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Zaterdag Amsterdam: herdenk strijders, Garvey
Ron Daniels - 13.08.2002 13:06
Zaterdagmiddag om twee uur is er opnieuw een herdenking bij het slavernijmonument, Oosterpark, Amsterdam. 17 augustus 1795 vond op Curaçao een slavenopstand - de organisatie noemt het liever een vrijheidsstrijd - plaats. Op dezelfde dag in 1887 werd op Jamaica de burgerrechtenstrijder Marcus Garvey geboren.
Zaterdagmiddag om twee uur is er opnieuw een herdenking bij het slavernijmonument, Oosterpark, Amsterdam. 17 augustus 1795 vond op Curaçao een slavenopstand - de organisatie noemt het liever een vrijheidsstrijd - plaats. Op dezelfde dag in 1887 werd op Jamaica de burgerrechtenstrijder Marcus Garvey geboren, oprichter van o.a. de Universal Negro Improvement Association en de Black Star Liner. Op vele plaatsen wordt hij op 17 augustus herdacht, o.a. in Washington; zie hier onder.
Display The Red, Black And Green On Garvey's Birthday
By Ron Daniels
The Black World Today Contributor
Article Dated 8/6/2002
The historic Millions for Reparations Mobilization, August 17th in
Washington, D.C. is rapidly gaining momentum. Thousands of Africans
in America and our allies will be in the nation's capital on the
150th birthday of the Honorable Marcus Garvey for what will be the
largest mass expression of support for reparations in history. As I
mentioned in a previous article, thirty years ago, Africans in
America also made history by mobilizing African Liberation Day, the
largest mass expression of support for the liberation movements in
Southern Africa of that era.
One of my most vivid memories of African Liberation Day was the
thousands of Red, Black and Green Flags, banners, streamers and
buttons that were proudly on display that day. Our Colors and our
Flag were on display in a powerful affirmation of Black pride,
dignity, resistance and self-determination. And so it should be on
August 17th as we mobilize in support of reparations for Africans in
America and the world.
In my judgment, this is particularly important in the face of the
surge of "patriotism" in America in the wake of the September 11th
terrorist attacks. Though Africans in America have traditionally been
ambivalent about waving the American Flag and other overt expressions
of patriotism, more Blacks than ever before have been swept up into
the post 9/11 call to patriotic solidarity for the "war against
terrorism." Africans in America have been legitimately ambivalent
about the Red, White and Blue and the American Flag because of the
stubborn persistence of racism, discrimination and exclusion in this
society.
There is an unspoken sense that Africans are still not wanted and are
not welcome in this country. Hence our reluctance to wave the flag
was/is a quiet form of resistance, a testimony of our unwillingness
to embrace symbols of a nation that has not fully embraced Africans
in America on a just and equitable basis.
This silent form of protest was weakened by the massive call for
all "Americans" to stand together to confront the common enemy of
terrorism in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks. And, as has
occasionally been the case in the past, many Black people heeded the
call by joining their more fully emancipated and endowed counterparts
in purchasing and displaying American Flags and other paraphernalia
emblazoned with the Red, White and Blue. Indeed, never before have I
seen so many Black people seduced by the call to allegiance and
patriotism by two of the most dangerous adversaries of civil rights
and civil liberties since the era of J. Edgar Hoover, George W. Bush
and John Ashcroft.
But the psychology of the oppressed is such that they often emulate,
imitate, join or otherwise seek legitimation from the oppressor. It's
what Malcolm X might call the "House Negro Syndrome" " What's the
matter boss, we sick?" The post 9/11 call to patriotic solidarity has
co-opted more Africans in America than ever before.
I can think of no better occasion than the 150th birthday of Marcus
Garvey and the milestone Millions for Reparations Mobilization to
counter the House Negro Syndrome and to rekindle a spirit of
resistance by proudly unfurling and displaying the Red, Black and
Green. After all it was Marcus Garvey who bequeathed these colors to
African people as universal symbols of our glorious past, pain and
suffering and aspiration for self-determination and nationhood. As we
intensify the struggle for reparations, what more appropriate time to
re-educate Africans in America about that fact that, like other
ethnic groups and nations, we have our own flag and should utilize it
as a rallying point for our struggle for liberation including the
fight for restitution from the United States government (symbolized
by the Red, White and Blue) for its involvement in and complicity
with the slave trade and slavery as an institution in this country.
On August 17th, Marcus Garvey's birthday, Universal African Flag Day
and the occasion of the Millions for Reparations Mobilization, the
oppressive symbols of the Red, White and Blue should be buried
beneath a righteous tidal wave of liberating symbols and images of
the Red, Black and Green! Red - for the blood and suffering of
African people historically and currently; Black - for the color,
culture and history of African people; and, Green - for the land,
labor, property and profits stolen from African people that we will
reclaim to reconstruct our communities and nations!
August 17th should mark the death knell of cooptation and the House
Negro Syndrome in the aftermath of September 11th. It should signal
the rebirth of resistance to the perpetrators and collaborators with
one of the most horrific terrorist acts in world history, the Trans-
Atlantic Slave Trade and the maintenance of slavery by daily acts of
terror for centuries. Let the world stand in awe of a sea of Red,
Black and Green on August 17th symbolizing our determination to
compel the U.S. government to admit to and repair the damages from
the terrorist acts of the past and present committed against Africans
and all oppressed people.
Let the world see thousands of people marching for reparations under
the banner of the Red, Black and Green with the determination that
compensation for our enslavement is but the first step in the process
of building a new society -- a new nation where all the victims of
Americanism will be made whole and a new flag of hope and promise
will replace the blood stained banner which the oppressed were
expected to respect, display and pledge allegiance to.
August 17th will mark a new chapter in the struggle of African people
for liberation and self-determination. I'll be there with my Red,
Black and Green Flag. I hope you will too. "Up you mighty race, you
can accomplish what you will!"
 Website: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thevoiceofpanafricanism
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| Lees meer over: Agenda | | aanvullingen | | | Garvey was een racist | antiracist - 13.08.2002 13:23
Trap er niet in, mensen. Marcus Garvey was een notoire racist met een ongezonde bewondering voor Hitler en Mussolini. Zie het volgende fragment van de site van de University of California, LA ( http://www.isop.ucla.edu/mgpp/lifeintr.htm):
Garvey was a propagator of the anti-Semitic rhetoric common in the political era epitomized by the formation of the Rome-Berlin Axis in October 1936. He identified with the rise of both Hitler and Mussolini from lower-class status, and admired the power manifested in their nationalistic brand of leadership. He praised both men in the early thirties as self-made leaders who had restored their nations' pride, and used the resurgence of Italy and Germany as an example to black people for the possible regeneration of Africa. He admired in particular the remarkable ideological stamp the fascist leaders had succeeded in imprinting on the world. "In politics as in everything else," he declared, "movements of any kind [once] established, when centralized by leading characters generally leave their impression, and so Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and the Japanese political leaders are leaving on humanity at large an indelible mark of their political disposition."^85 This admiration was tinged with jealousy over the spectacular impact of the fascist movement. In 1937 he went so far as to claim in a London interview with Joel A. Rogers that, as Rogers reported, . . . his Fascism preceded that of Mussolini and Hitler. "We were the first Fascists," [Garvey] said, "when we had 100,000 disciplined men, and were training children, Mussolini was still an unknown. Mussolini copied our Fascism."
Met zulke vrienden heb je geen vijanden nodig!
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