Just a few decades ago, Ethiopia was a country defined by its famines, particularly between 1983-1985 when in excess of half a million people starved to death as a consequence of drought, crop failure and a brutal civil war.

Against this backdrop, in recent years, Ethiopia has been experiencing stellar economic growth. The headline statistics are certainly remarkable: the country is creating millionaires faster than any other in Africa; output from farming, Ethiopia’s dominant industry, has tripled in a decade; the capital Addis Ababa is experiencing a massive construction boom; and the last six years have seen the nation’s GDP grow by a staggering 108 percent.

But it is not all positive news.

Around 90 percent of the population of 87 million still suffers from numerous deprivations, ranging from insufficient access to education to inadequate health care; average incomes are still well below $1500 a year; and more than 30 million people still face chronic food shortages.

Many critics say that the growth seen in agriculture, which accounts for almost half of Ethiopia’s economic activity and a great deal of its recent success, is actually being driven by an out of control ‘land grab', as multinational companies and private speculators vie to lease millions of acres of the country’s most fertile territory from the government at bargain basement prices.

At the ministry of agriculture in Addis Ababa, this land-lease programme is often described as a "win-win" because it brings in new technologies and employment and, supposedly, makes it easier to improve health care, education and other services in rural areas.

"Ethiopia needs to develop to fight poverty, increase food supplies and improve livelihoods and is doing so in a sustainable way," said one official.

But according to a host of NGO’s and policy advocates, including Oxfam, Human Rights Watch and the Oakland Institute, the true consequences of the land grabs are almost all negative. They say that in order to make such huge areas available for foreign investors to grow foodstuffs and bio-fuels for export - and in direct contravention of Ethiopia’s obligations under international law - the authorities are displacing hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples, abusing their human rights, destroying their traditions, trashing the environment, and making them more dependent on food aid than ever before.

The most controversial element of the government’s programme is known as 'villagisation' - the displacement of people from land they have occupied for generations and their subsequent resettlement in artificial communities.

In Gambella, where two ethnic groups, the Anuaks and the Nuers, predominate, it has meant tens of thousands of people have been forced to abandon a traditional way of life. One such is Moot, an Anuak farmer who now lives in a government village far from his home.

Despite growing internal opposition and international criticism, the Ethiopian government shows no sign of scaling the programme back. According to the Oakland Institute, since 2008, an area the size of France has already been handed over to foreign corporations. Over the next few years an area twice that size is thought to be earmarked for leasing to investors.

So what does all this mean for the people on the ground? In Ethiopia – Land for Sale, filmmakers Veronique Mauduy and Romain Pelleray try and find out.

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Can Somalia's embattled president unite his country against the armed group al-Shabab?

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On 4 February 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., preached “The Drum Major Instinct” from the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church. Ironically, two months before his assassination on 4 April 1968, he told his congregation what he would like said at his funeral: “I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody” (King, “The Drum Major,” 185). Excerpts were played at King’s nationally televised funeral service, held at Ebenezer on 9 April 1968.King’s sermon was an adaptation of the 1952 homily “Drum-Major Instincts” by J. Wallace Hamilton, a well-known, liberal, white Methodist preacher. Both men tell the biblical story of James and John, who ask Jesus for the most prominent seats in heaven. At the core of their desire was a “drum major instinct—a desire to be out front, a desire to lead the parade” (King, “The Drum Major,” 170–171). King warns his congregation that this desire for importance can lead to “snobbish exclusivism” and “tragic race prejudice”: “Do you know that a lot of the race problem grows out of the drum major instinct? A need that some people have to feel superior … and to feel that their white skin ordained them to be first” (King, “The Drum Major,” 176; 178). Conversely, King preached that when Jesus responded to the request by James and John, he did not rebuke them for their ambition, but taught that greatness comes from humble servitude. As King put it, Jesus “reordered priorities,” and told his disciples to “Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be first in love” (King, “The Drum Major,” 181; 182).https://kinginstitute.stanford.....edu/encyclopedia/dr for historical purposes.

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Video Lecture/ Companion to the million selling book by Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, author of Countering The Conspiracy to destroy Black Boys. All of Dr. Kunjufu's books and videos are available for purchase at http://africanamericanimages.com Books can also be ordered through Amazon.com To book Dr. Kunjufu for a speaking engagement, email customersvc@africanamericanimages.com

Shared for historical purposes. I do not own the rights.

_____
"The phenomenon of peer pressure and its impact on
academic achievement has reached catastrophic propor-
tions. It has now reached a point that to do well academical-
ly in school is to act white and risk being called a nerd ora
brainiac. For males, the peer pressure is so great, you may be
called a sissy. Can you imagine the ancestor’s children, who
built the first civilization and taught the ancient Greek
scholars, attributing academic achievement to being
White? Please do not discern this solely to integration.
There are schools that only African-American students at-
tend, there are no White students, and they still say to be
smart is to be white.

Our students go to many kinds of schools. Some attend
all-Black schools in low-income neighborhoods, others at-
tend all-Black schools in middle-income communities,
others attend integrated, elite, magnet high schools where
admission is based on a test, some attend integrated schools
in the suburbs, and lastly some attend coed, homogeneous,
private schools. This book is written for students in all five
circumstances. In Philadelphia, the audience described ex-
periences from all five settings. They were surprised that in
the latter three environments—magnet schools, integrated
suburban schools, and private schools—negative peer
pressure still existed for their children. Many parents work-
ed very hard to live in more affluent neighborhoods and pay
tuition so their children could be ‘‘inspired”’ by a positive
peer group. Other parents like Namorahor my wife and I
were able to have our children admitted into elite magnet
schools, only to find this silent killer there too."

Jawanza Kunjufu is the author of over 25 books including national bestsellers, Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys, State of Emergency: We Must Save African American Males, Solutions for Black America, Keeping Black Boys Out of Special Education, Raising Black Boys and his most recent, 200 Plus Educational Strategies to Teach Children of Color. His work has been featured in Ebony and Essence magazines and he has been a guest on BET and Oprah.
He has been guest speaker at most colleges and universities throughout the US, and has served as a consultant to most urban school districts. He has preached in numerous churches and taught seminary for eight years to doctoral students at Union Theological Seminary.

His other books include Black Students: Middle Class Teachers, Satan, I’m Taking Back My Health!, Developing Strong Black Male Ministries, An African Centered Response to Ruby Payne’s Poverty Theory, A Culture of Respect.

Kunjufu attended both the Morgan State University and the Towson State University exchange programs from 1972 to 1973. He went on to Illinois State University where he earned his BS in 1974. He went on to get his PhD from Union Graduate School in 1984.

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Reelblack's mission is to educate, elevate, entertain, enlighten, and empower through Black film. If there is content shared on this platform that you feel infringes on your intellectual property, please email me at Reelblack@mail.com and info@reelblack.com with details and it will be promptly removed.

⁣Stokely Carmichael - Free Huey! (1970)

Kwame Toure & Marcus Garvey Jr. discuss Pan Africanism.

BLACK LOVE EVERYDAY

Between 2014 and 2017, AVN was instrumental in the construction
of the very first village built entirely of Nubian Vaults, implemented
by the NGOs Banlieues du Monde and Le Partenariat, and funded by the Dubai Charity Association.

Located in Mauritania, practically on the frontier formed by the river Senegal, the Sheikh Zayed Village of Diakré is made up of 51 private houses, a mosque, a literacy centre, and a maternity clinic. The beneficiaries of the project are Mauritanian refugees who fled their country during the war.

⁣Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan: Black Male and Female Relationship