In honor of Black History Month I'm posting something I wrote 3 years ago. The History of The Horn of Africa: Part 1 Ethiopia
From the World's third oldest Christian nation, to Jewish empresses, and the birth place of one of Mohammed’s companions. The Horn of Africa has a long religious history. As the birth place of humanity, and a land that the Bible proclaims lays next to Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:13 the River Gihon compasseth the whole of Ethiopia), this should be expected even if it’s not well known. From the Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Somalia I'll give you a "brief" look at the horns religious history. I first became interested in this regions history when I was doing research into Enoch and his "lost book" in the Bible (from the History Channels "Banned from the Bible series). This book is canonical to the Ethiopian Christian Bible, the Western Church didn’t possess enough of the book to vote on it at the council of Nicea (yes "that" council you Da Vinci Code fans)
dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
Ethiopia
Modern and Traditional Ethiopian Flags
Ethiopia was historically called Abyssinia (derived from the Arabic form of the modern province of Habesha). The English name "Ethiopia" is thought to have been derived from the Greek word Aithiopia, which comes from Aithiops ‘an Ethiopian’, derived from Greek terms meaning "of burnt visage". However, this is disputed, since the Book of Aksum, a Ge'ez chronicle first composed in the 15th century, states that the name is derived from "'Ityopp'is", a son (unmentioned in the Bible) of Cush, son of Ham who according to legend founded the city of Axum. The Hebrew word for Ethiopia as mentioned in the Bible is Cush.
Medieval Axum
Around the 8th century BC, a kingdom known as D'mt was established in what is today northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, with it's capital at Yeha in northern Ethiopia. It had extensive relations with the Sabeans in present day Yemen across the Red Sea. However, most modern scholars often refer to it as Ethiopian Saba since it had a separate entity than the Saba in Yemen. After the fall of D`mt in the fifth century BC, the plateau came to be dominated by smaller successor kingdoms, until the rise of one of these kingdoms during the first century BC. The Aksumite Kingdom, ancestor of medieval and modern Ethiopia, was able to reunite the area. They established bases on the northern highlands of the Ethiopian Plateau and from there expanded southward. Aksim grew during the 4th century BC and came into prominence during the first century AD, minting its own coins by the 3rd century, converting in the 4th century to Christianity, as the third official Christian state (after Armenia, and Greece "Byzantium") and the first country to feature the cross on its coins. The Persian religious figure Mani listed Axum with Rome, Persia, and China as one of the four great powers of his time.
Frumentius and Aedesius
Aksim conversion started when In 316 AD, a Christian philosopher from Tyre, Meropius, embarked on a voyage of exploration along the coast of Africa. He was accompanied by, among others, two Greek-Syrians, Frumentius and his brother Aedesius. The vessel was stranded on the coast. The natives killed all the travelers except the two brothers, who were taken to the court and given positions of trust by the monarch. They both practiced the Christian faith in private, and soon converted the queen and several other members of the royal court. Upon the king's death, Frumentius was appointed regent of the realm by the queen, and instructor of her young son, Prince Ezana. A few years later, upon Ezana's coming of age, Aedesius and Frumentius left the kingdom, the former returning to Tyre where he was ordained, and the latter journeying to Alexandria. Here, he consulted Athanasius, who ordained him and appointed him Bishop of Axum. He returned to the court and baptized the King Ezana, together with many of his subjects, and in short order Christianity was proclaimed the official state religion. For this accomplishment, he received the title "Abba Selama" ("Father of peace").
At various times, including a fifty-year period in the sixth century, Axum controlled most of modern-day Yemen and some of southern Saudi Arabia just across the Red Sea, as well as controlling southern Egypt, northern Sudan, northern Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and northern Somalia.
Jewish Empress
The line of rulers descended from the Axumite kings was broken several times: first by the Jewish Queen Gudit around 950 (or possibly around 850, as in Ethiopian histories). The accounts of Gudit are contradictory and incomplete. Paul B. Henze (Layers of Time, A History of Ethiopia New York: Palgrave, 2000) wrote, "She is said to have killed the emperor, ascended the throne herself, and reigned for forty years. Accounts of her violent misdeeds are still related among peasants in the north Ethiopian countryside."
Gudit's pillar
Henze continues in a footnote, "On my first visit to the rock church of Abreha and Atsbeha in eastern Tigray in 1970, I noticed that its intricately carved ceiling was blackened by soot. The priest explained it as the work of Gudit, who had piled the church full of hay and set it ablaze nine centuries before. "
There is a tradition that Gudit sacked and burned Debre Damo, which at the time was a treasury and a prison for the male relatives of the king of Ethiopia; this may be an echo of the later capture and sack of Amba Geshen by Ahmed Gragn.
The Italian scholar Carlo Conti Rossini first proposed that the account of this warrior queen in the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, where she was described as Bani al-Hamwiyah ought to be read as Bani al-Damutah, and argued that she was ruler of the once-powerful kingdom of Damot, and that she was related to one of the indigenous Sidamo peoples of southern Ethiopia. This would agree with the numerous references to matriarchs ruling the Sidamo polities.
If Gudit did not belong to one of the Sidamo peoples, then some scholars, based on the traditions that Gudit was Jewish, propose that she was of the Agaw people, who historically have been numerous in Lasta, and a number of whom (known as the Beta Israel), have professed the Jewish religion since ancient times. If she was not of a Jewish origin, she might have been a convert to Judaism by her husband, or pagan.
The line of rulers descended from the Axumite kings was broken again by the Zagwe dynasty; it was during this dynasty that the famous rock-hewn churches of Lalibela were carved under King Lalibela, allowed by a long period of peace and stability. (these are huge stone carved churches in Ethipia) Around 1270, the Solomonic dynasty came to control Ethiopia, claiming descent from the kings of Axum. They called themselves Neguse Negest ("King of Kings," or Emperor), basing their claims on their direct descent from Solomon. Coincidentally this term "Negest" is the origin of Black King Marcus Garvey prophesized, and is part of the foundation of Rastafari faith.
Lalibela Churches
During the reign of Emperor Yeshaq, Ethiopia made its first successful diplomatic contact with a European country since Aksumite times, sending two emissaries to Alfons V of Aragon, who sent return emissaries that failed to complete the trip to Ethiopia. The first continuous relations with a European country began in 1508 with Portugal under Emperor Lebna Dengel, who had just inherited the throne from his father. This proved to be an important development, for when the Empire was subjected to the attacks of the Adal General and Imam, Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi (called "Grañ", or "the Left-handed"), Portugal responded to Lebna Dengel's plea for help with an army of four hundred men, who helped his son Gelawdewos defeat Ahmad and re-establish his rule. However, when Emperor Susenyos converted to Roman Catholicism in 1624, years of revolt and civil unrest followed resulting in thousands of deaths. The Jesuit missionaries had offended the Orthodox faith of the local Ethiopians, and on June 25, 1632 Susenyos' son, Emperor Fasilides, declared the state religion to again be Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and expelled the Jesuit missionaries and other Europeans.
All of this contributed to Ethiopia's isolation from 1755 to 1855, called the Zemene Mesafint or "Age of Princes." Similar to Japan at this point the Emperors became figureheads, controlled by warlords like Ras Mikael Sehul of Tigray, and later by the Oromo Yejju dynasty. Ethiopian isolationism ended following a British mission that concluded an alliance between the two nations; however, it was not until the reign of Emperor Tewodros II, who began modernizing Ethiopia and recentralizing power in the Emperor, that Ethiopia began to take part in world affairs once again.
Ethiopian Orthodox Church
Coptic Iconetry
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (in Amharic: Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan) is an Oriental Orthodox church in Ethiopia that was part of the Coptic Orthodox Church until 1959, when it was granted its own Patriarch by Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa Cyril VI. The only pre-colonial Christian church of Sub-Saharan Africa, it has a membership of about 40 million people (45 million claimed by the Patriarch), mainly in Ethiopia, and is the largest of all Oriental Orthodox churches. Oriental Orthodox churches, have a slightly different theology from the Eastern Orthodox Churches (ie Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox)
Tewahedo is a Ge'ez word meaning "being made one" or "unified"; it is a cognate with the Arabic word tawhid, meaning "monotheism". Tewahedo refers to the Oriental Orthodox belief in the one single unified Nature of Christ (ie, a belief that a complete, natural union of the Divine and Human Natures into One is self-evident in order to accomplish the divine salvation of humankind), as opposed to the "two Natures of Christ" belief (unmixed, separated Divine and Human Natures, called the Hypostatic Union) promoted by today's Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia article on the Henoticon: the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, and many others, all refused to accept the "two natures" doctrine decreed by the Byzantine Emperor Marcian's Council of Chalcedon in 451, thus separating them from the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox — who themselves separated from one another later on in the East-West Schism (1054). The Oriental Orthodox Churches, which today include the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Malankara Orthodox Church of India, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, are referred to as "Non-Chalcedonian", and, sometimes by outsiders as "monophysite" (meaning "One Nature", in reference to Christ; a rough translation of the name Tewahido). However, these Churches themselves describe their Christology as miaphysite.
The Ethiopian Church claims its earliest origins from the royal official said to have been baptised by Philip the Evangelist (Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 8):
"Then the angel of the Lord said to Philip, Start out and go south to the road that leads down from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he set out and was on his way when he caught sight of an Ethiopian. This man was a eunuch, a high official of the Kandake (Candace) Queen of Ethiopia in charge of all her treasure." (8:27)
The passage continues by describing how Philip helped the Ethiopian treasurer understand a passage from Isaiah that the Ethiopian was reading. After the Ethiopian received an explanation of the passage, he requested that Philip baptize him, and Philip did so. The Ethiopic version of this verse reads "Hendeke" ; Queen Gersamot Hendeke VII was the Queen of Ethiopia from ca. 42 to 52.
Orthodox Christianity became the established church of the Ethiopian Axumite Kingdom under king Ezana in the 4th century through the efforts of a Syrian Greek named Frumentius, known in Ethiopia as Abba Selama, Kesaté Birhan ("Father of Peace, Revealer of Light"). As a youth, Frumentius had been shipwrecked with his brother Aedesius on the Eritrean coast. The brothers managed to be brought to the royal court, where they rose to positions of influence and converted Emperor Ezana to Christianity, causing him to be baptised. Ezana sent Frumentius to Alexandria to ask the Patriarch, St. Athanasius, to appoint a bishop for Ethiopia. Athanasius appointed Frumentius himself, who returned to Ethiopia as Bishop with the name of Abune Selama. From then on, until 1959, the Pope of Alexandria, as Patriarch of All Africa, always named an Egyptian (a Copt) to be Abuna or Archbishop of the Ethiopian Church.
Following the independence of Eritrea as a nation in 1993, the Coptic Church in 1994 appointed an Archbishop for the Eritrean Church, which in turn obtained autocephaly in 1998, with the consecration of the first Eritrean Patriarch.
Union with the Coptic Orthodox Church continued after the Arab conquest in Egypt. Abu Saleh records in the 12th century that the patriarch always sent letters twice a year to the kings of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Nubia, until Al Hakim stopped the practice. Cyril, 67th patriarch, sent Severus as bishop, with orders to put down polygamy and to enforce observance of canonical consecration for all churches. These examples show the close relations of the two churches concurrent with the Middle Ages.
In 1439, in the reign of Zara Yaqob, a religious discussion between Abba Giyorgis and a French visitor had led to the dispatch of an embassy from Ethiopia to the Vatican.
Jesuit Interim
The period of Jesuit influence, which broke the connection with Egypt, began a new chapter in Church history. The initiative in the Roman Catholic missions to Ethiopia was taken, not by Rome, but by Portugal, as an incident in the struggle with the Muslim Ottoman Empire and Sultanate of Adal for the command of the trade route to India by the Red Sea.
In 1507 Matthew, or Matheus, an Armenian, had been sent as Ethiopian envoy to Portugal to ask aid against the Adal Sultanate. In 1520 an embassy under Dom Rodrigo de Lima landed in Ethiopia (by which time Adal had been remobilized under Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi). An interesting account of the Portuguese mission, which remained for several years, was written by Francisco Alvarez, the chaplain.
Later, Ignatius Loyola wished to begin the task of conversion, but was forbidden. Instead, the pope sent Joao Nunez Barreto as patriarch of the East Indies, with Andre de Oviedo as bishop. From Goa India envoys went to Ethiopia, followed by Oviedo himself, to secure the king's adherence to Rome. After repeated failures some measure of success was achieved under Emperor Susenyos, but not until 1624 did the Emperor make formal submission to the pope. Susenyos made Roman Catholicism the official state religion, but was met with heavy resistance by his subjects, and eventually had to abdicate in 1632 to his son Fasilides, who promptly restored the state religion to Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity. He then expelled the Jesuits in 1633, and in 1665, Fasilides ordered that all Jesuit books (the Books of the Franks) be burned.
Recent History
His Imperial Majesty Halie Selassie
The Coptic and Ethiopian Churches reached an agreement on 13 July 1948 that led to autocephaly for the Ethiopian Church. Five bishops were immediately consecrated by the Coptic Pope of Alexandria and Patriach of All Africa, empowered to elect a new Patriarch for their church, and the successor to Abuna Qerellos IV would have the power to consecrate new bishops. This promotion was completed when Coptic Orthodox Pope Joseph II consecrated an Ethiopian-born Archbishop, Abuna Basilios, 14 January 1951. Then in 1959, Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria crowned Abuna Baslios as the first Patriarch of Ethiopia.
Patriarch Abune Basilios died in 1971, and was succeeded that year by Patriarch Abune Tewophilos. With the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church was disestablished as the state church. The new Marxist government began nationalising property (including land) owned by the church. Patriarch Abune Tewophilos was arrested in 1976 by the Marxist Derg military junta, and secretly executed in 1979. The government ordered the church to elect a new Patriarch, and Abune Tekle Haymanot was enthroned. The Coptic Orthodox Church refused to recognize the election and enthronement of Abune Tekle Haymanot on the grounds that the Synod of the Ethiopian Church had not removed Abune Tewophilos and that the government had not publicly acknowledged his death, and he was thus still legitimate Patriarch of Ethiopia. Formal relations between the two churches were halted, although they remained in communion with each other.
Patriarch Abune Tekle Haymanot proved to be much less accommodating to the Derg regime than it had expected, and so when the Patriarch died in 1988, a new Patriarch with closer ties to the regime was sought. The Archbishop of Gondar, a member of the Derg-era Ethiopian Parliament, was elected and enthroned as Patriarch Abune Merkorios. Following the fall of the Derg regime in 1991, and the coming to power of the EPRDF government, Patriarch Abune Merkorios abdicated under public and governmental pressure. The church then elected a new Patriarch, Abune Paulos, who was recognized by the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria. The former Patriarch Abune Merkorios then fled abroad, and announced from exile that his abdication had been made under duress and thus he was still the legitimate Patriarch of Ethiopia. Several bishops also went into exile and formed a break-away alternate synod. This exiled synod is recognized by some Ethiopian Churches in North America and Europe who recognize Patriarch Abune Merkorios, while the synod inside Ethiopia continues to uphold the legitimacy of Patriarch Abune Paulos.
After Eritrea became an independent country, the Coptic Orthodox Church granted autocephaly to the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church with the reluctant approval of its mother synod, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church.
As of 2005, there are many Ethiopian Orthodox churches located throughout the United States and other countries to which Ethiopians have migrated. The church has more than 38 million members in Ethiopia, forming about half the country's population.
Biblical Canon
The Canon of the Tewahedo Church is wider than for most other Christian groups. The Ethiopian "narrower" Old Testament Canon includes the books found in the Septuagint accepted by other Orthodox Christians, in addition to Enoch, Jubilees, 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras, 3 books of Maccabees, and Psalm 151. However, the three books of the Maccabees are identical in title only, and quite different in content from those of the other Christian churches which include them. The order of the other books is somewhat different from other groups', as well. The Church also has a "broader canon" that includes more books.
Ark of the Covenant
The Ethiopian church claims that one of its churches, Our Lady Mary of Zion, is host to the original Ark of the Covenant that Moses carried with the Israelites during the Exodus. However, outsiders (and women, be they insiders or not) are not allowed into the building where the Ark is located, ostensibly due to dangerous biblical warnings. As a result, international scholars doubt that the original Ark is truly there, although a case has been put forward by controversial popular writer Graham Hancock in his book "The Sign and the Seal."
Throughout Ethiopia, Orthodox churches are not considered churches until the local bishop gives them a tabot, a replica of the tablets in the original Ark of the Covenant. The tabot is six inches square and made from alabaster, marble, or wood (see acacia). It is always kept in ornate coverings to hide it from public view. In an elaborate procession, the tabot is carried around the outside of the church amid joyful song and dance on the feast day of that particular church's namesake, and also on the great Feast of T'imk'et, known as Epiphany or Theophany in Europe.
Similarities to Judaism
The Ethiopian church places a heavier emphasis on Old Testament teachings than one might find in the Roman Catholic or Protestant churches, and its followers adhere to certain practices that one finds in Orthodox or Conservative Judaism. Ethiopian Christians, like some other Eastern Christians, traditionally follow dietary rules that are similar to Jewish Kashrut, specifically with regard to how an animal is slaughtered. Similarly, pork is prohibited, though unlike Kashrut, Ethiopian cuisine does mix dairy products with meat- which in turn makes it even closer to Islamic dietary laws (see Halal). Women are prohibited from entering the church during their menses; they are also expected to cover their hair with a large scarf (or shash) while in church, but contrary to popular belief and the actual practice of most other Christian denominations, it is not in the Old Testament that this is commanded, but rather in the New (1 Cor. 11). As with Orthodox synagogues, men and women are seated separately in the Ethiopian church, with men on the left and women on the right (when facing the altar). However, women covering their heads and separation of the sexes in the Church building officially is common to many Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Christians and not unique to Judaism. Ethiopian Orthodox worshippers remove their shoes when entering a church, in accordance with Exodus 3:5 (in which Moses, while viewing the burning bush, is commanded to remove his shoes while standing on holy ground). Furthermore, both the Sabbath (Saturday), and the Lord's Day (Sunday) are observed as holy, although more emphasis, because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, is laid upon the Holy Sunday.
More on Beta Israel, Ethiopian Jews
Beta Israel aka the "Ethiopian Jews"
The first relatively certain reference to the Beta Israel, however, comes in the early 14th century during the reign of Amda Seyon (r. 1314-44). During his reign he sent troops to fight people "like Jews". These regions would later go on to be the areas of frequent Beta Israel rebellion against the Solomonic dynasty for the next three centuries. During this time period, religion was less important to the Emperors than loyalty, and rebellious Beta Israel leaders often formed alliances with other enemies of the Emperor despite differing faiths. The late 14th century Christian monk Qozmos, for instance, copied the Orit (Old Testament) for the Beta Israel communities and led them against local Christians before being defeated by Emperor Dawit I. Likewise, the governor of Tsellemt used both Jewish and Christian troops in a revolt of the 15th century. The first personal campaign against rebelling Beta Israel areas didn't come until the reign of Emperor Yeshaq (r.1414-29), however. It was with his defeat of the governors of Semien and Dembiya that religious pressure began, as well as the conferral of lower social status upon Jews. Yeshaq forced Jews to convert or lose their land (which would be given away as rist, a type of land qualification that rendered it forever inheritable by the recipient and not transferable by the Emperor), decreeing "He who is baptized in the Christian religion may inherit the land of his father, otherwise let him be a Falash". This is possibly the origin for the term "Falasha" (Falash, "wanderer," or "landless person"). Some of the worst massacres, attacks and forced conversions of the Christian kingdom occurred in the 1400s, under Emperor Zara Yaqob, who even added the title "Exterminator of the Jews" to his name.
In the 15th century, Abba Sabra, an archbishop of Coptic Christianity, chaplain of the court and tutor to the heir to the throne, converted to Judaism and fled with the heir and with his priestly disciples to the Jewish vassal kingdom of Gondar. He and his followers were warmly received by Gondar's rulers and were allowed to continue their monastic life as Jews, settling near to Jewish villages and continuing to study sacred texts, so that they and those they won to their way of life became in subsequent generations learned celibate Jewish monks or hermits supported by local villagers, leading lives of prayer and study. Together with the priests who led ceremonies (who were not of any priestly lineage but were chosen for aptitude from village children), the monks maintained Jewish learning and traditions.
1624 marked the end of Beta Israel autonomy in Ethiopia, when Emperor Susenyos confiscated their lands, selling many into slavery and forcibly baptizing others. Their writings and religious books were burned and the practice of any form of Jewish religion was forbidden in Ethiopia] A great deal of traditional Jewish culture and practice was lost or changed as a result of this period of oppression. Nevertheless, the Beta Israel appear to have flourished, during this period, due to the presence of the capital of Ethiopia, Gonder, in Dembiya, surrounded by Beta Israel lands. They served as craftsmen, masons, and carpenters for the Emperors from the 16th century onwards, roles that were typically shunned as lowly and unhonorable as compared to farming. According to accounts by European visitors of that time, Portuguese merchants and diplomats, French, British and other travellers. These accounts also testify that some knowledge of Hebrew remained even in the 17th century. For example, Manoel de Almeida, a Portuguese diplomat and traveller of the day, writes that: "The Falashas or Jews are ... of [Arabic] race [and speak] Hebrew, though it is very corrupt. They have their Hebrew Bibles and sing the psalms in their synagogues."
Part 2 Somali-land, Nubia, and Eritrea
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Haiti we stand with you. Text "Haiti" to 90999 to send $10 through the Red Cross or Text "Yele" to 501501 to send $5 through Wyclef Jean's charity.
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Commentary
by Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
One of the areas of employment that seem to favor african-american after emancipation was working for the railroad. Whether is was working as Pullman Porter, or improving on railroad design. African americans have made huge contributions to that industry. One such person is Andrew Beard.
The birth of Andrew Jackson Beard in 1849 is celebrated on this date. Beard was born a slave in Jefferson County, Alabama.
He was emancipated at the age of 15, and married at 16. Beard was a farmer near Birmingham, Alabama for some five years, but recalled visiting Montgomery in 1872 with 50 bushels of apples drawn by oxen. He said, "It took me three weeks to make the trip. I quit farming after that." Instead he built and operated a flourmill in Hardwicks, Alabama. He began pondering the mechanics of his subsequent plow invention. Beard’s idea grew and, in 1881, he patented one of his plows and sold it, in 1884, for $4,000.
On December 15, 1887, Beard invented another plow and sold it for $5,200. With this money he went into the real estate business and made about $30,000. In 1889, Beard invented a rotary steam engine, patented on July 5,1892. He claimed that his steam engine was cheaper to build and operate than steam engines and it would not explode. While Beard worked on his rotary steam engine, he experimented with perhaps his finest invention, an automatic car coupler idea.....Read More >>
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This weeks news by Amazinggrace and dopper0189, Black Kos Editor and Managing Editor
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Atlanta businessman Paul R Jones became aware that African-American art, although abundant and affordable, was vastly under-represented in public collections. After considerable research, he identified a number of young artists whose work he wanted to support and purposefully sought them out. The story of the PAUL R JONES Collection of African-American Art.
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The result of Mr. Jones' efforts is a wide-ranging collection with works by such noted artists as Charles White, Herman "Kofi" Bailey, David Driskell, Elizabeth Catlett, Earl Hooks, Leo Twiggs, Ayokunle Odeleye, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, P.H. Polk and Selma Burke, who created the image of Franklin Delano Roosevelt that appears on the dime.
A significant portion of that collection is now housed at the University of Delaware, where it will promote the study of African-American insight and influence across a broad spectrum of culture in this country, reflecting the University’s commitment to providing its students with exposure to the rich and diverse cultures of our world.
The Paul R Jones Collection on the University of Delaware campus includes a variety of media and stylistic periods. It is significant, but not surprising, to note that many of the emerging artists of decades past whose work Jones chose to support can now be counted among today's most respected painters, printmakers, photographers, and sculptors in the field of American art. Mr. Jones' commitment to these artists and their work is best summed up in the collector's own words, "As my collection 'caught fire'...broader, deeper involvement emerged...respect for and relating to pieces grew stronger...respect for the collection's force increased."
Read more here --->.
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Coffin’s Emblem Defies Certainty New York Times: Sankofa Mark at Old New York Burial Ground Is Questioned.
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When the remains of hundreds of colonial-era Africans were uncovered during a building excavation in Lower Manhattan in 1991, one coffin in particular stood out. Nailed into its wooden lid were iron tacks, 51 of which formed an enigmatic, heart-shaped design.
The pattern was soon identified as the sankofa — a symbol printed on funereal garments in West Africa — and it captured the imagination of scholars, preservationists and designers. Ultimately, it was embraced by many African-Americans as a remarkable example of the survival of African customs in the face of violent subjugation in early America.
The sankofa was widely invoked in 2003, when the 419 remains were reinterred at the site, now known as the African Burial Ground, following painstaking examination. It was chiseled into a black granite memorial unveiled in 2007. It is featured in an interpretive display in the federal building at 290 Broadway (the construction of which led to the discovery of the graves), which describes it as a direct link to "cultures found in Ghana and the Ivory Coast." And it serves as a logo for the African Burial Ground as a whole.
Michael A. Gomez, a professor of history at New York University and an authority on the African diaspora, said the design’s apparent link to 18th-century Africa "is of enormous meaning and carries a lot of symbolic weight." For decades, historians and anthropologists have debated the extent to which the continent’s cultural practices endured and came to influence art, language, music and religion in the Americas — a question with particular resonance for the African-American community. read more here -->
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Dear Miami: Get ready for the Who Dat Nation coming for the Super Bowl.NOLA: Get ready for the Who Dat Nation!
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The Saints are coming. And so are we, their loyal, long-suffering and slightly discombobulated Super Bowl-bound fans.
While there's still time to prepare -- although a few hard-core Who Dats will begin trickling in Monday, most of us won't arrive until Thursday or Friday -- we thought we'd give you a heads-up about what you should expect.
First things first: You need more beer.
Yeah, we know. You ordered extra. You think you have more than any group of humans could possibly consume in one week. Trust us. You don't.
New Orleans was a drinking town long before the Saints drove us to drink. But it turns out beer tastes better when you're winning. (Who knew?) So let's just say we're thirsty for more than a championship; adjust your stockpiles accordingly. read more here -->
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Little-Known Black History Fact. Black America Web: Duane Jones and 'Night of the Living Dead'
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In 1968, director George Romero sought out to cast for his newest horror film, "Night of the Living Dead." Unlike his other films, he would change the casting to include a black hero. The chosen actor to fight the zombies was Duane Jones.
In his role as Ben, Jones became the first African-American to be cast as a non-ethnic lead in a major motion picture in America, and marked the first time a black actor had a starring role in a horror film. In the past, the black roles were stereotypical and called for a black actor. This time, Jones cornered the role that would make him a universal and crossover hero.
A professor of theater, Jones worked at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He used his talent to promote black actors in films, but he ultimately helped a diverse group of students succeed.
"Night of the Living Dead" grossed some $12 million domestically and $30 million internationally. The film was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress of the United States in 1999. It was called "historically, culturally and aesthetically important." read more here -->
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During a year when there was an abundance of new African Americans gracing the big screen one of the country's leading magazines, Vanity Fair, chose to ignore them. BV on Movies: No Color on Vanity Fairs Hollywood List Cover.
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Taken by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, the photos include this year's young Hollywood talent, including 2010 Oscar nominees Carey Mulligan ('An Education') and Anna Kendrick ('Up in the Air'), Kristen Stewart (Twilight'), Amanda Seyfried ('Mamma Mia'), Abbie Cornish ('Bright Star'), Emma Stone ('Zombieland'), Rebecca Hall ('Vicky Christina Barcelona'), Evan Rachel Wood ('Across the Universe') and Mia Wasikowska, who's starring in Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland.'
While Latina actresses Zoe Saldana, America Ferrarra and Alicia Braga made the 2008 list, no female African American has been selected since 2005, when Kerry Washington and Rosario Dawson made the list. Dawson also made the cover in 2002.
The magazine's official statement on the selection is: "Vanity Fair's Hollywood cover has always been a reflection of Hollywood and the industry. Generally, as is the case this year, it¹s made up of young actresses who already have a few films to their credit and will be appearing in more movies in the coming months."
All of the actresses chosen this year are under the age of 30, and some of their profiles include upcoming and past films. If this is the case, consideration should have been given for Sidibe, who is 26, or Naturi Naughton, who, at 25, shined in last year's 'Notorious' and 'Fame.' Naughton also has two films in 2010. Let's not forget Nicole Beharie, who carried 'American Violet' and will be seen this year opposite Jill Scott in Lifetime's 'Sins of the Mother.' Freida Pinto, who was amazing in 'Slumdog Millionaire,' will be in Julian Schnabel's 'Miral.' Meagan Good, who started her acting career at age 4 and is only 28, is also a contender. read more here -->
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The first lady takes childhood obesity as her cause. The Root: Michelle Obama’s Healthy Food Campaign.
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The White House Kitchen Garden is frozen under, but, this Black History Month, first lady Michelle Obama is once more using food to address the epidemic of childhood obesity that has gripped the country and, she said in a recent speech to the United States’ Conference on Mayors, "never fails to take my breath away."
It should. The statistics are grim: One-third of young people in the United States are overweight or obese, and one-third will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives. In the Latino and black American community, those numbers go up to almost 50 percent. According to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, children today spend seven hours a day using some kind of media device. At the same time, school lunches are fattier, school gym classes are shorter or nonexistent, and the erosion of 1950s "neighborhood" culture means the days of playing outside until supper are long gone.
Today, said Obama, "medical experts are predicting that this generation is on track to have a shorter lifespan than their parents." Not only does decreased productivity and life expectancy endanger long-term American economic prosperity, diet-related diseases like asthma, diabetes, hypertension and certain cancers are slowly adding to the national health care burden. read more here -->
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A tragedy, African-American women graduate students, depression, and suicide. Race Talk: Sometimes the rainbow is not enuf.
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She went to a shooting range a few miles away from Columbus, Ohio. She asked to take the introductory shooter’s course. She watched a required instructional video, rented a 9mm pistol, and practiced shooting with an instructor. After she was properly trained, the instructor allowed her to practice independently. She practiced for a while and then put the gun down. And suddenly, at approximately 12:30 PM, she picked the gun back up, aimed the gun at her chest, and fired. She was 24 years old, a graduate student at The Ohio State University, and a daughter, sister, and friend.
Unfortunately, for the young, brilliant, high-spirited, African-American woman, "the rainbow [was not] enuf."[1]
I was sleep when I got a 7 AM text message from a graduate student in my department about her death. I read the text message blurry-eyed, and quickly assumed that a she was probably killed in a car accident. "That’s how most 20-something year olds die," I thought. A few days later, I Googled her name on the Internet and found a story about her death in The Columbus Post Dispatch. The story was unnerving. A few hours after reading the story, while I was driving my car, I started to cry.
"Was it graduate school?" my best friend asked after I told him the story. He is a graduate student at Georgia State University studying urban policy studies. "I don’t know," I replied, "but it probably didn’t help." "Yeah," he agreed. read more here -->
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When Numbers Lie. Race Wire: Prisoners of the Census in New York.
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Across New York City, tens of thousands of Black and Latino residents have gone missing. You’ll find them languishing behind bars in upstate towns, where they’re punished by being robbed of their potential as income-earners, parents and community members. And in the 2010 census, they’ll likely disappear once again—on paper.
Albany is currently weighing a proposal to change the way the 2010 census counts are weighed for people incarcerated in towns far away from their original communities. Reform advocates point out that, in addition to being torn from their families and neighborhoods, inmates are routinely exploited in a political numbers game known as "prison-based gerrymandering."
Under current state rules, inmates—including those serving relatively short sentences, who will go home eventually—can be counted in the populations of the towns of their facilities. In an eerie reprise of the 3/5 compromise, the state essentially deprives them of the basic entitlements of citizenship by locking them up, and then uses their bodies to artificially inflate population statistics. read more here -->
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Bob Herbert goes off. New York times: Jim Crow Policing.
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The New York City Police Department needs to be restrained. The nonstop humiliation of young black and Hispanic New Yorkers, including children, by police officers who feel no obligation to treat them fairly or with any respect at all is an abomination. That many of the officers engaged in the mistreatment are black or Latino themselves is shameful.
Statistics will be out shortly about the total number of people who were stopped and frisked by the police in 2009. We already have the data for the first three-quarters of the year, and they are staggering. During that period, more than 450,000 people were stopped by the cops, an increase of 13 percent over the same period in 2008.
An overwhelming 84 percent of the stops in the first three-quarters of 2009 were of black or Hispanic New Yorkers. It is incredible how few of the stops yielded any law enforcement benefit. Contraband, which usually means drugs, was found in only 1.6 percent of the stops of black New Yorkers. For Hispanics, it was just 1.5 percent. For whites, who are stopped far less frequently, contraband was found 2.2 percent of the time.
read more here -->
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Scotus Blog is very excited to announce the lineup of participants for our special February programming on Race and the Supreme Court, in recognition of Black History Month.Black History Month on SCOTUSblog
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We extend sincere thanks to the law professors, litigators, historians, journalists, and other top professionals who have donated their time and resources to this project. Our goal is to reflect on the lasting impact the Supreme Court has had on race, both in law and in American society. In light of Black History Month, many of our contributors focus on the Court’s historical impact on the black community. The topics reflect diverse and sometimes divergent views, opinions, attitudes, and assumptions. This diversity adds to the value of the project and reinforces the mission of SCOTUSblog to provide relevant, credible, and balanced Supreme Court coverage. Drawing special attention during Black History Month to the legacy of legal issues pertaining to Race and the Supreme Court, we believe, will expand public knowledge and awareness of the Court’s centrality in shaping American history.
Below is a list and preliminary schedule (subject to change) of authors and topics to be posted over the next month. The first posts will appear later this morning. read more here -->
Also read: SCOTUSblog > Has the Supreme Court Been Mainly a Friend or a Foe to African Americans?
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The number of people needing food aid in south Sudan has quadrupled in a year to more than four million, the UN's World Food Programme says. BBC: South Sudan hungry 'quadrupled in a year'
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The WFP wants to ensure the people have enough food to last until their next harvest in October.
Southern Sudan's agriculture minister Samson Kwaje blamed the surge on internal conflict and drought.
The region is recovering from a two-decade civil war and remains one of the least developed parts of the world.
Although the civil war with the north ended in 2005, some 2,500 people died in conflicts between rival communities in Southern Sudan last year - far more than in Darfur, the UN says. read more here -->
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UNESCO is launching a campaign to protect Haiti’s moveable heritage, notably art collections in the country’s damaged museums, galleries and churches, from pillaging. UNESCO Media: UNESCO calls for ban on trade in Haitian artefacts to prevent pillaging of the country’s cultural heritage.
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The Director-General of the Organization, Irina Bokova, on Wednesday wrote to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, asking for his support in preventing the dispersion of Haiti’s cultural heritage.
"I would be most grateful," she wrote, "if you would request Mr John Holmes, your Special Envoy for Haiti and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian affairs, as well as the relevant authorities in charge of the overall coordination of UN humanitarian support in Port-au-Prince – the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and the Department of Peace Keeping Operations (DPKO) – to ensure, as far as possible, the immediate security of the sites containing these artefacts."
Ms Bokova further asked Mr Ban to consider recommending that the Security Council adopt a resolution instituting a temporary ban on the trade or transfer of Haitian cultural property. The Director-General also suggested that institutions such as Interpol, the World Customs Organization (WCO) and others assist in the implementation of such a ban.
read more here -->
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Haiti's Diaspora is one of her best hopes. New york times: After the Earthquake, Haiti's Diaspora Finds a Welcoming Way Home
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Since leaving Haiti in 1974 and becoming a successful engineer here, Fritz Armand has often felt that his skills were unwelcome in his native country.
His efforts to build a desalination facility and a portable power plant in Haiti failed in part, he says, because of antipathy toward expatriates. He has been called "diaspore," an insulting term. Under Haitian law, when he became an American citizen, he automatically "renounced" his birthplace.
For years, educated émigrés like Mr. Armand, from Miami to Montreal, have tried hard to play a more vital role in Haiti’s development, with little success.
But the earthquake has suddenly changed all that, reducing old hostilities to rubble. Depleted of leadership and talent, the Haitian government — once known for ejecting elected officials who held a United States passport — is begging its own for aid, and the Haitian-born have responded en masse.
"The diaspora must organize to help us," Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said last week at a conference in Montreal. "I have no alternative. They have to be involved in Haiti; they have to be engaged." read more here -->
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Hope. New York Times: After Brutality, Guinea Looks Forward With a Measure of Hope.
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Something rare has happened in a region often given to brutal autocracy: power has been peacefully transferred to a civilian, just four months after an army massacre that recalled the worst of Africa’s past.
On Sept. 28, at least 150 demonstrators died in this city’s main stadium. More than 100 women were raped or sexually abused, a United Nations panel found, while many other protesters were beaten — including the man who is now Guinea’s prime minister.
Now, the swift and unexpected turn of events has surprised Guineans, who wonder warily if the new prime minister, Jean-Marie Doré, a gaunt and wily opposition leader who left the stadium bleeding, can actually deliver democracy in a country that has never truly known it. The omnipresent military, arbiter of power for decades, hovers in the background, a potential foot on the fragile plant of civilian rule.
read more here -->
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Nigeria is close to the breaking point. Voice of America.
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Pressure is mounting on ailing Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua to hand over power or quickly return to Nigeria from Saudi Arabia, where he has been getting medical care for more than two months. The uncertainty about Nigeria's leadership comes as violence has reignited in the oil-rich south, and as the leader of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb offered training and weapons to Nigerian Muslims.
J. Peter Pham, the director of the Africa project at the U.S. based National Committee on American Foreign Policy, recently wrote an online article called "The Sick Man of Africa."
Writing in the "National Interest," Pham says Nigeria's leadership vacuum comes at the wrong time, especially in the wake of the failed December 25th U.S. airline bombing for which a young Nigerian was charged.
"If Nigeria is going to be a partner with the United States and other countries in fighting extremism and these types of things, it needs leadership at the top and whenever there is not firm direction all sorts of interests creep out," said Pham. read more here -->
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[] Stop Blaming Single Mothers for Black Crime by Statsaholic
[] Walking while Black, Horrific IMAGE: Racial profiling by hester
[] My racist haircut revisited. Fifty Years after February One. by DrFrankLives
[] Haiti Could Use a New Deal by Meteor Blades
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FRIDAY WAKE UP MUSIC (Colts fans can blaim Amazinggrace for this one!)