Minister Clemson Brown-African and African American history (www.afromerica.com)

[Goddess IsIs Akkebala]

Hoteph Beloved Ones: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

April 13, 2005
"Back To Thee Pyramid" with
goddess IsIs Akkebala/Iya of Afrika
co-host
Brother Djata
and
co-host
Brother Clemson Brown Personal assistant to Professor Gabriel Audu Oyibo
Tune in on this Wednesday April 13, 2005 from
6:00 - 8:00 p.m. EST
www.afromerica.com
Go into Back-door To Listen
also
Log onto Speak-Easy
for questions and comments for
My guest and co-host
is
Minister Brother Clemson Brown

www.TapVideo.com

Behind the camera and in front of our struggle

Written by Herb Boyd
Thursday, 30 October 2003

Brooklyn -- To visit Minister Clemson Brown's home in Brooklyn is to be swept into a veritable ocean of African and African American history. Large, colorful paintings depicting historical icons from the Black pantheon grace the walls, and there are nooks and corners where masks, statues, and pieces of sculpture from the motherland stand like sentinels to a glorious past.

In the basement is a trove of some 20,000 hours of audio and video tapes, emblematic of more than a generation of documenting the cultural and political developments in Africa and the Diaspora. Brown's ubiquitous, all-seeing camera has captured an array of significant moments and preserved memorable speeches from such notables as Dr. John Henrik Clarke, Dr. Yosef ben Jochannan, Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, Dr. Adelaide Sanford, Dr. Asa Hilliard, and countless others.

A splendid portion of Brown's Living Museum of African People and Transatlantic Archives was on display last weekend at City College during the marathon story-telling event that featured Dr. Leonard Jeffries, Wade Nobles, and Noble Prize nominee Dr. Gabriel Oyibo. "We had a packed room," Brown related, "and Wade and Dr. Oyibo held the listeners spellbound for hours."

Spellbound, too, were those who ventured among the vast collection of African art, particularly a king's bed from the Cameroons, a huge ceremonial drum from Ghana, an impressive Ashanti mother and child, gorgeous marble pieces from Zimbabwe, and an intricate unity sculpture carved from a tree stump. "I acquired this art work during my various trips to Africa," Brown said during a recent interview. "Each time I go, I like to bring back something in memory of the visit."

At the story-telling marathon, Brown walked among his precious collection, explaining to visitors the significance of each piece. "You see this water vessel?" he pointed. "It sits here like a work of art, but in Africa it serves a functional need in storing water. A lot of the African art you see here has a functional role on the continent."

If one had to define Brown's function, videographer or documentarian might be a way to summarize his diligence and versatility. "I got started at this in a serious way back in 1978 when the community was aroused following the senseless murder of Randy Evans by the police," Brown, 67, recalled. "I remember it was Rev. Herb Daughtry who told me to get a camera and start recording the events and monitoring the police. When the first camera I bought didn't work and the owner of the store was reluctant to give me a replacement, the community heard about it and protesters encircled his store.

"The owner was so upset that he invited me and told me to take whatever camera I wanted, so I took the best one he had," Brown continued. "I still have that 8 millimeter camera, and from that moment on I have been involved in the movement."

And the movement over the years has found him at the vortex, light years away from his place of birth outside of Charlotte, South Carolina, and a half century from his days at Morris High School in the Bronx that included such illustrious alumni as Colin Powell and Elombe Brath. "I didn't know either of them back then," Brown laughed. "But, of course, Elombe and I have been together on hundreds of occasions in the struggle for our liberation and freedom."

As a student at City College where he majored in art, Minister Brown witnessed the flurry of controversy that surrounded Dr. Jeffries as he fought steadfastly to create a Black Studies department. "This was part of my introduction to Black history and culture," he said, "and it was exciting times in which we begin to assert ourselves even more as students."

But his real baptismal in the struggle didn't come until he began associating with Rev. Daughtry and the Black United Front. "Covering rallies and demonstrations against police brutality was very rough times," he remembered. "The cops would try to knock me down or knock the camera out of my hand. And if this didn't work, they would try to confiscate my camera or the film."

Hundreds of meetings, forums, seminars, and journeys to far away places have endowed Brown with a unique perspective, and now he is prepared to be more than a man behind the camera. "Much of what I've been able to do documenting my people, I owe to my wife, Lady Brown, without her there is no way I would have been able to amass such a archives of art and tapes," he explained. "She and my son have been most resourceful. But now it's time to put a halt to merely acquiring moments. Now it the time to unify what I've collected and make it available to the world."

Bringing all the best of his tapes together in a unified field sense of the word–in keeping with his colleague, Dr. Oyibo–will be a massive undertaking, and will require the same energy and focus he recently gave to documenting the African Burial Ground ceremonies. "It's time for us to begin to understand the nature of freedom, and how we, as an African people, can truly realize our essential selves. We must grow into our true selves," he concluded.

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