Folks,
Zephaniah has said a lot of it here.
Its a shame that some of us are still proud of practises handed down from
our colonial past. This talk about "Burr Banjul, Kerr Burr " or " Mansa" and
"Mansakunda" is detrimental to the true liberation of the people. The fact
is the overwhelming majority of governments in Africa merely took over the
structures of the colonial administrations and thereby advertently or
inadvertently continued the relationship of oppression and exploitation that
colonialism represented. And as long as there isn't a radical restructuring
of the relationship between our political leaderships and the people, this
oppression and exploitation will continue.
It is an unfortunate coincidence that while Zephaniah is writing this piece,
the queen is in Abuja Nigeria, reliving the very concept of imperialist
colonialism. The "commonwealth" they call it, but whose "commonwealth"? Like
its predeccessor British empire, the queen continues as the head of (their)
"commonwealth". If their "commonwealth", were our "commonwealth", we would
have since started sanitising their ill-gotten gains by redistribution.
If this neocolonialist sham called the commonwealth were interested in
freedom and justice, reparation for the slave trade, slavery and colonialism
would have been one of its key projects over the years. Instead, they insist
that we adher to values, but whose values? Indeed the commomwealth's
indulgence in selective justice is sickening! Mugabi may have rigged
elections, but does that make him any different from Yaya Jammeh who made
foreigners living outside the Gambia vote for him? or Olusegun Obasanjo who
claimed victory based on votes that were never put in  ballot boxes in the
first place?
When the colonialist wanted to take the land from Africans, they evolved
through their colonial historians like Mackinnon, the concept that the land
to Africans is like "the air we breath". Anyone schooled in this concept
will accept that permanent ownership of land is not part of African
traditions. But what a lie! This lie was concocted to justify land grabbing
by white colons in east and southern Africa in particular. You would not
have far to go in research to come across the hypocrisy in this concept. You
only need to compare land ownership laws in Britain and the Gambia. But the
sad thing is that our governments have all inherited this exploitative and
subjugating concepts and laws from colonialism, and some of them seem to be
riding high on them. Perhaps some of them are too ignorant to effect even
some tinkerings on them, or they willingly appreciate them because like the
colonialists, their purpose is to exploit the people.
We salute Zephaniah's rejection of the OBE and sharing with the public very
good reasons why he should do so. We now know enough history of our
relationship with the leadership in colonial subjugation and exploitation
(Great Britain), in order not to know the ways in which they reproduce and
perpetuate a relationship of inequalities between us.
Omar Joof.


>From: Amadu Kabir Njie <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Fw: 'Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought'
>Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2003 15:02:54 +0100
>
>'Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought'
>An invitation to the palace to accept a New Year honour... you must be
>joking. Benjamin Zephaniah won't be going. Here he explains why
>
>http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4806228-103680,00.html
>
>Benjamin Zephaniah
>Thursday November 27, 2003
>The Guardian
>
>I woke up on the morning of November 13 wondering how the government could
>be overthrown and what could replace it, and then I noticed a letter from
>the prime minister's office. It said: "The prime minister has asked me to
>inform you, in strict confidence, that he has in mind, on the occasion of
>the forthcoming list of New Year's honours to submit your name to the Queen
>with a recommendation that Her Majesty may be graciously pleased to approve
>that you be appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire."
>
>Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought. I get angry when I hear that
>word "empire"; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years
>of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my
>forefathers brutalised. It is because of this concept of empire that my
>British education led me to believe that the history of black people
>started with slavery and that we were born slaves, and should therefore be
>grateful that we were given freedom by our caring white masters. It is
>because of this idea of empire that black people like myself don't even
>know our true names or our true historical culture. I am not one of those
>who are obsessed with their roots, and I'm certainly not suffering from a
>crisis of identity; my obsession is about the future and the political
>rights of all people. Benjamin Zephaniah OBE - no way Mr Blair, no way Mrs
>Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire.
>
>There's something very strange about receiving a letter from Tony Blair's
>office asking me if I want to accept this award. In the past couple of
>months I've been on Blair's doorstep a few times. I have begged him to come
>out and meet me; I have been longing for a conversation with him, but he
>won't come out, and now here he is asking me to meet him at the palace! I
>was there with a million people on February 15, and the last time I was
>there was just a couple of weeks ago. My cousin, Michael Powell, was
>arrested and taken to Thornhill Road police station in Birmingham where he
>died. Now, I know how he died. The whole of Birmingham knows how he died,
>but in order to get this article published and to be politically (or
>journalistically) correct, I have to say that he died in suspicious
>circumstances. The police will not give us any answers. We have not seen or
>heard anything of all the reports and investigations we were told were
>going to take place. Now, all that my family can do is join with all the
>other families who have lost members while in custody because no one in
>power is listening to us. Come on Mr Blair, I'll meet you anytime. Let's
>talk about your Home Office, let's talk about being tough on crime.
>
>This OBE thing is supposed to be for my services to literature, but there
>are a whole lot of writers who are better than me, and they're not involved
>in the things that I'm involved in. All they do is write; I spend most of
>my time doing other things. If they want to give me one of these empire
>things, why can't they give me one for my work in animal rights? Why can't
>they give me one for my struggle against racism? What about giving me one
>for all the letters I write to innocent people in prisons who have been
>framed? I may just consider accepting some kind of award for my services on
>behalf of the millions of people who have stood up against the war in Iraq.
>It's such hard work - much harder than writing poems.
>
>And hey, if Her Majesty may be graciously pleased to lay all that empire
>stuff on me, why can't she write to me herself. Let's cut out the middleman
>- she knows me. The last time we met, it was at a concert I was hosting.
>She came backstage to meet me. That didn't bother me; lots of people visit
>my dressing room after performances. Me and the South African performers I
>was working with that night thought it rather funny that we had a royal
>groupie. She's a bit stiff but she's a nice old lady. Let me make it clear:
>I have nothing against her or the royal family. It is the institution of
>the monarchy that I loathe so very much, the monarchy that still refuses to
>apologise for sanctioning slavery.
>
>There is a part of me that hopes that after writing this article I shall
>never be considered as a Poet Laureate or an OBE sucker again. Let this put
>an end to it. This may lose me some of my writing friends; some people may
>never want to work with me again, but the truth is I think OBEs compromise
>writers and poets, and laureates suddenly go soft - in the past I've even
>written a poem, Bought and Sold, saying that.
>
>There are many black writers who love OBEs, it makes them feel like they
>have made it. When it suits them, they embrace the struggle against the
>ruling class and the oppression they visit upon us, but then they join the
>oppressors' club. They are so easily seduced into the great house of
>Babylon known as the palace. For them, a wonderful time is meeting the
>Queen and bowing before her presence.
>
>I was shocked to see how many of my fellow writers jumped at the
>opportunity to go to Buckingham Palace when the Queen had her "meet the
>writers day" on July 9 2002, and I laughed at the pathetic excuses writers
>gave for going. "I did it for my mum"; "I did it for my kids"; "I did it
>for the school"; "I did it for the people", etc. I have even heard black
>writers who have collected OBEs saying that it is "symbolic of how far we
>have come". Oh yes, I say, we've struggled so hard just to get a minute
>with the Queen and we are so very grateful - not.
>
>I've never heard of a holder of the OBE openly criticising the monarchy.
>They are officially friends, and that's what this cool Britannia project is
>about. It gives OBEs to cool rock stars, successful businesswomen and
>blacks who would be militant in order to give the impression that it is
>inclusive. Then these rock stars, successful women, and ex-militants write
>to me with the OBE after their name as if I should be impressed. I'm not.
>Quite the opposite - you've been had.
>
>Writers and artists who see themselves as working outside the establishment
>are constantly being accused of selling out as soon as they have any kind
>of success. I've been called a sell-out for selling too many books, for
>writing books for children, for performing at the Royal Albert Hall, for
>going on Desert Island Discs, and for appearing on the Parkinson show. But
>I want to reach as many people as possible without compromising the content
>of my work.
>
>What continues to be my biggest deal with the establishment must be my work
>with the British Council, of which, ironically, the Queen is patron. I have
>no problem with this. It has never told me what to say, or what not to say.
>I have always been free to criticise the government and even the council
>itself. This is what being a poet is about. Most importantly, through my
>work with the council I am able to show the world what Britain is really
>about in terms of our arts, and I am able to partake in the type of
>political and cultural intercourse which is not possible in the mainstream
>political arena. I have no problem representing the reality of our
>multiculturalism, which may sometimes mean speaking about the way my cousin
>Michael died in a police station. But then, I am also at ease letting
>people know that our music scene is more than what they hear in the charts,
>and that British poetry is more than Wordsworth, or even Motion. I have no
>problem with all of this because this is about us and what we do. It is
>about what happens on the streets of our country and not in the palace or
>at No 10.
>
>Me, OBE? Whoever is behind this offer can never have read any of my work.
>Why don't they just give me some of those great African works of art that
>were taken in the name of the empire and let me return them to their
>rightful place? You can't fool me, Mr Blair. You want to privatise us all;
>you want to send us to war. You stay silent when we need you to speak for
>us, preferring to be the voice of the US. You have lied to us, and you
>continue to lie to us, and you have poured the working-class dream of a
>fair, compassionate, caring society down the dirty drain of empire. Stick
>it, Mr Blair - and Mrs Queen, stop going on about the empire. Let's do
>something else.
>
>Bought and Sold
>
>Smart big awards and prize money
>Is killing off black poetry
>It's not censors or dictators that are cutting up our art.
>The lure of meeting royalty
>And touching high society
>Is damping creativity and eating at our heart.
>
>The ancestors would turn in graves
>Those poor black folk that once were slaves would wonder
>How our souls were sold
>And check our strategies,
>The empire strikes back and waves
>Tamed warriors bow on parades
>When they have done what they've been told
>They get their OBEs.
>
>Don't take my word, go check the verse
>Cause every laureate gets worse
>A family that you cannot fault as muse will mess your mind,
>And yeah, you may fatten your purse
>And surely they will check you first when subjects need to be amused
>With paid for prose and rhymes.
>
>Take your prize, now write more,
>Faster,
>Fuck the truth
>Now you're an actor do not fault your benefactor
>Write, publish and review,
>You look like a dreadlocks Rasta,
>You look like a ghetto blaster,
>But you can't diss your paymaster
>And bite the hand that feeds you.
>
>What happened to the verse of fire
>Cursing cool the empire
>What happened to the soul rebel that Marley had in mind,
>This bloodstained, stolen empire rewards you and you conspire,
>(Yes Marley said that time will tell)
>Now look they've gone and joined.
>
>We keep getting this beating
>It's bad history repeating
>It reminds me of those capitalists that say
>'Look you have a choice,'
>It's sick and self-defeating if our dispossessed keep weeping
>And we give these awards meaning
>But we end up with no voice.
>
>· Taken from Too Black, Too Strong. Published by Bloodaxe Books (2001)
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