Fought As Well As They Could

"In 1730, for instance, newspaper accounts and a letter written by a Royal African Company agent at Cape Coast Castle all reported that the Africans rose and killed all but three of the sailors on board the Boston ship William.  No mention was made of the fate of the Africans, and although the vessel was later reported to have run aground at Anomabu, there is no reason to believe the victorious Africans did not either jump overboard or take the William's boats, ultimately getting ashore and reclaiming their freedom.  In January of 1747, a Rhode Island ship underwent a revolt off of Cape Coast Castle, and the entire crew was killed except for two mates who jumped overboard and swam ashore.  Taking its information about this revolt from a letter, one Boston newspaper wrote that "what became of the Vessel and Negroes afterwards the Letter does not mention."  Even though this incident occurred in a busy slaving shore, and it is not at all unreasonable to presume that at least some of the Africans succeeded in escaping inland.

…the possibility of revolt also helped earn Africans a grudging respect from those whose business it was to enslave them.  As one sailor was compelled to write of a revolt in 1790, after more than one hundred slaves had taken possession of a French slaver as it was at anchor off the African coast, "I could not but admire the courage of a fine young black, who, though his partner in irons lay dead at his feet, would not surrender, but fought with his billet of wood until a ball finished his existence.  The others fought as well as they could, but what could they do against firearms?"

 ~Eric Robert Taylor, If We Must Die (p. 135-6).

What could they do? ...they could fly away home & knew it.    Awo.

the step beyond HIStory

Surrealism and Black African Art

The surrealist aspects of the African way of life, as well as the African implications of surrealism, have tended to be ignored for reasons already touched on.  Instead of the alienating dualistic intellectualization that usually defines the headlines of European social practice, black Africans enjoyed the presence of the practice of poetry throughout the totality of their traditional social life. In Africa, that is, the living experience of surreality has since prehistoric times enjoyed supremacy over its theoretical justification. In the Western world, however, surrealism is the result of a long philosophical, political, scientific and poetic struggle to recover what the traditional African has never lost.  A gainst all forms of indifference and misery, surrealism and black African art  remain irreducible examples in the development of the complete unfettering of the mind. Surrealism and black African art show that History’s last step—the step beyond History—coincides with a return to first principles, which is also a return to primordial glory, involving nothing less than the systematic and definitive liberation of the whole of human society and of Nature itself.

~Cheikh Tidiane Sylla

Arsenal/Surrealist Subversion, no. 4 (1989) (original emphasis)

N8V Spirit awo.

“Sometimes they have to kill us. They have to kill us, because they can't break our spirit.”
~Jimmy Looks Twice, (Bro. John Trundell, Thunderheart Film)

"Bird in de air!"

Walter Rimm, Age 80
"My pappy wasn't 'fraid of nothin'. He am light cullud from de white blood, and he runs away sev'ral times. Dere am big woods all round and we sees lots of run-awayers. One old fellow name John been a run-awayer for four years and de patterrollers* tries all dey tricks, but dey can't cotch him. Dey wants him bad, 'cause it 'spire other slaves to run away if he stays a-loose. Dey sots de trap for him. Dey knows he like good eats, so dey 'ranges for a quiltin' and gives chitlin's and lye hominey. John comes and am inside when de patterrollers rides up to de door. Everybody gits quiet and John stands near de door, and when dey starts to come in he grabs de shovel full of hot ashes and throws dem into de patterrollers faces. He gits through and runs off, hollerin', 'Bird in de air!'"

~Ancesta Wisdom

'cause it 'spire other slaves to run away if he stays a-loose' Seen? Mainland maroons, kilombos, palmares eh? (smile). Pon dem yuts teach dem a 'stays a-loose' idren...'stays a-loose' o' & take life chance of bird in de air asi old john.

STUDENT ALERT: AE Dictionary & BCFBDBN image

Idren Students Alert:

http://cid-6075ca909f8a8375.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Ancient%20Egypt/Hieroglyphic%20Dictionary

Complete single Papyrus of Ani image at this link: http://projects.vassar.edu/bookofthedead/ Ill, simply ill.

Printed this single image-scripture (35 parts, >20 feet) and taped them together and onto two sticks. Displayed full scroll at RCC Black Family Unity Day & African Liberation Day over last weekend: big hit. At ALD two kids opened it more and rolled it out full and then rolled it in full (after figuring out mechanics). I have studied it before in a single sitting (budge translation) but not as a single item. Will tape my notes to this 'new' 1500 B.C.E mobile museum artifact. Stunning how much pre-haribuBbyGrecoromanErebMnnfrnegro influence conspiscious on the images alone (not to mention in the mtau ntr itself). Soon I will have an intern compare a dollar store child bible story's images (or any abrahamics) to chapters in the scroll, awo. Stunning more, this is the KJV of green sahara east african rift valley khoi idren's heart scripture (pre-scale maat, awo...dem haffi balanz 2 o'....indeed, more). beautiful.

Bconx: Ankobia

"They not only called us Negroes, they made us Negroes..."

-Queen Mother Audley Moore

G20 Babylon Essence

"For it is the settler who has brought the native into existence and who perpetuates
his existence. The settler owes the fact of his very existence, that is to say, his
property, to the colonial system." ~Sartre, (preface of Fanon's The Wretched of the
Earth)

It Takes COuRage

Philadelphia Police Attack Uhuru Movement Protesters in City Council. Dem chant popo down with word-sound-power "Everybody Stays..." in that minute random folks are asked will you stand or will you go... this is how it always was-is from when humans fell(ed).

Friends of the Congo

Please join the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Boston & NY Metro and Friends of the Congo for *"Silence = Rape",* an event on the ooccasion of the International Women's Day.

*Date: Sunday, March 8th, 2009; Time 2:30 PM*Event: "The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo"Film Screening and Q&AWinner of the Special Jury Prize Documentary 2008 Sundance Film Festival
*Jane Ngondo, an activist (Shalupe) from the Congo will provide testimony and report. This event will also include a PowerPoint presentation about the role of multinational corporations in the Congo and ideas for local community action.*
*Venue: The YWCA, 140 Clarendon Street, Kuumba Library, 2nd Floor, Copley Square
*More than five million people have been killed in the ongoing Congolese war and thousands of women and girls raped and mutilated.
"Christine watched from the forest floor as the rebels raped, burned and butchered. She was lying on her belly when she saw that her 18-year-old daughter, Chantal, had been captured. Chantal has not been seen since." - The New York Times
*Break the Silence - End the Violence* For More Info: Contact Boston WILPF

Lisa Page Brooks and Witness singing Standard

'No weapon shall propser against me'. To wake up and be with Jah still (awo) s'hard to remember this sometimes.