The God who created the earth; who created the sun that gives us light. The God who holds up the ocean; who makes the thunder roar. Our God who has ears to hear. You who are hidden in the clouds; who watch us from where you are. You see all that the white has made us suffer. The white man's god asks him to commit crimes. But the God within us wants to do good. Our God, who is so good, so just, He orders us to revenge our wrongs. It's He who will direct our arms and bring us the victory. It's He who will assist us. read more »
U.S. Affairs
Obama Moves Ahead With Africom By Daniel Volman
In his 11 July 2009 speech in Accra, Ghana, US President Barack Obama declared, 'America has a responsibility to advance this vision, not just with words, but with support that strengthens African capacity. When there is genocide in Darfur or terrorists in Somalia, these are not simply African problems - they are global security challenges, and they demand a global response. That is why we stand ready to partner through diplomacy, technical assistance, and logistical support, and will stand behind efforts to hold war criminals accountable. read more »
Tiger Woods' Peccadilloes: Sports, Race, Sex, and Branding
Posted December 8th, 2009 by Anonymous in
Tiger Woods has become the latest celebrity athlete to fall from grace as his carefully crafted squeaky-clean image crumbles from allegations of prolific extra-marital sexual escapades. Another construct of perfection shatterd by reality that always seems to burn the imagined role models invented by corporate America. As one woman after another have come to claim raucous affairs with him--up to ten now--Tiger's coveted brand is fast losing its lustre as he becomes the butt of scurrilous jokes. read more »
Politics of Peace, Poverty of War: Obama Confronts the Afghan Imbroglio
in
In the recent award of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama, the American President, has marked the third time in the last decade that a leading American Democratic political figure has received the prestigious award. In 2002, the former president, Jimmy Carter and in 2007, the former vice president, Albert Gore, were recipients of the award for their roles in promoting solutions to major international problems.
From the Editor The Crisis of Black Males: Between College and Prison
in
Over the last three nights I have attended several scholarship awards ceremonies, all remarkable occasions, celebrations of the power of generosity and the possibilities of youth; uplifting affirmations and remarkable investments in the future and public good. As an educator, I believe passionately in the transformative power of education and have the deepest admiration for individuals and institutions that provide scholarships to enable bright young people to get an education that they might not otherwise receive. I should know. read more »
Beyond Bandung: Awakening of the South By Samir Amin
Challenging the imperialist dimensions of capitalism. Capitalism is in crisis, Samir Amin writes in Pambazuka News, creating new opportunities to challenge its imperialist dimensions. read more »
A Year On, Things Seem To Fall Apart: Obama and Dreams Deferred
Posted November 1st, 2009 by Anonymous in
Last July after Senator Obama won the Democratic Party primaries, I convened an eSymposium, The Meaning and Implications of the Obama Phenomenon, in which several contributors wrote on the Obama phenomenon. They addressed many issues including, as I wrote in the Introduction to the eSymposium, read more »
African American Women and Their Continued Quest for "Good" Hair By Cassandra R Veney
Posted October 19th, 2009 by Anonymous in
I have not seen Chris Rock's new documentary "Good Hair" that conjures up the long, painful saga of African American women and their quest for good hair. It does not mean that I have to see the documentary in order to write this blog. I believe, or rather, I know that most African American women and girls in this country understand what it means to have good hair. Moreover, they clearly understand what it means not to have good hair that has been so ingrained into the African American psyche that I wonder what if anything can eradicate this menta read more »
From the Editor The Undistinguished History of the Nobel Peace Prize
The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama has provoked a strange storm of controversy. I say strange because the protagonists in the debate--the advocates, ambivalents, and antagonists of President Obama's unexpected award--seem to read too much into the award. As shown by their partisan passions they seem, despite their apparent disagreement, to invest the prize with a measure of worldly greatness that is simply untenable.
From the Editor A Day in Brazil
When I heard Rio had been awarded the 2016 Olympic Games over Chicago, I was conflicted about Chicago's loss, the city where I lived until a couple of months ago. Wandia Njoya perceptively captures why Chicago lost, notwithstanding the syrupy interventions of the Obamas and Oprah that did not move the Olympic officials. She observes that for much of the world the United States remains unloved as an aggressive imperial power despite Obama's election.
From the Editor In Search of Roots: The Return of Biological Races and Ethnicities
One of the enduring legacies of the tragic Atlantic encounters between Europe, Africa and the Americas out of which the modern world was incubated was racialization, the construction of global racial identities and hierarchies. If the Americas were decimated of their indigenous populations through genocide, Africa was depopulated and dismembered into the black continent, the sub-Saharan contraption of imperial cartography, while the African diasporas created out of the forced migrations of enslavement were deprived of the memories of origin. read more »
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Obama Is Not American! By Paul I. Adujie
Posted September 14th, 2009 by Anonymous in
In 2007, events in the United States moved me to wonder publicly, whether race relations were actually getting worse as opposed to, progressing? I asked then and I ask again now, whether "Race Relations Is Regressing in America? What with the return to slavery era language? What with a return to tactics of that ignominious era? Brandishing of weapons, guns, knives, fire, fists, clubs, stones and the pinning of mustache on Obama to portray his as fascist and even as Adolf Hitler?
Why Obama's Silences on Race Matter for National and Global Social Justice
Posted September 12th, 2009 by Anonymous in
Over the past few weeks, a furious debate has been raging in the media and in public forums including Congress about health care reform. Much anguish and anger has been expressed, outright lies have been peddled by opponents, and social progressives have been dismayed by President Obama's lukewarm support for a fundamental overhaul of the country's inordinately expensive and dysfunctional health care system. It is quite striking that the United States is the only major industrialized power without a national health care system that covers all its citizens. read more »
Democrats, You Have the Power!
in
With health care reform on the ropes, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)-labor's number one legislative priority-on life support, a stimulus package yet to reach Main Street, no clear plan to close Gitmo, two wars going badly (July was deadliest month yet for U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan), President Obama's agenda has hit a snag, and his poll numbers are dropping. Among the president's supporters, anxiety is quickly setting in.
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Rekindling the American-Egyptian Relationship: Beyond the Inconveniences of Democracy
Posted August 23rd, 2009 by AnonymousPresident Hosni Mubarak recently visited the United States and met President Barack Obama. This is the third meeting between the two men since President Obama took office. President Mubarak last visited Washington in 2004 and for the next few years seemed to have been given the cold shoulder by the Bush Administration. read more »
Dr. Gates, We Presume: Racial Profiling in the Ivory Tower
Posted July 23rd, 2009 by Anonymous in
The arrest last Thursday of Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has provoked a firestorm of debate: about the police and racial profiling and more broadly about race and the prison industrial complex, as well as the persistence of the color line in 21st century America, about the intractability of the post-racial project, notwithstanding the election of President Obama.
The Republicans' Democracy Double Standard
in
The GOP's passion for "democracy" in the Middle East has been on full display and in overdrive of late. Republican leaders have called for unqualified support for Iranian demonstrators, condemned the Iranian regime, and castigated President Obama for not speaking out more forcefully.
Beating the drums for democracy can be inspiring, but in international affairs, the credibility of the messenger is as important as the message itself.
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The Economic Crisis and the Disciplines: Economics Takes the Heat
Posted July 17th, 2009 by Anonymous in
The academic disciplines are often affected by realities outside their ivory or brick towers as much as they help shape those realities. This symbiotic relationship between knowledge and society is nowhere more evident than in moments of change and crisis when scholarship is expected to explain what is going on but it can no longer do so satisfactorily based on the prevailing dominant analytical models and assumptions.
Obama in Ghana: The Speech He Might Have Made By Fironzi Manji
Posted July 17th, 2009 by AnonymousGood morning. It is an honor for me to be in Accra, and to speak to the representatives of the people of Ghana. I am deeply grateful for the welcome that I've received, as are Michelle, Malia, and Sasha Obama. Ghana's history is rich, the ties between our two countries are strong, and I am proud that this is my second visit to Africa as President of the United States.
From the Editor Obama in Ghana: The Return of a Native Son
As expected, President Obama delivered a powerful speech in Accra yesterday, which was at once a sermon, a lecture, and a call to arms for Africa to take charge of its destiny, for Africans to assume full responsibility for their future. He presented it with his trademark eloquence and earnestness, combined with the rhetorical intimacy and tough love that he reserves for African American audiences.
