Novo Livro sobre Kimpa Vita

 306 ANIVERSÁRIO DA MORTE DE KIMPA VITA

 PUBLICACAO DE UM NOVO ROMANCE EM PARIS

  

Numa dinâmica imparável, a capital francesa registou, há dias, o lançamento de mais uma obra literária sobre a célebre heroína africana, trabalho do médico congolês, da margem esquerda, Magloire Mpembi Nkosi, patenteada nas edições Anibwe.

 

A apresentação deste livro enquadrou-se, na comemoração da efeméride marcando a morte na fogueira, vítima da Inquisição, no dia 2 de Julho de 1706, em Evolulu, nos arredores de Mbanza Kongo, atual capital da Província angolana do Zaire.

[Continue lendo aqui]

 

 306 ANIVERSÁRIO DA MORTE DE KIMPA VITA

 PUBLICACAO DE UM NOVO ROMANCE EM PARIS

  

Numa dinâmica imparável, a capital francesa registou, há dias, o lançamento de mais uma obra literária sobre a célebre heroína africana, trabalho do médico congolês, da margem esquerda, Magloire Mpembi Nkosi, patenteada nas edições Anibwe.

 

A apresentação deste livro enquadrou-se, na comemoração da efeméride marcando a morte na fogueira, vítima da Inquisição, no dia 2 de Julho de 1706, em Evolulu, nos arredores de Mbanza Kongo, atual capital da Província angolana do Zaire.

[Continue lendo aqui]

 

1960-2010: "The Year of Africa" 50 Years On (XIX)

This Day in 1960


With the backing of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a Congolese
military officer named Joseph Mobutu ordered the democratically-elected
prime minister of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba, placed under house arrest in the
capital of Leopoldville on September 14, 1960. Two days later, Mobutu carried
out a full coup, suspending both parliament and the constitution.


The coup was the culmination of three months of orchestration by the US, the
United Nations, and the old colonial ruler, Belgium. Lumumba's nationalism, it
was determined, posed a threat to powerful European mining interests in the
Congo. At the same time, the bringing down of Lumumba would serve as a warning
to the rest of the African states, which were then gaining formal independence
from European colonizers in rapid succession.

After Lumumba's election victory and inauguration in June, mineral-rich Katanga
province seceded in the south, backed by Belgium. Belgians fled the country, and
a "capital strike" brought the economy to a virtual halt. As civil society
disintegrated, sections of the military revolted, forcing Lumumba to rely ever
more-heavily on the "loyal" element, headed by Mobutu.

The UN under General Secretary Dag Hammarskjöld actively collaborated with the
coup. The UN helped to precipitate the crisis by refusing to allow loyal
Congolese soldiers use of its airplanes for transport, in effect siding with
Katanga and other secessionist movements. In response, Lumumba appealed for
support from the Soviet Union, which sent material and "advisors." Then, after
president Joseph Kasa-Vubu's attempt to sack Lumumba on September 5
failed—Lumumba winning a vote of confidence in parliament—the UN shut down the
capital's radio station and blocked Soviet planes supporting Lumumba from its
airfields.

In one of his first acts after the coup, Mobutu ordered the Soviets out of the
Congo. The CIA had found its man.

[Sources: various]

This Day in 1960


With the backing of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a Congolese
military officer named Joseph Mobutu ordered the democratically-elected
prime minister of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba, placed under house arrest in the
capital of Leopoldville on September 14, 1960. Two days later, Mobutu carried
out a full coup, suspending both parliament and the constitution.


The coup was the culmination of three months of orchestration by the US, the
United Nations, and the old colonial ruler, Belgium. Lumumba's nationalism, it
was determined, posed a threat to powerful European mining interests in the
Congo. At the same time, the bringing down of Lumumba would serve as a warning
to the rest of the African states, which were then gaining formal independence
from European colonizers in rapid succession.

After Lumumba's election victory and inauguration in June, mineral-rich Katanga
province seceded in the south, backed by Belgium. Belgians fled the country, and
a "capital strike" brought the economy to a virtual halt. As civil society
disintegrated, sections of the military revolted, forcing Lumumba to rely ever
more-heavily on the "loyal" element, headed by Mobutu.

The UN under General Secretary Dag Hammarskjöld actively collaborated with the
coup. The UN helped to precipitate the crisis by refusing to allow loyal
Congolese soldiers use of its airplanes for transport, in effect siding with
Katanga and other secessionist movements. In response, Lumumba appealed for
support from the Soviet Union, which sent material and "advisors." Then, after
president Joseph Kasa-Vubu's attempt to sack Lumumba on September 5
failed—Lumumba winning a vote of confidence in parliament—the UN shut down the
capital's radio station and blocked Soviet planes supporting Lumumba from its
airfields.

In one of his first acts after the coup, Mobutu ordered the Soviets out of the
Congo. The CIA had found its man.

[Sources: various]

1960-2010: "The Year of Africa" 50 Years On (XVII)

Ce jour à 1960:

En 1482 Diego Cao découvre l'embouche du fleuve Congo… Cette introduction à l'histoire du Congo fait de l'Afrique un simple appendice de l'histoire européenne. Il ne serait pas trop tôt de sortir de cette caricature coloniale et réductrice qui fait encore office aujourd'hui d'histoire officielle et scolaire du Congo, de sa terre et de ses hommes. Notre histoire est celle des origines de ses habitants, depuis la naissance de l'humanité. Elle intègre notre espace géographique comme carrefour des peuples, de ses expressions étatiques à travers les ages, des éléments qui ont fait le quotidien de cette terre depuis les origines. Elle ne commence pas une nuit de partage à Berlin. Notre monde n'a pas toujours été immuable comme il nous semble trop souvent le percevoir, reléguant le progrès au seul mérite de l'apport coloniale.

Construire notre intellect et nos actes à partir de la connaissance de nous-mêmes, nous conduira à des révolutions intellectuelles telles que:

1. La fermeture du mausolée de Brazza. Des français qui l'ont visité, seul le Front National s'en félicite! Un diplomate a même confié, après y avoir vu ces fresques qui représentent le nègre primitif élevé à la civilisation par le blanc, qu'il y est rentré convaincu des effets positifs de la colonisation, et ressorti honteux des sous-hommes que son pays avait créé. Quel est le sens de la célébration de l'indépendance qui depuis quelques années est marquée par la municipalisation accélérée, si d'autre part nous rendons au colonisateur un hommage supérieur à celui rendu à tout congolais de l'histoire? Ce mausolée de la honte pourra être transformé en musée/bibliothèque/archives nationales, pour un pays qui n'en a aucun.

Quatre années après l'inauguration du mausolée de Brazza, la pilule ne passe toujours pas. Ils sont des milliers de congolais patriotes blessés dans leur amour propre par cet édifice qui par ailleurs ne semble extasier personne. Sauf peut-être l'extrême droite européenne, car au-delà de l'aspect symbolique du bâtiment, l'intérieur est tapissé de peintures représentent les Noirs autochtones en primitifs sauvages, conduits à la civilisation par Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza qui leur donne vêtements, santé et savoir. Un message indiscutablement qualifié de raciste dans les pays du nord où l'on peut se faire condamner pour moins que cela : Casterman l'éditeur de Tintin est sous le coup d'une procédure judiciaire parce que « Tintin au Congo » affiche des dialogues dénigrants pour la culture congolaise précoloniale.

2. La débaptisation de Brazzaville. L'un ne va pas sans l'autre. Si on est pour le nom de Brazzaville à notre capitale, il faut honorer celui à qui on le doit. Si à l'inverse nous sommes contre le mausolée de ce colon, à plus forte raison, on ne peut admettre qu'une oeuvre encore plus gigantesque, notre capitale entière, lui soit consacrée. Logique n'est ce pas!? Ajoutons que Brazzaville est la dernière capitale africaine à porter encore le nom de son colonisateur. Et enfin, rassurez-vous, ce n'est pas parce que la ville s'appellera Mfoa, Nkuna ou Mavula, qu'elle nous fera apparaitre comme des sauvages. Bien au contraire.

Quand il signe, le 14 juillet 1960, à Matignon, les accords de transfert des compétences, l'abbé Fulbert Youlou pense que le moment est si solennel qu'il doit s'entourer de toutes les forces politiques. Il se présente alors avec les leaders de l'opposition, Jacques Opangault et Stéphane Tchitchélé (qui a remplacé à la tête du PPC Félix Tchicaya, démissionnaire). L'indépendance est proclamée le 15 Août 1960 dans l'allégresse organisée car en réalité, le peuple est inquiet tandis que les cadres se disputent déjà le pouvoirs et les biens abandonnés par les colons.

Le nouveau pouvoir, cartel de marxisants et de militaires, institue autoritairement le même monolithisme politique et syndical que celui qu'il a combattu. Désormais il n'y aura plus qu'un parti, le MNR, Mouvement National de la Révolution, et un syndicat, la CSC, Confédération Syndicale Congolaise. Au nom de l'unité nationale. Et les critiques a posteriori du régime de Youlou mettent en avant la dérive autocratique et la partialité ethnique.



Ce jour à 2010:

Le président congolais Denis Sassou Nguesso, a profité de la célébration du cinquantenaire de l’indépendance du Congo ce dimanche, pour décerner des titres posthumes aux ‘’pères de l’indépendance’’ du Congo.

Denis Sassou N’Guesso a décerné la médaille commémorative du cinquantenaire de l’indépendance du Congo, aux pères de l’indépendance parmi lesquels Fulbert Youlou, Alphonse Massamba Débat, Marien N’Gouabi, JoachimYombi Opango, Pascal Lissouba, qui ont tous exercé les fonctions de président de la République du Congo.

La même médaille a été aussi décernée aux personnalités qui ont marqué l’indépendance du Congo, au nombre desquelles Jacques Opangault, Félix Tchicaya, Stéphane Tchichellé, Alfred Raoul Simon Pierre kikounga Got, Augustin poignet.

Cet imposant ouvrage de 16 mètres et demie a été dévoilé le 11 août par le Président de la République Denis Sassou N'Guesso dans le cadre des festivités du cinquantenaire de l'indépendance du Congo. Ce moment vient s'ajouter aux autres qui ornent la ville notamment les statues de la liberté, de la colombe de la paix, du Président Abbé Fulbert Youlou et du vice-président Jacques Opangault. La colonne de l’indépendance est un ouvrage filiforme constitué d’un socle de 3 fois 3 mètres sur 2 mètres 80 de hauteur, prenant appui sur un massif en béton armé de 4 fois 4 sur 1 mètre 80, ancré à 1 mètre 50 du sol. Elle porte en son sommet une statue de 3 mètres représentant «la Marianne». Le maire de Brazzaville Hugues Ngouélondélé a salué l'érection de ce monument qui vient enrichir le patrimoine culturel historique et touristique de la ville: "Ce monument symbolisant une femme portant les tables de la loi de la nation congolaise et baptisé colonne de l'indépendance trônera désormais sur cette place qui sera solennellement dénommée en septembre prochain par délibération municipale : Place de l'indépendance", a-t-il indiqué.

Les cinquante années d'indépendance du Congo, célébrées dimanche, ont été marquées par une longue période de guerre civile dans un pays où 70% des 3,6 millions d'habitants vit encore sous le seuil de pauvreté, même si la paix et la croissance semblent retrouvées. "Les cinquante ans d'indépendance sont marqués du sceau de l'échec. Ils sont maculés de sang. Le bilan des 50 ans de l'indépendance est très largement négatif", estime le président de l'Alliance pour la république et la démocratie (ARD, plate-forme de l'opposition), Mathias Dzon.

[Plus ici , ici , ici e aqui]

Ce jour à 1960:

En 1482 Diego Cao découvre l'embouche du fleuve Congo… Cette introduction à l'histoire du Congo fait de l'Afrique un simple appendice de l'histoire européenne. Il ne serait pas trop tôt de sortir de cette caricature coloniale et réductrice qui fait encore office aujourd'hui d'histoire officielle et scolaire du Congo, de sa terre et de ses hommes. Notre histoire est celle des origines de ses habitants, depuis la naissance de l'humanité. Elle intègre notre espace géographique comme carrefour des peuples, de ses expressions étatiques à travers les ages, des éléments qui ont fait le quotidien de cette terre depuis les origines. Elle ne commence pas une nuit de partage à Berlin. Notre monde n'a pas toujours été immuable comme il nous semble trop souvent le percevoir, reléguant le progrès au seul mérite de l'apport coloniale.

Construire notre intellect et nos actes à partir de la connaissance de nous-mêmes, nous conduira à des révolutions intellectuelles telles que:

1. La fermeture du mausolée de Brazza. Des français qui l'ont visité, seul le Front National s'en félicite! Un diplomate a même confié, après y avoir vu ces fresques qui représentent le nègre primitif élevé à la civilisation par le blanc, qu'il y est rentré convaincu des effets positifs de la colonisation, et ressorti honteux des sous-hommes que son pays avait créé. Quel est le sens de la célébration de l'indépendance qui depuis quelques années est marquée par la municipalisation accélérée, si d'autre part nous rendons au colonisateur un hommage supérieur à celui rendu à tout congolais de l'histoire? Ce mausolée de la honte pourra être transformé en musée/bibliothèque/archives nationales, pour un pays qui n'en a aucun.

Quatre années après l'inauguration du mausolée de Brazza, la pilule ne passe toujours pas. Ils sont des milliers de congolais patriotes blessés dans leur amour propre par cet édifice qui par ailleurs ne semble extasier personne. Sauf peut-être l'extrême droite européenne, car au-delà de l'aspect symbolique du bâtiment, l'intérieur est tapissé de peintures représentent les Noirs autochtones en primitifs sauvages, conduits à la civilisation par Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza qui leur donne vêtements, santé et savoir. Un message indiscutablement qualifié de raciste dans les pays du nord où l'on peut se faire condamner pour moins que cela : Casterman l'éditeur de Tintin est sous le coup d'une procédure judiciaire parce que « Tintin au Congo » affiche des dialogues dénigrants pour la culture congolaise précoloniale.

2. La débaptisation de Brazzaville. L'un ne va pas sans l'autre. Si on est pour le nom de Brazzaville à notre capitale, il faut honorer celui à qui on le doit. Si à l'inverse nous sommes contre le mausolée de ce colon, à plus forte raison, on ne peut admettre qu'une oeuvre encore plus gigantesque, notre capitale entière, lui soit consacrée. Logique n'est ce pas!? Ajoutons que Brazzaville est la dernière capitale africaine à porter encore le nom de son colonisateur. Et enfin, rassurez-vous, ce n'est pas parce que la ville s'appellera Mfoa, Nkuna ou Mavula, qu'elle nous fera apparaitre comme des sauvages. Bien au contraire.

Quand il signe, le 14 juillet 1960, à Matignon, les accords de transfert des compétences, l'abbé Fulbert Youlou pense que le moment est si solennel qu'il doit s'entourer de toutes les forces politiques. Il se présente alors avec les leaders de l'opposition, Jacques Opangault et Stéphane Tchitchélé (qui a remplacé à la tête du PPC Félix Tchicaya, démissionnaire). L'indépendance est proclamée le 15 Août 1960 dans l'allégresse organisée car en réalité, le peuple est inquiet tandis que les cadres se disputent déjà le pouvoirs et les biens abandonnés par les colons.

Le nouveau pouvoir, cartel de marxisants et de militaires, institue autoritairement le même monolithisme politique et syndical que celui qu'il a combattu. Désormais il n'y aura plus qu'un parti, le MNR, Mouvement National de la Révolution, et un syndicat, la CSC, Confédération Syndicale Congolaise. Au nom de l'unité nationale. Et les critiques a posteriori du régime de Youlou mettent en avant la dérive autocratique et la partialité ethnique.



Ce jour à 2010:

Le président congolais Denis Sassou Nguesso, a profité de la célébration du cinquantenaire de l’indépendance du Congo ce dimanche, pour décerner des titres posthumes aux ‘’pères de l’indépendance’’ du Congo.

Denis Sassou N’Guesso a décerné la médaille commémorative du cinquantenaire de l’indépendance du Congo, aux pères de l’indépendance parmi lesquels Fulbert Youlou, Alphonse Massamba Débat, Marien N’Gouabi, JoachimYombi Opango, Pascal Lissouba, qui ont tous exercé les fonctions de président de la République du Congo.

La même médaille a été aussi décernée aux personnalités qui ont marqué l’indépendance du Congo, au nombre desquelles Jacques Opangault, Félix Tchicaya, Stéphane Tchichellé, Alfred Raoul Simon Pierre kikounga Got, Augustin poignet.

Cet imposant ouvrage de 16 mètres et demie a été dévoilé le 11 août par le Président de la République Denis Sassou N'Guesso dans le cadre des festivités du cinquantenaire de l'indépendance du Congo. Ce moment vient s'ajouter aux autres qui ornent la ville notamment les statues de la liberté, de la colombe de la paix, du Président Abbé Fulbert Youlou et du vice-président Jacques Opangault. La colonne de l’indépendance est un ouvrage filiforme constitué d’un socle de 3 fois 3 mètres sur 2 mètres 80 de hauteur, prenant appui sur un massif en béton armé de 4 fois 4 sur 1 mètre 80, ancré à 1 mètre 50 du sol. Elle porte en son sommet une statue de 3 mètres représentant «la Marianne». Le maire de Brazzaville Hugues Ngouélondélé a salué l'érection de ce monument qui vient enrichir le patrimoine culturel historique et touristique de la ville: "Ce monument symbolisant une femme portant les tables de la loi de la nation congolaise et baptisé colonne de l'indépendance trônera désormais sur cette place qui sera solennellement dénommée en septembre prochain par délibération municipale : Place de l'indépendance", a-t-il indiqué.

Les cinquante années d'indépendance du Congo, célébrées dimanche, ont été marquées par une longue période de guerre civile dans un pays où 70% des 3,6 millions d'habitants vit encore sous le seuil de pauvreté, même si la paix et la croissance semblent retrouvées. "Les cinquante ans d'indépendance sont marqués du sceau de l'échec. Ils sont maculés de sang. Le bilan des 50 ans de l'indépendance est très largement négatif", estime le président de l'Alliance pour la république et la démocratie (ARD, plate-forme de l'opposition), Mathias Dzon.

[Plus ici , ici , ici e aqui]

1960-2010: “The Year of Africa” 50 Years On (VIII)

THIS DAY IN 1960:

Independence was granted to the Congo. A rebel movement freed the Belgian Congo from Belgium.

Joseph Kasavubu became president and Patrice Lumumba prime minister. He made Joseph Mobutu, a young military officer, his private secretary.

Two months after he took power a sub-committee of the US National Security Council authorized the assassination of Lumumba, with Mobutu later becoming president.


THIS DAY IN 2010:

Congolese soldiers, holding Belgian and Congolese flags, take part in a military parade, in Kinshasa.

President Joseph Kabila called today for a "moral revolution" in the Democratic Republic of Congo at ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of its independence from Belgium.
Congolese should put an end to "attacks on human life and dignity" and in particular the widespread rape that has become a feature of the guerrilla conflicts racking the vast nation, he said. Kabila also singled out "tribalism, regionalism, favouritism, irresponsibility, theft, embezzlement of public property and everything else contrary to values."


[More here]

THIS DAY IN 1960:

Independence was granted to the Congo. A rebel movement freed the Belgian Congo from Belgium.

Joseph Kasavubu became president and Patrice Lumumba prime minister. He made Joseph Mobutu, a young military officer, his private secretary.

Two months after he took power a sub-committee of the US National Security Council authorized the assassination of Lumumba, with Mobutu later becoming president.


THIS DAY IN 2010:

Congolese soldiers, holding Belgian and Congolese flags, take part in a military parade, in Kinshasa.

President Joseph Kabila called today for a "moral revolution" in the Democratic Republic of Congo at ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of its independence from Belgium.
Congolese should put an end to "attacks on human life and dignity" and in particular the widespread rape that has become a feature of the guerrilla conflicts racking the vast nation, he said. Kabila also singled out "tribalism, regionalism, favouritism, irresponsibility, theft, embezzlement of public property and everything else contrary to values."


[More here]

1960-2010: “The Year of Africa” 50 Years On (VI)

This Day in 1960:

Patrice Lumumba and the MNC formed the first Congolese government in the run-up to the country's independence from Belgium, with Lumumba as Prime Minister and Joseph Kasavubu as President.

[More here]


This Day in 2010:


The sons of Congo's first democratically-elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, are to seek the prosecution for war crimes of 12 Belgian officials suspected of aiding their father's assassination in 1961.

"I want to know how he died. There are many books I can read and everything has been said, but there is no justice," said Guy Lumumba, the leader's youngest son.
"It is a father I am looking for, a father whom I still love, and I want to know why he was killed". "We are targeting the assassins. In Belgium, there are 12 of them. They are alive and we want them to answer for their ignoble acts before justice," he said.

[More here]

This Day in 1960:

Patrice Lumumba and the MNC formed the first Congolese government in the run-up to the country's independence from Belgium, with Lumumba as Prime Minister and Joseph Kasavubu as President.

[More here]


This Day in 2010:


The sons of Congo's first democratically-elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, are to seek the prosecution for war crimes of 12 Belgian officials suspected of aiding their father's assassination in 1961.

"I want to know how he died. There are many books I can read and everything has been said, but there is no justice," said Guy Lumumba, the leader's youngest son.
"It is a father I am looking for, a father whom I still love, and I want to know why he was killed". "We are targeting the assassins. In Belgium, there are 12 of them. They are alive and we want them to answer for their ignoble acts before justice," he said.

[More here]

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Still on the subject of African Maths, a few days ago Ndesanjo Macha brought to my attention the history of the “Ishango bone”, which was totally unknown to me.

The Ishango bone is a calculus instrument which scientists suggest indicates a mathematical understanding that goes beyond counting. Found in 1960 by a Belgian explorer in the area of Ishango, which was centered near the headwaters of the Nile River, on the border between modern-day Uganda and Congo, the artifact was first estimated to originate between 9000 BC and 6500 BC. However, the dating of the site where it was discovered was re-evaluated, and is now believed to be more than 20,000 years old.

The lakeside Ishango population of 20000 years ago may have been one of the first counting societies, but it lasted only a few hundred years before being buried by a volcanic eruption.

(Read more detailed information here)

Still on the subject of African Maths, a few days ago Ndesanjo Macha brought to my attention the history of the “Ishango bone”, which was totally unknown to me.

The Ishango bone is a calculus instrument which scientists suggest indicates a mathematical understanding that goes beyond counting. Found in 1960 by a Belgian explorer in the area of Ishango, which was centered near the headwaters of the Nile River, on the border between modern-day Uganda and Congo, the artifact was first estimated to originate between 9000 BC and 6500 BC. However, the dating of the site where it was discovered was re-evaluated, and is now believed to be more than 20,000 years old.

The lakeside Ishango population of 20000 years ago may have been one of the first counting societies, but it lasted only a few hundred years before being buried by a volcanic eruption.

(Read more detailed information here)

AFRICAN DESIGN

I just came across this wonderful picture, from the travelling exhibition "Design Made in Africa", taking place until this Sunday in New York (4 World Financial Centre) and Morocco (Batha Museum in Fes), at the exciting blog Urban Congo. The exhibition includes works by 30 designers from 14 African countries.

I just came across this wonderful picture, from the travelling exhibition "Design Made in Africa", taking place until this Sunday in New York (4 World Financial Centre) and Morocco (Batha Museum in Fes), at the exciting blog Urban Congo. The exhibition includes works by 30 designers from 14 African countries.

NO 25 DE ABRIL

CUBA! AFRICA! REVOLUTION!

Jihan El Tahri, 2007 Part 1: Tuesday 24 April 10.30pm-11.30pm; rpt 2.30am-3.30am; Part 2: Tuesday 1 May 10.30pm-11.30pm; rpt 2am-3am. Jihan El Tahri documents Cuba's interventions in Africa from Che Guevara's Congo campaign to Castro's role in Angola, and shows how the country's efforts to carve out an alternative path for Third World nations, and the USA's response to it, are still felt today.

The programme contains unique archive stills and footage of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, and features interviews and testimony from the men who fought with them.

Acabo de ver, na BBC 4, a primeira parte deste documentario sobre a longa relacao entre revolucionarios Cubanos e nacionalistas Africanos. Esta primeira parte refere-se especialmente aos principios dos anos 60, detendo-se particularmente no Congo de Patrice Lumumba (incluindo o seu discurso, considerado de "lesa-majestade" pelos Belgas - que desde ali terao "jurado vinganca" contra ele - durante a cerimonia de independencia, em frente ao Rei Balduino; o papel dos recursos naturais do Congo, em especial o cobalto, no 'complot' ocidental contra Lumumba; depoimentos do oficial da CIA, Larry Devlin, instruido directamente por Eisenhower para assassinar Lumumba e o apoio dado a Mobutu nesse contexto), passando pela experiencia do primeiro grupo de 'internacionalistas cubanos' liderados por Che Guevara, chegados ao Congo via Tanzania, para apoiar a guerrilha anti-Mobutu liderada por Joseph Kabila (incluindo depoimentos de Fidel, do comandante do grupo cubano, Victor Dreke, do tradutor de Che e do seu assistente pessoal).

Registado o relativo falhanco da missao cubana no Congo, o documentario segue para a Guine-Bissau de Amilcar Cabral, em meados da decada de 60 (incluindo depoimentos de Paulo Jorge, dirigente do MPLA e primeiro Ministro das Relacoes Exteriores de Angola, de Luis Cabral, irmao de Amilcar e antigo Presidente da Guine-Bissau, Herman Cohen, antigo Secretario de Estado Americano Adjunto para Africa, entre outros).

O episodio termina com evocativas imagens do 25 de Abril de 1974 em Portugal. Como musica de fundo foi usado o "Balumukeno" do Bonga. Note-se que alguns documentarios da BBC, nao sei se sera’ o caso deste, podem ser obtidos em DVD.

[Segunda Parte]

CUBA! AFRICA! REVOLUTION!

Jihan El Tahri, 2007 Part 1: Tuesday 24 April 10.30pm-11.30pm; rpt 2.30am-3.30am; Part 2: Tuesday 1 May 10.30pm-11.30pm; rpt 2am-3am. Jihan El Tahri documents Cuba's interventions in Africa from Che Guevara's Congo campaign to Castro's role in Angola, and shows how the country's efforts to carve out an alternative path for Third World nations, and the USA's response to it, are still felt today.

The programme contains unique archive stills and footage of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, and features interviews and testimony from the men who fought with them.

Acabo de ver, na BBC 4, a primeira parte deste documentario sobre a longa relacao entre revolucionarios Cubanos e nacionalistas Africanos. Esta primeira parte refere-se especialmente aos principios dos anos 60, detendo-se particularmente no Congo de Patrice Lumumba (incluindo o seu discurso, considerado de "lesa-majestade" pelos Belgas - que desde ali terao "jurado vinganca" contra ele - durante a cerimonia de independencia, em frente ao Rei Balduino; o papel dos recursos naturais do Congo, em especial o cobalto, no 'complot' ocidental contra Lumumba; depoimentos do oficial da CIA, Larry Devlin, instruido directamente por Eisenhower para assassinar Lumumba e o apoio dado a Mobutu nesse contexto), passando pela experiencia do primeiro grupo de 'internacionalistas cubanos' liderados por Che Guevara, chegados ao Congo via Tanzania, para apoiar a guerrilha anti-Mobutu liderada por Joseph Kabila (incluindo depoimentos de Fidel, do comandante do grupo cubano, Victor Dreke, do tradutor de Che e do seu assistente pessoal).

Registado o relativo falhanco da missao cubana no Congo, o documentario segue para a Guine-Bissau de Amilcar Cabral, em meados da decada de 60 (incluindo depoimentos de Paulo Jorge, dirigente do MPLA e primeiro Ministro das Relacoes Exteriores de Angola, de Luis Cabral, irmao de Amilcar e antigo Presidente da Guine-Bissau, Herman Cohen, antigo Secretario de Estado Americano Adjunto para Africa, entre outros).

O episodio termina com evocativas imagens do 25 de Abril de 1974 em Portugal. Como musica de fundo foi usado o "Balumukeno" do Bonga. Note-se que alguns documentarios da BBC, nao sei se sera’ o caso deste, podem ser obtidos em DVD.

[Segunda Parte]

"LATE SUNDAY SERVICE"

“Colonial Bliss”? Well, I would say 'there’s more to the picture than meets the eye'… But I like it anyway.

Esta e’ uma fotografia de familia. Era certamente um domingo, porque trata-se do baptizado da minha terceira irma (eu sou a mais pequena do grupo de tres meninas de pe' a frente do grupo – as outras duas sao as minhas irmas mais velhas; a mais proxima esta' a agarrar-me como que para "me travar a vontade de fugir do grupo"...). Foi tirada em Luanda, em 1963.

Do lado direito do padre esta' a minha mae e ao lado dela o meu tio mais carismatico, irmao do meu pai (o meu pai esta' ausente da foto por "razoes imponderaveis"). A minha avo materna, do lado esquerdo do Sr. alto de oculos (do seu lado direito esta’ o meu avo e ao lado do meu avo a minha mais querida tia), era neta de um dos Reis do Kongo. Foi ela que me deu o nome Koluki, originalmente de uma das suas ascendentes e que significa aproximadamente "aquela que tem visao".

Tera’ a minha familia directa tido escravos? Nem pouco mais ou menos.
Terao os ascendentes directos da minha avo possuido escravos? E’ possivel.
Tera’ o bisavo da minha avo vendido escravos aos europeus? Nao ha nada que o comprove.
Teria eu algum sentimento de culpa caso a resposta a cada uma dessas perguntas fosse positiva? Certamente.
Teria eu pedido desculpas aos descendentes das vitimas, caso tivesse respostas positivas a qualquer dessas perguntas? Talvez, se a instituicao “Reino do Kongo” nao tivesse sido “arrasada” no terrivel processo historico que se conhece (embora pouco e enviesadamente). Apenas a ela caberia pedir desculpas.

Mas, a julgar pelo teor das cartas em anexo de um dos Reis do Kongo ao entao Rei de Portugal, tambem e' possivel que haja entre os actuais afrodescendentes nas Americas e quica na Europa e noutras partes do mundo descendentes de escravos que eram nossos familiares directos...

[FIND SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT HERE]

“Colonial Bliss”? Well, I would say 'there’s more to the picture than meets the eye'… But I like it anyway.

Esta e’ uma fotografia de familia. Era certamente um domingo, porque trata-se do baptizado da minha terceira irma (eu sou a mais pequena do grupo de tres meninas de pe' a frente do grupo – as outras duas sao as minhas irmas mais velhas; a mais proxima esta' a agarrar-me como que para "me travar a vontade de fugir do grupo"...). Foi tirada em Luanda, em 1963.

Do lado direito do padre esta' a minha mae e ao lado dela o meu tio mais carismatico, irmao do meu pai (o meu pai esta' ausente da foto por "razoes imponderaveis"). A minha avo materna, do lado esquerdo do Sr. alto de oculos (do seu lado direito esta’ o meu avo e ao lado do meu avo a minha mais querida tia), era neta de um dos Reis do Kongo. Foi ela que me deu o nome Koluki, originalmente de uma das suas ascendentes e que significa aproximadamente "aquela que tem visao".

Tera’ a minha familia directa tido escravos? Nem pouco mais ou menos.
Terao os ascendentes directos da minha avo possuido escravos? E’ possivel.
Tera’ o bisavo da minha avo vendido escravos aos europeus? Nao ha nada que o comprove.
Teria eu algum sentimento de culpa caso a resposta a cada uma dessas perguntas fosse positiva? Certamente.
Teria eu pedido desculpas aos descendentes das vitimas, caso tivesse respostas positivas a qualquer dessas perguntas? Talvez, se a instituicao “Reino do Kongo” nao tivesse sido “arrasada” no terrivel processo historico que se conhece (embora pouco e enviesadamente). Apenas a ela caberia pedir desculpas.

Mas, a julgar pelo teor das cartas em anexo de um dos Reis do Kongo ao entao Rei de Portugal, tambem e' possivel que haja entre os actuais afrodescendentes nas Americas e quica na Europa e noutras partes do mundo descendentes de escravos que eram nossos familiares directos...

[FIND SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT HERE]

ECOS DA HISTORIA: A PROPOSITO DOS CONFLITOS NO BAIXO CONGO

O SIMBOLISMO DO LEOPARDO

Numa altura em que a situacao no Baixo-Congo continua a fazer as 'headlines', vem a proposito voltar aos arquivos da Historia, mais uma vez atraves de um artigo publicado pela revista Time, em 1959.



Qui a introduit le symbole du "Leopard" au Congo? MOBUTU?...NON, NON, NON! Mais n'est-ce pas lui que nous appelons le "Grand Leopard"? Si ce n'est pas lui qui a introduit le "leopard" dans la vie politique congolaise, qui alors? D'ou lui est venue l'idee de cette toque de leopard (Toque)? Eh bien de ... Kasa-Vubu!!! Apres les emeutes du 04 janvier 1959, un journaliste du magazine TIME reporte a partir de Leopoldville. Voici un extrait de son article publie le 19 janvier 1959 (vous pourrez lire plus bas le reste de l'article qui donne aussi un reportage des emeutes):

"... Sur la peau du Leopard - Parmi les noirs, un groupe quasi-religieux appele ABAKO a fait surface, un groupe que les journaux belges ont minimise comme etant un groupe tribal. A l'origine, il a ete forme par la tribu des Bakongo du Sud comme une sorte de syndicat pour se proteger contre les Bangalas. Mais sous le leadership d'un fanatique - mince, aux apparences timides mais avec une volonte de fer - nomme KASA-VUBU, age de 41 ans, ce groupe a progressivement tourne sa colere vers des cibles plus grandes. (...) Apres son election comme bourgmestre d'une des communes de Leopoldville en 1957, il s'est declare "Le Guide Supreme" et a commence a recevoir les hommages assis sur une PEAU DE LEOPARD, symbole tribal du pouvoir supreme." Remarquez la difference: Alors que Kasa-Vubu utilise la peau de leopard pour s'asseoir, Mobutu prefere la mettre sur la tete !!!

ASM

PS: TIME Magazine, January 19, 1959

"If Blood Must Run"

In the broad-boulevarded tropical city of Leopoldville one day last month, a security officer handed the Belgian Governor General a piece of paper with a song written on it. The composer was unknown, but the song itself was being sung at nationalist meetings throughout the territory. "Congoland, land of our forebears," ran the opening lines, "we will fight for our freedom, if blood must run in streams." Last week, after the worst eruption the Congo had seen in a decade, blood did in fact run in Léopoldville (pop. 300,000). In Brussels the reaction was stunned surprise. For 50 years the Belgians have—with model efficiency and unruffled complacency—run the land, 80 times the size of their own. That was once the private property of King Leopold II. They kept the 12.8 million blacks strictly segregated and denied them the vote—but then, the 107,000 white residents had no vote either, and paternalism had many advantages for all. It was not until 1957 that the Congolese, black or white, were allowed to take part in their first municipal elections, and the government has never clearly said how much more self-government can be expected.

On a Leopard Skin. Among the blacks there had sprung up a quasi-religious group called Abako, which Belgian newspapers brushed off as merely a tribal organization. Originally it had been formed by the Bakongo tribe of the south as a sort of protective union against the harder-working and more favored Bangalas. But under the leadership of a slight, timid-looking but steel-willed fanatic named Joseph Kasavubu, 41, it gradually turned its anger upon bigger targets. Just across the Congo River from Leopoldville sits Brazzaville (pop. 86,000), capital of French Equatorial Africa, which has been astir with De Gaulle's promise of autonomy. Kasavubu began to dream of reviving the fabled 14th century Kingdom of the Congo, combining territories now French, Belgian and Portuguese. After his election as one of Léopoldville' s commune burgomasters in 1957, he had himself declared "Supreme Leader" by his followers, and began receiving homage seated on a leopard skin, symbol of tribal supreme power.

Meanwhile, the rival Bangalas also began organizing, and the bush telegraph began to echo the nationalist sentiments of the recent All African Peoples Conference in Accra. To make matters worse, the demand for Congolese copper ore hit a slump, and jobless natives swarmed into the city to find work. Finally, one day last week, 4,000 blacks jammed into the courtyard of a Y.M.C.A. to hear Kasavubu speak at an unauthorized protest meeting. When the police arrived, the riots began. "Down with Belgium." With cries of "Independence! ", "Down with Belgium!" and "Vive Ghana!", the crowd surged down Prince Baudouin Avenue, was soon joined by thousands of spectators who were just then emerging from the football stadium. The swollen mob swept through the city, upset and burned cars, stoned and mauled Europeans, pillaged shops. Bands looted public buildings and invaded mission schools, concentrating their fury on Roman Catholic more than on Protestant schools (though Kasavubu, mission-educated, studied philosophy for three years as a Catholic seminarist). Under orders from their Belgian officers, African police opened fire, and Belgian paratroopers manned key points about the European part of the city. But for two whole days the rioting continued, until an estimated 175 people had been killed.

In Brussels a hushed special session of Parliament quickly voted to send an investigatory mission. The new Minister of the Congo, Maurice van Hemelrijck, a longtime critic of Belgian complacency and the author of a long-awaited proposal for the Congo's gradual emancipation that is to be presented to Parliament this week, gave his countrymen a brief but pointed lecture. "We have been on the border of catastrophe" he said. "We are not without fault. We could not wait so long without punishment before letting the Congolese know of our intentions."

Posted by Anderson Sunda Meya @ Mfuma Ne-Kongo Network

O SIMBOLISMO DO LEOPARDO

Numa altura em que a situacao no Baixo-Congo continua a fazer as 'headlines', vem a proposito voltar aos arquivos da Historia, mais uma vez atraves de um artigo publicado pela revista Time, em 1959.



Qui a introduit le symbole du "Leopard" au Congo? MOBUTU?...NON, NON, NON! Mais n'est-ce pas lui que nous appelons le "Grand Leopard"? Si ce n'est pas lui qui a introduit le "leopard" dans la vie politique congolaise, qui alors? D'ou lui est venue l'idee de cette toque de leopard (Toque)? Eh bien de ... Kasa-Vubu!!! Apres les emeutes du 04 janvier 1959, un journaliste du magazine TIME reporte a partir de Leopoldville. Voici un extrait de son article publie le 19 janvier 1959 (vous pourrez lire plus bas le reste de l'article qui donne aussi un reportage des emeutes):

"... Sur la peau du Leopard - Parmi les noirs, un groupe quasi-religieux appele ABAKO a fait surface, un groupe que les journaux belges ont minimise comme etant un groupe tribal. A l'origine, il a ete forme par la tribu des Bakongo du Sud comme une sorte de syndicat pour se proteger contre les Bangalas. Mais sous le leadership d'un fanatique - mince, aux apparences timides mais avec une volonte de fer - nomme KASA-VUBU, age de 41 ans, ce groupe a progressivement tourne sa colere vers des cibles plus grandes. (...) Apres son election comme bourgmestre d'une des communes de Leopoldville en 1957, il s'est declare "Le Guide Supreme" et a commence a recevoir les hommages assis sur une PEAU DE LEOPARD, symbole tribal du pouvoir supreme." Remarquez la difference: Alors que Kasa-Vubu utilise la peau de leopard pour s'asseoir, Mobutu prefere la mettre sur la tete !!!

ASM

PS: TIME Magazine, January 19, 1959

"If Blood Must Run"

In the broad-boulevarded tropical city of Leopoldville one day last month, a security officer handed the Belgian Governor General a piece of paper with a song written on it. The composer was unknown, but the song itself was being sung at nationalist meetings throughout the territory. "Congoland, land of our forebears," ran the opening lines, "we will fight for our freedom, if blood must run in streams." Last week, after the worst eruption the Congo had seen in a decade, blood did in fact run in Léopoldville (pop. 300,000). In Brussels the reaction was stunned surprise. For 50 years the Belgians have—with model efficiency and unruffled complacency—run the land, 80 times the size of their own. That was once the private property of King Leopold II. They kept the 12.8 million blacks strictly segregated and denied them the vote—but then, the 107,000 white residents had no vote either, and paternalism had many advantages for all. It was not until 1957 that the Congolese, black or white, were allowed to take part in their first municipal elections, and the government has never clearly said how much more self-government can be expected.

On a Leopard Skin. Among the blacks there had sprung up a quasi-religious group called Abako, which Belgian newspapers brushed off as merely a tribal organization. Originally it had been formed by the Bakongo tribe of the south as a sort of protective union against the harder-working and more favored Bangalas. But under the leadership of a slight, timid-looking but steel-willed fanatic named Joseph Kasavubu, 41, it gradually turned its anger upon bigger targets. Just across the Congo River from Leopoldville sits Brazzaville (pop. 86,000), capital of French Equatorial Africa, which has been astir with De Gaulle's promise of autonomy. Kasavubu began to dream of reviving the fabled 14th century Kingdom of the Congo, combining territories now French, Belgian and Portuguese. After his election as one of Léopoldville' s commune burgomasters in 1957, he had himself declared "Supreme Leader" by his followers, and began receiving homage seated on a leopard skin, symbol of tribal supreme power.

Meanwhile, the rival Bangalas also began organizing, and the bush telegraph began to echo the nationalist sentiments of the recent All African Peoples Conference in Accra. To make matters worse, the demand for Congolese copper ore hit a slump, and jobless natives swarmed into the city to find work. Finally, one day last week, 4,000 blacks jammed into the courtyard of a Y.M.C.A. to hear Kasavubu speak at an unauthorized protest meeting. When the police arrived, the riots began. "Down with Belgium." With cries of "Independence! ", "Down with Belgium!" and "Vive Ghana!", the crowd surged down Prince Baudouin Avenue, was soon joined by thousands of spectators who were just then emerging from the football stadium. The swollen mob swept through the city, upset and burned cars, stoned and mauled Europeans, pillaged shops. Bands looted public buildings and invaded mission schools, concentrating their fury on Roman Catholic more than on Protestant schools (though Kasavubu, mission-educated, studied philosophy for three years as a Catholic seminarist). Under orders from their Belgian officers, African police opened fire, and Belgian paratroopers manned key points about the European part of the city. But for two whole days the rioting continued, until an estimated 175 people had been killed.

In Brussels a hushed special session of Parliament quickly voted to send an investigatory mission. The new Minister of the Congo, Maurice van Hemelrijck, a longtime critic of Belgian complacency and the author of a long-awaited proposal for the Congo's gradual emancipation that is to be presented to Parliament this week, gave his countrymen a brief but pointed lecture. "We have been on the border of catastrophe" he said. "We are not without fault. We could not wait so long without punishment before letting the Congolese know of our intentions."

Posted by Anderson Sunda Meya @ Mfuma Ne-Kongo Network

MWAMBA, KIKWANGA & KAHOMBO

Muamba Nsusu (Congo Chicken Soup)

This soup version of Sub-Saharan Africa's ubiquitous Chicken in Peanut-Tomato Sauce comes from the Kongo people of the two Congos and Angola; it has much in common with other African peanut soups and sauces.


What you need

- chicken; one whole chicken, cut up, any parts, any amount
- one large onion, chopped
- palm oil
- small can of tomato paste
- one-half cup peanut butter (natural or homemade, containing only peanuts and salt)
- hot chile pepper or red or cayenne pepper, to taste

What you do

- Fill a large pot with enough water for soup. Bring it to a boil. Add the chicken and boil it until the meat is done and a broth is obtained.
- While the chicken is boiling, gently sauté the onion in several tablespoons of palm oil until the onion is tender.
- Remove the chicken from the broth and remove meat from bones. (Save the broth and keep it at a low simmer.)
- Combine one cup of the chicken broth with the peanut butter and tomato paste and stir until smooth.
- Return the chicken meat to the broth and add the peanut butter-tomato paste mixture. Stir and continue to simmer until the soup is thickened.
- Season to taste. Serve with Rice, or Baton de Manioc/Chikwangue, or Fufu and more hot pepper.

Nsusu na buha or Poulet fumé à la pâte d'arachide (Smoked chicken with peanut sauce) is a similar dish from the Congo region.

Receita tirada de Congo Cookbook

Muamba Nsusu (Congo Chicken Soup)

This soup version of Sub-Saharan Africa's ubiquitous Chicken in Peanut-Tomato Sauce comes from the Kongo people of the two Congos and Angola; it has much in common with other African peanut soups and sauces.


What you need

- chicken; one whole chicken, cut up, any parts, any amount
- one large onion, chopped
- palm oil
- small can of tomato paste
- one-half cup peanut butter (natural or homemade, containing only peanuts and salt)
- hot chile pepper or red or cayenne pepper, to taste

What you do

- Fill a large pot with enough water for soup. Bring it to a boil. Add the chicken and boil it until the meat is done and a broth is obtained.
- While the chicken is boiling, gently sauté the onion in several tablespoons of palm oil until the onion is tender.
- Remove the chicken from the broth and remove meat from bones. (Save the broth and keep it at a low simmer.)
- Combine one cup of the chicken broth with the peanut butter and tomato paste and stir until smooth.
- Return the chicken meat to the broth and add the peanut butter-tomato paste mixture. Stir and continue to simmer until the soup is thickened.
- Season to taste. Serve with Rice, or Baton de Manioc/Chikwangue, or Fufu and more hot pepper.

Nsusu na buha or Poulet fumé à la pâte d'arachide (Smoked chicken with peanut sauce) is a similar dish from the Congo region.

Receita tirada de Congo Cookbook

WHAT'S IN A NAME

"It is not what you call me, but what I answer to, that matters most"

African Proverb

(in "Capitalist Nigger - The Road to Success", by Chika Onyeani)

Picture: Kongo Mask

Here’s something to READ and HANDLE with care:


Extracts from Chika Onyeani’s CAPITALIST NIGGER – THE ROAD TO SUCCESS – A Spider Web Doctrine

FOREWORD

"CAPITALIST NIGGER is a no-holds-barred discussion of the Black Race. It combines a powerful punch because the author believes that there is no better time to openly debate the state of the Black Race than now. The book asserts that the Negroid Race is a non-productive race. “We are a consumer race”, the author insists. “We produce nothing and consume what others produce.” The author scores the bull’s-eye when he lays the blame for the present state of the Black Race on the fact that his people don’t possess what he calls “the killer-instinct of the Caucasian Race” and their lack of “whatever it takes” attitude.

CAPITALIST NIGGER is purely and simply about making money in any way possible; about changing the attitude of the Black Race.
Onyeani’s espousal and advocacy of the “Spider Web Economy” doctrine is bound to revolutionize economic thinking for years to come.

CAPITALIST NIGGER is a book no person other than Chika Onyeani could have written. It is a testimony of his life-long courage. It is an anguished cry to the Black Race to move from being a Consumer Race to a Productive Race. It is compellingly required reading.


INTRODUCTION


POWER OF A WORD


“IT IS NOT WHAT YOU CALL ME, BUT WHAT I ANSWER TO, THAT MATTERS MOST.”
An African Proverb


According to Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, the word “Nigger” has now come to rank as “perhaps the most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in English….. it is otherwise a word expressive of racial hatred and bigotry.” Ordinarily, according to the same dictionary, the word itself refers to a black person, having been used by such considered writers like Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain and William Shakespeare. This word has caused all kinds of invectives between Blacks and Caucasians. Caucasians think by calling Blacks (Negro, Blackman, African-American, mulatto) “Niggers”, they are putting them down and putting them “in their place”, which would anger most Blacks. Blacks on their part have always obliged the Caucasians by doing exactly as they have anticipated.

“We are creatures of habit. We like to take advantage of every situation. And Caucasians have been taking advantage of the Black Race in every situation from the enslaving of Africans and plucking them to America to the present time of trying to demean us by the word Nigger. What is really in a word? We make it what we want it to mean. By accepting what others want us to believe a word means, we are invariably giving them the satisfaction of feeling superiority over us. But when we hardly notice such an appellation as meaningless, it not only makes the user of the word totally stupid, it also takes away his feeling of superiority.”


EXTRACT


In October 1960, Nigeria received its independence from Britain. By then, Ghana the former Gold Cost had been independent for three years under the great Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah. It was a time for celebrating Africa’s coming of age, as more and more African countries received their independence either from Britain or France. It was especially a poignant time for Africa, as then British Prime Minister Harold McMillan articulated his now famous “winds of change” sweeping Africa. We had high hopes for Africa, for the Black race, that the insidious imposition of foreign rule on us, the looting of Africa’s natural resources by our colonial masters and the disrespect and disdain that these colonial masters accorded us would be things of history.

That is more than forty years ago. Unfortunately, the promise of independence has not been fulfilled. Today, Africa has become more desolate; there is more starvation, diseases and non-provision of essential services than when we got our independence. There are all kinds of wars in Africa and millions of lives have been lost. There are more dictators in Africa than the rest of the world put together. The majority of so-called African leaders want to stay in power until the day their bodies are put in the grave. Through buffoonery, utter mismanagement and downright stealing of the wealth of the masses, these leaders have so impoverish Africa that we are now nothing but a beggar continent. We beg for everything; we are more dependent on our colonial masters than when we received our independence from them. Africa owes the West more money than we and our generations to come can repay.
I arrived in America in December of 1967 as an official of what we believed was going to be a dynamic African nation – the young Republic of Biafra. But Biafra was defeated and Nigeria remained one, as a giant of Africa. In that last 32 years, I have watched with horror and outright helplessness as the downward slide of the African race continues to escalate. But rather than address the problems, we resort to blaming the Caucasians, Asians and others for our misfortune. We are not men enough to accept responsibility for our actions.

Africans blame either the British, French or little Portuguese/Spanish for their problems. Africans in America blame the Caucasians for all their problems, or any other ethnic group they have allowed to take over their neighbourhoods, a frequently recurring phenomenon. Africans blame the IMF, the World Bank, the G8, the former colonial masters for the abject poverty in our respective countries. We blame the wars ravaging several African sectors on the interference of our former colonial masters on “our internal affairs”. Ha! – some kind of independence!

In the 32 years I have been in America, I have never had a discussion with any of my brothers or sisters without it resorting to the African (Black)/Caucasian (White) relationship. If we go to a restaurant, we blame the Caucasian or Asian for sitting us at the back, near the kitchen, or too much in the front, because he doesn’t want to antagonise his Caucasian clientele. When we decide to buy a house in a Caucasian neighbourhood, we blame the people for refusing to sell to us because of their belief that we spend more time and money on visible luxurious and ultimately worthless items, than in maintaining our property, which to everyone but us is a major part of their investment and retirement portfolio.

The blame game has become a permanent part of our lives to the exclusion of any other solution that could be more viable in solving our problems. It has become the most productive part of our lives, because without it the African cannot really point to much that they are in charge of producing. It is better to blame others than to confront the truth of our being responsible for whatever has happened to us as an African race.

I decided to write Capitalist Nigger to open a debate on the state of the African race. But in doing so, my intention was not to treat my own contribution to the debate with kid gloves. It is to tell it like it is, the truth and nothing but he truth. My observations are bound to infuriate a lot of my people. Even the title of this book is bound to make a lot of people angry. Many people will be angry, to say it mildly, when I question the intelligence of my people compared to the Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, Malaysians, Filipinos) and others who attained independence at the same time as most African countries. If the book generates the kind of dialogue, debate or argument for or against the position I have taken, so be it. But it would even be more relevant if in the process, solutions are offered to help extricate Africans from being a consumer to a productive race.

I decided to write Capitalist Nigger also as a doctrine of making money and creating wealth. I am not ashamed to say that I am also purely motivated by the same greed that motivates Caucasians with “killer-instincts” and “devil-may-care” convictions. I see myself as an Economic Warrior for my people and not a victim, I have decided to confront the truth of my misfortune and when I see the mirror I see the culprit standing right in front of me – it is me. As the saying goes, truth shall set you free. The Truth in being a Capitalist Nigger is that it sets you free. The Truth in being a Capitalist Nigger is that it sets you free. Being a Capitalist Nigger puts you in control of every aspect of your life – you are in charge and nobody else.

You want your children to have good grades in school? Then practice Capitalist Niggerism because then you will not blame the teachers for failing your children or blame the nationwide testing services for using non-black questions in their testing. You will be in control because you will totally understand that everything that happens to your child at school is a result of the learning environment you have provided him or her at home.

If you want to have a good job, practice Capitalist Niggerism, because you want to beat the people who expect you to fail because they believe you are stupid. You will succeed because you work harder and twice as hard as the average Caucasian. You will not gripe or whine about it because you are a Capitalist Nigger, you know you are in charge in every aspect of the process. Because of your belief in Capitalist Niggerism, you set out to learn about your job and excel and shame everybody else. I remember in the early seventies when I joined Endo/Dupont, the pharmaceutical division. There was not another African in my division and to the amazement of the Regional Managers, I was always the number one winner when it came to sales contests. But the British Divisional Manager who recruited me knew that I could do it because the only question he had asked me at my interview was whether I was Igbo from Nigeria and I had replied in the affirmative.

You want to create wealth, join Wall Street. Don’t make excuses that Blacks don’t know how to invest their money. Go after the Caucasians. Use their guilt to your advantage.

Another important point which I raised in this book concerns the long study I have conducted regarding the economic behaviour of East Indians and Pakistanis. It is an economic doctrine I have christened the “Spider Web Doctrine”, because I believe we all understand how spiders behave. They build a web, and if an ant or fly dares enter the web, they are not allowed to come out. The spider closes its web. That is exactly how the Indians have employed the spider web doctrine to become a major economic force worldwide. The Indians have created a virtual economy in the communities they live. When a dollar comes into the community, that dollar does not leave the community. They reinvest it by buying from other Indians.

Indians have studied the art of being a major economic force in America without antagonising any particular group. You don’t see them in hostile neighbourhoods, where they could be held hostage by the anger of that group. They are mostly in business which caters to every group – newspaper retailing, taxi/limousine, gas station ownership, and motel/hotel operators.

The Jews have used to some extent this “Spider Web Economic” doctrine, but not on the scale of Indians. The Indians are its best ardent practitioners. It is the only and best economic method I have seen which can easily catapult an economy like ours out of its indolent state.

I feel totally liberated. I feel free. I feel I am in charge. I am in control. From here on, whatever happens is because I allowed it to happen. I have made what I believe is my own major contribution to the debate on the state of the Black Race. Whether you agree with me or not is immaterial. The only important point is that we must stop the blame game and accept responsibility for the present state of the Black Race. Truth shall set you free, it has set me free."

***

P.S.: I've decided to include here an extract from my participation in a discussion on the "Negritude Movement", at Black Looks, for its relevance to the main theme of this book:

"First, I think that the answers to all these questions hinge on whether the n-word stands for Negro, or for Nigger. I must say that in my own research I never came across a description of Negritude as “Niggerness” and I suspect this may have a lot to do with the translations of the particular publications we read, or how we ourselves translate the original words written in French by the “founding fathers” of Negritude.In my recollection, they use the words Negre/Noir=Negro as the racial archetype equivalent to Caucasian, hence its acceptability in academia. In this sense, Negro/Noir has no pejorative or “denigrating” connotations: it’s used just like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, for instance, have used it. In Portuguese, as in French, Negro/Negre/Noir is the acceptable term to refer to the so-called “negroid” race, whereas Preto=Black can have derogatory undertones and can be understood, depending on the context and intention of its use, as the equivalent to “Nigger”,which I believe was invented in the States to have exclusively racist connotations…From there, I found that the Negritude movement’s main claim regarding the “Negro Essence” is that, contrary to (still) prevailing stereotypes, the Negro is not a “lesser” human and by no means “less intelligent” than the Caucasian or any other race, s/he just has a different approach to understanding and conceptualising their surrounding universe. Hence Senghor’s famous phrase, which encapsulates much of the essence of Negritude: “The reason is Hellenic and the emotion is Noir/Negre/Negro”, by which he meant that the Negro rationality was founded on and derived from the human senses and its profound interaction with and dependence on nature, whereas the Caucasian one was primarily based on abstract (from nature) calculation…"

"It is not what you call me, but what I answer to, that matters most"

African Proverb

(in "Capitalist Nigger - The Road to Success", by Chika Onyeani)

Picture: Kongo Mask

Here’s something to READ and HANDLE with care:


Extracts from Chika Onyeani’s CAPITALIST NIGGER – THE ROAD TO SUCCESS – A Spider Web Doctrine

FOREWORD

"CAPITALIST NIGGER is a no-holds-barred discussion of the Black Race. It combines a powerful punch because the author believes that there is no better time to openly debate the state of the Black Race than now. The book asserts that the Negroid Race is a non-productive race. “We are a consumer race”, the author insists. “We produce nothing and consume what others produce.” The author scores the bull’s-eye when he lays the blame for the present state of the Black Race on the fact that his people don’t possess what he calls “the killer-instinct of the Caucasian Race” and their lack of “whatever it takes” attitude.

CAPITALIST NIGGER is purely and simply about making money in any way possible; about changing the attitude of the Black Race.
Onyeani’s espousal and advocacy of the “Spider Web Economy” doctrine is bound to revolutionize economic thinking for years to come.

CAPITALIST NIGGER is a book no person other than Chika Onyeani could have written. It is a testimony of his life-long courage. It is an anguished cry to the Black Race to move from being a Consumer Race to a Productive Race. It is compellingly required reading.


INTRODUCTION


POWER OF A WORD


“IT IS NOT WHAT YOU CALL ME, BUT WHAT I ANSWER TO, THAT MATTERS MOST.”
An African Proverb


According to Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, the word “Nigger” has now come to rank as “perhaps the most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in English….. it is otherwise a word expressive of racial hatred and bigotry.” Ordinarily, according to the same dictionary, the word itself refers to a black person, having been used by such considered writers like Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain and William Shakespeare. This word has caused all kinds of invectives between Blacks and Caucasians. Caucasians think by calling Blacks (Negro, Blackman, African-American, mulatto) “Niggers”, they are putting them down and putting them “in their place”, which would anger most Blacks. Blacks on their part have always obliged the Caucasians by doing exactly as they have anticipated.

“We are creatures of habit. We like to take advantage of every situation. And Caucasians have been taking advantage of the Black Race in every situation from the enslaving of Africans and plucking them to America to the present time of trying to demean us by the word Nigger. What is really in a word? We make it what we want it to mean. By accepting what others want us to believe a word means, we are invariably giving them the satisfaction of feeling superiority over us. But when we hardly notice such an appellation as meaningless, it not only makes the user of the word totally stupid, it also takes away his feeling of superiority.”


EXTRACT


In October 1960, Nigeria received its independence from Britain. By then, Ghana the former Gold Cost had been independent for three years under the great Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah. It was a time for celebrating Africa’s coming of age, as more and more African countries received their independence either from Britain or France. It was especially a poignant time for Africa, as then British Prime Minister Harold McMillan articulated his now famous “winds of change” sweeping Africa. We had high hopes for Africa, for the Black race, that the insidious imposition of foreign rule on us, the looting of Africa’s natural resources by our colonial masters and the disrespect and disdain that these colonial masters accorded us would be things of history.

That is more than forty years ago. Unfortunately, the promise of independence has not been fulfilled. Today, Africa has become more desolate; there is more starvation, diseases and non-provision of essential services than when we got our independence. There are all kinds of wars in Africa and millions of lives have been lost. There are more dictators in Africa than the rest of the world put together. The majority of so-called African leaders want to stay in power until the day their bodies are put in the grave. Through buffoonery, utter mismanagement and downright stealing of the wealth of the masses, these leaders have so impoverish Africa that we are now nothing but a beggar continent. We beg for everything; we are more dependent on our colonial masters than when we received our independence from them. Africa owes the West more money than we and our generations to come can repay.
I arrived in America in December of 1967 as an official of what we believed was going to be a dynamic African nation – the young Republic of Biafra. But Biafra was defeated and Nigeria remained one, as a giant of Africa. In that last 32 years, I have watched with horror and outright helplessness as the downward slide of the African race continues to escalate. But rather than address the problems, we resort to blaming the Caucasians, Asians and others for our misfortune. We are not men enough to accept responsibility for our actions.

Africans blame either the British, French or little Portuguese/Spanish for their problems. Africans in America blame the Caucasians for all their problems, or any other ethnic group they have allowed to take over their neighbourhoods, a frequently recurring phenomenon. Africans blame the IMF, the World Bank, the G8, the former colonial masters for the abject poverty in our respective countries. We blame the wars ravaging several African sectors on the interference of our former colonial masters on “our internal affairs”. Ha! – some kind of independence!

In the 32 years I have been in America, I have never had a discussion with any of my brothers or sisters without it resorting to the African (Black)/Caucasian (White) relationship. If we go to a restaurant, we blame the Caucasian or Asian for sitting us at the back, near the kitchen, or too much in the front, because he doesn’t want to antagonise his Caucasian clientele. When we decide to buy a house in a Caucasian neighbourhood, we blame the people for refusing to sell to us because of their belief that we spend more time and money on visible luxurious and ultimately worthless items, than in maintaining our property, which to everyone but us is a major part of their investment and retirement portfolio.

The blame game has become a permanent part of our lives to the exclusion of any other solution that could be more viable in solving our problems. It has become the most productive part of our lives, because without it the African cannot really point to much that they are in charge of producing. It is better to blame others than to confront the truth of our being responsible for whatever has happened to us as an African race.

I decided to write Capitalist Nigger to open a debate on the state of the African race. But in doing so, my intention was not to treat my own contribution to the debate with kid gloves. It is to tell it like it is, the truth and nothing but he truth. My observations are bound to infuriate a lot of my people. Even the title of this book is bound to make a lot of people angry. Many people will be angry, to say it mildly, when I question the intelligence of my people compared to the Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, Malaysians, Filipinos) and others who attained independence at the same time as most African countries. If the book generates the kind of dialogue, debate or argument for or against the position I have taken, so be it. But it would even be more relevant if in the process, solutions are offered to help extricate Africans from being a consumer to a productive race.

I decided to write Capitalist Nigger also as a doctrine of making money and creating wealth. I am not ashamed to say that I am also purely motivated by the same greed that motivates Caucasians with “killer-instincts” and “devil-may-care” convictions. I see myself as an Economic Warrior for my people and not a victim, I have decided to confront the truth of my misfortune and when I see the mirror I see the culprit standing right in front of me – it is me. As the saying goes, truth shall set you free. The Truth in being a Capitalist Nigger is that it sets you free. The Truth in being a Capitalist Nigger is that it sets you free. Being a Capitalist Nigger puts you in control of every aspect of your life – you are in charge and nobody else.

You want your children to have good grades in school? Then practice Capitalist Niggerism because then you will not blame the teachers for failing your children or blame the nationwide testing services for using non-black questions in their testing. You will be in control because you will totally understand that everything that happens to your child at school is a result of the learning environment you have provided him or her at home.

If you want to have a good job, practice Capitalist Niggerism, because you want to beat the people who expect you to fail because they believe you are stupid. You will succeed because you work harder and twice as hard as the average Caucasian. You will not gripe or whine about it because you are a Capitalist Nigger, you know you are in charge in every aspect of the process. Because of your belief in Capitalist Niggerism, you set out to learn about your job and excel and shame everybody else. I remember in the early seventies when I joined Endo/Dupont, the pharmaceutical division. There was not another African in my division and to the amazement of the Regional Managers, I was always the number one winner when it came to sales contests. But the British Divisional Manager who recruited me knew that I could do it because the only question he had asked me at my interview was whether I was Igbo from Nigeria and I had replied in the affirmative.

You want to create wealth, join Wall Street. Don’t make excuses that Blacks don’t know how to invest their money. Go after the Caucasians. Use their guilt to your advantage.

Another important point which I raised in this book concerns the long study I have conducted regarding the economic behaviour of East Indians and Pakistanis. It is an economic doctrine I have christened the “Spider Web Doctrine”, because I believe we all understand how spiders behave. They build a web, and if an ant or fly dares enter the web, they are not allowed to come out. The spider closes its web. That is exactly how the Indians have employed the spider web doctrine to become a major economic force worldwide. The Indians have created a virtual economy in the communities they live. When a dollar comes into the community, that dollar does not leave the community. They reinvest it by buying from other Indians.

Indians have studied the art of being a major economic force in America without antagonising any particular group. You don’t see them in hostile neighbourhoods, where they could be held hostage by the anger of that group. They are mostly in business which caters to every group – newspaper retailing, taxi/limousine, gas station ownership, and motel/hotel operators.

The Jews have used to some extent this “Spider Web Economic” doctrine, but not on the scale of Indians. The Indians are its best ardent practitioners. It is the only and best economic method I have seen which can easily catapult an economy like ours out of its indolent state.

I feel totally liberated. I feel free. I feel I am in charge. I am in control. From here on, whatever happens is because I allowed it to happen. I have made what I believe is my own major contribution to the debate on the state of the Black Race. Whether you agree with me or not is immaterial. The only important point is that we must stop the blame game and accept responsibility for the present state of the Black Race. Truth shall set you free, it has set me free."

***

P.S.: I've decided to include here an extract from my participation in a discussion on the "Negritude Movement", at Black Looks, for its relevance to the main theme of this book:

"First, I think that the answers to all these questions hinge on whether the n-word stands for Negro, or for Nigger. I must say that in my own research I never came across a description of Negritude as “Niggerness” and I suspect this may have a lot to do with the translations of the particular publications we read, or how we ourselves translate the original words written in French by the “founding fathers” of Negritude.In my recollection, they use the words Negre/Noir=Negro as the racial archetype equivalent to Caucasian, hence its acceptability in academia. In this sense, Negro/Noir has no pejorative or “denigrating” connotations: it’s used just like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, for instance, have used it. In Portuguese, as in French, Negro/Negre/Noir is the acceptable term to refer to the so-called “negroid” race, whereas Preto=Black can have derogatory undertones and can be understood, depending on the context and intention of its use, as the equivalent to “Nigger”,which I believe was invented in the States to have exclusively racist connotations…From there, I found that the Negritude movement’s main claim regarding the “Negro Essence” is that, contrary to (still) prevailing stereotypes, the Negro is not a “lesser” human and by no means “less intelligent” than the Caucasian or any other race, s/he just has a different approach to understanding and conceptualising their surrounding universe. Hence Senghor’s famous phrase, which encapsulates much of the essence of Negritude: “The reason is Hellenic and the emotion is Noir/Negre/Negro”, by which he meant that the Negro rationality was founded on and derived from the human senses and its profound interaction with and dependence on nature, whereas the Caucasian one was primarily based on abstract (from nature) calculation…"

KONGO MUSIK IN SPIRITED SOUNDS

IN MEMORIUM
(23/01/1993)

***

The collection Prophet, devoted to traditional music from all over the world is principally constituted of recordings and photographs made by Charles Duvelle* in the course of the past forty years. They are mostly original recordings that have never been released “in extenso”, with the exception of a few issued on records now long unavailable. Despite the age of some recordings of performers no longer alive, the sound quality (an essential aspect, naturally, as far as music is concerned) is still high, thanks to the use of high quality equipment and the versatility of the sound recording techniques, adapted to the particular conditions of orally transmitted music, i.e. performers moving about (singer-dancers), the hazards of the open-air (wind and other extraneous noises), a care for the spontaneity of the performers and the inevitably unique situation of each musical performance (the idea of rehearsing for a definitive performance is ruled out). Prophet claims to be different from other collections of world music by virtue of its exacting standards of authenticity and musical quality.


Musical authenticity: recorded live, in a traditional local environment, generally on a particular occasion and not in a lifeless studio or on a stage;
Acustic authenticity: the acoustic environment (fundamental for the quality of the sound reproduction) is carefully respected. A cathedral organ without its natural reverberation would lose a great deal of its force, and, conversely, open-air music played within a hall would forfeit an important part of its acoustic specificity;
Temporal authenticity: as far as possible, the actual duration of the musical performance is taken into account; the listener is in a genuine temporal dimension (hence some long tracks) and not just presented with a sampling of short extracts. The impression of monotony that often arises from listening to a relatively long piece gives way, after a while, to a richer and more intense level of perception.

*Composer, pianist and musicologist, Charles Duvelle is a pioneer recorder and publisher of traditional music. The founder and director of the Ocora collection, he has effected, over a period of some four decades, many recordings and photographs of music and dance in different regions of the world. His publications have earned him several awards both in France and abroad, notably the Grands Prix of the Academie du Disque Francais, of the Academie Charles Cros, of the Institut de Musicologie and the Premier Prix of the first World Festival of Negro Art. His favourite area is African music, of which he is one of the finest specialists.

***

THE SONGS
(All recorded in 1966 at various locations in the Bakongo Region)

Track 01 Malaki

Nkento wa lembo mwana (when a woman has no child, she can sleep soundly) is played during a malaki, a ceremonial cessation of mourning that usually takes place three or four years after the death. The matanga, on the other hand, is a different celebration, taking place only five or six months after death. The soloist, Albert Moupepe, known as spring (the spiral sort), is answered by a male chorus accompanied by the following instrumental ensemble: several bitsatsa, rattles made from tin cans (shaken by the singers); a mother-drum ngoma-nguidi, the skin fixed by nails, played by Vindu; a child-drum (smaller than the preceding) ngoma-mwana, played by Matoumpama. The bwanga is performed by dancing couples.



Track 02 Complaint

Gabriel Bassoumba sings a lament, in the course of which he says, “I should rather be a beetle than a man. Nobody disturbs the beetle when he is up a palm tree, and his carapace protects him. Everyone has a family, but not I. One day I shall end up devoured by jackals.” He accompanies himself on the nsambi kinzonzolo, a five-stringed raffia bow lute.



Track 03 Wara

Genevieve Mpofo sings on the theme of the childless woman who can sleep soundly. She sings in alternation with a mixed chorus, and is accompanied by an instrumental ensemble comprising: a single skin ngoma-ngudi mother drum; a ngoma-mwana child drum, smaller than the preceding.


Track 04 Massikulu

Longo wa longo is the title of this massikulu, a type of music played solely on the death of a notability. The orchestra consists of: seven horizontal ivory horns, covered with rattan weaving, some of them also having a cylindrical wooden bell (in order of decreasing size: 1 vunda, 1 landi, 1 sasa, 2 tangui, 2 zenze); one bugle; two double-skin kettledrums. Almost spherical in form, each kettledrum comprises a wooden body, the opening of which is covered by an antelope skin, stretched by real rattan weaving enclosing almost the whole body of the instrument and joined at the other extremity to a second, smaller antelope skin covering the lower part of the kettledrum. Of slightly different sizes, the kettledrums are called sikulu (the master, with the higher pitch) and tuta (with the lower pitch).
The first part is played by the instrumental ensemble and is followed by a passage sung by the men accompanied by drums and hand-clapping. A final instrumental section precedes another vocal passage.



Track 05 Song and Nsambi

Thomas Sissia sings with three other men and accompanies himself on the nsambi, a bow lute with four liana strings. The other accompanying instruments are a tsatsa tin-can rattle, and a bottle that is struck with a stick (replacing the old nongi double bell), to which are added hand-clapping and a whistle.
This is the story of a priest who, while preaching virtue, has slept with a woman and made her pregnant: “what is the point of preaching if one does not do as one recommends to others?”



Track 06 Bulombi

Music in the ngoma ntela style (literally, drums played upright), bulombi (blackness) is performed on the occasion of a malaki, a cessation of mourning. A male voice intones the first phrase while a mixed chorus responds, accompanied by a group of drums and kitsatsa tin-can rattles. The main drum, called ngoudi (mother), is roughly cylindrical, its upper part being covered with a skin held in place with wooden nails, and its lower part partly blocked by the cut of the cask (the diameter of the opening is about half that of the upper section). The centre of the membrane is covered with a wax paste that serves to regulate, by its greater or lesser weight, the vibrating frequency of the skin. Thedrummer carries on each wrist a small, spherical rattle called ntsala, made from a gourd containing dried seeds that is transfixed by a wooden handle through which a string passes. During performance, the seeds rattle inside the gourds, producing a continual rustling that complements the sounds of the drum. The two other drums are called ntambou. They are cylindrical, with nailed skins, but have no wax in the centre of the membrane.



Track 07 Bi Witi

Bi-witi is music rarely heard today. It was not possible to determine the precise meaning of this music, or the circumstances in which it is traditionally played. It is apparently linked to ancestor worship and, according to some, to funerary rites. The ensemble consists of six horns, four of which represent a person: mampongui-nguembo (the father), nsoni-boungu (the mother), lembe-nsoni (the daughter), mpandi-nsoni (the son). Each horn is sculpted from the block, the air column being inside the part representing the body; the mouthpiece is situated in the back, between the two arms. The first three horns are held vertically, the fourth (mpandi-nsoni) horizontally. The two other horns are horizontal, made from the roots of the wild flame tree. They are of different sizes, the larger being mpolomono, the other kinku.

(NB: This post is to be 'reconstructed' soon)

IN MEMORIUM
(23/01/1993)

***

The collection Prophet, devoted to traditional music from all over the world is principally constituted of recordings and photographs made by Charles Duvelle* in the course of the past forty years. They are mostly original recordings that have never been released “in extenso”, with the exception of a few issued on records now long unavailable. Despite the age of some recordings of performers no longer alive, the sound quality (an essential aspect, naturally, as far as music is concerned) is still high, thanks to the use of high quality equipment and the versatility of the sound recording techniques, adapted to the particular conditions of orally transmitted music, i.e. performers moving about (singer-dancers), the hazards of the open-air (wind and other extraneous noises), a care for the spontaneity of the performers and the inevitably unique situation of each musical performance (the idea of rehearsing for a definitive performance is ruled out). Prophet claims to be different from other collections of world music by virtue of its exacting standards of authenticity and musical quality.


Musical authenticity: recorded live, in a traditional local environment, generally on a particular occasion and not in a lifeless studio or on a stage;
Acustic authenticity: the acoustic environment (fundamental for the quality of the sound reproduction) is carefully respected. A cathedral organ without its natural reverberation would lose a great deal of its force, and, conversely, open-air music played within a hall would forfeit an important part of its acoustic specificity;
Temporal authenticity: as far as possible, the actual duration of the musical performance is taken into account; the listener is in a genuine temporal dimension (hence some long tracks) and not just presented with a sampling of short extracts. The impression of monotony that often arises from listening to a relatively long piece gives way, after a while, to a richer and more intense level of perception.

*Composer, pianist and musicologist, Charles Duvelle is a pioneer recorder and publisher of traditional music. The founder and director of the Ocora collection, he has effected, over a period of some four decades, many recordings and photographs of music and dance in different regions of the world. His publications have earned him several awards both in France and abroad, notably the Grands Prix of the Academie du Disque Francais, of the Academie Charles Cros, of the Institut de Musicologie and the Premier Prix of the first World Festival of Negro Art. His favourite area is African music, of which he is one of the finest specialists.

***

THE SONGS
(All recorded in 1966 at various locations in the Bakongo Region)

Track 01 Malaki

Nkento wa lembo mwana (when a woman has no child, she can sleep soundly) is played during a malaki, a ceremonial cessation of mourning that usually takes place three or four years after the death. The matanga, on the other hand, is a different celebration, taking place only five or six months after death. The soloist, Albert Moupepe, known as spring (the spiral sort), is answered by a male chorus accompanied by the following instrumental ensemble: several bitsatsa, rattles made from tin cans (shaken by the singers); a mother-drum ngoma-nguidi, the skin fixed by nails, played by Vindu; a child-drum (smaller than the preceding) ngoma-mwana, played by Matoumpama. The bwanga is performed by dancing couples.



Track 02 Complaint

Gabriel Bassoumba sings a lament, in the course of which he says, “I should rather be a beetle than a man. Nobody disturbs the beetle when he is up a palm tree, and his carapace protects him. Everyone has a family, but not I. One day I shall end up devoured by jackals.” He accompanies himself on the nsambi kinzonzolo, a five-stringed raffia bow lute.



Track 03 Wara

Genevieve Mpofo sings on the theme of the childless woman who can sleep soundly. She sings in alternation with a mixed chorus, and is accompanied by an instrumental ensemble comprising: a single skin ngoma-ngudi mother drum; a ngoma-mwana child drum, smaller than the preceding.


Track 04 Massikulu

Longo wa longo is the title of this massikulu, a type of music played solely on the death of a notability. The orchestra consists of: seven horizontal ivory horns, covered with rattan weaving, some of them also having a cylindrical wooden bell (in order of decreasing size: 1 vunda, 1 landi, 1 sasa, 2 tangui, 2 zenze); one bugle; two double-skin kettledrums. Almost spherical in form, each kettledrum comprises a wooden body, the opening of which is covered by an antelope skin, stretched by real rattan weaving enclosing almost the whole body of the instrument and joined at the other extremity to a second, smaller antelope skin covering the lower part of the kettledrum. Of slightly different sizes, the kettledrums are called sikulu (the master, with the higher pitch) and tuta (with the lower pitch).
The first part is played by the instrumental ensemble and is followed by a passage sung by the men accompanied by drums and hand-clapping. A final instrumental section precedes another vocal passage.



Track 05 Song and Nsambi

Thomas Sissia sings with three other men and accompanies himself on the nsambi, a bow lute with four liana strings. The other accompanying instruments are a tsatsa tin-can rattle, and a bottle that is struck with a stick (replacing the old nongi double bell), to which are added hand-clapping and a whistle.
This is the story of a priest who, while preaching virtue, has slept with a woman and made her pregnant: “what is the point of preaching if one does not do as one recommends to others?”



Track 06 Bulombi

Music in the ngoma ntela style (literally, drums played upright), bulombi (blackness) is performed on the occasion of a malaki, a cessation of mourning. A male voice intones the first phrase while a mixed chorus responds, accompanied by a group of drums and kitsatsa tin-can rattles. The main drum, called ngoudi (mother), is roughly cylindrical, its upper part being covered with a skin held in place with wooden nails, and its lower part partly blocked by the cut of the cask (the diameter of the opening is about half that of the upper section). The centre of the membrane is covered with a wax paste that serves to regulate, by its greater or lesser weight, the vibrating frequency of the skin. Thedrummer carries on each wrist a small, spherical rattle called ntsala, made from a gourd containing dried seeds that is transfixed by a wooden handle through which a string passes. During performance, the seeds rattle inside the gourds, producing a continual rustling that complements the sounds of the drum. The two other drums are called ntambou. They are cylindrical, with nailed skins, but have no wax in the centre of the membrane.



Track 07 Bi Witi

Bi-witi is music rarely heard today. It was not possible to determine the precise meaning of this music, or the circumstances in which it is traditionally played. It is apparently linked to ancestor worship and, according to some, to funerary rites. The ensemble consists of six horns, four of which represent a person: mampongui-nguembo (the father), nsoni-boungu (the mother), lembe-nsoni (the daughter), mpandi-nsoni (the son). Each horn is sculpted from the block, the air column being inside the part representing the body; the mouthpiece is situated in the back, between the two arms. The first three horns are held vertically, the fourth (mpandi-nsoni) horizontally. The two other horns are horizontal, made from the roots of the wild flame tree. They are of different sizes, the larger being mpolomono, the other kinku.

(NB: This post is to be 'reconstructed' soon)

BOAS NOVAS PARA 2007!

MUSEU DO ZAIRE SERA'

REINAUGURADO EM JANEIRO

Ruinas da Se' Catedral de Mbanza Kongo

O Museu do Zaire, que se encontra fechado ao público há mais de 10 anos, vai reabrir as suas portas em Janeiro de 2007, depois de um processo de reabilitação financiado pelo governo local. A informação foi prestada em Luanda, pelo director do Instituto Nacional do Património Cultural, Xavier Yambo.
A reinauguração desta instituição cultural acontece no âmbito da jornada comemorativa do 08 de Janeiro, data em que se celebra o Dia da Cultura Nacional e cujo acto central tem lugar na província do Zaire. Segundo Xavier Yambo, o museu vai numa primeira fase albergar uma exposição itinerante sobre a escravatura já, que se registam actualmente algumas dificuldades em reunir o seu acervo permanente.
"Muitas das peças que fazem parte do acervo do museu estão dispersas e em mãos de pessoas estranhas e reside aí a grande dificuldade da direcção da Cultura em abri-lo com uma exposição permanente"- reforçou o entrevistado. Adiantou que, em colaboração com o governo do Zaire, estão a ser envidados esforços no sentido de se recuperar as peças roubadas no período do conflito armado, mais precisamente na década de 1990.

"Depois de algum trabalho de investigação conseguiu-se localizar o paradeiro de algumas peças, tendo-se recuperado, nesta altura, algumas e as demais podem regressar brevemente a posse do Governo se as pessoas que as têm as devolverem. Estas pessoas apossaram-se das peças de forma ilegal"- frisou. Quanto a salas de exposição, o responsável informou estarem à disposição cinco salas.

Museu dos reis do Kongo, denominação que é dada ao Museu do Zaire, instituição criada e inaugurada em 1982 tem objectivos educativos, formativos informativos, tendo em vista trabalhos de investigação, recolha, inventariação, classificação, preservação e divulgação do património cultural do antigo Reino do Kongo (que se localizava na zona central do continente africano).
Por altura da sua abertura, a instituição albergava objectos pessoais dos soberanos do Kongo, documentação do reino do Kongo e outras peças de valor incalculável de um dos maiores reinos que surgiu entre os séculos XIII e XV.

Fonte: Angop

MUSEU DO ZAIRE SERA'

REINAUGURADO EM JANEIRO

Ruinas da Se' Catedral de Mbanza Kongo

O Museu do Zaire, que se encontra fechado ao público há mais de 10 anos, vai reabrir as suas portas em Janeiro de 2007, depois de um processo de reabilitação financiado pelo governo local. A informação foi prestada em Luanda, pelo director do Instituto Nacional do Património Cultural, Xavier Yambo.
A reinauguração desta instituição cultural acontece no âmbito da jornada comemorativa do 08 de Janeiro, data em que se celebra o Dia da Cultura Nacional e cujo acto central tem lugar na província do Zaire. Segundo Xavier Yambo, o museu vai numa primeira fase albergar uma exposição itinerante sobre a escravatura já, que se registam actualmente algumas dificuldades em reunir o seu acervo permanente.
"Muitas das peças que fazem parte do acervo do museu estão dispersas e em mãos de pessoas estranhas e reside aí a grande dificuldade da direcção da Cultura em abri-lo com uma exposição permanente"- reforçou o entrevistado. Adiantou que, em colaboração com o governo do Zaire, estão a ser envidados esforços no sentido de se recuperar as peças roubadas no período do conflito armado, mais precisamente na década de 1990.

"Depois de algum trabalho de investigação conseguiu-se localizar o paradeiro de algumas peças, tendo-se recuperado, nesta altura, algumas e as demais podem regressar brevemente a posse do Governo se as pessoas que as têm as devolverem. Estas pessoas apossaram-se das peças de forma ilegal"- frisou. Quanto a salas de exposição, o responsável informou estarem à disposição cinco salas.

Museu dos reis do Kongo, denominação que é dada ao Museu do Zaire, instituição criada e inaugurada em 1982 tem objectivos educativos, formativos informativos, tendo em vista trabalhos de investigação, recolha, inventariação, classificação, preservação e divulgação do património cultural do antigo Reino do Kongo (que se localizava na zona central do continente africano).
Por altura da sua abertura, a instituição albergava objectos pessoais dos soberanos do Kongo, documentação do reino do Kongo e outras peças de valor incalculável de um dos maiores reinos que surgiu entre os séculos XIII e XV.

Fonte: Angop

GRANDE PREMIO DE ESCULTURA ENSARTE 2006

"NOVA ESCULTURA ANGOLANA" DE MAYEMBE (SOYO)
(FOTOS DE JOSÉ ALÇADA)

Segundo o juri do premio, "A escultura do artista João Domingos Mabuaka "Mayembe", elaborada em talha sobre madeira, vale pela sincronização de um imaginável movimento giratório em espiral, cuja sustentação física do corpo volúmico levou o artista ao domínio do exercício de cálculo, apontando caminhos para uma estatueta moderna. A obra, entitulada "Vuata N`Kampa ku Makaya Katekela", representa uma figura humana que reflecte o mundo actual girando em torno do vento da globalização, sendo necessário conservar e preservar as identidades culturais de cada povo."


ADENDA:

O Mayembe, natural do Soyo, que no ano passado ganhou o 1º Prémio da ENSA, esculpe sempre em madeira Agora prepara uma exposição individual para Julho, para a qual está a fazer peças em madeira e bronze. Precisou de dinheiro, por causa da empresa que lhe está a fazer as partes em bronze e veio vender-me uma escultura mediante a promessa de a emprestar para a exposição. É em pau preto e conforme o ângulo em que se olha vê-se um corpo feminino, um corpo masculino, uma mulher a parir, etc. A base são folhas de Welwitschia Mirabilis, que fazem as respectivas pernas e sexos. O titulo - O Sonho da Welwitschia. (José Alçada, a.k.a. “N'kissi Yangue”, 04.02.07).

(Ver Slideshow Aqui)

"NOVA ESCULTURA ANGOLANA" DE MAYEMBE (SOYO)
(FOTOS DE JOSÉ ALÇADA)

Segundo o juri do premio, "A escultura do artista João Domingos Mabuaka "Mayembe", elaborada em talha sobre madeira, vale pela sincronização de um imaginável movimento giratório em espiral, cuja sustentação física do corpo volúmico levou o artista ao domínio do exercício de cálculo, apontando caminhos para uma estatueta moderna. A obra, entitulada "Vuata N`Kampa ku Makaya Katekela", representa uma figura humana que reflecte o mundo actual girando em torno do vento da globalização, sendo necessário conservar e preservar as identidades culturais de cada povo."


ADENDA:

O Mayembe, natural do Soyo, que no ano passado ganhou o 1º Prémio da ENSA, esculpe sempre em madeira Agora prepara uma exposição individual para Julho, para a qual está a fazer peças em madeira e bronze. Precisou de dinheiro, por causa da empresa que lhe está a fazer as partes em bronze e veio vender-me uma escultura mediante a promessa de a emprestar para a exposição. É em pau preto e conforme o ângulo em que se olha vê-se um corpo feminino, um corpo masculino, uma mulher a parir, etc. A base são folhas de Welwitschia Mirabilis, que fazem as respectivas pernas e sexos. O titulo - O Sonho da Welwitschia. (José Alçada, a.k.a. “N'kissi Yangue”, 04.02.07).

(Ver Slideshow Aqui)