A series of great events you should attend...

Can I ask that you share these events ? we need to support each other by promoting each other on social media. We all know the mainstream media his nit intreated in this stuff, so you are our only support and we love you for that. Many thanks...

British Black History: We didn’t all arrive on the #Windrush

British Black History: We didn’t all arrive on the #Windrush My Kru (tribal name) African grandfather from Sierra Leone/Liberia arrived in Liverpool in 1911.

The Kru nation was what both Sierra Leone  and Liberia, were called before the UK in 1787 and the US in 1882 invaded. The Kru fought against the invading armies of the US and the UK who were manned by freed African slaves. The Kru fought both. Imagine Kru having to fight freed African slaves, recruited into the imperial armies of the UK and the US and being sent to clear the Kru of their land, so the west could create homelands settlements for freed Africans?

The Kru people were said to be incapable of being made slaves. It’s said they’d either kill themselves or kill the white slavers at any given opportunity. They were considered as being impossible to break into slavery.  So the Kru fought against both the invading Imperial armies of the West and had to kill freed Africans recruited into the UK and US armies to resettle on Kru homelands.

Tom Jasper 

My Granddad arrived in Liverpool as a stowaway away aged 15 and was sent back on the next ship. He hid on another ship in Freetown and came right back. He was the original deportee.

#Kru people settled in Liverpool, Manchester and Cardiff, Britain’s oldest black communities established first African welfare Assoc. He became Chairman of the Kru Club in Manchester a association dedicated to welfare support of Kru. Also curiously Grandad had a blue spot tattooed on the middle of his forehead. 

The name Jasper was the name given to him by the British merchant navy, we've never been able to trace his real name.

They lived in the North Manchester area, of Cheetham Hill, Waterloo Road. It's an area where I have most of my first childhood memories.

Grandad's British Merchant Seaman travel logs are fascinating insight into the breadth and scale of British imperial trade of the day.

What I’ve found fascinating is Grandad role as chair of the Manchester #KruClub.

The minutes show they tracked down errant husbands. White working class wives would complain of husbands and fathers going missing or not paying for children. The Association would find them, force them back to the family home and ensure they lived up to their responsibilities. It was considered not the Kru way to abandon their families. It was considered a disgrace on the whole community.

Abandoned or widowed wives would be entitled to weekly payments from the #KruClub. The Club also arbitrated tribal and legal disputes.  They organised seaside trips, christenings, weddings and funerals. They organised community self defence, often in Manchester with poor Jewish communities, to protect themselves from racist attacks and petitioned Government of the day for equal rights and justice way before the 1950’s and the Windush arrived. Granddad died when I was five and I lived with him and my Grandmother. 

These Africans are Britain’s oldest black communities. The real pioneers of Black Britain.

Dorothy Jasper 

Now my English Grandmother was born in Manchester workhouse in 1901. She was from a reasonably well off Victorian family who abandoned her.  The conditions in 1901 Manchester Workhouse were appalling. From workhouse to the convent Grandmother had an extraordinary hard life.

We are told she married in her early 20's to an Irish Republican.

I’m told that her first husband died, after being battered by police and flung into the Manchester Ship Canal. They had one child a son.

My Grandmother then met my African grandfather and he married and adopted Grandmas only child too. She worked at Manchester Co-Op HQ as a cleaner for many years.

They married in the 1920's and I can only imagine the racism they faced at that time in Edwardian Britain. It must have been horrendous.

She hated five things, the royal family, Tories, Churchill, social injustice and Mick MacManus, a wrestling star of the 1960's. She was a Northern matriarch of 4'6 with a fierce determination to protect her children and confront any racism they faced head on.

She was the radical Granddad was much more laid back, while she would slay dragons for the family and that is the history of the Jaspers.

So my roots are solidly African and working class. Tracing these histories is a joy and reflects the story of the British Empire.

Notice Granddads perfectly ‘concked’ hair all the rage in 1920s Britain. As for Grandma she was a beauty. 

British ‪#BlackHistory goes way back and it’s time the African pioneers were given as much attention as the Windrush generation. ‪#BHM17

Launching Latin? What about the ‘Our Schools and the Black children’s Conference’? by Richard Sudan

An interesting article was published yesterday by The Daily Mail.

http://johnsblog.dailymail.co.uk/2011/11/why-we-need-more-not-less-latin-in-schools.html

The author Lindsay Johns was praising the Mayor’s initiative to make Latin accessible to London school kids through a voluntary scheme engineered by the big wigs at City Hall. 

He highlights the benefits of Latin and argues that we must dispel the dry image that Latin has been tarnished with.

Fair enough you might say.

But when this is contrasted with the lack of noise made about Black history month for example, it should and will cause some to wonder about the priorities of traditional Tory mouthpieces, and equally about the agenda of our current Mayor.

Whilst the Latin initiative is said to be a voluntary scheme, why is it that City Hall didn’t push a voluntary scheme to celebrate and support Black History Month given the budget cut?

It’s fair to say there is probably a greater demand for an emphasis on Black History Month in London than there is Latin.  And furthermore for other needed provision- because there is further twist which raises even more serious questions.

The annually held forthcoming ‘London Schools and our Conference’ - Which this year has conveniently had the word ‘Black ‘omitted from it - has been for the last few years organized by Diane Abbott. The Hackney North and Stoke Newington Labour MP has been squeezed out this year with a notably unprogressive line-up assuming centre stage, including Lindsay Johns.

This hijacking of the conference, with one of the key note speakers effectively acting as an acceptable mask of respectability for The Daily Mail and the Mayor’s push to introduce Latin, seems naïve at best if well intentioned. 

The Mayor’s track record in dealing with needs sensitive to ethnic minority communities is not great. This could be an opportunity to remedy that, especially since the Mayor is scheduled to speak. 

But with angry rumblings already being heard in campaigning circles, the conference and the propaganda to boot are in danger of damaging the Mayor’s and Michael Gove’s reputation further, as the Secretary of State for Education is also scheduled as a keynote.

Such slick and well oiled propaganda is anything other than progressive and will not be viewed as such should the conference retain its current starting line up.

The conference is being held on Saturday 12^th November.

For more details click here. http://www.london.gov.uk/event-meeting/2011/nov/london-schools-and-our-children-conference

By Richard Sudan

Boris Johnson – a catalogue of failure. By Lester Holloway

Last year Boris Johnson cut funding for Black History Month and gave it to “America Day” celebrations. This year, in the absence of funded BHM activities, he ran a free popularity poll of the most influential black people. An unknown pastor won, beating Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King.


The poll was devalued from the start with the absence of some of the most prominent black British and international names, including Bernie Grant, CLR James, Mary Prince, Malcolm X, Toussant L’Ouverture, Lee Jasper, and Darcus Howe.

Instead, we were offered Whoopi Goldberg, Trevor McDonald, Zadie Smith, Rio Ferdinand, Naomi Campbell and Estelle. Being a celebrity or entertainer is enough to quality as an historical figure, it seems.
The runaway winner was Jesus House pastor Agu Irukwu (right), with a whopping 54 percent of the vote, ahead of Mandela on just eight percent.
The absence of great black historical figures is perhaps not surprising, given how the list was organised. As Lee Jasper notes:

“Hilariously and as a result of the acute shortage of senior black staff at City Hall his officials were reported to be ringing round black organisations asking for the telephone numbers of long deceased historical figures such as Marcus Garvey and Claudia Jones.”

At least Britain’s first black cabinet minister, Paul (now Lord) Boateng, was on the list. Unfortunately he scored nil points. The Metro newspaper, which ran the competition in partnership with City Hall, even managed to misspell his name on the online voting page.
Leona Lewis was voted the second most influential black woman, just behind Marva Rollins, a headteacher from Edmonton.

The victory for pastor Irukwu is clearly down to his congregation being urged to vote for him, no doubt to boost his already inflated ego. Not content with raking in ten percent of his flock’s hard-earned wages each week, the god-like leader got his poor churchgoers to vote him the most influential black person in history to earn their place in heaven.

It was quite clear to me that the popularity poll failed to catch the public’s imagination, not least because it lacked all credibility from the start, and could not disguise the absence of any real commitment to Black History Month.
One of Boris Johnson’s first acts as mayor was to scrap the RISE anti-racist festival, which began in honour of Stephen Lawrence. The promise of a memorial in Hyde Park to the transatlantic slave trade has quietly been shelved. The London Schools and the Black Child conference – which Diane Abbott ran when Ken Livingstone was mayor – also seems to have gone, in favour of the less political achievement awards.

Johnson has also failed black London on major fundamental issues. He fiddled on holiday while inner London burnt earlier this year, while his ‘mayors fund’ to tackle gang crime which has petted out due to lack of effort. Similarly, his wish to activate Londoners in mass volunteering has evaporated since he lost Ray Lewis as his deputy mayor.

Perhaps this is not surprising, as Johnson is effectively a part time mayor who fits his day job of running the capital city around writing books and a column for the Daily Telegraph.
But perhaps the mayor’s most serious failing so far is the awarding of a £1.3m contract to mentor 1,000 black boys to a pair of organisations with no track record of working in this field, both of whom scored lower than a black consortium in the bidding process.

So far, 1,700 volunteers have come forward as potential mentors but only 21 have been matched with black boys. The target of mentoring 1,000 boys has now been downgraded to “around 300″ by next years’ London elections, presumably because the chosen bidders cannot cope with administering the scheme.
Paul Lawrence, one of the leading figures on the black consortium that lost out, told the Dotun Adebayo show on BBC London last Sunday that they remained deeply unhappy about the situation. Lee Jasper has organised a public meeting this Thursday in City Hall to debate the way forward.
It is a scandal in the making; the mayor is a patron of one of the winning bidders, the London Action Trust, who were paired with the University of East London during the bidding process as the black consortium were squeezed out. Unable to cope with the contract, the London Action Trust have now pulled out of the scheme.

The black consortium, who have an excellent track record working with black youth in London, came out top in the bidding process and committed to deliver 1,000 mentors matched with 1,000 young men. But they were marked down for “financial diligence.” This despite the fact that Charity Commission records appear to show the London Action Trust in bad financial shape.
A network of Tory crony links between the London Action Trust and Ray Lewis’s East Side Academy raise serious questions about the whole process. I suspect this issue will rumble on until the London elections.

All of which proves that Boris Johnson is not just making a mess of symbolic matters like how we celebrate Black History Month, but has also made a complete pigs-ear of vitally important services like mentoring black boys and diverting them from gang life.

He might have come to office with pithy jokes, but the joke has worn thin. It is time for a mayor who is not just on top of his game but also understands multicultural London.

Lester Holloway

A Taste of Liberia Festival ( UK ) 2011

Zuba Bassa Beat

Photo by Jerry Eujay Boweh

 

A message from the organisers:

A Taste of Liberia Festival ( UK ) 2011

We will very much appreciate it, if you could help to promote this event for us. We need support to uplift and maintain the spirit of positive thinking. Liberia is Africa's Oldest Republic but yet lacks the Cultural and community presence in UK and poses even more difficulties for the UNITY and integration and point of contact for other Cultural and Ethical links and CELEBRATIONS. 
 
We are pleased to present the events for the UK's first ever Liberian festival - A Taste of Liberia Festival ( UK ) 2011.  The aim of these events is to raise awareness of Liberia and its rich culture and history. The festival will also act as a platform for Liberian Artists and create opportunities for great discussion.
 
A Taste of Liberia Festival - a celebration of our past present  and future

Venue - The Wilditch  Community Centre, Battersea SW11 5BB   11am - 4pm    29th October 2011

A range of  activities for the whole family. The activities will include workshops,  film screening, discussion and debate, cookery, cultural dancing and many more. Organisations will also be hosting stalls  and selling items in the Marketplace. Items on Liberia will be on sale.
Entrance is £7.00 including raffle ticket.
For more information contact 0798 356 4645 or 0796 471 8422
 
 
Liberian Artists in Concert 

Venue - Music & Vision - Arch 269 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton SW9 8SE    8pm til late  October 30th 2011

A mixture of bands and popular Artists will be playing their own music as well as Liberian favourites. 

Live from MONROVIA VIBES........ZUBA BASSA BEAT, KING O'Bryant, ROCK MENDY, FUSSION 1ST and MORE.
Drinks will be on sale.
Tickets £8.00
For further information contact  0798 356 4645 or 0796 471 8422
 
 
You can also follow us using www.atasteofliberiafestival.wordpress.com.
 

We look forward to seeing you all. Please feel free to circulate this to all those within your networks. We also welcome enquiries about stalls and sponsorship or volunteers  for any of the events.
 
 
Regards Kau Belleh & Jerry Boweh ( organizers)

Boris Johnsons London 'Black History Month' competition is derisory.

For Boris de Pfeffle Johnson, Mayor of London, the concept of Black History Month has always be seen as a waste of money and nothing more than political propaganda.  Having slashed the BHM budget by 92% last year, reducing the funding from a respectable £132,000 to a paltry £10,000, his paltry effort this year speaks volumes about the Mayor’s perception of the importance of London’s Black Communities.

Against the backdrop of the summer riots that were ignited in part by the massive increase in the number of black men who suffered suspicious deaths in police custody such as Smiley Culture, Demetre Fraser and Mark Duggan and over the last 3 years a staggering 300% increase in the rate of police stop and search, Boris recognised that he has to be seen to be doing something.

Anger is palpable in London’s Black communities and police black community relations are worse now than I have seen them in the last 30 years. The reason for that is Boris just does not do race. He sees it as an anathema and his strategy on race has been to do the bare minimum with the maximum publicity.

So this year, the year before the Mayoral elections he has launched a Black History Month competition with the London Metro asking Londoners to vote for their most “ Inspirational Black Person” from a long list of assorted media, political and sports stars.

Hilariously and as a result of the acute shortage of senior black staff at city hall his officials were reported to be ringing round black organisations asking for the telephone numbers of long deceased historical figures such as Marcus Garvey and Claudia Jones.

This tawdry effort amounts to nothing more than an inverted mountain of celebrity piffle. Johnson’s calculation is that as a celebrity obsessed community, we will forget about black men being shot dead by police officers on the streets of London and vote like demented lemmings for our celebrity Back History Month idol.

Often cited as controversial politically Johnson is a fake maverick, a deeply conservative right wing one trick pony but nevertheless he is undoubtedly a first class charming and effective communicator. 

Boris has developed the dark art of obfuscation utilising that English Wodehousian bluster, stuffed with historical quotes and finely honed in the raucous Bullingdon Club debates at Eton. This is Johnsons favourite and I have to say, his most effective modus operandi.

He provides proof, if proof were needed, of the validity of a quote by Napoleon Bonaparte “In politics, absurdity is not a handicap.”

Boris is best summed up as personally charming,intellectually funny and politically incompetent.

His outward public approach to black people is best described as  rather charming, benign and patronising, whilst his political decisions reveal his true psychology.  These political decisions include: massive cuts to black employment and cultural projects of all kinds across the capital, the destabilising of Notting Hill Carnival, failure to tackle serious youth crime and failure to ensure that his top team reflects London.

His steadfast refusal to formally acknowledge Trans- Atlantic Slavery Memorial Day on the 23^rd August, despite repeated request that he be seen to recognise both the involvement of London in the slave trade and the huge financial benefit to the capital, is quite simply an outrage.

In my own humble assessment I get the impression that Boris and host team think black people are politically chaotic, easy to please and for the most part emotionally and intellectually naive.

He has the ability to charm an audience and, by and large at those black public events that I have attended, the audience reacts to him with smiles and warm applause. His celebrity and millionaire persona exert a charismatic political alchemy that appeals to poor people seeking to gain political patronage.

Boris is  protected from critical media inquiry or challenge by a largely supine media and in that context, he is well able to deflect criticism by simply refusing to answer the questions or announcing some ill thought out new tokenistic policy solution. 
In this manner he manages to deftly avoid all sustained political attacks.

Boris Johnson’s recent interview with Jeremy Paxman provides a perfect and most recent example. Whilst we can all agree that Paxman has lost his edge, it is quite nauseating to see a politician given such an inexplicably easy ride.

In relation to black communities in London his assessment is that as a community we do not vote in big numbers and he can afford to ignore us.

As a response we need to launch the largest voter registration drive ever seen in the capital in the run up to the next Mayoral election.

If the inner London voter registration and turnout can be increased by around 10% then the political importance and significance attached to those issues that affect our communities will be hugely increased.

London’s Mayor has reduced Black History Month to the status of an X Factor competition; complete and utter drivel. In and of itself not really that important, however taken together with his general political failure to meet the needs of the London’s black communities we can see its real significance.

Lee Jasper

Lets tell Boris what we think of his derisory Black History Month proposals .Post here on the Metro web site:  http://www.metro.co.uk/news/878059-who-should-be-crowned-most-inspirational-black-person