The Shift

🎼coz my papa he be Dangote 🎼

In 2012, in Kinshasa, egyptologist, historian, linguist and philosopher Professor Theophile Obenga comments the Cairo colloquium of 1974 he participated in with Cheikh Anta DIOP.

In the 50s and 60s, scientific production from African researchers on the origins of peopling and civilization in Ancient Egypt triggers a controversy in the international scientific community.
The UNESCO decides to organize in Cairo from January 28th to February 3rd 1974, an international colloquium on "the peopling of Ancient Egypt and the deciphering of meroitic writing." 20 specialists and 5 observers from Europe, America and Africa, as well as 2 UNESCO representatives, were invited to the work.

Prof. Manu gives insight in a 3-part series on "The Spiritual Tradition of Black People in the Biblical Land of Kemet (Egypt)," sponsored by Brother To Brother (Oakland, CA).

PART 1 OF 3: The World's Oldest Trinity (Asar, Aset, & Heru)

Ama borɔdeɛ: Ama's new plantain harvest

⁣Benin is considered the home of voodoo, a religion often portrayed as black magic. Many voodoo rituals are shrouded in mystery and misunderstood. So are voodoo convents that are scattered across southern Benin. Local children spend months and even years behind the convent walls because their parents send them there. They believe it would appease the spirits in case of an illness or bad luck.
In voodoo monasteries, children are given new names and are forbidden to use their old ones, wear old clothes and speak their native language. Instead, they study voodoo customs and language and are initiated into secrets. Leaving a voodoo monastery requires a special ceremony that costs parents $50, an unaffordable sum for most in Benin.
Voodoo priests and supporters say keeping children in convents is necessary to preserve voodoo culture and traditions, but activists disagree. Children confined in convents miss out on education and sometimes have no one to return to because their parents are not around anymore. Activists from organisations like ReSPESD seek to reduce the time children spend in convents and cut the price of a release ceremony.
Activists are also working with local leaders in the programme, explaining the importance of education for Beninese children. While many are ready to change, some remain adamant. Hear from voodoo priests, local kings and children about life inside the convents and what voodoo means to them.

⁣In the 1960s most African countries gained their independence but more than six decades later they still experience political and economic pressure from the West. African current laws concerning resource extraction make it as easy as possible for private corporations to take resources out of the continent. And in most of the countries production licences that were issued by former colonial institutions are still in place. However, Africans’ growing awareness that they can form their own self-governance creates more freedom of choice for African countries, and makes them less dependent on the Europeans.
In 2022 Mali openly defied French neo-colonialism and forced the international coalition to withdraw troops from the country after decades of presence. ‘All of Africa is watching Mali right now. We are adjusting our course in Africa here in Mali. <...> I think we are gradually moving towards our sovereignty’, says painter and art history professor Oumar Kamara. He believes that European democracy doesn’t match African culture. ‘But in Russia, I realised that we were respected in Africa. They had a totally different policy and opinion concerning African countries. Neither the Soviet Union nor Russia ever colonised any African countries’, adds the scholar. Thus, in their battle for freedom, a growing number of Africans are willing to have closer ties with Russians, as they think Russia can give them security. What future awaits rapidly growing African society?

#AiWeek2020 Fireside chat with Dr. Molefi Kete Asante