112th birthday of Cornelius Coffey

(Born 6 September 1903, Newport, Arkansas, US)

Firm, determined, resilient, self-taught aviator after admission rejections from flying schools because he is African America, founder of Chicago’s Coffee aeronautical school (1938) which soon becomes part of the country’s civilian pilot training programme and trains many African American pilots and technicians who later  pursue careers in both civil aviation and the military, continues flying well into his 80s

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Award-winning actor Will Smith plays forensic neuropathologist Bennet Omalu in Concussion

(Dr Bennet Omalu)

(Will Smith)

In the new film, Concussion (director: Peter Landesman), to be released on Christmas Day 2015, Will Smith will play Dr Bennet Omalu, the forensic neuropathologist who, in 2002, discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease caused by trauma in the brain sustained in contact sport injuries. Omalu, an African American born in Biafra in 1968 during that catastrophic phase of the Igbo genocide in which 3.1 million Igbo were murdered by Nigeria and its allies, is co-founder and director of the Brain Injury Research Institute, Landing Lane, Moon Township, Pennsylvania, US., and clinical professor at the department of medical pathology and laboratory medicine, University of California, Davis.

Professor Omalu here (link below) discusses his research on CTE in an interview with Michael Kirk, Frontline, 25 March 2013:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sports/league-of-denial/the-frontline-interview-dr-bennet-omalu/ (accessed 2 September 2015)

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107th birthday of Richard Wright

(Born 4 September 1908, near Natchez, Miss, US)

 Prolific novelist, poet, dramatist, essayist – author of, among others, The Ethics of Living Jim Crow (1937), Uncle Tom’s Children (1938) Native Son (1940), Black Boy (1945), I Choose Exile (1951), The Outsider (1953), The Color Curtain (1956), White Man, Listen! (1957) and American Hunger (1977)

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The sardauna of Sokoto, Nigeria, Britain and the restoration of Igbo independence

Igbo tenacity, drive and relentless optimism to pursue and overcome life’s challenges are acutely an affront to both the sardauna of Sokoto (northwest Nigeria) and British occupation sensibilities in Nigeria. This is particularly evident during the 1930s-1960s epoch when Igbo people spearhead the termination of the British occupation of these lands and peoples of southwestcentral Africa.

This sardauna interview (video below) must have been recorded in the late 1950s/early 1960s – definitely after both the 1945 and 1953 north Nigeria-organised pogroms against Igbo immigrant populations in Jos and Kano respectively. Hundreds of Igbo were murdered during the pogroms and tens of thousands of pounds sterling worth of their property were looted/destroyed at the time. Each pogrom was carried out because of the Igbo vanguard role in the restoration-of-independence movement to free Nigeria from the British conquest and occupation, begun in the 1930s. North Nigeria’s sociopolitical leaderships, effectively British regional clients, were opposed to the restoration of African freedom. No other leadership across the entire Southern World (Africa, Asia, the Caribbean/South America) has such an unenviable record during this unprecedented epoch of transglobal freedom charge. North Nigeria leaderships, indeed, were disposed to the continuing British occupation of Nigeria. It is therefore not in the least surprising that, in year 2015, fifty-five years after the essentially bogus sovereignty that Nigeria exercises, this state’s current head of regime, a genocidist and putschist operative, is imposed on the peoples, thanks to a raft of machinations in which Britain plays a critical role.

Enslaved spaces and 20th/21st centuries replicas

As a result, the occupation regime did not apprehend or prosecute anyone for either the 1945 or 1953 pogroms and the outrages became the “dress rehearsals” for the 29 May 1966-12 January 1970 Igbo genocide when the Nigeria state (as a whole, involving other constituent nations including the Yoruba, the Edo and Urhobo of the west region) with full Britain involvement, and others, murdered 3.1 million Igbo or one-quarter of this nation’s population. Britain, nor in fact any of the other pan-European conquerors of Africa (France, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, Germany), did not create a Nigeria, or whatever names these “Berlin states” in Africa are called, as precursor for African emancipation. On the contrary, the Nigerias of Africa are more of replicas of the enslaved plantations of the Americas (in the previous epoch of nearly 400 years) to perpetuate European World control and exploitation of Africa and Africans in perpetuity.

The enslaved Igbo encountered this with unrelenting courage and defiance in the enslaved estates in the Americas (north, south and the Caribbean), as history shows, and wouldn’t have it either at home! The sardauna interview should be part of History/Politics 101 course on Africa because it does tell one, in a nutshell, the “fate” of the Igbo in Nigeria that north Nigeria, with firm support of Britain, had, carefully, contrived right back in the 1950s. Except the Igbo people have signed up for a concerted suicide, they surely cannot see their destiny emplaced in this space of certain death and immiseration.

This has been the cardinal lesson of the Igbo genocide. Thankfully, some Igbo who were still not sure of the long term implications of the continuing Nigerian occupation of their homeland (since 12 January 1970) have had a baptism of enlightenment since the video of the sardauna interview went viral! Suddenly, historical records become opportunities for rare streams of conscientisation...

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84th birthday of Clifford Jordan

(Born 2 September 1931, Chicago, US)

 Percipient tenor saxophonist and composer who, for 30 years, beginning in the mid-1950s, builds up an impressive range of collaborative work with leading rhythm and brass instrument-bandleaders of the age including Roach, Mingus, Chambers, Davis, Waldron, Walton, Weston, Hill, Gillespie, Morgan, Farmer, Reece as well as work with multiinstrumentalist Dolphy and fellow tenorist Gilmore

(Charles Mingus Sextet plays the Billy Strayhorn classic composition, “Take the ‘A’ train” [Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, bass clarinet; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, University Aula, Oslo, 12 April 1964])

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FWD: Majority of Scots now support independence

BBC, “Political parties have been reacting to a poll suggesting that 53% of voters in Scotland would back independence if there was another referendum”, Wednesday 2 September 2015, 1748, BST:

The SNP said the Ipsos Mori survey for STV was a “sensational” endorsement.

The poll also indicated that the Nationalists would win next May’s Holyrood election with 74 seats.

Scottish Labour said it was focusing on what mattered and the Scottish Tories said they would continue to make a positive case for the UK.

The survey, which questioned 1,002 people last week, comes almost a year after Scotland rejected independence by a margin of 55% to 45%.

It is thought to be the first poll to show a majority for “Yes” among all those questioned.

Previous polls in the run-up to the September 2014 vote that showed a majority for independence had excluded those who were undecided.

Half of those questioned for STV said they would like to see another referendum within five years while 58% said they would be in favour of having one in the next 10 years.

Support for the SNP continues to be high in the wake of the party’s landslide general election victory north of the border, winning 56 of Scotland's 59 Westminster seats.

The poll found that 55% of those who gave a voting intention would back the Nationalists in the Scottish Parliament constituency vote if the election was held tomorrow.

“Sensational poll”

About a fifth (21%) would vote Labour, with support for the Tories at 12%, Liberal Democrats at 7% and Greens at 3%.

In the list vote, SNP support fell to 50% and backing for the Greens rose to 8%, with the preferences for the other parties remaining the same.

The SNP’s business convener Derek Mackay said: “This is a sensational poll for the SNP - it shows not only that people across Scotland support us in huge and growing numbers eight years into government, but that they believe we have a strong record on key issues like health and education.”

He added: “It is welcome to see support for independence now stands at over 50 per cent, as people see the SNP in government and at Westminster stand up for Scotland.”

A Scottish Labour spokesman said that the party, under the new leadership of Kezia Dugdale, was changing.

He added: “We want people to take another look at Scottish Labour.

“But we know it’s too early to be asking people for their votes.

“Over the coming months, we will put Labour’s values first and we will focus on the things that matter in people’s lives - like the standards in our schools and our hospitals.”

Education standards

The Scottish Conservative Party said it would “always stand up for” the two million people in Scotland who voted “No” in last year’s referendum.

A spokesman added: “For its part, rather than revelling in this poll, the SNP needs to focus on the day job.

“While the Scottish government takes Scotland down the constitutional cul-de-sac, education standards have fallen and the police service set up by this SNP government just two years ago is facing breakdown.

“Scotland needs a better way forward, not a step back to yet another referendum.”

The pollsters interviewed 1002 people between the 24 and 30 August. The margin of error was plus or minus three.

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*****Rights for Scots, Rights for the Igbo, http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/rights-for-scots-rights-for-igbo.html

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87th birthday of Horace Silver

(Born 2 September 1928, Norwalk, Conn, US)

Mutifaceted pianist, composer and bandleader whose distinct Silverian sound and drive in the jazz repertoire are enriched by the folk music traditions of his own father’s heritage from Cape Verde

(Horace Silver Quintet, “Song for my father” [personnel: Silver, piano; Carmell Jones, trumpet; Joe Henderson, tenor saxophone; Teddy Smith, bass; Roger Humphries, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 26 October 1964])

(Horace Silver Quintet, “Señor blues” [personnel: Silver, piano; Blue Mitchell, trumpet; Junior Cook, tenor saxophone; Gene Taylor, bass; Louis Hayes, drums; recorded: live, ?, 1959])

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