Ancient BaNtu Connection: Kamitic/Kemetic Color Symbolism and African Cosmology

LandofKam's Blog

Post originally appeared on the Land of Kam website:

Never Forget It Began in Kamit

The debate over the ethnicity of the Kamitic/Kemetic people should be laid to rest by now, but the reason it isn’t is because Western academia (despite the overwhelming evidence against their ridiculous claim) is still in denial that black and brown people made significant contributions to the world. The other reason why this argument has not been laid to rest is because although knowing that the Kamitic/Kemetic people were black and brown people has done wonders for the majority of us culturally. Many of us are still at a lost as to how to use this information to improve our lives because we have not learned how to use our history from an African perspective.

When I moved beyond the Western approach of history of only being concerned with who, what, when and why, one…

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Black Science and Black Science Fiction

“he warped time and space to deliver a message to eternity.” – Early Samuel R. Delaney

Delaney won the Nebula prize his science fiction novella Babel 17 in 1966, and won the Nebula and the Hugo Award for his 1968 novella titled, Time Considered as a Helix of Semi Precious Stones, and his monumental novel Nova was one of the best SF novels of the sixties.He was described by critic Algis Budrys as ‘the best science fiction writer in the world’, all this for a writer who happened to be Black, or Afrikan American, writing in a genre that was not yet considered the forte of Black people, whether writers or readers.But we have always told fantastical stories and some have written them too, but how many of us read them? Perhaps it was the titles of science fiction novels that tickled my poetic fancy, as I have always been into more political reading, but then again, there are vast landscapes and expansively intricate sub-political plots in many science fiction novels. I still look forward to finding Delaney’s short-story titled,”We, in Some Strange Power’s Employ, Move on a Rigorous Line,”

Good Music possesses a similar power to great fiction, fictions that alter reality, inspiring us to achieve hitherto unimagined feats.
One of my favourite artists today is, Janelle Monae’, she is into Science Fiction, it is evident in the design and cinematography of her videos, but more apparent in her debut album The ArchAndroid, as well her latest visionary offering Dirty Computer. Monae’ is among those creators that others call Afro-Futurists. It is a term that some embrace and some refuse to be subsumed under,just as the likes of Ben Okri and Amos Toutoula and Octavia E. Butler refused to be labeled as Magic Realists, or Fantasy writers. Although the latter is better known as a pioneering Science Fiction writer, she too is much more than any label. It is my wish that one day soon, such creators become more popular and read widely especially among Black communities, their stories could be the missing connection that we need to not only make sense of the dread conditions of Black existence, but they also offer impressive ideas and solutions towards what we can become if we were free to self-determine.

One day soon, I shall write about what I think about the potential impact of Black writers on society, if only reading was as popular in Southern Africa as it is in other parts of the world. There are just so many ifs and buts.Like, if only more young Black folks would listen to jazz, alternative electronic music as well as more Afrikan traditional sounds.There are so many writers, but who reads? SO many visual artists, but who is viewing and purchasing their work, so many producers of great art, inventions and progressive ideas, but so many impediments, mostly due to the sheer amount of historically based social ignorance.
Sometimes I write a few short stories which can be slotted into the genre called Science Fiction or Fantasy. I have not published any of these except for submitting some to some competitions where I have made the top 5 or top 3 of the selections, nevertheless, I can state unequivocally that I am a lazy writer. I should be writing everyday or at least producing a single short-story a week, considering the amount of ideas that flow through my head on a daily basis, even my dreams are the stuff of sheer mad-genius. Even though I am interested in writing fiction, I am more passionate about sociological writing, if I had the vocabulary I would write more about music. There is no excuse these days for not having a vocabulary or at least some knowledge about any subject – I mean, we have the internet. There is very little that cannot be known, at least at the novice level, as long as you have wifi or data.

Wild Beauty

Sky Reads

Another book I would recommend to read is called Wild Beauty: New and Selected Poems by Ntozake Shange.  She compiled a collection of poems that were new and poems from previous works.  The most unique about this poem was that it was written in English and Spanish.  The moment you start reading the first poem in Spanish, the English version is on the next page.  Definite read.

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The Question Arises Again, Who Owns RSA Inc?

Green Ankh blog

This is a really interesting site and in it some really thought provoking insights are raised. At this time when SA is undergoing a historic Land Expropriation ‘revolution’, even though it is still just a proposal at this point. The views of this ‘Common Law Grand Jury’ are a great addition to the robust debate.

We Must communicate and singaxhamazeli (to act irrationally and haphazardly) … because, yes the Land must be justifiably returned to the Natives, but it must be done wisely. Enjoy reading this and feel free to submit your comment.

via UZA Report – State Expatriation

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Settling the land compensation issue is vital for Zimbabwe’s economy

zimbabweland

REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

Zimbabweland kicks off 2018 with three articles republished from a series coming out in The Conversation, each on commenting on different land and agriculture policy issues under the post-Mugabe dispensation. This is the first.

In his inaugural address the new President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, confirmed that land reform was both historically necessary and irreversible. He also made a commitment to compensate farmers who were forced off their land during the fast track land reform programme of the 2000s.

Many international commentators read this as a sign of a more inclusive stance that could benefit economic recovery. Indeed, the recent reinstatement of an evicted white farmer is perhaps an indication that things are changing.

Mnangagwa has no option but to tackle land reform if he’s serious about getting Zimbabwe’s economy back on track. This is because agriculture continues to play a significant role.

Zimbabwe’s major land reform…

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Nigeria : A Failed State ?

The African Book Review

« Scapegoating has not helped any nation to evolve ; Nigeria won’t be the exception. The best approach is to search for the cause of the failures and confront it. A country where politics is the chief means of livelihood is sitting on a time bomb. This perception brings about « national cake syndrome »; national cake brings equity in public office; equity in public office reinforces rotational presidency; and rotational presidency, in turn, nurtures the agitation for national conference. »

Robert Nwadiaru introduces us to the present-day Nigeria, the African Giant, a country with infinite riches, both natural and human, yet which still struggles after more than half a century after the independence.

The book that critics have compared to Chinua Achebe’s The Trouble with Nigeria from 1983 transports its reader to Nigeria and  makes him feel like he knows it intimately ; the fine geographical details, as well as the constant references to the…

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Sunset on Wakanda – a poetic review of Black Panther

Part 1: An Introduction to Zimbabwe

A cold mist rises over the rejuvenated Mosi-oa-Tunya

The waters of Kasamba bezi are rumbling with the voices of their distanced children

The tongues they shout with are foreign

None remember the semiotic invocations of the BaTonga

The ululations of the KaLanga

Those who tamed the Land after the BaTwa had run and painted it with their dreamscapes

None can dance to the liquid melodies of Mbira and Kalimba

And the Ngoma of Nehanda and Nzinga is all but totally forgotten

The cold mist meets the raging heat of the clouded valleys

And the rain falls incessantly like the urging of a black woman in the throes of the Spirit

Like the woman, we are a people in trance

Fed by foreign settlers who till our soil with  nonchalant glee

Disregarding the ancient rituals of appeasing the ones who first prepared the ground

The treasures of old Bulawayo are plundered and squandered

We are no longer inhaling from the nchelwa and the national totems are bought and sold in markets all over the world

These are the ruins of the once and future Queendom of Great Zimbabwe …

Black Panther: Pan African Superhero?

Kushite Kingdom

One of the problems with Black superheroes in Marvel and DC comics is that they may look Black, but very rarely do they reflect the experiences and struggles of Black people. This was a point that was made Kenneth Ghee who explained in Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation that: “Historically in comic books and movies, the Black superhero operates in a totally Eurocentric (White) context; no Black family, no Black lover, no connection to community or culture…For him (and for us and our children) there is no Black consciousness or Black cause, only a generalized ‘humanitarian’ supportive role from a Eurocentric worldview and perspective.” Given that the Black Panther movie is set to be released next month, I would like to point out that one of the unique things about the Black Panther is that he is one Black superhero who has to confront many of the problems…

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Becoming and Unbecoming

“The Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become one of us, to know good and evil. Now, lest he put forth his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever, [ let us] send him forth from the Garden of Eden…”

I have been re-reading Fingerprints of the Gods: A Quest for the Beginning And The End, the seminal work by the dexterous Graham Hancock.  Hancock who is former East African correspondent for The Economist and has travelled widely around the worldis also the author of The Sign and the Seal, Lords of Poverty and several other monumental works is not the subject of this story. What I want to talk about is so obvious as to seem trivial, yet the magnitude of its eventual revelation is so crucial.

Existence is a journey, the tale of the journey, It is a story told from within as it carries the seeds of ultimate becoming. But what are we becoming,? has the Earth changed so much since the days of the First People or the people Before any past recollection?

As the Earth revolves in its Sun-ward Orbit

Rings ..

Strings

Stirrings

Rumors mingled with the un-drying blood of war

War mongers and accountants, and Lawyers work hand in hand

Privatize, Patronize and Compromise before we self actualize

Dream merchants selling opiates the the people

Blown by the audacity of Hope borne on the wings of Faith, Imagination, Longing

What The Earth Feels that It Becomes

What We know so far is a fragment of what we have known

and a fraction that fragment cannot contain what we can become.

Knowledge Is Infinite!!!

The Bright Star of Knowing Exists Against The Sky of Unknowing

Cloudy with a Chance of Icicle Showers

Black Bulls Grazing in the Grass

White Birds Chatting On The Branches of the Tree of Life

Asking for yet another curfew

Another Sky to Drop Bombs From

Tarnishing the images of a once and future great creator

Until The Earth is Replenished Again

The Quest for Effective Leadership In Afrika

Green Ankh blog

The People Deserve …

Part 1: Leadership in crisis

We can debate unto infinity about the impact and value of Afrikan leadership on the careworn citizens, all our debates and multi-levelled reasoning would lead us nowhere fast unless we can somehow find out from the led, or the ruled, just what makes them tick.

What makes other people leaders and others mere followers? There are historical, social, psychological as well as political reasons why some people say that the people deserve the leaders they get. In order to find out more about the relations between modern Afrikan peoples ad their leaders, among the questions we would ask are:

• Are African’s a homogenous group of people?
• Are we well suited for democratic socio-political frameworks?
• Is there any strength that can be drawn from our diversity?
• How many of us would prefer pre-colonial systems of leadership?
• How much do we know about…

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