<![CDATA[Assata Shakur Speaks - Hands Off Assata - Let's Get Free - Revolutionary - Pan-Africanism - Black On Purpose - Liberation - Forum - 17,34]]> http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/ Assata Shakur Speaks is a Site Devoted To Assata Shakur And All Political Prisoners Around The World. Assata Shakur Speaks Is An Oasis Of Pan African Information Geared Towards The Liberation Of Afrikan People. Powered by The Talking Drum Collective. en Tue, 21 May 2013 09:49:23 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/images/misc/rss.png <![CDATA[Assata Shakur Speaks - Hands Off Assata - Let's Get Free - Revolutionary - Pan-Africanism - Black On Purpose - Liberation - Forum - 17,34]]> http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/ Hands off Assata London Protests http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57384-hands-off-assata-london-protests.html Sat, 18 May 2013 03:40:26 GMT



Protesters at the London Embassy vehemently denounced the US government for putting former Black Panther Assata Shakur, who escaped from US jail in 1979, on the FBI's 'most wanted terrorists' list with a $2 million bounty for her life.

Tonight's London protest followed a protest last Thursday organised by the recently formed Black is Black coalition at the Harlem State Office Building in New York last Thursday after the US government added Assata Shakur to the list, and doubling the reward to anyone who brings her back from Cuba, dead or alive.

The protest at the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square was sponsored by the Black is Back coalition along with the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) and the We Are Patrice Lumumba Coalition. Also speaking were people from the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and other activists from Africa and South America, and there were a few from the British left in the audience.

None of those present believe that Shakur who was in a car that was stopped by police in 1973 was guilty of the murder for which she was convicted - and she was apparently holding up her hands as ordered by a police officer who was pointing a gun at her when the killing took place and was herself shot twice. Forensic tests proved she had not fired a gun. Her conviction came as part of a concerted series of arrests and trials - this was the seventh crime with which she was charged, three of the previous six cases being dismissed and she was acquitted three times.

Two years after her conviction on the murder charge she was freed from jail by armed Black Liberation Army members and after being in several 'safe houses' in the US was granted asylum in Cuba four years later.

The protesters argue that 'terrorism' is now the charge that is being made against all political dissidents in the US, and that anyone who stands up against imperialism and for African liberation or African nationalism is now to be labelled as a terrorist. As Glen Ford of Black Agenda Radio put it last week "They are publicly defining the Black liberation movement as a priority domestic target for repression."

One speaker at the event said that imperialism is essentially parasitic: "like a mosquito, it sucks the blood of all the people on earth. We are the host..." Another ended his speech with a call for unity among all those opposed to Western imperialism with the words "United we stand" and the crowd of around thirty people with one voice completed the phrase: "Divided we fall." It was very much in this spirit that the Black is Back Coalition demanding Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, whose banner was held up at the front of the protest, was formed in 2009.

For Black activists, President Obama is a great disappointment, black only in skin colour and ancestry, but they see him very much as a front for white imperialism, and much of the chanting at the event was directed against him, as the leader of the country they see as the real agent of terror in the world, or, as they put it, "Uncle Sam is the Real Terrorist", behind many coups and illegal killings around the world, through CIA operations, illegal invasions such as Iraq and Afghanistan, commando raids, torture at Guantanamo and other bases and targeted assassinations by drone attacks. Several mentioned the recent murder in Mexico of Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of US political activist Malcolm X which they felt must be the result of US agencies. ]]> Afrikan World News XXPANTHAXX http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57384-hands-off-assata-london-protests.html Hands off assata rally 5/10/2013 ......pittsburgh http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57383-hands-off-assata-rally-5-10-2013-pittsburgh.html Sat, 18 May 2013 03:33:27 GMT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-4OGfzP3DQ ]]> Afrikan World News XXPANTHAXX http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57383-hands-off-assata-rally-5-10-2013-pittsburgh.html Hands Off Assata Rally in Newark 5/10/13 http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57382-hands-off-assata-rally-newark-5-10-13-a.html Sat, 18 May 2013 03:25:07 GMT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gVREIT91Rc ]]> Afrikan World News XXPANTHAXX http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57382-hands-off-assata-rally-newark-5-10-13-a.html <![CDATA[Assata Shakur: Re-Imaging "Terrorism" Into the Face Of a Black Woman]]> http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57381-assata-shakur-re-imaging-terrorism-into-face-black-woman.html Sat, 18 May 2013 02:53:55 GMT Assata Shakur: Re-Imaging "Terrorism" Into the Face Of a Black Woman


DID OBAMA FBI RE-IMAGE BOMBERS INTO FACE OF BLACK WOMAN TO COUNTER SMILING, WHITE-BOY-NEXT-DOOR-LOOK OF THE BOSTON BOMBERS?

May 8, 2013 by Alexandra Valiente
By Ezili Dantò
HLLN

On Thursday, May 2, 2013, Assata Shakur became the first woman added to the FBI’s most wanted terrorists list. The reward for her capture was doubled to $2 million. Shakur is the second person originally from the United States to be placed on the FBI terrorist list.

Assata Shakur is 65-years old and living in exile in Cuba. She was a member of the Black Panther Party For Self-Defense, the Black Liberation Movement and the Anti-War Movement back in the 1960s. She was falsely convicted in 1973 for killing a New Jersey state trooper during a gunfight where she was shot twice while having both her arms held up in the air, and also shot in the back.

Shakur is the step-aunt and godmother to famed Hip-Hop artist and poet, Tupac Shakur and has always maintained her innocence and accused federal authorities of political persecution under Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO operations to destroy the Black power movement for human rights.

A surgeon who examined her wounds after the shooting said it was “anatomically necessary” for her arms to have been raised for her to receive the bullet wounds she did and that her hand wounds made it “anatomically impossible” for her have fired the shot that killed the state trooper. No gun powder was found on her hands. In 1979, Shakur escaped from jail, later fleeing to Cuba where she received political asylum.

After holding the press conference to suddenly declare Assata Shakur a domestic terrorist who killed a state trooper “execution style” (which grossly misstates the documented and reported evidence), the FBI proceeded, 40-years after the incident, to place huge “most wanted terrorist” billboard photos of Assata in New Jersey.

“We’re talking about a woman who was shot twice while attempting to give herself up to police who were co-operating with Federal authorities to target and assassinate or otherwise eliminate members of the Black Liberation movement just as they had done and admitted in a civil lawsuit to doing to Martin Luther King Jr.” – Scotty Reid, Black Talk Radio.

In these fascist heydays of the morally corrupt financial elites, effectively represented by Barack Obama, the billboard photo simply re-images bombers and terrorists with the face of an African woman.

For psychological purposes, for white supremacy, its vampirish, cannibalistic taste, its world-renown avarice, for the Euro minority’s desperate historical and world lies to keep working, it seems that the kind, smiling, curly-haired white-boy-next-door-look of young Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev or of Connecticut’s Adam Lanza – had to be countered pretty fast, no? Even if Obama’s FBI had to reach back 40-years to re-make reality for today.

It seems, Obama’s FBI found it convenient in this climate when the US public is reeling from shock and fear, after the Connecticut Sandy Hook school massacre and the Boston marathon bombings, to confuse the issue. Re-imaging bombers and mindless gunmen with the face of an African woman freedom fighter and putting her pictures on billboards in New Jersey serves not to find Shakur but only to intimidate the Black community and other civilian justice advocates legitimately protesting the prison industrial complex and US police departments killing unarmed, innocent citizens with impunity.

Adam Lanza, 20. Shot his mother and then fatally shot twenty children and six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in cold blood.

If the FBI’s mandate is to preserve and protect the lives of the innocent, then FBI resources would best be applied to reign in the rogue police departments in the US that kill unarmed innocent citizens, especially in the Black community, with impunity. The FBI would better serve the public if they paid more attention to these domestic terror cells or concentrated more on finding the potential Lanzas and Tsarnaevs before these mentally disturbed folks caused public harm.

Attacking and re-imaging a 65-year old Black woman, not even living in the US as a dangerous “domestic terrorist,” who presumably would, like the mindless, gun-toting Lanza, hurt innocent school children, or like the two white Boston bombers, indiscriminately kill marathon watchers and participants is an outragous misuse of the public trust and a gross distortion of the 1960s Black liberation struggle.

This is the very same FBI that’s accused of dropping the ball on the elder Boston bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

It is amazing — and pathetic — how swiftly the FBI felt compelled to frame the domestic terrorism conversation around a Black revolutionary living in Cuba, instead of two White men from Boston. - Kirsten West Savali, Newsone.com

The huge Assata Shakur “FBI most wanted” billboards, plastered in New Jersey where Obama’s FBI know Assata Shakur is not living, is, as many have noted, about politically repressing the Black community. A pretext to invade, send drones to Cuba? Shut up human rights avocates who struggle against tyrannical US foreign and domestic policies? Repress public dissent by dehumanizing and misrepresenting justice advocates as psychopaths or cold-blooded executioner?

“This is not about Assata Shakur, it is about sending a message to the Black community and those that live within it who stand up to police violence, oppression and murder of residents, one of the very reasons for the formation of the Black Panthers. It is about the political repression of those who advocate on the behalf of the many political prisons being held by the United States government often in torturous conditions. It is about sending a message to anyone who would take up arms in defense of life, liberty and true freedom in a country that is home to the largest prison population in the world which the federal government and various corporations use as slave labor. It is about sending a message to those that would dare stand up and point out that the US government is the most violent entity on the planet and one that commits acts of terrorism against non-white people and nations on behalf of maintaining the American imperialist status-quo.”

The Black collaborators and sell-outs who uphold white supramacy

The colonial role of Bafyòti yo, the Black collaborators like Obama, Eric Holder, and the Black FBI agent that was put up-front to help make the announcement at their press conference- are critical.

Haiti has proven this and showed the way out with the Bwa Kayiman call to action for all Africans and liberty lovers.

The Black collaborators and sell-outs for the enslavers fulfill an essential role for the colonial blueprint and false narrative to work and for the Empire’s key stakeholders, for these white minorities to rule the world’s masses they’ve contained-in-poverty, infected with deadly diseases, killed, imprisoned, brutalized, repressed, falsely accused, hunted down or coopted. (But, see “They wait without hate“.)

It is critical to highlight over and over again how Obama is used to distract and cover up the recolonization, AFRICOM/US militarization, drone warfare in Africa, US occupation in Haiti and to whitewash the absolute police and economic repression in Black communities in the USA. White supremacy continues because of the behavior of the Black collaborators, the poor and disconnected who are daily bought out.

Assata Shakur was targeted by the FBI’s COINTELPRO program and forced into exile. But it is sadly under Barack Obama and Eric Holder that, 40-years later, Assata becomes the first woman freedom fighter added to the FBI’s most wanted terrorist list as a “threat” to the US government with the reward for her capture doubled to $2 million.

Freedom warriors like Assata Shakur and others in the Black Liberation Movement helped pave the way, during the sixties liberation movement, for an Obama, Eric Holder, Susan Rice, Cheryl Mills to attend previously segregated schools of higher learning. Helped pave the way for them to hold the positions they hold today. Black culture in America evidences that death is not the worst end for a human being and thus Blacks have endured the various stages of white tyranny with dignity for over 400 years , not becoming what their Ancestors fought against.

Yet, in one fell swoop, under Obama, the FBI is projecting upon the Black community perhaps their boss’ personal failures as the head of the white supremacist, profit-over-people world structure. It speaks to the dangerous effectiveness of the power elites Obama services that his presidancy can, without much outrage, attempt to destroy the Ancestors’ dignified legacy as today’s impoverished Black community is being falsely colored as mindless mass bombers who kill innocent civilians.

It’s ironic how Black collaborators, who are also inheritors of Assata Shakur’s freedom work, are now the bounty hunters hunting down anew Assata Shakur who clearly represents universal freedom for all, not mindless terrorism as they would have us believe.

Washington knows she’s not a terrorist. They just want to shut her up because Assata Shakur continues, even while in exile like Mumia Abu Jamal on death row, to exercise her freedom of speech, her right to advocate for “revolutionary changes in the structure and principles that govern the United States.”

Lennox Hind, her attorney since the 1970s says: “The act she was (falsely) convicted of had nothing to do with terrorism.”

The revolutionary Assata Shakur, once described as the soul of the Black Liberation Movement in the 1970s has pointed out that the same US/white power structure of yesterday’s COINTELPRO still practices, with the complicity of the corporate media, systemic terror, racist tyranny against the Black community.

“COINTELPRO utilized and received full cooperation from the corporate media to demonize and alienate freedom fighters from the people who supported them, corporate media today is still fulfilling that role. The concept of a free and independent press in America has always been a fraud and it remains so today.” – Scotty Reid, FBI Billboards not about Assata Shakur, it is about politically repressing the Black community.

The Haiti Parallels and Bwa Kayiman Wisdom

The US government making false accusations to criminalize, marginalize or get killed civilian dissenters to its structural injustices happens not only in the US but in Haiti, regularly. And yet if they used the same standards.

Which is why Ezili HLLN writes the non-colonial narrative for Haiti.

Why, for instance, this week when the corporate media had a field day plastering the “news” that the defunct, Wyclef Jean charity Yele Haiti, was being sued for not paying its bills. We posted it thus:

“Wyclef’s Yele Haiti hit with $100K lawsuit. When will Red Cross, Chemonics, DynCorp and Clinton Foundation be sued?” (See also, Ezili Dantò’s Note: The sea of injustice we live in will have you believing Wyclef Jean stole the earthquake monies in Haiti.)

But the Haiti voice keeping track. Asking why the whites stealing with impunity get no media coverage. Just advocating for “revolutionary changes in the structure and principles that govern the United States”, or for self-determination, self-reliance and self-defense is criminalized and, as in the case of Assata, will bring the might of the FBI or other authorities on the justice seekers’ head, for life.

But still, “live free or die” is Desalin’s imperative. So we must face evil straight up, not become media zombies. For Haiti, one must always ask again and again why is the world allowing the lawless UN to hide the US occupation of Haiti with impunity? Why is Wyclef Jean always getting sued, but the UN, the Clinton Foundation, Red Cross, Dyncorp, Chemonics, “Partners & Death”, USAID, their large NGOs, et al, are not also being sued for legal improprieties, money laundering, ethical conflicts of interests, over-reaching, switch ‘n bait, not meeting their obligations to Haitians and for stealing Haiti earthquake funds?

Is it because, the white saviors of Haiti, both from the Left and Right Washington duopoly, benefit like bandits, by constantly securing their paternalism and elevating “the Haitians are corrupt” narrative?

Assata Shakur’s life and struggles evidences how the radical, transformative voice against these parasites is systematically suppressed by (Ndòki) the elites, their intelligence agencies, NGOs, medias, military arms.

Haiti women, like Sesil Fatima, Gran Guitonn, Mari Jann, Defile, Grann Toya, Sanit Belè took up arms in self-defense to abolish slavery, forced assimilation, colonialism, the Euro-slave trade that sold their babies as cargo and to create Ayiti.

In the US, it was the FBI’s COINTELPRO that was unleashed to prevent a “Black messiah” from rising.

In Haiti, Jean Bertrand Aristide and the Democracy Movement was destroyed and overthrown twice by the US, its client-states and Haiti-supported oligarchs and death squads.

She was betrayed, captured, put to death by firing squad by the French along with her husband, General Belè, who tried to save his soldier-wife by trading his life for hers. Napoleon’s soldiers killed them both after agreeing to the swap. Sanit’s courage and how she died is what Haitians remember.

She refused to be blindfolded. “Fire,” she urged the French enslavers, baring her naked chest to Napoleon’s firing squad. “You didn’t put a blindfold on my husband. I don’t need your blindfold. This is how a woman warrior dies.” (Ezili Dantò’s Haiti Work: The non-colonial narrative.)

Haiti has been under US occupation since the 2004 bi-centennial US regime change. Its sovereignty grind down to bitter ash with the help of the international economic hit men and the White Savior NGO Industrial complex, headed by the likes of Dr. Paul Farmer, the UN, USAID, the Clintons, George Soros, the Bushes, the Washington “beltway bandits” consulting firms ( DynCorp, Chemonics…) and their Black collaborators.

Haiti is today occupied, terrorized, pillaged, re-enslaved.

“My name is Assata (“she who struggles”) Shakur (“the thankful one”), and I am a 20th century escaped slave. Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the U.S. government’s policy towards people of color.”.” — Assata Shakur

Assata Shakur my sister, djab la di l ap manje w, se pa vre.

Recall Haiti’s Bwa Kayiman – the call, the prayer, the greatest struggle for rebirth ever told…and still unfolding. E, e, Mbomba, e, e! Kanga Bafyòti. Kanga Mundele. Kanga Ndòki. Kanga yo!

Kenbe la Assata. Nou la, nou la. Pa lage. Lamou pa nou an, li pli fò ke lanmò. Chèn sa pap janm kase! Nou fè yon sèl kò. Boukmann pa te fè Bwa Kayiman pou Assata Shakur sevi etranje.

“People get used to anything. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. After a while, people just think oppression is the normal state of things. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave.” — Assata Shakur

Ezili Dantò of HLLN
Desalin’s Descendant
May, 2013 ]]> Afrikan World News XXPANTHAXX http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57381-assata-shakur-re-imaging-terrorism-into-face-black-woman.html ‘Hands Off Assata Shakur Day’ in Harlem! http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57377-%91hands-off-assata-shakur-day%92-harlem.html Fri, 17 May 2013 18:14:53 GMT ‘Hands Off Assata Shakur Day’ in Harlem! By W.A.T.E.R. 17 Special to the AmNews | 0 comments Last Thursday, activists and supporters alike vocalized their disproval regarding the Obama’s administration upping the ante on freedom fighter Assata Shakur the previous week. ‘Hands Off Assata Shakur Day’ in Harlem!






By W.A.T.E.R. 17 Special to the AmNews | 0 comments

Last Thursday, activists and supporters alike vocalized their disproval regarding the Obama’s administration upping the ante on freedom fighter Assata Shakur the previous week.

On May 2, the 40th anniversary of the New Jersey troopers’ murder of Zayd Shakur and attempted murder of her, the Garden State doubled the 2005 bounty offered for her capture—from $1 million to $2 million—while the FBI placed her name on their Most Wanted Terrorist list. Assata is the first woman ever—and only the second domestic—to be placed so prominently.

The day’s events began with a pre-noon press conference at the Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Center inside Harlem’s City College of New York, where May 9 was declared “Hands Off Assata Shakur Day.”

“We demand that the U.S. government totally rescind both its $2 million bounty and Most Wanted Terrorist designation on Assata Shakur, [aka] Joanne Chesimard, and that all efforts to secure her capture by armed bounty hunters, mercenaries and extradition tactics immediately cease,” insisted Black Panther Brother Shep. “We further demand that her political asylum and protection by the sovereign nation of Cuba be respected and that all U.S. law enforcement agents immediately end their own terrorism, harassment and defamation of Assata’s name, family, friends, comrades and supporters. Hands off Assata! She is innocent and she must remain free!”

Attorney Bob Boyle shared legal advice and said, “The labeling of her as a terrorist is really another attempt to implement fear.”

Fellow lawyer Marty Stolar added: “The main thing that we are concerned about, this boosting of the reward for her capture and declaration as a terrorist, is how the U.S. government is challenging the sovereignty of the nation of Cuba. For [the U.S.] to encourage violations of Cuba’s space is a violation of international law.”

Sister Espy spoke from the audience: “We need to see this attack on Assata as an attack on the revolutionary movement worldwide!”

Brother Bullwhip rhetorically questioned, “Who is the nation that is committing terrorist acts on other people at all times? If they come for her, they’re going to come for us.”

At 5 p.m., the crowd, in call-in-response unison, chanted, “Hands Off Assata Shakur!” and “Who’s the terrorist? Don’t tell no lie! The CIA and FBI,” from the Northeast corner of Harlem’s African Square (125th Street and Seventh avenue).

“Assata was a part of the Black revolution of the 1960s, in which African people struggled to overturn this colonial relationship that the U.S. government has with African people of the world,” said Brother Diop from the Black is Back Coalition. “They hate Assata because she is a living and breathing example of revolutionary resistance.”

Black Agenda Report’s Margaret Kimberly surmised: “Make no mistake it is he who has labeled Assata a terrorist, [and now] he can kill her, detain her, or do anything else that he wants. Obama can use Assata as a pretext for attacking Cuba … just as he and NATO did in Libya and now Syria.”

Her colleague, Glenn Ford, pointed out: “We’re not talking criminal justice here; we’re talking about a purely political charge. Terrorism is U.S. policy in the world. It is not [seen as] an aberration. There is no more soft power, no more meaningful diplomacy … it is all just terror!”

A planning meeting is scheduled for May 22 at 7 p.m. at St Mary’s Church, 521 W. 126th St. ]]> Afrikan World News XXPANTHAXX http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57377-%91hands-off-assata-shakur-day%92-harlem.html NNOC Statement on Assata Shakur http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57373-nnoc-statement-assata-shakur.html Fri, 17 May 2013 08:57:39 GMT NNOC Statement on Assata Shakur


On May 3, the U.S. government falsely branded Assata Shakur (s.n. Joanne Chesimard) as a "terrorist" placing her name as the first woman on the most wanted terrorist list, with obvious alternative motives, but supposedly for the false charges forty years ago. This act is doubly scurrilous as it implies that Cuba, a country that has suffered nearly 3,500 deaths from relentless U.S.-based terrorist attacks since its revolution for sovereignty in 1959, harbors "terrorists" because in the 1970's and 80's it gave Shakur and other Black freedom fighters refuge. The National Network on Cuba rejects this slanderous act and demands that it be reversed immediately.

The National Lawyers Guild explained: "Assata Shakur is a former member of the Black Panther Party in New York City. That organization, which advocated community control and self-determination in the Black community, was one of the chief targets of the FBI's infamous counterintelligence program known as `COINTELPRO.' According to documents released in the 1970's, 'COINTELPRO's stated goal was to `expose, misdirect, destroy and neutralize' Black political organizations and their leadership. The illegal and unconstitutional program resulted in the police murder of scores of Black Freedom Fighters and others including BPP members, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in Chicago, and the frame-ups and wrongful convictions of many others, such as Geronimo Pratt and Dhoruba Bin Wahad, both of whom spent two decades in prison before their frame-ups were exposed. Many former Panthers remain in prison today, such as Marshal Eddie Conway, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin and Mumia Abu Jamaal."

This convenient smokescreen comes at an historical moment when world opinion rejects the U.S. blockade of Cuba and demands that the Obama administration end the injustice, release all of the Cuban 5 and allow them to return to their families in Cuba. The Cuban 5 have been in prison for nearly 15 years for preventing terrorism against their homeland -- Cuba.

It is the United States that is harboring terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. Carriles was convicted of endangering the public welfare in a thwarted 2001 attempt to assassinate then Cuban President Fidel Castro who was speaking at a university in Panama. Carriles now shamelessly walks the streets of Miami although there is an open extradition request from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela where he is wanted to stand trial for the very first mid-air bombing of a civilian aircraft. Carriles has boasted about his role in downing Cubana Flight 455 as it left Barbados in 1976 killing all 73 men, women and children aboard. It is a crime for which international treaties required extradition or trial in the host country. He has not been tried nor extradited. And Carriles is not the only terrorist living in the United States with the knowledge and protection of the US government.

The US alternative motives for this upping the ante on Assata, also place her on the Obama's administration drone assassination program's list; this is the list from which drone targets are chosen. In their offensive against the left in this hemisphere (Argentina, Cuba, Honduras, Ecuador, Uruguay, Venezuela, Haiti, and Nicaragua) the US is using Assata as a precedent on their regime change objectives for the Latin American and Caribbean left.

We must organize to Free Assata, the Cuban Five, Mumia Abu Jamal, Lenard Peltier and all political prisoners and prisoners of war in America custody. Assata is our sister, mother, daughter, comrade and friend, the NNOC asks all our membership organizations for support in this struggle to remove Assata from the FBI terrorist list. ]]> Afrikan World News XXPANTHAXX http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57373-nnoc-statement-assata-shakur.html The Real Horror of Benghazi Was Ethnic Cleansing-Let’s Talk About That http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57364-real-horror-benghazi-ethnic-cleansing-let%92s-talk-about.html Wed, 15 May 2013 02:27:05 GMT The Real Horror of Benghazi Was Ethnic Cleansing-Let’s Talk About That



Black people were slaughtered in Libya after NATO Invasion

So everyone is talking about Benghazi as if they actually know where that city is on the map and up til now really didn’t care to know..It sad to see that 4 Americans died and that there were probably some missteps and leading up to their deaths, but lets keep it 100… the US had basically invaded Libya along with NATO at the urging of the global corporate powers who saw Libya as a threat to their economic dominance.. Libya was set to introduce its own World Bank for African nations and its own currency to rival the dollar..This would have in effect ended a lot of the economic repressions African nations were experiencing..
The US upon learning this armed some crazy anti-black Arab rebels who positioned themselves as part of the ‘Arab Spring‘..Folks were enamored and cheered them on even after it was revealed early on that many of those rebels were connected to Al Qaeda.. Thousands of Black Africans who lived in Libya or were migrant workers from other countries were lynched in the streets.. The human rights violations were atrocious.. Read about it HERE .. You can also read about it HERE. There are scores of articles and detailed reports of this ranging from the UK Guardian to Amnesty International.
There were public hangings, Black people rounded up and put in cages like animals in a zoo and made to eat the new Libyan flag.. again I kid you not they were made to eat the new Libyan flag..There are videos on-line showing this.. That was the horror of Benghazi..Thats the Hooror no one wants to talk about..
IN FOCUS; TAWERGHA; Libya's Dirty Secret in Focus, Ethnic Cleansing Rife as NATIVE BLACKS HUNTED - YouTube
Shocking video: Libyan rebels cage black Africans, force-feed them flags - YouTube
What was going on in Benghazi and throughout Libya was ignored by our President who traces his direct roots to Africa. It was ignored by many white progressives who saw any and all uprisings in the region as one and the same. They figured since Al Jazeera which is owned by the rulers of Qatar and were staunch supporters of this anti-black armed rebel cabal, that they were somehow ok.. They were ok even after Black progressives and other international human rights organizations, many who had been to Libya, many who lived in the region issued report after report from folks on the ground about the horrors of Benghazi and Black Africans being torched. Many folks simply turned a blind eye….
They were ignored even after former Congresswoman and Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and other delegations came back, one which included the now the late grandson of the Malcolm X came back to report, things were ignored..Even as we had Black Libyans on our airwaves speaking for themselves it was ignored..
Here’s a great indepth interview from Libyan journalist Gerald Perreira Libya Resistance After M. Gaddafi
These horrors were ignored by many in our Black punditry class who didn’t wanna ruffle feathers with the Obama administration as he sought a second term..It was a damn shame..and just goes to show you how much folks are willing to sell their souls at the door for political access and short-term gain..
So now we have hearings about what went on in Benghazi and no one is talking about imperialistic actions or regime change or the fact that the US had a US Libya Business Association which was made up of all these Big Oil companies that made 1.2 billion a year and stood to make even more once Libya was taken over.. It should be noted this US Libya Business Association had its website go dark during the NATO invasion creating the illusion that we weren’t doing robust business in Libya when in fact the US and quite a few companies were.. You can see the newly revamped site here.. Welcome to U.S.-Libya Business Association
We are talking about Benghazi and the horrors of 4 Americans being killed, but if you ask even the most well read people about this subject who were the other 3 other than Ambassador Stevens and what did they do, they can’t tell you a damn thing.. The horror of Benghazi was thousands Black people killed and tens of thousands chased from their homes and bunch of Americans, including many Black ones who ignored it.. Nuff said..
-Davey D- ]]> Afrikan World News Afrikan Power http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57364-real-horror-benghazi-ethnic-cleansing-let%92s-talk-about.html 2 nabbed over Malcolm X grandson killing http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57363-2-nabbed-over-malcolm-x-grandson-killing.html Tue, 14 May 2013 21:49:55 GMT 2 nabbed over Malcolm X grandson killing Image: http://previous.presstv.ir/photo/20130513/alizadeh20130513222801313.jpg Malcolm Shabazz (shown), the grandson of the late African-American human rights activist Malcolm X Tue May 14, 2013 4:2AM Police in Mexico City have arrested two waiters... 2 nabbed over Malcolm X grandson killing

Malcolm Shabazz (shown), the grandson of the late African-American human rights activist Malcolm X
Tue May 14, 2013 4:2AM

Police in Mexico City have arrested two waiters suspected of killing Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of US political activist Malcolm X.


Prosecutor Rodolfo Fernando Rios Garza said on Monday that the suspects, David Hernandez Cruz and Manuel Alejandro Pérez de Jesus, worked at the bar where Malcolm Shabazz reportedly got in a violent dispute.

Police said they are still searching for three more suspects.

The Shabazz family said on Friday that "To all who knew him, he offered kindness, encouragement and hope for a better tomorrow."

"Although his bright light and boundless potential are gone from this life, we are grateful that he now rests in peace in the arms of his grandparents and the safety of God."

Malcolm Shabazz was beaten on 9 May 2013 in Plaza Garibaldi and taken to a Mexico City hospital, where he died of his injuries a day later.

Before his demise, Shabazz was in the process of writing two books and attended John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

He had planned to visit Iran in 2013 to attend the Hollywoodism conference when he was arrested by FBI agents, sources outside the United States confirmed on February 4.

Born in 1984, Shabazz was the son of Qubilah Shabazz, who was the second daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz.

Malcolm X, Malcolm Shabazz’s grandfather and a black power activist, was shot dead at a political rally in New York on 21 February 1965. ]]> Afrikan World News Afrikan Power http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57363-2-nabbed-over-malcolm-x-grandson-killing.html Nigerian Air Force Jet Crashes In Niger http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57288-nigerian-air-force-jet-crashes-niger.html Tue, 07 May 2013 05:00:10 GMT Image: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7424/8716840954_6df7d91e03.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53911892@N00/8716840954/) Nigerian Air Force Alpha Jet. There was a Nigerian aircraft that went down in Niger. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53911892@N00/8716840954/), a photo by Pan-African News...
Nigerian Air Force Alpha Jet. There was a Nigerian aircraft that went down in Niger., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Nigerian Air Force Jet Crashes in Niger, Two Pilots Killed

07 May 2013
Nigerian ThisDay

•NHRC visits Defence Headquarters over Baga

By Senator Iroegbu

A Nigerian Air Force Alpha jet deployed to operations in Mali Monday crashed in Niger Republic, resulting in the death of the two pilots, a statement by the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) said.

The jet was said to have crashed at 1.05 pm, 60 kilometres west of Niamey, the Nigerien capital.

The fighter jet was part of Nigeria’s air fleet engaged with an African force fighting hardline Islamists in Mali. AFP reported that a DHQ source in Niamey said it had suffered a “mechanical” problem.

“A Nigerian Air Force Alpha jet aircraft on a non-combatant mission crashed today at Dargol village...The two pilots on board the fighter jet died,” the Director of Defence Information (DDI), Brig-Gen. Chris Olukolade said in a statement.

The jet was one of four Nigerian aircraft based in Niamey under the Africa-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA), DHQ said, adding that the crash was being investigated.

French and Chadian planes and US drones have used the Niamey airport as a base for their operations in Mali.

The 6,000-strong AFISMA has taken over the lead from France in supporting Mali's army in the battle against Al-Qaeda-linked extremists.

A French-led operation launched in January drove the Islamists from key cities they had seized in northern Mali. But the Islamists have turned to suicide bombings and guerrilla attacks in reclaimed territory.

But in continuation of its forces deployment to Mali, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Monday sent two Alpha jets to strengthen the ECOWAS intervention force in the West African country’s northern flank.

The fighter jets, which were authorised for combat operation by the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, took off from the domestic wing of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

The Air Component Commander, Air Vice Marshal Tayo Oguntoyinbo, led the Alpha jet team and flew to Niamey, where they will be based during the Mali operations.

The team of fighter pilots was seen off by the Chief of Training and Operations, NAF headquarters, AVM Dickson Dillimono.

Speaking before their departure, the Director of Information and Public Relations, Air Commodore Yusuf Anas, disclosed that the next deployment of Nigerian Air Force Mi-35 Helicopters from Nigeria to Mali would take place later Tuesday.

Anas also revealed that the NAF C-130 aircraft have continued to airlift Nigerian army personnel and equipment to Mali.

He said: “We went to drop our regiment personnel from Port Harcourt, Rivers State to Mali yesterday. This afternoon, we are having our Alpha jets, which will start their movement down to Mali.

“Yesterday the CAS (Bade) went to Port Harcourt to administer the movement of our own troops to Mali and today we are witnessing the Alpha jets that will be moving to Mali this afternoon.

“You will see the briefing of the team of pilots, after that they will start their aircraft and deploy straight to Mali via Niamey, Niger Republic."

The two fighter jets, NAF 455 and NAF 452 Dassault-Brguft Donnier 78 were said to have been very critical during the deployment of ECOMOG forces led by Nigeria in their push against former President Charles Taylor and his forces during the Liberian conflict.

Military sources said the jets also played a similar role in the Sierra Leonean civil war and ensured that peace was enforced at the West African country.

In the meantime, the National Human Rights Commission has visited DHQ in its quest to unravel the truth behind the Baga massacre in which between 36 and 200 people were said to have been killed and over 2,000 houses burnt, in a clash between the Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF) and the Boko Haram Islamic sect.

Military sources disclosed yesterday that the Chairman of NHRC, Mr. Chidi Odinkalu visited DHQ Monday as part of the commission’s investigation into the Baga incident.

He met some military senior officers behind closed doors during which fruitful discussions were held, a military source said.


More... ]]> Afrikan World News TTDC Bot http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57288-nigerian-air-force-jet-crashes-niger.html Uncertainities Over PIB May Affect OPEC Quota In Nigeria http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57289-uncertainities-over-pib-may-affect-opec-quota-nigeria.html Tue, 07 May 2013 05:00:10 GMT Image: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8154/7116710945_592671acbd.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53911892@N00/7116710945/) Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke is the subject of controversy resulting from a probe into the fuel subsidy crisis in the oil-producing West...
Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke is the subject of controversy resulting from a probe into the fuel subsidy crisis in the oil-producing West African state. Protests over the cancellation of subsidies erupted in 2012., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Uncertainties over PIB may affect OPEC quota

MONDAY, 06 MAY 2013 20:48
FROM ROSELINE OKERE, HOUSTON, TEXAS
Nigerian Guardian

THE Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) has said the non-passage and the divided interest in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) may lead to further reduction in the country’s crude oil reserve.

The Chairman of PETAN, Emeka Ene, in an interview with journalists Monday at the of Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, said crude oil reserve has been on the decline in the past few years due to reduction in the flow of investments in the country’s oil and gas sector, adding that it may lead to the country’s inability to seek for higher Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota.

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) had raised the alarm over the declining rate of country’s crude oil reserves, saying it has dropped by 1.6 billion barrels (about 4.79 per cent) in just one year.

Ene attributed the drop to declining exploration activities and lack of interest in the oil and gas sector by investors due to the uncertainty surrounding the PIB.

He said: “If you look at the net oil reserve in the country, for the first time, it has started to decline. If the oil reserve is on the decline today, what are we going to produce in the future? The oil reserve is also a tool to negotiate OPEC quota, if the oil reserve is declining, it is going to be extremely difficult to make case for higher OPEC quota and it will affect oil revenue to the country. It is our interest to have the PIB passed. What we are saying is that there is need to pass the PIB that addresses the concerns of short and long term investors in the oil and gas sector. It is not just about passing the PIB alone, but a PIB that would encourage investment in the oil and gas sector”.

He stressed the need for the Federal Government and international oil companies operating in the country to strike a balance and come out with a PIB that would encourage investment in the oil and gas sector.

Ene stated: “The PIB is like setting the rules of the game. All stakeholders recognize the need to have the rules set straight and the PIB is set to achieve that. The PIB tries to set a clear structure for operations in the oil and gas industry taking into considerations that there are laws that are decades old, which are no longer applicable in the oil and gas industry of today. Every stakeholder in the industry recognize the need for the PIB. It is inevitable that the interest of different stakeholders will conflict. There has been some issues concerning investors taking investment decisions in some projects due to the PIB.

He said: The reason is that some investors want to understand the PIB. The association has found itself on the side of IOCs and the government. PETAN by holding the PIB workshop is to bring the stakeholders to the table and discuss on the need to have the PIB so as to attract long term investment.

Ene identified under utilization of capacity and lack of access to finance as some of the challenges militating against the country’s oil and gas sector.

He explained: “The challenge has always been to create a level playing field for Nigerian companies. The Nigerian content policy stands to address that. We want to build skills, technical time.


More... ]]> Afrikan World News TTDC Bot http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57289-uncertainities-over-pib-may-affect-opec-quota-nigeria.html Nigerian President Jonathan Urges African Economies to Close Ranks http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57290-nigerian-president-jonathan-urges-african-economies-close-ranks.html Tue, 07 May 2013 05:00:10 GMT
Federal Republic of Nigeria Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala's mother was abducted at the family's home on December 9, 2012. President Jonathan has ordered a national manhunt but no contact has been made by the culprits with the family., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Jonathan urges African economies to close ranks

MONDAY, 06 MAY 2013 00:00 FROM WILLIE ETIM, YENAGOA
Nigerian Guardian

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has called on managers of African economies to close ranks as well as formulate policies that would attract critical investments beneficial to one another in order to bolster the individual economies and promote stronger socio-political ties in the continent.

Jonathan spoke in South Africa through his representative and Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Co-ordinator of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, at the formal opening of the Bayelsa Development and Investment Corporation (BDIC) African regional office in Johannesburg.

The President commended the Bayelsa State government for establishing the BDIC, which he noted, would attract a lot of good things to the state and the country. However, he urged Governor Seriake Dickson to put in place performance indicators to regularly monitor and measure the level of success as well as justify the establishment of the regional office in South Africa.

He further used the occasion to state that the Federal Government, through its transformation agenda, has already initiated programmes to diversify the Nigerian economy and create jobs for the teeming youths.

According to him, apart from the nation’s film industry, which has created so many job opportunities for the youths because of its growth rate as the third largest in the world, government was investing in critical areas such as agriculture and housing, as well as developing the solid minerals sector, among others.

On his part, South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, represented by his Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Prof. Hlengiwe Mkhize, expressed satisfaction at his country’s existing political and economic ties with Nigeria, noting that both countries have the potential to provide economic leadership for Africa.

He commended the Bayelsa State government for establishing the BDIC regional office in South Africa, adding that it would encourage and support various efforts of the outfit to attract investments to Nigeria.

Earlier in his remarks, Governor Dickson explained that the establishment of the BDIC was an expression of his government’s determination to broaden and diversify the state’s economy by investing in critical areas such as tourism, agriculture and the maritime sector, among others.

According to him, his government was convinced that investments in key areas of the economy and the drive by the BDIC would attract investors from strong economies of the world to the state. More so, BDIC will propagate the state’s “enormous potentials for investments in the overall benefit of governments and peoples, especially in the post-oil era.”

The governor enumerated the boundless potentials and opportunities in the state and called on investors in South Africa and other nations to take advantage of the conducive investment climate in the state.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Managing Director of BDIC, Mr. Tamunoye Alazigha, listed the task before the establishment to include attracting investors from all major markets and economies around the world, charting a diversified economic base, protecting, stimulating and growing the wealth of all Bayelsans through responsive and sustainable investments that will turn the state into one of the top five economies in Nigeria and Africa.


More... ]]> Afrikan World News TTDC Bot http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57290-nigerian-president-jonathan-urges-african-economies-close-ranks.html U.S. Team to Probe Baga Killings in Nigeria http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57291-u-s-team-probe-baga-killings-nigeria.html Tue, 07 May 2013 05:00:10 GMT Image: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8126/8676310245_3f5dd4ceda.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53911892@N00/8676310245/) Nigerian soldiers during clashes with Boko Haram members in the northern region of the country. It was reported that 180 people died in the unrest....
Nigerian soldiers during clashes with Boko Haram members in the northern region of the country. It was reported that 180 people died in the unrest., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
U.S. team to probe Baga killings

MONDAY, 06 MAY 2013 00:00 FROM LAOLU AKANDE NEW YORK
Nigerian Guardian

DISTURBED by the alleged magnitude of the Baga crisis which claimed almost 200 lives, the United States (U.S.) government has dispatched a team of State Department officials to meet with top Nigerian government officials this week in Abuja to investigate the development.

While the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Nigerian military of being responsible for the massacre, the Nigerian Ambassador to the U.S., Prof. Ade Adefuye, has stated that the satellite pictures disclosed by the human rights organisation are insufficient to determine who was responsible for the carnage.

In U.S. official circles all through last week, there was also uncertainty as to what to actually believe or which reports were accurate.

For instance, U.S. government spokespersons last week could not directly answer media inquiries on the matter during daily press briefings at the State Department as journalists wanted to know who the U.S. government believed – the HRW or the Nigerian government.

The HRW and widespread western news reports suggested the Nigerian military were more responsible for the carnage, may have exceeded their engagement rules and violated fundamental human rights in the Baga battle.

But the preliminary report of the Nigerian government released also last week hinted that such claims had been exaggerated.

In an interview with The Guardian at the weekend, the Nigerian Ambassador to the U.S. confirmed that the U.S. government’s team would be meeting in Abuja yesterday with officials of the Nigerian Foreign Affairs Ministry, Justice Ministry and the National Security Adviser, among others, over the Boko Haram issue and especially the recent Baga battle.

U.S. State Department official spokesperson, Mr. Patrick Ventrell, had earlier indicated late last week that officials of the department’s Democracy and Human Rights Bureau led by Deputy Assistant Secretary, Daniel Baer, would be in Nigeria this week regarding fallouts of the Baga battle.

But Ventrell, the official spokesperson of the U.S. State Department, could not answer categorically when journalists pressed him last week on whose report the U.S. government believed.

U.S. sources hinted that the American government may have decided to send its officials from the Human Rights Bureau to ascertain the situation and also explore options before the Nigerian government in the fight against terrorism in the country.

In fact, Ventrell added last week that the U.S. government “will have a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour who’s going to travel to Abuja to discuss the incident in Baga and broader human rights issues with senior Nigerian officials next week. So we’re going to continue our dialogue with the Nigerian authorities on this.”

Confirming the visit, Adefuye said the Nigerian Embassy had also met with the U.S. team visiting Nigeria last week to review the situation.

Adefuye said: “When they came here to meet with us at the embassy, we made it clear that the claims on the casualties have been excessively exaggerated.”

Adefuye observed that the satellite pictures while revealing the extent of damage after the Baga battle, could not have possibly determined who was responsible. He stated that the terrorists were responsible for some of the damage in Baga.

Official Nigerian reports had also noted that it was part of the terrorists’ strategy to set the place on fire in such circumstances.


More... ]]> Afrikan World News TTDC Bot http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57291-u-s-team-probe-baga-killings-nigeria.html ANC Welcomes Visit by President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57292-anc-welcomes-visit-president-goodluck-jonathan-nigeria.html Tue, 07 May 2013 05:00:10 GMT Image: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8383/8671083492_78e4db29a3.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53911892@N00/8671083492/) Republic of South Africa President Jacob Zuma visited the Federal Republic of Nigeria on April 16, 2013. He is photographed with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan....
Republic of South Africa President Jacob Zuma visited the Federal Republic of Nigeria on April 16, 2013. He is photographed with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Press Statements

Author : Jackson Mthembu

ANC welcomes visit by President Goodluck Jonathan

6 May 2013

The African National Congress welcomes the visit by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Goodluck Jonathan to South Africa tomorrow.

The state visit, President Jonathan`s first to South Africa, follows President Zuma`s visit to Nigeria last month and the African National Congress welcomes the strengthening of ties between two of Africa`s largest economies.

The expansion of relations between South Africa and Nigeria is indeed a step in the right direction towards enhancing social and cultural ties as well as fostering greater bi-national and inter-regional cooperation and integration in the interest of Africans as a whole.

The ANC further welcomes all delegates to the 23rd World Economic Forum on Africa taking place in Cape Town this week. We trust that discussions shall be robust and vibrant living up to the Forum`s theme to "Deliver on Africa`s Promise" to accelerate economic growth for the prosperity of the continent`s people.

As the ANC we believe that the future convergence of the continental economies will deliver a consolidated market which is critical for sustained growth and development, based on established fundamentals of the African Union and all regions of the continent.

Issued by
Jackson Mthembu
National Spokesperson
African National Congress

Enquiries
Keith Khoza 082 823 9627
Khusela Sangoni-Khawe 079 510 5408


More... ]]> Afrikan World News TTDC Bot http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57292-anc-welcomes-visit-president-goodluck-jonathan-nigeria.html Obscure Notes on Africa: Recognizing the Work of PANW Editor Abayomi Azikiwe http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57277-obscure-notes-africa-recognizing-work-panw-editor-abayomi-azikiwe.html Mon, 06 May 2013 05:50:11 GMT Image: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8039/8070725602_fd97c3b907.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53911892@N00/8070725602/) Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, featured on Russia Today satellite television news. Azikiwe is a frequent commentator and analyst on various media...

Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, featured on Russia Today satellite television news. Azikiwe is a frequent commentator and analyst on various media outlets internationally., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Obscure Notes on Africa

http://obscurenotes1.blogspot.com/20...di-darius.html

This blog is an archive of obscure and interesting information about Africa past and present.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Geopolitical Analyst Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya on Africa

A few weeks ago I came across this radio interview of Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya about Israel's relations with Africa. In the interview he moves beyond the relations between that country and the African continent and talks about so much more concerning Africa. Some of his views may be controversial perhaps even politically incorrect for some, but he presents fascinating information which is from my very limited studies and observations truthful .

I am always excited to see anything about geopolitics by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya. He is a Canadian of Iranian descent who is a sociologist, geopolitical analyst, and writer.

He first came to my attention in 2011 during the Libya War when he would appear on Russia Today network explaining the situation.

He was one of only a handful of independent journalists who aided in balancing out the perspective of what was happening in Libya unlike the mainstream majority who were cruising around with the wild rebels or just completely ignoring reality and giving reports that suited the agenda of their governments, the Western media, and NATO.

He was based in Tripoli at the famous Rixos Hotel where the spokesman for the defunct Jamahiriya government gave news conferences concerning the war's onslaught.

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya was there during the fall of the government and take over by NATO's NTC factions and militants. He escaped the country by the skin of his teeth following the fall of Tripoli.

He was unafraid to report on all the ugliness and tragedy going on during those heady and terrible months, but in some of his Russia Today reports he was clearly afraid for his life, nevertheless still trying to counter all the naked propaganda which news networks like Al Jazeera and CNN were spitting out.

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya and Detroit based Abayomi Azikiwe the editor of Pan-African News Wire are two of my favorites of independent journalism and analysis.

Both leave aside the emotional rants of some (those I do like too I admit because I have my times when I enjoy ranting) and are professional and calm in their explanations of geopolitical situations. It is also obvious that they are both well read and know and understand the histories and cultures of the regions they discuss.

I see Abayomi Azikiwe's work regularly online. I am honored that he is one of my Facebook friends. Nazemroaya's I see less frequently. However, I keep a regular eye out for his work.

Both Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya and Abayomi Azikiwe contributed essays to Cynthia McKinney's book The Illegal War on Libya which I read last year.

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is a researcher at the Centre for Research on Globalization in Canada. Articles by him can be found on the center's website here. Articles written by him can also be found at the online journal Strategic Culture Foundation. Sometimes Strategic Culture's website is slow to download, so be patient.

Recently I purchased this book by him which was published late last year. Apparently he is also coming out with a book about the Libyan War, AFRICOM , and the re-colonization of Africa sometime in the future.


More... ]]> Afrikan World News TTDC Bot http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57277-obscure-notes-africa-recognizing-work-panw-editor-abayomi-azikiwe.html South Africa Can Learn From Zimbabwe Flourishing Farms http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57249-south-africa-can-learn-zimbabwe-flourishing-farms.html Mon, 06 May 2013 05:00:07 GMT Image: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8238/8372791356_fc9d3d2fc7.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53911892@N00/8372791356/) Zimbabwe farmer workers in Nyamzura in Odzi. The earnings on production increased in 2012. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53911892@N00/8372791356/), a photo by Pan-African...
Zimbabwe farmer workers in Nyamzura in Odzi. The earnings on production increased in 2012., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
South Africa can learn from Zim’s flourishing farms

Monday, 06 May 2013 00:00
Zimbabwe Herald

The land reform programme has given Zimbabwean farmers an open chance to try their hand in various crops, with excellent results.

Max du Preez

It is something many South Africans do not want to hear and would probably find hard to believe: Zimbabwe’s radical land redistribution has worked and agricultural production is on levels comparable to the time before the process started.

What is more meaningful is that the production levels were achieved by 245 000 black farmers on the land previously worked by some 6 000 white farmers.

I got this information from a new book, Zimbabwe Takes Back its Land by Joseph Hanlon, Jeanette Manjengwa and Teresa Smart.

Hanlon is a senior fellow at the London School of Economics and had written many books on southern Africa, especially Mozambique. Manjengwa is the deputy director of the London School of Economics and Smart is a visiting fellow at London University. The book’s findings came as a surprise to me. I was under the impression that most of the farms taken from white farmers were occupied by squatters or cronies of president Robert Mugabe and were largely lying fallow.

Not so, say the authors.

Mugabe cronies own less than 10 percent of the land. Many of the small farms (a few hectares) make a profit of about R90 000 a year while some of the more commercial-sized farms have turnovers of more than R1 million.

The authors also state that it is widely estimated that new farmers take a generation to reach full production, so the new farmers can be expected to raise their production significantly in the next decade.

All this information is relevant to us in South Africa. Land reform is just as emotive an issue and important to development here as it was in Zimbabwe.

But land redistribution has been painfully slow here, partly because of budgetary constraints and partly because of bureaucratic incompetence and corruption.

It would be a huge mistake to argue that, if forced, land redistribution without compensation has worked in Zimbabwe it should also be done here in South Africa.

Zimbabwe’s land processes seriously undermined stability and the economy for more than a decade. Millions of Zimbabweans fled the country and sought refuge in South Africa and other neighbouring states.

A similar undermining of our economy and stability could have a more serious impact on South Africa and could lead to great suffering and conflict, indeed to a fatal blow to our far more modern and sophisticated economy.

A radical disturbance of the equilibrium in South African commercial agriculture would have dire consequences for food security and could lead to dangerous social upheaval, even a low-level civil war.

There is another crucial difference. With few exceptions, white farmers were only established in Zimbabwe from the early 20th century onwards, most of them British and most of them arriving after the end of World War II.

The man who led the white Rhodesian government after the Unilateral Declaration of Independence, Ian Smith, farmed land given to him by the colonial authorities after evicting the indigenous owners.

Most white South African farmers are Afrikaners whose forebears arrived in the country from France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany between 1652 and the early 1700s.

They lost all loyalty to a foreign “motherland” within a few generations and eventually came to regard themselves as indigenous people.

Many Afrikaner families even had a slave woman from the late 17th or early 18th century as materfamilias.

In the Western Cape, it is not uncommon to find a family on the same farm their ancestors had occupied 300 years ago, and elsewhere in the country a century or more ago.

Most dispossessed white Zimbabweans emigrated to South Africa or the UK.

That is not an option open to more than a handful of white South African farmers.
Another difference is that, unlike Zimbabwe, we have a constitution protecting private property ownership and the rule of law. Even if the government appropriates land, it still has to pay some compensation.

But this doesn’t mean we can’t learn lessons from the Zimbabwean experience.

The first is that most new black farmers can actually farm successfully and commercially if given enough time and help. There are far too many South Africans who believe the opposite.

The second is that an ambitious land redistribution programme can play a large role in alleviating poverty and providing employment and dignity to large numbers of marginalised people.

The conventional wisdom among most academics, economists and political analysts in South Africa is that urbanisation is the answer to poverty alleviation and the successful provision of education and skills training.

Too many leaders in agriculture agree with this view and declare that smallholder farmers simply undermine the potential of available agricultural land.

Zimbabwe and the experience of Ethiopia and other countries in the last two decades are proof that they’re dead wrong.

We urgently need to throw old, conventional thinking overboard and tackle our problem with more vigour.

Max du Preez is a South African author, columnist and documentary filmmaker and was the founding editor of Vrye Weekblad. This article was first published in The Mercury.


More... ]]> Afrikan World News TTDC Bot http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/57249-south-africa-can-learn-zimbabwe-flourishing-farms.html