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Kola_boof
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 3817
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 7 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - 07:04 pm: | 
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Dahomeyhosi and others here have stated that they are "real" African-Americans because they come from Africa and are American citizens.
And I have to say that's WAY OFF.
If you came from BENIN then you are Beninese-American, if you come from Nigeria then you are Nigerian-American.
I don't claim my Egyptian birth father's country for personal reasons, so I am SUDANESE-American, because that is where I was born.
The term "African-American" is very special because it was created to acknowledge those children of Africa who do not know their specific country and therefore must claim the entire continent.
To me, that is a sacred and beautiful thing.
I feel enormous emotion about the history and suffering of "African Americans" and the ONLY REASON that I refer to them as "Black Americans" is to distinguish between which group of Africans I'm talking about.
I think it's one thing to challenge the "blackness" of some African Americans, and for the good of BLACK people and black children, I think it MUST be done--because we cannot ultimately be ruled by Mulattoes.
But I don't like the disrespect that is inherent in anyone from the continent of Africa saying that THEY are the real "African-Americans"...and that the Black Americans are simply not a part of us....that simply isn't true.
In fact, because the average Black American has the blood of more than 200 tribes in their veins, it could be argued that they are even more AFRICAN than we are. How many tribes flows through our veins??
3 at the most is the norm.
We who are from Africa know our nationality and we have tribal and matrilineal identifications that they do not have. They are AFRICAN-Americans.
I for one would like to see us stop with the TRIBALISM here in the U.S. and get with the NEGRITUDE, because no matter where black people are living in the world---what you do to the lowest of us, you automatically do to the highest of us--and if black men are slaves in SUDAN and black men are being shot with 50 bullets in N.Y. City, then we are ALL enslaved and shot.
And that's the real truth.
The same colorism that causes Beyonce to wear a blond wig is the same exact colorism that causes schoolgirls in BENIN to rub skin bleaching cream into their flesh every morning.
WHO CAN DENY THIS?
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Dahomeyahosi
Regular Poster
Username: Dahomeyahosi
Post Number: 137
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - 08:24 pm: |
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Kola there aren't too many of us on this board and I could never assert that most Africans share my viewpoint without making a huge, potentially erroneous assumption.
I believe Beninese-Americans are a subset of African-Americans just as Japanese-Americans are a subset of Asian-Americans. I was being sarcastic when I mentioned that the board was designed for me because it has aa in the title. We have already discussed the term African-American as it applies to black Americans and I think we'll have to agree to continue to disagree about it.
Benin is a country whose borders mean little. I use Dahomey because that is the nation I am tied to. I feel kinship with all spiritually traditional West Africans and I share the blood of nations that span from the Ivory Coast to Burkina Faso. Chiefly what makes me African is not just my pure blood quantum but primarily my communion with the spiritual beliefs of my ancestors. These beliefs are large vacant in this country. The African ancestors of black Americans have their hands tied but the European ones have much to do.
It amazes me that the average black American knows nothing about their ancestors and yet you say they have the blood of 200 ethnicities. Are none of these important enough to pass down as the Cherokee or Blackfoot ethnicity that so many of them cradle like fragile egg? I am not capable of understanding the horrors of slavery that could prevent a parent from whispering the name or nation of an ancestor to a child. There were Brazilian slaves who came back to West Africa after generations had passed and slavery ended. They came back with stories and identities intact. Was Catholicism really so conducive to passing down truths or is something else at work?
As far as black Americans being a part of Africa if you believe the scientists that line of reasoning could be extended to say that anyone is a part of Africa. I cut the ties when the culture disappears. I will not embrace a black American who is culturally European any more readily than I will embrace a Norwegian. Especially when black Americans have to kill a part of their ancestors spirits every day to continue exist in the ignorance that slavery created in them. As you can surmise by the tone of this board there are very few who even acknowledge that anything in them is missing...that anything needs to be salvaged. Are you fighting harder for their Africanness than they are and if so why? |
Nels
Veteran Poster
Username: Nels
Post Number: 645
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - 09:10 pm: |
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Kola --
"I think it's one thing to challenge the "blackness" of some African Americans, and for the good of BLACK people and black children, I think it MUST be done--because we cannot ultimately be ruled by Mulattoes."
Mulatto got your tongue? ;) |
Lil_ze
Veteran Poster
Username: Lil_ze
Post Number: 645
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 5 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - 10:22 pm: |
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colorism is NOT the reason women in africa rub bleaching cream into their skin to get lighter.
women in africa (those in the countries where skin bleaching is a common practice) are just SO DAM UGLY, that they will do anything in order to attempt to "change" the way they look.
the reason beyonce wears a blond wig is her business. but lets not be stupid a say that beyonce knowles is wearing a blond wig because of colorism.
as usual, another african making comments regarding the actions of black americans, as if they are speaking facts.
HEY AFRICANS, STOP WITH THE FIXATION ON THE BEHAVIOR OF BLACK AMERICANS.
most of us couldn't care less about africa or the africans. |
Toubobie
Regular Poster
Username: Toubobie
Post Number: 207
Registered: 08-2005
Rating:
Votes: 5 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - 10:33 pm: |
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Lil_ZERO...
I AM AFRICAN AMERICAN Descendant of SLAVES, FIELD SLAVES, like YOUR NARROW ASS. Perhaps you could learn something from (AFRICAN) people who can actually trace their ancestral lines back farther than the dawning days of white imperialism. The white man laughs at your hatred of Africans. WE HAVE NO LAND TO CALL YOUR OWN, and are impotent politically and economically. The leader of our country has never had a BLACK face. You ought to be ASHAMED. Do YOU actually think that the white man has given you the power to prevent these African "guests" (as you've called them) from coming into the country? Dream on...
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Lola_ogunnaike
Regular Poster
Username: Lola_ogunnaike
Post Number: 473
Registered: 10-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 12:46 am: |
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I'm with Dahomey on this one. And Lil_ze is a prime example of why many Africans look down on American Blacks. |
Lil_ze
Veteran Poster
Username: Lil_ze
Post Number: 646
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 01:25 am: |
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i really have NO idea what you are even trying to say.
the ugly, disease ridden africans don't have the right to look down on anyone, because they are some of the most filthy, primative "humans" this planet has ever seen.
no black americans are concerned with how a bunch of non-bathing, dirty, UGLY, africans see them.
black americans don't even think about africans.
when we see them we usually just IGNORE them.
it seems like the africans are totally consumed with black americans. but the same cannot be said for black americans.
and truth be told, its the black americans who look down on the UGLY africans.
AND RIGHTFULLY SO.
anyone in their right mind KNOWS the black americans are SUPERIOR in EVERY WAY to the african. |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1537
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 11:04 am: |
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Kola: happy new year!
Dahomey:
Your post is interesting, considering that many
"pure" Africans are more Westernized than some Africans Americans will ever be, this of course is if we are talking about "culture," that is, speech patterns, customs, and cosmology understood broadly.
Compare some of the Westernized Africans who live in London, Paris, and New York, especially those 2nd and 3rd generation born and educated in the socalled mother country...that is white controlled countries. Compare these folk with African Americans in the very rural parts of the U.S., particularly those in the Deep South, such as parts of florida, georgia, and s. carolina. I think you would be suppressed both by their color, speech pattern, and custom that are on first sight "America" but expressed like Africans.
The problem with you comment, is that it actually has NO sense of history...it is ironic when you speaking of the igorance of the so-call average black Americans, when if you asked the same of the average African in Africa, the most of what they would know is hip hop....futhermore, there is this ignorance[meaning not knowing not in the pejorative sense] among Africans about the transatlantic slave trade and Africans part in it; there is this loss of memory, or the attempt to not discuss this very painful history...not only in terms of those exported, but also African slavery that virtually lasted until the turn of the twentieth century.....
The point is, this very difficult history is not known or not addressed on both sides of the atlantic, and therefore there is ignorance among all of us.
NOw, I am an African American. I am not average by any means. I embrace Africa, the Caribbean, and blacks throughout the Diaspora. I do not think any socalled group is more or less superior. That is foolish to me!
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Kola_boof
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 3826
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 11:21 am: |
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Dahomeyhosi,
With all due respect, this following paragraph is EXACTLY WHY you are unqualified to speak on the subject of African Americans and their history:
YOU SAID:
It amazes me that the average black American knows nothing about their ancestors and yet you say they have the blood of 200 ethnicities. Are none of these important enough to pass down as the Cherokee or Blackfoot ethnicity that so many of them cradle like fragile egg? I am not capable of understanding the horrors of slavery that could prevent a parent from whispering the name or nation of an ancestor to a child. There were Brazilian slaves who came back to West Africa after generations had passed and slavery ended. They came back with stories and identities intact.
__________
Did you seee the scene in the movie "BELOVED" when they were hanging the African parents so that they could not pass their language to their slave offspring?
Do you realize that it's IMPOSSIBLE to pass on your lineage when the AMERICAN SLAVEMASTER (not the Brazilian or West Indian, because their system of slavery was different), but the AMERICAN SLAVEMASTER deliberately mated Igbos with Fulani, Ashanti with Wolof....Ga with Serahuli....in other words, each slave was paired up with an African from an ENEMY TRIBE and in most cases, they could not even speak the same African language.
As the film "BELOVED" showed---they HUNG the parents of the first arriving Africans to keep their culture and language from being passed on.
This went on for a hundred years until the "Nigger" was created, which was followed by an additional 300 years of teaching these people that they were slaves because the BIBLE said so--that they were "niggers"---and inherently inferior.
AMERICAN INDIANS also owned Black Slaves in this country.
You really are the typical ignorant African immigrant who doesn't realize what has happened to these people---and as far as I'm concerned, 400 years is NOT LONG ENOUGH for their genetic ties to be severed with the African people.
TRUE ENOUGH...I am not their mother, because I am North African, and YOU ironically are more related to them than I am. But I am claiming them as OURS. After knowing what has happened here, I HAVE TO.
I HAVE TO!, Dahomeyhosi.
We're not talking about IMMIGRANTS (which is what you are)---we're talking about KIDNAP VICTIMS....your own people who were forced across the ocean in fucking chains!
And I'm sorry, but when I see the "majority" of African-Americans and look into their African-featured faces, wooly hair and MANNERISMS that are undeniably African.....all I see is AFRICA.
That's what I see.
I don't know how you could not--unless you're suppressing and not acknowledging your own prejudice and resentment--and you've already demonstrated an ignorance for their reality.
And lastly...I MUST ARGUE THIS NEXT THING....
If we know (and WE DO) that the European, the Arab and the Asian benefit from a SHARED WHITENESS, a shared Arabness, a shared Asian-ness.....then why on earth would we not be strategically smart enough to endeavor a "SHARED BLACKNESS".
The Whites RULE the world foremost because of their shared Whiteness and I love brilliance---and that's brilliant.
I don't know why on earth, ESPECIALLY now that you're mating with a goddamned Japanese---that you wouldn't want to see Black people (and I admit, I am talking BLACK PEOPLE, not Mulatto or anyone else whose blood is a THREAT to Blackness)....but WHY would you not want to see Black people united if for no other reason by strategical?
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Kola_boof
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 3827
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 11:21 am: |
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Happy new year to you, too, YUKIO |
Dahomeyahosi
Regular Poster
Username: Dahomeyahosi
Post Number: 139
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 11:48 am: |
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Yukio,
Your point about Euro-Africans simply reinforces what I have said. It is not skin color that matters but how much individual Africans reflect the cultural beliefs of their ancestors. I have never been to the southern U.S. so I will have to acknowledge what you've said about southern black Americans and maybe one day I'll have the opportunity to see for myself.
As far as the average African being ignorant of black Americans can you please explain why the average African should know black American history? Most African slaves did not go to the U.S. if this is the link that is supposed to bond us together. I know black American history, to some degree, because I went to high school here but the average African has no need to know black American history. Contrarily the average black American counts many of their ancestors, and much of their human history from Africa. In spite of this it is often said that black American history begins with slavery and everytime black history month rolls around this appears to be the reflected truth. This means that at this late date the average black American still does not take the time to investigate Africa. I honestly don't mind if they do or don't. But why do some call themselves African-American if they are culturally distinct and racially mixed? If they feel their continued oppression is purely based on skin color and they bond based on skin color why isn't "black American" the name? I do know a little about black Brazilian and Haitian history because black Brazilians returned to Benin and have reintegrated into our communities. Many Haitians also come to Benin because we are the only West African country that holds a national holiday for Vodun and Benin is well known as the birthplace of vodun. I share a bond with these people and I have been informed by them.
If you can point out where I have called any group superior to another please do so. I don't believe I have. What I have done is stated that I will not call black Americans African-Americans
because I think it's more than a little absurd. If you feel a kindred spirit with blacks throughout the diaspora because of their skin color I think that's great but I don't share that mindset. It's usually a mindset found amongst people who formed their identities while being crushed under a white majority. I had the good fortune to grow up outside of such an environment. Pan-Africanism is not very popular on the continent and I believe it is largely due to this fact.
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Dahomeyahosi
Regular Poster
Username: Dahomeyahosi
Post Number: 140
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 11:49 am: |
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Yukio,
You should also know that slavery still exists in Africa and I don't see any end to it in the near future. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 7685
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 12:15 pm: |
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Dahomeyahosi,
If CULTURES means so much more to you than COLOR, why do you visit this website, one whose content is disproportionately African AMERICAN in perspective? |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1539
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 12:49 pm: |
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Dahomeyahosi: I know that slavery still exists, but I was speaking particularly to the relationship between w.africans and socalled african americans.
This exchange is based on the assumption that there is one-way or a best way of thinking about the term African American. And there just isn't one way. You can look at it as you wish, which I will call the African culturalists position or the way it was meant to be understood, which is what Kola has delineated above.
what you call culture is, as you have delineated here, the absence of knowledge about Africa on the part of afr. americans. In other words, you want afr. amer. to know more than just slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. I agree you! I agree with you! I agree with you, wholeheartedly!
But it aint taught; this is the U.S. Dahomeyahosi. You must remember that first. And we are African Americans, enslaved, oppressed, and exploited...why would this country teach us about our whole history? You speak as if we are not talking about a continued battle on the part of African Americans, what you call black americans, that is economic but also cultural!
But you are generally correct as it pertains to the igorance among afr. americans[or black americans]. There are many reasons for this, but must of it has to do with, what C. Woodson called, the "miseducation of the negro." So, we do not have disagreement here. I would say, however, if we look at African American expressive culture...that is the music, literature, poetry, etc....it is fundamentally African. That is, if you look beyond the surface the Africanity, whether you and afr. americans are conscious of it or not, it is primarily African in sensibility.
This, I think, is a better way of looking at culture rather than discussing what we think we know from books.
I disagree with the idea that afr. amer. history begins with slavery...it begins w/west. african history before the transatlantic slave trade if we are speaking particularly about the African cultural behaviors or values that afri. american continue to possess. It begin w/ ancient african history, however, if we are speaking of black history in general.
In the same sense, if we are speaking of black history or Africana history not african history we are speaking of Africa and the African diaspora.
By the way, I didn't say that you believed any group superior, I was just explaining my politics. Finally, I am a pan-africanist, and it has nothing to do with color, in fact. That pan-africanism is not popular in Africa doesn't disqualify it's importance.
Finally, that the majority of Africans were not enslaved and then stolen and exported to the U.S. does not mean this history is outside of African history. In other words, especially if you are w.african, it is not about just being part of the African diaspora:
a. begin with the portuguese along the senegambia in the 1450s and 60s- to the end of the trade in the 1850s, we are talkin about 400 yrs. of people being stolen and lost....to the both the Americas as well as the trans-sahara trade and the east African trade.
b. the transatlantic trade accelerated slavery in Africa. That is, African statehood across the w.african coast beginning especially in the 16th century was an attempt to profit from the trade. King Afonso I of the Kingdom of Kongo comes to mind, here. He formed an alliance w/the Portuguese , and through skirmishes and tribute collection, his state acquired slaves for export...
c. the loss of men and women, but especially men to the Americas dishelved African communities in the interiors especially but also along the coast of west. africa., from senegal through angola.
d. the continuation of slavery in africa AFTER the termination of the formal slave trade was used as a reason for Europeans to return to the coasts for the purpose of colonialism.
In other words, whether you like it or not there are major links that include more than the exportation of Africans to the Americans, but a transatlantic history which includes Africans and the African diaspora....a history that neither Africans nor black Americans, if you prefer, nor Brazilians, etc...know because this must larger and complicated history i still being written.
In a very basic way, the transatlantic slave trade impacted Africa beyond the actual slave trade, and this history is as much Africans as it is African Americans. Pan Africanists, by the way, understand this....
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Kola_boof
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 3836
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 12:53 pm: |
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Now Dahomeyhosi, please keep in mind that YUKIO and I are not of the same beliefs, because of course--we have fought years over his contention that Mulattoes and Blacks are the same race--so in that way, he and I are not on the same page.
But he is an African-American and therefore because of being a SLAVE was forced to believe that one dropist _______. He doesn't see it as disrespectful to black people.
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Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1540
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 01:08 pm: |
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Kola_boof, my sista:
I have never said that mulattoes and blacks are the same. what I have said is that you can not assume that a socalled mulattoes is anti-black and a socalled black person is pro-black.
I am a product of my own history, as you know, as you are of yours. The history of enslaved Africans whom were transported to the Americas and then exploited as free labor until 1865 has created the idea that I am a black man. And people who have white blood, indian blood, etc...have lived their lives in this particular country as black people by the law of the land, the customs of the land, and the culture of the land.
Thus, I know nothing else. This is what we can call lived experience as well as the particular history of the enslaved Africans [and their progeny].
Finally Kola,it is not because of being a SLAVE but being a SLAVE in the U.S. As I have stated, slavery in Africa accelerated because of the transatlantic slave trade...and therefore, slaves in W.Africa and throughout the continent in general would remain "pure" and "non-one dropist" because they were exploited by other Africans. So the question is not status--being a SLAVE--but place of enslavement.
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Kola_boof
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 3838
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 01:13 pm: |
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I don't consider your STATUS to be one of a "SLAVE" Yukio.
I never said that.
I am saying that you were raised BY WHITE MEN to honor the lies that they imbedded in U.S. slaves just as the African Slaves believes the lies imbedded by his BLACK MAN slave master.
I am not calling you a slave...nor do I see you as "LESS" than me.
On more than one occasion I have referred to you in closing as "my master/my husband"....so I certainly don't think I'm better than you, and I have tried to show parity--although--I'm CUSHITIC and I simply can't be ruled over by Mulattoes (yellow people, multi-racials). I can't.
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Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1541
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 01:16 pm: |
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Finally, I say this w/all respect, I think we, people of all groups or ethicities, should stop presuming that a person from that particular culture is an ambassador of that group or culture.
We must really take seriously that, IN GENERAL, many of us only know of our particular everyday experiences...and often times, these experiences do not include a serious engagement w/our history, however one conceptualizes "our history."
This is why, I agree that many African American do know much of Africa, but I would argue that most African Americans know little of African American history; similarly, I would say the same about africans, as well as w. indians in general.
a year ago, i spoke with this sista from ghana, and while she could tell me about her language, ethnic group, etc....she knew NOTHING of ghana's political history, the strong presence of African American expatriates in Ghana beyond african american tourists. These doesn't mean she isn't a real Ghanian, but that in general we, as humans in general, know mostly about what we experience and our very provincial and local history. |
Kola_boof
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 3839
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 01:16 pm: |
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And let me apologize to Dahomeyahosi for referring to her as...mating with a goddamned Japanese.
I meant that "sarcastically", not literally, and I certainly do understand the reason WHY a West African woman in America would marry a Japanese man.
Of course, I am sad that she could not find a Beninese husband, but....that's water under the bridge. I mated with a Belizean not an Arab or Sudanese myself.
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Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1542
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 01:21 pm: |
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Kola:
I understood that, my beloved. Finally, i aint a mulattoe..LOL! I am the complexion of brotha, Chiwetel Ejiofor, bald, broad nose, full lips, and 5'9", muscular....so whats next? LOL! |
Kola_boof
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 3841
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 01:26 pm: |
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I know you're not a Mulatto Yukio.
You're light honey brown with West African nose you said.
I was just referencing arguments we've had about me not wanting to embrace Dominicans and such.
But I will say that I am grateful that you are being kind to me and speaking to me.
You weren't always.
I love you, Yukio.
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Lola_ogunnaike
Regular Poster
Username: Lola_ogunnaike
Post Number: 476
Registered: 10-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 01:37 pm: |
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It all boils down to what color your clitoris is |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1543
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 01:38 pm: |
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kola:
i have always spoke to you...and i am better at agreeing to disagree. I say if people don't embrace you understand why...I embrace Dominicans as people of color, as I do all people of color and even white folk as humans. I have learned to create my own little space, that is multicultural and of various sexual orientation generally, based on shared politics. I embrace them as humans NOT AT ALL the issues that their groups has w/my group! As one of my ghanian brothas told me long ago when he first came to this country black americans, or african americans, believed in blackness as if it was some team...that is, if you dont go for what the whole of the group is going for, then you are excluded from the group....his point was that being black is more than having a few slogans and adhering to what the groups thinks is right...i embrace this same position...and oftentimes, African Americans look at me like I am crazy because I may not tote or favor a socalled "african American" perspective or position....
what can one do but love themselves and their people if if their people don't understand them!
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Dahomeyahosi
Regular Poster
Username: Dahomeyahosi
Post Number: 143
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 12, 2007 - 07:37 pm: |
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Kola,
I was saddened to see you curse my husband so I appreciate your apology. I never sought out a Beninese husband specifically but was in a relationship with a Cameroonian for some time. I never imagined I'd marry a Japanese man but I love all non-white men and I have a weakness for physically attractive men, especially ones who think things through. I am convinced he is the one but if we have a child she will be an adopted West African from my sister, who is married to an Ivorian because I don't plan to have any.
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Kola_boof
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 3984
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 12, 2007 - 07:43 pm: |
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Again Dahomeyahosi, I do apologize.
You're one of my favorite posters, and I find you so endlessly interesting, especially for your "spiritual" beliefs, as our philosophy is identical.
I'm certain that to be married to you, your husband must be an impressive man.
And take solace that Kola will never marry and find happiness! (LOL!)
She has too many demons to slay, but I really don't care about happiness for myself. PRAY FOR MY FILMS, Dahomeyahosi---that is the one thing, sister I ask. Please. It's what I want as my emblem at death.
tima usrah
(through fire comes the family)
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Dahomeyahosi
Regular Poster
Username: Dahomeyahosi
Post Number: 144
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 12, 2007 - 07:47 pm: |
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Kola,
I am anxiously awaiting your films and will certainly direct positive energy towards their creation.
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Dahomeyahosi
Regular Poster
Username: Dahomeyahosi
Post Number: 145
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 12, 2007 - 08:07 pm: |
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Yukio,
Yes slavery had a huge impact on West Africa. As a southern Beninese woman I have the blood of a nation that thrived chiefly as a result of slavery. Dahomey was a huge component of the slave coast. We raided weaker nations for the sole purpose of exporting the humans therein. If it were not for slavery Dahomey would not have been strong enough to fend off the French for as long we did. Benin apologized for our hand in slavery but I must admit that I believe it was done moreso as a gesture to receive more of the tourism that has blessed Ghana rather than a genuine affirmation of responsibility and sorrow.
I feel an immense sorrow when I see what has happened to the descendants of those slaves and I have to acknowledge the fact that my ancestors played a huge role and deal with that as an individual. Unfortunately most Beninese don't feel remorse and some have even ventured to say that they wish they themselves had been shipped over. There was a black American journalist, I believe his name was Keith Richburg who said that he was greatful for having been the descendants of U.S. slaves. People are strange.
As far as individuals being ambassadors of history I think the Ghanaian you mentioned is typical of West Africans for two reasons. First of all most West AFricans identify primarily as members of our ethnic groups and secondarily as citizens of a nation. I don't remember ever thinking of myself as an "African" until I came to the U.S. and no one knew what Benin was. If we are blessed to know history it is the oral history of our ancestors which I learned largely outside of school and I assume others do as well. Second of all most West African leaders, including an eventually notoriously corrupt Nkrumah, paid little more than lip service to truly representing the needs and desires of their people. Few of them merit being honored or remembered as much as we honor and remember those ancestors who might never be in the textbooks. |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1549
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 12, 2007 - 10:48 pm: |
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dahomeyahosi: right. I used Nkrumah because he is available in books, and you said that African Americans have access to this information and don't, generally speaking, seek this history out in order to incorporate it into their larger knowledge base as a group that class itself Africans first and then American, African American.
As far as Benin is concerned, i would add that it wasn't just descendants of Africans that were exported off, but Africans who remained throughout Africa. Their families were desimated, it also transformed sex ratios, creating a larger surplus of African women who became domestic slaves, concubines, and co-wives. In addition, it was notunusual for Dahomeans to be enslaved by their own as well as Europeans. The trade was so lucrative that African and European traders did not necessarily follow any....legitimate procedures. Thus, Africans were stolen along the littoral as well as the interior.
At any rate, I hear you. And, while I don't agree with all of what you have said, I certainly respect your position. I, for example, would not call you an African American but an African or, as Kola says, a Beninese-American |
Tropical_storm
Regular Poster
Username: Tropical_storm
Post Number: 75
Registered: 10-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, January 13, 2007 - 05:04 pm: |
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I believe Beninese-Americans are a subset of African-Americans just as Japanese-Americans are a subset of Asian-Americans.
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I agree with you except that term is already taken so to refer to yourself as an Afr. Am. only causes confusion. I have heard the term "American African" to describe American-born Africans.
I simply call Afro-Americans "Black" because that is what I most often hear them call themselves.
Of course I NEVER call ANY Africans "Black." |
Enchanted
Veteran Poster
Username: Enchanted
Post Number: 646
Registered: 11-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, January 13, 2007 - 05:28 pm: |
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Hell you dont have to call them black their color speaks for them LOL  !!!
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Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1565
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, January 13, 2007 - 05:52 pm: |
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Tropical_storm: it is a touchy subject, I think. At least for me.
since many african americans, that is those who
are descendants of slaves in the U.S., or descendants of free blacks, don't really make distinctions between "African Americans" and "black," your distinction makes sense.
But, when Africans, as some have done here, and I have had some friends say to me..." I am the real African American," here is where the confusion arises. Because, oftentimes, not all the time, but oftentimes, these Africans do not understand the origins of the term African American as it was meant to be understood. And, their understanding of the term places more emphasis on being culturally African rather than making the political statement, that we embrace our African ancestry. That blacks don't know much about this ancestry is indeed a problem, as I have agreed with Dahomeyahosi, but to take ownership of a political term w/o knowing or understanding its political and history origins and context is disrespectful to me at least.
I see it as a smack in the face! And this, I believe, is because of miseducation, lack of cultural awareness, etc....
But, when you come to the U.S., and you tell a "black american" that his/her history and life experiences do not qualify them to use the adjective African to identify themselves because they do not fit your idea of what an "authentic" African is suppose to fit, that is a tacit smack in the face. African is hypenizing American.
To say black-and then American depoliticizes our identity, first of all. More fundamental, to just use black in front of American, make it seem, to me at least, that the only thing that distinguishes us from "Americans," read white Americans, is our color...this erases our long as history of struggle!
Now, I admit, I cling less to something kind of verifiable indicator of blackness. I aint one to do that....
African Americans do not claim to be African. And being born in the U.S. and having a green card may make you a citizen of this country, but it doesn't mean you have an understanding of the experiences of a people who have been catching hell here since the 17th century.
And that group, whether we except the one-droppist rule or not, include a melange of colors, hues, hair textures, that constitute a black community in the U.S. context. |
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