Gambia-L,

To all of you who read Frantz Fanon's "Black Skin, White Mask" and had problems
understanding the type of Black people he mentions in Chapter 5 ("The Fact Of
Blackness")
and Chapter 6 ("The Negro And Psychopathology") should read Mr. Lamin Ceesay's
piece
for a proper understanding of  Fanon, that "Some Black mothers do have them".
Mr. Lamin
Ceesay, simply put, epitomizes Fanon's statement that "A normal Negro child,
having grown up
within a normal family, will become abnormal on the slightest contact with the
white world".
By "the White World", Fanon simply means "Education". I totally agree with that
statement.
For some of us, we would have been better of,  had we not ever been to school.

Mr. Ceesay's assertion that "Afrocentricism" is an invention of the Civil Rights
Movement of the 60's is an interesting case to inform him what it is to claim
what is yours. At the height of that Movement, during the Olympic Games of 1964
in Mexico City,
three Black men (All Americans)stood on the dais to receive their medals for the
400 meters,
and while the whole world was watching they raised their arms to what is
generally called "The Black Power
Salute". These three brothers were quickly expelled from the Olympics and as
reports had it, one of them
was even sent back to jail for breaking his "Parole". From the 70's ALL
presidents of the United States have
been raising their arms in the manner the three brothers did as a sign of
victory and the people have to
applaud them. I will not be surprise if over 20 years time black children will
be reading that a
President Gerald Ford was the first to make that salute. As we are told today
that Winston Churchill was the
first to make the V-sign (for Victory) in 1945 as if Emperor Haile Salassie was
not doing that in the 30's.
These are just a couple of examples I can offer to explain the necessity of
reminding yourself of what is yours.

About the "sound academic reasoning", I am sure Lamin Ceesay uses that "sound
academic reasoning" to defend his standpoint. But Mr. Ceesay should ask any
white
person in Britain,  who actually made them Christians in the ninth century? No
one will tell him that he was a Blackman, even when we all know that the first
ever Archbishop of Canterbury would have been at the back of the bus at time of
the Civil Rights Movement of the 60's. Mr. Ceesay may be in a "Fine" school in
the
UK but he has never bothered to find out who the first person was to have
started schooling in England in the 11th Century. The first school ever
established in Britain was done by a jet-black NIGGER, whose is name derived
from
Mandinka-Mori and is today used by many white people. Mr. Lamin Ceesay does not
deserve
my assistance to knowledge about himself, so I will leave him to "hit" the
Libraries and find out
for himself about himself.
Like Mr. Lamin Ceesay, I was taught in school that the North Pole was
"discovered" by one Mr. Prairie(?), and through my desire to know more about my
people, I discovered that one Matthew Henson, a Blackman, was about half an hour
on
the Pole before the supposed-finder that history books tell us. Mr. Ceesay's
idea
of "Afrocentricism" being originated it the 60's also tells me that he needs to
read more about himself than what his curricula say. The idea of  that Mr.
Ceesay
Calls "Afrocentricism" was old when John Brown decided to take arms against his
own race.
In fact not a single Black person is documented before the 17th Century, because
all those who
engaged in that "Afrocentricism" were ALL white. Some White people recognized
the
contribution of the Black Race toward World History as far back as the 15th
Century.
People like Marlowe, Bacon, Spencer and Shakespeare all used their pens to
"educate" others
the Black Race is more than what it is taken for. If fact William Shakespeare
was instrumental in
that Movement when he wrote, what I find to be the finest lines ever written of
a Black woman
by any human being, Black or White.
He wrote:

"In the old age black was not counted fair,
Or if it were, it bore not beauty's name;
But now is black beauty's successive heir,
And beauty slandered with a bastard shame:
For since each hand hath put on natures power,
Fairing the foul with art's false borrow'd face,
Bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla,
bla, bla
bla, bla

And he when on like this for about 30 (thirty) verses.

Unless in your "Scholarly logic" some "Afrocentrics" must have told you
that Shakespeare was Black and that Stratford-upon-Avon was an estuary of River
Gambia,
I really cannot enlighten you.
This is not about the socio-economic differences between Black people and White
people. It
is more about Black people knowing themselves. The slogan of the 70's in the
Gambia was
"Ifang Bondi", and if you did not learn from that, then Brother, I am sorry...

About the man with the "Anglo-Saxon name" who forwarded the piece. Well, if you
don't know him,
please ask your father or uncles who he is. His common name is Ola Coker. He is
not what you called
an African-American, he is a true Waa-Banjul. He was a Gambian long before Yaya
Jammeh became one.
He was one of the first members of Gambia's first Anti-establishment
organization, known as "TONYA-MENTA". He did not forward the article to educate
anyone. He assumes that most Black people on this List know themselves and their
history. It was more for the anecdotal nature of these kind of pieces that
people send it to the list. Last Year someone forwarded a similar piece with a
Ghanaian teacher, with your frame of mind,  as the protagonist, I forwarded to a
Ghanaian Org who readily published it in their periodical.

Mr. Ceesay, we the Black people on this List may not have the education you
have, but we are content with the BLACKNESS AND "AFRICANESS" that is in us. I,
and millions of Black people, do relish in anything that bears the name of
Blackness.

Thanks

Prince Coker


----- Original Message -----
From: "Lamin Ceesay" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2001 18:07
Subject: Re: IT's NOT NOT NOT NOT A BLACK THING...


please do not misinterpret my point I did not intend to launch a personal
attack on anyone and I strongly apologise,mr sanneh,mr coker etc
my criticism of afrocentrism is its lack of scholarly logic.its it based
purely on raising the self esteem of a people who live in a society that
probably regrets  bringing them there.there is racism in america and
certainly a lot of blacks have been denied a lot of things.but there is a
difference between  good and sound academic reasoning based solely on
evidence and not a few people writing books.I hope that members will share
my view  on the origins of afrocentrism.by and large it could be traced to
the early parts of the last century with the civil right movement and the
nationalism movements for independence in africa.c.a diop was a brilliant
man,but he had his faults and his work should not me taken as fact!that is
purely wrong.he was not an egyptologist nor are many of the people kindly
listed by latjor.indeed he was,as did senghor with negritude,out of
nationalism,trying to link ancient egypt more to west africa,where does that
put south africans??
I believe it was Nkrumah who called it pseudo-intellectualism by the french
educated bourgeoisie!I have and am not expressing and self hatred but
afrocentrism denies the descendants of egyptians,Phoenicians the very same
merit it accuses the west.which is my point.it might well be true that the
west is/was eurocentric.being  part of the same race does not mean that one
has to take credit some one else's work.lets face it Icelanders did not
build Rome,to be black does not represent unity,there are  "black people" in
india,australia new guinea, etc we are not all the same and considering
that most people  now called "blacks" in america have a mixed ancestry.
I'm sure you can tell from my name why I resent the mande(mandingo)bit,its
an insult to our heritage and I would go  into it again.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Sidi Sanneh" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2001 4:23 PM
Subject: Re: IT's NOT NOT NOT NOT A BLACK THING...


> Mr Ceesay,
>
> Some pretty harsh words for a simple posting about African-American
> accomplishments. Afrocentric crap? pseudo-intellectualism? Just another
way
> by a growing middle class African-American, blacks etc to satisfy their
> ego? How could you reach such a conclusion about the African-American
> middle class? Do you know how long Tom Ola Coker has lived and worked in
> the United States for you to have the gull to say to him that he should
> throughly figure out African-American history and why they've got Anglo-
> Saxon Christian names? You can disagree by all means but not to the point
> of being disrespectful.
>
> To Ginny: Dr Charles Drew's story is factual.  He was denied the same
blood
> transfusion technique he inv
> ented. He was left for dead on the road side
> where the car accident occured.
>
> Sidi Sanneh
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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