I Am a Black Man

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I Am a Black Man

I am a Black man
An Afrikan man
My history is that of humanity
My roots predate the calendar
Afrika is my home
My contributions are
all that is / has been / will be thought (i.e. civilized ideas)
all that is / has been / will be said (i.e. cultivated words)
all that is / has been / will be done (i.e. creative actions)

I am a Black man
An Afrikan man
My father’s son
My thoughts include his thoughts
My blood and bone and flesh include his
My work include his spirit
I follow in his footsteps
I continue them —
and make my own

I am a Black man
An Afrikan man
Speak not to me of compromise
I am straight line i.e. will
I am upward spiral i.e. growth
I am circle i.e. fulfillment
My goal is perfection
My path is productivity
My vehicle is power

I am a Black man
An Afrikan man
Re-ascending my throne
I tolerate no obstacle
Hindrances do not deter me
I feed on impediments
I shall purge my kingdom

All poachers beware
It’s game warden time

I am a Black man
An Afrikan man
Do not attack me with media cries of Chauvinism
(Exploitation is a foreign product — imported by Negroes)
Do not try to change me — I reject the effeminate
Do not ask me to cry — tears are for the trembling and watery
eyes anathema to the warrior
(i.e. the enemy must remain in focus until the enemy no longer
remains)
Do not attempt to domesticate me —
I cannot protect you with dishpan hands

I am a Black man
An Afrikan man
In time of war
Present me with harmony but
Speak not to me of peace
Until victory is ours
Present me with unconditional love
That I might
Present us with unconditional liberation

I am a Black man
An Afrikan man
Acknowledge my strength
Offer me not prizes for weakness
Do not encourage the superficial
Tempt me not with diversion
If you are my friend — fight by my side or heal my wounds
If you are my enemy — confess

I am a Black man
An Afrikan man
Detained
But not destroyed
Enslaved
But not extinct
Conquered and
Oppressed
But not for long

I am a Black man
An Afrikan man
Fighting for the future / heading for home
Manhood
Be my momentum
Nationhood
Be my challenge
Familyhood
Be my reward

~George Edward Tait

Via Warrior’s of Black Consciousness

You are a woman, Nothing less

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#AfroEllePoetry by Somali poet Farah Gabdon
(What I will tell my daughter)
Someday you will be told that a woman’s gaze must never stretch as far as a man’s. That his should soar above the seventh heaven -like shooting stars between planets- to find himself on Saturn’s rings but yours- yours must never exceed the ceiling of your house because you were made different.
Your place- lies in the cleanliness of kitchen shelves the dust between radiator and wall the stains on both carpet and floor- because you are a woman… nothing more.
You see, They might say That a woman’s gaze should never stretch as far as a man’s. No, yours must stretch further.
Because you are a woman, Nothing less.
Photo credit: Shompole by Jemma Davies

Orijin Culture | Magazine & Fashion

Sole Power

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Kenyans can now charge phones from the soles of their shoes through a technology entering mass production. Kenya’s 25-year-old Anthony Mutua developed an ultra- thin chip that generates electricity when put under pressure. The chip charges the phone when placed 10cm from a shoe taken off after walking or running. With funding from the National Council for Science and Technology, Mutua is now selling the charger and his branded shoe dubbed Am-utua, which retails at between KSh1,800 and KSh4,200 ($20-50). “I have sold 912 pairs of my own branded shoe and fitted about 2,200 shoes with my chips,” says Mutua, whose idea is patented in Kenya though the shoes are made in India.”Eventually I will transfer the production of the shoes to Kenya,” he says. He has turned to GoFundMe, a fundraising website, to raise KSh16m to establish a plant in his own country.”

Read the original article on Theafricareport.com : Thirty ideas shaking up Africa | Frontline Follow us: @theafricareport on Twitter | theafricareport on Facebook

When I took my blackness “out of the closet”: denial, recognition and pride

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Black Brazil Today

Note from BW of Brazil:The question of race and racial identity in Brazil has been historically explained and promoted as the extreme opposite of the racial scheme in the United States. Whereas in the US, “one drop” of “black blood”, or African ancestry, made one black regardless of their physical appearance, many believe that, in Brazil, one drop of “white blood”, or European ancestry, could make one non-black or in some cases, white. The belief in the fluidity of race in Brazil due to widespread miscegenation implied that this contributed to making racial relations much more harmonious than the in US where racial antagonism was open and strong. Although these have been the accepted beliefs, like Brazil’s famed “racial democracy” myth, the truth is more complex at the least and a complete sham at the extreme.

In recent years, more and more Brazilians of African descent have been finding…

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