274th birthday of Olaudah Equiano

(Born c1745, Essaka, Biafra; dies 31 March 1797, London, England)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

GREAT Biafran!

One of Igbo and African World’s preeminent intellectuals, sailor, expeditionist, entrepreneur, orator, versatile campaigner, active exponent of African freedom (during the 1780s in Britain) from enslavement and other spheres of subjugation waged by an assemblage of European World states and interests (including, especially, Britain, Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Italian city-states, German princely states, Sweden-Norway, Denmark, the United States) and their “successor states” in the Americas/Caribbean, begun in the 15th century, visionary of eventual African liberation; author of the classic, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789); towering member of the iconic men and women that constitute the freedom pantheon from which the current Biafra freedom movement derives invaluable insight, tenacity, focus, optimism.

(City of Westminster London’s (Britain) commemorative plaque for Olaudah Equiano, the outstanding 18th century Igbo intellectual and irrepressible exponent of freedom, at 73 Riding House Street, Paddington, London, where Equiano lived and worked and published his classic, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African in 1789. This building is now owned by the University College London.)

TODAY, we celebrate Equiano’s transformative life with two compositions from two of African World’s most esteemed composers and instrumentalists – African British Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Symphonic variations on an African air, Op. 63 (1906) and African American John Coltrane’s “Africa” (1961):

1. (Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Symphonic variations on an African air, Op. 63 (1906), played here by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Grant Llewellyn, BBC Radio 3, London, 28 October 2004)

2. (John Coltrane Quartet – and orchestra, “Africa” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone; Booker Little, trumpet; Carl Bowman, euphonium; Bob Northern, French horn; Julius Watkins, French horn; Donald Corrodo, French horn; Robert Swisshelm, French horn; Bill Barber, tuba; Britt Woodman, trombone; Gavin Bushell, piccolo; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute; McCoy Tyner, piano; Art Davis, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; orchestrated by Eric Dolphy and McCoy Tyner; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 7 June 1961])

*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author of The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019) and co-author, with Lakeson Okwuonicha, of Why #DonaldTrump is #great for #Africa (2018)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

In an unprecedented position taken by a leading European World political institution, the European parliament in Brussels votes for Europe to pay reparations to Africans for crimes committed by Europe during 400 years of its conquest and subjugation of African peoples

(European parliament ... in session)

Connor Boyd, “European parliament passes watershed resolution calling for reparations for crimes against Africans during European colonialism”, Daily Mail, London, Thursday 28 March 2019:

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT has overwhelmingly backed a watershed resolution calling for reparations for crimes committed in Africa during European colonialism.

The bill urges European member states to introduce a series of sweeping reforms aimed at tackling “structural racism” facing millions of Afro-Europeans.

It calls on the countries to implement nation-wide strategies to deal with discrimination in education, health, housing, policing, the justice system and politics.

THE RESOLUTION – approved by 535 MEPs [members of European parliament], with 80 votes against and 44 abstentions – also calls on European member states to declassify their colonial archives, covering the most disturbing periods of Europe’s colonial past, and issue public apologies. +3

It urges the EU to adopt “a workforce diversity and inclusion strategy” to address the underrepresentation of [national] minority officials.

As it stands, the EU does not share data on race, [nation-origin] or religion because it’s considered contrary to equality, The Guardian reports. 

The text is not legally-binding, but it was hailed as a watershed moment campaign groups for specifically focusing on the discrimination faced on the continent by an estimated 15 million people.

“Histories of injustices against Africans and people of African Descent – including enslavement, forced labour, racial apartheid, massacre, and genocides in the context of European colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade – remain largely unrecognised and unaccounted for at an institutional level in EU member states”, the text states.  

The resolution was drawn up by British Labour MEP Claude Moraes and was inspired by the racist behaviour experienced by Italian socialist MEP Cecile Kyenge, who served as Italy’s first [African] government minister. 

Pressure is now on the European commission to fund the schemes in the EU’s next seven-year budget.  

Amel Yacef, the chair of the European Network Against Racism, told The Guardian the vote was “a historic, watershed moment for the recognition of people of African descent in Europe”.

SHE added: “The European parliament is leading the way and sending a signal to EU member states to tackle structural racism that prevents [African] people from being included in European society. The ball is now in their court: we need concrete action plans and specific measures now”.

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

107th birthday of Léon-Gontram Damas

(Born 28 March 1912, Cayenne, French-occupied Guiana, east of Suriname, S America)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

POET, editor, philosopher, academic, co-founder, with Léopold Sédar Senghor and Aimé Césaire, of the 1930s-1940s “negritude” intellectual movement of African-peoples affirmation in Paris, France, and whose demonstrable volume of poetry, Pigments (1937), gives notice of the engaging trajectory of the movement:

… my hatred thrived on the margins of culture

the margin of theories the margin of idle talk

with which they stuffed me since birth

even though all in me aspired to be [African]

while they ransacked my Africa

(Andrew Hill Sextet, “Spectrum” [personnel: Hill, piano; Kenny Dorham, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute; Joe Henderson, tenor saxophone;  Richard Davis, bass; Tony Williams, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 21 March 1964])

*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author of The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019) and co-author,

with Lakeson Okwuonicha, of Why #DonaldTrump is #great for #Africa (2018)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

77th birthday of Walter Rodney

(Born 23 March 1942, Georgetown, Guyana)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

ONE of Africa’s preeminent historians whose A History of the Upper Guinea Coast, 1545-1800 (1970) and How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972) are compulsory references in the study of Africa and African peoples worldwide of the past 500 years

(Max Roach Quartet, “Speak, Brother, Speak!” [sides I and II; personnel: Roach, drums; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Mal Waldron, piano; Eddie Khan, bass; recorded live, The Jazz Workshop, San Francisco, US, 27 October 1962])

*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author of The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019) and co-author,

with Lakeson Okwuonicha, of Why #DonaldTrump is #great for #Africa (2018)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

77th birthday of Ama Ata Aidoo

(Born 23 March 1942, Saltpond, Ghana)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe 

DISTINGUISHED poet, playwright, novelist, academic

(Alice Coltrane Trio, “Oceanic beloved” [personnel: Coltrane, harp;  Jimmy Garrison, bass; Rashied Ali, drums; recorded: Coltrane home studio, Dix Hills, New York, US, 6 June 1968]) 

*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author of African Literature in Defence of History: An essay on Chinua Achebe (2001) and Readings from Reading: Essays on African History, Genocide, Literature (2011)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

This week’s recall: US political commentator Armstrong Williams in conversation with US constitutional lawyer and human rights exponent Bruce Fein on the ongoing Igbo genocide (Washington DC, US, 14 September 2017)

(Bruce Fein and Armstrong Williams: ... discuss Igbo genocide and Biafra ...)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

SEE also following links on five other crucial reflections and writings on the Igbo genocide and Biafra by Bruce Fein:

1. “Bruce Fein and Bruce DelValle of Washington DC (US) law firm Fein & DelValle PLLC formally file criminal complaint on Igbo genocide against Muhammadu Buhari et al in International Criminal Court, The Hague, The Netherlands, Monday 11 February 2019”, 
(https://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.com/2019/02/thelaw-firm-of-fein-delvalle-pllc.html)

2. “FWD: Bruce Fein, ‘Designating Biafra’s Nnamdi Kanu as an internationally protected person’, Huffington Post, Thursday 28 September 2017”,
(https://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.com/2017/09/blog-post_29.html)

3. “Bruce Fein reminds genocidist Nigeria’s two key officials in the ‘country’’s  so-called justice department that they could be prosecuted for genocide over their recent absurd declarations on the Indigenous People of Biafra freedom movement (Huffington Post, Monday 25 September 2017)”,
(https://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.com/2017/09/bruce-fein-reminds-genocidist-nigerias.html)

4. “FWD: Bruce Fein reflects on genocidist Nigeria’s head of regime Muhammadu Buhari’s Tuesday 19 September 2017 so-called address to the UN general assembly, New York, US (Huffington Post, Thursday 21 September 2017)”,
(https://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.com/2017/09/blog-post_16.html)

5. “FWD: Bruce Fein, influential constitutional scholar, on Muhammadu Buhari, genocidist Nigeria’s head of regime, Huffington Post, Sunday 17 September 2017”,
(https://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.com/2017/09/fwd-bruce-fein-constitutional-scholar.html)

(John Coltrane Duo, “Jupiter (variation)” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone, bells; Rashied Ali, drums; recorded: Van Geldar Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 22 February 1967)

*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is author of the recently published The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019)  (https://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.com/2019/01/published-longest-genocide-since-29-may.html)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Delusionary genocidist Nigeria...

(Olusegun Obasanjo: ... delusion ... fantasy ... hallucination)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

“Nigeria will be one of the ten leading nations in the world by the end of the century” – Olusegun Obasanjo, head of the genocidist Nigeria military junta, 1979 (Chinua Achebe, The Trouble with Nigeria [Enugu: Fourth Dimension, 1983, p. 9]).

FORTY YEARS after this Nigerïaña fantasy, proclaimed by a génocidaire in the Igbo genocide who the London Financial Times, it should be recalled, labelled admirably as the “godfather of modern Nigeria” (London, 14 April 2012), this “country” is nothing else but arguably the globe’s most notorious genocidist state whose current regime, headed by jihadist Muhammadu Buhari, retains the Boko Haram and Fulani militia, two of the five deadliest terrorist groups on earth presently (Institute of Economics & Policy, “Global Terrorism Index 2015”, Sydney: IEP, November 2015), as adjunct brigades it deploys in its genocide against the Igbo people of Biafra and its expanded campaigns within Nigeria itself to destroy a constellation of constituent African nations, predominantly Christians, domiciled in the south Kaduna provinces of the northcentral region and  in the eastcentral Benue valley.

(George Russell Sextet here plays “Nardis”, a composition by Miles Davis [personnel: Russell, piano; Don Ellis, trumpet; Dave Baker, trombone; Eric Dolphy, bass clarinet; Steve Swallow, bass; Joe Hunt, drums; recorded: Riverside Records, New York, US, 8 May 1961])

*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is author of the recently published The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019)  (https://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.com/2019/01/published-longest-genocide-since-29-may.html)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

82nd birthday of Michael Echeruo

(Born 14 March 1937, Umunumo, Biafra)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

POET, literary critic, academic, university vice chancellor (president/rector),  offers selfless and distinguished service as head of the Biafra resistance government’s communication directorate during phases I-III of the Igbo genocide, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970, foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa, carried out by Fulani islamist/jihadist-led Nigeria and its suzerain state Britain who murder 3.1 million Igbo people or 25 per cent of this nation’s population; in phase-IV of the genocide, 13 January 1970-present day, the dual genocidists have murdered an additional tally of tens of thousands of Igbo people – including the 3000 murdered by the Muhammadu Buhari regime and its adjunct Fulani militia since November 2015, following Buhari’s imposition in power in March 2015 by ex-US President Barack Obama and ex-British Prime Minister David Cameron

(Booker Little Sextet, “We speak” [personnel: Little, trumpet; Julian Priester, trombone; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone; Don Friedman, piano; Art Davis, bass; Max Roach, drums; recorded: Nola’s Penthouse Studios, New York, US, 17 March 1961])

*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is author of the recently published The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019)  (https://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.com/2019/01/published-longest-genocide-since-29-may.html)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

85th birthday of Virginia Hamilton

(Born 12 March 1934, Yellow Springs, Ohio, US)

DISTINGUISHED prolific author of children’s books including the critically acclaimed MC Higgins, the Great

(Multiinstrumentalist Eric Dolphy here plays “God bless the child” [composed by Billie Holiday & Arthur Herzog, Jr] [personnel: Dolphy, bass clarinet; recorded: live, University of Illinoi, Champaign, Illinoi,  10 March 1963]) 

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

84th birthday of Kofi Awoonor

(Born 13 March 1935, Wheta, Ghana)

POET, linguist, academic, diplomat

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

199th birthday of Harriet Tubman

(Born c1820, Dorchester county, Maryland, US; dies 10 March 1913, Auburn, New York, US)

ACTIVIST exponent of African American freedom who works intensely and expansively on the historic underground railroad/railway liberatory network and whose illustrative stretch of resilient freedom strategy is a rich legacy that the great Biafrans of our age have adapted and deployed variously in the course of the past 53 years
(Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe)

(Wynton Marsalis Quintet, “Harriet Tubman” [personnel: Marsalis, trumpet; Joe Henderson, tenor saxophone; Marcus Roberts, piano; Bob Hurst, bass; Jeff “Tain” Watts, drums; recorded: BMG Studios, New York, US, {?} {?} 1991])

*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is author of the recently published The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019)  (https://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.com/2019/01/published-longest-genocide-since-29-may.html)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Ornette Coleman, freedom, Biafra

(Ornette Coleman: ... freedom)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

TODAY is the 89th birthday of Ornette Coleman (born 9 March 1930, Fort Worth, Texas, US):  alto saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, composer, one of the very top inventive jazz artists of all time – leading exponent of the avant-garde/free jazz movement, beginning late 1950s/early 1960s when his varying working quartets (personnel: Coleman, alto saxophone [tenor saxophone on Ornette on Tenor only], Don Cherry, cornet/trumpet/pocket trumpet; Charlie Haden/Scott LaFaro/Red Mitchell/Percy Heath/Jimmy Garrison/Don Payne, bass; Billy Higgins/Ed Blackwell/Shelly Manne, drums) and quintet (Something Else!!!! only with Walter Norris on piano) record seven classic albums:

1. Something Else!!!!, 1958

2. Tomorrow is the Question, 1959

3. The Shape of Jazz to Come, 1959

4. Change of the Century, 1959

5. This is our Music, 1960

6. Ornette!, 1961

7. Ornette on Tenor, 1961

and an eighth, this time recorded by an octet:

8. Free Jazz, 1960

(personnel: Coleman, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet; Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, bass clarinet; Charlie Haden, bass; Scott LaFaro, bass; Ed Blackwell, drums; Billy Higgins, drums)

Biafra

IN this revolutionary epoch in which stretches of peoples and nations across the globe but especially in the African World have risen against centuries of pan-European conquest, occupation and subjugation and also pointedly in these past 53 years, the Igbo resistance to the bludgeoning genocide being waged on their people in Biafra by the Africa-based Fulani islamist/jihadist-led Nigeria client state and its suzerain Britain, Coleman’s music has consistently offered an infectiously gripping optimism for freedom. 

Igbo people have demonstrated extraordinary resilience in the resistance and will surely overcome this Anglo-Nigeria haematophagous monster as the strikingly innovative and irrepressible Biafra freedom movement triumphs.

TWO compositions from the Coleman repertoire couldn’t be more appropriate to capture the immense transformational possibilities that success in Biafra will have for constituent peoples in southwestcentral Africa region and elsewhere in Africa: “Turnaround” (February 1959) and “Change of the century” (October 1959).

(Ornette Coleman Quartet, “Turnaround” [personnel: Coleman, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, trumpet; Red Mitchell, bass; Shelly Manne, drums; recorded: Contemporary’s Studio, Los Angeles, US, 23 February 1959])

(Ornette Coleman Quartet, “Change of the century” [personnel: Coleman, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet; Charlie Haden, bass; Billy Higgins, drums; recorded: Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California, US, 8 October 1959])

*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is author of the recently published The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019)  (https://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.com/2019/01/published-longest-genocide-since-29-may.html)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Genevieve Nnaji, “Ndi Yoruba na Igbophobia”

(Genevieve Nnaji: ... one of Biafra’s and Africa’s leading actresses writes on ongoing widespread attacks on Igbo immigrants and the destruction/looting of their business enterprises by regime death-squads in Lagos, west genocidist Nigeria…[from Ngozika Ugochi Chukwu and Samuel Okeke’s Facebook pages, slightly edited])

Genevieve Nnaji

THE Igbo have never been the problem with Nigeria or

wherever they find themselves.
This is not ethnic jingoism or
bigotry.

The Igbo will never foment troubles where they are
because they know that “isi kote ebu, ogbaa ya”.

They also know deep in their hearts that “ife onye metalu, obulu”.

The Igbo will never kill others to live because they believe
that “ndu bu isi” Yes, murder or “igbu ochu” is one of the most
despicable crimes amongst the Igbo.

The Igbo believe that once you are alive, there is always a way left to succeed.
The “igba mbo” is perhaps the best gift of the Igbo.
Yes, the Igbo struggle to make it in life.
They are industrious, assiduous & sedulous.

The Igbo also believe in helping one another.

That’s why you hear “onye aghana nwanne ya”.

THERE is also no lateness in making it in life amongst the Igbo

because “ebe onye oso ruru, onye ije geru” and “uwa mgbede
ka mma”.

Igbo businesspeople are scattered all over the world.
Wherever they are, they make their homes, building houses &
gentrifying districts. For most lgbo, “ala bu otu”.

Igbo are liberal, accommodating & very friendly to foreigners.
This is because they are themselves scattered all over the world as
immigrants.

NA LAGOS, ndi Igbo naagba oso ahia, Igbo neere gala na go slow,

Igbo naaru conductor, umu Igbo bu importers buru manufacturers,

Igbo noo into clearing and forwarding,

Igbo neesi nri, umunna neere motor parts, Igbo naaru police na oru aka.

Ndi Igbo adiro selective with jobs maka na onye ruo, orie.
But the Igbo will never take your lands or countries from you.
The Igbo think about their native home.

Yes, you will never provide them with akpu, bitter leaves soup, palm wine, isi ewu & other scrumptious dishes they miss at Igboland.
While living in your country or State, never you imagine the Igbo are not thinking about their village.

My friend, they do that everyday.
Where ever the Igbo habitate, their hearts are not far from their native homes.

STOP KILLING the Igbo.
They will only make their money & go back to their land.
And they know how to make legitimate money.
Yes, where you see nothing, the Igbo with their gimlet eyes see “ego”.

So when next you meet an Igbo, ask them “nna, nne, how far?”
If you are lucky & they had done a successful business deal, they
might just take you out for lunch. Yes, the Igbo like sharing.

On the other hand, if business is low, they will tell you the
normal clichés... “obodo bu igwe” or “ife anaeme adiro easy” or
“ogbogu di tight”.

LOOK AT their face closely as they lament.
You will see no signs of defeatism. Mind you, they might just be
carrying 1 million naira in their pockets.
Just that the money had
already been budgeted for... “Sontin...es”!!!

Daaluu nu

(Alice Coltrane Quartet, “Lord, help me to be” [personnel: Coltrane, piano; Pharoah Sanders, tenor saxophone;  Jimmy Garrison, bass; Ben Riley, drums; recorded: Coltrane home studio, Dix Hills, New York, US, 29 January 1968]) 

*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is author of the recently published The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019)  (https://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.com/2019/01/published-longest-genocide-since-29-may.html)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe