154th birthday of George Washington Carver

(B [?]Jan 1864, Diamond, Mo, US; d 5 Jan 1943, Tuskegee, US)

Botanist/multidisciplinary scientist, multifaceted inventor, educator

(Charles Mingus Quintet, “Pithecanthropus erectus” [personnel: Mingus, bass; Jackie McLean, alto saxophone; JR Monterose, tenor saxophone; Mal Waldron, piano; Willie Jones, drums; recorded: Audio-Video Studios, New York, US, 30 January 1956]) 

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

94th birthday of Milt Jackson

(Born 1 January 1923, Detroit, US)

ARGUABLY THE most distinguished vibraphonist of the bebop revolution of the 1940s-1950s and co-founder of the Modern Jazz Quartet (full personnel: Jackson, vibraphone; John Lewis, piano; Percy Heath, bass; Connie Kay, drums), 1952-1992

(Milt Jackson & John Coltrane, “Bags and Trane” [personnel: Jackson, vibraphone; Coltrane, tenor saxophone; Hank Jones, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Connie Kay, drums; recorded: Atlantic Records, New York, 15 January 1959])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

57th anniversary of French nuclear bomb “test” in Sahara Desert

(27 December 1960, explodes bomb at Regganne, west Algeria)

IN FLAGRANT disregard for the lives of African peoples and their environment and those of future generations, France carries out an atomic bomb “test” over the Sahara Desert, the third in the year (earlier explosions had been conducted in February and April) – exploded bomb has plutonium with yield of 10,000-14,000 TNT, equivalent to one-half power of atomic bomb the United States air force dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945; instructively, at no occasion during this entire grim epoch does the presidency of Charles de Gaulle, which has authorised these bomb blasts, consider carrying out the “tests” in any provinces or regions of France or indeed Europe

(Charles de Gaulle: ... his presidency couldn’t consider carrying out these bomb “tests” anywhere in France...)

(Emmanuel Macron: ... What is current French president’s position on these “tests”)

(Andrew Hill Septet, “Premonition” [personnel: Hill, piano; Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; John Gilmore, bass clarinet; Richard Davis, bass; Joe Chambers, drums; Renaud Simmons, conga, percussion; Nadi Qamar, percussion, African drums, thumb piano; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 8 October 1965])

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

83rd birthday of Zeal Onyia

(Born 24 November 1934, Asaba, Biafra)

MASTERLY trumpeter, composer and public intellectual whose 1958 composition, the effervescent “Egwu jazz bu egwu Igbo” (“Jazz is Igbo music”), leads him to research Igbo contribution to the development of jazz whilst studying in Germany and the United States, and receives the highest accolade of his career when none other than Satchmo himself, Louis Armstrong, visiting Lagos, Nigeria, in 1961, and listening to Onyia play at Surulere stadium, inquires in that unmistakeably popsian voice, “Who is that hip cat?

(Zeal Onyia and band play “Money trouble” and  “Lumumba” – latter composition is in memory of  Patrice Lumumba, leader of the the Congolese restoration-of-independence movement and prime minister,  who had been brutally murdered on 17 January 1961 by an amalgam of the forces of the notorious pro-Belgian Congolese putschist Mobutu Sese Seko, a brigade of Belgian special forces and operatives of other West espionage services [recording details of this performance, including, especially, full band personnel, are unknown except that it was sometime in 1961].)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

153rd birthday of George Washington Carver

(B [?]Jan 1864, Diamond, Mo, US; d 5 Jan 1943, Tuskegee, US)

Botanist/multidisciplinary scientist, multifaceted inventor, educator

(Charles Mingus Quintet, “Pithecanthropus erectus” [personnel: Mingus, bass; Jackie McLean, alto saxophone; JR Monterose, tenor saxophone; Mal Waldron, piano; Willie Jones, drums; recorded: Audio-Video Studios, New York, US, 30 January 1956]) 

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

93rd birthday of Milt Jackson

(Born 1 January 1923, Detroit, US)

ARGUABLY THE most distinguished vibraphonist of the bebop revolution of the 1940s-1950s and co-founder of the Modern Jazz Quartet (full personnel: Jackson, vibraphone; John Lewis, piano; Percy Heath, bass; Connie Kay, drums), 1952-1992

(Milt Jackson & John Coltrane, “Bags and Trane” [personnel: Jackson, vibraphone; Coltrane, tenor saxophone; Hank Jones, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Connie Kay, drums; recorded: Atlantic Records, New York, 15 January 1959])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

56th anniversary of French nuclear bomb “test” in Sahara Desert

(27 December 1960, explodes bomb at Regganne, west Algeria)

IN FLAGRANT disregard for the lives of African peoples and their environment and those of future generations, France carries out an atomic bomb “test” over the Sahara Desert, the third in the year (earlier explosions had been conducted in February and April) – exploded bomb has plutonium with yield of 10,000-14,000 TNT, equivalent to one-half power of atomic bomb the United States air force dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945; instructively, at no occasion during this entire grim epoch does the presidency of Charles de Gaulle, which has authorised these bomb blasts, consider carrying out the “tests” in any provinces or regions of France or indeed Europe

(Charles de Gaulle: ... his presidency couldn’t consider carrying out these bomb “tests” anywhere in France...)

(Andrew Hill Septet, “Premonition” [personnel: Hill, piano; Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; John Gilmore, bass clarinet; Richard Davis, bass; Joe Chambers, drums; Renaud Simmons, conga, percussion; Nadi Qamar, percussion, African drums, thumb piano; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 8 October 1965])

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

FWD: Teresa R Kemp, African American historian, traces her origin to Oka, Biafra

(Teresa Kemp)

By Biafra Diboh (slightly edited from the original)

Teresa R Kemp, one of African Americans involved in the free medical care trip to the Anambra region, northwest Biafra, has traced the ancestral home of her father to Oka, Biafra.

Kemp, a military historian, who has in the past organised an Igbo arts and cultural festival in South Carolina, United States, said that her great grandfather, named Osinachi, was enslaved and trafficked over 187 years ago as a metalsmith from Oka to the United States, as confirmed by DNA.

With an interest in the works of African peoples, Kemp told The Nation that she had written a book, Keeper of the Fire (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Plaatform, 2014),  of an Igbo metalsmith from Awka, detailing the story of her ancestor. She describes Igbo people as hardworking, intelligent, unassuming, and entrepreneurial in nature: “I am proud to be linked to Ndiigbo, the world has prospered because of Ndiigbo”.

Kemp went to Anambra with an organisation called ASA-World (which has membership in 27 countries), made up of the region’s indigenes resident overseas whose mission is to provide free medical care for the people, costing US$ 800,000.

The team brought diagnostic equipment and medicine to be left behind for resident doctors and other health officials to continue using in Oko, in Orumba north local government, Abagana, Njikoka local government, Obosi, Idemili north local government, Ihembosi and Ozubulu, both Ekwusigo local government, and Oba, Idemili south local government district.

The medical mission treated and provided medicine to people suffering from different ailments. Total treated are: 1,100 in Oko, 8,500 in Abagana, 1,200 in Ihembosi, 1,300 in Obosi, and 1,200 in Ozubulu.

(Sonny Rollins Quintet, “Decision” [personnel: Rollins, tenor saxophone, Donald Byrd, trumpet; Wynton Kelly, piano; Gene Ramey, bass; Max Roach, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, US, 16 December 1956])

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe 

55th anniversary of French nuclear bomb “test” in Sahara Desert

(27 December 1960, explodes bomb at Regganne, west Algeria)

In flagrant disregard for the lives of African peoples and their environment and those of future generations, France carries out an atomic bomb “test” over the Sahara Desert, the third in the year (earlier explosions had been conducted in February and April) – exploded bomb has plutonium with yield of 10,000-14,000 TNT, equivalent to one-half power of atomic bomb the United States air force dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945; instructively, at no occasion during this entire grim epoch does the presidency of Charles de Gaulle, which has authorised these bomb blasts, consider carrying out the “tests” in any provinces or regions of France, Europe 

(Charles de Gaulle: ... his presidency couldn’t consider carrying out these bomb “tests” anywhere in France...)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

FWD: Teresa R Kemp, African American historian, traces her origin to Oka, Igboland

BY Biafra Diboh (slightly edited from the original)

(Teresa Kemp)

Teresa R Kemp, one of African Americans involved in the free medical care trip to the Anambra region, northwest Igboland, has traced the ancestral home of her father to Oka, Igboland.

Kemp, a military historian, who recently organised an Igbo arts and cultural festival in South Carolina, United States, said that her great grandfather, named Osinachi, was enslaved and trafficked over 187 years ago as a metalsmith from Oka to the United States, as confirmed by DNA.

With an interest in the works of African peoples, Kemp told The Nation that she had written a book, Keeper of the Fire, of an Igbo metalsmith from Awka, detailing the story of her ancestor. She describes Igbo people as hardworking, intelligent, unassuming, and entrepreneurial in nature: “I am proud to be linked to Ndiigbo, the world has prospered because of Ndiigbo”.

Kemp went to Anambra with an organisation called ASA-World (which has membership in 27 countries), made up of the region’s indigenes resident overseas whose mission is to provide free medical care for the people, costing US$ 800,000.

The team brought diagnostic equipment and medicine to be left behind for resident doctors and other health officials to continue using in Oko, in Orumba north local government, Abagana, Njikoka local government, Obosi, Idemili north local government, Ihembosi and Ozubulu, both Ekwusigo local government, and Oba, Idemili south local government district.

The medical mission treated and provided medicine to people suffering from different ailments. Total treated are: 1,100 in Oko, 8,500 in Abagana, 1,200 in Ihembosi, 1,300 in Obosi, and 1,200 in Ozubulu.

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe