will continue to do so . And those who still preach "integration" and "brotherhood" with the whites will keep on marching, singing and praying, not to God, but to the white man, for they are still unable to understand that white America had generally condemned and rejected this peace-loving, brotherly approach of Martin Luther King long before it murdered him.' This present course of a fragmented and unorganized people, if followed, will find the succeeding generations of Blacks as weak, leaderless and powerless as they are today . For their present road is the easy road : mass meetings, big conventions, protest resolutions, and splitting up to follow this or that "leader" with the greatest "gift of gab," all leading exactly nowhere . But to get down to the hard and persistent work of actually doing something- oh, now we will come to the parting of ways-the mere talker may retreat . ---------------------------------------------- Notes 2 . It seems to be the general view throughout the black world that polls and other data show that whites are hostile to any kind of movement by Blacks for equality, peaceful, non-violent or otherwise ; and that this hostile anti-King climate produced his murderer 'as its representative.[/b] |
[b](6) The organization itself will be one vast union, and no outside organization or union will be allowed to determine its policies, programs or destiny, no matter under what guise or by what approach the efforts are made . (7) There should be a rigid policy to avoid the development of a top-heavy bureaucracy of high salaried executives . The success of the Movement is going to depend very heavily on the number of people willing to sacrifice in giving some unpaid or not fully paid service . For at least 'the first ten years this will be a sacrifice train . The big salary boys should not get on board . (8 The highest legislative body will be a House of Delegates, representing the various major areas or states according to membership . The House of Delegates would meet every five years, but subject to special session call by the Chairman of the Council or Leaders, acting under Council's instructions ; or it could be called by the people by a referendum . (This latter emergency would never occur unless the people lost control of their leaders on the Council) . D . Every undertaking is to be preceded by study, training and careful financial planning . There should be long-range and short-range goals. Some goals can be achieved in a relatively short time ;; some of a larger magnitude will require several years even after the first five million membership goal is reached ; and still others can, like the eternal pyramids, only have their foundations so solidly laid by this generation that the Blacks who follow us can continue building on those well laid foundations at the point where our own labors were ended by time . And something along this line must be the PLAN . This must be the vision . It is obviously not for the "Overnight" "quick-up and quick-down" boys. This is for black men, women and their children who seek to find the lost path of their forefathers and start the upward march once again .[/b] |
[b]C. Administration . The organization will be based upon the traditional African Constitutional System . (1) There will be no authoritarian presidents or heads . As in traditional Africa, the king or chief was the spokesman of the previously expressed will of the people and the instrument for carrying out that will ; the national head or heads of the organization and the head of every unit thereof will function in like manner : issuing no important orders or public statements on behalf of the organization or the race it will represent without consent of the Council. (2) The Organization will modernize the ancient African Council of Elders only to the extent of changing "Elders" to "Leaders" in order to admit outstanding young people to membership . The Council of Leaders, therefore, becomes the highest governing authority on each level-local community, state and national-each leader being the elected representative of a constituency to which he is responsible for his actions on the Council . This means that on all highly important matters the leader on the Council does not vote independently according to his individual judgment, but must determine in advance the collective will of the people . (3) The "highest" officer on each level is the Chairman of the Council . (In traditional Africa this would be the King or Chief, who could neither vote nor actively participate in the discussions, since his principal duty was to proclaim and execute the will of the people as it had been determined by their representatives on the Council .) Within this people-controlled framework he is still the chief executive officer . (4) To enable the people of the community to have an intelligent or informed opinion about matters of importance, the principal role of leaders is to study and to institute studies upon the basis of which plans are developed and proposals are submitted to the general membership . The leaders propose . They do not order or direct upon their own authority. A direct medium of communication with the people should be the "Community Newsletter ." (5) All officers, even though elected for a specified term of years, should be subject to removal for cause at any time by the people (another African constitutional provision) .[/b] |
[b]because, unlike other peoples, they have been completely cut off from their past history and, therefore, are ignorant of their own philosophy of life, ancient religion, institutions which were borrowed by others . What the need now, therefore, is neither "Black Capitalism" nor "Black Communism"-both of which benefit those at the top and exploit the masses-but what is needed is an ideology of "Black Africanism," operating within the framework of the traditional African Philosophy of life and the best of its value system . X . GUIDELINES' A. The Movement will seek to achieve the largest possible measure of Unity in order (1) to form the power base as the organized voice of the black people in a particular region or nation ; (2) to develop from this "position of strength" the much needed economic enterprises that will not only create employment opportunities but, being owned directly by the people in the community, will lower the cost and raise the standard of living for all . B. Financing There would be a general membership fee . Each community enterprise would be financed initially by the purchase of shares of participating owners . Each share would be at a purchase price in reach of the poorest . Indeed, a special program for share-holding by children should be an important part of the movement. Each share draws a fixed interest as a loan . But, unlike capitalism, members do not vote by shares . The member who may be able to buy 100 shares has only one vote like the member who could buy only one share . The objective is a mass membership and a mass patronage of their own enterprises . The additional direct benefits are the patronage dividends received according to the amount purchased in a given period. In private enterprise or "black capitalism" this would be profit that the owner makes . Under communism, it goes to the "state." Under our Community Cooperative System, the "profit" belongs to the people; for the reason for it all is to benefit the people and not to enrich any one person or small group . --------------------------------------------------- Notes 1. For a "refresher" read Chapter VI again : The African Constitution : Birth of Democracy .[/b] |
[b] VII. DIVISION OF INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY This Division would maintain highly trained intelligence agents to (1) check internal subversion and activities of agents placed within the organization by others, (2) secure complete records of all persons employed by or connected with the organization, (3) promote formation and training of self-protection units everywhere to defend the community against unlawful and unjust raids and other forms of murderous attacks should they occur . This simply means preparedness for defense against attacks by well known and well organized "Citizen's" paramilitary groups . VIII . THE COMMISSION FOR SPIRITUAL LIFE AND ASSISTANCE This should be the race's "Great Commission ." Its major tasks would be (1) to determine the direction of civilization ; (2) to interpret the "spiritual" as men and women working on the highest level of humane endeavors to understand the meaning of life while trying to improve it ; (3) to enlist the cooperation of white, brown, yellow, red and any and all other peoples of goodwill in an all-out drive for a better world ; (4) to maintain an emergency assistance program for families or communities in distress ; (5) and to assume the initiative in seeking the active cooperation of any and all religious faiths and all institutions which are concerned with improving human relations and, therefore, life itself. IX. IDEOLOGY AND GUIDELINES With the development of a movement of this magnitude, the black people may begin to learn at last how utterly futile it is to grasp as their own the ideologies developed by the white world for the people of this white world . They, the black "leaders" of a still leaderless yet hopeful people have been, and still are, expecting the solution of the race's problems to be handed to them on the silver platters of either capitalism or communism . Elements of both of these systems prevailed in Africa several thousand years before either capitalism or Marxism was born in the West . Black people generally could not be expected to know this[/b] |
[b] IV. DIVISION OF COMMUNITY SERVICES A. Department of Health and Sanitation 1. Council of Physicians, Dentists, Nurses, Medical Aides and laymen and Home Visiting Nurse Service . 2. Community Clinics . 3 . Community clean block and alley program . 4. Better Home life Counseling Service . 5 . A "Home-Beautiful" Program B. Legal Aid Services : All matters of injustice because of race, and the legal work of the Movement . V. DIVISION OF YOUTH ACTIVITIES To assume leadership roles in all areas and undertakings for which they are capable . Students and non-students should join hands in the racebuilding efforts . One of their precious responsibilities should be the Department of Children Affairs (ages 5 to 12) which is in their division . (The underlying idea here is to have specific and important roles for all children and youth) . VI. DIVISION OF PAN AFRICAN AFFAIRS This Division would maintain direct contacts and the closest relationship with the people and states of Black Africa, the Caribbean and the other black population centers around the world . The purposes would be specific : (1) To keep them fully informed on what we are doing-and how; (2) to learn from them what they are doing and how ; (3) to find out what the obstacles are in each black area, including our own, and to counsel together on ways and means of overcoming the seemingly impossible ; (4) to explore for, and then actually determine definite ways for mutual assistance . When this is done, we will have moved from the case of Pan-African talk to the work of Pan-Africa in action ; (5) to trade in the exchange of goods and services, scientific and technical knowledge[/b] |
[b]C . Committee of Visitors . These should be in every community to (1) become acquainted with teachers, students and the textbooks and other learning materials ; (2) to determine to what extent, if any, the anti-African or anti-black feeling on the part of many teachers of black youth may be a hidden obstacle to their progress in school work . Every Committee of School Visitors should be elected by the people of the community and should report directly to them . But "education" here means far more than "school" education . It means spreading light through a comprehensive program into the deprived areas of the community : New standards for better health ; better homes and gardens ; neighborhood improvement activities ; and sponsoring neighborhood conferences on questions of mutual community and educational interest. A Division of Education would justify its existence if it did nothing more than conduct studies as a basis for proposing certain guidelines for the race in the United States . The general confusion and mess-up in the Black Studies Movement, for example, could have been avoided if the young people had had somewhere to turn for help in determining procedures and priorities . What united guiding voice was there to advise them that all fields could not possibly or sensibly be started at once ; that there were neither a fraction of the trained teachers required nor suitable books or other needed teaching and learning materials? Only three or four courses could have been profitably started while research and training prepared the way for a real educational experience in others to be started later . Even then, common sense would have dictated that Black Studies can only be carried on in certain schools by certain teachers . To force them into white schools only because they are "integrating" and find it an expedient policy for the moment is one of those black illusions of achievement that still lead us astray . Equally ridiculous is the assumption that unwilling and uncommitted white and Negro teachers are going to now deal fairly with the very aspects of civilization which they have systematically excluded from instruction all along . If this were not the case, of course, there would be no such phenomenon today as "Black Studies ."[/b] |
[b]Special Note : Without the farm lands we may as well forget about canning and frozen food industries or reducing the cost of living for our people by supplying their community stores with fresh vegetables, meats, butter and eggs from their own farms . Vast land holding is the cornerstone of the Master Plan . F. Transport and Distribution Agency . This department would be primarily concerned with long distance shipping from farms, plants and other points, and maintaining the trucks, shipping vans and required maintenance services . G. Central Purchasing and Supply Agency . In addition to its obvious functions this department would be responsible for the proper location and supervision of the various warehouses required as the community enterprises expand . [All of the departments and agencies listed above would be in the Division of Economic Planning and Development] . 11. DIVISION OF POLITICAL ACTION (1) Promote and assist voter registration ; (2) provide "profile" of candidates- local, state and national ; (3) prepare bills and other measures affecting the group for state legislatures and the U .S. Congress ; (4) liaison with White House; and (5) all actions that can be taken through the political process to protect and promote the welfare of Black Americans . DIVISION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION Purpose: To achieve a higher standard of teaching and student achievement on every level involved in the education of Black children and youth ; and to develop a better system of general adult education in all Black communities . This Division would include : A. Foundation for directed research, field studies and the training of scholars for neglected areas in various aspects of African life and history . B. A General Publishing Board : (1) Textbooks and other works related to progress of the race ; (2) newspapers and magazines, a professional journal, community-action newsletters, etc .[/b] |
[b]B . The Department of Finance, Banking, and Credit Unions . (1) For promoting a consortium of banks operated by members of the race and the expansion of financing and banking systems . These would be branches of a Central National Bank of the organization . (2) Credit Unions for individual assistance and building and loan services . Primarily for communities without needed building and loans services for Blacks . C. The Institute of Technology and Personnel Training . This would be a Key program of the movement . For while it would engage in the training of expert technicians for the various fields of operation under the PLAN, a principal objective would be the kind of creative expertise required for large scale manufacturing operations-shoe manufacturing; men, women and children's clothes, hats, underwear, canning ; frozen foods, furniture ; mattress-making, and other products . The personnel training sections would have an importance for the race beyond the ordinary . Blacks are generally still quicker and more polite . when serving white people . Their attitude toward members of their own race is one of indifference and often insulting . This is known to be true both in Africa and America . Yet this crucial question is not mentioned even in discussion of why "Negro" business fails . This negative and essentially anti-black attitude of Blacks towards Blacks, a left-over from slavery and our history, must be uncompromisingly and even ruthlessly dealt with in both training and day-to-day administration . D. Central Office of Accounting and Finance Control Here again is an area in which Blacks are weak : money management and control . This Central Office of Accounting and Finance Control would keep a rigorous check on all income and expenditures of the National organization and provide similar auditing and accounting units for the local community organizations and enterprises . E. Department of Land Reclamation and Farming . Principal Aim : To secure large tracts of land in various parts of the country to (1) raise vegetables of all kinds for the various community markets, (2) hogs, beef cattle, poultry and eggs, (3) farm homes for persons who would work on the farm and (4) country camp centers for rest and play .[/b] |
[b]The organizational structure of the Movement should be by major divisions for the major activities, each divided into departments for carrying on their respective programs . Special study and analysis should be given to each Division and each department coming under it, for there could be no better way to understand the scope and significance of what is presented here . This should be easy for all, because I have not been dealing with idealistic, unattainable dreams or mere academic theories, but very practical, day-to-day problems . In so doing, I have deliberately avoided the academic and often esoteric language of scholarship. STRUCTURE BY DIVISIONS I. THE DIVISION OF ECONOMIC PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT The Division of Economic Planning and Development should be the foundation of the organized efforts and a principal source of support and promotion of the most important activities of the whole race . A guiding principle should be that all promoted community enterprises shall be cooperatively owned and controlled by the people of the community and that each enterprise be under highly trained management and competent service personnel . DEPARTMENTS: A. Department for Promotion of Community Cooperative enterprises. (1) To conduct surveys to determine what the people want and need . (2) Soundness of project . (3) Ways and means of community financing and securing trained personnel and management . The community enterprises would be nationwide and, while owned and operated by the people in the various towns and cities, would operate as a nationwide chain of stores and markets for mass buying power and distribution . This would be the system whether the enterprises are food markets, shoe stores, department stores or any other undertaking which can be developed as a chain store system .[/b] |
[b]3. Determine the best general membership enrollment procedures, such as moving state by state, setting a one-year membership goal for each state, instead of attempting to organize throughout the nation all at once . 4. Divide each state into districts, each with an organizing committee with a chairman ; the same divisional scheme for towns and cities, each section having a committee and chairman . 5. Draw heavily on young people, who really started the movement and who should, therefore, be a most powerful force in carrying it on . 6 . Conduct in advance a nationwide poll to determine (a) how many black people in America desire the proposed overall organization of the race and (b) how many agree to participate in its activity . 7. Clarify the scheme of organization to emphasize the individuality of membership, i.e ., an association or union, etc ., may join as such, but its main role would be setting the example for its members who may or may not wish to join ; the organization would have its own membership card, and each of its members who joined would have his or her own membership card. In the case of organization by families-the most significant innovation-each family would have a family membership card, and each member of the family from age 5 on would have his or her own membership card . 8. Set the national membership goals as 2-year plans, 3-year plans, 5- year plans, etc ., but always in terms of millions . 9. Determine time and place for the first general assembly for the formal ratification and launching of action-program . 10 . Have an Information and Publicity Committee maintain various media to keep constantly before the people the plans, purposes or goals of the movement, who is doing what, and the progress being made . 11 . Propose annual awards to individuals and groups that have been outstanding in their work for racial unity through organized action . (See NOTE.) Everything in this final chapter, then, is a guideline for thinking and rethinking about how to deal with the situation in which we live . The Plan itself is a proposal . Revisions and Amendments will be proposals, all tentative until approved by the people . The functioning organization would be under the overall administration of a National Council of Leaders, headed by a National Chairman (following traditional patterns of African Council of Elders) . Every state, city or community division, would also be organized under councils of leaders .[/b] |
[b]analyzing the problems that we are now near the end of our journey, and must pass the undertaking to those more able to carry on . This, like every great movement, will be initiated by just one individual. No great gathering or crowd starts a movement . Quite the contrary, when the many assemble it is because someone has already begun . One person has already thought matters through and resolved that a beginning must be made. He should not be the usual "leader" whose fiery denunciations of wrongs against Blacks may be counted on to stir emotions-and that is all . The one person needed is simply one who is dedicated with a sense of mission for his race, seeking nothing but the opportunity to serve it . There are doubtless countless thousands of such sons and daughters of the race, willing and ready, but either not knowing what to do or afraid of their own capabilities, and "leaving it to somebody else ." Yet all one person has to do is to ask five or six other people to study THE PLAN, and then meet later to discuss it, just five or six persons, not one of whom need to be a "big name ." This small initial group of six could have each member become a committee of one, each to nominate three other people to study The Plan before the next meeting, at which time the 18 members could become the nucleus for a general organizing committee . Further nominations to the Organizing Committee should be representative of all groups, students, laborers, clerks, etc ., as well as professionals. The representatives on the Organizing Committee may be from national organizations (all Black), or smaller organizations, lodges, clubs, etc . This core committee, after a series of meetings during which The Master Plan has been studied in detail and revisions or amendments have been proposed for future action, could then proceed to develop and carry out plans for the formation of a national organizing committee composed of representatives from various sections of the country . (Note that even at the outset of organizing, some funds will be required if effective work is to be done .) The work of the National Organizing Committee would be crucial : It would have to : 1 . Summarize the main features of The Plan and outline them in the simplest terms for publication, distribution and broadcasts to the black world . 2 . Determine ways and means of funding the organizing procedures .[/b] |
[b]will give a new sense of worth and dignity . No longer will it be necessary to shout in unison, "I am somebody!" For the children of janitors, trash haulers, maids and parents in similar occupations will regard them with pride and in a new light . We are great if we are an active part of a great movement. Up to now black children have been badly cheated . They have never had the inspiring reasons to study and advance which are constantly before the eyes of white children . And this central fact of difference has led me to suppose that some Providential favor must have enabled the black students of the world to do so well in the face of it all . Finally, and obviously, none of the above can be achieved on a nation-wide scale without a nation-wide movement of several million members, organized as a race, working as a race for its interests as fullfledged American citizens . HOW TO BEGIN-AND BY WHOM? In the- section titled "The Liberation of Our Minds," the various factors which explain the generally dependent disposition of African people today were outlined in some detail . They reveal the tragic extent to which a dominant group can shape and control even the thinking of the suppressed group . This meant that, unlike other peoples, the Blacks voluntarily remained mentally enslaved even after their physical emancipation . That Caucasianzation of the Blacks was so well done over so many centuries that it is doubtful if real liberation of our minds will be achieved in this generation . Yet the black youth in the 1960s brought about the greatest reversal of the race's attitude toward itself that had ever been achieved before . There is, therefore, no grounds for despair and much ground for faith if we understand that total liberationn will be slow even with the best efforts and that there will always be those who have the white viewpoint on race and will never abandon it. These cannot stop the onward march of the whole people to human equality and dignity . But who will begin to lay the first stone in the foundation of the greatest movement,for racial unity and power ever undertaken? And how might such -a task begin? Some of us, who would otherwise be naturally expected to lead off, have already spent so many years in studying the history of the crisis and[/b] |
[b]particular secret should be a matter of grave concern . It is also important to know to what extent Negro physicians participate in such experiments . For, of course, no one should be asked to believe that such experiments could be carried out on Blacks in such large numbers, and over such a long period without any black doctors knowing about them . 5. Such a race movement would be superficial indeed if it proceeded without its principal foundation, which is the ownership of vast tracts of farm and timber land in various parts of the country . The current ideological cry of "We must have land!" is valid only if we answer the question, "for what purpose?" or "to what end?" Our sloganeers rarely, explain the slogans . But land is for production. And its ownership and use will become more and more necessary for survival since even now 75 percent of the American population is concentrated on only 2 percent of the land in cities and towns . Land should be for a more abundant life, carried on in large-scale production programs such as cattle ranches for beef, hog farms for pork products, turkey farms, poultry and eggs, vegetables of all kinds, corn, rice, wheat, etc ., etc . 6. It can have, on behalf of the race it represents, a Central National Bank, as the people's national depository and central financing . agency ; a national auditing and accounting service ; a general insurance system covering especially those categories where Blacks are arbitrarily denied protection or charged much higher rates than those paid by whites ; home improvement, building and small loans could all be handled by community credit unions, organized on a somewhat different basis than existing credit unions . For one thing, all community credit unions in various sections of a city would be united as one to reinforce each other's services when needed . 7. It can give new hope and a new sense of direction to the thousands behind prison walls and, in time, practically empty the prisons of those convicted of crimes for which the whites go free . The important thing, however, is that the youths, men and women coming out of prisons, would have something to come to: training and retraining for their much needed service in helping to build and advance themselves as they build and advance their race . They have never had such an opportunity . 8. The great change in outlook and the new inspiration that would come to black children and youth are immeasurable . Just to know that their parents are engaged in, and actively a part of a great movement[/b] |
[b]raising not just the hopes, but the level of life of those lower down, equally important would be what this massive consolidation of unused power can do in the following areas : 1. It can influence American foreign policy and actions in regard to crucial matters affecting African nations just as effectively as American Jews can influence this country's relations with Israel . And, as another example, it could have stopped the use of millions of black taxpayers' dollars to help Portugal suppress the Freedom Fighters in its African empire . If a deaf ear is turned to such protests, several million Blacks could pledge to withhold the payment of taxes until all armed assistance for the war against Africans ceases-something a disunited people are helpless to do now . This would be real Pan Africanism . 2 . An overall race organization can deal more effectively with some important problems at home and more effectively than any smaller, independent group can do nationwide . The higher rents and higher prices paid for goods and services in "inner cities" than those paid in the affluent white suburbs-this open yet silent war against the Blacks is being accepted because we are helplessly disorganized . The studies have already been made . The facts have been established . What the people need is a national defender to further expose and attack this and other fronts of the silent war that are quietly being carried on each day against a now helpless people, many of whom are not really aware of its extent. 3 . It can carry on a nationwide education program directly into the homes, reversing the "poor and deprived homes" negative outlook to a positive one . Heading the information agenda would be a focus on those death-dealing diseases which impair both mind and body in the diseased wombs of mothers . The widest information should be given on the fact that ignorance or indifference to personal health can result in children being born mentally and physically retarded, and thus handicapped for life not by genetic preconditions but by the acts of their parents . Home studies for the entire family can be promoted, and the Home Beautiful can become a principal aim in every black community . 4 . It can oversee the welfare of the race by maintaining a check on the extent Blacks are secretly used exclusively as guinea pigs in dangerous experiments by various medical projects . Neither the Tuskegee experiments nor the number of our people who needlessly suffered and died from them must be passed over as an unusual and isolated incident . The many years the government and the doctors were able to keep this[/b] |
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