⁣Link Up Podcast — Ep 7 | Ft Okunini Talawa Adodo (part 2)
Hosts: Niara Esi Ìjèawelē Ọmọlará Kwento & Bakari Kwadwo Ọbatayé Kwento

Akɔaba, Woezɔ, Oɔbaake (welcome) to another episode of Link Up Podcast, where we connect with Abibifoɔ (Black People) doing Black powerful work across Abibiman (the Black Land) and the diaspora.

In this episode, we Link Up once again with Okunini Talawa Adodo, and pick up where we left off in episode 6. This time we cover his connection to Mambo Ama Mazama, and his experience in Guadeloupe. An environment under stench occupation yet actively preserving its language, hair, music, Gwoka drum culture, and Black identity.

We discuss Black liberation celebrations, flag independence versus actual Black Power, Caribbean languages as Black languages rather than “stenglish-based” or “stench-based” creoles, and the fundamental relationship between language, worldview, grammar, and culture. The conversation also moves through Mdw Ntr, Jamaican, Twi, Igbo, Black parenting, bedroom colonialism, Cheikh Anta Diop, and Okunini Talawa’s larger mission to help Abibifoɔ speak, think, build, and raise the next generation Black to Black.

* Stay tuned after the conversation for a special animated cartoon episode. *

This is a conversation about raised consciousness becoming raised behavior, Black love as institution, and the work required to bring the whole family Black home.

Feel free to share your thoughts, and Link Up!

Niger has long been a key staging point for migrants and asylum seekers from sub-Saharan West Africa, but the traffic reached a peak in 2015/16 when the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimated that 330,000 people followed the desert routes north - through often inhospitable country - to reach Libya or Algeria, and then the Mediterranean coast and sea crossings to Europe.

The exponential growth mostly came about because the chaotic descent of Libya into civil conflict in the years after the Arab Spring opened up new routes and border crossings and made it easier for people traffickers to operate in the security vacuum, but it also flourished because it generated significant income and employment for northern Niger and its largest city, Agadez. Much of this was from the perfectly legitimate businesses - in transport and accommodation - that sprang up to service and feed off and then further develop the migrant trade. The increased wealth was welcomed because it helped bring back a measure of stability to an area that had seen its own insurgency during the Tuareg Rebellion of 2007-2009 and which had been struggling economically in the aftermath.

But even as the traffic was burgeoning, the Nigerien government was coming under pressure from the European Union, which was keen to find a response to the alarming flows of people coming across the Mediterranean. Close to its own maritime borders the EU began working with the Libyan coastguard and others to refashion methods of deterring that sea borne traffic, but it also looked for innovative ways of stemming the movement of people on land much further south.

So, to the grateful relief of the EU, Niger passed new anti-smuggling laws. In early 2016, its interior minister Mohamed Bazoum ordered their implementation across the country, sending police out to arrest smugglers (most of whom, of course, had previously been operating within locals laws) and confiscating hordes of the ubiquitous pick-up trucks that drivers had become used to piling high with lucrative migrant passengers.

The new laws quickly began making a big dent in the migrant flow, bringing down the number of travelers passing through Agadez from around 24,000 a month in 2016 to around 5500 a month in 2017.

But there have been other consequences and many of them difficult for Niger. The economic fallout for the north of the country has been considerable - with revenues in Agadez alone being reduced by around $117 million a year, according to the IOM. Indeed the losses across the area have been so significant that the EU has had to offer $635 million to compensate those who had once made a living out of migration through a reconversion plan involving business grants and loans and other support, although so far the difficulties of qualifying for any such support seem to be keeping the take-up of these opportunities to a minimum.

Moreover, where previously migrants were able to move openly, they now have to use clandestine back routes through remote desert country to avoid villages and police patrols. This is dangerous. The UN roughly estimates that for every migrant death in the Mediterranean sea, now two die in the Sahara desert.

Meanwhile, community leaders fear that youth unemployment and the lack of long-term investment (notwithstanding the EU's struggling compensation scheme) to develop alternative economic models could lead to increasing criminality and insecurity. With the migrant traffic suppressed, police warn that drug trafficking is becoming an ever more attractive option and elders fear that idle young men who would once have worked in the migration trade could now easily fall prey to the competing radical attractions of Boko Haram or Daesh, which pose a growing threat across this part of West Africa.

So how to best assess the EU's apparent attempt to push Europe's borders this far south? Niger is rated as one of the world's least-developed nations by the UN, but is it now paying too high a price for Europe's anti-immigration policies? We sent correspondent Juliana Ruhfus and filmmakers Marco Salustro and Victoria Baux to find out.

A country that has been devastated by high level of food insecurity, with over 7 million people severely food insecure. On today’s episode we focus on the story of a young lady who has decide to join the world of Agriculture and become a farmer. Inspired by the high levels of food insecurity in the country and her passion to help the vulnerable people in the country, she decides to start farming.

⁣7 Reps on 220 - One step forward

Uncovering the linguistic, genetic, cultural and historical links between Kemet and West Africa.

🎥 Video Copyright Disclaimer: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within youtube's guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement was intended in the making of this video. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to subscribe@historiaafricana.org

Brandon "Okumapem" Rogers - Capoeira Testimonial

Kumbukeni co-host Nduku is joined by her brothers in the Jumuiya ya Nguzo Saba community to discuss the importance of preserving and spreading Kiswahili as our Afrikan Language of Unity, and the work they are doing to ensure this. The conversation will be based on Nduku's presentation on Kiswahili at the African Languages Conference which is currently taking place until the 28th of February.

From 1959 Solid Gold Soul

-Full speech
-Malcolm X on Jesus Christ
-Who Taught You To Hate Yourself?

Malcolm X was one of the greatest leaders in the history. Malcolm X founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity, to fight for the Civil Rights of the Black Americans. He had the gift to articulate his messages in such a way that he grabs the crowd attention from the first till the last minute of the speech.
In this speech on May 1962, Malcolm X talk about Jesus Christ. He tells how Jesus would be in the side of Black Americans if he was alive. Jesus that always came in defense of the most oppressed.
Malcolm X talked also about in this speech about the police brutality in the Black community in1962.
This Malcolm X teaching cover an interesting subject that is the lesson about: "Who teach you to hate yoursel?". When you hate what is in yourself you will hate also what is in your brother. When you start loving yourself you will love your brother also. I this way Malcolm X teaches how it's possible to strength each member of the Black community and don't let it be divided by anything.

⁣A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GRANTING OF GHANAIAN CITIZENSHIP
Featuring Dr. Maulana Maulana
Okunini Ọbádélé Kambon

Presented by Nana Yaa Lacy

Rkhty Amen speak on the meaning of our world view

Lyrics: Haiti On The GO!!

BUJU BANTON
Kèm pa sote noo, kèm pa sote nooooo
Kèm pa sote noo, kèm pa sote nooooo

TOP ADLERMAN
Ayiti kanpe tankou on chanpyon
We run competition
First black nation who fought fi liberation
It doesn’t matter if we win or lose
We met at the crossroad
Who will survive, no one knows

Premye pèp ki batay pou libète
Ayiti’l ye
Grenadye alaso se nou li ye
Ayiti’l ye
Pa ranse avèm ok
Ayiti li ye
Pèp la kontan, zansèt yo fyè

STICHIZ
Ohhhh ohhh ohhh ohhh
Sak pase? Nap boule! Sak pase!
Sak pase
Ayiti on the GO
We let the world know
Ayiti on the GO
We let the world know
Ayiti on the GO
We let the world know
Ayiti on the GO
We let the world know

CALL & RESPONSE (x6)
GROUP Nou genyen deja

COLMIX
Viktwa se pou nou li ye


MICKAEL MARABOU
Nou prè pou n batay tay tay tay
Yes we ready to fight fight fight
Avan nou die die die die die
Nan kou n ap gen meday day day day dayo

Nou pa moun kap vin pran daso
( vin pran daso )
A wi nou konn sa nou vo
( Nou konn sa nou vo )
Nou pa moun kap vin pran daso
( vin pran daso )
A wi nou konn sa nou vo
( Nou konn sa nou vo )

BUJU BANTON
We are people who came from far
Look at where we are
We can do whatever we choose
We can win whenever we lose
Now we’re moving for the championship
And everyone knows we gotta take it
We gotta show them how we’re physically fit
And we’ve been through all things, now let’s exist

CALL & RESPONSE x3
GROUP Nou genyen deja

COLMIX
Viktwa se pou nou li ye

STICHIZ
Ayiti on the GO
We let the world know
Ayiti on the GO
We let the world know
Ayiti on the GO
We let the world know
Ayiti on the GO
We let the world know

KIDS
Se pou nou li ye (x4)

BUJU BANTON
We must exist

KIDS
Viktwa se pou nou li ye

GROUP (FINAL ASSEMBLED)
Nou genyen deja
Viktwa se pou nou li ye
Viktwa se pou nou li ye
__________________________________________________________________________

Executive Producer: Jerry Wonda @princewonda
Music A&R: Bendino Camillo
Prod. Coordinator - Jasmine Hunt @jszmnnn
Production Co: FanCinematix Prod @fancinematix
Director: Lucci Bagz @luccibagz
D.O.P & Editor: Jabian Sutherland @jabiansutherland
1st AD- Lilly Lovely @itslillylovely
Cam Op: Earl Rivers @studioofearlrivers
1st AC: Shamari Bryan @erafilmz
G&E: SaintMediaPro @saintmediapro
Art Director: Micheal Ruiz @mikey2raww4tv
Set Vendor Designer : Lobey Art & Travel @lobeyat
Talent Scout: Chef Tia
P.A: Jose “Lito” Mejia @litodachosen1
P.A: Aeron Cutler @acoacs
Location: Chef Creole @chefcreolemia

⁣A documentary film about the life of pianist and jazz great Thelonious Sphere Monk. Features live performances by Monk and his band, and interviews with friends and family about the offbeat genius.

⁣The Niger: A River and its People