I found this Facebook discussion on this statue in Italy very interesting and it reminded me of a time when I was all into Pan-Africanism. Pan-Africanism was introduced to me by the book Stolen Legacy in school and my interest grew while in Boise, ID because (as a former boss at hp and friend put it when he first traveled to Asia on an extended business trip ) you really get a sense of your race when you're in an environment where no one looks like you. So I was reading all kind of stuff (Chiek Anta Diop, Patrice Lumumba, Marcus Garvey, Isis Papers, etc) and several things jumps out:
1. There is so much to the history of the people of African decent (and other ethnic groups) but so few knows about any of it is kind of embarrassing.
2. Since so much of what people of African decent did was lost or hidden its kind of hard to make sense all of it.
3. All history books are fudged in its accuracy because there is a huge self-esteem, identity game that comes into play, basically everyone wants to look good so some of the claims are exaggerated. I would say the modern day example of this is Deadliest Warrior on spike TV
. Its so funny when they get people from same race to explain the weapons and the warrior and why they are better than the other warrior, its so funny.
Anyway lets hear your comments
facebook spat ( you don't need facebook to view it)
i agree that when describing history the storyteller overdoes it to make themselves look greater (in some cases lie with the biggest lie being the blonde haired, blue eyed jesus). i totally get you on the deadliest warrior example. black folks were so pissed when william wallace beat chaka zulu. the majority of the argument lies in who has the most durable weapon (basiically whose sword will break and whose shield will stop the others sword so you do the math of chaka vs wallace). the show recently made up for it with a episode 3 weeks ago... but overall there is so much pride wrapped up around these without the racial element... i digress.
ReplyDeletei think it's warranted though from black people because as you stated so much of our identity was loss due to a purposeful brutal movement by others to have more. i think naturally and needed we overcompensate on this issues of historical identity, for the opposite is just as extreme in denying our contributions to society and distorting our current image. if we don't overly emphasize aspects of our history and constantly remind folks, we will be lost; i think about the native american culture. how distorted is their history and current perception? are their any positive reminders of their people: the fight they showed, their diplomatic resolve although it was used against them by folks wanting to have more.
I almost overlooked this posting on Pan-African history but the statue is a pretty interesting piece of work. There is one verse from Jay Electronica's song that comes to mind when I read this posting and that is.."is the return of the black moors with no fes, it's scarie like that documentary on lisa lopez, Pentagrams pyramids, conspiracies with goat heads, Knock down the levees, knock down the projects, Start another project, build another object"
ReplyDeleteI read the facebook comments and the one dude Rashua sounds hella salty about white folks. But I digress... What bothers me the most about this statue is not the fact that these moors are chained up as much as who is standing on top of them. It's more to be understood I guess on my part what this statue represents and even further it's meaning to the historians/ local residents or rather it's relevance in today's society for the local residents.
I don't have cable so I don't know anything about this show Deadliest Warrior series but I guess it sounds interesting
@ Trey, it boils down to the South putting a serious effort in improving our own self-image and living above the stereotypes first. Even if the information/ history laid out for us to take part in is there, we'd rather not, only because its embedded in our DNA to put education in a much lower priority than other things to have us overcome our harsh conditions.
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