FALANDO DE GERACOES…

Ja’ houve uma altura na minha vida, curiosamente nao assim tao longinqua, em que me via vagamente como parte de uma geracao que alguem designou, em termos estritamente literarios, “a geracao das incertezas” e que eu, em termos mais amplamente vivenciais e filosoficos, sempre preferi designar “a geracao de todos os desenganos”. Em anos mais recentes, no entanto, ou talvez por isso mesmo, vejo-me indubitavel e desenganadamente como parte da “geracao R”, ou a “geracao dos rejeitados”.

Esta minha “geracao R”, porem, nao e’ estritamente Angolana: existe dispersa um pouco por todo o globo e parte dela, entre a qual me incluo, e’, declaradamente ou nao, stateless, porquanto, para a maior parte dos, quando nao para todos os, efeitos legais, nao temos estado – muito menos partido!

Esta condicao faz com que, por exemplo, nos seja negada a renovacao do nosso passaporte nacional pelo “nosso pais” de origem ou, como ainda muito recentemente aconteceu a me, myself and I (e nao pela primeira vez…), nos seja negado um visto de entrada nesse mesmo pais, ao mesmo tempo que aos nossos colegas de trabalho ‘estrangeiros’ tal visto e’ prontamente concedido – situacao que, neste caso concreto, so’ pode ser ultrapassada gracas a benemerita intervencao de um embaixador de um terceiro pais – o que imediatamente nos coloca sob suspeicao perante os nossos empregadores, actuais ou prospectivos (como, alias, ja’ nos aconteceu no passado..), de sermos persona non grata naquele que dizemos, sentimos e sempre soubemos ser “o nosso pais”, impedindo-nos assim, mais frequentemente do que nao, de trabalhar em qualquer funcao ou projecto, mesmo que apenas estritamente academico, que exija algum contacto com Angola…

Esta minha “geracao R”, em consequencia do seu estado de statelessness, nao se pode dar ao luxo de deixar-se adormecer, seja sobre louros ou espinhos, tendo que lutar incessante e incansavelmente para se sustentar a si propria condignamente e para manter em todas as circunstancias a sua mente lucida e a sua cabeca erguida, sob pena de acabar literalmente por "nao ter onde cair morta", sujeitando-se entretanto a ser "debicada" por vultos e abutres famintos de todas as latitudes enquanto ainda viva…

Condicao que, em principio, nos deveria aproximar uns dos outros, mas que a propria situacao de global statelessness nos impede de o fazer: sabemos apenas que existimos por ai algures e tendemos a identificar-nos individualmente como me, myself and I – sendo esta uma exigencia de sobrevivencia fisica e espiritual, porquanto a partir do momento em que perdemos o sentido de nos proprios e da nossa identidade (mesmo se ligeiramente e apenas para nos permitirmos coisas tais como priorizarmos a nossa "elegancia fisica" sobre a nossa "elegancia mental, psicologica e moral", ou darmo-nos a "indulgencias literarias e artisticas"…), podemos correr o risco de perder por completo “todos os sentidos”, senao a propria vida… Enfim, a minha geracao, a “geracao R”, e’, literalmente falando, a geracao dos “excluidos dos excluidos”, a geracao dos condenados da terra – num sentido em que nem Fanon tera’ suspeitado pudesse alguma vez existir em lugar algum!

Tomo agora nota da existencia no “nosso pais” de uma designada “geracao X” que, pela descricao (que pouco ou nada tem a ver com as definicoes convencionais dessa geracao), se parece assemelhar muito as geracoes yuppies que, desde os anos 80 do seculo passado (ou seja, desde os tempos da “geracao das incertezas” em Angola), vem aparecendo um pouco por todos os paises, em determinadas fases bem identificadas da sua historia economica.

Mas, alegadamente, esta “geracao X” de Angola tem uma particularidade exclusiva: “faz parte, ou tenta colar-se, ao partido da situacao”. Por sinal, um partido por onde me, myself and I entramos e saimos muito antes do florescimento da dita “geracao das incertezas”, ou seja, num tempo em que nao havia nada a ganhar por dele se fazer parte: em muitos casos, como no de me, myself and I, muito antes pelo contrario! E dele, me, myself and I saimos de livre e espontanea vontade e for good: para nao mais voltar! Para esse, ou para qualquer outro partido politico. Quanto muito, tentamos lutar agora, tanto quanto nos e’ possivel, pelo fim do nosso involuntario estado de statelessness, o qual apenas podemos supor nos esteja a ser forcado por umas quaisquer “forcas ocultas nao identificadas”, devido aos nossos varios “atrevimentos”, desconfortaveis para a “situacao” (e, tudo indica, tambem para alguma “oposicao”) do “nosso pais”, ao longo dos anos …

Mas sei que ha’ no “nosso pais”, para alem da dita “geracao X”, outras geracoes: nomeadamente a “geracao A” e a “geracao Y”. A “geracao A” e’ a que vem antes de tudo e de todos: e’ a “geracao dos possidentes” de tudo quanto e’ supostamente devido a 'parte' daqueles que podem reclamar-se de terem “estado em todas” e terem conseguido manter-se “ilesos” ate’ agora – alguns desde a(s) luta(s) de libertacao, dum ou doutro(s) lado(s), outros ha’ menos tempo, mas, em qualquer dos casos, todos politica, social e economicamente “intocaveis”, embora uns mais do que outros. Constituem, portanto, o establishment ou, se se preferir, a “situacao”.

Ja’ a “geracao Y” (que tambem pouco ou nada tem a ver com as definicoes convencionais dessa geracao) e’ um pouco mais “complexa(da?)”: apesar de, geralmente, social, profissional e economicamente “bem de vida”, no “nosso pais” ou fora dele, nao sera’ exactamente politicamente “intocavel”, mas o seu nucleo central cada vez mais comeca a dar mostras de pretender se-lo.

E, nao fazendo necessariamente parte funcional da “situacao” politica, faz certamente parte estrutural do establishment social e/ou cultural e parte dela fez durante muito tempo, ou ainda faz parte, ainda que marginalmente em alguns casos, do partido da “situacao” e sobrevive manifestamente gracas a “pactos de regime”, ou “de elites”, que lhes sao propiciados, tanto pela “situacao” do “nosso pais” (quanto mais nao seja porque fazem muita questao de se dizerem, ou fazerem, todos “primos” uns dos outros, ou membros dos mesmos “circulos restritos”, assim constituindo a famosa "grande familia"…), como, em alguns casos, pelos seus “parceiros estrangeiros”, o que lhes permite escapar ao estado de statelessness em que vive a minha “geracao R”, dentro ou fora do “nosso pais”.

Decididamente, esta “geracao Y” nao e’, nem nunca foi, “rejeitada” ou “excluida”, mesmo no caso de alguns dos seus membros que, tendo episodicamente sofrido a “mao pesada” do estado, a ela conseguiram sobreviver: e’ apenas aquela geracao que sempre teve e continua a ter tudo, excepto o poder politico (e parece nao olhar a meios para o obter...), ou seja, so’ lhe falta um escalao para atingir o status de “geracao Z”: o zenite a partir do qual destronara' triunfalmente a “geracao A” e co-optara', ou eclipsara', a actual “geracao X”, muito provavelmente substituindo-a pelos seus proprios filhos, nos casos em que estes ainda nao fazem parte dela…

Mas, enquanto la’ nao chegam, vao falando em nome dos “excluidos” e, enquanto de “barriga cheia” e "nariz empinado", muito self-righteously, vivem de punho erguido e dedo em riste contra tudo e todos que lhes parecam constituir uma ameaca aquele seu desiderato, ou que, simplesmente, nao lhes demonstrem “o devido respeito”... Atitude, alias, pela qual alguns deles sao sobejamente conhecidos desde os longinquos, famigerados e malfadados tempos de todos os “PRECs”, apenas evidenciando que indeed, old habits die hard and old dogs can’t learn new tricks! Mas, ainda assim, desejo-lhes a todos boa sorte nessa sua gloriosa escalada em direccao a “sua (exclusiva) situacao”...

No entanto, o que essas geracoes teem de comum entre si, e que as diferencia marcadamente da minha “geracao R”, e’ que todas elas vivem, ou viveram a maior parte das suas vidas, sob a sombra do estado (ou de um dos pelo menos dois "partidos-estado") do “nosso pais”, isto e’, nunca foram obrigados a ser stateless, nem fazem a minima ideia do que isso significa em termos vivenciais e filosoficos, salvo talvez alguns dos que, porventura, tenham vivido involuntariamente exilados no periodo colonial-fascista (ou, como num caso concreto que tenho em mente, o de MPA, infelizmente ja' nao entre nos, o viveu tanto naquele periodo como no pos-independencia).

Nao sao, portanto, capazes de perceber que haja gente por esse mundo fora, incluindo de origem Angolana que, no periodo pos-independencia, nunca contou, ou nao contou durante grande parte das suas vidas, com o estado (e, portanto, com o partido da "situacao") a que eles, salvo rarissimas excepcoes, devem praticamente tudo o que sao e teem em Angola e no mundo. E muito menos que gente da minha “geracao R”, como me, myself and I (que, apesar de “menor”, “insignificante” e “rejeitada”, se orgulha de nunca ter "lambido botas" de ninguem e muito menos de alguma vez ter “debicado” em pratos de quem quer que seja e de, quanto muito, ter visto “muito boa gente” debicar no seu prato e depois ingrata, descarada, arrogante e despudoradamete cuspir nele “de cima”…), possa “pensar pela sua propria cabeca” e ter a dignidade de expressar imparcialmente opinioes, ou posicionar-se politica e culturalmente, segundo logicas absolutamente nao partidarias ou estatais e que, quando fala em "democracia", “sociedade civil”, “direitos humanos” ou “cidadania”, e’ exactamente disso, e apenas disso, que esta’ a falar!

Pois enquanto tentam todos e, sobretudo, todas, se o quiserem e/ou puderem fazer, perceber isso, a minha “geracao R”, dentro ou fora do “nosso pais”, continuara’ a existir… excluida e rejeitada. Mas, pelo menos no que depender de me, myself and I, sem que nos constituamos necessariamente em “oposicao” politica formal, continuaremos a lutar pelo nosso direito a cidadania plena na terra que nos viu nascer, a nos e a todos os nossos ancestrais (!), e para a qual demos, dentro e fora dela, os nossos contributos, mais ou menos modestos, e nunca deixaremos de nos expressar livre e descomprometidamente sobre as praticas sociais e politicas de todas as “geracoes” e “elites” ou “nao elites”, “novas” ou “velhas”, por mais vetustas, fajutas, enfatuadas ou despidas e agressivas ou armadas que se nos apresentem, em particular quando se atrevam a por em causa, directa ou indirectamente, aberta ou veladamente, esse nosso direito inalienavel.

Portanto, de geracoes… creio estarmos falados!

[Echoed here]

Ja’ houve uma altura na minha vida, curiosamente nao assim tao longinqua, em que me via vagamente como parte de uma geracao que alguem designou, em termos estritamente literarios, “a geracao das incertezas” e que eu, em termos mais amplamente vivenciais e filosoficos, sempre preferi designar “a geracao de todos os desenganos”. Em anos mais recentes, no entanto, ou talvez por isso mesmo, vejo-me indubitavel e desenganadamente como parte da “geracao R”, ou a “geracao dos rejeitados”.

Esta minha “geracao R”, porem, nao e’ estritamente Angolana: existe dispersa um pouco por todo o globo e parte dela, entre a qual me incluo, e’, declaradamente ou nao, stateless, porquanto, para a maior parte dos, quando nao para todos os, efeitos legais, nao temos estado – muito menos partido!

Esta condicao faz com que, por exemplo, nos seja negada a renovacao do nosso passaporte nacional pelo “nosso pais” de origem ou, como ainda muito recentemente aconteceu a me, myself and I (e nao pela primeira vez…), nos seja negado um visto de entrada nesse mesmo pais, ao mesmo tempo que aos nossos colegas de trabalho ‘estrangeiros’ tal visto e’ prontamente concedido – situacao que, neste caso concreto, so’ pode ser ultrapassada gracas a benemerita intervencao de um embaixador de um terceiro pais – o que imediatamente nos coloca sob suspeicao perante os nossos empregadores, actuais ou prospectivos (como, alias, ja’ nos aconteceu no passado..), de sermos persona non grata naquele que dizemos, sentimos e sempre soubemos ser “o nosso pais”, impedindo-nos assim, mais frequentemente do que nao, de trabalhar em qualquer funcao ou projecto, mesmo que apenas estritamente academico, que exija algum contacto com Angola…

Esta minha “geracao R”, em consequencia do seu estado de statelessness, nao se pode dar ao luxo de deixar-se adormecer, seja sobre louros ou espinhos, tendo que lutar incessante e incansavelmente para se sustentar a si propria condignamente e para manter em todas as circunstancias a sua mente lucida e a sua cabeca erguida, sob pena de acabar literalmente por "nao ter onde cair morta", sujeitando-se entretanto a ser "debicada" por vultos e abutres famintos de todas as latitudes enquanto ainda viva…

Condicao que, em principio, nos deveria aproximar uns dos outros, mas que a propria situacao de global statelessness nos impede de o fazer: sabemos apenas que existimos por ai algures e tendemos a identificar-nos individualmente como me, myself and I – sendo esta uma exigencia de sobrevivencia fisica e espiritual, porquanto a partir do momento em que perdemos o sentido de nos proprios e da nossa identidade (mesmo se ligeiramente e apenas para nos permitirmos coisas tais como priorizarmos a nossa "elegancia fisica" sobre a nossa "elegancia mental, psicologica e moral", ou darmo-nos a "indulgencias literarias e artisticas"…), podemos correr o risco de perder por completo “todos os sentidos”, senao a propria vida… Enfim, a minha geracao, a “geracao R”, e’, literalmente falando, a geracao dos “excluidos dos excluidos”, a geracao dos condenados da terra – num sentido em que nem Fanon tera’ suspeitado pudesse alguma vez existir em lugar algum!

Tomo agora nota da existencia no “nosso pais” de uma designada “geracao X” que, pela descricao (que pouco ou nada tem a ver com as definicoes convencionais dessa geracao), se parece assemelhar muito as geracoes yuppies que, desde os anos 80 do seculo passado (ou seja, desde os tempos da “geracao das incertezas” em Angola), vem aparecendo um pouco por todos os paises, em determinadas fases bem identificadas da sua historia economica.

Mas, alegadamente, esta “geracao X” de Angola tem uma particularidade exclusiva: “faz parte, ou tenta colar-se, ao partido da situacao”. Por sinal, um partido por onde me, myself and I entramos e saimos muito antes do florescimento da dita “geracao das incertezas”, ou seja, num tempo em que nao havia nada a ganhar por dele se fazer parte: em muitos casos, como no de me, myself and I, muito antes pelo contrario! E dele, me, myself and I saimos de livre e espontanea vontade e for good: para nao mais voltar! Para esse, ou para qualquer outro partido politico. Quanto muito, tentamos lutar agora, tanto quanto nos e’ possivel, pelo fim do nosso involuntario estado de statelessness, o qual apenas podemos supor nos esteja a ser forcado por umas quaisquer “forcas ocultas nao identificadas”, devido aos nossos varios “atrevimentos”, desconfortaveis para a “situacao” (e, tudo indica, tambem para alguma “oposicao”) do “nosso pais”, ao longo dos anos …

Mas sei que ha’ no “nosso pais”, para alem da dita “geracao X”, outras geracoes: nomeadamente a “geracao A” e a “geracao Y”. A “geracao A” e’ a que vem antes de tudo e de todos: e’ a “geracao dos possidentes” de tudo quanto e’ supostamente devido a 'parte' daqueles que podem reclamar-se de terem “estado em todas” e terem conseguido manter-se “ilesos” ate’ agora – alguns desde a(s) luta(s) de libertacao, dum ou doutro(s) lado(s), outros ha’ menos tempo, mas, em qualquer dos casos, todos politica, social e economicamente “intocaveis”, embora uns mais do que outros. Constituem, portanto, o establishment ou, se se preferir, a “situacao”.

Ja’ a “geracao Y” (que tambem pouco ou nada tem a ver com as definicoes convencionais dessa geracao) e’ um pouco mais “complexa(da?)”: apesar de, geralmente, social, profissional e economicamente “bem de vida”, no “nosso pais” ou fora dele, nao sera’ exactamente politicamente “intocavel”, mas o seu nucleo central cada vez mais comeca a dar mostras de pretender se-lo.

E, nao fazendo necessariamente parte funcional da “situacao” politica, faz certamente parte estrutural do establishment social e/ou cultural e parte dela fez durante muito tempo, ou ainda faz parte, ainda que marginalmente em alguns casos, do partido da “situacao” e sobrevive manifestamente gracas a “pactos de regime”, ou “de elites”, que lhes sao propiciados, tanto pela “situacao” do “nosso pais” (quanto mais nao seja porque fazem muita questao de se dizerem, ou fazerem, todos “primos” uns dos outros, ou membros dos mesmos “circulos restritos”, assim constituindo a famosa "grande familia"…), como, em alguns casos, pelos seus “parceiros estrangeiros”, o que lhes permite escapar ao estado de statelessness em que vive a minha “geracao R”, dentro ou fora do “nosso pais”.

Decididamente, esta “geracao Y” nao e’, nem nunca foi, “rejeitada” ou “excluida”, mesmo no caso de alguns dos seus membros que, tendo episodicamente sofrido a “mao pesada” do estado, a ela conseguiram sobreviver: e’ apenas aquela geracao que sempre teve e continua a ter tudo, excepto o poder politico (e parece nao olhar a meios para o obter...), ou seja, so’ lhe falta um escalao para atingir o status de “geracao Z”: o zenite a partir do qual destronara' triunfalmente a “geracao A” e co-optara', ou eclipsara', a actual “geracao X”, muito provavelmente substituindo-a pelos seus proprios filhos, nos casos em que estes ainda nao fazem parte dela…

Mas, enquanto la’ nao chegam, vao falando em nome dos “excluidos” e, enquanto de “barriga cheia” e "nariz empinado", muito self-righteously, vivem de punho erguido e dedo em riste contra tudo e todos que lhes parecam constituir uma ameaca aquele seu desiderato, ou que, simplesmente, nao lhes demonstrem “o devido respeito”... Atitude, alias, pela qual alguns deles sao sobejamente conhecidos desde os longinquos, famigerados e malfadados tempos de todos os “PRECs”, apenas evidenciando que indeed, old habits die hard and old dogs can’t learn new tricks! Mas, ainda assim, desejo-lhes a todos boa sorte nessa sua gloriosa escalada em direccao a “sua (exclusiva) situacao”...

No entanto, o que essas geracoes teem de comum entre si, e que as diferencia marcadamente da minha “geracao R”, e’ que todas elas vivem, ou viveram a maior parte das suas vidas, sob a sombra do estado (ou de um dos pelo menos dois "partidos-estado") do “nosso pais”, isto e’, nunca foram obrigados a ser stateless, nem fazem a minima ideia do que isso significa em termos vivenciais e filosoficos, salvo talvez alguns dos que, porventura, tenham vivido involuntariamente exilados no periodo colonial-fascista (ou, como num caso concreto que tenho em mente, o de MPA, infelizmente ja' nao entre nos, o viveu tanto naquele periodo como no pos-independencia).

Nao sao, portanto, capazes de perceber que haja gente por esse mundo fora, incluindo de origem Angolana que, no periodo pos-independencia, nunca contou, ou nao contou durante grande parte das suas vidas, com o estado (e, portanto, com o partido da "situacao") a que eles, salvo rarissimas excepcoes, devem praticamente tudo o que sao e teem em Angola e no mundo. E muito menos que gente da minha “geracao R”, como me, myself and I (que, apesar de “menor”, “insignificante” e “rejeitada”, se orgulha de nunca ter "lambido botas" de ninguem e muito menos de alguma vez ter “debicado” em pratos de quem quer que seja e de, quanto muito, ter visto “muito boa gente” debicar no seu prato e depois ingrata, descarada, arrogante e despudoradamete cuspir nele “de cima”…), possa “pensar pela sua propria cabeca” e ter a dignidade de expressar imparcialmente opinioes, ou posicionar-se politica e culturalmente, segundo logicas absolutamente nao partidarias ou estatais e que, quando fala em "democracia", “sociedade civil”, “direitos humanos” ou “cidadania”, e’ exactamente disso, e apenas disso, que esta’ a falar!

Pois enquanto tentam todos e, sobretudo, todas, se o quiserem e/ou puderem fazer, perceber isso, a minha “geracao R”, dentro ou fora do “nosso pais”, continuara’ a existir… excluida e rejeitada. Mas, pelo menos no que depender de me, myself and I, sem que nos constituamos necessariamente em “oposicao” politica formal, continuaremos a lutar pelo nosso direito a cidadania plena na terra que nos viu nascer, a nos e a todos os nossos ancestrais (!), e para a qual demos, dentro e fora dela, os nossos contributos, mais ou menos modestos, e nunca deixaremos de nos expressar livre e descomprometidamente sobre as praticas sociais e politicas de todas as “geracoes” e “elites” ou “nao elites”, “novas” ou “velhas”, por mais vetustas, fajutas, enfatuadas ou despidas e agressivas ou armadas que se nos apresentem, em particular quando se atrevam a por em causa, directa ou indirectamente, aberta ou veladamente, esse nosso direito inalienavel.

Portanto, de geracoes… creio estarmos falados!

[Echoed here]

GOOD NEWS

Ela ja' aqui havia sido referida. Agora (re)encontrei-a neste artigo na ultima edicao de um dos semanarios de Luanda:

[Clique na imagem para a ampliar]

Ela ja' aqui havia sido referida. Agora (re)encontrei-a neste artigo na ultima edicao de um dos semanarios de Luanda:

[Clique na imagem para a ampliar]

O QUE NOSOTROS ANDAMOS PR'AQUI A PERDER... (12)

KWANZAA: O NATAL AFRICANO

E’ interessante observar as varias manifestacoes culturais criadas pelos Afro-Americanos para se manterem tao proximos quanto possivel das suas origens ancestrais. Na verdade, em varias areas da sua vida, eles criaram mesmo uma especie de ‘micro-cultura’ de inspiracao Africana, embora nem sempre com uma clara ou directa correspondencia nas praticas culturais observaveis no continente – o que se devera’, por um lado, aos sincretismos culturais e religiosos de varia ordem e diferentes origens que os conformam e, por outro lado, as varias (per)mutacoes e con(sub)jugacoes culturais verificadas em Africa ao longo dos seculos.



E’ o caso do Kwanzaa (tambem escrito Kwaanza) que se celebra por esta altura do ano, durante sete dias - de 26 de Dezembro a 1 de Janeiro - coincidindo com o periodo do Natal Cristao (e tambem do Judaico Hanukkah) e Ano Novo. A sua criacao poderia ter sido inspirada no nosso rio Kwanza (Angola), mas reza a historia que nao o foi exactamente. Kwaanza deriva da expressao Kiswahili "matunda ya kwanza", que significa “primeiros frutos”, ou “comeco” – apelando assim ao acto da criacao, tal como acontece no Natal Cristao. Porem, sendo o Kiswahili uma lingua Bantu, e’ provavel que o nosso Kwanza tenha nela o mesmo significado… mas deixo isso aos especialistas.



A criacao do Kwanzaa, em meados da decada de sessenta do seculo passado, ficou a dever-se ao activista social Afro-Americano Ron Karenga, que explicou o seu objectivo como sendo “proporcionar aos Negros (Blacks, para ser fiel ao original e ao contexto …) uma alternativa as festividades existentes e dar-lhes uma oportunidade de se celebrarem a si proprios e a sua historia, em vez de simplesmente imitarem a pratica da sociedade dominante.”



Durante os sete dias do Kwanzaa praticam-se varios rituais, envolvendo libacoes, acender de velas, banquetes e oferta de presentes. Poder-se-ia entao dizer que nesse aspecto nao difere muito do Natal Cristao ou do Hanukkah. Mas e’ o significado, em Kiswahili, de cada um dos sete dias do Kwanzaa que estabelece a diferenciacao:



• Umoja (Unidade) Obter e manter a unidade na familia, comunidade, nacao e raca.
• Kujichagulia (Auto-Determinacao) Definir-nos a nos proprios, nomear-nos a nos proprios, criar por nos proprios e falar por nos proprios.
• Ujima (Trabalho e Responsabilidade Colectiva) Construir e manter a comunidade coesa e fazer nossos os problemas dos nossos irmaos e irmas e resolve-los em conjunto.
• Ujamaa (Economia Cooperativa) Construir e manter as nossas proprias propriedades, lojas e negocios e partilhar em conjunto dos seus lucros.
• Nia (Proposito) Fazer nossa vocacao colectiva a construcao e o desenvolvimento da nossa comunidade com o objectivo de restaurar a grandeza tradicional do nosso povo.
• Kuumba (Criatividade) Fazer sempre tudo o que pudermos, como pudermos, por forma a deixarmos a nossa comunidade mais bela e benefica do que como a herdamos.
• Imani (Fe’) Acreditar com todo o nosso coracao nos nossos semelhantes, pais, professores, dirigentes e na justeza e vitoria da nossa luta.

E’ interessante observar as varias manifestacoes culturais criadas pelos Afro-Americanos para se manterem tao proximos quanto possivel das suas origens ancestrais. Na verdade, em varias areas da sua vida, eles criaram mesmo uma especie de ‘micro-cultura’ de inspiracao Africana, embora nem sempre com uma clara ou directa correspondencia nas praticas culturais observaveis no continente – o que se devera’, por um lado, aos sincretismos culturais e religiosos de varia ordem e diferentes origens que os conformam e, por outro lado, as varias (per)mutacoes e con(sub)jugacoes culturais verificadas em Africa ao longo dos seculos.



E’ o caso do Kwanzaa (tambem escrito Kwaanza) que se celebra por esta altura do ano, durante sete dias - de 26 de Dezembro a 1 de Janeiro - coincidindo com o periodo do Natal Cristao (e tambem do Judaico Hanukkah) e Ano Novo. A sua criacao poderia ter sido inspirada no nosso rio Kwanza (Angola), mas reza a historia que nao o foi exactamente. Kwaanza deriva da expressao Kiswahili "matunda ya kwanza", que significa “primeiros frutos”, ou “comeco” – apelando assim ao acto da criacao, tal como acontece no Natal Cristao. Porem, sendo o Kiswahili uma lingua Bantu, e’ provavel que o nosso Kwanza tenha nela o mesmo significado… mas deixo isso aos especialistas.



A criacao do Kwanzaa, em meados da decada de sessenta do seculo passado, ficou a dever-se ao activista social Afro-Americano Ron Karenga, que explicou o seu objectivo como sendo “proporcionar aos Negros (Blacks, para ser fiel ao original e ao contexto …) uma alternativa as festividades existentes e dar-lhes uma oportunidade de se celebrarem a si proprios e a sua historia, em vez de simplesmente imitarem a pratica da sociedade dominante.”



Durante os sete dias do Kwanzaa praticam-se varios rituais, envolvendo libacoes, acender de velas, banquetes e oferta de presentes. Poder-se-ia entao dizer que nesse aspecto nao difere muito do Natal Cristao ou do Hanukkah. Mas e’ o significado, em Kiswahili, de cada um dos sete dias do Kwanzaa que estabelece a diferenciacao:



• Umoja (Unidade) Obter e manter a unidade na familia, comunidade, nacao e raca.
• Kujichagulia (Auto-Determinacao) Definir-nos a nos proprios, nomear-nos a nos proprios, criar por nos proprios e falar por nos proprios.
• Ujima (Trabalho e Responsabilidade Colectiva) Construir e manter a comunidade coesa e fazer nossos os problemas dos nossos irmaos e irmas e resolve-los em conjunto.
• Ujamaa (Economia Cooperativa) Construir e manter as nossas proprias propriedades, lojas e negocios e partilhar em conjunto dos seus lucros.
• Nia (Proposito) Fazer nossa vocacao colectiva a construcao e o desenvolvimento da nossa comunidade com o objectivo de restaurar a grandeza tradicional do nosso povo.
• Kuumba (Criatividade) Fazer sempre tudo o que pudermos, como pudermos, por forma a deixarmos a nossa comunidade mais bela e benefica do que como a herdamos.
• Imani (Fe’) Acreditar com todo o nosso coracao nos nossos semelhantes, pais, professores, dirigentes e na justeza e vitoria da nossa luta.

ANGOLA: PAIS XENOFOBO?

Aqui ha’ uns anos, ao final de uma apresentacao que fiz durante uma serie de workshops sobre implementacao de politicas que dirigi em Johanesburgo para uma assistencia multinacional (que, por sinal, incluia dois angolanos, quadros do Ministerio da Educacao de Angola), alguem, um jovem sul-africano, fez uma intervencao dizendo algo como “quando as politicas sao deficientes, criam-se mecanismos assepticos para as validar”, ou qualquer coisa assim parecida… Bom, o facto e’ que o jovem nao tinha inicialmente entendido ‘patavina’ do mecanismo de monitorizacao da implementacao de politicas que ali tinha apresentado, por ser uma absoluta novidade na regiao, mas acabou depois por ficar com pelo menos "uma ideia".

Vem esta estoria a proposito deste interessante artigo de Pepetela. Por duas razoes: primeiro, porque retive daquela tirada do jovem sul-africano a palavra “asseptico”, por ter sido a primeira vez que a ouvi usada num contexto de formulacao, implementacao, monitorizacao e avaliacao de politicas; segundo, porque me parece que ha’ algo de “asseptico” na forma como Pepetela trata a questao da imigracao em Angola – nao tanto assim como ela e’ tratada neste artigo, por exemplo, mas “asseptico” de todo o modo.

Porque “asseptico”? Por, na minha modesta opiniao, me parecerem haver substanciais diferencas qualitativas (independentemente dos numeros em questao, ou seja das diferencas quantitativas) entre aqueles fluxos em diferentes periodos historicos. Isto e’, nao me parece, por exemplo, que a ocupacao colonial, o comercio transatlantico de escravos, ou os mais recentes fluxos migratorios pelas mais variadas razoes, desde politicas, de guerra, de estudo, ou economicas, se possam colocar ao mesmo nivel das migracoes pre-coloniais Bantu. Sera’ que podem estas ser classificadas como “imigracoes”? Havia fronteiras claramente definidas na altura em que elas se verificaram? Havia estados estruturados em todas as regioes em que elas tiveram lugar? Eram anteriormente povoadas todas as regioes "ocupadas" pelos Bantu ao longo das suas migracoes? Sera’ irrelevante geografica, antropologica, cultural e politicamente que elas tenham ocorrido dentro, i.e. de e para, Africa, por povos de origem Africana? Sera’ irrelevante historica e sociologicamente o facto de elas terem ocorrido durante milenios, enquanto a ocupacao colonial decorreu durante ‘apenas’ seculos (e em varios casos, incluindo em vastas regioes de Angola, ‘apenas’ decadas) e a actual vaga imigratoria conta menos de uma decada? Nao me proponho, no entanto, com este post discutir todas essas questoes, pelo que acrescentarei apenas as seguintes observacoes:

i) Nao pretendendo negar a possivel existencia de xenofobia no pais, o que me parece estar em causa em Angola e’ muito mais uma questao de nao se ter ainda criado um ambiente suficientemente acolhedor e integrador para os proprios angolanos que regressam ou que o pretendem fazer, nem proporcionado garantias suficientes aos nacionais de forma geral de que a actual entrada em massa de estrangeiros, claramente por razoes economicas, nao constitui um crowding out das suas proprias oportunidades economicas, sociais, educacionais e culturais. Porque, quanto a mim, o que se passa neste momento em Angola e’ uma acerrima e desabrida competicao, respeitando poucas ou nenhumas regras, pelos recursos escassos que, apesar de todas as sugestoes em contrario, ainda constituem as oportunidades que acabo de referir no actual quadro institucional, politico, economico e social do pais.

ii) As minhas proprias experiencias a esse nivel, deixam-me muito poucas duvidas de que, a haver xenofobia, ela e’ virada de forma por vezes ainda mais violenta e intolerante (talvez apenas comparavel a que sempre foi dirigida aos chamados regressados do Congo...) contra nacionais, particularmente se de origem Bantu, que tenham saido do pais durante o periodo post-independencia, especialmente os que sairam para estudar e que, pelas mais variadas razoes, nao regressaram imediatamente apos os seus estudos, nos casos em que os tenham completado.

O que sistematicamente se omite, porem, nessas manifestacoes de intolerancia (que de certo modo confirmam o que aqui disse sobre o estado mental de pelo menos parte da actual sociedade angolana) [*] e’ que, na maior parte dos casos, aqueles estudantes foram “empurrados” para fora do pais [**], quando nao literalmente expulsos, por politicas de formacao de quadros no exterior, no melhor dos casos, deficientes, segregacionistas e discriminatorias e, no pior, completamente falhadas, persecutorias, atentatorias da sua mais minima dignidade pessoal e violadoras dos seus mais elementares direitos humanos![***]

O que se faz tudo por esquecer, escamotear e negar em tais soezes, cobardes e criminosos ataques, e’ que alguns desses estudantes tiveram que tomar por sua propria conta e risco, pessoal e financeiramente, trabalhando honestamente, o “refazer” das suas qualificacoes academicas, tecnicas e profissionais em condicoes totalmente competitivas no estrangeiro, sem qualquer respaldo do Estado Angolano, ou, ja' agora, de qualquer outra instituicao, nacional ou estrangeira, publica ou privada. Por essa razao, se ha’ algo que eles nao temem e’ a livre competicao com estrangeiros no seu proprio pais! Mas a questao e’ que essa competicao, a semelhanca daquela a que estao habituados, tem que ser justa, objectiva, transparente, regrada, regulada e monitorizada. Nao e’, infelizmente, o que se passa neste momento em Angola, o que apenas contribui para a depauperacao do ja’ pauperrimo stock de capital humano do pais. Infelizmente tambem, essa nao e’ uma realidade exclusiva de Angola (embora ela seja ai exacerbada, por um lado, por uma propensao, quica unica em Africa, para se associar "desenvolvimento" e "civilizacao" com "estrangeiro nao Bantu" e, por outro lado, pelas recentes elevadas taxas de crescimento a custa do petroleo e pelas ditas "imensas riquezas do pais"...), verificando-se tambem nos varios paises Africanos que, independentemente das ideologias subjacentes as politicas que adoptaram desde as respectivas independencias, se veem imersos em eternos ciclos viciosos de dependencia, pobreza e sub-desenvolvimento, como aqui bem o ilustra o academico Francis Njubi.

iii) Volto brevemente a Johanesburgo para sugerir que, por forma a precaverem-se, entre outros possiveis, efeitos secundarios negativos e manifestacoes reactivas como esta, se adopte em Angola uma clara politica de imigracao e um eficiente mecanismo de monitorizacao (nao “asseptico”) dos actuais fluxos migratorios do e para o pais, que podera’ ser assente, entre outros, nos numeros de que Pepetela fala. Idealmente, tal politica de imigracao devera’ ser complementada, a par de uma seria politica de emprego, por uma robusta politica de formacao, avaliacao e requalificacao, que valorize e dignifique os quadros nacionais, tenham-se eles formado dentro ou fora do pais, e que maximize o stock de capital humano da nacao. Mas, sobretudo, que nunca se perca de vista nesse processo que nenhuma grande economia, sociedade, ou civilizacao deste mundo foi feita exclusivamente por meia duzia de Professores Doutores politica e ideologicamente alinhados em 'comites da especialidade' ou arregimentados por NGOs financiadas pelo estrangeiro, Colunistas ad-hoc, Militares, Artistas, Escritores e ... Estrangeiros.

*****

[*] Movidas, nos casos mais perturbadores, por noveis ‘colunistas’ numa certa imprensa que, aparentemente ao servico das mais escusas e sordidas agendas pessoais, assim demonstrando a mais gritante falta de profissionalismo, ao mesmo tempo que nao se cansam de promover a ida rapidamente e em forca para Angola de estrangeiros cujas qualificacoes e motivacoes nao lhes passa pela cabeca questionar (como os bons complexados subservientes que se prezam de ser... indeed, 'o problema' (nao e' segredo nenhum!) esta' e sempre esteve na cabeca deles, ou seja, nos seus mediocres e piquinininhos cerebros... ja' para nao falar nos seus diminutos fisicos... a medida, imagem e semelhanca dos quais projectam o pais...), se parecem vir, arrogante e ignorantemente, ‘especializando’ e 'post-graduando' em ‘avaliar’ e ‘julgar’, sem quaisquer habilitacoes ou competencias para tal (a nao ser talvez a sua vocacao natural para “comissarios politicos” de ocasiao, ou oficiais subalternos de uma qualquer "inquisicao"), do alto das suas auto-instituidas catedras, alguns quadros nacionais.

Sendo ainda mais revoltante o facto de alguns desses ‘colunistas’ (que, ademais, nao se coibem de incluir nos seus nojentos, venenosos, irresponsaveis e desumanos vituperios os filhos de quadros no exterior que, tambem eles, se formaram exclusivamente a custa do seu proprio sacrificio e dos seus pais ou, como no meu caso, da sua mae…), terem tambem, e sem quaisquer razoes de forca maior, “emigrado” durante longos anos no post-independencia para la vie en rose noutras paragens, onde viveram sempre a custa de outrem - por sinal, mulheres... o que diz muito sobre a sua auto-proclamada macheza e tera' levado alguem que, de outro modo, lhes deveria o maximo respeito a cantar-lhes o refrao les hommes sont des couchons...-, sem nunca terem trabalhado ou estudado... e que recentemente regressaram a Angola como "empresarios" (...depois de terem fugido de outras 'pastagens' onde afundaram empresas que criaram com dinheiros publicos e que esbanjaram em proveito proprio...) e com estatutos de "herois" e "antigos combatentes" (isto e', passaram subita, oportunistica e novo-riquisticamente a ter tudo, incluindo "palacios", e a "ser tudo" numa sociedade em que a experiencia vivencial da generalidade dos antigos combatentes e' retratada pela frase "ate' voce ja' nao es nada"...) mas, contudo, sem qualquer valor acrescentado para oferecer ao pais, o que talvez justifique toda a sua sanha canina, raivosa e assassina…

[**] Em particular durante o consulado de um notabilissimo e bastante versatil embaixador/musico/atleta/recem-graduado em Cuba, de quem um dos tais 'colunistas' aqui referidos e' um dedicado pupilo (ou, talvez melhor dito, kaxiko!) de longa data e cujo "disco de ouro negro" foi 'prefaciado' por Pepetela - nao que umas coisas tenham necessariamente a ver com outras, trata-se apenas de assinalar aqui algumas notaveis coincidencias...

[***] O que faz com que esses afoitos noveis 'colunistas' novo-jornaleiros estejam a incorrer, no minimo, numa multipla violacao dos direitos humanos das suas vitimas (pela qual apenas nao sao imediatamente responsabilizados legalmente porque nao teem coragem suficiente, como despreziveis cobardes que sao, de desferir os seus vis ataques aberta e directamente...), porquanto assim reza a Declaracao Universal dos Direitos Humanos:

Artigo 12°- Ninguém sofrerá intromissões arbitrárias na sua vida privada, na sua família, no seu domicílio ou na sua correspondência, nem ataques à sua honra e reputação. Contra tais intromissões ou ataques toda a pessoa tem direito a protecção da lei.

Artigo 13° - 2. Toda a pessoa tem o direito de abandonar o país em que se encontra, incluindo o seu, e o direito de regressar ao seu país.

Artigo 19° - Todo o indivíduo tem direito à liberdade de opinião e de expressão, o que implica o direito de não ser inquietado pelas suas opiniões e o de procurar, receber e difundir, sem consideração de fronteiras, informações e ideias por qualquer meio de expressão.

... Isto em adicao a violacao de todas as politicas, disposicoes e declaracoes nacionais, regionais e internacionais respeitantes a promocao da Mulher e a defesa dos seus direitos, consagrados, entre outros documentos, na Declaracao de Beijing. O que apenas confirma tudo quanto aqui disse sobre um certo tipo de homem africano... sendo certo que muito mais ha' a dizer, em particular sobre um certo tipo de invertebrado angolano!

... Isto para nem sequer mencionar os mais elementares principios de educacao, cavalheirismo e civilidade (particularmente quando nao se conhece de parte alguma quem tao obcecada e apaixonadamente se tenta vitimar)!

... Isto para nem sequer falar na imoralidade em que incorrem...

Mas... como no fundo apenas me metem, como sempre me meteram, pena (muita pena mesmo!) ... e como, ao que dizem, teem um Ingles 'nao cursivo' (o que quer que isso seja...), dedico-lhes este poema. Desculpem-me ser da autoria de uma Mulher Negra...

[Crescam e Aparecam!]

Post relacionado:

White Negritude

Aqui ha’ uns anos, ao final de uma apresentacao que fiz durante uma serie de workshops sobre implementacao de politicas que dirigi em Johanesburgo para uma assistencia multinacional (que, por sinal, incluia dois angolanos, quadros do Ministerio da Educacao de Angola), alguem, um jovem sul-africano, fez uma intervencao dizendo algo como “quando as politicas sao deficientes, criam-se mecanismos assepticos para as validar”, ou qualquer coisa assim parecida… Bom, o facto e’ que o jovem nao tinha inicialmente entendido ‘patavina’ do mecanismo de monitorizacao da implementacao de politicas que ali tinha apresentado, por ser uma absoluta novidade na regiao, mas acabou depois por ficar com pelo menos "uma ideia".

Vem esta estoria a proposito deste interessante artigo de Pepetela. Por duas razoes: primeiro, porque retive daquela tirada do jovem sul-africano a palavra “asseptico”, por ter sido a primeira vez que a ouvi usada num contexto de formulacao, implementacao, monitorizacao e avaliacao de politicas; segundo, porque me parece que ha’ algo de “asseptico” na forma como Pepetela trata a questao da imigracao em Angola – nao tanto assim como ela e’ tratada neste artigo, por exemplo, mas “asseptico” de todo o modo.

Porque “asseptico”? Por, na minha modesta opiniao, me parecerem haver substanciais diferencas qualitativas (independentemente dos numeros em questao, ou seja das diferencas quantitativas) entre aqueles fluxos em diferentes periodos historicos. Isto e’, nao me parece, por exemplo, que a ocupacao colonial, o comercio transatlantico de escravos, ou os mais recentes fluxos migratorios pelas mais variadas razoes, desde politicas, de guerra, de estudo, ou economicas, se possam colocar ao mesmo nivel das migracoes pre-coloniais Bantu. Sera’ que podem estas ser classificadas como “imigracoes”? Havia fronteiras claramente definidas na altura em que elas se verificaram? Havia estados estruturados em todas as regioes em que elas tiveram lugar? Eram anteriormente povoadas todas as regioes "ocupadas" pelos Bantu ao longo das suas migracoes? Sera’ irrelevante geografica, antropologica, cultural e politicamente que elas tenham ocorrido dentro, i.e. de e para, Africa, por povos de origem Africana? Sera’ irrelevante historica e sociologicamente o facto de elas terem ocorrido durante milenios, enquanto a ocupacao colonial decorreu durante ‘apenas’ seculos (e em varios casos, incluindo em vastas regioes de Angola, ‘apenas’ decadas) e a actual vaga imigratoria conta menos de uma decada? Nao me proponho, no entanto, com este post discutir todas essas questoes, pelo que acrescentarei apenas as seguintes observacoes:

i) Nao pretendendo negar a possivel existencia de xenofobia no pais, o que me parece estar em causa em Angola e’ muito mais uma questao de nao se ter ainda criado um ambiente suficientemente acolhedor e integrador para os proprios angolanos que regressam ou que o pretendem fazer, nem proporcionado garantias suficientes aos nacionais de forma geral de que a actual entrada em massa de estrangeiros, claramente por razoes economicas, nao constitui um crowding out das suas proprias oportunidades economicas, sociais, educacionais e culturais. Porque, quanto a mim, o que se passa neste momento em Angola e’ uma acerrima e desabrida competicao, respeitando poucas ou nenhumas regras, pelos recursos escassos que, apesar de todas as sugestoes em contrario, ainda constituem as oportunidades que acabo de referir no actual quadro institucional, politico, economico e social do pais.

ii) As minhas proprias experiencias a esse nivel, deixam-me muito poucas duvidas de que, a haver xenofobia, ela e’ virada de forma por vezes ainda mais violenta e intolerante (talvez apenas comparavel a que sempre foi dirigida aos chamados regressados do Congo...) contra nacionais, particularmente se de origem Bantu, que tenham saido do pais durante o periodo post-independencia, especialmente os que sairam para estudar e que, pelas mais variadas razoes, nao regressaram imediatamente apos os seus estudos, nos casos em que os tenham completado.

O que sistematicamente se omite, porem, nessas manifestacoes de intolerancia (que de certo modo confirmam o que aqui disse sobre o estado mental de pelo menos parte da actual sociedade angolana) [*] e’ que, na maior parte dos casos, aqueles estudantes foram “empurrados” para fora do pais [**], quando nao literalmente expulsos, por politicas de formacao de quadros no exterior, no melhor dos casos, deficientes, segregacionistas e discriminatorias e, no pior, completamente falhadas, persecutorias, atentatorias da sua mais minima dignidade pessoal e violadoras dos seus mais elementares direitos humanos![***]

O que se faz tudo por esquecer, escamotear e negar em tais soezes, cobardes e criminosos ataques, e’ que alguns desses estudantes tiveram que tomar por sua propria conta e risco, pessoal e financeiramente, trabalhando honestamente, o “refazer” das suas qualificacoes academicas, tecnicas e profissionais em condicoes totalmente competitivas no estrangeiro, sem qualquer respaldo do Estado Angolano, ou, ja' agora, de qualquer outra instituicao, nacional ou estrangeira, publica ou privada. Por essa razao, se ha’ algo que eles nao temem e’ a livre competicao com estrangeiros no seu proprio pais! Mas a questao e’ que essa competicao, a semelhanca daquela a que estao habituados, tem que ser justa, objectiva, transparente, regrada, regulada e monitorizada. Nao e’, infelizmente, o que se passa neste momento em Angola, o que apenas contribui para a depauperacao do ja’ pauperrimo stock de capital humano do pais. Infelizmente tambem, essa nao e’ uma realidade exclusiva de Angola (embora ela seja ai exacerbada, por um lado, por uma propensao, quica unica em Africa, para se associar "desenvolvimento" e "civilizacao" com "estrangeiro nao Bantu" e, por outro lado, pelas recentes elevadas taxas de crescimento a custa do petroleo e pelas ditas "imensas riquezas do pais"...), verificando-se tambem nos varios paises Africanos que, independentemente das ideologias subjacentes as politicas que adoptaram desde as respectivas independencias, se veem imersos em eternos ciclos viciosos de dependencia, pobreza e sub-desenvolvimento, como aqui bem o ilustra o academico Francis Njubi.

iii) Volto brevemente a Johanesburgo para sugerir que, por forma a precaverem-se, entre outros possiveis, efeitos secundarios negativos e manifestacoes reactivas como esta, se adopte em Angola uma clara politica de imigracao e um eficiente mecanismo de monitorizacao (nao “asseptico”) dos actuais fluxos migratorios do e para o pais, que podera’ ser assente, entre outros, nos numeros de que Pepetela fala. Idealmente, tal politica de imigracao devera’ ser complementada, a par de uma seria politica de emprego, por uma robusta politica de formacao, avaliacao e requalificacao, que valorize e dignifique os quadros nacionais, tenham-se eles formado dentro ou fora do pais, e que maximize o stock de capital humano da nacao. Mas, sobretudo, que nunca se perca de vista nesse processo que nenhuma grande economia, sociedade, ou civilizacao deste mundo foi feita exclusivamente por meia duzia de Professores Doutores politica e ideologicamente alinhados em 'comites da especialidade' ou arregimentados por NGOs financiadas pelo estrangeiro, Colunistas ad-hoc, Militares, Artistas, Escritores e ... Estrangeiros.

*****

[*] Movidas, nos casos mais perturbadores, por noveis ‘colunistas’ numa certa imprensa que, aparentemente ao servico das mais escusas e sordidas agendas pessoais, assim demonstrando a mais gritante falta de profissionalismo, ao mesmo tempo que nao se cansam de promover a ida rapidamente e em forca para Angola de estrangeiros cujas qualificacoes e motivacoes nao lhes passa pela cabeca questionar (como os bons complexados subservientes que se prezam de ser... indeed, 'o problema' (nao e' segredo nenhum!) esta' e sempre esteve na cabeca deles, ou seja, nos seus mediocres e piquinininhos cerebros... ja' para nao falar nos seus diminutos fisicos... a medida, imagem e semelhanca dos quais projectam o pais...), se parecem vir, arrogante e ignorantemente, ‘especializando’ e 'post-graduando' em ‘avaliar’ e ‘julgar’, sem quaisquer habilitacoes ou competencias para tal (a nao ser talvez a sua vocacao natural para “comissarios politicos” de ocasiao, ou oficiais subalternos de uma qualquer "inquisicao"), do alto das suas auto-instituidas catedras, alguns quadros nacionais.

Sendo ainda mais revoltante o facto de alguns desses ‘colunistas’ (que, ademais, nao se coibem de incluir nos seus nojentos, venenosos, irresponsaveis e desumanos vituperios os filhos de quadros no exterior que, tambem eles, se formaram exclusivamente a custa do seu proprio sacrificio e dos seus pais ou, como no meu caso, da sua mae…), terem tambem, e sem quaisquer razoes de forca maior, “emigrado” durante longos anos no post-independencia para la vie en rose noutras paragens, onde viveram sempre a custa de outrem - por sinal, mulheres... o que diz muito sobre a sua auto-proclamada macheza e tera' levado alguem que, de outro modo, lhes deveria o maximo respeito a cantar-lhes o refrao les hommes sont des couchons...-, sem nunca terem trabalhado ou estudado... e que recentemente regressaram a Angola como "empresarios" (...depois de terem fugido de outras 'pastagens' onde afundaram empresas que criaram com dinheiros publicos e que esbanjaram em proveito proprio...) e com estatutos de "herois" e "antigos combatentes" (isto e', passaram subita, oportunistica e novo-riquisticamente a ter tudo, incluindo "palacios", e a "ser tudo" numa sociedade em que a experiencia vivencial da generalidade dos antigos combatentes e' retratada pela frase "ate' voce ja' nao es nada"...) mas, contudo, sem qualquer valor acrescentado para oferecer ao pais, o que talvez justifique toda a sua sanha canina, raivosa e assassina…

[**] Em particular durante o consulado de um notabilissimo e bastante versatil embaixador/musico/atleta/recem-graduado em Cuba, de quem um dos tais 'colunistas' aqui referidos e' um dedicado pupilo (ou, talvez melhor dito, kaxiko!) de longa data e cujo "disco de ouro negro" foi 'prefaciado' por Pepetela - nao que umas coisas tenham necessariamente a ver com outras, trata-se apenas de assinalar aqui algumas notaveis coincidencias...

[***] O que faz com que esses afoitos noveis 'colunistas' novo-jornaleiros estejam a incorrer, no minimo, numa multipla violacao dos direitos humanos das suas vitimas (pela qual apenas nao sao imediatamente responsabilizados legalmente porque nao teem coragem suficiente, como despreziveis cobardes que sao, de desferir os seus vis ataques aberta e directamente...), porquanto assim reza a Declaracao Universal dos Direitos Humanos:

Artigo 12°- Ninguém sofrerá intromissões arbitrárias na sua vida privada, na sua família, no seu domicílio ou na sua correspondência, nem ataques à sua honra e reputação. Contra tais intromissões ou ataques toda a pessoa tem direito a protecção da lei.

Artigo 13° - 2. Toda a pessoa tem o direito de abandonar o país em que se encontra, incluindo o seu, e o direito de regressar ao seu país.

Artigo 19° - Todo o indivíduo tem direito à liberdade de opinião e de expressão, o que implica o direito de não ser inquietado pelas suas opiniões e o de procurar, receber e difundir, sem consideração de fronteiras, informações e ideias por qualquer meio de expressão.

... Isto em adicao a violacao de todas as politicas, disposicoes e declaracoes nacionais, regionais e internacionais respeitantes a promocao da Mulher e a defesa dos seus direitos, consagrados, entre outros documentos, na Declaracao de Beijing. O que apenas confirma tudo quanto aqui disse sobre um certo tipo de homem africano... sendo certo que muito mais ha' a dizer, em particular sobre um certo tipo de invertebrado angolano!

... Isto para nem sequer mencionar os mais elementares principios de educacao, cavalheirismo e civilidade (particularmente quando nao se conhece de parte alguma quem tao obcecada e apaixonadamente se tenta vitimar)!

... Isto para nem sequer falar na imoralidade em que incorrem...

Mas... como no fundo apenas me metem, como sempre me meteram, pena (muita pena mesmo!) ... e como, ao que dizem, teem um Ingles 'nao cursivo' (o que quer que isso seja...), dedico-lhes este poema. Desculpem-me ser da autoria de uma Mulher Negra...

[Crescam e Aparecam!]

Post relacionado:

White Negritude

OS FILHOS DA AFRICA EM PORTUGAL

A Modernização da Exclusão Social

Por Marzia Grassi

O livro é o resultado da tese de doutoramento de Neusa Gusmão, a antropóloga brasileira, investigadora e professora da faculdade de
educação da UNICAMP (Universidade Estadual de Campinas) de São Paulo.
Trata-se de uma pesquisa muito interessante sobre os imigrantes
originários dos PALOP (Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa) em Portugal e os seus filhos. O contexto escolhido pela autora é a cidade de Lisboa e a discussão teórica explora a possibilidade de existirem, na sociedade portuguesa, mecanismos peculiares na construção identitária, individual e colectiva que explicam a presença negra em Portugal. A autora questiona-se quanto ao significado de ser português ou africano em terras lusas, e, ao longo do seu trabalho, discute as características da identidade portuguesa de imigração, as suas auto-percepções e as suas atribuições, quer nos indivíduos oriundos das ex colónias, quer nos seus filhos, nascidos em Portugal ou saídos das terras africanas na infância. O caso da chamada "segunda geração" de imigrantes, mostra com evidência o sobressair da condição étnica como elemento diferenciador, que a autora explora ao longo de todo o trabalho, como uma condição
privilegiada para a percepção das dinâmicas dos conflitos.

Neusa Gusmão mostra no seu livro como a condição étnica é vivenciada pelos jovens no meio em que estão inseridos, discutindo esta questão em dois lugares de socialização, a escola e o bairro. Utilizando uma metodologia de observação directa dos contextos e de entrevistas aos jovens, protagonistas do estudo, e aos observadores privilegiados, a autora mostra a escola e o bairro como os lugares mais importantes, os contextos onde a socialização dos jovens depende da capacidade de negociação identitária que eles conseguem no contacto com o "outro" português.

[Continue lendo aqui]

A Modernização da Exclusão Social

Por Marzia Grassi

O livro é o resultado da tese de doutoramento de Neusa Gusmão, a antropóloga brasileira, investigadora e professora da faculdade de
educação da UNICAMP (Universidade Estadual de Campinas) de São Paulo.
Trata-se de uma pesquisa muito interessante sobre os imigrantes
originários dos PALOP (Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa) em Portugal e os seus filhos. O contexto escolhido pela autora é a cidade de Lisboa e a discussão teórica explora a possibilidade de existirem, na sociedade portuguesa, mecanismos peculiares na construção identitária, individual e colectiva que explicam a presença negra em Portugal. A autora questiona-se quanto ao significado de ser português ou africano em terras lusas, e, ao longo do seu trabalho, discute as características da identidade portuguesa de imigração, as suas auto-percepções e as suas atribuições, quer nos indivíduos oriundos das ex colónias, quer nos seus filhos, nascidos em Portugal ou saídos das terras africanas na infância. O caso da chamada "segunda geração" de imigrantes, mostra com evidência o sobressair da condição étnica como elemento diferenciador, que a autora explora ao longo de todo o trabalho, como uma condição
privilegiada para a percepção das dinâmicas dos conflitos.

Neusa Gusmão mostra no seu livro como a condição étnica é vivenciada pelos jovens no meio em que estão inseridos, discutindo esta questão em dois lugares de socialização, a escola e o bairro. Utilizando uma metodologia de observação directa dos contextos e de entrevistas aos jovens, protagonistas do estudo, e aos observadores privilegiados, a autora mostra a escola e o bairro como os lugares mais importantes, os contextos onde a socialização dos jovens depende da capacidade de negociação identitária que eles conseguem no contacto com o "outro" português.

[Continue lendo aqui]

O QUE NOSOTROS ANDAMOS PR'AQUI A PERDER... (3)

BE MY GUEST! (V. BILL - Part 1)

One African-American, 4 Acres and a Mule

My fifth guest in this series is truly a jewel I was lucky enough to find in the jungle that is the blogosphere. Bill, a.k.a. Black River Eagle (BRE), is someone I think I can safely consider a friend, in spite of our occasional disagreements here or there. He is a veteran blogger on whom I came to rely for information and advice on the so many things I still don’t know about the blogosphere and all that ‘brave new world’ the internet offers us. There is not much more I can really say before I let you read from him, except that I am deeply honoured to be his host today and next week when we release Part II of this exclusive 7-question interview.

1. How and why did you get started blogging about Africa and why the title 'Jewels in the Jungle'?

I have had a deep interest in the continent and people of Africa for much of my adult life since my own family heritage is so closely linked to the history of Africans in the New World (the Americas) starting around the beginning of the 18th Century. ‘Jewels in the Jungle’ was launched back in May of 2004 when the blogosphere was still relatively small (approximately 7 million blogs vs. the 100 million+ blogs worldwide today).
After watching the rapid development and growth of online publishing tools and blog authors from a technology point of view since 2001-2002, I felt that using a weblog to share information and news online about Africa with people around the globe was an idea worth pursuing. When I started ‘Jewels’ I didn’t have the slightest idea that it would gain popularity and a global readership of more than 90,000 visitors.
Re: the blog title ‘Jewels in the Jungle’
Sort of catchy, ain’t it? Love it myself___ I need to get the name trademarked or something. The title gets its name from a phrase that I used to describe a project organized by a photographer friend in Germany. My friend, Susanne Behnke, decided one autumn day in 2002 that she was going to do something to “help out the poor, helpless orphan children of Uganda”. When she broke the news to me about her project idea for Ugandan children I was filled with dread that this was going to turn out to be a nightmare. Susanne, a professional photographer and high school teacher, is a real go-getter with a big heart for young people. Susanne had never traveled to the African continent but she has visited several countries in Europe and North America. Somehow she was able to pull it off despite the many adventures encountered along the way both in Uganda and here in Germany.
Working together with her friends in Uganda and organizations and companies in Germany Susanne managed to plan, organize, and launch a project to build new schoolrooms for children of the Iganga District (near Lake Victoria and Jinja). The project team also awarded thirty scholarships to young schoolchildren to help them pay their school fees for one year. Jewelry design students from one of Germany’s best known art & design academies (the Pforzheim School of Design) donated their time and work in support of the project. Auctions for the sale of handmade designer jewelry created specifically for this project were held at three locations in Germany. Money collected from these auctions plus generous private donations was used to begin construction on new school classrooms in Iganga District, Uganda. Hence the story of the origin of my blog title ‘Jewels in the Jungle’.
Note: I’ve uploaded photos from the project to my Flickr.com portfolio. Sotheby’s Amsterdam used a similar concept in 2007 for the ‘Jewels for the Jungle’ auction to help raise money for the World Wildlife Fund.

2. To what extent do you think that blogs, social networks, and other online publishing and collaboration tools can contribute to Africa's development?

I feel that blog authors coming from the global pool of private citizens, citizen journalists, news and media professionals, educators and scholars, students and so forth have already contributed a great deal to Africa’s development, especially over the last 4 to 5 years. I haven’t spent much time investigating social networks and online forums so I cannot speak about their impact on Africa’s development.
There is more information about Africa, much of it written and produced by Africans, available to the global public today than at anytime in world history. The simple, easy-to-use technologies behind online publishing tools i.e. Blogger, Wordpress, and Typepad combined with the power of blog search engines and blog aggregators has helped to make it possible for millions of people to participate in the World Live Web, the live or near real-time global online communications and collaboration around a variety of news events and issues. Blogs in combination with the array of online communication and collaboration tools and platforms that make up what some refer to as Web 2.0 technologies has helped the world to understand that “Africa is in the House!” Africa and Africans are an integral part of the global community and the young people of Africa today refuse to be ignored and left behind.
Users of these new web-based applications are transforming how local, national, and international news is gathered, analyzed, and delivered. Leading international and national news media companies haves started using blogs and reader-generated content on their websites. It is standard practice for the best online news sites to offer reader feedback to editorials and feature articles in the form of comment tools. What is also interesting to watch is the growing impact that blog authors and citizen journalists (and their readers) are having on national politics and elections around the world. This is happening from the U.S.A. to Russia, from Egypt to Ecuador, South Africa to South Korea___ blog authors and their readers are making a significant contribution to news coverage worldwide as well as having an impact on politics and social issues. Jay Rosen, associate professor of journalism at New York University and author of PressThink, goes into more detail about this subject in his August 2007 editorial for the LA Times ‘The Journalism that Bloggers Actually Do’ .
Africa’s bloggers and people around the world who write and report on Africa via blogs and citizen-generated news sites are having an effect on how heads of state, political figures, business leaders, and public officials operate. It is especially difficult these days for many of Africa’s longstanding despots and dictators and thieves of the public wealth (corrupt officials) because they can no longer hide their dirty deeds and deplorable actions from an enquiring world. Some regimes continue to intimidate and persecute journalists, editors, and publishers by keeping a tight stranglehold on a free press and free speech___ but these leaders can no longer easily control the growing sources of reliable information or the delivery channels for news. News today can be delivered from anywhere___ the Internet, mobile phones, miniature storage devices, video cameras, you name it.
This is true not only for Africa but for leaders in regions and countries around the globe. Case in point: Look east, look east to China and the difficulties that the government in Beijing is having with outraged journalists over press freedoms and Internet access. Bloggers were the ones to break the story about The Great Firewall of China first, long before the world’s press and media professionals caught on.
Bloggers are everywhere and just about anyone with access to a computer and a reliable Internet connection, an ability to communicate well through the written word or voice (audio) or imagery (photos, video, graphics), combined with credibility and some authority on a given subject can become a blogger with a worldwide audience.
From the election turmoil in Nigeria and Kenya to the exposure of the despotic rule of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and murderous rule of Omar al-Bashir in Sudan to the headquarters of the African Union and the United Nations, bloggers are having an impact on the way we live and the choices of information that we consume daily.

3. As an American living abroad for many years (Europe), what has been your experience with Africans in the Diaspora?

One of the most vivid images of Europe that will remain in my mind forever will be the day in 1986 that I saw three young African men sitting on a dock in a small harbor town in northern Germany looking out across the North Sea. These were not the first black Africans that I had encountered in Europe or Germany but for me they defined the plight of so many African immigrants to Europe that I have met in the closing decade of the 20th Century and right up to this very day.
At the time I was working for an aerospace engineering firm that had defense contracts with the German government to assist the German Luftwaffe and Marine. My assignment was to support German scientists, naval officers and technical staff on a naval air station at the ass-end of the world. Here in the middle of nowhere, at the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries whose armies were amassed on the East German border just a stone’s throw away were these African ‘asylum seekers’. I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
To make a long story short, I soon befriended these young men and shared in many great conversations about Africa and America and Europe until my departure from the area about 4 years later. I still have many fond memories of those days and I miss them dearly, I really do. Unfortunately I no longer have contact to any of those young Africans from that time but I have learned that one of them returned to Ghana and is today a successful Internet radio entrepreneur. I would like to think that our heated discussions and debates about all kinds of subjects combined with my encouragement to maintain a level of self-respect and demand respect from others, to always work hard to improve oneself through education and learning inside and outside of a classroom, that these shared experiences had a positive effect on their lives and their futures.
Of course not all Africans that I have met in Europe have been asylum seekers or economic refugees. Many of my African friends and acquaintances came to West or East Germany (GDR) on academic scholarships back in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Over the years I have had the privilege to know a number of young African students, professionals, and just ordinary people from every corner of the African continent who live and work in Germany. These Africans are integrated into European society to the extent that their communities and co-workers will accept them. Based upon my own observations and personal experiences the better educated and skilled African Diaspora in Germany is building a solid foundation for themselves and their families. They are ‘paving the way’ and breaking the ice of racial discrimination, prejudice, and fear to open up new career opportunities for the educated and skilled African people who will follow.
It is evident that immigrants and economic refugees who are arriving in Europe today from Africa and around the globe without a good education and modern job skills are upsetting the apple cart, causing resentment and fear within traditional European society and even within some elite African-European circles. A report released by the German Economics Ministry in August 2007 showed that Germany was suffering from an acute skilled labor shortage costing the economy more than €20 billion Euro per year. A 2008 report by the Washington DC-based Center for Transatlantic Relations (John Hopkins University SAIS) showed that the “vast majority of foreign migrants settling in the EU are poorly qualified ( 85%)…” where skilled foreign workers make up about 55% of the U.S. foreign labor market compared to only 5% in Europe. When it comes to the education and skills needed to fill highly-skilled positions in the medical, technology, and services professions, foreign workers make up less than 1% of the entire labor market across the 27-member European Union. This acute skilled labor shortage is cause for some EU parliamentarians to consider instituting an EU Blue Card program to fill the growing labor gaps in EU member countries.
This acute skilled labor shortage combined with fears over terrorism from abroad, increased illegal immigration and other woes does not bode well for the 10’s of thousands of unskilled immigrants from African countries who have been fleeing poverty on the continent for a better life in Europe. It will be interesting to see what impact these challenges will have on a growing African Diaspora in Europe over the next decade or two.
The path to better job opportunities and acceptance and integration of Africans into European society will be a long and hard fought road, not unlike the problems faced by African-Americans and many other ethnic groups in the United States, Canada, and throughout the Americas over the past few hundred years. It has already taken nearly two millennia for Africans from Saharan and sub-Saharan counties to be accepted as an integral part of European history, culture and society. Let us hope that it doesn’t take much longer because time is running out.

[Bill blogs @ Jewels in the Jungle]

One African-American, 4 Acres and a Mule

My fifth guest in this series is truly a jewel I was lucky enough to find in the jungle that is the blogosphere. Bill, a.k.a. Black River Eagle (BRE), is someone I think I can safely consider a friend, in spite of our occasional disagreements here or there. He is a veteran blogger on whom I came to rely for information and advice on the so many things I still don’t know about the blogosphere and all that ‘brave new world’ the internet offers us. There is not much more I can really say before I let you read from him, except that I am deeply honoured to be his host today and next week when we release Part II of this exclusive 7-question interview.

1. How and why did you get started blogging about Africa and why the title 'Jewels in the Jungle'?

I have had a deep interest in the continent and people of Africa for much of my adult life since my own family heritage is so closely linked to the history of Africans in the New World (the Americas) starting around the beginning of the 18th Century. ‘Jewels in the Jungle’ was launched back in May of 2004 when the blogosphere was still relatively small (approximately 7 million blogs vs. the 100 million+ blogs worldwide today).
After watching the rapid development and growth of online publishing tools and blog authors from a technology point of view since 2001-2002, I felt that using a weblog to share information and news online about Africa with people around the globe was an idea worth pursuing. When I started ‘Jewels’ I didn’t have the slightest idea that it would gain popularity and a global readership of more than 90,000 visitors.
Re: the blog title ‘Jewels in the Jungle’
Sort of catchy, ain’t it? Love it myself___ I need to get the name trademarked or something. The title gets its name from a phrase that I used to describe a project organized by a photographer friend in Germany. My friend, Susanne Behnke, decided one autumn day in 2002 that she was going to do something to “help out the poor, helpless orphan children of Uganda”. When she broke the news to me about her project idea for Ugandan children I was filled with dread that this was going to turn out to be a nightmare. Susanne, a professional photographer and high school teacher, is a real go-getter with a big heart for young people. Susanne had never traveled to the African continent but she has visited several countries in Europe and North America. Somehow she was able to pull it off despite the many adventures encountered along the way both in Uganda and here in Germany.
Working together with her friends in Uganda and organizations and companies in Germany Susanne managed to plan, organize, and launch a project to build new schoolrooms for children of the Iganga District (near Lake Victoria and Jinja). The project team also awarded thirty scholarships to young schoolchildren to help them pay their school fees for one year. Jewelry design students from one of Germany’s best known art & design academies (the Pforzheim School of Design) donated their time and work in support of the project. Auctions for the sale of handmade designer jewelry created specifically for this project were held at three locations in Germany. Money collected from these auctions plus generous private donations was used to begin construction on new school classrooms in Iganga District, Uganda. Hence the story of the origin of my blog title ‘Jewels in the Jungle’.
Note: I’ve uploaded photos from the project to my Flickr.com portfolio. Sotheby’s Amsterdam used a similar concept in 2007 for the ‘Jewels for the Jungle’ auction to help raise money for the World Wildlife Fund.

2. To what extent do you think that blogs, social networks, and other online publishing and collaboration tools can contribute to Africa's development?

I feel that blog authors coming from the global pool of private citizens, citizen journalists, news and media professionals, educators and scholars, students and so forth have already contributed a great deal to Africa’s development, especially over the last 4 to 5 years. I haven’t spent much time investigating social networks and online forums so I cannot speak about their impact on Africa’s development.
There is more information about Africa, much of it written and produced by Africans, available to the global public today than at anytime in world history. The simple, easy-to-use technologies behind online publishing tools i.e. Blogger, Wordpress, and Typepad combined with the power of blog search engines and blog aggregators has helped to make it possible for millions of people to participate in the World Live Web, the live or near real-time global online communications and collaboration around a variety of news events and issues. Blogs in combination with the array of online communication and collaboration tools and platforms that make up what some refer to as Web 2.0 technologies has helped the world to understand that “Africa is in the House!” Africa and Africans are an integral part of the global community and the young people of Africa today refuse to be ignored and left behind.
Users of these new web-based applications are transforming how local, national, and international news is gathered, analyzed, and delivered. Leading international and national news media companies haves started using blogs and reader-generated content on their websites. It is standard practice for the best online news sites to offer reader feedback to editorials and feature articles in the form of comment tools. What is also interesting to watch is the growing impact that blog authors and citizen journalists (and their readers) are having on national politics and elections around the world. This is happening from the U.S.A. to Russia, from Egypt to Ecuador, South Africa to South Korea___ blog authors and their readers are making a significant contribution to news coverage worldwide as well as having an impact on politics and social issues. Jay Rosen, associate professor of journalism at New York University and author of PressThink, goes into more detail about this subject in his August 2007 editorial for the LA Times ‘The Journalism that Bloggers Actually Do’ .
Africa’s bloggers and people around the world who write and report on Africa via blogs and citizen-generated news sites are having an effect on how heads of state, political figures, business leaders, and public officials operate. It is especially difficult these days for many of Africa’s longstanding despots and dictators and thieves of the public wealth (corrupt officials) because they can no longer hide their dirty deeds and deplorable actions from an enquiring world. Some regimes continue to intimidate and persecute journalists, editors, and publishers by keeping a tight stranglehold on a free press and free speech___ but these leaders can no longer easily control the growing sources of reliable information or the delivery channels for news. News today can be delivered from anywhere___ the Internet, mobile phones, miniature storage devices, video cameras, you name it.
This is true not only for Africa but for leaders in regions and countries around the globe. Case in point: Look east, look east to China and the difficulties that the government in Beijing is having with outraged journalists over press freedoms and Internet access. Bloggers were the ones to break the story about The Great Firewall of China first, long before the world’s press and media professionals caught on.
Bloggers are everywhere and just about anyone with access to a computer and a reliable Internet connection, an ability to communicate well through the written word or voice (audio) or imagery (photos, video, graphics), combined with credibility and some authority on a given subject can become a blogger with a worldwide audience.
From the election turmoil in Nigeria and Kenya to the exposure of the despotic rule of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and murderous rule of Omar al-Bashir in Sudan to the headquarters of the African Union and the United Nations, bloggers are having an impact on the way we live and the choices of information that we consume daily.

3. As an American living abroad for many years (Europe), what has been your experience with Africans in the Diaspora?

One of the most vivid images of Europe that will remain in my mind forever will be the day in 1986 that I saw three young African men sitting on a dock in a small harbor town in northern Germany looking out across the North Sea. These were not the first black Africans that I had encountered in Europe or Germany but for me they defined the plight of so many African immigrants to Europe that I have met in the closing decade of the 20th Century and right up to this very day.
At the time I was working for an aerospace engineering firm that had defense contracts with the German government to assist the German Luftwaffe and Marine. My assignment was to support German scientists, naval officers and technical staff on a naval air station at the ass-end of the world. Here in the middle of nowhere, at the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries whose armies were amassed on the East German border just a stone’s throw away were these African ‘asylum seekers’. I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
To make a long story short, I soon befriended these young men and shared in many great conversations about Africa and America and Europe until my departure from the area about 4 years later. I still have many fond memories of those days and I miss them dearly, I really do. Unfortunately I no longer have contact to any of those young Africans from that time but I have learned that one of them returned to Ghana and is today a successful Internet radio entrepreneur. I would like to think that our heated discussions and debates about all kinds of subjects combined with my encouragement to maintain a level of self-respect and demand respect from others, to always work hard to improve oneself through education and learning inside and outside of a classroom, that these shared experiences had a positive effect on their lives and their futures.
Of course not all Africans that I have met in Europe have been asylum seekers or economic refugees. Many of my African friends and acquaintances came to West or East Germany (GDR) on academic scholarships back in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Over the years I have had the privilege to know a number of young African students, professionals, and just ordinary people from every corner of the African continent who live and work in Germany. These Africans are integrated into European society to the extent that their communities and co-workers will accept them. Based upon my own observations and personal experiences the better educated and skilled African Diaspora in Germany is building a solid foundation for themselves and their families. They are ‘paving the way’ and breaking the ice of racial discrimination, prejudice, and fear to open up new career opportunities for the educated and skilled African people who will follow.
It is evident that immigrants and economic refugees who are arriving in Europe today from Africa and around the globe without a good education and modern job skills are upsetting the apple cart, causing resentment and fear within traditional European society and even within some elite African-European circles. A report released by the German Economics Ministry in August 2007 showed that Germany was suffering from an acute skilled labor shortage costing the economy more than €20 billion Euro per year. A 2008 report by the Washington DC-based Center for Transatlantic Relations (John Hopkins University SAIS) showed that the “vast majority of foreign migrants settling in the EU are poorly qualified ( 85%)…” where skilled foreign workers make up about 55% of the U.S. foreign labor market compared to only 5% in Europe. When it comes to the education and skills needed to fill highly-skilled positions in the medical, technology, and services professions, foreign workers make up less than 1% of the entire labor market across the 27-member European Union. This acute skilled labor shortage is cause for some EU parliamentarians to consider instituting an EU Blue Card program to fill the growing labor gaps in EU member countries.
This acute skilled labor shortage combined with fears over terrorism from abroad, increased illegal immigration and other woes does not bode well for the 10’s of thousands of unskilled immigrants from African countries who have been fleeing poverty on the continent for a better life in Europe. It will be interesting to see what impact these challenges will have on a growing African Diaspora in Europe over the next decade or two.
The path to better job opportunities and acceptance and integration of Africans into European society will be a long and hard fought road, not unlike the problems faced by African-Americans and many other ethnic groups in the United States, Canada, and throughout the Americas over the past few hundred years. It has already taken nearly two millennia for Africans from Saharan and sub-Saharan counties to be accepted as an integral part of European history, culture and society. Let us hope that it doesn’t take much longer because time is running out.

[Bill blogs @ Jewels in the Jungle]

BE MY GUEST! (IV. VERONICA HENRY)

Women of The African Diaspora

Women. We are the nurturers, the supporters, the givers. We are mothers, daughters, sisters, friends and mates. We are the beginning.It is in recognition of these most basic facts that I ponder our role as women of the African Diaspora.

In discovering my own shared African Ancestry with the people of Sierra Leone, my partner and I started the ‘My African Diaspora’ project.

We started this project because we recognized the strength of a united Diaspora - the combined knowledge, skills, history */and/* the struggles that bind us together, no matter how far and wide our blood has scattered. We hope to start a movement - one that will see us once again a united people. A people that can and will flourish if given the proper platform to bridge some of the gaps that exist between us today. I firmly believe that the women of the African Diaspora are not only critical to the success of this movement, but may in fact be the primary initiators. For without us, as the backbones of our societies, and also the first teacher of our children, no change can occur. We should stand side by side with our men - not behind in ensuring the success and the re-connection of our current and future generations.

What will change look like? I'm not altogether sure, but I believe communication is key. As a descendant of slaves in America , I can speak firsthand to the damaging effects of slavery that so many of us still suffer today. The negative attitudes about Africa have been fed to us since the day we stepped off (or rather, were dragged off) the boat. Some of those attitudes linger. And they must be addressed and abolished.In that same respect, it isn't difficult to believe that some of my brothers and sisters in the African Diaspora may have been fed similarly negative and erroneous images and information about African Americans. They too, must be confronted and dispelled. The truth is, while we do have issues - probably issues that are more alike than we know, only */we/* have the power to address them.

How do we start the movement? Same answer - communication. Reach out and talk to someone outside of your comfort zone. Someone in another part of the world that nonetheless has the same skin and the same blood as you. Teach, destroy the myths and become involved. Barter, trade and support black business, educate our children, visit another part of the world and see things for yourself. By inviting guest bloggers into her domain, our host at Koluki has already begun to do her part.I call on my sisters of the African Diaspora to join me and start the movement that will see us again united, again strong and again powerful.

Veronica Henry aka Exquisitely Black


[Veronica bloggs @ My African Diaspora]

Women of The African Diaspora

Women. We are the nurturers, the supporters, the givers. We are mothers, daughters, sisters, friends and mates. We are the beginning.It is in recognition of these most basic facts that I ponder our role as women of the African Diaspora.

In discovering my own shared African Ancestry with the people of Sierra Leone, my partner and I started the ‘My African Diaspora’ project.

We started this project because we recognized the strength of a united Diaspora - the combined knowledge, skills, history */and/* the struggles that bind us together, no matter how far and wide our blood has scattered. We hope to start a movement - one that will see us once again a united people. A people that can and will flourish if given the proper platform to bridge some of the gaps that exist between us today. I firmly believe that the women of the African Diaspora are not only critical to the success of this movement, but may in fact be the primary initiators. For without us, as the backbones of our societies, and also the first teacher of our children, no change can occur. We should stand side by side with our men - not behind in ensuring the success and the re-connection of our current and future generations.

What will change look like? I'm not altogether sure, but I believe communication is key. As a descendant of slaves in America , I can speak firsthand to the damaging effects of slavery that so many of us still suffer today. The negative attitudes about Africa have been fed to us since the day we stepped off (or rather, were dragged off) the boat. Some of those attitudes linger. And they must be addressed and abolished.In that same respect, it isn't difficult to believe that some of my brothers and sisters in the African Diaspora may have been fed similarly negative and erroneous images and information about African Americans. They too, must be confronted and dispelled. The truth is, while we do have issues - probably issues that are more alike than we know, only */we/* have the power to address them.

How do we start the movement? Same answer - communication. Reach out and talk to someone outside of your comfort zone. Someone in another part of the world that nonetheless has the same skin and the same blood as you. Teach, destroy the myths and become involved. Barter, trade and support black business, educate our children, visit another part of the world and see things for yourself. By inviting guest bloggers into her domain, our host at Koluki has already begun to do her part.I call on my sisters of the African Diaspora to join me and start the movement that will see us again united, again strong and again powerful.

Veronica Henry aka Exquisitely Black


[Veronica bloggs @ My African Diaspora]

SOBRE 'A SUAVE PATRIA' DE INOCENCIA MATA

CRÍTICAS DE LONGE…

Por Augusto Nascimento

Este livro é uma colectânea de crónicas e artigos de opinião sobre o presente em São Tomé e Príncipe, difundidas pela RDP (Rádio Difusão Portuguesa) África, estação emissora escutada no arquipélago. Alguns dos textos são especialmente sugestivos. Uns abordam temas políticos, outros versam questões culturais, matéria à qual a autora dedica muita atenção. Noutros, ainda, valoriza-se a diáspora.

Dos vários tópicos referentes à política, destaquem-se a cultura e as práticas políticas num país insular com o petróleo no horizonte, o papel das elites e, ainda, a abertura do espaço político à participação cívica das populações. A autora põe em evidência os atropelos do Estado às liberdades dos cidadãos, distinguindo, como outros académicos, multipartidarismo de democracia, a qual requer um exercício pleno de uma "cidadania civil" (p. 28). Inocência Mata atribui esses atropelos à cultura política prevalecente que, insinua, não pode deixar de estar enviesada pelo facto de os protagonistas de hoje serem os mesmos de um passado autoritário recente. Ou a outras circunstâncias, como, por exemplo, a prevalência em S. Tomé e Príncipe da "ditadura da familiocracia" (p. 50). Mais relevante, a autora foca as causas do desânimo dos são-tomenses, a saber, o rumo da democracia (ou do multipartidarismo) e a prevalência da corrupção.

(…)

A cultura--ou os traços culturais--é a alavanca a partir da qual Mata pensa
o curso da política no seu país. Mas não se detém na vertente política.
Aborda também as outras facetas culturais, entre elas, as línguas, algumas
das quais destinadas a perecer. Como sucede frequentemente nos autores
situados nos espaços diaspóricos, a autora tende a transmitir uma visão da
cultura da terra de origem como uma plataforma de remissão e um repositório
de autenticidade necessária para a regeneração das práticas políticas.

Assim, algumas ideias romantizadas alternam com cruas constatações. Outras
ideias correm apressadas, dir-se-ia, atrás do propósito da denúncia, umas
vezes, desassombrada, outras, contida. Dessa motivação terão resultado
algumas imprecisões: por exemplo, não foi só depois da inflexão neo-liberal
que o Estado se demitiu da promoção da educação, da cultura e da língua.
Trata-se de uma constatação alinhavada a partir da observação da degradação
das políticas culturais comummente associada à mudança política de inícios
dos anos 90. Porém, em bom rigor, essa degradação já era visível no regime
monopartidário.

Na verdade, dado o apriorismo de que as receitas neo-liberais são
necessariamente adversas aos africanos--qual extensão da dominação de
outrora!, pensa-se--parece fácil censurar essa demissão do Estado e
imputá-la ao rumo neo-liberal dos anos 90. Talvez também (por motivação
afectiva, alvitrar-se-ia, e) por razões ideológicas, a autora não vislumbra
a instrumentalização, primeiro, e a demissão, depois, do papel do Estado
monopartidário na dinamização cultural. De resto, em S. Tomé e Príncipe,
como em toda a parte, o âmbito e as modalidades de intervenção dos Estados
nesse domínio são sempre muito discutíveis.

(…)

Em suma, este livro tem que ser lido como parte do movimento de recriação
cultural próprio das diásporas, neste caso, com acentuado pendor crítico
dada a recente história do país e a forte politização dos projectos sociais
associados à independência. O livro contém análises lúcidas. Contudo,
também por espelharem estados de alma, os textos mostram cedências.
Alvitram-se possibilidades e vias futuras, que a análise fria e
afectivamente desapegada não autoriza a inferir como prováveis, antes pelo
contrário. Fala-se de participação cívica, de criação de um debate, de pacificação
social e política, de mobilização da diáspora. A ver vamos.

[Texto integral aqui]

Copyright (c) 2007 by H-Net, all rights reserved.

CRÍTICAS DE LONGE…

Por Augusto Nascimento

Este livro é uma colectânea de crónicas e artigos de opinião sobre o presente em São Tomé e Príncipe, difundidas pela RDP (Rádio Difusão Portuguesa) África, estação emissora escutada no arquipélago. Alguns dos textos são especialmente sugestivos. Uns abordam temas políticos, outros versam questões culturais, matéria à qual a autora dedica muita atenção. Noutros, ainda, valoriza-se a diáspora.

Dos vários tópicos referentes à política, destaquem-se a cultura e as práticas políticas num país insular com o petróleo no horizonte, o papel das elites e, ainda, a abertura do espaço político à participação cívica das populações. A autora põe em evidência os atropelos do Estado às liberdades dos cidadãos, distinguindo, como outros académicos, multipartidarismo de democracia, a qual requer um exercício pleno de uma "cidadania civil" (p. 28). Inocência Mata atribui esses atropelos à cultura política prevalecente que, insinua, não pode deixar de estar enviesada pelo facto de os protagonistas de hoje serem os mesmos de um passado autoritário recente. Ou a outras circunstâncias, como, por exemplo, a prevalência em S. Tomé e Príncipe da "ditadura da familiocracia" (p. 50). Mais relevante, a autora foca as causas do desânimo dos são-tomenses, a saber, o rumo da democracia (ou do multipartidarismo) e a prevalência da corrupção.

(…)

A cultura--ou os traços culturais--é a alavanca a partir da qual Mata pensa
o curso da política no seu país. Mas não se detém na vertente política.
Aborda também as outras facetas culturais, entre elas, as línguas, algumas
das quais destinadas a perecer. Como sucede frequentemente nos autores
situados nos espaços diaspóricos, a autora tende a transmitir uma visão da
cultura da terra de origem como uma plataforma de remissão e um repositório
de autenticidade necessária para a regeneração das práticas políticas.

Assim, algumas ideias romantizadas alternam com cruas constatações. Outras
ideias correm apressadas, dir-se-ia, atrás do propósito da denúncia, umas
vezes, desassombrada, outras, contida. Dessa motivação terão resultado
algumas imprecisões: por exemplo, não foi só depois da inflexão neo-liberal
que o Estado se demitiu da promoção da educação, da cultura e da língua.
Trata-se de uma constatação alinhavada a partir da observação da degradação
das políticas culturais comummente associada à mudança política de inícios
dos anos 90. Porém, em bom rigor, essa degradação já era visível no regime
monopartidário.

Na verdade, dado o apriorismo de que as receitas neo-liberais são
necessariamente adversas aos africanos--qual extensão da dominação de
outrora!, pensa-se--parece fácil censurar essa demissão do Estado e
imputá-la ao rumo neo-liberal dos anos 90. Talvez também (por motivação
afectiva, alvitrar-se-ia, e) por razões ideológicas, a autora não vislumbra
a instrumentalização, primeiro, e a demissão, depois, do papel do Estado
monopartidário na dinamização cultural. De resto, em S. Tomé e Príncipe,
como em toda a parte, o âmbito e as modalidades de intervenção dos Estados
nesse domínio são sempre muito discutíveis.

(…)

Em suma, este livro tem que ser lido como parte do movimento de recriação
cultural próprio das diásporas, neste caso, com acentuado pendor crítico
dada a recente história do país e a forte politização dos projectos sociais
associados à independência. O livro contém análises lúcidas. Contudo,
também por espelharem estados de alma, os textos mostram cedências.
Alvitram-se possibilidades e vias futuras, que a análise fria e
afectivamente desapegada não autoriza a inferir como prováveis, antes pelo
contrário. Fala-se de participação cívica, de criação de um debate, de pacificação
social e política, de mobilização da diáspora. A ver vamos.

[Texto integral aqui]

Copyright (c) 2007 by H-Net, all rights reserved.

AFRICAN DIASPORA IN LONDON ON THE MOVE

The fourth African Ambassadors Interactive Forum(AAIF) with the African Diaspora and Africa Business & Investment Showcase took place on 28-29 November 2007 in London. Under the theme “African Ambassadors and the African Diaspora as Economic Gateways”, the 4th AAIF aimed at providing a platform for building business linkages and partnerships and attracting International Capital investment to the Continent using the sustainable resource of the African Diaspora Community.

According to the organizers’, the AAIF was borne out of a necessity to promote the integration and development objectives of the African Union in a more operationally sustainable way. The NEPAD Initiative, which is the flagship economic and political development program of the African Union, lays strong emphasis on building partnerships and involvement of all stakeholders to fast track the development of the African continent. This Forum aims to be a platform for translating these noble objectives into reality through harnessing the resources of the Africa Diplomatic Missions and Africa Diaspora to fulfill Africa’s economic development agenda.

The African Union has defined the African Diaspora as “consisting of people of African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union.” Its constitutive act declares that it shall “invite and encourage the full participation of the African Diaspora as an important part of our Continent, in the building of the African Union”. The AAIF recognizes the growing and significant role of the African Diaspora in the development of their countries of origin. The African Union has actually designated the African Diaspora as a sixth Sub-region of Africa.

(Pictures from previous events)

More details here

The fourth African Ambassadors Interactive Forum(AAIF) with the African Diaspora and Africa Business & Investment Showcase took place on 28-29 November 2007 in London. Under the theme “African Ambassadors and the African Diaspora as Economic Gateways”, the 4th AAIF aimed at providing a platform for building business linkages and partnerships and attracting International Capital investment to the Continent using the sustainable resource of the African Diaspora Community.

According to the organizers’, the AAIF was borne out of a necessity to promote the integration and development objectives of the African Union in a more operationally sustainable way. The NEPAD Initiative, which is the flagship economic and political development program of the African Union, lays strong emphasis on building partnerships and involvement of all stakeholders to fast track the development of the African continent. This Forum aims to be a platform for translating these noble objectives into reality through harnessing the resources of the Africa Diplomatic Missions and Africa Diaspora to fulfill Africa’s economic development agenda.

The African Union has defined the African Diaspora as “consisting of people of African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union.” Its constitutive act declares that it shall “invite and encourage the full participation of the African Diaspora as an important part of our Continent, in the building of the African Union”. The AAIF recognizes the growing and significant role of the African Diaspora in the development of their countries of origin. The African Union has actually designated the African Diaspora as a sixth Sub-region of Africa.

(Pictures from previous events)

More details here

AFRICAN DIASPORA FILM FESTIVAL IN NEW YORK

The program for the 15th Annual African Diaspora Film Festival, which will take place in New York on November 23-December 9, 2007, has a special "Portugal and Africa Program," which includes old and new films about Lusophone African topics. The program lists many other interesting films, including some from Brazil.


_Cape Verde, My Love_ (2007, NY premiere), fiction - A film that takes a critical look at the lives of women in Cape Verde. Ana Ramos Lisboa, the director, will also participate on panels on Dec. 7 and 8..

_Escape from Luanda_ (2007, US premiere), documentary - profiles three students at the Music School in Luanda, culminating with their end of year concert.

_Nelio's Story_ (1997), fiction - the story of an orphan boy whose magical powers make him the leader of homeless boys in Maputo, based on Henning Mankell story.

_A River / Um Rio_ (2005, US premiere), fiction - based on a Mia Couto novel, about members of an extended family who gather to bury their patriarch, each person representing different aspects of recent Mozambican history.

_Tatana_ (2005), short fiction (12 minutes) - a grandmother appears after her death to help her grandson accept fate and death.

_Skin / Pele_ (2005, US premiere), fiction - set in 1970s Lisbon, about a mixed race young woman sorting out her identity.

For further information about venues and dates, as well as longer summaries of the film stories, see http://www.nyadff.org/.

(By Kathleen Sheldon - H-Net)

The program for the 15th Annual African Diaspora Film Festival, which will take place in New York on November 23-December 9, 2007, has a special "Portugal and Africa Program," which includes old and new films about Lusophone African topics. The program lists many other interesting films, including some from Brazil.


_Cape Verde, My Love_ (2007, NY premiere), fiction - A film that takes a critical look at the lives of women in Cape Verde. Ana Ramos Lisboa, the director, will also participate on panels on Dec. 7 and 8..

_Escape from Luanda_ (2007, US premiere), documentary - profiles three students at the Music School in Luanda, culminating with their end of year concert.

_Nelio's Story_ (1997), fiction - the story of an orphan boy whose magical powers make him the leader of homeless boys in Maputo, based on Henning Mankell story.

_A River / Um Rio_ (2005, US premiere), fiction - based on a Mia Couto novel, about members of an extended family who gather to bury their patriarch, each person representing different aspects of recent Mozambican history.

_Tatana_ (2005), short fiction (12 minutes) - a grandmother appears after her death to help her grandson accept fate and death.

_Skin / Pele_ (2005, US premiere), fiction - set in 1970s Lisbon, about a mixed race young woman sorting out her identity.

For further information about venues and dates, as well as longer summaries of the film stories, see http://www.nyadff.org/.

(By Kathleen Sheldon - H-Net)

"AFRICAN INTELLECTUALS IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST"

As an African in the Diaspora, are you part of “The Comprador Intelligentsia”, a “Postcolonial Critic”, or a “Progressive Exile”? Or neither of these, or a bit of each?These are probably the questions you will be left with upon reading this article (or perhaps you’ve already read it and made up your mind…) by Francis N. Njubi, Ph.D, a Kenyan Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at San Diego State University.

Professor Njubi presents an in-depth historical analysis of the African Diaspora’s experience through the last century, emphasising such key issues as “The Meaning of Africa” and “The Fact of Blackness”. As an all-encompassing approach to the most pressing challenges facing the African Diaspora, it does not shy away from some of the most controversial issues affecting its communities, including the always controversial debates on race, racism and identity, or the occasional conflicts opposing African-Americans to African Migrants, or non-Southafrican Africans to nationals in South Africa. It also touches on issues raised in some of my previous posts, namely “Africa: What Price A Brain?” and “In a Statelessness State of Mind”.

In spite of not subscribing to all of its arguments, I found the paper to make for compelling reading, even now five years after its publishing.

Here are a few excerpts from it:

'African Intellectuals in the Belly of the Beast:Migration, Identity and the Politics of Exile'

by: Francis N. Njubi, San Diego State University

February 2002

© Francis N. Njubi

When W.E.B. Du Bois wrote of the "double consciousness"of Africans in America he was reflecting on the complex identities of the "talented tenth", the educated minority of a minority like himself who felt the alienation acutely because of their awareness that their qualifications meant little in a racist society. Thus, Du Bois argued that Black intellectuals are gifted with a "second sight", a "third eye" that allows them to gauge the white and the black while seeking to transcend this duality by creating a "better and truer self".

Though written in reference to the African-American intellectual, this duality, this sense of "twoness", is even more acute for African exiles today because they have fewer social and cultural ties to the West than Afro-Europeans and African-Americans. The exiles are much closer to the African "soul" DuBois refers to and are less prepared for the pervasive racism and second-class status that they have to overcome in the West. This duality is intensified by the sense of alienation and guilt engendered by the widespread demonization of exiles as selfish and ungrateful wretches who, as soon as they get their degrees, escape to greener pastures instead of using their education to uplift the poverty stricken societies that educated them at great expense.

This paper examines the "double consciousness" of Black African intellectual migrants in the West. It argues that the migrant is forced to come to terms with Africanity for the first time and that the resolution of this identity crisis is a political act which produces three "types" of migrant intellectuals: the comprador intelligentsia, the postcolonial critic and the progressive exile.

(…)

To complicate matters further, the migrants must also endure alienation from their countries of origin. Academic exiles are likely to be victims of government repression even before leaving their home countries. Many are pushed out of their countries after political disturbances at university campuses. Others are exiled because their political perspectives do not correspond with the dominant ideological dispensation of the time. Yet, these same forces that kept them from achieving their full potential at home demonize them for leaving instead of contributing to national development. These tensions between intellectuals and politicians have boiled over frequently in the postcolonial world, most recently in a shouting match between Ghana's President Jerry Rawlings and eminent Kenyan scholar Ali Mazrui during a conference in Davos, Switzerland in June 1999 (Mwagiru, 1999).

(…)

South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has also joined the debate by urging educated Africans to relocate to South Africa and neighboring African countries instead of migrating to the West. Yet this option too, is complicated. Many educated Africans do spend some time in neighboring countries before migrating to the West. As stated earlier, Ali Mazrui was expelled from Uganda for his outspokenness. More recent cases have shown that turf battles between the migrants and local scholars make it difficult for the former to thrive in other African countries.

Professor Mamdani is a highly respected African political scientist who has taught at universities in East Africa and the United States for over twenty years. Yet, when he accepted a position as the director of the University of Cape Town's Center For African Studies in 1997, he found it impossible to overcome his image as an outsider in academic turf battles (Thornton, 1998). In spite of his high sounding position as Director of the Center for African Studies and his distinguished record in teaching and publications in the field, his syllabus for an introductory course in African Studies was rejected by an entrenched group of white "Africanists" (Mamdani, 1998, pp. 3-7). When he protested, he was suspended from teaching the course.

In the highly publicized debate that followed it became clear that the problem was one of perspective: Eurocentric versus Africa-centric.

(…)

The Meaning of Africa

Africanity is foisted upon the migrants the moment they arrive in the West. On the continent, most people in the rural areas live under ethnic categories like Kikuyu, Ibo, Hausa and Acholi. Some educated, middle-class and/or urban dwellers may see themselves as members of a nation like South Africa, Kenya or Tanzania. In some countries like South Africa, which has recently emerged from the crucible of apartheid, national consciousness is still strong. For most, however, "national" consciousness emerges only occasionally during Independence Day celebrations, international soccer matches or at election time.

"African" consciousness, however, is a rarity. It is in exile that the Nigerian-Ibo, South African-Zulu, Kenyan-Kikuyu person suddenly and unequivocally becomes an "African".

(…)

Yet, the condition of Africanity both marginalizes and expands Isegawa's horizons at the same time. He is no longer an Acholi or an Ugandan but an African. A member of that mythical race created by the White imagination as a foil and a justification for the holocaust of slavery and colonial exploitation. He is not only responsible for Somalia, Congo and Sierra Leone, but also tied inexplicably to the inner city gang-banger, street hustler and drug addict. In the likely encounter with the police profiler, skin color will trump national origin every time. Color also trumps education, erudition and accomplishment. None of these mean anything in a late night encounter with the police. In the New World, he is no longer an Acholi or even an Ugandan. He is an African, or more accurately, a Black man, thus automatically a suspect and a target for any White racist policeman, waitress, teacher or taxi-driver.

The Fact of Blackness

It would be a mistake, however, to leave the impression that "the fact of Blackness," creates a collective race consciousness, a natural unity among the African migrants and the native Black populations of Europe and America. This race consciousness is a rarity often limited to the politicized Pan-Africanist community. Most African descended peoples continue to see each other, and themselves, "through the eyes of others" as Du Bois put it.

(…)

Thus the migrant African intellectuals, who probably left neighboring African countries because they were unable to overcome their images as outsiders, find that they face the same problem in the United States. In this case the tension is between Diasporic- Blacks and Africans who are forced to compete for the few jobs set aside for Black scholars (African, African-American and West Indian) in the American academy. The problem, therefore, is the segregation of most Black scholars in historically Black universities and African and African-American studies departments. The fact that 49 percent of African immigrants have college degrees while only 14 percent of African Americans graduate from college adds a class dimension to the problem. The Bureau of Census reports, for instance, that the median household income of African immigrants is $30,907 compared to $19,533 for Black Americans (Bureau of Census, 1997).

(…)

Thus migrant African scholars must negotiate new identities that can no longer depend on the security of nationality and ethnicity but are not exactly Afro-European or African-American either. This dilemma of being --not exactly African but not Afro-European or African-American-- is the peculiar challenge of migrant African scholars. The resolution of this identity crisis is a political act that manifests itself in the lives and work of academics, producing three "types" of migrant intellectuals --the comprador intelligentsia, the postcolonial critics and the progressive exiles. This paper examines each of these categories and argues that we can best understand the crisis by drawing on W.E.B. Du Bois's theory of "double consciousness."

The Comprador Intelligentsia

One result of the civil rights movement was to open up employment opportunities to Black people in major universities, corporations and international organizations. African migrant scholars today are well positioned to take advantage of these opportunities by virtue of their education and contacts on the continent. This has produced a new class of migrant intellectual: The comprador intelligentsia. Members of the comprador class use their national origins, color and education to serve as spokesmen and intellectual henchmen for organizations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

(…)

This strategy depends upon a cadre of Black government functionaries "who, though they are Black, pursue the interests of the Federal government at the table of the Black community"(p. 168). The new "pro-business black coalition ... has been to lead from the weak position of handing over the essential elements of the African agenda to major financial interests and thus, while Africa burns, playing second fiddle to those interests" (p. 169). This unabashedly corporatist institution has attracted high-profile African and African-American scholars and intellectuals. It has transformed Pan-Africanist solidarity into a quest for profit and recruited Black intellectuals and politicians as scouts and interpreters for rapacious corporations.

The Postcolonial Critic

Much like the compradors, the postcolonial critics take advantage of their color, nationality and location in the West to become expert interpreters of the African experience for Western audiences. They also play the role of the middlemen by serving as conduits of Eurocentric thought for African consumption through the adaptation of the latest trend in Euro-American perspectives to "explain" the African experience. This adaptation of Euro-American thought to the African experience has ranged from liberalism to various types of Marxism, to modernization, developmentalism and dependency/world systems theories.

(…)

Appiah's position is not unique. It is merely a re-statement of the doublespeak of the American neoconservatives who conjured up the term "reverse racism" to attack those who fought against White supremacy. This so-called "color blind" ideology has reversed the gains made during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and is actually commonsense among White Americans. It informs policymakers from the White House to the Supreme Court and has been used to justify the retreat from egalitarianism. As Howard Winant put it: “Today the theory of race has been utterly transformed. The socially constructed status of the concept of race, which I have labeled the racial formation process, is widely recognized (Omi and Winant 1986), so much so that it is now often conservatives who argue that race is an illusion."

(…)

In Dusk of Dawn (1940), for instance, Du Bois rejected the notion that "race" had any scientific basis. "It is easy to see that scientific definition of race is impossible", Du Bois stated. Yet he went on to argue that although race does not exist biologically, racism as an ideology does and has had a terrible impact on people of African and Jewish descent during the era of capitalism: “(...) But one thing is sure and that is that these ancestors of mine and their descendants have had a common history; have suffered a common disaster and have one long memory. The actual ties of heritage between the individuals of this group vary but the physical bond is least and the badge of color relatively unimportant save as a badge; the real essence of this kinship is the social heritage of slavery; the discrimination and insult; It is this unity that draws me to Africa.” (DuBois, 1940, 137-138)

Paul Tiyambe Zeleza (1997) argues that Appiah "protests too much" and fails to take into account the dialectical nature of racial oppression. As Zeleza puts it: "Racial discourses and theories are socially constructed ... but repudiating race theory does not make it disappear in politics. Race matters... because it functions as a marker and an anchor to establish and repudiate identity, status and position... Races exist because racism exists" (Zeleza, 1997,503).

The Progressive Exile

In "The Allegory of the Cave" Kenyan scholar-in-exile Ngugi wa Thiong'o discusses the role of exiles in African liberation (Ngugi, 1998). (...) Ngugi's allegory of the cave captures the migrant scholars' political dilemma in stark terms, making it clear that they have a choice of either serving the neocolonial system as witting or unwitting agents or using the knowledge they have gained from their sojourn in the West to liberate their fellows. The progressive exiles resolve the crisis of double consciousness by learning from the experience of exile while maintaining their identity as Africans.

Thus we see the politics of exile determining the perspective and location of African scholars across the ideological spectrum. Kwame Anthony Appiah, a descendant of the Ashante ruling class, who was schooled at Oxford University chooses to associate himself with the conservative, accommodationist strand of Black Studies while Ngugi wa Thiong'o, a descendant of Kenyan peasants, associates himself with the progressive strand of Black Studies.

The fact that they chose to work in the same garden despite their ideological differences demonstrates the power of Africanity in determining the politics of exile, even among the most talented of the talented tenth.

It is this power of Africanity, this "fact of blackness" as Fanon put it, that compelled African exiles and members of the African Diaspora to join Black people on the continent in the successful struggle to liberate South Africa from the jaws of Apartheid.

The theories and activities of exiles and revolutionaries like Julius Nyerere, Amilcar Cabral, Agostino Neto, Nelson Mandela and Eduardo Mondlane heavily influenced African-American activists (Walters, 1995; 59-65). (...) These global solidarity movements demonstrate that a united front of people of African descent as imagined by pioneering Pan-Africanists like Du Bois and Nkrumah is still possible, even critical, in the New World Order of global markets and corporate domination.

{Read Full Article Here}

As an African in the Diaspora, are you part of “The Comprador Intelligentsia”, a “Postcolonial Critic”, or a “Progressive Exile”? Or neither of these, or a bit of each?These are probably the questions you will be left with upon reading this article (or perhaps you’ve already read it and made up your mind…) by Francis N. Njubi, Ph.D, a Kenyan Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at San Diego State University.

Professor Njubi presents an in-depth historical analysis of the African Diaspora’s experience through the last century, emphasising such key issues as “The Meaning of Africa” and “The Fact of Blackness”. As an all-encompassing approach to the most pressing challenges facing the African Diaspora, it does not shy away from some of the most controversial issues affecting its communities, including the always controversial debates on race, racism and identity, or the occasional conflicts opposing African-Americans to African Migrants, or non-Southafrican Africans to nationals in South Africa. It also touches on issues raised in some of my previous posts, namely “Africa: What Price A Brain?” and “In a Statelessness State of Mind”.

In spite of not subscribing to all of its arguments, I found the paper to make for compelling reading, even now five years after its publishing.

Here are a few excerpts from it:

'African Intellectuals in the Belly of the Beast:Migration, Identity and the Politics of Exile'

by: Francis N. Njubi, San Diego State University

February 2002

© Francis N. Njubi

When W.E.B. Du Bois wrote of the "double consciousness"of Africans in America he was reflecting on the complex identities of the "talented tenth", the educated minority of a minority like himself who felt the alienation acutely because of their awareness that their qualifications meant little in a racist society. Thus, Du Bois argued that Black intellectuals are gifted with a "second sight", a "third eye" that allows them to gauge the white and the black while seeking to transcend this duality by creating a "better and truer self".

Though written in reference to the African-American intellectual, this duality, this sense of "twoness", is even more acute for African exiles today because they have fewer social and cultural ties to the West than Afro-Europeans and African-Americans. The exiles are much closer to the African "soul" DuBois refers to and are less prepared for the pervasive racism and second-class status that they have to overcome in the West. This duality is intensified by the sense of alienation and guilt engendered by the widespread demonization of exiles as selfish and ungrateful wretches who, as soon as they get their degrees, escape to greener pastures instead of using their education to uplift the poverty stricken societies that educated them at great expense.

This paper examines the "double consciousness" of Black African intellectual migrants in the West. It argues that the migrant is forced to come to terms with Africanity for the first time and that the resolution of this identity crisis is a political act which produces three "types" of migrant intellectuals: the comprador intelligentsia, the postcolonial critic and the progressive exile.

(…)

To complicate matters further, the migrants must also endure alienation from their countries of origin. Academic exiles are likely to be victims of government repression even before leaving their home countries. Many are pushed out of their countries after political disturbances at university campuses. Others are exiled because their political perspectives do not correspond with the dominant ideological dispensation of the time. Yet, these same forces that kept them from achieving their full potential at home demonize them for leaving instead of contributing to national development. These tensions between intellectuals and politicians have boiled over frequently in the postcolonial world, most recently in a shouting match between Ghana's President Jerry Rawlings and eminent Kenyan scholar Ali Mazrui during a conference in Davos, Switzerland in June 1999 (Mwagiru, 1999).

(…)

South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has also joined the debate by urging educated Africans to relocate to South Africa and neighboring African countries instead of migrating to the West. Yet this option too, is complicated. Many educated Africans do spend some time in neighboring countries before migrating to the West. As stated earlier, Ali Mazrui was expelled from Uganda for his outspokenness. More recent cases have shown that turf battles between the migrants and local scholars make it difficult for the former to thrive in other African countries.

Professor Mamdani is a highly respected African political scientist who has taught at universities in East Africa and the United States for over twenty years. Yet, when he accepted a position as the director of the University of Cape Town's Center For African Studies in 1997, he found it impossible to overcome his image as an outsider in academic turf battles (Thornton, 1998). In spite of his high sounding position as Director of the Center for African Studies and his distinguished record in teaching and publications in the field, his syllabus for an introductory course in African Studies was rejected by an entrenched group of white "Africanists" (Mamdani, 1998, pp. 3-7). When he protested, he was suspended from teaching the course.

In the highly publicized debate that followed it became clear that the problem was one of perspective: Eurocentric versus Africa-centric.

(…)

The Meaning of Africa

Africanity is foisted upon the migrants the moment they arrive in the West. On the continent, most people in the rural areas live under ethnic categories like Kikuyu, Ibo, Hausa and Acholi. Some educated, middle-class and/or urban dwellers may see themselves as members of a nation like South Africa, Kenya or Tanzania. In some countries like South Africa, which has recently emerged from the crucible of apartheid, national consciousness is still strong. For most, however, "national" consciousness emerges only occasionally during Independence Day celebrations, international soccer matches or at election time.

"African" consciousness, however, is a rarity. It is in exile that the Nigerian-Ibo, South African-Zulu, Kenyan-Kikuyu person suddenly and unequivocally becomes an "African".

(…)

Yet, the condition of Africanity both marginalizes and expands Isegawa's horizons at the same time. He is no longer an Acholi or an Ugandan but an African. A member of that mythical race created by the White imagination as a foil and a justification for the holocaust of slavery and colonial exploitation. He is not only responsible for Somalia, Congo and Sierra Leone, but also tied inexplicably to the inner city gang-banger, street hustler and drug addict. In the likely encounter with the police profiler, skin color will trump national origin every time. Color also trumps education, erudition and accomplishment. None of these mean anything in a late night encounter with the police. In the New World, he is no longer an Acholi or even an Ugandan. He is an African, or more accurately, a Black man, thus automatically a suspect and a target for any White racist policeman, waitress, teacher or taxi-driver.

The Fact of Blackness

It would be a mistake, however, to leave the impression that "the fact of Blackness," creates a collective race consciousness, a natural unity among the African migrants and the native Black populations of Europe and America. This race consciousness is a rarity often limited to the politicized Pan-Africanist community. Most African descended peoples continue to see each other, and themselves, "through the eyes of others" as Du Bois put it.

(…)

Thus the migrant African intellectuals, who probably left neighboring African countries because they were unable to overcome their images as outsiders, find that they face the same problem in the United States. In this case the tension is between Diasporic- Blacks and Africans who are forced to compete for the few jobs set aside for Black scholars (African, African-American and West Indian) in the American academy. The problem, therefore, is the segregation of most Black scholars in historically Black universities and African and African-American studies departments. The fact that 49 percent of African immigrants have college degrees while only 14 percent of African Americans graduate from college adds a class dimension to the problem. The Bureau of Census reports, for instance, that the median household income of African immigrants is $30,907 compared to $19,533 for Black Americans (Bureau of Census, 1997).

(…)

Thus migrant African scholars must negotiate new identities that can no longer depend on the security of nationality and ethnicity but are not exactly Afro-European or African-American either. This dilemma of being --not exactly African but not Afro-European or African-American-- is the peculiar challenge of migrant African scholars. The resolution of this identity crisis is a political act that manifests itself in the lives and work of academics, producing three "types" of migrant intellectuals --the comprador intelligentsia, the postcolonial critics and the progressive exiles. This paper examines each of these categories and argues that we can best understand the crisis by drawing on W.E.B. Du Bois's theory of "double consciousness."

The Comprador Intelligentsia

One result of the civil rights movement was to open up employment opportunities to Black people in major universities, corporations and international organizations. African migrant scholars today are well positioned to take advantage of these opportunities by virtue of their education and contacts on the continent. This has produced a new class of migrant intellectual: The comprador intelligentsia. Members of the comprador class use their national origins, color and education to serve as spokesmen and intellectual henchmen for organizations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

(…)

This strategy depends upon a cadre of Black government functionaries "who, though they are Black, pursue the interests of the Federal government at the table of the Black community"(p. 168). The new "pro-business black coalition ... has been to lead from the weak position of handing over the essential elements of the African agenda to major financial interests and thus, while Africa burns, playing second fiddle to those interests" (p. 169). This unabashedly corporatist institution has attracted high-profile African and African-American scholars and intellectuals. It has transformed Pan-Africanist solidarity into a quest for profit and recruited Black intellectuals and politicians as scouts and interpreters for rapacious corporations.

The Postcolonial Critic

Much like the compradors, the postcolonial critics take advantage of their color, nationality and location in the West to become expert interpreters of the African experience for Western audiences. They also play the role of the middlemen by serving as conduits of Eurocentric thought for African consumption through the adaptation of the latest trend in Euro-American perspectives to "explain" the African experience. This adaptation of Euro-American thought to the African experience has ranged from liberalism to various types of Marxism, to modernization, developmentalism and dependency/world systems theories.

(…)

Appiah's position is not unique. It is merely a re-statement of the doublespeak of the American neoconservatives who conjured up the term "reverse racism" to attack those who fought against White supremacy. This so-called "color blind" ideology has reversed the gains made during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and is actually commonsense among White Americans. It informs policymakers from the White House to the Supreme Court and has been used to justify the retreat from egalitarianism. As Howard Winant put it: “Today the theory of race has been utterly transformed. The socially constructed status of the concept of race, which I have labeled the racial formation process, is widely recognized (Omi and Winant 1986), so much so that it is now often conservatives who argue that race is an illusion."

(…)

In Dusk of Dawn (1940), for instance, Du Bois rejected the notion that "race" had any scientific basis. "It is easy to see that scientific definition of race is impossible", Du Bois stated. Yet he went on to argue that although race does not exist biologically, racism as an ideology does and has had a terrible impact on people of African and Jewish descent during the era of capitalism: “(...) But one thing is sure and that is that these ancestors of mine and their descendants have had a common history; have suffered a common disaster and have one long memory. The actual ties of heritage between the individuals of this group vary but the physical bond is least and the badge of color relatively unimportant save as a badge; the real essence of this kinship is the social heritage of slavery; the discrimination and insult; It is this unity that draws me to Africa.” (DuBois, 1940, 137-138)

Paul Tiyambe Zeleza (1997) argues that Appiah "protests too much" and fails to take into account the dialectical nature of racial oppression. As Zeleza puts it: "Racial discourses and theories are socially constructed ... but repudiating race theory does not make it disappear in politics. Race matters... because it functions as a marker and an anchor to establish and repudiate identity, status and position... Races exist because racism exists" (Zeleza, 1997,503).

The Progressive Exile

In "The Allegory of the Cave" Kenyan scholar-in-exile Ngugi wa Thiong'o discusses the role of exiles in African liberation (Ngugi, 1998). (...) Ngugi's allegory of the cave captures the migrant scholars' political dilemma in stark terms, making it clear that they have a choice of either serving the neocolonial system as witting or unwitting agents or using the knowledge they have gained from their sojourn in the West to liberate their fellows. The progressive exiles resolve the crisis of double consciousness by learning from the experience of exile while maintaining their identity as Africans.

Thus we see the politics of exile determining the perspective and location of African scholars across the ideological spectrum. Kwame Anthony Appiah, a descendant of the Ashante ruling class, who was schooled at Oxford University chooses to associate himself with the conservative, accommodationist strand of Black Studies while Ngugi wa Thiong'o, a descendant of Kenyan peasants, associates himself with the progressive strand of Black Studies.

The fact that they chose to work in the same garden despite their ideological differences demonstrates the power of Africanity in determining the politics of exile, even among the most talented of the talented tenth.

It is this power of Africanity, this "fact of blackness" as Fanon put it, that compelled African exiles and members of the African Diaspora to join Black people on the continent in the successful struggle to liberate South Africa from the jaws of Apartheid.

The theories and activities of exiles and revolutionaries like Julius Nyerere, Amilcar Cabral, Agostino Neto, Nelson Mandela and Eduardo Mondlane heavily influenced African-American activists (Walters, 1995; 59-65). (...) These global solidarity movements demonstrate that a united front of people of African descent as imagined by pioneering Pan-Africanists like Du Bois and Nkrumah is still possible, even critical, in the New World Order of global markets and corporate domination.

{Read Full Article Here}

IN A STATELESSNESS STATE OF MIND…

… OU “A FUGA, OU O INSONDAVEL MISTERIO DA NACIONALIDADE SURRIPIADA (Parte 2)”

Following the news of the election of Mr. Lumengo, originally an Angolan, to the Swiss Parliament in the political environment in which it took place, and in the context of some agitation among the Angolan Diaspora over the denial to us of the right to vote in the upcoming Angolan general elections, expected to take place next year, I found it appropriate to bring to your attention the attached paper about the 2003 UN Report on “Denial of Citizenship and Statelessness” from the European Policy Centre.

The first time I came across that report, I was working for an organisation in Africa where at the time I was being made acutely aware, by some whom I’d always seen and related to as ‘fellow compatriots’ or just as ‘fellow Africans’, that in their books I was not as much the “bona fide regional citizen” as I might, could, should and was generally taken for. Ask me why and I’ll see if I can bring myself up to explain… because there’s an explanation… I then circulated the report to those same people, hoping that at least it would bring them to some reflection on their words and actions. Ask me if it was to any avail and I’ll say: no.

Nothing, however, would’ve prepared me for the many different versions of that same hostile attitude I was going to meet in the blogosphere, or more precisely the “lusosphere”… As a matter of fact, it has been not just about some questioning your “bona fide” status as an Angolan citizen, it’s also about naming you a “insignificant non-entity” (stateless therefore…), an outcast “capable of acts of terrorism” and a pariah who “fled with her parents in 1975 for not being capable to withstand your country’s independence”… ask me if there’s any substantiation to these dehumanising insults, claims and accusations – specially when coming, as they do, from people who do not know you personally and whom you’ve never met or ever talked to before – and I’ll simply say: no.

Never mind that the people making them are the very ones who precisely did that (i.e. fled the country, with or without their parents in 1974/75 for, as the word had it at the time, not bearing the thought of “being ruled by blacks” and never went back…) or those who, not having exactly physically fled the country, have always been spiritually absent from it, longing for the land of their ancestors somewhere in Southern Europe, or inventing “lands of their own” by attempting to appropriate themselves, through the most outrageous cultural vulturism, of at least one of the Angolan/African ancestral cultures, while reaping all the privileges awarded to them by state patronage… Never mind if they are citizens of the very countries in Europe, like Mr. Lumengo’s Switzerland, which have political parties constantly calling for the expulsion of African immigrants.

Never mind if the only, or the best, way they find to deal with their own insecurities over their own identity, or lack thereof, is to deprive you of yours… Never mind if the only way they find to assert their “right” over your ancestors’ land, culture and memory is to deny you any claim over, belonging to or even thought about it… or, as they often do, by trying, by all means necessary, to tarnish your personal reputation, mainly by incessantly calling you “racist” for the simple reason that you dare to react against their unprovoked racial, sexual (even if only “virtual”…) attacks and just about every other abuse known to humanity, and by throwing all sorts of stones and dirt at the memory of your ancestors! Never mind if their silly idea of concealing their glaring, deeply rooted, incurable racism is to, vainly, try to transfer and input it on you...

Never mind if all this destructive nonsense happens to you when the country in question has been devastated by war and political violence since independence, is currently experiencing the highest GDP growth rates in the world and is taken by just about everybody as “under-populated” and “under-developed”, thus calling in people from all corners of the earth (apparently provided that it’s not the “likes of you”…) and stating that it’s in dire need of qualified people to assist in its development… Never mind if the very State you are denied any bond to in this appalling way - based in what is generally understood as political and ethnic reasons but are in fact attacks based in sheer ignorance, irresponsibility, incompetence, carelessness, treachery, xenophobia, irrationality, insensitivity, unscrupulousness, opportunism, hypocrisy, amorality, greed, callousness, bigotry, spite, racism and hatred - is the one to which you’ve devoted the very best of your life and talent and is the one ultimately responsible for your very state of statelessness!

This paper deals with the very root causes of “Denial of Citizenship and Statelessness”. I sincerely hope you’ll devote to it the very best of your attention.

Thanks in advance!

… OU “A FUGA, OU O INSONDAVEL MISTERIO DA NACIONALIDADE SURRIPIADA (Parte 2)”

Following the news of the election of Mr. Lumengo, originally an Angolan, to the Swiss Parliament in the political environment in which it took place, and in the context of some agitation among the Angolan Diaspora over the denial to us of the right to vote in the upcoming Angolan general elections, expected to take place next year, I found it appropriate to bring to your attention the attached paper about the 2003 UN Report on “Denial of Citizenship and Statelessness” from the European Policy Centre.

The first time I came across that report, I was working for an organisation in Africa where at the time I was being made acutely aware, by some whom I’d always seen and related to as ‘fellow compatriots’ or just as ‘fellow Africans’, that in their books I was not as much the “bona fide regional citizen” as I might, could, should and was generally taken for. Ask me why and I’ll see if I can bring myself up to explain… because there’s an explanation… I then circulated the report to those same people, hoping that at least it would bring them to some reflection on their words and actions. Ask me if it was to any avail and I’ll say: no.

Nothing, however, would’ve prepared me for the many different versions of that same hostile attitude I was going to meet in the blogosphere, or more precisely the “lusosphere”… As a matter of fact, it has been not just about some questioning your “bona fide” status as an Angolan citizen, it’s also about naming you a “insignificant non-entity” (stateless therefore…), an outcast “capable of acts of terrorism” and a pariah who “fled with her parents in 1975 for not being capable to withstand your country’s independence”… ask me if there’s any substantiation to these dehumanising insults, claims and accusations – specially when coming, as they do, from people who do not know you personally and whom you’ve never met or ever talked to before – and I’ll simply say: no.

Never mind that the people making them are the very ones who precisely did that (i.e. fled the country, with or without their parents in 1974/75 for, as the word had it at the time, not bearing the thought of “being ruled by blacks” and never went back…) or those who, not having exactly physically fled the country, have always been spiritually absent from it, longing for the land of their ancestors somewhere in Southern Europe, or inventing “lands of their own” by attempting to appropriate themselves, through the most outrageous cultural vulturism, of at least one of the Angolan/African ancestral cultures, while reaping all the privileges awarded to them by state patronage… Never mind if they are citizens of the very countries in Europe, like Mr. Lumengo’s Switzerland, which have political parties constantly calling for the expulsion of African immigrants.

Never mind if the only, or the best, way they find to deal with their own insecurities over their own identity, or lack thereof, is to deprive you of yours… Never mind if the only way they find to assert their “right” over your ancestors’ land, culture and memory is to deny you any claim over, belonging to or even thought about it… or, as they often do, by trying, by all means necessary, to tarnish your personal reputation, mainly by incessantly calling you “racist” for the simple reason that you dare to react against their unprovoked racial, sexual (even if only “virtual”…) attacks and just about every other abuse known to humanity, and by throwing all sorts of stones and dirt at the memory of your ancestors! Never mind if their silly idea of concealing their glaring, deeply rooted, incurable racism is to, vainly, try to transfer and input it on you...

Never mind if all this destructive nonsense happens to you when the country in question has been devastated by war and political violence since independence, is currently experiencing the highest GDP growth rates in the world and is taken by just about everybody as “under-populated” and “under-developed”, thus calling in people from all corners of the earth (apparently provided that it’s not the “likes of you”…) and stating that it’s in dire need of qualified people to assist in its development… Never mind if the very State you are denied any bond to in this appalling way - based in what is generally understood as political and ethnic reasons but are in fact attacks based in sheer ignorance, irresponsibility, incompetence, carelessness, treachery, xenophobia, irrationality, insensitivity, unscrupulousness, opportunism, hypocrisy, amorality, greed, callousness, bigotry, spite, racism and hatred - is the one to which you’ve devoted the very best of your life and talent and is the one ultimately responsible for your very state of statelessness!

This paper deals with the very root causes of “Denial of Citizenship and Statelessness”. I sincerely hope you’ll devote to it the very best of your attention.

Thanks in advance!