Seydou Keita
American Autocthonous History aka Black/African American History & History of Autocthonous People World Wide
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Seydou Keita
Alice Walker
Part of what is uniquely accessible by way of manuscripts and archives is early versions of work, and a window into the editorial process that led to the final product that is (more) widely available in the world beyond the processing table. In processing the papers of Amiri Baraka (1934-2014) – renowned and prolific poet, playwright, professor and leader of the Black Arts movement and the Black Nationalist Marxist-Leninist Movement – at the Moorland-Springarn Research Center, I was very interested to find holograph and marked-up early typescript papers of the manuscript that eventually became Blues People: Negro Music in White America(1963) as it is known today. In the manuscript’s early stages, Jones/Baraka (he still went by his given name of Leroi Jones in the 1960s) had proposed to title the work “Negroes as Cymbals.” In this first image, we see editorial notes from “JG”, who is not a fan of Jones’ materialist approach of “examining the ‘underside of the cymbal’” (Image 1). In the second image, a later draft, we see Jones/Baraka had crossed out “Negroes as Cymbals” and replaced it with “Blues, Black and White America” (Image 2). In this third image from a draft of the final chapter of the book “The Modern Scene,” we see an edit where Jones/Baraka changed “poor Negroes” to “Blues People,” in a sentence that reads “Swing held no meaning for Blues people, nor was it expressive of the emotional life of most young Negroes after the war” (Image 3). Finally, inside a small notebook, there are notes where Jones/Baraka is thinking through the Blues, which may clue the curious into the thought progression from one title to the other (Images 4-6).
Upon arriving in Gabon, Marley is informed that he is playing not one, but two shows, on January 4th and 5th. Then, on the day of the first show, Bob is dealt another blow when he learns they’re heading to the Gymnase Omnisport Bongo, a relativity small athletic complex built for and named after the President. Instead of performing in a large stadium for the people, the band will be playing to a crowd of around 5,000, many of whom were personal guests of the Bongo family and members of the well-to-do Gabonese high society. Nevertheless, Bob performs an extraordinary show. The second concert is rescheduled for January 6th due to rain, but is also well received.
Photographer:Bruce Talamon
Location Of Photograph:Omar Bongo Stadium,Libreville,Gabon. 01/04/80
Relief depicting Thutmose III making offerings to the sun god Ra-Horakhty. Chapel of Anubis, Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir-el-Bahari.
Detail of pillars and columns carved with figures and hieroglyphs. Medinet Habu, Mortuary temple of Ramesses III.
Relief depicting Hittite prisoners being beaten with sticks, from the Great Temple of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel.
Somalia
No matter how long man has shared time on this Earth with photography, this...is one...of THE most speechless and riveting photos in photographic history.A father stares at the hands of his 5 year old daughter, which were severed as punishment for harvesting too little rubber.
This is from when King Leopold ll took control of The Congo during the late 1800’s and claimed that he was guiding them towards independence. Instead he implemented extremely harsh policies.
Greed and hate personified.
Wow, this is a GREAT excerpt.
I learned this about 3 years ago, and even so, it still amazes me how many women, especially in the South, have no idea about this deliberate, covert, insecure form of oppression.
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If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there’s no progress. If you pull it all the way out that’s not progress. Progress is healing the wound. They haven’t pulled the knife out much less heal the wound. They won’t even admit the knife is there.
Tignon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A young Creole woman in a tignon of her own creation. Note that the rosette in the tignon is repeated as either a brooch or in the linen at her neck. Painting from the Historic New Orleans Collection.
A West Indian Flower Girl and Two other Free Women of Color, Agostino Brunias, circa 1769.[1]
A tignon (also spelled and pronounced tiyon) is a type of headcovering. A large piece of material tied or wrapped around the head to form a kind of turban that somewhat resembles the West African Gele. It was worn by Creole women of African descent in Louisiana beginning in the Spanish colonial period, and continuing to a lesser extent to the present day.
Contents
Tignon Law
This headdress was the result of sumptuary laws passed in 1786 under the administration of Governor Esteban Rodriguez Miró. Called the tignon laws, they prescribed and enforced appropriate public dress for female gens de couleur in colonial society. At this time in Louisiana history, women of African descent vied with white women in beauty, dress and manners. One of their most standout physical attributes that separated them from their white female counterparts was their hair. Women of African descent would often adorn their hair with colorful jewelry, beads and other accents, demonstrating an exotic appearance which attracted the attention of white male suitors. Many of them had become the girlfriends and placées (openly kept mistresses) of white, French, and Spanish Creole men. This perceived threat to white women's relationships with French and Spanish Creole men incurred the jealousy and anger of their wives, mothers, sisters, daughters and fiancées.
With the looming threat to the social status of white women growing and the attention garnered as a result of the jewelry adorned hairstyles from women of African descent, action was required. To correct this, Governor Miró decreed that women of African descent, slave or free, should cover their hair and heads with a knotted headdress and refrain from "excessive attention to dress" to maintain class distinctions.
Historian Virginia M. Gould notes that Miró hoped the law would control women “who had become too light skinned or who dressed too elegantly, or who, in reality, competed too freely with white women for status and thus threatened the social order.”[2]
Afro-Créole protest
Miró's intent of having the tignon mark inferiority had a somewhat different effect, according to historian Carolyn Long[3] who noted: "Instead of being considered a badge of dishonor, the tignon…became a fashion statement. The bright reds, blues, and yellows of the scarves, and the imaginative wrapping techniques employed by their wearers, are said to have enhanced the beauty of the women of color."
The women who were targets of this decree were inventive and imaginative. They decorated tignons with their jewels and ribbons, and used the finest available materials to wrap their hair. In other words, "[t]hey effectively re-interpreted the law without technically breaking the law"[4]—and they continued to be pursued by men.
Legacy
Using that scholarship, historian Fernin F. Eaton, a Louisiana native, suggests sagging (fashion) may be an ironic and modern twist on that defiant Afro-Créole women's protest movement. Eaton opines that while Miró's 1786 edict singled out women for acting "too white," a modern-day version of sumptuary law, i.e., efforts to prohibit the practice of saggin', arguably singles out (largely) black males for not acting "white enough."[5] Saggin' may evidence a continuation of that Afro-Créole defiance, in recognition that African-American males, especially in Louisiana,[6] are disproportionately incarcerated.[7]
Tignons past and present
The tignon can be wrapped in many ways, and it was and is worn in a different way by every woman. Madras was a popular fabric for tignons among both free and enslaved populations, and has become iconic. Tignons were often created out of mis-matched scraps of undyed fabric given to slaves by their masters. The patchwork of material was made to appear festive. Tignons worn by free women of color or enslaved women in Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Dominica even had hidden messages.[8]
The tignon is experiencing a revival in Louisiana. It is found particularly in Creole-themed weddings. Celebrities such as Erykah Badu and Jill Scott continue to wear headdresses, as a celebration of Afro-American culture.
NEVER FORGET #021: Black Women’s Hair Was Once Illegal
Above The Fold / Activism / Never Forget / February 3, 2016
Black hair has long been a topic of discussion, if not a cornerstone, of the Black community. It is an integral part of Black identity, especially for women. While our hair and what it means to us individually may be unique, what is universal for all Black women is that our locks are closely tied to our beauty, or perception thereof. That’s why we go to such great lengths to care for and protect Black hair, not just in the literal sense, but also from outsiders who try to change or simply steal that part of our identity.
In recent years, with the onset of social media, it’s been easier to identify and call out these perpetrators. Cultural thieves who take Black hair, as well as other aspects of Blackness, and treat it with the same respect a white person treats raw chicken: cut it, be unsure as to how it’s seasoned, and then throw it in a large casserole. (I imagine that’s how casserole was invented…a white woman didn’t know how to cook all the ingredients separately so she just said fuck it, and threw it all in a bowl then set the oven to 350…or 375…but I digress)
When white people ask me if I want some of their tuna casserole…
Not surprisingly there was a period when white folks, or anyone else for that matter, just didn’t have time to copy & paste our style so they did what they do best—desperately tried to eliminate Black beauty. During the late 18th century, Black and Creole women in Louisiana were forced to wear head wraps, or tignons, because they wore their hair “in such elaborate ways that it attracted the attention of white men.” And when I say ‘forced’ I mean sanctioned, as in the Louisiana government passed laws to effectively regulate Black women’s hair.http://www.thevisibilityproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Headdress.gif
The “tignon laws” were to not only prevent Black women from getting (unwanted) attention from white men but also to curb white women’s jealousy. At the time, it was customary for white, Spanish, and Creole men to have placées, or openly kept mistresses. And more often than not, they were choosing Black and Creole women to be their mistresses instead of white women. So, let me be clear when I say this: white women were jealous that they couldn’t be the side chick.
Now, I imagine there were some women who resisted these laws but the overwhelming response was, “LOL. Okay, girl.” Black women began to wear bright-colored tignons, proceeded to adorn them with jewels and other accessories, and used different styling techniques to wrap their hair. What was meant to signify Black women as inferior and hide their beauty was actually used to enhance it, thanks to the women’s ingenuity.
In 2016, we call that #BlackGirlMagic
Tutankhamun’s Mask, Egyptian Museum, Cairo
nomalez:
kemetic-dreams:
Head wraps have served as a head cover for Africans, mostly women, since at least the early 1700s. According to Danya London Fashions For All, a group of African slave women appear in a 1707 painting that was created by Dirk Valkenburg, a Danish painter, that depicted them wearing head wraps that appeared high on the forehead and above the ears. However, it is believed that African cultures used head wraps before the days of slavery so that men could show off their wealth and the level of their social status and so thatwomen could prove that they were prosperous and spiritual
African head wraps come in many bright bold colors that animate the face. According to Africa Imports African Business, in West Africa, head wraps are referred to as “gele” in Yoruba or “ichafu” in Ibo. Some African American women continue towear head wraps to boast their spiritual strength.
Egypt
- Many of the headdresses worn by Egyptian royalty had their roots in Nubian culture. The “Nubian wig” purposefully resembled the thick hair of Nubian people. Depictions from the 18th Dynasty show both Kiya, a secondary wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten, and Tiye, the mother of Akhenaten and Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, wearing this headdress.Queens during the Amarna era typically wore the “khat,” a single-colored headcloth.
Nubia
- Ancient Nubian queens wore headdresses more than head wraps. Some headdresses consisted ofelaborate fabrics and flowers woven together.Another headdress had the appearance of a vulture, later referred to as the Egyptian double crown and worn by Egyptian queens during the New Kingdom era.
Nigeria
- “Gele”refers to the Yoruba word for the head wrap commonly associated with Nigeria and West Africa. Both common women and royal queens wore the gele in ancient times, but queens had wraps made of finer material, such as damask — often used for special occasions and worn with a shawl — and colorful aso-oke, material made of silk.
Originally the head-wrap, or turban, was worn by both enslaved men and women. In time, however, it became almost exclusively a female accessory. In the photograph above, the women wear head-wraps, while the men wear hats.
For their white European masters, the slaves’ head-wraps were signs of poverty and subordination. Accounts of clothing distribution show that masters sometimes allotted extra handkerchiefs to their female slaves, ostensibly to be used as head coverings.In fact, in certain areas of the South, legislation appeared that required Afrakan women to wear their hair bound up in this manner.
The head-wrap, however, was more than a badge of enslavement imposed on female slaves by their owners. Embellishment of the head and hair was a central component of dress in various parts of Africa, particularly in West Africa. From the time European fabrics were made available to them, African women wore head-wraps similar to those worn by their enslaved counterparts in America. For these women, the wrap, which varied in form from region to region, signified communal identity. At the same time, the particular appearance of an individual head-wrap was an expression of personal identity.
In America, the head-wrap was a utilitarian item, which kept the slave’s hair protected from the elements in which she worked and helped to curb the spread of lice. Yet, as in Africa, the head-wrap also created community — as an item shared by female slaves — and individuality, as a thing unique to the wearer. Cassandra Stancil, enslaved in her youth, insisted that she never asked another woman how to tie her head-scarf. “I always figured I could do it,” she said, “I could try and experiment and if not get that, get something that I liked.”
The head-wrap was an object of oppression from one vantage point. But from the other, the perspective of the slave community, it was a vehicle of empowerment and a memento of freedom.
The headwrap which originated in sub-Saharan Africa carried symbolic meaning in reference to spirituality, wealth, prosperity and class. It later took on a prominent identity in the times of the slavery in America and thereafter continued to be a fashionable but conscientious statement for women of African origin.
The colorful wraps also kept a person eyes to the face of a woman and not here body!
The Black Panther Party was a political organization founded in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale to combat police brutality against Black Americans. At its peak in 1968, the BPP had approximately 2,000 members. The end of the organization came as a result of internal disorder, shootouts by the police, and government effort to weaken the organization.
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Imagine a white cop harassing black people in a black neighborhood. Now imagine a group of black men dressed in all black, with bandoliers slung over their chest and rifles under their arms coming to observe the situation. Cops were intimidated to the point of of leaving the scene, and the Panthers had done nothing illegal. California would later adjust their gun laws so that the Panthers could no longer carry guns as before.
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The Black Panther Party promoted natural black beauty, drawing in younger black Americans who liked the idea of wearing their natural hair without judgement and celebrating dark skin.
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The Free Breakfast for School Children Program was a community service program run by the Black Panther Party. The Panthers would cook and serve food to poor inner city youth in Oakland, and it became so popular that the Panthers set up kitchens in cities across the country, feeding over 10,000 children every day before they went to school.
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The Black Panther Party wasn’t perfect. Sexism was a problem as most women in the organization were relegated to office work. The Party’s eventual demise was kickstarted by Huey Newton’s dedication to the breakfast program and Eldredge Cleaver’s belief that the party should prioritize the “any means necessary” political opposition to U.S. government practices.
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The Black Panther Party was not a Black Supremacist group. Its members were dedicated to fighting injustice, not hating white people. In the words of Huey P Newton, “We’ve never advocated violence; violence is inflicted upon us. But we do believe in self-defense for ourselves and for black people.”
Ma’at, Ramesses I, Ptah and Djed pillar of Osiris, wall painting in burial chamber of the Tomb of Ramesses I (KV16). New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, ca. 1292-1290 BC. Valley of the Kings, West Thebes.
Africans are the most genetically diverse group of people on the planet. There is more genetic diversity among African people than between all the other races of the world
National Geographic Genome project
African diversity is achild of time (Nehusi)and within Africa’s indigenous people, we find all textures of hair, colors of skin, types of eyes and noses.
So beyond the European defined boxes of what a “real African” looks like we find a continent representing most of the features found throughout the world. The straight nose is a feature of Africa; light skin is a feature of Africa; even Chinese eyes are found among African people.
The old theory of the darker, you were the more African you were is now buried as a plantation tale to create the self-hating slave. We now know that the oldest people on the planet in terms of genes are the “yellow skin” San of Southern Africa. And one of the blessings witnessed in the Americas is how quickly African-Diasporian people have moved beyond “what massa wants us to think.” And why would it be a surprise to find the aquiline features of the Tutsis, Amhara, the Fulani and Somali in Africa.
When we venture back into history, or what is known as pre-history, it is a fact that people left Africa in numerous waves over thousands of years to populate the world. Thus, African people have the greatest genetic diversity. Which is inclusive of every single race on the planet, but the reverse is not true. As people left Africa, some unique features came about due to mutation and adaptation via Darwin’s favorite word, Natural Selection. However, the physical features seen in India and the Middle East originally came from an African genetic pool. Thus within the African is the ability to produce every race on the planet. Within the skin hues, texture of hair found on the continent it is possible to make Europeans, Arabs, Chinese, Indians, etc.Intrestingly studies now show that 80% of Europe has “Middle Eastern” genetic stock
WE REJECT EUROPEAN’S IDEA OF WHAT AN AFRICAN IS?-KHEPRI NETERU
Black Panther Community Center, 132 17th St. NW c. 1970
Stills from a colonial documentary about the Mangbetu people of Northeastern Congo
Statuette of King Senusret I, from a private tomb near his pyramid at El-Lisht (wood, height: 56 cms). Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty, ca. 1991-1802 BC. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
Doorjamb depicting King Nectanebo I being nursed by Hathor (limestone). Originally from a tomb and reused in the palace of Apries. The deceased, who appears on both sides, was named Thaasetimu. Kheperkare Nakhtnebef, better known with his hellenized name Nectanebo I, was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, founder of the last native dynasty of Egypt, the thirtieth. Late Period, 30th Dynasty, ca. 380-343 BC. Now in the Fitzwilliam Museum.
Pectoral of pharaoh Amenemope in the form of a falcon (gold and semi-precious stones), from the Tomb of Amenemope at Tanis. Third Intermediate Period, 21st Dynasty, ca. 1001-992 BC. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
Nina Simone (1968)
Happy Birthday Nina Born: February 21, 1933, Tryon, NC Died: April 21, 2003, Carry-le-Rouet, France
Nina Simone (1968)
Happy Birthday Nina Born: February 21, 1933, Tryon, NC Died: April 21, 2003, Carry-le-Rouet, France
Stills from a colonial documentary about the Mangbetu people of Northeastern Congo
Frederick Patterson Biography
Entrepreneur(1871–1932)
Frederick Patterson was the first African American automobile manufacturer in the United States.
Synopsis
Frederick Douglas Patterson was born in 1871, the son of an ex-slave, Charles Richard Patterson, who had escaped from Virginia to Ohio and eventually owned a carriage business. After a short career as a teacher, Frederick joined his father and transitioned the company from building carriages to building automobiles. Eventually, competition from large Detroit auto manufacturers forced Patterson to build trucks and buses, and for a time the company prospered. The stock market crash and Patterson’s death in 1932 caused the company to close.
Family History
Named for the noted abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglas Patterson was born in 1871, the second of four children. His father, Charles Richard Patterson, was an ex-slave who, in 1865, had escaped from Virginia and migrated to Greenfield, Ohio, a well-known way station along the Underground Railroad. Charles found work as a blacksmith at a local carriage company, Dines and Simpson, and married Josephine Utz, a biracial woman of German decent.
Early Life
By the time Frederick was born, Charles was foreman at a highly successful carriage manufacturer, J.P. Lowe & Company. After being awarded several patents, Charles became a partner, and in 1893 he bought out Lowe’s share and renamed the company C.R. Patterson & Son, with his younger son, Samuel, joining his father.
Meanwhile, the Pattersons saw to it that their children were well educated. Frederick graduated from Greenfield High School in 1888 and went on to college at Ohio State University. He played football his junior year, becoming the first African American to make the team, but left in his senior year to teach high school in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1897, Samuel became ill, and Frederick returned to Greenfield to help with the carriage business, now named C.R. Patterson & Sons. Samuel died in 1899 and Fredrick took on an increasing role. On September 11, 1901, Frederick married Betty Estelline Postell.
An Innovative Entrepreneur
During this time, the world was on the brink of a transportation revolution. Several inventors and entrepreneurs in the United States and Europe were developing “horseless carriages” powered by internal combustion engines. Frederick saw the emerging trend and developed several prototypes of the early automobile. Charles Patterson died in 1910, and by 1915 Frederick reorganized the company under the name Patterson-Greenfield Automobile, the first African American automobile company. According to advertisements, there were two models: a two-door touring car and a four-door roadster. The cars were run by a 30-horsepower, 4-cylinder engine and included a full floating rear axle, a suspension that sat on cantilever springs, electric starting and lighting and a split windshield for ventilation. The cost was around $850.
Over the next five years, the company produced approximately 150 vehicles but experienced steep competition from Henry Ford’s massive assembly lines, which by that time were building Model Ts. Seeing other opportunities, in 1920 Frederick Patterson reorganized the business again into the Greenfield Bus Body Company, and began building buses, trucks and other utility vehicles on Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge Brothers truck chassis.
Later Years
Frederick Patterson was a member of several fraternal organizations, including the Freemasons and served as vice president of the National Negro Business League when Booker T. Washington was its president. He supported the Republican Party, serving as a delegate to the Ohio Republican Party caucus and helping turn out the African American vote. In 1920, he worked on Warren G. Harding’s presidential campaign and served as an alternate delegate at the 1924 Republican Convention.
The Greenfield Bus Body Company was able to make the transition from wood to metal body construction but lacked the capital to compete on a national scale. The stock market crash of 1929 dealt a severe blow to the company, and when Frederick Patterson died on January 18, 1932, it was struggling to survive. His son, Postell, kept the company going until 1939, when it closed its doors forever.
Golden Uraeus of Senusret II
The rearing cobra, known as a Uraeus, was a symbol of royalty, worn at the forehead. The Golden Uraeus is of solid gold, 6.7 cm (2.6 in), black eyes of granite, a snake head of deep ultramarine lapis lazuli, the flared cobra hood of dark carnelian inlays, and inlays of amazonite. For mounting on the pharaoh’s crown, two loops in the rear-supporting tail of the cobra provide the attachment points. Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty, 1991-1803 BC. From the Pyramid of Senusret II at Lahun. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
Emperor
Birth Date
August 17, 1844
Death Date
December 12, 1913
Place of Birth
Ankober, Ethiopia
Place of Death
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Originally
Sahle Miriam
Cite This PageFamous People Who Died in Addis Ababa
Menelik II Biography
Emperor(1844–1913)
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SHARES
Synopsis
Menelik II was born on August 17, 1844 in Ankober, Shewa, Ethiopia. He was king of Shewa and emperor of Ethiopia (1889–1913). One of Ethiopia's greatest rulers, he expanded the empire almost to its present-day borders, repelled an Italian invasion at the great the Battle of Adwa, and carried out a wide-ranging program of modernization. He died in 1913.
“Bwiti is a West Central African religion practiced by the Babongo and Mitsogo people of Gabon and the Fang people of Gabon and Cameroon. Bwiti use the hallucinogenic rootbark of the Tabernanthe iboga plant, specially cultivated for the religion, to induce a spiritual enlightenment, stabilize community and family structure,meet religious requirements and to solve problems of a spiritual and/or medical nature.” From African Ancestral Voices
Chemognosis - Tabernanthe Iboga - 1 of 2 (byiysun777)
Sounds like Ayauasca - It causes those who take it to look deep within. They also feel the connection between themselves other people and the earth - oneness.